GOD"onely" for his religious opinions. If he could, he must not induce the state to make up his lack of persuasion and spiritual industry by penal statutes.

5. He should possess an aptness to teach, and affectionate zeal to do good to men in every way, but especially by proclaiming to them the blessed Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by teaching them all that our Saviour commanded. A fierce zeal, a melancholy austerity, and a restless, fretting, irritability of feeling,* and an eccentric, odd temper—although these may possibly be connected with true piety, are still all so many blemishes in a Missionary. A well-meaning, obstinate wrong-headedness, may appear to a sincere young man decision of character and Christian courage; but under such a persuasion he may rather "hinder" than " further" the Gospel among the Heathen.

6. He should be a man of prayer, and hold daily and hourly communion with God-a holy man. He should enter on his work as the servant of Him who has all power in heaven and on earth; and with the same feeling and intention, he must go onward in it. He must look above and beyond the Churches, up to God and to his Saviour. If man forsakes him, he must not forsake the work. If he be neglected by Missionary Societies, or their Secretaries, and his office be merely praised and pitied, rather than really esteemed, he must not abandon it in disgust. He must lead, and not follow in this great enterprise.

The two most lauded Protestant Missionaries, Brainerd and Martyn, justly esteemed for their general excellencies, were not, however, the one in his suicidal austerities, and the other in his sensitive irritability, to be imitated.

"The moral weight of the clergy, [and of every minister of religion at home or abroad,] arises above all, under the divine blessing, from the holiness of their lives. It was in part the personal holiness of our Lord, as contrasted with the hypocrisy of the Scribes, which enabled him to speak as one having authority. And had the enemies of St. Paul found aught to object against the purity of his life, he would not have been brought before four successive tribunals, to defend himself merely from the frivolous charge of being a ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes." (SUMNER.)

In the Quarterly Theological Review, (Dec. 1825,) which is con

7. With his mind thus fortified by an immediate reference to, and constant dependence on heaven, he will

ducted in a mild but partial spirit of criticism, there are some remarks on a book of the late learned Missionary Printer, Mr. Ward, entitled, "Reflections," &c. The reviewer has expressed the sentiment, which, in Discourse XV. page 195, we suspected was generally prevalent, viz. "That the Missionary work is still, by the churches, deemed, in comparison of the Ministry at home, a low service."

The Reviewer sneers at Mr. Ward for asserting that our Saviour appeared in Judea as an "humble itinerant," and as "the Missionary from heaven."

This sneer is countenanced by applying to the case Dr. Johnson's remark, in his life of Milton, that every man's particular profession, acquires in his own mind an undue degree of importance. This is, no doubt, true; but it applies equally to Authors, Reviewers, Parish Priests, and Bishops, as well as to Missionaries. There may be a bias in the Reviewer, as great as in the Missionary. What then are the facts? Can it be denied by any Christian, that the blessed Jesus appeared in Judea in the form of a "servant going about" doing good, or as an "humble itinerant teacher,"* unsanctioned and disallowed by the priesthood of the land.

Bishop Heber, the Reviewer remarks, took his leave of the Christian Knowledge Society with a "graceful modesty," describing himself as "their Missionary to Calcutta." By this it is supposed the Bishop did not mean to magnify his office, but the opposite. Now, for Bishop Heber we have the highest possible respect, and sincerely believe him to be a Bishop of an Apostolic spirit; but if Bp. Heber thought, as the Reviewer seems to do, that being a Bishop over a few thousands of European Christians in India, was a higher office than being a "Messenger of Christian Churches" to millions of Pagans, we differ both from the Bishop and the Reviewer: and this opinion we form, not from a desire to magnify our office, but to do justice to an office still in very low estimation, not only among the “Great Clerks” of National Churches, but also among the Pastors, or preaching Bishops, of Congregational Churches both in England and Scotland. To be plain, we consider the venerable Missionary Carey to have filled, during his residence in India, as high a station under the Government of Providence, as the Lord Bishop of Calcutta, whose office, and the importance of whose duties, we have no wish to depreciate.

It is true our blessed Saviour appeared in Judea as the Messiah, but still the question returns, Did Messiah appear as a dignitary of the Jewish church, or as an "humble itinerant teacher?"

persevere.* No man who puts his hand to this plough does well to look back and desert it, without some apparent and just cause. But when such cause does occur, a Missionary may return with honour to his native land. That he should bind himself to perpetual exile, and to expatriate his children, is a superstitious requirement of man's imposing.

8. He should "endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ." To complain of difficulties inseparably connected with the work, is unworthy of him. And he should have the determination of a good soldier, rather to die in conflict, than desert or compromise his cause. But this soldier-like feeling and resolution, to fight till death, striving to dispossess spiritual enemies, does not make him insensible of the neglect of his fellow Christians; nor are

* "If success be demanded, it is replied, that is not the inquiry of Him" of whom are all things," either in this world or in that which is to come. With Him the question is this, What has been aimed at, what has been intended in singleness of heart?" (Martyn's Memoirs.)

"Success may be viewed two ways; as to the actual preparation of means for the extensive diffusion of knowledge, and as to the actual turning of many to righteousness. The former kind of success has in some measure attended the Ultra-Gangetic Missions; for the latter we greatly long, and earnestly pray." (MILNE.)

"The conservation of duty to the public (and to his Saviour) ought to be more precious than the conservation of life and being; according to that memorable speech of Pompeius Magnus, when being in commission of purveyance for a famine at Rome, and being dissuaded with great vehemency and instance by his friends about him, that he should not hazard himself to sea in an extremity of weather, he said only to them, • Necesse est ut eam, non ut vivam;' It is necessary that I should go, not that I should live." (BACON.)

"THE PEOPLE of the Universal Church comprise all nations—whose conversion it is the duty of all men to promote to the utmost of their power."

"With regard to the remuneration to be allotted to the Ministers of the Universal Church, as well as to those of particular religious communities, it must be allowed that a certain recompence is both reasonable itself, and sanctioned by the law of God, and the declarations of Christ and his Apostle, The workman is worthy of his meat. Who goeth a warfare at any time at his own charges? Let him that is taught in the word, communicate unto him that teacheth in all good things-let the elders that

the Churches, who constitute the Commissariat Department at home, justified in gratuitously adding, by their

rule well, &c. Hence it is lawful and equitable, and the ordinance of God himself, that they which preach the Gospel, should live of the Gospel. It is, however, more desirable for examples' sake, and for the preventing of offence or suspicion, as well as more noble and honourable in itself, and conducive to our more complete glorifying God, to render an unpaid service to the church; in this, as well as in all other instances, and, after the example of our Lord, to minister and serve gratuitously. Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister. Freely ye have received, freely give. Remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said, It is more blessed to give than to receive. Paul proposed the same to the imitation of ministers in general, and recommended it by his example. Ye yourselves know, that these hands have ministered unto my necessities, and to them that were with me: I have showed you in all things, how that so labouring, ye ought to support the weak. Yourselves know how ye ought to follow us; for we behaved not ourselves disorderly among you; neither did we eat any man's bread for nought; but wrought with labour and travail night and day, that we might not be chargeable to any of you: not because we have not power, but to make ourselves an example unto you to follow us. I have used none of these things; neither have I written these things that it should be so done unto me; for it were better for me to die, than that any man should make my glorying void: what is my reward then? verily, that when I preach the Gospel, I may make the Gospel of Christ without charge, that I abuse not my power in the Gospel. When I was present with you, and wanted, I was chargeable to no mun. all things I have kept myself from being burthensome unto you, and so will I keep myself. No man shall stop me of this boasting. What I do, that I will do, that I may cut off occasion, from them that desire occasion, that wherein they glory, they may be found even as we are. Behold the third time I am ready to come unto you, and I will not be burthensome to you; for 1 seek not yours, but you; for the children ought not to lay up for the parents, but the parents for the children. Did I make gain of you by any of them whom I sent unto you? Did Titus make a gain of you? Walked we not in the same spirit? We do all things, dearly beloved, for your edifying. And if at any time extreme necessity compelled him to acoept the voluntary aid of the churches, such constraint was so grievous to him, that he accuses himself as if he were guilty of robbery. I robbed other churches, taking wages of them, to do you service."

In

"Pecuniary considerations ought by no means to enter into our motives for preaching the Gospel. Thy money perish with thee, because thou hast thought that the gift of God may be purchased with money." If it be a crime to purchase the Gospel, what, must it be to sell it? How then, ask the Ministers, are we to live? How ought they to live, but as the

parsimony or neglect, to the sufferings of the soldier in the field. Still, if they do carelessly add to his sufferings, the good Missionary will, nevertheless, remain at his post, as long as ever the banner of the cross continues to be unfurled.*

9. A Missionary should be a man of good temper,† tender feeling, and active benevolence, bearing much and long with enemies and young converts; in meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; not a stern,

Prophets lived of old? On their own private resources, by the exercise of some calling, by honest industry, after the example of the Prophets, who accounted it no disgrace to hew their own wood, and build their own houses;-of (our blessed Saviour Jesus) Christ, who (some suppose) wrought with his own hands as a carpenter." (MILTON.)

Of the lawfulness of Christian Missionaries and Ministers following some secular profession for a livelihood, whilst they teach the great truths of Christianity to others, whether in Christianized or Pagan countries, I have no doubt; but the general practicability of it in modern times, is not so apparent. In this, as in other cases, the work will be best done by a division of labour. (MORRISON.)

"If, however, such self-denial be thought too arduous for the Ministers of the present day, they will most nearly approach to it, when, relying on the providence of God who called them, they shall look for the necessary support of life, not from the edicts of the civil power, (nor from the fixed stipends or salaries of Missionary Societies,) but from the spontaneous good-will and liberality of the Church, in requital of their voluntary service." (MILTON.)

"Bishop Mant justifies the union of the magisterial character and that of an instructor of youth, as secular occupations' consistent with the functions of a clergyman." (Christian Remembrancer, Feb. 1826.)

The Minister of religion" desecrates his high calling, when he considers it in the light of a commercial transaction, in which a bargain is struck for a certain return of services, upon the payment of a certain price." (SUMNER.)

* We should almost doubt the propriety of this martial imagery, were it not sanctioned by Apostolic example, lest we should be supposed the advocates of war. For the Missionary should be the Herald of peace, not only between a guilty conscience and high heaven, but also of peace on earth among men. (MORRISON.)

+ Some young English Missionaries are far inferior to Asiatic Pagans, in command of temper, in a knowledge of human nature, and of the rights of others to respectful treatment, however erroneous their creed may be. (MORRISON.)