however, been surmounted by natural means, and which were not to be surmounted except by natural means; nay, that natural barriers still exist, which have yet to yield to the rising tide of human enterprise and skill before the full flood of the knowledge of the LORD shall cover the earth as the waters the sea. Revealed religion, like the other talents bestowed upon human nature, is subjected to the finite conditions of that nature, superhuman and infinite though its own scope may be. For the benefit of human nature it was bestowed; and by the agency of human nature the benefit must be extended. That benevolence, which is the cardinal principle of Christianity, imposes upon those who have received the sacred deposit, the necessity of extending its influence. Profound is the responsibility which attaches to a nation first brought into contact with an unchristian uncivilized family of our common race.

Physical obstacles may fairly be pleaded in excuse of a long delay to communicate our privileges. But seeing that these physical obstacles to intercourse with the whole world have been proved by experience superable by human effort, and have in most cases been actually overcome; it is idle, not to say impious, to continue to put the delay off upon Providence. We were assuredly not responsible for what we could not do-while we could not do it-but now that the work is feasible, who shall tell the risk of neglecting to do it? Want of "ships" and ignorance of language were valid excuses while they lasted; but modern navigation and modern philology ought to have silenced those answers for ever. The tide of civilization is flowing over the whole world; with it, in the present state of the world, a false, or the genuine Christianity is necessarily involved. And human agency, and human agency alone, is responsible for the progress of both. Both are in man's hands, to give or to withhold, and they must be given or withheld together.

To return, however. Dr. Livingstone, though insisting strongly on the necessity of endeavouring to enlist the human interest of the heathen on the side of Christianity, defines well in the following passage the limits within which the missionary's trading enterprises should be confined :—

"Wherever a missionary lives traders are sure to come: they are mutually dependent, and each aids in the work of the other; but experience shows that the two employments cannot very well be combined in the same person. Such a combination would not be morally wrong, for nothing would be more fair, and apostolical too, than that the man who devotes his time to the spiritual welfare of a people should derive temporal advantage from upright commerce, which traders, who aim exclusively at their own enrichment, modestly imagine ought to be left to them. But though it is right for missionaries to trade, the present system of missions renders it inexpedient to spend time in so doing. No missionary with whom I ever came in contact traded; and while the

traders, whom we introduced and rendered secure in the country, waxed rich, the missionaries have invariably remained poor, and have died so. The Jesuits, in Africa at least, were wiser in their generation than we; theirs were large influential communities, proceeding on the system of turning the abilities of every brother into that channel in which he was most likely to excel; one, fond of natural history, was allowed to follow his bent; another, fond of literature, found leisure to pursue his studies; and he who was great in barter was sent in search of ivory and golddust; so that while in the course of performing the religious acts of his mission to distant tribes he found the means of aiding effectually the brethren whom he had left at the central settlement. (The Dutch clergy, too, are not wanting in worldly wisdom. A fountain is bought, and the lands which it irrigates parcelled out and let to villagers. As they increase in numbers the rents rise and the church becomes rich. With £200 per annum in addition from Government, the salary amounts to £400 or £500 a year. The clergyman then preaches abstinence from politics as a Christian duty. It is quite clear that, with £400 a year, but little else except pure spirituality is required.) We Protestants, with the comfortable conviction of superiority, have sent out missionaries with a bare subsistence only, and are unsparing in our laudations of some for not being worldly minded whom our niggardliness made to live as did the prodigal son."

The Doctor's estimate of the popular type of worldliness and unworldliness is a very characteristic instance of the vein of satire which frequently breaks out in his book.

It is interesting to find a corresponding view of the duties of the Christian missionary in the letters of our own Bishop of Natal, detailing his experience during his ten weeks' voyage of discovery in his newly created South African Diocese. He speaks from his own observation, and from the testimony of intelligent English settlers,

"of the mistakes made by missionaries in beginning at the wrong end, and expecting to get through Christianity to industry, instead of through industrial pursuits to the reception of Christianity. On this point indeed, all, with whom I have conversed upon the subject, are agreed, at least so far as to confirm the principle upon which our Church missions are to be conducted, of carrying on the industrial and religious training of the natives together, and making the one to act upon the other. But we must not expect too much of these poor heathens, or that their minds, overgrown with error (like their native hills around them, with the wild luxuriance and matted grass of ages,) shall be capable of receiving at once and cherishing that advanced Christianity, to which we in England have been brought through centuries of cultivation."

And again in a passage, in which he advocates with admirable force the desirability of concentrating missionary strength in "one strong central institution," under the Bishop's personal presidency, -in and around a cathedral church, in fact, he alleges, as one

of the advantages resulting from such a comprehensive collegiate institution, that in it he should hope to be able to practise the younger natives in trades of various kinds, to teach them to cultivate the soil, and learn the value of land, and adopt the habits of civilised life."

The fact is, that the extension which God has given to human knowledge, has made the propagation of Christianity a far different thing from that which its early Apostles found it. The means which Christian missionaries have at their disposal for instructing, for benefiting, and last, though not least, for ensuring the attention, and commanding the respect of those whom they wish to evangelise, can scarcely be over-estimated. And if so, how much less can the responsibility be exaggerated of so employing them, as shall most conduce to that end for which alone they were given, the extension of the kingdom and glory of GOD. We cannot do better than adopt the eloquent words in which the Bishop of Oxford long since enforced these considerations, in a missionary sermon :

"And for the first purpose of miracles-that of awakening men's attention to the message they accompanied-GOD, in removing them, has given us substitutes, which, if duly used, might, under His blessing, be as effectual. For it is not now as it was when the fishermen of Galilee, in their poverty and ignorance, went forth against the wit, and wisdom, and science, and empire of the earth. Now Christendom has gathered all these into itself. In giving her these, as in the power of working miracles of old, GOD has committed to her that which, if used faithfully for Him, must awaken the attention of the untaught heathen to her message. Thus, the gift of tongues might now be supplied in our undoubted power of training messengers, to speak in every tongue to every people of the earth. And even as to the gifts of healing, our messengers might be furnished with powers like those which first won attention to the heavenly message, if we trained them perfectly, and so gave them that acquaintance with the arts of healing which Christian skill might impart to them. This, too, might afford opportunity to supply another of our great deficiencies, for it might lead to our missionary work, which is so infinitely various in its character, requiring in some places the most polished and instructed intellects, and in others far lower intellectual gifts, if only they are administered by loving hearts, drawing to itself in some abundance, the various workmen which it needs, instead of the fixed, and, alas! scanty band of missionaries which now form all its supply."

Yes; now, as in the days of the faithful Baptist, the children of this world may "see and hear,"-by the blessing of GoD on the gifts which His wisdom has imparted, the wonderful "works of CHRIST,”—by the hands of His servants. Now, as then, may the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, and the deaf hear-at least as significant accompaniments, if not as miraculous attesta

tions, of the Gospel which the poor have preached to them. Care for the body now, as then, is the "sign" of true zeal for the soul. Any attempt, therefore, to bring the nations of the earth into relation with Christian civilisation, to lead them to Christian peace-through merely human good-will-is an attempt to be honoured accordingly, to extend His kingdom, of Whose government and of Whose peace there shall be no end.

In this aspect, Dr. Livingstone's travels cannot fail to have a deep interest even for those who are least able to sympathise with his religious opinions. And it is obvious that the tolerant and comprehensive tone which characterises his book, will (however fallacious may be his principle of comprehension) present fewer points of disagreement to a pious mind, of whatever school, than would the eager proselytism of a man animated by, and seeking to inspire his converts with, a spirit of sectarian jealousy.

It is scarcely necessary to enter now upon a narrative which has been so generally read, or is by this time certain to be in the hands of nearly all our readers. Neither can we afford space to quote, as we would very willingly do, the various able passages in which Dr. Livingstone discusses principles and phenomena, moral and physical, of the deepest interest and importance to those engaged in, or zealous for, the spread of the Gospel, and the extension of Christian civilization. We would especially instance the account which he gives of his experience of the effect hitherto produced by missionary labours on the aboriginal tribes of South Africa (pp. 107 et sqq. and pp. 157 et sqq.); and the opinion which he expresses as to the probability of permanence attending the planting of Christianity, without a constant supply of foreign ministerial agency. (Pp. 115 et sqq.) No part, however, of this unaffected and important narrative will need any recommendation of ours to render it attractive to all those of our readers who are interested in missionary enterprise.

LEE'S INTRODUCTORY LECTURES ON ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY.

Three Introductory Lectures on Ecclesiastical History. By WILliam Lee, D.D., Fellow and Tutor of Trinity College, and Professor of Ecclesiastical History in the University of Dublin. Rivingtons: 1858.

WE can most cordially recommend the above lectures; and if they prove as interesting to any of our readers as we found them ourselves, we can promise them a rich literary treat. Dr. Lee's name is already well known as the author of a much larger work on the

Inspiration of Holy Scripture. But although this is universally allowed to be one of the most able treatises on that subject, few who read these lectures will consider that they in any degree detract from his character as a writer. Dr. Lee's mind is evidently of an inductive turn; and though the exercise of this particular power has led him to group together all the evidence for the Inspiration of Scripture, that can be derived from the internal construction and phenomena of that Holy Book, it has been the cause of his underrating, or at least of his failing to set at its proper value, another proof, compared with which all other arguments sink into insignificance, viz., that there has been from the beginning a universal unchanging testimony in the Church, that certain books differ from every other writings in the world, in that they are inspired of GOD Himself; and that though the Church has, in the lapse of ages, undergone many revolutions, changes, and reformations, there has not been any question, as to which are and which are not the undoubted contents of the Scriptures of truth. At the same time this peculiar turn of mind finds a legitimate and congenial study in the investigation of historical facts; and when united with a clear judgment, and an unbiassed freedom of thought, it enables a writer to force his way through the shallow conventional views, which too generally prevail, and throw the facts that he investigates into fresh and striking lights.

The period of history, which is chiefly considered in these lectures, is from the first publication of Christianity, down to the capture and sack of Rome by Alaric, and does really contain a most masterly sketch of the great conflict which the Church had to wage against the heathenism of the decaying empire of Rome.

"I am inclined to think, that most persons would (with M. Guizot) picture to themselves the Church of the commencement of the fifth century, in full possession of dignity and power, the civilized world at her feet, Paganism a dream of the past, and the observance of Christian worship universal. It is my present object briefly to show how far nearer the truth is the reverse of such a portrait."—P. 44.

The arguments which are adduced to prove this point are drawn especially from the light that history throws upon the state of Roman society during the reigns of the Emperors.

"The aspect of the world, at the date of the Birth of CHRIST, presented an antithesis the greatest that the imagination can conceive; the office of the Roman Emperor, and the condition of the Slave". P. 15.

War and troublesome times had led to the rapid disappearance of the free Roman population, and this in the centre of the Empire to a greater degree than in the provinces. The consequence was, that the great mass of the population consisted of the class of