and the Master whom he loves, with a love which many waters cannot quench, will one day make him sit down to meat, and will come forth and serve him. Blessed distinction! Shall it be ours? Who, then, is willing to consecrate his service this day unto the Lord? H. P.

Altrincham.

MISCELLANEOUS ARTICLES, ANECDOTES, &c.

THE MIRROR OF MISSIONS.

TRUTH is naturally and essentially aggressive; it cannot live in isolation; it must itinerate. So soon as any one becomes its captive, so soon he must become its champion. The law of its very nature is progress, and it strengthens by its travel, and increases as it spreads. When it enters the soul of a man it taxes his tongue and talents, his feet and fortune to spread it. The demand it lovingly but imperatively makes is this-" You propagate me and I will protect and prosper you." The warning it solemnly administers is something like this-"If you in shame or timidity conceal me, I in self-respect and retribution will forsake you." Hence truth knows nothing of secrets or secret-mongers or secret societies. Its secret is God's great "open secret,' which it charges its disciples to publish upon the house-tops. Hence, too, in all times, and in all lands, truth finders have been truth vendors.

When

If this be true of truth in general, how much more is it true of Christian truth! it is higher, holier, and more tender truth than any besides. It touches chords, awakens sensibilities, excites hopes, and presents interests which are far beyond the scope and sphere of other verities. therefore it makes a convert, it makes an apostle. Interesting and beautiful in this respect is the evangelical narrative. Andrew "first findeth his own brother Simon, and saith unto him, We have found the Messias." Philip "findeth Nathaniel," and made a like proclamation; and when Nathaniel questioned Nazareth's "good thing," the other with affectionate earnestness entreated him to 66 come and see.' Paul no sooner threw down the sword of persecution, than, as a good soldier of Christ, he grasped the "sword of the spirit." In fact, the New Testament shows, if it shows anything, that a Christian is a missionary and a Christian church is a missionary society. It is therefore no strained inference, no exaggerated representation, no uncharitable insinuation, but a stern and sober truth, to say, that if you, as a Christian, have lost your zeal for souls you have lost your Christianity; and if we as a church lose our missionary anxiety, we lose our Christian identity.

Impressed by these considerations as well as delighted with the work, we have undertaken the task, or rather the "labour of love," involved in culling from authenticated sources whatever of missionary intelligence may please and profit our readers. Yes, I say deliberately enough, please them. This object, subordinately considered, and as subservient to a higher, is quite legitimate. It is apostolic. "I please all men," said the prince and pattern of Apostles. And in the monthly details of the various religious missionary bodies there is sufficient to interest any one. Is it not interesting to witness in all the churches of Christ, as we do at present, so general a recognition of the duty to carry the gospel into every region of the world, and diffuse it among every race of mankind? And with recognition of the duty there is devotion to the work. Churches appear to be vying with each other in the noble strife to enter new fields of labour as they open, and secure where least expected new trophies for Christ. The Wesleyans, with the promptiude and enterprise which have ever distinguished them

in the missionary work, have decided upon sending forthwith ten additional missionaries to India, and towards that laudable object many of their wellto-do members have contributed handsomely. Our Scottish brethren have formed in Edinburgh an "Indian Christian Association," the object of which is the "removal of all Government encouragement of caste, and all connection with idolatry, and, in general, the promotion of the Christian cause in India." The London Missionary Society, besides preparing to follow in the wake of Dr. Livingstone's recent discoveries in Central Africa, and to claim for Christ places which that traveller shows to be important for commerce, besides this, the Directors have resolved to establish two new missions among the numerous and necessitous tribes of the Makololo and Matabele. Mr. Moffat, who has more than once visited the king of the latter place, and always with encouraging prospects, is deputed to open these important stations. Speaking of Mr. Moffat, our readers will be glad to learn the state of his health. On the 18th of July he writes:-" As to my present state, it is such as any one might expect from the nature of the work which I have been engaged-a head jaded with study, and a heart often palpitating with irregularity, from much anxiety in labouring to give a correct translation of the Sacred Volume in the Sechuna language, a work which has involved an amount of application for which I was not prepared. The incurable buzzing in my head still continues, but I have got accustomed to it. I have had exercise and manual labour too, sometimes more than I could have wished, while the translation was in hand, and probably but for that I might have broken down altogether before the work was completed." The profit which we desiderate is more than that of increased intelligence. Missions, as they now exist, in lands and climes the most distant and dissimilar; among races the most varied in size, configuration, and colour, in pursuits, customs, and religion, cannot fail to be educational institutions to the world. Continually are they bringing to light circumstances which add to our geographical and general knowledge. Their study, therefore, should not be neglected by the mere student. But the facts which they present have a higher value and a nobler bearing. They confirm the old doctrine that men, however varied in external form and individual feature, are made of "one blood." They demonstrate the truth that one spiritual disease preys upon the vitals of universal man, and that for its recovery there is no effectual medicine save one, and that is the "balm of Gilead." They show that this balm has not lost its virtue, is not the worn out device or dream of a former and less favoured age, but that now as ever it is "the power of God unto salvation." They, above all, excite the sympathy, inflame the zeal, encourage the liberality, and invite the labour of churches at home. They thus serve a double end; they "pluck the sinner as a brand out of the fire," and they furnish coals to replenish the fire that burns in the Christian's heart-they at once represent and react upon the piety of the churches.

The last mentioned effect is the one we supremely desire for our churches. Already there is among many of our beloved ministers and members a deep feeling, swelling in the case of some into a settled and solemn conviction, that we, as a community, are able, and obligated, and called to do more than at present we do in the precious field of Christian missions. To Australia we must go, and the sooner the funds already collected for that purpose are employed and enlarged, so as to fit out the mission, the better it will be for us. A foreign mission, too; one to Africa or India, or some of the goodly islands of the Pacific, we must have. The "Mirror of Missions" will do something towards this ardently-desired end, if in the doings of other denominations, and the necessities of distant nations, it shows the man of Macedonia, and enables us to hear his plaintive and pathetic appeal, "Come over and help us."

But it is said (I have heard it said), "It is preposterous for our little

At

community to think of having a foreign mission." Why? Not surely because it is "little?" The history of the Moravian Church shows how gloriously possible it is for a small denomination to have a large staff of missionary labourers and a large sphere of missionary usefulness. present, I believe, they only number 12,000 in Europe, and in 1773, when their missions first began, they were much less; yet they have 63 mission stations, 297 missionaries, including assistants, 71,060 converts and catechumens, and 19,810 members. Their missionaries, too, travel in all directions. You find them among the icy regions of Greenland, and the sultry abodes of the Cape of Good Hope, and the island of Ceylon; here they direct the wandering red Indian of North America, and there they solace the sable-coloured negro of South Carolina. "Little," are they? Yes; but not in soul, in generous sympathy, in warm-hearted zeal, in self-denying labour, in apostolic success. No; in them "extremes meet," and, paradoxical as it may appear, they are as large as they are little! Ancient Tyre was little, but her "merchant princes" traded everywhere; and the Moravian Church is little in herself, but her toil-loving and death-defying missionaries have travelled and preached in all directions. Why should we not imbibe their spirit, and seek even to rival their usefulness?

Where, however, are the men to come from? When I heard the word "preposterous" in the connection already named, it was based, I believe, principally upon the belief that we, as a community, had neither "the money nor the men " for the desiderated enterprise. It would be an insult to many of our merchant members, who are pillars of strength in their localities, not less than to our industrial members, who are in many instances patterns of liberality, to argue seriously the first supposition. As to the other, I grant that the men are a serious consideration. If they are inefficient or unequal to the work, better were it for us that we never appoint them. If they are "right men for selected places, they will be our joy and Christ's glory. Nowhere more than in the mission field have men more manifestly made the mission. Morrison, Williams, Moffat, and a host of worthy names readily suggest themselves in confirmation of this statement. Now, what is needed in the men ? and how are we to get them? In missionaries for foreign lands it is found to be more important that they should be teachers than (important as it is that they should be) preachers. In India, for instance, it is ascertained that native agents, familiar as they are with the modes of thought and metaphors of speech peculiar to the oriental mind, more readily engage the attention of the natives and more effectually beget in them conviction of the truth as it is in Jesus than the most adroit and able European. The testimony of the Rev. J. Long, a Church Missionary, on this subject, is very decided. Speaking of Jacob Madhav, originally a Hindu priest and after his conversion and up to his recent death a catechist, he observes: "He died in the Lord, aged 50. I have found him faithful in the responsibilities I intrusted to him, and he possessed a tact in managing things, which no books or mere training school can give. During several months past I began the plan of giving, from my own notes, the heads of sermons to the catechists, who preached them; and I have been often surprised how he would reproduce in church, to the people, almost every idea I had communicated. I have had him under training the last five years, and am convinced from his case, as well as that of others, that the true way to raise up, at present, village pastors, is to select from among the people those who recommend themselves most by grace and gifts, to make them the media of preaching; while the missionary aims himself, by a thorough study of the vernacular language and of Hir modes of expression, to communicate Christian ideas in a garb most suited to the oriental mind. Sermons cast in the English mode are almost worthless for making an impression on Hindus." Elsewhere he says: “We have a high education in Calcutta, but I find the educated classes show little

sympathy in this respect; the curse of caste remains for generations. Even our Christians of the Brahminical caste retain the Brahmin's contempt of the common people, and it is the experience of our Missionaries that they will not answer as pastors. We must have men raised up among the people themselves."-Missionary Record, Dec. 3, 1854.

What, then, is our need? Men who will have capacity and perseverance to master the language of a country; next, aptness and zeal to teach the gospel in it to the people; and finally, such a baptism of the Holy Ghost as will lead them to say, "We are made all things to all men, if by any means we may save some. Where are we to get such men? In the first instance, God must give us them. It is His to "send forth labourers ;" but He sends them in answer to prayer. We must, therefore, pray for a repeated Addyman, Crofts, and Robinson to push forward our cause in the Colonies; and for New Connexion Morrisons, Moffats, and Livingstones to represent us and preach Christ in foreign lands. Do we pray for this object?

But prayer is not enough. At first God helped the church to establish herself in the world by the "gift of tongues," now he leaves her to extend herself by their acquisition. We must, therefore, do as other denominations do-educate the men whom the Lord may choose. Who knows but what there are among us young Davids, attending the flock on some unpretending business, into whose heart God is putting the desire and determination to "play. the men for our people, and for the cities of our God"? Let us seek them as Samuel sought David. Let us. not prejudge them. "Look not on their

countenance, or on the height of their stature." Their person may be ungainly, and their position lowly. Never mind; if God has touched their hearts, let us labour to furnish their heads; and, depend upon it, we shall yet be made by our God a "praise to the earth."

Our inaugural paper has swollen so unexpectedly that the "bird's eye" view of missions for the month, which we had meant, and in future mean to give, must be abandoned. We hope, however, to resume our work, and to woo, but never weary, the attention of our readers. IOTA.

MR. WESLEY'S ATTENTION ΤΟ THE SICK AND POOR.-At the present period when there is great commercial distress, and much affliction, the following example may prove suggestive. Let us not neglect the poor and the sick, especially amongst God's people. Remembering who hath said, "He that hath pity upon the poor lendeth to the Lord."-Prov. xix. 17. And again, "Pure religion and undefiled before God even the father is this, to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world."-James i. 27. And again, listen to these faithful and burning words. "Whoso hath this world's good, and seeth his brother hath need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him?"-1 John iii. 17. The following was Wesley's

In the latter end of this year (1743) Mr. Wesley appointed in London visitors of the sick, as a distinct office in his society. He says, "It was not long before the stewards found a great difficulty with regard to the sick. Some were ready to perish before they knew of their illness. And when they did know, it was not in their power (being, persons generally employed in trade) to visit them so often as they desired. When I was apprised of this, I laid the case at large before the whole society; showed how impossible it was for the stewards to attend all that were sick in all parts of the town; desired the leaders of the classes would more carefully inquire, and more constantly inform them, who were sick; and asked, Who among