in well doing, your constancy in trial and suffering, your limited or abundant success, may incidentally, will assuredly, we would say, react on the home field. But this is not the end of your being sent,―to do us good, to do our home work. We would value your aid, but we cannot claim it. The work abroad claims all your strength. It is greater than our work, and there are fewer to do it. Tell us that you need helpers, tell us that you need the means of efficient labor; but lay on us, and leave on us, the responsibility of sending the men and means. You are sent to the heathen population of Siam and Assam and Mergui. You may meet, at least in Assam, with a community, not of large extent, bearing the Christian name, speaking your own native language, proffering to you the sympathies and courtesies of civilized life, and expecting from you in turn the attentions and services of a minister of Christ. Their distinguished moral worth, their benevolent interest and large liberality in furthering the designs of your mission; their seeming reliance on and cleaving to you, for their own spiritual edification, may assert stronger claims; and pressed by social, generous and even Christian impulses, without due forethought you may bestow on a few already instructed, or with the means of instruction in the way of life, the time and thought that belong to the multitudes of outcasts who throng around them. Unwittingly you may rob the heathen. Brethren, you are sent to the heathen, you are debtors to the heathen. Take heed that ye be faithful stewards, defrauding no man, fulfilling the service whereunto you now are appointed. You are sent to diffuse among these heathen the knowledge of the religion of Jesus Christ; not earthly science, not art, not civilization. These follow in your train. The gospel promises the life that now is, as well as that which is to come. But these are not your aim. Your knowledge, the knowledge you seek to communicate, is the knowledge of Jesus Christ; Christ and him crucified; Christ first, Christ last, the alpha and the omega, the beginning and the ending of your mission. What this knowledge is, what its essential truths, where the depository whence, and whence only, these are to be drawn, what its effectual working and manifestation, and by whose energizing, life-giving power, we need not now rehearse to you. God has called you, as we trust, and by his servants put you into the ministry; who have also extended to you the fellowship of the churches, and given their solemn charge. II. Keeping distinctly in view the design of your appointment, consider, next, what are the essential preliminaries to its effective prosecution, and spare no personal effort or sacrifice to secure them. The most obvious of these is a knowledge of the language, character, and state of the people to whom you are to communicate the knowledge of Christ. You must know their language, not simply to read it, or to understand it read or spoken; but to speak it correctly, fluently, as your own native tongue. And to do this you must mingle and converse with the people. Dictionaries and grammars and reading books and pundits will not do it. They may make you correct critics, but stammering preachers. Our earlier missionaries, without grammar or dictionary, except as made by themselves, have not betrayed any special unfamiliarity with the languages of the heathen among whom they have preached the word. Every heathen was a teacher, every conversation a lesson. It was the same in respect to the character and state of the people. The sayings and doings of the heathen, their daily employment, their social habits, their religious observances, their civil institutions, the subjects of their ruling thoughts and fears, these were continually and carefully under their eye. All sights, all sounds, all associations were linked with the heathen whom they sought to instruct and save. And here lay one of the secrets of their large success. This made them, as concerns success, native preachers. There is no special reason known to us, while these preliminary duties, of which we have spoken, should be urged upon you, Christian brethren, more than upon any other candidates for missionary service. We give them this prominence from a deep conviction of their preeminent importance, and from knowing how liable one is to fail of their adequate fulfilment. III. Our third suggestion relates to the doing of the work for which you are sent, -diffusing among the heathen the knowledge of the religion of Jesus Christ. How shall this work be done? Our answer is, Preach the word. As ye go, preach. You are appointed of God to the ministry of the gospel. What does this mean? What does the preaching of the gospel mean at home, among ourselves? It does not mean writing works for the press, writing books, good books, for a people just emerging from barbarism; supplanting fabulous and demoralizing legends by providing a Christian literature, this is to do a good service, a great service; but it is not "preaching the word." Writing religious books, or tracts, though full of the word and spirit of the gospel, or even translating the lively oracles of God, is not preaching the word. All this is work to be done; the translating of the Scriptures, and preparation of Christian tracts, are means,-a most important, indispensable means of diffusing the knowledge of Christ among the heathen, and men must be sent to prepare and use them; but this work does not belong necessarily to the gospel minister; it may be done by others not put into the ministry: and hence translating the Scriptures, the highest order of book-making, is not ordinarily contemplated in setting a Christian minister apart to the missionary work. If made his duty, under the providence of God, it is by a new and special assignment. Nor does preaching the gospel mean school-teaching. Schools must be taught; but the teaching of theological schools even, most suitably committed to gospel `ministers, is a service altogether and confessedly distinct from preaching the gospel. We wish to be understood on this point. We ascribe to school teaching, rightly conducted, a most important agency in diffusing among the heathen the gospel of Christ. Schools help in various ways. In addition to the good which they directly communicate in knowledge and discipline, they separate the young to some extent from the revolting abominations of heathenism, encircling them, instead, with the atmosphere and sunlight of truth and purity. They sometimes present to the Christian laborer, his most promising field for culture, the most mellow, most free from noxious weeds, most sure of ripening precious fruits; the more precious as the culture is more constant and prolonged. Schools, too, are nurseries to congregations,-auditories for hearing the word. Of themselves they constitute a most interesting auditory to the preacher; they are nuclei for the aggregation of others. They are forerunners often, of the faith of the gospel; though the teaching most common to them is not the gospel, nor, as we esteem it, the necessary precursor of the gospel. But schools may engross, it is quite possible they have engrossed, in some instances, an undue proportion of the missionary's time and labor. Apart from their pecuniary expense, drawing largely upon resources demanded elsewhere, they make still heavier drafts, both in teaching and superintending, on strength and time which were intended to be given to the direct ministration of the gospel. On your part, brethren, it would be an unauthorized substitution, and as unwise, it might prove, as unauthorized. Preaching the gospel, in the ordinary sense of the term, is not colporting, nor the superintending of churches or preachers. Much of this work may fall to the lot of the missionary preacher. Every preacher may be a colporteur; would that every missionary had native churches and preachers to superintend. But native preachers can not do his preaching. Not only should he point, but lead the way. Paul, who had the care of the churches, preached nevertheless as did other evangelists, laboring more abundantly than they all. You, brethren, are not to preach by proxy. You are sent to the heathen, face to face; and from your lips must fall on their ear the words which shall make wise through faith to salvation. See that you make full proof of your ministry; and if the heathen perish, let it not be laid to your charge. In ministering the gospel orally to the heathen, be careful to render, both in form and faith, due honor to God's own appointment. Preach the word; it is God's pleasure by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. Preach it purely, faithfully. Preach it with all plainness and directness; the word of God is the sword of the spirit. Pluck it forth from its scabbard; make it bare. Preach in faith, believing assuredly that the word shall not return void. To some it may prove a savor of death unto death; but so many as are ordained unto eternal life shall believe. Beware of substituting for God's wisdom man's inventions. It has been said by some, the teacher must go before the preacher; man's word before God's word. Believe it not; the gospel can work its own way; this is God's plan. Christianity will civilize; civilization cannot christianize. Apparent failures in preaching the gospel have their own cause. Preach the word faithfully, plainly, not only to your own understanding of what you say, but to the just apprehension of your hearers. See that the very thought, the thought as God meant it, be apprehended by your hearers. See, too, so far as may depend on your instrumentality, that it be not only apprehended but retained. Let it be lodged in the understanding of your hearers; fastened as in a sure place. This may demand unwearied repetitions, precept upon precept, line upon line; this may circumscribe to comparatively narrow bounds your preaching circuit; the heathen are dull of hearing. Yet if this is God's method, be it bounded. Preach to thousands if you cannot to millions. Bear salvation to hundreds if not to thousands. Illustrations of the justness of the views now presented, are abundantly furnished in the labors and successes of the missionaries now with you. They have wielded this sword of the Spirit, and it has proved mighty. With Burmans and Karens and Assamese, wherever they have gone preaching the word, lo! God has been with them, working with them, and confirming, authenticating the word as his word, with wonders and signs following. In the preaching of the word by them its ministers, he has vindicated the wisdom of his plan, he has verified his faithfulness, he has magnified the riches of his grace. What a multitudinous array of witnesses might they set before us, fruits of their ministry, and of their faithful coadjutors, to attest the power of a preached word, made quick by God's spirit! They have wrought other labors, diverse in character and greatly useful; but so far as they have been honored to win souls, whether in city or jungle, on hill or plain, by the wayside, in the zayat, or in the school, the weapon of their success has been eminently the preached word,-speaking the word in God's appointed way, to the ear, the eye, the conscience of the stricken sinner standing with them before God. But there are higher proofs of the preeminent excellence and power of the work to which you are set apart. Jesus Christ, in whom were hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, went about the cities and villages of his missionary field preaching the gospel; and when his mission was fulfilled, he commanded others to do the same work, throughout and to the end of the world. You know how the first missionaries, under this commission, went forth, and how they labored. Trusting in the promise of Him to whom all power had been given, they demonstrated in every place that the preaching of the cross was none other than "the power of God and the wisdom of God." Serving the same Lord, authorized by the same commission, sustained by the same promise, animated, as we trust, by the same spirit, you are sent, dear brethren, to preach Christ crucified to the heathen,―to tread "the dark and death-fraught wilderness," bearing a message which giveth light, life-immortality. You go, not knowing the things which shall befall you there; but you will find no spot not embraced within the field of Christian enterprise; none in which the deep sympathy of a multitude of Christian hearts will not reach you; none in which Christ will not be with you as your shield and strength. To Him we commit you; to Him who has said, "I am with you alway;" to him "who is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy." To you, Christian brethren, who are about to return to your missions, we have nothing to say on this occasion in the form of instruction; but we embrace the opportunity to express thus publicly our gratitude to God for all the proofs of his favor towards you. "The right hand of his righteousness" has directed your labors among heathen nations, and crowned them with larger success than you hoped for on entering the missionary service. With health invigorated you again go forth to reap the fields in which you were among the first to cast the precious seed. But how great the contrast between the scenes which now await you and those which met you then! When the oldest of your number first went forth there were to be found in all the Burman empire, the seat of our only eastern mission, three missionaries and a solitary church of eighteen members. Now you go to missions numbering more than one hundred and seventy-five missionaries and native laborers, with sixty or seventy churches, and at least seven thousand Christians to hail your coming. The contrast holds, too, in what you leave at home. Then, by the Baptists of these United States, $6,000 were contributed in a year for foreign missions; our annual income is now more than $100,000. Cheered by these contrasts, we separate. We look forward, not with the hope of seeing your faces again on earth; but we look beyond it, expecting to meet you before the throne of Him whom you serve,—there, with its results before us, to contemplate the grandeur and glory of the missionary` enterprise and of Him by whom it was planned and perfected. "Oh then, Your hearts will glow with gratitude and love! And through the ages of eternal years, Thus saved, your spirits never shall repent That toil and suffering once were yours below!" The prayer of designation was offered by Rev. Alfred Bennett, of N. Y. The missionaries severally addressed the meeting, also one of the Assamese converts; to whom the President of the Union responded, and gave the hand of fellowship, and assurance of sympathy and prayer. The audience then united in prayer with Rev. J. Wade, and the Union adjourned to meet in Boston, Mass., on the third Thursday of May, 1851. WM. H. SHAILER, Recording Secretary. MEETING OF THE BOARD FOR 1850-1. BUFFALO, FRIDAY EVENING, May 17, 1850. In accordance with the requirements of the Constitution of the American Baptist Missionary Union, the Board of Managers met after the adjournment of the Union, at 74 o'clock, P. M. The Chairman of the Board being absent, Hon. Ira Harris, of Albany, N. Y., was appointed Chairman, pro tem. The meeting was opened with prayer, by Rev. O. C. Comstock, of Mich. The roll was called, and the following members were found to be in attend Rev. Messrs. J. N. Granger, E. Tucker, D. D., A. D. Gillette, R. H. Neale, O. C. Comstock and A. Bennett, and Mr. T. Wattson, were appointed a Committee to nominate an Executive Committee, two Corresponding Secretaries, a Treasurer and an Auditing Committee. On motion, Mr. R. S. Burrows and Rev. J. L. Burrows were appointed tellers, to conduct the election of Chairman and Recording Secretary. The Committee to nominate an Executive Committee and Officers, reported. The report was accepted, and the Board proceeded to the election of the Committee and Officers. Rev. Messrs. E. E. L. Taylor, and A. D. Gillette, were appointed tellers. The tellers to conduct the election of Chairmain and Recording Secretary, reported the following persons duly elected : Hon. IRA HARRIS, LL. D., of N. Y., Chairman. |