all tending to the establishment of the same important truths, in which the civilized and Christian world have a deep and abiding interest, and a knowledge of which ought to be diffused, to the end that Christian governments may acquire enlightened views of their duties and their obligations, and that Christian missions may be justly appreciated and sustained.

If the world is to be evangelized by human instrumentality, and if the church of Jesus Christ is the divinely appointed repository of that instrumentality, how tremendous is the responsibility devolving upon all to whom the Bible and the gospel have been committed for this end. Not only is every individual Christian under the highest obligations to pray and labor for the conversion of the world, but it is our duty to avail ourselves of all the lights which history, experience, and observation are furnishing, as to the appropriate means and measures by which we may hasten "the day of the Lord."

In the light of the facts presented in the volume before us, let us learn the consummate folly of the "wisdom of man," and with becoming docility submit ourselves to the words which "the Holy Ghost teacheth." Human reason, vain philosophy, and the wisdom of this world, have exhausted their resources in devising plans and schemes for the overthrow of ignorance and vice, of superstition and cruelty, and for the elevation and improvement of the millions of our race whose degradation and misery, amid the abominations of heathenism, appeal for compassion to earth and heaven. And yet generation after generation increase and multiply, not only in numerical strength, but in their habitations of cruelty, until the "abomination of desolation" is seen to overspread the fairest portions of our earth, and a vast, overwhelming majority of the family of man.

Meanwhile, attempts have been made without number to civilize savage man on the borders of mighty continents, by planting towns and settlements, and introducing upon these barbarous shores agriculture and the mechanic arts, and opening trade with the natives, in the expectation of bringing them to value and imitate the arts of civilized life. But the history of the world has written the epitaph of these futile efforts in the universal testimony of their failure which truth has constrained. For however ingeniously devised and skilfully executed; however benevolently prompted, and libe

rally sustained by governments or individuals; under however favorable auspices they have been commenced, and whatever hopes their incipient history may have inspired; yet the experience of centuries has shown, that with the introduction of civilized foreigners into aboriginal countries the vices of civilization have been simultaneously introduced, and the unsophisticated natives have been made the victims of fraud and violence, of diseases and vices, of plunder and imposture, until their physical and moral condition has become worse and worse by their contact with a foreign population. Hence wars of mutual extermination have been prosecuted, until either the one or the other of these different races of men has perished, and the history of such enterprises has terminated in blood. Such have been the results, wherever and whenever attempts have been made to civilize savage men, by the mere introduction among them of a foreign population for purposes of agriculture or commerce.

And even when Christian men have entered upon the work of introducing civilization and the arts among a savage people, hoping thereby to pave the way for the gospel, and contemplating the future inculcation of Christianity as the grand and ulterior design of their labors, they have met with as uniform and signal failure; and so frequently has this been exemplified, that a wide-spread prevalence has been given to the opinion, that millions on millions of our race are wholly irrecoverable and irreclaimable from the habits and cruelties of savage life. Hence multitudes of benevolent and Christian philanthropists have lived and died in the opinion that the myriads of the heathen race are beyond the reach of civilization, which they ascribed to the want of capacity, the deficiency of intellect, the utter insusceptibility of improvement, which they supposed to characterize them as an inferior race of beings, destined to everlasting degradation, both intellectual and moral. And all these unworthy inferences have been drawn from the failure of these misdirected efforts, all prompted by the "wisdom of this world, which is foolishness with God."

How slow are men to learn that for every variety of human guilt and human misery, for every form of physical, intellectual, and moral evil, with which the world is filled by reason of sin, the Father of all flesh, the God of all grace, has provided a sovereign. antidote, an all-sufficient remedy! This remedy is one and indivi

sible, admitting of no substitute, and needing no auxiliary, and it is found in "the glorious gospel of the blessed God," which is adapted to every human being on the face of the whole earth, whether elevated to the highest pinnacle of human knowledge and virtue, or fallen into the lowest pit of ignorance, degradation, and vice. When the God of love sent the Son of his love on a mission of love to our perishing world, he designed to provide a scheme for human recovery coextensive with human wo, and adapted to reach fallen man in every modification and circumstance of his being, and adequate to every conceivable emergency of that being. What infinite love has prompted, and infinite wisdom has devised, infinite power has executed; and now, "where sin hath abounded, grace doth much more abound." Hence the gospel of the grace of God, the divine institution of Christianity, is the first grand and only efficient instrumentality in the recovery of the family of man from the horrible pit into which the human race have been plunged by sin. That gospel is designed for "all nations," including all the tribes of heathenism; it is destined to be "preached to every creature,' embracing the inhabitants of every uncivilized country, of every barbarous clime, of every savage island, where human foot hath trod. It is divinely adapted to every man, in every place, at every time, and needs no previous preparation for its reception, no preliminary qualification on the part of any human intelligence to hear, to understand, and to obey it. It comes warning every man, and teaching every man, that "by the grace of God Jesus Christ tasted death for every man." Such is the gospel, the glorious gospel of the grace of God, which is declared to be "worthy of all acceptation," that is, adapted, prepared, suitable, fitted, worthy of the acceptation of all men. It is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth, to the Jew first, but also to the Greek.

And now, what is the conclusion of the whole matter? Does not the gospel accomplish all it promises? Among every nation, kindred, tongue, and people, where the simple gospel message has been taken, is there one example of its failure? Is any nation so degraded, any people so corrupt, any heathen so untractable, as to defeat the "power of God" which resides in the gospel? Is any false religion so strong, any superstition so rooted, any abomination of paganism so indomitable, that the gospel cannot overthrow it?

Let the testimony of this volume answer. Let the history of modern Christian missions utter the response. We abide the issue.

And does the gospel need to be preceded by the arts of civilized life, as the wisdom of man vainly teacheth? Nay, verily, the law of the Lord is perfect; the gospel of God our Saviour admits of no human emendation, and needs no human device, either to precede or succeed it. The reception of the gospel prepares the soul and the body of man to be happy and useful even in this present life; it is a remedy for sin, in whatever form it exists, whether in heathen or in Christian lands. The only preparation the gospel needs, the gospel makes; the only auxiliaries the gospel allows, the gospel includes; and as the social and moral improvement which is the essence of civilization is the fruit of the gospel wherever it exists, so the gospel alone is adequate to produce it, where it is not. Hence the evidence, indubitable and convincing, which is now before the world, that Christianity alone is the necessary agent in civilizing the uncivilized, including, as it does, in itself, "whatso- . ever things are lovely and of good report." To speed the missionary work, to extend the gospel, to propagate Christianity to the ends of the earth, is all that is necessary or desirable to bring glory to God and to advance the happiness of man. For godliness is profitable unto all things, having the PROMISE OF THE LIFE THAT NOW IS, and of that which is to come.

ART. IV.-Tracts for the Times; by Members of the University of Oxford :-8vo., 3 vols. Reprinted and stereotyped: NewYork, 1839-1840.

THERE are few things which the Christian world more generally agree in than to wonder how the Jews could adopt and retain with such invincible tenacity the doctrine that the Messiah would be a temporal prince, who should exalt them under the Mosaical dispensation to a state of the greatest visible power and magnificence; and yet there are few things in which we more resemble the Jews than in this very particular. We do not, indeed, expect to see our Messiah reigning personally over mankind, but we substitute for the monarchical theory of the Jews our doctrines of the visible church of Christ; which, under various exhibitions, we

magnify to such an extent of authority and power, that, in reality, the difference between Jew and Christian for the most part is small. The popes of Rome claim to be viceroys for Christ, and exercise that power as temporal and spiritual princes over a very large portion of Christendom. The Church of England exhibits their theory under an aristocracy of bishops; and similar features are continually furnished us in the ecclesiastical systems of various Protestant denominations under more democratic constitutions; but which, like the mustard seed of one of our Saviour's parables, only require opportunity to attain to a portentous magnitude. In former times these peculiarities were much more prominent than at present, for there has been a great moral improvement going on during the last hundred years, which has greatly softened down ecclesiastical presumption; and has, at least with the great body of Protestants, induced a more distinct perception of the truth of our Redeemer's declaration, that his kingdom is not of this world; that it is within us; that it is a spiritual kingdom; that it belongs alone to the understanding and conscience, and that it is perfectly consistent with various forms of ecclesiastical polity. The direct influence of this conviction has, in the United States, established it as an undoubted truth, that no one sect of Christians can be regarded as the only true and visible church of Christ, nor that any one is better entitled to the protection of the laws than other Christian sects. But we must not forget that our conviction of the truth of this doctrine has been chiefly obtained through the peculiarities of our republican institutions; and, consequently, that in the ancient monarchies of Europe, where particular sects have long enjoyed an especial protection of the state, we must not be surprised that the doctrine of the equality of all religious sects is not only a novelty to many persons, but that it is regarded with great abhorrence by all those who benefit from the ecclesiastical patronage of the state.

In England, where a numerous body of dissenters are arrayed against the great privileges enjoyed by the Established Church, the doctrines to which we have just alluded have become matters of deep interest to all parties concerned, and the movements of parliament already seem to indicate the withdrawing of that exclusive patronage by which the Church of England has been for so long a time distinguished. The Established Church, as might be supposed,