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Oriental service. Elementary study of Arabic may very properly occupy some months in Europe; but it is by practice in the East, that the operative Missionary must store his mind with the requisite copia verborum, and adapt his vocal organs to the fearful utterance of this language. Nor, after many years practice in Arabic, is a European to be trusted as a Translator: idiom, except by something approaching to miracle, he will never catch: that must be left for native minds: it will be sufficient for the Missionary to be able to write intelligibly: his style, however excellent, will never reach that degree of critical propriety, which in written documents may fairly be required.

6. The last remark, suggested to the mind by the review of former Missions, is one of exceedingly great importance; and carries with itself so much weight, as to need but few words to express it: How

STUDIOUSLY SHOULD MISSIONARIES AIM AT IMPRESSING ON THE MINDS OF ALL AROUND THEM, THAT THEY COME, NOT TO MAKE A PARTY, BUT SOLELY TO PROMOTE THE GOOD OF THOSE, AMONG WHOM THEY EXERCISE THEIR OFFICE!

If Mahomedans, or Jews, or the Christians of various Denominations in the East, perceive a man labouring among them, under (I will not say the bias of evil passions or selfish interests, but under) the bias of a strong predilection for his own Nation, his own Government, or his own Communion; they will so far regard him as a man seeking to make converts to his own favourite opinions or habits. Giving ground for a suspicion like this, he will greatly diminish his usefulness.

An Englishman needs only to reflect on the temper of many of his own countrymen, in order to understand how fatally preconceived partialities operate, to keep men from commencing or maintaining a mutual good-understanding. With what difficulty is a man of one party persuaded, that his welfare is sincerely wished by a person of another; or, as our common parlance is, by a person of an OPPOSITE party! How soon does a slight degree of acquaintance satisfy such persons! Intimacy and cordiality seem to them neither attainable, nor to be desired.

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And such will be the coldness subsisting between a Missionary and those to whom he is sent, unless he aim at attaching their feelings to something higher than his Mission to Christianity itself! His very coming implies that he thinks them some way in the wrong: his conversations declare this sentiment more plainly: their feelings are, consequently, his natural enemies; only to be overcome, to use the emphatic words of Scripture, with good: (Rom. xii. 21.) But it must be good of the purest and most unmixed nature. However excellent may be the institutions of his own Nation, the character of his Countrymen, or the professed faith of his own Communion, these do not furnish that plenitude of good, which ought to fill his whole soul, and overflow from his heart to theirs. It must be the preaching of the Bible, not of his own Creed; the genuine benignity of the Christian Religion, not the integrity alone of his National Character: rather, it must be the very mind which was in Christ dwelling within him, which will alone persuade the natives of

the East that the visitor from the West has traversed land and sea altogether and exclusively for their benefit.

Past Missions, especially those which have been alluded to in this Chapter, assist us very little-too often, indeed, they hinder us-in our endeavours to acquire just ideas of what a Christian Mission should be. Churches, in form far purer than that of Rome, have yet, in spirit, long lived-and many of their members still live-in vain-glory, worldly-mindedness, and selfishness. In various degrees it may be said, All seek their own; not the things that are Jesus Christ's. We must rise to the contemplation of primitive times: we must reflect what that was, which could induce such a man as St. Paul to suffer the loss of all things: our minds must travel with the other Apostles, and form a lively image of their labours among Jews and Greeks, among Barbarians and Scythians, among every class and condition of our suffering and sinful fellow-creatures. How did THEY persuade their hearers, that they sought their happiness? not by extolling one another, or by celebrating Jerusalem as the Mother-Church, or by demanding in an assuming manner the faith or respect of the various cities which they visited: but by preaching Christ crucified; by being like their Master; and by holding up the same common standard, for themselves and for all with whom they had to do-Be ye followers of us, even as we also are of Christ. Such simplicity and lowliness of mind, such disinterestedness, fidelity, and affection, the Churches of Christ, now almost for the first time entering upon extensive Missions, greatly need; and,

whenever these graces shall be poured in a large measure on their Members and their Missionaries, then may they expect to see the multitude of the Gentiles flowing toward them, and collecting, together with them, under the standard of the Redeemer!

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CRITICAL AND DEVOUT STUDY

OF THE

HOLY SCRIPTURES.

To understand fully the sense of the Holy Scriptures, requires diligent study, and a considerable degree of mental cultivation. To obtain an experimental feeling of their spiritual application, requires the submitting of the heart, in prayer, to the teaching of that Divine Spirit, by whose inspiration all Scripture was given; without whose influence, the most knowing and accomplished Scholar must remain in ignorance: for the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God. (1 Cor. ii. 14.)

Neither of these two qualifications—the critical understanding and the spiritual feeling of the Scriptures should be wanting in a Minister or in a Missionary. Without a spiritual sense of Divine Truth, so far from being qualified to teach, he has, as yet, the most important of all things to learn: without critical knowledge, although he may in most essential things speak feelingly, he is still very scantily qualified to be a safe teacher.

There are several points of view, in which the magnitude of this subject has deeply impressed the Author's mind: he will endeavour to lay them before the reader.

In reference to that qualification of a Missionary, so clearly expressed by St. Paul, apt to teach, it is hardly possible, that, in its full extent, it should be possessed, either by an illiterate or by an irreverent person. To declare all the counsel of God-what