heathen people. And not only would this be a new feature in the conduct of Christian Missions, but its being applied to Africa is a singular feature in this new missionary theory of the colonizationists. Only in reference to that continent, do they advocate colonization as an improvement upon preaching and teaching the gospel of Christ. We may depend on missionaries to do the work in all other countries, but in Africa it has to be done by colonies!

This new theory of Foreign Missions, is contrary to all modern as well as ancient missionary experience. We assert, and we do it with full knowledge of what we say, that missionaries in heathen countries now, do not find the presence of Englishmen, or of Americans generally, any advantage to them in their work. Indeed, they consider it a hindrance, except in those few cases in which these parties are men of decided and consistent piety. And the reason is obvious. The inconsistent conduct, the dishonesty, or the sabbath-breaking of one such American, whether seaman or merchant, or consul, speaks to the natives more powerfully against Christianity than many sermons of the missionary can speak in its favour. Missionaries would generally, much prefer to be alone among the heathen than to have irreligious compatriots near them. The want of their protection and their society, they consider a small evil, compared with the hindrance of their presence and example. And how much more certainly, must the influence and example of irreligious colonists always counterwork and oppose all the good instructions of good men in the colony.

There can be no doubt whatever, to any one who has had any experience in such affairs, or who will carefully consider the subject, that a colony of settlers from another country speaking another language, and belonging to another nation, and professing another religion, (even though their complexion may be the same with that of the natives) must, in a thousand ways, come into collision and conflict with them; and that the consequence must be mutual jealousy and hatred and strife, so, that in the end, one or the other must succumb. All these difficulties attend the effort to propagate Christianity by colonists in distinction from missionaries. The colonist is very apt to be their enemy, but the missionary is the friend of the heathen. He lives for them. He dies for them. has renounced home and friends for them. He is devoted to their good and is their servant for Christ's sake. And they know that these things are so.

He

In confirmation of these remarks upon the inevitable mutual jealousy and hatred of natives and colonists, we quote Mr. Wilson's kind and cautious hints to the Colonization Society:

"There are some things connected with the management of these settlements, as well as the manner in which trade is conducted, that are very prejudicial to the improvement of the natives, and they ought to be corrected." Page 442.

"Another object which ought to be kept constantly before the minds of those who feel an interest in the general welfare of the country is, that the moral and religious improvement of the natives should be cared for as well as that of the Liberians. If one class is educated and improved to the neglect of the other, then the neglected one must be doomed to the task of drawing water and hewing wood all the days of their life; and their fate must be that of all other barbarous tribes who have been brought in contact with civilized men without the intervention of the gospel." Page 410.

"In consequence, however, of frequent collisions between the colonists and the natives, which kept the minds of the latter in an unfit state to receive religious impressions; and in consequence of the jealousy with which the colonists looked upon the efforts of the missionaries to raise the natives in the scale of civilization and intelligence; and in consequence of legislation which had the tendency to embarrass the labours of the missionaries, the mission was transferred to the Gabun in 1842, where it has been carried on efficiently ever since." Page 501.

We quote also, to the same effect, some remarks from the pen, we suppose, of a coloured man in Liberia, copied from the Liberia Herald of June 18, 1856:

"I am very sorry for this spirit, too prevalent among Americo-Liberians, who are, by the way, overrun with missionaries, while thousands and tens of thousands of natives are perishing for lack of knowledge. It is time, high time, for Churches and Boards to say, 'So I turn to the Gentiles.' In my humble opinion, gospel fat, gospel foundered, gospel sick, gospel free, and gospel hardened; the gospel thrown away in the street until loathed as it were; how can any other feeling toward missionaries prevail among those who look only at the bread they eat, and envy what they do not give!"

"Should God turn these blessings into a curse, while three and four missionaries are stationed among some two or three hundred AmericoLiberians, and three and four denominations at work ia one small hamlet, we should not repine. The missionaries are not to be blamed; they are sent. In the mean time, whole tribes of ten and twenty thousand native Liberians, (all destined, I hope, to be one nation and one people,) hear not the preacher's cry, Come over and help us.' No book-man sits before their children, and when schools are sent them, the same ignorant gabbers say, 'better send them powder, and shot, and fire, and death; wasting money,' eating up means,' making them more able to cheat and rob,' bigger rascals, and villains.' And just as it goes; what teachers ever taught boys wickedness? Alas! for men, I believe the duties of the church to be marked out by God. I do not expect to see the good only of civilization and education. There is evil in Christian nations, evil and good seem to go together, tares and the wheat are in the same field, and the bad apparently looks the prevailing thing; evil ever had the majority, and when will the world be better?"

"A TRAVELLER."

This "Traveller," of whatever complexion he may be, is evidently a man of sense. There is great good sense in his last remark that, there is always evil in Christian nations mixed with the good and predominating over it, and that we must not expect to see only

what is good in civilization or education. If we send only civilization (and that but half civilized itself,) to Africa we must not expect that we shall see "only good," or even chiefly good, come out of it. The heathen of Africa to be made better, need a mightier influence than civilization; the influence of Divine illumination and grace.

Some of the orators of the Society represent every colonist at Liberia as a missionary! So far is this from being true, if the judgment and experience of wise and good men may be taken, (men who have for years, directed the affairs of Foreign Missions from these United States to all the heathen world) that we have heard them say they never knew a single coloured man in this country, whom they would be willing to commission as a missionary to the heathen! Coloured men to be preachers to the colonists they had sent out; but to go alone amongst the heathen, as missionaries, they had never known any that were fit. And yet persons who have had no experience in the conduct of Foreign Missions imagine that every colonist that is sent forth to Liberia is a missionary of Christianity! These simple hearted persons know very little of the nature and circumstances of heathen society, or they would be less sanguine of the results of indiscriminately thrusting forth poor, unprepared, free negroes upon it. There is not a Missionary Society in this country, that has had even twenty years experience, but has been led to feel more and more impressed with the necessity of more carefully selecting even the ministers of the gospel whom it sends forth. And the reason is, because some ministers, even educated men and men approved at home, have been found unable to pass unhurt through the ordeal that awaited them amongst the heathen. Yet here is a Society that will receive from any planter in South Carolina, one hundred negroes for their colonies to-morrow, if he will pay (or if the Society can beg the money to pay) their passage and six months provisions; and these one hundred negroes, good, bad, and indifferent, are to be considered so many missionaries of the gospel of Christ! Well may Mr. Wilson say:

"The idea of gathering up coloured people indiscriminately, in this country, and setting them down upon the shores of Africa, with the design or expectation that they will take the lead in diffusing a pure Christianity among the natives, deserves to be utterly rejected by every friend of Africa. A proposition to transport white men in the same indiscriminate manner to some other heathen country, with the view of evangelizing the natives of that country, would be regarded, to say the least, as highly extravagant." Page 507.

Upon what principle of sober sense can such rash proceedings be approved? Who can doubt that every company of blacks sent out thus, from a Southern plantation, or from a Northern city or community, carries out at least, twenty fold more of the world, and

the flesh, and the devil, than of Christian character, or of the experience of God's grace in the heart? And are the world, and the flesh, and the devil, in the hearts of poor, ignorant, depraved men, so very different in Africa, from what they are in America, that the sending forth of a cargo of such influences is to be considered a Christian missionary operation?

The Lord Jesus Christ himself, was the author of Christian missions. He ordained a very simple means for the conversion of the world. It was just preaching and teaching. "Go teach all nations," said he. And the Apostle Paul, himself a most distinguished and successful missionary, tells us that the means appointed by the Lord Jesus Christ to this end, is just "the foolishness of preaching." "We preach, (said he,) Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness, but to them who are called both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God." This is a very simple means. But it is employed by an almighty agent, the Divine Spirit, who accompanies the faithful use of it, all the world over, with his omnipotent grace. It is this omnipotent influence of the Spirit of God, which alone can do anything for the heathen. And He will be honoured by us in the employment of what He devises and reveals, or else His blessing shall be withheld. If we substitute a new and a different means from that which the Head of the church has promised to bless, we must not expect his blessing. The Colonization Society may move heaven and earth, may enlist the general government, and all the people of this country, in the scheme of sending the free blacks to Africa, and they may urge on the movement by pleading that it alone can and will christianize Africa. But let it not be expected that all this effort and noise can change the ordinance of Jesus Christ. It pleases God, by the foolishness of preaching, to save them that believe, and by nothing else; especially by nothing that man devises, and in which the wisdom and the contrivance of man are seen conspicuous.

We do not undertake to say, that the missionaries by whom Africa is to be converted to God, must be white men, any more than we can allow others to say they must necessarily be black men. God will raise up whom he will for that work. But what we do say is, that according to the Bible and all church history, God will convert Africa in no other way than he has converted, or will convert any other country, viz: by the foolishness of preaching, and by the doctrine of the cross, and by the use of men called by him to preach this preaching, and to teach this doctrine.

In conclusion, we must be permitted to say to the Colonization Society, that they should learn a lesson from the "steamships effort," to beware of rash measures, and of rash men. The colony might well say of the Society, "Save me from my friends," and the Society might well say the same of the Naval Committee of

the House of Representatives, that agreed to urge for them that gigantic measure. Legislative benevolence is always the most fumbling and bungling benevolence in the world. The greatest enemies of the Society and its colonies, need not have desired them any greater misfortune, than the adoption of that mad report would have been. The Society have put their hand to a work whose very magnitude and difficulties should make them sober. Let them beware of rash councils, and hasty plans. Let them eschew the great swelling words to which the writers of their reports, and the orators of their annual meetings have been so much addicted. We know not, nor do they, whether the Providence that brought the negroes here, intends to take them, even those now free, back to Africa or not. If He designs it to be done, His hand will do it, for no mortal's can. If He designs to bless the African race with Christianity, He will do that also, for it is beyond the power of man. And of one thing we may be sure, that the methods by which He will accomplish this latter object, never will be found to be the employment of darkness to enlighten darkness, or corruption. to purify corruption. And though He may make use of some of Africa's own children, to raise their mother up from degradation, they will, doubtless, be men who have personally experienced another transformation, than any which a mere removal from America to Africa can work in the Colonists of Liberia.

ART. III. THE MARTYRS OF SCOTLAND AND SIR WALTER SCOTT.

THE martyr age of Scotland begins with the restoration of Charles II. to the thrones of England and of Scotland, in the year 1660. This king was a free-thinker in regard to the authority of the Sacred Scriptures, a Sadducee in regard to a hereafter, and a mixture of the epicurean and the satyr, in relation to the moralities of the present life. He became reconciled to the church of Rome before his death. He was never its very bitter enemy in his life. The epigrammatic point of his reason for the faith that was in him, as to his choice among Protestant churches, has made the saying famous. He was an Episcopalian, he said, because that was more gentleman-like persuasion" of them. Men since have smiled, and thought that gentility must, indeed, have been prominent, and morality far in the rear, to suit Charles II!!

the

The atheist Hume gives a pleasing resumé of the character of Charles II., part absolutely laudatory, part apologetic, and all