UC-NRLF 
 
 : 5*0 
 
 *B ETb DD^ 
 
 ■HI 
 
 ; * 'V* v ' ' 
 
 
 V* ~v y >..: 
 
 * - v • 
 
 " * X i > 
 
 V ':■"% ^. 
 
 > ^ 
 
 J& 
 
 ■8 
 
 o> 
 
 i . 
 
 ^ 
 
 vw.*> v*; 
 
 
 "■*■ 
 
 • • • v. ' 
 
 * ■ ' H 
 
 I j 
 
 t.' 
 
 ^,'■1^ 
 
 v A. 
 
 r # 
 
 ♦■2 
 
 *s*^. 
 
 j 
 
&J 
 
 ■HE 
 
 • 
 
- 
 
 THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 PRESENTED BY 
 
 PROF. CHARLES A. KOFOID AND 
 
 MRS. PRUDENCE W. KOFOID 
 
 > 
 
 <,' 
 

THE 
 
 
 MARTYR OF ERROMANGA 
 
 OR, THE 
 
 PHILOSOPHY OF MISSIONS, 
 
 ILLUSTRATED EROM THE 
 
 labours, ©eat!), antr Character 
 
 OP THE LATE 
 
 REV. JOHN WILLIAMS. 
 
 JOHN CAMPBELL, D.D. 
 
 HONORARY MEMBER OF THE LITERARY AND PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY OF ST. ANDREW! 
 AUTHOR OE "JETHRO," "MARITIME DISCOVERY," ETC. 
 
 
 
 Mr. Williams taking leave of the Rarotongans. — Seepage 90. 
 
 I 
 
 LONDON: 
 JOHN SNOW, 35, PATERNOSTER-ROW. ' 
 
 1842. >.. ;1V 
 
 
r. ** **• 
 
 
 
 
3/3£*7<3 
 
 W±d3 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 The source of all evil in our world is ignorance 
 of God, or enmity against him. While this enmity 
 and that ignorance remain, and in proportion as 
 they preponderate, sin and misery will continue to 
 exist and to prevail. The only means, therefore, 
 of curing the maladies of human nature, and of 
 rectifying the disorders of society, is to substitute 
 knowledge for ignorance, and love for enmity. 
 This will effect a recovery, and restore tran- 
 quillity, complete, universal, and permanent. The 
 result of this substitution will be true and per- 
 fect civilization, comprehending every thing neces- 
 sary to elevate, adorn, and bless mankind — the 
 resurrection of buried intellect — the enthrone- 
 ment of enlightened reason — the subjugation of 
 unhallowed passion — the infusion of real humanity 
 — the extinction of war, with its calamities — the 
 establishment of peace, with its blessings — the 
 annihilation of all that is hurtful to man, and 
 the introduction of all that is contributory to his 
 
 ivi31 3^43 
 
ii PREFACE. 
 
 happiness, — liberty,— literature, — arts, — science, — 
 commerce, — just legislation, — and international 
 harmony. Hence arise the surpassing glory of the 
 Missionary Enterprise, and the matchless excellence 
 of the Missionary Character, — an enterprise which 
 comprehends all lands, all times, and all men, with 
 all their interests for both worlds ; and a charac- 
 ter which forms the highest and noblest manifesta- 
 tion of philanthropy, patriotism, piety, and moral 
 greatness. 
 
 The work of Missions is incomparably the best 
 medium through which to contemplate the cross 
 of Christ and the mercy of God. The true history 
 of that work supplies a body of the most convinc- 
 ing evidence in support of Christianity, that can 
 be produced. Williams's " Missionary Enterprises," 
 alone, is of more real value than all the writings 
 of a Clarke, a Butler, a Paley, a Chalmers, a Leland, 
 and a Lardner, united. There Christianity appears 
 arrayed in her Missionary costume. She presents 
 her majestic form, and shows her beauteous face, 
 on the battlements of a citadel reared by her own 
 hands, with materials furnished by her own con- 
 quests. The fruit of Missions is her best defence ; 
 she asks, she needs, no other. Obedience to the 
 Son of God wants no permission ; deeds of the 
 highest benevolence to a suffering world call for 
 no apology. He who opposes the work of Missions, 
 
PREFACE. iii 
 
 forfeits all claim to the character of a friend either 
 of God or of man. The adversary of Missions 
 is a foe to the Saviour of the world ; for by 
 means of them alone can his kingdom be extended, 
 and his throne established. The man who scorns 
 Missions, must renounce the Christian Religion, 
 without which the nations of Europe and all other 
 lands had still been dwelling amid the darkness of 
 idolatry. On departing from our world, the Mes- 
 siah commanded his disciples to go and teach all 
 nations ; they obeyed, and continued in their work 
 till crowned with martyrdom. Their successors for 
 a time walked in their steps; all churches were 
 Missionary Societies ; all Christians, in some shape, 
 Missionary agents. In this way, from one genera- 
 tion to another, the enterprise ought to have pro- 
 ceeded, till all flesh had seen the salvation of God. 
 But the Church slept, and her work ceased ; and 
 even now she is only awaking. Missions, therefore, 
 are no new thing. They are the mere resumption 
 of an ancient undertaking. Their seeming novelty 
 is the severest reproach that can be cast upon the 
 Church. Missions the disgrace of the Church? 
 They are her first duty, her true glory ! Missions 
 the dishonour of those who support and conduct 
 them ? Their chief promoters are the principal or- 
 naments of their country, and the best benefactors 
 of their species ! 
 
[ v PREFACE. 
 
 The object of this volume is, to present the sub- 
 ject of Missions in a new form, and to exhibit its 
 facts and principles in new combinations. It is an 
 attempt at the Philosophy of Missions, — an exposi- 
 tion of their great principles, — a display of their 
 beneficent results. It comprises a series of argu- 
 ments on the facts of Missions generally, and on 
 those of the South Sea Mission in particular. It 
 is an endeavour, on the one hand, to combine such 
 facts with the principles and doctrines which 
 explain them; and, on the other, by the same 
 facts, to prove and illustrate such doctrines and 
 principles. This the writer believes to be the most 
 successful method of dealing with those important 
 classes of persons whom he is most anxious to 
 reach, and excite to the consideration of this para- 
 mount subject. The classes more particularly 
 referred to, are educated, inquisitive youth, — men 
 of more advanced years, addicted to books and 
 study, — collegians of every order, whether Church- 
 men or Dissenters, in all parts of the Kingdom, — 
 the conductors of the Periodical Press, — magistrates 
 and legislators, — and the upper ranks of society, 
 generally. He deems it, on a variety of grounds, 
 a matter of the utmost moment to obtain the 
 favourable regards of all these classes towards the 
 cause of Missions. 
 
 The Author's chief hope, however, is in the 
 
PREFACE. y 
 
 Sabbath-school Teachers of the British Empire, 
 and of America. This class of persons are, at the 
 present moment, exerting an influence on the des- 
 tinies of the millions of England and of the New 
 World, and, through them, of the whole human 
 race, which the wisest of living men can neither esti- 
 mate nor comprehend. It is cheering to think that 
 these philanthropic agents are already counted by 
 hundreds of thousands, and that their numbers are 
 continually increasing. They comprise the largest 
 portion of the best friends of the cause of Missions ; 
 and from their ranks have been supplied nearly the 
 whole host of labourers now in the foreign field. 
 But this is the lowest view of the matter. Of 
 these religious instructors it is the peculiar province, 
 and it will be the special glory, to cast the mind of 
 the juvenile millions of our race in the mould of 
 Missions. To them it belongs to create and foster 
 the spirit of this great enterprise in the breasts of 
 those who are to constitute the pastors, the churches, 
 and the heads of families, in the coming age. He 
 who remembers these momentous facts, will see 
 nothing incongruous in assigning to Sabbath-school 
 Teachers a section of a volume addressed to the Phil- 
 anthropists, Philosophers, and Nobles of the land. 
 The subjects of Intellectual and Moral Greatness 
 have been laboured with urgent, but, the Author 
 thinks, with necessary, iteration, — subjects which, 
 
 a 3 
 
VI PREFACE, ) 
 
 notwithstanding their transcendent importance, 
 have not hitherto, so far as he is aware, been 
 fully and practically discussed. The questions 
 of War and Peace, too, as contrasted with that of 
 Missions, and the subject of the Military, as com- 
 pared with the Missionary, Character, have received 
 a due share of attention. Philosophy, not biography, 
 being the Author's object, he has studiously avoided 
 intruding into that province, which has been assigned 
 to other and highly competent hands. 
 
 In addition to the primary design of advancing 
 the glory of Christ and the good of mankind, a 
 minor object was, to rear a slender monument to 
 the memory of a much-loved friend, as an humble 
 contribution towards the celebration of his name 
 and the extension of his usefulness. With this 
 view, he has delineated, at some length, the portrait 
 of a man who has achieved for himself a deathless 
 fame, and concerning whom generations to come 
 will doubtless feel a laudable and reverential 
 curiosity, which that sketch may help to gratify. 
 
 With respect to the execution of the Work, the 
 writer has, to the extent of his ability, with much 
 patient toil, endeavoured to illustrate the principles 
 of the Gospel in their relation to War and to Peace. 
 He is satisfied that his discussions are in perfect 
 harmony with that system which the angels of God 
 celebrated as fraught with "peace on earth and 
 
PREFACE. vii 
 
 goodwill toward men." He also hopes, that, by 
 adopting the method of Letters, and by selecting in- 
 dividuals between whose characters and the subjects 
 on which they are addressed, there is an intimate 
 connexion or obvious congruity, he has aug- 
 mented the interest of discussion, avoiding at once 
 the coldness of abstraction and the languor of dis- 
 sertation ; while it has been his studied endeavour 
 throughout, to give every subject the highest legiti- 
 mate practical bearing. 
 
 The Author trusts that this Work will prove an 
 appropriate Sequel to the "Enterprises" of Mr. 
 Williams, and aid in further developing the worth, 
 beauty, and glory of that wonderful volume ; and 
 it is his fervent desire that the result of the whole 
 may be to sustain the memorable words of William 
 Orme, late Foreign Secretary of the London 
 Missionary Society, — " In the whole compass of 
 
 HUMAN BENEVOLENCE, THERE IS NOTHING SO GRAND, 
 
 SO NOBLE, SO CHRISTIAN, SO TRULY GODLIKE AS 
 
 THE WORK OF EVANGELIZING THE HEATHEN." 
 
 JOHN CAMPBELL. 
 
 London, 
 December 23, 1841. 
 
CONTENTS, 
 
 LETTER I. 
 
 TO THE TEACHERS OF BRITISH AND OTHER DAY 
 SCHOOLS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 On the cultivation of the Missionary spirit as a branch of education, 
 and the preference due to Missionary work 1 
 
 LETTER II. 
 TO THE TEACHERS OF SUNDAY SCHOOLS. 
 
 On the success of Missionary efforts to subvert idolatry, and to intro- 
 duce the knowledge of the true God 14 
 
 LETTER III. 
 TO THE SUPERINTENDENTS OF SUNDAY SCHOOLS. 
 
 Further illustrations of the success of efforts to subvert idolatry, and 
 to introduce the knowledge of the true God 36 
 
 LETTER IV. 
 
 TO THE COMMITTEES AND MEMBERS OF THE LONDON 
 AND AMERICAN PEACE SOCIETIES. 
 
 On the tendency of Missionary labour to extinguish war, and to 
 establish peace 48 
 
X CONTENTS. 
 
 LETTER V. 
 TO SIR THOMAS FOWELL BUXTON, BARONET. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 On the results of Missionary labour in relation to government, life, 
 liberty, and property 63 
 
 LETTER VI. 
 
 TO JAMES DOUGLAS, ESQ., OF CAVERS. 
 
 On the results of Missionary labour in relation to moral sympathy . 81 
 
 LETTER VII. 
 
 TO THOMAS WILSON, ESQ., TREASURER OF THE LON- 
 DON MISSIONARY SOCIETY. 
 
 On the results of Missionary labour in relation to the institution of 
 marriage, arts, commerce, and civilization 95 
 
 LETTER VIII. 
 TO THE RIGHT HON. LORD BROUGHAM. 
 
 On the results of Missions in regard to slavery and education . .103 
 
 LETTER IX. 
 
 TO THE REV. TIMOTHY EAST, TREASURER OF SPRING- 
 HILL COLLEGE, BIRMINGHAM. 
 
 On the character and death of the late Rev. John Williams . .195 
 
 LETTER X. 
 
 TO THE REV. THOMAS GILLESPIE, D.D., PROFESSOR OF 
 LATIN IN THE UNIVERSITY OF ST. ANDREWS. 
 
 Intellectual and moral greatness compared and illustrated from Hume, 
 Byron, the ancient classics, and the late John Williams . . 232 
 
CONTENTS. XI 
 
 LETTER XI. 
 TO THE REV. JOHN FOSTER. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Intellectual and moral greatness illustrated and compared from the 
 Jewish prophets, the apostles, modern writers, and Christian mis- 
 sionaries 270 
 
 LETTER XII. 
 
 TO THE RIGHT HON. THOMAS BABINGTON MACAULAY. 
 
 The Military and the Missionary character compared, contrasted, and 
 illustrated, from Napoleon, with other commanders, and from the 
 late John Williams, with other missionaries 338 
 
 LETTER XIII. 
 
 TO FIELD MARSHAL THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON. 
 
 Military and Missionary enterprise illustrated, compared, and con- 
 trasted 371 
 
 LETTER XIV. 
 
 TO THE CHURCHES OF GREAT BRITAIN, IRELAND, AND 
 AMERICA. 
 
 On the past history, present position, and future prospects of the Mis- 
 sionary enterprise 437 
 
 INDEX 469 
 
THE 
 
 MARTYR OF ERROMANGA 
 
 LETTER I. 
 
 TO THE TEACHERS OF BRITISH AND OTHER 
 DAY SCHOOLS. 
 
 ON THE CULTIVATION OF THE MISSIONARY SPIRIT AS A BRANCH OF 
 EDUCATION, AND THE PREFERENCE DUE TO MISSIONARY WORK. 
 
 Benefactors of your country and of mankind ! to the 
 Christian pastor, the true patriot, the statesman, and 
 the philosopher, your system and labours present a 
 spectacle of the deepest interest. The edifices in which 
 you exercise your functions, are centres of influence of 
 which it is difficult to describe the limits. The eco- 
 nomy of our world supplies no standard by which to 
 measure the importance of your services. Eike the 
 true ministers of religion, the utility of your labours is 
 not to be estimated by their earthly reward. The rude 
 millions of which society is composed, cannot yet appre- 
 ciate them. Be not discouraged, however, but, with the 
 faithful missionaries of the cross, labour on for the good 
 of mankind, in the hope of better times. The day is 
 near in which your work will be its own witness, and will 
 assert its own claims ; go on to awaken, enlighten, and 
 
 B 
 
2 ON THE CULTIVATION 
 
 elevate the spirit of man, and to impart benefits which 
 gold cannot compensate ! Your work happily carries with 
 it its own reward. How vast and abiding the satisfaction 
 which results from calling forth the intellectual and moral 
 resources of your species, from giving the immortal mind 
 of man a new consciousness of its powers and faculties, 
 invigorating the judgment, regulating the will, and puri- 
 fying the heart ! Your vocation invests you with a 
 power, which, wisely wielded, will shake and subvert all 
 the despotic thrones and dominions of our world. Your 
 position commands for you an awful and augmenting 
 ascendency in the sphere of human agency. You put 
 forth your strength upon a nation's mind in the morning of 
 its life, when all is young, and fresh, and tender. The 
 lessons you teach become part of the very instincts of 
 opening life. The principles you implant are permanently 
 incorporated with the elements of thought and being. It 
 is not for nothing that you are objects of hatred to the 
 foes of freedom and of human advancement. 
 
 In proportion to the greatness of a power are the neces- 
 sity and importance of its right direction. The work of 
 teaching well deserves the best talents; but moral con- 
 siderations are paramount to intellectual ; for it is your 
 high province to produce not simply intellectual, but 
 moral results, and the latter are inexpressibly the more 
 important. Hence no degree of mental progress can 
 compensate for deficiency in moral culture ; and the 
 utmost measure of both are essential to complete success 
 in the exercise of your functions. The scale of your com- 
 petency is one of many gradations ; and he who approaches 
 the highest point is entitled to rank with the most distin- 
 guished of his race. 
 
 The plain and simple apparatus of your rooms is but 
 the index to your powers. There is no limit to the 
 richness and variety of your communications -but that 
 
OF THE MISSIONARY SPIRIT. 
 
 which is set by your own capabilities; and there is 
 scarcely any kind or degree of information which may 
 not be brought to bear upon the interests of education. 
 You may perform miracles in tuition, without book. Thus 
 it was that Socrates and Plato taught the youth of Greece ; 
 but you may infinitely excel both Socrates and Plato, not 
 only in the matter, but in the manner of your communi- 
 cation. Amidst the multitude of subjects which lie before 
 you, especial attention is due to those which are discussed 
 in this volume — War and Missions. What may you not 
 do towards teaching mankind to think aright on these 
 mighty themes ! They come legitimately before you in 
 the two chief departments of history and geography ; and, 
 in able hands, they will never fail to contribute a freshness 
 and an interest to the business of instruction, which no- 
 thing else can impart. But that you may teach, it is 
 necessary that you should learn. Let your own minds 
 therefore be thoroughly familiarised with these great sub- 
 jects. Make an intense and patient study of them till you 
 have mastered them in all their principles, and in all their 
 details. What materials for moral instruction and pathetic 
 exhortation ! On these weighty topics how much you may 
 accomplish towards the reformation of the public taste, 
 and the creation of a public conscience ! You may ulti- 
 mately implant in the nation's heart an abhorrence of war 
 which nothing can mitigate, and a zeal for missions which 
 nothing can quench ! Thus may you earn the gratitude 
 of earth and the benediction of heaven ! In furtherance 
 of this grand object of Christian philanthropy, let me in- 
 troduce to your attention the Martyr of Erromanga, whose 
 glorious career and cruel end will supply abundance of 
 striking illustration. 
 
 Early in the year 1814, John Williams was aroused by 
 the Rev. Timothy East, of Birmingham, from spiritual 
 slumber, in the Tabernacle, Moorfields, London. From 
 
 b2 
 
) 
 
 4 ON THE CULTIVATION 
 
 that memorable night, he was deeply convinced of sin, of 
 righteousness, and of judgment ; he saw that he had in- 
 curred the penalty of death, and he was filled with a 
 trembling anxiety to escape the wrath to come. He was 
 soon enabled to understand, and led to believe and obey 
 the gospel of Christ, and became a member of the church 
 assembling in the Tabernacle, under the care of the late 
 Rev. Matthew Wilks. The future Missionary, thus 
 blessed with the hope of salvation, and filled with compas- 
 sion for the souls of men still walking in the paths of per- 
 dition, offered himself as a teacher in the sabbath- schools, 
 and was accepted. As he sat, amid his youthful class, on 
 the free benches of the Tabernacle, initiating them in the 
 elements of saving knowledge, his fellow-labourers little 
 imagined how great a man he was one day to become, and 
 how much he was destined to effect in diffusing the word 
 of God among the heathen. The ways of the Lord are a 
 great deep ; he has work, high and glorious, marked out 
 for many of you, likewise, who are, at present, holy and 
 zealous, though humble and obscure teachers of British and 
 other schools. 
 
 Young Williams, delighting much in the business of a 
 teacher, was industrious and exemplary in the discharge of 
 his duties. As he advanced in the knowledge and love of 
 Christ, his compassion deepened for the souls of men, and 
 he strongly desired to be entirely devoted to their instruc- 
 tion. He saw multitudes in England pressing on in the 
 broad way that leads to destruction, and his heart bled at 
 the sight ; but, on reflection, he thought the state of the 
 heathen still more lamentable, and such as more loudly 
 called for commiseration. On this ground, therefore, after 
 much prayer to God for direction, and asking counsel 
 of wise men, he offered himself to the London Mis- 
 sionary Society, by whose directors he was accepted, 
 and sent to the South Seas. Such was the deliberate 
 
OF THE MISSIONARY SPIRIT. 5 
 
 choice of Mr. Williams; and although, alas! it issued 
 in a violent death, it was a wise one. His dreadful end 
 was an event of predestined honour, not of casual mis- 
 fortune. Paul, the father of Gentile Missions, spent the 
 whole of his laborious life in the spirit, if not even in the 
 anticipation of martyrdom. He was always " ready to die 
 for the Lord Jesus." He cherished the most exalted con- 
 ception of the apostolic office. He well knew that it was 
 appointed inconceivably to enrich and bless the world. 
 His estimate of its unparalleled importance was formed on 
 this knowledge, and hence his noble-minded exclamation, 
 " I magnify mine office !" He was at all times the subject 
 of a deep, joyous, and exulting conviction, that his was 
 incomparably the highest, the most beneficent, and the 
 most honourable employment in the universe. That con- 
 sideration formed a chief part of the moral means by which 
 he was upheld under the pressure of overwhelming burdens, 
 and emboldened to proceed amid appalling difficulties and 
 impending dangers. 
 
 In this great matter Paul is a pattern to all Christian 
 missionaries. It is not enough, however, that similar 
 views should possess and govern the souls of those who 
 have entered the field of foreign labour ; they should also 
 thoroughly pervade the hearts of the home churches, and 
 form a prominent feature in the creed and the conscience 
 of the rising race. Accurate conceptions, and appropriate 
 feelings upon the subject of missions, are the true basis 
 of all successful evangelical effort ; they constitute the life 
 and power of the enterprise, and are, therefore, especially 
 deserving of study and cultivation. Upon this head, we, 
 your fathers, have still much to learn ; our vision is dim, 
 and our views are narrow ; our emotions are comparatively 
 cold and uninfluential. The business of gospel diffusion is 
 still, in many of our minds, very much an affair of pecuniary 
 contribution. The supply of appropriate human agency, 
 
(5 ON THE CULTIVATION 
 
 notwithstanding its acknowledged importance, is, with mul- 
 titudes, not the first, but the second consideration. Both 
 objects, however, thanks be to God ! are advancing towards 
 their true position in the mind of the churches. We con- 
 fidently anticipate the period when they will be transposed, 
 when the first question will be men, and the second the 
 means of their support. The time is doubtless drawing 
 nigh, when all the churches of the saints will consider it a 
 culpable neglect of duty, a stain upon their profession, a 
 disgrace upon their character, not to share, in some shape, 
 in missionary contributions ; and, when their gifts will bear 
 a proportion to their numbers and their means. With this 
 conviction of duty, will necessarily be blended the further 
 conviction, that gold and silver, great and pressing as is 
 their importance, are not the prime consideration. The 
 high question of human agency will then take precedence 
 of that and of every other. The great principle will at 
 length be fully acknowledged, that it is the province of the 
 " Lord of the harvest to send forth labourers ;" and that 
 constant prayer to this effect is the paramount duty of all 
 Christians and of all churches. The strong and persever- 
 ing spirit of united prayer for this object will be accom- 
 panied by a deep and growing sense of personal duty with 
 respect to the employment of all other appropriate and 
 appointed means. The people of God will be animated by 
 a holy desire to appear in the foreign field, either in per- 
 son, or by deputy, to publish the mercy of Heaven to a 
 rebel world. They will consider this to be the highest 
 honour they can enjoy on earth ; and, in the absence of 
 this, whatever may be their numbers and wealth, or pecu- 
 niary assistance to spread the Gospel, they will feel their 
 rank to be one of only secondary importance. So long as 
 they send none of their members abroad " to the help of 
 the Lord," they will consider themselves denied a precious 
 privilege and a high distinction. There is reason to fear, 
 

 OF THE MISSIONARY SPIRIT. 7 
 
 that, at present, this feeling, where it is not dead, is yet 
 dormant among the bulk of the British Churches ; there is 
 reason to fear that it is not very generally and intensely 
 supplicated ; and that when the Lord puts this honour upon 
 a people, it is not always very thankfully received — facts 
 which prove that such churches have yet to be baptized 
 with the true spirit of missions. Mere money contribu- 
 tion is but an uncertain criterion of the Missionary cha- 
 racter of a Christian community; it may mainly de- 
 pend upon the pastor, or upon a few active individuals, 
 who put into motion the machinery of subscription, and 
 uphold it, and without whose agency and zeal, for a single 
 year, it would go into derangement and decay. In this 
 coarse and secular affair, much room, too, is left for the 
 entrance and operation of mixed motives and earthly pas- 
 sions, so that, even in churches, from which large sums 
 annually proceed to the general treasury, there may, not- 
 withstanding, be but little of the living and breathing 
 power and spirit of real missionary enterprise. Even the 
 Missionary Prayer Meeting may present a truth-telling 
 and most condemnatory contrast to the treasurer's report ! 
 Under the improved condition of things, which we anti- 
 cipate, Christian churches will display harmony in this 
 respect ; and when every fellowship shall have become one 
 pure and naming mass of missionary zeal, the question of 
 pecuniary support will not lose ground, but will incon- 
 ceivably gain it, by being placed in a position secondary to 
 that of agency. Then, instead of being, as in too many 
 cases it now is, an artificial stream, it will become a natu- 
 ral one, fed by the heart-fountain of ransomed millions. It 
 will no longer be forced — as undeniably, to a vast extent, 
 it now is, but will flow in copious torrents from its own 
 bursting, grateful abundance. 
 
 The question of missions — the question of the world's 
 salvation — will be mainly discussed and carried at the 
 
g ON THE CULTIVATION 
 
 Christian fireside, and in the bosom ,of religious circles. 
 "When the current of enlightened missionary feeling shall 
 have set strongly into churches, it will, at the same time, 
 penetrate households. Godly parents will then come to 
 consider it the choicest of all felicities, the loftiest of all 
 distinctions, to have sons and daughters enrolled among 
 the ranks of the servants of the Most High God, showing 
 to men of foreign climes the way of salvation. The spirit 
 of missions is simply the spirit of true piety existing in 
 full power. With the spread of this piety those views 
 will increase and multiply ; and when this piety shall 
 have attained a healthful maturity, and a general preva- 
 lence, those views will impart a new aspect to the business 
 of pecuniary contribution. The celestial fire of the spirit 
 of missions will straightway subdue and melt the hearts 
 of our monied men, and " loose the loins" of our merchant 
 princes to open before the world's Messiah " the two-leaved 
 gates" of their golden stores, " and the gates will not be 
 shut." The power of that fire will everywhere go before 
 him, and make the " crooked places straight," and " break 
 in pieces the gates of brass, and cut in sunder the bars of 
 iron ;" it will sweetly constrain converted men to " give 
 him the treasures of darkness, and hidden riches of secret 
 places." The dissolving power of that celestial fire will 
 at length release the hoarded millions of Christendom, and 
 render them available to the cause of Christ. Men and 
 money, missionaries and their support, like substance and 
 shadow, will walk in company. Personal and relative 
 fortunes will flow outwards, in torrents, for the sustenance 
 of the armies of the Cross, while the still augmenting mites 
 of the accumulating myriads of the industrious classes will 
 go on to swell the tide of their grateful munificence. 
 
 Teachers of the Christian youth of England ! in con- 
 nexion with this glorious anticipation, we look most wist- 
 fully to you ! Your charge is the hope of the Church and 
 
OF THE MISSIONARY SPIRIT. 9 
 
 of the world. Heaven bless their blooming hosts, guide 
 their hearts into the love of Christ, and fill their generous 
 bosoms with the pure and lofty spirit of peace, and of 
 missions to the Gentiles! It is of the utmost moment 
 that their minds should be early directed to that work, 
 that they should become thoroughly acquainted with the 
 entire subject in all its amplitude and variety of bearing, 
 and be led rightly to appreciate the missionary character. 
 The lamented Williams, who had deeply drunk into the 
 spirit of Paul, has left them a solemn testimony concern- 
 ing it. Although himself clothed with humility, he under- 
 stood well how to " magnify his office." In his view, the 
 missionary was the first of mortal men, and his functions 
 worthy of angelic agency ! He has, in the closing para- 
 graph of his " Enterprises," recorded his sentiments rela- 
 tive to this great theme, in words suited to the exalted 
 subject. The passage is appropriately placed in that 
 position, as now sustaining all the weight and solemnity 
 of a testamentary declaration. Since its appearance, the 
 churches of Britain have had time to pause and to ponder, 
 till the unlooked-for and sorrowful event of his death has 
 broken the silence. Should some generous hand ever 
 erect a monument over the recovered portion of his 
 mangled body, that passage would form the most appro- 
 priate inscription that could be devised for his tomb. It 
 is as follows : — 
 
 " An enterprise, beneficial in so many ways, presents 
 an universal claim ; and we hope the day is fast approach- 
 ing, when the merchant will not only consecrate the gains 
 of his merchandize to its promotion, but when he shall 
 also add the facilities which commercial intercourse affords, 
 to further the great design ; when the man of science 
 shall make his discoveries subserve this godlike work ; and 
 when not only the poor, but the rich and noble, will feel 
 honoured in identifying themselves with missionary ope- 
 
 b 3 
 
10 OX THE CULTIVATION 
 
 rations, and in consecrating their influence, their wealth, 
 and even their sons and their daughters to this work ; and 
 why should not the son of a nobleman aspire to an office 
 that an angelic spirit would deem an honour ? Why 
 should not such become active agents in an enterprise 
 which is to regenerate and bless our world ? They aspire 
 after military and naval glory, but here they may obtain 
 distinctions far higher than these : — here, instead of in- 
 flicting death in the acquisition of their laurels, they would 
 scatter life, and comfort, and peace, to unborn millions ! 
 And is there more glory in spreading misery than in con- 
 veying mercy ? Is it more honourable to carry the sword 
 of war than the gospel of peace ? Is it a higher dignity 
 to bear a commission from an earthly sovereign than from 
 the King of kings ? Oh ! that the minds of the noble 
 youth of our country could be directed to this field of 
 labour and of love, and that the soldiers of the cross were 
 as high in the estimation of our nobility as those who bear 
 commissions from our king ! It will be a blessed day for 
 our world, when the first nobleman's son, influenced by a 
 spirit of piety, and constrained by the love of Christ, shall 
 devote himself to go among the heathen, to turn them 
 from darkness to light. But, whether such forward it or 
 not, the work will go on, enlargement and deliverance will 
 come, until the earth, instead of being a theatre on which 
 men prepare themselves by crime for eternal condemnation, 
 shall become one universal temple to the living God, in 
 which the children of men shall learn the anthems of the 
 blessed above, and be made meet to unite with the spirits 
 of the redeemed from every nation, and people, and tongue, 
 in celebrating the jubilee of a ransomed world !" 
 
 Such is the conclusion of the " Missionary Enterprises" 
 — a conclusion full of eternal truth, and clothed with the 
 garment of immortality. It will be enduring as the lan- 
 guage of England, and the history of religious missions. 
 
OF THE MISSIONARY SPIRIT. \\ 
 
 Christian youth ! is it possible to read the passage just 
 cited, without emotion ? How noble, generous, and phi- 
 lanthropic is the spirit of it ? Having returned from the 
 field of evangelical conflict, where he had bravely fought 
 upwards of half a lifetime, he reported the mighty works 
 which God by his hands had done among the Gentiles, and 
 concluded the wondrous recital with these solemn declara- 
 tions and interrogatories. His weighty words are strongly 
 entitled to the deep meditation of all classes of Christians, 
 but especially of the sons of the aristocracy, that class to 
 whom the martyred man more particularly directed them. 
 To the bulk even of the good, the idea of the son of a 
 British peer going forth as a missionary is as preposterous 
 and as ridiculous as any that can well be imagined. But 
 men should stop, pause, and ask themselves, Why ? Is it 
 beneath the son of a peer to report what it was not be- 
 neath the Son of God to perform? The fact which I 
 allude to, only shows how little the public mind is yet 
 imbued with the Spirit of God ! No work is beneath the sons 
 of our nobles, where there is the slightest chance of obtain- 
 ing gold, power, or glory t Such delusions, however, will 
 have an end. The tide of youthful vigour, which, from 
 the higher classes of Great Britain, has for so many ages 
 been profusely streaming into her armies and navies, and 
 thereby diffused over the globe for purposes of war, con- 
 quest, and the conservation of empire, shall not be thus 
 destroyed for ever ! It will one day be turned into a new 
 channel, and spread abroad for far different and infinitely 
 nobler objects. The unmeasured wealth and accomplished 
 life, which have hitherto been so ingloriously wasted at 
 home, or fruitlessly, if not destructively, for mankind and 
 themselves, consumed in foreign climes, and which, under 
 Christian influence, had been enough to enlighten the uni- 
 versal family of man, will yet be consecrated to celestial 
 
12 ON THE CULTIVATION 
 
 service, and in divers ways employed to diffuse knowledge 
 and happiness among all nations ! 
 
 The valedictory declarations of Mr. Williams comprise 
 great principles, which deserve to be specified, illustrated, 
 and enforced, till thoroughly appreciated by the public 
 mind. They ought to be pondered by all believers, but 
 more especially by Christian youths, and by day-school 
 teachers. It is absolutely necessary that those principles 
 should be clearly understood and deeply felt, inasmuch as 
 they enter vitally into the business of the world's emanci- 
 pation from sin, and the establishment of the kingdom of 
 God. These principles are accordingly the basis of this 
 book : they will be discussed in the following pages. The 
 great question to be raised, is the comparative claims of 
 the missionary character, and the comparative value of a 
 life spent in the field of missions. The discussion of this 
 question will involve the subject of moral greatness ; for 
 I hope to establish the principle that moral greatness is 
 entitled to the first distinction, and that such greatness 
 attains its highest elevation only in the missionary charac- 
 ter. As Mr. Williams is a fit and proper representative of 
 the missionary brotherhood, of which he formed so distin- 
 guished a member, I shall proceed, in his name, to try the 
 question. The Martyr of Erromanga, however, is not 
 singled out as the object of individual idolatry, but simply 
 as furnishing, by his tragical death, a suitable occasion ; 
 and in his once beloved person, and still admired character, 
 an appropriate subject. Whatever may be awarded, there- 
 fore, to that great missionary, as the representative of his 
 brethren, in every clime, must, according to their respective 
 measures of individual desert, be divided among the whole 
 of the beloved and venerated body. 
 
 My position relative to the superiority of moral great- 
 ness to every other kind of greatness, will necessarily lead 
 
OF THE MISSIONARY SPIRIT. J 3 
 
 to comparison and argument; for although, in Britain, 
 there are, happily, not a few who yield a cordial assent to 
 that position, yet greater, by a thousand-fold, are the mul- 
 titudes who listen to it only with disgust and derision. I 
 shall, therefore, endeavour to siftthe clams of their respec- 
 tive views, and duly to estimate them, taking the Martyr 
 of Erromanga as the subject of comparison, and the stan- 
 dard of reference. 
 
LETTEK II, 
 
 TO THE TEACHERS OF SUNDAY-SCHOOLS. 
 
 ON THE SUCCESS OF MISSIONARY EFFORTS TO SUBVERT IDOLATRY, AND 
 TO INTRODUCE THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE TRUE GOD. 
 
 Honoured labourers in the Lord's vineyard ! next to the 
 teachers of day-schools, you possess the power of promot- 
 ing the cause of missions. The moral training of the 
 most important portion of the rising race is largely in your 
 hands. The youthful heart, unhardened, and unpreoccu- 
 pied, is subjected to your influence ; and, while you pour 
 into it the lessons of gospel knowledge, with that know- 
 ledge you may daily blend the subject of Christian missions. 
 You may show that the claims of the heathen are, in an- 
 other view, the claims of Christ, and that his glory and 
 kingdom are inseparably bound up with their conversion 
 and salvation. You may realise the honour and felicity 
 of rearing a generation of missionary supporters and advo- 
 cates, such as the world has not yet seen. You may 
 deeply engrave upon the youthful breast the doctrine that, 
 next to the duty of personally receiving the truth, is the 
 duty of diffusing it. In furtherance of this great work, it 
 is indispensable that your own minds should be most amply 
 stored with the literature of missions. To this end you 
 
ON THE SUCCESS, ETC. 15 
 
 will do well to read, with the utmost care, all the mis- 
 sionary biography to which you can have access, — all the 
 missionary history that has appeared — missionary reports- 
 periodical accounts, and general works upon the subject. 
 For purposes of Scripture illustration, of the most striking 
 and appropriate character, apart from the spirit of mis- 
 sions, these sources will yield you an inexhaustible supply. 
 They will, indeed, render you more service than all com- 
 mentaries and critical apparatus, and all the encyclopaedias 
 united. This is one of the best methods of training a 
 missionary church. To the following illustrations of the 
 great truth that the gospel is " the power of God unto sal- 
 vation," I now beg your serious attention. 
 
 The isles of the South present peculiar advantages for 
 the correct estimate and profitable contemplation of man's 
 fallen condition. Their surfaces are small, and their popu- 
 lation is limited, as compared with the great continents of 
 the earth — circumstances singularly favourable to accurate 
 views and deep impressions. The mind feels itself capable 
 of dealing more effectively with the question under these 
 small insular exhibitions, than on the expanded empires of 
 the East. Idolatry, in Polynesia, may be viewed either as 
 a crime or as a calamity — the latter being at once the fruit 
 and the punishment of the former. In the light of a 
 calamity it is more palpable and impressive to the common 
 observer, than in that of a crime, since it is spread as a 
 covering over the face of the Pacific Ocean, dyed in colours 
 of the darkest hue, and traced in all possible or imaginable 
 forms of wretchedness. The original state of Polynesian 
 society, considered as the result of idolatry, displayed it as 
 the most heinous enormity conceivable or practicable by 
 man. In the economy of Providence, the measure of 
 penal infliction never exceeds that of moral desert ; and 
 the former may, therefore, be considered as the measure of 
 the latter. Now, if we take an island of the South Seas, 
 
15 ON THE SUCCESS 
 
 Mangaia* for instance, was there wanting a single ingre- 
 dient of consummate, unmitigated wretchedness ? In that 
 wretchedness, then, behold the measure of its people's sin ! 
 Viewing Polynesian idolatry simply as a source of cala- 
 mity, and merging the fact of its sin in the sight of God, 
 we must consider it as incomparably the greatest disaster 
 that could have befallen the islanders on this side of 
 eternity. The boundless system of creation supplies no 
 similes that even approach the dread reality ! The highest 
 efforts of fancy are impotent to furnish illustration or 
 analogy. The dissolution of matured society into its pri- 
 mary elements — the extinction of schools and colleges, and 
 all the lights of Christian knowledge — the utter loss of all 
 literature, all science, and all art — the annihilation of 
 commerce, the cessation of agriculture, the destruction of 
 property, and of every element of social comfort — all this 
 complication of distress among an island of Christians, 
 which should leave them nothing but the knowledge of 
 God in their hearts and in their Bibles, would still leave 
 them in a state of incalculable wealth, and of ineffable 
 felicity, as compared with the people of Mangaia. Where 
 the knowledge of God is lost, all is lost that is essential to 
 the happiness of man. It is difficult for youth, without 
 the aid of images, to form any conception of such a cala- 
 mity. If you can conceive of a peopled planet rushing 
 from its orbit, and shooting away into regions of the deep- 
 est night, severed at once from the sight, and rule, and 
 vital influence of the glorious sun, and remaining poised 
 and buried in the shades of those dismal regions — you may 
 imagine a slight analogical resemblance to the dreadful 
 position of Mauke and MiTiARof before the arrival of Mr. 
 Williams; and the more than mortal or angelic might, 
 which, grasping such a planet, and snatching it from the 
 dominion of the shadow of death, should replace it in its 
 
 * Williams, p. 21. f Ibid. p. 23.. 
 
OF MISSIONARY EFFORTS. 17 
 
 own orbit, to behold the beauty and glory of the sun, to 
 obey his laws, to enjoy the light, life, and felicity which he 
 alone can impart, would perform an act in some degree 
 resembling the deeds achieved by the Martyr of Erro- 
 manga. 
 
 But we must not confine our views to the earthly cala- 
 mities by which idolatry was distinguished in Polynesia ; 
 for this is only a matter of comparative importance. Time, 
 with whatever trials and tortures it may be attended, 
 soon passes over each successive generation of mankind; 
 but unpardoned guilt survives the wreck of the sepulchre ; 
 it marches onward to eternity, followed by punishment, 
 as substance by shadow. The condition of the idolater is 
 not improved beyond the grave. By exchanging worlds, 
 he obtains knowledge ; but his misery still cleaves to him 
 as a girdle. Living without Grod, he dies without hope, 
 and awakes beyond the flood, only to descry the certainty, 
 the intensity, and the perpetuity of his sorrows ! The 
 degradation of the idolater then receives the stamp of 
 eternity ! Between him and the glorious fountain of 
 everlasting felicity the separation is rendered complete and 
 final ! He must remain through endless ages an outcast 
 from God, the contempt of the righteous, wholly devoid 
 of all virtue and of all bliss, an inhabitant of perdition, 
 amid "weeping and wailing, and gnashing of teeth!" 
 Who can describe, who can understand, the final results 
 of idolatry ! If its temporal consequences have been such, 
 that the greatest catastrophes of our earth arising from 
 plague, famine, and the sword, have only been as the 
 troubles of childhood, who shall estimate its terrible 
 results on the eternal condition of its votaries ! If, then, 
 there be any means by which we may subvert the empire 
 of idolatry — any means by which we may dry up those 
 streams of endless and intolerable anguish which issue 
 from under its blood-stained and infernal altars, and roll 
 
18 ON THE SUCCESS 
 
 on into the regions of futurity, to embitter the being of 
 its victims, is not the immediate and most extensive appli- 
 cation of such means an act of the most devoted piety, 
 the most imperative duty, and the most sublime philan- 
 thropy ? Are not all other vocations and pursuits — how 
 laudable, how illustrious soever, in the eyes of men, and 
 with whatever favours and honours loaded by the world — 
 but as the plays of infancy, and the amusements of do- 
 tage? And are there means of certain efficacy to such 
 ends ? Yes ; and the life of John Williams was devoted 
 to their application. The primary object of that remark- 
 able man was to subvert idolatry, to restore the lost know- 
 ledge of the true God, to proclaim the Gospel of Christ, 
 to renew the souls of men in the Divine image, and to 
 reinstate them in the favour and service of the Most 
 High. These were his primary objects ; but he had also 
 objects of a secondary, yet still exalted order, such as to 
 extinguish war, and establish peace, to awaken the dor- 
 mant sensibilities of the human heart, to lay deep and 
 strong the foundations of society by a revival of the law of 
 marriage according to the Divine appointment, to impart 
 the blessings of education, arts, science, commerce, and 
 civilization, to institute just law and free government. 
 We now proceed to show that both these classes of objects 
 were amply realized by the Martyr of Erromanga. 
 
 Our illustrations open with the wondrous narrative of 
 Aunra, the chief of Rurutu, who, after fleeing from the 
 imaginary fury of his gods, supposed to be expressed in a 
 destructive malady, and escaping the rage of successive 
 tempests, and the perils of famine, reached Raiatea, where 
 he beheld the effects of the gospel, and listened to the 
 voice of mercy. Providence soon opened a path for the 
 chief to return to his native island : but, notwithstanding 
 his anxiety to revisit it, he refused to go back to " the 
 land of darkness without a light in his hand," — a person, 
 
OF MISSIONARY EFFORTS. 19 
 
 he meant, to instruct his people and himself in the gospel 
 of salvation. He obtained his wish, and returned to 
 Rurutu. Mr. Williams, anxious for the fate of the 
 teachers, and the success of their message, soon after sent 
 a boat with a native crew on an expedition of inquiry ; 
 and in the space of a few weeks the boat returned, laden 
 with the gods of the heathen, which their late worshippers 
 had solemnly abandoned. What a sight was this to the 
 youthful missionary ! It was, however, only a pledge of 
 that more abundant success with which the Lord was 
 pleased to honour his servant. Cheering letters from the 
 native teachers accompanied the idol cargo. You may 
 conceive of Williams, reading the one, and gazing upon 
 the other, his heart rejoicing within him, with an exulting 
 rapture not unlike that which will animate the spirits of 
 the heavenly hosts, when with shouts of triumph they 
 announce, that the "kingdoms of this world are become 
 the kingdoms of our Lord and his Christ."* The joy was 
 not confined to the breasts of the Missionaries. A meeting 
 was straightway held in the Mission Chapel, to announce 
 the intelligence to the people, and to offer thanks to the 
 Most High, for the success of this first effort to extend 
 the kingdom of his Son. The house was lighted up with 
 all possible brilliancy — an act which harmonized with the 
 object of the assembly; for light had triumphed over 
 darkness. In the course of the evening the rejected idols 
 were exhibited from the pulpit to the happy throngs, 
 who saw in them the symbols of their own previous 
 thraldom, and woful degradation. The national god of 
 Rurutu attracted chief notice. The proper name of this 
 monster-idol was Legion ; he was the insular god of gods ; 
 with gods he was bedecked externally, and with gods he 
 was filled ; for, on opening a small door, which was dis- 
 
 * Williams, p. 12. 
 
£0 ON THE SUCCESS 
 
 covered in his back, no fewer than twenty-four smaller 
 idols were found within him ! 
 
 Williams employed the capture of the idols to deepen 
 the people's horror of idolatry. While the chandeliers 
 illumined the external scene, the lights which the Spirit 
 of God had kindled in the breast of the natives were 
 trimmed, and their collected rays poured full on the minds 
 of the assembly. Deacon Tuahine, while gazing on the 
 heap of idols, nobly exclaimed, " Thus the gods made 
 with hands shall perish ! There they are, tied with cords ! 
 Yes : their very names are also changed ! Formerly they 
 were called gods ; now they are called evil spirits. Their 
 glory, look — it is birds' feathers, soon rotten ; but our 
 God is the same for ever." On this glorious night, Uaeva, 
 too, dexterously displayed the temporal bearings and 
 blessings of the gospel. While the oil of the cocoa-nut 
 was diffusing its radiance on the assembly, he cried out, 
 " Look at the chandeliers ! Oro never taught us any 
 thing like this ! Look at our wives in their gowns and 
 their bonnets, and compare ourselves with the poor natives 
 of Rurutu, when they were drifted to our island, and 
 mark the superiority ! And by what means have we 
 attained it ? By our own invention and goodness ? No ! 
 it is to the good name of Jesus we are indebted. Then 
 let us send his name to other lands, that others may enjoy 
 the same benefit. Angels would rejoice to be employed 
 by God to teach the world this gospel of Christ."* 
 
 The eye of the Christian philanthropist beholds in this 
 evening's illumination and exhibition, a beauty and a glory 
 of an order far superior to those of European capitals 
 announcing the victories of fleets and armies. What were 
 the triumphs of Marengo and Austerlitz ? Triumphs based 
 in rapine, blood, and slaughter! The light and joy of 
 
 * Williams, p. 12, 
 

 OF MISSIONARY EFFORTS. 
 
 21 
 
 Raiatea were not counterbalanced by darkness, tears, 
 groans, and death in Rurutu ! The voice of gladness was 
 heard in both isles. The addresses to which we have 
 referred supply a wondrous contrast to the savage ha- 
 rangues of Suwarrow, and the barbarous bulletins of 
 Buonaparte ! How unlike was the benevolent and gentle 
 joy of the Mission Station to the ferocious and sanguinary 
 exultation of the Romans, when Lucius Veturius an- 
 nounced in the city the slaughter of the brave Hasdrubal, 
 with fifty-six thousand Carthaginians !* Behold the effects 
 of "the knowledge of the Lord!" See how peace suc- 
 ceeds to war — love to hatred — and sparing mercy to ruth- 
 less vengeance ! 
 
 Aitutaki supplies the next illustration. When Williams 
 first visited that island, its people presented an appalling 
 picture of savage life. Some were tattooed all over; 
 others were fantastically painted with pipe-clay, and red 
 and yellow ochre ; while some were all begrimed with 
 charcoal ; and, thus disfigured, they danced, shouted, and 
 threw themselves into the most frantic gestures. In this 
 bedlam isle he left two teachers to assail idolatry, and to 
 diffuse the knowledge of the true God and of Jesus Christ. 
 When he next approached their shores, his vessel was 
 surrounded by canoes, the crews of which shouted, " Good 
 is the word of God ; it is now well with Aitutaki ; the 
 good word has taken root at Aitutaki." Some holding up 
 their hats, of European make, and others their spelling- 
 books, as proofs of their assertion. The arrival of a 
 chief's canoe communicated the fact, that the Maraes were 
 burned; that such of the idols as had escaped the flames 
 were in the hands of the teachers, and that so general was 
 the profession of Christianity that not an idolater re- 
 mained. Every thing harmonized with this representa^- 
 
 * Livy, lib. xxvii. cap. 41. 
 
0% ON THE SUCCESS 
 
 tion ; a chapel, of the enormous length of nearly two hun- 
 dred feet, had been erected, and waiting the arrival of 
 Williams to open it ; the Sabbath was a day of rest from 
 all labour, when young and old assembled to receive in- 
 struction ; and family prayer was prevalent throughout the 
 island. On going ashore, Mr. Williams found the face of 
 things entirely changed. Every mind seemed alive to the 
 business of religion. Gentleness, docility, and kindness 
 were every where apparent; the people were occupied, 
 according to their tastes, feelings, and different stages of 
 advancement, spelling long words, repeating catechisms or 
 prayers, giving thanks for food, and singing verses of 
 hymns.* This wondrous transformation was effected within 
 the brief space of eighteen months. 
 
 The next day presented Williams in a position of glory 
 which, in moral grandeur, far transcended that of Napo- 
 leon, when — on his fatal march to Moscow, with eight so- 
 vereigns enlisted under his banners, an emperor, kings, 
 and a crowd of princes, all impelled by every passion but 
 love, thronged to meet him — him by whom they had been 
 subdued, humbled, plundered, and oppressed — him, who 
 had injured them all, and whom for that injury they all 
 abhorred ! While Williams was in the midst of conversa- 
 tion, his attention was arrested by a tingling sound, pro- 
 duced by striking an axe with a stone, in substitution for 
 a bell. By this means the people were assembled, to the 
 number of from 1500 to 2000, who listened with the ut- 
 most decorum and with eager attention, while he preached 
 to them that " God so loved the world, as to give his 
 only begotten Son." How had the love of God triumphed 
 here ! At the time of his former visit, these people were 
 constantly killing, and even eating each other, for they 
 were cannibals ; but now they were all with one accord 
 
 * Williams, p. 16. 
 
OF MISSIONARY EFFORTS. £3 
 
 bending their knees together as friends and brethren, and 
 worshipping the God of peace and love. In the evening 
 the triumph was rendered complete by transferring to the 
 vessel the gods — thirty-one in number — that had escaped 
 destruction.* 
 
 The word of the Lord had run at a very rapid rate among 
 these people. Papeiha, one of the teachers, had convened 
 them, and proclaimed to them the love and greatness of 
 Jehovah, making war at once upon the idols and upon 
 their temples. The assent of the assembly to his proposi- 
 tion for their destruction was cordial and universal ; the 
 meeting broke up ; lights were struck ; the conflagration 
 commenced ; straightway all the temples of the island were 
 in flames ; and by the time the morrow's sun arose to il- 
 lumine the scene, not a single Marae remained uncon- 
 sumed !f Nor did the marvel end with this awful but 
 delightful demonstration. The same truth which destroyed 
 the temples, overthrew their occupants, the gods. Never 
 was military conquest more complete than was that of the 
 humble men who carried on the spiritual war with idolatry 
 in Aitutaki. The whole population came in procession, 
 district after district, the chief and the priest leading the 
 way, and the people following, loaded with their rejected 
 idols, which they laid at the teacher's feet ! Who can esti- 
 mate the benefit thus conferred upon these islanders ? 
 How quickly they were lifted up from their intellectual 
 and moral prostration, and freed from the fetters of a foul 
 and sanguinary idolatry, the evil genius of which had for 
 many ages ruled and tortured the inhabitants of that ver- 
 dant isle ! Is there one among the Christian youth of 
 England, who would not ten thousand times rather have 
 been Williams in Aitutaki, than Napoleon in Moscow ? 
 Both were surrounded by the work of destruction, but 
 
 * Williams, p. 17. t Ibid. p. 20. 
 
24 ON THE success 
 
 how different the objects and results ! When the colossus 
 of war had reached that great capital, he coldly and proudly 
 exclaimed, " At length, then, I am in Moscow, in the 
 ancient palace of the Czars, in the Kremlin !" Yes, de- 
 stroyer of men ! thou art in the Kremlin, crowned with the 
 curses and execrations of an empire ! Let the votary of 
 war view the god of European armies in this dreadful posi- 
 tion. The patriotic Russians, preferring the loss of all 
 things to French subjugation, nobly fired Moscow; and 
 while fleeing to prepare for fresh resistance, they left the 
 devouring element to expel the ruthless invader from the 
 palace of their emperors ! In that renowned edifice the 
 imperial warrior slept till awaked on the following morn 
 by the blended light of the rising sun and the blazing city ! 
 He started ; and his eye — an eye familiar with the dread 
 ravages of fire and sword — flashing on the terrible scene, 
 he exclaimed, " What a tremendous spectacle ! It is their 
 own work ! So many palaces ! What extraordinary resolu- 
 tion ! what men ! These are Scythians indeed !"* There 
 the tyrant, encircled by a sea of fire, which blocked up 
 all the gates of the citadel, was left to battle with the 
 furious element! Wave succeeded to wave, and the 
 ocean of flame rolled on towards the mighty Kremlin, 
 whence it drove the scourge of Europe ! Here was a foe 
 that defied his cannon ! He whose lion heart had never 
 turned the back on an enemy, now fled amid the roaring 
 of flames, the crash of walls, the fall of burning timbers, 
 and the red-hot iron roofs which every moment tumbled 
 around him, and dashing over a pavement of fire, beneath 
 a canopy of flaming sky, with burning walls on either 
 hand, he escaped beyond the city !-f 
 
 Following Williams in his benevolent career, we are 
 next conducted to Atiu, and there introduced to Romatane, 
 
 * Segur, vol. ii. p. 49. f Ibid. pp. 47, 48/ 
 
OF MISSIONARY EFFORTS. £5 
 
 the principal chief, one of nature's highest nobles. This 
 man presents to the historical painter one of the finest 
 subjects in connexion with emancipation from the thral- 
 dom of darkness and the degradation of idolatry ever exhi- 
 bited on the field of missions. It is much to be regretted 
 that Williams did not record the principal parts of the 
 wondrous dialogue held with this remarkable man under 
 circumstances of so extraordinary a character. Academic 
 discussions and the profoundest speculations of philosophy 
 are matters low and grovelling compared with the discourse 
 which Williams and his attendants held with Roma-tane. 
 The process of illumination was rapid and complete. On 
 boarding the missionary vessel he was cordially received 
 by all, and immediately led aside by the chief of Aitutaki, 
 who at once apprised him of the destruction of the tem- 
 ples of that island, and also of the burning of the great 
 idols, — while, to confirm the strange recital, he led the 
 astonished chieftain into the hold of the vessel and showed 
 him the smaller gods which were being conveyed to Rai- 
 atea. This was the first step in the process ; the second 
 was a sermon by Williams, on the morning of the next 
 day, which was the Sabbath, from Isaiah's description of 
 the idolater's infatuation, " With part thereof he roasteth 
 roast, and is satisfied ; and the residue thereof he maketh 
 a god, and worshippeth it, and prayeth unto it, and saith, 
 Deliver me, for thou art my God." On the utterance of 
 these words, the light of heaven was poured upon the 
 mind of Roma-tane ; he was filled with utter astonish- 
 ment. To this succeeded a scene which it was worth 
 sailing to the antipodes to witness. A new world had 
 opened to the mind of the chief ; the great transition had 
 begun ; he had already far advanced in hist passage from 
 darkness unto light ; he now beheld for the first time the 
 footsteps of Deity ; his soul had burst its fetters ; its 
 covering of darkness had been rent asunder, and he ob- 
 
Q(> ON THE SUCCESS 
 
 tained a glimpse of the Throne of the Great Eternal. 
 The first element of the highest knowledge attainable 
 by man or angel, had entered the mind of Roma-tane. 
 Awful, sublime discovery! The effervescent rapture and 
 school-boy exultation of the Grecian geometer, on dis- 
 covering a point of science, has been much lauded as an 
 illustration of the delight imparted by knowledge. " I 
 have found it!" said fee,*" I have found it!" The 
 levity of the philosopher indicated the quality of the 
 discovery, and showed that there was nothing moral in it. 
 Very different was the feeling of appalling and unutterable 
 solemnity which filled the soul of Roma-tane. That dread 
 idea which comprises all others, which absorbs, hides, 
 annihilates all others, had entered his mind and heart — 
 the idea of God ! He was lifted up by its dignity ; he 
 was expanded by its immensity. The knowledge of all 
 causes is as nothing compared with the knowledge of the 
 First Cause — the knowledge of God. Even Newton, the 
 father of the new philosophy, made but a frivolous dis- 
 covery respecting the law of gravity and the planetary 
 motions as compared with Roma-tane. As Williams ex- 
 pounded the marvellous theme, he was lost in wonder. 
 He grasped the subject with inconceivable vigour and 
 fervour. The new idea filled his whole mind ; there was 
 no room left for a second thought. Sleep and food were 
 trifles beneath attention. " At length he retired and 
 spent the whole of the night in conversation with the 
 teachers and chiefs from Aitutaki, about the wonderful 
 truths he had heard, frequently rising up, and stamping 
 with astonishment that he should have been deluded so 
 long, and expressing his determination never again to 
 worship his idol gods."* The lesson of Isaiah was not 
 lost upon him ; how affecting to listen to his utterance of 
 the following words : " Eyes, it is true, they have ; but 
 wood cannot see : ears they have ; but wood cannot hear !" 
 
 * Williams, p. 22. 
 
OF MISSIONARY EFFORTS. 27 
 
 He instantly decreed the destruction of his temples, the 
 conflagration of his idols, and the erection of a house for 
 God ! He proceeded with Williams to Mitiaro, of which 
 he was sovereign, and exhorted the people to burn their 
 temples and abandon their gods, and listen to the servants 
 of Jehovah, giving instructions that the house which they 
 were erecting for himself should be devoted to the servants 
 of God. His new light was employed to stifle the terrors 
 of the people, lest the gods should be enraged and strangle 
 them, by the bold reply, "It is out of the power of the 
 wood, that we have adorned, and called a god, to kill us."* 
 
 This convert king next sailed with the Missionary to 
 Mauke, an island not previously known to any European, 
 and of which he also was sovereign. The fulness of his 
 heart, and the decision of his character, were beautifully 
 exemplified in his conduct on landing. The first words 
 he uttered as he leaped on shore, to Tararo, a chief, and 
 an assemblage of the natives, were the following : — " I am 
 come to advise you to receive the word of Jehovah, the 
 true God, and to leave with you a teacher and his wife, 
 who will instruct you. Let us destroy our Maraes, and 
 burn all the evil spirits with fire ; never let us worship 
 them again. They are wood which we have carved and 
 decorated, and called gods. Here is the true God, and 
 his word, and a teacher to instruct you. The true God 
 is Jehovah, and the true sacrifice is his Son Jesus Christ. "f 
 He then exhorted them to build a house for God, and 
 gave to the teacher a house which had been lately erected 
 for himself. 
 
 How great a work Williams achieved in this brief space ! 
 Behold three islands almost unknown, and two of them 
 never before visited by any European vessel, brought at 
 once to renounce idolatry ! The first visit of the " white 
 man" was a visit neither of idle curiosity, nor of mer- 
 
 * Williams, p. 23. f Ibid. 
 
 c 2 
 
28 ON THE SUCCESS 
 
 chandise, nor of plunder, but of Christian mercy. Thus 
 perished before the breath of the Lord the glory and the 
 terror of many generations. The sun had risen with his 
 wonted splendour, gilding the eastern heavens with his 
 glory ; and little did the inhabitants of Mauke and 
 Mitiaro imagine, that before he retired beneath the 
 horizon in the western sky, " Ichabod " would be written 
 upon the idolatry of their ancestors. 
 
 Pausing for a moment in the career of conquest, we 
 must allow our Missionary a brief space for triumph. 
 Setting sail from Rarotonga, immediately after discovering 
 it, he proceeded homeward to Raiatea. His arrival was 
 an event that will long be remembered. Nothing in the 
 history of naval glory presents to our eye a picture pos- 
 sessing one thousandth part of the beauty of the following 
 passage of Williams : " With grateful hearts we now turned 
 our faces homewards ; where, after eight or ten days' sail, 
 we arrived in safety ; and, as other warriors feel a pride 
 in displaying the trophies of their victories, we hung the 
 rejected idols of Aitutaki to the yard-arms and other parts 
 of the vessel, entered the harbour in triumph, sailed down 
 to the settlement, and dropt anchor amidst the shouts and 
 congratulations of our people."* This great event, as in 
 the case of the idols of Rurutu, was not allowed to pass 
 without due improvement. Williams detailed to the 
 assembled people the results which had signalised the 
 voyage. The idols w T ere suspended in proper positions 
 about the chapel, which was illumined, and the people 
 were addressed by successive speakers, among whom, 
 Tuahine, the Deacon, took the lead. His speech was 
 worthy of himself and of the occasion. Its conclusion 
 possesses great beauty ; probably nothing finer in thought, 
 or more felicitous in expression, was ever uttered by a 
 
 * Williams, p. 28. 
 
OF MISSIONARY EFFORTS. 29 
 
 man under similar circumstances. " Behold ! " said he, 
 pointing to the idols, while addressing the unconverted 
 portion of the assembly, " these are still your gods, 
 although you do not acknowledge them." Urging them 
 to turn to Christ, by whose power the idols had been over- 
 thrown, he added, " And how can you resist his power ? 
 The gods of wood are food for the fire, but the God 
 without form is beyond your strength ; his head cannot 
 be reached! These gods are conquered; but the invisible 
 God will remain for ever. The idols now hanging in 
 degradation before us, were formerly unconquerable ; but 
 the power of God is gone forth, by which men become 
 Christians, and savages brethren in Christ." 
 
 A second speaker brought forth with equal force and 
 beauty the peculiar character of the means by which this 
 great victory had been obtained, and presented it in 
 striking contrast with the instruments of human carnage. 
 Hear his remarkable words : — " We have been praying 
 that God would exert his power, and cause his word to 
 grow, that his good kingdom might come ; and now, 
 behold, every man, with his own eyes, may see the effects 
 of that power. These idols have not been obtained by 
 spears clotted with human blood, as formerly ; no guns, 
 no clubs, no other weapon but the powerful gospel of our 
 Lord Jesus Christ. Formerly all was theirs, pigs, fish, 
 men, women, and children; and now, behold them sus- 
 pended in contempt before us! This is not the com- 
 mencement of our joy. We saw the idols hanging about 
 the vessel, and gladness sprang in our hearts. They called 
 our ship the ship of God, and truly it was so, for it car- 
 ried the gospel to distant lands, and brought back the 
 trophies of its victory. Does praise grow in every heart ? 
 
 kls joy felt by all ? Then let us not only rejoice that 
 * Williams, p. 28. 
 
30 0N THE success 
 
 ( devils are subject to us, but also that our names are 
 written in the book of life.' " 
 
 British youth! do try to realize the feelings of the 
 Martyr on entering the harbour of Raiatea, and during 
 that glorious night. How transcendent were they as com- 
 pared with those of the greatest admirals on returning 
 from the scene of ocean carnage ! Who, among you, 
 would not ten thousand times rather have been John Wil- 
 liams on those occasions, than Blake, or Duncan, or Hood, 
 or Howe, or even Nelson himself, in their proudest hour ? 
 Defence of country against invasion is, doubtless, a source 
 of satisfaction to a patriotic heart ; but the thought of 
 blood and slaughter embitters all. The means apart, the 
 end, how high soever, admits not of a moment's compa- 
 rison with the work of Williams. How great, unutterably 
 great, the good bestowed upon those benighted islanders ! 
 What honour, what felicity to himself resulted from the 
 operations of the Missionary ! What raptures of delight 
 filled his soul while he cast his benignant eye over those 
 verdant and lovely isles, and reflected that he had demo- 
 lished their idolatry with its abominations, and lifted up 
 the spirits of their people to fellowship with God ! What 
 joy to think that the good he had conferred would descend 
 from generation to generation, down to the latest ages, and 
 that, after time, it would fill eternity ! 
 
 The next enterprize of the great Missionary relates to 
 the discovery and illumination of Rarotonga. Such were 
 the profligacy and licentious violence of its people towards 
 the native teachers, whom Williams purposed to leave, 
 that he determined to carry them back, and for the pre- 
 sent to abandon the island. But Papeiha, strong in faith, 
 and full of pity, bravely volunteered to remain among 
 them, and attempt the subversion of their idolatry. Just 
 think of this converted native advancing from the vessel to 
 the isle for this great object, having, as his weapons, 
 
OP MISSIONARY EFFORTS. g\ 
 
 simply a New Testament and a bundle of elementary 
 books. In the eyes of mere reason, how feeble an agency! 
 How utterly inadequate, in the estimation of a vain phi- 
 losophy, was this humble man to the arduous enterprise ! 
 But what saith history ? Tyerman and Bennet, who 
 visited the island about a year afterwards, attest that the 
 whole population had renounced idolatry, and were en- 
 gaged in the erection of a house for the God of heaven 
 six hundred feet in length ! 
 
 When the Missionary Martyr subsequently visited this 
 island, he received a welcome of which it is not easy for 
 us to understand the real character. Only conceive of 
 him sitting, at the request of the teachers, outside the 
 door of the house built by them, and assigned for his con- 
 venience during his stay, and look at yonder multitude in 
 the distance, advancing towards the Missionary, a portion 
 of them bearing heavy burdens. The procession draws 
 near ; an enormous idol is by its bearers dropped at his 
 feet, and another, and another, till fourteen are laid before 
 him, the smallest of them about fifteen feet in length! 
 Behold him, on the ensuing Lord's-day, surrounded by a 
 concourse of about four thousand of those persons who 
 had rejected their gods, hanging on his lips as he pro- 
 claimed the gospel of mercy!* Tinomana, the chief, will 
 continue, while Rarotonga shall exist, a beautiful example 
 of simplicity and docility, as a learner of the way of sal- 
 vation. When he asked the teachers what was the first 
 lesson that he had to learn, they told him that he must 
 destroy his maraes and burn his idols ; and his reply simply 
 was, " Come with me, and see them destroyed." They 
 followed, and anon the temple was in flames ! It was to 
 no purpose that some raged, and that others broke forth 
 in passionate grief and doleful lamentations. f 
 
 * Williams, pp. 30, 31. t Ibid. p. 47, 
 
go ON THE SUCCESS 
 
 Reader ! will this islander rise up in judgment against 
 thee ? Hast thou taken up thy station on the Saviour's 
 side ? Hast thou followed the Lord fully ? Hast thou 
 destroyed thine idols, and made way for thy Lord ? Hast 
 thou received him into thy heart ? Oh ! remember that, 
 according to the Scriptures of truth, thou art dead ; but 
 God has given thee life, and that life is in his Son Jesus 
 Christ! Search the Book of God for thyself; compare its 
 testimony with what is seen around thee, and felt within 
 thee. Compare the blessings which it offers with those 
 which human nature requires ; compare what it proposes 
 to do with what it has actually done, in the case before us. 
 Is not the power which effected these marvellous changes 
 equal to the achievement of any thing and of every thing I 
 Would not its universal exercise upon the hearts of men 
 put a new face on the condition of our world ? Would 
 not such a transformation be the most beneficent and 
 glorious event that ever appeared in that world? Do not 
 the Scriptures promise such a revolution ? If Christian 
 Missions are the means by which God has appointed to 
 effect it, can any earthly enterprise be compared, in point 
 of importance, excellence, and dignity, with such missions ? 
 As thus compared, are not all other pursuits low and 
 worthless ? Then ought not every man, who makes the 
 slightest pretensions to either piety or philanthropy, to 
 range himself, with all his influence, on the side of this 
 great undertaking ? 
 
 Conductors of the press! this matter deeply concerns 
 you. Is it not full time to consecrate literature to this 
 highest species of humanity ? Is it not obligatory on your 
 whole body to put forth their stupendous power in support 
 of it ? Is it not lamentable, that hitherto so little has been 
 done by many of you, in your all but omnipotent depart- 
 ment of influence ? Gentlemen ! be assured that it is of 
 the first importance to the interests of our race, that the 
 
OF MISSIONARY EFFORTS. 33 
 
 helm of literary power should be placed in the hands of 
 those men, and of those alone, whose hearts beat high in 
 unison with the advocates and conductors of Christian 
 Missions. In this great battle of benevolence, it becomes 
 you to fight, side by side, with the ministers of religion, 
 against the indifference, selfishness, and cupidity of British 
 Christians. What auxiliaries, in this momentous work, 
 might your presses prove to the pulpits and the platforms 
 of the Christian churches ! You who conduct the period- 
 ical press ought no longer to cater, as you too frequently 
 do, to the corrupt passions of a profligate and semi-bar- 
 barous populace. It behoves you, in the pursuit of your 
 high vocation, to labour, by all proper methods, to improve 
 the understanding, and to purify the heart of the nations 
 which compose this great empire. 
 
 Gentlemen ! your position is awful ; it is full of respon- 
 sibility. You hold in your hands a key to the minds of mil- 
 lions, in England, whom the voice of the preacher cannot 
 reach. To those millions themselves it is in your power 
 to perform a service which language cannot estimate, and 
 which neither gold nor gratitude could ever repay, by 
 enlisting them on the side of Missions. There is no limit, 
 in this direction, to the field of your usefulness. It is a 
 work which yet remains to prove the full power of the 
 British periodical press. Splendid are the laurels which 
 are yet to be reaped by it ; and happy those editors who 
 shall be the first to put in the sickle ! It is not proposed 
 that you should forthwith become expositors of theological 
 truth ; this is not your province : but the subject of morals 
 is confessedly within your empire ; you claim politics as 
 your own ; and it is your pride and honour occasionally to 
 plead with power in behalf of distressed humanity. The 
 question of Christian Missions, therefore, both Home and 
 Foreign, comes legitimately within the sphere of your 
 labours. It forms a chief branch, equally of morals, of 
 
 c3 
 
34 ON THE SUCCESS 
 
 politics, and of humanity. Its relations are manifold and 
 multifarious ; its bearings on legislation and commerce 
 are innumerable. In able hands, no subject admits of a 
 more fascinating exhibition to the public mind and heart. 
 You need not fear, therefore, the corrupt part of the 
 public ; they are neither your sole readers, nor your most 
 influential supporters. But the topic of Christian Mis- 
 sions may be rendered not merely palatable, but enchant- 
 ing, even to them. Still, however, if it were offensive to 
 some, there is another class of readers to whom considera- 
 tion is due — Christians of all sects. Their hearts are 
 deeply set upon the work of Missions, and in that work 
 you can render them essential service. Their claims on 
 you are strong ; you are deeply in their debt ; you have 
 done little for religion and for them, as compared with 
 what they have done for letters, and consequently for you. 
 You often try at once their patience and their principles ; 
 you frequently offend their taste and wound their piety. 
 Your columns are ever open to the world, while closed to 
 the churches ; and your services are both frequently and 
 effectively volunteered on the side of ungodliness. The 
 tendency of much that you publish is, rather to encourage 
 evil than to repress it. 
 
 Gentlemen, be wise at length ; be just to the cause of 
 humanity and its advocates. But what, it may be said, 
 can you do ? You can do much. You can give full re- 
 ports of Missionary meetings and services ; you can give 
 occasional articles on the sphere and labours of particular 
 missions, in addition to advocating the general question ; 
 you can plead the cause of Missionaries, when oppressed ; 
 you can give reviews of the published annual reports of 
 the several Societies, and bring their claims before mul- 
 titudes, who otherwise would never hear of them ; you 
 can give notices and extracts of Missionary works, and of 
 Missionary biography ; you can call the attention of the 
 
OF MISSIONARY EFFORTS. gfr 
 
 rich and great, the high and mighty, to this work, and 
 urge its claims upon their substance and patronage. These 
 are some of the deeds which you may do ; and by doing 
 which you will render homage to Heaven, oblige the best 
 portion of British citizens, and promote for both worlds 
 the highest interests of all nations. 
 
LETTER III, 
 
 TO THE SUPERINTENDENTS OF SUNDAY SCHOOLS. 
 
 FURTHER ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE SUCCESS OF EFFORTS TO SUBVERT 
 IDOLATRY, AND TO INTRODUCE THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE TRUE GOD. 
 
 Brethren, beloved of the Lord! you occupy a posi- 
 tion of high honour and awful responsibility. Next to 
 the ministers of the glorious gospel, there is no class of 
 men to whose labours a more solemn importance attaches ; 
 indeed, the superintendents of large schools exert, whether 
 for evil or for good, a far greater influence than the pas- 
 tors of small congregations. The true interests of all 
 nations demand the creation of a thoroughly Missionary 
 church in England for the generation to come. In this 
 most momentous work a very prominent place is assigned 
 to you. At this moment a very large portion of the church 
 of the next age is in your hands ; and to what extent 
 it shall be Missionary, depends very much upon your 
 spirit and procedure. By the good hand of your God 
 upon you every school in Great Britain may become 
 a nursery for missions. In order to the efficient prosecu- 
 tion of this object, it is necessary that your own hearts, to 
 the greatest possible extent, should be embued with the 
 spirit of Missionary enterprise. O brethren! drink deep 
 into the well-spring of life. Be clad with zeal, as with a 
 

 SUCCESS OF MISSIONARY EFFORTS. 37 
 
 cloak ! Study every means to promote the enterprise of 
 the world's salvation in the hearts of your teachers. Let 
 your school libraries be stored with all the varied existing 
 Missionary literature in our language. Endeavour to pro- 
 mote, to the uttermost, the study of it among the teachers 
 and senior scholars. Devise suitable methods of bringing 
 the main facts to bear upon the whole school. I shall en- 
 deavour, in a subsequent letter, to suggest the best plans 
 for effecting this ; and, in the mean time, I invite your at- 
 tention to the following facts, illustrative of the beneficial 
 tendency of the gospel of Christ. 
 
 Of all the South Sea characters sketched by Mr. Wil- 
 liams, few are more interesting than that of the spiritual 
 beggar, Buteve. One hardly knows whether more to ad- 
 mire this man's temporal or his spiritual industry. Both 
 his hands and feet were eaten off by a disease which the 
 natives call kokovi. Notwithstanding this calamity, he 
 contrived to raise food sufficient for the support of himself, 
 his wife, and three children. He walked on his knees, 
 and he tilled his ground with an instrument called the ho 9 
 which he pressed firmly to his side, and resting the weight 
 of his body upon it, pierced the ground, and then, scraping 
 out the earth with the stumps of his arms, he clasped the 
 plant, placed it in the hole, and filled in the earth. The 
 weeds he pulled up in the same way. With this afflicted 
 creature Mr. Williams one evening fell in, and held the 
 following dialogue. While the Missionary was walking 
 along, Buteve, getting off his seat, proceeded on his knees 
 to the middle of the pathway, and shouted, " Welcome, 
 servant of God, who brought light into this dark island ; 
 to you are we indebted for the word of salvation." 
 In reply, Williams said, " What do you know of the 
 word of salvation ?" The Martyr's account of the dialogue 
 is as follows : — " He answered, ' I know about Jesus 
 Christ, who came into the world to save sinners.' On 
 
38 ON THE SUCCESS 
 
 inquiring what he knew about Jesus Christ, he Replied, ' I 
 know that he is the Son of God, and that he died pain- 
 fully upon the cross to pay for the sins of men, in order 
 that their souls might be saved, and go to happiness in 
 the skies.' I inquired of him if all the people went to 
 heaven after death. ■ Certainly not/ he replied ; ' only 
 those who believe in the Lord Jesus, who cast away sin, 
 and who pray to God.' ' You pray, of course?' I conti- 
 nued. ' Oh yes,' he said, ' I very frequently pray as I 
 weed my ground and plant my food, but always three 
 times a-day, besides praying with my family every morning 
 and evening.' I asked him what he said when he prayed. 
 He answered, ' I say, ' O Lord, I am a great sinner, may 
 Jesus take my sins away by his good blood ; give me the 
 righteousness of Jesus to adorn me, and give me the good 
 Spirit of Jesus to instruct me, and make my heart good, 
 to make me a man of Jesus, and take me to heaven when I 
 die,' ' Well,' I replied, ' that, But eve, is very excellent, 
 but where did you obtain your knowledge ?' ' From you, 
 to be sure : who brought us the news of salvation but 
 yourself?' * True,' I replied, ' but I do not ever recollect 
 to have seen you at either of the settlements to hear me 
 speak of these things, and how do you obtain your know- 
 ledge of them ?' f Why,' he said, ' as the people return 
 from the services, I take my seat by the way-side, and beg 
 a bit of the word of them as they pass by ; one gives me 
 one piece, another another piece, and I collect them to- 
 gether in my heart, and, by thinking over what I thus 
 obtain, and praying to God to make me know, I under- 
 stand a little about his word.' This was altogether a most 
 interesting incident, as I had never seen the poor cripple 
 before, and I could not learn that he had ever been in a 
 place of worship. His knowledge, however, was such as 
 to afford me both astonishment and delight, and I seldom 
 passed his house, after this interview, without holding an 
 
OF MISSIONARY EFFORTS. 39 
 
 interesting conversation with him."* It is not easy to 
 conceive of any thing more interesting than the spectacle 
 presented by Williams and Buteve, while holding the 
 conversation here recorded. How deplorable an object 
 was the one ! What a benefactor to that object was the 
 other ! 
 
 A Missionary Meeting of the southern Islanders presents 
 to the moral eye a sight at once sublime and beautiful. 
 Such a meeting is in itself a trophy, and to the Missionary 
 a triumph, while the speeches of the natives are a species 
 of deposition on the subjects of idolatry and Christianity, 
 of the most interesting and gratifying character. I shall 
 here set forth the substance of several addresses on one of 
 those occasions as they were minuted down at the moment 
 by Mr. Williams. 
 
 First Speaker. — " My friends, let us this afternoon 
 remember our former state — how many children were 
 killed, and how few were kept alive ; but now none are 
 destroyed. Parents now behold, with pleasure, their 
 three, five, and even their ten children, the majority of 
 whom would have been murdered had not God sent his 
 word to us. Now hundreds of these are daily taught the 
 word of God. We knew not that we possessed that inva- 
 luable property — a living soul. Neither our wise ances- 
 tors, nor any of our former gods, ever told us so. But 
 Jehovah caused compassion to grow in the breasts of the 
 good Christians of England, who formed a society, pur- 
 chased a ship, and sent Missionaries to tell us that we had 
 souls — souls that will never die ; and now we are dwelling 
 in comfort, and hope for salvation through Jesus Christ. 
 But do all the lands of darkness possess the same know- 
 ledge I Do all know that they have never-dying souls ? — 
 that there is one good and one bad place for every soul 
 
 * Williams, p. 54. 
 
40 ON THE SUCCESS 
 
 after death ? Do all know that Jesus Christ came into the 
 world to save sinners ? No ! some are worshipping idols ; 
 some are killing themselves, and others their children. 
 Then let us send them Missionaries to teach them the 
 good word which we have been taught." 
 
 How direct to the point is this speech ! There is not 
 one stray observation. The speaker seems to have felt as if 
 the souls of the murdered innocents hovered about the meet- 
 ing ! His heart recoils with horror as he calls to mind 
 the hosts of babes butchered in the days of darkness! 
 His reference to the new doctrine of the soul is very 
 affecting. How touching and pungent his exclamation 
 relative to the employments of benighted men, at the 
 moment in which the meeting was being held ! 
 
 Second Speaker* — " Praise to God well becomes us; 
 but let it be heart-praise. All the work we do for God 
 must be heart-work. We were dwelling formerly in a 
 dark house, among centipedes and lizards, spiders and 
 rats ; nor did we know what evil and despicable things 
 were around us. The lamp of light, the word of God, has 
 been brought, and now we behold with dismay and disgust 
 these abominable things. But stop ! Some are killing 
 each other this very day, while we are rejoicing ; some are 
 destroying their children, while we are saving ours ; some 
 are burning themselves in the fire, while we are bathing in 
 the cool waters of the gospel 1 What shall we do ? We 
 have been told this day by our Missionary, that God works 
 by sending his word and his servants. To effect this, 
 property must be given. We have it; we can give it. 
 Prayer to God is another means : let us pray fervently. 
 But our prayer will condemn us if we cry, i Send forth 
 thy word and make it grow,' and do not use the means. I 
 shall say no more, but let us cleave to Jesus." 
 
 This is the language of a person accustomed, not to 
 fear, but to command, his fellow men. These brilliant 
 
OF MISSIONARY EFFORTS. 41 
 
 words were uttered by the chief of Tahaa. Seldom has 
 figurative language been employed with greater force or 
 greater beauty. How abrupt and striking is the pause, 
 introducing the contrast which their condition presented 
 to the state of such as were still sitting in the region of the 
 shadow of death ! 
 
 Third Speaker* — " There were two captivities amongst 
 us formerly : the one was a captivity to our gods ; the 
 other was our captivity to the teuteu arii, or king's ser- 
 vants. Perhaps there is an individual present to whom 
 the former will particularly apply, for I know the very cave 
 in which he hid himself several times, when he was sought 
 after to be offered up as a sacrifice to the gods. Has he 
 obtained shelter in the true Refuge for sinners ? The other 
 captivity was to the servants of our chiefs. These would 
 enter our houses, and commit the greatest depradations. 
 The raatira, or master of the house, would sit as a poor 
 captive, without daring to speak, while they would seize 
 his rolls of cloth, kill the fattest of his pigs, pluck the best 
 of his bread-fruit, and take the very posts of his house for 
 firewood with which to cook them. Is there not a person 
 present who buried his new canoe in the sand to hide it 
 from these desperate men ? But now all these customs 
 are abolished ; we live in peace, without fear. But what 
 has abolished them all ? Is it our own goodness ? Is it 
 our own strength ? No ! it is the gospel of Jesus. We 
 do not now hide our pigs underneath our beds, and use 
 our rolls of cloth for pillows, to secure them ; our pigs 
 may now run where they please, and our property may 
 hang in our house, no one touching it. Now we have 
 cinet bedsteads ; we have excellent sofas to sit on, neat 
 plastered houses to dwell in, and our property we can call 
 our own." 
 
 This is the language of a teacher ; and, accordingly, we 
 find in it the indications of an enlarging intellect, and an 
 
42 ON THE success 
 
 improving habit of observation. The political and social 
 benefits conferred by the gospel are more fully brought out 
 by him than by the previous speakers. Mahamene shows 
 that he is one of the people, and exults in deliverance 
 from oppression. He and the chiefs see things from dif- 
 ferent points. His views, all things considered, are at 
 once minute and comprehensive. The past and the present 
 state of his countrymen were vividly before the eye of his 
 mind ; and he very strikingly shows them that godliness 
 has the promise of the life that now is, as well as that which 
 is to come. 
 
 The missionary life is not without its pains, privations, 
 and perils ; but it has also its comforts and consolations. 
 It is impossible for us to form any just conception of the 
 exquisite pleasure with which Mr. Williams listened to 
 such addresses as those which have been recited. How 
 unlike to his the position of the military hero, surrounded 
 by those whom he has vanquished ! In the one case there 
 is cruel selfishness repaid by indignant hatred ; in the 
 other there is Christian benevolence inspiring gratitude, 
 confidence, and love. Curses are the reward of the one, 
 blessings of the other ! The missionary imparts more feli- 
 city than he receives. As the servant of the Most High 
 God, who shows unto men the way of salvation, he com- 
 municates a wisdom worth more than worlds. What times 
 were those which Messrs. Barff and Williams enjoyed at 
 Atiu ! At this island they were fully occupied night and 
 day ; the anxious natives would not allow both the mis- 
 sionaries to sleep at once ; as soon as one was overcome 
 they awoke the other, and in this way they were em- 
 ployed, alternately, during the nights, teaching the people 
 to sing, and explaining to them the sacred Scriptures.* 
 
 The hour of dissolution is the time to test principles ; 
 
 * Williams, p. 69. 
 
OF MISSIONARY EFFORTS. 43 
 
 and trie value of all things is to be determined by their 
 relation to death, judgment, and eternity. We have al- 
 ready listened to the testimony of the natives concerning 
 the sanguinary nature of their idolatrous system, and the 
 wondrous change produced upon their temporal condition 
 by the glorious gospel ; let us now approach the tomb, and 
 confer with some of the converts in the immediate prospect 
 of entering the eternal world. Vara will supply an appro- 
 priate illustration. During the reign of idolatry, one of 
 Vara's functions was to provide human sacrifices, and 
 among them he offered up his own little brother to the 
 Moloch of the South Sea ! To Vara also belonged the 
 office of rallying dispirited warriors ; and many a live-long 
 night did he run from house to house to rouse the sunken 
 spirit of his savage brethren to deeds of murderous ven- 
 geance, by assurances, on the authority of communications 
 from the gods, of success in the coming battle. After a 
 course of singular consistency from the day of his conver- 
 sion, he reached at length the limit of his earthly span. 
 Mr. Orsmond, seeing that his end was fast approaching, 
 said to him, " Are you sorry that you cast away your lying 
 gods by which you used to gain so much property ?" This 
 question stirred up the feelings of the dying man to the 
 innermost soul. With tears of pleasure sparkling in his 
 eyes, he exclaimed, " Oh no, no, no, — what! can I be 
 sorry for casting away death for life ? Jesus is my rock, 
 the fortification in which my soul takes shelter." The 
 missionary put another interrogatory, which elicited an 
 exquisitely beautiful answer. " Tell me," said he, " on 
 what you found your hopes of future blessedness ?" Vara 
 replied, " I have been very wicked, but a great King from 
 the other side of the skies sent his ambassadors with terms 
 of peace. We could not tell, for many years, what these 
 ambassadors wanted. At length Pomare obtained a vic- 
 tory, and invited all his subjects to come and take refuge 
 
44< ON THE SUCCESS 
 
 under the wing of Jesus, and I was one of the first to do 
 so. The blood of Jesus is my foundation. I grieve that 
 all my children do not love him. Had they known the 
 misery we endured in the reign of the devil, they would 
 gladly take the gospel in exchange for their follies. Jesus 
 is the best King ; he gives a pillow without thorns." 
 
 Shortly after, the missionary asked him if he was afraid 
 to die. Vara replied, with surprising energy, " No, no! 
 the canoe is in the sea, the sails are spread, she is ready 
 for the gale. 1 have a good pilot to guide me, and a good 
 haven to receive me. My outside man and my inside man 
 differ. Let the one rot till the trump shall sound, but let 
 my soul wing her way to the throne of Jesus."* What an 
 answer ! Which is the more admirable, the thought or 
 the expression ? How affecting the figure of " the canoe 
 in the sea!" Never was poet, in his highest moods, more 
 felicitous than this expiring islander ! Only contrast the 
 condition of Vara, providing human sacrifices for the gods 
 of his country, and even shedding his youthful brother's 
 blood ; and the condition of Vara on the verge of eternity, 
 full of love to God and man, and exulting in the hope of a 
 blessed immortality ! Oh, what a transformation ! Who 
 shall estimate the worth of the blessing conferred upon this 
 immortal creature ? What can be added to that blessing ? 
 How light, how little, and how contemptible is all sublu- 
 nary good, compared with the felicity which the gospel of 
 Christ imparted to Vara the idolater, the purveyor of hu- 
 man sacrifice, and the murderer of his own brother ! 
 
 Our next illustration is supplied by Me, who was among 
 the first converts of Raiatea, and one of the earliest mem- 
 bers of the first church formed in that island. Me had 
 been a warrior of great note ; he was the terror of all the 
 inhabitants of Raiatea and the adjacent isles ; but, in the 
 
 * Williams, p. 96. 
 
OF MISSIONARY EFFORTS. 45 
 
 last battle that was fought before the introduction of 
 Christianity, he received a blow which deprived him of 
 sight. But, although he was blind, none excelled him in 
 diligent attendance on the means of grace. Me was at no 
 loss for guides : the most respectable females, the principal 
 chiefs, and at times even the king himself, might be seen 
 leading Me to the house of God. He attended the adult 
 schools at six o'clock in the morning, and by hearing the 
 Scriptures read then and at other times, he soon acquired 
 an extensive acquaintance with the inspired volume. The 
 death of this son of slaughter supplies a glorious illustration 
 of the value of the gospel, and the unequalled importance oi 
 missionary labour. Mr. Williams, on returning from one of 
 his voyages, missed Me at public worship, and ascertaining 
 that he was ill, went to see him. On entering the blind 
 man's hut, the missionary said, " Me, I am sorry to find 
 you so ill." The gladdened sufferer exclaimed, " Is it you? 
 Do I really hear your voice again before I die ? I shall 
 die happy now. I was afraid I should have died before your 
 return." The missionary then inquired what brethren 
 visited him in his affliction, to read and pray with him. 
 The poor patient naming several, said, " They do not come 
 so often as I wish, yet I am not lonely, for I have frequent 
 visits from God : — God and I were talking when you came 
 in." What pathos, piety, and dignity in these words ! But 
 this is little compared with the burst of sublimity that fol- 
 lowed. Mr. Williams having signified an opinion that the 
 warrior's days were numbered, asked what were the views 
 of himself in the sight of God, and what his hopes rested 
 upon. Mark the reply : " I have been in great trouble this 
 morning ; but I am happy now. I saw an immense moun- 
 tain, with precipitous sides, up which I endeavoured to 
 climb, but when I had attained a considerable height, I 
 lost my hold, and fell to the bottom. Exhausted with 
 perplexity and fatigue, I went to a distance, and sat down 
 
4(5 ON THE SUCCESS 
 
 to weep ; and while weeping, I saw a drop or blood fall 
 upon that mountain, and in a moment it was dissolved." 
 Here he paused. Mr. Williams, anxious for his own idea 
 of the figure, asked what construction he put upon it. He 
 said, " That mountain was my sins, and the drop which 
 fell upon it was one drop of the precious blood of Jesus, 
 by which the mountain of my guilt must be melted away." 
 How vast were this man's conceptions of the magnitude of 
 his guilt ! How lofty and just were his ideas of the efficacy 
 of the sacrifice of the Son of God ! The missionary thus 
 concludes the scene. u On saying, at the close of the inter- 
 view, that I would go home and prepare some medicine for 
 him, which might afford him ease, he replied, ( I will 
 drink it, because you say I must ; but I shall not pray to 
 be restored to health again, for my desire is to depart and 
 be with Christ, which is far better than to remain longer 
 in this sinful world.' In my subsequent visits I always 
 found him happy and cheerful, longing to depart and be 
 with Christ. This was constantly the burden of his 
 prayer. I was with him when he breathed his last. Dur- 
 ing this interview, he quoted many precious passages of 
 Scripture ; and having exclaimed with energy, ' O death, 
 where is thy sting ?' his voice faltered, his eyes became 
 fixed, his hands dropped, and his spirit departed to be with 
 that Saviour, one drop of whose blood had melted away 
 the mountain of his guilt. Thus died poor old Me, the 
 blind warrior of Raiatea. I retired from the overwhelm- 
 ing and interesting scene, praying as I went that my end 
 might be like his."* 
 
 Here my illustrations terminate : and the question which 
 I now ask the man who pours contempt upon missions, is, 
 What think you of the facts which this and the foregoing 
 letter lay before you ? What think you, for example, of 
 
 * Williams, p. 97. 
 
OF MISSIONARY EFFORTS. 47 
 
 the character and death of Vara and of Me ? I invite you 
 to examine the subject. You shall not be limited in the 
 field of your inquiry. Go forth ; ascend the historic 
 pathway, and walk at large through all countries and all 
 times, — assemble the sages of every clime, and of every 
 tongue, — marshal the hosts of philosophers, philanthro- 
 pists, legislators, and rulers, — unite their deeds of benevo- 
 lence, and tell us whether you deem it safe to challenge for 
 them all a comparison with the preceding solitary specimen 
 of the deeds of the Martyr of Erromanga? Is such a 
 comparison for a moment admissible ? Are not all their 
 moral achievements as nothing, if placed side by side with 
 those of the Christian missionary ? Approach the death- 
 beds of Vara and of Me, and behold them die ! Give me 
 your estimate of what Christianity has done for these once 
 blood-stained'savages ! Could any thing less than Chris- 
 tianity have met their case, and made them happy ? Has 
 Christianity left them with a single want ? Has it not 
 brought immortality to light, and prepared them for its 
 enjoyment ? Do not all discoveries, and all bounties, 
 which stop short of this, leave man ignorant, poor, and 
 wretched ? Seeing that he is immortal, are not all systems 
 of instruction, reformation, and rule, which do not assume 
 this fact as their basis, insufficient and delusive ? All 
 efforts of philanthropy which exclude God and his grace, 
 Christ and his gospel, are but false lights which lure to 
 destruction. Men and brethren, awake from your dream ! 
 Search and look, and tell us what your philosophy has 
 ever done for barbarous tribes and perishing nations ? Nay, 
 more; what has it done for its own most renowned and 
 illustrious professors ? Reader ! what has it done for thee ? 
 Be assured that its boasted provisions and proud pretensions 
 will disappear amid the darkness of a dying chamber ! The 
 cross alone can there maintain its ground ! 
 
LETTEE IV, 
 
 TO THE COMMITTEES AND MEMBERS OF THE LONDON 
 AND AMERICAN PEACE SOCIETIES. 
 
 ON THE TENDENCY OF MISSIONARY LABOUR TO EXTINGUISH WAR 
 AND TO ESTABLISH PEACE. 
 
 Friends of your countries and of the whole human race ! 
 the formation of your benevolent confederacies will con- 
 stitute an era in the future history of our world. Except- 
 ing societies for preaching the gospel, mankind never asso- 
 ciated for any object of equal importance with that which 
 has brought you together. Your object is to stay the 
 effusion of human blood, to promote permanent and univer- 
 sal peace upon the earth, and good-will among men. A more 
 magnificent idea never entered the human breast. Its 
 benevolence is equalled only by its greatness. The true 
 character and design of your societies are still but imper- 
 fectly known, especially in England ; for it is pleasing to 
 reflect, that, in America, the cause of peace has taken a 
 deeper and a more general hold upon the public mind. 
 A mighty gain has been realized by the publication of the 
 u Prize Essays on a Congress of Nations, for the adjust- 
 ment of international disputes, and for the promotion 
 of universal peace, without resort to arms." In common 
 with those in England who sympathize with the aim of 
 both the societies, I hailed the appearance of that im- 
 portant volume with great satisfaction, and I have read it 
 
THE PEACEFUL TENDENCY, ETC. 49 
 
 with no ordinary interest. I consider that the gentlemen 
 whose zeal and liberality called this book into existence, 
 have established a claim to the thanks of the whole civil- 
 ized world. Observant men will allow that a great step 
 towards commanding the attention of mankind was gained 
 when such characters as the Hon. Joseph Story, W. Wirt, 
 John M'Lean, the Hon. John Q. Adams, Chancellor Kent, 
 T. S. Grimke, and the Hon. Daniel Webster, consented 
 to become the adjudicators. Names so distinguished 
 amongst legislators and literary men, both in Europe and 
 America, serve to dignify the subject, and to rebuke the 
 ignorant flippancy of those who deride the idea that the 
 nations of the earth can dispense with human slaughter. 
 Great good must result from the publication both in 
 America and in England. It was a wise resolve in 
 the American Peace Society, to present copies of it to the 
 President of the United States, to the heads of depart- 
 ments, to the governors of every State in the Union, to 
 every foreign minister at Washington, to the executive of 
 every republic in America, and to every crowned head in 
 Europe. The London Peace Society judiciously followed 
 the example, in taking a very large portion of the edition, 
 and in transmitting a copy to each of the foreign ambas- 
 sadors in European courts. The possible results of this 
 exalted movement no man can foresee. As a means, it 
 seems admirably adapted to bring the momentous subject 
 before the ruling minds and monarchs of the civilized 
 world. The Six Essays are certain to obtain a careful 
 perusal, and that they can be perused without effect is 
 utterly impossible. May the Prince of Peace, in whose 
 hand are the hearts of men, give the volume favour in the 
 sight of all the high and mighty whose eyes may light 
 upon its invaluable pages! 
 
 I have been not a little gratified by the evangelical turn 
 which the subject has taken in the hands of all the writers 
 
50 THE PEACEFUL TENDENCY 
 
 of these essays. While the subject is discussed in a man- 
 ner suited to the taste and habits of educated men, it is in 
 every case pervaded by a vein of pure and scriptural 
 religion which will serve greatly to commend the work to 
 the whole churches of Christ. There is not in the entire 
 volume one expression which can give just offence, either 
 to the scholar, or to the Christian. 
 
 Our cause — for I have the honour to be a member of 
 the London Society — has received very important assis- 
 tance from the labours of the South Sea mission, which 
 presents a rich variety of most affecting, most convincing 
 illustration. I now proceed to analyse the "Missionary 
 Enterprises" of Mr. Williams, with a view to exhibit the 
 facts which they disclose, in such a manner as to carry to 
 the heart of every reader the conviction that war is utterly 
 incompatible with true Christianity, and that the uniform 
 tendency of successful missions, is to extinguish the flames 
 of martial conflict, and restore " the waste places of many 
 generations." 
 
 The labours of the missionary are not simply an affair 
 of eternity. The changes which he effects on earth are a 
 meet prelude to the felicities of heaven. One of the first 
 and greatest of these changes relates to war and peace. 
 The invariable tendency of his labours is, to extinguish the 
 former, and to establish the latter. In speaking of the 
 happy results of his toil, I give precedence to war as at 
 once the greatest curse and the greatest crime. You may 
 learn from history, that, in all countries, through all time, 
 the path of destruction has been deemed by the million 
 the path of glory ; and the most extended havoc has 
 been always identified with the most exalted greatness. 
 The amount of plunder and the extent of slaughter have 
 been generally taken as the standard by which to measure 
 desert, to bestow rewards, and to regulate renown. The 
 splendours of martial triumph have so dazzled the eyes 
 
OF MISSIONARY LABOUR. 51 
 
 of mankind, that they have become intoxicated with a 
 delirious admiration of each successive Apollyon who has 
 arisen to desolate the earth, and to devour his species. It 
 has mattered little whether he has led on his legions to 
 fight the battles of liberty, or to subvert her throne, and 
 trample in the dust the dearest rights of her children ; it 
 has mattered little whether he has conducted wars of 
 defence or of aggression; these points, I say, have mat- 
 tered little, if his victories have been but rapid and bril- 
 liant, — if he has but ravaged the world, and drenched its 
 bosom with the blood of its occupants, his votaries have 
 been counted by millions, and his praises have resounded 
 through many lands. This spirit, which is inherent in 
 human nature, has been cultivated and sustained by a 
 multiplicity of processes, and with uniform success. His- 
 torians, orators, poets, sculptors, painters, and musicians 
 have all exerted their separate and combined influence to 
 nurture the savage spirit of human slaughter in the breasts 
 of the more enlightened and refined classes of mankind ; 
 while the vulgar herd of ordinary artists have, each in his 
 own way, with corresponding effect, promoted the same 
 object among the million-multitude. All, all have united to 
 celebrate the delights of conflict, the glories of victory, and 
 the greatness of conquering heroes. The fife and drum 
 of the infant boy, the mimic troop, the school battle, the 
 nursery rhyme, the kitchen ditty, the street ballad, the 
 publican's sign-board, the drunkard's toast, and the tavern 
 song, all have respectively and incalculably contributed to 
 foster the taste for shedding blood ! So powerful is the 
 hold which this diabolical passion has taken upon the 
 spirit of man, that, even in Europe, during a space of 
 nearly two thousand years, Christianity has but partially 
 succeeded in abating its force. Even England, which 
 comprehends more true piety than all the continental 
 
 d 2 
 
52 THE PEACEFUL TENDENCY 
 
 nations united, is yet full of the elements of war. The 
 heroes of England are still the gods of millions of her 
 people ; and the fountain of her proudest honours is a foun- 
 tain of blood ! 
 
 In no part of our globe was the spirit of war more 
 powerful and rampant than in the islands of the Southern 
 Pacific. The highest ambition of multitudes of mothers 
 was, that their sons might be great warriors. The inha- 
 bitants of those isles, unburdened with the cares of agri- 
 culture, trade, and commerce, and blessed with the abun- 
 dance of perpetual fertility, were wholly at leisure for the 
 employments of war. Mutual destruction was the great 
 business of their existence. This spirit was characteristic 
 of every group. The people of Manono, for example, 
 resorted to a method of recording their conflicts through a 
 period of limited duration, which gives us some idea of 
 their frequency. They fastened a basket to the ridge pole 
 of the sacred house, and deposited therein a stone of a 
 peculiar form for each successive fight. The basket was 
 lowered in the presence of Mr. Williams, who counted out 
 one hundred and ninety-seven stones ! Polynesian war, 
 in its mildest form, was a dreadful proceeding. Even the 
 Samoans, among whom cannibalism is held in detestation 
 and horror, carry on war with the utmost cruelty. The 
 contest which raged during Mr. Williams's first visit con- 
 tinued with unabated fury for several months, and at its 
 close, many of the vanquished were thrown indiscrimi- 
 nately into large fires ! It is fully ascertained that whole 
 islands have frequently been all but depopulated. Of such 
 desolation, some idea may be formed from the fact that 
 Mr. Williams sailed along the beautiful coast of Ana, the 
 seat of war, nearly a year after its termination, without 
 observing either a house or a human being for a distance 
 of ten miles ! In many islands wars were followed on the 
 
OF MISSIONARY LABOUR. 53 
 
 part of the victors by a banquet on the bodies of the 
 slain !* Neither age nor sex was spared in those dreadful 
 frays. " Female prisoners were very frequently put to 
 death ; and the reason assigned for this cruel practice was, 
 that they might perchance, give birth, at some future 
 period, to warriors. The poor little children had spears 
 passed through their ears, and were carried in triumph to 
 the marae. Of late years, as soon as an antagonist was 
 overcome in battle, the victor beat in his skull, and taking 
 out a portion of his brains, he placed it upon bread-fruit 
 leaves, and carried it immediately to the gods, as an 
 earnest of the victim he was about to bring, "f 
 
 The tree of life was occasionally planted in the very 
 midst of conflict. For example, when Mr. Williams paid 
 his memorable visit to Savaii, it was under the following 
 circumstances, as recited by himself: — " As we were 
 expecting Malietoa from Upolu, we could not accompany 
 the teachers, but promised to follow them either in the 
 evening, or on the following morning. While we were 
 engaged in lading the canoes, our attention was arrested 
 by observing the mountains on the opposite shore en- 
 veloped in flames and smoke ; and, when we inquired the 
 cause of it, were informed that a battle had been fought 
 that very morning, and that the flames which we saw were 
 consuming the houses, the plantations, and the bodies of 
 the women, children, and infirm people who had fallen 
 into the hands of their sanguinary conquerors. Thus, 
 while we were landing the messengers of the Gospel of 
 peace on the one shore, the flames of a devastating war 
 were blazing on the opposite ; and under these striking 
 circumstances was this interesting mission commenced."^ 
 
 The question to be now settled is, what has been the 
 effect of the gospel in Polynesia in relation to war ? 
 
 * Williams, p. 29. f Ibid. p. 29. t Ibid. p. 87. 
 
54 THE PEACEFUL TENDENCY 
 
 Has it been to foment strife, or to extinguish it? Let 
 history put in her answer. The volume of Williams, ex- 
 clusive of all other testimony, satisfactorily settles the 
 point. In that wonderful production there is one article 
 which is especially entitled to precedence among our proofs 
 and illustrations. That article is the speech of Tamatoa, 
 a person of the first distinction; it was delivered at a 
 Missionary Meeting, and is as follows : — 
 
 u An under chief of Tautu spoke concerning his king, 
 Tautu opiri.* The legend of Natoofaf says, concerning 
 Tautu opiri, that in his reign the roots of the bread-fruit 
 tree were adzed smoothly from off the pathway ; it was 
 even polished with shark's skin. J The great seat Reuea 
 was sat upon,§ the sweet-toned bamboo flute, Taneua,|| 
 was played, and men grew wrinkled with age, using a 
 staff to support them as they walked. This king died 
 lamented by his people, having spread the garment of 
 peace over them ; for the heads of men were not cut off 
 with bamboo knives during his reign, but the heads of 
 pigs, and the food of peace was eaten. The foreheads of 
 the beautiful women were made red with the mati berry, 
 and their bright black hair was anointed with sweet- 
 scented oil.^f Behold, the peaceful reign of this king was 
 long ; and let not the still more blessed reign of Jesus, 
 the best of all kings, be short among us. 
 
 * The name of the chief. f The name of his district. 
 
 X The pathways in the island, being exceedingly narrow, are ren- 
 dered rugged by the roots of the large trees which shoot across them ; 
 hence the allusion in the text became a common figure to express a 
 state of unimpeded peace, when every thing in their political and social 
 intercourse went smoothly on. 
 
 § A great seat, hewn out of one tree, on which the principal chiefs 
 sat at all their great festivals. 
 
 || Taneua, a celebrated flute which they blew with their noses. 
 
 ^[ Expressions intimating that their amusements were enjoyed with- 
 out interruption. 
 
OF MISSIONARY LABOUR. 55 
 
 ** Tautu opiri begat a son, Te hau roa, or Long-reign, 
 and then long was the peace enjoyed between the great 
 Tahaa and Raiatea.* The roots of the bread-fruit tree 
 were adzed, and the pathway polished with shark's skin, 
 the great seat Reuea was sat upon, the flute Taneua 
 was played, men grew wrinkled with age, and this king 
 lamented by his people, having spread the garment of 
 peace, &c. &c. The peaceful reign of Te hau roa was 
 long ; and shall that of Jesus, the true Long-reign, be 
 short ? 
 
 M Long-reign begat a son, and called him Te Petipeti, 
 or the Beautiful, and then delightful was the peace enjoyed 
 between great Tahaa and Raiatea. The roots of the trees 
 were adzed off smooth, &c, &c. Behold the peaceful reign 
 of Beautiful was long, and shall that of Jesus, the true 
 Beautiful, be short among us ? No, never let it be short- 
 ened. It exceeds all others in beauty. 
 
 u Te Petipeti begat a son whom he called Light-heart, 
 and then light and happy were the hearts of the people in 
 the peace between great Tahaa and Raiatea. The roots 
 of the trees were adzed smoothly off, &c, &c. And this 
 king died lamented by his people, having spread the gar- 
 ment of peace over them. And shall that of Jesus, whose 
 gospel gives true lightness of heart, be short among us ? 
 No, let it never be shortened. 
 
 " At length twin-brothers were born, Tautu and Tau- 
 mata, Snappish-lips and Scowling-eyes ; and then jealousy 
 began, and desperate war was waged. The polished path- 
 way was made rugged, the seat Reuea was never sat upon, 
 the conch- shell of war was blown instead of the flute Ta- 
 neua ; men were slain, instead of growing wrinkled with 
 age ; the women were not beautified with the mati berry, 
 and the heads of men were cut off instead of those of the 
 
 * Adjacent islands encircled in one reef. 
 
£>Q THE PEACEFUL TENDENCY 
 
 pigs. Thus was the peaceful reign of Tautu destroyed ; 
 thus was the protracted happiness of Long-reign short- 
 ened, and the lovely reign of Beautiful deformed. Thus 
 were the light hearts of the people made sad ; for misery 
 and bloodshed reigned, and the invisible world was peo- 
 pled with men from our earth. Let us all grasp firmly 
 the good we now enjoy, lest the peaceful reign of Jesus 
 should end, and the days of darkness and bloodshed re- 
 turn."* 
 
 This speech is composed of legends ingeniously applied 
 to new and useful purposes. Mr. Williams conceives that 
 it was used by the natives when " addressing their kings 
 at their inauguration ; and also, by a little variation of 
 phraseology, at the deposing of a chief whose reign had 
 been one of tyranny and bloodshed." The point to which 
 I would specially call your attention is the peculiar and 
 extraordinary prominence which is given in it to the sub- 
 ject of peace, and the consequent longevity of men. Tautu 
 opiri " spread the garment of peace over" his people ; they 
 did eat the food of peace ; and on his decease they lamented 
 him. Long-reign, also, " spread the garment of peace** 
 over his people, and men grew wrinkled with age. Beau- 
 tiful followed, and his reign too was peaceful ; to him suc- 
 ceeded Light-heart, whose rule was of the same descrip- 
 tion. At length, in an evil hour, were born the ill-favoured 
 twin-brothers, Snappish-lips and Scowling-eyes ; wars then 
 broke out; " misery and bloodshed reigned." It is not 
 easy to conceive how the lesson of peace could be more 
 strikingly taught than in this speech of Tamatoa. It is 
 equally full of wisdom, truth, and beauty. 
 
 It is delightful to trace the operations of Divine truth 
 in the human soul, as delineated in the " Enterprises" of 
 Mr. Williams. The youthful Samoan chief expresses the 
 
 * Williams, p. 61. 
 
OF MISSIONARY LABOUR. 
 
 57 
 
 feelings of a heart under the first impulses of right views, 
 with touching simplicity. " Oh, my countrymen," said 
 he, " the Samoaman too much fool, plenty wicked ; you 
 do not know. Samoa great fool ; he kills the man ; he 
 fights the tree. Bread-fruit tree, cocoa-nut tree, no fight 
 us. Oh ! the Samoa too much fool, too much wicked."* 
 Here he refers to the barbarous practice of destroying the 
 trees of their adversaries, that they might reduce them to 
 famine. 
 
 The poor natives soon became sensible of the blessings 
 of peace. Nothing can surpass the beauty of their own 
 comments on their altered circumstances. Take, for in- 
 stance the close of the following passage : — " Between 
 each district was left a space of uncultivated land, gene- 
 rally about half a mile in width. On these wastes their 
 battles were most frequently fought ; for the inhabitants 
 of each district invariably used every exertion to prevent 
 their opponents from making encroachments upon their 
 kaingas, or cultivated lands, and therefore disputed, with 
 the greatest pertinacity, every inch of the uncultivated 
 waste ; nor did they, until entirely driven off, yield their 
 possessions to the hands of the spoiler. But since the in- 
 troduction of Christianity many of these wastes have been 
 cultivated. 
 
 " Their wars were exceedingly frequent. They had just 
 been engaged in a disastrous conflict when we discovered 
 the island. Pa and Kainuku, with the inhabitants of the 
 eastern district, had been fighting with Makea and Tino- 
 mana, the chiefs of the north and west sides of the island, 
 when the latter were beaten, and Makea, with bis people, 
 driven away from their possessions; to which, however, 
 peace having been restored, they had returned about a 
 month or two prior to my first arrival. The sad effects of 
 
 * Williams, p. 117. 
 D 3 
 
58 THE PEACEFUL TENDENCY 
 
 these contests were then and are still apparent ; fair the laws 
 of savage warfare appear to be like those of civilised coun- 
 tries, to ' burn, kill, and destroy :' and there is not one old 
 cocoa-nut tree to be seen on the north-west or south sides 
 of the island. A few old bread-fruit trees still rear their 
 lonely heads, having survived the injuries which they re- 
 ceived from the hands of the devastating conquerors. 
 Walking one day with the king, among the groves of ba- 
 nana and bread-fruit trees, and observing the mutilations, 
 I asked him jocosely, whilst pointing to one of them, why 
 all the bark was stripped off ; and, turning to another, in- 
 quired why so deep a gash was cut in it ; and wished to 
 know what had become of the cocoa-nut trees, against the 
 stumps of which we were continually striking our feet. To 
 this he replied, ' You know very well that we were con- 
 quered, and why do you banter me ? We were fools enough 
 to fight with the trees as well as with men ; some we cut 
 down ourselves, lest our enemies should eat the fruit of 
 them ; and others our conquerors destroyed. If it were 
 possible, I would put new bark on all these trees, and fill 
 up the gashes in the trunks of the others ; for, wherever I 
 go, they stare me in the face, and remind me of my defeat. 
 However, young trees are growing fast, and I am planting 
 cocoa-nuts in all directions, so that my possessions will soon 
 be equally valuable with those of our conquerors ; and I 
 am under no apprehensions of having them again destroyed, 
 for the gospel has put an end to our wars !' "* 
 
 Worthy of the passage above cited is the following tes- 
 timony of Makea, relative to the effects of Christianity at 
 Rarotonga. " ' Now,' he said, * we enjoy happiness, to 
 which our ancestors were strangers ; our ferocious wars 
 have ceased ; our houses are the abodes of comfort ; we 
 have European property ; books in our own language ; our 
 
 * Williams, p. 55. 
 
OF MISSIONARY LABOUR. 59 
 
 children can read ; and, above all, we know the true God, 
 and the way of salvation by his Son Jesus Christ.' He 
 concluded his important and most effective address by 
 earnestly exhorting Malietoa and his brother chiefs to 
 grasp with a firm hold the word of Jehovah ; * for this 
 alone,' he added, * can make you a peaceable and happy 
 people. I should have died a savage had it not been for 
 the gospel.' "* 
 
 What a declaration! Behold the triumph of eternal 
 truth ! Hear also its voice from the lips of this illustrious 
 convert ; " this alone can make you a peaceable and happy 
 people." How true and how important the allegation ! 
 But let us hear the testimony of Tinomana, to the people 
 of Mangaia. " One gave an account of the introduction 
 of Christianity into their island, and another pointed out 
 the blessings they were now enjoying. Tinomana stated, 
 that he was formerly a conquered chief, and, with his op- 
 pressed people, lived in the mountains, but that he now 
 possessed a large settlement of beautiful white houses by 
 the sea-side, with a spacious chapel in the centre, and a 
 Missionary of Jesus Christ to teach him. ' My people,' 
 said he, * can now go to the sea to catch fish, or to the 
 mountains to procure food, without the slightest fear ; and 
 we are enjoying a state of peace and happiness, of which, 
 formerly, we never heard.' "f 
 
 To these I will add another illustration from the prin- 
 cipal chief of Mauke ; and, in my view, cold must be the 
 heart which that illustration shall fail to move. A spa- 
 cious place of worship having been erected on that lovely 
 island, Mr. Williams, an hour or two before service com- 
 menced, went to the chapel, accompanied by the principal 
 chief, and after commending his diligence, engaged him in 
 the following dialogue, " ' How came you to build so 
 
 * Williams, p. 112. f Ibid. p. 66. 
 
(JO THE PEACEFUL TENDENCY 
 
 large a place ? there are not people enough in your island 
 to fill it.' Instead of answering me he hung down his 
 head, and appeared much affected. I asked him why he 
 wept ; observing that it was with us rather a day of joy 
 than sorrow, for we were about to dedicate this house to 
 God. * Oh,' he replied, ' I weep in consequence of what 
 you say, that there are not people enough in the island to 
 fill this one house ; if you had but come about three years 
 before you first visited us, this house and another like it 
 would not have contained the inhabitants.' On inquiring 
 what had become of the people, he informed me that, 
 about three years prior to my first arrival, a disease had 
 raged among them, which though not very fatal, was 
 nearly universal. This was accompanied by a famine, the 
 result of a severe storm, which swept over and devastated 
 the island ; and, while enduring these complicated suffer- 
 ings, the warriors of Atiu came upon them in a fleet of 
 eighty canoes, killed the people indiscriminately, set fire 
 to the houses which contained the sick, and, having seized 
 those who attempted to escape, tossed them upon fires 
 kindled for the purpose. ' By these means,' said the chief, 
 * we have been reduced to the remnant you now behold ; 
 and had you not come when you did, our sanguinary de- 
 stroyers would have repeated their visit, killed us all, and 
 taken the island to themselves.' The person who con- 
 ducted this murderous expedition was Roma-tane, whose 
 conversion to Christianity, by my discourse upon the folly 
 of idolatry, I have already described. And it is a deeply 
 interesting fact, that this chieftain, who, with savage 
 aspect and devastating cruelty, had led his ferocious tribe 
 against the almost defenceless people of Mauke, was not 
 only the first person whose voice they heard inviting them 
 in accents of persuasive energy to receive the gospel of 
 peace, but also among the very first who there united in 
 commemorating the Saviour's death. It was a truly de- 
 
OP MISSIONARY LABOUR. Q\ 
 
 lightful sight, to behold the once sanguinary chieftain, 
 with his no less bloodthirsty warriors, sitting down at the 
 same sacramental table with the remnant of a people to 
 whom his very name had been a terror, and whose race he 
 had almost exterminated : thus, verifying what a speaker, 
 at one of our native Missionary Meetings, observed, ' that, 
 by the gospel, men became Christians, and savages breth- 
 ren in Christ.' "* 
 
 Christians of England! Supporters of the London 
 Missionary Society ! Such are the facts of the case with 
 respect to war and its evils, to peace and its blessings, and 
 to the success of your missionaries in working the won- 
 drous change ! Do you blush at the enterprise which you 
 have espoused and upheld ? Do you regret the substance 
 which you have thus appropriated ? Are you not at one 
 with your martyred Williams in the following emphatic 
 words : — " How many thousands of ships has England sent 
 to foreign countries to spread devastation and death ? The 
 money expended in building, equipping, and supporting 
 one of these, would be sufficient, with the divine blessing, 
 to convey Christianity, with all its domestic comforts, its 
 civilizing effects, and spiritual advantages, to hundreds and 
 thousands of people."f Would that millions of our na- 
 tion's wealth, which have been lavishly appropriated to 
 objects utterly discordant with the gospel of mercy, had 
 been thus laid out ! 
 
 O ye voyagers, ye travellers, ye men of science, who 
 compass the oceans and continents of our globe, what say 
 you to these things ? Do you affirm their falsehood ? 
 Prove it ! Do you acknowledge their truth ? Apply it ! 
 With these achievements of the missionary, compare your 
 own. What has been done by you, or by your prede- 
 cessors, to extinguish the flames of war, to rear the temple 
 
 * Williams, p. 73. f Ibid. p. 109. 
 
Q2 THE PEACEFUL TENDENCY, ETC. 
 
 of concord, to dry the tears of a weeping world, and 
 to make i( savages brethren in Christ ?" Oblige the 
 churches of the living God, the friends of missions, by a 
 statement of your claims. Ah! they may soon be set 
 forth. Much, very much, have ye done to perpetuate and 
 aggravate the calamity, to swell the wail of hopeless woe, 
 and to embitter the overflowing cup of human wretched- 
 ness ! Ah ! how little does the cause of God or of man, 
 of civilization or of humanity, owe to you ! How poor, 
 how mean, how utterly worthless is the whole library of 
 your specific literature, travels, journals, and voyages, 
 when weighed in the balances with the " Enterprises" of 
 the Martyr of Erromanga! He has done incalculably 
 more earthly good — eternity and the gospel which pre- 
 pares for it, wholly apart — than your entire fraternity 
 united. Am I dogmatizing? I appeal to the facts of the 
 present letter. How are these facts to be accounted for ? 
 The missionary informs you of all that he said, and of all 
 that he did ; he thus exhibits the means. But to what 
 shall we ascribe their efficacy ? Hear the converted 
 native, part of whose words are already before you, as 
 uttered at a missionary meeting. " These gods are con- 
 quered ; but the invisible God will remain for ever. The 
 idols now hanging in degradation before us were formerly 
 unconquerable ; but the power of God is gone forth, by 
 which men become Christians, and savages brethren in 
 Christ."* Yes, " the power of God is gone forth." This 
 fact explains the whole matter. " Consider what I say, 
 and the Lord give you understanding in all things !"f 
 
 * Williams, p. 28. t 2 Tim. ii. 7. 
 
LETTEE V. 
 
 TO SIR THOMAS FOWELL BUXTON, BARONET. 
 
 ON THE RESULTS OP MISSIONARY LABOUR IN RELATION TO GOVERN- 
 MENT, LIFE, LIBERTY, AND PROPERTY. 
 
 Friend of humanity, and honoured advocate of the slave ! 
 the facts which will be embodied in this letter, excite feel- 
 ings which at once suggest the dedication of it to you. 
 Permit me, at the same time, to acknowledge the receipt 
 of your recent work on the slave-trade, and to thank you 
 for the publication of that philanthropic volume. Nothing, 
 connected with Africa, has yet been published, from which 
 I have derived so much pleasure and encouragement as 
 from your " Remedial" suggestions. But while from the 
 beginning to the end there is not a statement, nor a view, 
 which has not the full concurrence of my humble judg- 
 ment, my gratification is extreme to find you bearing, in 
 the face of your country and your country's government, 
 in the face of Europe, and, indeed, the world, with all its 
 courts and kings, and presidents, a testimony to the omni- 
 potence of the gospel, and the importance of missionary 
 labour as the sure and the only means of extinguishing 
 the horrid wars, exterminating the slavery, and healing the 
 deep sorrows of Africa and her children. The Directors 
 of all missionary societies, both British and Foreign, will 
 
64 RESULTS OF MISSIONARY LABOUR 
 
 appreciate the value of that testimony. In public assem- 
 blies your lips have frequently given utterance to the 
 same sentiment ; but now, in the maturity of your large 
 experience, you have reduced it to the form of a perma- 
 nent record. Nor is this all ; that sentiment has been 
 adopted and proclaimed by the bright roll of illustrious 
 names who compose the " Society for the extinction of the 
 Slave-trade, and for the civilization of Africa," instituted 
 in the year 1839, and of which you are the chairman. 
 Let the ill-informed and unreflecting infidels of England 
 and of Europe hear the solemn and deliberate declaration 
 of that body of great men: " It is the unanimous opinion 
 of this Society, that the only complete cure of all these 
 evils is the introduction of Christianity into Africa. They 
 do not believe that any less powerful remedy will entirely 
 extinguish the present inducements to trade in human 
 beings, or will afford to the inhabitants of those extensive 
 regions a sure foundation for repose and happiness." The 
 Christian people of England will read these words with 
 appropriate emotions, and with fervent aspirations to the 
 God of justice and of mercy, for his benediction upon an 
 institution, the statement of whose humane and godlike 
 object is prefaced by such an avowal. Nor can I refrain 
 from noticing that this view is reiterated in the Society's 
 Prospectus ; and, as if they knew not how sufficiently to 
 impress it on the public mind, they introduce and urge it 
 again at the close of their publication : — " It is impossible, 
 however, to close this address without again expressing, 
 in the most emphatic terms, the conviction and earnest 
 hope of all who have already attached themselves as mem- 
 bers of this institution, that the measures to be adopted 
 by them for the suppression of the traffic in slaves — for se- 
 curing the peace and tranquillity of Africa — for the encou- 
 ragement of agriculture and commerce — will facilitate the 
 propagation and triumph of that faith which one and all 
 
ON THE INTERESTS OF TIME. 65 
 
 feel to be indispensable for the happiness of the inhabitants 
 of that Continent. Howsoever the extension of the 
 Christian religion may be attempted, it is far more likely 
 to take root and flourish where peace prevails, and crime 
 is diminished, than where murder and bloodshed, and the 
 violation of every righteous principle, continue to pollute 
 the land." 
 
 Sir Thomas, the publication of such sentiments as these 
 by a body largely composed of the nobles, the first gen- 
 tlemen, the philosophers, the legislators, and literary men 
 of England, is no light matter, and no ordinary occurrence. 
 It marks a great era in the history of public opinion. 
 How opposed is the spirit of the present age to that of 
 Hume, Bolingbroke, and Shaftesbury ! How has the 
 proud crest of infidel philosophy fallen ! With what power 
 and glory has Christianity burst forth ! In England and 
 throughout the earth she is everywhere her own witness. 
 The calm voice of academic dialecticians, in her defence, 
 was scarcely heard amidst the tempestuous and blasphem- 
 ous boastings of a former age. Works on the evidences 
 were multiplied ; but such works, instead of quenching 
 the fires that were raging among all ranks, only added 
 fuel to the flame, which, combined with that of war, went 
 on blazing and spreading till it enveloped England, Europe, 
 America, and both the Indies ! At length the power of 
 God broke forth in the ministrations of Whitefield, 
 Wesley, and others, in whose hands the doctrine of the 
 Cross became to multitudes the power of God unto salva- 
 tion. Missions to many lands were established ; the ex- 
 periment was made upon men of divers climes, tongues, 
 and stages of civilization, and every where the result was 
 the same. The case for the gospel, as the great Restorer 
 of lost happiness to man, is now closed, and judgment has 
 been pronounced by a competent tribunal, from which 
 there can be no appeal. 
 
QQ RESULTS OF MISSIONARY LABOUR 
 
 Yours, Sir Thomas, has been a career of glory infinitely 
 surpassing that of the conquerors of mankind. Your 
 conflicts have been in behalf of humanity ; your weapons 
 have been those of truth, love, and reason ; your laurels 
 have not been the growth of tears and blood ! Genera- 
 tions yet unborn will pronounce your illustrious name — > 
 not forgetting the names of your great compeers — w r ith 
 the most profound and grateful veneration. But you 
 need not be reminded that, although you have achieved 
 much, the work is only begun. Your volume, already 
 referred to, shows that you are fully and painfully apprized 
 of this fact ; and it also shows that the discovery has 
 excited and awakened your spirit to the uttermost. The 
 leisure resulting from your retirement from the labours of 
 legislation, which multitudes deeply regretted, has been 
 both laboriously and laudably employed in devising a 
 remedy for the woes of Africa. That retirement, no 
 Christian will doubt, was an event in providence for the 
 accomplishment of wise, gracious, and all-important pur- 
 poses of humanity. It has secured for you the intellectual 
 vacation indispensable to profound inquiry and elaborate 
 discussion. " Deus tibi haec otia fecit." Persevere, Sir 
 Thomas, in your glorious undertaking ! There is a heart 
 in the bosom of at least a million of England's best people 
 that will respond to your call ! May the Father of mer- 
 cies and the friend of the oppressed, preserve your health, 
 prolong your days, and prosper the work of your hands 
 as leader of the hosts of British philanthropy and friend 
 of Africa ! 
 
 The question of African slavery has now assumed a 
 fearful shape. It has proved itself a deadly evil of all but 
 omnipotent might, which defies the power of diplomacy. 
 It laughs the assaults of legislation to utter scorn ! It 
 spurns the checks of naval armaments ; and still maintains, 
 and even enlarges the boundaries of its vast and terrible 
 
ON THE INTERESTS OF TIME. Qfl 
 
 empire ! Under this great defeat, nevertheless, there is 
 much to console the bleeding heart of an English philan- 
 thropist. Since the year 1807, England has wrought 
 wonders. She has induced all the great Powers of Europe 
 to unite in expressing their abhorrence of this infernal 
 system ; and with ail of them she has made treaties for its 
 extinction. She has expended in bounties alone, nearly a 
 million sterling, and, in upholding courts established for 
 adjudicating upon the case of captured slaves, nearly 
 350,000^., besides the annual expense of supporting a 
 considerable force of cruizers, in various waters, to inter- 
 cept and destroy the abominable traffic. These, as mat- 
 ters of finance, have been no light thing. This expendi- 
 ture, together with payments made to foreign courts, in 
 furtherance of the object for the relief of liberated Afri- 
 cans, and other incidental expenses, has amounted to up- 
 wards of fifteen millions sterling ! Shall we add to this 
 the twenty millions paid to the West Indian planters, and 
 all the outlay connected with working out the freedom of 
 their slaves ? Such has been the cost of these mighty 
 movements of British mercy ! What has been the result ? 
 It has been great, great even beyond the price paid to 
 realise it. The Christian humanity of England has ob- 
 tained an unparalleled triumph — a triumph compared with 
 which all her martial victories shrink into deeds of little- 
 ness and of doubtful praise. " She," the queen of nations, 
 " hath done what she could." But has the slave market 
 been closed ? Has the accursed traffic ceased ? No ! Sir 
 Thomas. Let the Christians of England learn from your 
 invaluable book that the export trade in human beings, 
 from the shores of Africa, is doubled as compared with 
 1807 — that the destruction of life, with all its consequent 
 guilt and misery, is augmented from seventeen to twenty- 
 five per cent ! 
 
RESULTS OF MISSIONARY LABOUR 
 
 Such is the present state of this awful question. What 
 are its prospects ? What can England do by diplomacy 
 and legislation that she has not done ? By efforts un- 
 paralleled, incredible, and above all praise, she has la- 
 boured to dry up the fountain of this foulest disgrace of 
 our times; but her stupendous and imperial exertions 
 have hardly sufficed to arrest a few of its smaller currents, 
 and that only to turn them aside into other channels ; the 
 main streams roll on swollen by internal tributaries, as 
 they proceed in their rapid progress, while some dark and 
 fathomless abyss, in the centre of Africa, by which they 
 must be principally fed, has not yet been even seen by the 
 white man's eye, much less reached by the healing hand 
 of Christian benevolence. What then is to be done? 
 Parliaments and cabinets stand aghast, and mere philoso- 
 phic philanthropy is mute ! To this question there is 
 only one correct answer. Let the churches of Christ go 
 and erect the cross in the midst of the carnage ! Let them 
 point the nations of Africa to the Lamb of God. Let 
 God's own remedy be applied to stanch the wounds of 
 that bleeding country. Let the wisdom of the world give 
 place to the Revelations of mercy, and let the saints of 
 Europe rally to a new and holier crusade ! They are now 
 summoned to the loftiest evangelical enterprise that has 
 yet engaged their hearts or filled their hands. As an aux- 
 iliary establishment, it is difficult, Sir Thomas, to speak 
 of your Society in terms of extravagant commendation. 
 It is, undoubtedly, every way very much adapted to faci- 
 litate Missionary operation and accelerate the triumphs 
 which certainly await our African Missions. That Society, 
 in my opinion, deserves the most cordial and munificent 
 support of all the friends of Missions and of mankind. In 
 support of the claims which I set up for Missions, and 
 which you so frankly and feelingly concede, and in addi- 
 
ON THE INTERESTS OF TIME. g9 
 
 tion to the illustrations of your work, I will now detail a 
 series of appropriate facts which have been supplied by 
 the Martyr of Erromanga. 
 
 Government is the ordinance of God for the good of 
 man. It may exist under a variety of forms, and these 
 forms may all be bad. Such was the fact in the South 
 Seas. At Tongatabu, the chiefs were elected and their 
 power was limited ; in the surrounding isles, they were 
 hereditary and despotic. In the Samoa group government 
 presented a very fragmentary character ; every settlement 
 even was an independent state governed by its own rulers, 
 whose authority, in the view of Mr. Williams, was not ex- 
 tensive. In some groups the despotism was strong and 
 deadly ; in others, so weak, that government could hardly 
 be said to exist. This fact was strikingly set forth by the 
 chief of Mangaia, who, as an apology to Mr. Williams for 
 his inability to prevent the brutal treatment of the native 
 Missionaries, with tears, said, that "in his island, all 
 heads being of an equal height, his influence was not 
 sufficient to protect them." 
 
 Wherever Christian Missionaries successfully prosecute 
 their labours, and exert an influence upon the minds of 
 men, that influence speedily extends to government. 
 Change the character of the subject, and you ultimately 
 change the character of the laws, and the form of admi- 
 nistration. The church and state principle was, in Poly- 
 nesia, found to be in general operation. Their civil and 
 judicial polity and all their usages were interwoven with 
 their superstitions. These superstitions necessarily im- 
 parted a foul, a sanguinary character to their barbarous 
 laws, which were consonant neither with justice nor with 
 virtue. When the power of Divine truth has once smit- 
 ten the superstructure it will soon shake the foundation. 
 The spreading light of the gospel quickly makes manifest 
 the real nature of heathen institutions, which, it is found, 
 
70 RESULTS OF MISSIONARY LABOUR 
 
 are utterly incompatible with the precepts of Ctirist. The 
 question of the reform or the reconstruction of such sys- 
 tems then begins to press heavily upon the attention of 
 their adherents. Now it is that the missionary assumes an 
 attitude of interest before the awakening population. To 
 him the heads of the community, whose confidence he has 
 won, naturally seek. It is quite within his province to 
 give counsel upon every point where the word of God has 
 spoken ; and where it is silent, he is authorized, as well as 
 Paul, to give his " judgment as one that hath obtained 
 mercy of the Lord to be faithful." Of the missionary duty, 
 under such circumstances, Mr. Williams furnishes a beau- 
 tiful example. In all his operations, of this description, 
 he carefully distinguished between the things that were 
 Csesar's and those which belong to God. How pure, and 
 how important is the principle laid down in the following 
 passage, as to the rights and duties of the chief in relation 
 to the spread of the kingdom of God ! — " Matetau, the chief 
 of the neighbouring island of Manono, having come to see 
 us, we were desirous of showing him respect by making 
 him a present, and therefore requested him to accompany 
 us to the vessel. He w r as described as equal in rank, and 
 superior in war, to Malietoa. This we could easily be- 
 lieve, for he was one of the largest and most powerful men 
 I ever saw. His muscular and bony frame brought forci- 
 bly to our minds him of ancient fame * the shaft of whose 
 spear was like a weaver's beam.' Men of ordinary size 
 would be as grasshoppers in his hand. This chief spent a 
 day and a night with us, and was exceedingly urgent that 
 we should give him a teacher, and pressed his claim by 
 assuring me that he would feed him, and place himself 
 under his instruction, and make all his people do the same. 
 Having no teacher left, I satisfied him by promising that 
 on my next visit I would bring him one ; but, as he had 
 observed, by way of inducing me to do so, that he would 
 
ON THE INTERESTS OF TIME. 
 
 71 
 
 make his people place themselves under his instruction, I 
 thought it advisable at once to tell him that he must not 
 force them, contrary to their own wishes, but, having set 
 them the example himself, and exhorted them to follow it, 
 then to leave them to their own convictions and inclina- 
 tions ; but the employment of any kind of coercion to in- 
 duce men to become Christians was contrary to the prin- 
 ciples of our religion."* 
 
 The people of Raiatea adopted a code of laws prepared 
 by Mr. Williams and Mr. Threlkeld. In that instrument 
 the wisdom and humanity of the missionaries shine beauti- 
 fully forth. The facts, as rehearsed by Williams, are so 
 very precious as to demand transcription in his own words. 
 " The laws were but few in number, and drawn up in the 
 plainest and most perspicuous language, entirely devoid of 
 all the technicalities and repetitions by which the statutes 
 of enlightened and civilized countries are too frequently 
 rendered obscure and perplexing : for it appeared to us 
 of the greatest importance that they should be so simply 
 and clearly expressed, that they might be easily under- 
 stood by the people for whom they were framed. We 
 determined, also, as far as possible, to lay a permanent 
 foundation for the civil liberties of the people, by institut- 
 ing at once that greatest barrier to oppression — trial by 
 jury. The same code, a little modified, was, after much 
 deliberation and consultation, adopted by the chiefs and 
 people of Rarotonga ; and thus we trust that the reign of 
 despotism, tyranny, and private revenge, under which the 
 inhabitants of this secluded garden had so long groaned, 
 has for ever terminated."f 
 
 These sentiments become an Englishman and a Christian 
 missionary. The value of such a code may, by unthinking 
 men, be deemed very small ; but they ought to remember, 
 
 * Williams, p. 92. f Ibid. p. 35. 
 
72 RESULTS OF MISSIONARY LABOUR 
 
 that trie first step towards rational freedom is a movement 
 of unutterable importance. The rudest elements of a 
 system of true liberty form one of the noblest and most 
 glorious objects that this world can present to an enlight- 
 ened understanding. How barbarous a picture of a South 
 Sea despot is given by Williams in his account of Finau ! 
 When the missionary proposed that he should receive a 
 teacher, the savage said, that " as to receiving the new 
 teacher, he would speak his sentiments freely, and not de- 
 ceive us. If he was placed at Yavau he would protect 
 him, but he would neither embrace Christianity himself, 
 nor allow his people ; for he would put to death the very 
 first person, man, woman, or child, who did so."* 
 
 Such was the spirit that ruled in the breast of many a 
 ferocious chief, and that spirit must be quelled before free 
 churches and free governments could be established in 
 Polynesia. Matetau and Finau adopted and acted upon 
 the same principle, they only differed in its practical appli- 
 cation : the former said he would " make" his people attend 
 to the religion of the Son of God ; the latter declared that 
 he would put to death the very first person who " em- 
 braced" it. Englishmen there are, of worth and learning, 
 who hold this principle with a tenacious grasp, while they 
 deprecate the employment of the power of the magistrate 
 to uphold error, and would have it wielded only on the 
 side of truth. They appear not to be rightly apprised of 
 the difficulty, contradiction, and perplexity inseparable 
 from their theory. Some such there are who actually 
 ascribe the progress of Christianity, in the South Sea 
 Islands, to the aid which it derived from the civil power, 
 the power of such men as Matetau and Finau ! Mr. Wil- 
 liams has most happily, as well as instructively, settled this 
 point. " Now this statement is not founded in truth. 
 
 * Williams, p. 82. 
 
ON THE INTERESTS OF TIME. 73 
 
 Having witnessed the introduction of Christianity into a 
 greater number of islands than any other missionary, I can 
 safely affirm, that in no single instance has the civil power 
 been employed in its propagation. It is true that the 
 moral influence of the chiefs has, in many instances, been 
 most beneficially exerted in behalf of Christianity ; but 
 never, to my knowledge, have they employed coercion to 
 induce their subjects to embrace it. And I feel satisfied, 
 that in few cases has the beautiful prediction been more 
 strikingly accomplished — ' And kings shall be thy nursing 
 fathers, and their queens thy nursing mothers.' Had the 
 missionaries desired the exercise of that power, the chiefs 
 were not in a condition to gratify them ; for they had to 
 defend themselves against the fury of a large portion of. 
 their own subjects, by whom they were so fiercely attacked. 
 I am, moreover, happy in being able to contradict the as- 
 sertion of Dr. 'Lee, because, were it true, it would have 
 detracted from the honour of Christ, by the interposition 
 of whose providence the great work has been effected : 
 1 His own arm hath gotten him the victory.' "* Dr. Lee, 
 and those who adopt his views, would do well to ponder 
 such passages as the following relative to regal interference. 
 When the introduction of ardent spirits threatened the 
 ruin of Otaheite, the parliament, or representative body, 
 which Christianity had called into existence, assembled to 
 consider the case ; and, as it was new, they sent a message 
 to the queen to know upon what principles they were to 
 act. What was her reply ? As head, not of the church, 
 but of the state, she returned a copy of the New Testa- 
 ment, with this injunction, " Let the principles contained 
 in that book be the foundation of all your proceedings." 
 In Otaheite, the laws were framed according to Chris- 
 tianity ; in Europe, Christianity has been moulded accord- 
 ing to the laws. 
 
 * Williams, p. 50. 
 E 
 
74 RESULTS OF MISSIONARY LABOUR 
 
 But the wonders wrought by the gospel of Christ are 
 not confined to the moral and political economy of the 
 several islands considered apart. The best principles of 
 international law are fully brought to bear upon many of 
 them. What Africa has long been to the impious and 
 cruel nations of Europe, Manuawas to the group of which 
 it formed a part, " The inhabitants of Manua are re- 
 garded as a conquered people, and are, in consequence, 
 despised and oppressed by the other islanders. Indeed, 
 in most of the groups of the Pacific, one island was sub- 
 ject to peculiar oppression, and supplied the others with 
 human sacrifices and slaves : and in single islands, parti- 
 cular districts were thus subjected. This was the case 
 with the district of Arorangi at Rarotonga, the chief and 
 people of which dwelt in the mountains."* The demon of 
 cruelty that reigned in those regions retired at the sound 
 of the footsteps of the servants of Christ. Those princi- 
 ples which excited abhorrence in the breasts of the 
 islanders against human sacrifices, were equally efficient in 
 the destruction of slavery. Indeed, the Christian islanders 
 discovered what the nations of Europe and the republics of 
 America have still to learn, namely, that human sacrifice 
 and slavery are but two sides of the same object — two 
 degrees of the same crime — in the one case the murder is 
 immediate, in the other it is prolonged — in both, the end is 
 death ! How reproachful to the slave-holding states both 
 of the Old World and the New is the example of the chief 
 of the Friendly Islands ! On hearing that " Slavery was 
 inconsistent with Christianity," he immediately emanci- 
 pated all his slaves. Surely this man will rise in judgment 
 against the inhuman planters of America, whose fields are 
 watered with tears and blood, and whose groves are vocal 
 with the groans of oppressed millions ! 
 
 The laws which provide for life and liberty always suf- 
 * Williams, p. 125. 
 
ON THE INTERESTS OF TIME. 75 
 
 fice to secure property. In former letters we have heard 
 the grateful testimony of the people to their emancipation 
 from the thraldom in which they were held by the chiefs, 
 and to the accompanying security of personal property 
 which they enjoyed. Formerly, in many instances, the 
 chief claimed a right in every thing that was acquired by 
 his people, and the people, in their turn, seized as their 
 own whatever belonged to strangers. The gospel put an 
 end to this system of rapine. How striking and valuables 
 as illustrative of this and other points, is the language of 
 Malietoa to Mr. Williams, wdien he inquired if the chief 
 would protect the wives and property of English Mission- 
 aries in the event of their arrival. " Why," said the 
 indignant chief, " ' why do you ask that question ? have I 
 not fulfilled my promises ? I assured you that I would 
 terminate the war as soon as possible ; this I did, and there 
 has been no war since. I gave you my word that I would 
 assist in erecting a chapel ; it is finished. I told you I 
 would place myself under instruction, and I have done so. 
 Twenty moons ago you committed your people, with their 
 wives and children, and property, to my care ; now inquire 
 if, in any case, they have suffered injury. And do you 
 ask me whether I will protect English Missionaries, the 
 very persons we are so anxious to have ? Why do you 
 propose such a question V Feeling at once that I had 
 committed myself, I instantly replied, * You cannot sup- 
 pose that I ask for my own conviction : the faithful per- 
 formance of your promises is perfectly satisfactory to my 
 own mind ; but you know that the English are a very wise 
 people, and one of their first questions, in reply to my 
 application for Missionaries, will be, ' Who is Malietoa ? 
 and what guarantee have you for the safety of our people?' 
 and I wish to carry home your words, which will be far 
 more satisfactory than my own.' ' Oh !' he exclaimed, 
 'that is what you wish, is it?' and significantly moving 
 
 e2 
 
76 RESULTS OF MISSIONARY LABOUR 
 
 his hand from his mouth towards me, he said, ^Here they 
 are, take them; here they are, take them: go and pro- 
 cure for us as many Missionaries as you can, and tell them 
 to come with confidence ; for, if they bring property 
 enough to reach from the top of yonder high mountain 
 down to the sea-beach, and leave it exposed from one 
 year's end to another, not a particle of it shall be 
 touched.'"* 
 
 Young men of England ! in what light does the Martyr 
 of Erromanga appear to you as he works out a constitu- 
 tion for these benighted and enslaved inhabitants of the 
 South Seas ? Can you conceive of a human being more 
 gloriously occupied? How little, as compared with him, 
 have been the heroes of all times, and of all lands ! When 
 did warriors go forth, in good faith, making war upon the 
 rulers of enslaved nations in order to emancipate those 
 nations and to give them a free constitution? The one 
 or two seeming instances have been less real than collu- 
 sive. The common result has been the succession 
 of one despot to another. Gunpowder has no moral 
 power ; the bayonet and the battle-axe are slow reformers. 
 Truly does Johnson remark, that " the wars of civilized 
 nations make very slow changes in the system of empire. 
 The public perceives scarcely any alteration, but an increase 
 of debt ; and the few individuals who are benefited, are 
 not supposed to have the clearest right to their advantages. 
 If he that shared the danger enjoyed the profit ; if he that 
 bled in the battle grew rich by victory ; he might show his 
 gains without envy. But, at the conclusion of a long war, 
 how are we recompensed for the death of multitudes, and 
 the expense of millions, but by contemplating the sudden 
 glories of pay-masters and agents, contractors and com- 
 missioners, whose equipages shine like meteors, and whose 
 
 * Williams, p. 112. 
 
ON THE INTERESTS OF TIME. 77 
 
 palaces rise like exhalations ! " — Is this all the gain of war, 
 even among civilized nations ? What then must be the 
 result among nations still buried in the depths of bar- 
 barism ! Oh, compare these results with the achievements 
 of the Missionary ! Who can estimate his services, even in 
 those things which pertain to this life? You who have 
 always breathed the air of a pure and generous freedom, 
 are unable to do so ; but your honoured fathers who sleep 
 in the dust, and who, in the days of their flesh, trembled at 
 the tyrant's rod, were they to arise from their sepulchres, 
 they could state the case of bondage and liberty. They 
 could detail the horrors of arbitrary government, where 
 life, property, and personal freedom are in constant peril, 
 and at the utter mercy of the whim, avarice, passion, 
 revenge, or ambition of an individual who is, ofttimes, 
 according to the prophet, " the basest of men." 
 
 Oh, happy England! how changed her condition since 
 the period when she groaned under the despots of the 
 Norman line, who subverted her Saxon constitution and 
 destroyed her liberties ! In those dreadful days, the will 
 of the prince was the law of the people. Take the forest 
 laws of those times as an illustration of the misery of the 
 country. Castration, the loss of the eyes, the amputation 
 of the hands and feet, were the penalties for killing a hare ! 
 The house of Stuart would fain have walked in the paths 
 of our Norman tyrants. James the First frankly informs 
 his parliament, that he and his ancestors were the gracious 
 source of all the people's privileges, and that "as to dis- 
 pute what God may do, is blasphemy, so is it sedition in 
 subjects to dispute what a king may do in the height of 
 his power." This is the pure and genuine diction of des- 
 potism ! It is, nevertheless, most revolting to the feelings 
 of free-born Englishmen. Yet time was, when the guar- 
 dians and expositors of our laws were so lost in subser- 
 vience to power, that when Richard II., impatient of the 
 fetters of certain acts, asked the assembled judges whether 
 
78 RESULTS OF MISSIONARY LABOUR 
 
 he could not annul them, the ready answer was, " The 
 king is above the law." From such a principle the tran- 
 sition is easy to another, viz. " The king is the law ;" 
 and this will conduct us at once to the palmy days 
 of true despotic glory — the days of Nebuchadnezzar, 
 whose dreadful sway is thus described by Daniel : 
 " All people, nations, and languages, trembled and feared 
 before him; whom he would he slew, and whom he would 
 he kept alive ; whom he would he set up, and whom he 
 would he cast down." Such was once the government of 
 England, now the chosen abode of legal freedom. Our 
 lovely sovereign is as much bound by the laws as the 
 humblest cottager in the empire. The prince, the peer, 
 and the peasant, are on a perfect level in the presence of 
 the law. Every British subject is equally protected with 
 regard to life, liberty, and property. The entire people 
 dwell within the common sanctuary of legal protection. 
 None are excepted, none are privileged. The law is su- 
 preme. To this divine fellowship of freedom, the Mis- 
 sionaries of Christ are introducing the nations of Polynesia. 
 I say the Missionaries are doing this thing. Those isles 
 were visited by the students of science in search of facts, 
 by the conductors of commerce in search of gain, and by 
 the voluptuous in quest of pleasure — the object of all 
 these men was to find good, not to impart it. It was re- 
 served for the Missionary of the Cross, not merely to 
 visit, but to become a resident on the islands, and to sacri- 
 fice all that the world holds dear in order to promote the 
 people's welfare. He took with him the fundamental 
 element of British freedom, the Gospel of Christ, and the 
 results are such as we have set forth. 
 
 O ye philosophers and philanthropists, ye friends of the 
 slave, of barbarous tribes and fettered nations, come and 
 learn the sure method of accomplishing your object! So 
 long as you despise the gospel, and deride its missionaries, 
 you utterly deceive yourselves, and set aside the only in- 
 
ON THE INTERESTS OF TIME. 79 
 
 struments by which the aspect of our world can ever be 
 transformed, and clothed in moral beauty. In vain you 
 expect it from war, science, commerce, or legislation. 
 That the instrument appointed of God is the gospel of 
 Christ is established by the facts of this chapter. The 
 true Christian missionary, once safely landed on the most 
 benighted shore, will, sooner or later, prove " a light to 
 lighten the Gentiles" who people it, — a little leaven which 
 will ultimately leaven the whole of the surrounding region. 
 Despotism, with its attendant evils, always flees in the end 
 before pure Christianity. They cannot long co-exist ; and 
 tyrants know it ! To them the missionary, with his New 
 Testament and his types, is more terrible than an army 
 with banners ! This fact explains the conduct of all 
 despots, both of past and of present times, towards these 
 lights of the world. The friends of missions in England 
 can look to the West Indies, and trace every particle of 
 the marvellous change which has been effected in the 
 lot of its once afflicted children to the labours of its 
 missionaries. Yes, one of the most glorious chapters 
 in the future history of freedom will be composed of 
 facts which relate to the sorrowful isles of the west. Ask 
 the now rejoicing inhabitants of those lands whether the 
 instrument of their deliverance was the soldier or the 
 missionary. Ask them ; they know their friends ! Again, 
 we point to Africa, the land of murder and blood, the mart 
 of human flesh for the fiends of Europe and America ! 
 There we point to trophies of freedom erected by the hands 
 of the missionary, which are a sure pledge of deliverance 
 for the whole population of that ravaged Continent! O 
 tell me what the genius of war has done for Africa, and I 
 will set forth the feats accomplished by the genius of mis- 
 sions ! Inquire of the Hottentot and of the Caffre whom 
 they love, whom they trust, and whom they consider their 
 best, their only friend — whether the missionary or the 
 
g0 RESULTS OF MISSIONARY LABOUR, ETC. 
 
 military band ? When the names of warriors are forgotten 
 in Africa, or remembered only to be execrated, those of 
 Vanderkemp, Philip, Moffat, and others, will live from 
 age to age, engraved in the heart of ransomed nations ! 
 Again, survey the empire of the East; request the under- 
 standing, among the millions of Hindostan, to state the 
 amount of their debt to the muskets and the cannon of the 
 military establishments of England, and at the same time 
 to record the extent of their obligation to her Bible and 
 Missionary Societies. Inquire of them whether there is 
 one substantial blessing connected with British rule 
 which may not be distinctly traced to the influence of Bri- 
 tish missions. We abide by the result of the investi- 
 gation ! 
 
 " O ye orators and philosophers, who make the civiliza- 
 tion of the species your dream ! look to Christian mission- 
 aries, if ye want to see the men who will realize it. You 
 may deck the theme with the praises of your unsubstantial 
 eloquence, but these are the men who are to accomplish 
 the business ! They are now risking every earthly comfort 
 of existence in the cause ; while you sit in silken security, 
 and pour upon their holy undertaking the cruelty of your 
 scorn."* 
 
 * Chalmers's Sermon before the Dundee Missionary Society, in 1812. 
 
LETTER VI. 
 
 TO JAMES DOUGLAS, ESQ., OF CAVERS. 
 
 ON THE RESULTS OF MISSIONARY LABOUR IN RELATION TO MORAL 
 SYMPATHY. 
 
 Sir, — It is now about twenty years since the appearance 
 of your " Hints on Missions," and since that time you have 
 favoured the public with your work on " The Advancement 
 of Society in Knowledge and Religion ;" and with the 
 article " Missions," in the Encyclopaedia Britannica. For 
 these publications the Christian world is deeply your 
 debtor, and its guiding spirits are not insensible to the 
 obligation. It deserves remark that, while you are one of 
 the very few great landowners in Britain entirely devoted 
 to literature, you are the only layman of your class who 
 has stood forth as the bold and unwearied advocate both 
 of home and foreign missions. While your compeers are 
 inflamed with the spirit of a low ambition, or are the slaves 
 of still worse passions, the comprehensive and philosophic 
 spirit with which God has endowed you, felicitates itself 
 in the exalted region of contemplation, whence you de- 
 scend from time to time to communicate to the occupants of 
 a lower and a busier sphere the practical result of your 
 high inquiries. May the life so laudably devoted be pro- 
 longed to a good old age, that you may witness the realiza- 
 tion of many of those prophetic views with which your 
 productions abound ! 
 
 I have read most, if not all, that you have written ; and 
 e 3 
 
82 RESULTS OF MISSIONARY LABOUR 
 
 been studious to compare your abstract speculations with 
 the practical operations of the mission field. Frequently 
 have I been gratified in observing with what exactness the 
 deductions of reason have been verified by the test of 
 experience. Matters are, in many respects, altered and 
 improved since the publication of your " Hints," and it 
 cannot be doubted that they have materially contributed to 
 that improvement. When you wrote that piece, the work 
 of missions was, in many quarters, but just begun ; and 
 much that you desiderated, there had not been time to 
 produce. Of this, indeed, you were fully aware. But the 
 following passage, although true to the letter at the period 
 when it was written, can no longer be taken as a correct 
 description of the state of things. — " Two great, though 
 indirect, means have been mentioned for spreading Chris- 
 tianity — Colonizing, and the introduction of the Arts. It 
 is surprising how little Missionaries have availed themselves 
 of the last. With the exception of some Moravian settle- 
 ments, no instances, till very lately, could be pointed out 
 to an infidel, of what missions had done for the temporal 
 good of mankind. Can we be surprised, then, if men of 
 thought, but whose thoughts are confined to the present 
 world, should despise missionaries, who, instead of re- 
 claiming barbarians to civilized habits, have sunk down to 
 the outward condition of the people to whom they are 
 preaching? And certainly the accusation of indolence is 
 naturally brought forward against missionaries, who will 
 not make the moderate exertions requisite to procure the 
 comforts of life for themselves and those around them. 
 This reproach, however, is gradually wearing off; and 
 missions, though not with any very enlightened and enlarged 
 plan, are gradually introducing the simpler productions 
 and arts among their converts. Till more exertion of this 
 kind takes place, it is almost hopeless to expect that 
 Missionaries, or the Directors of Missions, will do much 
 
IN RELATION TO MORAL SYMPATHY. 83 
 
 to procure such information as would attract the attention 
 of men who, without being Christians, are well-informed, 
 and benevolent too, as far as kind wishes and kind speeches 
 go, and who take an interest in whatever furthers the 
 temporal welfare of humanity without impairing their 
 own. Between Christians and those who are called phi- 
 losophers, a great and impassable gulf seems fixed ; while 
 the first are interested in nothing but what concerns the 
 next world, and the second neither care for nor believe in 
 any thing but 'the world of to-day,' as the Mahometans 
 speak. It is rather singular, however, that those who are 
 looking to the future and the invisible, are the men of 
 action; and that those, whose only world is the present, 
 have never advanced one step beyond professions of phi- 
 lanthropy, nor made the least effort to introduce the im- 
 provements of philosophy into the greatest and uncivilized 
 portion of the world. Still it is to be regretted that 
 Christians will not show them what Christian benevolence 
 can do for the comforts and embellishments even of this 
 transitory life, and thus there might be some common 
 feeling between two parties, who might gain much by 
 mutual intercourse. The missionaries, instead of filling 
 their journals with the experiences of particular converts, 
 which have often more connexion with the state of the 
 body than the soul, might be gaining experience them- 
 selves of the climate and the country, the modes of think- 
 ing, and the prevalent superstitious notions of the people 
 by whom they are surrounded." 
 
 During the last twenty years — the period elapsed since 
 you penned the foregoing passage — much has been done 
 to correct the errors and supply the defects referred to. 
 Proofs of this might be derived from every part of the 
 missionary field, and from every section of the missionary 
 church ; but my purpose only requires it to be shown, 
 that much, in this way, has been done, in Polynesia, by 
 
84 RESULTS OF MISSIONARY LABOUR 
 
 the labours of Mr. Williams and his brethren. It is not 
 easy to conceive of any thing, within the power of a mis- 
 sionary to perform, that has not been either achieved or 
 attempted, for the earthly good of the islanders. 
 
 The Arts are at once a cause and an effect of civilization ; 
 their existence implies the antecedent existence of society ; 
 and society is cemented by sympathy. But sympathy 
 may arise from different, nay from opposite sources. The 
 highest order of society, however, demands for its cement 
 a sympathy founded on humanity. Now humanity is not 
 a quality of savage nature ; it has every where to be 
 created. Here, then, the missionary commences his ope- 
 rations ; and the success which attends them in producing 
 that humanity, demonstrates the infinite superiority of 
 gospel truth to philosophic dogmata. The speedy and 
 almost utter loss of this gentle quality was among the 
 earliest indications of the fall of man. Hesiod, the father 
 of Poetry — for it is probable that he was the contemporary 
 of Homer, and somewhat earlier — has poured forth a stream 
 of most pathetic reflection upon this subject. Having set 
 forth the state of man under the golden, silver, and brazen 
 ages, he reaches the iron age, in which man was bereft of 
 the last remains of his humanity. Hesiod was among the 
 primeval poets what Isaiah was among the Jewish pro- 
 phets, with this difference, that Hesiod sung of an age of 
 bliss and glory that was past, and Isaiah of such an age to 
 eome. Hesiod is immeasurably more entitled to the 
 epithet divine than Homer. He was the poet of religion, 
 peace, morality, and the arts; Homer was the bard of 
 desolation and blood ; and hence he has ever been the idol 
 of man, while Hesiod has been all but forgotten. Hesiod 
 thus bewails the depravity of man, at the close of the 
 heroic age, and with a sagacity almost prophetic, foretells 
 the result of the principles which then began to be mani- 
 fested: — 
 
IN RELATION TO MORAL SYMPATHY. 85 
 
 " ! would I had my hours of life began 
 Before this fifth, this sinful race of man ; 
 Or had I not been call'd to breathe the day, 
 Till the rough iron age had passed away : 
 For now, the times are such, the gods ordain 
 That every moment shall be wing'd with pain j 
 Condemned to sorrows, and to toil we live ; 
 Rest to our labour death alone can give. 
 And yet amid the cares our lives annoy, 
 The gods still grant some intervals of joy : 
 But how degenerate is the human state ! 
 Virtue no more distinguishes the great : 
 No safe reception shall the stranger find ; 
 Nor shall the ties of blood or friendship bind; 
 Nor shall the parent, when his sons are nigh, 
 Look with the fondness of a parent's eye ; 
 Nor to the sire the son obedience pay, 
 Nor gaze with reverence on the locks of grey, 
 But oh ! regardless of the powers divine, 
 With bitter taunts shall load his life's decline. 
 Revenge and rapine shall respect command ; 
 The pious, just, and good, neglected stand. 
 The wicked shall the better man distress, 
 The righteous suffer, and without redress ; 
 Strict honesty, and naked truth, shall fail, 
 The perjur'd villain in his arts prevail ! 
 Hoarse envy shall, unseen, exert her voice, 
 Attend the wretched, and in ill rejoice. 
 At last fair modesty and justice fly — 
 Robed their pure limbs in white — and gain the sky ; 
 From the wide earth they reach the bless'd abodes, 
 And join the grand assembly of the gods, 
 While mortal men, abandoned to their grief, 
 Sink in their sorrows, hopeless of relief." 
 
 Works and Days. Book I. 
 
 It were not easy to improve this striking picture, the 
 exact truth of which is proved by its universal correspond- 
 ence with the state of fallen nature. The inhumanity 
 which is thus diffused among mankind, is the mother 
 
86 RESULTS OF MISSIONARY LABOUR 
 
 element of all social evil. The best poets of every age, 
 since the days of Hesiod, have borne testimony to its pre- 
 valence, and denounced it. How striking and tender is 
 the address of the sage Ulysses to the fierce Achilles, 
 whom he reminds of his father's last words ! — 
 
 " My child ! with strength, with glory and success, 
 Thine arms may Juno and Minerva hless ! 
 Trust that to heaven : but thou, thy cares engage 
 To calm thy passions, and subdue thy rage ; 
 From gentler manners let thy glory grow, 
 And shun contention, the sure source of woe ; 
 That young and old may in thy praise combine, 
 The virtues of humanity be thine /" 
 
 Homer, Book IX. 
 
 Of all the Roman poets, none had a keener perception 
 of the evil which we deplore than Juvenal. The following 
 vigorous passage presents man in a two-fold light, — first, 
 in a state of unsophisticated nature, and then as hardened 
 into a more than brutal insensibility : 
 
 " Compassion proper to mankind appears, 
 Which Nature witnessed when she gave us tears. 
 Of tender sentiments we only give 
 Those proofs ; to weep is man's prerogative ! 
 To show by pitying looks, and melting eyes, 
 How with a suffering friend we sympathize ! 
 Who can all sense of others' ills escape, 
 Is but a brute, at best, in human shape ! 
 This nat'ral piety did first refine 
 Our wit, and raise our thoughts to things divine. 
 This proves our spirit of the gods' descent, 
 While that of beasts is prone and downward bent : 
 To them but earth-born life they did dispense ; 
 To us, for mutual aid, celestial sense. 
 But serpents now more amity maintain ! 
 From spotted skins the leopard doth refrain : 
 No weaker lion 's by a stronger slain ; 
 Nor, from his larger tusks, the forest boar 
 Commission takes his brother swine to gore ! 
 
IN RELATION TO MORAL SYMPATHY. 87 
 
 Tiger with tiger, bear with bear, you'll find 
 In leagues offensive and defensive joined ! 
 But lawless man the anvil dares profane 
 To forge the dart by which a man is slain ! 
 An impious race we now behold, whose rage 
 The slaughter of their foes cannot assuage, 
 Unless they banquet on the wretch they slew, 
 Devour the corpse, and drink the blood they drew!" 
 
 Satire XV. 
 
 This dreadful picture, as applied to the savages of Poly- 
 nesia, is not an exaggeration. How fearfully was the 
 prediction of Hesiod, in relation to parents and children, 
 verified ! By the practice kukumi anga, one of the most 
 atrocious sights imaginable was exhibited. On a son 
 reaching manhood, his first duty was to fight his father, 
 and, in the event of victory, he immediately took forcible 
 possession of his farm, and drove away his vanquished 
 parent in destitution, to shift for himself or die in the 
 woods ! In all respects worthy of this, and still more 
 inhuman, was the ao anga, by which the friends of a 
 husband, on his death, came and seized his house, food, 
 and land, turning adrift the mourning widow with her 
 helpless offspring. Let us contrast the former practice 
 with the precept, " Honour thy father and mother ;" and 
 the latter with the declaration that " Pure religion and 
 undefiled before God and the Father, is to visit the father- 
 less and the widow in their affliction." Such was the 
 condition of the people of the isles, such their destitution 
 of humanity. The question is, What was the effect of 
 the gospel of Christ upon them ? In the emphatic words 
 of Scripture, it changed the hearts of all who believed it 
 from stone to flesh. In proof of this, I offer the dying 
 declarations of Tuahine, — the very first plebeian convert 
 of Tahiti. A day or two before his death, he thus wrote 
 to Mr. Williams :— 
 
88 RESULTS OP MISSIONARY LABOUR 
 
 " Haiatea, November llth, 1827. 
 " Oh, dear friend, — May blessing attend you and your 
 family, through Jesus Christ our Lord. I have written 
 this letter on the day that my body is completely destroyed 
 with sickness. I am convinced of the near approach of 
 death, for I perceive that my illness is very great. The 
 llth of November is the day on which I write ; I write 
 with great difficulty, for my eyes are now dim in death. 
 My compassion for my family is very great ; I therefore 
 write in death to you, my dear friend, about my family. 
 We do not belong to Raiatea, neither myself nor my 
 wife ; we both belong to Tahiti ; but, from love to the 
 word of God, and attachment to you, our teacher, we 
 have forsaken our lands, and now I am about to die. It 
 is death that terminates our close connexion. This is 
 what I have to say to you, my dear friend, about my 
 family : do not let them remain at Raiatea ; take them 
 to Tahiti, in your own large boat ; convey them there 
 yourself; let no one else. They belong to Papeete: there 
 are their parents and their land. My perplexity is very 
 great, occasioned by my dear family crying and grieving 
 around me. They say, ' Who will convey us back to our 
 lands V I refer them to you ; replying, ' Mr. Williams 
 is our friend.' We miss you very much in my illness, and 
 grieve greatly at your absence. Now, my dear friend, let 
 me entreat you not to forget my dying request. Do not 
 follow the custom of my countrymen, and say, when I am 
 gone, l Oh, it is only the command of a corpse.' This is 
 what they say, and then seize his little property. I have 
 been endeavouring to lengthen out my breath to see you 
 again, but I cannot : my hour is come, when God will 
 take me to himself, and I cannot resist his will. Perhaps 
 this is the time the Lord has appointed for me. And now, 
 my dear friend, the great kindness you have shown me is 
 at an end ; your face will not see my face again in the 
 
IN RELATION TO MORAL SYMPATHY. 89 
 
 flesh — you and I are separated. Dear friend, I am going 
 now to the place we all so ardently desire. 
 
 " May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with you 
 and your family ! 
 
 " TUAHINE. 
 
 " P.S.— Take care of my family." 
 
 " My compassion for my family is very great ; I, there- 
 fore, write in death to you, my dear friend, about my 
 family." What language ! What pathos ! What parental 
 tenderness ! How marvellous the power that can fill the 
 savage breast with such a flood of benevolent emotion ! 
 Shall we compare this pattern of tenderness with the 
 white-man monster who perished in the Navigators* Islands ? 
 This man shared in all ths native wars ; he slaughtered 
 his fellow-creatures with his own hands, by the hundred ; 
 he had the heads of his victims invariably cut off, and 
 ranged before him during his meals ; he often seated 
 himself upon a kind of stage smeared with blood, and 
 surrounded with the heads of those whom he had slain ; 
 and in this state his followers used to convey him on their 
 shoulders, with songs of savage triumph, to his own resi- 
 dence!* Or shall we compare him with the mingled mass 
 of Polynesian parents, prior to the introduction of the 
 gospel ? Contrast the unutterable tenderness of this man 
 for his family with the Martyr's account of the prevalent 
 crime of infanticide. " The modes by which they perpe- 
 trated this deed of darkness were truly affecting. Some- 
 times they put a wet cloth upon the infants' mouth; at 
 others, they pinched their little throats until they expired : 
 a third method was to bury them alive ; and a fourth was, 
 if possible, still more brutal. The moment the child was 
 born, they broke the first joints of its fingers and toes, 
 and then the second. If the infant survived this agonizing 
 
 * Williams, p. 120. 
 
90 RESULTS OF MISSIONARY LABOUR 
 
 process, they dislocated its ankles and the wrists ; and, if 
 the powers of endurance still continued, the knee and 
 elbow joints were then broken. This would generally 
 terminate the tortures of the little sufferer; but if not, 
 they would resort to the second method of strangulation."* 
 To this pandemonium practice the Gospel of mercy has 
 put a perpetual end, in a large portion of the isles of the 
 south. Those all-powerful principles which God has most 
 wisely and graciously implanted in the parental bosom, 
 have experienced a glorious resurrection. What you, Sir, 
 observe of society in Europe, with one or two verbal alter- 
 ations, may be truly affirmed of it in Polynesia : — (t The 
 many wheels of its intricate mechanism are beginning to 
 revolve, and a complicated movement, continually accele- 
 rated by fresh impulses, is bearing along the world from 
 its wintry and torpid position, and bringing it under the 
 influence of serener heavens and an awakening spring. All 
 the genial powers of nature are being unlocked, and the 
 better feelings that have long slumbered in the breast of 
 man are being roused into life."f 
 
 To the foregoing beautiful illustration of a dying hus- 
 band's love to his wife and a parent's to his children, we 
 may add the following of a people's love to their teachers. 
 Mr. Williams, after a residence of twelve months at Raro- 
 tonga, intimated his intention to leave the mission of that 
 island in the hands of others, — a communication which 
 elicited a most interesting display of sensibility. For more 
 than a month prior to his departure, groups of the people 
 collected, in the cool of the evening, around the trunk of 
 some gigantic tree, or beneath the shade of a stately 
 banana, and sung, in plaintive strains, the stanzas which 
 they had composed to express their sorrow at the antici- 
 
 * Williams, p. 148. 
 
 f Advancement of Society in Knowledge and Religion, pp. 296, 297. 
 
IN RELATION TO MORAL SYMPATHY. 91 
 
 pated separation. On the evening of his departure, seve- 
 ral thousands accompanied him and his friends to the 
 beach ; and as the boat left the shore, they lifted up their 
 voice, and, with one heart, sang, — 
 
 Kia ora e Tama ma 
 
 I te aerenga i te moana e ! 
 
 That is, " Blessing on you, beloved friends ; blessing on 
 you in journeying on the deep!" This they repeated at 
 brief intervals, till the little bark was removed beyond the 
 reach of the sound. What a scene among a people so 
 lately buried in the lowest depths of barbarism ! It 
 affected Mr. Williams and his friends to tears.* Nothing 
 in the naval history of England, from the days of Anson to 
 Duncan, of Hood to Codrington, can, in point of moral 
 beauty, be compared to it. What a contrast to the 
 drunken rejoicings and tumultuous huzzas of the populace 
 of Chatham and of Portsmouth, on the embarkation of 
 England's murderous armaments in the sad days of her 
 anti-Christian as well as suicidal glory ! 
 
 The Martyr of Erromanga records a fact which speaks 
 volumes on the subject of moral sensibility. While smart- 
 ing under a domestic trial, he wrote to Makea, apprising 
 him of the circumstance ; and the chief, collecting all the 
 people of his settlement, accompanied them to Naga- 
 tangiia, to condole with the Missionary under his afflic- 
 tion. " No individual," says Mr. Williams, " came 
 empty-handed ; some brought mats, others pieces of cloth, 
 and others articles of food, which they presented as an 
 expression of their sympathy. A few of the principal wo- 
 men went in to see Mrs. Williams, laid their little presents 
 at her feet, and wept over her, according to their custom. 
 The affection of this kind people remains unabated. In a 
 
 * Williams, p. 44. 
 
92 RESULTS OF MISSIONARY LABOUR 
 
 recent visit paid to Rarotonga by my esteemed colleague, 
 Mr, Barff, he perceived that the congregation of three 
 thousand people to whom he preached were all habited in 
 black clothing. Upon inquiring the reason of this un- 
 usual and dismal attire, he was informed by Mr. Buzacott 
 that, on the recent death of his little girl, the king and 
 chiefs requested that they and their people might be per- 
 mitted to wear mourning, as they did not wish to appear 
 in their ordinary gay habiliments while the family of their 
 Missionary was in affliction. Such an instance of delicate 
 respect could scarcely have been expected from a people, 
 who, twelve years before, were cannibals and addicted to 
 every vice." * 
 
 Who, Sir, can desire a better comment on the glorious, 
 because pacific, visions of Isaiah ? Behold, in Rarotonga, 
 the wolf dwelling with the lamb, the leopard lying down 
 with the kid, the calf and the young lion, and the failing 
 together, and a little child leading them! Behold the 
 sucking child playing on the hole of the asp, and the 
 weaned child putting his hand on the cockatrice' den ! 
 Whence arises this surprising transformation ? The island 
 is full of the knowledge of the Lord. This is the sole and 
 sufficient cause. Who, Sir, will blush to avow himself 
 the advocate of a cause so fraught with peace on earth and 
 good-will among men? Compared with the enterprize 
 which is attended with such results, surely the pursuits of 
 literature, science, commerce, and every thing of a merely 
 sublunary character, are but low, earthly, and vulgar. To 
 the enlightened and candid mind this is clear and incon- 
 trovertible. Were it not for the piety that blends with 
 the enterprise, it would be the object of boundless and 
 universal admiration. But for the Gospel — the " rod" with 
 which John Williams wrought all his wonders — he would 
 
 * Williams, p. 104. 
 
IN RELATION TO MORAL SYMPATHY. 93 
 
 be all but deified! Our philosophers, philanthropists, and 
 men of sentiment would sound his fame to the farthest 
 shores of the civilized world ! Howard, as compared with 
 Williams, would be deemed — and justly deemed — only a 
 taper before the blazing sun. Poets, orators, painters, and 
 sculptors would, each in his own way, all labour to diffuse 
 his renown, and consign it to immortality ! Long ere this 
 St. Paul's and Westminster would have had committed to 
 their awful custody tablets and statues to the honour of 
 the illustrious philanthropist! Public halls would have 
 boasted his bust ; and monumental pillars^ erected to his 
 glory in our parks and promenades, had been pointing to 
 the skies ! But the Cross, the offensive Cross, has marred 
 all ! By this the world is as much crucified to him as he 
 was to the world. Neither saw aught to admire in the 
 other ; and the deeds which it cannot deny, it endeavours 
 to overlook. Till that world shall have discovered beauty 
 in the Messiah, it will see none in the Missionary. 
 
 On these grounds it is, that so much importance at- 
 taches to the labours of literary laymen, especially men of 
 rank and property, in behalf of missions. Whatever may 
 be achieved by a clerical hand to convince and abash the 
 adversary, there is still the disadvantage to be encountered 
 — the performance is professional. This is enough ! But 
 when men like yourself, Isaac Taylor, and other master 
 spirits, step forth as the advocates of evangelical opera- 
 tions, the question assumes a new shape, and it must be 
 dealt with in another manner. Do allow me, therefore, 
 with all the respect which I feel for your character, gifts, 
 and acquirements, to urge this consideration. Your vo- 
 lumes on the " Truths," on the " Errors," and on " Mental 
 Philosophy," are good and useful ; but a chapter of your 
 " Advancement," or ten pages of your " Hints," are of a hun- 
 died-fold more real value than they all to the mighty work 
 of the world's salvation ! Do, Sir, do continue to wield your 
 
94 RESULTS OF MISSIONARY LABOUR, ETC. 
 
 transcendent power, and to use the influence arising from 
 your social position, to advance this most glorious of all 
 objects! The subject is not exhausted ; it is only begun. 
 In your hands it may be made to assume a shape, and pre- 
 sent a beauty which will command the attention and cap- 
 tivate the imagination both of the literary and the aristo- 
 cratic circles. Had I the power to impel performance, 
 you should assuredly have no rest until you had published 
 and addressed to those circles a series of letters on Christian 
 Missions ! 
 
 " Acceptissima semper 
 
 Munera sunt auctor quae pretiosa faeit." 
 
LETTER VII. ■ 
 
 TO THOMAS WILSON, ESQ., TREASURER OF THE 
 LONDON MISSIONARY SOCIETY. 
 
 ON THE RESULTS OF MISSIONARY LABOUR IN RELATION TO THE INSTITU- 
 TION OF MARRIAGE, ARTS, COMMERCE, AND CIVILIZATION. 
 
 My dear Sir, — You are, beyond most men, an individual 
 whose habits, character, and understanding, are all tho- 
 roughly practical. You have neither time nor taste for 
 theoretic trifling upon any subject, whether of politics or 
 of religion. Your eye is ever directed to results ; and by 
 these you have always tested both systems and men. In con- 
 secrating your time, talents, influence, and fortune to the 
 advancement of the kingdom of Christ, both at home and 
 abroad, you have always felt and maintained that you were 
 adopting the most, and, indeed, the only successful method 
 of at once promoting the interests of the purest patriotism 
 and the most exalted philanthropy. You have long re- 
 joiced in the benign spirit and the beneficent operation 
 of Christianity, and laboured much to promote its spread 
 both for the glory of God and the good of man. On 
 these and other grounds I now address to you the fol- 
 lowing letter on the glorious effects of the gospel upon 
 the earthly welfare of the once barbarous inhabitants of 
 Polynesia. 
 
96 RESULTS OF MISSIONARY LABOUR 
 
 Christianity deals first with the individual character, 
 next with the domestic constitution, and lastly with civil 
 society ; the first is the basis of the second, and the second 
 of the third. When the individual man is brought to know 
 the Lord, and is disposed to select for himself a companion 
 in life, he is left to cherish his preference towards the sex 
 with only two limitations ; first, that all his affections shall 
 centre in one object ; and that she, like himself, shall be- 
 long to the family of God. The happiness equally of male 
 and female requires the rigorous, uniform, and universal 
 observance of the divine appointment concerning marriage. 
 Polygamy is as injurious to the peace and comfort of the 
 one sex as of the other. It is a violation of the order of 
 nature and the command of God : he, therefore, who contri- 
 butes to promote the observance of marriage is a great 
 benefactor to his species. Now, polygamy is always, more 
 or less, the attendant of idolatry ; and hence when the 
 missionary assails the latter, he undermines the former. 
 Hence, too, it results that the missionary has done more 
 to destroy polygamy than all other classes of men united. 
 Of this species of benevolence, as of most others, he has a 
 monopoly. How full of interest is the Martyr's account 
 of the abolition of polygamy in Rarotonga ! How affect- 
 ing and laudable was the king's conduct ! Of three wives 
 — one of them his own sister — he parted from two, and, 
 in the presence of his people, was married to one ; and the 
 people, as a matter of course, followed the impressive ex- 
 ample of their sovereign. "Who can estimate the extent 
 of the good resulting to Polynesia from the abolition of 
 this great and prevalent evil ? Who but the missionaries 
 could have succeeded in effecting so serious a reforma- 
 tion ? 
 
 The literature of missions demonstrates that Christianity 
 is the grand civilizer of man. Enlightened statesmen, 
 knowing little of Christianity beyond its effects, have yet 
 
ON MARRIAGE, ARTS, ETC. 97 
 
 perceived enough of its power to confess the truth of our 
 allegation. Edmund Burke, in his Letter to Dundas on 
 the civilization of Negroes in both Hemispheres, utters the 
 following remarkable words : — " I confess I trust more, 
 according to the sound principles of those who have at any 
 time ameliorated the state of mankind, to the effect and 
 influence of religion, than to all the rest of the regulations 
 put together."* This witness is true. The conductors of 
 all Missionary Societies, and a still more competent class 
 of witnesses, the missionaries themselves, all unite in testi- 
 fying that civilization is the certain, invariable, and speedy 
 result of Christianization. I remember no person who has 
 been more successful in the illustration of this point in a 
 few words than Kahkewaquonaby, the Chippewa Indian 
 chief, who visited England some years ago, and was known 
 as Peter Jones. This interesting man, an excellent preacher 
 of righteousness in the Wesleyan body, records the expe- 
 riment among his countrymen in the following words : — 
 " The improvements which the Christian Indians have 
 made have been the astonishment of all who knew them in 
 their pagan state. The change for the better has not only 
 extended to their hearts and feelings, but also to their 
 personal appearance, and their domestic and social condi- 
 tion. About ten years ago this people had no houses, no 
 fields, no horses, no cattle. Each person could carry upon 
 his back all that he possessed, without being much bur- 
 dened. They are now occupying about forty comfortable 
 houses, most of which are built of hewn logs, and a few of 
 frame, and are generally one and a half story high, and 
 about twenty-four feet long, and eighteen feet wide, with 
 stone or brick chimneys ; two or three rooms in each house. 
 Their furniture consists of tables, chairs, bedsteads, straw 
 mattresses, a few feather-beds, window-curtains, boxes 
 
 * Works, vol. ix. p. 287. 
 
98 
 
 RESULTS OF MISSIONARY LABOUR 
 
 and trunks for their wearing apparel, small shelves fastened 
 against the wall for their books, closets for their cooking 
 utensils, cupboards for their plates, knives and forks : some 
 have clocks and watches. They have no carpets, but a few 
 have mats laid on their floors. This tribe owns a saw-mill, 
 a workshop, a blacksmith's shop, and a warehouse, the 
 property of the whole community. They have about 200 
 acres of land under cultivation, on which they grow wheat, 
 Indian corn, potatoes, &c. In their gardens they raise 
 vegetables of various kinds ; and a few have planted fruit- 
 trees. They have a number of oxen, cows, horses, and 
 pigs ; a few barns and stables ; a few wagons and sleighs ; 
 and all sorts of farming implements. The men now make 
 the houses, plant the fields, provide the fuel and provisions 
 for the house ; the business of the women is to manage the 
 household affairs. The females eat with the men at the 
 same table. I have often heard them expressing their 
 thanks to the Great Spirit for sending them missionaries 
 to tell them the words of eternal life, which have been the 
 means of delivering them from a state of misery and de- 
 gradation." What a picture ! The Government had tried, 
 by munificent offers, to tame this tribe, to fix them down to 
 a settled state; but nothing could induce them to renounce 
 their roving habits, till the gospel entered among them, 
 when the result was such as we have now seen. 
 
 The Martyr's " Narrative" abounds with illustrations to 
 the same effect, but far more varied and striking.* He sets 
 forth the following table of arts, vegetable productions, 
 and animals. 
 
 * Williams, pp. 11, 12, 13, 16, 20, 24, 29, 44, 45, 58, 63, 86, 106, 
 112, 121,151, 152. 
 
ON MARRIAGE, ARTS, ETC. 
 
 USEFUL ARTS. 
 
 Smith's work. 
 
 House building. 
 
 Ship building. 
 
 Lime burning. 
 
 Pruning. 
 
 Sofa, chair, and bed- 
 stead making. 
 
 Growth and manufac- 
 ture of tobacco. 
 
 Sugar boiling. 
 
 Tinting. 
 
 VEGETABLE 
 PRODUCTIONS. 
 
 A variety of valuable 
 
 esculents. 
 Pumpkins, melons, 
 
 sweet potatoes, &c. 
 
 &c. 
 Oranges, lemons, 
 
 limes. 
 Pine apples. 
 Custard app2es. 
 Coffee. 
 Cotton. 
 Indigo. 
 
 Goats. 
 
 Sheep. 
 
 Horses. 
 
 Asses. 
 
 Cattle and pigs into 
 
 several islands. 
 Turkeys, geese, ducks, 
 
 and fowls. 
 
 The country which can boast these arts and animals has 
 already the means of comfort, and the elements of great- 
 ness. The possession of these involves every necessary 
 and fundamental avocation, and will inevitably lay the 
 basis of such as are more a matter of taste and of orna- 
 ment. Let us hear the missionary's own comment upon 
 the matter: — " In communicating to the people the useful 
 arts specified above, I have spent many hundreds of hours, 
 not merely in explaining and superintending the different 
 processes, but in actual labour. For this, however, I have 
 been amply repaid by the great progress which the natives 
 have made in many of these departments of useful know- 
 ledge, but especially in building small vessels of from 
 twenty to fifty tons. More than twenty of these were 
 sailing from island to island when I left, two of which 
 belonged to the queen, and were employed in fetching 
 cargoes of pearl, and pearl shells, from a group of islands 
 to the eastward of Tahiti. These were exchanged with 
 the English and American vessels for clothing and other 
 articles. 
 
 " From these facts it will be apparent, that, while our 
 best energies have been devoted to the instruction of the 
 
 f 2 
 
100 RESULTS OF MISSIONARY LABOUR 
 
 people in the truths of the Christian religion, and our 
 chief solicitude has been to make them wise unto salva- 
 tion, we have, at the same time, been anxious to impart 
 a knowledge of all that was calculated to increase their 
 comforts and elevate their character. And I am convinced 
 that the first step towards the promotion of a nation's 
 temporal and social elevation, is to plant amongst them 
 the tree of life, when civilization and commerce will en- 
 twine their tendrils around its trunk, and derive support 
 from its strength. Until the people are brought under 
 the influence of religion, they have no desire for the arts 
 and usages of civilized life ; but that invariably creates it. 
 The missionaries were at Tahiti many years, during which 
 they built and furnished a house in European style. The 
 natives saw this, but not an individual imitated their 
 example. As soon, however, as they were brought under 
 the influence of Christianity, the chiefs, and even the 
 common people, began to build neat plastered cottages, 
 and to manufacture bedsteads, seats, and other articles of 
 furniture. The females had long observed the dress of 
 the Missionaries' wives, but while heathen they greatly 
 preferred their own, and there was not a single attempt 
 at imitation. No sooner, however, were they brought 
 under the influence of religion, than all of them, even to 
 the lowest, aspired to the possession of a gown, a bonnet, 
 and a shawl, that they might appear like Christian women. 
 I could proceed to enumerate many other changes of the 
 same kind, but these will be sufficient to establish my 
 assertion. While the natives are under the influence of 
 their superstitions, they evince an inanity and torpor, from 
 which no stimulus has proved powerful enough to arouse 
 them but the new ideas and the new principles imparted 
 by Christianity. And if it be not already proved, the 
 experience of a few more years will demonstrate the fact, 
 that the missionary enterprise is incomparably the most 
 
ON MARRIAGE, ARTS, ETC. JQJ 
 
 effective machinery that has ever been brought to operate 
 upon the social, the civil, and the commercial, as well as 
 the moral and spiritual interests of mankind."* 
 
 Now, my esteemed friend, what shall we say to these 
 things ? They are true, or they are false. If true, who 
 shall estimate their value ? If false, is not confutation 
 easy ? Thanks be to God, they are true, and none can 
 gainsay them ! It is now as clear as experiment can ever 
 make it, that the gospel of Christ is the only remedy for 
 the woes of our world. The proofs of this allegation have 
 been accumulating upwards of 1800 years; and surely, it 
 is now time that the speculative should give place to the 
 practical — time that we should cease disputing with the 
 Infidel about the origin and qualities of Christianity, and 
 proceed, in good earnest, to the universal dispensation of 
 its benefits. One principal proof of its divine origin lies 
 in its power to reform, renovate, and bless those who re- 
 ceive it. Eternity apart, it is the grand source of all real 
 happiness in the present life. It is fully adequate to meet, 
 to the largest extent, the wants of man. There is not an 
 evil for which it does not supply a complete and immediate 
 cure. Its universal reception would introduce a better 
 than the golden age. Approaching the temple of truth, 
 let us consult the oracles of history, and inquire of her 
 whether any code of legislation, or any system of morals, 
 or any thing in fact, ever exerted a power, in the slightest 
 measure, analogous in its effects, to the power of the Gos- 
 pel of Peace ? We may inquire, too, whether voyager, 
 traveller, commercial factor, voluntary or compulsory 
 exile, ever effected such changes among any portions of 
 men as those achieved by the martyr of Erromanga ? 
 Have any of these, or all of them, through all ages, united, 
 accomplished the millionth part of it ? Did they ever 
 
 * Williams, p. 152. 
 
102 RESULTS OF MISSIONARY LABOUR, ETC. 
 
 thus bless a single family, or a single man ? No ! to im- 
 part good is not their practice ; it is not their purpose. 
 If it were their province, without personal piety, it is not 
 in their power. 
 
 How long, my friend, is the world to be unjust? When 
 will it awake to the glory of the gospel and the utility of 
 missions ? As a man of reading and observation, and 
 great experience, you are but too well informed of the 
 contempt with which multitudes of educated men, among 
 the middle and upper classes, regard the missionary cha- 
 racter. I challenge the attention of all such to the facts 
 of this chapter. If the man who achieved works so various, 
 so wondrous, so beneficent — works embracing so many 
 people, and in their effects extending through all coming 
 time — be contemptible, I ask them, who is illustrious ? 
 If John Williams be little, let them tell us who is great ? 
 Is any man great but as he promotes greatness ? Who can 
 do more for the creature than he who restores him to the 
 favour and friendship of his Creator, and at the same time 
 lifts him up to the elevation of civilized man ? Who can 
 do more for the isles of Polynesia than he who fits them 
 for the fellowship of Christian nations ? Truth answers, 
 He, and only he, who fits them for the fellowship of angels 
 and of God ! John Williams has done both ! Who, then, 
 I desire to know, can add to the benefactions of the man 
 who has done these things ? Let the pretender stand 
 forth, put in his claim, and hasten to make it good. He 
 who can do so, and he alone, is of a rank superior to the 
 missionary — he, and he alone, is a greater man than the 
 martyr of Erromanga ! 
 
LETTER VIII. 
 
 TO THE RIGHT HON. LORD BROUGHAM. 
 
 ON THE RESULTS OF MISSIONS IN REGARD TO SLAVERY AND 
 EDUCATION. 
 
 It is impossible, my Lord, to write on the subjects of War 
 and Missions, with their respective attendants, Slavery 
 and Education, without being reminded of your lordship's 
 humane and patriotic exertions. African slavery cannot 
 survive the extinction of War ; Education cannot be dif- 
 fused through all nations apart from Christianity. The 
 question, therefore, of this world's complete civilization, 
 and all that it implies, is chiefly a question of Missions. 
 This is the consideration which I am deeply anxious to 
 press upon the attention of your lordship, because it is 
 one of the very few subjects with which your lordship 
 seems but slightly acquainted. In this assumption I have 
 reason to think I do not wrong you, for I speak after care- 
 ful inquiry. To me, in common with tens of thousands, 
 your lordship's life and public character supply a subject 
 of extraordinary interest : I have been at pains, accord- 
 ingly, to investigate the history of your opinions, and to 
 trace your bright career during the last thirty years. I 
 have endeavoured to form a correct estimate of your views 
 respecting all those great questions which have agitated the 
 
104 RESULTS OF MISSIONARY LABOUR 
 
 minds of men during the eventful period of your public 
 life ; and T now proceed to state the result. 
 
 The analysis of the intellectual powers with which you 
 are so amply endowed has been frequently attempted : the 
 peculiar style of your eloquence, too, has been a favourite 
 theme of criticism; while men of various judgments have 
 passed sentence on your public character and conduct. Of 
 these lucubrations, some, as far as they have gone, have 
 been just and good ; others erroneous and malicious ; and 
 all meager and defective. The delineation of a single re- 
 gion, however accurate, is not to be substituted for that of 
 a great continent. The mental, moral, and political por- 
 traiture of such men as your lordship is not so easily taken 
 as certain artists appear to imagine. These, moreover, are 
 small matters, my Lord : you have been raised up for a great 
 work among mankind ; and justly to estimate the workman 
 and the work, it is necessary to take your whole life, and 
 to examine the lengthened series of great actions by which 
 it has been illustrated. It is further necessary to compare 
 your actions and character with those of your contempora- 
 ries and of your predecessors, of all countries and of all 
 times ; and, finally, in order to a just judgment, you must 
 be tested by the Word of eternal Truth. To perform this 
 undertaking aright, my Lord, will be the business of 
 Christian and philosophic biography. I can barely hint 
 at these points ; and, in so doing, I hope there is little fear 
 that I shall offend your delicacy ; for, adopting the lan- 
 guage of Elihu, " Let me not, I pray you, accept any man's 
 person, — neither let me give flattering titles unto man ; for 
 I know not to give flattering titles ; in so doing my Maker 
 would soon take me away." But I cannot discharge my con- 
 science without stating facts and opinions tending to your 
 lordship's credit, because a grateful reference to what you 
 have done is essential as a foundation for the expression of 
 regrets that you have not done more. I shall, however, 
 
ON SLAVERY AND EDUCATION. 1Q5 
 
 have occasion to show that, how exalted soever may be 
 your place among men, a far higher elevation invites you 
 still to ascend. 
 
 I hope your lordship will give me your candid attention, 
 for my sole motive in addressing this letter to you is, your 
 own honour and the good of the whole family of man. The 
 period of life, and the stage of experience which you have 
 reached, are favourable. The lengthening shadows proclaim 
 that your lordship's sun is descending. It is now more than 
 three-score years since you entered this mortal sphere : 
 not only, therefore, has the delusive romance of youth 
 passed away, but the bewildering fires of ambition, which 
 burn most fiercely in middle life, have surely subsided. 
 You now understand somewhat correctly the true condi- 
 tion of man. You have drunk to its dregs the cup of 
 earthly greatness, and this world has nothing more to offer 
 you. As a politician and a moralist, as a man of letters 
 and of science, as a lawyer and an orator, you have been 
 acknowledged, by the suffrages of millions, to be the first 
 man of your age. You have sat in each house of legisla- 
 tion, without an equal in either, the chief ornament and 
 attraction of both. Your fame has filled the civilized 
 world. Is this then enough, my Lord ? Is' the heart at 
 ease and satisfied ? I venture to presume it answers, — 
 No ! Well, but there is still more in reserve. Your 
 lordship's speeches and writings will go down to the latest 
 ages, and live as long as the language whose rich resources 
 they exemplify and exhaust. History, too, uninfluenced 
 by party and envy, will do your lordship justice. Poste- 
 rity will, indeed, assign you a far higher place on " Fame's 
 dread mountain," than even that which has been accorded 
 by the bulk of your contemporaries. In speaking thus, I 
 make no reference to your rank, my Lord ; no man ever 
 owed less to rank than your lordship ; you descended when 
 you entered the Upper House. You elevated the peerage, 
 
 f 3 
 
JOS RESULTS OF MISSIONARY LABOUR 
 
 not the peerage you. The historian will chiefly delight in 
 the patriotic Commoner. Even now the lord is lost in the 
 man. Your simple name, in after times, will blaze in glory 
 as the sun, while your coronet will be a tiny speck on its 
 disc, scarcely visible. No living statesman has so much to 
 hope, and so little to fear from future generations, as your 
 lordship. The great points of your political creed will 
 assuredly be at length embraced by all nations. The pro- 
 gress of reason, the voice of prophecy, the interests of 
 earth, all unite to support your views of war, peace, slavery, 
 education, and the surpassing glories of moral greatness. 
 Every age will bring the mind of England more and more 
 into unison with yours. Like prophecy, your lordship's 
 character will gain with the advance of time. And when 
 the period arrives at which " the kingdom and dominion, 
 and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven, 
 shall be given to the people of the saints of the Most High, 
 whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all domi- 
 nions shall serve and obey him ;"— when this period arrives, 
 my Lord, the evils which you have denounced and opposed, 
 with so much consistency, energy, and eloquence, will 
 cease to be, and the good which you have so long and so 
 strenuously laboured to promote will be more than realized 
 throughout the whole earth ; for, be assured, my Lord, 
 your utmost demands and desires are, according to the vo- 
 lume of Inspiration, a poor instalment of the felicity which 
 awaits our now distracted and afflicted world. 
 
 My Lord, it will be allowed, by multitudes of the best 
 and wisest of mankind, that I have not overdrawn the pic- 
 ture of your lordship's prospects of future renown. Per- 
 sonal and political adversaries are incompetent judges of 
 such a matter ; and so, indeed, are personal and political 
 friends. But a great reverse awaits your lordship's posi- 
 tion. Men who are now all but unknown will, in the bet- 
 ter days of our world, be inconceivably more illustrious 
 
ON SLAVERY AND EDUCATION. JQY 
 
 than your lordship. You will then be considered as only 
 a humble personage in comparison with such a man as the 
 missionary martyr, Williams. One chapter of the " Mis- 
 sionary Enterprises" will then bear a higher value than all 
 the writings of your lordship, and of all the orators, states- 
 men, historians, and philosophers in our language. Every 
 thing is permanently great only as it belongs to Christ and 
 his kingdom. Your speeches in behalf of John Smith, will 
 accordingly, possess an interest with the ages to come in- 
 finitely greater than any other — the most celebrated not 
 excepted — that you ever uttered. Those speeches are 
 identified with the cause of Christ, and they will partake 
 of its immortality. Next to those will be your speeches 
 and letters on education ; then those against slavery ; and 
 finally such as were made in defence of civil and reli- 
 gious liberty. All the others, splendid as they are, will 
 be deemed of inferior worth. My Lord, if these things be 
 so, are not the bulk of your great compeers living to little 
 pm-pose, and in a manner which but ill comports with their 
 high destinies and real interests as immortal beings ? If 
 there is truth in the awful disclosures of the sacred Scrip- 
 tures, how lamentable is the prospect of the vast body of 
 this world's great men ! 
 
 My Lord, will you allow me to say that, while specu- 
 lating on the glory which, in coming ages, awaits you, I 
 could not help also anticipating the judgment of posterity 
 in regard to your lordship's religious character. I would 
 allude to this point with profound respect and great 
 tenderness ; but I dare not be wholly silent, because I can 
 even now speak with certainty as to the light in which 
 they will view you. Before me are the writings of holy 
 prophets and apostles, with the true sayings of Christ, the 
 rule of judgment. By these records will posterity esti* 
 mate you. Its conclusion may, therefore, be easily ascer- 
 tained. Its higher tribunal will affirm the decision which 
 
1 Qg RESULTS OF MISSIONARY LABOUR 
 
 has been already pronounced by a great majority of 
 educated and liberal Christian men, your contemporaries 
 It will declare your lordship to have been a man of pure 
 morals, of unusual disinterestedness, and of an ambition not 
 greater than your capabilities to serve your country, and 
 benefit mankind — the prince of patriots and philanthro- 
 pists. But, my Lord, while future generations thus pass 
 sentence upon your personal and public character, they 
 will tremble when they think of the possible condition of 
 that mighty spirit which once informed the frame that 
 bore the name of Brougham! They will be unable to 
 discover any thing in your lordship's past history which 
 bespeaks true sympathy with the religion of the Son of 
 God ! They will discover nothing in all that you have 
 written or spoken that indicates a right understanding of 
 the doctrines of the cross, or any anxious concern about 
 the world to come ! I have looked for such indications in 
 vain, where, if at all, they might have been expected to 
 be found — in your speeches for the missionary Smith. 
 This is a remarkable and mournful defect in those other- 
 wise admirable orations. On that tragical occasion, an 
 opportunity was furnished such as no senator ever before 
 enjoyed, of doing justice to a class of men " of whom the 
 world is not worthy;" an opportunity, too, of atoning to 
 earth and heaven for the injury done to the cause of 
 humanity, instruction, freedom, and religion among the 
 whole human race, by the impious, calumnious, and atro- 
 cious articles on " Methodism and Missions," which had 
 appeared in the great literary organ of the North, with 
 the origin and early conduct of which you are closely 
 identified. But you let the occasion slip. This was the 
 more to be regretted, ray Lord, because your case fully 
 admitted — nay, demanded — a defence of the class as well 
 as of the individual. In your exordium, you truly repre- 
 sented those around you as pouring contempt upon your 
 
ON SLAVERY AND EDUCATION. 109 
 
 cause, ridiculing the petitioners, and adding, that " after 
 all, it is merely about a poor missionary'' Oh ! my Lord, 
 then was the moment to have summoned your boundless 
 resources, and collected your giant strength, that you 
 might exhibit to your ignorant auditory the progress of 
 civilization, with the degree to which it had been the effect 
 of missions, and the impossibility of its extension and 
 completion over our world but by their means — to have set 
 forth the claims of these truly noble persons to the world's 
 gratitude and admiration, to the protection of governments, 
 the patronage of princes, and the smile of kings — to have 
 shown that the home deeds, even of a Howard, and his 
 short continental tours of compassion, were but trifles, 
 cheap and safe amusements, as compared with the suffer- 
 ing and sacrifice, the disheartening toil and the voluntary 
 exile, the frequent perils and the cruel persecutions, the 
 ill-paid and unpraised labours of these apostolic men — and 
 then to have hurled your thunderbolts of burning indig- 
 nation at all governments, whether home or colonial, and 
 at all functionaries, whether civil or military, subjects or 
 sovereigns, who dared to impede the progress of these 
 best benefactors of the human race! Never, my Lord, 
 never had orator such subject before ! Never had states- 
 man such an occasion of promoting the highest enterprise 
 on earth — an enterprise comprehensive of the interests of 
 all classes, of all nations, through all times ! Heroes and 
 sages, all who have been deemed first among this world's 
 wise and good, are poor and limited subjects, poor beneath 
 all poverty and limited within all limitation, as compared 
 with the murdered missionary of Demerara ! 
 
 Since the death of John Smith, the subject of the 
 missionary character has been repeatedly pressed upon 
 your lordship in a manner which strongly claimed your 
 parliamentary attention and defence; and it is gratefully 
 admitted that you have somewhat improved in your 
 
120 RESULTS OF MISSIONARY LABOUR 
 
 knowledge of its claims, and also made repeated reference 
 to it. In your speech of July 13, 1830, in the House of 
 Commons, you smote, with just severity, the persecutors 
 of Mr. Orton and his brethren, whom you pronounced 
 " blameless and pious men," which, though " faint praise," 
 was still something. In your speech in the House of 
 Lords, February, 20, 1838, you came more fully out and 
 did good service to the Missionary Body in the West 
 Indies. Adverting to the sober and even devout manner 
 in which the negroes passed the festival of their liberties, 
 you found the eause of their laudable conduct in the 
 labours bestowed upon them by the missionaries. " They 
 enjoy," said your lordship, "the advantages of much 
 religious instruction, and partake, in a large measure, of 
 spiritual consolation. These blessings they derive not 
 from the ministrations of the Established Church, — not 
 that the aid of its priests is withheld from them, but the 
 services of others, of zealous missionaries, are found more 
 acceptable and more effectual, because they are more 
 suited to the capacity of the people. The meek and 
 humble pastor, although perhaps more deficient in secular 
 accomplishments, is far more abounding in zeal for the 
 work of the vineyard, and being less raised above his flock, 
 is better fitted to guide them in the path of religious 
 duty. Not made too fine for his work by pride of science, 
 nor kept apart by any peculiar refinement of taste, but 
 inspired with a fervent devotion to the interests of his 
 flock, the missionary pastor lives but for them ; their 
 companion on the week-day, as their instructor on the 
 sabbath ; their friend and counsellor in temporal matters, 
 as their guide in spiritual concerns. These are the causes 
 of the influence he enjoys, — this the source from whence 
 the good he does them flows. Nor can I pass by this part 
 of the West Indian picture without rendering the tribute 
 of heartfelt admiration which I am proud to pay, when I 
 
ON SLAVERY AND EDUCATION. 211 
 
 contemplate the pious zeal, the indefatigable labours of 
 these holy and disinterested men; and I know full well 
 that if I make my appeal to my noble friend,* he will 
 repeat the testimony he elsewhere bore to the same high 
 merits, when he promulgated his honest opinion, that ? for 
 the origin of all religious feeling among the negroes, it 
 is among the missionaries, and not the clergy, we must 
 look.'" 
 
 Accept, my Lord, in the name of my missionary brethren 
 in the West Indies, most sincere thanks for the noble 
 " tribute" which concludes this passage. " Heartfelt ad- 
 miration" is a thing in which your lordship has dealt but 
 sparingly ; seldom have you bestowed it upon unworthy 
 objects, and never in undue proportions. On these grounds 
 this strong expression of your lordship's views is estimated 
 at a very high value. I beg leave, however, to state that 
 your lordship's view of the causes of the missionary's 
 success is wholly unsound, and your idea of their in- 
 feriority in any respect, to the clergy, inaccurate. In 
 your analysis of those causes, you have done all that 
 philosophy can effect, which is just — nothing ! The won- 
 drous difference between these two classes of spiritual 
 physicians, my Lord, consists not merely, nor even chiefly, 
 in rank, tastes, talents, culture, condescension, and habits 
 — in all of which, however, the superiority for the most 
 part lies on the side of the missionaries — but in the 
 medicines which they respectively administer. Their views 
 of human nature, of the character of God, of the essence 
 and object of the " Gospel," are nearly as different as 
 morals and mathematics — and just as different are the 
 effects produced upon their respective auditories. The 
 creed of the missionaries, to a man, is that of your late 
 evangelical friend Wilberforce ; the creed of that class 
 
 * Lord Sligo. 
 
112 RESULTS OF MISSIONARY LABOUR 
 
 of the clergy, the impotence of whose labours is attested 
 by Lord Sligo, is that of your heathen favourite Cicero. 
 In the dedication of your treatise on Natural Theology 
 to Earl Spencer, speaking of the death of Romilly, you 
 thus set forth the opinions of the Roman orator : " Ever 
 since the time I followed him to the grave, I question if 
 either of us has read, without meditating upon the irre- 
 parable loss we and all men then sustained, the words of 
 the ancient philosopher best imbued with religious opinions : 
 — ' Proficiscor enim non ad eos solum viros de quibus ante 
 dixi, sed etiam ad Catonem meum, quo nemo vir melior 
 natus est, nemo pietate praestantior,'" &c. — opinions at 
 utter variance with the word of God. Alas ! my Lord, the 
 "melior natus est" comprises a doctrine and a principle 
 which have no place in the volume of inspiration. How 
 different is the language of Paul ! For the " praestantior 
 pietate" of your Roman worthies, he would substitute, 
 " Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, and 
 changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image 
 made like to corruptible man, and to birds and four-footed 
 beasts, and creeping things, who changed the truth of 
 God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature 
 more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever ; who, 
 knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit 
 such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, 
 but have pleasure in them that do them." Cicero's 
 "praestantior pietate" is the exact counterpart of Paul's 
 "wholly given to idolatry." Hundreds and thousands of 
 negro boys and girls, by the Scriptures of truth, have 
 become possessors of a wisdom and a worth infinitely 
 surpassing all that the best men of the best days of Greece 
 and Rome could boast. 
 
 My Lord, your error respecting the message has led to 
 a corresponding error with regard to the messengers : and 
 hence arise your utterly defective conceptions, both of the 
 
ON SLAVERY AND EDUCATION. \\% 
 
 missionary character and of the missionary enterprise — ■ 
 conceptions so unlike yourself, upon all other subjects, 
 and so unworthy of the mighty theme. The difference 
 between the missionaries and the clergy, of whom Lord 
 Sligo speaks, results from the difference of their religious 
 systems ; for, as are their respective systems, so are their 
 own hearts, habits, and characters. This it was which 
 rendered the one the friends and companions of the 
 planter, and the other, of the slave ; — which led those to 
 addict themselves to carnal pleasure, and these to preach- 
 ing and prayer. The power of the missionary arises from 
 the things which he believes respecting the love of God, 
 the death of Christ, and the Eternal Spirit. These, my 
 Lord, are the weapons of his warfare, by which, in a brief 
 space, he breaks down strongholds of darkness and super- 
 stition which have stood thousands of years, and on which 
 this world's vain philosophy could have made no impres- 
 sion. Pity it is that such men as your lordship do not 
 condescend to examine the facts of the gospel record, and 
 the facts of the history of its propagation! The latter 
 is the medium through which the missionary character and 
 enterprise ought to be contemplated; for there is no 
 other method by which justice can be done to either the 
 men or their work. The want of a correct apprehension 
 of those facts, accounts for the imperfection and meager- 
 ness of your lordship's views ; for you always speak of the 
 missionary simply as related to the West India Islands, 
 and appear to think of him merely as a patient, pains- 
 taking, and conscientious schoolmaster — as an efficient 
 sabbath and day-school teacher! Nothing seems farther 
 from your lordship's thoughts than the idea that both his 
 mission and his message are of divine origin; that he is 
 really the servant of Christ, and under his immediate 
 protection and patronage ; that he is attended by a special 
 
114' RESULTS OF MISSIONARY LABOUR 
 
 divine power which operates on the minds of those that 
 hear him, quickening their torpor, enlightening their dark- 
 ness, convincing their understandings, bending their wills, 
 renovating their hearts, and moulding their characters by 
 the knowledge and belief of Scripture truths. These, my 
 Lord, are facts ; and, as a disciple of Bacon, you can test 
 them by the Inductive Logic. As causes, do they, or do 
 they not, account for the effects ? The book itself which 
 supplies the facts and doctrines, abundantly testifies to the 
 invariable results which the knowledge and belief of them 
 will produce in the hearts of men, whether Scythian or 
 barbarian, bond or free. The missionary, in every part of 
 the world, tests the book by experiment, and the result is 
 uniformly the same — the message is always " the power of 
 God unto salvation to every one that believes." 
 
 But, my Lord, let us come at once to the source of all 
 your lordship's misunderstandings relative to the work of 
 missions, — wrong views concerning the Lord Jesus Christ. 
 The facts of his Divinity, Incarnation, Vicarious Sacrifice, 
 Resurrection, Ascension, and Mediatorial Reign, lie at the 
 foundation of the Christian Mission. The enterprise is 
 carried on under the express sanction and authority of the 
 Son of God. Jesus Christ, immediately before his ascen- 
 sion to heaven, thus addressed his assembled disciples : — 
 " All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth ; go 
 ye, therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the 
 name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy 
 Ghost, — teaching them to observe all things whatsoever 
 I have commanded you, — and, lo, I am with you alway, 
 even unto the end of the world." Having uttered these 
 words, he added, in reference to their qualification, " Ye 
 shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come 
 upon you ; and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in 
 Jerusalem, and in Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the 
 
ON SLAVERY AND EDUCATION. H5 
 
 uttermost part of the earth; — and when he had spoken 
 these things, while they beheld, he was taken up ; and a 
 cloud received him out of their sight." 
 
 Such, my Lord, is the basis of the system in behalf of 
 which I am anxious to enlist your powers and sympathies. 
 There appertain to it a grandeur, a magnificence, a phi- 
 lanthropy, which are calculated to attract and interest a 
 mind like yours. Your literature will enable you to pro- 
 nounce at once upon the utter insignificance of all projects 
 of human illumination as compared with this of Jesus 
 Christ. His divinity, his atonement, the Divine Person- 
 ality and agency of the Holy Spirit, the Apostolic mira- 
 cles, and the doctrine of Regeneration, — these, wholly 
 apart, who can adequately estimate the vastness and glory 
 of the Christian mission, considered simply as a scheme of 
 education ? It contemplates nothing short of the com- 
 plete instruction and subjection to moral rule of the entire 
 human race throughout all the isles and continents of our 
 globe ! The Founder of the Christian Mission hath thus 
 commanded : — " Go, and teach all nations" — " Go ye into 
 all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature." 
 Oh, my Lord, what benevolence is here ! How immense 
 the magnitude of this conception ! Who can hear it with- 
 out feelings of indescribable emotion ? I will not degrade 
 the stupendous theme by attempts at comparing it with 
 aught that patriotism, philosophy, or philanthropy has 
 ever dreamed of, for the good of mankind. No, my Lord, 
 the universe of God supplies no materials for adequate 
 comparison ! The mighty scheme, as a mere system of 
 intellectual and moral culture and social government, 
 stands forth in immeasurable and incomparable greatness, 
 and in peerless glory. It will one day be the wonder of 
 earth, as it is now of heaven. If this scheme, my Lord, is 
 not sublime, where is sublimity to be found ? And its 
 sublimity is equalled only by its benevolence. Though I 
 
1 16 RESULTS OF MISSIONARY LABOUR 
 
 decline, yet your lordship may compare Jesus Christ, in 
 the character of a teacher and the founder of an order of 
 teachers, with all whom history has transmitted to us. 
 The exercise will be salutary. The honest inquirer will 
 rise from it, filled with shame and astonishment at the 
 world's injustice and infatuation! How comes it, my 
 Lord, that the most gifted spirits of our race are so apa- 
 thetic on this transcendent subject? How is it that they 
 can see so much to admire in Socrates groping in thick 
 darkness amid the scarcely visible light of the glow-worm, 
 while they can discover nothing to attract in Jesus Christ 
 clothed in the cloudless splendours of the noon-day sun ? 
 How is it that poets and orators kindle into rapture at 
 small exhibitions of benevolence, connected with the phy- 
 sical welfare of our species, while they are unmoved, or 
 only moved with sentiments of scorn, at the wonderful 
 provision of the gospel for the moral and intellectual 
 necessities of all mankind, and for their happiness in the 
 life that now is, and in that which is to come ? How 
 glowing is Burke's picture of Howard ! The orator de- 
 scribes the philanthropist as visiting " all Europe to dive 
 into the depths of dungeons ; to plunge into the infection 
 of hospitals ; to survey the mansions of sorrow and pain ; 
 to take the gauge and dimensions of misery, depression, 
 and contempt ; to remember the forgotten ; to attend to 
 the neglected ; to visit the forsaken ; to compare and col- 
 late the distresses of all men in all countries. His plan is 
 original, and it is as full of genius as it is of humanity. 
 It is a voyage of discovery, a circumnavigation of charity ; 
 and already the benefit of his labour is felt more or less in 
 every country." 
 
 My Lord, this eulogium is merited ; and although the 
 rhetorician has made the most of his subject, I would not 
 detract from the fame of Howard. Compared with the 
 herd of common philanthropists, he was great, superla- 
 
ON SLAVERY AND EDUCATION. JJ7 
 
 tively great; but there the "collation" must stop. He 
 may not for a moment be placed in the scales with the 
 Christian missionary, and still less with the apostles of 
 Christ. What were his performances as compared with 
 those of Paul ? Nothing and vanity — objects utterly be- 
 neath mention. Whether we consider the nature, number, 
 variety, extent or perpetuity of the benefits conferred by 
 the labours of Paul on Asia, Europe, and the universe, 
 they are all equally, and all infinitely beyond comparison ; 
 and yet we look in vain into the volumes of moralists, phi- 
 losophers, orators, and legislators for one word in com- 
 mendation of him ! Why is this, my Lord ? Viewing 
 Paul simply as a philanthropist, as a teacher, a promoter 
 of popular education of the highest order, because of a 
 moral character, and as having transmitted these blessings 
 through all subsequent generations, is he not, next to his 
 Master, by far the first of human kind ? What work so 
 noble as the work of the Christian teacher engaged in 
 purifying and elevating the spirit of man ? That work has 
 outlived empires ; it is still in all the freshness of opening 
 manhood ; it will survive the heavens above and the earth 
 on which we dwell. The terms in which your lordship 
 describes the secular schoolmaster are inadequate to set 
 forth the merits of Christian teachers — of the men who 
 teach for eternity. " Their calling is high and holy ; their 
 fame is the property of nations ; their renown will fill the 
 earth in after ages, in proportion as it sounds not far off in 
 their own times. Each one of these great teachers of the 
 world, possessing his soul in peace, — performs his ap- 
 pointed course — awaits in patience the fulfilment of the 
 promises — resting from his labours, bequeaths his memory 
 to the generation whom his works have blessed — and sleeps 
 under the humble, but not inglorious epitaph, commemo- 
 rating ' one in whom mankind lost a friend, and no man 
 got rid of an enemy !' " Of this passage both the thought 
 
Jig RESULTS OF MISSIONARY LABOUR 
 
 and the phrase are high and noble, but they are utterly- 
 inadequate to describe the claims and glory of the mis- 
 sionaries of the Son of God. Such a subject would ele- 
 vate, while it would overtask, the language of angels ! 
 
 My Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth has en- 
 dowed you with an extraordinary perception of the glory 
 of civilization and the blessings of peace. I say percep- 
 tion ; for in you it seems to be intuitive rather than the 
 result of judgment and inquiry, while by these it has been 
 powerfully fortified and invigorated. From the outset of 
 your mighty career, this formed one of the most distin- 
 guishing features of your intellectual character. It is in- 
 teresting to trace your love of peace and the arts of peace, 
 your detestation of war and the desolations of war, in your 
 " Colonial Policy of the European Powers," the wondrous 
 production of your 24th year, published in 1803 ; in your 
 speech at Liverpool, in 1812, in which you declared your- 
 self a man who would "give his own age no reason to 
 fear him, or posterity to curse him, — one whose proudest 
 ambition it is to be deemed the friend of liberty and 
 peace ;" and in your oration, in the same town, in July, 
 1835, when, after beholding the stupendous exhibition of 
 mechanic skill which its locomotive works presented, your 
 vast reflections on the scene thus found a correspondent 
 vent : — " When I saw the difficulties of space and time, 
 as it were, overcome — when I beheld a kind of miracle 
 exhibited before my astonished eyes — when I surveyed 
 mosses pierced through on which it was before hardly 
 possible for man or beast to plant the sole of the foot, and 
 now covered with a road and bearing heavy wagons, laden 
 not only with innumerable passengers, but with merchan- 
 dize of the largest bulk and heaviest weight, — when I saw 
 valleys made practicable by the bridges, of ample height 
 and length, which spanned them, — saw the steam railway 
 traversing the surface of the water at a distance of sixty 
 
ON SLAVERY AND EDUCATION. H9 
 
 or seventy feet in perpendicular height, — saw the rocks 
 excavated, and the gigantic power of man penetrating 
 through miles of the solid mass, and gaining a great, a 
 lasting, an almost perennial conquest over the powers of 
 nature, by his skill and his industry, — when I contem- 
 plated all this, was it possible for me to avoid the reflec- 
 tions which crowded into my mind, — not in praise of 
 man's great deeds — not in admiration of the genius and 
 perseverance which he had displayed, or even of the cou- 
 rage which he had shown in setting himself against the 
 obstacles that matter had opposed to his course, — no, but 
 the melancholy reflection, that, whilst all these prodigious 
 efforts of the human race, so fruitful of praise, but so 
 much more fruitful in lasting blessings to mankind, and 
 which never could have forced a tear from any eye, but 
 for that unhappy casualty which deprived me of a friend, 
 and you of a representative,* a cause of mourning which 
 there began and there ended ; when I reflected that this 
 peaceful, and guiltless, and useful triumph over the ele- 
 ments and over nature herself, had cost a million only of 
 money, whilst fifteen hundred millions had been squan- 
 dered on cruelty and crime — in naturalizing barbarism 
 over the world — shrouding the nations in darkness — 
 making bloodshed tinge the earth of every country under 
 the sun — in one horrid and comprehensive word, squan- 
 dered on war, — the greatest curse of the human race, and 
 the greatest crime, because it involves every other crime 
 within its execrable name, and all with the wretched, and, 
 thank God, I may now say, the utterly frustrated — as it 
 always was the utterly vain — attempt to crush the liberties 
 of the people ! — {Here the company rose simultaneously, 
 and greeted this sentiment with deafening cheers.) — I look 
 backwards with shame — with regret unspeakable — with 
 
 * Mr. Huskisson's death in 1830, on the opening of the Railway. 
 
12Q RESULTS OF MISSIONARY LABOUR 
 
 indignation to which I should in vain attempt to give ut- 
 terance — upon that course of policy which we are now 
 happily too well informed and too well intentioned ever to 
 allow again whilst we live — when I think that if one hun- 
 dred, and but one hundred, of those fifteen hundred mil- 
 lions, had been employed in promoting the arts of peace, 
 and the progress of civilization, and of wealth, and pros- 
 perity amongst us, instead of that other employment which 
 is too hateful to think of, and almost now-a-days too dis- 
 gusting to speak of — (and I hope to live to see the day 
 when such things will be incredible, — when looking back 
 we shall find it impossible to believe they ever happened) 
 — instead of being burthened with eight hundred millions 
 of debt, borrowed after spending seven hundred millions — 
 borrowed when we had no more to spend, — we should 
 have seen the whole country covered with such works as 
 now unite Manchester and Liverpool, and should have 
 enjoyed peace uninterrupted during the last forty years, 
 with all the blessings which an industrious and virtuous 
 people deserve, and which peace profusely sheds upon their 
 lot." 
 
 My Lord, it was worth being born into our world to give 
 conception and utterance to this passage. Had it been the 
 production of a Greek or Roman orator, it would have 
 sufficed, singly and unsupported, to immortalize him. In 
 vain, my Lord, shall we look into the stores of the heathen 
 literature of any age for such a passage. Upon the 
 subjects of which it treats — the greatest of all sublunary 
 themes — it far surpasses any thing transmitted to our 
 times. If your lordship will pause a moment, and cast 
 your thoughts backward over the line of the Greek poets, 
 you will find that with the exception of Ilesiod their 
 father, and one or two passages in Homer, there is not 
 in them all a single emphatic condemnation of the prin- 
 ciple of war ! Turning to the poetry of the Romans, we 
 
ON SLAVERY AND EDUCATION. Jg] 
 
 discover in the Pollio of Virgil a succession of beautiful 
 lines which imply condemnation, and, among some of the 
 satirists, we meet with occasional expressions of aversion. 
 But the truth is, as your Lordship early remarked in your 
 " Colonial Policy," that the conclusion to which the study 
 of the classics conducts us, is, that the leading feature of 
 ancient policy was the strong and uniform preference of 
 the warlike to the peaceful arts. Cicero, who, in many 
 respects, was to Rome what your Lordship is to England 
 — I ought to say, the world — strongly resembled you in 
 early, and, as I have already said, inborn, intuitive per- 
 ception of the immeasurable superiority of moral to mili- 
 tary glory. He tells us in his Offices, that, when a boy, 
 he considered Marcus Scaurus, the great social type of 
 his age, by no means inferior to Caius Marius, the 
 Wellington of his day. The opinion of the child was 
 maintained by the man ; for, in after life, he proclaimed 
 to mankind, that war with its arms, must give place to 
 peace with its arts ; and that the glory of the conqueror 
 was eclipsed by that of the philanthropic statesman. 
 Cicero received but little support from the literature of 
 his times, which lagged at an immeasurable distance 
 behind him ; and it is in vain that the friends of universal 
 peace look to the orators, historians, and moralists of 
 Rome, whether contemporary with Cicero or not, for 
 passages either to illustrate or to adorn their speeches and 
 disquisitions. Your Lordship is as far as your great 
 prototype in advance of the merely philosophic literature 
 of your own day, and as faintly supported by it. The 
 famous verses of Cicero, — 
 
 Cedant arma togae, concedat laurea linguae ; 
 
 O fortunatem natam, me consule, Romam ! 
 
 were as much the subject of raillery and ridicule to the 
 
 frivolous and ignorant, as your own electric expression — 
 
 " The schoolmaster is abroad." 
 
\22 RESULTS OF MISSIONARY LABOUR 
 
 Now, my Lord, let me call your attention to a re- 
 markable fact. There is a book which existed many, 
 many ages before the birth of Cicero — a book by far the 
 oldest in our world, which is as much in advance of both 
 Cicero and your lordship, as you and he of your re- 
 spective contemporaries. This is certainly a very extra- 
 ordinary fact, and one cannot but wonder that it has not 
 attracted your attention. You will scarcely credit the 
 extent to which the subject of war with its curses, and of 
 peace with its blessings, occupied the thoughts of the men 
 who wrote the books which we designate the Bible. 
 They express themselves with a copiousness, a force, and 
 a fervour which far exceed your own most splendid pas- 
 sages. The fact that wars prevailed among the Jews, is 
 nothing to the purpose. A peculiarity attended those 
 wars, of which it is not pertinent to my purpose to 
 attempt an explanation. That purpose is to show that 
 war was held in abhorrence by the prophets of God ; that 
 they uniformly represent it as a judgment or a crime, and 
 always as a source of calamity; that they foretold its 
 entire cessation ; and, as the result, an amount and variety 
 of happiness hitherto unknown in our world. By the 
 Hebrew poet David alone, more is said in express or 
 implied reprobation of war than in all the literature of the 
 heathen world, although he himself, as a sovereign, had 
 been deeply engaged in the wars of the Jews; — wars 
 which, to a considerable extent, were expressly brought 
 upon him in the course of Divine Providence, as a punish- 
 ment for personal delinquencies. 
 
 The views of the Jewish writers respecting peace always 
 centre in a particular person, to whom they all point, and 
 respecting whose character and government they all most 
 harmoniously agree. They represent him as, in every 
 thing, wholly different from all the kings who had ap- 
 peared in our world, inasmuch as War had been the uni- 
 
ON SLAVERY AND EDUCATION. 1£>3 
 
 form type of their times, while that of his would be Peace. 
 They foretell that his name shall be " The Prince of 
 Peace," and that of " the increase of his government and 
 peace there shall be no end :"* that he shall be a man of 
 extraordinary and unparalleled attainments, piety, and 
 humanity : " The Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, 
 the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of coun- 
 sel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of 
 the Lord ; and shall make him of quick understanding in 
 the fear of the Lord : and he shall not judge after the 
 sight of his eyes, neither reprove after the hearing of his 
 ears ; but with righteousness shall he judge the poor, and 
 reprove with equity, for the meek of the earth : and he 
 shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with 
 the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked."f Your 
 lordship will not fail to contrast the character here drawn 
 with the exhibitions of the vulgar royalty of the earth. 
 The fact, as it relates to the character of the mass of 
 Rulers, is but too truly set forth in the awful words of the 
 prophet Daniel to the despot of Babylon : — " The Most 
 High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to 
 whomsoever he will, and setteth up over it the basest of 
 men."J The Scriptures of the prophets, in reference to 
 the coming King, teem with attestations to his truth, 
 purity, fidelity, justice, benevolence, and compassion. 
 
 Let us now inquire into the manner in which, according 
 to the Hebrew authors, this Sovereign was to come to his 
 kingdom. The facts of its anticipated history are set forth 
 with a sublimity of conception, and a splendour of ex- 
 pression, which throw every thing merely human into ob- 
 scurity. The prophet, adverting to the rising of the Per- 
 sian, Grecian, and Roman monarchies, and their fall, thus 
 brings forward the subject of the last monarchy, with its 
 
 * Isa. ix. 7. f lb. xi. 2—4. J Dan. iv. 17. 
 
 G 2 
 
124 RESULTS OF MISSIONARY LABOUR 
 
 celestial King: — " I beheld till the thrones were cast down, 
 and the Ancient of Days did sit, whose garment was 
 white as snow, and the hair of his head like the pure wool : 
 his throne was like the fiery flame, and his wheels as burn- 
 ing fire. A fiery stream issued and came forth from be- 
 fore him : thousand thousands ministered unto him, and 
 ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him : the 
 judgment was set, and the books were opened. — I saw in 
 the night visions, and, behold, one like the Son of Man 
 came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient 
 of Days, and they brought him near before him. And 
 there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, 
 that all people, and nations, and languages, should serve 
 him : his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall 
 not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be 
 destroyed."* 
 
 How does this passage strike your lordship ? To what 
 shall it be likened ? "What expectations those sentences 
 excite ! Was there ever kingdom like this kingdom ? 
 How worthy is the Sovereign whose character has just 
 been sketched of such a throne ! It is meet that his reign 
 should be at once universal and perpetual. In these two 
 features how unlike it is to* every thing of the kind that 
 has existed amongst men ! 
 
 Let us next consider the international results of the 
 government of this wise, and righteous, and pacific King. 
 In what state does he find the Nations when he ascends 
 the throne ? Their study is War ! Their chief employ- 
 ment is mutual destruction ! What is the first act of the 
 new Sovereign ? On this point the prophet is full and 
 explicit : — " He shall judge among the Nations, and shall 
 rebuke many people." Why ? for what shall he rebuke 
 them ? For their bloodshed ! How will the Nations re- 
 
 * Dan. vii. 9—14. 
 
ON SLAVERY AND EDUCATION. ] Oft 
 
 ceive his rebuke ? " They shall beat their swords into 
 ploughshares, and their spears into pruning-hooks ; nation 
 shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they 
 learn war any more."* The entire current of the feelings 
 of nations will be at once and for ever reversed. How 
 immense the power which will suffice to work such a re- 
 volution ! Mankind will reflect with wonder on the 
 change, and will ascribe it to its proper cause ; — not to 
 mere secular education ; — not to infidel philosophy ; — not 
 to wise legislation ; — not to any thing but its true source. 
 It will be the theme of intense and delightful discussion 
 to the historians and philosophers of future times. 
 " Come," they will say, " come, behold the works of the 
 Lord, what desolations he hath made in the earth. He 
 maketh wars to cease unto the end of the earth; he break- 
 eth the bow, and cutteth the spear in sunder ; he burnetii 
 the chariot in the fire."f In those days there will be 
 wide-spread havoc among the munitions of war. Walls, 
 bulwarks, forts, fleets, all the instruments of defence and 
 murder — all, all will be destroyed ! 
 
 Let us now, my Lord, look at the social aspect of the 
 Nations under this altered economy. The state of things 
 is portrayed under figures the most beautiful and affecting. 
 " The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard 
 shall lie down with the kid ; and the calf and the young 
 lion and the fading together ; and a little child shall lead 
 them. And the cow and the bear shall feed ; their young 
 ones shall lie down together ; and the lion shall eat straw 
 like the ox ; and the sucking child shall play on the hole 
 of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the 
 cockatrice' den ; they shall no more hurt nor destroy.''^ 
 What a picture of innocence ! What emblems of trans- 
 formation among the most untoward and barbarous cha- 
 racters and classes ! From this harmony will result a hap- 
 
 * Isa.. xi. 4, &c. f Psa. xlvi. 8, 9. X Isa. xi. 6—9. 
 
12(3 RESULTS OF MISSIONARY LABOUR 
 
 piness never previously known on earth. The same 
 writers exult in the anticipation of those glorious days of 
 peaceful joy, and thus summon the universe to celebrate 
 the goodness of the heavenly King : — " Let the people 
 praise thee, O God ; let all the people praise thee. O let 
 the nations be glad and sing for joy: for thou shalt judge 
 the people righteously, and govern the nations upon earth. 
 Let the people praise thee, O God ; let all the people 
 praise thee. Then shall the earth yield her increase ; and 
 God, even our own God, shall bless us. God shall bless 
 us, and all the ends of the earth shall fear him."* " The 
 meek shall inherit the earth ; and shall delight themselves 
 in the abundance of peace. "f 
 
 What times will those be, my Lord, in which these 
 things shall be brought into actual existence! What a 
 change will come over the legislation of our world, and 
 over the spirit of man ! Hitherto, in all lands, through all 
 time, the multitude has always been despised, neglected, 
 oppressed. Government, at once perfectly free and wholly 
 righteous, is a thing unknown in our world. Cruel des- 
 pots, of all states, small and great, have only thought of 
 themselves ; and wherever an aristocracy has sprung up, 
 its main study has been to imitate and combine with the 
 Chief Ruler in despoiling and enthralling the millions! 
 Laws have seldom been framed from any other motive 
 than to promote the supposed benefit of those who made 
 them. And then as to War, it hath always been a double 
 curse — a curse both to the victor and to the vanquished. 
 The eyes of the Jewish writers were open to all the aspects 
 of bondage and of slaughter. In their writings there is 
 an all-pervading spirit of justice, humanity, and compas- 
 sion, wholly unknown to the literature of Greece and 
 Rome. This is a fact, my Lord, as remarkable as it is 
 
 * Psa. lxvii. 3—7. f Psa. lxxxvii. 11. 
 
ON SLAVERY AND EDUCATION. 127 
 
 unaccountable, upon any other principle than that which 
 Christians assign. The bulk, indeed, of those heathen 
 authors who have written of liberty, slavery, and legal 
 wrong, appear always to have written with the dread of 
 the despot's sword and the spear before them. They 
 wrote as they thought — in fetters ! The exceptions, such 
 as Tacitus, and one or two more, only confirm the rule : 
 and even where he and others spoke as freemen of free- 
 dom, their regards were not directed to the masses of man- 
 kind. They had no conception of lifting up the spirits of 
 the prostrate millions by providing them with intellectual 
 and moral culture. They sought nothing, and deemed 
 nothing desirable, beyond immunities and privileges for 
 the wealthier classes of society. 
 
 One of the most extraordinary and peculiar features of 
 the new kingdom, according to the Jewish authors, was 
 the intense and undeviating regard to be had for the poor. 
 Indeed, pity for the poor is a distinguishing characteristic 
 of the Jewish writers generally, to an extent infinitely 
 surpassing all others. How emphatic, and bitter, and full 
 of pathos, is their complaint in behalf of the oppressed ! 
 Nor was this confined to minds of a plebeian order : the 
 best of the Jewish kings were the friends of the afflicted 
 poor. Take, for example, the following reflection of the 
 Royal philosopher : — " So I returned, and considered all 
 the oppressions that are done under the sun ; and beheld 
 the tears of such as were oppressed, and they had no com- 
 forter : on the side of their oppressors, there was power : 
 but they had no comforter ! Wherefore, I praised the 
 dead which are already dead, more than the living which 
 are yet alive ! Yea, better is he than both they, which 
 hath not yet been, who hath not seen the evil work that is 
 done under the sun !" * How touching is the following 
 
 * Eccles. iv. 1—3. 
 
128 RESULTS OF MISSIONARY LABOUR 
 
 delineation of the character of the new King ! — " He 
 shall judge thy people with righteousness, and thy poor 
 with judgment. He shall judge the poor of the people ; 
 he shall save the children of the needy ; and shall break 
 in pieces the oppressor ! He shall deliver the needy when 
 he crieth ; the poor also, and him that hath no helper. 
 He shall spare the poor and needy, and shall save the 
 souls of the needy. He shall redeem their souls from 
 deceit and violence ; and precious shall their blood be in 
 his sight."* 
 
 How unlike is this predicted course of the new King 
 to every thing that has hitherto been associated with 
 crowns and thrones ! The history of the past is before 
 the eye of your lordship, and it will be advantageous to 
 the claims of the Messiah to contrast him with all who 
 have ruled mankind. The compassion which he will che- 
 rish for the poor will result from the same rectitude of 
 mind and tenderness of spirit, that will lead him to de- 
 nounce and abolish war. The Messiah's peaceful reign 
 will be full fraught with blessings to all, but especially to 
 the millions of working people and of the poor. A few 
 of the aristocracy gain fortunes and titles by war ; but the 
 poor are invariably losers. How sublime and awful is the 
 language of Isaiah relative to the bloodstained and re- 
 morseless tyrant of Babylon ! — 
 
 " The whole earth is at rest, and is quiet : they break 
 forth into singing. Yea, the fir- trees rejoice at thee, and 
 the cedars of Lebanon, saying, Since thou art laid down, 
 no feller is come up against us. Hell from beneath is 
 moved for thee to meet thee at thy coming : it stirreth up 
 the dead for thee, even all the chief ones of the earth ; it 
 hath raised up from their thrones all the kings of the na- 
 tions. All they shall speak, and say unto thee, Art thou 
 
 * Psa. lxxii. passim. 
 
ON SLAVERY AND EDUCATION. \QQ 
 
 also become weak as we? art thou become like unto us ? 
 Thy pomp is brought down to the grave, and the noise of 
 thy viols : the worm is spread under thee, and the worms 
 cover thee. How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, 
 son of the morning ! how art thou cut down to the ground 
 which didst weaken the nations ! For thou hast said in 
 thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my 
 throne above the stars of God ; I will sit also upon the 
 mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north : I 
 will ascend above the heights of the clouds ; I will be like 
 the Most High. Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, 
 to the sides of the pit. They that see thee shall narrowly 
 look upon thee, and consider thee, saying, Is this the man 
 that made the earth to tremble, that did shake kingdoms ; 
 that made the world as a wilderness, and destroyed the 
 cities thereof ; that opened not the house of his prisoners ? 
 All the kings of the nations, even all of them, lie in glory, 
 every one in his own house. But thou art cast out of thy 
 grave like an abominable branch, and as the raiment of 
 those that are slain, thrust through with a sword, that go 
 down to the stones of the pit ; as a carcase trodden under 
 feet. Thou shalt not be joined with them in burial, be- 
 cause thou hast destroyed thy land, and slain thy people : 
 the seed of evil-doers shall never be renowned. Prepare 
 slaughter for his children for the iniquity of their fathers : 
 that they do not rise, nor possess the land, nor fill the face 
 of the world with cities. For I will rise up against them, 
 saith the Lord of hosts, and cut off from Babylon the 
 name, and remnant, and son, and nephew, saith the Lord. 
 I will also make it a possession for the bittern, and pools 
 of water , and I will sweep it with the besom of destruc- 
 tion, saith the Lord of hosts."* 
 
 Critics talk of invective, my Lord ; was there ever in- 
 
 * Isa. xiv. 
 G 3 
 
130 RESULTS OF MISSIONARY LABOUR 
 
 vective like this ? Your lordship will not fail to mark the 
 subjects of it. This is the circumstance which calls for 
 special notice. The deadly crime of the Imperial Destroyer 
 of mankind was his unparalleled pride and ambition, in 
 which, apart from its Luciferian atrocity, there was some- 
 thing inconceivably grand and awful! The Searcher of 
 hearts exposes the secrets of the tyrant's bosom. No hu- 
 man spirit, probably, ever so fully entered into infernal 
 communion with the prince of the fallen angels. Pride, 
 independence, impatience of divine restraint — these lie at 
 the foundation of his guilty aspiration. His iniquity is 
 fearfully aggravated by his knowledge. He speaks not as 
 an idolater, but as a man who understands, while he hates, 
 the leading truths of religion. Like the devils, he believes 
 there is one God, but it does not appear that, like them, 
 he even trembles ! "I will ascend into heaven ! I will 
 exalt my throne above the stars of God ! I will sit also 
 upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the 
 north ! I will ascend above the heights of the clouds ! I 
 will be like the Most High 1" Could the mightiest and 
 proudest spirit in Pandemonium expand this thought, or 
 elevate this language? Here we have ambition on the 
 most gigantic scale ; and the principle is the same, whe- 
 ther it burns in the spirit of a Napoleon or of a Francia. 
 It is charged against the King, that he " weakened the 
 nations" — that he " made the earth to tremble, and shook 
 kingdoms" — that he " made the world as a wilderness, and 
 destroyed the cities thereof; and that he opened not the 
 house of his prisoners." These, my Lord, these are the pro- 
 phet's charges against this prince and prototype of mur- 
 derers ! Does your lordship remember any thing in the 
 entire library of classic learning which, in relation to war, 
 can be compared to this as a charge of guilt, an expression 
 of hatred and abhorrence ? This is the crime, but what 
 is the judgment ? It is awful, my Lord, inexpressibly 
 
ON SLAVERY AND EDUCATION. \%\ 
 
 awful — awful beyond precedent or parallel! Vengeance 
 pursues and overtakes the Imperial homicide in both 
 worlds. The whole earth, after a preparatory pause of 
 dread silence, breaks forth, as with the voice of ten thou- 
 sand thunders, in pealing shouts of tempestuous exultation 
 at the tyrant's fall ! The invisible world is moved from 
 centre to circumference. All the myriads of the empire 
 of death are assembled to receive the spirit of the warrior, 
 dyed in the blood of millions ! They receive him with a 
 fierce storm of reproachful and scornful interrogation ! 
 They with one voice proclaim his crime — predict his 
 doom ! The sickened earth, in token of her abhorrence, 
 vomits forth his very carcase as an abominable drug — a 
 mortal poison ! The indignant orb which he had covered 
 with death, refuses him a tomb ! Let the reason be en- 
 graved upon the sceptre of kings, " Because thou hast 
 
 DESTROYED THY LAND, AND SLAIN THY PEOPLE !" While 
 
 he had devastated other kingdoms, he had ruined his own. 
 Vengeance, too, was to descend upon his seed, and the 
 abode which his gory steps had polluted was to be rooted 
 up. " The seed of evil-doers shall never be renowned !" 
 
 The foregoing, my Lord, is a Hebrew writer's picture of 
 war, a delineation of its guilt, and a prediction of the 
 doom of its great promoter. You will, I doubt not, allow 
 that in strength and severity of reprobation, the most 
 powerful of modern orators are jejune and imbecile, as 
 compared with the prophets of Israel. Let us contrast 
 the Prince of Peace with this military hero. In his reign 
 the very "mountains," like beasts of burden, of strength 
 immeasurable, " shall bring peace to the people, and the 
 little hills by righteousness." His government will con- 
 stitute a fountain of public felicity, a source of universal 
 prosperity. " He shall come down like rain upon the 
 mown grass ; as showers that water the earth. In his days 
 shall the righteous nourish ; and abundance of peace so 
 
\$2 RESULTS OF MISSIONARY LABOUR 
 
 long as the moon endureth : and he shall live, and to him 
 shall be given of the gold of Sheba ; prayer shall also be 
 made for him continually, and daily shall he be praised. 
 His name shall endure for ever ; his name shall be con- 
 tinued as long as the sun ; and men shall be blessed in 
 him ; all nations shall call him blessed. And blessed be 
 his glorious name for ever ; and let the whole earth be 
 filled with his glory ! Amen and amen !"* 
 
 My Lord, this beautiful passage will find an apt re- 
 sponse in your breast. You can see at a glance the 
 matchless, the immortal glory of the character, whose fea- 
 tures are here presented. How remarkable is the inti- 
 mation, that, in his days, " the righteous shall flourish." 
 To all nations once, except the Jews, the " righteous" was 
 a character but little known. Even now, in many lands, 
 such characters are "so few, that a child might write 
 them ;"f and, in the most enlightened countries, they con- 
 stitute only a small minority. But this order of things 
 will not endure for ever. It is most distinctly intimated 
 in the book of God, that " the wickedness of the wicked 
 shall come to an end, but he will establish the just." 
 Passing by the fact, that prayer shall daily be made for 
 him, I beg leave to notice the intimation of the perpetuity 
 of his praise. Praise from the wise and good is dear to 
 the generous bosom, while that of the ignorant and vicious 
 is as offensive as it is worthless. A world teeming with 
 enlightened and happy people, all looking, and looking 
 daily, to one man, and acknowledging that man as the 
 author of their felicity; — this, this is glory! Nothing, 
 my Lord, is so changeful as public opinion ; the winds of 
 heaven are its chosen emblem. But why is it changeful ? 
 Because it is seldom truthful, and the multitude is never 
 wholly and permanently just. In the days of this great 
 
 * Psa. lxxii. t Isa. x. 19. 
 
ON SLAVERY AND EDUCATION. \$3 
 
 King, it will be otherwise. Mankind will not then be 
 weakly ruled in classes and parties by individuals not 
 better, but only abler and more cunning, than themselves. 
 The cultivated millions will then think ; they will all 
 think, and all think aright, and, therefore, think as one. 
 It will not then be permitted to proud philosophy to de- 
 signate the largest portion of the human race — of crea- 
 tures capable of bearing the image of the Most High God 
 — as the "swinish multitude." No, my Lord! There 
 will not then be an ignorant man under the canopy of 
 heaven ; and, therefore, neither war nor wickedness. Hear 
 the prophets : " Wisdom and knowledge shall be the sta- 
 bility of thy times."* " All thy children shall be taught 
 of the Lord, and great shall be the peace of thy children. 
 In righteousness shalt thou be established ; thou shalt be 
 far from oppression ; for thou shalt not fear : and from 
 terror ; for it shall not come near thee."f The nations of 
 our world will then be governed by public opinion, and 
 that opinion will be founded in truth, and held by men of 
 truth. Hence the glory of Christ, the King of this new 
 kingdom, will know no abatement. His fame will go on 
 increasing till the end of all things. What force of con- 
 trast with all other royalty in these words, " His name 
 shall endure for ever ; his name shall be continued as long 
 as the sun !" 
 
 My Lord, a good king has never wanted a grateful peo- 
 ple, but sceptred goodness has been a rare thing in our 
 world. Of kings and governors, with two or three small 
 exceptions, the best have been bad! Mankind are not 
 naturally unthankful to their rulers ; but, on the contrary, 
 they have always betrayed a foolish fondness, and dis- 
 played a measure of esteem far exceeding the desert of 
 its objects. The human race have been so unaccustomed 
 
 * Isa. xxxiii. 6. t Ibid. liv. 13, 14. 
 
J34 RESULTS OF MISSIONARY LABOUR 
 
 to acts of kindness, of real patriotism and philanthropy, 
 that the slenderest deed of this description has been al- 
 ways received with a fawning, a servile, and a crouching 
 gratitude, equally degrading to its authors and its object. 
 Only let mankind have justice, and even now — ignorant, 
 vicious, and prostrate as they are — they will not be want- 
 ing in a proper manifestation of the best feelings ; and if 
 you enlighten, purify, and elevate them, their gratitude 
 will rise to the pitch of their obligation. That, in the 
 ages to come, this fact will be most abundantly exempli- 
 fied, is strikingly set forth in those words already recited : 
 — (t Men shall be blessed in him ; all nations shall 
 call him blessed." What a volume of instruction to 
 rulers and to statesmen is comprised in these words ! They 
 have hitherto sought glory mainly through mischief, and 
 claimed gratitude for destruction; they have failed; let 
 them reverse their plan ! How original, striking, and per- 
 tinent to this question, was the remark of Christ, on ob- 
 serving the rising spirit of conquest in his disciples! 
 " There was," says the historian, " a strife among them, 
 which of them should be accounted the greatest : and he 
 said unto them, The kings of the Gentiles exercise lord- 
 ship over them; and they that exercise authority upon 
 them are called Benefactors ; but ye shall not be so ; he 
 that is greatest among you, let him be as the younger, and 
 he that is chief as he that doth serve."* Here, my Lord, 
 we have the principle of true greatness; it is shown to 
 consist, not in the cruel exercise of despotic authority, but 
 in laborious, self-denying, and servant-like exertions to 
 promote the good of man. I need not point out to your 
 lordship the beauty of the passage, nor the greatness of 
 the principle involved in it ; for in your own speech at the 
 Liverpool election, nearly thirty years ago, you supplied a 
 
 * Luke xxii. 24—26. 
 
ON SLAVERY AND EDUCATION. \ %$ 
 
 noble illustration of it, in the following words : — " I stand 
 up in this contest against the friends and followers of Mr. 
 Pitt, or, as they partially designate him, the immortal 
 statesman, now no more. Immortal in the miseries of his 
 devoted country ! Immortal in the wounds of her bleed- 
 ing liberties ! Immortal in the cruel wars which sprang 
 from his cold miscalculating ambition ! Immortal in the 
 intolerable taxes, the countless loads of debt which these 
 wars have flung upon us — which the youngest man amongst 
 us will not live to see the end of! Immortal in the tri- 
 umphs of our enemies, and the ruin of our allies, the 
 costly purchase of so much blood and treasure ! Immortal 
 in the afflictions of England, and the humiliation of her 
 friends, through the whole results of his twenty years' 
 reign, from the first rays of favour with which a delighted 
 Court gilded his early apostasy, to the deadly glare which 
 is at this instant cast upon his name by the burning me- 
 tropolis of our last ally I* But may no such immortality 
 ever fall to my lot — let me rather live innocent and inglo- 
 rious ; and when at last I cease to serve you } and to feel 
 for your wrongs, may I have an humble monument in some 
 nameless stone, to tell that beneath it there rests from his 
 labours in your service, an enemy of the immortal 
 
 STATESMAN A FRIEND OF PEACE AND OF THE PEOPLE." 
 
 Happy, thrice happy were you, my Lord, in making the 
 glorious discovery that wise, humane, and patriotic service 
 is the price of moral power, the condition of real and last- 
 ing greatness. This has been the secret of your great 
 success. There is but one way to the temple of true fame, 
 and, with respect to the general principle, your lordship 
 has found it. Just in proportion as you walk in the foot- 
 steps of Christ and his apostles, will you find the path of 
 solid renown. 
 
 * Intelligence had that day arrived of the burning of Moscow. 
 
1 36 RESULTS OF MISSIONARY LABOUR 
 
 It only now remains, my Lord, to show how this uni- 
 versal, glorious, and happy kingdom is to be established. 
 Its character determines the instrumentality. As it is to 
 be a moral kingdom, it can only be established and upheld 
 by moral means. Physical power, and the force of human 
 legislation, cannot promote it. Nothing can advance it 
 but the illumination of the human mind by knowledge. 
 In this your lordship will frankly concur with me ; for you 
 have spoken and written glorious things in support of the 
 abstract proposition. But, my Lord, while we are at one 
 with respect to knowledge, we are much at variance con- 
 cerning the subject of it. A careful examination of all 
 that you have written on this point, has led me to the 
 most unsatisfactory conclusions. If the Scriptures of truth 
 are the rule of judgment, the doctrines of your lordship do 
 not meet the wants of man. I have taken the utmost 
 pains correctly to ascertain your opinions. I can most 
 truly say, that I have sought with a desire to find, in your- 
 speeches and writings, sentiments in harmony with the 
 volume of Inspiration ; but I am constrained to state — 
 and I do it with deep and poignant regret — that the search 
 has been unsuccessful. In all that you have published, I 
 remember not a sentence which Socrates or Seneca, Epic- 
 tetus or Plato, might not have written. In much, in very 
 much, of what you have said, Christian scholars, of course, 
 fully concur. They would have the people taught, and 
 taught thoroughly, all that you suggest, and a great deal 
 more ; they would rejoice in seeing the bulk of your plans 
 carried out to the utmost extent. With you, they one and 
 all maintain, that "real knowledge never promoted either 
 turbulence or unbelief ; but its progress is the forerunner 
 of liberality and enlightened toleration."* With your 
 lordship, they deem it utterly " preposterous to imagine 
 
 * Inaugural Discourse. 
 
ON SLAVERY AND EDUCATION. 137 
 
 that the enlargement of our acquaintance with the laws 
 which regulate the universe, can dispose to unbelief;" and 
 with you they conclude, that " a pure and true religion 
 has nothing to fear from the greatest expansion which the 
 understanding can receive by the study either of matter or 
 of mind ;" and that " the more widely science is diffused, 
 the better will the Author of all things be known."* In 
 this view, Christian scholars will go all lengths with your 
 lordship ; they will traverse the whole field of Creation, in 
 all its immensity, and proceed in search of facts and phe- 
 nomena to the utmost verge of the universe of God ; and 
 when that search is completed, will sit with you, in the 
 temple of science, the livelong day, to investigate both 
 those facts and their phenomena, and will delight in this 
 way to ascend through nature to her Author ; all this will 
 they do ; but with this they will not, cannot rest satisfied. 
 They respectfully but earnestly ask, that your lordship 
 will, in return, sit down with them to investigate the 
 written Word which illustrates parts of the divine charac- 
 ter to which Creation cannot speak. They hold, that 
 from his Works we ascertain his wisdom, power, and, to 
 some extent, his goodness ; but that from his Word alone 
 we learn his justice, truth, love, and mercy. We are con- 
 ducted to God in both cases ; and, starting from different 
 points, behold the divine character in different aspects ; 
 that view will, upon the whole, be the most perfect, which 
 combines both Nature and Revelation. The two fields 
 are not, however, to be considered as of equal importance. 
 The knowledge of the one is desirable, — that of the other, 
 indispensable. The one is a matter of ornament ; the 
 other, of existence. 
 
 The Jewish writers uniformly concur in their statements 
 
 * Observations upon Education. 
 
138 
 
 RESULTS OF MISSIONARY LABOUR 
 
 respecting the means of establishing and upholding this 
 new kingdom ; they declare, with one voice, that it is to 
 be brought about by the spread of knowledge. They are 
 also most explicit as to the subject of this knowledge. 
 They constantly and emphatically attest that God himself, 
 not his works, is its subject. This is a fact, my Lord, of 
 the greatest importance ; for in this it is that you and the 
 whole body of mere philosophers are found arrayed against 
 the testimony of the Scriptures ; and this lies at the bot- 
 tom of the contempt which most literary and scientific 
 men feel for Christian missions. Your lordship's philo- 
 sophy leads you to resolve every thing into habit. The 
 fullest written statement of your views, on this funda- 
 mental point, is given in the following words : — ?! If, at 
 a very early age, a system of instruction is pursued, by 
 which a certain degree of independent feeling is created 
 in the child's mind, while all mutinous and perverse dis- 
 position is avoided, — if this system be followed up by a 
 constant instruction in the principles of virtue, and a 
 corresponding advancement in intellectual pursuits, — if, 
 during the most critical years of his life, his understanding 
 and his feelings are accustomed only to sound principles, 
 and pure and innocent impressions, — it will become almost 
 impossible that he should afterwards take to vicious 
 courses, because these will be utterly alien to the whole 
 nature of his being. It will be as difficult for him to be- 
 come criminal, because as foreign from his confirmed ha- 
 bits, as it would be for one of your lordships to go out and 
 rob on the highway. Thus, to commence the education of 
 youth, at the tender age on which I have laid so much 
 stress, will, I feel confident, be the sure means of guarding 
 society against crimes. 2" trust every thing to habit — 
 habit, upon which, in all ages, the lawgiver, as well as the 
 schoolmaster, has mainly placed his reliance, — habit, which 
 
ON SLAVERY AND EDUCATION. 139 
 
 makes every thing easy, and casts all difficulties upon the 
 deviation from the wonted course."* 
 
 Such, my Lord, was the exposition for which, I well 
 remember, mitred men gave you thanks. None of the 
 Right Reverend Prelates uttered a breath of protest 
 against the positions of the speech, as set forth in the pas- 
 sage just transcribed. To this passage, therefore, I now 
 beg, with much respect, to call your lordship's attention. 
 These words are infinitely the most momentous that your 
 lips ever uttered, or your pen ever wrote ! If in this 
 passage there is a word of truth, the sacred Scriptures, 
 from Genesis to Revelation, are a mass of error ! You 
 stand opposed to the whole body of prophets and apostles. 
 Neither Testament contains one word in support of your 
 representations. Your creed has not even the doubtful 
 praise of being mingled with truth. To enumerate its 
 errors were to enumerate its phrases. It is a fearful con- 
 firmation of the view which I have already in this letter 
 charged upon your lordship. Your philosophy on this 
 highest of questions has nothing Christian in it. You are 
 at issue with the Bible. You seek to attain the same end, 
 but you rely on means wholly repudiated by the word of 
 God. You stand at the farthest remove from every doc- 
 trine peculiar to revelation. Your views on another kin- 
 dred subject are of an equally exceptionable, unscriptural, 
 and fatal character. In your Inaugural Discourse before 
 the University of Glasgow, you laid down your opinion 
 upon the subject of responsibility, thus : — " The great 
 truth has finally gone forth to all the ends of the earth, 
 
 THAT MAN SHALL NO MORE RENDER ACCOUNT TO MAN 
 FOR HIS BELIEF, OVER WHICH HE HIMSELF HAS NO CON- 
 TROL. Henceforward, nothing shall prevail upon us to 
 
 * Speech in the House of Lords, May 23rd, 1835. Speeches, vol. iii. 
 242. 
 
140 RESULTS OF MISSIONARY LABOUR 
 
 praise or to blame any one for that which he can no more 
 change than he can the hue of his skin or the height of his 
 stature." 
 
 Taking this sentence, my Lord, as a whole, there is 
 in it more sound than sense, more grandeur than truth. 
 With regard to man's non-accountability to man, the only 
 reason for regret is, that your lordship's declaration is con- 
 trary to the fact. The ends of the earth are so far from 
 having heard this great truth, that not one nation in 
 Europe has acknowledged it. Without exception, they 
 are all smarting under the rod of spiritual oppression. 
 Freedom of conscience, religious equality, have no recog- 
 nized existence in any of the monarchical governments of 
 our world. We long and pray for the arrival of the era 
 which your lordship believed to have come, and unite in 
 deprecating and denouncing all persecution of man on the 
 ground of his religious opinions. But the matter to which 
 I particularly refer, is your view of man's belief. That 
 view is at variance equally with the declarations of the 
 Sacred Writings, and with the experience of mankind. 
 No truth is more certain than that the understanding is 
 influenced by the heart. Few men have had ampler op- 
 portunities than your lordship, both in private and in 
 courts of law, of also seeing how much men's faith is af- 
 fected by their interests. Gain is of easy conviction ; loss 
 is troubled with more than academic doubts. Again, 
 faith, credence, belief, has always to do with a testimony, 
 and that with evidence. Now, a man's treatment of evi- 
 dence will mainly depend upon his feelings. Where pelf, 
 passion, pride, or prejudice, is concerned, it will not be 
 difficult to set aside a body of evidence that would suffice 
 to convince a whole world of candid men. The Word of 
 God does not call upon individuals to believe in the ab- 
 sence of evidence. The gospel of mercy is attended by a 
 mass of evidence so varied and abundant, that nothing 
 
ON SLAVERY AND EDUCATION. \ 4 J 
 
 short of the enmity of pride and the darkness of pollution 
 can prevent its reception. This subject will come before 
 us again. 
 
 My Lord, let us now appeal to the Word of Life with 
 respect to the means of the world's regeneration, and we 
 shall see how different it is from your lordship's philoso- 
 phy. The knowledge of God is uniformly represented as 
 the grand and the only instrument of the world's renova- 
 tion. Examples to this effect abound in both the Old 
 and New Testaments. In the case of the marvellous 
 moral renovation, already referred to in the present letter, 
 the reason is, that " the earth shall be full of the 
 
 KNOWLEDGE OF THE LORD AS THE WATERS COVER THE 
 SEA."* 
 
 My Lord, this is the uniform statement of all the He- 
 brew writers. They set light by all knowledge which has 
 not God for its subject. In illustration, let me compare 
 your lordship's speeches and writings with the Scriptures 
 of the prophets and apostles. In the former I find no 
 account made of the Divine character as the object of 
 knowledge ; in the latter, I find no mention of aught 
 besides ; with the one it is nothing ; with the other, 
 every thing. In your lordship's scheme of education, it 
 appears that " God is not in all your thoughts." It is 
 confessedly no part of your system to cultivate the spirit, 
 or to establish the habit, of devotion. Neither the fear 
 nor the love of God has any place in your plans of tuition. 
 Your views of human nature are such as lead you to repu- 
 diate the moral means which the Scriptures supply. The 
 Scriptures assume — indeed they frequently state — that 
 ignorance of God, and enmity towards him, form the sole 
 source of human woe. This is, with Christians, a first 
 principle. Hence, one great object of the gospel is to 
 
 * Isaiah xi. 9. 
 
|42 RESULTS OF MISSIONARY LABOUR 
 
 revive the knowledge of the true God. Your lordship, by 
 patient and careful inquiry, will see the necessity of this 
 provision. Real philosophy, indeed, will conduct you to 
 that conviction. You will not despise the immortal Pas- 
 cal, " that prodigy of parts," as Locke calls him. This 
 first of Continental philosophers, and greatest of men, thus 
 speaks of the true religion : — " In order to render man 
 happy, it ought to convince us that there is a God ; that 
 we are under an obligation to love him ; that our true feli- 
 city consists in our dependence on him, and our only evil 
 in separation from him. It ought to inform us, that we 
 are full of darkness, which hinders our knowing and loving 
 him ; and that, our duty thus obliging us to love God, and our 
 concupiscence turning our whole affection upon ourselves, 
 we are full of unrighteousness. It ought to discover to us 
 the cause of our enmity to God, and to our happiness. It 
 ought to teach us the remedies, and the means of obtain- 
 ing them. Let men compare all the religions of the world, 
 in these respects, and let them see whether any one but 
 the Christian answers all these purposes."* 
 
 This view of human nature is appropriately followed up 
 in another part of Pascal's " Thoughts," by an argument 
 showing " that there can be no saving knowledge of God, 
 except through Jesus Christ." This is the chief medium 
 of the knowledge of God; but your lordship's system 
 wholly excludes Jesus Christ. Let me, therefore, lay 
 before you the substance of Pascal's argument. 
 
 " The God of Christians is not barely the Author of 
 geometrical truths, or of the order of the elements ; this 
 is the divinity of the heathen : nor barely the Providential 
 Disposer of the lives and fortunes of men, so as to crown 
 his worshippers with a happy series of years ; — this is the 
 Portion of the Jews. But the God of Abraham and of 
 
 * Thoughts, No. III. 
 
ON SLAVERY AND EDUCATION. J 43 
 
 Jacob, the God of Christians, is a God of love and of con- 
 solation ; — a God who fills the heart and the soul where he 
 resides — a God who gives them a deep and inward feeling 
 of their own misery, and of his infinite mercy, — unites 
 himself to their spirit, replenishing it with humility and 
 joy, with affiance and love, — and renders them incapable 
 of any end but himself. The God of Christians is a God 
 who makes the soul perceive and know that he is her only 
 good, and that she can find no peace but in him alone, no 
 delight but in his love ; and who, at the same time, in- 
 spires her with an abhorrence of those impediments which 
 withheld her from loving him with all her might. The 
 self-love and concupiscence which prevent this, are insup- 
 portable to her. This gracious God makes her know and 
 feel that this self-love is part of her nature, and that he 
 alone can expel it. This is to know God as a Christian. 
 But to know him after this manner, we must, at the same 
 time, know our own misery and unworthiness, together 
 with the need we have of a mediator, in order to draw 
 nigh to God, and unite ourselves with him. We ought by 
 no means to separate the knowledge of these two things ; 
 because each alone is not only unprofitable, but dangerous. 
 The knowledge of God, without the knowledge of our own 
 misery, engenders pride ; the knowledge of our own misery, 
 without the knowledge of Jesus Christ, despair. But the 
 knowledge of Jesus Christ exempts us alike from pride and 
 from despair, by giving us, at once, a knowledge of God, 
 and of our misery, and the only remedy provided for it. 
 
 " Thus all they who seek God without Jesus Christ 
 can never meet with such light as may afford them true 
 satisfaction, or solid use ; for either they advance not so 
 far as to know that there is a God ; or, if they do, it 
 avails them nothing, because they frame to themselves a 
 method of communicating with God without a Mediator, 
 as without a Mediator they have known him. Thus they 
 
144 RESULTS OF MISSIONARY LABOUR 
 
 unavoidably fall either into atheism or deism — two things 
 which the Christian religion almost equally abhors. We 
 ought, therefore, wholly to direct our inquiries to the 
 knowledge of Jesus Christ, because it is by him alone 
 that we can pretend to know God, in a manner advan- 
 tageous to ourselves. He alone is the true God to us 
 men, that is, to miserable and sinful creatures. He is the 
 centre of all, and the object of all; and whoever knows 
 not him, knows nothing either in nature or in himself. 
 For as we know God only by Jesus Christ, so it is by him 
 alone that we know ourselves. Without Jesus Christ, 
 man is, of necessity, in vice and misery : with Jesus Christ, 
 man is released from vice and misery. In him is all our 
 happiness, our virtue, our life, our light, our hope : out 
 of him there is nought but vice, misery, darkness, and 
 despair, and we can discover nought but obscurity and 
 confusion, whether in the Divine nature, or in our own!"* 
 Such, my Lord, are the views of Pascal ; it is easy to 
 show that they are also the views of the prophets and 
 apostles of God ; and that they lie at the foundation of 
 all efficient schemes of human improvement. That method 
 is little worth, and it will only prove a delusion, which 
 promises to raise and renovate the human race, while it 
 shuts out God and his justice, Christ and his sacrifice. 
 Religion is the only true philosophy. The oldest of all 
 literature is that of the Jews; it is the storehouse of all 
 right principles in politics as well as in morals ; all systems 
 of ethics and of legislation have owed to it whatever was 
 best or even good in them; and every step of improve- 
 ment, every advance towards perfection, is invariably 
 found to be a nearer approximation to the principles of 
 the Bible. The intellectual and moral state of individuals 
 and of nations may be always accurately ascertained by an 
 
 * Thoughts, No. XX. 
 
ON SLAVERY AND EDUCATION. J 45 
 
 inquiry into the degree in which the knowledge of God 
 prevails among them. This will prove an infallible cri- 
 terion of a people's condition. The Scriptures both of the 
 Old and of the New Testament uniformly speak the same 
 language in relation to the knowledge of God, as the 
 grand element in forming the character of man. Prophets 
 and apostles knew no other means of purifying his heart, 
 reforming his habits, and promoting his happiness. The 
 first lesson of those best of teachers, was, that " the fear 
 of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge;"* and that 
 " the fear of the Lord is to hate evil." The Jewish teachers 
 always began with this principle, and considered nothing 
 accomplished till " the fear of the Lord " began to mani- 
 fest itself in a prompt departure from all evil. The royal 
 Psalmist thus addresses the youth of his kingdom, " Come, 
 ye children, hearken unto me : I will teach you the fear of 
 the Lord."-[ This was the only thing he condescended to 
 teach, and it was a lesson worthy of a king. It was the 
 prime philosophy, the highest knowledge that creature 
 could communicate to creature. The most exalted angel 
 that " adores and burns " before the throne of God, is not 
 superior to such a task. In death, as in life, King David 
 viewed this as the only thing deserving inculcation. 
 Before "going the way of all the earth," he assembled 
 the princes of Israel, the chief fathers, and captains of 
 thousands and hundreds, with the officers and with the 
 mighty men; and, after he had spoken to the congre- 
 gation, he thus addressed his successor : — M And thou, 
 Solomon my son, know thou the God of thy father) and 
 serve him with a perfect heart, and with a willing mind ; 
 for the Lord searcheth all hearts, and understandeth all 
 the imaginations of the thoughts. If thou seek him, he 
 will be found of thee ; but if thou forsake him, he will 
 
 * Prov. i. 7. f Psa. xxxiv. 2. 
 
146 RESULTS OF MISSIONARY LABOUR 
 
 cast thee off for ever."* To know God, in the Scripture 
 sense, is to love and serve him. 
 
 Solomon walked in his father's footsteps. While he 
 made the knowledge of the moral character of God his 
 chief study, it was also the chosen theme of his instruc- 
 tions to his own descendants and to mankind. This 
 unrivalled monarch was, in relation to science and litera- 
 ture, a man very much to your lordship's liking. His 
 biographer thus delineates his character: — " And God 
 gave Solomon wisdom and understanding exceeding much, 
 and largeness of heart, even as the sand that is on 
 the sea-shore. And Solomon's wisdom excelled the wis- 
 dom of all the children of the east country, and all the 
 wisdom of Egypt. For he was wiser than all men, than 
 Ethan the Ezrahite, and Heman, and Chalcol, and Darda, 
 the sons of Mahol : and his fame was in all nations round 
 about. And he spake three thousand proverbs ; and his 
 songs were a thousand and five. And he spake of trees, 
 from the cedar-tree that is in Lebanon, even unto the 
 hyssop that springeth out of the wall : he spake also of 
 beasts, and of fowl, and of creeping things, and of fishes. 
 And there came of all people to hear the wisdom of 
 Solomon, from all kings of the earth, which had heard 
 of his wisdom. "f 
 
 What are all the sages of heathen antiquity, my Lord, 
 when compared with Solomon ? To say that he stands 
 at the head of the whole host of moral and natural philo- 
 sophers, and literary men, is a very inadequate tribute 
 to his merits. The distance between him and them is 
 immeasurable. His mighty mind delighted to expatiate 
 among the works of God. Nothing that came from the 
 Creator's hand was beneath his notice. Never were the 
 manifold and multiform subjects of human knowledge so 
 
 * 1 Chron. xxviii. 9. f 1 Kings iv. 29. 
 
ON SLAVERY AND EDUCATION. J 47 
 
 thoroughly blended and harmonized in a human under- 
 standing. He was attentive equally to all the aspects 
 in which the Creator has presented himself to the crea- 
 ture. His religion was one which comprised whatever 
 could then be known of God, whether from nature, or 
 from revelation. He was far from satisfied with the 
 knowledge of God to be obtained from his works. This 
 he viewed as secondary, and therefore unsatisfactory. He 
 felt and taught that the soul required a knowledge of God 
 which nature cannot communicate. 
 
 My Lord, on this point, I beg your attention to Pascal's 
 touching delineation of a man who has wearied himself in 
 searching after God with the aid of the dim lights of mere 
 natural science : — " When I consider," says he, " the 
 blindness and misery of man, and those amazing contra- 
 rieties which discover themselves in his nature; when I 
 observe the whole creation silent, and man without light, 
 abandoned to himself, and, as it were, strayed into this 
 corner of the universe, neither knowing who placed him 
 here, nor what is the end of his coming, nor what will 
 befall him at his departure, I feel the same horror as a per- 
 son who has been carried in his sleep into a desolate and 
 savage island, and who awakes without knowing where he 
 is, or by what way he may escape. I behold other per- 
 sons near me, of a nature like my own; I ask if they are 
 any better informed than myself, and they tell me they 
 are not; and, what is more, these wretched wanderers, 
 having looked about them, and espied certain pleasurable 
 objects, are become attached and devoted to them. For 
 my own part, I cannot rest here ; I cannot repose in the 
 society of these persons, whose condition is no better than 
 my own, being equally wretched, equally helpless, I find 
 they will be able to give me no assistance at my death ; I 
 shall die alone; and, therefore, I must proceed as if I 
 lived alone. Now, were I really alone, I should build no 
 
 h 2 
 
148 RESULTS OF MISSIONARY LABOUR 
 
 houses ; I should perplex myself with no tumultuary pur- 
 suits; I should court no man's esteem; but should devote 
 myself solely to the discovery of truth. Hence, reflecting- 
 how probable it seems, that there may be something be- 
 sides what I see, I begin to examine whether that God, 
 who is talked of by all the world, has not left some inti- 
 mation of himself. I look around, and discover only gene- 
 ral darkness. Nature offers no consideration but what 
 occasions doubt and disquiet. Could I nowhere discern 
 the least token of a God, I would resolve not to believe in 
 any. Could I trace a Creator on all sides, I would 'rest 
 satisfied in this belief. But while I see too much for 
 denial, and too little for conviction, I am an object of 
 pity ; and I have a thousand times wished, that if Nature 
 have, indeed, a God, she would distinctly manifest him ; 
 or, if the tokens which she offers are fallacious, she would 
 entirely conceal them, — that she would either say all or 
 say nothing, so as to determine which course to adopt. 
 Whereas, in my present situation, being ignorant of what 
 I am, and of what is expected from me, I know neither 
 my condition, nor my duty. My heart is intent on the 
 search of real good, that I may follow and secure it. I 
 should think no price too dear for this acquisition/'* 
 
 My Lord, this is an unexaggerated picture of the con- 
 dition in which your lordship's system leaves your pupil. 
 That in which he is unutterably interested, you have not 
 told him. There is much within him, in his own moral 
 character, to awaken the most solemn inquiry respecting 
 the moral character of God. As is his nature so is his 
 conduct; he knows that he has but seldom obeyed the 
 voice within him ; but of this transgression he knows not 
 the consequence. Both the law and its penalties — if law 
 and penalties there really be — are shrouded in deep ob- 
 
 * Thoughts, No. VIII. 
 
ON SLAVERY AND EDUCATION. \ 49 
 
 scurity. Your lordship's system has no answer to the 
 following question, which is one of infinite moment, and 
 common to all mankind : — " Wherewith shall I come 
 before the Lord, and bow myself before the high God? 
 Shall I come before him with burnt-offerings, with calves 
 of a year old ? Will the Lord be pleased with thousands 
 of rams, or with ten thousands of rivers of oil ? Shall I 
 give my first-born for my transgression, the fruit of my 
 body for the sin of my soul ? "* 
 
 The answer to this question involves an exposition of 
 principles, and an illustration of Divine attributes, of 
 which your lordship's philosophy knows nothing. This 
 question is most abundantly answered in the sacred Scrip- 
 tures. The answer to it is what the Scriptures emphati- 
 cally designate " the knowledge of God." Of this trans- 
 cendental knowledge Solomon thus speaks : — " My son, 
 if thou wilt receive my words, and hide my command- 
 ments with thee; so that thou incline thine ear unto 
 wisdom, and apply thine heart to understanding; yea, 
 if thou criest after knowledge, and liftest up thy voice for 
 understanding ; if thou seekest her as silver, and searchest 
 for her as for hid treasures ; then shalt thou understand 
 the fear of the Lord, and find the knowledge of God, For 
 the Lord giveth wisdom : out of his mouth cometh know- 
 ledge and understanding. He layeth up sound wisdom 
 for the righteous: he is a buckler to them that walk 
 uprightly. He keepeth the paths of judgment, and pre- 
 serveth the way of his saints. Then shalt thou understand 
 righteousness, and judgment, and equity ; yea, every good 
 path."f This, my Lord, is the method of study which 
 must be adopted, in order to the acquisition of this higher 
 philosophy. The last lesson, in this spiritual course, is 
 imparted by God himself. 
 
 * Micah vi. 6. f Prov - & *— 9 - 
 
150 RESULTS OF MISSIONARY LABOUR 
 
 I cannot leave the subject of Solomon and his wisdom, 
 which consisted in the knowledge of the justice, truth, 
 love, and mercy of God, without just glancing at the 
 results of the reign of this most enlightened ruler. One 
 of the first results which flowed from his wisdom and rec- 
 titude, was the love of Peace, and the pursuit of it. The 
 greatness which he sought was not military, but moral. 
 Desirous of Peace himself, he had no difficulty in estab- 
 lishing and perpetuating the relations of Peace with all 
 other countries. His empire was one of vast dimensions, 
 and yet " he had Peace on all sides round about him."* 
 It is important to inquire into the effect of Peace on 
 population and prosperity. The answer is full of instruc- 
 tion and rebuke to warlike princes. Hear it, my Lord : 
 — " Judah and Israel were many, as the sand which is by 
 the sea in multitudes, eating, and drinking, and making 
 merry ! And Judah and Israel dwelt safely, every man 
 under his vine and under his fig-tree, from Dan even to 
 Beersheba, all the days of Solomon."* Behold the effects 
 of peace and equity ! How beautiful the picture ! See 
 a nation numerous as the sand, and happy as children 
 making holiday ! No complaints of excessive population ; 
 none, of the want of bread ! Peace poured out the horn 
 of plenty ; poverty and want were banished from the 
 borders of this happy land ! " King Solomon passed all 
 the kings of the earth in riches and wisdom ; and all the 
 kings of the earth sought the presence of Solomon, to 
 hear his wisdom. — And all the drinking vessels of king 
 Solomon were of gold ; and all the vessels of the forest of 
 Lebanon were of pure gold ; none were of silver ; it was 
 not any thing accounted of in the days of Solomon. — The 
 Hug made silver in Jerusalem as stones, and cedar trees 
 made he as the sycamore trees that are in the low plains, 
 
 * 1 Kings iv. 24. f Ibid. iv. 20—25. 
 
ON SLAVERY AND EDUCATION. J5j 
 
 in abundance."* Such, my Lord, was the first kingdom 
 in our world founded in truth and justice. The reign of 
 Solomon lasted forty years — a space which, although 
 brief, sufficed to raise the kingdom of Judah and Israel 
 to a pitch of true greatness, and to diffuse among its 
 people a felicity without parallel on our earth. The sight 
 of such a fact suffices to fire the breasts of benevolent 
 and patriotic men with the most intense indignation! 
 Had the kings of Europe, for the last five hundred years, 
 been wise and good, and their governments been pacific 
 and just, what, by this time, might have been the state of 
 its nations ? 
 
 It will probably occur to your lordship, that what 
 Solomon was among the Jewish, that Numa was among 
 the Roman kings. The analogies are very remarkable ; 
 while the success of Numa demonstrates that, for purposes 
 of human improvement, even defective and erroneous 
 institutions of religion, administered by virtuous men, 
 possess a power infinitely greater than all the infidel and 
 atheistical philosophy of Europe. Numa was undoubtedly 
 the Solomon of the Romans. In his early youth he spent 
 not his days in the pursuit of pleasure, nor in schemes of 
 ambition, but in the worship of the gods, and in anxious 
 inquiries into their nature and their power. When the 
 Romans pressed him to accept the crown, his answer 
 bespoke his worth and wisdom. "My genius," said he, 
 " is inclined to peace ; my love has long been fixed upon 
 it,- and I have studiously avoided the confusion of war. 
 I have also# drawn others, as far as my influence ex- 
 tended, to the worship of the gods, to mutual offices of 
 friendship, and to spend the rest of their time in tilling 
 the ground and feeding cattle. The Romans may have 
 unavoidable wars left upon their hands by their late king, 
 
 * 2 Chron. ix. 20, 22, 23, 27. 
 
J52 RESULTS OF MISSIONARY LABOUR 
 
 for the maintaining of which you have need of another, 
 more active and more enterprising. Besides, the people 
 are of a warlike disposition, spirited with success, and 
 plainly enough discover their inclination to extend their 
 conquests. Of course, therefore, a person who has set 
 his heart upon the promoting of religion and justice, and 
 drawing men off from the love of violence and war, would 
 soon become ridiculous and contemptible to a city that 
 has more occasion for a general than a king."* 
 
 This is, to say the least, strange language from such a 
 man as Numa; and not less strange was the reception 
 given by the Romans to these enlightened sentiments. 
 They increased, rather than diminished, the popular desire. 
 As Numa drew nigh to Rome, the senate and people, 
 struck with love and admiration of the man, met him on 
 his way ; the women — always the chief sufferers from war 
 — welcomed him with blessings and shouts of joy; the 
 temples were crowded with sacrifices; and, according to 
 Plutarch, " so universal was the satisfaction, that the city 
 might seem to have received a kingdom, instead of a 
 king." During the lengthened reign of this extraordinary 
 monarch, — a period of forty-three years, — peace was never 
 once disturbed. The effect of his wise and righteous 
 government is thus described: — "Not only the people of 
 Rome were softened and humanized by the justice and 
 mildness of the king; but even the circumjacent cities, 
 breathing, as it were, the same salutary and delightful air, 
 began to change their behaviour. Like the Romans, they 
 became desirous of peace and good laws, of cultivating the 
 ground, educating their children in tranquillity, and paying 
 their homage to the gods. Italy then was taken up with 
 festivals and sacrifices, games and entertainments; the 
 people, without any apprehension of danger, mixed in 
 
 * Plutarch's Numa. 
 
ON SLAVERY AND EDUCATION. 153 
 
 a friendly manner, and treated each other with mutual 
 hospitality ; the love of virtue and justice, as from the 
 source of Nuraa's wisdom, gently flowing upon all, and 
 moving with the composure of his heart. Even the 
 hyperbolical expressions of the poets fall short of describ- 
 ing the happiness of those days. 
 
 1 Secure Arachne spread her slender toils 
 O'er the broad buckler; eating rust consumed 
 The vengeful swords and once far-gleaming spears ; 
 No more the trump of war swells its hoarse throat, 
 Nor robs the eyelids of their genial slumber.' 
 
 We have no account of either war or insurrection in the 
 state during Numa's reign: nay, he experienced neither 
 enmity nor envy ; nor did ambition dictate either open 
 or private attempts against his crown."* 
 
 The reign of Numa extended three years beyond that 
 of Solomon ; and his death, which occurred when he was 
 between eighty and ninety years of age, overwhelmed his 
 subjects in unexampled sorrow. " The senators carried 
 the bier, and the ministers of the gods walked in proces- 
 sion ; the rest of the people, with the women and children, 
 crowded to the funeral, not as if they had been attending 
 the interment of an aged king, but as if they had lost 
 one of their beloved relations in the bloom of life ; for 
 they followed him with tears and loud lamentations."f 
 These intense regards were not confined to his own peo- 
 ple ; surrounding nations " strove to make the honours of 
 his burial equal to the happiness of his life, attending with 
 crowns and other public offerings. "J In all this, my 
 Lord, we have a further illustration of the surpassing 
 worth of moral greatness. Mankind, with all their errors, 
 are never slow to appreciate it. Rome and her allies 
 might well mourn the decease of this pacific king, for it 
 
 * Plutarch's Numa. f Ibid. J H> id « 
 
 H 3 
 
]54< RESULTS OF MISSIONARY LABOUR 
 
 was the speedy prelude to war and all its horrors. The 
 misfortunes of his successors added fresh lustre to his 
 character. Of the five who followed, three were traitor- 
 ously slain, a fourth came to an untimely end ; the fifth 
 was driven from his throne, and lived long in contempt 
 and exile. Tullus Hostilius, who immediately succeeded 
 Numa, opened wide the fountain of evil which had been 
 shut for nearly half a century. He ridiculed and despised 
 many of the best institutions of Numa, especially those of 
 a religious character, as tending to render the people soft 
 and effeminate, and to indispose them for war — the chief 
 source, as he thought, of human glory. 
 
 The experiment of Numa was one of extreme import- 
 ance both to the moral philosopher and the divine. It 
 was made upon a mass of the most impracticable materials 
 that were ever assembled under the form of society. We 
 have only to think of banditti, buccaneers, pirates, and 
 marauders, — of men of lost characters, of desperate for- 
 tunes, of abandoned habits, of great boldness and personal 
 bravery, — of men inured to conflict, blood, and slaughter, 
 in order to form an accurate conception of the character 
 of his subjects, on his accepting the crown. His biographer 
 thus explains the process of their civilization : — " Per- 
 suaded that no ordinary means were sufficient to form and 
 reduce so high-spirited and intractable a people to mild- 
 ness and peace, he called in the assistance of religion. By 
 sacrifices, religious dances, and processions, which he ap- 
 pointed, and wherein himself officiated, he contrived to 
 mix the charms of festivity and social pleasure with the 
 solemnity of the ceremonies. Thus he soothed their 
 minds, and calmed their fierceness and martial fire. Some- 
 times, also, by acquainting them with prodigies from heaven, 
 by reports of dreadful apparitions and menacing voices, 
 he inspired them with terror, and humbled them with 
 superstition." 
 
ON SLAVERY AND EDUCATION. J 55 
 
 The following statement by the biographer presents a 
 fact of great moment in the history of idolatry. " His 
 regulations concerning images seem to have some relation 
 to the doctrine of Pythagoras, who was of opinion that the 
 First Cause was not an object of sense, nor liable to 
 passion, but invisible, incorruptible, and discernible only 
 by the mind. Thus Numa forbad the Romans to repre- 
 sent the Deity in the form either of man or beast. Nor 
 was there among them formerly any image or statue of 
 the Divine Being. During the first hundred and seventy 
 years they built temples, indeed, and other sacred domes, 
 but placed in them no figure of any kind, — persuaded 
 that it is impious to represent things divine by what is 
 perishable, and that we can have no conception of God but 
 by the understanding." 
 
 This great experiment is fraught with much instruction. 
 It shows us religion in its middle state, its state of transi- 
 tion from the pure worship of the patriarchs to the gross 
 idolatry of after ages. How superior were the views of 
 the Romans, in the days of Numa, to those which after- 
 wards prevailed among them, according to Paul's Epistle, 
 of after ages, to that people ! He declares that " when 
 they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither 
 were thankful ; but became vain in their imaginations, and 
 their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves 
 to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of 
 the incorruptible God into an image made like to corrup- 
 tible man, and birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping 
 things." Notwithstanding the ignorance of God which 
 prevailed in the mind of Numa, he had a glimpse of the 
 truth ; and his case exemplifies the moral influence of the 
 knowledge of even the smallest portion of that truth. In 
 Numa's experiment the truth he knew was illustrated and 
 supported by the force of his own example, combined with 
 supreme authority. The instances of Solomon and Numa 
 
156 RESULTS OF MISSIONARY LABOUR 
 
 demonstrate the importance which attaches to the charac- 
 ter of kings. The destinies of our world, with all its mil- 
 lions, are in no small measure dependent on some score of 
 individuals. Were its thrones filled with wise and righteous 
 rulers, ten years might do much towards covering it with 
 the fruits of civilization. According to David, as are 
 sovereigns so will be their servants. " The wicked walk 
 on every side when the vilest men are exalted."* His 
 wiser son repeats, in effect, the same doctrine: " Take 
 away the wicked from before the king, and his throne shall 
 be established in righteousness."f Again, my Lord, hear 
 the testimony of Solomon to the bearing of the regal cha- 
 racter on popular feelings : — " When the righteous are in 
 authority, the people rejoice; but when the wicked bear- 
 eth rule, the people mourn. "J The unspeakable import- 
 ance of the character of the chief magistrate to the public 
 good has, in all ages, attracted the notice of wise men. 
 According to Plato, " the only sure prospect of deliverance 
 from the evils of life will be, when the Divine Providence 
 shall so order it that the regal power, invested in a prince 
 who has the sentiments of a philosopher, shall render vir- 
 tue triumphant over vice." Plutarch, in reference to this 
 sentence, profoundly observes, that " there is, in truth, no 
 need either of force or menaces, to direct the multitude ; 
 for, when they see virtue exemplified in so glorious a pat- 
 tern as the life of their prince, they become wise of them- 
 selves, and endeavour, by friendship and magnanimity, by 
 a strict regard to justice and temperance, to form them- 
 selves to a happy life. This is the noblest end of govern- 
 ment ; and he is most worthy of the royal seat, who can 
 regulate the lives and dispositions of his subjects in such 
 a manner. No one was more sensible of this than Numa." 
 My Lord, what shall be said of such sentiments ? Plu- 
 
 * Psa. xii. 8. f Prov. xxv. 5. + Ibid. xxix. 2. 
 
ON SLAVERY AND EDUCATION. \tft 
 
 tarch, the biographer of Numa, was a heathen, unenlight- 
 ened by the rays of Christian truth, and yet such are his 
 views of the proper end of human life and of political 
 government ! Is not this heathen philosopher at once an 
 example and a reproach to multitudes of men whose brows 
 have been surmounted by a mitre ? 
 
 Thus much for illustration ; I now return to principles. 
 I have laid it down that modern science, in all its depart- 
 ments, is but slightly subservient to moral purposes ; that 
 the mind may be expanded and invigorated without at all 
 purifying the affections ; that the taste may be improved 
 while the heart remains a sink of iniquity ; and that no- 
 thing can transform the moral character of man but the 
 knowledge of the moral character of God, The loss of this 
 knowledge has been the fountain of all our woe. It was 
 once the common property of mankind ; but, as the seeds 
 of corruption began to take root, " they hated knowledge, 
 and did not choose the fear of the Lord ; they would none 
 of his counsel ; they despised all his reproofs ; therefore he 
 gave them to eat of their own way, and he filled them with 
 their own devices."* This is Solomon's account of the 
 matter ; let us hear Paul's : — " And even as they did not 
 like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over 
 to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not con- 
 venient : being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, 
 wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness : full of envy, 
 murder, debate, deceit, malignity ; whisperers, backbiters, 
 haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil 
 things, disobedient to parents, without understanding, 
 covenant-breakers, without natural affection, implacable, 
 unmerciful: who, knowing the judgment of God, that 
 they which commit such things are worthy of death, not 
 only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them." 
 
 This, my Lord, according to the Scriptures of truth, is 
 
 * Prov. i. 29—31. 
 
158 RESULTS OF MISSIONARY LABOUR 
 
 the sole cause of the crime and misery of mankind ; and 
 the cure is set forth as clearly as the complaint. The 
 uniform declaration of the Old Testament is, that the 
 mighty moral revolution which awaits our world, is to be 
 effected entirely by " the knowledge of God." The 
 Jewish writers unitedly testify that " the earth shall be 
 filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the 
 waters cover the sea."* One of the greatest prophets, 
 predicting the rise of the kingdom of Christ, thus foretells 
 the spread of this knowledge : — " After those days, saith 
 the Lord, I will put my law in their inward parts, and 
 write it in their hearts ; and will be their God, and they 
 shall be my people. And they shall teach no more 
 every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, say- 
 ing, Know the Lord : for they shall all know me, from 
 the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the 
 Lord : for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remem- 
 ber their sin no more."f 
 
 I consider, my Lord, that I have sufficiently established 
 the proposition that, according to the Jewish w r riters, the 
 great instrument of the world's renovation is " the know- 
 ledge of God," as he is revealed in their Scriptures, — the 
 knowledge, not of his works, but of Himself The infer- 
 ences from this doctrine are as obvious as they are im- 
 portant. If this be according to truth, the views of your 
 lordship require correction. They are such as leave man 
 ignorant of that which it most concerns him to know. 
 
 Let us next inquire by what means this knowledge is 
 to be diffused ; and here the question is not, how it might 
 be done, but, What is the prophetic representation ? The 
 business of diffusion was not to commence till after the 
 age of the prophets, so that, for personal purposes, they 
 required neither instruction nor direction; yet they have 
 
 * Habak. ii. 14. f Jer. xxxi. 33, 34. 
 
ON SLAVERY AND EDUCATION. 159 
 
 left a most explicit testimony to the work of Missions. 
 Hear Daniel : — " And they that be wise shall shine as the 
 brightness of the firmament ; and they that turn many to 
 righteousness as the stars for ever and ever. But thou, O 
 Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the 
 time of the end ; many shall run to and fro, and knowledge 
 shall be increased"* 
 
 The principle of Missions is clearly stated in these words. 
 The eternal well-being of all nations will depend upon that 
 knowledge ; and its principles will be spread to the ends 
 of the earth wholly through the instrumentality of man. 
 While, therefore, the ignorant sneer at the Missionary, and 
 deem " his way madness, and his end without honour," 
 persons of sense and of piety will consider him the most 
 deserving of mankind. 
 
 Let us now, my Lord, search the New Testament, that 
 we may see in what light it represents " the knowledge of 
 God" and the Missionary character. It will be material 
 to inquire whether the apostolic writers concur with the 
 prophets. Now, investigation will show, that, between 
 these two classes of sacred authors, there is the most per- 
 fect harmony. "With the Apostles " the knowledge of 
 God" is every thing; they exhibit it to the reader's 
 mind in all possible lights. Christ himself laid down the 
 doctrine in these words — " This is life eternal, that they 
 might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, 
 whom thou hast sent."f This simple expression discloses 
 the grand secret. In these words it is clearly set forth 
 that " eternal life," whatever it may be, consists in the 
 knowledge of God and of Jesus Christ; and hence, who- 
 soever has the knowledge has also the life. An attempt 
 somewhat to open up this point, will be met by the mere 
 philosopher with derision ; he will charge with mysticism 
 
 * Dan. xii. 3, 4. f John xvii. 3. 
 
]()0 RESULTS OF MISSIONARY LABOUR 
 
 statements in support of which unimpeachable witnesses 
 can be produced by the million ; but this shall neither 
 prevent nor in the least disconcert me. The Scriptures 
 themselves prepare the Christian to look for such things ; 
 they assert that " the preaching of the Cross is to them 
 that perish foolishness ;"* that " the natural man receiveth 
 not the things of the Spirit of God ; for they are foolish- 
 ness unto him; neither can he know them, because they 
 are spiritually discerned."f 
 
 The knowledge in question differs much from that of 
 the mere philosopher. It is connected both with a pain 
 and with a pleasure which philosophy can never produce. 
 In your lordship's system, God is presented to us simply 
 as the " Great Architect of Nature," and hence your views 
 have nothing moral in them ; they excite surprise and 
 gratify curiosity without in the least offending pride or 
 alarming conscience ; and hence the delight which they 
 administer even to ungodly men. It is much otherwise 
 with the knowledge of which I speak ; for it comprises 
 the whole character of God, with especial relation to his 
 justice and holiness. Discoveries respecting these attri- 
 butes are far from pleasing to man ; they have often made 
 the stoutest heart to tremble ! The light by which man 
 discovers the character of God is always reflected upon 
 himself, and thus it leads him to the discovery of his own. 
 The holiness of the Divine character, when first clearly 
 perceived, is a source only of terror to a mind, conscious 
 of guilt. He sees nothing in God that resembles himself, 
 nothing in God's law that approves his character. He 
 realizes the depth of his depravity, the extent and aggra- 
 vation of his guilt. On reading the words, " The soul 
 that sins shall die," his heart sinks within him. He 
 feels that he is a dead man ! He distinctly perceives the 
 
 * 1 Cor. i. 18. f 1 Cor. ii. 14. 
 
ON SLAVERY AND EDUCATION. 261 
 
 awful condition of the world. With regard to the whole 
 human race, he is fully convinced " that they are all under 
 sin; as it is written, There is none righteous, no, not 
 one ; there is none that understandeth, there is none that 
 seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way, they 
 are together hecome unprofitable ; there is none that 
 doeth good, no, not one. Their throat is an open se- 
 pulchre ; with their tongues they have used deceit ; the 
 poison of asps is under their lips ; whose mouth is full of 
 cursing and bitterness : their feet are swift to shed blood : 
 destruction and misery are in their ways ; and the way of 
 peace they have not known : there is no fear of God before 
 their eyes."* 
 
 " The knowledge of the Lord" thus far, is a thing which 
 deeply disquiets the soul of man; but, happily, this is 
 only one portion of the discoveries which the Scriptures 
 make concerning the most High God. While he is holy 
 and just, he is also full of mercy ! The consideration of 
 this glorious attribute leads us at once to the Saviour, who 
 thus himself illumines the subject : — " God so loved the 
 world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever 
 believe th in him should not perish, but have everlasting 
 life. For God sent not his Son into the world to con- 
 demn the world ; but that the world through him might 
 be saved."f This exhibits the Divine character in a light 
 altogether new. To him whose soul is enlightened by the 
 Spirit of God, there is an unutterable power in these 
 words, which relieves despair, soothes distress, inspires 
 hope, slays enmity, and begets love. He now discovers 
 the necessity of the atonement ; he sees Jesus dying " the 
 just for the unjust, that he may bring men to God ;" he 
 beholds him suffering on the Cross, thereby " magnifying 
 the law and making it honourable," in order " that God 
 
 * Rom. Hi. 9—18. + John iii. 16, 17. 
 
1(32 RESULTS OF MISSIONARY LABOUR 
 
 might be just and yet the justifier of the ungodly."* He 
 sees in the atonement made by the death of Messiah, not 
 the condition, not the price of the Divine love, but the 
 fruit, the effect, the expression of it. The love preceded 
 the death, did not follow it as a purchased blessing. 
 " God so loved the world, that he gave his Son." He 
 gave his Son because he loved the world. The entire 
 scheme of mercy, with all its provisions, flows from the 
 Divine compassion. Mercy is an element of the Divine 
 nature, but so also is justice ; and mercy cannot be exer- 
 cised at the expense of justice. Jesus died that he might 
 remove the obstructions arising from justice to the exer- 
 cise of mercy. Pardon is bestowed in the manner best 
 suited to melt the hardness, to conciliate the enmity, to 
 excite the love, and to win the confidence of man. 
 
 My Lord, the death of Christ is a mysterious and awful 
 theme! It equally illustrates the compassion of God 
 towards his sinning creatures and his displeasure at sin. 
 The death of Christ is to be viewed in connexion with his 
 person. The value of his death, as an atonement, is de- 
 pendent on the quality of his person and the dignity of his 
 character. Now, the question of his person is purely one 
 of Revelation. Since the Bible is the book of God's 
 mind, and comprises all his discoveries concerning the 
 person and mission of Christ, our business is strictly 
 limited to its interpretation. Philosophy must give place 
 to philology. What say the Scriptures? They declare 
 as explicitly as language can affirm it, that Jesus Christ is 
 a Divine Person. In the Old Testament, he is designated 
 the Mighty God — the Just God— the King — the Lord of 
 Hosts.f The New Testament repeats the doctrine : it 
 describes him as God — God over all — the true God — God 
 
 * Rom. iii. 26. 
 
 f Isa. ix. 6 ; vi. 5 ; xlv. 21, 22 ; xii. 2 ; liv. 5 ; Zech. ix. 9. 
 
ON SLAVERY AND EDUCATION. ]g3 
 
 manifest in the flesh.* As far as language can affirm any 
 thing, these Scriptures declare the Godhead of Christ. 
 His humanity is declared with equal certainty. It is af- 
 firmed without a figure, that the " Word was made flesh, 
 and dwelt among us." He is designated Emanuel, " God 
 with us."f The doctrine of his compound nature, partly 
 human and partly divine, is laid down absolutely in these 
 passages ; but the reason of the doctrine, the necessity of 
 the fact alleged, is also most distinctly set forth. The 
 Scriptures represent that the incarnation of the Godhead 
 was indispensable to his mission, that the Divine character 
 might be fully unfolded, and his sacrifice be of sufficient 
 value to expiate sin.J It is further intimated as a rea- 
 son for this announcement, that Jesus could not otherwise 
 have been qualified for the work of mediation, and the 
 exercise of the government assigned him in the heavenly 
 world. § His participation of our nature was also neces- 
 sary for the following reasons : That he might stand in the 
 relation of a brother to the human race ; that he might 
 undertake our cause as a Kinsman-Redeemer ; that the 
 law might be magnified and sin expiated in the same 
 nature that sinned ; and that he might be enabled, from 
 the experience of human infirmity, to succour them that 
 are tried. || 
 
 Did this person, the man Christ Jesus, die for man ? 
 Yes, he died! This, my Lord, this is the "Great Truth," 
 which is going forth to all the ends of the earth : — " To 
 
 * John i. 1 — 3 ; Rom. ix. 5 ; 1 John v. 20; 1 Tim. iii. 16; John xii. 
 41; Rom. xiv. 10, 11. 
 
 f John i. 14 ; 1 Tim. ii. 5 ; Isa. vii. 14 ; Matt. i. 23 ; Rom. ix. 5. 
 
 t Heb. i. 3 ; 1 John i. 7. 
 
 § Zech. vi. 13 ; Heb. viii. 1 ; Eph. i. 20—23 ; Phil. ii. 9—11 ; Rev. v. 
 1—7. 
 
 || Heb. ii. 14—18 ; Lev. xxv. 25, 47—49; Rom. viii. 3 ; Gal. iv. 4, 
 5; Heb. iv. 15; v. 1,2. 
 
](54 RESULTS OF MISSIONARY LABOUR 
 
 wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto 
 himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them ; and 
 hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. Now 
 then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did 
 beseech you by us : we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye 
 reconciled to God. For he hath made him to be sin for 
 us, who knew no sin ; that we might be made the right- 
 eousness of God in him."* This is the language of the 
 leader of the first band of Christian Missionaries, — lan- 
 guage which has been held by that honoured body of men 
 from the days of Christ himself until now. The apostles 
 went forth testifying repentance towards God, and faith in 
 Jesus Christ. To the Jews they said, " Be it known unto 
 you, therefore, men and brethren, that through this man is 
 preached unto you the forgiveness of sins : and by him all 
 that believe are justified from all things, from which ye 
 could not be justified by the law of Moses. Beware, 
 therefore, lest that come upon you which is spoken of in 
 the prophets : Behold, ye despisers, and wonder, and 
 perish: for I work a work in your days, a work which ye 
 shall in no wise believe, though a man declare it unto 
 you."f " He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting 
 life ; and he that believeth not the Son, shall not see life ; 
 but the wrath of God abideth on him."J 
 
 My Lord, this is the " Great Truth" of the Christian 
 mission. This truth, with its related truths, constitutes 
 that which is designated the f % Knowledge of God." This 
 is what is termed the Gospel, the Gospel which Christ 
 commanded his servants to " go into all the world and to 
 preach to every creature." The belief of these truths is, 
 the belief of the Gospel — a subject with which lettered 
 Infidelity has often made itself merry. It had often been 
 prudent, however, to let reason at least precede ridicule. 
 
 * 2 Cor. v. 19. f Acts xiii. 38—41. \ John iii. 36. 
 
ON SLAVERY AND EDUCATION. \Qfr 
 
 The banter of ignorance is but a pointless dart ! Is there 
 any thing ridiculous in repentance ? What is it, my Lord ? 
 It consists in sincere, heartfelt sorrow for sin as committed 
 against the God of love, truth, and holiness. Is it un- 
 manly for a creature thus to humble himself before the 
 Lord God Omnipotent ? The true penitent, to the extent 
 of his means, undoes whatever he hath sinfully done, — to 
 God and man he makes all the reparation in his power. 
 Is this dastardly or inconsistent with self-respect? Re- 
 pentance then may perhaps be allowed to pass ; shallow 
 Infidelity chiefly delights to sport itself with faith — the 
 never-failing subject of its poor contempt. 
 
 What is faith, my Lord ? You know many who repre- 
 sent it as a weak, a foolish, a blind persuasion ! It is not 
 denied that many professed Christians have both by word 
 and writing given too much ground for such representation 
 — a fact, however, but little known to Infidelity, whose 
 charge is mainly founded in presumption. But let us 
 come to the word of God, and inquire into the Apostles' 
 view of Faith. This is a point on which your lordship is 
 highly capable of doing justice to them. What then is 
 their view of it ? They represent it, strictly considered, 
 as " the belief of the truth" which God has revealed in 
 the Scriptures concerning Jesus Christ.* They never 
 speak of Faith but in connexion with a testimony, a fact, 
 something as its object. It is not a feeling, a fancy, an 
 assumption, a persuasion ; — it is the belief of that which 
 is equally true whether believed or not. That which is 
 designated the " Knowledge of God," the " Gospel of 
 Christ," is a series of facts exhibiting the character of 
 God in relation to man,-)- while there is one fact in which 
 all the other facts meet as their centre, viz. the death of 
 Christ, as an atonement for the sins of men, required by 
 
 * 2 Thess. ii. 1 2. t Acts ii. 22, 24, 32—36. 
 
1(36 RESULTS OF MISSIONARY LABOUR 
 
 infinite holiness, and provided by infinite love.* The be- 
 lief of these facts is the belief of the Gospel, the belief, 
 faith, or credit which justifies the sinner's person, and 
 sanctifies the sinner's heart. According to the Scriptures, 
 " the belief of the truth," and that alone, is the Christian 
 faith. The simplicity of the Gospel as set forth in the 
 Scriptures — let the metaphysical divines go — is its beauty 
 and its glory. The essential truths of the Gospel are few, 
 and often comprised in a single passage,f which shows 
 man's guilty and perishing condition — which exhibits the 
 mercy of God in Christ — which unfolds the mediatorial 
 character and work of the Saviour — and which sets forth 
 eternal life as the gift of God through him. 
 
 My Lord, the Gospel consists of facts, not reasonings ; 
 and hence, in regard to its belief, intellects of every order 
 are much upon a level — their reasons, their relations, their 
 results, are another matter. There are not two kinds of 
 instruction in the Bible ; the facts are the same, whether 
 embraced by your lordship, or by a schoolboy lisping his 
 first lesson. % Divines have discoursed of faith as divisible 
 into several kinds — historical faith, the faith of miracles, 
 temporary faith, and saving faith. This is not merely 
 useless precision; it is mischievous, from its tendency to 
 draw off the mind from the object, the thing to be believed; 
 and to engage it in a fruitless examination of the mental 
 operation of believing. The apostles made no such dis- 
 tinctions. Their sole concern was to state the truth and 
 its evidence ; it does not appear that any one ever inquired 
 of them what they meant by " faith :" every body knew 
 their meaning, for they used it in the simplest sense, the 
 sense in which it was used in common life. But is there 
 
 * 1 Pet. i. 11. f John iii. 16 ; Acts x. 43. 
 
 + 2 Tim. i. 5; iii. 15; 1 Sam. ii. 26; xvi. 7, 12; 2 Chron. xxxiv. 1—3; 
 1 Kings xiv. 1?. 
 
ON SLAVERY AND EDUCATION. |gy 
 
 not an essential difference between saving faith and other 
 kinds of faith ; or between the belief of Gospel facts and 
 other facts ? Yes ; but the difference relates to the things 
 believed, rather than to the mode of believing them, and 
 to the different degrees in which they affect our eternal 
 interests.* Such, my Lord, is the Scripture view of the 
 Christian faith. What think you of it ? Do you see any 
 thing absurd, preposterous in it ? I am not unacquainted 
 with your lordship's judgments in Chancery which I have 
 often read with unmixed satisfaction ; and I shall cheer- 
 fully leave the point to your lordship's decision. 
 
 The next subject on which I beg leave to speak, is the 
 Duty of believing the Gospel ; and here again I shall ap- 
 peal to the Scriptures. From them it is clear as words 
 can make it, that belief is the duty of all to whom the truth 
 is addressed ; every soul ivho hears it is invited, exhorted, 
 commanded to believe it /f The Gospel comes invested 
 with all the authority of a law, demanding the obedience 
 of faith from all who hear it. J Here it is that your lord- 
 ship is fearfully at issue with the Apostles ! They repre- 
 sent unbelief as a heinous offence against God, ascribing it 
 to the depravity of the human heart, to culpable igno- 
 rance, to pride, and to aversion from God!§ Nor is this 
 all : God has threatened the infliction of the most awful 
 judgments on those who believe not in the Lord Jesus 
 Christ! || These are the true sayings of God, and it be- 
 hoves both small and great to take heed how they permit 
 
 * James ii. 19; Luke xxiv. 41. 
 
 f Acts xvi. 31 ; 1 John Hi. 33 ; Mark i. 15 ; v. 36 ; Luke viii. 50 ; 
 John vi. 29 ; xii. 36. 
 
 t 2 Cor. v. 20 ; Rom. i. 5 ; vi. 17; x. 16. 
 
 § Rom. x. 3 ; 2 Cor. iv. 3, 4 ; Matt. xiii. 19 ; Luke viii. 12 ; Ps. x. 4; 
 John v. 44 ; xii. 43 ; v. 40. 
 
 || Mark xvi. 15, 16; John iii. 18; Luke xix. 27; "2 Thess. ii. 
 10—12. 
 
](3g RESULTS OF MISSIONARY LABOUR 
 
 the voice of a vain philosophy to seduce them from the 
 path marked out hy the apostles. Observe, my Lord, the 
 consequences which flow from the doctrines laid down in 
 these Scriptures. " Shall not the Judge of all the earth 
 do right ?" Now, these passages declare that the sin of 
 unbelief will be visited with eternal perdition! But, if 
 unbelief be thus punishable, must it not be culpable ? If 
 culpable, must it not be voluntary ? Therefore, let the 
 " Great Truth" go forth, and sound through all the halls 
 of learning, all the seats of science, all the academic bowers 
 of our land, that man shall henceforth remember 
 
 THAT HE MUST RENDER AN ACCOUNT TO GoD FOR HIS 
 BELIEF, OVER WHICH HE HAS ALL NEEDFUL CONTROL. 
 
 Henceforward nothing shall prevail upon us to excuse or 
 to pity that which he may as promptly change as his posi- 
 tion or his garment. There are professed adherents of 
 the Christian faith who take your lordship's view of man's 
 moral impotence ; but with them I have no sympathy. I 
 appeal to the Apostles ! Man's inability, according to 
 them, is his crime, not his misfortune. He cannot, because 
 he will not ! 
 
 The source of unbelief is man's natural aversion to 
 God,* which alone renders Divine influence necessary in 
 order to faith. Such influence, however, is necessary 
 in order to faith only as it is necessary in order to 
 evidence. Man believes the Gospel upon evidence, 
 not from a Divine, irresistible impulse. The Divine in- 
 fluence which the Scriptures represent as exerted upon 
 him, mainly consists in removing aversion of heart, the 
 source of ignorance, the source of infidelity. This aver- 
 sion the Spirit of God removes, by quickening and illu- 
 mining the soul, and imparting a spiritual taste, by which 
 the truth of the G ospel is discerned, and relished, and be- 
 lieved on evidence. But let it be distinctly understood, 
 * Rom. viii. 7. 
 
ON SLAVERY AND EDUCATION. 1(39 
 
 that the gift or influence of the Spirit of God is not the 
 ground or condition of men's obligation to believe the 
 Gospel. It is nothing more than the exciting cause of 
 compliance with a previous obligation. The influences, 
 therefore, of the Holy Spirit are to be viewed, not as mat- 
 ter of debt due to sinful man, but simply of pure mercy 
 and favour — the gift of God's mercy through the work and 
 mediation of Christ. The change or thing, called conver- 
 sion, therefore, is entirely and exclusively the work of the 
 Holy Spirit, in the fullest sense, without any reserve, ex- 
 ception, or qualification whatever, since " no man can call 
 Jesus Lord but by the Spirit." 
 
 It has been long the practice of mere literary men to 
 represent faith as a thing which had nothing practical about 
 it — nothing affecting the heart or life. On no point have 
 their folly and ignorance been more lamentably exempli- 
 fied. But let such men know, that, in addition to its 
 effects on the heart and the life, the belief of the Gospel 
 serves an all-important purpose in respect to the justifica- 
 tion of the sinner before God. The term Justification, in 
 connexion with the Gospel of Christ, refers to courts of 
 justice, and stands opposed to condemnation. Justifica- 
 tion, however, in the Gospel sense, consists not in acquit- 
 tal, but of pardon, and of righteousness. Pardon removes 
 the curse due to sin ; but righteousness is connected with 
 the blessing of eternal life : the first is the remission of 
 sin ; the second, the imputation of righteousness.f But 
 when does justification take place ? When the sinner 
 believes the Divine testimony. He remains under con- 
 demnation, from which nothing can deliver him, till he 
 repent and believe ; and from that moment he is justified. 
 This great blessing is obtained solely through believing the 
 Gospel. He who believes in Christ is said to be united to 
 
 * Rom. v. 16. f Rom. vi. 23 ; John iii. 15, 36 j vi. 54. 
 
 I 
 
270 RESULTS OF MISSIONARY LABOUR 
 
 him ; and thus united, he is treated by God as one with 
 him : Christ's obedience unto death is imputed to the be- 
 liever, or reckoned as his ; and he, for Christ's sake, is 
 delivered from condemnation. The believer is considered 
 and treated as innocent, and entitled to eternal life, as 
 much as if, from first to last, he had been perfectly obe- 
 dient to the law of God, in thought, word, and deed.* This 
 is one of the important ends served by faith : but it is only 
 one. Faith exerts an all-powerful influence on the heart 
 in sanctification. Justification is a change concerning a 
 sinner ; sanctification is a change within him : in justifica- 
 tion, he obtains pardon of sin, and a title to heaven ; in 
 sanctification, purification from the pollution of sin, and a 
 meetness for heaven. 
 
 If philosophers would read the Scriptures, my Lord, 
 they would find, that so far from faith exerting no influ- 
 ence on the heart, its exertion of such influence is the 
 principal proof of its existence. Sanctification always fol- 
 lows justification. The same faith which removes guilt, 
 cleanses from pollution. The larger the measure of sanc- 
 tification, the greater is the proof of justification.f In 
 strict speech, it is not mere belief that sanctifies, but the 
 truth which is believed. How, then, is faith necessary ? 
 Because truth — and error also — can operate upon the soul 
 only through belief. J The prayer of Christ demonstrates 
 that Gospel Truth is the grand element of sanctification ; 
 that prayer runs thus : — " Sanctify them through thy 
 truth : thy Word is truth." That truth is applied to the 
 soul through faith ; hence the declaration of the apostle, 
 concerning the first family of Gentile converts ; " God, 
 which knoweth the hearts, bare them witness, giving them 
 
 * Gal. iii. 28; John xvii. 21, 23; Isa. liii.5, 6. 
 
 f Isa. lxii. 12; 1 Pet. i. 2. 
 
 J 2 Thess. ii. 13; Heb. xi. 7, 17, 23—29, 33—38. 
 
ON SLAVERY AND EDUCATION. 171 
 
 the Holy Ghost, even as he did unto us ; and put no dif- 
 ference between us and them, purifying their hearts by 
 faith"* Thus, while, in the work of renovation, the Spirit 
 of God is the proper agent, the Word of God is the proper 
 means. The man in whom this work is fairly begun, is, 
 in Scripture, said to be " a new creature, — old things are 
 passed away, and all things are become new." This renova- 
 tion consists, not in superadding to his soul new powers or 
 faculties, but in his deliverance from ignorance, unrighte- 
 ousness, and depravity ; and in his restoration to the image 
 of God " in knowledge, righteousness, and holiness."f By 
 this entire change of the soul, the whole man is turned 
 from the love and practice of sin to the love and service of 
 God and of Christ. 
 
 But what of Christian morality ? Why, my Lord, the 
 change of which I have just been speaking, is the source, 
 the only source of it. The guilt of multitudes, when dis- 
 coursing in relation to this subject, has been equalled only 
 by their ignorance. How loud and bitter has been the 
 invective of many a dignitary and Doctor in Divinity 
 against the doctrine of justification by faith! The pen 
 of untaught Infidelity, too, has done its part, in helping 
 on the misrepresentation. If such men be reckless of 
 truth, let them at least have some regard to decency ! 
 The Gospel, as I have just been setting it forth, is no new 
 thing in the earth ; it is of some antiquity even in Eng- 
 land. I appeal to the lives of its preachers, and of those 
 who have received it. Let this be the test of the doc- 
 trine ! Evangelical doctrine adverse to morality ! What 
 would philosophic men think of religious men rising up 
 and telling the public that the cause was adverse to the 
 effect? What would the agriculturists of England say, 
 were the artizans of London to broach and blaze abroad 
 
 * Acts xv. 8, 9. f Col. iii. 9, 10 ; Eph. iv. 23, 24. 
 
 i 2 
 
172 RESULTS OF MISSIONARY LABOUR 
 
 the doctrine, that ploughing and trenching, drainage and 
 manure, were destructive of fertility ? Surely the answer 
 in both cases, were the objectors sane and serious, would 
 be a smile of contempt or of pity ! Morality, my Lord, 
 is the fruit, the crop of the Christian husbandman. Doc- 
 trine, discipline, ordinances, every thing connected with 
 the Christian economy, is considered as only a means to 
 an end, and that end morality ! All other morality, as 
 compared with that of the gospel, is but as the foulest 
 chaff to the finest wheat ! It extends to thoughts, words, 
 and deeds, to all the duties which we owe to God, to our 
 neighbours, and ourselves ; and it therefore includes every 
 virtue of life and godliness. It requires that the Christian 
 character shall be one of universal rectitude, without 
 reserve of one sin or exception of one branch of righte- 
 ousness.* Philosophy ! What is philosophy as com- 
 pared with Revelation ? It is as guessing to certainty — as 
 an artificial light to the sun! Whether I look at the 
 motives, the rules, or the sanctions of Christianity, I find 
 them altogether sui generis — it is trifling, it is a mockery 
 to attempt to seek for any thing in systems strictly human 
 to compare with it ! What, my Lord, what is the one 
 great principle of Christian morality ? It is love — supreme 
 love to God, sincere love to our neighbour, and rational 
 love to ourselves — which converts social and personal, as 
 well as sacred duties, into acts of religion. In this lie 
 the beauty and perfection of Christian morality, which 
 takes cognizance of every thought, and word, and deed, 
 and brings the whole man, body, soul, and spirit, under 
 the obedience of Christ. 
 
 Now, my Lord, I have endeavoured to set before you 
 the origin, character, and object of the Christian mission 
 — to delineate the system of truth which the Missionary 
 
 * Eph. v. 9. 
 
ON SLAVERY AND EDUCATION. 173 
 
 propounds, and the character which, by means of that 
 truth, he labours to form among mankind. I now appeal 
 to your lordship's judgment to decide the merits of the 
 Missionary Enterprise. Who can describe its excellency, 
 its dignity ? Are not all pursuits mean and contemptible 
 compared with that of spreading " the knowledge of 
 God ? " Was it not meet that the angels should announce 
 the birth of Christ with songs of " Peace on earth, and 
 good will to men ?" What is wanting but the universal 
 diffusion of this gospel, and its reception into all hearts, 
 to quell every strife, to banish every evil, and to fill the 
 world with one family of peace? Are not Christian 
 missions, then, entitled to the most zealous and munifi- 
 cent support of the wise and good of every rank and class 
 amongst us ? Ought not every friend of civilization, of 
 commerce, of liberty, of peace, of literature, of science, 
 and of humanity, to hasten to swell the ranks of the 
 friends of missions ? If I might hope that your lordship 
 had read the " Missionary Enterprises " of the late Rev. 
 John Williams, I should address you with still greater 
 confidence. I know you received a copy of the work, 
 and politely acknowledged it ; for your letter was proudly 
 shown me by my friend, who was fain to believe it might 
 be the means of introducing the subject of Missions to 
 your lordship's notice, and enlisting your powers and 
 influence in its behalf. If you have been able to com- 
 mand leisure sufficient for its perusal, it is needless for 
 me to utter a syllable in its recommendation. If you 
 have not, I would most earnestly press it upon your atten- 
 tion. It is strange, my Lord, that the Northern Review 
 has not yet in earnest taken up the subject! A number 
 of works of the highest importance have already issued 
 from the pens of the London Missionary Society's agents 
 — a number greater, indeed, by far than those of all other 
 missionary societies united — relative to Polynesia, Africa, 
 
174 RESULTS OF MISSIONARY LABOUR 
 
 Madagascar, Greece, India, and China, which, alone, 
 suffice to rebuke and abash the opposers and despisers of 
 Missions, and to propitiate the whole world of literature 
 and science. The missionaries of that society have done 
 much to enlarge the boundaries of human knowledge, and 
 to increase our acquaintance with the most important 
 sections of the human race. To many tribes, of divers 
 tongues and climes, they have given the first knowledge 
 of letters ; they have reduced their languages to grammar, 
 and translated into them the oracles of God. Your Royal 
 Society, your Royal Geographical Society, your Useful 
 Knowledge Society, and all societies of a kindred charac- 
 ter, are but bodies of polished, petty triflers, in comparison 
 with our Missionary Societies. Their extinction — al- 
 though a loss — would not be a very great calamity to the 
 world, and that loss might in various ways be soon re- 
 paired ; but the destruction of our Missionary Societies 
 would be a crushing of the rising hopes of all nations ! 
 
 There are two special grounds, my Lord, on which the 
 friends of missions may claim the support of your lord- 
 ship. From your earliest years, you have been the im- 
 placable adversary of Slavery, and the devoted friend of 
 Education. Now, the bearings of the Missionary Enter- 
 prise upon both these objects are incalculable. It is to be 
 remembered, my Lord, that Europe itself was once the 
 theatre of missions, for all ecclesiastical establishments 
 are only the legalized consolidation of the triumphs of 
 missions. Was not Christianity the power which assailed 
 and overthrew the slavery of Europe ? Your enlightened 
 and philosophic friend, Guizot, in his sixth lecture on 
 civilization, is compelled to confess this fact. In reference 
 to the doctrine of the Christian mission, he says, " It had 
 a greater influence, and acted in a more efficacious manner, 
 towards the amelioration of the social state. It resolutely 
 struggled against the great vices of the social state, for 
 
ON SLAVERY AND EDUCATION. ]^5 
 
 example, against slavery. It has often been asserted that 
 the abolition of slavery, in modern Europe, was exclu- 
 sively owing to Christianity. I think that is saying too 
 much. Slavery long existed in the heart of the Christian 
 society, without greatly exciting its astonishment, or 
 drawing down its anathema. A multitude of causes, and 
 a great development in other ideas of civilization, were 
 required to eradicate this evil of evils, this iniquity of 
 iniquities. Yet it is indubitable that the church employed 
 its influence in restraining it. There exists an unques- 
 tionable proof of this fact. The greater part of the for- 
 mulas of enfranchisement, made out at different eras, are 
 founded upon a religious motive ; it is upon the invoca- 
 tion of religious ideas, of hopes of eternal bliss, and of the 
 equality of man, in the eyes of Heaven, that the enfran- 
 chisement is almost invariably pronounced." 
 
 The Minister of Public Instruction is obviously dis- 
 posed, if possible, to question the claim of Christianity 
 to the undivided honours of this most splendid triumph. 
 " Slavery long existed in the heart of the Christian 
 society." Granted ; the spirit of old Despotism was 
 stronger than the spirit of young Christianity ; but, when 
 the latter reached the vigour of manhood, the former was 
 worsted, and fell to rise no more. " A multitude of 
 causes" is a very indefinite expression, and is, besides, 
 very inaccurate. Causes, like the friends, of humanity, 
 were not in those days " a multitude." If " a great 
 development in other ideas of civilization " was required, 
 how were those " other ideas " produced ? History replies, 
 — By Christianity, and by Christianity alone. The Minis- 
 ter of Public Instruction, in the latter part of this passage, 
 confounds restraint with extinction ; for he himself shows 
 that " the greater part of the formulas made out at differ- 
 ent eras, are founded upon a religious motive." My Lord, 
 M. Guizot had risen nearer to the truth of history, had 
 
176 RESULTS OF MISSIONARY LABOUR 
 
 his declaration been absolute. No point is more satisfac- 
 torily attested than that the abolition of slavery in Europe 
 was effected solely by the influence of Christianity, and 
 that the first Christian Missionaries began what the abo- 
 litionists, so called, completed. The former laboured, and 
 the latter entered into their labours. Let the Missionary 
 be despatched to every land where slavery exists, and his 
 arrival on its shores will be the first step of a process 
 which will infallibly issue in its utter extinction. The 
 period may be remote, but the result is sure. From 
 the hour when the Missionaries of Gregory set foot in 
 England, commenced that anti-slavery war in whose later 
 triumphs your lordship has so largely and so generously 
 shared. 
 
 Let us glance at the subject in recent times, when the 
 conflicts of Christianity and Slavery have been more dis- 
 tinctly noted, and we shall have additional proof of its 
 liberal tendencies. The facts that certain Missionaries 
 have been doubtful enemies, and others even promoters of 
 slavery, do not militate against me ; they are the excep- 
 tion, not the rule, and are to be ascribed to the absence of 
 Christian principle. Such men did not exemplify but 
 belie Christianity! The names of Cardinal Ximenes and 
 Pope Leo X. will be lasting as letters; and the fact that 
 they were the foes of slavery, will be remembered and 
 redound to their glory when all their other deeds shall 
 have been forgotten. As a Christian, I survey with 
 intense satisfaction the history, and minute down the 
 names, of Morgan, Godwyn, Richard Baxter, Thomas 
 Tyron, George Fox, William Edmundson, Primut, Hut- 
 cheson, Foster, Mifflin, Burling, Sandiford, Lay, Wool- 
 man, Benezet, Sewel, Rush, Winchester, Dillwyn, Sharp, 
 Hughes, Hayter, Philmore, Warburton, Day, Beatie, 
 Millar, Raynal, Paley, Porteus, Gregory, Wakefield, 
 Ramsay, Smith, and Robertson the historian, your illus- 
 
ON SLAVERY AND EDUCATION. 177 
 
 trious ancestor, who, in his immortal works, rendered 
 signal service to the great cause of abolition.* These are 
 the names of men of divers ages, countries, professions, 
 and religious connexions, but all were animated by Chris- 
 tian humanity, and each, in his own way, bore emphatic 
 testimony against the abominable traffic in the bodies and 
 souls of men ! The same principles, in a happy hour, led 
 to the formation of the first Anti-slavery Society; and 
 while some of the leaders have been mere philanthropists 
 who had but little sympathy with evangelical religion, the 
 masses, the men who did the work, who encountered the 
 difficulty, and made the needful sacrifice, were men im- 
 bued with religious principle. Without undervaluing the 
 influence and eloquence of English statesmen, I affirm 
 unhesitatingly, that it was Christianity that abolished 
 negro slavery. The Christianity of England did much, 
 but the Christianity of the West Indies did still more. 
 Knibb, Burchell, and their brethren, the Baptist and 
 Wesleyan Missionaries, — these, my Lord, these were the 
 chief instruments in effecting emancipation ! It was the 
 missionaries that kindled the spirit of the British churches, 
 — the British churches impelled the senate, — and the 
 senate the government. Had not Christian Missionaries 
 proceeded to the islands of the west, their groves had 
 been still vocal with the groans of the slave ! Whips and 
 chains, tears and blood, had still proclaimed the reign of 
 horror and cruelty ! 
 
 My Lord, the planters and their hireling scribes well 
 understood this subject. They could have bid defiance to 
 philanthropic oratory for ages to come ! They had little 
 to fear from distant rhetorical hostility. To conquer 
 
 * I beg to recommend to my readers the "History of Slavery, and its 
 Abolition ;" an accurate and invaluable record of a mighty enterprise, by 
 the useful pen of Esther Copley. 
 
 i 3 
 
178 RESULTS OF MISSIONARY LABOUR 
 
 them required more than speeches in St. Stephen's ; it 
 was necessary to assail the bloodstained dragon in his 
 den ! Who had the humanity and the hardihood for this 
 hazardous enterprise ? The orator, the sentimental phi- 
 lanthropist ? No ; — the Missionary ! The Planters, when 
 too late, made the fearful discovery, that the Missionary 
 was more than a match for them. The following passages, 
 quoted in your lordship's first speech for the Missionary 
 Smith, are invaluable. The Government Paper of the 
 day, the great organ and advocate of the slaveholders, 
 thus correctly states the case : — " It is most unfortunate 
 for the cause of the planters, that they did not speak out 
 in time. They did not say, as they ought to have said, to 
 the first advocates of Missions and Education, We shall 
 not tolerate your plans till you prove to us that they are 
 safe and necessary ; we shall not suffer you to enlighten 
 our slaves, who are by law our property, till you can de- 
 monstrate that, when they are made religious and know- 
 ing, they will still continue to be our slaves." — " In what 
 a perplexing predicament do the colonial proprietors now 
 stand ! Can the march of events be possibly arrested ! 
 Shall they be allowed to shut up the chapels, and banish 
 the preachers and schoolmasters, and keep the slaves in 
 ignorance? This would, indeed, be an effectual remedy; 
 but there is no hope of its being applied," u The obvious 
 conclusion is this, — Slavery must exist as it now is, or it 
 will not exist at all" — " If we expect to create a com- 
 munity of reading, moral, church-going slaves, we are 
 wofully mistaken !" — My Lord, what a testimony ! Be it 
 remembered that this is not the language of airy specula- 
 tion, but the reluctant confession of deep experience ! No 
 higher tribute was ever paid to the power of religious 
 truth, and the worth of the Christian Missionary ! Slavery 
 is the same all over the world ; and the word of God is 
 unchangeable in its character and properties ; — only let 
 
ON SLAVERY AND EDUCATION. \ 79 
 
 these antagonist forces then be brought into contact, and 
 Christians have no cause for anxiety about the result. 
 Come then, my Lord, come, and espouse the cause of 
 Missions as the most efficient method of opposing and 
 uprooting slavery ! 
 
 My Lord, you are the great senatorial promoter of Edu- 
 cation ; and on this ground, too, Christian missions merit 
 your most zealous support. In all parts of the world, 
 you will find schools an integral portion of every Mission- 
 ary establishment. You will find in heathen lands no 
 Missions without schools, and no schools apart from Mis- 
 sions. The perusal of the reports of the various Mission- 
 ary Societies will supply to your lordship's mind a rich 
 repast of educational intelligence. In fact, they are just 
 so many Educational Societies, founded on the best prin- 
 ciples. The directors and the agents of such societies are 
 all intent, to the utmost of their power, on the promotion 
 of Education. Oh ! how it would gladden your lordship's 
 spirit to witness the schools in Africa and Polynesia, 
 where you might behold the little natives, in thousands 
 upon thousands, drinking at the stream of knowledge ! On 
 this ground alone, it is not easy to see how such men as 
 your lordship can stand back from the work of Missions. 
 Your philanthropy, in connexion with Education, cannot 
 surely limit itself to England and her colonies. You must 
 desire to see the intellectual and moral emancipation of 
 all lands, — that is, to see the universal prevalence of sound 
 Education to the ends of the earth. But how is this to 
 be effected? Taking Education in your merely secular 
 view of it, how is it to be spread over all nations ? Is there 
 any prospect of great philosophical confederacies being 
 formed for the Education of all mankind? How are the 
 youthful millions of Africa, Asia, and Polynesia, to be 
 educated independently of Christian people and Christian 
 missions ? How long shall they wait till the philosophers 
 
180 RESULTS OF MISSIONARY LADOUR 
 
 of Europe arise and begird themselves for the enterprise 1 
 Ah ! my Lord, till thousands more years shall have passed 
 away ! If the work be ever done, it will be by Christian 
 missions: Missions and schools are in fact synonymous 
 terms ; they are identical. In many parts of the world, 
 indeed, Education is the chief feature of the mission ; for 
 while there is often great difficulty in getting the adult 
 population to hear the missionaries, it is every where 
 found practicable to collect the children into schools, and, 
 of course, where the parents are docile, the success is still 
 greater. The late Mr. Williams has thus stated the con- 
 dition of the schools at Rarotonga : — 
 
 " The schools were, at this time, in a pleasing state of 
 prosperity. In that of Papehia, there were about five 
 hundred children, in Mr. Buzacott's seven hundred, and 
 in Mr. Pitman's upwards of nine hundred ; and on the 
 morning of our departure, they wrote to me on their slates 
 several hundreds of letters, expressive of their regret at 
 my leaving them. One of these, written by a little boy 
 about nine years of age, I desired him to copy upon paper. 
 The following is a translation : — 
 
 ' Servant of God, we are grieving very much for you ; 
 our hearts are sore with grieving, because you are going 
 to that far distant country of yours, and we fear that we 
 shall not see your face again. Leave us John to teach us 
 while you go, then we may expect to see you again ; but 
 if you take John too, we shall give up all hope. But 
 why do you go ? You are not an old man and worn out. 
 Stay till you cannot work any longer for God, and then 
 go home.' 
 
 " The progress which these children had made in writ- 
 ing was not more gratifying than the ingenuity which they 
 had displayed in providing themselves with a substitute 
 for slates and pencils. We taught them to write at first 
 by means of sand-boards, but, of course, they could not 
 
ON SLAVERY AND EDUCATION. jgj 
 
 by this mode acquire any great facility in the art. They 
 frequently expressed their regret at this, and as our supply 
 of slates was very small, they determined, if possible, to 
 find a substitute. Having formed the resolution, they 
 were observed one morning, on leaving the school, running 
 in groups up the mountains, and shortly after returning 
 with flakes of stones, which they had broken off from the 
 rocks. These they carried to the sea-beach and rubbed 
 with sand and coral until they had produced a smooth sur- 
 face. Thus far successful, they coloured the stones with 
 the purple juice of the mountain plantain, to give them 
 the appearance of English slates. Some of the boys 
 completed the resemblance by cutting them square and 
 framing them, so that, without close examination, you 
 could scarcely detect the difference. The next desidera- 
 tum was a pencil, and for this they went into the sea, and 
 procured a number of the echinus, or sea-egg, which is 
 armed with twenty or thirty spines. 
 
 " These they burnt slightly to render them soft, that 
 they might not scratch ; and with these flakes of stone 
 for a slate, and the spine of the sea-egg for a pencil, they 
 wrote exceedingly well : and hundreds of them took down 
 the principal portions of every discourse they heard."* 
 
 Who, my Lord, with the heart of a Christian, a phi- 
 lanthropist, a civilized man, can read this narrative with- 
 out the most intense gratification ? Who can refuse to 
 bid God speed to societies which achieve such wonders ? 
 Who can withhold from them a helping hand? The 
 nobles and senators of England, with her philosophers, 
 philanthropists, and merchants, ought to appear conspicu- 
 ously on the roll of benefactors to such societies. Ah ! 
 my Lord, how unworthily, how disgracefully, how repre- 
 hensibly do many of the " order" to which your lordship 
 
 * Williams, p. 124. 
 
Jgg RESULTS OP MISSIONARY LABOUR 
 
 belongs, spend the ample revenues to which, in the pro- 
 vidence of God, they were born ! Is it thus that the 
 honours of rank are to be maintained ? Is it by the patron^ 
 age of pugilistic encounters — by upholding horse-racing 
 and bull-baiting — by mimic models of the madness of the 
 Middle Ages, that the intelligent and observant com- 
 moners of England are to be inspired with respect for the 
 peers of the realm ? Are prodigality and waste proofs of 
 worth and wisdom ? The tournament of Eglinton cost a 
 larger sum than has ever yet been voted any one year by 
 Parliament for educating the people of this great empire ! 
 At this moment, Missionary Societies, these choicest orna- 
 ments of our land, are languishing for lack of means, 
 through the pressure of the times upon the manufacturing 
 districts, which have ever been their main stay and sup- 
 port. How easily might a few of our aristocracy replenish 
 the treasury of each Society ! And were they to become 
 regular contributors in proportion to the extent of their 
 substance, the result would be the immediate increase of 
 the Societies' revenues tenfold: and a further consequence 
 would be the augmented good of all nations ! Nero fiddled 
 while Rome was in flames ! The peers of England are 
 devising new methods of wasteful expenditure, while her 
 millions pine for bread ! 
 
 My Lord, I must have done. Could I venture to hope 
 that I have said any thing which may serve to fix your 
 gigantic understanding upon this great theme, I should 
 consider it one of the most felicitous occurrences of my 
 lowly life. To see Lord Brougham coming forth to advo- 
 cate Christian Missions — to hear him in Exeter Hall, pour- 
 ing forth his massive thoughts upon this subject, before 
 thousands of the best, the wisest, and the holiest of Eng- 
 land's people, — to discover his powerful pen employed to 
 recommend it in that stupendous organ of opinion which 
 is identified at once with him and with his native city, and 
 
ON SLAVERY AND EDUCATION. Jgg 
 
 which has already contributed so much to ennoble and re- 
 fine our literature, and to work out the liberties and the 
 civilization of Europe — the sight of these things, my Lord, 
 would gladden hundreds of thousands whose praise is nei- 
 ther fluctuating nor ephemeral ! Nor is this all. It would 
 redound more to your real honour, and to the satisfaction 
 of your own best feelings, than the noblest exploits that 
 you have yet achieved. You will find in such pursuits a 
 solace which earthly science and earthly greatness can 
 never minister. You will discover in them a magnitude, 
 a grandeur, a glory denied to every thing else accessible 
 to man. 
 
 Come then, my Lord, and place yourself at the head of 
 the lay champions of Christian missions. In so doing, you 
 will have no cause to blush ; those who have been your 
 companions in other pursuits will be your associates in this. 
 You will still be in the society of Locke, of Newton, and 
 of Boyle. For a long period you have occupied a large 
 space in the eye of mankind. With respect to this mate- 
 rial world and its affairs, you know nearly all that can be 
 classed under the useful or the pleasing ; and with respect 
 to the active duties of public life, you may say with John- 
 son, " I think I have done my share." You are well enti- 
 tled to some repose. To a mind stored and disciplined 
 like yours, the duties which devolve upon you as a British 
 peer are not onerous. Their full performance will leave 
 leisure sufficient for fresh studies. Your lordship will act 
 wisely, then, in pursuing the footsteps of those illustrious 
 men who claimed the chief portion of their latter years to 
 " acquaint themselves with God." This is wisdom ; the 
 reverse is more than folly ; it is crime. You will find 
 every thing in God ; and we are all advancing towards a 
 region where God is every thing. That which will be our 
 sole concern on the verge of eternity ought surely to com- 
 mand our special attention now. How infatuated are the 
 
184 RESULTS OF MISSIONARY LABOUR 
 
 bulk of mankind ! Well might Edmund Burke exclaim, 
 " What shadows we are, and what shadows we pursue !" 
 Yet shadows we remain, and shadows we continue to pur- 
 sue. All see the folly of their friends, but few their own. 
 The death-bed of most great characters is a melancholy 
 yet instructive spectacle. Their end is, however, but such 
 as might be expected from their way. In the days of their 
 deceitful glory and guilty ambition, they despise and forget 
 God ; and in the dreary night which cometh after, and 
 concludes the scene, they fearfully exemplify the words of 
 Scripture : — M Because I have called, and ye refused ; I 
 have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded ; but ye 
 have set at nought all my counsel, and would none of my 
 reproof; I also will laugh at your calamity ; I will mock 
 when your fear cometh. When your fear cometh as deso- 
 lation, and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind ; when 
 distress and anguish come upon you ; then shall they call 
 upon me, but I will not answer ; they shall seek me early, 
 but they shall not find me : For that they hated knowledge, 
 and did not choose the fear of the Lord : They would none 
 of my counsel ; they despised all my reproof : therefore 
 shall they eat of the fruit of their own way, and be filled 
 with their own devices. For the turning away of the simple 
 shall slay them, and the prosperity of fools shall destroy 
 them. But whoso hearkeneth unto me shall dwell safely, 
 and shall be quiet from fear of evil."* 
 
 Where biography has done its duty, which is seldom 
 fully done, the record of the closing scenes of public men 
 generally supplies a sufficient antidote to the dazzling, 
 seductive tendency of their previous career. These " men 
 of the world, which have their portion in this life,"f rightly 
 understood, even in the bright meridian of their brief day, 
 can excite little of either love or envy ; but, when the 
 
 * Prov. i. 24-33. f Psa. xvii. 14. 
 
ON SLAVERY AND EDUCATION. Ig5 
 
 twilight draws on, and the night of death succeeds, the 
 Christian can see nothing in them but objects of commise- 
 ration. The chamber of their dissolution is a dismal spot. 
 There they lie, helpless, hopeless, sometimes friendless — 
 wretched termination of earthly greatness ! Their seeming 
 indifference and affected courage do not escape the keen 
 eye of the Christian observer, who justly regards them as 
 forming one of the worst features of the case ; for, where 
 there is most apparent composure there is often least real 
 ground for it. It is nothing that the wicked have fre- 
 quently stepped out of time into eternity with little noise, 
 and with no observable reluctance or alarm. The wrath 
 and the trouble are to come ! Ignorance, occasionally, 
 inspires as much confidence as knowledge. Security is not 
 safety ! A merely animal life is naturally followed by a 
 merely animal death. The departing spirit, steeped in 
 sensuality to stupefaction, has neither hope nor fear ; 
 shrouded in ignorance, it expires in sullen apathy, and 
 only after death learns the true end of life — learns when 
 the lesson is of no avail ! " There are no bands in their 
 death." — " Surely thou didst set them in slippery places ; 
 thou castedst them down into destruction !" The descent 
 is easy, but it is into perdition ! " How are they brought 
 into desolation, as in a moment! They are utterly con- 
 sumed with terrors."* How doleful was the death-bed of 
 Curran ! More dismal still was that of Sheridan ! Poor 
 Charles Fox and Erskine — poor amid all their oratorical 
 renown ! And Grattan — poor, too, with all his patriotism ! 
 The mortal scenes of even Burke and Johnson, notwith- 
 standing their calmness and decorous solemnity, were dark 
 and doubtful — the gloom made sensible, but left uncheered 
 by a single scintillation of that light which leads to heaven ! 
 Men like you, my Lord, are less conversant with the sor- 
 
 * Psa. lxxiii. 4. 18, 19. 
 
18(5 RESULTS OF MISSIONARY LABOUR 
 
 rowful and the dying than are ministers of Christ, and, 
 therefore, less able to compare and contrast the operations 
 of faith and unbelief, of the knowledge of God, and igno- 
 rance of his truth, in the hearts of expiring men. Oh ! my 
 Lord, what examples we could show you of the power of 
 the Gospel of Christ, in supporting the soul in agony, and 
 inspiring hope in the article of death ! The language even 
 of the Scriptures affords but an inadequate expression of 
 the peaceful and hopeful emotions which, where physical 
 causes prevent not, animate the bosom of the sincere and 
 devoted believer : — " Thou shalt guide me with thy coun- 
 sel, and afterward receive me to glory. Whom have I in 
 heaven but thee ? And there is none upon earth that I de- 
 sire besides thee. My flesh and my heart faileth ; but God 
 is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever."* 
 " Thou wilt show me the path of life ; in thy presence is 
 fulness of joy ; at thy right hand there are pleasures for 
 evermore."f Millions, my Lord, millions have died with 
 hearts full of such thoughts, and their lips giving joyful 
 utterance to such words as these ! Thus, in all parts of 
 England, daily die the peasant, and the peasant's child ; 
 while the terrors of death, and the horrors of despair, are 
 crushing and consuming the spirits of their ungodly su- 
 periors ! 
 
 Of more recent deaths, amid the circles which you, my 
 Lord, frequent, I would mention two, those of Sir Walter 
 Scott and Sir James Mackintosh. To the eye of a 
 Christian spectator, the decease of Sir Walter was me- 
 lancholy in the extreme. While the gloom and sadness 
 of the sepulchre pervaded the once joyous halls of Abbots- 
 ford, there was the entire absence of that peace of God 
 that passeth all understanding, and of that hope which is 
 full of immortality. The departure of Sir James Mackin- 
 
 * Psa. lxxiii. 24—26. f Psa. xvi. 11. 
 
ON SLAVERY AND EDUCATION. ]g7 
 
 tosh was attended with circumstances of the most touching 
 character. That solemn event stands by itself. Taking 
 it in all points, there is nothing in the annals of literature 
 resembling it. Our illustrious countryman was never so 
 truly great as during the few weeks of his last illness. 
 Such sweetness! such humility! such docility! — "He 
 would speak of God with more reverence and awe than I 
 have almost ever met with," said his judicious and Chris- 
 tian daughter. " His voice fell, — his whole person seemed 
 to bow down, as if conscious of a superior presence, — 
 while in a subdued, solemn, deeply thoughtful manner, 
 he slowly expressed himself. He allowed me to read to 
 him passages out of different authors, listening so meekly 
 and so attentively to what I read, as at times almost to 
 overpower me. He did not, in many things, agree with 
 them; and he gave his reasons so calmly and so clearly 
 that I often could not answer him, though I did not 
 always feel convinced by, I was going to say, his argu- 
 ments ; but this would be too strong a term for the gentle, 
 humble, inquiring character of these conversations, in 
 which he seemed thinking aloud, and expressing the diffi- 
 culties of an honest and deeply serious mind. I one day 
 read to him the twenty -ninth chapter of Job, which 
 affected him to tears. Our Lord Jesus Christ was very 
 frequently the subject of his thoughts: he seemed often 
 perplexed, and unable to comprehend much of his history. 
 He once said to me, 'It is a great mystery to me — I 
 cannot understand it.' At another time he told me that, 
 during the many sleepless nights he passed, the con- 
 templation of the character of Jesus Christ, and thoughts 
 concerning the Gospel, with prayer to God, were his chief 
 occupation. He spoke of the delight he had in dwelling 
 upon his noble character. I have heard his voice falter as 
 he repeated, ( He went about doing good ;' but he added, 
 * There is much connected with him I cannot understand.' 
 
Jgg RESULTS OF MISSIONARY LABOUR 
 
 I cannot attempt to give his own words ; but his difficulty 
 lay in the account given of the manner in which Jesus 
 becomes the Saviour of men. One morning he told me 
 that he had been ' praying to God to deliver him from his 
 sufferings, and to permit him to die.' I spoke of the 
 solemnity of death, and the awfulness of meeting God, 
 and that I felt we ought first to seek of God to be pre- 
 pared by him to meet him. He was silent a little, and 
 thoughtful, and then answered, i I thought we might have 
 such perfect confidence in God, that we might even ven- 
 ture to make known to him all our sufferings and all our 
 wants, and that he would not be offended; it was in this 
 belief I asked him to put an end to my sufferings ; with 
 submission, however, I desire to ask it.' On another 
 occasion I told him a friend had prayed for him: he 
 seemed pleased, and said, ' The effectual, fervent prayer of 
 a righteous man availeth much.' On Saturday a great 
 change took place ; he became very silent, and had the 
 appearance of one listening : the intelligence of his coun- 
 tenance did not diminish, it only changed its character ; a 
 look of peace and dignity was mingled with it, such as I 
 had never witnessed in that dear face before. Whenever a 
 word from the Scriptures was repeated to him, he always 
 manifested that he heard it; and I especially observed 
 that, at every mention of the name of Jesus Christ, if 
 his eyes were closed, he always opened them, and looked 
 at the person who had spoken. I said to him at one time, 
 * Jesus Christ loves you :' he answered slowly, and paus- 
 ing between each word, * Jesus Christ — love — the same 
 thing.' He uttered these last words with a most sweet 
 smile. After a long silence, he said, ' I believe — .' We 
 said, in a voice of inquiry, ' In God V He answered, 
 e in Jesus." He spoke but once more after this. Upon 
 our inquiring how he felt, he said he was ' happy.' "* 
 
 * Life, vol. ii. pp. 489, 490. 
 
ON SLAVERY AND EDUCATION. Jg9 
 
 Such, my Lord, is the narrative of the musings and 
 utterances of this great philosopher. You observe how 
 entirely his philosophy failed him in the hour of death, 
 and how absolutely he depended upon Jesus Christ. He 
 just learned the first principles of true religion, and, like 
 a little child, gently died in the faith of the Son of God ! 
 Here we behold a man of mighty intellect, burdened with 
 erudition of the highest order, most profoundly conversant 
 with the sciences of mind and of morals ; and yet, at the 
 ' close of a long life, devoted to the pursuits of knowledge, 
 he remained wholly ignorant of those things which be- 
 longed to his peace! That was last attended to which 
 ought to have been first ! He knew every thing but the 
 one thing needful ! This eminent man, with all his 
 attainments in Philology, in Ethics, in Metaphysics, in 
 Jurisprudence, in History, and in the knowledge of man- 
 kind, understood much less of that which constitutes the 
 highest branch of knowledge, than hundreds of thousands 
 of English Sunday scholars ! 
 
 Surely, my Lord, Sir James Mackintosh has left an 
 example from which it behoves men of letters to profit. 
 His last solemn utterance, before leaving our sphere, was 
 a public confession of faith in Jesus Christ as the Saviour 
 of the world. Such words, from such lips, in such cir- 
 cumstances, are not to be lightly treated. The speaker, 
 one of the greatest and purest of men, was, even amid 
 bodily decay, as far from imbecility as he had all his life 
 been superior to hypocrisy ; and yet, in immediate pros- 
 pect of the judgment-seat of God, he felt the utter 
 insufficiency of a merely moral and useful life to recom- 
 mend him to the Divine approbation, and to satisfy 
 the demands of the Divine law, and fled for refuge to the 
 hope set before him in the atoning sacrifice of Jesus 
 Christ. "What he spoke he felt. The declaration, too, 
 was voluntary. It was also made after a preparation of 
 
190 RESULTS OF MISSIONARY LABOUR 
 
 " long silence." He made it as he lay between two worlds. 
 Time, with all its vanities and visions, behind him, — 
 Eternity, with its truths and realities, before him, — 
 the understanding exerting its powers of defence to the 
 uttermost, and conscience honestly performing its duty ; — 
 thus situated, with one foot in this world, and the other 
 in the world to come, the last words of Sir James Mack- 
 intosh to the philosophers and statesmen of Europe and 
 the world were, " I BELIEVE IN JESUS !" 
 
 It is obvious, my Lord, that there were designed pre- 
 cision and emphasis in the method of statement, in the 
 mode of utterance. He first enunciated his faith, apart 
 from its object :— " I BELIEVE—." This naturally 
 led to the inquiry, " In God ?" And the reply as natu- 
 rally brought forth, fully and emphatically, the great fact, 
 " the good confession"—" IN JESUS." Thus terminated 
 the course of one of England's greatest men; and thus 
 doth God, from age to age, take away " the mighty man, 
 and the man of war, the judge, and the prophet, and the 
 prudent, and the ancient, the captain of fifty, and the 
 honourable man, and the counsellor, and the cunning 
 artificer, and the eloquent orator."* What is man? Ah! 
 my Lord, how different were the port and spirit of Sir 
 James Mackintosh when, as Lord Rector of the University 
 of Glasgow, in his inaugural oration, he addressed us, the 
 students, in, I think, 1822! His speech, on that exciting 
 day, was full of philosophy, of classical allusion, and the 
 pride of science, but not a breath of the Lord Jesus 
 Christ ! No, my Lord, in his discourse, as in yours, on 
 the immediately subsequent occasion, there was nothing 
 which an idolatrous Greek or Roman might not, and 
 could not have written, spoken, and published ! Litera- 
 ture and science were every thing. But, my Lord, mark 
 
 THE END 
 
 * Isa. iii. 2, 3. 
 
ON SLAVERY AND EDUCATION. J9J 
 
 Sir James Mackintosh, by this memorable confession, 
 has done essential service to the cause of Christian truth, 
 and to the best interests of mankind ; but he amply 
 enjoyed the means of conferring upon the world incal- 
 culably more important benefits. If he had directed his 
 exalted powers to the study of Revelation, he might 
 have achieved a work that would have carried down his 
 illustrious name to the latest posterity. Had he taken 
 up the subject, for instance, of Prophecy, or of Christian 
 Doctrine, or of Morals, or of Miracles, what a treasure 
 he might have bequeathed to after ages ! He was equal 
 to any thing : he actually accomplished very little ; and, 
 amid meditations of mighty projects, his life was allowed 
 to run to waste. The Vindici^s Gallkle, on which his 
 fame was founded, was but a loose and crude composition, 
 which, had his industry and energy been equal to his 
 talents, he might have produced in a week. His Ethical 
 Dissertation only serves, by its depth, its power, its ele- 
 gance, and its splendour, to convict him, on a vast scale, 
 of unfaithful stewardship. By this alone, however, small 
 as it is, will posterity know him, and for this alone will it 
 rank him with the great writers of a former age. His 
 attempts in historical composition have added nothing to 
 his reputation. O, my Lord, had Sir James been awak- 
 ened to the importance of eternity, and to the claims and 
 glory of Christ, what motives he might have thence 
 derived for the cheerful, continuous, and intense exertion 
 of his faculties and powers ! These faculties and powers, 
 had they been consecrated to God, would have peculiarly 
 fitted him for religious composition, while the Christian 
 system would have supplied him with innumerable themes 
 worthy of their highest eiforts. But his means and op- 
 portunities of thus benefiting mankind and glorifying 
 God were neglected ; and now, my Lord, they are past 
 
192 RESULTS OF MISSIONARY LABOUR 
 
 and gone for ever! It behoves his surviving friends to 
 profit from his errors. 
 
 My Lord, where Sir James Mackintosh is, we shall 
 shortly be — in the world of spirits ! Not a moment, 
 therefore, is to be lost. If, in our little hour, we would 
 do any thing to purpose, we must betake ourselves to 
 it with a resolution, an industry, a perseverance, and a 
 vigour, which, however strange and unaccountable they 
 may seem to a generation of idle and thoughtless men, 
 are an unalterable condition of success. Your lordship 
 has accomplished much in connexion with time ; but it is 
 to be hoped that far nobler achievements are still to be 
 performed. You have already done something in the way 
 of Natural Theology, and you have done it well; but 
 surely you will not rest satisfied with that dark and doubt- 
 ful department of inquiry after God. You have entered 
 the porch : will you not pass the threshold, and penetrate 
 the temple? If importance attaches to natural, how much 
 more to revealed religion ! You have much to do, my 
 Lord, in various walks, that you may not be far outdone 
 even by some of your great, though now almost forgotten 
 legal predecessors. Lord Chief Baron Hale wrote at 
 least six or eight times more than your Lordship has yet 
 written on the subjects of science, of morals, and of law ; 
 to which must be added, his " Judgment of the Nature 
 of True Religion ;" " Discourse of Religion, under Three 
 Heads ;" u A Discourse of the Knowledge of God and 
 of Ourselves ; first, by the Light of Nature ; and, secondly, 
 by the Scriptures." Then, my Lord, there is the Lord 
 President Forbes, whose patriotic career was, in some 
 leading points, analogous to your own. He, too, did 
 much to purify law and cheapen justice. According to 
 Bannatyne, his biographer, " a number of causes that had 
 been depending for twelve, twenty, or thirty years, were 
 
ON SLAVERY AND EDUCATION. 193 
 
 discussed in the very first session after he sat ; and yet 
 this great and active judge found time to think on the 
 things of Eternity! His "Thoughts on Religion" is a 
 work of great erudition, and of high value. His " Reflec- 
 tions on the Source of Incredulity with regard to Reli- 
 gion," and his " Letter concerning some Important Dis- 
 coveries in Philosophy and Theology," did excellent 
 service at the time of their appearance. But, after all 
 that they, and such as they, have done, the subject is 
 not exhausted; indeed, they have done little more than 
 pitch their tents on the confines of a boundless territory, 
 and make a few, sometimes cursory, observations on their 
 respective vicinities. The field of Revelation presents a 
 measureless abundance of subjects infinitely more than 
 worthy of the highest exercise of your lordship's powers — 
 subjects sufficient to task them to the uttermost for the 
 space of ten thousand generations ! What a prospect that 
 field opens up to your lordship's inquiry ! What a legacy 
 of thought, argument, wisdom, and eloquence, in relation 
 to the Inspired Volume, you may yet leave to mankind ! 
 With materials thence derived, you may construct a mo- 
 nument to your industry and genius which shall endure to 
 the end of all things. But, O my Lord, this is the smallest 
 consideration ! Indeed, it is not admissible at all into the 
 list of Christian motives. The thought of the love of 
 Christ absorbs every other thought. In the world of per- 
 fect men, the glory of one occupies the minds of all. The 
 ransomed millions resident in the Paradise of God can 
 endure no praise but that of him who was slain, and who 
 redeemed them to God by his blood, out of every kindred, 
 and tongue, and people, and nation ; and in its celebration 
 they are assisted by all the inhabitants of the heavenly 
 world. Thus speaks the prophet of Revelation : — " I 
 beheld, and I heard the voice of many angels round about 
 the throne ; and the number of them was ten thousand 
 
 K 
 
194 RESULTS OF MISSIONARY LABOUR, ETC. 
 
 times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands ; saying 
 with a loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to 
 receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and 
 honour, and glory, and blessing. And every creature 
 which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the 
 earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in 
 them, heard I saying, Blessing, and honour, and glory, and 
 power, be unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and 
 unto the Lamb, for ever and ever." May He who is 
 Alpha and Omega in heaven be the same on earth ! May 
 your lordship speedily occupy a foremost place among the 
 best friends of his cause, and the most efficient promoters 
 of his kingdom ! 
 
LETTER IX, 
 
 TO THE REV. TIMOTHY EAST, TREASURER OF SPRING- 
 HILL COLLEGE, BIRMINGHAM. 
 
 ON THE CHARACTER AND DEATH OF THE LATE REV. JOHN WILLIAMS. 
 
 My Dear Sir, — Your life has been signalized by two 
 events of the highest importance to the good of mankind 
 and the glory of Christ — the conversion of the late Rev. 
 John Williams; and the foundation of Springhill College. 
 The good in which the former of these events has already 
 resulted, and the benefits which will flow to future ages 
 from the latter, it is impossible to estimate. To you, as 
 the " father in Christ" of the great South Sea Missionary, 
 the present letter is addressed, since I know of none to 
 whom, with equal propriety, it could be inscribed. My 
 object is, to delineate his person, talents, habits, and 
 character, and to offer some reflections on his death. 
 
 " Vixere fortes ante Agamemnon a 
 Multi : sed omnes illacrymabiles 
 Urgentur, ignotique longa 
 Noctecarent quia vate sacro." 
 
 The first thing, with regard to his person, that presents 
 itself to us, is his great physical power, which materially 
 contributed to success in his peculiar sphere of Missionary 
 
 k2 
 
196 0N THE CHARACTER AND DEATH 
 
 effort. He was massive rather than muscular, and strong 
 without remarkable activity : his stature was somewhat 
 above the middle size — his chest one of unusual breadth — 
 the shoulders considerably rounded, and the whole frame 
 bulky and broadly set. His aspect was a little singular : 
 indeed, he was often taken for a foreigner. Few men, 
 skilled in the physiognomical attributes of nations, would 
 have pronounced him an Englishman : most would perhaps 
 have found it difficult to determine whether he was of 
 "Welsh or of Scotch extraction, but to the one or the other 
 of these countries — and more probably the former — they 
 would have assigned him ; though, perhaps, some would 
 have pronounced him a German. The Welsh and Scotch, 
 in several points, closely resemble each other ; they are 
 both generally of a dark complexion, of hard features, of 
 a somewhat heavy and rustic appearance, with but little 
 of that airy, elegant, lofty, and, not seldom, reserved 
 deportment, which are chief characteristics of the English. 
 Mr. Williams was strongly marked by the simplicity, 
 kindness, and cordiality of manner which distinguish the 
 inhabitants of the Principality and of the North. 
 
 There was something strikingly peculiar in the aspect 
 of Mr. Williams. Having been once seen, he was ever 
 after easily recognised ; and you could instantly point him 
 out, at a distance, among ten thousand men. The head 
 was very large and long, and greatly wanting in that 
 conical elevation so generally found associated with ex- 
 treme benevolence — a quality for which, notwithstanding, 
 he was so remarkable. The forehead was an oblong 
 square, of no great breadth, and retired considerably. 
 The countenance altogether was one of uncommon be- 
 nignity ; it had all the serenity of the finest summer's eve, 
 shaded with a slight expression of sadness. The eye was 
 soft and lustrous; it sparkled from beneath his dark brows, 
 distinctly bespeaking the benevolence that glowed within. 
 
OP THE LATE REV. JOHN WILLIAMS. J 97 
 
 All his features were rounded. This absence of every 
 thing angular about his countenance strikingly indicated 
 the cast of his mind and manners ; — while there was no- 
 thing in his face highly expressive of either intelligence 
 or feeling, every feature evinced simplicity of character, 
 tranquillity of heart, and honesty of purpose. The entire 
 visage, in fact, was so deeply stamped with the impress of 
 good nature and good-will, as to inspire every beholder 
 with immediate confidence. 
 
 The intellectual corresponded to the corporeal part of 
 Mr. Williams. He was decidedly a man of genius — of 
 great genius — but of genius wholly mechanical. He was 
 also strongly marked by the chief intellectual infirmity of 
 most men of that class. His judgment, although sound, 
 was neither strong, comprehensive, nor exact. Its moral 
 movements closely resembled those of his bulky frame ; 
 they were heavy and lagging — wanting in rapidity, dex- 
 terity, and decision. He arrived at conclusions by a slow 
 and circuitous process, and yet his long deliberation sel- 
 dom added to the strength of his convictions. Like most 
 men of great mechanical genius, he was unskilful in the 
 collection, analysis, and balancing of moral evidence ; and 
 hence, at times, he had great difficulty in making up his 
 mind to any particular course of conduct. He occasionally 
 lingered long amid the tortures of suspense. Even after 
 dropping his anchor, he was often driven from his moor- 
 ings, and tossed on the billows of a painful uncertainty. 
 He was for these reasons much at the mercy of coun- 
 sellors ; and often found that among their " multitude" 
 there was fully as much distraction as " safety." This 
 infirmity arose in part from the " fatal facility" of his dis- 
 position. To few able men was the description of the 
 poet less applicable, — 
 
 " Justum et tenacem propositi virum, 
 Non civium ardor prava jubentium, 
 
jgg ON THE CHARACTER AND DEATH 
 
 Non vultus instantis tyranni, 
 Mente quatit solida." 
 
 It is a settled law, in the economy of human affairs, that 
 only decided men can be successful rulers. This fact has 
 been, in all ages, exemplified by the dominant spirits of 
 our race. Mr. Williams was not suited greatly to in- 
 fluence the deliberations, and still less to sway the coun- 
 sels, of civilized and cultivated men. For this work he 
 was too humble, too modest, and too amiable. There was 
 very little of the agonistic in him. He was too much 
 loved to be sufficiently an object of reverence and of fear. 
 His extreme softness gave him at times an air of weak- 
 ness. Social influence and severe self-discipline had done 
 nothing towards rectifying this defect; he was, indeed, 
 scarcely conscious of its existence. Previous to his de- 
 parture for Polynesia, he had received but little moral or 
 mental culture, and his situation there precluded the 
 possibility of much intense application to such pursuits as 
 tend to discipline the will and the understanding. He 
 was too busily employed about still more important mat- 
 ters. The intellectual stature of those around him, too, 
 was such as had a perpetual tendency to depress rather 
 than to elevate him ; and it is wonderful that, under such 
 a combination of adverse circumstances, he not only kept 
 his ground, but even made considerable advancement in 
 general knowledge and mental improvement. The evil 
 consequence, however, on his arrival in England, was ap- 
 parent in all his public efforts. On nearly all subjects, 
 except that of Missions, his views were narrow and super- 
 ficial. His reading had not been excursive, and his reflec- 
 tions on general subjects had not extended much beyond 
 his reading. Images cannot be multiplied in the absence 
 of objects. The relations and qualities of objects cannot 
 be understood, where the objects themselves are hid from 
 vision. Comparison implies knowledge of the individual 
 
OF THE LATE REV, JOHN WILLIAMS. J 99 
 
 as well as of the species ; and comparison must be limited 
 to what is known. In proportion to the extent of Mr. 
 "Williams's acquirements, however, his powers of compari- 
 son and of contrast, of deduction and description, were 
 considerable. His faculty of analysis was greatly inferior 
 to his faculty of combination. In the former he was very 
 deficient, and still more deficient in the power of generali- 
 zation. This was very obvious in his sermons and 
 speeches. His great excellence consisted in detail — a 
 quality in which he was seldom equalled. Generalization 
 is a leading attribute of the true philosopher ; detail, of 
 the popular orator. An illustration of these points is 
 supplied in Dr. Philip and Mr. Williams. Dr. Philip is, 
 in my view, by far the most philosophic Missionary at this 
 moment in the field. Mr. Williams, in his time, was the 
 most interesting narrator of facts. The province of the 
 one is, reason; that of the other, observation. This is 
 full of interest to the multitude; that engages the re- 
 flecting minority. The Liberator of the Hottentots, like 
 the immortal Burke, — 
 
 " Who, too deep for his hearers, still went on refining, 
 And thought of convincing while they thought of dining ;" 
 
 frequently talks an assembly of shallow men into marked 
 and ill-mannered impatience, while discoursing with a 
 depth of thought, a compass of view, and a force of argu- 
 ment that would suffice to interest, enlighten, and con- 
 vince an assembly of philosophers or a congress of states- 
 men. The Great Light of Polynesia, on the contrary, 
 with his simple facts, touching tales, and tragic scenes, 
 could keep the same people, and people of all sorts, for 
 hours together, and for days in succession, rivetted and 
 charmed as if by enchantment. I have heard no man 
 who, in my humble opinion, even approaches Dr. Philip 
 for sublime and glorious conceptions of the philosophy of 
 
200 0N THE CHARACTER AND DEATH 
 
 missions ; and Mr. Williams as far outstripped all his 
 contemporaries in narrating the details of their history. 
 
 In the soul of Mr. Williams there was not a single ele- 
 ment of true poetry ; — but, notwithstanding his want of 
 imagination, he occasionally painted the scenery and so- 
 ciety of the South Seas with great, though literal, effect. 
 The performance was clearly that of an artist, though 
 somewhat of the Flemish school. The observant critic 
 seemed to hear him say, " fetch me the pencils and the 
 colours ;" then, by rule, the process went on, and, al- 
 though there was nothing poetic in the thought or in the 
 language, there was a touching, often a glowing, always 
 an accurate and impressive, description of places, persons, 
 and actions. Without having the poet's eye, w T hich Mr. 
 Moffat so eminently possesses, he was often not inferior to 
 that remarkable man in the felicity of his portraits. Mr. 
 Moffat sees every thing through the medium of the ima- 
 gination ; and genius stands by ready to robe his percep- 
 tions in the most beautiful attire. The sovereignty of his 
 spirit is immediately confessed by his hearers ; and, in 
 spite of a very defective manner, and a most barbarous 
 elocution, made up of the worst Scottish dialect, disguised 
 in divers African intonations, he reigns supreme in every 
 audience, whether metropolitan or provincial. 
 
 The spoken style of Mr. Williams, like his person and 
 mind, was simple, but strong, — rough, but manly. He 
 was wholly destitute of the arts of eloquence ; the selec- 
 tion of words and the construction of phrases, the prepara- 
 tion of paragraphs, and the polish of periods, made no part 
 of his study. His written style is more correct^ and, at 
 times, somewhat ornate ; but for these graces it was in- 
 debted to other pens more practised than his own. The 
 truth is, that the noble-minded man, in all his exhibitions, 
 whether of spoken or of written language, was wholly in- 
 different to self. His own existence, for the most part, 
 
OF THE LATE REV. JOHN WILLIAMS. g()l 
 
 seemed to be forgotten. He was utterly regardless what 
 men thought or said of himself, if they would but hear his 
 statement of the work of God among the heathen ; he 
 asked no more. Never was there, in a pulpit or upon a 
 platform, a more entire absence of every symptom of 
 vanity, a more complete neglect of the arts of popularity. 
 Intent only upon his Master's honour, and utterly heed- 
 less of personal considerations, he became wholly en- 
 grossed with his subject. A great critic has truly said, 
 " the Rhetoric of Fox was his Logic ;" and it may with 
 equal truth be affirmed, that the eloquence of Williams 
 was his facts ! With these, both in England and in Scot- 
 land, he wrought his wonders. He told such tales as no 
 man ever told before. He spoke as a messenger from a 
 fairy land — a land which exhibited a combination of all 
 that is beauteous in nature with all that is barbarous in 
 man. To utterance and manner he owed as little as to 
 diction ; his delivery was heavy, and his voice mono- 
 tonous ; his air tame, and his action stiff and awkward. 
 Never was public speaker more thoroughly divested of 
 every thing meretricious, or more devoid even of legiti- 
 mate ornament. Every passage and every sentence bore 
 the deep and indelible impress of pure truth and unsophis- 
 ticated nature. The leading feature of every effort was — 
 business ! There was no straining in his thoughts, no ex- 
 travagance in his representations, no ranting in his deli- 
 very. Enthusiasm, in its vulgar acceptation, had no place 
 in the breast of Mr. Williams. Common sense was his 
 great and distinguishing quality; and the conviction which 
 irresistibly darted into the mind of every hearer, was, — 
 This is an honest man ! 
 
 The simplicity of Mr. Williams lay at the foundation of 
 his noble character. His greatness was altogether moral ; 
 in point of intellectual powers, as we have seen, he was a 
 very ordinary man, respectable, but nothing more. It is 
 
 • k3 
 
OQ2 ON THE CHARACTER AND DEATH 
 
 probable that many who have not had sufficient means of 
 judging, or who have not turned their attention to the 
 point, may think I have under-estimated our friend. They 
 will consider the elements here set forth as insufficient to 
 form the basis of so much excellence ; they will be at a 
 loss to reconcile a fame so vast with powers so unpretend- 
 ing ; at a loss to understand how a name representing so 
 little brilliancy should have acquired so much glory. Now 
 herein lies the mystery. Here is the real source of that 
 glory. This is the very thing that I am anxious, with the 
 greatest possible prominence, to exhibit to the minds of 
 men, especially to those of the rising ministry. It is not 
 only granted, but even contended, that the mental powers 
 of Mr. Williams were of a common order; and on this 
 ground I chiefly rest his claims to high praise and uni- 
 versal admiration. The practical value of his history 
 arises from the fact, that his was a race in which all may 
 run, and in which all who run will infallibly gain a prize. 
 The folly and stupidity of mankind have, in all ages, been 
 apparent, from the absurd and fatal preference which they 
 have given to intellectual as compared with moral great- 
 ness. Now, where there is, and where there can be, no 
 competition, there ought to be no comparison, in order to 
 praise or to censure. Ought corporeal magnitude to be a 
 ground of reproach or commendation ? Is a man to be 
 held responsible for the hue of his skin or the height of 
 his stature, and to be stamped with renown or covered with 
 infamy according as he approximates the giant or the 
 dwarf, the European or the African ? Such a course, 
 however, would be just as rational as that which, in all 
 ages, has been almost unanimously adopted, even by civil- 
 ized men. The possession, not the use, of talents, has too 
 generally been the ground of their applause and admira- 
 tion. Preposterous folly and infatuation ! Why should 
 men be rewarded with praise, or visited with contempt, 
 
OP THE LATE REV. JOHN WILLIAMS. QQg 
 
 for that which is an accident of birth— a thing beyond the 
 control of its object — a thing with which the will and the 
 intention can have no concern ? No matter at what point 
 of the intellectual scale may be the faculties with which a 
 man is born ; whether he bring with him into our world 
 the abilities of a Bacon, or the imbecility of a " Poor 
 Joseph,"* there he is — is as God hath made him. Yes ; as 
 God hath made him I And shall men be so idolatrous and 
 foolish as to extol and adore the one, — so impious and 
 cruel as to despise and degrade the other, on the simple 
 ground of the states in which they have been respectively 
 brought into being by their Creator? Is there merit or 
 demerit in simple essence apart from action ? Is there 
 any thing moral in mere being ? No ! morality is inse- 
 parable from volition. Our praise and our reprobation 
 ought to rest, not upon what men are, but upon what men 
 do! How long will it be ere we shall judge as God 
 judges ? Why do not mankind learn from the parable of 
 the talents ! The decision in that case turned primarily, 
 not upon the number of the talents, but upon their use, 
 and upon their number only as it regarded the degree of 
 profiting to be looked for ; of him to whom more was 
 given, more was required; but the praise was wholly 
 grounded, not on the amount of the talents entrusted, but 
 of the gain which the parties respectively had realized. 
 The principal was the giver's concern ; the profit was 
 theirs. In all the accounts w T e have of the final Judgment, 
 motive and action, purpose and practice, are represented 
 as every thing. The simple possession of talents, influ- 
 ence, or property, is never mentioned as having any thing 
 moral in it. Possession involves responsibility ; but, 
 taken by itself, it affords no claim whatever to praise, 
 neither is it subject to censure. According to the Scrip- 
 
 * See the affecting Tract entitled " Poor Joseph." 
 
OQ4 0N THE CHARACTER AND DEATH 
 
 tures of truth, not the possession, but the use of our 
 talents, will govern the decisions of the great day ! Moral 
 greatness is the only greatness regarded in the world whi- 
 ther our friend has gone ; and it ought, therefore, to be 
 the only greatness supremely regarded here. As the 
 society of earth approximates that of heaven, and as men 
 improve in their apprehensions of the character of God, 
 this fatal error will be corrected. The idolatry of mere 
 intellect will cease ; and men will "judge just judgment." 
 Real goodness is real greatness ; but greatness admits of 
 degrees ; and the scale of its measurement is sincere de- 
 sire, as tested by practical efforts, to promote the welfare 
 of the human race, and to promote the honour of our 
 Creator. Under the guidance of these principles we shall 
 now attempt to delineate the character of the Martyr of 
 Erromanga, and I wish that, with the poet, I could truly 
 say,— 
 
 " Materiem superabat opus." 
 
 Magnanimity was a leading feature in the character of 
 Mr. Williams, constituting its moral foundation. This 
 quality, as the word imports, consists in a certain large- 
 ness of heart, an elevation of soul in contradistinction to 
 whatever is little and narrow, pitiful and mean. All true 
 Christians are, in their several measures, magnanimous. 
 Magnanimity and Christianity are indeed identical. A spe- 
 cies of magnanimity, however, may exist without Chris- 
 tianity. This magnanimity is found in degrees so differ- 
 ent, that even Christianity cannot wholly remove, although 
 it will lessen, the difference. This fact, in the natural 
 history of mankind, did not escape the notice of the an- 
 cients, who likewise observed that this greatness of soul 
 was too generally allied to a passion which rendered it a 
 curse to mankind as well as to its possessor. Of all the 
 classic writers, I remember none who appears to have been 
 
OF THE LATE REV. JOHN WILLIAMS. 205 
 
 so much alive to these facts as Cicero. Adverting to the 
 mischief which had arisen from the lust of honour, power, 
 and empire, he observes that " it is a very great misfor- 
 tune that this lust is chiefly found in men of the greatest 
 souls, and most exalted natures."* Again, when discuss- 
 ing the beauty of Justice, and the inducements to its vio- 
 lation, he says, " It is a very unhappy circumstance that, 
 for the most part, great and exalted minds are naturally 
 ungovernable and ambitious of rule. For the more any 
 man has of this greatness of soul, the more eager he is to 
 be the chief of all, or rather to be absolute."f This in- 
 firmity has unhappily been visible in all ages. All history 
 exemplifies it. Lord Bolingbroke was a remarkable in- 
 stance among ourselves. I am not sure, all things con- 
 sidered, that a greater soul was ever born on British 
 ground. Goldsmith has finely portrayed him. " In what- 
 ever light we view his character, we shall find him an ob- 
 ject rather for our wonder than our imitation, more to be 
 feared than esteemed, and gaining our admiration without 
 our love. His ambition ever aimed at the summit of 
 power, and nothing seemed capable of satisfying his im- 
 moderate desires, but the liberty of governing all things 
 without a rival. With as much ambition, as great abili- 
 ties, and more acquired knowledge than Caesar, he wanted 
 only his courage to be as successful ; but the schemes his 
 head dictated, his heart often refused to execute ; and he 
 lost the ability to perform just when the great occasion 
 called for all his efforts to engage. The same ambition 
 that prompted him to be a politician, actuated him as a 
 philosopher. His aims were equally great and extensive 
 in both capacities : unwilling to submit to any in the one, 
 or any authority in the other, he entered the field of 
 science with a thorough contempt of all that had been 
 established before him, and seemed willing to think every 
 
 * De Officiis, lib. i. cap. 8. f Ibid. lib. i. cap. 19. 
 
206 0N THE CHARACTER AND DEATH 
 
 thing wrong, that he might show his faculty in the refor- 
 mation." 
 
 It is the glory of Christianity that it possesses the 
 power of divesting this kind of magnanimity of its destruc- 
 tive qualities wherever they may happen to be combined 
 with it. Of this the apostle Paul is a wondrous instance. 
 Had he been another Philip's son, without the grace of 
 God, he had been a second Alexander. This greatness of 
 soul, however, is always associated with greatness of in- 
 tellect ; and I remember no instance in which it has been 
 destructive except when allied with stupendous mental 
 power — while it deserves especial notice that the associa- 
 tion does not necessarily imply destruction. It is to 
 cases of the latter class chiefly, that history has spoken, 
 for the obvious reason, that their fatal operations lay 
 within her province. Immense intellectual power, on the 
 other hand, may exist without a particle of magnanimity. 
 History abundantly attests this fact; magnanimity and 
 great intellectual capacity, therefore, must not be con- 
 founded. Perhaps in none did they ever meet in more 
 complete equality of measure than in Alexander, whose 
 generosity was, beyond doubt, as great as his genius ; but 
 it appears to me, that, in both, he was much excelled by 
 Columbus. Napoleon and even Caesar were very de- 
 fective in magnanimity, as compared with their super- 
 abundant intellect. John Williams, on the other hand, 
 was deficient in intellect as compared with his magnani- 
 mity. This magnanimity was one of the chief elements 
 of the wonderful character of Solomon. It is set forth 
 as an article distinct from understanding. " God gave 
 Solomon wisdom and understanding exceeding much, and 
 largeness of heart, even as the sand that is on the sea 
 shore." This " largeness of heart" is the very thing meant 
 by the following passage, "the liberal deviseth liberal 
 things, and by liberal things shall he stand." 
 
 The magnanimity of Williams, philosophically speaking, 
 
OP THE LATE REV. JOHN WILLIAMS. 207 
 
 was the real cause of his amazing success in dealing with 
 mankind. He easily believed that what he was ready to 
 do for others, they would not refuse to do for him. This 
 noble feeling prompted what to little souls seemed his 
 extravagances. It led him to believe that the Christians 
 of England would provide him with a ship, and they gave 
 it ! It inspired him with confidence to ask the Corpora- 
 tion of London for money to promote his object, and they 
 bestowed it ! It prompted his application to many of the 
 nobles of England to aid him in the work of missions — 
 and they did it! The measure of his expectations and 
 demands was taken from his own heart, which, in this 
 matter, never misled him. He found what all will find, 
 that according as he meted it was meted to him again : 
 
 " Victor volentes per populos dat jura." 
 
 Philanthropy was a marked feature in the character of 
 Williams. This quality, which signifies the love of man, 
 is one of the choicest ornaments of our nature. It is the 
 basis of all true and lasting glory. Although it never 
 exists in perfection except in union with the love of God ; 
 yet so essential is it to man's notion of a superior human 
 character, that the ancients set great store by it as a chief 
 moral virtue. Plato lays down the doctrine, that "we 
 are not born for ourselves alone; but that our native 
 country, our friends and relations, have a just claim and 
 title to some part of us." Cicero, in the most important 
 of all his works, admirably expounds this doctrine of 
 Plato and of the Stoics: he insists that "whatsoever is 
 created on earth, was merely designed for the service of 
 man, and men themselves for the service, benefit, and 
 assistance of one another. In this (he continues) we 
 certainly ought to be followers of nature, and second her 
 intentions; and by doing all that lies in our power for 
 the general interest, by mutual acts of kindness, by our 
 
£08 0N THE CHARACTER AND DEATH 
 
 knowledge, industry, riches, or other means, we should 
 endeavour to keep up that benevolence and fellowship 
 which ought to subsist.among men."* The finest passage 
 of antiquity upon this subject is the following from the 
 same illustrious pen: — "When we have gone over all 
 the relations in the world, and thoroughly considered the 
 nature of each, we shall find none more binding, none 
 more intimate or dearer, than that which we all bear to 
 the commonwealth. We have a tender concern and re- 
 gard for our parents, for our children, our kindred, and 
 acquaintance, but the love which we have for our native 
 country swallows up all other affections whatsoever ; for 
 his country no man of honour would refuse to die, if by 
 his death he could do it any needful service. Now, if 
 there should be any conflict or competition between these 
 relations, which of them ought to preponderate? Our 
 first regard is due to our country and our parents, to 
 whom we lie under the most endearing obligation; the 
 next to our children and household, who look up to us 
 alone, and have nobody else they can depend upon ; next 
 in order come our kindred and relations, whose fortunes 
 are generally connected with our own."f 
 
 This, Sir, as you well know, is the utmost stretch of 
 heathen philanthropy ; properly speaking, it is not philan- 
 thropy at all. So far as the love of country is concerned, 
 it is the love of an abstraction. So far as man is con- 
 cerned, it is the love of a small part to the exclusion of 
 the mighty remainder. Notwithstanding this restriction, 
 it wrought a multitude of marvels in the earlier ages of 
 the Roman commonwealth. The same principle — the 
 principle of rendering every thing which relates to parts, 
 subordinate to the interests of the w T hole — wrought won- 
 ders also in the first ages of Christianity. This fact did 
 
 * De Officiis, lib. i. cap. 7. | lb. lib. i. cap. 18. 
 
OF THE LATE REV. JOHN WILLIAMS. CQ9 
 
 not escape the notice of the infidel historian of the Decline 
 and Fall of the Roman Empire, who, speaking of the 
 church, says, " The safety of that society, its honour, its 
 aggrandizement, were productive, even in the most pious 
 minds, of a spirit of patriotism, such as the first of the 
 Romans had felt for the republic."* The patriotism of 
 Cicero was a poor, a selfish, and a grovelling passion, as 
 compared with the philanthropy of Williams. The mis- 
 sionary's ruling passion was the love of man, in the largest 
 acceptation of the term, without respect to colour, clime, 
 or language. It was comprehensive of all the interests 
 of humanity. It dealt with nations as with individuals, 
 and maintained that the interests of each are perfectly 
 compatible with the interests of all ; and that as in the 
 latter case so in the former, each is richest when it pos- 
 sesses nothing but its own. The philanthropy of Williams, 
 however, comprehended not only all men through all time, 
 but through eternity. This, Sir, this is the true philan- 
 thropy! It is co-extensive at once with the wants and 
 the duration of human nature. Oh ! how narrow, carnal, 
 and creeping is philosophical philanthropy, as compared 
 with that of the Christian missionary ! In the single 
 person of your son in the gospel, there was more philan- 
 thropy than in all the merely philosophical societies in 
 Europe! Besides, Sir, his philanthropy was not "in word 
 and in tongue, but in deed and in truth." Poetic tears 
 and the tropes of oratory are cheaply bestowed, and of 
 no practical value ; but the philanthropy of Williams cost 
 him in the outset much that men hold dear ; and, in the 
 end, even life itself! The amount of his sacrifice, when 
 he embarked for the South Seas, cannot easily be esti- 
 mated. He began by freely giving up all the prospective 
 gains of trade ; he next became a voluntary exile from his 
 
 * Decline and Fall, chap. xv. 
 
210 0N THE CHARACTER AND DEATH 
 
 native country, the land of his fathers' sepulchres, the 
 glory of kingdoms ; he then tore himself from the en- 
 deared society of all his kindred, with little probability of 
 seeing them again in this world. Then he deliberately 
 stepped beyond the pale of civilization, to mingle with 
 savage hordes ; he lastly exchanged the ten thousand earthly 
 comforts and all the religious privileges of an enlightened 
 and polished nation, for the destitute barbarity of naked 
 men. But this, Sir, was only the beginning of sacrifice. 
 How did the enterprise proceed? He encountered the 
 perils of the mighty deep, and on reaching Polynesia 
 entered on a series of self-denying labours, unexampled 
 in difficulties, danger, and discouragement. Nor were 
 his sufferings purely personal; he was not alone; there 
 was a second self, dearer than the first, in all whose afflic- 
 tions he was afflicted. Behold the devoted pair, far away 
 upon an isle of the Southern Ocean, without father, 
 mother, sister, or friend, to aid, or soothe, or cheer, amid 
 all the sorrows and solicitudes of life ! Nor was this all. 
 Their means of subsistence were far less than those of 
 a respectable English mechanic, and poverty was their 
 constant companion. I make no reflection on the invalu- 
 able Institution with which Williams was connected ; the 
 integrity of its administration, in all things, is not only 
 above impeachment, but above praise. I merely state the 
 fact, while I find the reason in the Directors' rigid eco- 
 nomy of the Society's Funds — a point on which, indeed, 
 they and their agents are as one, it being the policy of 
 the former to pay, and the disposition of the latter to 
 receive, no more than is absolutely indispensable to the 
 lowest point of comfort. Indeed, I have had it from 
 Mr. "Williams's own lips, that his allowance was by no 
 means sufficient for his necessities ; but that, without 
 a murmur, he drew his allotted salary, and supplied the 
 deficiency from his own resources. Then, what was his 
 
OF THE LATE REV. JOHN WILLIAMS. %\\ 
 
 condition, for a season, in relation to the savage society 
 around him? His labours were unsolicited; his presence 
 was unwelcome; his endeavours at good were thankless; 
 he was hourly liable to be expelled, and in daily peril 
 of his life ! But the thoughts of man cannot be confined 
 to the present moment ; he must be looking forward and 
 endeavouring to pierce into the dread future ! As a man, 
 a father, and a husband, what did that future present to 
 John "Williams ? Things of fearful import ; things full of 
 trial to the tender heart ! He might at any hour, in those 
 remote and barbarous isles, leave his wife a widow and 
 his children orphans, without stay or hope but in their 
 father's God! He might any year be constrained to 
 return to his native land, broken in health, and useless 
 for action, to pine and die, despised by the world, and 
 by the church neglected and forgotten. These, and such 
 as these, were among his prospects ! This was part of the 
 price he paid for the exercise of his philanthropy ! Who, 
 Sir, who can estimate the claims and merits of such a 
 man? Oh! how few think, as they ought to think, of 
 the position of the Christian missionary! Consider it, 
 ye idle well-wishers to your race ! Is it not time for 
 you to do justice to the most useful, honourable, and 
 meritorious class of mankind ? As the friends of Williams, 
 we may say in relation to him, with better reason than 
 the poet: — 
 
 " Jamque opus exegi, quod nee Jovis ira, nee ignis, 
 Nee poterit ferrum, nee edax abolere vetustas." 
 
 Scriptural piety was a chief feature in the character and 
 the main source of the philanthropy of Mr. Williams. 
 The aspect of a man's religion will always be determined 
 by his intellectual and moral constitution. This was 
 peculiarly exemplified in the case of your spiritual son. 
 His religion was simple, healthful, robust, and manly. 
 
212 0N THE CHARACTER AND DEATH 
 
 His views of the gospel were highly scriptural. Of the 
 theology of the schools he knew but little ; he took his 
 creed from the Volume of Inspiration. He was no 
 wrangler ; yet he was a workman that needed not to be 
 ashamed, for he rightly divided the word of truth. He 
 was such a teacher as Paul or Timothy would, without a 
 moment's hesitation, have ordained to the work of the 
 ministry. Although not " mighty in the Scriptures," he 
 was well acquainted with the word of God. Upon what 
 is technically termed " experience," he was a safe guide 
 and a fine model. Much that is in great repute, in some 
 religious circles," had no place in his instructions; he had 
 not within him one particle of what is called religious en- 
 thusiasm. In respect of his views and sentiments, all was 
 pure, clear, and scriptural. He had no sympathy with 
 the system of impulses and impressions, and vagaries of 
 the fancy. Experience with him was not an end, but a 
 means. He .viewed it simply as the fruit of faith in a soul 
 renewed and inhabited by the Spirit of God, and holding 
 a middle place between the belief of the gospel and the 
 obedience of the laws of Christ — as the effect of that 
 belief and the source of this obedience. He considered 
 this experience the end and object of all doctrinal 
 knowledge and of all spiritual influence. He had large 
 and luminous conceptions of the design of the Gospel ; he 
 by no means considered it merely as a scheme of comfort, 
 nor even merely as a medium of pardon. This is the 
 error of multitudes. He taught that, while it was the 
 more limited province of the Gospel to heal the broken- 
 hearted, and to comfort all that mourn, it was its more ex- 
 tended province to " sanctify the unclean," to purify men 
 " from all fllthiness of the flesh and of the spirit," and lead 
 them to " perfect holiness in the fear of God." He well 
 knew that seasons of peculiar sorrow are only occasional, 
 but that seasons of temptation are perpetual ; and he con- 
 
OF THE LATE REV. JOHN WILLIAMS.. gJ3 
 
 ducted his ministrations accordingly. Every exhibition 
 of truth had a practical bearing ; the uniform tendency of 
 his ministration of the gospel of mercy was, to elevate 
 the soul, to form the character, to meeten men " to be 
 partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light." His 
 views of the Divine character were remarkably clear, and, 
 therefore, in the highest degree consolatory. He was 
 himself a happy man, a cheerful Christian ! They who 
 saw him but for a few minutes would have pronounced 
 him a man of a joyous spirit. He seemed to walk in the 
 beams of a perpetual sunshine. In this respect, perhaps, 
 no man ever formed a more striking contrast to David 
 Brainerd. The dismal gloom, the deep depression, the 
 lonely sorrow, of that holy but melancholy man, sadly 
 contrasted with the peace, the comfort, the hope, and the 
 gladness of the Martyr of Erromanga ! Truly " the joy 
 of the Lord was his strength." A man of melancholy 
 temperament, a man with dark and doleful. views of the 
 gospel of mercy, is not a proper person to be sent to the 
 field of missions. Clear ideas of the Saviour's person, 
 work, and offices, and of the whole scheme of salvation, 
 with an accurate impress of it upon the heart, and a 
 lovely exhibition of it in the life, are essential qualifica- 
 tions of a good missionary ; and such were those which 
 distinguished the late Mr. Williams. 
 
 " Inspicere tanquam in speculum in vitas omnium 
 Jubeo atque ex aliis sumere exemplum sibi." 
 
 Liberality of spirit, my dear Sir, was another very 
 marked feature of your son's character. This resulted from 
 his benevolence and his piety: the former of these knew 
 no bounds ; and the latter was such as to bid God speed 
 to all who loved the Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity. He 
 was the friend of all who were the friends of Christ. His 
 great liberality was also to be ascribed, in no small mea- 
 
214 0N THE CHARACTER AND DEATH 
 
 sure, to his early training in the Tabernacle, where the 
 spirit of sects and parties had no place, and where the 
 question of their comparative claims to an accordance with 
 the Sacred Scriptures was never discussed or mentioned 
 in his hearing. In that venerable house, indeed, at the 
 period of his connexion with it, there was much, very 
 much, ignorance upon points relating to ecclesiastical 
 polity, — points which it is of the utmost importance for 
 the people of God to understand, because of their spiritual 
 and practical bearing. If, however, young Williams had 
 received upon this subject no lessons of truth, neither had 
 he of error. He went forth with his mind a compara- 
 tive blank respecting all that appertains to controversy 
 about church order and Christian ordinances. Where- 
 ever he found a consistent believer, he found a brother, 
 and as such he was ready to embrace him. He knew 
 no church but the church of Christ ; he was for all that 
 were for his Lord ! A mind like his, however, so indus- 
 trious and so inquisitive, was not likely to remain long 
 without some settled notions on this great and important 
 subject. When he arrived in England in 1834, he accord- 
 ingly manifested a perfect acquaintance with it. He had 
 become, from conviction sincere and deep, a Dissenter 
 from the Church of England and from all Ecclesiastical 
 Establishments. He perceived them to be rotten at the 
 core — founded in fatal error, and irreconcilably hostile to 
 the quiet of nations, the peace of churches, and the true 
 interests of Christ's kingdom. This opinion he most 
 firmly, though mildly, held; and, upon all proper occa- 
 sions, was ready to avow it. But these correct views, 
 upon this momentous question, did not in the least sour 
 his temper, contract his heart, or cool the ardour of his 
 charity. He was the same — unchanged and unchangeable 
 — in his love to the people of God, and benevolence to the 
 whole family of man. He had learned to love his prin- 
 
OF THE LATE REV. JOHN WILLIAMS. £15 
 
 ciples without hating his brethren ! No man, for instance, 
 was more opposed than he to some of the tenets, both re- 
 ligious and political, of the Wesleyan Methodists; yet 
 hear how nobly he speaks of that most active and praise- 
 worthy body : — " In my visit to Tongatabu, I was truly 
 delighted to find that the missionaries had received a 
 printing press, and that it was most actively engaged in 
 preparing the word of life for the people. Its invaluable 
 operations were commenced in 1831, and by November, 
 1832, twenty-nine thousand one hundred copies of small 
 books, containing five millions seven hundred and seventy- 
 two thousand pages, had been struck off. Such facts fur- 
 nish delightful evidence of the untiring diligence of the 
 missionaries who supplied the matter, and of the perse- 
 verance of Mr. Wood, who had charge of the mighty 
 engine. Indeed, if sterling piety, and entire devotedness 
 to the cause of God among the heathen, can ensure suc- 
 cess, our Wesleyan brethren at the Friendly Islands will 
 have a distinguished portion."* 
 
 " Et meee, si quid loqnar audiendum, 
 Vocis accedet bona pars." 
 
 Mechanical ingenuity was a striking feature in the 
 character of Mr. Williams. He was highly endowed with 
 the faculty of invention, and would have attained distinc- 
 tion had he devoted himself to the improved application 
 of mechanic powers. The exercise of his genius in this 
 direction was one of the sources of his amazing success in 
 the missionary field. Magic and miracles would not have 
 stood him in half the stead of his skill in the useful arts. 
 His exhibitions in this way spoke to the senses of the 
 savages, who stood in dumb amazement, and confessed 
 the white man's superiority. The art to which he had 
 
 • Williams, p. 123. 
 
21 6 ON THE CHARACTER AND DEATH 
 
 been specially bred — that of a smith, — was, of all arts, 
 to him infinitely the most important. The art of work- 
 ing in iron stands at the head of all others : they are all 
 subordinate to it, and dependent upon it. In no country 
 has civilization ever been known to precede the use of 
 iron. It is essential as an instrument in the cultivation of 
 the soil, and in the production of every comfort of civilized 
 life. Combined with this highly important fact, is the well- 
 known circumstance, that the art of working in iron sur- 
 passes in usefulness all other arts, as much as iron itself 
 surpasses all other materials put in requisition by the wants 
 and habits of civilized life. Cicero well observes that 
 there is an affinity among the sciences, so that he who has 
 become an adept in one, is, to some extent, initiated in the 
 rest. So likewise is it in regard to languages. But besides 
 the affinities, — the principles common to them all, — there 
 are leading sciences, and leading languages, the mastery of 
 which renders further conquests an easy achievement. The 
 analogy is complete in the case before us. He who has 
 thoroughly acquired the art of working in iron will be at 
 no loss, though at first but rudely, to work in other sub- 
 stances. All sorts of wood-work, house-building, ship- 
 building, agricultural implements, and all that is necessary 
 to the early stages of civilization, will come within his pro- 
 vince and his power. The mathematical principles of 
 these two trades, in particular, have much in common ; 
 and working in wood is simple and easy compared with 
 iron. 
 
 These facts explain the secret of Mr. Williams's remark- 
 able skill in all mechanical operations — operations which, 
 in the first instance, constituted his great charm in the eyes 
 of the poor natives — operations which so amazingly con- 
 tributed to his success in promoting civilization, — and ope- 
 rations which form one of the chief and most interesting 
 features of his " Enterprises." Had he been bred to any 
 
OF THE LATE REV. JOHN WILLIAMS. 217 
 
 other art, he would have made a very different and a very 
 subordinate figure in Polynesia. Had he gone to any 
 other part of the mission field, his skill in working iron, 
 and his great mechanical genius, had been of comparatively 
 little use, and, in most places, of absolutely none. Had he 
 been appointed to the West Indies, to Hindostan, to China, 
 to Madagascar, or to South Africa, he would still have 
 been a respectable missionary ; but he would never have 
 shone with that peculiar and peerless splendour which now 
 surrounds his name. No man ever owed more to provi- 
 dential circumstances than John "Williams : they made him. 
 No man, on the other hand, ever more promptly and aptly 
 met the enlarged and ever-varying demands of such cir- 
 cumstances, mastered their current, and turned them to his 
 purpose. 
 
 In all great movements, priority is immortality. There 
 can no more be a second Williams than a second Diaz, a 
 second Columbus, or a second Newton. From first to last, 
 events conspired to stamp his character with an undying 
 reputation. His labours in Polynesia, — the record of those 
 labours in the " Enterprises," — his favour in the eyes of 
 the noblest aristocracy of England, — the original idea of 
 a missionary ship, — his public embarkation for the field of 
 his ministerial triumphs, — the martyrdom of Erromanga, 
 — this, my dear Sir, was a series of events which could 
 not fail to secure for John Williams a niche in the 
 temple of immortality; and if, in after ages, some edu- 
 cated Polynesian shall be called to furnish the inscription, 
 he will write, — 
 
 " — Qui praegravat artes 
 Infra se positas, extinctus amabitur idem." 
 
 A spirit of adventure strongly marked the character of 
 Mr. Williams. His undaunted soul bore him through a 
 multitude, of difficulties which would have deterred most 
 
2\ 8 0N THE CHARACTER AND DEATH 
 
 men. Yet, with all his courage, he was far from being 
 rash. Prudence regulated every movement of his life ; 
 and, till the fatal hour of his martyrdom on the ruthless 
 shores of Erromanga, we see, upon all occasions, one uni- 
 form course of manly courage, combined with undeviating 
 discretion. He was in his element when searching for a 
 new island, or prosecuting some discovery in science or in 
 human nature. He dwelt in conversation, as well as in 
 his volume, with great delight, upon the facts of the 
 history of those islands of which he was the first European 
 discoverer. Cook himself did not go forth with greater 
 zeal to extend the boundaries of geographical knowledge. 
 
 The position of Williams, when he went out the second 
 time, was peculiar. The purchase and outfit of the Cam- 
 den was an extraordinary affair. No missionary agent had 
 ever an honour of that description conferred upon him ; 
 and, perhaps, none had ever had presented before him, in 
 more alluring visions, the prospects of extended useful- 
 ness. When Mr. Williams left England, it was with the 
 fullest confidence of hope, that, in the course of a few 
 years, he would return. I have reason to believe that he 
 looked onward to the close of that period with strong and 
 cheering anticipations. I know it. He fondly expected 
 with great joy once more to meet the much-loved friends 
 to whose liberality he owed his vessel, with all that it car- 
 ried out to Polynesia. The arrival in England, — the first 
 appearance at the Mission-house, — the thanksgiving ser- 
 vice we had planned to be held in the Tabernacle, which 
 had witnessed his solemn departure, — the sight of his dear 
 old friends there, in the metropolis, and throughout the 
 provinces : all these anticipations, and a multitude besides, 
 of a kindred character, rose like distant pyramids in the 
 wilderness of the dread future, and delighted his imagin- 
 ation. But, alas ! in an hour when we little thought of 
 it, his brilliant career was cut short on the beach of Erro- 
 
OF THE LATE REV. JOHN WILLIAMS. C>\Q 
 
 manga, — an event concerning which neither you, my dear 
 Sir, nor I, can ever cease to say, — 
 
 " Quern semper acerbum, 
 Semper honoratum (sic Dii voluistis) habebo!" 
 
 Diligent perseverance in whatever he undertook was a 
 strikingly prominent feature in the character of our friend. 
 It were difficult to find a man less fitful ; he was emphati- 
 tically what is termed " a plodder." His genius had none 
 of that waywardness, caprice, and instability which so 
 often prove the ruin of the most gifted men. He had no 
 idea of exemption from the settled condition of human 
 excellence, — namely, incessant toil. Perhaps one chief 
 means of his preservation from this evil was, the defect of 
 his imaginative faculty ; for, as I have already stated, al- 
 though his powers of mechanical invention were vast, he 
 was wanting in that power which gives birth to aerial cre- 
 ations, and which too frequently bewilders its possessors 
 amid the deceitful blaze of its own ethereal fires. He hoped 
 every thing from labour, under the guidance of Heaven ; 
 without it — nothing. He was equally superior to weariness 
 and to negligence. Industry was the usual element he 
 breathed in ; he could not be idle, neither could he be in a 
 bustle. Had he been escaping from a sinking ship, or a 
 burning house, he would have proceeded with deliberation. 
 Indeed, humanly speaking, he died through deliberation ! 
 
 The truth is, Mr. Williams did not know that he was a 
 genius till the people of England told him ; and even then, 
 he was not quite clear about it ; hence he claimed no supe- 
 riority over the rest of his species. He believed that what 
 he did was practicable by every one who would bestow the 
 necessary effort. John Williams was not one of those who 
 congratulate themselves upon their intellectual dignity, 
 and usurp the privileges of genius, — who consider that 
 they are so prodigiously enriched by the bounty of nature 
 
 l 2 
 
220 0N THE CHARACTER AND DEATH 
 
 as to command usefulness or immortality on easy terms. 
 " Men have sometimes appeared of such transcendent abi- 
 lities, that their slightest and most cursory performances 
 excel all that labour and study can enable meaner intel- 
 ects to perform ; as there are regions of which the spon- 
 taneous products cannot be equalled in other soils by care 
 and culture. But it is no less dangerous for any man to 
 place himself in this rank of understanding, and fancy 
 that he is born to be illustrious without labour, than to 
 omit the cares of husbandry, and expect from his ground 
 the blossoms of Arabia ?"* 
 
 Mr. Williams was a man who did justice to the gospel 
 of Christ. He was a working man ! He laboured in the 
 vineyard! The home ministry, in a former age, was too 
 much an affair of gentility. The pastor viewed himself, 
 and he was viewed by the world, as a gentleman — a man 
 in easy circumstances — one whose duties were limited to 
 the Sabbath-day. He was, by many, considered as a man 
 of fashion, a man of fortune, or at least, a man of leisure. 
 The public had no conception that it was his province, or 
 his duty, to labour like the professors of Law and Medi- 
 cine. Hence the Christian ministry, with most people, 
 whether Dissenters or Churchmen, was viewed as little 
 more than a sinecure. While those fine gentlemen en- 
 joyed their felicity, the cause of Christ languished, and, in 
 thousands of places, died! The rise of Methodism did 
 much to awaken Zion's watchmen from their guilty slum- 
 bers ; the preachers of the movement became at once an 
 example and a reproach to the elder and more dignified 
 occupants of the vineyard. Wesley exhibited a pattern 
 which he expected his preachers to multiply. He uni- 
 formly maintained, that defects in the flock were but the 
 faithful reflection of defects in the shepherds. In answer 
 
 * Rambler, No. 169. 
 
OF THE LATE REV. JOHN WILLIAMS. 
 
 to the question, " Why is it that people under our care 
 are no better ?" he replies, " Other reasons may concur ; 
 but the chief is, because we are not more knowing and 
 more holy." " But why are we not more knowing?" " Be- 
 cause we are idle. "We forget our very first rule, ' Be 
 diligent. Never be unemployed a moment. Never be 
 triflingly employed. Never while away time ; neither spend 
 any more time at any place than is strictly necessary.' I 
 fear there is altogether a fault in this matter, and that few 
 of us are clear. Which of you spends as many hours a 
 day in God's work as you did formerly in man's work? 
 We must, absolutely must, cure this evil, or betray the 
 cause of God!"* Williams was a man very much after the 
 heart of Wesley ; in many points he was another Alex- 
 ander Mather, a man whose virtues and zeal strongly 
 commended him to the confidence and love of the great 
 reformer. John Williams was a beautiful model to the 
 youthful missionary in every clime, but especially in the 
 South Seas. It may be truly said, that whatsoever his 
 hand found to do, he did it with all his might. His " En- 
 terprises" form a lovely commentary upon his career. 
 Even the Commentaries of Caesar, which, in all ages, have 
 been the admiration of scholars, do not give a more vivid 
 picture of sleepless vigilance, indomitable courage, and 
 unconquerable perseverance, than the work of Williams. 
 The physical power of both was of signal service in en- 
 abling them to bear up under their amazing toils. A 
 bodily vigour less robust than Williams possessed, had 
 not sufficed for his house-building and ship-building opera- 
 tions, and for the varied toils and hardships of his arduous 
 vocation. But in this and every thing else he was ad- 
 mirably fitted for the work assigned him. Yes, Sir ; and 
 if, in many things, we cannot imitate, we can at least 
 admire him, and say, with Propertius, — 
 
 * Large Minutes, Q. 31, 32. 
 
Q%2 ON THE CHARACTER AND DEATH 
 
 " Quod si deficiant vires, audacia certe 
 Laus erit ; in magnis et voluisse sat est. : 
 
 Such, Sir, is a faint outline of the character of your 
 much loved son, and my much lamented friend. The 
 churches of Christ congratulate you on the signal, the in- 
 expressible honour of having been the instrument chosen 
 by God to bring this great man to the knowledge of the 
 truth. What are all honours, civil, military, or academic, 
 when compared with this honour? Had the discourse to 
 which he owed his conversion been your first, and had you 
 dropped into eternity and returned to God, after leaving 
 the pulpit, on that memorable night, your life would still 
 have been an event of unutterable importance — an event 
 for which angels, could such a passion enter their hearts, 
 might be tempted to envy you ! Every other circum- 
 stance in your history apart, you will receive an immorta- 
 lity on earth from your now glorified son. Your names 
 will go down together to the remotest posterity. You 
 will meet in the world of spirits and of bliss. Before the 
 throne of joy, when all secrets shall be disclosed, he will 
 claim you as his father, and you will embrace him as your 
 son ! He will not be your only child. I know others who 
 will, on that occasion, stand by his side, and proclaim 
 themselves equally indebted to your instrumentality ; but 
 he will be your chief joy and the choicest gem in your 
 crown of rejoicing. The day of judgment alone will reveal 
 the full measure of the effects which will have flowed from 
 causes that he put into operation for the conversion of our 
 world. Is " he that winneth souls wise ?" Will " they 
 who turn many to righteousness shine as stars for ever 
 and ever ?" What then must be the glory of John Wil- 
 liams ? As his father in Christ, what prospects are yours ? 
 In his honour you are deeply interested, for you will share 
 it. Through you came the light of life to his soul, which 
 
OF THE LATE REV. JOHN WILLIAMS. 0^3 
 
 he, in turn, will there be found to have imparted unto 
 millions! Such facts, and such thoughts, amid all the 
 trials and disappointments of the pastoral life, are full of 
 encouragement and comfort. May you, my dear Sir, 
 always continue to enjoy such rich and satisfying conso- 
 lations ! 
 
 Now comes the end. After all, the recollection forces 
 itself upon my soul that I am speaking of a murdered 
 man ! He was, I believe, somewhat my junior, and yet his 
 course is finished ; his work is done, and he is now reaping 
 his reward. He is mingling with prophets, apostles, and 
 missionaries, of all ages and countries. Oh ! could he 
 again descend among us for a brief space, and have the 
 privilege of once more addressing us on the claims of 
 Christ, the cruelties and horrors of idolatry, the miseries 
 and wants of the heathen, the duty and privilege of the 
 churches, what a movement would he excite in our land ! 
 How enlarged, now, are his views of the gospel salvation ! 
 How improved his perceptions of the evil of sin ! With 
 what depth would he teach ! With what tenderness ex- 
 hort! With what love entreat! With what solemnity 
 warn ! With what force and feeling urge the saints to the 
 diffusion of the truth ! But it cannot be ! His commission 
 is closed! He will not be heard on earth again till the 
 heavens be no more ! 
 
 In addition to that which is common to me with all 
 Christians, I feel a peculiar interest in Mr. Williams' 
 death, in consequence of the connexion which obtained 
 between him and my flock, of which he and his dear part- 
 ner were both members. I had conceived an intense affec- 
 tion for him. On the night when his farewell services 
 were held in the Tabernacle, and when, in the name of my 
 flock, I addressed him, I little thought that I should so 
 soon see you, in the same pulpit which was that night 
 occupied by him, preaching his funeral sermon ! So un- 
 
224 0N THE CHARACTER AND DEATH 
 
 welcome, indeed, was the intelligence of his death, that I 
 rejected the evidence, and withheld credence as long as 
 possible. But unbelief was compelled to give way to a 
 sorrowful conviction of the sad reality, and I was at length 
 reduced to the necessity of proclaiming to my charge, that 
 he was indeed no more ! To me, I can truly say, the oc- 
 casion was one of agony, I felt as a man who had lost an 
 elder, and an only, brother. Even now, I cannot recur to 
 the tragical subject without emotion ; neither, I am sure, 
 can you. 
 
 " Multis ille bonis flebilis occidit 
 Nulli flebilior quam mihi." — II or. 
 
 In your Funeral Sermon, you urged the duty of cherish- 
 ing a spirit of forgiveness ; you expatiated on the attri- 
 butes of the great Missionary, and on the extent of our 
 loss, urging us to follow it up by redoubled prayer and 
 activity, — exhibiting Christ and his Apostles as patterns 
 of the conduct which you recommended. Such were the 
 main points of the first part of your discourse ; you next 
 descanted on the probable effects which this melancholy 
 occasion for the exercise of a spirit of forgiveness, might 
 produce, in furtherance of the gospel. These effects you 
 thus exhibited : it might tend to correct errors, and to 
 improve the spirit of surviving advocates ; — it might ulti- 
 mately be attended with the happiest results upon the 
 hearts of the inhabitants of Erromanga ; — it might be pro- 
 ductive of highly beneficial effects on the surrounding 
 islanders ; — it might induce men to come forward in larger 
 numbers to promote the glorious enterprise of Missions ; 
 — and it might contribute to make the subject itself more 
 seriously pondered by a thoughtless world. There is rea- 
 son to believe, that, to a considerable extent, all these 
 anticipations will be realized. The shock has passed away, 
 but the substantial lessons thus taught are not forgotten. 
 
OF THE LATE REV. JOHN WILLIAMS. 225 
 
 Williams " being dead yet speaketh," and his voice will 
 be heard throughout these realms for ages yet to come. 
 I look upon his death as an event of great importance to 
 the cause of missions ; and, in conclusion, I beg to lay 
 before you some of the views which have occurred to me 
 in revolving the sorrowful dispensation. 
 
 It is enough to say, at the very outset, The Lord hath 
 done it ! The violent death of Williams was part of the 
 system of Divine arrangements adopted by the All-wise 
 God, respecting Polynesia. There has been disappoint- 
 ment here, but none in heaven. Had it been left to you 
 and me to order the rest of his lot on earth, we should 
 have brought matters to a very differ ent conclusion. We 
 should have doomed him to at least some thirty more 
 years of exile from his Father's house and his elder bro- 
 thers' society ; and, to complete our erring kindness, we 
 should have supplied him with a bed of down to die upon, 
 a parting look of his family and friends, a splendid funeral, 
 and a copious epitaph. How different from all this was 
 the plan of his Master ! We can be at no loss to divine 
 which of the two is the better way in the estimation of 
 our friend, now in glory. 
 
 " Quae fuit durum pati, 
 
 Meminisse dulce est." 
 
 The laws of harmony require the end to be in accordance 
 with the way. The history of true greatness ought, there- 
 fore, like itself, to form a climax. Thus hath it been with 
 the bulk of this world's illustrious names. The devastat- 
 ing course of Alexander terminated in a mariner suitable 
 to his character. A burning and rapid fever, which cut 
 him off amidst spears and shields, meetly closed his in- 
 temperate and fiery career! The sanguinary end of Caesar, 
 too, was in perfect keeping with his dreadful progress, 
 every step of which was stained with the blood of man ! 
 
 l3 
 
Q2(y ON THE CHARACTER AND DEATH 
 
 Charles XII. could not have finished more appropriately 
 than he did his brief, mad race of reckless courage. All 
 mere men of letters, endowed with true historic and 
 dramatic tastes, feel that Napoleon should have died at 
 Waterloo. For the man who had stilled the most dread- 
 ful and all-devouring revolutionary storm of ruin that ever 
 swept the surface of a great nation, — who had amalgamated 
 hostile parties of the greatest power and the fiercest spirit, 
 — who had rallied and invigorated the hearts of prostrate 
 millions, — who had established a government of iron 
 strength, and an empire of gigantic dimensions, — who 
 had not only quelled the kings, but subverted the thrones, 
 of Europe ; for such a man to end his days in lonely 
 exile and fettered durance on a barren rock of the ocean, 
 like some petty pirate, was humiliation indeed ! 
 
 " The desolater desolate ! 
 The victor overthrown ! 
 The arbiter of others' fate, 
 A suppliant for his own ! 
 Is this the man of thousand thrones, 
 Who strewed the earth with hostile bones?" 
 
 Then there is Cook, — Albion's glory, and the world's 
 wonder, — was it to be endured that the bones of Cook 
 should moulder in "Westminster Abbey ? What place so 
 fit for their repose as an island of his own discovery ? 
 Was not Owhyhee their proper place of sepulture ? His 
 was a death worthy of his matchles maritime glory. The 
 idea of such a man's decease amid the soft obscurities of 
 British retirement, perhaps some half century posterior to 
 the achievement of his matchless triumphs — his widow died 
 but the other day- — is not to be tolerated. It would have 
 robbed the record of such triumphs of half its interest, 
 themselves of more than half their worth, and of all their 
 tragic grandeur. You have doubtless often felt with me 
 that the remarkable life of Captain Wilson, of the Duff, 
 
OF THE LATE REV. JOHN WILLIAMS. gg7 
 
 had a tame and insipid conclusion. He dropped into 
 comparative insignificance; and his death excited little 
 more notice than that of a pious and worthy Thames 
 waterman. What Cook was in his own department, that 
 "Williams was in his ; the career of the seaman shone re- 
 splendent with maritime, the career of the missionary with 
 moral, glory. They were both Englishmen — the sphere 
 of both their labours was Polynesia ; — the one represented 
 England's power and science, the other her piety and 
 humanity ; both had earned the confidence of their coun- 
 try, and the admiration of mankind; — both were killed 
 with the club of the savage. Behold the parallel ! Who 
 ought to wish it otherwise, either in respect of the mariner 
 or the missionary ? 
 
 " Ut nee pes, nee caput uni 
 Reddatur formse !" 
 
 It deserves calm consideration, that like Cook the work 
 of Williams was near a close. The life of Cook would 
 have added but little to the records of maritime discovery. 
 Like Nelson, he fell not till the victory was decided. 
 Little more in Polynesia was left for him to discover ; and, 
 although he had lived, it did not follow that he should 
 have been the discoverer of the stray isles which had 
 escaped his notice. He had reaped the harvest ; to others 
 he could afford to leave the gleanings. All this finds a 
 strange analogy in the case of Williams. The romance of 
 his career was past and gone. In the nature of things, it 
 was impossible to add much of the marvellous to what he 
 had achieved. It seems to me pretty certain that the 
 issue of a four or five years' cruise in the Camden would 
 have been a disappointment. Like the Society's Deputa- 
 tion, it would have proved a project of more splendour 
 than practical utility. The chief groups have all been 
 more or less invested by the Missionaries of the London, 
 
228 0N THE CHARACTER AND DEATH 
 
 Wesleyan, and American Societies ; and what remains can 
 be overtaken by the use of ordinary means. That the 
 Camden will be a matter of great convenience and sub- 
 stantial comfort to the agents at the stations of the differ- 
 ent groups and isles, there can be little doubt; but it 
 remains to be seen whether that accommodation, highly 
 desirable as it may be, can be permanently enjoyed, unless 
 at an expense which the Directors of the Society will 
 hardly feel warranted to incur. Be this as it may, I have 
 a conviction which will not be easily shaken, that, had our 
 friend survived, the result of the expedition would have 
 been — disappointment. All that remained to be done was 
 a very plain, unpoetic, and every-day sort of affair. He 
 could have done but little, because little was to be done, 
 that cannot be as successfully performed by several of his 
 surviving brethren in the South Seas. 
 
 Much reflection has convinced me, that, for popular 
 effect, for the reputation of Mr. Williams, and for the pur- 
 poses of history, he died in the proper manner, at the pro- 
 per place, and at the proper time. Instead of losing our- 
 selves in idle gazing on the awful abyss of futurity, and 
 guessing about what might have happened had he survived, 
 it becomes us to rein in our fancy, and allow our judg- 
 ment to examine the facts of his marvellous history, and 
 to weigh well what he has done. Calm inquiry on this 
 point will, perhaps, establish the conclusion that he had 
 performed all that can be wisely permitted to one man, and 
 that more usefulness and more honour would have been as 
 incompatible with his own safety as with the Divine pur- 
 pose. As in earth, so in heaven, — 
 
 " Vivite felices quibus est fortuna peracta 
 Jam sua !" 
 
 Before me lies the memorandum left by Mr. Williams 
 on the day preceding his death : — " This is a most memo- 
 
OF THE LATE REV. JOHN WILLIAMS. ^29 
 
 rable day, a day which will be transmitted to posterity ; 
 and the record of events which have this day happened will 
 exist long after those who have taken an active part in 
 them shall have retired into the shades of oblivion ; and 
 
 the results of this day will be " I know not what 
 
 to make of this extraordinary passage ; I am equally 
 touched and perplexed by it. Hitherto we have heard of 
 nothing done to signalize this 18th of November, 1839, 
 except leaving some teachers at Tanna, an event of so 
 common a character, and so disproportionate to the in- 
 tensely glowing expressions of the memorandum, that one 
 impatiently asks for something more — something which 
 will warrant and sustain its language — language so unlike 
 the ordinary manner of the calm, cool, and simple Wil- 
 liams. But, my dear Sir, shall we not wait in vain ? Was 
 there not in the memorandum something prophetic ? Did 
 not our departed friend, like the prophets of old, write words 
 of which he saw not the full import ? Was not the pre- 
 diction of the 18th verified in the catastrophe of the 20th ? 
 In this view the expression of the memorandum is not ex- 
 aggerated : it is barely sufficient to clothe the awful facts. 
 Yes, the prediction will have a full accomplishment. The 
 day of the martyrdom of Williams is indeed " a most me- 
 morable day, a day which will be transmitted to posterity." 
 I cannot doubt that the servant of God wrote — though 
 unconsciously — under a supernatural impression — a feeling 
 of high, very high excitement : and it continued ; for when, 
 on the next day, the Camden sighted Erromanga, the nar- 
 rator says, " Mr. Williams was excited with such an in- 
 tense desire to leave the native teachers there, that he could 
 hardly sleep." Ah ! he little thought that he was to leave, 
 not them, but his own body ! 
 
 The readers of the " Missionary Enterprises" will now be 
 taught to connect with the death of Mr. Williams a cir- 
 cumstance which had occurred full fifteen years before, as 
 detailed in the following passage : — 
 
230 0N THE CHARACTER AND DEATH 
 
 " My mind had, for some time before this, been con- 
 templating the extension of our labours to the Navigators' 
 Islands and the New Hebrides; and, as far back as 1824, 
 I wrote to the directors of the Missionary Society upon the 
 subject. As the gospel was now established at the Hervey 
 Islands, I began more seriously to think of taking a voyage 
 to those distant groups ; and, prior to my leaving Raiatea, 
 I communicated my wishes to Mrs. Williams ; who, on 
 learning that the islands I proposed to visit were from 1800 
 to 2000 miles distant, and that I should be absent about 
 six months, exclaimed, ' How can you suppose that I can 
 give my consent to such a strange proposition ? You will 
 be eighteen hundred miles away, six months absent, and 
 among the most savage people we are acquainted with ; 
 and if you should lose your life in the attempt, I shall be 
 left a widow, with my fatherless children, twenty thousand 
 miles from my friends and my home.' Finding her so de- 
 cidedly opposed to the undertaking, I did not mention it 
 again, although my mind was still fixed upon the object."* 
 Yes, his apostolic " mind was still fixed upon the object ;" 
 and, so soon as he was able, to the New Hebrides he went, 
 and at the New Hebrides he fell ! 
 
 At a subsequent period he was still bent upon visiting 
 the New Hebrides, prior to his arrival in England, but was 
 deterred by "the painfully distressing accounts he re- 
 ceived" at Tongatabu.f Throughout all his course he was 
 in constant danger, — " in perils by water, and in perils by 
 land." For the sixth time, he " was rescued from a watery 
 grave" on the shores of Atiu.J He had also narrowly 
 escaped death from shooting and from stabbing. Till the 
 arrival of the predestined hour, however, he was immortal ; 
 but then, in a moment, when full of security, he was cut 
 off, in the midst of his strength and usefulness. 
 
 * Williams, p. 37. f Ibid., p. 79. J Ibid., p. 70. 
 
OF THE LATE REV. JOHN WILLIAMS. Qq 1 
 
 " Ultima semper 
 
 Expectanda dies homini est, dicique beatus 
 Ante obitum nemo supremaque funera debet." 
 
 Dear departed friend ! in what region of the universe is 
 thine abode ? "What are the bounds and laws of thy sphere 
 of action, knowledge, and vision ? Does it comprehend our 
 world ? Art thou a ministering angel to thy w T eeping widow 
 and scattered orphans ? Hast thou access to the field of 
 thy former toils ? Hast thou been allowed to visit Raiatea, 
 Rarotonga, and Upolu, and to brood, with forgiving solici- 
 tude, over the shores of Erromanga ? Hast thou returned 
 to England, and revisited the temple in which thou wast 
 born of God ? Has thou penetrated the studious retire- 
 ment of thy " father in Christ V* Wast thou present when 
 we lately met, and largely conversed of thee ? Have thy 
 sublimed faculties witnessed my affectionate and reveren- 
 tial meditations during the composition of these letters ? 
 Is it permitted thee to hover above my page, and note its 
 record ? Is thy gentle spirit now before me ? Oh that 
 thou wouldst speak ! Oh for one day of free converse ! 
 But the wish is vain : — 
 
 " Ille discessit: ego somno solutus sum." 
 
LETTER X. 
 
 TO THE REV. THOMAS GILLESPIE, D.D., PROFESSOR OF 
 LATIN IN THE UNIVERSITY OF ST. ANDREWS. 
 
 INTELLECTUAL AND MORAL GREATNESS COMPARED AND ILLUSTRATED 
 FROM HUME, BYRON, THE ANCIENT CLASSICS, AND THE LATE 
 JOHN WILLIAMS. 
 
 My Dear Sir, — Your high and sympathetic genius, 
 combined with your generosity and humanity, have in- 
 duced me to address you in the present letter. Inde- 
 pendently of this, however, there are other weighty 
 considerations which might have prompted me to do so. 
 My personal obligations to that ancient and famous seat 
 of learning, the University of St. Andrews, in which you 
 hold so important and influential a station ; — to its Literary 
 and Philosophical Society, with which also you are asso- 
 ciated ; — to that first of European scholars, your illustrious 
 relative and predecessor, the late Dr. Hunter ; — and last, 
 not least, to yourself; — these are circumstances, any one 
 of which would have dictated the propriety and duty of 
 such a dedication. In this volume, however, personal 
 considerations have, in all cases, been excluded ; and the 
 individuals to whom the Letters are inscribed have been 
 chosen solely on the ground of congruity between their 
 characters and the subjects on which they have been 
 respectively addressed. Your love of literature, of liberty, 
 of peace, and of mankind, insure an abundant sympathy 
 
COMPARISON, ETC. ggg 
 
 with the sentiments about to be avowed. With Cicero, 
 in his preface to Atticus, prefixed to his Cato Major, 
 I can say, " Novi enim moderation em animi tui et aequi- 
 tatem : teque non cognomen solum Athenis deportasse, 
 sed humanitatem et prudentiam intelligo. Et tarn en te 
 suspicor iisdem rebus, quibus meipsum interdum gravius 
 commoveri : quarum consolatio et major est, et in aliud 
 tempus differenda. Nunc autem mihi visum est de senec- 
 tute aliquid ad te conscribere. Hoc enim onere, quod 
 mihi commune tecum est, aut jam urgentis, aut certe 
 adventantis senectutis, et te et meipsum levari volo. 
 Etsi te quidem id modice ac sapienter, sicut omnia, et 
 ferre, et laturum esse certe scio. Sed mihi, cum de 
 senectute aliquid vellem scribere, tu occurrebas dignus 
 eo munere, quo uterque nostrum communiter uteretur." 
 With the modification necessarily implied, and easily 
 understood, these words of the great Roman express my 
 sentiments and object. I now proceed to lay before you 
 my views of one of the greatest subjects that can occupy 
 the mind of man — a subject the more interesting to you, 
 perhaps, from its extreme importance in relation to your 
 literary functions. 
 
 You know full well, Sir, that Intellect is the great 
 Idol, and its culture the chief business, of the juvenile 
 myriads who resort to our universities. Moral greatness 
 is by them but slightly heeded: it is, indeed, seldom 
 mentioned, little desired, and less pursued. I now look 
 back, with views much altered, to the course of study 
 pursued both at St. Andrews and at Glasgow, during the 
 period of my attendance at those seats of learning. 1 
 can now perceive that immense improvements might be 
 introduced into all the classes, but especially into those 
 of Latin, Greek, Logic, and Ethics. The manner in 
 which these classes used to be conducted, rendered them 
 fearfully perilous to the piety of spiritually minded young 
 
234 COMPARISON OF INTELLECTUAL 
 
 men. Their tendency was, and that most decidedly, anti- 
 Christian. The man who prosecuted his studies in the 
 light of eternity, and contemplated the bearing of all 
 his academic pursuits upon the service of Christ, the glory 
 of God, and the good of mankind, as the true end of life, 
 had much to grieve and discourage him. The air of aca- 
 demic groves was not, to such a man, the air of heaven. 
 The genius which there presided was the genius of 
 heathenism. The whole system required a thorough 
 reformation. There was nothing done to infuse right 
 views either of study or of life, — nothing to purify and 
 regulate the fires of literary and philosophic ambition, 
 which burned and blazed so fiercely, and with such a 
 lurid flame, in a multitude of bosoms. The consequence 
 was often lamentable. I speak from close observation, 
 as well as from bitter experience. In the four classes 
 which I have mentioned, frequent and most seasonable 
 opportunities occur for passing remarks from the Pro- 
 fessor's chair, which would have more weight with the 
 confiding and admiring auditors than a hundred languid 
 homilies from the pulpits of the college chapels. It will 
 be a happy day for these nations when all professors of 
 colleges shall awake to the ineffable importance of the 
 question of true greatness. Public opinion must be cor- 
 rected ; and the work should begin at the fountains of 
 light. Let the ministers of the Word, professors of law 
 and medicine, men of letters, teachers of youth, con- 
 ductors of the press, patriots, rulers, and statesmen, — let 
 all these classes be thoroughly enlightened on this point, 
 and it will be a sure pledge that the regeneration of our 
 world is at hand. It is above all things to be desired 
 that our Academic Senates should be deeply moved to 
 consider the question of true moral greatness, of the 
 importance of missions, and of the evils of war. They 
 are training the future intellectual sovereigns of the 
 
AND MORAL GREATNESS. Ogfi 
 
 empire. Theirs is the high and awful responsibility of 
 forming the principles and characters of this important 
 portion of the rising race. College opinions are, for the 
 most part, the opinions of future life : they are seldom 
 exchanged for better. May every chair of every college 
 be soon filled by men like-minded with yourself and your 
 liberal colleagues ! 
 
 The best interests of the British empire, and of all 
 nations, are deeply, vitally involved in this subject. Ought 
 not our colleges to guide the intellectual movements of 
 the earth ? This is their province ; it should be their 
 pride. If the guides are blind, who shall conduct the 
 millions? Light has begun to break forth. A Scottish 
 student, who found an early grave, Robert Pollok, the 
 immortal author of " The Course of Time," has set a 
 high example to his academic brethren, in thus laying 
 down the doctrine of the relative excellence of Mental 
 and of Moral Greatness. He boldly asserts, — 
 
 " That not in mental, but in moral worth, 
 God excellence placed; and only to the good, 
 To virtue, granted happiness alone. 
 
 " Admire the goodness of Almighty God ! 
 He riches gave, He intellectual strength, 
 To few, and therefore none commands to be 
 Or rich, or learned ; nor promises reward 
 Of peace to these. On all He moral worth 
 Bestowed, and moral tribute asked from all. 
 And who that could not pay ? Who born so poor, 
 Of intellect so mean, as not to know 
 What seemed the best ; and, knowing, might not do ? 
 As not to know what God and conscience bade, 
 And what they bade not able to obey ? 
 And he who acted thus fulfilled the law 
 Eternal, and its promise reaped of peace; 
 
gQg COMPARISON OF INTELLECTUAL 
 
 Found peace this way alone : who sought it else, 
 Sought mellow grapes beneath the icy pole, 
 Sought blooming roses on the cheek of death, 
 Sought substance in a world of fleeting shades."* 
 
 The poet not only thus lays down correctly the great 
 principles of the subject, but likewise illustrates them by 
 three appropriate characters. The first is that of a person 
 whose intellect stood at the very lowest point of ration- 
 ality, and runs thus : — 
 
 " One man there was, and many such you might 
 Have met, who never had a dozen thoughts 
 In all his life, and never changed their course, 
 But told them o'er, each in its customed place, 
 From morn till night, from youth till hoary age. 
 Little above the ox which grazed the field 
 His reason rose ; so weak his memory, 
 The name his mother called him by, he scarce 
 Remembered ; and his judgment so untaught, 
 That what at evening played along the swamp, 
 Fantastic, clad in robe of fiery hue, 
 He thought the devil in disguise, and fled 
 With quivering heart and winged footsteps home. 
 The word philosophy he never heard, 
 Or science ; never heard of liberty, 
 Necessity, or laws of gravitation ; 
 And never had an unbelieving doubt. 
 Beyond his native vale he never looked, 
 But thought the visual line that girt him round 
 The world's extreme ; and thought the silver moon, 
 That nightly o'er him led her virgin host, 
 No broader than his father's shield. He lived, — 
 Lived where his father lived, died where he died, 
 Lived happy, and died happy, and was saved. 
 Be not surprised : he loved and served his God!" 
 
 * Course of Time, book iv. 
 
AND MORAL GREATNESS. ^37 
 
 In this touching picture we see how piety exalts weak- 
 ness, and how the feeblest being may yet promote the 
 glory of his Creator. Even the tiny moth, when connected 
 with God, is at once lifted into importance. This example 
 presents one of the lowest conceivable exhibitions of moral 
 greatness. The knowledge, love, and service of God, 
 nevertheless, imparted to the little spark of intellect a 
 beauty and a worth which, independently of these accom- 
 paniments, could not have belonged to the mind of a Bacon 
 or a Newton. The poet, in order to illustrate his principle, 
 that moral is superior to mental greatness, draws a second 
 portrait, of which the infidel Hume is the subject. Intel- 
 lectually considered, it is drawn to the life. The subtle 
 sophist was never so briefly and accurately depicted. The 
 portraiture does ample justice to his vast intellectual 
 powers, but it is exceedingly defective in its exhibition of 
 his moral pravity, and his empoisoned malignity against 
 God. It runs thus : — 
 
 " There was another, large of understanding, 
 Of memory infinite, of judgment deep, 
 Who knew all learning, and all science knew ; 
 And all phenomena in heaven and earth ; 
 Traced their causes ; traced the labyrinths 
 Of thought, association, passion, will ; 
 And all the subtle, nice affinities 
 Of matter traced ; its virtues, motions, laws ; 
 And most familiarly and deeply talked 
 Of mental, moral, natural, divine. 
 Leaving the earth at will, he soared to heaven, 
 And read the glorious visions of the skies ; 
 And to the music of the rolling spheres 
 Intelligently listened ; and gazed far back 
 Into the awful depths of Deity ; 
 Did all that mind assisted most could do ; 
 And ye in misery lived, in misery died, 
 Because he wanted holiness of heart." 
 
238 COMPARISON OF INTELLECTUAL 
 
 We have here a most striking picture of intellectual 
 greatness. Does it captivate? Can a Christian for a 
 moment desire to be such a man, full of knowledge, but 
 void of goodness ? — familiar with creation, hut ignorant of 
 God ? All the philosopher's science yields no happiness, 
 because it works no holiness. Hume never once tasted 
 true felicity ; and in this condition he left the world. Is 
 he to be envied? Ought he to be praised ? 
 
 But, reserving comment, we must attend to the third 
 character drawn by the poet in illustration of his principle. 
 The subject of this most graphic sketch was the late Lord 
 Byron, Pollok's own contemporary. The portrait is, in 
 its chief features, as true as it is awful. 
 
 " Take an example, to our purpose quite : 
 A man of rank, and of capacious soul, 
 Who riches had, and fame beyond desire ; 
 x\n heir of flattery, to titles born, 
 And reputation, and luxurious life. 
 Yet, not content with ancestorial name, 
 Or to be known because his fathers were, 
 He on his height hereditary stood, 
 And gazing higher, purposed in his heart 
 To take another step. Above him seemed, 
 Alone, the mount of song, the lofty seat 
 Of canonized bards ; and thitherward, 
 By nature taught, and inward melody, 
 In prime of youth, he bent his eagle eye. 
 No cost was spared. What books he wished, he read ; 
 What sage to hear, he heard ; what scenes to see, 
 He saw. And first in rambling school-boy days, 
 Britannia's mountain-walks, and heath-girt lakes, 
 And story-telling glens, and founts, and brooks, 
 And maids, as dewdrops pure and fair, his soul 
 With grandeur filled, aud melody, and love. 
 Then travel came, and took him where he wished. 
 He cities saw, and courts, and princely pomp ; 
 And mused alone on ancient mountain brows ; „ 
 And mused on battle-fields, where valour fought 
 
AND MORAL GREATNESS. <?o9 
 
 In other days ; and mused on ruins grey 
 
 With years ; and drank from old and fabulous wells ; 
 
 And plucked the vine that first-born prophets plucked ; 
 
 And mused on famous tombs, and on the wave 
 
 Of ocean mused, and on the desert waste. 
 
 The heaven and earth of every country saw, 
 
 Where'er the old inspiring genii dwelt, 
 
 Aught that could rouse, expand, refine the soul, 
 
 Thither he went, and meditated there. 
 
 He touched his harp, and nations heard, entranced. 
 
 As some vast river of unfailing source, 
 
 Rapid, exhaustless, deep, his numbers flowed, 
 
 And opened new fountains in the human heart. 
 
 Where fancy halted, weary in her flight, 
 
 In other men, his, fresh as morning, rose, 
 
 And soared untrodden heights, and seemed at home, 
 
 Where angels bashful looked. Others, though great, 
 
 Beneath their argument seemed struggling whiles ; 
 
 He from above descending, stooped to touch 
 
 The loftiest thought; and proudly stooped, as though 
 
 It scarce deserved his verse. With Nature's self 
 
 He seemed an old acquaintance, free to jest 
 
 At will with all her glorious majesty. 
 
 He laid his hand upon 'the Ocean's mane,' 
 
 And played familiar with his hoary locks. 
 
 Stood on the Alps, stood on the Appenines, 
 
 And with the thunder talked, as friend to friend ; 
 
 And wove his garland with the lightning's wing, 
 
 In sportive twist, the lightning's fiery wing, 
 
 Which, as the footsteps of the dreadful God, 
 
 Marching upon the storm in vengeance, seemed ; 
 
 Then turned, and with the grasshopper, who sung 
 
 His evening song beneath his feet, conversed. 
 
 Sun, moon, stars, and clouds, his sisters were ; 
 
 Rocks, mountains, meteors, seas, and winds, and storms, 
 
 His brothers, younger brothers, whom he scarce 
 
 As equals deemed. All passions of all men, 
 
 The wild and tame, the gentle and severe ; 
 
 All thoughts, all maxims, sacred and profane ; 
 
 All creeds, all seasons, time, eternity ; 
 
 All that was hated, and all that was dear ; 
 
240 COMPARISON OF INTELLECTUAL 
 
 All that was hoped, all that was feared, by man, 
 He tossed about, as tempest-withered leaves, 
 Then, smiling, looked upon the wreck he made. 
 With terror now he froze the cowering blood, 
 And now dissolved the heart in tenderness ; 
 Yet would not tremble, would not weep himself; 
 But back into his soul retired, alone, 
 Dark, sullen, proud, gazing contemptuously 
 On hearts and passions prostrate at his feet. 
 So ocean from the plains his waves had late 
 To desolation swept, retired in pride, 
 Exulting in the glory of his might, 
 And seemed to mock the ruin he had wrought. 
 
 " As some fierce comet, of tremendous size, 
 To which the stars did reverence, as it passed, 
 So he through learning and through fancy took 
 His flight sublime, and on the loftiest top 
 Of Fame's dread mountain sat; not soiled and worn, 
 As if he from the earth had laboured up ; 
 But as some bird of heavenly plumage fair, 
 He looked, which down from higher regions came, 
 And perched it there to see what lay beneath. 
 
 " The nations gazed, and wondered much, and praised. 
 Critics before him fell in humble plight, 
 Confounded fell, and made debasing signs 
 To catch his eye ; and stretched and swelled themselves 
 To bursting nigh, to utter bulky words 
 Of admiration vast ; and many, too, 
 Many that aimed to imitate his flight, 
 With weaker wing, unearthly fluttering made, 
 And gave abundant sport to after days. 
 
 " Great man ! the nations gazed and wondered much, 
 And praised ; and many called his evil good. 
 Wits wrote in favour of his wickedness ; 
 And kings to do him honour took delight. 
 Thus, full of titles, flattery, honour, fame, 
 Beyond desire, beyond ambition, full, 
 He died. He died of what ? of wretchedness ! 
 Drank every cup of joy, heard every trump 
 Of fame, drank early, deeply drank, drank draughts 
 That common millions might have quenched; then died 
 
AND MORAL GREATNESS. 241 
 
 Of thirst, because there was no more to drink ! 
 
 His goddess, Nature, wooed, embraced, enjoyed, 
 
 Fell from his arms, abhorred ; his passions died ; 
 
 Died all but dreary, solitary pride ; 
 
 And all his sympathies in being died. 
 
 As some ill-guided bark, well built and tall, 
 
 Which angry tides cast out on desert shore, 
 
 And then retiring, left it there to rot 
 
 And moulder in the winds and rains of heaven ; 
 
 So he, cut from the sympathies of life, 
 
 And cast ashore from Pleasure's boisterous surge, 
 
 A wand'ring, weary, worn, and wretched thing, 
 
 Scorched, and desolate, and blasted soul, 
 
 A gloomy wilderness of dying thought, 
 
 Repined, and groaned, and withered from the earth ! 
 
 His groanings filled the land, his numbers filled ; 
 
 And yet he seemed ashamed to groan. Poor man ! 
 
 Ashamed to ask, and yet he needed help ; 
 
 Proof this, beyond all lingering of doubt, 
 
 That not in natural or menial wealth, 
 
 Was human happiness or grandeur found."* 
 
 Here we have an amplified delineation of great intellec- 
 tual power, without a particle of moral worth. Behold 
 the picture ! How revolting ! How fearful ! How fiend- 
 like I Is there a youth in the empire who would have 
 such a capacity at the price of such a character ? Ought 
 not this dire display of mental wretchedness to nullify the 
 rage of mere intellectual ambition? Whither shall we 
 turn to find relief from the pain and horror of this dread- 
 ful delineation ! Let us fix our minds on the late Mission- 
 ary Williams. Compared with him, how poor a thing was 
 the noble bard of England ! How hateful in himself, and 
 how hated by mankind ! He knew, he felt, that no man 
 loved him ! In the following lines he has correctly drawn 
 his own dark portrait, and faithfully described his own 
 
 * Course of Time, b>ok iv. 
 M 
 
242 COMPARISON OF INTELLECTUAL 
 
 dismal condition. He thus apostrophises and reviles his 
 species : — 
 
 " O man ! thou feeble tenant of an hour, 
 Debased by slavery, or corrupt by power, 
 Who knows thee well, must quit thee with disgust, 
 Degraded mass of animated dust ! 
 By nature vile, ennobled but by name, 
 Each kindred brute might bid thee blush forlhame ! 
 Ye ! who perchance behold this simple urn, 
 Pass on — it honours none ye wish to mourn : 
 To mark a friend's remains these stones arise — 
 I never knew but one, and here he lies ?" 
 
 Such were the lines written by the poet peer on the 
 monument of his dog — the only "friend" he ever knew ! 
 How marked and melancholy a contrast to the condition 
 of the martyred Williams, who counted friends wherever 
 he counted men ! How was this ? Whence the marvel- 
 lous difference ? Both were great. Yes ; but their great- 
 ness was not the same. The missionary was as much dis- 
 tinguished by moral, as the profligate bard by intellectual, 
 greatness. Williams was great in goodness ; Byron, in 
 evil. The one was the friend, the other the enemy, of his 
 race. No man is good, but as he does good — his actions 
 are the test of his principles. He that does good, labours 
 in the sun, and his deeds are visible. Mankind soon 
 know their benefactors. Desert does not long go unre- 
 warded. The praise of Williams is in the mouth of mil- 
 lions. The circle of his celebrity is widening every hour. 
 I question whether already he has not as many readers as 
 Byron, and these readers of a character — oh ! how differ- 
 ent ! The moral results, too, of the respective processes 
 of perusal, how unlike to each other ! 
 
 The cause of missions is a growing one ; and its pro- 
 gress will be limited only by the surface of our globe. 
 The name of Williams will assuredly spread through all 
 
AND MORAL GREATNESS. 24S 
 
 lands, and live through all time. As the righteous and 
 the virtuous increase among the sons of men, his glory 
 will rise, his fame will extend ! When ' the kingdom 
 and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under 
 the whole heaven, shall have been given to the people of 
 the saints of the Most High, whose kingdom is an ever- 
 lasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey 
 him,' John Williams will be venerated as one of the most 
 illustrious Fathers of the New Era, — as one of the royal 
 line of Stephen and Antipas, and other martyrs of our 
 God, who have lived and suffered since apostolic times ; 
 and his missionary writings, not for their literary but for 
 their moral qualities, will rank as one of the choicest por- 
 tions of the Classics of a renovated world ! Will the fond- 
 est admirer of the splendours of unsanctified genius dare 
 to predict thus much for the impious, polluted, and cor- 
 rupting pages of the author of Childe Harold ? 
 
 I have shown, in delineating the character of Mr. Wil- 
 liams, — and I repeat it, in order to impression — that in- 
 tellectual and moral greatness have no necessary con- 
 nexion, — they may either exist apart or in harmonious 
 conjunction. Moral greatness is chiefly an affair of the 
 heart; intellectual greatness, of the understanding. In- 
 tellectual greatness mainly depends upon the original cast 
 and magnitude of the mind : culture may do much to 
 develope it, but native strength can result only from the 
 stamina imparted at creation. The plough, notwithstand- 
 ing its importance in working a fine soil, supplies no re- 
 medy for the defects of original sterility. This intellec- 
 tual greatness, in its widest sense, signifies a mind of large 
 general powers. This forms what is termed a man of 
 talents. Where fancy and the creative faculty are strongly 
 marked, and there is a powerful bias towards some parti- 
 cular pursuit, with a singular aptitude for its prosecution, 
 this combination is designated — genius. It may be more 
 
 m 2 
 
244 COMPARISON OF INTELLECTUAL 
 
 fully defined as that lofty capacity of thought through 
 which the soul, smitten with an intense love of knowledge, 
 attempts to comprehend the universe, — diving into the 
 arcana of its own being, ascending the heavens, penetrat- 
 ing the earth, investigating the past, speculating upon the 
 future, — and labours to ascertain the analogies, affinities, 
 and relations of objects, together with the general laws 
 and properties of matter. It may further be described, 
 in one of its sprightliest aspects, as that power which, not 
 fully satisfied with things as they exist, frames to itself 
 new forms of ideal excellence, loveliness, and grandeur. 
 This is the greatness which belongs to philosophers, poets, 
 and adepts in the fine arts.* It will hence appear that 
 mere intellectual greatness has in it nothing moral. Con- 
 sidered simply in itself, apart from its operations, it does 
 not entitle him who is its subject to any praise. Praise 
 and blame have, properly, no existence separate from 
 morals, which depend not on what men are, as manifesta- 
 tions of the Creator's power ; but upon what they do, as 
 subjects of his government. It is with mind as with body, 
 a giant frame may excite fear and admiration ; but who is 
 so weak and ignorant as to laud a man on the ground of 
 his bulk and stature ? That over which we have no con- 
 trol — whether it appertain to our intellectual or our phy- 
 sical nature — can form no element of our moral character, 
 and, consequently, is a matter with which the moral sense 
 cannot deal either in approval or in condemnation. Voli- 
 tion is equally essential to virtue and to vice ; and the 
 moment that man ceases to be a free agent, he ceases to 
 be a moral one. Responsibility ends, where necessity 
 begins. It ought to be repeated and urged till it be 
 understood and felt by the whole civilized world, that, 
 whatever may be a man's genius or talents, it is not the 
 
 * See Channing's Napoleon, p. 40. 
 
AND MORAL GREATNESS. ^45 
 
 possession, but the use of them, that lays the foundation 
 of his title to moral approbation. On this ground it is 
 that we put in claims so high for the Christian missionary. 
 The virtue of his deeds arises, in no small measure, from 
 the manifold and multiform sacrifices and perils at which 
 they are performed. This single consideration entitles 
 them, as moral acts, to a place of the first distinction ; 
 but, when we add the love of God, of Christ, and of men, 
 and the results, in relation to both worlds, which flow from 
 missionary labours, they are at once raised as high above 
 all other kinds of benefit and benevolent exertion as the 
 heavens above the earth ! I am afraid I shall be deemed 
 enthusiastic in this point, and carried away by excessive 
 zeal for the honour of my friend. Let us, then, look a 
 little more closely at the subject of moral greatness. 
 
 What is moral greatness ? With respect to the nature 
 of this quality, there is a remarkable concurrence between 
 the prince of the Roman classics and the writers of the 
 Sacred Scriptures. The following is Cicero's definition, 
 which you will excuse my translating for the general 
 reader. " A really brave and great mind is chiefly dis- 
 cerned in two things ; the first of which consists in con- 
 tempt for external objects, from a conviction that a man 
 ought neither to wish, nor to admire, nor to pursue any 
 thing which is not honourable and becoming : and that, 
 in doing this, he should succumb to no man, neither to 
 passion, nor to fortune. The second is, that when he has 
 arrived at such a state of mind as I have just described, he 
 should perform actions not only of great magnitude, and 
 abounding in utility, but also attended with extreme diffi- 
 culty requiring the utmost labour, and fraught with the most 
 imminent peril to life, as well as to a multitude of objects 
 appertaining to it. The whole splendour and dignity, and, 
 I may add, utility attaching to these two things, arise 
 from the latter ; but the efficient cause in producing great 
 
^46 COMPARISON OF INTELLECTUAL 
 
 men is in the former.* For therein lies the principle which 
 elevates men's souls, and leads them to despise earthly 
 considerations. "f Had it been the orator's object to frame 
 a description of moral greatness which should include the 
 distinguished features of the missionary character, which 
 should set forth the nature of the missionary enterprise, 
 with its tendencies towards the human race, he could 
 hardly have been more successful. But whilst it embraces 
 the elements of the missionary's character, and exhibits 
 his claims on society, it goes far to exclude from the 
 praise of greatness all the rest of the human race. If he 
 only be great whose heart, life, and labours correspond to 
 this description, where, except among Christians and 
 Christian missionaries, is greatness to be found? Such, 
 Sir, are Cicero's conditions of greatness ; and, in pleading 
 for the honour of Williams, I cheerfully abide by them. 
 Tried by this test, who can rival the claims of the Martyr 
 of Erromanga ? They are great indeed ; while, adjudged 
 by this principle, the vulgar herd of the world's great men 
 must be reduced to utter insignificance. 
 
 It is interesting to compare the views of the Roman orator 
 with those of that great prodigy of parts, William M'Com- 
 bie, the Scottish ploughman, whom the native force of self- 
 tutored genius, aided by the light of Revelation, has con- 
 ducted to substantially the same conclusions. This writer 
 — in w T hom his native country has ten thousand times 
 more reason to exult than in the profligate ploughman 
 bard of Ayrshire, Robert Burns,— in his admirable volume, 
 * Hours of Thought," observes, that God is " the source 
 and standard of moral greatness ;" that " moral greatness 
 cannot be displayed but in circumstances of trial ;" that 
 " the primary element of moral excellence must be devot- 
 
 * Causa autem et ratio efficiens magnos viros est in priore. 
 f Cicero de Officiis, lib. i. cap. 20. 
 
AND MORAL GREATNESS. 247 
 
 edness of heart to God, — supreme and constraining love, 
 which, in circumstances of trial, will manifest itself, 
 according to the nature of these, in the resistance of 
 temptation, the enduring of suffering, and in strenuous 
 exertions in fulfilment of his will. Its being so mani- 
 fested, in such circumstances, constitutes moral greatness." 
 With Cicero, greatness and glory are inseparably re- 
 lated. He has most abundantly established the position, 
 that true greatness, in the end, always brings true glory. 
 The following is his declaration : — " The highest and 
 perfect glory of a man consists of these three things ; 
 when the multitude love, when they have confidence in 
 him, when they deem him worthy of special honour and 
 admiration."* By Cicero's definition of glory I am as 
 willing to abide as by his view of greatness ; and I am 
 ready, on his principle, to join issue with all the advocates 
 of the exclusive claims of intellectual greatness. Let 
 us appeal to the children of the Desert and of the Isle. 
 There is no class of Englishmen, visitors of Polynesia, 
 whose glory may, for a moment, be compared with that 
 of the missionaries. I make no exceptions. All Cicero's 
 conditions, whether of greatness or of glory, unite in John 
 "Williams. Is there in England, or in Europe, a man who 
 will stand forth, and prefer a like claim for any other 
 Englishman or European in Polynesia, who is not a mis- 
 sionary ? In the estimation of the islanders, the greatest 
 Englishman or European that ever visited them was but 
 an insignificant personage as compared with the Martyr 
 of Erromanga. Comparison, indeed, there can be none — 
 the servants of Christ enjoy a monopoly of this exalted 
 honour. In all our colonial territories, the only class of 
 
 * Summa igitur et perfecta gloria constat ex tribus his : — Si diliget 
 multitudo, — si fidem habet, — si cum admiratione quadam honore dignos 
 putat. — De Officiis, lib. ii. cap. 9. 
 
248 COMPARISON OF INTELLECTUAL 
 
 men entitled to the praise of either greatness or glory, 
 according to Cicero, is that of Christian missionaries. Of 
 this assertion the histories of Dr. Philip, Schwartz, Wil- 
 liams, MofFatt, and a hundred of their brethren, supply 
 both ample proof and illustration. 
 
 Cicero's description of greatness, brings the subject 
 before us in an accurate and an easily intelligible form. 
 He lays it down as a fundamental principle that the heart 
 is the true source of moral greatness. He carries this 
 view of the matter still further in his celebrated declara- 
 tion, that " No man was ever great without a certain 
 divine influence."* How near upon this point the system 
 of the [heathen philosopher approaches to Christianity ! 
 What can be compared to the gospel of Christ in the 
 power of " elevating men's souls, and leading them to 
 despise earthly considerations ?" The Christian doctrine 
 uniformly brings the heart that receives it, into the state 
 considered by Cicero as the parent spring of moral great- 
 ness, and also as uniformly supplies that afflatus divinus, 
 that celestial inspiration, without which he declares there 
 can be no greatness. Cicero's description, confirmed and 
 illustrated by the Scriptures of truth, imparts a lesson at 
 once full of instruction and of encouragement. The word 
 of God distinctly shows how all men may become morally 
 great. The profound requirements of the Orator are thus 
 abundantly promised through the Prophet : — " I will 
 sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean; 
 from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I 
 cleanse you. A new heart also will I give you, and a new 
 spirit will I put within you : and I will take away the 
 stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of 
 flesh : and I will put my spirit within you, and cause you 
 to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments 
 
 * " Nomo vir magnus sine afflatu aliquo divino unquam fuit." 
 
AND MORAL GREATNESS. £49 
 
 and do them ; and ye shall be my people, and I will be your 
 God."* Those in whose experience this promise has been 
 fulfilled, are in the state required by Cicero's first condi- 
 tion ; while they are at once fully prepared to do and 
 suffer all that is demanded by his second. With these 
 strong and clear lights of philosophy and of Scripture in 
 our hands, let us now for a little walk abroad throughout 
 the earth, and inquire into the moral greatness of the 
 ancient heathen world, — an exercise from which it is im- 
 possible to return without enlarged conceptions of the 
 Missionary character. 
 
 The Tyrian Hercules is the most ancient historical per- 
 sonage that deserves notice on the score of his moral qua- 
 lities, and the building of Tyre was the first step in his 
 mighty career. From this great emporium his regards 
 extended to all nations, whom he sought by means of 
 commerce to civilize and improve. This wonderful man 
 was, in some respects, a prototype of our missionaries. 
 According to history he was " the terror of oppressors, the 
 friend of liberty and of mankind, for whose interest and 
 happiness he braved the greatest dangers, and surmounted 
 the most arduous toils, going through the whole earth with 
 no other view than the establishing of peace, justice, com- 
 merce, and freedom."f Like Williams, too, he lost his life 
 in a voyage undertaken " to promote the reformation of man- 
 kind by the cultivation of true religion and the arts of civil- 
 ization." J After making every deduction demanded by the 
 severity of historical truth, enough remains to demonstrate 
 that the founder of Tyre planted colonies in many parts 
 of the earth, and was pre-eminent among the sons of men 
 in point of moral greatness. Osiris, although inferior to 
 Hercules, is not unworthy to be mentioned next in suc- 
 cession to him. He, too, was a great social reformer, 
 who, although he had at his disposal a vast military power, 
 * Ezekiel xxxvi. 25—28. f Cooke, vol. i. p. 30. J Ibid. p. 21. 
 
 m3 
 
250 COMPARISON OF INTELLECTUAL 
 
 trusted for success not to the sword, but to truth, reason, 
 and persuasion. At the close of his very extended 
 marches, he could make this boast : — u Nor is there a 
 place where I have not been ; I, who freely dispensed my 
 benefits to all mankind." Sesostris was a mixed charac- 
 ter ; his martial spirit and brutality, during the first half 
 of his reign, afterwards gave place to a display at least 
 approaching to moral greatness. Cyrus, surnamed the 
 Great, was not without princely virtues ; he was mighty 
 in war, but wanting in magnanimity. Darius, the son of 
 Hystaspes, in most respects, resembled Cyrus ; with regard 
 to their moral stature, they appear to have been much 
 upon a par, though Darius certainly excelled in the softer 
 virtues. 
 
 We are next conducted to the Greeks, among whom, 
 notwithstanding all their boasting, their politeness, and 
 their learning, we have very few instances of moral great- 
 ness, but some of these are noble and splendid. Minos is 
 entitled to high consideration for the wisdom of his laws, 
 but he was speculative rather than practical, and had more 
 understanding than benevolence. Lycurgus was much 
 superior to Minos ; and, it appears to me, that, nearly to 
 the same extent, Solon surpassed Lycurgus. No ancient 
 heathen nation can boast three such men as these. They 
 were all highly endowed, though in different degrees, with 
 some of the chief attributes of moral greatness. They 
 particularly excelled in that which Cicero pronounces the 
 crowning part of it — in pursuits of self-denied, perilous, 
 and practical utility. Leonidas was a madman rather than 
 a moralist. His greatness was of a very humble order ; it 
 was purely military ; it largely partook of a suicidal cha- 
 racter ; he has no claim whatever to rank with men pre- 
 eminent for moral greatness. He was one of the least of 
 Grecian heroes. It is difficult to speak in too high terms 
 of Pericles ; he appears to me to have been the Chatham 
 
AND MORAL GREATNESS. 25 1 
 
 of Athens. With at least as much grandeur of mind, the 
 Greek had far more equanimity and humanity, learning 
 and solidity, than the Englishman ; and, perhaps, he had 
 more real patriotism and philanthropy. He strikingly ex- 
 emplified his strong sense of the superior value of moral 
 greatness, in his last moments on earth. His friends, sup- 
 posing him to have become insensible, were expatiating 
 upon the glorious events of his life, when, on a sudden, 
 the dying man raised himself and said, " I am astonished 
 that you should commend me for those things which were 
 as much owing to fortune as to any thing else, and which 
 have happened to others as well as to me, and take no 
 notice of the greatest and most honourable part of my 
 character — that no Athenian, through my means, ever 
 went into mourning." In the midst of all his power and 
 greatness, which amply supplied the means of public plun- 
 der, his hands were clean. He did all things for Athens, 
 and nothing for himself ; his paternal fortune was dimi- 
 nished rather than increased, at his death. 
 
 The greatest of the Greeks is still to be mentioned. 
 All others were but little men as compared with Socrates 
 — whom our own Thomson thus correctly and beautifully 
 describes : — 
 
 " O'er all shone out the great Athenian Sage, 
 And Father of Philosophy : the sun, 
 From whose white blaze, emerged each various sect, 
 Took various tints, but with diminished beam. 
 Tutor of Athens ! He, in every street, 
 Dealt priceless treasure. Goodness his delight, 
 Wisdom his wealth, and glory his reward. 
 Deep through the human heart, with playful art, 
 His simple question stole ; as into truth 
 And serious deeds he smiled the laughing race ; 
 Taught moral happy life, whate'er can bless, 
 Or grace mankind; and what he taught, he was." 
 
 Of all the heathen, in point of moral greatness, Socrates 
 
252 COMPARISON OF INTELLECTUAL 
 
 was incontrovertibly the most eminent. He was their 
 head and chief. No man ever arose either in Greece or in 
 Rome, that could for a moment stand before him. Alone 
 in his glory, like the sun in the firmament, he swept his 
 circuit through the region of thought, enriching all and 
 borrowing from none. He was in every respect a grand 
 original. He had no prototype. All Cicero's conditions 
 of greatness were fulfilled in him. He was equally great 
 in moral thought, and in moral action. Streams of light 
 occasionally shot across his mind which bore marks of 
 being light from heaven. He appears to me to have been 
 a link which connected inspired with uninspired men. 
 Every thing about him was sui generis, unless it may 
 without impiety be said, that in several important points 
 there is a very remarkable analogy between him and the 
 Saviour of the world. The mode as well as the matter of 
 his instructions was wholly his own. He did not keep a 
 local school of wisdom for the tuition of regular classes ; 
 he instructed small and great at all times, and in all places. 
 He was always ready to speak when men were ready to 
 hear. Along with the most profound respect for autho- 
 rity, he entertained particular regard for the common 
 people, whom be laboured to elevate ; and to this the 
 tyrants referred when they said, " We forbid you more 
 especially to harangue a knot of artizans, and weary their 
 ears with your definitions." Although comparatively poor, 
 he did not, like other philosophers, receive emoluments, 
 but taught all who would listen to him without money 
 and without price, declaring that the highest reward he 
 could enjoy was to see mankind benefiting by his labours ; 
 he left behind him no writings ; his chief disciples became 
 the historians of his life and labours ; and, to crown all, he 
 submitted to die rather than flee his country, or renounce 
 his principles ! 
 
 It is now time to enlarge the field of inquiry and of 
 
AND MORAL GREATNESS. 25S 
 
 comparison. Let us, therefore, glance at the collective 
 genius of Greece and Rome, and investigate the moral 
 greatness of their men of letters. This will tend both to 
 instruct and to edify ; for it will strikingly illustrate the 
 awful truth that " the world by wisdom knew not God." 
 
 In attempting this task, it will be convenient to divide 
 both Greeks and Romans into two classes — the prose 
 writers and the poets. Among the chief Greek prose 
 writers, I suppose you would enumerate the following : 
 Herodotus, Thucydides, Xenophon, Polybius, Dioclorus 
 Siculus, Dionysius Halicarnassus, Arrian, Appian, Hero- 
 dian, Lucian, Plutarch, and Demosthenes ; and amongst 
 the principal Roman prose writers these : C. Nepos, Caesar, 
 S alius t, Velleius Paterculus, Quintus Curtius, Petronius, 
 Cicero, Livy, Tacitus, Suetonius, and Justin. Let us look 
 at this cluster of celebrated men, and try them by the 
 standard of Cicero ; there is not one among them who is 
 not fully entitled to a high place on the scale of intellect ; 
 but considerable difficulty stands in the way of an accurate 
 estimate of their several claims, on the ground of moral 
 greatness. Little is known concerning some of them 
 beyond what may be gathered from their works, which, in 
 several instances, have been largely mutilated. This 
 mutilation, however, is of less consequence in relation to 
 my present object, in the case of prose writers than of 
 poets; for the moral image of the former is in general 
 far less distinctly reflected by their pages than that of the 
 latter. 
 
 Of the Greeks just mentioned there is not one, except- 
 ing Plutarch, entitled to any very high consideration on 
 the ground of moral greatness. Plutarch, all things in- 
 cluded, was a great, a very great man : but even his great- 
 ness was speculative rather than practical, intellectual 
 rather than moral, as his writings were. He was never- 
 theless profoundly skilled in the knowledge of human 
 
254 COMPARISON OF INTELLECTUAL 
 
 nature ; and understood, as well as exemplified, the prin- 
 ciples of moral greatness. Of this his letter to Trajan 
 affords a beautiful illustration. He thus lays down the 
 rule of imperial duty : — " Let your government commence 
 in your own breast ; and lay the foundation of it in the 
 command of your passions." What a lesson to teach the 
 ruler of the world! Herodotus, with all his credulity, 
 was a man of many virtues, but we can hardly call him 
 great. Xenophon was the Addison of Greece ; but Ad- 
 dison was not great. Thucydides and Polybius were both 
 men of vast intellectual power ; yet they were both want- 
 ing in the leading elements of moral greatness. The rest 
 were still more deficient. No exception can be made in 
 behalf of Demosthenes. He excelled in no one moral 
 quality. He was, in fact, neither patriot, philanthropist, 
 nor philosopher. He was merely a speaker— a marvel- 
 lous, a matchless orator. 
 
 Of the Roman writers above enumerated, we cannot 
 speak more favourably than of the Greeks. C. Nepos 
 and Sallust were both at best but elegant triflers, who 
 have procured immortality on easy terms. Indeed, the 
 whole of these authors together did not comprise half so 
 much real moral greatness as Numa. Would it not, then, 
 be preposterous to compare them with any genuine Chris- 
 tian philanthropist, and still more with a Christian mis- 
 sionary, and that missionary, John Williams ! They were 
 all wanting — and all greatly, although not all equally 
 wanting — in the first principles of moral greatness. Even 
 Cicero, whose genius placed him at the head of the splen- 
 did assemblage, was extremely defective in every thing 
 required by his own definition. He was vanity itself, and 
 weak as woman I His moral, were utterly disproportionate 
 to his mental, powers. Never, perhaps, did one of the 
 human race exhibit so much genius, so many talents, 
 such an amount of intellectual culture, and such a mass 
 
AND MORAL GREATNESS. 255 
 
 of literary acquirements, in combination with so much 
 imbecility ! 
 
 When we inquire into the moral and intellectual great- 
 ness of the ancients, we labour under several disadvantages. 
 Multitudes of magnanimous spirits, of whom there is no 
 record, have appeared in our world. The reason is ob- 
 vious. The highest form of magnanimity is active bene- 
 volence, which has but seldom been allied to literary tastes 
 and habits. Persons thus distinguished, therefore, have 
 not often recorded their own actions ; and men of letters, 
 whose province it was to confer immortality, having, for 
 the most part, but little sympathy with the pursuits of the 
 benevolent, have but too generally disregarded them. It 
 is the most remarkable fact in the history of ancient lite- 
 rature, that even Socrates, the father of Gentile Philoso- 
 phy, the Patriarch of pagan Magnanimity, left no writings 
 behind him. We owe all our knowledge of him to his 
 illustrious disciples who have embalmed the memory of his 
 actions, lessons, wrongs, and death. Speaking generally, 
 the most magnanimous portion of the Greeks and Romans 
 were not literary ; and the most literary portions of the 
 Greeks and Romans were not magnanimous. The result 
 is, that a multitude of characters, more or less magnani- 
 mous, have been buried in oblivion. Genuine magnani- 
 mity has rarely found a faithful historian of its deeds and 
 glory. Upon a large scale, however, it has seldom courted 
 the historian's attention. War, all-devouring war, has 
 been the staple of history ! Withdraw from both the 
 prose and the poetry of ancient times all that appertains 
 to war, and what remains ? That peculiar cast of intellect 
 which delights in study, and is necessary to high achieve- 
 ments in literature, has not often been combined with such 
 measures of moral feeling, of active principle, and of con- 
 stitutional vigour, as are necessary to great efficiency in 
 benevolent exertion. Polybius is an example to my pur- 
 
256 
 
 COMPARISON OF INTELLECTUAL 
 
 pose. He was in several respects the Gibbon of his age, 
 vast in view, powerful in reason, cold in affection, and 
 deeply tainted with impiety. Nearly the same terms may 
 be applied to Thucydides. Livy was a man of fine taste, 
 of fine temper, of wide comprehension, and of a genius 
 more akin to civil than to military pursuits, the Robertson 
 of Rome ; but he wanted the chief essentials of moral 
 greatness. Tacitus possessed still more depth and power 
 than Livy ; his mind presented a splendid specimen of in- 
 tellectual and imaginative ability, with a high moral sense ; 
 but yet his character displayed little moral greatness. 
 The truth is, that the chief movers of mankind, the bene- 
 factors as well as the disturbers of the world, the men most 
 eminent for good no less than the men most eminent for 
 evil, have been but little addicted to literature. Literary 
 men have often attained to moral greatness of thought, 
 but seldom to moral greatness of action. It is in vain, 
 therefore, that we look to literary men of even the first 
 distinction for the highest examples of moral greatness. 
 
 Let us now pass to the poets of antiquity. With more 
 splendour than the prose writers, they exhibit still less 
 worth. They were a wicked and a wretched fraternity — 
 very generally the worst of men. Poetry and passion are 
 inseparable, if not identical ; and the passions of the hea- 
 then poets were almost uniformly in the highest degree 
 corrupt and pestiferous. Homer's writings throw but 
 little light upon his character, and we have no other 
 source of accurate information. The light that is thus 
 reflected is not much to the credit of his benevolence. He 
 is the poet of havoc ! Blood and carnage appear to have 
 been his native element ! Of all the Greek poets, none 
 came so near the precincts of moral greatness as Hesiod. 
 It says much for the sense of the first ages, that, in the 
 poetical contention at Chalcis, between Homer and Hesiod, 
 the latter, if we may credit Plutarch and Gyraldus, was 
 
AND MORAL GREATNESS. 9?fl 
 
 declared victor. Cleomenes, while he intended but to 
 sneer, paid a high compliment to Hesiod, when he said 
 Homer was the poet of the Lacedaemonians, and Hesiod 
 of the Helots or slaves, because Homer celebrated the 
 ravages of war, and Hesiod the arts of peace. Sappho, 
 wonderful as was her genius, was a disgrace, not only to 
 her sex, but to her species. Alcaeus was sold into the 
 slavery of his passions. Anacreon was a vile voluptuary, 
 without one redeeming quality ! Euripides combined good 
 words with bad deeds. iEschylus was cold . and stately, 
 without either benevolence or moral sentiment. Sopho- 
 cles, with much genius, had little worth and no greatness. 
 The same may be affirmed of Simonides. With respect 
 to Aristophanes, it is enough to consummate his glory or 
 his shame, to remember that he wrote the comedy of the 
 Clouds to ridicule Socrates ! Theocritus, Lycophron, Cal- 
 limachus, and Oppian, were but triflers. Amidst the poets 
 of Greece, however, one man arose to vindicate the ho- 
 nours, and assert the high prerogative of poetical genius. 
 That man was Pindar, one of the brightest spirits of the 
 heathen world. He was, in my humble judgment, the 
 poet of peace, of truth, of affability, of hospitality, of 
 prudence, of piety, of every virtue and of every grace. 
 Ancient times present no poet superior to Pindar in great- 
 ness and sublimity, and, after what I have already said, I 
 need hardly add that his greatness was moral. 
 
 There are few pursuits in which the genius of Greece 
 more surpassed that of Rome than in poetry. The Roman 
 poets had much less genius without more virtue. It is 
 in vain that we look to Plautus and Terence for moral or 
 any other kind of greatness. Lucretius was a profligate 
 and an atheist ! Catullus was a slave to the worst pro- 
 pensities ; Horace was a courtly libertine ; and Tibullus 
 outran Horace in the race of debauchery ! Propertius, 
 with more elegant learning, was no better. Ovid was as 
 
258 COMPARISON OF INTELLECTUAL 
 
 foul and debased a spirit as ever trod the banks of the 
 Tiber ! His heart was a fountain of iniquity sufficient to 
 pollute and destroy the souls of all the millions that 
 peopled the Roman empire ! And yet the works of this 
 base and vicious man are at the present hour a school 
 book throughout the length and breadth of Great Britain! 
 Plato banished even Homer from his commonwealth ; 
 British Christians place Ovid in the hands of their sons ! 
 Lucan was the poet of war, a mere rhetorical historian. 
 Persius and Juvenal, in some respects, were men of merit; 
 but they were still at the furthest remove from moral 
 greatness. Martial gave lessons in vice by his method of 
 reproving it ! Virgil was a man of amiable manners, of 
 splendid genius, a poet of the highest order, but he con- 
 tributed nothing to the good of his country or the im- 
 provement of mankind! Upon the principle of Cicero, 
 he, too, must be excluded for ever from the roll of moral 
 greatness. 
 
 My dear Sir, in setting forth this estimate, I have used 
 great freedom of speech ; I have spoken with the less hesi- 
 tation, because I address one who is thoroughly competent 
 to enter into the question, and to affirm or reverse my 
 decision. The judgment thus formed is certainly not com- 
 plimentary to the virtue and the morals of ancient times ; 
 but it is enough for my purpose if it be according to truth. 
 The whole library of the ancient Classics is but as the 
 dust in the balance when weighed against the literature of 
 Modern Missions. The "Enterprises" of the late Rev. 
 John "Williams is a publication of infinitely greater worth 
 than all that Greece and Rome have transmitted to our 
 times. That volume exhibits the missionary character in 
 all its goodness and greatness. As I have already said, 
 man, according to the Scriptures, is good but as he does 
 good. True greatness consists solely in resemblance to 
 the moral image and character of God; and no man is 
 
AND MORAL GREATNESS. 259 
 
 great but as he promotes greatness among others who are 
 less than himself. How striking is the contrast which the 
 missionary character forms to the literary and philosophic, 
 as drawn by classic writers ! The missionary character, 
 even in outline, never entered into their minds. What 
 would Cicero, in his latter years, when his powers and at- 
 tainments had reached maturity, have thought of that cha- 
 racter as it is exhibited in the work of Williams ? How 
 novel and unearthly would it have appeared ! How strange, 
 and, upon philosophic principles, how unaccountable his 
 pursuits! He leaves a civilized country for barbarous 
 islands in the Southern ocean, where, at once, and without 
 fear, he assails the gods, all the gods — the highest not 
 excepted ! He resolutely and relently rushes on to the 
 destruction of systems which have lived, flourished, and 
 been profoundly revered for thousands of years beyond the 
 memory of man ! Those systems, at length he completely 
 overthrows. He induces the natives to receive a body of 
 entirely new doctrines, by which they are changed into new 
 creatures. Without intermediate stages, he lifts them up 
 at once from the lowest barbarism to the truest civilization. 
 He reverses the whole current of their thoughts and feel- 
 ings ; he entirely quenches their warlike passions, and sub- 
 dues their souls into a mood of gentle tenderness ! He 
 creates among them an order of society altogether novel. 
 He effects a thorough revolution among the social habits of 
 the occupants of whole islands — a revolution such as his- 
 tory never recorded, such as philosophy never imagined ! 
 How anxiously would the orator have inquired, Who is 
 this man ? Whence is he ? What is the mystery of his 
 success? By what skill, spell, or power, does he work 
 these wonders ? The great Roman would have deemed 
 the whole thing a romance ; but if he could have believed 
 in the reality of the missionary and his reported perform- 
 ance, he must, upon his own principles, already set forth, 
 
2g0 COMPARISON OF INTELLECTUAL 
 
 have pronounced him incomparably the greatest man that 
 ever appeared in our world 1 
 
 Permit me now, my dear Sir, to submit certain points 
 for academic consideration. I submit, first, that the mis- 
 sionary character immeasurably surpasses every thing re- 
 corded in the classic page, and every thing known among 
 the men of our time ; and that it ought to receive more 
 homage, by a hundred fold, than it has hitherto commanded 
 from the learned world. I submit that the Universities of 
 Great Britain ought occasionally to mark their strong sense 
 of its high claims, by conferring special honours upon such 
 men as have sustained it with extraordinary zeal and abi- 
 lity. I submit that it was a great, a lamentable, a culpable 
 oversight in our chartered colleges, to allow John Williams, 
 after the publication of his wonderful record, to return to 
 Polynesia without such a mark of their approbation and 
 favour. I submit that, religion wholly apart, men who 
 become voluntary exiles, and take up their abode among 
 savages, teaching them the alphabet and figures, reducing 
 their language to writing, moulding them by grammars, 
 and fixing them by dictionaries, preparing in them school 
 books and an infant literature, — I submit that such men 
 confer benefits above all price, work wonders above all 
 praise, and establish a claim to the highest honours of 
 learning ; and that, when to all this, they add translations 
 of the Word of Life, they achieve a good which cannot 
 be requited, — which cannot be adequately acknowledged, 
 and which renders the whole world their debtors. No 
 degree of ability, no mere literary desert, no measure of 
 home service in the republic of letters, can for one mo- 
 ment stand in competition with such claims ! These, and 
 these alone, are the men who are laying, in idolatrous, 
 barbarous, and despotic countries, the true foundation of 
 the empire of religion, liberty, and letters. To them 
 future ages will trace the institution of schools, colleges, 
 
AND MORAL GREATNESS. 261 
 
 and universities, and all the blessings of arts, science, and 
 civilization ! 
 
 My dear Sir, if these statements be correct, and if 
 these anticipations be realized, how great, how aggravated 
 has been the injustice of the present age to these lights of 
 the world ! Is it not matter both for wonder and for 
 lamentation, that the guardians of British learning, the 
 patrons of literature, and the princes of science, have been 
 so indifferent to the claims of the missionary character; 
 and that so few tokens of academic regard have been con- 
 ferred upon those who sustain it ? Surely sages and phi- 
 losophers should not be the last to cheer a body of men of 
 whom the world is not worthy ! Posterity will note these 
 things, and view them with astonishment. It is time for 
 academic senates to awake to the importance of the cha- 
 racter of the Christian evangelist. To them it belongs to 
 rescue that character from the neglect of ignorance, and 
 the contempt of frivolity ; — to lift it up to its proper ele- 
 vation in the sight of mankind, — and enhance the dignity 
 of their own degrees by associating them with its highest 
 exemplars. Academic honours, in themselves considered, 
 possess absolutely no value : but, in their results, they 
 may be of priceless worth. Such honours, bestowed oc- 
 casionally on a few of the veteran missionaries of the 
 London, Baptist, Wesleyan, and other Societies, would be 
 as beneficial — especially among the higher orders of society 
 — to the cause of heathen evangelization, as they would be 
 creditable to the learned bodies that should confer them. 
 Such men as Moffat and Morton, Ellis and Freeman, Knibb 
 and Burchell, Turner and Cross, possess a weight of cha- 
 racter and a claim of service amply sufficient to sustain 
 them. By such a course reproach would be rolled away 
 from this most exalted walk of intellectual, moral, and 
 philanthropic labour. The minds of students capable of 
 promoting the mighty work would be directed towards it, 
 
2Q2 COMPARISON OF INTELLECTUAL 
 
 and it would be presented in a vastly more favourable and 
 commanding light before the eyes of the millions. The 
 time will unquestionably come when these views will be 
 realized, and when the colleges of Great Britain will deem 
 it an infinitely higher honour to have produced a Martyn 
 than a Milton, a Carey than a Cuvier, a Coke than a Can- 
 ning, a Williams even than a Wilberforce. Our American 
 brethren, always in advance of us, have already set us the 
 example. Their universities are beginning rightly to esti- 
 mate the work and worth of the Christian missionary ; they 
 are encouraging their choicest spirits to go "far hence 
 unto the Gentiles," and bestowing their highest honours 
 on men who have laboriously earned them on the foreign 
 field. 
 
 I beg leave to submit, secondly, that if such be the 
 characters of the classic writers themselves, and such the 
 character of their works, it is of the utmost importance 
 that the study of them be conducted not only with due 
 regard to the interests of morality, but also to the forma- 
 tion of a right judgment relative to true greatness. The 
 period of life at which such studies are carried on is of 
 itself a matter for grave consideration ; early impressions 
 are deep and lasting ; and it is, therefore, the more neces- 
 sary to look well to their nature and tendency. On this 
 subject but little care has hitherto been exercised, and the 
 result has been a world of mischief. The time, however, 
 draws nigh when the Christian spirit of Great Britain will 
 acquire sufficient purity and strength to force on the con- 
 sideration of this question. You will not anticipate, from 
 an admiring disciple of your illustrious relative and pre- 
 decessor, Dr. Hunter, any sympathy with those who 
 clamour against classical learning. The pupils of that 
 great man are in no danger of falling into this error. By 
 him I was taught its incalculable importance ; and time 
 has only served to confirm the lesson. In my humble 
 
AND MORAL GREATNESS. 26S 
 
 judgment, indeed, it can hardly be over-estimated. It has 
 been, beyond controversy, the main source of the massive, 
 profound, various and copious literature of England. All 
 our mighty masters in History, in Morals, in Theology, in 
 Politics, in Oratory, and, with a solitary and but partial 
 exception, all our great Poets drank deeply at the fountains 
 of Greece and Rome. In this way their stupendous in- 
 tellects w r ere disciplined ; their taste was formed ; their 
 stock of imagery was increased ; and their stores of lan- 
 guage were augmented. It appears to me that what the 
 classics themselves are to a national literature, that the 
 study of them is to the literary character. It is difficult, 
 in fact, to conceive of such a character apart from an ac- 
 quaintance with the ancient languages. On this point, 
 one month's attendance on your celebrated predecessor 
 would have sufficed to banish for ever all scepticism. How 
 full of instruction and pleasure were his philological dis- 
 cussions, expositions, and dissertations ! 
 
 The benefits derived from Classic study are as lasting 
 as they are great. Even where the acquirements of early 
 age are largely forgotten in after life, the substantial ad- 
 vantages remain. The value of Classic learning for the 
 work of Christian missionaries is very great. For genera- 
 tions to come the business of translation will constitute a 
 chief part of the evangelical enterprize ; and the prepara- 
 tion of translators will consequently become an increas- 
 ingly important branch of college education. The drilling 
 and toil of the Latin and Greek classes will exceedingly 
 contribute to expedite the superior performance of this 
 all-important undertaking. On these, my dear Sir, not 
 to mention other grounds, I cheerfully and emphatically 
 give my feeble voice for the widely increased spread of 
 Classical learning. Let it fill the plains, towns, and cities 
 of England, and spread through all the world ! But I sub- 
 mit that its study ought to be combined, with a careful, a 
 
264 COMPARISON OF INTELLECTUAL 
 
 copious, and an elaborate exposition of its manifold and 
 momentous deficiencies. 
 
 The prose writers, on the score of purity, are seldom 
 much at fault : the leprosy cleaves principally to the poets, 
 who, therefore, require the greater vigilance. Of the 
 poets, however, the more vicious, with the exception of 
 Ovid, are not read in our great schools. The batteries of 
 heathenism are masked ! The history, the epic poetry, the 
 ethics, and the biography of the ancients, which have too 
 generally been thought safe territory, are full of peril, and 
 most to be feared, as the sources of a spirit wholly anti- 
 Christian. It is well known that Homer was the Bible of 
 Alexander. Day and night the blood-stained pages of 
 the Iliad lay open before him ; and that ignorant, obsti- 
 nate madman, Charles XII., was, in turn, intoxicated 
 with the history of Alexander ; while the principal human 
 butchers, of more modern times, in addition to Homer, are 
 known to have made manuals of the martial rhapsodies of 
 Ossian, and the elegant Commentaries of Caesar. These are 
 the sources from which the hearts of heroes have been filled 
 with infernal fire ! Even at this late period of the Chris- 
 tian era, the spirit of European courts and senates is em- 
 phatically the spirit of Greece and Rome. The spirit of 
 the mass of modern literature is the same. It is far more 
 allied to the Classics than to the Prophets and Apostles. 
 It is, in truth, the atheistic, the idolatrous, the unchanged, 
 and — unless by Christianity — the unchangeable spirit of 
 the ancients, clothed in the attire of other tongues. It is 
 the fierce flame which has prevailed in colleges ; and 
 which, unextinguished by the " waters of life," in passing 
 through our Halls of Theology, has found its way into 
 nearly all the pulpits of Christendom ; which, with few 
 exceptions, have been for centuries enlisted in the service 
 of human slaughter ! 
 
 Great divines have aspired to the honour of being edi- 
 
AND MORAL GREATNESS. 265 
 
 tors and expositors of Homer, the poet of the mammoths 
 of murder ! Yes, and even the gentlest spirits of our race, 
 men whose sensibility has been such that they ha\e re- 
 nounced the friendship of a man who could needlessly 
 " trample upon a worm," have devoted the finest talents, 
 and the best portion of life, to the translation of the Iliad ! 
 Surely the conduct of the amiable Cowper, in this matter, 
 was one of the greatest anomalies of letters. Nothing, 
 perhaps, so strikingly exemplifies the intoxicating, infatu- 
 ating, and bewildering character of the Homeric poetry. 
 A full half of the Iliad is devoted to the description of 
 battles. Battles, then, were the spectacles on which the 
 Bard of Olney, the poet of Truth, Hope, and Charity, de- 
 lighted to dwell! How strange, that the soul of this 
 trembling type of all that was sweet, gentle, and humane, 
 could exult with rapture at such feats as the following ! — 
 
 " The fierce coursers, as the chariot rolls, 
 Tread down whole ranks, and crush out heroes' souls ! 
 Dash'd from their hoofs, whilst o'er the dead they fly, 
 Black, bloody drops the smoking chariot dye : 
 The spiky wheels through heaps of carnage tore ; 
 And thick the groaning axles dropp'd with gore. 
 High o'er the scene of death Achilles stood, 
 All grim with dust, all horrible in blood!" 
 
 Poor Cowper, at once the poet of pity, and the object 
 of it, in the elaborate preface to his translation, utters not 
 a word in reprobation of war, not a breath of regret that 
 the powers of the mighty Greek were not bestowed on a 
 worthier theme ! It thus concludes : " I purposely decline 
 all declamation on the merits of Homer. He has beer 
 the wonder of all countries that his works have evei 
 reached, — even deified by the greatest names of antiquity 
 — and in some places actually worshipped! And, to say 
 truth, were it possible that mere man could entitle him- 
 self, by pre-eminence of any kind, to divine honours, 
 
 N 
 
OQQ COMPARISON OF INTELLECTUAL 
 
 Homer's astonishing powers seem to have given him the 
 best pretensions. And now I have only to regret that 
 my pleasant work is ended. To the illustrious Greek I 
 owe the smooth and easy flight of many thousand hours. 
 He has been my companion at home and abroad, in the 
 study, in the garden, and in the field ; and no measure of 
 success, let my labours succeed as they may, will ever 
 compensate to me the loss of the innocent luxury that I 
 have enjoyed, as a translator of Homer." — Such a tribute 
 from such a man supplies a proof, which it were difficult 
 to strengthen, of the overwhelming, bewitching fascination 
 of this great poet. If Cowper was thus subdued by the 
 mighty spell, is it a marvel that the whole world should 
 have fallen before it? 
 
 If such, then, is the power of the adversary, and such 
 the peril of intellectual prostration, it surely becomes us 
 to inquire into the best means of resistance. This ques- 
 tion has occupied the minds of some of our ablest writers. 
 Our public-spirited and gifted friend, Dr. Thomson, of 
 Coldstream, has done excellent service to the church of 
 Christ by his very judicious remarks in his " Comparative 
 View of the English and Scotch Dissenters." He suggests 
 that every purpose might be answered by selections from 
 the Latin and Greek classics. John Foster, in his im- 
 mortal " Essay on the Aversion of Men of Taste to Evan- 
 gelical Religion," has given expression to a multitude of 
 profound, accurate, and valuable conceptions concerning 
 the spirit and character of classic literature, concerning 
 the perils attendant on the comprehensive and ardent 
 study of it, setting forth, at the same time, what he consi- 
 ders to be the only method of counteracting its direful 
 tendencies to engender a spirit diametrically opposite to 
 the spirit of Christ. " With respect," says he, " to reli- 
 gious parents and preceptors, whose children and pupils 
 are to receive that liberal education which must inevitably 
 
AND MORAL GREATNESS. Qffl 
 
 include the study of these great works, it will be for them 
 to accompany the youthful readers throughout with an 
 effort to show them, in the most pointed manner, the in- 
 consistency of many of the sentiments, both with moral 
 rectitude in general, and with the special dictates of Chris- 
 tianity. And in order to give the requisite force to these 
 dictates, it will be an important duty to illustrate to them 
 the amiable tendency, and to prove the awful authority, 
 of this dispensation of religion. This careful effort will 
 often but very partially prevent the mischief; but it seems 
 to be all that can be done." 
 
 The existence of the passage just cited had entirely 
 slipped from my memory or escaped my notice, till my 
 own views, in the present letter, had been thought out; 
 and it was with not a little satisfaction, that, on turning 
 to Mr. Foster for another object, I stumbled upon it, and 
 found my general principle supported by so great an 
 authority. Dr. Thomson's view may be very beneficially 
 carried out, to a great extent, in elementary tuition ; but 
 it is incompatible with that profound and general scholar- 
 ship, to which the study of the great classical works, with- 
 out abridgment, is indispensable. Four things deserve 
 consideration as preventive measures. 
 
 First, the course suggested by Mr. Foster on the part 
 of parents and preceptors. In this way, I think, much 
 might be attempted, and much accomplished. Classic 
 studies might thus be conducted so as to minister equally 
 to delight and to utility. It might, in competent hands, 
 be rendered in the highest degree conducive to the inte- 
 rests of instruction, of edification, and even of devotion. 
 This plan might be easily adopted in all courses of ele- 
 mentary tuition, whether in private or in public schools. 
 The only difficulty to be apprehended is, that which would 
 arise from the moral and intellectual incapacities of many 
 of the parties on whom the success would depend. 
 
 N 2 
 
2QS COMPARISON OF INTELLECTUAL 
 
 Second, a compact, elaborate, and evangelical treatise 
 upon the question, to be used in all the upper forms of 
 classical schools, is a desideratum in education. In this 
 way the antidote would be administered contemporane- 
 ously with the poison. 
 
 Third, appropriate college exercises in the Latin and 
 Greek classes, both junior and senior. This would open 
 up a wide field of remark, inquiry, and discussion. To 
 those tutors and professors who will adventure on this un- 
 explored ocean, a region richer than that which was opened 
 up by De Gama will present itself; a world more extended 
 and glorious than that which rewarded the toils and perils 
 of Columbus will at length appear. These exercises would 
 embrace the entire theology and ethics of the learned 
 tongues — they would embrace examinations of the moral 
 characters both of authors and of their works — they would 
 exhibit comparative views of the morality of the great sub- 
 jects both of heathen poetry and history — and they would 
 consist occasionally in demonstrations, that great heroes 
 were not great men. They would very largely consist in 
 comparisons of the classic and scriptural accounts of the 
 Godhead, of human nature, of providence, of prophecy, of 
 sacrifice, of redemption, of philosophic virtue and Chris- 
 tian holiness — of patriotism and philanthropy, of true 
 glory and a future state. The inquiry and effort neces- 
 sary in the preparation of such exercises, the reading and 
 discussion of them, after the customary manner, in the 
 class rooms, and the remarks and criticisms issuing from 
 the professor's chairs, would tend to fix deeply and inde- 
 libly upon the mind both the importance and the prin- 
 ciples of the subject, and to produce results at once bene- 
 ficial and lasting. 
 
 Fourth, the Latin and Greek professors might prepare 
 a course of monthly lectures, based upon the great authors 
 in their respective tongues. These lectures would form 
 
AND MORAL GREATNESS. 269 
 
 the proper basis of written exercises, as well as of viva 
 voce examinations. This subject might also with great 
 propriety form one of the annual prize essays. 
 
 Such methods of procedure would throw a new colouring 
 over our university and college courses of education, and 
 roll away from their gates the reproach that they are, to a 
 fearful extent, sinks of corruption and nurseries of infi- 
 delity. It would elevate classic studies by sanctifying 
 them. It would harmonize the instruction of the country 
 with its Religion, and the classes of Literature and Phi- 
 losophy with those of Divinity. 
 
 Such, my dear Sir, are some of the methods which, 
 with the utmost deference, I have ventured to suggest to 
 you, whose practical sagacity and enlarged experience 
 will enable you to estimate them at their proper value. 
 If it be, in all points, a matter of the first moment to give 
 to the youthful literati of the land correct notions of true 
 greatness — to show them that the greatness which is 
 moral, is superior to that which is intellectual — that 
 moral greatness reaches its highest altitude in the mis- 
 sionary character — and that the work of missions to the 
 heathen is the most honourable employment that earth 
 can furnish or man engage in — then is the present sub- 
 ject not unworthy of being presented to your notice. But 
 whatever may be the merits of my communication, it will 
 at least serve as a humble expression of my respect for 
 yourself, and of my filial and reverential regard for your 
 ancient university. But I must now bring my letter to a 
 conclusion, lest I should forget the maxim of Tacitus, 
 which proclaims the only means whereby an Alumnus can 
 do honour to his Alma Mater : — 
 
 " Plurimum facere, et minimum ipse de se loqui." 
 
LETTER XL 
 
 TO THE REV. JOHN FOSTER. 
 
 INTELLECTUAL AND MORAL GREATNESS ILLUSTRATED AND COMPARED 
 FROM THE JEWISH PROPHETS, THE APOSTLES, MODERN WRITERS, AND 
 CHRISTIAN MISSIONARIES. 
 
 Sir, — Your " Essays" came into the hand which now 
 addresses you, when I was but young in years and only 
 beginning to acquire the elements of knowledge. In com- 
 mon with multitudes, I was both instructed and delighted 
 by them, especially by that on " Decision of Character." 
 To that dissertation I owe more, in certain important 
 respects, than I can well express. You will add to the 
 obligations thence arising by accepting my cordial acknow- 
 ledgments and the dedication of the present letter, which 
 aims at applying some of your own leading principles to 
 the subject of Moral Greatness. 
 
 You have clearly shown, that there may be much decision 
 where there is no goodness ; and that but too many con- 
 spicuous examples of decision have been allied to guilty 
 ambition, to remorseless cruelty, and to unparalleled 
 crime ! Such characters may in a sense be designated 
 great; but their greatness is fatally defective. There is 
 nothing moral in it. Goodness is essential to moral great- 
 ness — the greatness which belongs to God. Men cannot 
 be truly great but in proportion as they are truly good. 
 
COMPARISON OF INTELLECTUAL, ETC. £71 
 
 The best man is the greatest. True greatness consists in 
 active piety and active benevolence. Sacrifice and suffering, 
 and intense persevering effort, from motives of piety and 
 benevolence, are necessary to the highest form of moral 
 greatness. If these views be correct, philosophy has been 
 misled. Her notion of greatness is exceedingly erroneous, 
 her search after it having been limited to heathen anti- 
 quity, where it existed only in its least matured states, 
 and presented itself in its most imperfect manifestations. 
 The finest examples of greatness ever witnessed in our 
 world, are to be found in the Scriptures. The blindness 
 of philosophy to the moral greatness of the Jewish patri- 
 archs and prophets as there delineated, can be accounted 
 for only from her hatred to the character of the God 
 revealed in the Bible, and the resemblance of their cha- 
 racter to it. In the books of the Old Testament alone 
 there is such an assemblage of names, distinguished by 
 this divine attribute, as cannot be equalled from the entire 
 mass of the heathen literature of all past times, united to 
 that of those which are now passing over us. Neither 
 modern nor ancient literature exhibits any character to be 
 compared with Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, 
 Joseph, Job, Moses, Joshua, Samuel, David, Solomon, 
 Elijah, Elisha, Josiah, Jeremiah, Shadrach, Meshech, Abed- 
 nego, Daniel, Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther, or Mordecai. 
 Nay, after this dignified selection has been made, a multi- 
 tude of names remain of such splendour, that notwith- 
 standing their inferiority to these, all the greatest lights of 
 heathenism are lost at once in the blaze of their brightness. 
 It deserves especial remark that all the illustrious persons 
 here mentioned, with but two exceptions, were men distin- 
 guished by the spirit of peace. They were strangers to 
 military pursuits. They earned their laurels by works of 
 faith and labours of love — by piety and philanthropy. 
 Of Abel we know just enough to prove that he was 
 
272 COMPARISON OF INTELLECTUAL 
 
 truly great. He knew the Lord ; he believed the divine 
 testimony ; he pleased his Creator ; and he died for the 
 truth. Next to him was Enoch, one of the greatest and 
 most honoured men that ever appeared in our world. 
 u He walked with God." How significant the expression ! 
 How high the distinction ! The deeds recorded of this 
 celestial man required a courage far surpassing that which 
 suffices to storm citadels, to wade in blood, and murder 
 troops of armed men. He stood up boldly for God against 
 the wicked, forewarning them of the Lord's advent " to 
 execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are 
 ungodly of their evil deeds and hard speeches." Behold 
 the decision and elevation which eminent piety imparts to 
 Christian character ! 
 
 The moral stature of Noah was equal to that of Enoch. 
 He lived in the worst age of the antediluvian world, when 
 violence filled the earth, and iniquity like a flood covered 
 all lands. Amid the millions of an atheistical age, stood 
 Noah, like a rock in the ocean, unmoved by the billows 
 that raged around him — a pattern of piety, and a preacher 
 of righteousness — an individual against a world ! What 
 courage! What fidelity! What glory! The position 
 accorded with the character : both were sublime. What 
 elevation and honour his were when God said to him, 
 Si The end of all flesh is come before me, — with thee will 
 I establish my covenant !" How awful was his station on 
 the day when he laid the first plank of the ark ! His deed 
 was the fruit of faith in the knowledge which God had 
 graciously imparted to him. Still more awful and sublime 
 was his position while riding on the world of waters, which 
 had entombed the whole mass of contemporary nations ! 
 Nor was his position diminished in interest although 
 stripped of terror, when he stepped forth again upon the 
 emerging earth to lay the foundation of new empires. 
 The edifice of Noah's greatness was founded in the belief 
 
AND MORAL GREATNESS. 21 3 
 
 of the divine testimony, and its top stone was the spirit of 
 cordial, uniform, universal obedience : " according to all 
 that God commanded him so did he." — Behold the decision 
 and elevation which eminent piety imparts to Christian 
 character / 
 
 We are next conducted to Abraham, incomparably the 
 greatest historical personage of the post-diluvian world, 
 although literature and philosophy have considered him 
 beneath their notice, and no Christian writer has yet 
 attempted a full delineation of the moral portraiture of 
 " the friend of God." The church of Christ has in every 
 age been so occupied with the " Faith " of Abraham, that 
 she has, perhaps, in some measure, overlooked the other 
 elements of his marvellous character. Moral greatness 
 reached its height in this parent and prototype of spiritual 
 pilgrims. The position which he occupied was singular. 
 He differed in all points from the great men of heathen 
 nations. Numa, Solon, and Lycurgus possessed but little 
 in common with Abraham. His greatness had in it no- 
 thing accidental, nothing adventitious, nothing political, 
 nothing military, nothing literary ; it was purely personal, 
 and altogether moral. Separate the men just mentioned 
 from matters political and military, and what would remain 
 to them ? These lights of the ancient world would be at 
 once shorn of their beams, and reduced to comparative ob- 
 scurity. Take from heathen scholars their literature, and 
 leave them only their characters, and what remains ? The 
 patriarch was a man of no country. He was a part of no 
 system : like the moon he walked alone in his brightness, 
 reflecting the glory of the Lord. His greatness was em- 
 phatically that of the heart. He had no ambition to crush 
 or rule his fellow creatures ; he dealt not in philosophical 
 dogmata; he never indulged in the luxuries of literature. 
 His delights were in God ; his business was to please his 
 Maker ; doing or suffering his will was the only thing that 
 n 3 
 
274 COMPARISON OF INTELLECTUAL 
 
 occupied the mind of the man of Ur. He calmly moved 
 throughout the whole of his life in direct opposition to the 
 settled course of mankind. This devotion in the midst of 
 universal defection is one of the most distinguishing points 
 of his wonderful history. Amid a world of universal 
 darkness Abraham walked in light ; in an age when, with- 
 out exception, the whole human race were given to idola- 
 try, he worshipped only the living God. Faith, which 
 constitutes the chief element of moral greatness, existed 
 and operated in him with the power and uniformity of 
 nature's laws. It was his ruling principle. His life ex- 
 emplified it continually. Infantile simplicity never credited 
 the utterance of maternal lips with more implicit confi- 
 dence than did Abraham the word of his God. All his 
 recorded acts, with a solitary exception, were full of beauty 
 and dignity. How full of manhood and self-respect was 
 his demeanour towards the king of Sodom after the rescue 
 of his brother Lot ! * But what shall be said of his sub- 
 lime and beautiful deportment when, before the Lord, he 
 interceded in behalf of the guilty city ! This scene, in 
 moral grandeur, has never been equalled by any creature. 
 "What dignity, what pathos break forth in his importunate 
 pleadings ! How pure, and soft, and heavenly, the spirit 
 that breathes in his intercession ! f How infinitely unlike, 
 and how infinitely superior to all the fabled intercourse of 
 gods and men ! Then there is the journey to Mount 
 Moriah, and the events which occurred there in connexion 
 with the offering of his son. A world filled with such men 
 would deserve to be the residence of angels. Mankind 
 are morally great only as they resemble Abraham. — 
 Behold the decision and elevation which eminent piety im- 
 parts to Christian character ! 
 
 Isaac was his father in miniature. A gentler spirit has 
 
 * Gen. xiv. 13—24. f Gen. xviii. 23—33. 
 
AND MORAL GREATNESS. 275 
 
 seldom breathed the atmosphere of this lower world ; and 
 the position assigned him was well adapted to his temper. 
 As compared with that of his father Abraham, and his 
 son Jacob, it might be likened to an isthmus — a neck of 
 land between two oceans — or a season of calm between 
 two storms. His disposition was profoundly contempla- 
 tive. He was much alone, and he delighted to be alone 
 with God, in the midst of a wicked and tumultuous 
 world. He was great through a spirit of self-annihilation, 
 simplicity, and submissiveness. In the essential qualities 
 of true moral greatness he was second only to his father. 
 How unparalleled and wonderful was the scene enacted by 
 them on Mount Moriah! Notwithstanding the trying, 
 the terrible nature of the duty there exacted, how implicit 
 was the obedience of Isaac to Abraham, and of Abraham 
 to God ! Surpassing patterns of religion and of filial duty ! 
 How worthy a type was the gentle Isaac of the Lamb of 
 God ! — Behold the decision and elevation which eminent 
 piety imparts to Christian character ! 
 
 Jacob presents a character differing in many points from 
 that of his father ; yet, allowing for the errors of his youth, 
 he displays much excellence, and many remarkable traits 
 of moral greatness. His faith and patience, however, were 
 sorely tried. Driven from the house of his father into 
 exile by his own folly, he was constrained, after a length- 
 ened period of vexatious servitude, to flee from the society 
 of his cruel uncle, under whose tyranny he exercised un- 
 paralleled patience. Seldom, indeed, has so much patience 
 been combined with so much spirit. That spirit broke 
 out in a burst of manly and noble independence, when 
 Laban — who, without any very obvious cause, had pur- 
 sued — overtook him : " Jacob was wroth, and chode with 
 Laban : and Jacob answered and said to Laban, What is 
 my trespass, what is my sin, that thou hast so hotly pur- 
 sued after me ? Whereas thou hast searched all my stuff, 
 
276 COMPARISON OF INTELLECTUAL 
 
 what hast thou found of all thy household stuff? set it here 
 before my brethren and thy brethren, that they may judge 
 betwixt us both. These twenty years have I been with 
 thee ; thy ewes and thy she-goats have not cast their 
 young, and the rams of thy flock have I not eaten. That 
 which was torn of beasts I brought not unto thee, I bare 
 the loss of it : of my hand didst thou require it, whether 
 stolen by day, or stolen by night. Thus I was ; in the 
 day the drought consumed me, and the frost by night ; and 
 my sleep departed from mine eyes. Thus have I been 
 twenty years in thy house ; I served thee fourteen years 
 for thy two daughters, and six years for thy cattle ; and 
 thou hast changed my wages ten times. Except the God 
 of my father, the God of Abraham, and the fear of Isaac, 
 had been with me, surely thou hadst sent me away now 
 empty. God hath seen mine affliction, and the labour of 
 my hands, and rebuked thee yesternight." 
 
 From this time the special attributes of his character 
 began to manifest themselves, and to exhibit his true 
 greatness. Of these attributes, the chief was his close ad- 
 herence to God, and his incessant recourse to a throne of 
 grace, in time of trouble. How truly great he appears in 
 his prayer at Peniel ! What elevation, what dignity were 
 his, when, on that awful night, he wrestled with the myste- 
 rious stranger, and in the morning listened to the wonder- 
 ful words, " Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but 
 Israel ; for as a prince hast thou power with God and 
 with men, and hast prevailed." 
 
 One of the severest tests of moral greatness is, an intro- 
 duction to the presence of persons in power. The heart, 
 which very strongly realizes the Divine presence, is but 
 little moved by that of mortals, however exalted in point 
 of station. The " Prince" who had " power with God," 
 was not likely to be much abashed by the presence of 
 royalty. Moral greatness, though essentially humble from 
 
AND MORAL GREATNESS. 277 
 
 a sense of its nothingness, is nevertheless always, and 
 keenly conscious of its own superiority to all other great- 
 ness. Of this, never, perhaps, was there a more remark- 
 able example than that furnished by Jacob at the court of 
 Pharaoh king of Egypt. " And Joseph brought in Jacob 
 his father, and set him before Pharaoh ; and Jacob blessed 
 Pharaoh. And Pharaoh said unto Jacob, How old art 
 thou ? And Jacob said unto Pharaoh, The days of the 
 years of my pilgrimage are an hundred and thirty years : 
 few and evil have the days of the years of my life been, 
 and have not attained unto the days of the years of the life 
 of my fathers in the days of their pilgrimage. And Jacob 
 blessed Pharaoh, and went out from before Pharaoh." 
 With blessing he began, and with blessing he completed 
 the interview ; and if, as saith the Apostle, " without all 
 contradiction, the less is blessed of the greater," the pa- 
 triarch was superior to the king. Behold the decision and 
 elevation which eminent piety imparts to Christian cha- 
 racter ! 
 
 Joseph presents a finished model of moral greatness. He 
 is exhibited to us under a variety of aspects, and all are 
 beautiful. Whether robbed of his liberty, as a slave or a 
 prisoner, or clothed with all but sovereign power, he is the 
 same lovely and all but perfect character. It is difficult 
 to conceive of a more exquisite specimen of moral pro- 
 priety and dignity. The words of inspiration, uttered in 
 after-times, — "Thy gentleness hath made me great," would 
 have been throughout his life a proper motto for this illus- 
 trious Hebrew. What greatness distinguished him in the 
 house of Potiphar ! What greatness in prison ! What 
 greatness in the palace ! What greatness in the disclosure 
 of himself to his brethren! What greatness, combined 
 with ineffable tenderness, on the first interview with his 
 aged father ! What greatness in his valedictory address to 
 his brethren ! How affecting his commandment concerning 
 
£78 COMPARISON OF INTELLECTUAL 
 
 his bones ! " I die, and God will surely visit you, and 
 bring you out of this land, unto the land which he sware 
 to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob : God will surely visit 
 you, and ye shall carry up my bones from hence." The 
 faith of Joseph, and his holy fear, were the foundation of 
 his surpassing moral greatness. Hence sprung that firm- 
 ness of purpose which reflects such lustre on his name. — 
 Behold the decision and elevation which eminent piety im- 
 parts to Christian character I 
 
 Job is entitled to a foremost place in the ranks of moral 
 greatness. The composition, which records the facts of his 
 history, immeasurably surpasses every thing human that 
 has been transmitted from ancient times. All the ethical 
 and theological writings of Greece and Rome are but as 
 the chaff to the wheat, compared with the Book of Job ; 
 and, in point of character, the best among them are as far 
 inferior to him as are their works to the book which bears 
 his name. Extremes try men. In this way Job was tried 
 to the uttermost ; and he endured the trial in a manner 
 which served to illustrate the power and truth of his prin- 
 ciples. Great in prosperity, he was, if possible, still greater 
 in adversity. His conceptions of the Divine character and 
 government were sublime and glorious. To compare the 
 chief of our moral philosophers, in this respect, with the 
 Man of Uz, were to compare the obscene bat with the 
 soaring eagle. Where true moral greatness appears, its 
 claims, though denied for a season, are always ultimately 
 conceded. It is seen ; it is felt. Job gives, in an incidental 
 manner, a most pathetic narrative of by-gone days, which 
 strikingly exemplifies the magnitude of his moral stature. 
 " I went out to the gate through the city ; I prepared my 
 seat in the street. The young men saw me, and hid them- 
 selves ; and the aged arose and stood up. The princes 
 refrained talking, and laid their hand on their mouth. 
 The nobles held their peace, and their tongues cleaved to 
 
AND MORAL GREATNESS. 279 
 
 the roof of their mouth ; — I chose out their way, and sat 
 chief, and dwelt as a king in the army, as one that com- 
 forteth the mourners." 
 
 I have laid it down as a principle, that man is great 
 only as he is good, and good only as, according to his 
 means, he does good. Tried by this test, Job is great, in- 
 comparably great : the following verses are at once a proof 
 and an illustration : " Did not I weep for him that was in 
 trouble ? was not my soul grieved for the poor ? If I have 
 withheld the poor from their desire, or have caused the 
 eyes of the widow to fail ; or have eaten my morsel myself 
 alone, and the fatherless hath not eaten thereof — if I have 
 seen any perish for want of clothing, or any poor without 
 covering, — if his loins have not blessed me, and if he were 
 not warmed with the fleece of my sheep ; — then let mine 
 arm fall from my shoulder-blade, and mine arms be 
 broken from the bone ! When the ear heard me, then it 
 blessed me ; and when the eye saw me, it gave witness 
 to me : because I delivered the poor that cried, and the 
 fatherless, and him that had none to help him. The bless- 
 ing of him that was ready to perish came upon me ; and I 
 caused the widow's heart to sing for joy. I put on right- 
 eousness, and it clothed me : my judgment was as a robe 
 and a diadem. I was eyes to the blind, and feet was I to 
 the lame. . I was a father to the poor ; and the cause which 
 I knew not, I searched out ; and I brake the jaws of the 
 wicked, and plucked the spoil out of his teeth." What 
 an exhibition of humanity I Let the students of the classic 
 page, and the idolaters of heathen antiquity, produce a 
 parallel. Yet this is only one of the aspects of the charac- 
 ter of Job. This illustrates his philanthropy ; but his piety 
 and all his other virtues were equal. The latter was the 
 fountain of the former. The question then, clearly is, not 
 whether Job was great, but whether, amid the sons of men, 
 exclusive only of prophets and apostles, there ever was his 
 
280 COMPARISON OF INTELLECTUAL 
 
 fellow. Behold the decision and elevation which eminent 
 piety imparts to Christian character ! 
 
 Moses towers in stupendous elevation, even where all 
 are elevated. Moral greatness in him might be said to 
 reach its apex. It is difficult to conceive of a character in 
 which it could shine forth with more dazzling splendour. 
 Every attribute of his being was imperial. It bespoke a 
 royal origin, and a sublime destiny. He seemed, in some re- 
 spects, exempted from the ordinary laws of frail and fading 
 humanity. When a hundred and twenty years had passed 
 over him, and his work was finished, notwithstanding un- 
 paralleled vicissitudes, difficulties, toils, and privations, — 
 all which were enough to have broken down, nine times 
 over, a robust constitution, — " his eye was not dim, nor 
 his natural strength abated." His character was as original 
 as his position. He was, beyond comparison, the most 
 accomplished man of his time. His education was, for the 
 period, of the highest order, and was signally subservient 
 to his subsequent enterprise. As a geographer, and as an 
 historian, it were preposterous, it were almost impious, to 
 compare the most distinguished writers of heathen nations 
 with him ; and, as a legislator, he is equally superior and 
 inapproachable. Confucius, Menu, Zoroaster, Numa, Ly- 
 curgus, Solon, and Mohammed are but as children, as 
 drivellers, objects not to be named in the same page with 
 the lawgiver of the Jews. His writings, like the sun, are 
 the original source of all our light upon the manifold topics 
 of which he treated. All nations have been instructed by 
 him ; and he was taught by Grod. It were superfluous to 
 specify any point in which his moral greatness was parti- 
 cularly illustrated ; for it was every where apparent. 
 Greatness was his native element. He rose with every 
 occasion, and in no case did his burden seem above his 
 strength. All his movements bore the stamp and the im- 
 press of the Divine power and presence. With respect 
 
AND MORAL GREATNESS. ggj 
 
 to earth and time, he sacrificed much that he might 
 serve his God and benefit his countrymen. His conduct 
 in this respect has been recorded by the Holy Spirit with 
 special approbation : — " "When he was come to years, he 
 refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter ; choos- 
 ing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than 
 to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season ; esteeming the 
 reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of 
 Egypt ; for he had respect unto the recompence of the 
 reward. By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath 
 of the king : for he endured as seeing him who is invisible." 
 — Behold the decision and elevation which eminent piety 
 imparts to Christian character ! 
 
 Joshua was in all points a worthy successor of Moses. 
 He had in his character more of the martial than Moses ; 
 but still he stood pre-eminent in his generation for moral 
 greatness. This is illustrated in a variety of ways. There 
 is space in our firmament for only one sun. The death of 
 Moses made room for Joshua. From that time the great 
 qualities which God had implanted in his breast, began to 
 burst forth like vegetation in spring. He had, however, 
 given splendid intimations, at an earlier period, of the 
 heroic principles which were lodged in his bosom. His 
 integrity, courage, and decision were advantageously dis- 
 played in connexion with the deputation sent to survey 
 the land of Canaan. He dared, with Caleb, to stand forth 
 against the infatuated and faithless multitude ; to rebuke 
 them for their want of confidence in God, and to exhort 
 them to the exercise of trust and obedience. This great 
 man had received not the spirit of fear, but of power, and 
 of love, and of a sound mind. To the refractory and gain- 
 saying nation he gave this counsel : " Only rebel not ye 
 against the Lord, neither fear ye the people of the land ; for 
 they are bread to us ; their defence is departed from them, 
 and the Lord is with us ; fear them not." These words 
 
£82 COMPARISON OF INTELLECTUAL 
 
 were spoken at the peril of trie speaker, and they indicate 
 a disposition in happy accordance with the following fare- 
 well address of Moses to him : " Be strong, and of a good 
 courage ; for thou must go with this people unto the land 
 which the Lord hath sworn unto their fathers to give them ; 
 and thou shalt cause them to inherit it. And the Lord, 
 He it is that doth go before thee, He will be with thee ; 
 He will not fail thee, neither forsake thee: fear not, 
 neither be dismayed." It is no marvel if the belief of such 
 assurances as these, inspired the highest courage ; but 
 Joshua had still greater words on which to rest his confi- 
 dence. The Lord himself from heaven thus addressed him : 
 " There shall not any man be able to stand before thee all 
 the days of thy life : as I was with Moses, so will I be with 
 thee. I will not leave thee, nor forsake thee, only be thou 
 strong and very courageous." He who has such promises, 
 and who believes them, cannot be other than great, and to 
 that greatness there can hardly be a limit. 
 
 Joshua was great in war : but there the military tended, 
 in some degree, to obscure the moral, qualities of the man ; 
 it is, therefore, during the peace which succeeded, that his 
 moral greatness breaks forth as the sun from behind a 
 cloud, which has, for a season, interposed to obstruct his 
 beams. Every step of his subsequent career is impressed 
 with moral grandeur. His soul was cast in a noble mould. 
 The spirit which dwelt in him, the principles by which he 
 was guided, and the model of Moses, which was ever be- 
 fore him, all tended to form a character of bound- 
 less magnanimity. The military spirit, when subdued by 
 the grace of God, forms a solid foundation of true moral 
 greatness. Some of the finest specimens of manly 
 piety existing at this moment in the world, are to be found 
 in men who spent their early days in camps and fleets ! 
 Joshua, after the peace, is seen to vast advantage as a man, 
 a master, and a magistrate. No nation can present any 
 
AND MORAL GREATNESS. 28S 
 
 thing approaching to a parallel, although ancient and 
 modern history furnishes two or three cases somewhat 
 analogous. 
 
 Joshua supplied an illustration of a well-established 
 fact, that men of very robust mental constitution are 
 always versatile, — they are rich in resources, — fertile in 
 expedients, — they have what resembles an intuitive know- 
 ledge of things — they also possess a hand so dexterous that 
 they seem able to perform any thing. In the tumults of 
 war, in the tranquillity of peace, in courts and in cottages, 
 they are equally at home. Thus it was with Joshua ; he 
 did every thing, and always seemed to do best that which 
 he was immediately engaged in. 
 
 Joshua was strongly marked by decision of character. 
 This high and precious attribute was early developed by 
 him, and it distinguished him up to the very close of his 
 glorious career. How intensely it braced his mind when 
 before his death he exhorted the tribes of Israel at She- 
 chem, with the heads, elders, judges, and officers ! Never 
 did such exhortations emanate from the lips of an old man 
 on the brink of the grave. Every sentence glows with all 
 the fervour of youth and prime. Hear the venerable orator 
 discharging his conscience and witnessing for his God. 
 " Now, therefore, fear the Lord, and serve him in since- 
 rity and in truth ; and put away the gods which your 
 fathers served on the other side of the flood, and in Egypt ; 
 and serve ye the Lord. And if it seem evil unto you to 
 serve the Lord, choose you this day whom ye will serve ; 
 whether the gods which your fathers served, that were on 
 the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, 
 in whose land ye dwell : but as for me and my house, we 
 will serve the Lord. And the people answered and said, 
 God forbid that we should forsake the Lord, to serve other 
 gods. For the Lord our God, he it is that brought us up, 
 and our fathers, out of the land of Egypt, from the house 
 
284 COMPARISON OF INTELLECTUAL 
 
 of bondage, and which did those great signs in our sight, 
 and preserved us in all the way wherein we went, and 
 among all the people through whom we passed. And 
 the Lord drave out from before us all the people, even the 
 Amorites which dwelt in the land : therefore will we also 
 serve the Lord ; for he is our God. And Joshua said unto 
 the people, Ye cannot serve the Lord : for he is an holy 
 God ; he is a jealous God ; he will not forgive your trans- 
 gressions, nor your sins. If ye forsake the Lord, and 
 serve strange gods, then he will turn and do you hurt, and 
 consume you, after that he hath done you good. And the 
 people said unto Joshua, Nay ; but we will serve the Lord. 
 And Joshua said unto the people, Ye are witnesses against 
 yourselves, that ye have chosen you the Lord, to serve him. 
 And they said, We are witnesses. Now, therefore, put 
 away (said he) the strange gods which are among you, and 
 incline your heart unto the Lord God of Israel. And the 
 people said unto Joshua, The Lord our God will we serve, 
 and his voice will we obey. So Joshua made a covenant 
 with the people that day, and set them a statute and an 
 ordinance in Shechem." — Such were the last w T ords of 
 Joshua the son of Nun. Having thus spoken, he had 
 nothing to do but to die, and accordingly he forthwith 
 ceased from his labours, and his works followed him. — 
 Behold the decision and elevation which eminent piety 
 imparts to Christian character ! 
 
 Samuel stands forth with prominence among the great 
 men of Israel. It were difficult to mention any character 
 more nearly approaching to perfection. He is in all 
 points a finished model of human excellence. His pro- 
 gress from youth to age was one ascending path, illu- 
 mined by constantly augmenting lustre. He lived in an 
 age of deep degeneracy, when the truly faithful were re- 
 duced to a small number, and of that number he was the 
 head and chief. He was instrumental of a great revival 
 
AND MORAL GREATNESS. 2S5 
 
 of true godliness in the land. His qualities as a judge 
 were as striking as his qualities as a prophet. In this 
 two-fold character he conferred benefits unspeakable upon 
 the nation ; but public bodies are seldom just, still more 
 rarely grateful ; and hence the reverse, the disgrace, to 
 which he was subjected. After he had attained to a well- 
 deserved and unprecedented popularity, the fickle multi- 
 tude, taking umbrage at the misconduct of his sons, 
 and blind to the beauty of the father's character, called 
 for a change of government, and demanded a king. The 
 events which followed tried his temper, proved his prin- 
 ciples, and illustrated his moral greatness. How noble was 
 the prophet's address to the people, after the coronation 
 of Saul ! " Behold," said he, " I have hearkened unto 
 your voice, in all that ye said unto me, and have made a 
 king over you. And now behold, the king walketh before 
 you: and I am old and grey-headed; and, behold, my 
 sons are with you ; and I have walked before you from 
 my childhood unto this day. Eehold, here I am : witness 
 against me before the Lord, and before his anointed! Whose 
 ox have I taken ? or whose ass have I taken ? or whom 
 have I defrauded ? whom have I oppressed ? or of whose 
 hand have I received any bribe to blind my eyes there- 
 with ? and I will restore it you ! And they said, Thou hast 
 not defrauded us, nor oppressed us, neither hast thou 
 taken aught of any man's hand. And he said unto them, 
 The Lord is witness against you, and his anointed is wit- 
 ness this day, that ye have not found aught in my hand. 
 And they answered, He is witness." 
 
 How beautiful ! Here is true greatness, true glory ! 
 His deportment, also, towards Saul, in the unhappy affair 
 of the Amalekites, was highly dignified. " Then Samuel 
 said unto Saul, Stay, and I will tell thee what the Lord 
 hath said to me this night. And he said unto him, Say on. 
 And Samuel said, When thou wast little in thine own 
 
Og(3 COMPARISON OF INTELLECTUAL 
 
 sight, wast thou not made the head of the tribes of Israel, 
 and the Lord anointed thee king over Israel ? And the 
 Lord sent thee on a journey, and said, Go, and utterly 
 destroy the sinners the Amalekites, and fight against them 
 until they be consumed. Wherefore then didst thou not 
 obey the voice of the Lord, but didst flee upon the spoil, 
 and didst evil in the sight of the Lord ? And Saul said 
 unto Samuel, Yea, I have obeyed the voice of the Lord, 
 and have gone the way which the Lord sent me, and have 
 brought Agag the king of Amalek, and have utterly de- 
 stroyed the Amalekites. But the people took of the spoil, 
 sheep and oxen, the chief of the things which should have 
 been utterly destroyed, to sacrifice unto the Lord thy 
 God in Gilgal. And Samuel saith, Hath the Lord as 
 great delight in burnt-offerings and sacrifices as in obey- 
 ing the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better 
 than sacrifice ; and to hearken than the fat of rams ! For 
 rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is 
 as iniquity and idolatry: because thou hast rejected the 
 word of the Lord, he hath also rejected thee from being 
 king. And Saul said unto Samuel, I have sinned; for I 
 have transgressed the commandment of the Lord, and thy 
 words ; because I feared the people, and obeyed their 
 voice. Now, therefore, I pray thee, pardon my sin, and 
 turn again with me, that I may worship the Lord. And 
 Samuel said unto Saul, I will not return with thee : for 
 thou hast rejected the word of the Lord, and the Lord 
 hath rejected thee from being king over Israel. And as 
 Samuel turned about to go away he laid hold upon the 
 skirt of his mantle, and it rent. And Samuel said unto 
 him, The Lord hath rent the kingdom of Israel from thee 
 this day, and hath given it to a neighbour of thine, that is 
 better than thou. And also the Strength of Israel will 
 not lie, nor repent : for he is not a man that he should 
 repent. Then he said, I have sinned ; yet honour me 
 
AND MORAL GREATNESS. g£7 
 
 now, I pray thee, before the elders of my people, and 
 before Israel, and turn again with me, that I may worship 
 the Lord thy God. So Samuel turned again after Saul: 
 and Saul worshipped the Lord." 
 
 Where shall we find a more striking instance of the 
 power of moral greatness? How contemptible is the 
 prince, amid all his grandeur and wealth, as compared 
 with the prophet, notwithstanding his subjection and 
 poverty ! All might wish to have been the prophet ; but 
 who could desire to have been the king ? To the passages 
 above cited, we may add the awful scene which took place 
 between Saul and Samuel, after the decease of the pro- 
 phet, on the fearful night which preceded the death of the 
 king. It runs thus : — " And Samuel said to Saul, Why 
 hast thou disquieted me, to bring me up? And Saul 
 answered, I am sore distressed; for the Philistines make 
 war against me, and God is departed from me, and an- 
 swereth me no more, neither by prophets, nor by dreams : 
 therefore I have called thee, that thou mayest make known 
 unto me what I shall do. Then said Samuel, Wherefore 
 then dost thou ask of me, seeing the Lord is departed 
 from thee, and is become thine enemy ? And the Lord 
 hath done to him as he spake by me : for the Lord hath 
 rent the kingdom out of thine hand, and given it to thy 
 neighbour, even to David : because thou obeyedst not the 
 voice of the Lord, nor executedst his fierce wrath upon 
 Amalek, therefore hath the Lord done this thing unto 
 thee this day. Moreover, the Lord will also deliver Israel 
 with thee into the hand of the Philistines ; and to-morrow 
 shalt thou and thy sons be with me : the Lord also shall 
 deliver the host of Israel into the hand of the Philistines. 
 Then Saul fell straightway all along on the earth, and was 
 sore afraid, because of the words of Samuel; and there 
 was no strength in him ; for he had eaten no bread all the 
 day, nor all the night." How dreadful is this address of 
 
288 COMPARISON OF INTELLECTUAL 
 
 the disembodied spirit of the prophet ! What a picture of 
 agony in the person of the king ! How solemn is truth, 
 when uttered by holy lips, in the ears even of the most 
 ungodly man ! — Behold the decision and elevation which 
 eminent piety imparts to Christian character! 
 
 I might, did space permit, proceed to speak of David, 
 of Solomon, of Elijah, ofElisha, of Jeremiah, of Daniel, of 
 Ezra, of Nehemiah, and others, and to show, that all their 
 characters comprised abundantly the elements of moral 
 greatness ; but I must now go on to the New Testament. 
 
 John the Baptist, who was in all respects an extra- 
 ordinary character, is the first personage who invites our 
 attention. According to the highest authority in the 
 universe, he was " a burning and a shining light." The 
 Messiah has also spoken to the point of his comparative 
 greatness : " Among them," says he, " that are born of 
 women, there hath not risen a greater than John the 
 Baptist." After this, it is not left for us to consider 
 whether John was great, but only in what manner that 
 greatness was manifested. The office of John, indeed, 
 required the utmost greatness and dignity of character. 
 He was the harbinger of the Sun of Righteousness ; 
 and it was in discharging this function that John displayed 
 his marvellous magnanimity. This fact was pointed out 
 in a very affecting manner by the father of John, at the 
 birth of his child. On that remarkable occasion, after a 
 long season of speechless expectation, he closed a burst 
 of sublime inspiration, by thus apostrophising his infant : 
 vf And thou, child, shalt be called the prophet of the 
 Highest ; for thou shalt go before the face of the Lord, to 
 prepare his ways, — to give knowledge of salvation unto 
 his people, by the remission of their sins, through the 
 tender mercy of our God, whereby the day-spring from on 
 high hath visited us, — to give light to them that sit in 
 darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into 
 
AND MORAL GREATNESS. 289 
 
 the way of peace." From infancy, this wondrous child 
 displayed the utmost magnanimity. This fact, according 
 to the manner of the Scriptures, is strikingly set forth by 
 a single expression : " The child grew, and waxed strong 
 in spirit.'" His greatness, indeed, had been expressly 
 foretold : — " He shall be great in the sight of the Lord, 
 and shall drink neither wine nor strong drink; and he 
 shall be filled with the Holy Ghost, even from his mother's 
 womb. And many of the children of Israel shall he turn 
 to the Lord their God ; and he shall go before him in the 
 spirit and power of Elias, to turn the hearts of the fathers 
 to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the 
 just, — to make ready a people prepared for the Lord." 
 All this betokens the utmost moral greatness. 
 
 As the period of John's public labours was very brief, 
 that period was necessarily attended with but few inci- 
 dents ; those incidents, however, were of such a nature as 
 strikingly to illustrate his marvellous magnanimity. As 
 changes of climate try the constitution, so few men have 
 sufficient moral greatness to withstand the prostrating in- 
 fluence of royal favour. Before the sunshine of a court 
 they melt away. The maintenance of robust health, under 
 the operation of influences so debilitating, is, therefore, 
 the most satisfactory proof of extraordinary magnanimity. 
 This it is which reflects such lustre on the names of 
 Elijah, Daniel, and other Old Testament worthies. No 
 human spirit ever sustained less injury than John from 
 regal smiles, while, like a pillar of marble, he remained 
 erect and unmoved amid the prostrate and fawning mul- 
 titudes. When John was called to preach to the royal 
 household, " the trumpet gave a certain sound." His 
 words were as swords and spears to the hearts of his au- 
 dience ; but none did they pierce so deeply as Herod him- 
 self. He stormed at once the stronghold of the ruler's 
 passions. He not only reproved the king for taking his 
 
 o 
 
£OQ COMPARISON OF INTELLECTUAL 
 
 brother Philip's wife, but " for all the evils which Herod 
 had done." There was no forbearance, no connivance, no 
 winking at sin. John knew the price of his fidelity ; but he 
 shrunk not from duty ; although for that fidelity he was first 
 imprisoned, — then beheaded ! There is upon record, I think, 
 no instance of moral greatness much superior to that of 
 John ; certainly none ever, at least, presented such an 
 aspect of awful severity and exalted sanctity. The expe- 
 riment of its power upon a hardened and most profligate 
 magistrate, was singularly instructive. Herodias dreaded 
 the effect of John's remonstrances upon the conscience of 
 Herod, and as a means of preventing the separation which 
 might probably ensue, she plotted John's destruction. She 
 "would have killed him, but she could not, for Herod 
 feared John, knowing that he was a just man, and a holy, 
 and observed him." What an acknowledgment! Could 
 a higher tribute be yielded to moral worth ? Behold the 
 decision and elevation which eminent piety imparts to 
 Christian character ! 
 
 The glorious company of The Apostles are next pre- 
 sented to our notice as illustrious examples of moral great- 
 ness. This noble attribute, like a monument upon a 
 mountain, is seen to most advantage when least encumbered 
 with adventitious circumstances. These men, — without 
 fortune, without rank, without patronage, without a single 
 quality by which the world is accustomed to set store — 
 occupied a situation in Jerusalem, at the outset of 
 their enterprise, which served to try them to the uttermost. 
 They sustained the fiery ordeal with honour. The narra- 
 tive of their actions needs only to be read in order to pro- 
 duce the strongest conviction of their surpassing moral 
 greatness. Their enemies beheld it and wondered ; they 
 were unable to account for the sublime phenomena of their 
 courage. Those enemies "marvelled at their boldness; 
 and took knowledge of them that they had been with 
 
AND MORAL GREATNESS. 291 
 
 Jesus." How magnanimous was their answer to those who 
 commanded them to speak no more in his name ! "Whether 
 it be right, in the sight of God, to hearken unto you more 
 than unto God, judge ye; for we cannot but speak the 
 things which we have seen and heard." But, passing 
 by a multitude of heroic spirits referred to in the New 
 Testament, let us for a little fix our thoughts upon Saul of 
 Tarsus, whose name is but another for magnanimity, and 
 whose moral greatness was second only to that of his 
 Almighty Master. To estimate aright the character of 
 this extraordinary man, it is necessary to weigh well his 
 position, and to consider the nature of the work to which 
 his life was consecrated. That position and that work 
 were both entirely novel ; neither had previously existed. 
 They were such as tended to test moral greatness to the 
 uttermost, and such as supplied a boundless field for its 
 exhibition. The labours of Paul were wholly different 
 from those of all the Jewish worthies, with the single and 
 comparatively insignificant exception of Jonah. Nothing 
 of the missionary character attached to Enoch, Noah, Job, 
 Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Samuel, and the 
 other prophets. The duties of these righteous men were 
 varied, and, in some cases, difficult ; but where they ex- 
 tended beyond personal piety they were local in their 
 sphere, and limited in their design. But the sphere of 
 Paul's operations was the globe; and with respect to 
 their design, the words of Jesus Christ to Ananias, con- 
 cerning his election and appointment to the Gentile 
 Apostleship, fully unfold it. " He is a chosen vessel unto 
 me, to bear my name before the Gentiles, and kings, and 
 the children of Israel ; for I will show him how great 
 things he must suffer for my name's sake." This awful 
 intimation relative to suffering, was fully realized. But 
 the apostolic office was to be an affair of doing, as well as 
 of suffering — and the doing was to be the cause of the 
 
 o 2 
 
292 COMPARISON OF INTELLECTUAL 
 
 suffering. The Messiah's words to Paul, set forth in the 
 most emphatic manner the immense magnitude of the 
 active labour marked out for him to perform. While the 
 persecutor was laid prostrate, blinded and confounded by 
 the glory of the vision, on his way to Damascus, the Sa- 
 viour thus replied to his trembling inquiry, " Who art 
 thou ? " "I am Jesus, whom thou persecutest. But rise, 
 and stand upon thy feet : for I have appeared unto thee 
 for this purpose, to make thee a minister and a witness, 
 both of those things which thou hast seen, and of those 
 things in the which I will appear unto thee ; delivering 
 thee from the people, and from the Gentiles, unto whom 
 now I send thee, to open their eyes, and to turn them 
 from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto 
 God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inhe- 
 ritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is 
 in me." 
 
 From a man so called, and from an enterprise announced 
 with so much dignified solemnity, it was proper to antici- 
 pate results of the most remarkable character ; and, on 
 examining the history of his subsequent career, we find 
 the events corresponding with the prediction. " Here 
 we have a man of liberal attainments, and in other points 
 of sound judgment, who had addicted his life to the ser- 
 vice of the Gospel. We see him, in the prosecution of 
 his purpose, travelling from country to country, enduring 
 every species of hardship, encountering every extremity 
 of danger, assaulted by the populace, punished by the 
 magistrates, scourged, beat, stoned, left for dead; expect- 
 ing, wherever he came, a renewal of the same treatment, 
 and the same dangers, yet, when driven from one city, 
 preaching in the next ; spending his whole time in the 
 employment, sacrificing to it his pleasure, his ease, his 
 safety ; persisting in this course to old age, unaltered by 
 the experience of perverseness, ingratitude, prejudice, 
 
AND MORAL GREATNESS. 293 
 
 desertion ; unsubdued by anxiety, want, labour, persecu- 
 tions ; unwearied by long confinement, undismayed by the 
 prospect of death."* 
 
 These are some of the personal facts of the Apostle's 
 history, which may be applied in a twofold manner, — 
 first, either to demonstrate the Credibility of the Gospel 
 Record ; or, secondly, to illustrate the Moral Greatness of 
 the principal propagator of the " Glad Tidings" among 
 heathen nations. The first of these points alone con- 
 cerned Paley, who thus proceeds : — " The question is, 
 Whether falsehood was ever attested by evidence like 
 this ? Falsehoods, we know, have found their way 
 into reports, into tradition, into books ; but is an ex- 
 ample to be met with, of a man voluntarily under- 
 taking a life of want and pain, of incessant fatigue, 
 of continual peril ; submitting to the loss of home and 
 country, to stripes and starving, to tedious imprison- 
 ment, and the expectation of a violent death, for the 
 sake of carrying about a story of what was false, and 
 of what, if false, he must have known to be so ? " To all 
 this the answer is, clearly, No ! If allegations thus sus- 
 tained be false, what is the evidence, and where is it to be 
 found, that is necessary to the support of truth ? But this 
 not only suffices to demonstrate that Paul's message was 
 true ; it likewise establishes beyond contradiction that his 
 character was good and great, — good beyond degree, and 
 great beyond all appreciation. Simple acquittal was 
 enough for Paley 's object, but mine requires more. I 
 approach the bar of enlightened opinion not to ask a 
 verdict of justification for the apostle ; but to demand 
 acclamations, a crown, and immortal honour ! It is time 
 we should cease to act upon the defensive, in relation both 
 to this and to every other point bearing upon the truth of 
 
 * Paley's Horoe Paulinse. 
 
294 COMPARISON OF INTELLECTUAL 
 
 Christianity. This course has been pursued too long. 
 Discussions on the Evidence may now safely terminate, if 
 professed disciples will but practically illustrate their 
 principles. One Williams does more to confound infidelity 
 than a thousand Paleys. One chapter of the " Missionary 
 Enterprises " in the South Seas, is of more worth, for 
 purposes of conviction, than the whole mass of the pon- 
 derous volumes of Lardner. The Pauline history alone 
 constitutes a column of iron strength, sufficient to sustain 
 the whole of the mighty fabric of the Evangelical His- 
 tory. The conversion and the character of the apostle is a 
 theme of prodigious magnitude. How much it comprises ! 
 How much it suggests ! How much it renders probable ! 
 How much it demonstrates ! 
 
 In Paul not one of the conditions of moral greatness 
 and moral glory was wanting. His sufferings surpassed in 
 their measure, variety, and protractedness, all that have 
 ever been endured by an individual for Christ and for 
 mankind. His labours were equal to his sufferings ; both 
 proceeded from the same causes, — the love of Christ and 
 of mankind, — and both tended to the same results, — the 
 glory of Christ, and the salvation of souls. How inex- 
 pressibly touching is the picture of both, which he has 
 transmitted to us in the following picture of apostolic life 
 and action ! " In all things approving ourselves as the 
 ministers of God, in much patience, in afflictions, in neces- 
 sities, in distresses, in stripes, in imprisonments, in tumults, 
 in labours, in watchings, in fastings; by pureness, by 
 knowledge, by long-suffering, by kindness, by the Holy 
 Ghost, by love unfeigned, by the word of truth, by the 
 power of God, by the armour of righteousness on the 
 right hand and on the left, by honour and dishonour, by 
 evil report and good report ; as deceivers, and yet true ; as 
 unknown, and yet well known ; as dying, and, behold, we 
 live ; as chastened, and not killed ; as sorrowful, yet 
 
AND MORAL GREATNESS. £95 
 
 alway rejoicing ; as poor, yet making many rich ; as having 
 nothing, and yet possessing all things." Adverting to a 
 certain class of adversaries, he thus proceeds : " Are they 
 ministers of Christ ? (I speak as a fool,) I am more : in 
 labours more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons 
 more frequent, in deaths oft. Of the Jews five times re- 
 ceived I forty stripes save one. Thrice was I beaten with 
 rods, once was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a 
 night and a day I have been in the deep. In journey ings 
 often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by 
 mine own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils 
 in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, 
 in perils among false brethren ; in weariness and painfull- 
 ness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings 
 often, in cold and nakedness. Besides those things that 
 are without, that which cometh upon me daily, the care of 
 all the churches." Clement, the personal friend of Paul, 
 in one of his epistles thus illumines the picture : " Seven 
 times he was in bonds ; he was whipped ; he was stoned ; 
 he preached both in the East and in the West, leaving be- 
 hind him the glorious report of his faith ; and so, having 
 taught the whole world righteousness, and for that end 
 travelled even unto the utmost bounds of the West, he at 
 last suffered martyrdom by the command of the governors, 
 and departed out of the world, and went unto his holy place, 
 a pre-eminent pattern of patience unto all ages."* Such 
 was Paul, the father of Christian Missions ; and to you, Sir, 
 I submit, that it is not too much to affirm, that, neither 
 among Jews nor Gentiles, whether in ancient or modern 
 times, has any person appeared of whom the one-half of 
 this could be affirmed with the least colouring of truth. 
 Never has such an amount of moral and intellectual power 
 been expended by one man in any enterprise, whether 
 
 * Clem, ad Cor. c. v. vi. 
 
296 COMPARISON OF INTELLECTUAL 
 
 selfish or benevolent. He had no predecessor; he has 
 had no equal. None, in his own sublime walk of philan- 
 thropy, has ever even approached him. From the day of 
 his conversion to that of his martyrdom, he proceeded in 
 his glorious course, sustained by a spirit which never 
 flagged, and impelled by a power which nothing could re- 
 sist. Paul, among the other apostles, was, as the eagle 
 among feathered tribes of inferior wing. He alone per- 
 formed for the Son of God an amount of service greater 
 than that of the entire apostolic college, — a fact which 
 comes out incidentally in the following pathetic reference 
 to his former life : — u I am the least of the apostles, not 
 meet to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the 
 church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I 
 am ; and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not 
 in vain ; but I laboured more abundantly than they all : 
 yet not I, but the grace of God, which was with me." 
 
 Tried by the principles comprised in Cicero's definition 
 of a truly great man,* Paul, in comparison, immeasurably 
 transcends the whole human race ; and upon those princi- 
 ples, considered absolutely, it is not easy to conceive of 
 any thing necessary to impart to his character all the 
 moral greatness attainable in the present life. I freely 
 confess that I can hardly form an idea of a human being 
 becoming the subject of more devout and philanthropic 
 passion, or of more intense and continuous action. All 
 his powers appear to have been tasked to the uttermost, — 
 tasked to the highest point of endurance. He seems, in 
 several respects, to have been set forth as a pattern to man- 
 kind. His wondrous case exemplifies at once the abund- 
 ance of Divine mercy and the power of Divine grace. Of 
 all transgression his had been the most heinous and atro- 
 cious : he " breathed out threatenings and slaughter " 
 
 * See page 240. 
 
AND MORAL GREATNESS. 297 
 
 against the church of God ; he made " havoc " of it on 
 every hand. Yet the blood of Christ sufficed to pardon 
 him, and the power of Christ to subdue him. Then, after 
 his conversion, his love was as intense as his previous hatred ; 
 and he became as active in extending, as he had formerly 
 been in destroying, the church. For this work he was 
 endowed with gifts both natural and miraculous, so rich 
 and various, as no man had ever exhibited or possessed. 
 He was filled to overflowing with Divine knowledge. To 
 him the language of every land was familiar as his mother 
 tongue. Diseases of the most afflictive order, and of the 
 most inveterate character, fled at his presence. Evil spi- 
 rits of the most intractable class, were subject to his word. 
 His apostolic progress through the earth was one series of 
 conflicts and triumphs. The accusatory cry of his most 
 malignant enemies attested his success. " Ye see and 
 hear," said they, M that not alone at Ephesus, but almost 
 throughout all Asia, this Paul hath persuaded and turned 
 away much people, saying, That they be no gods which 
 are made with hands." His adversaries frankly confessed 
 that he had " turned the world upside down" — a confes- 
 sion of the utmost moment in confirmation of our argu- 
 ment. 
 
 Such, Sir, is the confession, and such are some of the 
 recorded facts ; and surely such a confession could be ex- 
 torted only by facts of the most definite type, and of the 
 greatest magnitude. The change thus wrought was of a 
 very startling description from its original, daring, and 
 all-comprehensive character. This moral revolution ex- 
 tended to every relation of life, from the galleys upwards 
 to the palace of the Caesars. The most violent political 
 changes, compared to it, were trifles ; such events had 
 nothing moral in them. When the preceding strifes, the 
 battles, and the carnage of the contending powers were 
 over, the result was the simple substitution of one dynasty 
 
 o3 
 
£98 COMPARISON OF INTELLECTUAL 
 
 or despot for another, and there the matter ended. The 
 moral habits, the social usages, the religious customs, the 
 entire frame of society, for the most part, remained in 
 their integrity. But when Christianity broke forth, it 
 exerted a spiritual power which penetrated every thing, 
 and dissolved all the ties of iniquity which had bound 
 mankind together. It formed, first, new individual charac- 
 ters, and then new social combinations. With respect to 
 the power of the gospel to renovate character, nothing 
 can be more exquisitely beautiful than the challenge of 
 Lactantius to the votaries of heathenism. " Give me," 
 says the orator, " a man who is passionate, abusive in his 
 language, headstrong, and ungovernable, with a very few 
 of the words of God, I will render him as gentle as a 
 lamb ! Give me a greedy, insatiable, hard-handed miser, 
 and I will presently return him to you, filled with genero- 
 sity, and bestowing his money by handfuls ! Give me a 
 man of a cruel and sanguinary spirit, and straightway his 
 ferocity shall give place to tenderness ! Give me a cheat, 
 a fool, and a malefactor, and forthwith he shall become 
 just, wise, and virtuous ! — Such is the power of the Divine 
 wisdom, that, when diffused through the breast of man, it 
 quickly, with a single touch, expels folly, the parent of all 
 transgression ; and, in order to effect this transformation, 
 there is no necessity for a fee, for books, or for laborious 
 investigation. These benefits are conferred gratuitously, 
 easily, expeditiously ; only let the ears be opened, and let 
 wisdom be lodged in the heart. Now the question is, Did 
 any, or could any, of the philosophers ever exhibit such 
 achievements as these ? "* To this, as you well know, 
 might be added a multitude of similar testimonies ; but 
 let this suffice. 
 The operation of the gospel of Christ upon individual 
 
 * Lib. ii. c. 25. 
 
AND MORAL GREATNESS. £99 
 
 character was altogether and always such as is represented 
 by Lactantius; and hence resulted new combinations in 
 society, and such combinations, with their accompani- 
 ments, furnish the proper data by which we ought to 
 determine the merits of the apostolic work, and the moral 
 greatness of the apostolic character. The question is, 
 To what extent did Paul directly by his own efforts, and 
 indirectly by the agencies which he set at work, affect for 
 good the religion and morals, the laws and governments, of 
 the heathen world ? The measure of his efficiency in this 
 is just the measure of his moral greatness. How may 
 this point be ascertained ? In various ways : by his own 
 testimony ; by the witness of friends ; and by the confession 
 of adversaries. This is surely a case in which his own evi- 
 dence is admissible, and it is one to which he has distinctly, 
 although incidentally, spoken in divers passages of his 
 writings. I will rest satisfied with two illustrations from 
 one of his letters. Addressing the Colossians, he declares 
 that the gospel was come to them as it was to " all the 
 world ;" and that it was "preached to every creature which 
 is under heaven'' If it be said that this is hyperbole ; I 
 reply, hyperbole has its bounds — bounds which, in the 
 lips of such a man, were not likely to be transgressed. 
 Could any thing, then, but a diffusion of the gospel the 
 most extraordinary, warrant the use of language so glow- 
 ing ? But, in support of the apostle, we may adduce the 
 evidence of adversaries, in addition to the conclusive pas- 
 sages already quoted from the Acts. The well known 
 letter of Pliny, who wrote some time subsequently to the 
 death of Paul, attests the true state of things in Bithynia 
 and Pontus, his province, and may be taken as a faithful 
 representation of the average condition of Christianity 
 throughout the Roman empire. Pliny reports to the 
 Emperor, that the disciples of Jesus filled the land — that 
 they were found in cities, in villages, and in the open 
 
300 COMPARISON OF INTELLECTUAL 
 
 country — that they comprised people of all ages, of all 
 ranks and conditions — that so great were their numbers as 
 to produce a visible desertion of the heathen temples, the 
 almost entire neglect of sacrifices, and of all the other 
 solemnities of idolatry. The work went on, from year to 
 year, spreading throughout the earth. To Pliny, about 
 thirty years afterwards, succeeds Justin Martyr, who, in his 
 dialogue with Trypho, thus testifies to the progress of the 
 truth : — " There is not a nation, either of Greek or Barba- 
 rian, or of any other name, even of those who wander in 
 tribes, and live in tents, amongst whom prayers and 
 thanksgivings are not offered to the Father and Creator of 
 the universe, by the name of the crucified Jesus." The 
 work continued rapidly to advance. Some forty years 
 after Justin Martyr, Clemens Alexandrinus published a 
 happy comparison, or rather contrast, between Christianity 
 and philosophy, which serves, at the same time, forcibly to 
 illustrate the wonderful progress of the Word of God. 
 " The philosophers," says he, " were confined to Greece, 
 and to their particular supporters ; but the doctrine of the 
 Master of Christianity was not limited to Judea, as philo- 
 sophy was to Greece ; for it has spread throughout the 
 whole world, in every nation, and village, and city, both of 
 Greeks and Barbarians, converting as well whole houses, 
 as separate individuals, having already brought over to the 
 Truth many of the philosophers themselves. If the Greek 
 philosophy be prohibited, it instantly disappears ; whereas, 
 from the first promulgation of our doctrines, kings and 
 tyrants, rulers and presidents, with their entire train, and 
 with the multitude on their side, have laboured with all 
 their power to exterminate it, yet it only flourishes the 
 more."* A few years after Clemens, stood forth Tertul- 
 lian to advocate the gospel. That great man, addressing 
 
 * Clem, ad Strom, lib. vi. ad fin. 
 
AND MORAL GREATNESS. " 3Q1 
 
 the Roman authorities, thus speaks : " We were but of 
 yesterday, and we have filled your cities, islands, towns, 
 and boroughs, the camp, the senate, and the forum. They 
 (the heathen adversaries of Christianity) lament that per- 
 sons of both sexes, of every age and condition, and of 
 every rank, too, are converts to that name."* The same 
 writer also declares, " that, in almost every city Christians 
 form the majority."f Origen succeeded Tertullian at 
 the distance of about thirty years in the work of defending 
 the truth of God. His evidence runs thus : — " In every 
 part of the world, throughout all Greece, and in all other 
 nations, there are innumerable and immense multitudes, 
 who, having rejected the laws of their country, and those 
 whom they formerly esteemed gods, have given themselves 
 up to the law of Moses, and the religion of Christ ; and 
 this not without the bitterest resentment from the idolaters, 
 by whom they were frequently put to torture, and some- 
 times to death ; and it is wonderful to observe how, in so 
 short a time, the religion has increased, amidst punish- 
 ment, and death, and every kind of torture."J The writer 
 who next offers himself in evidence, is Arnobius, who 
 speaks of the whole world as filled with Christ's doctrine 
 — of its diffusion throughout all countries — of an innume- 
 rable body of Christians in distant provinces — of the 
 strange revolution of opinion among men of the greatest 
 genius — of orators, grammarians, rhetoricians, lawyers, 
 physicians, coming over to the new institution, and that 
 also in the face of threats, executions, and tortures. § 
 This conducts us to the accession of Constantine, and his 
 declaration in favour of Christianity — an event which, 
 there is every reason to believe, proceeded from his convic- 
 tion of its preponderating influence in the empire. 
 
 * Tertull. Apol. c. 37. f Ad Scap. c. 111. 
 
 t Orig. in Cels. lib. i. § See Paley, Part II. ch. viii. sect i. 
 
302 COMPARISON OF INTELLECTUAL 
 
 Here, Sir, let us pause a moment, and survey the com- 
 bined result of Christian Missions. That result is not 
 merely an event of stupendous magnitude ; it is a new 
 thing in the earth, — and its novelty is equalled only by 
 its glory. Princes and potentates are struck dumb with 
 amazement, to find that their violence has only promoted 
 the object they sought to defeat. The great pontiffs and 
 the teeming priesthood of idolatry are confounded to be- 
 hold their mysteries despised, their gods abhorred, their 
 temples abandoned. The masters of philosophy, too, are 
 put to shame ; their glory is gone ; their schools are closed, 
 and they are deserted. The night is over, and the dawn 
 has come. The buried intellect of the world has experi- 
 enced a resurrection to vigorous life. Human character 
 presents a new, a beauteous appearance, and stands ar- 
 rayed in a rich garment of moral excellence. The whole 
 aspect of society is altered ; and the mighty revolution has 
 been effected by means the most contemptible in the eye 
 of man. The princes, the legislators, the magistrates, the 
 orators, the men of letters, the wealthy, and the wise, 
 of this world — have had no share in the enterprise. They 
 have laboured not to promote, but to obstruct it. The 
 prime agent in the wonderful work, was a despised Jew, 
 " one Saul of Tarsus." He it was who first communicated 
 the omnipotent impulse which aroused mankind and shook 
 to its centre the prodigious fabric of society, throughout 
 the Roman empire. Converts were multiplied by millions, 
 and every convert was a host in himself. Before the 
 apostle's decease, he beheld the heavenly flame spreading 
 among all nations, and reflected from every sky. His 
 heart was the source from which the celestial fire had 
 emanated ; and before he left the earth, other hearts 
 which burned with a kindred glow, were counted by my- 
 riads. The victory in the Roman empire was clearly de- 
 cided for Christ before the great Missionary was sum- 
 
AND MORAL GREATNESS. 303 
 
 moned from the field of conflict and of glory. On ascend- 
 ing with the tidings to heaven, after fighting the good 
 fight, finishing his course, and keeping the faith, he 
 left behind him an innumerable spiritual progeny, who, 
 inheriting his hope, walked in his footsteps, wielded his 
 weapons, and added to his triumphs. The period which 
 elapsed between the ascension of Christ to heaven, and the 
 accession of Constantine, witnessed a display of Mission- 
 ary spirit and of moral greatness such as had never before 
 been exhibited, and such as has never since been seen. 
 The intervening centuries were seasons of suffering which 
 no heart can conceive, no pen describe. Those, Sir, were 
 days which tried the spirits of men — days that indeed de- 
 manded decision of character. The condition of disciple- 
 ship was then ofttimes the loss of all things — subjection to 
 cruelty the most refined, to torture the most exquisite, 
 and at last to death in its most dreadful forms ! Those few 
 centuries elicited infinitely more real greatness than all the 
 wars that have been waged since the creation. The church 
 was then in the highest sense militant — for it was alto- 
 gether Missionary. The chief end of its existence was the 
 diffusion of the gospel. In promoting this, suffering was 
 considered enjoyment, infamy honour, excruciating death 
 welcomed as the introduction to immortal life. 
 
 But, Sir, this presents to us only the first great stage of 
 the Christian Mission. We are looking chiefly at Paul, 
 with his assistants, and successors, as propagators of the 
 gospel. In that capacity it is surely a truth self-evident, 
 that he was incomparably the first of the human race, by 
 far the greatest man that ever appeared in our world. 
 This he is proved to be from his principles, labours, cha- 
 racter and sufferings, independently of the effects which 
 have resulted. But if in addition it can be shown that Paul 
 and his coadjutors have, in all conceivable points, proved 
 inexpressible benefactors to mankind ; that in the work of 
 
304 COMPARISON OF INTELLECTUAL 
 
 true philanthropy they enjoyed an entire monopoly ; and 
 that there is hardly a blessing which we possess, whether for 
 time or for eternity, that may not be traced up to them ; 
 if, I say, this can be shown, then by what process shall we 
 estimate, in what language shall we set forth, the merits 
 and claims of those missionaries ? Such are the obliga- 
 tions, such the men, that the established forms of thought, 
 and the hackneyed language of eulogy, are wholly inap- 
 propriate, not to say preposterous, when applied either to 
 them or to their benefactions. In this attempt all thought 
 is feeble, all language poor. It is not in our power either 
 to appreciate their services, or to apportion their reward. 
 He who sent them, who wrought in them and by them, 
 the Author of their being, the source of their excellence, 
 their Master, Protector, and Friend, — He, and only He, 
 can do full justice to their claims on man as instruments of 
 his own sovereign pleasure, stewards of his mysteries, 
 vessels of his mercy, and channels of his love to a guilty 
 world ! Still, notwithstanding our insufficiency in these 
 respects, we might, on some points at least, approximate 
 to justice. This will be done. The time will assuredly 
 come when the sound of a world's joy will break forth in 
 every land as the voice of many waters, and proclaim its 
 obligation to the man who " endured all things for the 
 elect's sake ;" whom " bonds and afflictions" could not 
 move ; who " counted not his life dear unto himself, so 
 that he might finish his course with joy, and the ministry 
 which he had received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the 
 Gospel of the grace of God ;" and who, in the discharge 
 of his duty, was always " ready not to be bound only, but 
 also to die for the name of the Lord Jesus ! " The ex- 
 pression, not of idolatrous, but of justly grateful praise to 
 the missionaries of the Son of God, will one day rush 
 from all the capitals and cities of a civilized globe, a re- 
 generated world, ringing from the vales, and echoing from 
 
AND MORAL GREATNESS. 3Q5 
 
 the hills of all countries. The poets, orators, historians, 
 philosophers, statesmen, and rulers of a future age, — the 
 lights of society, the guides of opinion, the great arbiters 
 of truth and right amongst men, the true sovereigns of the 
 earth, — these will trace back the history of man's felicity 
 to the day of Pentecost, the garden, the cross, and the 
 sepulchre, — and highest on the scale of fame will be the 
 names of Paul, of the other apostles, of martyrs, and of 
 missionaries ! 
 
 Each successive generation, as it ascends a step in the 
 path of time, occupies a position more advantageous than 
 that of the preceding for a right appreciation of the value 
 of missionary labour. It is to be feared that the bulk 
 even of the scholars of European nations have no adequate 
 conception of our obligation to Christian missionaries; 
 and the masses have no thoughts at all on the subject. 
 The space which now divides us from the dismal days of 
 idolatry is so vast, that it is not easy to conceive that the 
 state of things among us was ever much otherwise than it 
 is at present. "We do not sufficiently reflect that Chris- 
 tianity, which is now established by the law of nations, 
 was once an intruder, an invader, and that she only reigns 
 by right of conquest ; that ecclesiastical establishments 
 are simply a legal incorporation and consolidation of mis- 
 sionary triumphs. Millions who now neglect or despise 
 the Christian missionary, ought to know that they owe to 
 him every civil, religious, and social blessing that they 
 now enjoy. 
 
 To men of reflection, such as yourself, Sir, the history 
 of Europe during the last eighteen hundred years presents 
 one of the most interesting and awful subjects of human 
 contemplation. Resting on the fortieth year of the nine- 
 teenth century, as on an Alpine eminence, and carefully 
 looking back through the long period which terminates in 
 century the first, what scenes present themselves to us ! 
 
308 COMPARISON OF INTELLECTUAL 
 
 What a conflict do we behold between truth and error ! 
 How unequal at the outset appeared the combatants ! 
 Yet, notwithstanding the seeming imbecility of Truth, how 
 rapid, brilliant, and glorious have been her victories ! How 
 speedily and widely her empire has spread! How the 
 earth fills with monuments of her power, and with temples 
 to her praise ! What transformations have been effected 
 throughout the whole frame of human society ! Genera- 
 tions would be required fully to record them : time would 
 fail even slightly to indicate them. I can but hazard a 
 few passing glances. 
 
 On the great theatre of missionary operations, which 
 that series of centuries presents, the first phenomenon that 
 offers itself is the power of the word on individual cha- 
 racter. Under the tuition of the missionary we behold 
 man, in all the nations of Europe, quickened from a state 
 of torpor and of death unto a new life, enlightened by the 
 truth, and emancipated from the thraldom of idolatry. 
 He becomes a worshipper of the one living and true God, 
 through Jesus Christ. The knowledge of God in his Son 
 works wonders in his soul. He is quite another creature ; 
 and the effects of the change extend to all the relations of 
 life. His household are the first to benefit from his new 
 principles, and the improvement of his character. His 
 wife, his children, his slaves, his very beasts of burden, all 
 find their account in the wondrous change. Power no 
 longer wantons in cruelty ; it is now regulated by love. 
 Authority is tempered with mercy. Woman is now re- 
 stored to the place she was created to occupy, but from 
 which pride and cruelty had thrust her. From a despised 
 menial she becomes the beloved and cherished companion 
 of her lord. She henceforth receives from her husband, 
 and in turn she gives, a whole, an undivided heart, — the 
 first element of domestic felicity. To her is now conceded 
 the helm of household affairs, as her own peculiar province. 
 
AND MORAL GREATNESS. 307 
 
 Husband and tyrant are synonymous no more ! Polygamy, 
 the curse equally of both sexes, disappears, and the 
 foundation of social order is restored to God's creation. 
 The child shares in the new immunities of its mother. 
 Smiling innocents and blooming youths are no longer 
 " things," portions of goods and chattels, objects without 
 rights, to be at pleasure enslaved, sold, or slain ! No ; the 
 doctrines of the missionary first awake in their behalf the 
 dormant spirit of parental affection, and then, throwing 
 around them the broad shield of eternal justice, assign 
 them a safe asylum in the sanctuary of law. Next in 
 order are those who have been robbed of their indefeasible 
 rights, and doomed to hopeless bondage. The sound of 
 the missionary's footsteps are to these helpless and un- 
 friended millions the harbingers of freedom. The highest 
 stretch of Cicero's philosophy in their behalf was, that 
 their M masters ought to compel them to the performance 
 of their duties, and then to pay them honestly" for their 
 work." Thus, while the orator asserts the rights of their 
 labour, he overlooks the prior rights of their persons. He 
 pleads for their sustenance, but he leaves them in chains. 
 An advocate of a higher order now appears in their behalf. 
 The gentle touch of the missionary at once dissolves their 
 fetters ! The missionary goes on " preaching deliverance 
 to the captive, and recovering of sight to the blind, and 
 setting at liberty them that are bruised ;" the manacled 
 myriads hear, believe, weep, wonder, and rejoice in the 
 tender and unmerited mercy of God, which comes to 
 mitigate the unprovoked and remorseless cruelty of man ! 
 The slaveholder himself, too, sharing the same sovereign 
 mercy, — ashamed, confounded, self-condemned, and softened 
 by the benevolence of God, — lets go his captive, who 
 starts from his bestial prostration, and stands up a man ! 
 Thus the fettered host begins to diminish, and under the 
 melting beams of the Sun of Righteousness, it diminishes 
 
30g COMPARISON OF INTELLECTUAL 
 
 still further, till at length it wholly disappears ! Where 
 now are the slaves of Europe ? They are lost in the great 
 community of freemen ! 
 
 Gazing over the broad expanse of the nations of Europe, 
 we perceive a new element of mighty power arising in the 
 minds of the multitudes who follow in the train of the 
 missionary — an element wholly unknown to heathenism. 
 That element is philanthropy, love to the whole human 
 race. This marvellously alters the aspect of the earth. It 
 has every where brought to light countless masses who, in 
 all past times, had been neglected, contemned, forgotten. 
 The poor, those who have among the heathen none to pity 
 them, and who " embrace the rock for want of a shelter," 
 now find a friend wherever they find a follower of the 
 missionary. The solitary widow, too, with grateful wonder, 
 perceives herself surrounded by those who are susceptible 
 of being moved by her sigh, and who feel it a luxury to 
 wipe away her tears. While the priests of idolatry urge 
 her to self-destruction, leaving her fatherless children 
 double orphans, the disciples of the missionary compass 
 her with soothing kindness, minister to her necessities, 
 and endeavour to conduct her to Christ as a deathless hus- 
 band. Nor are trembling orphans forgotten; they find 
 both fathers and mothers among the followers of the mis- 
 sionary. The sick of every class, likewise, come in for 
 their share of the common mercy and solicitude. Edifices 
 arise like palaces for their reception, and stores of hoarded 
 treasures are poured forth for their sustenance and comfort. 
 The prisoner, whether of debt, or of crime, or of war, is 
 also enfranchised in the commonwealth of humanity. 
 
 Again, casting our eye abroad upon the nations, we are 
 struck with the entire disappearance of one order of reli- 
 gious institutions and the establishment of another. The 
 whole system of Polytheism, with its idols, altars, priests, 
 and temples, is no more. Not a vestige of the mighty 
 
AND MORAL GREATNESS. 3Q9 
 
 edifice, representing the monstrous delusion, remains ! All 
 its sanguinary accompaniments are also vanished away. 
 The fervent children of Erin and the brave Attacotti of 
 Caledonia no more banquet on the flesh of man ; the fierce 
 Hungarian no more sighs to sup on the heart of his captive ; 
 the fiendlike Gelonian walks no more abroad in the pride 
 of murder, attired in the skin of his enemy ! The earth 
 is filling with a new race, wholly unlike all that have gone 
 before them; who call themselves children of God, pil- 
 grims to a country beyond the sun. These people all lay 
 claim to supernatural instruction. They boldly despise 
 the wisdom of the world, and designate it " earthly, sen- 
 sual, devilish." They profess to have attained a higher phi- 
 losophy than was ever taught in the schools. They affirm 
 that they received it of the missionary, who had it " from 
 above." According to him, it " is first pure, then peace- 
 able, gentle, and easy to be entreated, full of mercy and 
 good fruits," and such, without controversy, are its effects. 
 Of this new religion, the worship is elevated, pure, and 
 holy, like the God to whom it is presented. But it is not a 
 system of devotion only ; it is also one of instruction. It 
 provides for the enriching culture of the human intellect, 
 and improves the affections through the understanding — 
 an object never contemplated by the priests of idolatry. 
 
 On taking another survey of the astonishing spectacle, 
 we behold a new element of moral power operating among 
 the millions who have submitted to the instructions of 
 the missionary. By means of such instructions, a moral 
 sense is awakened in their bosoms. Their minds are 
 moulded according to the mind of God. Their feelings 
 become a visible manifestation of the feelings of the 
 Godhead. Their smile is a reflection of the smile of 
 Deity. Their frown, of the frown of Deity. That 
 smile is, therefore, life ; that frown, death ! This power 
 of which I am speaking consists of the united judgment of 
 
310 COMPARISON OF INTELLECTUAL 
 
 the Christian multitude, and is the sole power that governs 
 their community. They employ no other ; they possess 
 no other. They touch man neither in his person nor in 
 his property ; neither in his civil rights, nor in his social 
 privileges. The punishments which they inflict consist 
 simply in the several degrees of disapprobation. Their 
 extreme penalty is, exclusion of the offender from their 
 society; a penalty which, although to the vulgar eye, it 
 may seem a very small evil, is, in reality, an inexpressi- 
 ble, an intolerable calamity. All legislative pains and 
 penalties compared with it are as nothing. Weak although 
 it seems, its power is all but omnipotent. It withers the 
 very soul, it blasts every joy, and it kindles in the bosom 
 of the malefactor the flames of unutterable anguish. The 
 torture of its lash arises from the fact that it is purely 
 spiritual ; it therefore acts on the spirit, pierces the soul. 
 It is felt to be the voice of Almighty God speaking through 
 his people; and hence their unanimous sentence of condem- 
 nation smites the heart of the transgressor like the bolt of 
 Heaven ! This is moral government, the government of 
 opinion, the highest order of government, the destined 
 order of the eternal world. What other interpretation 
 can be put upon the awful intimation of the prophet, 
 that, at the close of all things, men shall arise from the 
 dead in two classes, the one to inherit " everlasting life," 
 and the other " shame and everlasting contempt ?" 
 " Life ! " This life will consist of the Divine approbation 
 and favour,* which will be attended by mutual esteem and 
 love among the righteous, and by congenial intercourse 
 with all the glorious intelligences of the universe. Thus 
 will the just live on through eternity, approving and 
 approved, loving and beloved, blessing and blessed. 
 " Shame !" an excruciating sense of moral pravity, of 
 
 * Psa. xxx. 5 ; lxiii. 3. Prov. xvi. 15. 
 
AND MORAL GREATNESS. g|] 
 
 wickedness, of worthlessness, of sin ! Shame ! a fire 
 which conscience feeds with the remembrance of guilt, a 
 fire which burns fierce as hell, lasting as eternity ! 
 " Contempt !" Shame is a flame unquenchable, which 
 rages within the sinner's own soul; but contempt is a 
 flame of ungovernable fury glaring upon him from without 
 in the breasts of others. It is the concentration of the 
 indignant abhorrence of the righteous portion of the 
 universe — their verdict upon the case of the rebellious 
 part of the human race ! The united and permanent in- 
 fluence of this shame, and of that contempt, will throw an 
 intolerable bitterness into the " cup of trembling." 
 
 The creation of this new element of government among 
 men is one of the most important achievements of the 
 Christian Mission. By this single effect, it proves its in- 
 finite superiority to all the boasted wisdom of this world. 
 To the extent of its prevalence it wholly supersedes the 
 necessity of the penal provisions of human laws. The true 
 disciples of the missionary become a law to themselves. 
 " Whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, 
 whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, 
 whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good 
 report," — these things they habitually endeavour to per- 
 form. They therefore present a character immensely su- 
 perior to that which could be moulded by the exactest 
 obedience to the best code of laws that human wisdom ever 
 framed ; and, to the same extent, they more abundantly 
 provide for the happiness of mankind. The greatest 
 merely philosophic legislator is but a babe in the know- 
 ledge of human nature as compared with the Missionary, 
 nor is the power of his principles to renovate and to reform 
 it, superior to his knowledge. Human law, in its most 
 improved forms, can do but little as compared with gospel 
 doctrine, to promote the happiness of men. Depraved 
 men, while their depravity remains unsubdued, must be 
 
312 COMPARISON OF INTELLECTUAL 
 
 miserable ; they cannot be legislated into felicity ! Go- 
 vernment is simply a system of restraint and of punish- 
 ment. It knows nothing of the means of moral cure. 
 This is the exclusive prerogative and glory of Christianity, 
 which, while it heals the moral maladies of man, also 
 corrects his habits and practice. How simple is the 
 experimental process ! It just awakens in the soul a new 
 sense, and by that sense it governs. This sense renders 
 the Christian desirous to please his brethren, and averse 
 to offend them ; it renders him keenly susceptible of pain 
 from their frown, and of delight from their smile. On 
 this principle, the plan of discipline laid down in the Mis- 
 sionary's book, the New Testament, is entirely founded ; 
 and on this principle the kingdom of which it speaks is 
 entirely governed. But while this moral power exerts its 
 highest influence among those whom the Missionary has 
 persuaded to abandon their idols, and turn to the living 
 God, it extends its control in a modified form, to multi- 
 tudes who have not surrendered their hearts to the Saviour 
 of mankind. We see it affecting nations and empires. It 
 is now, however, divested of its principal element, the 
 fear and love of God ; and its effects are, accordingly, im- 
 paired in their magnitude, and marred in their beauty. 
 Thus changed, the name it bears is Public Opinion, 
 which, while its regards rise no higher than man, is yet an 
 organ of power almost unlimited. In this way every indi- 
 vidual exerts a control over his fellow ; in this way sub- 
 jects restrain the wickedness of sovereigns, and direct the 
 movements of senates ; in this way nation acts upon 
 nation, and the whole family of nations upon each other. 
 Public opinion is a power which nothing can ultimately 
 resist. " Compared with the contempt of mankind, all 
 other external evils are easily supported."* 
 
 * Adam Smith. 
 
AND MORAL GREATNESS. 313 
 
 In the hour when the first Missionary entered Europe 
 this power began to be developed, and it has ever since 
 been gathering strength. During the first centuries, 
 every generation added mightily to its conquests. Even 
 during the Middle Ages it sometimes displayed its energy 
 on a scale of stupendous magnitude, however marred by 
 fantastic circumstances. But its empire has been exceed- 
 ingly enlarged since the Reformation. " It is already able 
 to oppose the most formidable obstruction to the progress 
 of injustice and oppression ; and, as it grows more intelli- 
 gent and more intense, it will be more and more formid- 
 able. It may be silenced by military power, but it can- 
 not be conquered. It is elastic, irrepressible, and invul- 
 nerable to the weapons of ordinary warfare. It is that 
 impassible, unextinguishable enemy of mere violence and 
 arbitrary rule, which, like Milton's angels, 
 
 1 Vital in every part, 
 Cannot, but by annihilating, die ! ' " * 
 
 It has already, in the centre of Europe, and in the Ame- 
 rican Republics, established its supremacy over all other 
 power. The most ruthless and potent despotisms of the 
 Old World tremble before it ! Every species of tyranny 
 is perilled by its presence. Hence all arbitrary power 
 labours as for life to prevent its formation, and to stifle its 
 expression. Hence the despot gags every mouth among 
 his subjects, fetters the pens of the literati, and sends forth 
 his myrmidons with vulture eye to watch the working of 
 the Printing Press! In all countries where man has 
 ceased to be a wretched serf, a crouching slave, a debased 
 beast of burden, where both mind and body are stamped 
 with the heavenly impress of freedom, public opinion is 
 irresistible. It is absolute. Governments and parliaments 
 exist only by its permission. It speaks, and they live ! 
 * Hon. Daniel Webster. 
 
314 COMPARISON OF INTELLECTUAL 
 
 It speaks again, and they perish ! The arm of power is 
 either nerved or withered by its breath. It extinguishes 
 the claims of prerogative and prescription ; laws and cus- 
 toms the most ancient and revered, vanish at its bidding ; 
 fleets and armies are subject to its sway. 
 
 Again, lifting up our eyes, and glancing over the mighty 
 expanse of ages, we behold lights springing up throughout 
 the length and breadth of the Roman world. The vanity 
 of idolatry is proclaimed ; the being and character of the 
 true God are set forth. The knowledge of the facts of the 
 glorious gospel works wonders on men of all nations. 
 Mind is set at liberty. The spirit of man now soars to the 
 highest heavens. It roams through all space and through 
 all time. It plunges into the future, and pries into the 
 deep secrets of eternity. It analyzes its own nature, its 
 powers, its prerogatives, its relations, and its duties to its 
 fellows, to society, and to God. The circle of its inquiry 
 widens every hour, and the means of investigation are 
 daily multiplied. The Missionary presents to the nations 
 the key of all knowledge, secular as well as sacred ; and 
 his instructions extend to all classes. He is the teacher of 
 the multitude — of the whole multitude — and the only 
 teacher of the multitude that ever appeared among heathen 
 nations. His method of tuition is as original as the subject 
 of his communications. He teaches his disciples in masses ; 
 all his lessons equally expand the soul, and refine the feel- 
 ings. Each of these masses, denominated churches, is 
 placed under the instruction and regulation of a number of 
 competent individuals. Set seasons, of frequent recurrence, 
 are appointed for the special object of their training, and 
 each individual disciple remains under instruction to the 
 end of life. The exercises of instruction and of devotion 
 are blended ; to a great extent they are identical. Devo- 
 tion is one of the surest and most valuable vehicles of 
 instruction. The work of instruction, moreover, is not 
 
AND MORAL GREATNESS. 3] 5 
 
 confined to the rectoral body. All are teachers of those 
 beneath them, — learners from those above them. 
 
 The Scriptures of truth are the store-house, the com- 
 mon treasury whence they derive facts, principles, doc- 
 trines, and precepts. This is the sole fountain of their 
 literature. By this instrument alone was formed the 
 Public Opinion of which I have just spoken, while the 
 infant literature of Christianity, created and fostered by 
 the Missionary, contributes to develope and extend it. In 
 that literature gospel doctrine is disguised, and, therefore, 
 less offensive to an ungodly world, while, through that 
 world, it diffuses by degrees the principles of truth and 
 righteousness. The Christian Missionary, and he alone, 
 has been the Educator of the millions of mankind. To 
 him is to be traced every thing which is now seen either to 
 grace or bless modern society in European nations, and 
 whatever remains to deform or afflict it, can be removed 
 only by the persevering and more abundant diffusion of 
 the doctrines which the first Missionary communicated. 
 
 Sir, it were an endless task to attempt an enumeration 
 of even the chief benefits conferred upon Europe by the 
 Christian Missionary. These benefits extend to all classes 
 and to all objects. But, Sir, the Christian Mission is not 
 at an end. Although Popery arrested its progress, at the 
 same time corrupting its purity, obscuring its glory, and 
 impairing its power, it ultimately burst its fetters ; and, 
 having reposed for a season, as if to recruit itself after 
 the convulsive struggle of the Reformation, it arose again, 
 and, marching forth to renew the conflict with idolatry, 
 it has, during a half century, been multiplying its 
 triumphs and extending its empire. In the course of 
 that period what wonders it hath wrought among multi- 
 tudes of many kindreds, tongues, and peoples ! From 
 what it is now doing for others we may more fully learn 
 what it has accomplished for ourselves. The nature and 
 
 p 2 
 
3K) COMPARISON OF INTELLECTUAL 
 
 object of the Christian Mission are still unchanged. The 
 character and claims of the Christian Missionary are con- 
 sequently subject to no mutation. The duties of the office 
 are the same ; and the same, too, is the honour of the 
 Order. Is not he then great to whom mankind owe all 
 their greatness ? Whom shall we compare with him ? 
 You, Sir, have devoted a long life to learned inquiry and 
 to laborious meditation. You have traversed the whole 
 field of Polite Literature ; you have minutely examined 
 its merits in relation to the glory of God and the good of 
 mankind. You have, carefully weighed the characters of 
 those who have been its chief cultivators ; you are no 
 stranger to the names which have obtained distinction in 
 connexion with science ; and you are now well able to 
 institute a comparison between the masters in Letters and 
 Philosophy, and the Missionaries of Jesus Christ. On 
 these grounds, Sir, the myriads of thoughtful men whom 
 you have at once delighted and informed, will allow that I 
 may, with the utmost propriety, appeal to you in behalf of 
 the claims of the Missionary character. 
 
 The fame of the Literary and Philosophic character, 
 which, occasionally, meet in the same person, is, perhaps, 
 more coveted than that which is political or military. In 
 all these walks of the human understanding, the power put 
 forth is chiefly intellectual, and on intellectual power, alone, 
 their glory is based. Europe, since the Revival of Letters, 
 has produced a multitude of men, distinguished by that 
 species of Power. United together they form a splendid 
 constellation of intellectual light. Considered intellectually 
 they are all great — many of them superlatively great — 
 so great that for ages they have been the objects of envy, 
 of praise, of admiration, and of idolatry. A number of 
 these illustrious men, however, have been, although in an 
 inferior degree, also distinguished for moral qualities ; but 
 these have brought them small praise. The great Idol of 
 
AND MORAL GREATNESS. gj7 
 
 European worship is at this hour, and, ever since the Revival 
 of Letters, has been — Intellect ! This is one of the most 
 affecting indications of our fallen state. To the eye of 
 man, blinded by pride and passion, there is no lustre, no 
 glory in the greatness which is moral. This is nothing 
 new. When he " who is the image of the invisible God " 
 — he u in whom dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead 
 bodily," — appeared among the Jews, even after they had 
 for many centuries enjoyed the instructions of inspired 
 men, he had, in their view, " no form nor comeliness :" 
 when they saw him, there was U no beauty." Hence they 
 " despised and rejected him, and esteemed him not." So 
 it was ; so it still is : they who most resemble Christ have 
 fewest charms for a world lying in wickedness. From 
 this pride and perverseness arises man's uniform preference 
 of mental to moral excellence ; and hence, too, his uniform 
 admiration of the literary and philosophic, and his uniform 
 contempt of the Missionary character. It may contribute 
 to expose the folly and injustice of this course if I group 
 the literary and philosophic chiefs of Modern Europe, 
 according to their several walks and pursuits, and endea- 
 vour to measure their moral stature, applying to them the 
 principles of true greatness as set forth by Cicero, and 
 contained in the sacred Scriptures.* This process will, I 
 doubt not, result in establishing the immense superiority of 
 the Missionary character. 
 
 Justice demands that we commence with Bacon, the 
 patriarch of true philosophy, the common father of literary 
 and scientific men. Before his intellectual greatness that 
 of all others shrinks into littleness. Amid all preceding 
 philosophers he shines like the sun among the stars. The 
 comprehensiveness of his understanding was equalled only 
 by its penetration. Soaring in the heavens his eagle eye 
 
 * See p. 245, supra. 
 
318 COMPARISON OF INTELLECTUAL 
 
 not only surveyed the ocean of human knowledge from 
 shore to shore, but pierced its waters to their lowest bed. 
 His judgment was not greater than his genius. His ima- 
 gination had made a property of the universe — it extended 
 to all things — and its magnificent combinations were illi- 
 mitable. His abilities fitted him to have been the histo- 
 rian of universal nature, while his sagacity was such as to 
 enable him to become the prophet of human knowledge ; 
 for prophesy he did, and many of his sublime predictions 
 have to the letter been fulfilled. His eminence was unex- 
 ampled, and must remain unrivalled : he is the Melchize- 
 dek of science. He united every excellence of the human 
 mind ; and stood pre-eminent in all the pursuits of the un- 
 derstanding. As an intellectual being he stands alone, 
 clothed with a robe of matchless honour, and bearing a 
 crown of imperishable glory. But viewing him simply as 
 a stupendous, all-comprehending, all-penetrating intelli- 
 gence, while there is every thing to admire, there is nothing 
 to love. Man feels himself poor, helpless, dependent ; 
 and he looks for sympathy as the only sure pledge of suc- 
 cour. His hope is from the heart, rather than from the 
 understanding, of his fellow man. On this ground it is 
 that so much importance attaches to the ethical writings of 
 Bacon. There we find that the great expounder of Science 
 is also the friend of man. Of all that he spake or wrote 
 of Nature, there is nothing, in point of true greatness, 
 to be compared with his declaration relative to the end of 
 legislation : — " The ultimate object which legislators 
 ought to have in view, and to which all their enactments 
 and sanctions ought to be subservient, is that the citizens 
 may live happily." This sentiment, you will allow, is 
 generous and noble, as implying some portion of philan- 
 thropy. His works, I need not remind you, contain 
 several similar assertions, but nothing that is more demon- 
 strative of his benevolence. Abstaining from all ungracious 
 
AND MORAL GREATNESS. 319 
 
 reference to his moral infirmities — his reputed selfishness, 
 servility, and weakness — and thus giving him every advant- 
 age, surely all candid men will see at a glance Bacon's 
 immense inferiority to the Christian Missionary in point 
 of moral greatness. He was by no means, however, with- 
 out moral greatness ; but he possessed it in a very low 
 degree, and at times its operations in him were more than 
 obscured by contrary qualities. Still Bacon is to be num- 
 bered among the most extensive secular benefactors of 
 mankind, though, in such benefaction, there is little that 
 is in the highest sense moral. Difficulty, labour, danger, 
 and sacrifice were wanting to his work, which was very 
 much an affair of safe and solitary meditation. The moral 
 greatness of such men as John Williams infinitely surpasses 
 that of the philosophical Lord Chancellor of England! 
 Man and his misery, Christ and his cross, the destruction 
 of idolatry in all lands, and the recovery of man to the 
 favour and service of God, the tuition of the whole human 
 race in knowledge, saving, useful, and ornamental, and the 
 conversion of all nations into one wise and peaceful, one 
 holy and happy community of friends, are objects not con- 
 templated by the Baconian philosophy. The devout and 
 zealous superintendant of an English Sunday-school is a 
 superior character, and occupies a higher station than the 
 author of the Novum Organon. The Martyr of Erro- 
 manga, in moral glory, transcends this great ornament of 
 human Science as far as the heavens transcend the earth ! 
 Having spoken of the Patriarch, I shall now proceed, 
 with all deference, to offer some observations respecting 
 the heads of tribes. In doing this, I shall confine the 
 selection principally to England and to France, and shall 
 commence with Bayle. Concerning the mental powers of 
 this remarkable man, there are not two opinions. It will 
 be allowed by all that they were of the first class, and that 
 his ability was not greater than his diligence. In his own 
 
320 COMPARISON OF INTELLECTUAL 
 
 nation he was the principal literary character of his age ; 
 but his power did not so much consist in the discovery 
 of new facts and doctrines as in new arrangements, 
 in fresh exhibitions of the materials which were ready 
 prepared. At his death he left the boundaries of know- 
 ledge nearly as he found them* He was born with the 
 genius of a great critic, — cold, keen, fearless, reckless, 
 merciless, often unjust. His great gift lay in unsettling 
 every thing, while he built up nothing. " In logical quick- 
 ness, and metaphysical subtlety," as Dugald Stewart ob- 
 serves, " Bayle has never been surpassed." He was an 
 unbeliever in Revelation, and a promoter of unbelief. 
 God was not in all his thoughts ; and hence he had neither 
 faith, hope, nor charity. He possessed not a single quality 
 of moral greatness. Had he never existed, morals would 
 have sustained no loss, and religion would have been a 
 great gainer. Had his works been entombed with him, 
 the cause of real humanity would have had no reason 
 for lamentation. He had no benevolence, no philan- 
 thropy. The humblest Native teacher of Christianity in 
 Polynesia, infinitely excels him in moral worth. In the 
 day when all secrets shall be revealed, who of the human 
 race will embrace him as a benefactor ? 
 
 In looking at the leading literary characters of England, 
 Addison presents himself as one who is entitled to special 
 notice. His mind was not one of great power ; but it 
 certainly was one of unusual perfection. It was absolutely 
 deficient in nothing. His judgment was singularly sound ; 
 his wit incomparable ; his imagination that of a poet of the 
 highest order ; his taste worthy of Athens ; his style the 
 perfection of beauty. Such were his natural powers ; and 
 they had received a high degree of cultivation. His abilities 
 were greater than his attainments : but if his information 
 was limited in its range, it was accurate in its character. 
 The elegance, purity, and ease of his style, combined with 
 
AND MORAL GREATNESS. 321 
 
 the brevity of his productions, have contributed to deceive 
 us into the notion that he was merely a polished, pretty 
 trifler ; whereas nothing was wanting to place him in the 
 first class of writers, but the stimulus of hunger, ambition, 
 or controversy. His very excellence has been confounded 
 with defect ; his ease and nature, by the vulgar eye have 
 been mistaken for imbecility ; but the " Spectator" will 
 remain through all ages a monument of wit, sagacity, and 
 sense. Such was Addison. He did much in his day to 
 improve taste and manners, and something to elevate mind 
 and morals. He was, therefore, at least in a temporal 
 sense, a benefactor to his country, and to mankind. As a 
 mere man of letters; he was doubtless great, but of 
 moral greatness he possessed little. He had no under- 
 standing of the Gospel, although in life and death he pro- 
 fessed to be a Christian. Of the unfavourable reports 
 concerning his habits and practices at Button's Coffee-house, 
 I say nothing ; it is unnecessary. When all is granted 
 that can be justly claimed for him, still he cannot be 
 classed even with the least of little men distinguished for 
 moral greatness. It is true, when dying, he sent for his 
 son-in-law, Lord Warwick, to whom, grasping his hand, 
 he said, " I have sent for you that you may see how a 
 Christian can die," — but this act was equivocal. Infidels, 
 in multitudes, have died with as much composure as 
 Addison. On a death-bed, ignorance and unbelief, have 
 often produced the same appearances as the knowledge 
 and faith of the gospel. This act, perhaps, savoured as 
 much of boasting as of piety. At any rate, the exhibition 
 was not calculated to make any lasting impression on the 
 profligate peer ; nor was time allowed for the proof, for 
 he speedily followed Addison to the tomb. In all that he 
 ever wrote, there is not one statement of gospel truth. 
 He never understood it. The conflagration of all that he 
 ever wrote, while it would be a calamity to our literature, 
 
 p3 
 
COMPARISON OF INTELLECTUAL 
 
 would involve but little loss to British theology. Amid 
 all his doing, he never turned one sinner to righteousness. 
 
 The greatest name of the following age is Johnson, 
 whose intellectual vigour has become a proverb. In pure 
 force, his understanding was never equalled. It would be 
 difficult, I think, to cite from ancient or modern literature 
 a name, with which, in respect of this quality, it would be 
 safe to compare his. Nor is it the least remarkable cir- 
 cumstance in the character of this extraordinary man, that 
 the comprehensiveness of his mind was equal to its force. 
 Never did mind uninspired, so thoroughly sound the 
 depths of morality, or so penetrate the recesses of human 
 nature. His vision was bounded only by the limits of our 
 world. He was not deceived by its summer suns, and 
 sylvan scenes ; he was intimately conversant with its 
 winter storms, its wastes, its wildernesses, and the wide 
 dominion of its wretchedness, its distractions, its distress, 
 its broken hearts, its sorrowful homes, and its thickening 
 sepulchres. From the rising of the sun, to its going 
 down, all were spread out before him. His sentiments 
 accorded with his knowledge. British soil never yielded 
 to the footsteps of a man of greater mental independence, 
 or more alive to the unsatisfying and unsubstantial nature 
 of earthly good. Never did English scholar unite such 
 poverty with such dignity ! The accidents of penury and 
 opulence were lost sight of amid the splendour of his 
 powers ; the former could not sink, the latter could not 
 elevate him. His majestic mind, his lofty spirit, raised 
 him far superior to the influence of the motives which 
 ordinarily govern even the more cultivated and reputable 
 of mankind. Gold had no power to tempt him ; he was 
 indifferent, if not absolutely dead to the praise of the 
 world ; he never felt the fires of political ambition. He 
 was, in a word, superior to most of the frailties of humanity. 
 He was the greatest of mere moralists, and the undoubted 
 
AND MORAL GREATNESS. 323 
 
 chief of modern men of letters. Nor is this all ; he 
 exhibited a vast amount of moral greatness, but it was of 
 a mixed and imperfect character. The words of our 
 Master in relation to the comparative merits of John the 
 Baptist and the subjects of the New Dispensation, are 
 remarkably appropriate to Johnson. Of those that were 
 devoted to the study of morals, there had not arisen a 
 greater than the author of the " Rambler," but the least 
 among the missionaries of the Cross is greater than he. 
 His inferiority arose mainly from his ignorance of gospel 
 doctrine. In your own published views respecting the 
 anti-evangelical character of his writings, and his u capital 
 fault" of omission, I entirely concur. Oh ! had his noble 
 mind been duly enlightened by the Spirit of God, and his 
 vigorous pages been pervaded by evangelical truth, what a 
 contribution would have been rendered by his writings to 
 our theological literature ! As it is, he could scarcely have 
 been greater without becoming experimentally acquainted 
 with the system of revealed truth, and cordially embracing 
 it. Men and things are great, in the highest sense, only as 
 they partake of Christ, and promote his glory. Tried by 
 this test, " Rasselas," " The Rambler," and the " Lives of 
 the Poets," are comparatively worthless as writings, and 
 powerless as organs of human reformation. Who has 
 heard that they ever converted a soul, or that they ever 
 comforted a mourner ? Those tiny tracts, Fuller's " Great 
 Question Answered," and Scott's " Force of Truth," 
 possess a value and a power infinitely superior to all the 
 writings of the great moralist. His achievements in litera- 
 ture, were, in their own line, prodigious, incomparable, 
 matchless, immortal; but, compared with the infant 
 Christian literature of the South Seas, and other heathen 
 lands, they are only as a taper before the sun. 
 
 If, then, even Samuel Johnson is so diminutive a person 
 in the presence of the missionaries of the cross, it is surely 
 
324 COMPARISON OF INTELLECTUAL 
 
 preposterous to seek for any other who may better abide 
 the test of comparison. I should, nevertheless, did my 
 limits permit, very much like to extend the list, and to 
 place in the balances a Burke, a Butler, a Paley, and a 
 multitude of moralists besides, — all men of noble natures, 
 of vast attainments, and varied accomplishments, — for the 
 result would exceedingly serve to heighten the contrast, 
 and to illustrate the importance of the office of the 
 Christian missionary. I also greatly wish I could subject 
 to the same test our historians, orators, and poets, and, 
 above all, our mental and physical philosophers. The 
 nations of Europe have been prodigal of praise upon the 
 illustrious names of Malbranche, Leibnitz, Condillac, 
 Helvetius, Kant, Locke, Reid, Hartley, Stewart, and 
 Brown. These distinguished men have contributed much 
 to enlighten the world in matters relating to the human 
 mind. But it cannot be denied that to a great extent 
 their speculations have been curious, rather than useful. 
 They have but very slightly contributed even to the tem- 
 poral welfare of the human race, and they have been still 
 less influential upon its spiritual interests. Had not one 
 of their lucubrations ever seen the light, the wretched in- 
 habitants of Europe could not have shed one tear the less, 
 nor would there have been one additional outrage in the 
 catalogue of crime ! The single work of Adam Smith, 
 " The Wealth of Nations," has conduced ten thousand 
 times more to the world's welfare. If they have so little 
 contributed to the good of man, it is not to be supposed 
 that they have advanced the Divine glory. Had the whole 
 body of European metaphysicians never had a being, their 
 absence would not in the least have retarded the advance- 
 ment of the kingdom of heaven. Their elegant specu- 
 lations have broken no hard hearts, have incited no perish- 
 ing souls to flee from the wrath to come. Neither at 
 home nor abroad have they sped the salvation of mankind. 
 
AND MORAL GREATNESS. g^5 
 
 No class of scholars are more inferior to the missionary 
 servants of the Son of God. 
 
 There is another class of illustrious men, with whom I 
 should much like to compare and contrast the missionary, 
 and with whom such comparison and contrast would he 
 more formidable. These are jurists and political econo- 
 mists, such men as Machiavell, Hobbs, Grotius, PufFendorf, 
 Montesquieu, Hume, Smith, Malthus, Ricardo, and others 
 of the same order. These are men of various views and 
 merits, but most of them men of transcendent powers. 
 A portion of them have contributed much to the welfare 
 of nations. It is difficult adequately to estimate their 
 services. All, however, has been " seen and temporal ;" it 
 has chiefly, or rather solely, had to do with man's body, 
 and with his political relationships ; his immortal part, 
 and his eternal interests have not shared their consider- 
 ation. I speak not of the infidel and atheistic part of 
 them, but of such as professed better principles. In their 
 own sphere they are truly great, and highly honourable ; 
 but that greatness is of an humble order, and that honour 
 of a perishable character. Neither has in its nature aught 
 of the celestial, aught of the immortal. The extinction 
 of some of those lights in the cradle had been to mankind 
 a great, an irreparable loss ; but that loss would have been 
 limited by earth and time. It could not have extended to 
 eternity. They laboured not for souls ; and hence, into 
 the world of souls their glory cannot enter ; and in the 
 day of final reckoning but small account will be made of 
 their toils. They, and only they, work for immortality 
 who work upon that which is immortal — the spirit of man. 
 They, and only they, will realize a crown that fadeth not 
 away, who are devoted servants of Jesus Christ, and co- 
 workers with God in the recovery of a lost world ! The 
 men whom earth despises are precisely the men whom 
 heaven will honour. They who share in Messiah's shame 
 
COMPARISON OF INTELLECTUAL 
 
 are the men who will participate in his renown. The name 
 of Christ alone will constitute a passport to the region of 
 eternal fame. The poorest missionary now toiling in the 
 wilderness, teaching the alphabet to the child of the 
 savage, and pointing the parent to the skies, fills an office 
 of far greater distinction than the prime minister of the 
 proudest kingdom in Europe. His work will outlive the 
 stars, and his reward will be as lasting as his labours. In 
 the world of light, the first political philosopher of our 
 earth, — if, through the mercy of God, he be permitted to 
 enter it, — will be a very humble personage as compared 
 with the meanest instrument in promoting the kingdom of 
 heaven. How altered then will be men's views of Christ 
 and of his service ! How different then will be their esti- 
 mate of his mission and of his messengers, especially of 
 those whose lives were peculiarly dedicated to the exten- 
 sion of his kingdom and glory ! 
 
 There is another class of philosophers whose pursuits 
 are profitable and praiseworthy, noble and sublime : their 
 fame will be wide as the world, and lasting as time. Of 
 this illustrious throng the heads and chiefs are, Brahe, 
 Kepler, Gassendi, Galileo, Descartes, Huygens, Halley, 
 Fontenelle, Bernoulli, Newton, Berkeley, and D'Alem- 
 bert ; and while the eldest is Brahe, the most distinguished, 
 without controversy, is Newton. What a constellation of 
 intellectual lights ! How immense the range of these 
 men's contemplations ! They traversed the ample realms 
 of time and space. Their inquiries extended throughout 
 the whole universe of God. Nothing was beneath their 
 notice, nothing above it. They laboured to scan creation 
 in all its parts, the largest and the least, from an atom to 
 a system, — the nearest and the most remote, from the 
 light by which they conducted their midnight researches, 
 to the burning sun, and the farthest star. Such men do 
 honour to human nature, by displaying its stupendous 
 
AND MORAL GREATNESS. 327 
 
 powers even in its fallen state ; and they bring glory to 
 the Creator, by their illustration of his wisdom, power, 
 and goodness. Their position as interpreters and exposi- 
 tors of the volume of nature is one of the most honourable 
 distinctions. I feel constrained to believe that they were 
 as certainly raised up for the especial purpose of illustra- 
 ting the natural attributes of God, as the holy prophets and 
 apostles, for the special purpose of illustrating his moral 
 attributes. I respectfully submit to you, Sir, that there 
 is something very extraordinary in the time and place of 
 these great men's appearances in our world. Is it not 
 remarkable that they were all born in Europe ? Not even 
 one such star has ever yet appeared in any other than a 
 European sky. Is it not still more remarkable that they 
 all burst forth within the brief space of little more than 
 a century ? Is it not the fact, too, that they just succeeded 
 to the introduction of the mariner's compass ; to the dis- 
 covery of the Indies, and of America ; to the revival of 
 letters, and the invention of printing ? Is it rational, then, to 
 doubt that the all-comprehensive intellects of these men 
 were an essential part of the rich provisions, and diverse 
 gifts of Divine Providence to mankind at that wondrous 
 period ? Can it be doubted that they were as really sent 
 forth to fulfil their high and special destiny in developing 
 the constitution, properties, mysteries, and laws of crea- 
 tion, as were De Gama, Columbus, and Cook, to explore 
 the ocean, and discover the habitable portions of the globe ? 
 All this I do most surely believe ; for this, and much more 
 than this, I shall ever most earnestly contend. Who can 
 look at those men of science, and contemplate the magni- 
 tude and peculiarity of their intellectual powers, without 
 admiring the wisdom and goodness of Him that formed 
 them, and sent them to enlighten a benighted world ? 
 Bernouilli alone, had he appeared singly on our earth, 
 would have been the universal wonder of mankind, and 
 
 
3£g COMPARISON OF INTELLECTUAL 
 
 the same, indeed, may be affirmed of all the names above 
 inserted. When a reflecting man stedfastly looks at the 
 great philosophical brotherhood, he is filled with gratitude, 
 delight, and astonishment. He feels it an honour to 
 belong to the species of which such men are a portion ! 
 He feels that his personal insignificance is exalted by the 
 fraternal relation. 
 
 But, Sir, I must check myself. There is a limit to 
 eulogy, because there is a limit to human excellence. 
 Men, like things, are great only by comparison ; these 
 natural philosophers, considered in themselves, are great, 
 superlatively great ; but, compared with adepts in a higher 
 knowledge, — the knowledge of God in Christ, the dimen- 
 sions of their greatness are speedily contracted. Surveyed 
 through the medium of evangelical light, all such studies as 
 theirs, notwithstanding their sublimity, are seen to be "of the 
 earth, earthy." Curious speculations, discoveries in nature, 
 and profundities in science, have but little charm for men 
 condemned to die, and apprised of their doom. The 
 united wisdom of this illustrious band can furnish no 
 answer to the most important question that can be framed 
 in human language, a question in which all men are inter- 
 ested. Approaching the august temple of Science, I 
 inquire of her priests, " Wherewith shall I come before 
 the Lord, and bow myself before the High God ? Shall 
 I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves of a 
 year old ? Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of 
 rams, or with ten thousands of rivers of oil ? Shall I 
 give my first-born for my transgression, the fruit of my 
 body for the sin of my soul ?" All are silent ! Trembling, 
 I wait in anxious expectation. Still there is no voice ! 
 I press, I pray for an answer. At last they speak, and 
 speak of the Divine wisdom, power, eternity, omniscience, 
 omnipresence, and goodness. But the question which in- 
 terests, which absorbs me, is his justice! On this point 
 
AND MORAL GREATNESS. gcg) 
 
 the wisest and best of them refuse to speak, and the less 
 discreet speak to no purpose. I tell them my fears, and 
 ask them of his mercy. Here again the Oracle is silent 
 or unsatisfactory. I am left in terror of the coming 
 judgment ! I look around for wiser men and better teach- 
 ers ; — in the Prophets of God, and the Apostles of Christ 
 I find them. They answer every question, they solve 
 every difficulty, their announcements meet my exigency. 
 I experience peace ; I cherish hope ; I am happy ! I 
 therefore determine my estimate of parties by my obliga- 
 tions. The aid of the philosopher is desirable, that of the 
 missionary indispensable. The former brings me edifying 
 information, the latter, that knowledge which is eternal 
 life. 
 
 Philosophy is the mere child of the understanding ; she 
 is too frequently a stranger to devotion, and she knows 
 nothing of spiritual compassion. Our own Newton, to 
 be sure, is a grand exception, but his devotion proceeded 
 primarily and principally from his Christianity, not from 
 his science. The bulk of his brethren have been practi- 
 cal atheists. Are such the persons to renovate mankind, 
 to fill the world with truth, love, harmony, and happiness ? 
 By their work they may be known. Since the days of 
 Brahe, nearly three hundred years have passed away. Surely 
 this period has been sufficient for philosophy to display 
 her pity for the wretched, and exert her power, both at 
 home and abroad, for the emancipation of an enslaved 
 world. If, with respect to home, as is alleged by an 
 author to whom you have administered severe, but merited 
 rebuke, and by many others, the " bulk" of the British 
 community " only require the fostering care of the philo^ 
 sopher to ripen them into complete rationality, and fur- 
 nish them with the requisites of political and moral action, 
 I beg to ask, in your own terms, " Why, then, is not the 
 philosopher about his business ? Why does he not go and 
 indoctrinate a company of peasants in the intervals of 
 
330 COMPARISON OF INTELLECTUAL 
 
 ploughing or a harvest day, when he will find them far 
 more eager for his instructions than for drink ? Why 
 does he not introduce himself among a circle of farmers, 
 who cannot fail, as he enters, to be very judiciously dis- 
 cussing, with the aid of their punch and their pipes, the most 
 refined questions respecting their rights and duties, and 
 wanting but exactly his aid, instead of more punch and 
 tobacco, to possess themselves completely of the requisites 
 of political and moral action?"* Ah, Sir! science has 
 contributed but little to morals. The philosopher is but 
 a feeble instrument of social purification. The peasantry 
 of England are but slightly indebted, in the matter 
 of morals, to her Royal Societies. They are under 
 far greater obligations to the Home Missionary Society, 
 in Chatham Place, Blackfriars, than to all the scientific 
 bodies in the British dominions. Those societies have 
 allowed them to perish by millions without a sigh or a 
 single effort for their salvation. Nor has it ever entered 
 their minds to interpose in behalf of distant nations who 
 are walking in the valley of the shadow of death, and 
 bowing down to stocks and stones. Both these depart- 
 ments of active benevolence have been proudly despised, or 
 coldly overlooked by the philosophers of England. They 
 have been too much engaged about the nature, properties, 
 and laws of the earth itself to concern themselves with 
 the moral and intellectual condition of the millions, and 
 hundreds of millions of immortal beings who people it. 
 
 Thus, Sir, I am again brought back to the Christian 
 Missionary, the true philanthropist, the only agent en- 
 dowed with the power of elevating and sanctifying cor- 
 rupt, fallen humanity. He goes forth to the heathen upon 
 principle, for he goes in obedience to the command of his 
 Master ; and his instincts of compassion powerfully prompt 
 him to the performance of his duty. If this groaning 
 
 * Foster's Essays, p. 227. 
 
AND MORAL GREATNESS. gg J 
 
 earth shall ever be delivered from the oppression of 
 cruelty, the confusion of darkness, and the misery of sin, 
 it will be done, not by the philosopher, but by the Mis- 
 sionary. How comes it that philosophical societies have 
 sent forth no missionaries to benighted nations ? Have 
 they no desire to diffuse the delights of science, — no wish 
 to divide their pleasures with their species ? How is this? 
 Will not that which is beneficial to the individual, be be- 
 neficial to the millions ? Is not that which is useful and 
 ornamental for the people of England, equally so for the 
 whole human race? Why, then, are the philosophers 
 idle ? Why are they not aroused to a sense of the honour 
 and of the duty of diffusing the doctrines of science to the 
 ends of the earth ? Why ? Is it because systems of sci- 
 ence supply no sufficient motives? Is it because they 
 possess no moral power ? Natural philosophy has but 
 little in common with Christianity. The one deals only 
 with matter ; the other, with mind. That is simply a 
 subject of science ; this, of salvation. The organ of Chris- 
 tianity is the heart ; the organ of science, the understand- 
 ing. The whole system of natural philosophy, with every 
 thing that appertains to it, does not supply the moral 
 motives comprised in a single verse of the Gospel of 
 John. Philosophy is not the parent of true philanthropy ; 
 true philanthropy is the offspring of Christianity. A mil- 
 lion of mere philosophers — of men ignorant of the gospel 
 — do not possess the moral principles and the moral power 
 of one devoted missionary! Nay, the Missionary often 
 excels them in the advancement of their own objects ; a 
 single Missionary has occasionally done more for the ho- 
 nour of letters, and for the spread of science in benighted 
 climes, tban all the academicians of Europe ! But this 
 was only an appendage to his mighty work. He conducts 
 the people of his affections through nature to God. His 
 lessons ascend from the Divine existence to the Divine 
 
33g COMPARISON OF INTELLECTUAL 
 
 character, and from his natural to his moral attributes, 
 - — from justice to mercy, from penitence to faith, from 
 peace to purity, from earth to heaven. The physical phi- 
 losopher cannot impart what he does not possess. His 
 sphere is wholly confined to the works of God ; he has no 
 agents, no instruments to operate on the malignant, the 
 mortal maladies which rage in the spirit of man ! Mind 
 and morals are the peculiar province of the missionary. 
 But, Sir, attempts at comparison, between the missionary 
 and the philosopher, must have an end ; for in reality 
 there can be no more comparison between them than 
 between the gospel and philosophy. We may contrast, 
 but we can hardly compare them. The true philosopher 
 is the appropriate fellow-worker of the missionary — not 
 his rival. Their provinces, although distinct, are, never- 
 theless, harmonious. True philosophy is the handmaid 
 of Christianity. Both, indeed, may unite in the same per- 
 son, and, in some cases, the more they are blended, the 
 better will it be for both. Christianity, in heathen lands, 
 invariably opens the path of science ; but in such lands 
 science can make no way for herself, and still less can she 
 introduce Christianity. For all that science can do, or, 
 indeed, cares to do, the Heathen world will for ever re- 
 main as it now is. It is important to know what science 
 has hitherto done to civilize barbarity and turn idolaters 
 to God. For what she has already done, she may pro- 
 bably do again. What, then, has she accomplished ? 
 I wish that her priests and votaries would answer for 
 themselves; they may have secrets which we know not, 
 and which they have not told. The pursuits of the phi- 
 losopher are intellectual, selfish, and solitary ; those of 
 the missionary are moral, benevolent, and social. The 
 philosopher is the man of the few ; the missionary, of the 
 million. It is in vain, however, that we look for achieve- 
 ments of this description in the multitudinous volumes of 
 
AND MORAL GREATNESS. Q33 
 
 the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Societies of 
 London and Edinburgh, or in those of any kindred insti- 
 tution. Nor by me are they blamed for the deficiency. 
 Their proper business is science, which relates to nature, 
 not philanthropy, which relates to man. But my propo- 
 sition is, that philanthropy is as much superior to science 
 as perishable matter is inferior to immortal mind. By 
 this principle I submit that we should estimate respec- 
 tively the comparative honour, dignity, and importance 
 of the missionary and the philosopher. 
 
 I have largely spoken, Sir, of the past in relation to 
 missions ; I shall now close with a word concerning the 
 vast, uncertain, and awful future ! All my hope with re- 
 spect to it is placed in Christian Protestant Missions. The 
 hope of all nations is bound up with the Gospel of Christ, 
 in union with the Protestant principle. True liberty, 
 and free institutions, wheresoever found, are the fruits of 
 genuine Christianity. That from which they spring can 
 alone nourish and sustain them, where they already exist ; 
 and they can be multiplied throughout the earth only by 
 diffusing the parent element. I am sure you will agree, 
 that freedom, whether political or religious, as it exists 
 even in the most enlightened states of Europe, is very im- 
 perfect. The freedom which conscience demands, is far 
 from being completely enjoyed even in England, and in 
 the chief continental nations its name is a term hardly 
 known. In this department of the globe, a work of in- 
 conceivable difficulty and of prodigious magnitude, has yet 
 to be performed, before these nations can enjoy the civil 
 and religious liberty to which every soul of man has a 
 clear, a natural, an indefeasible right, and of which he 
 cannot be deprived or defrauded but by wrong and rob- 
 bery. Toleration, in religious matters, is not enough ; it is 
 not a boon, but an insult ; enlightened Christians, as such, 
 demand entire equality in the sight of the civil power, and 
 
334 COMPARISON OF INTELLECTUAL 
 
 complete independence of all state support and state con- 
 trol. Now the spread of pure Christianity, in those king- 
 doms, and nothing else, can effect the glorious consumma- 
 tion. Pure religion can alone correct the errors of legis- 
 lation. But if this be so, how great a work yet awaits 
 her ! Even in favoured England, there is much to dis- 
 courage, and not a little to afflict, the sincere lover of 
 freedom and of the human race ; but in continental lands 
 there is, everywhere, every thing to awaken his pity, to 
 exasperate his spirit, and to arouse his utmost indignation. 
 Amid all this, however, there is also something to comfort 
 and to cheer him. He remembers the contest of many 
 ages to rescue civil liberty from the iron grasp of execu- 
 tive power, and he traces its growth from century to cen- 
 tury, amidst sacrifice and suffering, proscription and mar- 
 tyrdom ! He looks around, and beholds on every side the 
 happy fruits of the mighty conflict; he sees the steady 
 progress of the great principle, and its advocates increas- 
 ing every hour. He witnesses the press putting forth its 
 power, and, beyond all precedent, almost beyond credi- 
 bility, multiplying the means of mental illumination. 
 With faith in the maxim that " knowledge is power," he 
 exults in its spread through England and other countries. 
 He sees it contracting the expanse of the great Atlantic 
 into half its dimensions, and bringing America and Europe 
 within a few days' sail of each other. He sees with calm 
 joy that the whole world is becoming a field for the opera- 
 tion of intellect. Genius, wisdom, experience, religion, 
 humanity, liberty, begin to speak in many tongues and in 
 many lands, and mankind begin to listen to their voice. 
 Mind communes with mind in both hemispheres, and at 
 either pole. Every wind of heaven is wafting truth over 
 the dwelling-place of man ; it rolls on every billow ; it has 
 living temples on every shore ; it is gaining trophies in 
 every clime. The Christian patriot and philanthropist 
 
AND MORAL GREATNESS. 335 
 
 knows that he shall die before the hour of final victory 
 and universal deliverance ; but he knows, too, he will lay- 
 down his head in the certain hope, that whatever land 
 may yield him a grave, that land will, in the end, become 
 the inheritance of freemen, the abode of peace, truth, and 
 righteousness ! 
 
 But, Sir, my chief anxiety is about distant climes. I 
 shall speak no more of Europe. T now speak of lands 
 under a darkness still thicker, and galled by chains still 
 heavier than those which bind the millions of Europe. 
 Sir, I speak of Africa ! What is to be done for her ? Phi- 
 losophy, philanthropy, diplomacy, have given her up. 
 Her sorrows multiply. At this day, when our fathers 
 expected that her slavery would have been abolished, the 
 infernal traffic is more than doubled! While I address 
 you, ships are being built, fetters are being forged, and 
 arrangements are being made to extend the traffic ! In 
 Africa itself, while I write, villages are burning, blood is 
 flowing, and prisoners are being dragged and driven across 
 the desert to be sold to the white fiends, the merchants of 
 murder, who, like vultures, hover on the shore, hungering 
 for their prey ! How is the monster Demon to be de- 
 stroyed ? By the Missionary ! How is the work of mu- 
 tual slaughter and merchandize in man to be put an end 
 to ? By the Missionary ! By whom is Africa to be 
 covered with the blessings of civilization ? By the Mis- 
 sionary ! By whom are the sable millions of that great 
 continent to be lifted up to the fellowship • of the free 
 states of Europe ? By the Missionary ! Let the Gospel 
 of Christ have free course, and be glorified through all its 
 borders, and then old things will pass away, all things 
 become new. In that hour her degraded sons will rise 
 from the earth, feel that they are men and not beasts, and 
 worship their great Creator ! Behold the change ! Agri- 
 culture clothes her wide-spreading wastes with a measure- 
 
COMPARISON OF INTELLECTUAL 
 
 less abundance of rich and varied produce. Commerce 
 creates towns, cities, manufactories, and harbours, — navi- 
 gates her rivers — circumnavigates her shores, and pushes 
 her fortunes on every sea. Peace waves her banner over 
 land and over ocean ; plenty pours out her horn of wine 
 and oil ; the pirate, the man-stealer, the murderer, disap- 
 pear ; the slave ship, the ark of sorrow and death, with all 
 its horrors, is seen no more ! Education rears her schools ; 
 science, her halls ; religion, her temples : 
 
 " And sovereign Law — the world's collected will, 
 
 O'er thrones and globes elate, 
 Sits Empress — crowning good — repressing ill ; 
 
 Smit by her sacred frown, 
 The fiend Discretion, like a vapour sinks, 
 
 And e'en the all- dazzling crown 
 Hides his faint rays, and at her bidding shrinks." 
 
 These, Sir ! as you well know, are blessings that inva- 
 riably follow in the train of the Gospel Missionary. They 
 will not, they cannot, precede him ; they never did, they 
 never will, lag far behind. How high his honour ! How 
 glorious his character ! How godlike his enterprise ! 
 
 Then, Sir, there are the isles of the Southern Pacific, 
 with all their idols : there is Asia, too, with all its blinded 
 hundreds of millions : and there are other portions of our 
 globe equally wicked, — equally wretched ; all are benight- 
 ed, all are sitting in the region of the shadow of death, 
 except the handful who have heard the missionary, and 
 received his word. How are these enormous masses of 
 mankind to be reached, and raised, and renovated ? How 
 are they to be made the servants of God, and subjects of 
 the kingdom of Christ ? You answer, By the labours of 
 the Missionary ! Yes, Sir, and by none other. The Mis- 
 sionaries of the Cross are the sole instruments ordained of 
 God to work deliverance in the earth. Oh ! happy men 
 
AND MORAL GREATNESS. g£7 
 
 whom the Redeemer of the world deigns to employ in this 
 sublime vocation. Oh ! happy parents, who have sons and 
 daughters embarked in this harvest of mercy, worthy to be 
 reaped by angelic hands. Oh ! happy churches, who are 
 called to separate their members to be instruments in the 
 hand of the Eternal Spirit for recovering the souls of a lost 
 world. Oh ! happy England, who, with her children, has 
 been chosen to lead in the business of a world's salvation. 
 Oh ! happy they who possess the means, and have the dis- 
 position liberally to employ them for the spread of the 
 gospel, and the establishment of the kingdom of God. 
 May you, Sir, long live to behold the work advancing ! 
 May your profound and powerful productions, long, and 
 still more largely, contribute to further its progress ! May 
 your high endowments, and your studious retirement, be 
 consecrated, with all acceptance, to the work of arousing 
 a slumbering church to her duty — of rebuking the levity 
 of lettered men — and of counteracting their hurtful repre- 
 sentations relative to the boundless utility, and the solemn 
 obligation of Christian Missions ; as well as to that of 
 illustrating the incomparable felicity, and the matchless 
 dignity of being permitted to engage in so glorious an 
 enterprise ! 
 
LETTER XII, 
 
 TO THE RIGHT HON. THOMAS BABINGTON MACAULAY. 
 
 THE MILITARY AND MISSIONARY CHARACTERS ILLUSTRATED, COMPARED, 
 AND CONTRASTED. 
 
 Sir, few men of your years have been honoured to render 
 services so varied and so important to humanity, liberty, 
 and letters, as yourself. Your distinguished merits in 
 these respects are gratefully appreciated, not only by the 
 educated men of England, but also by those of all coun- 
 tries, wherever our language is spoken. Although you 
 are qualified to attain the first distinction in Courts of 
 Law, in Politics, and in Jurisprudence, it is clear that the 
 strife of tongues, and the coarse tumults of popular assem- 
 blies, are not congenial with your disposition. You pre- 
 fer the solemn society of the mighty dead to the vulgar 
 bustle of the noisy living. Your delights are those of 
 meditation. Your chosen retreat is the library ; literature 
 is your most cherished pursuit. So far, therefore, as you 
 are personally concerned, you doubtless rejoice in your 
 late liberation from the toils of government, since you can 
 now indulge more freely your philosophical and literary 
 predilections. It is, however, to be hoped that you will 
 carry with you a deep conviction of the great responsibi- 
 lity which attaches to the possession of powers, reputation, 
 
THE MILITARY AND MISSIONARY CHARACTERS, ETC. 339 
 
 and influence like yours. You belong to trie class of men 
 who are " born for the universe," and whose high prero- 
 gative it is to exercise an intellectual sovereignty over all 
 nations. The age in which you live is peculiarly favour- 
 able to the beneficial exercise of your brilliant gifts. The 
 great war now waged throughout the world, is a war of 
 opinion, in which the pen and the printing press are the 
 chief instruments employed by the advocates and friends 
 of liberty against the assertors and abettors of privilege 
 and prescription, of bad laws and worse legitimation. If 
 an All-wise Providence shall see fit to prolong your days, 
 it is probable that many honours and high distinctions 
 await you, unless you shall resolutely decline the public 
 stage in your preference for lettered quietude. But the 
 times in which we live demand sacrifices, and the British 
 empire cannot dispense with the services of men like you. 
 Mankind confidently expect that you will be ever found, 
 like your illustrious and early friend, Lord Brougham, 
 ranged on the side of peace and liberty, education and 
 philanthropy, unfettered commerce and equal legislation. 
 
 Sir, my object, in now addressing you, is, to solicit your 
 attention to a subject of the utmost moment to the world's 
 welfare, and which, I think, requires only a little candid 
 and careful consideration from a mind like yours, in order 
 to fire your genius, to excite your sympathy, and to com- 
 mand your eloquent and most powerful advocacy. Though 
 once ostensibly the Minister of War, your friends know 
 well that you are an intense lover of peace. A great and 
 happy change has come over the minds of men since the 
 close of the last great European struggle. It would seem 
 as if the Prince of Peace had already begun to " rebuke 
 many nations," as if they were now preparing furnaces at 
 which to " beat their swords into ploughshares, and their 
 spears into pruning-hooks," as if nation were never again 
 to ' ' lift up sword against nation, neither to learn war any 
 
340 THE MILITARY AND MISSIONARY CHARACTERS 
 
 more." The words of Don Manuel Lorenzo Vidaurre, 
 Minister of Peru, at the Congress of Panama, in June, 
 1826, — "Peace with the whole world" seem to have 
 mingled with the winds of heaven, and to have been waft- 
 ed through every clime. " Peace with the whole world /" 
 The heavenly sentiment was publicly approved by Adams, 
 President of the United States, while his voice has been 
 echoed and re-echoed in Europe. That great fountain 
 of political truth, the Edinburgh Review, — which has done 
 so much to advance literature, liberty, and civilization 
 among mankind, — in March, 1829, thus expressed itself: 
 — " We earnestly hope that the friends of liberal opinions, 
 in this great nation, will never cease to bestir themselves 
 against war ; will be instant in season and out of season, 
 in subduing all lurking remains of that unhallowed spirit, 
 and leading them to the real glories of Peace." This 
 most noble and most Christian sentiment was not a novel- 
 ty in the pages of that immortal work. From its memo- 
 rable outset, war was the object of its earnest, emphatic, 
 and indignant denunciation.* The first men of the senate 
 united with the chief organ of letters. The leading voice 
 of Lord Brougham w r as responded to by the lips of Mack- 
 intosh, who never spoke but to enlighten his auditors, and 
 to plead for the welfare of mankind. The following are 
 some of his declarations : — " Whatever may be the poli- 
 tical intrigue of some parties, a passion for peace is visibly 
 extending and growing throughout Europe, which is the 
 best legacy left us by that fierce war that has raged from 
 Copenhagen to Cadiz ; I confess I feel a very strong pas- 
 sion for peace, — for I must call it by that name ; — I trust 
 this feeling will ultimately become the ruling passion of 
 Europe." On the same memorable occasion, the present 
 
 * See vol. v. p. 469; x. 26; xiv. 285; xx. 212—226; xxi. 15; 
 xxxii. 48. 
 
ILLUSTRATED, COMPARED, AND CONTRASTED. 34 \ 
 
 Premier of England, Sir Robert Peel, did himself infinite 
 honour by the following frank and striking avowal of 
 opinions worthy of a man in his high position : — " I do 
 hope that one great and most beneficial effect of the ad- 
 vance of civilization, the diffusion of knowledge, and the 
 extension of commerce, will be, the reducing within their 
 proper dimensions, of the fame, and the merit, and the 
 reward of military achievements; and thatjuster notions 
 of the moral dignity of, and the moral obligation due to, 
 those who apply themselves to preserve peace, and to avoid 
 the eclat of war, will be the consequence." 
 
 This enlightened, this patriotic, this philanthropic, this 
 transcendantly glorious sentiment deserves to be had in 
 everlasting remembrance. It involves the great subject to 
 be discussed, or rather pressed upon your notice in this 
 communication. The season of peace is the only fit time 
 for successfully considering the character of war, and the 
 merits of its prime conductors ; for this cannot be done 
 during periods of conflict. Then the cupidity of one class, 
 the revengeful spirit of another, the fear of being charged 
 with cowardice of a third, and the national pride of all — 
 feelings such as these then extinguish among the wise and 
 prudent all hope of beneficial disquisition. Times of 
 peace, therefore, and especially times when millions groan 
 under the mournful consequences of war, are the only 
 hopeful seasons to attempt the cure of this murderous, 
 this suicidal malady of mankind. The minds of millions, 
 in England, are now in a proper frame to entertain the 
 momentous question. The late fearful war is past and 
 gone, and is seen only in its results ; the ennobling of a 
 few — the enriching of a few more — and the beggaring of a 
 nation ! Eight hundred millions of debt ! The terrific words, 
 eight hundred millions of debt, are a happy motto, an ex- 
 cellent help to the study of war. It is all very well to 
 read its poetry and listen to its music — to gaze on its 
 
342 THE MILITARY AND MISSIONARY CHARACTERS 
 
 sculpture, and the glare of its illuminations — to survey 
 the marble statues and monumental columns which are 
 raised to its heroes — to boast their victories and toast their 
 names — and to declaim on England's prowess, amid the 
 wine and rapture of Waterloo dinners : all this, I say, is very 
 fine ; but if men would only lift up their eyes, there they 
 will see a hand, writing upon the wall, with its finger 
 dipped in our fathers' blood — eight hundred millions of 
 debt ! During the first twenty years of my life, and the 
 first fifteen of yours, Mars was the god of England and of 
 all Europe. Red coats and nodding plumes, recruiting, 
 drilling, reviewing, illuminations, hypocritical fasts, riotous 
 feasts, the sounding of trumpets, the roaring of cannon, 
 were among the objects which hourly occupied the atten- 
 tion of all nations. Till the battle of Waterloo, we never 
 knew peace. To us there appeared in war nothing un- 
 natural. The raising and killing of soldiers, the impress- 
 ment and destruction of sailors, were mere matters of 
 course. Our rulers went on in the madness of their folly, 
 contracting debt, and at one time lavishing money at the 
 rate of two millions sterling a week ! Thus labour was 
 abundant and well paid. Fortunes were made by multi- 
 tudes, almost with the rapidity of vegetation, and the 
 thoughtless myriads of operatives, having ample means of 
 sensual gratification, revelled and rejoiced, dancing, and 
 singing the praise of heroes and statesmen, reckless of fu- 
 turity and posterity, and of a coming debt of eight hundred 
 millions ! The mass of these parties, both small and great, 
 are gone to their account; and here we find ourselves 
 crushed and groaning under a burden which threatens us 
 with national destruction ! 
 
 We have now enjoyed or sustained twenty- six years of 
 peace, which is surely a tolerable space for meditation. 
 We have, at least, had time to make up our minds on our 
 condition, and to count the profits of many wars. If the 
 
ILLUSTRATED, COMPARED, AND CONTRASTED. 343 
 
 result of our reflections and calculations, combined with 
 our sufferings, has been to create and foster in our bosoms 
 the spirit of peace, so as to prevent a heedless rushing into 
 war for the future, it is perhaps the only alleviation of 
 our deep afflictions that can be looked for, and the only 
 reparation of our fathers' errors that can be made to our 
 children. To Christian and philanthropic minds it is con- 
 soling to hope that such will be actually the case. An in- 
 valuable article, on " The Dangers of the Country," in 
 the Edinburgh Review for April, 1807, contains the fol- 
 lowing profound, I had almost said prophetic, passage : — 
 " Peace is in itself so great a good, and war so great an 
 evil, that whenever we are not able to foresee exactly all 
 the consequences of either, we may safely presume, that 
 all that are unknown of the one will be good, and all that 
 are unknown of the other will be evil. In most human 
 affairs, however, the consequences which are not foreseen 
 are more important than those which can be predicted. 
 History and experience illustrate this sufficiently as to the 
 present parallel, and show that the most successful war is 
 usually productive of loss and disaster, even to the victo- 
 rious party, while peace scarcely ever fails to supply a 
 thousand advantages that had not been calculated upon, 
 and to repair, with incredible celerity, the wound which 
 hostility had inflicted. Among the chief blessings of 
 peace, we think, is its tendency to generate a spirit of 
 peace, — a spirit which cannot be generated, we believe, in 
 any other way, and which, in an advanced state of society, 
 and after a long experience of the miseries of contention, 
 may perhaps prolong into habitual amity those hostile 
 truces and breathing times to which nations have lately 
 limited their intervals of war."* 
 
 It appears to me that the spirit of the present age is an 
 illustration or fulfilment of the foregoing sagacious antici- 
 * Vol. x. p. 26. 
 
344 THE MILITARY AND MISSIONARY CHARACTERS 
 
 pation. Every man who is really a friend of his country 
 and of the human race, beheld, with intense satisfaction, 
 the recent conduct of M. Guizot, and other distinguished 
 French statesmen and legislators. Their speeches, on the 
 subject of war, in an hour fraught with imminent peril to 
 the peace of Europe, and the progress of improvement 
 among mankind, did equal credit to their patriotism and 
 to their philanthropy. That enlightened and virtuous 
 government, of which you formed a part, responded in ap- 
 propriate strains to the pacific voice of France. It is time 
 for France to have done with war. An economist of her 
 own computes, that since the foundation of her monarchy, 
 she has conducted no fewer than thirteen hundred wars. 
 More than half of the last three hundred years have been 
 spent by France and England in the work of mutual de- 
 struction! But this mutual slaughter is of older date. 
 The matter may more fully be stated thus : — From 1110 
 to 1803, — a period of nearly 700 years, — they spent 
 260 in war ! Murderous infatuation ! How blinded have 
 these nations been to the true principles of commerce, and 
 to their own respective interests ! Nothing is more cer- 
 tain than that home trade is more lucrative than foreign. 
 The market is near — the property safe — the return quick. 
 Next in importance are neighbouring countries, as spheres 
 of profitable commerce. France and England, therefore, 
 instead of being the first, should be the last, to quarrel. 
 Instead of being " natural enemies," they are natural 
 friends ! It is really to be hoped that such is now the 
 conviction of the best citizens of both countries. In all 
 their past conflicts the people of each country were less in 
 fault than their haughty Heads, who plundered them of 
 their substance, and, without a sigh, poured out their 
 blood like water ! In those days the two nations were 
 nothing but the burden bearers of royalty. But, let us 
 thank a gracious Providence, both nations have begun at 
 
ILLUSTRATED, COMPARED, AND CONTRASTED. 345 
 
 length to awake from their dream. They find they must 
 bear the costs, and hence they infer their right to inquire 
 into the propriety, of war. Nations really free will not 
 permit their rulers to slay multitudes, and waste mil- 
 lions, without a strong necessity— and that necessity must 
 first be proved. Nations really free will not be the sport 
 of weak men, of men not so weak as wicked. On the 
 subject of their own interests, the multitude are seldom 
 long mistaken ; and the bulk of thinking men among the 
 people of England have made up their minds to the truth 
 -of the assertion, that " War is universally a losing game ; 
 and must, sooner or later, be followed by disastrous con- 
 sequences."* If such are the merits of war itself, it be- 
 comes a matter of some importance to inquire into the 
 merits of the military character, and its claims on the 
 respect and admiration of mankind. On this point there 
 has been in England, within the last twenty years, a 
 strong re-action. To this happy change that great organ 
 of opinion to which I have repeatedly referred, and with 
 which you, Sir, stand so closely and so honourably identi- 
 fied, has most materially contributed. It has lost no op- 
 portunity of casting a withering glance at the laurels of 
 conquest, and of making a passing thrust at such as have 
 flourished by their country's ruin, and become great 
 through murder ! 
 
 Permit me now, Sir, to sift the claims of the soldier, 
 and to compare them with those of the Christian mis- 
 sionary. The attempt will not be useless, if, in the small- 
 est degree, it tend to propagate a more general and intense 
 hatred to the principles and spirit of those men, whoever 
 they may be, and of whatever country, whose ambition or 
 other passions would renew, under any pretence, the count- 
 less miseries of war !f Warriors and warlike statesmen 
 
 * Edinburgh Review, vol. xxxii. p. 43. f See ib. vol. xx. p. 216. 
 q3 
 
346 THE MILITARY AND MISSIONARY CHARACTERS 
 
 have hitherto been too much the idols, the gods of man- 
 kind ! It is time for the friends of humanity to approach 
 them, and take their true moral and intellectual dimen- 
 sions. It has been too long the custom to identify them 
 with all that is generous in spirit, great in action, and 
 noble in nature, Those men themselves have done their 
 best to propagate the delusion. They have contrived to 
 monopolize nearly all the honour of nations. They have 
 long looked down with contempt upon men of a wise, and 
 prudent, and peaceful spirit, who fear God and keep his 
 command to " Do no murder l" Let us look a little more 
 closely at these monopolists of honour and glory. 
 
 The medium through which the martial character has 
 generally been viewed, has not been that of the prophets 
 and apostles, but of Homer and of Ossian — not that of 
 humility and reason, but of pride and passion. The greatest 
 conqueror, in all ages, has been too frequently deemed the 
 greatest man. It cannot, however, be denied, — nay, it is 
 confessed and deplored, — that, in all past time, war has 
 appropriated to itself much of the genius of the world, a 
 very large portion of the finest talents that ever adorned 
 the human race. Moral qualities, too, of a very elevated 
 order, have occasionally distinguished men who have passed 
 their lives in arms. But the greatness of the majority of 
 fighting men has been of a very questionable character. 
 The military genius which mankind have most frequently 
 praised and rewarded, has been, in my poor judgment, 
 very little more than a species of mortiferous instinct, 
 enjoyed in common with the tiger, the bear, and the other 
 tenants of the jungle and the desert — a ferocity the more 
 terrible and destructive, as being under the direction, 
 without the restraint, of reason. It was a dexterity in 
 destroying, combined with a delight in destruction ! 
 Such were most of Homer's heroes, especially Achilles, 
 
ILLUSTRATED, COMPARED, AND CONTRASTED. 347 
 
 "whom," as Mr. Foster remarks, "it had deserved a 
 conspiracy of the tribes, then called nations, to chain or to 
 suffocate ;" — and such were most of the generals of the 
 French republic, and even of the empire. This spirit is 
 strikingly described by the bard of our father-land, who, 
 adverting to the gentle spirits of warmer skies, thus con- 
 trasts them with a Caledonian soldier, animated by blind 
 loyalty and highland whisky, — 
 
 " But bring a Scotchman frae his hill, 
 Clap in his cheek a Highland gill, 
 Say, such is royal George's will, 
 
 And there's the foe ! 
 He has nae thought but how to kill 
 
 Twa at a blow ! 
 Nae cauld faint-hearted doubtings tease him ; 
 Death comes ! wi' fearless eye he sees him ; 
 Wi' bloody hand a welcome gies him ; 
 
 And when he fa's, 
 His latest draught o' breathin' lea'es him, 
 
 In faint huzzas ! " 
 
 This, in the poet's eye, is the model of the true hero — he 
 throws the reins of reason into the hands of passion, while 
 he shoots, stabs, and cuts throats to please king George ! 
 He is not " teased by faint-hearted doubtings," as he pro- 
 ceeds to imbrue his hands in the blood of his fellow man ! 
 He is, therefore, brave. It is enough for him that human 
 slaughter is the sovereign's " will." He is, therefore, 
 loyal. He "asks no questions for conscience' sake." 
 Considerations of justice, humanity, or religion, would be 
 cowardice ! The most gallant man, in the vulgar sense of 
 the term, is he who having succeeded in divesting himself 
 of all that is gentle, lovely, and humane, without fear or 
 remorse, reflection or pity, rushes like a wild beast on 
 mankind to destroy them ! 
 
 The fame of the battle field, more than any other kind 
 
THE MILITARY AND MISSIONARY CHARACTERS 
 
 of fame, is factitious, delusive, and equivocal. The great 
 general, in ancient times, was frequently little more than 
 a dexterous or a fortunate gambler, indebted for success, 
 not so much to the coarse, the brutal, the ferocious ele- 
 ment of personal bravery, so called, as to the chapter of 
 accidents, to craft, to stratagem, to falsehood, to treachery, 
 to the incompetence, disadvantages, or calamities of the 
 adversary. The same remark extensively applies to more 
 modern commanders, notwithstanding the refinements of 
 latter ages. It has, however, been contended, and as I 
 have already said, it is confessed, that the mind which 
 comprehends, at a glance, the character and capabilities of 
 a country, and accurately ascertains the positions which it 
 affords for the successful conduct of a campaign, is one of 
 a superior order. On this ground it was customary to 
 extol, as most transcendent, the powers of Napoleon, and 
 to pronounce him the greatest of all great men. It would 
 certainly be neither wise nor just to deny his marvellous 
 skill in disposing his troops so as to counteract greater 
 forces ; in supplying, by science and experience, the defect 
 of numbers; and in giving unity, energy, and resistless 
 impulse to all the parts of an extended and complicated 
 system of operations, amid casualties, crosses, and obstruc- 
 tions, which no wisdom could foresee, and against which 
 no prudence could prepare. In these respects, to mention 
 no others, he unquestionably displayed a stupendous capa- 
 city, and an amazing versatility of genius. Granting all 
 this, however, we do but grant him the possession of qua- 
 lities possessed in equal degrees by many benefactors of 
 mankind — the abilities of an engineer of the highest order. 
 We grant his surpassing skill in the application of physi- 
 cal force, in the use of physical means to compass physical 
 ends. Generalship is, therefore, to a great extent, a coarse 
 question of matter. There is nothing in it which autho- 
 rises either those who sustain the character, with the 
 
ILLUSTRATED, COMPARED, AND CONTRASTED. 349 
 
 highest celebrity, or their worshippers, to claim for them 
 kindred with such men as Bacon and Newton, Burke and 
 Smith, Shakspeare and Milton, and the loftier spirits of 
 our race. What is it but an affair of rivers and ramparts 
 — hedges and ditches— horses and human beings — bows 
 and battle-axes— musketry and cannon ? But putting the 
 matter at the highest point, what is a genius for war but 
 a genius for shedding blood ? The curse of this genius 
 has been mercifully bestowed upon only a limited portion 
 of mankind. Ancient tactics were very simple. The club 
 and the stone, the bow and the sling, the balista and the 
 catapulta, the spear and the pike, the sword and the lance, 
 were the prime instruments of destruction before the in- 
 vention of gunpowder, and their use did not require sci- 
 ence so much as brute force. Still, however, it admitted 
 somewhat of a scientific exhibition. But the inventors 
 were few in number. If we name Xenophon, Epaminon- 
 das, Alexander, and Caesar, the catalogue is ended ; for 
 we can hardly include Hannibal. The invention of gun- 
 powder altered the entire nature of warfare in what is, 
 erroneously, called the civilized world. The tactics of 
 destruction then required to be studied anew. In modern 
 times, the number of inventors has not been greater than 
 among the ancients. Of these, the chief were Maurice, 
 prince of Orange, Gustavus of Sweden, Frederick II. of 
 Prussia, and to them in our own day we must add Napo- 
 leon. Such have been the chief inventors of methods of 
 destruction. Unhappy men ! The inventors of the Steam 
 Engine, and of the Spinning Jenny, merit a thousand times 
 more gratitude and glory from mankind than they all, 
 were they as numerous as the millions whom they have 
 butchered ! Yes ! the names of Watt, with his engine, 
 and Arkwright, with his jenny, will extend through all 
 lands, and live through all time, diffusing a multitude of 
 comforts among the human family, I really see nothing 
 
350 THE MILITARY AND MISSIONARY CHARACTERS 
 
 to admire in the genius of war. I am, indeed, unable to 
 distinguish between the science of war and the practice of 
 it. All science is valuable only as it is useful. Can 
 beauty then attend a science, the practice of which is 
 hateful to every good man, and hurtful to all ? Most of 
 those whom I have mentioned, you are aware, were pre- 
 eminent for genius in other things besides war — and upon 
 the latter, not the former, their true glory rests. 
 
 But, Sir, the genius of war is a very small thing com- 
 pared with its principles — a consideration which enters 
 vitally into the claims of the martial character. I have 
 reached the conclusion that war, in all its forms, is at vari- 
 ance with the principles of Christianity, the triumphs of 
 which, we are assured by the Scriptures of truth, will be 
 attended with its utter extinction throughout the whole 
 earth. Military greatness is, therefore, at best a perish- 
 ing object. It is doomed to certain banishment from our 
 world. When the earth shall have been filled with the 
 knowledge of the Lord, the order of heroes will expire, 
 and the vulgar myriads of mercenary mortals, their instru- 
 ments, whose calling is slaughter, will perish along with it. 
 The Gospel of Christ smites the soul of war in the love of 
 power and the lust of false glory, which are the fruitful 
 source of fighting among men. The Redeemer of man- 
 kind, while resident in our world, arrayed the whole force 
 of his authority against this strong and general passion. 
 He not only denounced war, but laid it down as a law of 
 his kingdom, that he who would be greatest, should be, 
 not the ruler, but the servant, of his brethren ; and Chris- 
 tian principle abundantly provides for cordial obedience to 
 Christian precept. When the throne of Christ shall have 
 been fully established in the hearts of the majority of the 
 human race, " war will cease to the ends of the earth." 
 Its guilty splendours will captivate no more, nor spread 
 the blaze of a spurious heroism and a deceitful glory over 
 
ILLUSTRATED, COMPARED, AND CONTRASTED. 35 \ 
 
 the wholesale butchery of our species ! It will then be 
 seen and felt, that the pure, pacific, benevolent, and right- 
 eous morality of the gospel is just as binding on nations as 
 on individuals, and that, to whatever extent individuals may 
 be formed into societies, and expanded into empires, the 
 same laws that govern the units must rule the millions.* 
 It will also appear, that, in the sight of Heaven, national 
 war is just as culpable, as sternly condemned and inter- 
 dicted, as single combat. What is the principle of duel- 
 ling but the principle of war operating on the smallest 
 scale, and displayed in its naked deformity, without those 
 meretricious trappings and deceptive accompaniments by 
 which the horrors of war are in part concealed, and its 
 heinous guilt apparently lessened, if not altogether can- 
 celled ? In the eye of reason as well as of Scripture, they 
 are only distinct exhibitions of the same principle — equally 
 reprehensible, and exposed to the same condemnation. 
 If, therefore, the truth may be told in the ear of pride, 
 the vulgar prize-fighter, the brutal boxer, the hot-blooded, 
 high-bred duellist, military officers of every rank, from 
 the humble corporal to the generalissimo of the united 
 armies of many nations, are all but members of the same 
 profession, brothers of the same family ; — the difference 
 is only accidental and circumstantial, — they are all essen- 
 tially men of the same order, — and the Christian moralist 
 feels constrained to class them all in the same category. 
 
 Sir ! Are these things really so ? What then is to be 
 thought of " the profession of arms" — a trade which con- 
 sists in shedding blood and slaying brethren ? Does it 
 merit to be extolled as the highest of all human pur- 
 suits I Does the battle-field, as it drinks the blood of the 
 slain, and groans beneath the load of murdered myriads, 
 deserve the lofty designation of the " bed of honour," 
 
 * See Chalmers' Sermon on Universal Peace, p. 23. 
 
35^ THE MILITARY AND MISSIONARY CHARACTERS 
 
 and " the field of glory ?" Is human butchery a vocation 
 for which the flower of a kingdom should contend ? Is the 
 command of homicidal legions a function deserving the 
 fierce competition of the sons of the aristocracy, of the 
 highest nobles, and even of the sovereigns of England? 
 Does it become a generous, high-born, and accomplished 
 man, to sigh for so dreadful an occupation ? Is it honour, 
 or is it infamy ? Does it merit a sounding celebrity, or 
 an eternal execration ? Oh ! Sir, who can endure to think 
 of all the great ones of the earth prosecuting a science, 
 the chief problem of which is, " In what manner the 
 greatest number of men can be slain in the least possible 
 time."* They who can, must surely envy the glory of 
 the monster Tamerlane, as, dyed in blood, he reared his 
 pyramid of seventy thousand human heads ! They who 
 can, must surely envy the felicity of the Greek auxiliaries 
 in the pay of the king of Egypt, who, in the war against 
 Cambyses, seized the innocent children of their recreant 
 general, cut their throats, and drank their blood, in the 
 sight of both armies ! 
 
 Sir, the claims of the military character will be still 
 better understood by looking at war in its consequences. 
 Nothing further should be necessary to quicken that ob- 
 tuseness of moral feeling, which has too long and too 
 generally obtained respecting the legalized and wholesale 
 murder of mankind. We have had, it is true, many 
 avowed advocates of peace, both on philanthropic and on 
 Christian principles; but with the noble exception of 
 Channing, the writers of the "Prize Essays on a Congress 
 of Nations," and the members of the London Peace So- 
 ciety, the voice of their reprobation has too frequently 
 been wanting in truth, emphasis, and earnestness. It has 
 generally, indeed, been liable to the charge of feeble cant, 
 
 * Filangieri, Science of Legislation, Introduction, p. 16. 
 
ILLUSTRATED, COMPARED, AND CONTRASTED. 353 
 
 and simpering sentimentalism. The bulk even of true 
 Christians are not duly awake to the enormities of war. 
 The fires of philanthropic and devout indignation have 
 seldom been thoroughly kindled in the bosoms of the 
 faithful. Their language has not been the vehicle of an 
 intense, a burning, an overwhelming conviction, that war 
 is a first fruit of the worst element of our fallen nature, a 
 high crime against Heaven, the parent of most other 
 crimes, the source of nameless and numberless calamities, 
 the chief scourge and the greatest curse of a corrupt, con- 
 vulsed, and miserable world. This dreadful subject, as 
 seen by the enlightened eye of the Christian philanthro- 
 pist, in all its magnitude, and in its relations both to time 
 and to eternity, is a theme too big for utterance ; and he 
 who but half estimates its foul atrocity and its infernal 
 character, will enter into the poet's spirit, and, with a full 
 appreciation of his emphatic language, will be prepared 
 with him to exclaim : — 
 
 " Could I embody and unbosom now 
 That which is most within me, — could I wreak 
 My thoughts upon expression, and thus throw 
 Soul, heart, mind, passion, feelings, strong or weak, 
 All that I would have sought, and all I seek, 
 Bear, know, feel, and yet breathe — into one word, 
 And that one word were lightning, I would speak ; 
 But as it is, I live and die unheard, 
 With a most voiceless thought, sheathing it as a sword !" 
 
 How dreadful are all the aspects of war ! How widely 
 different is war, in the printed page, from war in actual 
 existence and operation ! The full and faithful history of 
 a great campaign has yet to be written. The civil histo- 
 rian discourses of marches, positions, charges, routs, and 
 retreats — things which constitute but a small section of a 
 boundless subject. Every aspect of war, in the countries 
 where it rages, is inscribed, in tears and blood, with 
 
354< THE MILITA RY AND MISSIONARY CHARACTERS 
 
 lamentation, mourning, and woe ! The soul of the 
 Christian philanthropist sickens and is ready to die, when 
 he thinks of only the wars of Europe — the smallest con- 
 tinental compartment of our globe. The spirit of such a 
 man shudders at the recollection of the hundreds of mil- 
 lions of men who, during so long a series of ages, have 
 been trained to the profession of murder, and paid to bear 
 and use the instruments of death ! The heart of such a 
 man recoils with horror at the remembrance of the untold 
 myriads who have perished by the sword ! Who, Sir, can 
 depict the ravaged fields, the sacked cities, and the plun- 
 dered palaces ? Who can record the history of violated 
 virtue, broken hearts, ruined families, the groans and tears 
 of wailing widows and helpless orphans, the sighs of rup- 
 tured and sorrowing friendship, the agonies of bereaved 
 and despairing love ? How often has the demon of war 
 turned the fairest fields of that fertile continent into a 
 desolate wilderness, — scattering its society like chaff before 
 the wind, — arresting the peaceful pursuits of commerce, 
 agriculture, and the arts, — extinguishing the lights of sci- 
 ence, education, and religion, — covering whole kingdoms 
 with rapine and murder, famine and pestilence, and pol- 
 luting fountains and rivers with the blood of man ! 
 
 But, Sir, war presents another and a still more hideous 
 and appalling aspect to the mind of the Christian. As a 
 minister of religion, I am bound to reflect on the spiritual 
 condition of military hosts in the hour of conflict. While 
 nothing is heard but the deathful volleys of battle, the 
 savage yells and the maddened shouts of infuriated men, 
 the work of dissolution is advancing with a rapidity which 
 it is terrible to meditate ! The murderous metal pouring 
 like hail through the air, is but too apt an emblem of the 
 flight of spirits successively passing into eternity, where 
 they must appear before the bar of God, to " give an ac- 
 count of the deeds done in the body." Who shall describe 
 
ILLUSTRATED, COMPARED, AND CONTRASTED. 355 
 
 the scene presented by these mutual murderers, as they 
 approach in thousands the throne of the Prince of Peace 
 for judgment! Of the innumerable spirits now in the 
 eternal world, how vast a proportion left their bodies, 
 bathed in blood, upon the battle field ! Is it not, Sir, in- 
 expressibly awful to think, that, to such an extent, man 
 should have been the butcher of his fellow and his bro- 
 ther, and that the invisible regions should be so largely 
 peopled by the souls of men who fell by mutual violence ? 
 My regrets are multiplied, and my griefs are deepened, 
 when I reflect that it is of Europe that I am speaking — of 
 Europe, where Christianity has so long been known, and 
 where, upon the whole, it has, at times, existed in greater 
 purity, and exerted a greater power than in any other 
 country. It but slightly consoles me to know that Chris- 
 tianity has done much to mitigate the horrors and the 
 cruelties of wars, and much, very much, to prevent the 
 frequency of their recurrence. The fact at once proves 
 and proclaims in how very imperfect a degree European 
 nations have yet been imbued with the doctrines of the 
 gospel. 
 
 Without enlarging on this terrible theme, I submit, that, 
 whether we look at the peculiar genius of the warrior, at 
 the warlike principle, or at the results of war, there is 
 little to admire, nothing to love, much to denounce and to 
 execrate. In spite of a world's practice for several hun- 
 dreds of generations, and in spite of all that has been said 
 and done to dignify " the profession of arms," the Chris- 
 tian can look upon military greatness only as the attribute 
 of a devil ! It is a mere capacity to destroy ! The poet, 
 the musician, the painter, the sculptor, and the orator, 
 have all combined their arts to deceive the nations of the 
 earth, and, as John Foster remarks, to impress the mind 
 with the idea, " that the grandest employment of a great 
 spirit is the destruction of human creatures." — " A trans- 
 
35(3 THE MILITARY AND MISSIONARY CHARACTERS 
 
 forming magic of genius," as the same great writer ob- 
 serves, " displays a number of atrocious savages in a hide- 
 ous slaughterhouse of men, as demigods in a temple of 
 glory."* Yes, and the infatuated millions surround the 
 temple with songs of praise, and offer incense to the san- 
 guinary deities within ! "What is military greatness, Sir, 
 as compared with that which is moral ? You will remem- 
 ber Addison's beautiful remark relative to the judgment of 
 the angelic world respecting the comparative greatness of 
 the military and the moral character: — "The evening walk 
 of a wise man is more illustrious in their sight than the 
 march of a general at the head of a hundred thousand 
 soldiers ! Men are denominated great and glorious, only 
 by an unfeigned exercise of humility — by a contemplation 
 of God's works, and by a generous concern for the good 
 of mankind I" Moral greatness is " first pure, then peace- 
 able, gentle, and easy to be entreated, full of mercy and 
 of good fruits." The military hero's selfish, sanguinary 
 greatness vanishes like vapour before the rising sun, in the 
 presence of the generous, the social greatness, which flows 
 from Christian principle. True greatness is personal. It 
 resides in the soul, and is, therefore, independent of mat- 
 ter. It is immortal as its temple ! Extremes try men. 
 The world has been furnished with a fruitful example in 
 the history of Napoleon. Let us look at the late military 
 monarch of France, the dictator of Europe, without his 
 crown, his throne, and his legions, during his testing exile 
 on the solitary rock of St. Helena. Let us compare the 
 hero at arms, the world's wonder, with John Williams, the 
 English Missionary, on the islands of the South Seas. 
 How poor and pitiful, in my esteem at least, is the great, 
 proud soldier beside the humble, meek evangelist ! There 
 we see the real character of the man — 
 
 * Foster's Essays, p. 342. 
 
ILLUSTRATED, COMPARED, AND CONTRASTED. 357 
 
 " Whose game was empire, and whose stakes were thrones, 
 Whose table, earth, — whose dice were human bones ! 
 Smile to survey the queller of the nations, 
 Now daily squabbling o'er disputed rations !" 
 
 I defend not the barbarity of his treatment by our go- 
 vernment and its representative. I blush for it ! I speak 
 of the man, apart from his imperial dominions, and, with- 
 out hesitation, I submit that he cannot, for a moment, 
 bear comparison with the murdered missionary just men- 
 tioned. In Williams you behold the voluntary and happy 
 exile for the sake of humanity and religion, — the zealous 
 and stedfast adherent of Christian truth — alone, unsup- 
 ported by physical force or regal authority — with no ad- 
 miring crowds to inspire courage and cheer sadness — with 
 little to excite vanity or nourish energy. In Williams, 
 thus situated, you see a man of God, calmly, but reso- 
 lutely, with invincible patience and unwearied persever- 
 ance, consecrating his time, his talents, his all, without 
 money and without price, to the work of Christian phi- 
 lanthropy, and waiting for his reward in a future world. 
 In this heroic man, the Light of Polynesia, now, alas ! ex- 
 tinct, you are presented with an exhibition of real moral 
 greatness — of that sublime and quiet energy which alone 
 is adequate to the demands of the Missionary's high voca- 
 tion. We see in John Williams a man entirely controlled 
 by the love of Christ, blended with compassion for perish- 
 ing men — a man giving himself up to the arduous work of 
 civilizing the barbarous, and saving the lost. In behalf 
 of these objects he sacrifices friendship with its many 
 sweets, home with all its endearments, England with all 
 its comforts and luxuries, braves the perils of the deep, 
 reaches the isles of the Pacific, and there takes up his 
 abode for life among savage men ! To you, Sir ! I appeal, 
 and submit that here is a greatness which utterly eclipses 
 
^58 THE MILITARY AND MISSIONARY CHARACTERS 
 
 that of military men, whether in prosperous or in adverse 
 circumstances. Tried by the test of the missionary prin- 
 ciple, as exemplified in Williams, how insignificant an ob- 
 ject was the late ruler of France in his proudest hour ! 
 There was not the smallest ingredient of this celestial 
 greatness in his marble heart. Even when clothed with 
 all but superhuman power, it may well be doubted whe- 
 ther the thought of using it to advance the glory of God 
 and the real good of mankind ever once crossed his earthly 
 mind. It may well be questioned whether the slightest 
 thought of promoting peace on earth and good will among 
 men, — of introducing into the world a new and a happier 
 era, — of ennobling the character and improving the condi- 
 tion of his race, ever entered his selfish soul ! When ele- 
 vated to the rank of First Consul, it is true he uttered a 
 series of noble conceptions in his letter to George III., 
 the main portion of which, as it is material to my general 
 object, I may be allowed to recite. " Shall the war," said 
 he, M which has already ravaged the four quarters of the 
 globe, during eight years, be eternal, and can no means 
 be taken to extinguish it? Why should the two most 
 enlightened nations in Europe, whose power and inde- 
 pendence are sufficiently ascertained, sacrifice to vain ideas 
 of grandeur, the advantages resulting from commerce, in- 
 ternal prosperity, and the happiness of families ? Why do 
 they not consider peace the first want, as well as the first 
 glory, of a people ? — France and England, by the abuse of 
 their respective resources, might still for a long time con- 
 tinue a contest involving the misery of other countries. 
 But I dare venture to assert that the fate of all civilized 
 nations is connected with the conclusion of a war which 
 has set the whole world in commotion." — These sentiments 
 are doubtless full of truth as well as seeming dignity ; but 
 they are the dictates of expediency in the guise of feel- 
 ing. They are not in harmony with the ruling spirit and 
 
ILLUSTRATED, COMPARED, AND CONTRASTED. ^59 
 
 passion of the man, who, when only a lad at the military 
 school, wrote thus to his mother : — " With my sword by 
 my side, and my Homer in my pocket, I hope to find my 
 way through the world." 
 
 The spirit of disinterestedness and of self-sacrifice for 
 the good of his species was wholly incompatible with his 
 blood-thirsty ambition and callous barbarity, or rather it 
 was diametrically opposed to them. A man is known by 
 his company. On declaring that he loved no man — not 
 even his brothers — he excepted the fierce Duroc. "Duroc! 
 yes ; him I certainly love. But why ? His character suits 
 me. He is cold, severe, unfeeling ; and then Duroc never 
 weeps!" His tyrant passions were completely at variance 
 with true magnanimity. Moral greatness is of a nature 
 too simple, modest, holy and heavenly, to make itself for 
 one hour the theme, the gaze, and the wonder of a daz- 
 zled, deluded, infatuated world ! His doctrine was that 
 M Friendship is but a name." " As to me," said he, " it 
 is all one ; I well know that I have no true friends. While 
 I remain what I am, I can make as many of them as I like, 
 in appearance."* He spoke the truth, as the experiment 
 bore witness. Such was the man of blood, at whose name 
 nations trembled; the man who fought and won nearly 
 fifty pitched battles : — 
 
 " Nor till his fall could mortals guess 
 Ambition's less than littleness ! 
 Nor think that God's fair world had been 
 The footstool of a thing so mean ! 
 Oh ! ne'er may tyrant leave behind 
 A brighter name to lure mankind!" 
 
 But in the midst of indignation, let me not be unjust. 
 I have no wish, and, in addressing you, Sir, it were vain 
 to attempt to conceal the fact, honourable to the warrior, 
 
 * Bourienne, vol. ii. p. 28. 
 
ggQ THE MILITARY AND MISSIONARY CHARACTERS 
 
 that at times he had his misgivings. A feeling of com- 
 punction has been known to wring from him the confes- 
 sion that human havoc was an act of doubtful merit. " Is 
 it worth while," he would say, " to desolate the world for 
 so slight a memorial ? * On the day after a battle, as he 
 rode over the field, and beheld the horrid havoc which 
 surrounded him, reason and humanity would for a moment 
 gain the ascendency ; and he would say to his attend- 
 ants, " What is war ? A trade of barbarians !" This ex- 
 traordinary man was, in fact, aware that his own immor- 
 tality would turn less upon his warlike than upon his 
 peaceful achievements. He knew that the military star 
 was but a meteor, and that in all past ages like a meteor 
 it had risen, and like a meteor, had fallen. You will recol- 
 lect his expression, " I have framed and carried into effect 
 a Code of Laws that will bear my name to the most distant 
 posterity. My Code alone, from its simplicity, has been 
 more beneficial to France than the whole mass of laws 
 which preceded it." Thus he frankly disclosed his full 
 conviction that the glory of the useful lawgiver was more 
 durable than that of the most brilliant conqueror. The 
 great American statesman, Webster, puts this point well, 
 in the following words : — " Of the ten thousand battles 
 which have been fought ; of all the fields fertilized with 
 carnage; of the banners which have been bathed in blood; 
 of the warriors who had hoped that they had risen from 
 the field of conquest to a glory as bright and durable as 
 the stars, how few that continue long to interest man- 
 kind !" This witness is true. The moral benefits which 
 Napoleon conferred, directly and indirectly, upon France 
 and other countries, — for, apart from his military mis- 
 deeds, you will agree with me that such benefits were 
 numerous, various, and great — will be remembered for 
 
 * Bourienne, vol. ii. p. 208 % 
 
ILLUSTRATED, COMPARED, AND CONTRASTED. %Q\ 
 
 centuries to come, and rehearsed to his honour, when all 
 his blood-stained glories have vanished like a vision of the 
 night. 
 
 But, Sir ! if such be the superiority of the legislatorial 
 to the military character, how shall we estimate that of 
 the missionary ? His case must be dealt with absolutely ; 
 comparison with either of them would be almost prepos- 
 terous ; he stands alone in his glory. In whatever light 
 the missionary character may be viewed, it is one of 
 shining, unmixed, and ever-during excellency. It is fast 
 becoming the great and leading character of our times. 
 It has already quite eclipsed every other, and its glories 
 are yet but rising. What, then, will be its meridian of 
 splendour ? The promotion of civilization must hence- 
 forth be the great business of all nations, and in that 
 business the missionary must be the prime agent. All 
 things are ready. Maritime discovery is nearly complete ; 
 Inland research is also far advanced. The printing press 
 is brought to a state of great perfection ; the science of 
 mechanics has advanced with giant strides ; and the ex- 
 tension of steam power, from railways, rivers, coasting, to 
 universal navigation, has triumphed over space both on 
 land and water. Literature, in all its branches, has been 
 enriched by the genius of ten thousand generous and 
 gifted minds. Education, too, has largely shared in the 
 general progress. The word of God is translated into all 
 the leading languages of our world. All this, Sir, is done. 
 What then remains ? The application of the mighty whole 
 to the real improvement of mankind. Who is to open up 
 the way for the operative, the schoolmaster, the merchant, 
 and the philosopher ? He who has always opened it, and 
 who alone can both open and keep it open, — the Christian 
 Missionary. Through his means the knowledge of the 
 Lord shall, in due season, cover the earth. All nations 
 
 R 
 
3Q2 THE MILITARY AND MISSIONARY CHARACTERS 
 
 will assuredly receive it. This, and this alone, will be the 
 source of true, complete, and lasting civilization. 
 
 It cannot be doubted that a man of your characteristic 
 habits, has been led to inquire into the most efficient 
 methods of promoting* civilization. I rejoice, indeed, to 
 find that you are fully committed to an opinion upon this 
 subject by the Address of the " Society for the extinction 
 of the Slave-trade, and for the civilization of Africa," 
 which, by a sort of hereditary claim, has the honour to 
 enrol you among its members. In that address it is em- 
 phatically asserted that the only cure for the grievous 
 maladies of Africa, is " the introduction of Christianity" — 
 in other words, to send to it a sufficient supply of Chris- 
 tian missionaries, for that is the plain English of the ex- 
 pression. Christianity can only be diffused by those in 
 whom it resides as its living temples. If such, Sir, be the 
 fact, can any thing further be required to show the para- 
 mount importance of the missionary character ? He is, he 
 has ever been, the great and the only true civilizer of 
 mankind. On him alone the hope of all heathen lands, at 
 this moment, entirely depends. He alone can bring them 
 deliverance. It must be very pleasing to the friends of 
 the heathen to know that you have really begun to give 
 the subject your serious attention. Every thing connected 
 with human society and the affairs of nations, however 
 important in itself, is really insignificant as compared with 
 the work of Missions. Their temporal is only second to 
 their je ternal importance. The question of universal civi- 
 lization is mainly a question of Missions. May I cherish 
 the belief that you have read the principal portion of the 
 Missionary publications issued within the last twenty 
 years, and, above all, the " Missionary Enterprises," in 
 the South Seas, by the Rev. John Williams ? That work I 
 respectfully offer to you as at once the proof and illustration 
 
ILLUSTRATED, COMPARED, AND CONTRASTED. ^63 
 
 of all my assertions on this point. The present Bishop 
 of Chester, — an authority, you will grant, of the firs^ 
 order in such matters, — after perusing that work, declared 
 that " he knew not whether he would not willingly put 
 away at least half the folios which he possessed, rather 
 than part with one volume which had recently been pub- 
 lished by the Missionary Williams !" Such a statement, 
 from such a man, surely bespeaks a corresponding degree 
 of merit in the work. The causes which have produced 
 such effects in Polynesia, are causes to whose power no 
 limits can be set. The power which wrought such won- 
 ders is equal to the working of any thing. "We have 
 only to multiply the same sort of agency, in order to 
 adorn and bless all countries with similar results. 
 
 Let me most earnestly entreat you, Sir, if you have not 
 yet had leisure to read Williams, to give him a careful 
 perusal. It is of the first importance to this first of 
 earthly causes, that you, and all legislators and men of 
 letters, should seriously entertain this question. It is in 
 your own power, singly, most materially to forward it. It 
 is supremely to be desired that the Edinburgh Review 
 should heartily espouse this great cause. It has never yet 
 put forth its giant strength on any theme, that equally 
 deserved the utmost stretch of its highest power. The 
 question of Missions is, moreover, a standing subject. Not 
 a new work of any importance on Missions ought to pass 
 without notice in the pages of that journal. And, inde- 
 pendently of such works, were it to put forth an annual 
 article upon all the Missionary Reports, it would render 
 an invaluable service to the general cause of civilization 
 and of universal humanity. The Annual Reports of the 
 Church of England, the Church of Scotland, the London, 
 the Baptist, the Wesleyan, and Moravian Missionary Soci- 
 eties, would supply abundant materials for discussions and 
 dissertations, which, for oecumenical importance, practical 
 
 r2 
 
364 THE MIL I TARY AND MISSIONARY CHARACTERS 
 
 utility, philanthropic interest, and moral grandeur, have 
 never been equalled in its most brilliant, profound, and 
 enlightened lucubrations. 
 
 It is to be hoped that the infamous articles* on Metho- 
 dism and Missions, will not prove a bar in the way of such 
 a course. Because the original conductor of the journal 
 erred in admitting such miserable slanders, are his suc- 
 cessors, in all coming time, bound to exclude missionary 
 literature, or else to vilify its authors, that they may 
 maintain consistency in error ? Surely this is not the way 
 to atone for the wrongs perpetrated upon the cause of 
 humanity, and for the injuries inflicted upon the charac- 
 ters of honourable men! Frankly to confess mistakes, and 
 promptly to repair them, is among the finest traits of 
 noble natures. The path of justice, moreover, is always 
 the path of wisdom, as well as of prudence. Whatever 
 tends to promote the glory of God and the good of man- 
 kind can never be impolitic. Forgetting all that is past — 
 and the Christian public will readily unite in such an act 
 of oblivion — let the Review come forth at once as the advo- 
 cate of Christian Missions, on the largest scale, and the 
 most liberal principles. Let the reverend traducer who 
 wrote the articles in question, be at once thrown over- 
 board ! It might wound his pride to see the Review 
 practically disown his productions, but it might also serve 
 to appease his conscience. As he still lives, he must have 
 seen enough of the beneficent results of Missions to cover 
 him with confusion! He and his co-operatives, in the 
 manufacture of impiety and falsehood, have had time to 
 ascertain the effect of the " pestilent absurdities" of the 
 gospel ; they may now witness, in the work of Williams, 
 "the extent of the mischief of that delirious enthusiasm, 
 which is still more pernicious in its remote consequences 
 
 * Vol. xi. p. 341 ; xii. 153 ; xiv. 83. 
 
ILLUSTRATED, COMPARED, AND CONTRASTED. 3^5 
 
 than in its immediate effects."* The isles of the South 
 Seas are tolerably "remote" as to space, and thirty-three 
 years are tolerably "remote" as to time. How it is to be 
 wished that the venerable libeller would now favour the 
 world with his septuagesimal reflections on the deeds of 
 his unreflecting youth ! The friends of Missions are now 
 in circumstances to answer his question : — "Why are we to 
 send out little detachments of maniacs to spread over the 
 fine regions of the world the most unjust and contemptible 
 opinions of the gospel ? " Their reply is, Read Williams's 
 " Missionary Enterprises" in the South Seas, and behold 
 the work of the madmen ! 
 
 With respect to the duty of attempts to convert the 
 heathen, the reverend adversary of Missions says, " It is 
 somewhat strange, in a duty which is stated by one party 
 to be so clear and so indispensable, that no man of mode- 
 ration and good sense can be found to perform it : and, if 
 no other instruments remain but visionary enthusiasts, 
 some doubt may be honestly raised, whether it is not bet- 
 ter to drop the scheme entirely." Let him read Williams's 
 " Missionary Enterprises" in the South Seas, and behold 
 the work of the enthusiasts ! The conscience of the critic, 
 towards the end of his second article, seems to have be- 
 come rather uneasy, and hence he concludes with the 
 following passage by way of caveat and redemption. 
 " For ourselves, if there were a fair prospect of carrying 
 the gospel into regions where it was before unknown, — 
 if such a project did not expose the best possessions of the 
 country to extreme danger, — and if it was in the hands of 
 men who were discreet, as well as devout, we should con- 
 sider it to be a scheme of true piety, benevolence, and 
 wisdom: but the baseness and malignity of fanaticism 
 shall never prevent us from attacking its arrogance, its 
 
 * Vol. xiv. p. 83. 
 
ggg THE MILITARY AND MISSIONARY CHARACTERS 
 
 ignorance, and its activity. For what vice can be more 
 tremendous than that which, while it wears the outward 
 appearance of religion, destroys the happiness of man, and 
 dishonours the name of God ?"* To all this we reply, 
 Read Williams's " Missionary Enterprises" in the South 
 Seas, and behold the fruits of fanaticism ! The clerical 
 calumniator, at the close of his first article, thus expresses 
 his solicitude for the good of his country : — " It is impos- 
 sible to say what political animosities may not be ingraft- 
 ed upon this marked and dangerous division of mankind 
 into the godly and the ungodly / At all events, we are 
 quite sure that happiness will be destroyed, reason de- 
 graded, sound religion banished from the world ; and that, 
 when fanaticism becomes too foolish and too prurient to 
 be endured, (as is at last sure to be the case,) it will be 
 succeeded by a long period of the grossest immorality, 
 atheism, and debauchery. Whatever happens, we are for 
 common sense and orthodoxy. Insolence, servile politics, 
 and the spirit of persecution, we condemn and attack, 
 whenever we observe them; — but to the learning, the 
 moderation, and the rational piety of the Establishment, 
 we most earnestly wish a decided victory over the non- 
 sense, the melancholy, and the madness of the Taber- 
 nacle."! To all this again I reply, Read Williams's 
 " Missionary Enterprises" in the South Seas, and behold 
 the results of the work of the men who laboured most 
 deeply under these mental maladies ! Williams was, be- 
 yond all question, and all comparison, one of the maddest 
 and most melancholy members of " the Tabernacle." 
 
 The present Conductor of the Edinburgh Review is not 
 to be held responsible for the folly, ignorance, impiety, 
 and injustice of the articles from which these extracts are 
 taken. They were highly mischievous in their tendencies 
 
 * Vol. xii. p. 181. f Vol. xi. pp. 361, 362. 
 
ILLUSTRATED, COMPARED, AND CONTRASTED. 3g7 
 
 at the time of their appearance, both at home and abroad. 
 Their evil effects have long since, however, been obliter- 
 ated ; but a large debt of reparation is still due from that 
 journal, to a cause which is that of the whole human race, 
 as well as to a people who form the wisest, the most vir- 
 tuous and philanthropic portion of mankind, who are 
 now counted by millions, and are spread among all na- 
 tions. It is to be hoped that the learned conductor feels 
 a conviction of the justice of this debt. There can be no 
 doubt of it. In proof, I rejoice to acknowledge that he 
 has honourably paid one instalment of it in his review of 
 the Voyages and Travels of Tyerman and Bennet, deputed 
 from the London Missionary Society to visit their various 
 stations in the South Sea islands, China, India, Africa, and 
 other places, between the years 1821 and 1829. In that 
 just article there are concessions made which, on its ap- 
 pearance, multitudes of right-minded men read with much 
 satisfaction, and which go far to furnish an antidote to the 
 malignant virus of the adverse articles already quoted. It 
 is there stated that the volumes w relate some very re- 
 markable phenomena in the history and condition of rude 
 nations, and give a more striking view of the existing state 
 of the heathen world, and of its dawning day of civiliza- 
 tion, science, and religion, than has been furnished from 
 any other quarter ; and that the account of the islands of 
 the South Sea is peculiarly interesting, as offering to our 
 view some of the most remarkable moral improvements 
 that the world has seen since the early diffusion of Chris- 
 tianity." The article concludes with the declaration that 
 the Deputation " accomplished one of the most varied, 
 interesting, and instructive expeditions of which we have 
 any record."* Sir, the whole missionary community esti- 
 mate these concessions at their due value. They set the 
 
 * Vol. lvii. pp. 80—95. 
 
£gg THE MILITARY AND MISSIONARY CHARACTERS 
 
 greatest store by them. Such acknowledgments, from 
 such a quarter, it is scarcely possible too highly to appre- 
 ciate. That community, moreover, take them as an ear- 
 nest of something more, and of something still better. I 
 say better, for, although the opinions just recited are 
 highly nattering, still they are but opinions. The article 
 is merely a mass of extracts, with a few connecting sen- 
 tences. There is a total remission of that intellectual 
 might, profound research, and amplified discussion which, 
 upon all great questions of a literary, scientific, or political 
 order, characterise the Edinburgh Review, The writer 
 appears to have merely lounged, wondered, and admired, 
 while he read the marvellous record of the Deputation, 
 without once arousing himself to reflection or to inquiry. 
 What labour, what vigour, what brilliancy, the Review 
 has from time to time displayed in articles upon romance, 
 poetry, and party strife ! Yes ; and often upon subjects 
 of little general interest, and of absolutely no intrinsic 
 importance. It will be a bright day for letters, for science, 
 for jurisprudence, and for all that is dear to man, when 
 the literature of Missions shall become a reverend subject 
 of intense and constant attention in all the great organs of 
 literature. I do fervently hope that the Edinburgh Re- 
 view will quickly step forth and take the lead in this most 
 urgent and laudable of all intellectual labours. In this 
 walk it may yet earn laurels inexpressibly more glorious 
 than those which it has already reaped. 
 
 It merits the attention of the Edinburgh reviewers, that 
 the business of Christian Missions is fast becoming a na- 
 tional matter. Men of all classes, from the peasant to the 
 peer, and Christians of all sects, from the Established 
 churches to the Plymouth brethren, are becoming en- 
 grossed by its consideration. Even the heads and chiefs 
 of the literary world have not only begun to look with 
 favour upon the undertaking, but are lending their 
 
ILLUSTRATED, COMPARED, AND CONTRASTED. 3^9 
 
 powerful aid to promote its success. That great national 
 work, the Encyclopedia Britannica, has done itself 
 lasting credit by the insertion of a valuable article upon 
 the subject. The Quarterly Review, also, — which, not- 
 withstanding difference of opinion on certain points, must, 
 I think, be allowed to have done immense service to let- 
 ters, science, humanity, and religion,— is boldly putting 
 forth its great power in behalf of this cause. It has al- 
 ready done excellent service by its articles on missionary 
 works. The question of the general principle of Missions, 
 in fact, is carried among the ruling minds of the empire. 
 It is, therefore, every hour assuming a more practical as- 
 pect. In this highest enterprise of philanthropy, as in 
 every thing appertaining to civilization, the first place is 
 held by England. May our beloved country continue to 
 be in the cause of Missions what she so long was in the 
 cause of Mars ! To adopt the words of a youthful writer, 
 the gifted son of a gifted sire : — 
 
 " Rule — but, Britain, rule no more, 
 As thou didst in days of yore, 
 With fierce war, with battle dire, 
 Bow, and sword, and cannon's fire ; 
 Shed no more thy richest blood 
 O'er Earth's plains, on Ocean's flood ; 
 But let war's dominion cease, 
 In thy last, long reign of peace. 
 Then, when the flag of peace unfurl'd 
 Shall freely wave o'er all the world, 
 The warrior's sword, with flowers enwreathed, 
 Rest undisturb'd, unhandled, sheathed ; 
 The bloodless spear, the broken bow, 
 Musket and battle-axe laid low, — 
 Forgotten, lost, unused shall stay, 
 Or, rescued from dim rust's decay, 
 Re-forged, some peaceful form shall take, 
 Of reaping-hook, or plough, or brake ; 
 R3 
 
370 THE MILITARY AND MISSIONARY CHARACTERS, ETC 
 
 Then, then shall Truth revisit earth, 
 Religion know a second birth ; 
 The wilderness in gladness bloom, 
 Life, cheer the lonely desert's gloom ; 
 Faith, make the blind bright visions see, 
 And Justice set the captive free. 
 Then Britannia o'er the deep 
 Shall still her march triumphant keep ; 
 Not answering with her cannon's roar 
 The booming waves ; but, to the shore 
 Of some unbrightened region bound, 
 Where error's last remains are found, 
 Bear gladly to the distant strands, 
 Of those expecting, thirsting lands, 
 Hopes with health and vigour rife, 
 Words of Everlasting Life." 
 
 To you, Sir, are entrusted powers which, perhaps, be- 
 yond those of any other living writer, may be rendered 
 instrumental in awakening the learned world and the 
 great world to the claims of the Missionary character, and 
 to the beneficence and glory of the Missionary enterprise ! 
 By consecrating to this object your genius, your talents, 
 and your attainments, you, Sir, will treasure up no bitter- 
 ness for that hour which is now on the wing, and which 
 will soon arrive, both to the friends and to the enemies of 
 Revelation and of Missions. To this may the hand of 
 Heaven direct your energies ! May you be long spared, and 
 abundantly prospered in all your endeavours to enlighten, 
 to elevate, and bless mankind! And at length, when 
 gathered to your fathers, and numbered with the illustri- 
 ous dead, may you receive one of those crowns of glory 
 which will be awarded to all those who labour to advance 
 the kingdom of Heaven upon earth ! 
 
LETTER XIII, 
 
 TO FIELD MARSHAL THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON. 
 
 MILITARY AND MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE ILLUSTRATED, COMPARED, AND 
 CONTRASTED, IN RELATION TO THEIR RESPECTIVE CHARACTERS, 
 CLAIMS, AND GLORY. 
 
 My Lord Duke, — I beg leave to address your Grace 
 upon two subjects which I conceive to be of the utmost 
 importance to mankind. These subjects are War and 
 Missions. With the latter there is reason to believe your 
 Grace is not intimately acquainted, and I am, therefore, 
 anxious to place before you some of its principles, and a 
 few of the facts by which those principles are illustrated. 
 I shall, at the same time, take the liberty of inquiring a 
 little into a subject with which you are profoundly con- 
 versant, and of venturing to express a judgment on the 
 respective merits of the soldier and the missionary. Every 
 age has had its heroes, and those heroes have been its 
 gods, to whom have been raised statues, columns, and 
 temples, in addition to the more substantial rewards of 
 wealth, rank, and privilege. There is reason to hope that 
 this order of heroes is coming to an end ; for certain it 
 is, that the sword will not devour for ever. The prime 
 function of military heroes has been, to destroy men's 
 lives ; but the field now begins to be taken by a new order 
 
372 MILITARY AND MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE 
 
 of heroes, whose special province it is to save them. No 
 glory or utility, your Grace will allow, can attach to war 
 but as it makes for peace. Now whether is the greater, 
 he who extinguishes a conflagration, or he who prevents 
 it ? "When wisdom shall govern our world, and mankind 
 shall use their reason, military enterprise will be little 
 thought of; and they who aspire to conduct it, they 
 whose occupation is war, will be viewed with small favour. 
 That day, I trust, is now dawning ; and I would fain hope, 
 that your Grace is England's last Great Warrior. " Sol- 
 diers of fortune" must soon lay aside their swords, and 
 devote their faculties to the arts of peace. The mission- 
 ary character, in all points the reverse of the military, is 
 fast commanding the attention of mankind ; and the sense 
 of its claims is becoming hourly stronger. Hitherto the 
 power of the sword has been paramount, its reign uni- 
 versal. Mortal strife has, for thousands of years, been 
 the pride of princes, and the business of nations. The 
 experiment is sufficient. The efficacy of the sword, as an 
 instrument of civilization, has been fully tried ; with what 
 success, let the whole earth proclaim. It is now time for 
 mankind to sit down and calculate the commercial and 
 political, the moral and religious value of military enter- 
 prise. 
 
 May I be permitted to point your Grace's attention 
 backward for two or three thousand years, that I may ex- 
 hibit before you the images, and remind you of the feats, 
 of some of the principal destroyers of mankind ? In at- 
 tempting this, it is needless to go beyond Alexander, 
 whose career commenced upwards of three hundred years 
 before the Christian era. He is indisputably the grand 
 prototype of modern martial heroes. Alexander's father 
 having trampled on the liberties of Greece, was meditat- 
 ing the subjugation of other nations, when he was cut off. 
 The son at once proceeded to carry out his father's pur- 
 
ILLUSTRATED, COMPARED, AND CONTRASTED. 373 
 
 pose ; and the first step of his dreadful course gave man- 
 kind an earnest of his future operations. When the noble 
 Thebans made an attempt to recover the freedom of which 
 they had been cruelly robbed by Philip, Alexander, hav- 
 ing taken the city by storm, levelled it with the ground, 
 and sold thirty thousand of the virtuous and innocent 
 inhabitants into slavery. The conqueror's progress was 
 worthy of his commencement. He rushed forth like a 
 dragon, to destroy mankind, and desolate the earth. We 
 next behold him on the banks of the Granicus, fearfully 
 polluting its pure streams with the blood of man. Anon 
 we find him at Issus, mowing down a host of six hundred 
 thousand men, who had come to oppose him in defence of 
 their king and country. Soon afterwards we view him 
 filling the famous city of Tyre with unutterable calamity, 
 taking it by storm, and, to gratify his vengeance, crucify- 
 ing two thousand of its defenceless inhabitants. See him 
 again at Arbela, assailing Darius, the lawful and unoffend- 
 ing king, who, with six hundred and forty thousand men, 
 came forth to repel the invader, and who left behind him 
 three hundred thousand of them slaughtered by the hero ! 
 Such are the deeds he actually performed ; but these were 
 only the buddings of his military glory ! Nothing could 
 satisfy his thirst of power but the subjugation of the globe 
 itself. He aspired to plant his blood-stained foot on the 
 neck of all nations ; and, when it was suggested that the 
 number of worlds was infinite, he burst into tears because 
 he could not ascend to the stars, and carry his conquests 
 throughout creation. 
 
 Such was Alexander, son of Philip, king of Macedon ; 
 and for these remorseless cruelties and dreadful crimes 
 men have called him Great ! Great he doubtless was, but 
 it was in wickedness. He seems like an angel of death, 
 who, by some error in the operations of nature, had be- 
 come incarnate, and received a commission to desolate the 
 
374 MILITARY AND MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE 
 
 fairest portion of the earth, and to butcher its innocent 
 inhabitants ! He finished as became him. He crowned 
 his sanguinary career of audacious ambition by actually 
 claiming for himself divine honours ! I marvel not that 
 his claim was conceded by a benighted world. For in- 
 tellectual power, for impetuous passion, for impious am- 
 bition, and for destructive genius, he has had no equal. 
 Thus far I grant that he was Great ; but my inquiry is, 
 was he good ? Was the world the better for his exist- 
 ence ? Did he promote the cause of human happiness ? 
 Did he advance one hair's breadth the progress of liberty 
 and civilization ? Ah ! my Lord Duke, it had been well 
 for the nations of the East had he never been born ! He 
 deserved neither a tear, nor a tomb ! He richly merited 
 to be hissed off the stage of being, and driven into dark- 
 ness by the curses of mankind ! His name should have 
 been blotted out of the vocabulary of their tongues, or, if 
 retained, it ought never to have been pronounced but with 
 execration and horror ! In all respects he is diametrically 
 opposed to the spirit, principles, and procedure of the 
 Christian Missionary. The one destroys, the other builds 
 up, the social edifice. The one imparts felicity, the other 
 inflicts calamity. The presence of the missionary excites 
 songs of gladness ; the presence of the warrior extorts 
 groans of grief. The latter is a scourge, the former a 
 comforter, of mankind. 
 
 Caesar, I need not remind your Grace, was a meet suc- 
 cessor of Alexander, at a distance of some two centuries. 
 He applied a master's hand in crushing the nations of the 
 West. To fit him for the work of evil, not one additional 
 quality of any kind was wanting. With a frame of iron, 
 and intellectual powers approaching to perfection, a taste 
 exquisitely refined, an eloquence unrivalled, or rivalled 
 only by one, — with manners and habits the most polished 
 and popular, reckless, prodigal, and splendid— with a cou- 
 
ILLUSTRATED, COMPARED, AND CONTRASTED. 
 
 375 
 
 rage that feared no danger, a perseverance that knew no 
 weariness, and a sagacity which penetrated all things — 
 with the impetuosity of a torrent, and the ambition of a 
 Lucifer — a perfect pattern of all vices, a matchless ex- 
 ample of all talents — he stood forth by far the most 
 accomplished deceiver and destroyer of men that had ever 
 appeared beneath the European sky. His career, from 
 the storming of Mitylene, to his own assassination in the 
 Senate-house, was one series of sanguinary atrocities. 
 His chief business, in his first province, was to pillage the 
 inhabitants to pay the debts incurred by his profligacy. 
 During the first division of his wars, he destroyed or took 
 some eight hundred towns and cities, — subdued three 
 hundred nations, — and butchered more than a million of 
 men ! What shall be said of the second division, termi- 
 nating, as it did, with the havoc of the plains of Munda ? 
 Who can estimate the amount of calamity which this con- 
 queror brought upon mankind ? Is not his conduct also 
 inconceivably aggravated by the fact, that his wars were 
 not defensive, but aggressive — wanton, covetous, or ambi- 
 tious invasions and outrages on innocent kingdoms ? But 
 how shall I speak of the climax of his crimes, the plung- 
 ing of his sword into the heart of his own country ? Did 
 the sun ever look down upon a conflict so dreadful, so in- 
 human, so diabolical, as that of Pharsalia, in which fathers 
 slew their children, and thousands fell by brothers' hands ? 
 Such, my Lord Duke, was Julius Caesar, whom man- 
 kind have so lavishly lauded, so heedlessly glorified. 
 Among his reputed excellences, some men of letters have 
 actually celebrated his " humanity." How blinding to the 
 keenest vision is the glory of war! The humanity of 
 Caesar ! This ruthless soldier, this victim of a cruel ambi- 
 tion, aimed at nothing short of the complete subjugation 
 of mankind. To promote their welfare, in the smallest 
 degree, never entered his thoughts. He would have 
 
376 MILITARY AND MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE 
 
 deemed the blood of one-half of the human race a cheap 
 price to pay for the thorough conquest and enthralment 
 of the other ! In his eye men were no more accounted 
 of than beasts. His dispensation was destruction. His 
 glory was celebrated by the wail of widowed and father- 
 less millions, by the groans of nations, and the crash of 
 the fallen liberties of his native country ! Let Caesar, the 
 emperor, only be compared with Paul, the Missionary, in 
 spirit, in principle, in action, in character, and work. 
 Paul, too, in his own way, was a warrior. The distance 
 of time between their respective appearances, was not 
 great ; they both in part acted in the same spheres, and 
 on the same people. The efforts of their several opera- 
 tions may be examined, compared, or contrasted. They 
 may be tested also by extension. Ten thousand Caesars 
 within fifty years, would have done much towards the 
 utter depopulation of the globe ; a like number of Pauls 
 would, within the same space, have done as much towards 
 filling it with the blessings of truth, knowledge, liberty, 
 purity, piety, peace, and happiness. Which, then, is the 
 great man ? Which of the enterprises merits the epithet, 
 glorious ? As were the respective works, such also were 
 the agents in their performance. The spiritual and moral 
 difference between Caesar and Paul is inconceivable. 
 Caesar was the chief priest of Roman idolatry ; Paul the 
 Heaven-taught and Heaven-sent teacher of Christianity. 
 The men were as opposite as their functions ; and their 
 effects as diverse as either. Paul enlightened the nations, 
 and lifted them up to fellowship with God. Caesar sub- 
 dued, oppressed, enslaved them. Caesar's weapon was the 
 sword; Paul's, the truth of the gospel. The one, like 
 Apollyon, destroyed men's lives ; the other, like Messiah, 
 saved them. 
 
 Alexander and Caesar may suffice as illustrations of the 
 military enterprise of the ancient world. I will not dwell 
 
ILLUSTRATED, COMPARED, AND CONTRASTED. 377 
 
 on Jenghiz Khan, and the madmen of the Middle Ages, 
 but, coming at once to more modern times, fix upon 
 Charles XII., of Sweden. This savage sovereign, from 
 his youth, was bent on being a hero. He resolved to 
 become the Alexander of the North. He was, however, 
 in all things an original. He possessed few points in 
 common with either Alexander or Cassar, — few, indeed, 
 in common with any of mankind. As compared with 
 these conquerors, however, in several material differences, 
 the advantages are wholly on his side. Notwithstanding 
 his intense passion for military fame, his earlier wars were 
 defensive. When neighbouring powers plotted cruel acts 
 of aggression upon his tender youth, he awoke from that 
 strange stupor, in which he had spent his previous years. 
 His whole character was in a moment changed. He 
 utterly and for ever renounced and abjured all sensual 
 indulgence ; he laid aside all regal magnificence, and 
 adopted the most rigid economy. In May, 1700, as your 
 Grace will remember, he left his capital for the war, and 
 commenced that career of brutish obstinacy, blind cou- 
 rage, and cold ferocity, by which he is distinguished from 
 the whole fraternity of heroes. He seems, in truth, to 
 have been considerably tinged with insanity. In support 
 of this allegation we have many facts, both of a public 
 and of a private character. His conduct at the great 
 battle of Pultowa, and especially at Bender, where he 
 braved the power of the Ottoman empire with three hun- 
 dred Swedes, and with that body began to fortify a mimic 
 camp in the face of an army of twenty-six thousand men, 
 more befitted an inmate of Bedlam than the sovereign of 
 a great nation. Of war as a science, Charles knew very 
 little; and he was still more ignorant of every other 
 branch of human knowledge. He was a transient but 
 severe scourge to many countries ; from the time that he 
 began to reign till the day of his death, he busied himself 
 
378 MILITARY AND MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE 
 
 entirely with the work of destruction. He was a great and 
 unmixed curse to his own people, and a blessing to none 
 besides. How to confer human happiness was never for a 
 single hour his study, and by none of his actions, for a 
 moment, did he ever gladden a solitary heart. He was 
 a cold, callous, selfish, ferocious wretch, who deserved nei- 
 ther love nor imitation. All he did was to augment the 
 misery of men, already miserable. His birth was a heavy 
 calamity to the earth ; and his death, at the early age of 
 thirty-six, was a deliverance to Europe. Nothing could 
 have been more fit than that such a monster should have 
 had an atheist for his historian. 
 
 Next, in order, my Lord Duke, you will doubtless allow 
 me to mention the name of Frederick the Great, of Prus- 
 sia, whose marvellous history equally demonstrates the 
 benefits of peace and the evils of war. He was one of the 
 mast gifted of the human race. In many points he closely 
 resembled Caesar. His talents were of every kind, and all 
 of the highest order. He was fitted alike to excel in the 
 arts of peace, and in the arts of war. His law reforms, as 
 comprised in the "Frederician Code," appear to have 
 been a glorious achievement; his works, as a man of 
 letters, entitle him to a place among the first writers of 
 his time ; his efforts to promote the Fine Arts, Learning, 
 Agriculture, and Commerce, do him lasting honour. Had 
 he rested satisfied with such deeds as these, and employed 
 his resources to promote them, great had been his glory. 
 But the demon of war possessed him, and he was occupied 
 with these pursuits only in the few and transient intervals 
 of a long and destructive career. He was the occasion of 
 great calamity to all the nations that were round about him. 
 He kept the north of Europe in one continual ferment. 
 There is scarce a place or city, of any name, adjacent to his 
 kingdom, which has not some tragic association with his 
 mighty but murderous achievements. Liege, Glogau, Mol- 
 
ILLUSTRATED, COMPARED, AND CONTRASTED. 379 
 
 witz, Czaslaw, Prague, Friedberg, Sohr, Kesseldorf, 
 Kolin, Rosbach, Lissa, Olmutz, Zorndorf, Zulichan, 
 Cunnersdorf, Lundshut, Dresden, Lignitz, Torgau, — to 
 mention no other — will, at the close of time, have to sur- 
 render an enormous mass of human dust, comprising the 
 bodies of those that were slain in the battles of Frederick. 
 To accomplish his military projects, he hesitated not to 
 perpetrate the most fearful enormities. He was an infi- 
 del, — if not an atheist — and the friend and companion of 
 infidels. Voltaire himself was long the object of his idol- 
 atry. He had no fear of God, and no love to man, al- 
 though it served the purpose of British policy to consider 
 him as a Protestant hero, fighting for the cause of religion 
 and liberty, and to form with him a subsidiary treaty, 
 commencing with a payment of little less than a million 
 sterling ! The blood and the treasure wasted in military 
 enterprise by Frederick, and those powers whom his 
 wrongs roused to resistance, had sufficed to civilize the 
 bulk of the nations of Europe. How great was the guilt 
 that rested on his head as he descended to the grave! 
 Nor did his mischief end with his death. Your Grace 
 needs not to be reminded that he was not only a consum- 
 mate master in the art of human slaughter, but that he 
 also formed his principles into a system, and published it 
 in a volume, which acquired a fatal celebrity, and became 
 the detestable instrument of advancing the cause of blood- 
 shed and barbarism. 
 
 The instances here specified may serve both as ancient 
 and more modern illustrations of the regal military cha- 
 racter in general, and of the nature and tendencies of 
 military enterprise in different ages of the world. Could 
 I remember a case of any warrior of distinction which 
 would present the matter in a more favourable light, I 
 would certainly state it ; but I believe there is none. I, 
 therefore, come at once to our own age, where the eye is 
 
380 MILITARY AND MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE 
 
 instantly met by the blazing star of Napoleon, who, even 
 if he stood alone, would sufficiently illustrate the whole 
 question of military enterprise. Would that he had thus 
 stood ! The appearance of such a man in the midst of a 
 world which had never known, and never heard of war, 
 would have been as the breaking forth of a dreadful vol- 
 cano in the midst of a fair and fertile country. Men 
 would have gazed upon him with wonder and terror, and 
 even after the tomb had received him, would have been 
 unable to mention his name without awe and horror ! 
 But unhappily the name of warriors is, Legion ; and Na- 
 poleon was only one of a multitude, of whom, if he was 
 not the worst, the difference arose from circumstances, and 
 not from any superiority or virtue. He was entirely void 
 of all moral principle ; and that he was not more wicked, 
 was, because the objects of his ambition did not require 
 the perpetration of greater enormities. In the career of 
 conquest, he spurned all laws, human and divine. He 
 was a law to himself, and aspired to make his will the rule 
 of mankind. The military crimes of Charles XII. were 
 limited to a comparatively small circle, and a brief period ; 
 those of Frederick II. were much larger, both as to time 
 and space ; those of Napoleon, although less than Fred- 
 erick's in point of time, were threefold greater in point of 
 space. It is not easy to conceive of a single military 
 power working a greater amount of mischief in the same 
 period. The chief business of all the nations of Europe 
 was war, of which he was the prime mover. If these wars 
 were meritorious, the praise is mainly due to Napoleon ; 
 and, if otherwise, his, too, is the demerit. I am far from 
 insinuating that he had no high qualities. In common 
 with all men, I have often felt the fascination of his mar- 
 vellous genius, and been frequently betrayed for a moment 
 into a foolish, a culpable admiration of his powers and 
 feats, and a sympathizing regret at his disasters. Nor do 
 
ILLUSTRATED, COMPARED, AND CONTRASTED. ggj 
 
 I deny that his tyranny and his wars have already led to 
 much good for the nations of Europe, and that good will 
 result to generations yet to come. But granting all this, 
 nothing is granted in behalf of military enterprise. The 
 submersion of England would be a source of commercial 
 gain to some other portions of the earth ; but who could 
 calculate the loss to all nations? Were such an event 
 within the compass of human power, and that power ex- 
 erted to effect it, would he by whom it was put forth be 
 entitled to rank as a benefactor of mankind ? It is thus, 
 I submit, that we must test the merits of Napoleon. The 
 problem to be solved, is, the effect of Buonaparte's wars 
 upon Europe. What has been the effect of those wars on 
 its peaceful arts, its agriculture, its commerce, its science, 
 its literature, its laws, its liberties, its morals, its religion, 
 its happiness, — in a word, on every thing that constitutes 
 civilization ? Your Grace is competent to answer most of 
 these questions. Would that their solution might occupy 
 your hours of leisure ! It would be the best service that 
 you can now render to mankind. What a narrative might 
 your pen produce ! No such period is known to Euro- 
 pean history as that comprised between the years 1794 
 and 1814. In no period of its history were there such 
 waste of blood and treasure, such violence and robbery, 
 such commotion, fear, flight, distress, and misery. These 
 calamities were confined to no one European country ; in 
 turns, they extended to all ; and in some, they were con- 
 tinual. What was the result at the close of the frightful 
 era ? Civilization had not advanced but retrograded. 
 Barbarity had become naturalized. All was confusion 
 and desolation. Had the same measure of intellectual, 
 moral, and physical energy been put forth, and the same 
 amount of pecuniary means been employed to promote 
 civilization, these countries which were deluged with the 
 blood of their own citizens, and overspread with ruin, 
 
332 MILITARY AND MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE 
 
 from which even now they have scarcely recovered, they 
 might have been raised to such a pitch of real greatness 
 and true grandeur, as they cannot reach for centuries to 
 come. How exasperating, how afflictive is the considera- 
 tion ! These baleful and accursed wars, however, affected 
 the continent and Great Britain in a very different man- 
 ner, the latter happily never being the theatre of conflict. 
 Here, therefore, those things which constituted civiliza- 
 tion, were but indirectly influenced by the sanguinary 
 struggle. It bore upon Britain in another way, yet all 
 the more destructive, because not direct and immediate. 
 Our calamity is as extensive as the British empire, and it 
 will be as permanent as the British throne. There is not 
 a labouring man among the millions of England who feels 
 it not, and, like the fall of man, its consequences will ex- 
 tend through our posterity to the close of all things. The 
 positive mischief to the nations of the continent may be 
 fully repaired in the space of a few more years ; but Bri- 
 tain's wound is incurable. 
 
 The largest understanding supplies no thoughts ade- 
 quate to represent the evils of Napoleon's military enter- 
 prises. To have run, during a space so limited, a career 
 so full of havoc, and horror, so various in its iniquities, so 
 fraught with injustice, cruelty, atrocity, and all kinds of 
 misery, might have satisfied the most enlarged malignity 
 of the most depraved spirit in hell ! 
 
 But, my Lord Duke, these wars have had their bearing 
 — a bearing tremendous beyond expression or conception — 
 on the eternal well-being of myriads of myriads, and before 
 that bearing, whatever is merely secular and sublunary, 
 shrinks into insignificance. With all these facts before 
 us, can we hesitate as to the light in which Napoleon 
 should be viewed ? I submit that, as patriots, it behoves 
 us to denounce his spirit and his principles, — as philan- 
 thropists, to execrate his memory, — and, as Christians, to 
 
ILLUSTRATED, COMPARED, AND CONTRASTED. ggg 
 
 lament his existence, and even shudder at the sound of his 
 name ! 
 
 My Lord Duke, I am now led to your own character 
 and history, and the transition is a happy deliverance. 
 After the scenes which we have contemplated, it is truly 
 refreshing to the eye of the understanding and the imagi- 
 nation, to turn to the Duke of Wellington. But by me 
 this pleasure is enjoyed at the expense of freedom and 
 facility. Justice to your Grace, and still more, to my 
 subject, demands a license of speech, a latitude of obser- 
 vation, scarcely comporting with the delicacy due to your 
 illustrious person. There are cases, however, your Grace 
 will allow, when considerations of delicacy must give place 
 to considerations of public good. Through your Grace I 
 am anxious to address an important class of the commu- 
 nity on the subjects of this letter, and it is indispensable 
 to my success to prove to that class, that, although the 
 earnest advocate of missions, and the inveterate adversary 
 of war, yet I am as sensible as any man can be to the 
 claims of your Grace's character, which, indeed, I may, 
 without presumption, assert, I have investigated with in- 
 dustry, candour, and veneration. To form a full and a 
 correct estimate of such a subject, I confess to be a diffi- 
 cult undertaking. I do not forget that Alexander forbade 
 any one to paint him but Apelles ; while I keep in mind 
 that your Grace's portrait has already been drawn by some 
 of the greatest masters in English literature, still I con- 
 ceive that their performances do not preclude this further 
 attempt. Some of the chief features have, indeed, been 
 brought forth but very imperfectly in most of these por- 
 traits, and in others they have not appeared at all. At 
 any rate, so far as my knowledge extends, no man has 
 hitherto investigated your Grace's character by the lights 
 of Revelation, and contrasted it in its main points with 
 that of the Christian Missionary, which it is my principal 
 
384 
 
 MILITARY AND MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE 
 
 object to do. That as much as possible I may avoid the 
 embarrassment arising from the dread of impropriety, let 
 me be considered, in discussing the personal part of the 
 subject, as speaking not to, but of the Duke of Welling- 
 ton. The judgment will be grounded principally on a 
 minute scrutiny into your opinions and actions, history 
 and character, as developed in your own Despatches, 
 General Orders, and Official Letters. Of all evidence, 
 documentary is the most valuable and satisfactory, whether 
 for judicial, historical, or moral ends. By your own writ- 
 ings, therefore, posterity will be chiefly guided in form- 
 ing their estimate of your Grace's character and merits 
 as a soldier. "Without overlooking the volumes of London- 
 derry, Elliott, Sherer, and Scott, the masterly productions 
 of Southey, and, above all, Napier, — the great storehouse 
 on which future historians and critics will draw, in refer- 
 ence to your Grace, will be the volumes compiled by 
 Colonel Gurwood. The analysis of his volumes shows 
 that they mainly comprise facts and opinions, illustrative 
 of your Grace's military character, — of the character of 
 the British army, — of the objects and motives of the 
 Peninsular war, — and of the effects of war in general; 
 these points, so far as they are material to my object, I 
 shall adduce, without cumbering my page with constant 
 reference. 
 
 Mankind are always jealous of superiority, and slow to 
 believe in the union of many and diversified talents in one 
 and the same person. Skill and prowess in the field are 
 deemed hardly compatible with wisdom in council, and 
 wide views on subjects of national policy and general 
 legislation. Hence for many years it was fashionable to 
 speak lightly, if not with contempt, of the Duke as a 
 statesman. Not only was this the case among party poli- 
 ticians, but even among men of letters and philosophers. 
 A remarkable example occurs in the case of Dr. Charming, 
 
ILLUSTRATED, COMPARED, AND CONTRASTED. gg£ 
 
 of America, whose eloquent, powerful, and unwearied de- 
 nunciation of war entitles him to the thanks, respect, and 
 admiration of the whole civilized world. That fine writer, 
 in his " Analysis of the Character of Napoleon Buona- 
 parte," thus expresses himself: — "The conqueror of Na- 
 poleon, the hero of Waterloo, undoubtedly possesses great 
 military talents ; but we have never heard of his eloquence 
 in the senate, or of his sagacity in the cabinet ; and we 
 venture to say that he will leave the world without adding 
 one new thought on the great themes on which the genius 
 of philosophy and legislature has meditated for ages."* 
 Dr. Channing is wholly incapable of violating his con- 
 science to strengthen an argument. What he affirms in 
 the foregoing words, he unquestionably believes. The 
 proposition in support of which he is arguing, is, " that 
 military talent, even of the highest order, is far from hold- 
 ing the first place among intellectual endowments. It 
 is, (says he) one of the lower forms of genius ; for it is 
 not conversant with the highest and richest objects of 
 thought."! The accuracy of this view, is, I think, incon- 
 trovertible ; but it does not follow that, because a man 
 is endowed with military genius, he possesses genius of no 
 other kind. Dr. Channing, however, was misled by the 
 
 * Analysis, &c. Fourth London Edition, 1828, p. 10. 
 
 N. B. Since writing the ahove, I have examined the edition of Chan- 
 ning's works, published at Glasgow, in 1840, and find the passage alter- 
 ed, as follows : — " The conqueror of Napoleon, the hero of Waterloo, 
 possesses undoubtedly great military talents ; but we do not understand 
 that his most partial admirers claim for him a place in the highest class 
 of minds." — p. 27. Whence this alteration ? Was it an act of the 
 author, or of the editor ? If of the latter, had he the sanction of the 
 former ? The change of such a passage, relative to such a person, re- 
 quired a note of explanation. If the act was the result of Dr. Chan- 
 ning's more matured judgment, justice to himself, as well as to the 
 illustrious subject of his remarks, demanded a public acknowledgment. 
 
 f Analysis, &c, p. 9. 
 
38(3 MILITARY AND MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE 
 
 literary gossip of Europe ; and perhaps the declaration of 
 Napoleon to O'Meara contributed as much as any thing 
 to deceive him. According to that gentleman, the Empe- 
 ror said, " Judging from Wellington's actions, from his 
 despatches, and, above all, from his conduct towards Ney, 
 I should pronounce him to be un homme de peu d' 'esprit, 
 sans generosite, et sans grandeur d'dme. Such I know to 
 be the opinion of Benjamin Constant and of Madame de 
 Stael, who said, that, except as a general, he had not two 
 ideas. As a general, however, to find his equal amongst 
 your own nation, you must go back to the time of Marl- 
 borough ; but, as to any thing else, I think that history 
 will pronounce him to be un homme borne"* In confir- 
 mation of this depreciatory judgment, the Edinburgh 
 Review asserts it to be " the universal opinion that in all 
 other respects there are few more ordinary personages."f 
 In such a question as this, however, Napoleon, Constant, 
 and Madame de Stael, will be the last authorities to which 
 " History" will resort; and even the Edinburgh Review 
 itself, notwithstanding its literary glory, its surpassing 
 power as an expositor, and its eloquence as an advocate of 
 liberal opinions, will not be admitted as a perfectly impar- 
 tial witness in this matter. His Grace's politics will be 
 always considered as more or less tending to warp the 
 minds of the most upright contemporary writers. Amid 
 the strife of party, and the mutations of feeling, it is not 
 easy to maintain consistency. In June, 1822, for instance, 
 the Edinburgh reviewers, in the passage above cited, 
 declare that " there are few more ordinary personages ;" 
 but the same reviewers, in July, 1821, eleven months 
 before, had pronounced the Duke " both a great man, and 
 an able general."^ Nor is this all: in July, 1830, nine 
 
 * O'Meara, vol. ii. p. 229. 
 f Edinburgh Revieiv, vol. xxxvii. p. 184. % Ibid. vol. xxxv. p. 392. 
 
ILLUSTRATED, COMPARED, AND CONTRASTED. 3g7 
 
 years afterwards, under circumstances of a very exciting 
 nature, when there was every inducement to contract the 
 scale of his Grace's competency in civil matters, as far as 
 consistent with truth and decency, the same Writers, 
 speaking of his fitness for the office of premier, thus 
 frankly express themselves : — " That he has no qualifica- 
 tions, cannot be asserted by any candid observer. He has 
 valuable qualities even as a statesman ; he has firmness, 
 sagacity, industry."* Now if honourable but unbending 
 political adversaries, in the heat of a great national 
 struggle, concede thus much as to his civil attainments, 
 there must be some grounds for the concession. 
 
 These considerations and concessions ought surely to 
 have great weight. In the absence of all other evidence, 
 they would, perhaps, leave on a candid mind the impres- 
 sion that the Duke of Wellington is great in the council 
 as well as in the field. The English public, however, have 
 thought for themselves. They care not a rush for the 
 opinions of Buonaparte, Constant, and other foreigners, 
 whether European or American, however eminent; and, 
 as for the Northern Review, it concedes the point. Again, 
 it is not to be forgotten that these adverse opinions were 
 all those of strangers, or of personal and political enemies, 
 besides being pronounced a quarter of a century ago, when 
 the conqueror's laurels were fresh and green, when envy 
 was rampant, and before mankind had time to prove his 
 Grace's civil and senatorial capabilities. Nor is this all : 
 there is another vast section of the British public, distin- 
 guished for wealth and station, talents and learning, who 
 entertain a very exalted opinion of his Grace as a states- 
 man. They claim not for him, it is true, the praise of 
 extensive and varied scholarship, the acquisition of which 
 would have been utterly incompatible with due attention 
 
 * Edinburgh Review, vol. li. p. 570. 
 
 s2 
 
MILITARY AND MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE 
 
 to his active and arduous duties ; they claim not for him 
 the praise of an extended acquaintance even with the lite- 
 rature of politics and legislation, with the relations of 
 empire and the mysteries of commerce ; but they do claim 
 for him, as a public man, the praise of soldier-like decision, 
 of noble frankness, of unspotted integrity, of deep sagacity, 
 of general prudence, of practical wisdom, of high supe- 
 riority to all that is low and little, base and selfish, — to all 
 that appertains to party spite and party cunning, of intense 
 loyalty to his sovereign, and entire devotion to what he 
 considers the good of his country. They claim not for 
 him the doubtful praise of popular oratory, the power of 
 bewildering as well as enlightening, the power of pro- 
 tecting error as well as defending truth ; they claim not 
 for him the graces of a meretricious rhetoric which would 
 ill befit his illustrious person and elevated station ; they 
 claim not for him the praise of these things ; but they do 
 claim for him, and they claim with boldness, the praise of 
 possessing "the clear conception, outrunning the deduc- 
 tions of logic, — the high purpose, the firm resolve, the 
 dauntless spirit, speaking on the tongue, beaming from the 
 eye, informing every feature, and urging the whole man 
 onward, right onward to his object."* Blunt and brief 
 speech well suffices for all the purposes of great statesmen, 
 because a great statesman is honest and upright. Thus 
 much for the general question ; and it may serve to clear 
 the way to my special object, the consideration of his 
 Grace's military character. 
 
 It is generally allowed that the Duke of Wellington is 
 the most eminent military officer that England has pro- 
 duced. If any should hesitate between Wellington and 
 Marlborough, inquiry will, perhaps, lead them to declare 
 in favour of the living Duke, and not only so, but to pro- 
 nounce him absolutely the first commander of modern 
 * Hon. Dan. Webster, on "True Oratory." 
 
ILLUSTRATED, COMPARED, AND CONTRASTED. 389 
 
 times. But, it must be acknowledged, that it is extremely 
 difficult to institute a parallel between him and any other 
 general of this or any other country. The war which he 
 conducted in the Peninsula was, in almost all points, a 
 war of peculiarity. It was attended with difficulties unpre- 
 cedented, — difficulties almost inconceivable, — difficulties 
 all but incredible, — difficulties all but insuperable. With- 
 out a careful investigation of those difficulties, it is impos- 
 sible to form any idea of the true character and real great- 
 ness, both military and moral, of the Duke of Wellington. 
 It is to be feared, however, that few even of the reading 
 public have ever justly appreciated those difficulties. I 
 have no where seen any thing like a full and accurate ex- 
 hibition of them. I do not pretend to give such an exhi- 
 bition here. To do so would, require a volume for itself. 
 Those difficulties were of all sorts ; they sprang from all 
 sources. Never was commander so entirely thrown upon 
 his own resources, so entirely dependent upon the recti- 
 tude of his own purposes, and upon the wisdom of his own 
 counsels. 
 
 The career of Napoleon exhibits no war, in all respects, 
 resembling that of the Peninsula. His continental con- 
 flicts, in fact, were not so much wars as battles, of which 
 each, frequently, decided the fate of a country, and finished 
 a campaign. It was the doom of the Peninsula to be the 
 grand theatre of a continuous, a terrible struggle. There 
 the choicest troops, and all the greatest generals of France 
 were collected. There Laborde, Junot, Ney, Soult, Victor, 
 Lasnes, Jourdan, Massena, Marmont, and the mighty 
 Master of them all, Napoleon himself, led on the imperial 
 armies. All that could be done by science, numbers, 
 bravery, pride, and desperation, to crush the inhabitants, 
 and to dislodge the British troops, was attempted. It is 
 to be recollected, too, that the invasion of the Peninsula 
 succeeded the general subjugation of Europe. The terror 
 
390 MILITARY AND MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE 
 
 of the French preceded their march, and paralyzed the 
 hearts of their trembling victims. The sound of their 
 fame, in proportion as it depressed the minds of the Span- 
 iards and Portuguese, elevated their own spirits, and filled 
 them with pride and confidence. The French generals 
 and armies had been so accustomed to victory, that they 
 every where looked for it as a matter of course. All these 
 generals had acquired renown prior to their appearance in 
 Spain and Portugal, and they headed their troops with all 
 the advantages which renown imparts. Before the arrival 
 of Wellington, they had also possessed themselves of all 
 the forts, and overrun the entire country. Such were the 
 adversaries of the English commander, and such their 
 advantages. 
 
 The Duke of Wellington, on the contrary, when called 
 to oppose this dread array, appeared under great disad- 
 vantages. He was but little known, either in England, 
 or on the Continent. In 1805, he returned from India, 
 where, for eight or nine years, he had. done good service ; 
 for which he was, on his arrival, made a knight of the 
 Bath, and received the thanks of Parliament. It was not 
 till after three years of repose and civil employment, that 
 he was sent to Portugal to command the British forces. 
 He was also comparatively young ; he bore but little mili- 
 tary name, and the English government itself showed its 
 utter ignorance of his character, and its want of confidence, 
 by giving the command, almost immediately, to Sir Harry 
 Burrard, — an officer whose first and almost only act was to 
 check the victorious career of Wellington, who had already 
 gained two battles. Burrard, in turn, was superseded by 
 Dalrymple, who was soon removed ; and, in 1809, Wel- 
 lington was proclaimed Marshal-General of the forces. 
 His wonderful talents had now a fair field for their deve- 
 lopment. Now commenced his difficulties, his dangers, 
 his conflicts, his glories, and that marvellous display of 
 
ILLUSTRATED, COMPARED, AND CONTRASTED. 39 J 
 
 moral greatness which gives him the pre-eminence among 
 his peers. Here, then, I begin my inquiry into the moral 
 and military greatness of the Duke of Wellington, endea- 
 vouring to ascertain the measures, absolute and compara- 
 tive, in which both kinds of greatness were manifested, and 
 which preponderated. 
 
 To the superficial reader of history, the Duke of Wel- 
 lington may, for several reasons, appear but a third or 
 fourth rate soldier. The first of these reasons is, the 
 brevity of his career. From the time that he received the 
 command till his triumphal entry into Paris, only five 
 short years elapsed. Turenne, from the time that he 
 became Marshal of France, spent thirty-one years in the 
 camp, and died on the field. Marlborough, from the time 
 at which he became Commander-in-chief, was occupied in 
 wars, with occasional intervals of peace, twenty-one years. 
 Napoleon, from the time that he became Commander-in- 
 chief of the Army of the Interior, to his abdication, was 
 nineteen years engaged in constant conflict. The second 
 reason, which has misled common minds in their estimate 
 of Wellington as a commander, is, the small number 
 of his battles. When Lord Chancellor Eldon addressed 
 his Grace on his personal introduction into the House of 
 Lords, in June, 1814, he could enumerate only four vic- 
 tories, — Vimeira, Talavera, Salamanca, and Vittoria, — 
 and two sieges, Ciudad Rodrigo, and Badajoz ; and these, 
 undoubtedly, were his Grace's principal achievements 
 prior to Waterloo, the crowning event of his life. In this 
 last great battle he probably did all that a general could 
 do ; and, certainly, after allowing whatever can be claimed 
 for either his allies or adversaries, he did enough to stamp 
 his fame with such glory as can redound from such enter- 
 prises. The third reason is, that his conflicts, with the 
 exception of the short campaign of 1815, were confined to 
 the small territory of the Peninsula, which gave little room 
 
392 MILITARY AND MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE 
 
 for the display of military resources and skill, as compared 
 with contests spread over large regions, and involving many 
 nations, — an observation full of plausibility, but void of 
 force. 
 
 Now, combining these three points, brevity of time, — 
 paucity of conflicts, — and limitation of space, they seem 
 to form but a narrow and unsubstantial foundation for the 
 edifice of a fame so vast and towering as that of the Duke 
 of Wellington. This has been felt by multitudes who 
 have not reasoned about it ; and hence it is a fact that his 
 glory, to the eye of the millions, appears to rest almost 
 wholly on the victory of Waterloo. Had his Grace not 
 won that battle, they would have deemed him a very infe- 
 rior personage compared with what they now consider 
 him. Such is the dazzling power of success: and the 
 deceitful force of circumstances ! The battle of Waterloo 
 was, doubtless, an awful, a sublime, an unparalleled spec- 
 tacle. Whether we look at the events and circumstances 
 which preceded, the results which depended upon it, or at 
 the consequences to all parties which followed it, all is 
 grand, momentous, terrible. The battles of Issus and 
 Arbela, which made Alexander master of Asia, — the san- 
 guinary conflict at Cannae, which all but overthrew the 
 Roman Republic, and Pharsalia itself, which placed in the 
 hands of Caesar the sceptre of the world, — all these were 
 but minor conflicts as compared with the desperate en- 
 counter of Waterloo. At that great battle were assem- 
 bled the collected power and prowess of Europe, — her 
 marshals, her princes, her kings, and her emperors, all 
 were there — there to fight — there to conquer or to die ! 
 Against them stood their late valiant and mighty foe, 
 roused like a lion of greatest power and fiercest spirit, 
 who had every thing at stake, — ambition, empire, glory, — 
 and who knew that the alternative of the battle was a 
 palace or a prison. The conflict of Waterloo was con- 
 
 
ILLUSTRATED, COMPARED, AND CONTRASTED. 393 
 
 sidered the battle of the world's freedom ; for, although 
 masses of those who fought were slaves, and their rulers 
 despots, the thraldom bore a voluntary aspect, and the 
 tyranny was deemed legitimate. On these grounds the 
 Duke was viewed as the victor of the common tyrant of 
 the earth, the cruel oppressor, equally of subjects and of 
 princes, as the Liberator of Europe ; and the peals of his 
 glory were heard from Moscow to Madrid. 
 
 It is proper to value highly the victory of Waterloo as 
 having given Peace to the Earth, a breathing time to dis- 
 tressed and labouring nations, and, I think, I appreciate 
 aright the part acted on that eventful day by the British 
 commander, yet by no means can I view it as the proper 
 foundation of his fame. I cannot go thither in search of 
 the proofs even of his military, still less of his moral, 
 greatness. Nay, had he even lost that battle, I should not 
 have thought at all the less highly of him ; and his having 
 gained it, does not greatly raise my previous estimate of 
 him. " Nothing is more common, and nothing can be 
 more unjust, than to judge of a general's talents by the 
 simple test of a battle lost or won. A battle may be won 
 by accident. Most battles, indeed, are so won."* In the 
 language of Scripture, " the battle is not to the strong." 
 There is an Unseen Hand that decides the issue of human 
 contests. Of this, no man can be more convinced than the 
 Duke of Wellington, who, in his letter to Mr. Stewart, of 
 Oct. 10, 1810, referring to the general question, says, " I 
 have but little doubt of success ; but I have fought a suffi- 
 cient number of battles to discover that the result of any one 
 is not certain, even under the best arrangements." Failure 
 may result from circumstances, which it was impossible to 
 foresee, and which, when they arise, it was equally impos- 
 sible to counteract. Even at Waterloo, victory hung 
 
 * Edinburgh Review, vol. xxxv. p. 400. 
 
 s3 
 
394 MILITARY AND MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE 
 
 trembling in the balance, till the arrival of Blucher and 
 Bulow with a force of fifty thousand fresh men. Both the 
 Duke and the Emperor, on that dreadful day, did all that 
 could be done by men so circumstanced ; but Heaven de- 
 termined the result. As that battle, however, was a brief, 
 although a stupendous, event, it furnished but small op- 
 portunity for testing, at all points, the true character of 
 a general. It was an event most fortunate for his Grace's 
 fame with the superficial millions ; but his deeds in the 
 Peninsula are the only sure source of proofs and illustra- 
 tions of his military and moral greatness. 
 
 In all great movements, object and motive are every 
 thing with regard to their moral character. On this head, 
 never did general occupy higher or more substantial 
 ground. Could any circumstances justify even a defensive 
 war, the war in Portugal was justifiable. His Grace's 
 views relative to that war were of a very profound and 
 comprehensive order. He considered himself primarily as 
 warring in defence of his own country. When the govern- 
 ment meditated the recall of the British troops, on the 
 ground of the expense, he told them that the moment the 
 French were relieved from the pressure of military opera- 
 tions on the Continent, they would of a certainty incur all 
 risks to land an army in Great Britain. " Then, indeed," 
 says he, " would commence an expensive contest ; then 
 would his Majesty's subjects discover what are the miseries 
 of war, of which, by the blessing of God, they have hither- 
 to had no knowledge ; and the cultivation, the beauty, and 
 prosperity of the country, and the virtue and happiness of 
 its inhabitants would be destroyed, whatever might be the 
 immediate result of the military operations. God forbid 
 that I should be a witness, much less an actor, in the 
 scene !" A secondary but direct object, was the liberation 
 of Portugal. On this point his Grace dwells with much 
 earnestness, and with invariable hope in his Despatches 
 
ILLUSTRATED, COMPARED, AND CONTRASTED. 395 
 
 and Letters. His ultimate object was the emancipation 
 of Europe, the eyes of which he knew to be intently fixed 
 upon him. His views of the position of Napoleon were 
 wonderfully clear and comprehensive. He knew that 
 tyranny has its bounds, and that there is a limit to the 
 endurance even of prostrate nations. He felt confident 
 that the millions of Europe would, at a day not distant, 
 start up in an agony of revenge, and burst their fetters. 
 In the darkest hour, courage and hope never forsook him. 
 Perhaps that hour was the divorce of Josephine and the 
 marriage of Maria. On that alarming stroke of the tyrant's 
 policy, he thus remarks : M The Austrian marriage is a 
 terrible event, and must prevent any great movement on 
 the Continent for the present. Still I do not despair of 
 seeing, at some time or other, a check to the Buonaparte 
 system. Recent transactions in Holland, show that it is 
 all hollow within, and that it is so inconsistent with the 
 wishes, the interests, and even the existence of civilized 
 society, that he cannot trust even his brothers to carry it 
 into execution." Twelve months after this, we find the 
 great Captain still in the same mood. Writing to Lord 
 Liverpool, — " I am glad," says he, " to hear such good 
 accounts of affairs in the North. God send that they may 
 prove true, and that we may overthrow this disgusting 
 tyranny ! However, of this I am very certain, that whe- 
 ther true or not, at present, something of the kind must 
 occur before long ; and, if we can only hold out, we shall 
 yet see the world relieved." Six months later, writing to 
 Lord William Bentinck, he proceeds in the same strain. 
 " I have," says he, " long considered it probable, that even 
 we should witness a general resistance throughout Europe 
 to the fraudulent and disgusting tyranny of Buonaparte, 
 created by the example of what has passed in Spain and 
 Portugal ; and that we should be actors and advisers in 
 
396 MILITARY AND MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE 
 
 these scenes ; and I have reflected frequently upon the 
 measures which should be pursued, to give a chance of 
 success." Such, on December the 24th, 1811, were the 
 noble, the almost prophetic, sentiments of the Duke of 
 Wellington. Such were the adversaries, and such the 
 objects of the English commander. The question now 
 comes, What were the means, and what were the me- 
 thods, by which he prosecuted such objects in the face 
 of such adversaries ? These are the elements of the gene- 
 ral question of his military and moral greatness. The 
 answer to this question involves a multitude of considera- 
 tions and inquiries. If set forth with satisfactory fulness, 
 it would exhibit such a variety and complication of diffi- 
 culties and trials as no commander had ever to contend 
 with. Of this, Wellington was himself aware. He re- 
 peatedly asserts it. The chief features of the great case, 
 are the following : — 
 
 The British army proved itself to be a mass of depra- 
 vity. It was found next to impossible to establish order 
 and discipline among them. The Duke says, in 1809, 
 that it is " an excellent army on parade, an excellent one 
 to fight ; but we are worse than an enemy in a country." 
 The wickedness of the troops was wanton, and, as yet, 
 without the apology of distress. He thus speaks, after 
 the adoption of all possible methods to prevent crime : 
 " Yet there is not an outrage of any description which has 
 not been committed on a people who have uniformly re- 
 ceived us as friends, by soldiers who never yet, for one 
 moment, suffered the slightest want, or the smallest pri- 
 vation." So alarming was the moral state and discipline 
 of the troops, that, writing to Castlereagh, he says, w take 
 my word for it, that either defeat or success would dissolve 
 us." Such was the instrument with which his Grace was 
 sent to expel the armies of Napoleon ! The evil was soon 
 
 
ILLUSTRATED, COMPARED, AND CONTRASTED. 397 
 
 increased by the neglects of the government as to pay, 
 food, clothing, every thing. His Grace betook himself, 
 with all energy, to the improvement of his troops. 
 
 The state of the Portuguese troops was most lament- 
 able. The cool commander kindles into passion when he 
 speaks of it. " I think it scandalous," says he, " that the 
 Portuguese regular army should not be 100,000 instead of 
 50,000 men ; more scandalous that they should want near 
 10,000 men to complete to 50,000 ; still more scandalous 
 that they have not means to support even the army which 
 they have ; and, almost as bad as all the rest, that Great 
 Britain should not have been able to send arms and cloth- 
 ing for men as soon as the French have been able to send 
 in their reinforcements of made soldiers, which are now 
 upon the frontier." The Spanish army was still worse. 
 Their officers were a strange compound of folly and stu- 
 pidity, indolence and pride. His Grace broke all terms 
 with men in whom he found no capacity, no application, 
 no truth, and no honour. The troops had neither the 
 habits nor the spirit of soldiers, and the officers had not 
 one redeeming quality. "There never was any thing," 
 says he, " like the madness, the imprudence, and the pre- 
 sumption of the Spanish officers." But, to say the truth, 
 they were as good as the population deserved. Welling- 
 ton declares, that they were " starving in rich provinces." 
 Where to get money for the expense of 20,000 Spaniards, 
 he could not tell, " excepting from England; as the pa- 
 triotic gentlemen at Lisbon, now that they can buy no 
 commissariat debts, will give us no money." Such were the 
 mass of the population, both of Portugal and Spain. The 
 religion and government of these countries previous to the 
 French invasion, had all but demented the people ; it had 
 rendered them utter serfs ; had divested them of every 
 attribute of generous manhood, and prepared them for the 
 most galling thraldom. Their spirit was quite sunk. For 
 
398 MILITARY AND MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE 
 
 example, the Duke writes thus to the Earl of Liverpool : 
 " What do you think of empty carts taking two days to go 
 ten miles on a good road? After all, I am. obliged to 
 appear satisfied, or they would all desert !" Again, he 
 informs the same nobleman, that, "when the whole of 
 Castile and the north of Spain was cleared of the enemy, 
 not a man was put in the field by those provinces, nor 
 even one raised !" Did mankind ever witness such pros- 
 tration of spirit? Was ever general so circumstanced? 
 Was ever nation so indifferent to liberty, and so unfit for 
 its enjoyment ? But the worst remains to be told. The 
 government of the country had been destroyed, and, so far 
 as the British troops had reconquered, its forms were re- 
 stored under the Juntas, which were composed of fools 
 and knaves, who proved a source of constant obstruction, 
 and of endless torment. Many of them, and also of the 
 upper classes of the people, thought it a great hardship to 
 be called on even to billet the British army, who had come 
 to shed their blood for Peninsular liberty ! Such was the 
 pride of Spain and Portugal, that multitudes preferred 
 remaining in chains to receiving liberty at the hands of the 
 English ! 
 
 Under such circumstances, the Duke, with his small 
 British force, felt that, to assail the French army in gene- 
 ral actions, would have been utter madness. A perfect 
 master of all the circumstances of his extraordinary and 
 unparalleled predicament, he saw that there was only one 
 method of safe and successful operation, — a method the 
 very reverse of that which he had pursued in India. 
 At the outset, in 1809, he says, "I cannot sufficiently re- 
 commend a strict defensive position in all quarters." — 
 " The plan of operation which I should recommend to the 
 Spanish nation, is one generally of defence. They should 
 avoid general actions." He told Lord Liverpool that the 
 contest must necessarily be defensive ; and he continued 
 
ILLUSTRATED, COMPARED, AND CONTRASTED. 399 
 
 accordingly to harass the enemy in every possible way, 
 cutting off his supplies, and destroying his troops in detail, 
 with the hope that some diversion on the Continent might 
 occur to weaken the French forces in the Peninsula, or 
 that the French themselves might become weary of the 
 war, and dispirited. In the meantime he trusted that the 
 British forces would be strengthened, their discipline im- 
 proved, and the general spirit of the country aroused; 
 thus leaving it to circumstances to determine the proper 
 moment for vigorous offensive movements. Such were the 
 enlightened and comprehensive views of "Wellington, who, 
 nevertheless, clearly foresaw that, although this was the 
 only method of saving the country, and of effecting the 
 other objects specified, it would inevitably encompass him 
 with immense difficulties; and it was well that he was 
 thus early led to anticipate them, for they speedily arose. 
 The enthusiastic Portuguese loudly called for offensive 
 operations. " Nothing will answer," says the Duke, "ex- 
 cepting to fight great battles in plains, in which their de- 
 feat is as certain as is the commencement of the battle. 
 They will not credit the accounts I have repeatedly given 
 them, of the superior numbers of the French." He like- 
 wise stated that, while the defensive was " the only system 
 of war which their troops " were at that time capable of 
 undertaking, the country was also " well adapted to it." 
 
 Now it was that the real moral greatness of Wellington 
 broke forth with matchless splendour, making the future 
 predominate over the present, and readily sacrificing the 
 temporary applause of the passing hour to universal and 
 permanent glory. The Prince Regent, and the chief per- 
 sonages of Portugal, became impatient, and began to mur- 
 mur ; the Duke, however, firmly told them that the army 
 was his ; and that he would permit no interference. At 
 length the British troops, with most of the officers, as well 
 as the allies, became weary of watching the foe, and burned 
 
400 MILITARY AND MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE 
 
 for action. They had not the wisdom to perceive that 
 a course so unpromising was, nevertheless, one which 
 would conduct them in triumph to the capital of France ! 
 The Duke was inflexible. He said he would have no 
 i( croaking" among his officers ; and that if any were dis- 
 satisfied, they must withdraw. These officers, however, 
 whether remaining or returning, contrived, by correspond- 
 ence and otherwise, to do his Grace much mischief. The 
 result of their misrepresentations was a cry of indignant 
 disapprobation from England. It was first insinuated, and 
 afterwards contended, that the army in the Peninsula were 
 pining away, and that the Commander was wasting time 
 and money to no purpose. The periodical press, as usual, 
 soon blew the spark into a flame. Public Bodies began 
 to take the matter up. The Common Council of the City 
 of London presented an Address to the King, calling for 
 inquiry into Wellington's conduct ; and the subject was 
 subsequently agitated in the House of Commons. But 
 nothing could move this modern Fabius ; who calmly says, 
 in a letter to a friend, " I act with a sword hanging over 
 me, which will fall upon me, whatever be the result of 
 affairs here ; but they may do what they please, I shall not 
 give up the game here as long as it can be played." — 
 " The government are terribly afraid that I shall get them 
 and myself into a scrape ! But what can be expected from 
 men who are beaten in the House of Commons three times 
 a week ?" When the outcry was at its height, on Sep- 
 tember 6th, 1810, the Duke wrote as follows to Forjaz : — 
 " I should forget my duty to my Sovereign, to the Prince 
 Regent, and to the cause in general, if I should permit 
 public clamour or panic to induce me to change, in the 
 smallest degree, the system and plan of operations which 
 I have adopted, after mature consideration, and which 
 daily experience shows to be the only one likely to pro- 
 duce a good end." 
 
ILLUSTRATED, COMPARED, AND CONTRASTED. 4Q1 
 
 The Duke's position was rendered still more provoking 
 by the wavering of the Ministry, who, he says, sent him 
 private letters, containing " hints and opinions directly 
 contrary to the spirit, and even to the letter, of the public 
 instructions." That they might act as great men, and not 
 err with the vulgar multitude, who were offended with his 
 prudence, they expressed great dread, lest he should fight 
 " desperate battles !" To this he drily answers, " Depend 
 upon it, whatever people may tell you, I am not so desi- 
 rous, as they imagine, of fighting desperate battles ; if I 
 was, I might fight one any day I please." This was in 
 April, 1810; and, in July, 1812, he is still of the same 
 mood. He writes to Earl Bathurst, " I have invariably 
 been of opinion, that unless forced to fight a battle, it is 
 better that none should be fought by the allied army, un- 
 less under such favourable circumstances as that there 
 would be reason to hope that the allied army would be 
 able to maintain the field, while those of the enemy should 
 not." To this wise and humane policy he resolutely kept, 
 in spite of all opposers. He states that he could often 
 have won minor victories, which would not in the least 
 have operated on the general issue ; and that, therefore, 
 he purposely abstained from all needless waste of the life 
 of his troops. 
 
 The Duke's difficulties were from time to time increased 
 by the conduct of his General Officers. Military history 
 records no instance of a Commander-in-chief, whose wisest 
 plans and greatest measures were so thwarted, so opposed, 
 so misrepresented and maligned, by those whose business it 
 was, not to dispute, but to execute them. They, to a man, 
 re-echoed the reproachful cry of that section of the Eng- 
 lish nation, who clamoured and thundered against the go- 
 vernment, and demanded the recall of Wellington with the 
 British army. The Marshal, in writing to the Right Hon. 
 J. Villiers, in May, 1811, gives an affecting manifestation 
 
402 MILITARY AND MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE 
 
 of his feelings upon the whole subject. " No man," says 
 he, " can appreciate better than yourself the difficulties 
 with which I have had to contend ; but I believe that you 
 are not aware of all of them. I persevered in the system 
 which I thought best, notwithstanding that it was the 
 opinion of every British Officer in the country that I 
 ought to embark the army ; while, on the other hand, the 
 Portuguese civil authorities contended that the war ought 
 to be maintained on the frontier, for which they wanted 
 not only physical force, but the means of providing for the 
 force which they could produce in the field. I believe 
 nothing but something worse than firmness could have car- 
 ried me through the nine months' discussion with these 
 contending passions. To this add, that people in England 
 were changing their opinions almost with the wind, and 
 you will see that I had not much to look to excepting 
 myself." Could the General Officers have been kept in 
 the army, and have been induced to be at least silent 
 where they could not approve the Commander's course — 
 as he insisted they were in duty and propriety bound to 
 be — his situation had been less embarrassing. But they 
 were constantly craving leave of absence, and, when at 
 home, filling England with their murmurs, besides the 
 grievous inconvenience to which their absence subjected 
 him. Nor was this all ; incredible as it may appear, the 
 first body of officers, with a single exception, had entirely 
 left the Peninsula before the aspect of things began to 
 change. Hence the Duke had not the benefit of any 
 old experienced officer by whom both the army and the 
 country were thoroughly known. In reference to this, 
 the Duke says, " The inconvenience of their going is ter- 
 rible, and the detail it throws upon me, greater than I 
 can well manage ; for I am first to instruct one, then a 
 second, and afterwards, upon his return, the first again, 
 upon every duty. At this moment we have seven General 
 
ILLUSTRATED, COMPARED, AND CONTRASTED. 4Qg 
 
 Officers gone or going home ; and, excepting myself, there 
 is not one in the country who came out with the army, 
 excepting General A. Campbell, who was all last winter 
 in England." In writing to Lord Liverpool, Wellington 
 further points out the results to himself, thus : — " The 
 consequence of the absence of some of them has been, that 
 in the late operations I have been obliged to be General 
 of Cavalry, and of the advanced guard, and the leader of 
 two or three columns, sometimes on the same day." What 
 a condition for a General-in-chief to be in while fighting 
 the most renowned marshals of France, with her veteran 
 soldiery ! In the history of human conflict there is no- 
 thing for a moment to be compared with it. There are 
 only two analogous cases of generals adopting the same 
 method, both with success, and both, like the Duke, at 
 the expense of great public censure. Of those, the first is 
 that of Fabius, which acquired for him an immortality of 
 fame ; but the two Commanders are not to be named in 
 the same page. The difficulties encountered and over- 
 come by the Roman Consul were but as one to a thousand 
 compared with those of the British Field Marshal. The 
 next case was the splendid one of Barclay, Commander- 
 in-chief of the Russian forces, during the French invasion 
 of 1812 ; this noble-minded man adopted exactly the plan 
 of Wellington, which, the French themselves being wit- 
 nesses,* was the best possible plan for Russia, while it was 
 the worst for them. Barclay's treatment, too, exactly cor- 
 responded to that received by Wellington. The ignorant 
 but boisterous clamour of the empire constrained Alex- 
 ander to displace him and appoint Kutusof. He was not 
 removed, however, till, by his plan of retreat, he had 
 drawn Napoleon into the heart of Russia, and thus, in 
 conjunction with other events, secured the destruction of 
 
 * Segur, vol. i. pp. 304—309. 
 
404 MILITARY AND MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE 
 
 the tyrant's forces. Mark the sequel : as the successor of 
 Fabius, to please the Romans, fought the battle of Cannes, 
 by far the most disastrous in the annals of the Republic, 
 the successor of Barclay, too, to please the Russians, 
 fought the battle of Borodino, by far the most sanguinary 
 and destructive in modern times. Steady adherence to the 
 Fabian policy would have averted the dreadful calamities 
 of both these battles. Nothing was gained, either at 
 Cannae or Borodino, to counterbalance the fearful loss. 
 
 I have now finished my case for the claims of the moral 
 greatness of the Duke of Wellington. All history, civil 
 or military, will be searched in vain for an example of 
 moral greatness so splendid and so glorious. During the 
 whole of this solitary and tremendous struggle, his moral 
 powers vastly preponderated over his mere military genius, 
 towering with an elevation which far transcended his 
 achievements on the field at Waterloo. The coarse- 
 minded masses, however, see no glory but in conflict and 
 slaughter. They forget who hath said, " He that is slow 
 to anger is better than the mighty ; and he that ruleth 
 his spirit than he that taketh a city." The glory of Wel- 
 lington lies not in the plurality, but in the paucity of his 
 battles, and in the fact that he fought so that he never 
 wantonly shed one drop of human blood ! He did his 
 utmost to accomplish his object at the smallest expense to 
 humanity. This is his real, and it will be his lasting, 
 honour ; it is in this that he so much surpasses all con- 
 querors of all times. One scarcely knows which more to 
 admire, the prudence, or the humanity, of his defensive 
 system. In his bold defiance of the clamour of unthink- 
 ing multitudes, both in England and in the Peninsula, 
 heedless alike of human life and probable consequences, 
 there is a sublime courage — inconceivably more glorious 
 than was ever displayed in the ordering of battle, and the 
 slaughter of men. This, this was heroism ! This, this 
 
ILLUSTRATED, COMPARED, AND CONTRASTED. 405 
 
 was glory! Here it is that Wellington had fellowship 
 with spirits of the loftiest order ! 
 
 On the directly military part of his Grace's character, 
 it is not to my taste, nor necessary to my purpose to dwell. 
 Suffice it to say, that the hour, and all the circumstances 
 which the sagacity of the Duke had anticipated, at length 
 arrived. Then began the fighting, when he showed man- 
 kind that he was not less mighty in assault than he had 
 been in defence, — that he could assail and pursue with 
 resistless energy, as well as defend and retreat with con- 
 summate prudence. Having fairly commenced, he pressed 
 forward, in the greatness of his might, like an impetuous 
 torrent, bearing down whatever stood opposed to him, and 
 halted not till he planted his foot in the capital of France ! 
 But on this part of the subject why should I linger ? Can 
 any thing be added to the declaration, or rather confes- 
 sion, of Napoleon himself, who said, — "Wellington is my 
 equal as a general, — my superior in prudence." 
 
 The Duke of Wellington has been highly favoured. 
 There is no case of a first-rate general surviving his wars 
 half as long as his Grace has done. After completing his 
 military enterprise, he has had nearly a generation to 
 study the arts of peace and of civil government. He has, 
 therefore, enjoyed the opportunity of adding the virtues 
 and services of the loyal Citizen to those of the faithful 
 and able Commander — a felicity peculiar to himself — but 
 a felicity which has necessarily not been without its perils 
 to his fame. His Grace has lived in troublous times, not- 
 withstanding they have been times of peace ; and, true to 
 his manly character, in all civil, as well as in all military, 
 conflicts, he has never shrunk from his share in battle and 
 in responsibility. His reputation has, therefore, in all 
 points, sustained a fiery ordeal. His friends, however, — 
 and they are millions, — have abundant reason to congra- 
 tulate both themselves and him on the fact, that not one 
 
40(5 MILITARY AND MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE 
 
 leaf of his laurels has faded, not a single ray of his lustre 
 been obscured. This is certainly a circumstance and a 
 satisfaction of no ordinary kind. His Grace's maintenance, 
 — and not merely his maintenance, but, upon the whole, 
 his improvement, of his position, — is the most convincing 
 proof of the real greatness of his character. That cha- 
 racter, at the distance of six and twenty years from his 
 great and final victory, stands forth like the public Statue 
 which adjoins his Mansion, in all the strength, grandeur, 
 and majesty of its gigantic dimensions, unimpaired by the 
 violence of the civil and political storms which, for so long 
 a space, have raged around it. This fact demonstrates 
 that the character of his Grace has in it nothing factitious ; 
 that it is a piece of pure solid gold, and will live in his 
 country's history so long as true greatness is appreciated 
 among mankind. Notwithstanding differences from his 
 political creed, notwithstanding some foolish sayings and 
 doings, equally foolish, upright and candid men, of all 
 parties, at home, and of all nations, abroad, are of one 
 opinion relative to his lofty patriotism, to his political rec- 
 titude, and to his moral integrity. 
 
 The Duke of "Wellington is incomparably the first his- 
 torical personage now living. All reflecting, all virtuous 
 men, his contemporaries, pronounce his name with feel- 
 ings of respectful esteem, profound veneration, and admir- 
 ing gratitude ; and History will not reverse but establish 
 the general decision already pronounced by mankind. She 
 will make due allowance for his aristocratic origin, for his 
 peculiar temperament, and for his military education, and 
 consequent habits ; and in these she will find an apology 
 for the want of attributes which would have imparted 
 something more of a civil air to his noble nature and ex- 
 alted character. History will adjudge, that not England 
 alone, but Europe and the world, have been his Grace's 
 debtors, and that he amply merited the wealth and ho- 
 
ILLUSTRATED, COMPARED, AND CONTRASTED. 4Q7 
 
 nours which a grateful country awarded him. She will 
 also notice with point and significance, that, as in the vege- 
 table world, the bane and the antidote always appear in 
 the same field, so the same year which, in wrath, ushered 
 into our world a Buonaparte, in mercy, sent along w r ith 
 him a Wellington. 
 
 My Lord Duke, notwithstanding my admiration of your 
 Grace's moral greatness, and also of your military genius, 
 as far as it is possible for me to admire talent of that de- 
 scription, still I cannot look upon military enterprise with 
 any feelings other than those of abhorrence or sorrow, 
 according as it is aggressive or defensive. If I may be 
 allowed to speak comparatively, on such a subject, I think 
 there have been but few wars in our world of a less excep- 
 tionable character than that which your Grace conducted 
 on the Continent. Still this did not render the enterprise 
 the less dreadful in many of its aspects, nor the less cala- 
 mitous in many of its results. Your Grace's avowed and 
 real object and motive were the overthrow of the tyrant of 
 France, the oppressor of Europe — a cause in which, if in 
 any cause it were lawful to bear arms, it was lawful and 
 honourable to fight. I speak not, however, of that parti- 
 cular war, but of war generally, — of such wars as have 
 hitherto, almost without exception, prevailed in our world. 
 They are an unutterable evil, a criminal atrocity. This 
 fact is certified to the world by your Grace's own hand, in 
 your letter to General Cox, in which you state, that "war 
 is a terrible evil, particularly to those who reside in those 
 parts of the country which are the seat of the operations 
 of hostile armies ;" and in your letter also to Baron Con- 
 stant, in which you declare, that the " new French system 
 of war is the greatest evil that ever fell on the civilized 
 world." Your Despatches often speak in strong terms of 
 the violence and wrong perpetrated by the French soldiery. 
 
4Q3 MILITARY AND MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE 
 
 This fact is but too well attested by many nations. Even 
 their own countryman, Chateaubriand, speaking of the 
 Revolutionary army, truly declares that they " displayed 
 a degree of energy which was completely without exam- 
 ple, and an extent of crimes, which all those of history, 
 put together, can scarcely equal."* But there was order 
 and consistency in their horrid procedure. They prepared 
 themselves for the work of murder among surrounding 
 nations by a self-baptism in the blood of the best citizens 
 of their own. Yes, even " the public streets (of Paris) 
 were so inundated with blood as to become impassable ; 
 and it became necessary to change the place of execu- 
 tion!"-!- Chateaubriand himself has seen some of those 
 modern cannibals with a piece of an adversary's heart 
 dangling as a medal at the button-hole ! But I need not 
 remind your Grace, that the honour or the infamy of pro- 
 ducing such a class of men was not peculiar to France. 
 The race is as old .as war itself. It is long since Tyrtaeus 
 taught the Spartans to sing, that — 
 
 " The man's unfit for war that cannot view, 
 With eye serene, the tide of human blood, 
 Yet burn to wreak his vengeance on the foe ! " 
 
 The character of the work generally determines that of 
 the operator, while they act reciprocally on each other. 
 Now your Grace emphatically declares that the British 
 army is " composed of the bad only" — In your " memo- 
 randum on the proposed plan for altering the discipline of 
 the army," I find the following lamentable, but most 
 truthful declaration : — " The man who enlists into the 
 British army is, in general, the most drunken, and proba- 
 bly the worst man of the trade or profession to which 
 he belongs, or of the village or town in which he lives. 
 
 * On Revolution, p. 46. f Ibid. p. 50. 
 
ILLUSTRATED, COMPARED, AND CONTRASTED. 4Q9 
 
 There is not one in a hundred of them who, when enlisted, 
 ought not to be put in the second or degraded class of any 
 society or body into which they may be introduced." 
 Again, in the evidence of your Grace, given " before the 
 Royal Commission for inquiring into military punish- 
 ments," you declare that " the British soldiers are taken 
 entirely from the lowest orders of society," and that 
 drunkenness is "the great parent of all crime" among 
 them. Your Grace further declares, that so sunk and 
 brutalized are they, that " there is no punishment which 
 makes an impression upon any body except corporal pun- 
 ishment." Such is the British army ! What must be the 
 nature of war, the employment that such men prefer, and 
 which such men alone can be found to perform ? I say 
 such men alone, for it is clearly brought out by your 
 Grace's evidence, already referred to, that the choice is, 
 such materials or none, ruffians or nobody ! You frankly 
 and positively declared that you knew of "no mode by 
 which a better class of persons might be induced to enter 
 into the army, under the present mode of voluntary en- 
 listment." Your Grace declares that, even "if corporal 
 punishments were abolished, and certain civil privileges 
 given to such as had served in the army," you do not think 
 it would " have the effect of producing a better class of 
 persons in the army." No man who knows the true cha- 
 racter of British society will dispute the accuracy of your 
 conclusion. Your Grace, so early as 1809, had discovered 
 that the English were not " a military people ;" that " the 
 whole business of an army upon service is foreign to their 
 habits, and is a constraint upon them." In the memoran- 
 dum aforesaid, you also declare that " the British army is 
 an exotic in England — unknown to the old constitution of 
 the country ;— disliked by the inhabitants, particularly by 
 the higher orders, some of whom never allow one of their 
 family to serve in it;" and that "even the common people 
 
 T 
 
410 MILITARY AND MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE 
 
 will make an exertion to find means to purchase the dis- 
 charge of a relative who may have enlisted." To all this 
 needs only be added the honest testimony of your Grace 
 in your letter of August, 1815, to Lord Castlereagh, that 
 all the powers of Europe have been " weakened by the 
 wars in which they have been engaged with France," and 
 that these wars have issued in " the ruin of the finances of 
 all the Continental powers," while you elsewhere denounce 
 Napoleon as the chief promoter of the said wars, and the 
 " insatiable enemy of mankind." 
 
 Such is your Grace's evidence concerning the all-im- 
 portant subject of war. It is not too much to affirm that 
 such evidence from such a witness, on such a subject, is 
 sufficient, even singly and unsupported, incontrovertibly 
 to establish the points for which I adduce it. Your Grace 
 has pronounced a final sentence of condemnation against 
 all wars of aggression. You are the avowed friend of per- 
 petual peace. You readily concur in the judgment of 
 Ulysses, that — 
 
 " The bravest soon are satiate of the field ; 
 Though vast the heaps that strew the crimson plain, 
 The bloody harvest brings but little gain!" 
 
 You, my Lord Duke, have never incurred the guilt and 
 the infamy of declaring yourself "a lover of honourable 
 war !" He who could thus do violence to the very first 
 principles of humanity, had never seen actual war. He 
 knew nothing of it except by report. Had he shared in 
 the awful experience of your Grace, words so execrable 
 would never have been allowed to pass his lips. Honour- 
 able war ! If ever a war was honourable, it was that 
 which Europe waged against Napoleon, which, neverthe- 
 less, you truly affirm, has "weakened the nations," and 
 " ruined their finances," and which, all men know, brought 
 upon England a burden under which she groans through 
 
ILLUSTRATED, COMPARED, AND CONTRASTED. ^\\ 
 
 all her borders, — a burden from which she can never be 
 delivered, — a burden which, perhaps, at a day not exceed- 
 ingly remote, may completely crush her, and, with her, 
 those institutions which have been the boast of ages, the 
 admiration of all lands, the sanctuary of law, justice, 
 liberty, and religion ! Lives there now a man who dares, 
 in the face of England, proclaim himself a lover of such 
 
 wars 
 
 «s? 
 
 Military enterprise, in its least offensive forms, and in 
 its least repulsive aspect, is a dreadful occupation ! If a 
 wise and good man can at all engage in it, even defen- 
 sively, he can do so only in obedience to a hard and cruel 
 necessity. Such a man would greatly rejoice to see the 
 nations of the earth raised to such a height of civilization, 
 and filled with such a sense of humanity and justice, that, 
 by joint consent, wars should for ever cease. Your glory 
 mainly consists in having, as an instrument in the hand of 
 God, given peace to a distracted and afflicted Continent ; 
 and great, exceeding great, is the honour of such an 
 achievement. But the death, the crime, the ruin, and all 
 the calamity survived ! Your armies arrested the progress 
 of the evil, but made no reparation for the past. Let me 
 suppose, then, that in Europe another great spirit should 
 arise, whose wisdom and commanding moral power would 
 enable him to guarantee, in all future time, the perfect 
 peace of its nations ; with what reverence and admiration 
 would such a man be viewed by the friends of humanity ? 
 But if this work, instead of being accomplished by one, 
 should be effected by a multitude ; then, ought not those 
 feelings and affections to be transferred to that multitude ? 
 Now such men actually exist; they live and labour in 
 divers parts of the world ; they have already done much 
 to promote peace on earth and good-will among men. I 
 proceed to institute a comparison between their enterprise 
 and that of the soldier. 
 
 t2 
 
4|2 MILITARY AND MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE 
 
 Among all conquerors, I have read of none who de- 
 mands a tythe of the respect which I feel for your Grace. 
 But truth compels me to say, that, although I view you 
 as the Prince of Captains, I am constrained to look upon 
 you as immeasurably less than the least of all missionaries. 
 Oh ! how high and holy is their vocation as compared with 
 that which occupied the first half of your eventful life ! 
 With them eternity is every thing ; with your Grace, it 
 appeared in those days to be nothing. They walk daily 
 and hourly with God ; from all that I can discover of your 
 Grace's views, from your volumes, written during your 
 warlike operations, God was not in all your thoughts ! I 
 can find no difference of creed, between your Grace and 
 Napoleon, with respect to a future world and the hope of 
 man ; nor can I find any thing, in which either he or your 
 Grace differs from Alexander or Caesar, who dwelt in the 
 darkness of idolatry. The letters of condolence which you 
 wrote from fields of battle to the friends of those who fell 
 at your side, are most affecting proofs and illustrations. 
 The considerations, for example, which you employ to 
 console the friends of Colonel Lake, are, that he fell " the 
 admiration of the whole army," and " in the achievement 
 of one of the most heroic actions." In the case of Colonel 
 Cameron, you endeavour to comfort his father with the 
 thought, that " he fell in the performance of his duty." 
 You labour to soothe Lord Somers on the death of his 
 son, with the assurance that " he fell in the zealous and 
 gallant discharge of his duty." Ah ! my Lord Duke, and 
 is this all? With the wounds, and the blood, and the 
 agonies, and the death, was there an utter end of these 
 men ? Is there no difference between the warrior and his 
 horse ? Does the shell or shot which slays them jointly, 
 extinguish both their beings at once ? Does nothing of 
 man survive ? Has your Grace not one thought to bestow 
 upon the disembodied spirits of those hapless officers and 
 
ILLUSTRATED, COMPARED, AND CONTRASTED. 4}3 
 
 men who perished by obeying you, who contributed to 
 your victory, and to your fame ? Only think of them a 
 moment! Where are they? What are they? Are you 
 silent ? My Lord Duke, can you answer these questions ? 
 Is military knowledge, are military thoughts, entirely 
 bounded by this sublunary scene ? Not one idea concern- 
 ing the world of spirits can be gathered from your Grace's 
 Despatches, General Orders, and Letters. Swords, bay- 
 onets, powder, shot, camps, cannon, carnage, hunger, 
 crime, and death, make the staple of all your communi- 
 cations ! Not that such communications are the appro- 
 priate vehicles of theological discussion ; but frequent 
 were the occasions when, with the utmost propriety, moral 
 and religious considerations might have been adverted to. 
 Many of the sublime but delusive verses of Tyrtaeus would 
 have been just as suitable to the views and feelings of your 
 Grace as they were to those of the Spartans. The British 
 troops might very well have sung, as they inhumed the 
 young officers, whom I have just named : — 
 
 " Still on the field of glory he expires, 
 And, oh ! how honourably for the land 
 That gave him birth, how honourably, too, 
 For all his fellow citizens and sire ! 
 The old and young alike lament his loss ! 
 A nation's love accompanies his fall ! 
 His tomb, his children, his posterity, 
 In distant generations, gain respect ! 
 Who falls to save his country never dies, 
 But leaves behind him an immortal name !" [ 
 
 When, like Ulysses and Diomed, tracing their dreary 
 way,— 
 
 " Through the black horrors of the ensanguin'd plain, 
 Through dust, through blood, o'er arms, and hills of slain," 
 
 on that terrible night which drew its curtain around 
 
414 MILITARY AND MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE 
 
 the dismal field of Waterloo, after parting with Blucher, 
 and crossing the battle plain by moonlight, and beholding 
 a scene of carnage seldom paralleled in the annals of war, it 
 is reported, to the honour of your manhood and humanity, 
 that, covering your face with your hands, you burst into 
 tears. The heaps of dead you then saw, the moans of the 
 dying, and the wail of the wounded, you then heard, might 
 well have moved a heart harder than yours. It is but just 
 to quote your well remembered words, in one of your 
 letters, which ran thus: — "My heart is broken by the 
 terrible loss I have sustained of my old friends and com- 
 panions, and my poor soldiers ; and I shall not be satisfied 
 with this battle, however glorious, if it does not put an 
 end to Buonaparte." Ah ! my Lord Duke, was it really 
 glorious ? Is glory to be measured by the havoc of armies, 
 — by the distress, the distraction, the woe, and the despair 
 created throughout hundreds of thousands of families ! 
 Shall I appeal from this Aceldama, this field of blood, to 
 the fathers and mothers, brothers and sisters, wives and 
 children, relatives and friends of the slain, whether, in 
 very deed, this was a "glorious battle?" I well remem- 
 ber the joy of these nations, but what meant the solitary 
 weeping, the deep grief, and the settled sorrow of such 
 multitudes over all the land ? Their answer was — 
 Waterloo t 
 
 Sir Charles Bell, who followed the army that he might 
 improve his knowledge of gun-shot wounds, and enrich his 
 surgical lectures, throws a little light upon one of the 
 aspects of the glory of Waterloo. He describes the con- 
 dition of the hospitals in terms which make the ears tingle, 
 and the blood run cold ! It was, as your Grace will doubt- 
 less remember, full sixteen days after the battle before the 
 work of the surgeons was finished. When about three 
 weeks after the tremendous day, the living proceeded in the 
 work of burying the dead, it was found that wounded men 
 
ILLUSTRATED, COMPARED, AND CONTRASTED. 4] 5 
 
 had crawled to the carcases of dead horses, and gnawed 
 their raw flesh for food, till putrefaction put an end to the 
 horrid banquet, and they died of hunger! Such facts as 
 these will help to demonstrate how far this was a really 
 glorious battle ! Alas ! glory and battle are terms which 
 ill agree. 
 
 When you look back, my Lord Duke, on your career, 
 and reflect on the multitudes whom you have conducted 
 to slaughter, do inquiries never obtrude themselves upon 
 your mind relative to their eternal destinies? I should 
 wrong your Grace were I to insinuate the negative. You 
 are not an infidel. You fully believe in the immortality 
 of the soul. If reliance can be placed on credible testi- 
 mony, religious considerations have, of late, occupied your 
 mind. Assuming this fact, I may, nevertheless, perhaps, 
 further assume, that the subject of the spiritual condition 
 of the myriads who have bled and perished in your battles, 
 is too repulsive, too terrible to be looked at, even by a 
 man of your Grace's courage ! You have already certified 
 the unparalleled pravity of morals among your troops ; 
 and to the Christian who remembers this fact, there is 
 something inexpressibly, inconceivably appalling in the 
 thought of such men dying and departing for judgment, 
 in such circumstances ! In all ages, indeed, this has been 
 the general character of armies, and hence their slaughter 
 has presented to thinking men a theme of insupportable 
 reflection. The peculiar wickedness of soldiers did not 
 escape the notice even of idolaters ; the poetical historian 
 of the battle of Pharsalia, thus records the fruit of his 
 observation and experience : — 
 
 " Rara fides pietasque viris qui castra sequuntur." 
 
 It is not to be doubted that the mind of your Grace is 
 now occasionally filled with melancholy, when you revolve 
 
416 MILITARY AND MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE 
 
 this fearful subject. It presents war in a new aspect, and 
 that aspect clothed in tenfold horror ! 
 
 In what I have already addressed to your Grace, the 
 soldier and his work have formed the chief theme, while 
 my references to the Missionary and his labour have been 
 only occasional. In what remains, however, I shall re- 
 verse the method, and permit the Missionary to take the 
 lead ; and the discussion will be conducted upon the prin- 
 ciples of the Sacred Scriptures. 
 
 The first point which invites notice is that of personal 
 character. The true Christian Missionary is at once a 
 believer of the doctrines he promulgates, an example of 
 the precepts he enforces, and a pattern of the character he 
 delineates and desires to impress upon his hearers. He 
 is the subject of that great spiritual change, set forth by 
 the Son of God, in the third chapter of the Gospel by 
 John; while his mind is enlightened after the manner 
 described in the first chapter of the Epistle of Paul to the 
 Ephesians. He is penitent for his sins ; " the burden of 
 which is intolerable:" he cordially believes the record 
 which God hath given concerning Christ, and he makes it 
 the business of his life to walk as he walked. In this 
 way his guilt has been pardoned, he has peace with God, 
 and stands accepted in his sight. He is now filled with 
 that wisdom which is from above, which is " first pure, 
 then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be entreated, full of 
 mercy and of good fruits." — Such is the Christian Mis- 
 sionary ! What is the military commander ? Of the 
 common soldiery your Grace need say no more. I only 
 ask you about the officers ? Are they men who strictly 
 correspond to this delineation, — who really fear God and 
 work righteousness ? 
 
 In human conduct, motive is every thing. The Chris- 
 tian Missionary is animated and governed by a principle 
 
ILLUSTRATED, COMPARED, AND CONTRASTED. 4|7 
 
 of love to God and to Jesus Christ, whose very name is to 
 him as " ointment poured forth." If he can, in any way, 
 promote the Saviour's honour and glory, he is willing to 
 suffer the loss of all things ; and, as a first step towards 
 this, he endeavours, with his whole heart, to imbibe the 
 Saviour's spirit, as well as to follow his example. He 
 likewise loves all who love Christ, and, so far as it is prac- 
 ticable, he seeks to do them good. Nor are his regards 
 confined to the righteous ; he is full of benevolence to the 
 whole human race ; and as the greatest good he can effect 
 for them, he is desirous to bring them to the knowledge of 
 God. He honours his sovereign, and he loves his coun- 
 try ; but he knows nothing of a patriotism which excludes 
 good-will to all mankind ; and he is*not able to understand 
 how it can in any way benefit his native land to injure 
 other lands. One of the great general laws laid down for 
 his government by Christ, is to " do good to all men," — 
 to treat all men as brethren, and as the offspring of the 
 same common parent. Hence his hatred of war, in every 
 shape, and his delight in peace, at whatever price. He is 
 utterly incapable of understanding how it can be for the 
 glory of his king and the good of his country, that he 
 should be one of a multitude of fellow-subjects employed 
 to sink the ships, to burn the cities, and to kill the people 
 of any other country. He considers the human family as 
 one, although broken up into a multitude of portions, un- 
 der their several chief magistrates, upon the same princi- 
 ple as his own country is divided into counties, cities, 
 towns, and burghs, with their several local governments ; 
 and he deems it their duty and interest to live in constant 
 peace and harmony with each other. He can see no more 
 glory in foreign war than in civil war, in homicide than in 
 suicide ! He can view it only as folly, madness, crime ! — 
 Such, my Lord Duke, is the missionary. Your Grace will 
 judge how far his character corresponds to that of the 
 
 t3 
 
418 MILITARY AND MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE 
 
 military officer, and whether of the two is the more en- 
 lightened, the more dignified, and the more honourable. 
 While I consider your Grace by far the first of your class, 
 and view the war, in which you won your laurels, as among 
 the least exceptionable that have been carried on for ages, 
 yet I submit that, in these respects, even you cannot for a 
 moment be compared with such men. How infinitely 
 superior are their moral principles and feelings even to 
 yours, in your capacity of commander ; and how much 
 more to those of such barbarians as Blucher, Murat, Ney, 
 Davoust, and the whole race of Continental heroes ! 
 
 The Missionary's unconquerable love of peace is found- 
 ed in his nature. He has been the subject of a spiritual 
 influence, of which much is said in the Scriptures. He 
 has received the gift of the Spirit of God, which resides in 
 his bosom, producing " love, joy, peace, long-suffering, 
 gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness." These are "the 
 fruits of the Spirit," and they are the invariable charac- 
 teristics of all true Missionaries. The Apostle, in the 
 letter which contains these words, likewise sets forth what 
 he designates " the works of the flesh," the attributes and 
 marks of men who are " sensual, having not the Spirit ;" 
 which are these, " adultery, fornication, uncleanness, las- 
 civiousness, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, 
 envyings, murders, drunkennesses, reveilings, and such 
 like." Your Grace will decide how far these are attendant 
 upon the course of military officers. This difference of 
 nature in the two classes fully accounts for the difference 
 of their feelings and pursuits. So long as men of the 
 latter class live, there will be wars and fightings among 
 mankind. War can only be destroyed by destroying the 
 warrior : — 
 
 " Not with the burial of the sword this strife 
 
ILLUSTRATED, COMPARED, AND CONTRASTED. 4J9 
 
 It is in vain that we look to the spread of mere secular 
 knowledge and civil liberty for the extinction of the mani- 
 fold evils which afflict mankind. This fact has taken 
 strong possession of the minds of the first class of political 
 and moral philosophers. The following remarkable pas- 
 sage is exactly to the present purpose : — " Take the case 
 of war, — by far the most prolific and extensive pest of the 
 human race, whether we consider the sufferings it inflicts, 
 or the happiness it prevents, — and see whether it is likely 
 to be arrested by the progress of intelligence and civiliza- 
 tion. — Men delight in war, in spite of the pains and mise- 
 ries which it entails upon them and their fellows, because 
 it exercises all the talents, and calls out all the energies of 
 their nature, — because it holds them out conspicuously as 
 the objects of public sentiment and general sympathy, — 
 because it gratifies their pride of heart, and gives them a 
 lofty sentiment of their own power, worth, and courage, — 
 but principally because it sets the game of existence upon 
 a higher stake, and dispels, by its powerful interest, those 
 feelings of ennui which steal upon every condition from 
 which hazard and anxiety are excluded, and drive us into 
 danger and suffering as a relief. While human nature 
 continues to be distinguished by those attributes, we do 
 not see any chance of war being superseded by the in- 
 crease of wisdom and morality. We should be pretty 
 well advanced in the career of perfectibility, if all the in- 
 habitants of Europe were as intelligent, and upright, and 
 considerate, as Sir John Moore, or Lord Nelson, or Lord 
 Wellington,' — but we should not have the less war, we take 
 it, with all its attendant miseries. The more wealth, and 
 intelligence, and liberty, there is in a country, the greater 
 love there will be of war ; for a gentleman is uniformly a 
 more pugnacious animal than a plebeian, and a free man 
 than a slave." * The reviewers reason with great power 
 * Edinburgh Bevieiv, vol. xxi. p. 14. 
 
4^0 MILITARY AND MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE 
 
 upon the general principle, strongly contending also with 
 respect to " the other glittering curses of life, that, as they 
 are miseries which exist almost exclusively among the most 
 polished and intelligent of the species," it is not "very pro- 
 bable, at least, that they will be eradicated by rendering 
 the species more polished and intelligent." For any thing 
 they can see, unless an instrument of greater power can 
 be discovered or invented, matters, they think, will remain 
 much the same " ten thousand years hence, as they are at 
 this moment."* These are far from shallow thoughts; 
 they are the judgments of pure philosophy — the profound- 
 est operations of reason apart from Revelation. Philoso- 
 phy, however, holds forth no hope of relief to mankind 
 from their manifold miseries, except the tomb ! Looking 
 at generation after generation, through the vista of thou- 
 sands of years, she beholds nothing but Discord, which — 
 
 " Raging, bathes the purple plain ; 
 Discord ! dire sister of the slaughtering power, 
 Small at her birth, but rising every hour, 
 While scarce the skies her horrid head can bound, 
 She stalks on earth, and shakes the world around. 
 The nations bleed, where'er her steps she turns, 
 The groan still deepens, and the combat burns." 
 
 Turning from philosophers to the prophets of God, how 
 changed is my prospect ! Their writings abundantly assure 
 me that all nations "shall beat their swords into plough- 
 shares, and their spears into pruning-hooks ; that nation 
 shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they 
 learn war any more." The wonderful writings of these 
 seers not only foretell the fact of the ultimate prevalence 
 of Peace, but describe the process by which the great 
 revolution will be effected. It is not by philosophy ; it is 
 not by legislation ; it is not by secular instruction ; it is 
 
 * Edinburgh Review, vol. xxi. p. 16. 
 
ILLUSTRATED, COMPARED, AND CONTRASTED. 4g] 
 
 not by the diffusion of freedom ; it is not by the extension 
 of commerce and the multiplication of wealth ; — it is not 
 by one nor by all of these things, and still less is it by 
 war, the bane and destruction of them all ! No. It is by 
 filling the earth, as the Prophets express it, with " the 
 knowledge of the Lord." This, this will extinguish the 
 flames of war! 
 
 I have now reached the highest point of my great theme. 
 From this fact arises the glory of the Missionary. He 
 is the man by whom the earth is to be so filled. On his 
 agency, therefore, hinge the hopes of all nations. It is 
 madness to look for deliverance from any other; and such 
 an expectation must end in despair. How dignified, then, 
 is the position of the Missionary body, the appointed en- 
 lighteners and liberators of mankind ! How puny, how 
 contemptible an object is the greatest of this world's great 
 men, as compared with the least of these heavenly bene- 
 factors ! All earthly operations are truly honourable and 
 glorious only as they harmonize with the work of Mis- 
 sions, or help it forward. Such men as the late John 
 Williams, the Martyr of Erromanga, are incomparably 
 greater men than the greatest of European conquerors, or 
 statesmen, or philosophers. The fame on earth, of Wil- 
 liams and his brethren, will be as lasting as the benefits 
 which they have conferred on mankind ; it will be bounded 
 only by the globe, and terminate only with the end of all 
 things. Their names are written, not in blood, but in 
 the hearts of nations. The celebration of their peaceful 
 glories commences not with the thunder of desolation, the 
 shrieks of suffering, and the groans of death ! Their acts 
 are not 
 
 " Such as nations yet unborn shall tell, 
 And curse the battle where their fathers fell ! " 
 
 Oh! my Lord Duke, what peace, joy, unity and bro- 
 
422 MILITARY AND MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE 
 
 therhood succeed their victories! How tender, how in- 
 tense is the love of the vanquished for the victor! How 
 they admire the Saviour ! How they cleave to his ser- 
 vants ! Good, and only good, good personal and relative, 
 good of all kinds, good in the largest measures, good both 
 for soul and body, good for this world and for that which 
 is to come, attends their march, and flows from their con- 
 quests. The Missionary's Station is a fountain of good, 
 of unmixed good to all around it ; and the Missionary 
 himself is at once seen to be the friend of God and the 
 benefactor of the whole human race. 
 
 How simple are the means, how unostentatious the 
 movements, how cheap the wars of the Missionary body ! 
 Their Bibles, paper, types, and printing presses, are the 
 cannon, shells, and mortars with which they storm the 
 citadels of idolatry. The Missionaries assail systems, not 
 men ; in their battle there is love to man, hatred only to 
 evil. They go to this, the most difficult, sometimes the 
 most dangerous, of all enterprises, in the strength of the 
 Lord God. In the name of their God they " set up their 
 banners ;" and " his banner over them is love." They lay 
 their sieges to the soul of man. They first proceed to rec- 
 tify the deadly disorders that rage within him. They lead 
 him to the knowledge of the true God through Jesus 
 Christ, which proves life, light, peace, hope, and happi- 
 ness. From this moment the most savage of our race be- 
 come gentle as lambs, and the most barbarous are intro- 
 duced within the pale of the only true civilization, and 
 lifted up to fellowship with God. This internal renova- 
 tion becomes the basis of a new moral character. The 
 Book of the Missionaries declares that, " if any man be in 
 Christ Jesus, he is a new creature ; old things have passed 
 away, and all things are become new." Thus piety is the 
 source of morality ; and morals the foundation of govern- 
 ment. In the British capital there is, at present, a mem- 
 
ILLUSTRATED, COMPARED, AND CONTRASTED, 4^3 
 
 ber of the missionary brotherhood, who could rehearse to 
 your Grace, facts, illustrative of the power of the gospel 
 over the hearts of men, such as would not fail unspeakably 
 to interest you. He could tell you of the murderous feats 
 of Africaner, the terrible Caffrarian chief. He could tell 
 you of the power of the gospel over this desert monarch 
 of Namaqualand ; he could show him to you in all the sim- 
 plicity of childhood, and, with more than female tender- 
 ness, acting the part of a peace-maker, pouring forth the 
 bitterest regrets for the torrents of blood which he had 
 caused to flow, and earnestly imploring the head-men of 
 his region to unite with him in efforts to establish perma- 
 nent peace. 
 
 This Missionary, whose name is Moffat, could give your 
 Grace the history of a ten years' experiment upon the 
 tribes of the Desert, comprehending accounts of labours, 
 trials, privations, and dangers, in connexion with this mag- 
 nanimous experiment, such as your Grace never formed 
 an idea of. At first he knew not the language, and he 
 had none to teach him. To accomplish this, unmindful of 
 their filth, and fearless of their ferocity, he went and lived, 
 for a period, entirely among the natives. He waked, he 
 slept, he wandered, he hunted, he rested, he ate, he drank 
 with them, till he thoroughly mastered their language, 
 and he then began to preach to them the gospel of Christ. 
 Through this long space of ten years, amidst difficulties 
 and afflictions of all kinds, occasionally attended by threats 
 of murder, he laboured on without any tokens of success. 
 Still he continued to preach to them the love of God, and 
 the death of Christ for the sins of men, till, at length, they 
 began to listen, to tremble, and to weep. They repented 
 of sin and forsook it ; they heard the gospel and believed 
 it. Then, as the evidence and effect of this, burst forth 
 the buddings of civilization. The once naked, filthy 
 savages, became clothed and cleanly ; idleness gave place 
 
4^4 MILITARY AND MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE 
 
 to industry ; they built houses, and cultivated gardens ; 
 provisions for the wants of the mind kept pace with that 
 of those for the body ; they reared schools for the young, 
 and chapels for the old. The business of education and 
 religion rapidly advanced. Hundreds of these sable sa- 
 vages now believe the gospel of Christ, and " walk in his 
 holy ways ;" thousands are learning to read ; surrounding 
 tribes behold and admire the change, and are imploring 
 Missionaries to come and work like wonders for them, and 
 communicate to them like blessings. Human bones no 
 more strew the region ; bonfires are no longer made of the 
 children of prisoners taken in war ; and no more do they 
 bury alive their own little ones ! Mr. Moffat, to complete 
 his benevolent operations, is now in England, printing 
 Bibles and school books in the language of these people. 
 He has with him a Bechuana girl, whom, sixteen years 
 ago, he rescued from the grave. This girl, with his own 
 daughters, has been trained in England to conduct infant 
 schools on his return to Africa. Who can describe the 
 obligations under which these tribes are laid to their 
 Missionaries ! 
 
 This, my Lord Duke, is only a specimen of a work 
 which, in substance, is being carried on with like success 
 under almost every sky, and by Protestant Missionaries of 
 all denominations. Among men of all hues, of all tongues, 
 and in every stage of barbarism, it is now being demon- 
 strated that the gospel of Christ is " the power of God 
 unto salvation to every one that believeth." Those por- 
 tions of the globe which have been last discovered, have 
 been among the most successful fields of modern Missions. 
 I refer more especially to the islands of the South Seas. 
 The spirit of discovery, animated by the love of science, 
 first descried those lovely isles. Commerce, impelled by 
 cupidity, next visited them ; but science and commerce 
 left the natives ignorant of God. To them the white 
 
ILLUSTRATED, COMPARED, AND CONTRASTED. 405 
 
 man's discovery was no blessing, and each successive visit 
 was but a greater curse ! At length the Missionary ship 
 from England arrived at Otaheite, with men, of manners 
 so unlike all that had previously appeared on their shores, 
 that the natives could scarcely believe them to be English. 
 After fifteen long years of delay and disappointment, diffi- 
 culty and danger, and the murder of a portion of the Mis- 
 sionary band, the truths of God began to take effect, and 
 produced such results as had had no parallel since the 
 times of the first propagation of Christianity. Would 
 your Grace wish to see a record of those moral wonders ? 
 The volume of John Williams records facts which place 
 the work of Missions in a light altogether new. The 
 perusal of it will, I doubt not, fully convince you that 
 nothing is wanting to the entire moral renovation of our 
 race, but that " the earth should be full of the knowledge 
 of the Lord as the waters cover the sea." This allegation 
 admits of no dispute. Its truth is as clear as the light ; its 
 certainty amounts to demonstration. What developments 
 you will perceive in that book of spiritual life, of intel- 
 lectual and moral power ! What an exuberance of all 
 that tends to make man lovely and life happy ! See once 
 degraded humanity now robed in the dignity of virtue, and 
 liberty, formerly unknown, enshrined in the sanctuary of 
 Law ! See Art strewing her comforts, Education diffusing 
 her benefits, Science her pleasures, and Religion her glories! 
 See the candle of the Lord lighted up in the hearts of my- 
 riads who but lately dwelt in darkness ! Now beholding 
 the image of God in the face of Jesus Christ, they rejoice 
 in the Prince of Peace. 
 
 It well becomes England to think highly of Christian 
 Missions, for with them originated all her greatness. They 
 found her a slave-province of Rome : they now behold her 
 the foe of thraldom and the first of free empires, and the 
 mistress of great nations. The Protestant principle and 
 
4^6 MILITARY AND MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE 
 
 doctrine, to which she owes her present constitution, with 
 all its attendant blessings, was first brought to her by these 
 missionaries. England is the chosen abode of civil free- 
 dom; and still more is she distinguished by that yet 
 greater blessing, Freedom of Conscience. Most nations 
 know but little of civil, still less of religious liberty. The 
 union of these liberties, however, is the principal source 
 of her renown. Nor is this all : during the late great 
 continental war of freedom, England's gold mainly sus- 
 tained the costs of its armaments throughout the terrible 
 struggle ; and, in the person of your Grace, she fought, in 
 its war, the greatest battle that ever was fought for free- 
 dom in our world. Thus has England attained the dread- 
 ful summit of martial glory ; and her matchless maritime 
 power and prowess have been long proved and confessed 
 by all lands, and in all seas. 
 
 Such is the peerless pre-eminence of Old England, in 
 matters of a warlike character ; but in the mind of Chris- 
 tians this constitutes the meanest of her glories. Her true 
 glory is based on her piety, and on the institutions which 
 it has created. In the British Isle there is more true god- 
 liness — religion founded on knowledge — the fear and love 
 of God residing in the heart, and regulating the life — many 
 times over, than among all the nations of Europe. Her 
 schools, her colleges, her chapels, her churches, her hos- 
 pitals, her asylums, and her innumerable receptacles for 
 every variety of suffering humanity — these and their atten- 
 dants are more substantial grounds of praise. One chief 
 element of her greatness is the fact alleged by your Grace, 
 that the English are " not naturally a military people," 
 that " the army is an exotic," and that none can be induced 
 to enlist in it but the very offscouring of society. This 
 national feeling of aversion to war may be traced up to the 
 evangelical principle of the Reformation, a principle which 
 has affected the moral sentiments of multitudes who never 
 
ILLUSTRATED, COMPARED, AND CONTRASTED. QgJ 
 
 received the gospel in the love of it. She has become 
 deeply imbued with that gospel which is destined to ex- 
 tinguish war throughout all the earth. Next to her glory in 
 being the great European depository of pure religious truth, 
 is her glory in being the foster-parent of Christian Mis- 
 sions. She has been chosen of God, in preference to all 
 other kingdoms, for this great work of piety and mercy. 
 She has not only taken the lead of all the nations of Europe, 
 but she has the honour of performing nearly the whole 
 work alone. It is British type that is diffusing the Scrip- 
 tures of truth among all nations ; it is the English tongue 
 that is calling upon those nations to behold the Lamb 
 of God ! 
 
 In connexion with the work of Christian Missions, and 
 in order to facilitate its advancement, God has given to 
 England more colonial territory than to all Europe. She 
 is marked out to be the great mother of empires. Her 
 gigantic first-born, in the New World, is fast becoming 
 her rival in all that constitutes true worth and national 
 greatness. What interest attaches to Plymouth Rock, 
 New England, on which the Pilgrim Fathers first set foot 
 as they left the little ship which had wafted them from 
 the land of their fathers' sepulchres ! See them ascending 
 from the frozen beach, and penetrating the pathless forest, 
 where they effected a first lodgment for the arts, letters, 
 and religion ! What a work was that day begun ! Never 
 was colony so commenced. Never did perfect liberty so 
 combine with the most enlightened piety. On that day, a 
 continent, stretching from pole to pole, became the resid- 
 ence of a portion of the highest civilization and the purest 
 Christianity that the world had seen. The arrival on those 
 shores of the bark of the Pilgrims was an event only second 
 in importance to that of Columbus. But how different the 
 principles, religious and political, of the Spaniards and of 
 the English ! and how different the results ! From the one 
 
428 MILITARY AND MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE 
 
 colony sprung evil without mixture — crimes without pa- 
 rallel — calamities and curses which baffle description, 
 which baffle conception ! From the other incalculable and 
 unmingled good, — good which will exist through all future 
 time, and which will be diffused over all countries. The 
 shores of New England are now studded with cities, its 
 plains are waving with golden harvests, religion and com- 
 merce, liberty and learning, preside, with matchless beauty, 
 throughout all the happy land ! 
 
 What the doctrines of the gospel have done for the 
 colony of the Pilgrim Fathers they can effect for all the 
 colonies of Britain. No place more loudly demands their 
 restraining presence and mitigating labours. Nothing but 
 the doctrines of Christ, as diffused by his true and faithful 
 missionaries, can prevent even British colonies from be- 
 coming what the Spanish and Portuguese colonies have 
 ever been, a double curse — a curse to the Aborigines and 
 to Britain herself. She has, in her colonial movements, 
 too much resembled ancient Rome. Her object has not 
 been to benefit the natives but herself ; her policy has not 
 been governed by the principles of Christianity; it has 
 been always military and commercial. Her aim has been 
 subjugation, ascendancy, and wealth. Like Rome, her 
 colonies, as your Grace well knows, have been little more 
 than military establishments, advanced posts in the path 
 of rapacious conquest. Her law has followed her cannon. 
 First the soldier, then the merchant, while both have done 
 their utmost to exclude the missionary. " First bind, and 
 then plunder," has been the motto of England's colonial 
 procedure ; and if God had not, in mercy, raised up Chris- 
 tian missionaries, and sent them forth to both the East and 
 West Indies, to Africa, and elsewhere, to mitigate misery 
 as well as to abolish or prevent it ; to plead for the op- 
 pressed, and to break the rod of the oppressor, the cry 
 of the afflicted in the British dependencies had long since 
 
ILLUSTRATED, COMPARED, AND CONTRASTED. 4gO, 
 
 ascended to the throne of Eternal Justice, and brought 
 down vengeance upon the head of the guilty! But why 
 has God given to England those immense territories ? That 
 she may bear to them the Gospel of Salvation. This ob- 
 ject begins to be realized ; it is apparent already, that 
 what was at first a curse is, through the labours of the 
 missionary, becoming a blessing. 
 
 My Lord Duke, in carefully examining the great ques- 
 tion of Christian Missions, you will find it to involve the 
 highest points of the policy of nations. The real purposes 
 of Heaven, in giving to Britain so much colonial territory, 
 will soon become obvious even to mere statesmen. The 
 Population question will shortly be solved. A current of 
 distress is setting in which will try the skill of those who 
 guide the vessel of state. Temporary expedients may be 
 adopted, and, for a season, they may appear to succeed ; 
 but the evil will, from time to time, return with a more ap- 
 palling power and a more deadly malignity. Philosophers 
 may speculate, statesmen may debate, party may upset 
 party, experiment may succeed experiment, and scheme 
 follow scheme, but the affliction will continue, without 
 any material abatement, in spite of the legislature. The 
 province of true legislation is limited. In regard to com- 
 merce and colonies, it generally does most for their benefit 
 when it does least, unless in the way of undoing its previous 
 enactments. When all has been done that can be done by 
 either of the great parties in the state, or by both, should 
 the cry of calamity happen to unite them, still wants, vast 
 and pressing, will remain which nothing can supply, and 
 hardly any thing mitigate. Legislation cannot ulti- 
 mately defeat the purposes of Divine Providence ; but by 
 delay it may double the difficulties of obedience, and pro- 
 long the calamities which it is intended to alleviate. 
 Carefully surveying the present state of the globe, with 
 the history of past times before me, and with the condition 
 
430 MILITARY AND MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE 
 
 of our country full in view, I am reluctantly, but irresis- 
 tibly, led to the conclusion, that England is on the brink 
 of a great era — an era marked by difficulty, distraction, 
 convulsion, and peril. But her affliction will, in the end, 
 redound to her honour and glory. She will be summoned 
 to the self-denying task of sowing the seed of her people, 
 her institutions, her arts, her sciences, and her piety, in far 
 distant lands. The people of England must, at a day not 
 very distant, emigrate by millions ; and the process, at 
 brief intervals, will be repeated. This, however, will, no 
 doubt, be attended with sore, although temporary trials, to 
 the separated parties ; but these will diminish with time, 
 and soon be much mitigated by circumstances ; while the 
 benefits to posterity and mankind will be boundless and 
 endless. 
 
 Taking a wide view of the whole question of civilization, 
 of which the grand element is Christian Missions, I con- 
 ceive that Prophecy, Providence, the temporal welfare of 
 England, and the general good of all nations, alike and 
 urgently call for British emigration upon a scale which no 
 country has ever yet attempted. This measure, wisely 
 conducted, will be fraught with a multitude of benefits. 
 To England it will be profitable at once in point of wealth 
 and of morals, both of which will be increasingly and 
 fatally affected by the perpetuity of things as they now 
 stand. Want apart, it is not desirable to cover England 
 with buildings, and thus to convert the whole island into 
 one great city. Emigration, on right principles, commer- 
 cially, politically, morally, religiously considered, is a 
 measure which well merits the support of every true friend 
 to England and to mankind. Let cities rise in the wilder- 
 ness, and let the desert echo the accents of Englishmen. 
 Let the virgin soil of fertile regions, which have lain waste 
 since the deluge, be broken up, that they may pour their 
 treasures into the lap of man. Let those regions be re- 
 
ILLUSTRATED, COMPARED, AND CONTRASTED. 43 \ 
 
 plenished with British subjects, alive to wants numerous 
 and various, which only Britain can supply, and British 
 canvass will still continue, with increase, to whiten every 
 sea, and the manufactories of England be kept in busy 
 play, teeming with well paid, intelligent, virtuous, and 
 happy men. It sickens the very soul to see how lightly 
 human life is estimated in England. A man is often little 
 more accounted of than a dog ! The feelings of nature, 
 too, are shocked, and the laws of propriety are violated, in 
 relation to the increase of mankind. Children are actually 
 considered a " cumbrance," a great family, a great misfor- 
 tune. This language is heard only in England. In Ame- 
 rica the feelings which prompt it have no place. Where 
 such sentiments exist, and children are a hardship, there 
 is something wrong. They ought to be viewed as Scrip- 
 ture represents them, in the light of a blessing. The 
 feeling here condemned is that in which infanticide ori- 
 ginates ! 
 
 Philanthropy weeps at the aspect of English society. She 
 is wearied by the sight of squalid misery, of workhouses, 
 of prisons, of penitentiaries, and other instruments for the 
 prevention, or the punishment of crime. To separate will 
 be to purify society. Let the order of nature be restored 
 as fast and as far as practicable. This would render the 
 police of nations a very simple affair, and cheap because 
 simple. It is time to look at this matter in the light of 
 economy. The annual cost to the British isles, of police 
 and crime, is, as near as can be ascertained, about a million 
 and a half sterling! Whence this dreadful state of society? 
 Is it not, to a large extent, from ignorance, from poverty, 
 and from destitution ? Would not the money, thus wast- 
 ed, if well laid out, go far towards rectifying the fearful 
 disorders of the body politic ? 
 
 The cause of true civilization, — in other words, the 
 cause of Missions, — requires more great centres from 
 
432 ' MILITARY AND MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE 
 
 which it might be successfully diffused throughout sur- 
 rounding regions and adjacent lands. Feeble tapers, such 
 as the Christian communities of most of our colonial esta- 
 blishments now are, can emit but little light. On this 
 ground it is of the first importance that a system of colo- 
 nization should be carried out with the utmost activity by 
 the friends of religion and humanity. To use a figure 
 familiar to your Grace, the army is much too far from 
 their magazines — the Missionary stations are at too great 
 a distance from the British churches to command a suffi- 
 cient measure of sympathy or of succour. From England 
 to those lands the voyages are so long, and so expensive, 
 as to throw great impediments in the way of the Mission- 
 aries. Men with families cannot be sent forth ; and fami- 
 lies, in the event of parental sickness or death, can only 
 return at a heavy, and, therefore, a hurtful cost to the 
 Societies. Were the whole body of the supporters of the 
 African Missions resident in Africa instead of England, 
 how it would alter the character, and augment the force of 
 these Missions ! The same remark equally applies to In- 
 dia, and other heathen countries. 
 
 England could at present spare four or five millions of 
 her people, without in the least degree impeding the 
 operations of either her agriculture or her commerce ; and, 
 consequently, the withdrawment of such a body would 
 serve powerfully to invigorate the whole system of society, 
 while their location on other shores would lay the founda- 
 tion of new and civilized kingdoms, open for England 
 fresh and valuable markets, and give a rightful importance, 
 as well as impart a substantial felicity, to multitudes of 
 immortal beings who now feel existence to be a burden, 
 and are tempted to curse the day that they were born ! 
 On these, and other grounds, my Lord Duke, I consider 
 Christian Protestant Missions as the great and paramount 
 work of the present age, — Missions first to our colonies, 
 
 
ILLUSTRATED, COMPARED, AND CONTRASTED. 433 
 
 and then into all the world. The establishment of the 
 former in great power, because among great numbers, will 
 most materially facilitate the latter. By multiplying 
 great centres of evangelical operation, at wide distances 
 over the earth, we shall proportionately augment power of 
 action. 
 
 My Lord Duke, if such be the Missionary enterprise, it 
 surely follows that the Missionary character is incompara- 
 bly the leading character of our times. We have, indeed, 
 at present, no other that can either command attention, or 
 that possesses much importance. The military character, 
 although immemorially and fatally famous, is now, I trust, 
 nearly out of date. The people of England have now paid 
 so much for plumes and epaulets, drums and trumpets, 
 swords and pick-axes, muskets and cannon, and other in- 
 struments of human destruction, that, it is probable, they 
 will feel but little disposed to make any farther purchases 
 in that way for seven centuries to come. At the Revolu- 
 tion, in 1688, the National Debt was little more than half 
 a million sterling; and the interest not forty thousand 
 pounds. Then began our madness and our misery. The 
 war of William, that followed the Revolution, cost thirty- 
 one millions! The war of the Spanish succession cost 
 forty-four millions ! The Spanish war and Austrian suc- 
 cession cost forty-seven millions ! The seven years' war 
 about Nova Scotia cost one hundred and seven millions / 
 The war with our American Colonies cost one hundred and 
 fifty-one millions! The war of the French Revolution 
 cost four hundred and seventy two millions ! The war 
 against Buonaparte cost jive hundred and eighty -six mil- 
 lions! To these, must be added the still more terrible 
 fact, that such wars cost England, in one way or another, 
 from four to five millions of men. Surely, my Lord Duke, 
 we have here gold and blood enough for at least a thou- 
 
 u 
 
434 MILITARY AND MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE 
 
 sand generations! Oh! what infatuation! What mad- 
 ness ! What culpable waste ! What suicidal wickedness ! 
 This enormous misgovernment has entailed a curse upon 
 the British empire which will cleave to her through all 
 generations. " In a country like England, there could be 
 no debt, and no burden of taxes, if there was no war."* 
 War, then, horrid war brought upon us all our burdens 
 and all our woe ! Enough of war and warriors ! Let 
 peace and love henceforth prevail till the heavens be no 
 more ! 
 
 The literary character, too, has been exhibited so long, 
 in ways so various, and with a splendour so dazzling, and 
 the results of its toil have so amply supplied the intellec- 
 tual wants of man, that, with the millions, its necessity, 
 its glory, and its fascination, are nearly gone by. The 
 same remark also applies to the philosophical character. 
 The harvest has obviously been reaped, and little now 
 remains but the gleaning. The romance of Voyaging 
 and of Travel has also passed away. In this department 
 of scientific and philanthropic inquiry, there is little more 
 to be done, except in Africa. The reign of fancy is now 
 generally giving place to that of reason. Knowledge has 
 narrowed and lowered the province of imagination, and the 
 splendid is now less looked for than the useful. Not only 
 are earth and ocean explored, but the boundaries of empire 
 are generally fixed. Dreams of conquest, and of universal 
 empire, are fled for ever. The world pants to be happy. 
 Amelioration at home is now the watchword of nations ; 
 and civilization abroad is the great problem of philan- 
 thropy. In a word, the world is now prepared for the 
 Missionary enterprise. It is now generally confessed, 
 among all enlightened men, that civilization is Missions ; 
 
 * Edinburgh Review, vol. xiv. p. 285. 
 
ILLUSTRATED, COMPARED, AND CONTRASTED. 435 
 
 Missions are civilization. By Missions only can " the wil- 
 derness and the solitary place be made glad," and the 
 desert be brought to " rejoice and blossom as the rose." 
 The Missionary is, therefore, by far the first of human 
 kind. He is the great type and character of the age. 
 Even men of the world begin to understand his object, 
 and concede his claims. Concession bespeaks candour ; 
 candour will lead to more inquiry ; more inquiry to full 
 conviction ; and full conviction will be followed by intense 
 admiration and munificent support. Poets will celebrate 
 his exploits, orators eulogize his virtue, princes will caress 
 him, and crowned heads will show him the highest favour. 
 The smiles of royalty will not always rest upon worthless 
 objects. 
 
 A few more centuries, my Lord Duke, of the labours 
 of Gospel Missions, and what will be the aspect of our 
 globe ? What will then meet the eye that surveys it ? An 
 awakened world ! An enlightened, a purified, a peaceful 
 world ! A world filled with men who fear God, honour 
 their magistrates, and love one another! A world in 
 which man is wholly free, and governments entirely 
 just ! A world where mind, religion, the tongue, the 
 pen, the printing press — all are free, and not abusing 
 their freedom ! A world where God is glorified, and man 
 is happy ! 
 
 Come, then, illustrious Duke ! and finish your career in 
 a manner worthy of your character, your country, and the 
 age in which you live ! Oh ! come and identify yourself 
 with all that is wise and liberal in government, — with all 
 that is generous and noble in humanity, — with all that 
 tends to the peace of the earth, — and with all that makes 
 for the furtherance of Missions — the fountain of all good ! 
 On earth this will not detract from your transcendant 
 glory ; nor will you have reason to repent it in the world 
 
 v2 
 
436 MILITARY AND MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE, ETC. 
 
 of spirits, for to have liberated one soul from the slavery 
 of sin, will there be held an infinitely higher achieve- 
 ment than to have wrenched the sceptre of a terrible 
 tyranny from the giant grasp of a ruthless usurper, 
 and restored a continent of kings to their ancestral 
 thrones ! 
 
LETTER XIV. 
 
 TO THE CHURCHES OF GREAT BRITAIN, IRELAND, 
 AND AMERICA. 
 
 ON THE PAST HISTORY, PRESENT POSITION, AND FUTURE PROSPECTS, 
 OF THE MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE. 
 
 Men and brethren, does not the present state of Christian 
 Missions call for consideration ? Is not the aspect which 
 the work now assumes, wholly new ? Has not a point 
 now been reached, which the most sagacious man among 
 you never anticipated ? David represents the Church as 
 giving utterance to the following lamentation : — " Thou 
 hast cast off, and put us to shame ; and goest not forth 
 with our armies. Thou makest us to turn back from the 
 enemy ; and they which hate us spoil for themselves." 
 According to Isaiah, she said, " We have not wrought 
 any deliverance in the earth ; neither have the inhabitants 
 of the world fallen." In our day, how different is the lan- 
 guage that becomes her situation ! If " the inhabitants 
 of the world have not yet fallen," is not the blame ours ? 
 In all lands, has not the Lord been before us, and opened 
 up a way for our armies ? Are not the walls of almost all 
 nations levelled with the ground ? Or are not their gates 
 opened wide for the reception of the soldiers of Christ ? 
 Are not their inhabitants, as if ready to fall, patiently, in 
 
438 0N THE PAST ' PRESENT, AND FUTURE 
 
 some cases, anxiously waiting for subjugation? Are not 
 men of all climes, some literally, others virtually, calling 
 on the churches of the living God to come up and possess 
 the land ? Yes : but she is unable. Army she has none ! 
 All she can boast is a few faithful scattered soldiers ; and, 
 yet few although they are, instead of augmenting her force, 
 she is actually incapable of supporting it ! Under these 
 circumstances, is it not proper to pause and ponder the 
 path by which God has led us during the last fifty years ? 
 From the past, we may surely gain some encouragement 
 with respect to the present, and direction concerning the 
 future. 
 
 In taking a survey of the past history of modern Missions, 
 we need not go further back than the memorable hour 
 when, in Sierra Leone, the Rev. Melvill Home composed 
 his celebrated Letters. To his observant eye, how deso- 
 late and dreary, at that time, was the world ! Greenland 
 alone might be said to be the only heathen land in which 
 the religion of the Son of God had for centuries gained a 
 firm footing* While gazing on the sorrowful spectacle, 
 the indignant spirit of that fervent writer thus broke forth, 
 and summoned the world to testify against the church ; — 
 u Speak, ye desolate shores of Africa ; declare, ye bloody 
 fields of Hindostan ; bear your impartial testimony, ye 
 numerous islands of the Western and Pacific oceans ! " 
 The appeal could not be opposed. Those parts had no- 
 thing to say in praise of Christian mercy ; at the hands of 
 Christians, so called, they had received nothing but evil 
 and wrong. Mr. Home asked the churches what monies 
 they had subscribed, what associations they had formed, 
 what prayers they had offered, what exhortations pastors 
 had given to their flocks, and to each other. To all this 
 the answer was — silence ! He next bewailed the extinc- 
 tion of the spirit of Missions in the Church of England ; 
 insisting, however, at the same time, that the Dissenters had 
 
OF THE MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE. 439 
 
 no reason to rejoice over her, since, with the exception of 
 Carey and Thomas, none of them had then engaged in the 
 work of Missions. He gave due and just praise to Dr. 
 Coke, for the Missions that he established, which Mr. 
 Home correctly affirms to have been rather the Missions 
 of that individual, than of the Methodists as a body, for 
 they had not then taken that noble stand in the field 
 which they have since assumed. 
 
 At this dark hour, the whole earth was quiet and at 
 rest. The churches of Christ, in Britain, had no proper 
 sense of their obligation to go to the Gentiles. Their 
 knowledge regarding the subject was as defective as their 
 feeling. It is very instructive now to read the Missionary 
 meditations of grave and holy men in that and the former 
 age. One of these, an excellent minister of the word, 
 thus delivered his views on a public occasion : — " To a 
 dark and benighted world at large, our efforts cannot ex- 
 tend ; new arrangements of Providence alone can pave the 
 way for its conversion. — Let us plead with him his own 
 truth and faithfulness in fulfilling his promises, that, by 
 methods known to his infinite wisdom, he would enlighten 
 the dark places of the earth with the pure light of evan- 
 gelical truth, and hasten the happy time foretold, when 
 the dominion of Christ shall extend from sea to sea, and 
 from the river to the ends of the earth." How strange 
 such language now sounds ! The command of Christ, the 
 practice of the Apostles, and the history of gospel diffu- 
 sion, seem to have been things quite foreign to the speak- 
 er's mind. The worthy gentleman assured his hearers 
 that they could do nothing, and that the world could be 
 converted only by some inscrutable "methods" in the 
 economy of Providence, with which methods man had no 
 instrumental concern beyond prayer. Our fathers, how- 
 ever, happily did not believe him. They found from the 
 Bible that God had but one " method of enlightening the 
 
440 0N THE PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE 
 
 dark places of the earth," — a method which involved the 
 agency of man; and that there was really no mystery 
 about the matter. They saw that they had simply to do 
 as they were bid, to " go into all the world, and preach 
 the gospel to every creature." Under this impression they 
 began to labour for the illumination of mankind ; and this 
 labour has been carried on to the present time. What has 
 been the result ? Many deem it small. According to the 
 opinion of an acute writer, and a Christian, it has been 
 very insignificant. " It cannot," says he, " but be a ques- 
 tion to every mind — why is it that with such large and 
 varied means our success is so trifling ? Why is it, that, 
 while so many societies are at work, and so much money 
 expended, the results bear no adequate proportion to the 
 cost and labour ? The fact is notorious, both at home and 
 abroad. We labour in vain, and spend our strength almost 
 for nought ; at least, all are ready to acknowledge that our 
 success is not commensurate to our means, and that a vast 
 machinery is employed to produce an insignificant result." 
 — The writer, preferring assumption to argument, declares 
 that " all are ready to acknowledge this." Is it so ? 
 When, how was this ascertained ? Has it ever been ac- 
 knowledged in the reports of any society ? Has any Mis- 
 sionary ever affirmed it ? I know of none, except infidel 
 travellers and profligate voyagers, who every where find 
 the Missionary a check to their plunder and their pro- 
 fligacy, that "are ready to acknowledge" it ! Churches of 
 Christ ! are you thus ready ? 
 
 The writer, I repeat, confidently assumes, instead of 
 attempting to prove the fact alleged, and he likewise con- 
 veniently assumes the concurrence of Christians in his 
 opinion ! This plan is popular, and therefore mischievous. 
 To my simple understanding, however, it appears that the 
 work, already accomplished, is incredibly, I had almost 
 said, inconceivably great. Let us just look at facts. Was 
 
OF THE MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE. 441 
 
 it a light thing to arouse the dormant spirit of the general 
 church up even to its present lukewarm state ? Was ever 
 the mind of nations brought over to a merely secular 
 question of magnitude and deep dislike in so brief a pe- 
 riod ? Let us think of its history. If we glance at Scot- 
 land, what meets our eye ? The mass of an intellectual 
 country, which was then generally indifferent, is now 
 awakened, through all its borders, to a sense of the claims 
 of Christian Missions ! The Independents, the Baptists, 
 the United Secession Church, the Relief Presbytery, and 
 the Establishment, — all, all are now boldly standing forth 
 in this cause ; — all, all have their sons and daughters la- 
 bouring in the foreign field. Again, if we look at Eng- 
 land, we see the whole of the evangelical denominations 
 of that teeming country animated by the same spirit, and 
 embarked in the same cause. The English Established 
 Church, it is true, does not, like her Northern sister, 
 stand forth as a church, in the work ; but a multitude of 
 her best people, and the flower of her bishops and clergy, 
 have all given in their adhesion ; and the Church Mission- 
 ary Society claims as hers some of the most devoted and 
 excellent Missionaries now to be found among the Gen- 
 tiles. Would any man, conversant with human nature 
 and its tendencies, judging of this subject beforehand, 
 have anticipated the accomplishment of so great a work in 
 so short a space, in spite of habit and apathy, pride and 
 prejudice, ignorance and banter ? 
 
 The wondrous change which has been thus effected in 
 the human mind, is not limited to churches and commu- 
 nities of believers ; it extends to all ranks, and all classes. 
 The first and most hurtful adversaries to the cause were 
 men of letters, authors, and conductors of the periodical 
 press. Bitter was the spirit of these parties ; — violent 
 were their assaults, — and great was the evil which they 
 inflicted on the rising cause. Their tone, by degrees, 
 
 vS 
 
442 0N THE PAST ' PRESENT, AND FUTURE 
 
 however, was lowered; and, at length, their voice has 
 either been silenced, or changed into eloquent advocacy. 
 One literary organ, whose power was equalled only by its 
 malice and mendacity towards the promoters of the infant 
 movement, has honourably changed its course, and done 
 good service to an undertaking which it had laboured to 
 destroy. Nor is this all ; while the hostility of literature 
 has been subdued, a new literature, both in prose and 
 poetry, in behalf of Missions, has been created ; and the 
 Missionaries themselves, in addition to their specific toils, 
 have done much, by the productions of their own pens, to 
 shame their learned adversaries. The works of Milne, of 
 Morrison, of Medhurst, of Philip, of Ellis, of Williams, of 
 Campbell, of Buyers, of Swan, of Moffat, and of others, 
 are before the world. These volumes speak at once to the 
 mind and the morals of their authors, to the object of their 
 Mission, and the tendencies of their labours. It would 
 require more than common courage, in any scribe, now-a- 
 days, to denounce, even anonymously, the men who wrote 
 these books, as "ignorant clowns" — "enthusiasts" — and 
 " maniacs ;" or to deny that they are wise, humane, and 
 virtuous ! 
 
 But not merely is the harmlessness, and even the pro- 
 priety, of Christian Missions now conceded ; their match- 
 less importance is fairly allowed in the high places of the 
 earth. Their claims, in this respect, may now be asserted 
 without provoking laughter and ridicule, even in the Bri- 
 tish Parliament. Yes, even in that place, where no excess 
 of sympathy has ever been shown with Christian men or 
 with spiritual enterprises, the merits of Missions, and the 
 claims of the Missionary character, are now respected. It 
 is no longer safe, even in that privileged place, to pour 
 contempt on this heavenly undertaking. The high value 
 of Missionary labours has been frequently recognized in 
 recent acts of legislation. Nor is this respect for Christian 
 
OF THE MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE. 443 
 
 Missionaries confined to England ; America, as well be- 
 comes her, is not ashamed to confess her Missionary citi- 
 zens. Her Secretary of State recently declared that she 
 will extend her protection to those noble men in every 
 part of the world. It will not be prudent for France 
 again, — or for any other power, — to repeat her outrages 
 upon American evangelists, either at the Sandwich Isles, 
 or in any other portion of the globe. Brethren, are these 
 small considerations ? But the Missionary principle has 
 gained another triumph, perhaps even greater than any 
 of those which I have mentioned. It has fairly subdued, 
 and, to some extent, made the friendship of the proud 
 genius that presides amid the academic bowers of Britain. 
 It is at length fully recognized, both in the English and 
 Scotch Universities ; and most zealously espoused by the 
 Board of Trinity College, Dublin. And last not least, 
 two prizes, for Essays on Missions, have just been given, 
 it is understood, by Scottish Churchmen, and the arrange- 
 ments, with respect to adjudication, have been under the 
 management of men closely connected with the Scottish 
 Universities. This circumstance is, I think, entitled to 
 be considered as one of the most remarkable and cheering 
 signs of the times. It is a noble act in relation to a nobler 
 cause, and will doubtless be attended with consequences 
 of the greatest importance to the Missionary enterprise. 
 It was also meet that the first prize should have been car- 
 ried by the chief Head of the only College in England 
 created by the spirit of Missions ; and the second by one 
 of the chief ornaments of the most enlightened community 
 of Christians in Europe, and the first to take the lead, 
 upon a large scale, in the Missionary enterprise. But 
 prejudice was not confined to the chartered colleges ; the 
 Dissenting collegiate institutions of England were, at the 
 outset, far from cordial ; but now even the oldest of them 
 are foremost in the race of promoting whatever tends to 
 
444 0N THE PAST > PRESENT, AND FUTURE 
 
 advance the grand object of the world's regeneration. 
 That object is carefully provided for by the Deed of 
 Springhill College, while it was the specific design for 
 which Cheshunt College was called into existence. What 
 achievements ! Can any Christian ponder the system of 
 events of which these are only a part, without wonder and 
 gratitude to the Head of the Church, who makes his 
 people willing to do his pleasure in the day of his power ? 
 Surely the finger of God is here ! Brethren, even if no- 
 thing had yet been done or begun, in foreign lands, still 
 to have brought about such a revolution in the mind of a 
 great empire, extending itself to the churches in Ame- 
 rica, within the short space of fifty years, is surely a 
 stupendous result ! Yet this is only the beginning of the 
 wondrous recital. Allow me to recommend to those who 
 are sceptical upon the subject, to sit quietly down and 
 peruse the Reports, for the past year, of the Baptist, the 
 London, the Methodist, and the Church Missionary So- 
 cieties ; and, when they have completed the task, let them 
 speak their honest opinion. Let them take care to weigh 
 well the difficulties attendant on the conversion of men 
 under any circumstances, but especially in heathen lands ; 
 let them compare the result, in the Missionary field, with 
 the agency ; and then let them tell us whether the reap- 
 ing, to say the least, has not been in full proportion to the 
 sowing.* But leaving the British part of the proof as 
 comprehending preparatory arrangements, I now proceed 
 to the field of toil, and inquire into the actual condition, 
 at the present time, of the Missionary enterprise. 
 
 Brethren, you know that in foreign lands there is much, 
 very much, to rejoice the hearts of the faithful. Could 
 any man of prudence and experience, even twenty years 
 
 * See a very able discussion of this subject in Buyers' Letters on 
 India, p. 219. 
 
OF THE MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE. 445 
 
 back, have reasonably looked for the opening of so wide a 
 door to the heathen, and that door beset with so few ad- 
 versaries? How altered is the aspect of the chief Mis- 
 sionary fields since the elder portion of the present evan- 
 gelists went forth ! You will remember the fearful con- 
 dition in which our brethren were placed in the West 
 Indies prior to the Act of Emancipation. They moved in 
 fetters ; they were in hourly jeopardy ; their presence was 
 hateful to the bulk of the planters, and, so far as prac- 
 ticable, they were thwarted in all their efforts to promote 
 the good of the suffering negroes. Such was their condi- 
 tion but yesterday. Now, however, old things are passed 
 away, and all things are become new! The slave has 
 awoke from the stupor of thraldom, and finds himself a 
 free man ; and the persecuted Missionary now rejoices in 
 all the privileges of an Englishman and an Evangelist. 
 Only those who have known both the past and present 
 state of things, can fully appreciate the importance of the 
 change. Then Africa, the land of darkness and of blood, 
 stands ready, to-morrow, to receive a hundred thousand 
 Missionaries ! No region ever presented a more inviting 
 aspect to the servants of God than that suffering and be- 
 nighted Continent. It is now admitted that the poor black 
 is not a beast, but a man ; and the hardest heart scarcely 
 disputes that eternal happiness is not the less necessary to 
 him because he is blacky and because he has been robbed, 
 and oppressed by the white man ! The African Missions 
 furnish some of the finest specimens of Christianity that 
 modern times can boast. The mass of the South Sea 
 islands are fields white unto the harvest. With one or 
 two peculiarly barbarous exceptions, there is reason to 
 believe that Missionaries, in any number, may be settled 
 on them all. Their sylvan voice breathes across the Pacific, 
 to England and America, an hourly prayer for increased 
 assistance. Passing on to the Indian Archipelago, all is 
 
446 0N THE PAST ' PRESENT, AND FUTURE 
 
 ours ; and the palmy plains of India, with all her millions, 
 smile with the golden smile of harvest, invite us to put 
 in the sickle, and reap for the Lord. Such, in a word, are 
 the fields which are open to us, — fields where life and 
 property are both in perfect safety, — that were our Mis- 
 sionary means and instruments augmented five hundred- 
 fold, we have ample scope for their employment. You 
 are all agreed that this is the true state of things, and in 
 this agreement you rejoice ; but your joy is marred by the 
 thought that the servants of your King are so few in num- 
 ber, as to form an army utterly inadequate to the glorious 
 work which he has placed before them. Never, no never, 
 since the days of the Apostles, did the earth so resemble a 
 highway as at this moment ; all seas are safe to us ; and 
 nearly all lands are open to receive us. How has this been 
 brought about ? How ? By prayer, suffering, and con- 
 flict ! In the West Indies, in Africa, and in the East, our 
 freedom has been the result of moral conflict on the part 
 of the friends, agents, and advocates of Missions, — conflict 
 in which they have, by the help of God, worsted the op- 
 pressors of those lands, and the foes of civilization ! Who 
 can fully estimate the greatness and importance of these 
 victories ? 
 
 With respect, then, to the creation of the Missionary 
 spirit, to the organization of Christian communities for 
 Missionary work, and to the removal of all barriers to the 
 spread of the gospel over most of the chief territories of 
 our globe, it is certain that, within the space of the last 
 half century, mighty wonders have been wrought in the 
 way of general preparation. But it may be said that the 
 opinion which I am controverting, acknowledges the ex- 
 istence of " a vast machinery," and only insists that there 
 has been " an insignificant result." To this it might be 
 replied, in general terms, that the month of June is too 
 early a period to inquire for the " results" of the immense 
 
OF THE MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE. 447 
 
 expenditure of March and April, in human and bestial 
 labour, in soil and seed corn, in rent and taxation, and all 
 that appertains to the business of husbandry. The plant- 
 ing of the Pilgrim colony of New England was an affair of 
 much toil, vast suffering, and immense expense ; and he 
 who, in the fiftieth year of its existence, should have pro- 
 ceeded to inquire into the results, would not have had far 
 to go for the materials of pity or of scorn. But let him 
 repair thither at the proper period, when the colonial field 
 has had time to bring forth fully even its first-ripe fruits, 
 and let him mark the end ! Little sagacity is required to 
 discover that sowing precedes reaping; and we have a 
 high authority for the application of the principle com- 
 prised in the fact, that " the husbandman waiteth for the 
 precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, 
 until he receive the early and latter rain." In reality, 
 fifty years is a period too short even for the full com- 
 mencement of the great enterprise of Missions. At this 
 moment, it is but just begun. All that even an adversary 
 has a right to ask, is, first-fruits ; but we can show him that, 
 to a considerable extent, the harvest is actually commenced. 
 To all who honestly ask us, What have ye done ? We re- 
 ply, Come and see ! What hath God wrought ? In all 
 parts of the world in which we have sown, we have already 
 received at least the first-fruits, and in many regions we 
 have already reaped a very considerable harvest. The 
 Lord hath no where left us without witnesses. You may, 
 with all safety, even on this point, challenge a comparison 
 with the success even of home ministrations of the gospel, 
 under analogous, although infinitely more favourable, cir- 
 cumstances. You may ascertain the number of true 
 Christian Missionaries, of all denominations, now at work 
 in the foreign field ; you may calculate the aggregate 
 amount of their period of service ; you may then deter- 
 mine, as far as practicable, the number of converts they 
 
448 0N THE PAST > PRESENT, AND FUTURE 
 
 have made, of hearers they have gathered, of schools they 
 have established, of scholars they have assembled ; you 
 may next ascertain the catalogue of school books, and of 
 religious treatises they have composed, or translated, and 
 printed; and lastly, the number of translations of the 
 sacred Scriptures which they have made ; and when you 
 have done all this, you may select an equal number of 
 evangelical ministers from Christendom at large, all or- 
 dained within the same period, all ordained to new stations, 
 and the aggregate amount of whose period of service is the 
 same as that of the Missionaries, and then you may com- 
 pare the former with the latter, point after point, as above 
 specified. Let this be done, and, if the result of the pro- 
 cess be not decidedly, prodigiously, in favour of the Mis- 
 sionary body, my reading, observation, inquiry, and expe- 
 rience, have entirely misled me. But I have done with 
 captious men, and now proceed to more important busi- 
 ness ; and henceforth it will be necessary occasionally to 
 address the churches of America, and those of England, 
 apart. 
 
 Brethren of England ! I have already referred to the 
 extreme paucity of labourers ; but, before any thing fur- 
 ther be said on this head, we must discuss the previous 
 question. If we had more competent agents, should we 
 be able to support them ? You have been frequently told 
 that the Directors of the London Missionary Society have 
 been compelled to reject excellent and accomplished can- 
 didates for the work from the want of all means for outfit, 
 for transport, and for after sustenance. Further additions 
 to the lights of the dark places of the earth is, therefore, 
 at present impossible. Without more pecuniary means, 
 must the force then remain stationary ? No : would that 
 this small consolation were a thing of certainty ! But the 
 truth is, that the existing incomes of your Societies do 
 not suffice to meet the wants of the existing stations. 
 
OF THE MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE. 449 
 
 The amount of the deficiencies for the present year wili 
 be as much as were the annual incomes at a time when 
 your fathers thought they had achieved great things. 
 Although it may augment your fears, and aggravate your 
 calamity, it must not be forgotten that this state of things 
 is neither an affair of a single year, nor is it to be account- 
 ed for by the condition, either of our commerce or of our 
 agriculture. All comfort from this consideration is denied 
 us. The malady is chronic, and has been coming on for a 
 number of years, annually augmenting in force and malig- 
 nity. To meet emergencies, you have, from time to time, 
 made extraordinary efforts; but while you laboured, the 
 Lord blessed your labours, and the wants of the work in- 
 creased with its expansion, so as to require not only the 
 extraordinary efforts to be continued, and thereby ren- 
 dered ordinary, but even to be annually increased from 
 twenty to thirty per cent. Such are the requirements 
 arising from the necessities created by your success. How 
 have those requirements been met ? There has been no 
 such annual increase ; nay, the extraordinary has not been 
 converted into ordinary contribution. Has it returned to 
 the former ordinary scale ? Yes. Will it stop there ? 
 Would that even this poor consolation were yours ! But 
 look at the manufacturing districts of England and Scot- 
 land, the prime sources of your Missionary revenue. Is 
 there aught in half-worked, or altogether silent machinery, 
 aught among bankrupt merchants and manufacturers, 
 aught among impoverished and emaciated artizans, to 
 encourage the hope ? There is much reason to fear, that 
 for some years to come, there will be difficulty in steadily 
 maintaining the Societies' incomes, even at the rate of the 
 present year ; and certainly any substantial augmentation 
 is not to be hoped for. " What, then, is to be done ? " 
 Yes, brethren, this is just the question. What is to be 
 done ? Tell us ! It is very obvious that all idea of fur- 
 
450 0N THE PAST > PRESENT, AND FUTURE 
 
 ther extending the Redeemer's kingdom, for the present, 
 must be given up. " Shall we be able to maintain our 
 ground ? " Brethren, beware of uttering such words, or 
 of suffering them to penetrate your ears ! They are trea- 
 son ! The ground must be maintained, cost what it may ! 
 The withdrawment of Missionaries, the cessation of preach- 
 ing, the disbanding of schools, the extinction of the little 
 light which you have put into the hands of benighted mil- 
 lions who sat in thick darkness in the region of the shadow 
 of death ! Oh, it must not be. Better, far better, that 
 they had not seen the faces of your Missionaries ! The 
 honour of your country, of your religion, and of your 
 Heavenly Master, are all concerned, and all in peril ! 
 
 Brethren of England ! It behoves you, in this awful 
 moment, to profit by the example of the churches in 
 America. The records of the American Board of Foreign 
 Missions, for the last five years, form the most instructive 
 chapter in the history of modern Missions. Their annual 
 meeting, recently held in Philadelphia, far surpassed, in 
 point of solemnity and importance, everything of the kind 
 with which we are acquainted. This I affirm after a de- 
 liberate and trembling perusal and meditation of the volu- 
 minous report of its proceedings. The " Prudential Com- 
 mittee" of the Board are clearly men worthy of their 
 work, and equal to the emergency. On that solemn occa- 
 sion, they fully delivered their own souls. It is to be 
 hoped that the Directors of the London Missionary So- 
 ciety, and kindred institutions, will not have occasion to 
 report similarly of your conduct in exciting hopes only to 
 disappoint them. The affairs of the Board had been con- 
 siderably deranged prior to 1 837, but that year brought on 
 a crisis. Their income, from the apathy of the churches, 
 not keeping pace with the extension of their field of la- 
 bour, and all expedients failing, the Board were driven by 
 necessity to curtail all the branches of their operations, — 
 
OF THE MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE. 45 \ 
 
 a measure which, in its consequences, has proved most 
 disastrous. The mischief was first felt at the foreign sta- 
 tions, where the intimation broke upon the ear of the 
 agents like a thunder storm at the midnight hour. It 
 smote them to the heart. This was a new calamity. 
 They had never anticipated even the possibility of such a 
 thing. Yes, it smote them to the heart ! It shook their 
 confidence in the churches ; it brought both themselves 
 and the Board into discredit with the heathen, when the 
 latter saw them breaking up their schools and reducing 
 their stations. One Missionary disbanded schools of 5,000 
 children, and sent them back to idolatry, to worship at its 
 altars, and to perish in its darkness ! You will not be 
 surprised at hearing that the hearts of some of the Mis- 
 sionaries were broken, and their health ruined. But the 
 mischief was not confined to the actual scene of Mission- 
 ary labour ; it reacted with double force upon the churches 
 in the United States themselves. Many of them, it seems, 
 came to view Missionary expenditure much in the same 
 light as that of a public commercial company, or a state, 
 where the established and approved remedy for straitened 
 circumstances, is, retrenchment. In this way, an element 
 of worldly prudence came to be substituted for a heavenly 
 principle ! Things were thus identified which are wide as 
 the poles asunder. Brethren! must there not be some- 
 thing wrong amongst a body of churches who could com- 
 pel or even allow their Board to adopt so cruel a step 
 towards the nations which Christ had bought with his 
 blood, and withdraw from labours in which the hand of 
 the Lord was with them ? Does not such a course impli- 
 cate both the philanthropy and the piety of our Trans- 
 atlantic brethren ? Heaven avert the discredit — the shame 
 — the guilt of such a course from the churches of Great 
 Britain ! 
 
452 0N THE PAST ' PRESENT, AND FUTURE 
 
 Brethren of England ! The awful lesson and warning 
 do not end here. The constituents of the American Board 
 deeply grieved the Spirit of God ! They were guilty of a 
 heinous insult to the Son of his love ! A trifling general 
 effort would have sufficed abundantly to meet the necessities 
 of the case ; that effort they refused to make. By their 
 deeds they said, " Let the ' head of the Heathen' get pos- 
 session of his kingdom as he best may, we will not advance 
 another farthing for it. If what we have done will not 
 suffice to crush Idolatry, let it live and reign for ever. 
 If perdition be the reward of its worship, then let its vota- 
 ries descend into eternal night. What is that to us ? Let 
 those who will, see to it." So be it, but remember this ; no 
 man ever yet hardened himself against God, and prospered. 
 Your brethren, regardless of the honour of their Lord, and 
 of the salvation of the lost millions of our race, saved their 
 money, and God hath " sent leanness into their souls." 
 Sad compensation ! The facts which came out at the last 
 annual meeting, are an index to their true spiritual con- 
 dition. According to Dr. Armstrong, one of the Secretaries, 
 " One third of the churches, nominally the friends of this 
 Board, make no regular contributions to its funds ; and in 
 those Churches which do contribute, one third of the 
 members, and in some two thirds, and in others three 
 fourths, give nothing. One half of the church mem- 
 bers did nothing last year. Of the 300,000 members, 
 150,000 made no contributions." Here, as usual, it would 
 seem that the adage, " like priest like people" holds good. 
 The Hon. S. Hubbard, one of the Board, expressed a doubt 
 fi whether half of the ministers preach on the subject of 
 foreign missions once a year." Dr. Armstrong also inti- 
 mated that the single " state of Massachusetts, during the 
 past year, paid in nearly one third of the whole contribu- 
 tion." Brethren, who can read these statements without a 
 
OF THE MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE. 453 
 
 mixture of grief and astonishment ? But this is not the 
 worst : the Rev. Mr. Greene, another of the Secretaries, 
 stated a fact of the most extraordinary character, which 
 will suffice to illustrate the marvellous apathy of the 
 churches. His words are these : " If all the money now 
 due from delinquent subscribers to the Missionary Herald, 
 could at once be collected, it would pay off the debt of the 
 Board." What think you of this statement? What is 
 your estimate of the spiritual condition of these people ? 
 Surely these facts do not accord with much spiritual pros- 
 perity. Oh! let us beware lest we sink into the same 
 condition. Let us tremble at the thought of following 
 the American example ! If we trifle as they have trifled 
 with the cause of God, we may look for a like recompense. 
 The Lord of the harvest has singularly blessed the American 
 Missionaries in all their fields of labour. He has in fact 
 opened for them a wide door in Palestine itself. Prior 
 to the recent meeting, just as the Secretaries were leaving 
 Boston, the extraordinary intelligence arrived that the 
 Druses, Mohammedans, 100,000 in number, on Mount 
 Lebanon, had determined to become Protestant Christians. 
 They implored the American Missionaries " to come and 
 help them." The Missionaries did so, and now, says Dr. 
 Anderson, "we have not money to send them, and no 
 prospect of having it !" The same gentleman attributes 
 this fearful state of things to the withdrawment of Divine 
 Influence. Having expatiated on the " extraordinary" 
 encouragement received abroad, he said, " The state of 
 things is equally extraordinary at home. The Spirit of 
 God is withheld from the churches here, while it is poured 
 forth so liberally abroad; and the Missionary spirit, on 
 which every thing depends, is languishing. Even the fear 
 of retrenchment among the missions, and re-calling of 
 Missionaries, no longer appears to excite apprehension 
 or anxiety. The retrograde movement of 1837, was dis- 
 
454 0N THE PAST ' PRESEN T, AND FUTURE 
 
 astrous, because it familiarized the churches with the idea 
 of curtailment, and they are no longer to be roused by the 
 cry that the same danger has again returned." Brethren, 
 what instruction and warning do these facts impart ! They 
 are all the more alarming from the analogy which the case 
 of the American churches bears to that of the British 
 Societies, especially the London Missionary Society. The 
 words of Mr. Secretary Greene, are obviously applicable 
 to it. " As yet," said he, " through all the remarks that 
 have been made, I see no more light, than when we com- 
 menced our session. We have the same means proposed as 
 in 1838, 1839, and 1840. We have calls, appeals, pledges, 
 recommendations ; but we are now deeper in debt than 
 ever, and provisions made for an increase of funds in time 
 past, are not adequate to the present emergency." Is not 
 this precisely the present condition of the London Missionary 
 Society ? Again then I ask, What is to be done ? Do you 
 say, We cannot tell ? Well ; but is it not very clear that 
 there is something which we must not do? Is it not plain 
 that, come what may, that, whatever else you do or suffer, 
 you must not fall into the snare of the American Churches 
 connected with the Board of Foreign Missions ? You must 
 hazard all, and spend all, to enable the London and other 
 Missionary Societies, if not to enlarge their respective spheres, 
 at least to maintain them. Flinch who may, let not England 
 flinch ! In the darkest hour let England trust her God, 
 and cleave to the cause of her Saviour! Let her not 
 grieve the Holy Spirit by whom she has been selected from 
 amongst all the nations of the earth, to enjoy such mercies, 
 work such wonders, and diffuse such benefits ! The cloud 
 will again pass away! The sun of our prosperity and 
 glory will again break forth, and the days of our mourning 
 will end ! 
 
 Brethren of America ! multitudes of the best people of 
 England have long been accustomed to look to you with 
 
OF THE MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE. 455 
 
 affection and admiration. They have often been animated 
 when sluggish, and comforted when depressed, by the report 
 of your zeal and liberality. It may be truly said, " they 
 glorified God in you." In all your joy they rejoiced, and 
 were exceeding glad to hear from time to time, that " the 
 Lord was among you." Of late years, however, they have 
 had great misgivings concerning some of the phenomena 
 of your religion ; they have been uneasy at the extensive 
 popularity among you of certain views of divine truth, and 
 of certain methods of promoting it. They have entertained 
 a great dread lest the end should proclaim that you had 
 been walking with man, rather than with God. Still they 
 loved you, and endeavoured to exercise towards you much 
 of that charity which "hopeth all things." But now it 
 is to be feared that their confidence in you will be shaken. 
 They will not know what to make of you. They will be 
 utterly unable to reconcile your domestic revivals with 
 your Missionary retrogression. The Spirit of God is the 
 spirit of Missions. His high function is to extend the 
 kingdom, and thus to advance the glory of Christ ; and all 
 those in whom he dwells, are zealously intent on the same 
 object. A real revival produced by the outpouring of the 
 Holy Spirit, is always accompanied with compassion for 
 perishing souls, whether at hand or afar off. Your apathy 
 towards your Board is not one of those things which are 
 of " good report." It is wholly inexplicable. We are often 
 hearing of your great Revivals, and of your entire personal 
 consecration to works of piety and mercy : and of business 
 being carried on simply for the cause of God. We have 
 heard a multitude of glorious facts relative to your zeal and 
 liberality : and these facts are most surely believed among 
 us ; indeed we cannot discredit them, for they are reported 
 by our own messengers. But while we believe their testi- 
 mony, we cannot reject that of your honoured brethren, the 
 members and officers of your own Board. Our astonishment 
 
456 0N THE PAST ' PRESENT, AND FUTURE 
 
 is increased by the facts which are so frequently adduced 
 in praise of your condition. You have no public debt, 
 you possess a cheap government, your taxation is a trifle, 
 you enjoy abundance of well-paid labour, and you have no 
 pauperism. You are deemed a happy people — the envy and 
 admiration of all other nations. In the face of these facts, 
 however, stands your strange apathy to the cause of Foreign 
 Missions. 
 
 Brethren of America! be assured the Christian people 
 of England love you with parental affection. They glory 
 in you ! They exult in your religious character, and in 
 your godly rivalship of them in the work of spreading the 
 Gospel. Nor is this all ; amid the discouragements of 
 their peculiar position, at the present time, their hope 
 under God centres wholly in you! From Ireland, the 
 chosen abode of the Man of Sin, in relation to the work 
 of Missions, they have nothing to expect, but every thing 
 to fear. As England looks towards the continent of 
 Europe, scarce one of its nations meets her with a single 
 ray of hope. In Europe, England alone is the land of 
 Protestant doctrines and Christian Missions. Her Pro- 
 testantism, however, stands in imminent peril from the 
 elementary Popery of Oxford, and from that more matured 
 form of it which flows in endless torrents from the sister 
 Isle. An awful cloud rests on the prospects of English 
 Protestantism. It seems not improbable, that the dark 
 and dreadful days of your illustrious forefathers may yet 
 again, and, perhaps, at no distant day, return. The re- 
 ascendancy of Popery in England, seems but too probable. 
 In this event, it is likely there will be another, and a 
 much larger body of Pilgrim Fathers, who will go forth 
 and lay the foundation of new colonies, destined at length, 
 like your own, to become great independent empires. 
 But amid possible distraction, distress, convulsion, con- 
 fiscation, banishment or exile, what is to become of the 
 
OF THE MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE. 457 
 
 enterprise of Missions ? England entrusts it to the hands 
 of her children — to yourselves ! "Will you disappoint her ? 
 Will you prove recreant to a cause so dear to her heart, 
 so intimately connected with the life of the world, and the 
 glory of Zion's King ? Will you, can you forget the land 
 of your fathers' sepulchres, the land of your language, and 
 of your religion ? Oh ! awake to a due sense of the 
 dignity of your origin, the grandeur of your position, 
 the elevation of your honour, and the weight of your 
 responsibility ! 
 
 Brethren of America ! suffer the word of exhortation. 
 Why has such a blight come over your once fair moral 
 creation ? Are you sure that the Lord has not a contro- 
 versy with you ? Has your treasury never been polluted 
 by the wages of iniquity, the price of blood ? What 
 meant the memorial presented " to the Board of Com- 
 missioners for Foreign Missions," at your last Assembly, 
 by the New Hampshire ministers ? Its burden was slavery ; 
 its object purity ! What meant the emphatic and thrice- 
 repeated reference to the " studied silence" of the Board? 
 We are troubled by the following words of that calm, 
 judicious, and respectful document. " The sober and 
 considerate ministers and members of our churches, who 
 have from the first been the firm and true friends of the 
 Board, are distressed. They love the Board, and have 
 loved it long. They regard it as foremost among the 
 benevolent societies of the day. They have paid more 
 for its support than for the support of any other Society ; 
 and more than of any other, has its prosperity been the 
 burden of their prayers. But we greatly fear that their 
 contributions must ultimately, and that before long, be 
 suspended, if the Board shall think it their duty to ob- 
 serve such a studied silence on this great subject of interest 
 and responsibility to American Christians." The admirable 
 document from which these words are taken, is worthy of 
 
 x 
 
458 0N THE PAST > PRESENT, AND FUTURE 
 
 the servants of Christ, and of men descended from the Pil- 
 grim Fathers. Its just and upright authors have the hearts 
 of the British empire with them, and posterity will honour 
 their names ! We rejoice to think that they are New 
 England men. The answer of your Board is a thing of 
 course. We were once familiar in England with such 
 answers ; and the experience we have had enables us to 
 give you good and safe counsel. We say then, take warn- 
 ing ! The present course of your Board will inevitably 
 drive them on a rock, on which the goodly vessel must be 
 dashed in pieces! Let them beware of worldly expe- 
 diency ! Let them beware of things that will " satisfy the 
 South." Such things, we fear, will not often satisfy an 
 enlightened conscience. Well might the Rev. Mr. Blod- 
 get, of South Carolina, say, " the report would satisfy 
 the South, All the South asks, is, that the Board will 
 attend to its own business, and so long we shall be glad 
 to co-operate :" that is, Let us go quietly on making mer- 
 chandise of our fellow creatures, and you shall have a small 
 share of the profits ! Brethren, who is it that hath said, 
 " I hate robbery for a burnt offering?" One of your own 
 Committee was anxious to know, " how much the Board 
 would lose by the withdrawal " of the anti-slavery churches. 
 This is good. Where the demon of slavery presides, the 
 proper morality is arithmetic ! How can a ruthless slave- 
 holder endure the presence of any other conscience but 
 that of profit and loss ? Brethren, again I say, beware ! 
 When you have calculated the extent of your loss, by the 
 possible withdrawal of the anti-slavery churches, might it 
 not be prudent also to estimate the loss to be sustained by 
 the withdrawal of the anti-slavery God ? Can the God 
 of eternal justice and boundless compassion, look with 
 complacency on a work performed by hands dyed in the 
 blood of man ? Be not misled by the fact that he has 
 hitherto blessed your agents. He has blessed his own 
 
OF THE MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE. 459 
 
 word; but this implies no approbation of your consti- 
 tution ! Are you not conscious that Heaven's frown rests 
 upon you? Mark the declaration of your chief secre- 
 tary : " If God has left the churches at home, the Holy 
 Ghost is among our Missions abroad ; and whatever be- 
 comes of this Board, or its officers, or the churches, the 
 work will go on." We know this, and we rejoice to know 
 it. This declaration, however, is a two-edged sword ; it 
 cuts both ways. The first part of this sentence supposes 
 a calamity, which admits of no alleviation. Who can 
 bear such a calamity ? If any can, then the spirits of the 
 lost may derive comfort from the fact, that while their 
 residence is amidst eternal fire, the spirits of the just are 
 rejoicing in paradise ! 
 
 Brethren of England and of America ! Christians, Pro- 
 testants, friends of Missions in all lands ! it is high time 
 to awake out of sleep ! The trumpet of darkness has 
 sounded, and the papal world, so long dead, is rising again. 
 The French " Institution for the Propagation of the 
 Faith," and the " Catholic Institute of Great Britain," are 
 but the nascent flames of mighty fires, which are smoulder- 
 ing in the hearts of many nations. The former is the idol 
 of the bishops of France, and is fast spreading over other 
 countries, while " the sovereign Pontiffs have opened for 
 it the treasury of indulgences, which they have extended 
 to all the faithful who shall receive it amongst them, in 
 whatever part of the world they may reside."* The con- 
 ditions of membership are, a Pater and an Ave, morning 
 and evening, " adding each time this invocation : ' St. 
 Francis Xavier, pray for us ;' " and " an alms for the Mis- 
 sions," of at least, one halfpenny every week. This 
 Institution has, it seems, already done great things ; but 
 it is expected to accomplish objects incalculably greater. 
 It is expected to rectify all Protestant disorders, both in 
 
 * Institution for the Propagation, &c, Prel. Obs. p. 3. 
 x 2 
 
4 gO 0N THE PAST > PRESENT, AND FUTURE 
 
 Europe and America ; to counteract the pernicious effects 
 of Protestant Missions in foreign lands, to put down the 
 Bible Society, and to fill the earth with faithful adherents 
 to the Church of Rome. Brethren, this throws fresh light 
 upon your path, and points out the necessities, not only 
 of adopting a new course, but of providing yourselves with 
 new armour. You will assuredly be compelled to fight 
 over again the battle of the Reformation, not in Europe 
 only, but under every sky ! What pity that the conflict 
 of three centuries back, should have ceased ere the beast 
 had been slain, and the world freed from further alarm ! 
 How fearful is the war which you are now called to wage ! 
 Idolatry, Mohammedanism, Popery, and various corruptions 
 of Christianity, fill the world, and are banded against you. 
 How glorious then is the enterprise ! It is worthy of 
 angels ! For God you fight, and God is with you ! Your 
 ultimate success is certain. As sure as the Mediator 
 reigns, so sure will be your victory. These mighty foes 
 will be all routed and annihilated ! The Lord of Hosts is 
 with you, the battle itself is his. Sublime distinction ! 
 Celestial vocation ! Oh ! awake to its dignity and glory, 
 and acquit yourselves as the sons of the living God, and 
 the servants of Him who is King of kings, and Lord of 
 lords ! 
 
 But, brethren, that you may be successful, your opera- 
 tions must be guided by wisdom and prudence, as well as 
 by piety and zeal. A great problem is now to be solved, 
 relative to future Missionary operations. The past has 
 been devoted to a grand experiment, and the results have 
 been the same both in Europe and in America. There is 
 no need to repeat it ; the process has been accurately con- 
 ducted, and we cannot be misled. You have, therefore, now 
 reached a point which calls for the adoption of a different 
 course, and the introduction of a new principle. It is as 
 clear as reason can make it, that if the Missions be wholly 
 
OF THE MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE. 4£ \ 
 
 dependent on Home support, a limit must be reached in 
 their operations, unless there be no limit to their pecuniary 
 resources. Unless a plan can be devised, therefore, by 
 which all Missions shall at length become self-supported, 
 the world will never be evangelized. The idea of convert- 
 ing all nations by means of European and American agency 
 is utterly preposterous. The wants of the heathen world 
 require at this moment, that Missionary agency should 
 be augmented a hundred-fold. But our treasuries are 
 exhausted ; our concern is, therefore, about the reduction, 
 not the increase, of our agency. This has become the 
 vital question, the only means of salvation to our Societies. 
 "We are now at a stand. Our path is crossed by an im- 
 passable barrier. It is doubtful, indeed, whether, for a 
 century to come, we shall be able to advance much further. 
 Brethren, these things demonstrate that there must be 
 something wrong. Is not the work of modern Missions 
 far too much a money matter ? Is it not too dependent 
 on filthy lucre, which is always the chief basis of man's 
 operations, but never of the operations of God ? Money, 
 indeed, and much money, is indispensable to the work ; 
 but is it not far less necessary than our plan supposes and 
 requires ? What, then, is to be done ? This, this must 
 be done : establish colleges rather than Missions. Create 
 efficient seminaries for the instruction and preparation of 
 native evangelists and pastors. This must be done, or 
 there is an end of all just expectation that the earth shall 
 ever be filled with the knowledge of God. The Serampore 
 Missionaries, full forty years ago, set forth some profound 
 as well as practical views on this subject. The perspi- 
 cacious and prophetic mind of Mr. Douglas, of Cavers, 
 also, at a later period, descried the necessity of the aca- 
 demic plan, and the certain failure of that which has been 
 hitherto relied upon. The "Prudential Committee" of 
 the American Board, at the recent annual meeting, sub- 
 
462 0N TIIE PA8T > PRESENT, AND FUTURE 
 
 mitted a dissertation " on the importance of raising up a 
 native ministry among the heathen nations." The report 
 likewise says, u It is not a little remarkable that the same 
 system has contemporaneously attracted the attention of 
 Missionary Societies in various parts of the world." What 
 is remarkable in this ? It is the simple result of the dis- 
 covery of the impossibility of advancing much further in 
 the present path. If they had not thought of this, it had 
 been remarkable. It is the dictate of common sense, and 
 was long ago recommended by sound philosophy. 
 
 As with Life Assurance, so with religious Societies, the 
 true and safe principle of conducting them was not at first 
 thoroughly understood. In both cases it has been dis- 
 covered by degrees. The case of the Missionary Societies 
 is now precisely what that of the Bible Society was last 
 year. In a moment of benevolence, that Institution de- 
 parted from the rule of previous prudence, and sold two 
 small books at considerably less than the prime cost. The 
 demand was great, and in a brief space the Society lost 
 nearly half its free income. On making the alarming dis- 
 covery, it promptly and wisely stopped. It has since made 
 arrangements by which it can sell books at the same price 
 without a farthing of loss ; and the consequence is, that it 
 is able to sell such books without limit, since each pur- 
 chaser pays the cost price of what he receives. Were the 
 entire human race to purchase, and thus to pay, no more 
 free contribution would be required, than the moderate 
 expense necessary to work the establishment. Now the 
 time is come for the adoption of this principle in Mis- 
 sion. -n-y Operations. It is in Missionary as in military 
 enterprises ; the more distant the seat of war is from the 
 CO un try whence the armaments proceed, the greater the 
 cost of the conflict ; India, for instance, is distant from 
 Kngland fifteen thousand miles, a voyage of about five 
 months. On this point, the Missionary, Ward, has left 
 
OF THE MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE. 4g# 
 
 this testimony : " The expense attending Missions, at such 
 a distance, is very great, and must exceedingly limit the 
 extent of these exertions. To prepare, to equip, and to 
 land each Missionary, costs the British public not less than 
 six hundred pounds; and to maintain him there, a con- 
 siderable annual sum : so that charitable funds, where the 
 numbers to be taught amount to so many millions, can do 
 but little, except in making a commencement."* This 
 witness is true. Your condition verifies his testimony. 
 Would that this wise man's counsel had been taken and 
 acted upon, before it was absolutely forced upon the Mis- 
 sionary Societies of Europe and America ! 
 
 The military principle of seizing the commanding posts 
 of a country, ought to be the study of your Societies. It 
 is really surprising how the bulk of the Directors of such 
 Societies have so erred, — how much they have talked, — and 
 how little they have thought and inquired ! It is pleasing, 
 however, to find them at length awakening from their 
 dream. The recent annual meeting of the American 
 Missionary Society, will be an era in the history of this 
 great enterprise. There was more bold, deep, and original 
 thinking at that Assembly, than was ever uttered on a like 
 occasion. The paper of the Secretary, Dr. Armstrong, 
 calling upon the most able and learned men of the country 
 to go forth to the field, presented a grand conception. 
 What scope the work of Missions gives for the highest 
 powers ! The mastery of heathen languages and literature, 
 the writing and translation of works on education and 
 Christianity, the creation of Schools, the institution of 
 colleges, and the rendering of the Scriptures into the native 
 tongue ; this is employment sufficient for the first abilities. 
 The submission of the " inquiry whether the men who 
 preside over our Colleges, and Theological Seminaries, are 
 
 * Ward's Letters, pp. 146, 147. 
 
464< 0N THE PAST , PRESENT, AND FUTURE 
 
 not the men who should go forth as Missionaries to plant 
 the institutions of religion on heathen ground ?" was a mas- 
 ter stroke. 
 
 We have now experience sufficient to direct us for a 
 century to come ; and it is high time to revise the whole 
 of our system. It is extremely important, that in Missions, 
 as in the evil work of war, lines of operation should rest 
 upon common centres. The importance of this view, 
 which philosophy taught to Mr. Douglas,* has been fully 
 corroborated by one of the ablest Missionaries of the East, 
 Mr. Buyers of Benares. f It seems a point of conscience 
 with all Societies, like rival merchants in the same market, 
 to pitch their tents all in the same fields of labour. Four or 
 five denominational flags must needs all wave in the same 
 city, or in the same isle ! This is bad in principle, and 
 worse in policy. A territorial division would be a thing 
 of boundless utility as well as of immense economy. But 
 leaving this, let me suggest that no time should be lost by 
 the London Missionary Society, in the formation of a 
 central college in Polynesia, which ought to have been 
 claimed and cultivated by that Society. A second college 
 may be formed in the West Indies, for central Africa, 
 which might be claimed and cultivated by the Baptists. 
 A third college might be established at the Cape of Good 
 Hope, under the auspices of the Methodists, to whom the 
 whole of South Africa might be surrendered ; and with it 
 might be associated Madagascar. A fourth college might 
 be established in the Indian Islands, under European con- 
 trol, adjacent to China, and largely peopled by Chinese, 
 in which might be prepared a body of competent Mis- 
 sionaries for such islands, and for China, when the door 
 shall be opened. Four more colleges might be established 
 in British India, by the Baptists, the Church, the London, 
 
 * Hints, p. 37. f Letters, v. vi. 
 
OF THE MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE. 
 
 465 
 
 and the Church of Scotland Missionary Societies, and the 
 country divided among them accordingly. The difficulties 
 which would occur, and the temporary loss which would 
 arise from an attempt now to effect some such division 
 and re-distribution, may be considerable ; but ultimately 
 the gain would be an ample compensation. There is no 
 probability, however, that this will ever be done, or even 
 attempted. The next thing, therefore, is, as far as prac- 
 ticable, under the circumstances, to work out the academic 
 and the self-supporting principle. For these purposes the 
 present revenues of the Societies are perhaps sufficient. 
 " It is vain to think that India will ever be evangelized 
 by Europeans. All they can do is only to plant the first 
 churches. Our great object ought therefore, to be, as soon 
 as possible, to raise several large churches in the most in- 
 fluential places, which may serve as nurseries for Native 
 Ministers and Missionaries !"* 
 
 Brethren of England and America ! let us be of good 
 courage. The work is fairly begun ; much is already 
 accomplished. Experience will correct error, and supply 
 what is wanting, and success will tend to its own increase. 
 Growing purity will prove growing power. More spirit- 
 uality will be attended by more prosperity. Let us betake 
 ourselves in good earnest to our part of the undertaking. 
 Let our hearts, our houses, and our home education be 
 much more missionary. Let all sorts of j uvenile literature be 
 thoroughly baptized with the spirit of Missions, and dif- 
 fused among the young. Let all possible methods, both 
 regular and occasional, be devised and adopted, for inte- 
 resting the youthful mind. It were easy, and it was once 
 my design, to specify more fully the chief of these methods, 
 but they will readily occur to such as are really anxious to 
 employ them. It is much to be desired that the whole 
 
 * Buyers, p. 47. 
 
 x3 
 
466 0N THE PAST > PRESENT, AND FUTURE 
 
 question of Missions should from time to time be brought 
 and kept before the public mind, till Christians be made 
 clearly to see the matchless glory of the enterprise — 
 deeply to feel the duty, and duly to estimate the honour 
 and privilege of promoting it. When once this comes to 
 pass, the work will go steadily on ; there will be prayer as 
 well as labour for the great object, and prosperity will 
 attend our way. The mighty undertaking is to be achieved 
 by means, not by miracle. Indeed, " the only miracle ne- 
 cessary, is, that Christians should have some concern for the 
 souls of their fellow creatures.*" The more we have of this, 
 the more we have of Christ, the great Pattern and Patron 
 of the illustrious brotherhood of Missionaries. Oh ! what 
 love is that which burns for souls in his bosom ! Let us 
 share it ; let us show it. Let us feel as he felt ; let us 
 do as he did. Let us, like him, weep over sin, and go about 
 doing good ! Compared with this, every thing is low, and 
 every thing is little. Oh ! how transcendent, then, is the 
 honour of England and of America, in being permitted to 
 take the part which they have taken in this great work ! 
 Brethren, of both countries, ponder the obligations result- 
 ing from that honour ! Let every soul on British ground 
 hear the glad tidings, and let all who hear, believe, live, love 
 and obey. Let Englishman be synonymous with Chris- 
 tian, and Christian with saint ! Let America, with all her 
 millions, awake to a full apprehension of her mercies and 
 her duties. Oh ! let her forthwith remove that foul stain, 
 that spot of blood, which now pollutes her banner ! America 
 and Slavery ! Horrid conjunction ! America, the land of 
 the free ! And that America, the greatest slaveholder, 
 man-seller, man-slayer, in the universe / Monstrous incon- 
 sistency ! Cruel abomination ! Men of Massachusetts ! 
 and all Americans who value the honour of a British origin, 
 and who dread to disgrace their Pilgrim parentage, stand 
 
 * Douglas. 
 
OF THE MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE. 4g7 
 
 forth, and cleanse your hands from the foul fellowship of 
 dealers in human flesh ! And, ye Commissioners of the 
 American Board of Missions, awake from your dream! 
 Lay aside your fine distinctions about Slavery in the 
 " abstract," or Slavery in the concrete ! Slavery is slavery, 
 disguise it as you may. Slavery is injustice — is cruelty — 
 is murder ! Your duty as members of the family of man, 
 and still more of the family of Christians, is prior, and 
 paramount to your duty as members of the American 
 Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions. Purify your 
 Society, whatever may be the consequences. Reject at 
 once the Planter, and his ill-acquired substance ! Can the 
 pure eye of Heaven look with satisfaction on the chains of 
 bondage, and the price of blood? In the name of jus- 
 tice, humanity, and religion, we implore you, send not into 
 the field of Missions, men clothed and fed with the product 
 of tears, torture, and death ! 
 
INDEX TO SUBJECTS. 
 
 Academic honours due to Mission- 
 aries, 261. 
 
 Achilles, Mr. Foster's opinion of, 
 347. 
 
 Addison's character and writings, 
 320 — 322 ; — his comparison of 
 military and moral greatness, 356. 
 
 Address to Christians of England on 
 the effect of Missions, 61 ; — to 
 voyagers, 61, 62 ; to the young 
 men of England, 76. 
 
 Address to the American Board, on 
 slave contribution, 466, 467. 
 
 Admirals of England compared with 
 Williams, 30. 
 
 Advocates of Peace, 352. 
 
 Aitutaki, effects of the gospel at, 21. 
 
 Africa, Sir. T. F. Buxton's work on 
 the Slave-trade of, 63 ;— effect of 
 Missions in, 79 ; — Missions alone 
 can rectify the disorders of its con- 
 dition, 335 ; — anticipated state, 
 336. 
 
 Africaner, 423. 
 
 Alexander's character and wars, 372 
 — 374; — forbade any to paint him 
 but Apelles, 383 ;— his death, 225. 
 
 American Board, address to the, on 
 slave contribution, 466, 467. 
 
 America and England, fearful posi- 
 tion of, 460. 
 
 American churches, address to, 454 ; 
 — their extraordinary apathy, 455 ; 
 hope of England centred in the, 
 456. 
 
 American colonies founded, 429. 
 
 Arms, profession of, denounced, 351, 
 352. 
 
 Army, British, depravity of, 396 ; — 
 composed of the bad only, 408 ; — 
 feel nothing but corporal punish- 
 ment, 409 ; — Portuguese, 397 ; — 
 Spanish, ib. ; — French, 408. 
 
 Asia, no hope for, but in Missions, 
 336. 
 
 Aunra, wonderful history of, 18. 
 
 B 
 
 Bacon, Lord, powers and achieve- 
 ments of, 317—319. 
 
 Battle-field considered in relation to 
 the world of spirits, 354. 
 
 Battles, method of counting at Ma- 
 nono, 52. 
 
 Battle-ground in the South Seas, 57. 
 
 Bayle, character of, 319. 
 
 Bible, its condemnation of war, 122. 
 
 Bishop of Chester's view of Wil- 
 liams's " Enterprises," 363. 
 
 Bolingbroke's genius and ambition, 
 205. 
 
 British Teachers, great influence of, 
 2 ; — may oppose the spirit of war, 
 and foster that of Missions, 3. 
 
 Brougham, Right Hon. Lord, his 
 character a subject of interest, 
 103; — attempts to delineate it, 
 105 ; — his position, ib. ; — in ad- 
 vance of his age, 106 ; — has much 
 to hope from posterity, ib. ; — re- 
 flections on his religious charac- 
 ter, 107 ; — speeches for the Mis- 
 sionary, Smith, 108 ; greatness of 
 the occasion, 109 ; — his description 
 of the Missionary character, 110; — 
 correction of his Lordship's view, 
 
470 
 
 INDEX TO SUBJECTS. 
 
 Ill ; — dedication to Earl Spencer, 
 112, 113 ; wrong views of the gos- 
 pel Mission, 113, 114; — account 
 of the gospel Mission, 114, 115 ; 
 — eulogium on the schoolmaster, 
 117 ; — was early filled with a sense 
 of the glory of peace and of civil- 
 ization, 118; — invective against 
 wars ; — 1 19 ; — his " Colonial Po- 
 licy," 121; — his resemblance to 
 Cicero, ib. ; — anti-scriptural cha- 
 racter of his Lordship's views, 
 
 136 ; — observations on education, 
 
 137 ; — erroneous ideas of, 138 ; — 
 aversion to evangelical doctrine, 
 139 ; — inaugural oration at Glas- 
 gow, ib. ; — mistakes concerning 
 the nature of faith, 140 ; — deistical 
 character of his Lordship's views, 
 141 ; — errors relative to faith and 
 unbelief, 167, 168 ; — " Great 
 Truth," ib. ;— his letter to Mr. 
 Williams, 173 ; — why urged to 
 support Missions, 174; — great 
 senatorial promoter of education, 
 179 ; — defective view of educa- 
 tion, ib. ;— urged to espouse the 
 cause of Missions, 182 ; will be in 
 good company, 183 ; — entitled to 
 repose, ib. ; — reminded of the folly 
 of this world's great men, 184 ; — 
 is pointed to the example of his 
 predecessors, 192 ; — employments 
 suggested, 193. 
 
 Buteve, extraordinary character of, 
 37 ; — his dialogue with Williams, 
 38. 
 
 Burke's opinion of the power of 
 Christianity, 97. 
 
 Buxton, Sir T. F., his work on the 
 Slave-trade, 63 ; — his testimony 
 to the power of the gospel, ib. ; — 
 his career greatly surpasses that 
 of conquerors, 66 ; — leader of Bri- 
 tish philanthropy, ib. 
 
 Byron, the late Lord, dreadful por- 
 trait of, 238 ; — apostrophe to man, 
 242. 
 
 Caesar's Commentaries, 221 ; — his 
 character and wars, 374, 375; — 
 compared with Paul, the Apostle, 
 376. 
 
 Chalmers, Dr., fine apostrophe by, 
 80. 
 
 Charles XII., death of, 206;— his 
 character and wars, 377, 378. 
 
 Character of the age, the leading, 
 the Missionary, 434. 
 
 Chatham, Lord, compared with Pe- 
 ricles, 251. 
 
 Christ's person, character, and work, 
 162, 163. 
 
 Christians, the first and chief anta- 
 gonists of Slavery, 176, 177. 
 
 Christianity, effects of, on Makea, 
 58, 59 ; — testimony to, by the So- 
 ciety for civilizing Africa, 64 ; — 
 alone able to crush slavery, 68 ; — 
 grand support of civil govern- 
 ment, 69; — reveals the true cha- 
 racter of heathen institutions, ib. ; 
 — not to be promoted by force, 71 ; 
 — progress in Polynesia arose not 
 from the aid of the civil power, 
 72 ;— despotism incompatible with, 
 79 ; — how it operates, 96 ; — grand 
 civilizer of man, ib. ; — Burke's 
 testimony to, 97 ; — only remedy 
 for the distress of our world, 101 ; 
 — impotency of legislation and 
 morality, ib. ; — unspeakable bless- 
 ings of, 102 ; — wonderful effects 
 on mankind during the apostolic 
 age, 303 ; — become enfeebled 
 through the corruption of after 
 ages, ib. 
 
 Churches of Great Britain, Ireland, 
 and America, address to the, 437. 
 
 Cicero's love of Peace, and resem- 
 blance to Brougham, 121 ; — on 
 ambition, 205 ; — on philanthropy, 
 208 ;— his preface to Atticus, 233 ; 
 — his description of moral great- 
 ness, 245 ; — his definition of true 
 glory, 247. 
 
 Civilization the result of Missionary 
 labour, 99; — wonderful instance 
 of, 100, 101; — all friends of, 
 shouid support Missions, 173 ; — 
 picture of its progress, 303 — 315 ; 
 — ought to be the prime pursuit 
 of ail nation, 361 ; — question of, 
 mainly a question of Missions, 
 362 ; — Williams's " Enterprises" 
 demonstrate that the gospel is the 
 only instrument of civilization, 
 363. 
 
 Classic writers compared with the 
 
INDEX TO SUBJECTS. 
 
 471 
 
 " Enterprises" of Williams, 258 ; 
 benefits of studying the, 262, 263 ; 
 utility of, to Missionaries, 264 ; — 
 anti-Christian spirit of the, ib. ; — 
 views of Dr. Thomson and Mr. 
 Foster relative to, 266, 267 ;— 
 suggestions for averting the evil 
 of the study of, 267—269. 
 
 Code of Laws framed by the Mis- 
 sionary for the Raiateans and 
 Rarotongans, 71. 
 
 Colonization will create new centres 
 for Missionary enterprise, 432. 
 
 Contemner of Missions, an address 
 to the, 46, 47. 
 
 Cook, Captain, the death of, 226 ;— 
 compared with Williams, 227. 
 
 Co-operation, condition of with 
 slaveholders, 458. 
 
 Cowper's excessive devotion to 
 Homer, 265. 
 
 David's condemnation of war, 122. 
 
 Death-beds of great men, 184 ; — of 
 Curran, Sheridan, Fox, Erskine, 
 Burke, Johnson, 185;— of Sir J. 
 Mackintosh and Sir W. Scott, 186. 
 
 Debt, frightful progress of the na- 
 tional, 433. 
 
 Discord, dreadful picture of, 420. 
 
 Douglas, James, of Cavers, works 
 and studies of, 14 ; — his profound 
 views in relation to Missions, 82, 
 83 ; — his great capabilities of 
 serving the cause of Missions, 93 ; 
 urged to address the higher 
 classes, 94. 
 
 East, Rev. T., life of, signalized by 
 two events, 195. 
 
 Edinburgh Review, great services of 
 the, to the cause of Peace, 340 ; — 
 a fine passage from the, on Peace, 
 343 ; — importance of its embrac- 
 ing the cause of Missions, 363 ; — 
 its early hostility and injury to 
 Missions, 364, 365 ; — its favour- 
 able notice of Tyerman and Ben- 
 nett, 367 ;— on the spirit of war, 
 419. 
 
 Education, Lord Brougham's ideas 
 of, 138;— in Polynesia, 180:— 
 chiefly promoted by Missions, ib. 
 
 Emigration indispensable to Eng- 
 land, 429—431. 
 
 England, Admirals of, 30 ; — Chris- 
 tians of, address to, on the effect 
 of Missions, 61 ; — ships of, sent 
 for destruction, ib. ; — noble efforts 
 of, against slavery, 67 ; — condi- 
 tion of, under the Normans, 77 ; — 
 present state of law in, 78 ; — her 
 naval rejoicings, 91; — her chief 
 glory the promotion of Missions, 
 370, 371; — her war-debt and 
 taxes, 384 ; — owes every thing to 
 Missions, 425 ; — her superiority 
 to all the continental nations, 
 426 ; — her colonial territory, 427, 
 428. 
 
 England and America, fearful posi- 
 tion of, 460. 
 
 English, the, not a military people, 
 409. 
 
 Essays, the American Prize, 49. 
 
 Experiment, a grand, in relation to 
 Missions, 460,461. 
 
 Faith of the gospel, what it is, and 
 what it is not, 165 ; — apostolic 
 view of, ib. ; — hurtful distinctions, 
 166;— duty of believing, 167;— 
 error of Lord Brougham relative 
 to, ib. ; — how Divine Influence 
 becomes necessary to, 168 ; — 
 ground of man's obligation to be- 
 lieve the truth, 1 69 ; — purifying 
 influence of, 171 ; — source of good 
 works, ib. 
 
 Finau's threat of destruction to such 
 as become Christians, 72. 
 
 Force not to be used to promote 
 Christianity, 71. 
 
 Foster, Rev. John, opinions of on 
 the Classics, 266, 267 ;— "Essays" 
 of, 270 ;— appeal to,* in behalf of 
 the Missionary character, 316 ; — 
 his capabilities of advancing the 
 cause of Missions, 337. 
 
 Frederick the Great, character and 
 wars of, 378, 379. 
 
472 
 
 INDEX TO SUBJECTS. 
 
 Genius defined, 243. 
 
 Gillespie, the Rev. Dr., 232 ; — pre- 
 face to Atticus applied to, 233 ; — 
 claims of Missions on chartered 
 colleges submitted to, 260. 
 
 Glory, what constitutes, 247 ;— true, 
 attains its utmost height only in 
 the Missionary character, ib. 
 
 God, the idea of, comprehends all 
 others, 26 ; — the knowledge of, 
 the only true renovator of human 
 nature, 144 ; — wherein the know- 
 ledge of, consists, 158 ; — how the 
 knowledge of, is diffused, 158, 
 159; — the knowledge of, can be 
 diffused only by Missions, 159 ; — 
 the knowledge of, differs much 
 from that of the mere philosopher, 
 160, 161 ; — things comprehended 
 in the knowledge of, ib. 
 
 Government, British, baffled in at- 
 tempts to civilize the Indians, 98. 
 
 Government, blessings of, secured 
 by the labours of Missionaries, 
 69 ; — influence of Missionaries 
 upon, 70. 
 
 Governments, all will be changed or 
 improved, 126, 127 ; — effects of 
 righteous and pacific, 156. 
 
 Gospel, Sir T. F. Buxton on the 
 power of, 63 ;— case for the, now 
 closed and waiting for judgment, 
 65 ; — the restorer of lost happi- 
 ness, ib.; — Mission, the, 115; — 
 the faith of, what, 164 ; — simpli- 
 city of the, 1 66 ; — what the, con- 
 sists of, ib. ; — the, believed upon 
 evidence, 168 ; — the, the remedy 
 for all evil, 173. 
 Grand experiment in relation to 
 
 Missions, 460, 461. 
 Greatness, moral, the highest ele- 
 vation of, attained in the Mis- 
 sionary character, 12 ; — entitled 
 to first distinction, ib. ; — moral 
 and intellectual, compared, 202, 
 203 ; — popular errors respecting, 
 203 ; — magnanimity, 204 ; — in- 
 stances of, in Alexander, Caesar, 
 Columbus, and Napoleon, 206 ;— 
 intellectual and moral, not neces- 
 sarily connected, 243 ;— intellec- 
 tual, defined, ib. ;— intellectual, not 
 an t object of moral approbation 
 
 or disapprobation, 244 ; — Cicero's 
 description of, 245 ; — most fully 
 exemplified in the Missionary cha- 
 racter, 246 ; — M'Combie's defini- 
 tion, ib. ; — Divine Influence ne- 
 cessary to, 248 ; — Christianity im- 
 parts to its receivers the elements 
 of, ib. ; — Tyrian Hercules an ex- 
 ample of, 249 ; — Minos, Lycurgus, 
 and Solon, examples of, 250 ; — 
 Pericles distinguished for, 251 ; — 
 Socrates the most remarkable hea- 
 then example, ib. ; — illustrations 
 of, among Old Testament wor- 
 thies, 271— 288;— illustration of, 
 in John Baptist and the Apostles, 
 ib., 289. 
 
 Greatness, military, what, 355. 
 
 Greek poets, characters of the, 256, 
 257. 
 
 Greek prose writers, characters of 
 the, 253—256. 
 
 Ground of battle in Polynesia, 57. 
 
 H 
 
 Hesiod, qualities of, as a poet, 84 ; — 
 preferred to Homer, ib. ; — his view 
 of man, 85. 
 
 Holy Spirit, influence of, not a mat- 
 ter of debt, 169. 
 
 Hope of the future depends on Mis- 
 sions, 333. 
 
 Howard, Burke's eulogium on, 116 ; 
 — not to be compared with the 
 Missionary, 117. 
 
 Human Nature, a description of, by 
 Juvenal, 86. 
 
 I 
 
 Idolatry, a crime and a calamity, 
 15 ; — its horrors described, 16; — 
 eternal consequences of, 17 ; — re- 
 nounced at three islands, 27. 
 
 Idols, interesting exhibition of, 19, 
 28 ; — burdens of, rejected, brought 
 to Williams, 23. 
 
 Infanticide, 89. 
 
 Infidelity, spirit of the age opposed 
 to, 65. 
 
 Intellect, the great academic idol, 
 233. 
 
INDEX TO SUBJECTS. 
 
 47:3 
 
 Intellectual power, without moral 
 
 worth, a picture of, 237. 
 Islands, three, renounce idolatry, 27. 
 
 James I., speech of, to his parlia- 
 ment, 77 ; — his definition of se- 
 dition, ib. 
 
 Johnson, Dr. Samuel, character and 
 writings of, 322, 323. 
 
 Jones, Peter, on Indian civilization, 
 97. 
 
 Jurists and Economists, works and 
 merits of, compared with those of 
 Christian Missionaries, 325, 326. 
 
 Jury, trial hy, 71. 
 
 Justification, distinction between, 
 and pardon, 169 ; — distinction be- 
 tween, and sanctification, 170; — 
 by faith, 171. 
 
 Justification by faith, aversion to the 
 doctrine of, 171 ; — errors of phi- 
 losophers concerning the doctrine 
 of, 171, 172. 
 
 Juvenal's description of human na- 
 ture, 86. 
 
 K 
 
 Kings, "nursing fathers," what is 
 meant by, 73 ; — almost all bad, 133. 
 
 King of Babylon, sublime invective 
 against, 128, 129. 
 
 Kingdom of Christ, happiness of 
 the, 134 ; — how to be established, 
 136. 
 
 Knowledge, the sphere of human, 
 enlarged by Missions, 174. 
 
 Knowledge, the proper objects of, 
 God and his works, 137. 
 
 Knowledge, saving, the Divine cha- 
 racter, not nature, the object of, 
 138. 
 
 Knowledge, merely secular, cannot 
 renovate the world, 419. 
 
 Kremlin, conflagration of the, 24. 
 
 Labour, manual, of the Rev. John 
 Williams, in the arts, 99. 
 
 Law, international, established in 
 Polynesia, 74. 
 
 Laws change with the character of 
 subjects, 69 ; — a code of, prepared 
 by Williams, 71 ; — moulded by 
 Christianity, 73. 
 
 Laymen, importance of their advo- 
 cacy to Missions, 93. 
 
 Leonidas, character of, 259. 
 
 Liberty, civil and religious, but im- 
 perfectly enjoyed in Europe, 333 ; 
 — piety the sure and only source 
 of, ib. 
 
 Literary men, errors of, in relation 
 to faith, 169. 
 
 Literary and philosophic character, 
 men ambitious of the, 316 ; — un- 
 duly exalted, 317 : — illustrations 
 of the, 317—328. 
 
 M 
 
 Macaulay, Right Hon. T. B., merits 
 of, as a writer, 338 ; — his literary 
 bias, ib. ; — his high responsibility, 
 339 ; — eminent capacity to serve 
 the cause of Missions, 363 ; — urged 
 to consecrate his talents and genius 
 to it, 370. 
 Mackintosh, Sir James, deathbed 
 of, 186, 187; — his remarkable 
 sayings and confession of faith in 
 Jesus Christ, 188 ; — his vast powers 
 and attainments, 189 — his dying 
 scene presents a great lesson to 
 men of letters, ib. 190 ; — inaugural 
 oration at Glasgow, ib. ; — his 
 writings, 191 ; — his great capaci- 
 ties wasted, ib. ; - might have ren- 
 dered immense service to the 
 cause of letters, humanity, and 
 religion, ib. 
 Magistrate, power of the, in matters 
 
 of religion, 72. 
 Makea's remarks on war, 58 ; — on 
 the effects of Christianity, ib., 59. 
 Malietoa, noble assurance of, to Wil- 
 liams, 75, 76. 
 Man, the sole means of renovating 
 the character of, 157 ; — Paul's de- 
 scription of, ib. 
 Manua, the Africa of Polynesia, 
 
 74. 
 Matetau, the gigantic stature of, 70 ; 
 — his offer to coerce his subjects 
 to become Christians, 71. 
 
474 
 
 INDEX TO SUBJECTS. 
 
 Mauke, lamentations of the chief of, 
 on war, 60. 
 
 Me, affecting history of, 44 — 46. 
 
 Mental philosophers, merits and 
 claims of, 324. 
 
 Messiah, pacific representations of 
 the, by the prophets, 121, 122 ;— 
 manner of his coming to the king- 
 dom, 123 ; — his extinction of war, 
 125 ; — happiness of his reign, ib. 
 
 Military genius, object and merit of, 
 348 ; — greatness, what, 355. 
 
 Military and moral greatness com- 
 pared, 356. 
 
 Military and Missionary conquests 
 compared, 411. 
 
 Missions, Christian, importance of 
 cultivating right feelings concern- 
 ing, 5 ; — how the spirit of, is to be 
 cultivated, 7 ; — wonderful effects 
 of, 18;— effects of in the West 
 Indies and in Africa, 79 ; — opinion 
 of Douglass on the method of con- 
 ducting, 82, 83 ; — entitled to uni- 
 versal encouragement and sup- 
 port, 173 ; — their claims on the 
 ground of education, 181 ; — hap- 
 piness of promoting, 337 ; — all 
 things ready for the prosecution 
 of the enterprise, 361 ; — becoming 
 a national object, 368 ; — literature 
 more friendly to, 369 ; — require 
 more centres, 431 ; — will receive 
 more centres from efficient colo- 
 nization, 432 ; — state of the field 
 of, 50 years ago, 438—440; — 
 cause of, advanced in the public 
 mind, 441 — 444 ; — advance of in 
 foreign lands, 445—448 ; — present 
 embarrassments of, 448 — 450 ; — 
 afflictive state of the, in America, 
 450—454. 
 
 Missionary, the Christian, described 
 by Lord Brougham, 110; — his 
 great sacrifices, 210, 211 ; — his 
 merits on literary grounds, 260 ; — 
 his claims to academic honours, 
 261 ; — the prime agent in civiliza- 
 tion, 361 ; — the only real civilizer ; 
 362 ; — his noble character and 
 exalted views, 416 — 418. 
 
 Missionary character, comparative 
 claims of the, 12 ;— not duly ap- 
 preciated, 92 ;— surpassing excel- 
 lence of the, 361 ; — Missionary 
 and philosophical character com- 
 
 pared, 330—333 ; — this world's 
 great men hardly admit of com- 
 parison with, 42 1 ; — perpetuity o. 
 its fame, 80. 
 
 Mission Colleges, necessity of, and 
 stations for, 461. 
 
 Missionary enterprise, Williams's 
 estimate of the, 9 ; — worthy the 
 son of a British peer, 11 ;— all 
 things ready for, 434. 
 
 Missionary meeting in Polynesia, 
 speeches at a, 39 — 41. 
 
 Missionary publications, 174, 175; 
 — speech by a native, 39. 
 
 Missionary Societies, encouragement 
 of, 465, 466. 
 
 Missionary spirit, power of the, 8 ; 
 — awakened in Britain and Ame- 
 rica, 441. 
 
 Moffat, Rev. Robert, wonderful ca- 
 reer of the, 423. 
 
 Monster, a human, 89. 
 
 Moral influence, the creation and 
 power of, 309, 311. 
 
 Moral power, the price of, 135. 
 
 Morality, a leading object of gospel 
 doctrine, 172 ; — its superiority to 
 that of philosophy, 1 72. 
 Moscow, Napoleon's march to, 22. 
 Mourning, an example of, in Poly- 
 nesia, 92. 
 
 N 
 
 Napoleon stills the civil commotions 
 of France, 226 ; — his march to 
 Moscow, 22 ; — compared with Wil- 
 liams, 356 — 358 ; — his letter to 
 king George, ib. ; — wanted true 
 moral greatness, 359 ; — his opinion 
 of war, 360 ; — his Code, ib. ; — 
 merits as a legislator, ib. ;— cha- 
 racter, genius, power, and mili- 
 tary crimes, 380, 381 ;— baneful 
 effect of his wars, ib. ; — grounds 
 for denouncing him, 382 ; — his 
 generals in the Peninsula, 389. 
 
 New Hampshire, memorial from the 
 ministers of, 457. 
 
 obles of England, pursuits becom- 
 ing the, 181 ;— folly and prodi- 
 gality of some of the, 182. 
 
 Numa's remarkable character, 151 ; 
 — happy reign, 152 ;— death, 153 ; 
 — reign an experiment on human 
 nature, 154, 155. 
 
INDEX TO SUBJECTS. 
 
 475 
 
 o 
 
 Opinion, public, created by the Mis- 
 sionary, 312 ; — resistless power of, 
 312—314. 
 
 Pardon, what, 169 ; — how obtained, 
 ib. 
 
 Pascal's requirements of a revela- 
 tion, 142 ; — his view of the know- 
 ledge of God, ib. 
 
 Paul, character of, 117 ; — a wonder- 
 ful example of moral greatness, 
 291 ; — compared with Caesar, 375, 
 376. 
 
 Peace flowing from the gospel, 125. 
 
 Peace societies, 48. 
 
 Peace, illustration of the doctrine of, 
 from Williams, 50; — prize essay 
 on, 49 ; — speech on, by Tamatoa, 
 54 — 56; — nations begin to study 
 340 ; - best time for propagating 
 the doctrine, 341 ; — national debt 
 a help to the study of, 341, 342 ; 
 — fine passage from the Edin- 
 burgh Review on, 343. 
 
 Peel, Sir Robert, noble passage 
 from, on Peace, 341. 
 
 Pericles, character of, 251 ; — com- 
 pared with Chatham, ib. 
 
 Philanthropist, encouragements to 
 the, 334, 335. 
 
 Philanthropy, Cicero on, 208 ; — hea- 
 then and philosophic, compared 
 with that of the Missionary, 209 ; 
 — greatness of Missionary, 210. 
 
 Philip, Dr., lasting honour of, 80. 
 
 Philosophy offers no relief but from 
 the tomb, 420. 
 
 Philosophic and Missionary charac- 
 ter compared, 330—333. 
 
 Philosophers, address to,78 ; — works, 
 merits, and defects of, 326—330. 
 
 Pilgrim Fathers, the, arriving in 
 America, 427. 
 
 Pitt, Mr., Lord Brougham's invec- 
 tive against, 135. 
 
 Planters, West Indian, views held 
 by the, on Missions and education, 
 178. 
 
 Plutarch's views of Numa, 157. 
 
 Police and crime, cost of, 343. 
 
 Polygamy, abolition of, at Raro- 
 tonga, 96. 
 
 Polynesia, idolatry of, 15 ; — picture 
 
 of, under the gospel, 425. 
 Poor, the, aspect which the Bible 
 
 bears towards, 127. 
 Popery, mighty efforts of, to spread 
 
 its principles, 459. 
 Praise, Malbranche, Leibnitz, Con- 
 
 dillac, &c, objects of general, 324. 
 Press, conductors of the, address to, 
 
 32 ; — their high position, 33 ; — 
 
 their duties, 34. 
 Price of moral power, 135. 
 Property, rights of, established by 
 
 Christianity, 75. 
 Public opinion, why changeful, 132. 
 
 Qualities of Hesiod as a poet, 84. 
 
 Quarterly Review, excellent service 
 done by the, to the cause of Mis- 
 sions, 369. 
 
 Queen of Otaheite, counsel of the, 
 relative to legislation, 73. 
 
 R 
 
 Rarotonga, discovery of, 3 ; — extra- 
 ordinary wickedness of the natives, 
 31 ;— idols abandoned, ib. ; — af- 
 fecting departure of Williams 
 from, 90, 91. 
 
 Reader, address to the, 32. 
 
 Religion, state of, in the days of 
 Numa, 155. 
 
 Revelation, Pascal's requirements of, 
 142. 
 
 Righteous, the character but little 
 known, 132. 
 
 Roman prose writers, character of 
 the, 254—256. 
 
 Roman poets, character of the, 257, 
 258. 
 
 Roma-tane, remarkable conversion 
 of, 25 ; — his exhortations to de- 
 stroy the temples of idolatry, 27. 
 
 8 
 
 Samoan chief's description of his 
 
 countrymen, 57. 
 Schoolmasters, Lord Brougham's 
 
 eulogium on, 117. 
 
476 
 
 INDEX TO SUBJECTS. 
 
 Schools, Sunday, superintendents of, 
 36. 
 
 Science, not the object of the stu- 
 dents of, to make men happy, 78 ; 
 — dreary condition of a man seek- 
 ing God by the lights of science, 
 147. 
 
 Scripture, antiquity and peculiarity 
 of, 145. 
 
 Ships of England sent for destruction, 
 61. 
 
 Simpleton, picture of a, 236. 
 
 Sinner, the convinced, perplexity of, 
 148, 149. 
 
 Slavery, African, its present state, 
 67 ; — its cost to England, ib. ; — has 
 baffled England, 68 ; — Christianity 
 alone can crush it, ib. ; — its alli- 
 ance to murder, 74 ; — guilt of 
 American, ib. ; — bearing of Mis- 
 sionary enterprise upon, 174; — 
 Guizot, opinion of, ib. ; — destroyed 
 in Europe by Christianity, 175 ; 
 — abolition of, in the West Indies 
 mainly promoted by Missionaries, 
 177. 
 
 Society for civilizing Africa, testi- 
 mony of the, to the power of 
 Christianity, 64 ; — important aux- 
 iliary to Christianity, ib. 
 
 Society, progress of, in Polynesia, 
 90. 
 
 Societies, peace, 48. 
 
 Societies, royal, geographical, &c, 
 &c., not for a moment to be com- 
 pared with Missionary, 174. 
 
 Socrates, character of, 251 ; — his ex- 
 traordinary eminence, 252. 
 
 Solomon, address to, by David, 145 ; 
 — wisdom of, 146 ; — surpassing 
 greatness of, ib. ; — directions of, 
 how to find the knowledge of God, 
 149 ; — results of his enlightened 
 reign, 150, 151. 
 
 Sons fighting with their fathers, 87. 
 
 South Sea, isles of the, human nature 
 may be advantageously contem- 
 plated in the, 15 ; — arts, vegeta- 
 bles, and animals, introduced by 
 the Missionaries, 99. 
 
 Speech, a remarkable, 29. 
 
 Speeches of natives, 39 — 41. 
 
 Speeches of Tuahine, 20, 29. 
 
 Spirit of the age opposed to infidelity, 
 65. 
 
 Tamatoa, peace speeches, 31. 
 
 Tamerlane, the war monster, 352. 
 
 Teachers of Christianity, an order 
 of, founded by Christ, 116. 
 
 Teachers, British, encouragements 
 to, 1 ; — moral power of, 2 ; — claims 
 of, ib. ; — may do much to quench 
 the spirit of war, and to aid Mis- 
 sions, 3. 
 
 Teachers, Sunday-school, power of 
 to promote Missions, 14; — vast 
 influence of, on the rising race, ib. 
 
 Temples burned, 23. 
 
 Thomson, Dr. Adam, 260 ; — his 
 view of classic studies, 266, 267. 
 
 Tinomana, fine character of, 31. 
 
 Triumphs, Missionary, compared 
 with those of war, 20, 21. 
 
 Tuahine, affecting letter of, 88. 
 
 Tyrtseus, 413. 
 
 U 
 
 Ulysses' advice to Achilles, 86. 
 
 Universities, Scottish, education in 
 the, 234 ; — defective in Christian 
 feeling, ib. ; — importance of the 
 subject, 235. 
 
 Universities and chartered colleges, 
 duty of to uphold the Missionary 
 character, 260, 261 ; — the produc- 
 tion of great Missionaries their 
 highest honour, 262. 
 
 Vanderkemp, fame of the Rev. Dr., 
 
 perpetual, 80. 
 Vara, good confession of, 43 ; — his 
 
 death, 44. 
 Voyagers, address to, 61, 62. 
 
 W 
 
 War, impolicy and madness of, 344 ; 
 — laudable spirit of M. Guizot, ib. ; 
 — influence of poetry in uphold- 
 ing war, 346, 347 ; — improvers of 
 war, 349 ; — science and practice 
 of war not distinguishable, 350 ; — 
 spirit of, entirely unchristian, 350, 
 
INDEX TO SUBJECTS. 
 
 ■i i 
 
 35 1 ; — a foul crime, ib. ; — its aw- 
 ful consequences, 352 — 354 ; — 
 Buonaparte's opinion of, 360 ;— 
 Webster on, ib. ; — national debt, 
 on account of, 382 ; — Wellington's 
 opinion, 407 ; — all the nations of 
 Europe weakened by, 410; — for- 
 merly prevalent in Polynesia, 52 ; 
 horrors of, at Ana, and at Savaii, 
 53 ; — Havoc of, 58 ;— lamentation 
 of the chief of Mauke on, 60 ;— 
 Dr. Johnson on the results of, 76 ; 
 — enough of for England, 434. 
 Warrior, madness of mankind in ad- 
 miring the, 50, 51 ;— his claims 
 sifted, 345 ; — compared with the 
 benefactors of mankind, 349 ; — ■ 
 Lucan on the character of the sol- 
 dier, 415. 
 Waterloo, the greatest battle ever 
 fought for freedom, 392, 393 ;— 
 horrors which succeeded the bat- 
 tle, 414. 
 Webster, Hon. Daniel, on war, 360 ; 
 
 — on oratory, 388. 
 Wellington, Field Marshal the Duke 
 of, S7 1 ; hope that his Grace may 
 be England's last great warrior, 
 372 ; — his character, 383 ; — 
 grounds of deciding his character, 
 384; — unjustly estimated as a 
 statesman, ib. ; — Dr. Channing's 
 view, 385 ; — singular modification 
 of that view, ib. ; — Napoleon's 
 opinion, 386 ; — opinion of, Madame 
 de Stael and Constant's, ib. ; — 
 Edinburgh Review, ib. ; — Conces- 
 sion of the Edinburgh Review, ib., 
 387 ; — opinions of the British pub- 
 lic, 387 388 ;— superior to Marl- 
 borough, ib. ; — extraordinary diffi- 
 culties encountered in the Penin- 
 sula, 389 ; — three sources of delu- 
 sion, 391 ; — Waterloo not the 
 foundation of his real fame, 393 ; 
 — extraordinary display of moral 
 greatness, 394 ; — grandeur of his 
 views, 394—396 ; — Fabian policy, 
 398—400 ;— opposed by the Bri- 
 tish public, by his own officers, 
 and the Portuguese government, 
 400, 403 ; — his great moral cou- 
 rage, 404 ; — superior in wisdom, 
 and equal in skill, to Napoleon, 405 ; 
 — his character has sustained no 
 
 injury from time, 405, 406 ; — the 
 first historical personage now liv- 
 ing, 407 ; — first of conquerors, but 
 less than the least of all Mission- 
 aries, 412 ; — his religious views, 
 ib. ; — feelings on beholding the 
 field of Waterloo after the battle, 
 414; — reflecting on his career, 
 415 ; — closing address, 435, 436. 
 
 Wesley, Rev. John, ministry of, 65 ; 
 — his remarks on diligence, 221. 
 
 Whitfield, Rev. G., ministry of the, 
 65. 
 
 Widows, cruel treatment of, in Poly- 
 nesia, 87. 
 
 Williams, Rev. John, conversion of, 
 4 ;— a Sunday school teacher, ib. ; 
 — becomes a Missionary, 5 ; — re- 
 presentative of his brethren, 12 ; — 
 a standard of reference, 13 ; — his 
 felicity compared with that of mi- 
 litary heroes, 42 ; — his efforts for 
 the good of Polynesia, 84; — his 
 affecting departure from Raro- 
 tonga, 90, 9 1 ;— the piety of his 
 enterprise blinds the world to his 
 real and great glory, 92, 93; 
 — letter to, from Lord Broug- 
 ham, 173 ; — character of, 195 ; — 
 his personal appearance, 196 ; — 
 his intellectual powers, ib. ; — his 
 mechanical genius, 197 ; — his 
 general characteristics, ib., 198 ; 
 — compared with Dr. Philip, and 
 Mr. Moffat, 199; — his speak- 
 ing and writing, 200 ; — his moral 
 greatness, 201 ; — his magnanimity 
 a chief means of his success, 206, 
 207 ;— his philanthropy, 207 ; — 
 his extraordinary efforts for the 
 good of the heathen, 210;— his 
 piety, 211 ; — his fine views of the 
 gospel of Christ, 212 ; — his libe- 
 rality of spirit, 213 ;— his mechan- 
 ical ingenuity, 215 ; — his spirit of 
 adventure, 217; — his persever- 
 ance, 219 ; — importance of his con- 
 version, 222 ; — reasons of the 
 author's interest in him, 223 ; — 
 death of, 225 ; — manner, time, and 
 place of death, 228 ; — remarkable 
 state of mind prior to reaching 
 Erromanga, 229 ; — ominous feel- 
 ings relative to the New Hebrides, 
 230 ; — six times in danger of 
 
478 
 
 INDEX TO SUBJECTS. 
 
 death, 230 ;— address to, 231 ;— 
 
 his noble assault on idolatry, 259 ; 
 
 — superiority to all heroes, 356, 
 
 357. 
 Wilson, Captain, unnoticed decease 
 
 of, 226. 
 Wilson, Thomas, a zealous patron 
 
 of Home and Foreign Missions, 
 94 ; — a practical man, 95. 
 
 Youth, British, address to, 30. 
 
 THE END. 
 
 W. Tyier, Printer, 6, Bolt-couit, Fleet-street, London. 
 
¥ 
 
; i& 
 
 m; 
 
 -.: h> 
 
 1 ■* MH ■ f 
 
 ■ ' y 
 
 - 
 
 

 • 
 
% 
 
 ■Jr 
 
 w> 
 
 
 .vWJ^ 
 
 
 
 tt*.:-.^V^'.ifO> 
 
 >«, -.'-■ 
 
 
 l£J*«< 
 
 
 ■v M !' 
 
 
 
 ":;"V : . (/' 
 
 ■I 
 
 '#' 
 
 A4-V-