pear to be no great objects brought before them, and pressed upon their hearts. There seem to be no laymen or ministers, impressed enough with the barren state of things to bring forward any great issue."

These remarks are copied, to call attention to the closing sentences of the last article. There is no one "to bring forward any great issue;" and, alas! the progress of the Church is downwards. Here is the true secret, we fear, of the spiritual declension of the churches. During the last half century, the ministry have brought forward several "great issues" before the people. Among these issues, slavery has been preeminent; but it can no longer serve as a rallying cry, to rouse up the zeal of lax professors. Some new issue, therefore, is demanded. And has it come to this, that, in a world of fallen men, who are resting under the wrath and curse of an offended Deity, the very ministry appointed to reconcile them to God through the Gospel of his Son, have to lament that they can find no "great issue," of sufficient interest to attract their perishing fellow-men to the Saviour! Surely, the editor was not conscious of the import of his language. He could not have intended to convey the idea, that the love of Jesus has no longer any attractions. No issue! when men are sinking to perdition! Why, man, there is no theme, no issue, like that of perdition on the one hand, and salvation on the other. Drop, then, all your old stale issues; seek no new-fangled ones, the novelty of which will attract men to your standard; but, like Paul, resolve to preach Christ and him crucified; but above all things, never again paralyze the piety of the Church by political preaching.

In immediate connection with these remarks, a quotation from the pen of the former editor of the Christian Intelligencer, written in 1861, will be appropriate. It will be seen that the editor of 1829 has changed his views, in a considerable degree, in 1861. With age comes wisdom. He thus announces his present views:

"There may be too much of a good thing. It may well be doubted, whether, just at this time, many ministers of the Gospel are not in danger of keeping the subject of slavery too much before their own. minds, and the minds of their hearers, as the source, and the only source, of our national troubles. A minister may preach long and

loud against slavery, or any other sin, and yet not bring one soul to Christ. In the present crisis, when the question is soon to be tested, whether, as a people, we have enough of that 'virtue and intelligence' which is the basis of free government, to save us from bringing ruin on ourselves, a minister will serve his country best by teaching his hearers to 'fear God, and keep his commandments.'"*

SECTION VII.

-RESULTS OF THE FOREIGN MISSIONARY WORK OF THE AMERICAN CHURCHES, AS COMPARED WITH THE RESULTS OF THEIR DOMESTIC MISSIONS AMONG THE SLAVES OF THE UNITED STATES.

1. THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH.-This religious denomination had become deeply enlisted in the work of foreign missions before its division into two bodies. The Church North is still prosecuting the foreign work with great zeal. The Fortysecond Annual Report of its Missionary Society, 1861, presents the following tabular statement of its foreign missions. We add to it, from the domestic missions, the statistics of its Indian mission-the whole presenting the following results:

The American members in the African mission, are the colonists from the United States. The same class of members in the China, India, and South American missions, are white residents in those countries. The missions in Germany and Scandinavia, being in Christian countries, are not to be classed with heathen missions. The expenditures, in 1860, for the China mission, were $25,567; the foreign German mission, $25,664; the India mis*Christian Instructor and Western United Presbyterian.

sion, $30,642; the Liberia mission, $20,937; the Norway and Sweden mission, $6,093; the Bulgarian mission, $2,682; and the Buenos Ayres mission, $146. Total, $111,731.

The first introduction of Methodism into Liberia, occurred in connection with the colonists, about forty years since; but the mission was not formally organized until 1832. Something more than a half million of dollars has been expended on this mission. From causes assigned by Bishop Scott, and quoted elsewhere, the success of the missionaries among the natives has not been very encouraging-there being at present only seventy-two converts. Deducting the German and Scandinavian converts from the number of the native converts, and adding thereto the American colonists in Liberia, and the whole number of church members which should be estimated in this connection is 2,845.

The Methodist Church South, including the members in the border Conferences, can offset this by showing a colored membership of over 215,000!

2. The AMERICAN BAPTIST MISSIONARY UNION is the agency of the Baptist Churches North, for conducting their missionary operations in the foreign field. The missions of this Board, according to the Annual Report for 1861, stand as follows:

The Baptist missionaries, sent to Asia, were the first who left the United States for a heathen country. They set sail in 1812. Nearly fifty years have elapsed since that date, and their missions in Asia now number 16,174 converts. Those among the North American Indians, commenced at a later day, have 1,600; making a total membership, in the Baptist mission churches, in their heathen fields, of 17,774.

The SOUTHERN BAPTIST BOARD OF MISSIONS, have their fields of labor in Africa, and in the Southern States. In the latter field alone, the number of converts, in 1859, was 175,000! This, however, includes the whole membership in all the Baptist congregations, missionary as well as anti-missionary. In Africa, they

have had no better success than other churches.

*

The missions of the Baptist Churches North, were established among a people called free. Those in Asia had to encounter the difficulties attending the mission work among an idolatrous population, speaking a foreign language; while those among the Indians were not more favorably situated. The Northern Board, in conducting its missions, had the advantage of being supported by a more numerous people, who could greatly exceed the South in the amount of their contributions. It had the further advantage, also, of having the aid of the South for many years, or until the Northern and Southern churches divided on the question of slavery. Its heathen missions, alone, are noticed in this contrast, those in Europe being among a civilized people.

The Southern Board had to send its missionaries among a slave population, where the world at large averred the Gospel could make no progress. But in this belief the world was mistaken. The colored people, under slavery, had never formed any attachments to the religion of their fathers; and they had acquired the use of the English language. This was a progress vastly beyond the condition of the population of Asia; and the results show a corresponding success the converts in the missions of the Northern Board being 17,774, and of the Southern Board, 175,000!

There is a point of great interest here, and at the risk of some repetition of what is elsewhere said, we call attention to it in this connection. The slow progress of the mission-work in the foreign fields, so far as natural causes operate, are the results of the deeply-seated systems of idolatry which prevail, and the social practices that are their natural out-growth: all of which are wholly antagonistic to the pure principles of the Gospel. These have to be uprooted before Christianity can succeed. The American slaves born among a people acknowledging Christianity, are unaffected by false idolatrous systems of religion, and are, therefore, more accessible to Christian instruction.

WHERE LOCATED.

3. THE PRESBYTERIAN BOARD OF FOREIGN MISSIONS.- This Board is the agency appointed by the General Assembly Presbyterians, O. S., for conducting their missions in the foreign field. Its Report for 1861, gives the extent of its missions, with the results as follows:

These missions are efficiently sustained by the contributions from the congregations of this denomination. No Christian people in the world more regularly, zealously, and conscientiously sustain their religious enterprises. In this respect the Old School Presbyterians are educated up to a commendable degree of liberality, it being no longer necessary to employ agents for the collection of funds.

The success of the missions of this Church abroad, has not been equal to the success of its less systematic efforts at home. The foreign field, in 1861, gives but 2,857 converts among the heathen; while the home field, in 1859, gave 12,000 converts among the slaves.

4. THE AMERICAN BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS FOR FOREIGN MISSIONS. This Board derives its support, mainly, from the Congregationalists and New School General Assembly Presbyterians. It has been in existence fifty years, and has just issued a Memorial Volume, for 1860, in celebration of its Jubilee Meeting. The total expenditure of the Board, from its organization to the date

*The mission to the Jews in New York, of one minister, and that to Papal Europe, are omitted, as not being Pagan, and as not reporting any members.