called upon to visit the sick, or to perform some other errand of mercy, I have passed through the largest villages alone and in the middle of the night, with a feeling of as much security as I could possibly have felt in traversing the streets of any city in these United States, under similar circumstances. And so far from finding it impossible to live among them, I may further add, that during the whole term of my residence in that country, I scarcely remember to have heard a single syllable from the lips of one of these people which could, in any just sense, be construed as an intentional insult to myself."

"It is far from my intention to leave the impression, that the natives of Africa are perfectly inoffensive in their habits. They are heathen in the full sense of that word, and no missionary can live among them without finding ample cause of perplexity and annoyance. But when it is affirmed that the missionary cannot live among them on account of their turbulence and lawlessness, the assertion is without foundation." Pages 509-11.

It is not true, then, either that the climate or the natives of Africa are such as to make it indispensable that her heathen tribes be furnished with the gospel only by black men. And as to their being no hope of their evangelization except from the colonies of Liberia, we say, the pretence is perfectly contrary to all history, and to the Bible.

It has, indeed, been asserted by an authority which we esteem very high, that "Europe became what she is by colonization, and by this, America was christianized," and that "colonization has been, in past ages, the great and glorious plan of missions." But we think a great, and wise, and good man never made a greater error. We e assert, unhesitatingly, on the contrary, that from the beginning, Christianity has been propagated by Missionaries in distinction from Colonists. We have tried, in vain, to recall a single instance recorded in Ecclesiastical history, ancient or modern, in which colonization has established the gospel among a heathen people. America was, indeed, christianized by colonies, but the aboriginal inhabitants of America were not so christianized. The colonists took the soil of America and christianized it, in the sense of growing up upon it into a great and mighty Christian nation, but they exterminated the Indians that dwelt upon it formerly. And as to Europe, it was Missionaries that converted her as well as Asia, and it is Missionaries that are, by God's blessing, to convert Africa.

Any respectable work on Ecclesiastical History will verify our assertions. The Book of the Acts tells us that the Apostles carried the gospel in that early day to nations near and remote. "Eusebius tells us that in the second century Pantænus carried it to the Indians, by which may be meant either the Persians, Parthians, Medes, Arabians, Ethiopians, or Lybians. Jerome thought it was those we now call East Indians, for he represents him as sent to instruct the Brahmins." In the second century, we first find une

quivocal proofs of the existence of churches in Transalpine Gaul, now called France. But who planted them? History tells us it was Pothinus, "a man of distinguished piety and devotedness to Christ, in company with Irenaeus and other holy men, who proceeded from Asia to Gaul, and there instructed the people with such success that he gathered churches of Christians at Lyons and Vienne, of which Pothinus himself was the first Bishop." Eminent French writers have, indeed, disputed about the precise origin of their churches, but none of them pretend to say that colonies brought the gospel to Gaul-it was these Missionaries, or it was those missionaries.

In the third century, "the Goths, a ferocious and warlike people that inhabited Mosia and Thrace, and made perpetual incursions into the neighbouring provinces, received a knowledge of Christ from certain Priests whom they carried captive from Asia. Philostorgius says it was the influence of the Christian captives which induced the Goths to invite Christian teachers among them." But whether the one account or the other be correct, it was still, in either case, individual teaching and testifying which converted those Goths.

In the fourth century, "Gregory first persuaded private individuals in Armenia, afterwards the King Tiridates, and finally the Nobles to embrace Christianity, and for thus driving away the mists of superstition from their minds, this missionary was called 'the Illuminator.' It was he who gradually spread Christianity throughout that country." "In the middle of this century, Frumentius proceeded from Egypt into Abyssinia, and baptized the king and many of the nobles." "To the Georgians, a Christian woman, who had been carried captive thither, was the first missionary. She persuaded them to send for other teachers to Constantinople."

Hitherto, we read of no conversions to Christianity, except through the teachings of missionaries. But we are descending far from the pure fountain head, and the stream begins to be muddy. We have just been reading of a part of the Goths converted by their captives. Now we hear of Constantine the Great "vanquishing them and the Sarmatians, and engaging great numbers of them to become Christians." Whether he "engaged" them to this change by the mere effect of the vanquishing, or whether he brought them over by teaching, we are not told; but it is plain that colonization was not the means of their conversion. "But still, a large part of the nation remained (says Mosheim,) estranged from Christ until the time of the Emperor Valens, who permitted them to pass the Danube and inhabit Dacia, &c. on condition that they would be subject to the Roman laws and embrace Christianity, to which condition their king Fritigern consented." They were bought to be Christians by the Emperor Valens, and they were probably just

about such Christians as Constantine "engaged" the others to be, when he vanquished them. Mosheim remarks, that in this century whole nations as well as individuals found cogent reasons for embracing Christianity in the fear of the Roman arms, and the desire of pleasing the Emperor. "Yet (says he) no person well informed in the history of this period, will ascribe the extension of Christianity wholly to these causes. For it is manifest that the untiring zeal of the bishops and other holy men, the pure and devout lives which many of the Christians exhibited, the translations of the sacred volume, and the excellence of the Christian religion, were as efficient motives with many persons, as the arguments from worldly advantage and disadvantage were with others." Nothing is said of colonies in this century as the means of spreading Christianity. But special mention is made of "the great Martin, Bishop of Tours, who travelled through the provinces of Gaul; persuaded many to renounce their idols and embrace Christianity; destroyed their temples and threw down their statues; and who therefore, deserved the title of the Apostle of the Gauls." He was evidently a great missionary.

"The

In the fifth century we find a still muddier stream. German nations who rent in pieces the Western Roman Empire were either Christians before that event or they embraced Christianity after establishing their kingdoms, in order to reign more securely among the Christians. But at what time, and by whose instrumentality the Vandals, the Suevi, the Alans, and some others, became Christians, is still uncertain, and is likely to remain so. As to the Burgundians who dwelt along the Rhine, and thence passed into Gaul, it appears from Socrates that they voluntarily became Christians, near the commencement of the century. motive to this step was the hope that Christ, or the God of the Romans, who they were informed was immensely powerful, would protect them from the incursions and ravages of the Huns. They afterwards joined the Arian party, to which also the Vandals, Suevi, and Goths, were addicted."

Their

In this century Clovis or Lewis, king of the Franks, "when in a desperate situation in battle with the Allemanni implored the aid of Christ, and vowed to worship him as God, if he gained the victory. He did conquer, and stood to his promises, and was baptized at Rheims; some thousands of Franks followed his example." But in his case, we read of something better than existed in the case of the Germans. He had "a wife, Clotildis, a Christian, and she had long recommended Christ to him in vain." She was the Missionary, and planted the seed in his mind which at last germinated.

In this century also, we read of Succathus, a Scotchman, whose name was changed to Patricius (Patrick) who converted many of the Irish to Christianity. He was "the Apostle of Ireland," that is, its missionary.

Mosheim very properly comments upon the mixture of motives which operated with many in this century, to abandon their false gods and profess Christianity. There is not a word however, about colonization as the means of any of them being, either "soundly" or "unsoundly" converted.

In the sixth century we are told that "Gregory the Great, sent forty Benedictine Monks into Britain, with Augustine at their head, to complete the work which Bertha, wife of Ethelbert, King of Kent, had begun to accomplish, partly by her own influence and partly by that of the ministers of religion whom she had brought with her from Paris." By this double missionary effort, the King and the people of Kent were converted.

The seventh century witnessed various missionary labours among the Gauls, the Franks, and other nations of the West, and also the splendid success of the Nestorians of the East, who, "with incredible industry and perseverance, laboured to propagate the Gospel from Syria and India, among the barbarous and savage nations inhabiting the deserts and the remotest shores of Asia. And that their zeal was not inefficient, appears from numerous proofs still existing. In particular, the vast empire of China was, by their zeal and industry, enlightened with the light of Christianity."

In the eighth century we still read of Christianity being disseminated in the remote East by the Nestorians. In Europe, Boniface was famous as a missionary, and was called "The Apostle of Germany." So was Corbinian, and so too, was Pirmin, a French Monk, and so was Lebwin, an English one. They were, doubtless, not missionaries of an uncorrupted Christianity, yet they were spreading their doctrines by individual persuasions and arguments and influence. Charlemagne in this century, sought to convert the Saxons by force of arms, joined to rewards, and at length succeeded.

We should wear out the patience of our readers were we to pursue this investigation all down through the dark ages. The result however, would be still the same; constant endeavours amidst all the superstition of the times to propagate opinions, and always by the missionary in distinction from the colonist! Even where the power of Kings and armies is employed, still it is in connection with teachers individually engaged in propagating opinions, and never by colonies sent out for that purpose. Coming down to the sixteenth century, when the Reformation took place, we read, that "the Roman Pontiffs, after losing a great part of Europe, were roused to new zeal to propagate Christianity in other parts of the world. For no better method occurred to them, both for repairing the loss they had sustained in Europe, and for vindicating their claims to the title of common fathers of the Christian Church. Therefore, soon after the institution of the celebrated society of Jesuits, in the year 1540, they were especially charged

constantly to train up suitable men, to be commissioned, and sent by the Pontiffs into the remotest regions as preachers of the religion of Christ. With what fidelity and zeal the order obeyed their injunction, may be learned from the long list of histories which describe the labours and perils encountered by vast numbers of the fraternity, while propagating Christianity among the pagan nations." Mosheim's Ecclesiastical History, iii, 84.

In the seventeenth century, (1622,) was established at Rome, the famous "Congregatio de propaganda fide." Then in 1627, also at Rome, "the College or Seminary for propagating the faith," and in 1663 in France, the Congregation of Priests for Foreign Missions," and likewise the "Parisian Seminary for Missions to Foreign Nations." From these colleges and societies (says Mosheim) issued those swarms of missionaries who travelled over the whole world, so far as it is yet discovered, and from amongst the most ferocious nations gathered congregations that were, if not in reality, yet in name and in some of their usages, Christians."

Efforts were made (we are told by the same historian) to rouse the Lutherans in imitation of the Roman Catholics to missionary enterprizes. But the situation of the Lutheran princes and various other causes, combined to make these efforts vain. "But the Reformed, (he remarks) and especially the English and Dutch, whose mercantile adventures carried them to the remotest parts of the world, and who planted extensive colonies during this century in Asia, Africa, and America, enjoyed the best advantages for extending the limits of the Christian Church. Nor did these nations wholly neglect this duty, although they are taxed with grasping at the wealth of the Indians, but neglecting their souls, and perhaps they did not perform so much as they might have done." Vol. iii, p. 294.

Here, then, for the first time, we come upon colonies in connection with the religious condition and prospects of heathen people; and certainly no great advantage appears to have arisen from them to the cause of the propagation of faith or opinions. We do not forget the missionary labours of that "Apostle to the Indians," John Eliot, nor of his noble compeers, the Mayhews; but we deny that their influence was that of colonists as distinguished from missionaries. We deny that their success in converting the Indians is any more to be attributed to the colonies of English around them, than the withering, blighting influence of those colonies of white men upon the Indians, is to be attributed to these missionaries. With as much justice the influence of the Christian missionaries in the Sandwich Islands may be attributed to the European and American settlers there, who are to a great extent, enemies of the missionaries and of Christianity!

It would, therefore, be altogether a new feature in the conduct of Christian missions to send out colonies with a view to converting