child falls, the affections of the parent still follow and embrace. In the prison, or even on the scaffold, surrounded by a raging crowd clamoring for his life, the mother clasps her son to her bosom with a love that "floods cannot drown." And who shall measure the blessed results of this heaven-implanted affection? How little of evil arises from it, even among the fallen. How powerful for good to parents and children. When strong temptation came upon the soul like a flood, and barriers of virtue were giving way, many a man, by a vision of little innocent faces at home, has been saved from crime and ruin. And though pious parents may long have slept the sleep of death, their example, their admonitions, and their prayers still live in the memory of their child; and though he may wander far from the path of peace, a voice within, small and still, yet louder in the spirit's ear than many waters, tells the story of their love, and cries, Return. Among the angels, the first transgression drew a line between the evil and the good; and at once hatred and envy on the one side, and horror and aversion on the other, arose, to last evermore. But when his fellow falls, man forsakes him not utterly, nor feels at once "immortal hate," such as must have sprung up between Lucifer and Gabriel. Saints pity sinners, and love them; and, next to the assurance that God loves them and Christ died for them, human sympathy and love are, of reclaiming influences, the strongest and surest to melt and win the heart of the fallen. But we cannot, at present, pursue further this, to us, interesting subject. Matter is the educator of the soul. The infant intellect is first roused into activity by the visible and tangible things around it, and for years matter is our great teacher, exciting the senses, spurring the reason, calling into action every mental faculty, and training the whole into symmetry and strength. The instincts of our social nature and the ties of kindred bind us to our fellows, and prompt us to the benevolent duties of practical Christianity. Materiality supplies the means whereby we reach the evil and the good, and make our kindness manifest to the just and the unjust. By means of the press man graves high and holy thought upon that which many hands can handle and many eyes behold. Light and the optic nerve are the telegraph which unites the minds of millions; and while an angelic messenger may in a dream warn some Joseph to arise and save his household, or strengthen the sufferer in Gethsemane, a man like Paul, or John, or Luther, or Wesley is able to speak in the ear of nations, and kindreds, and tongues, and open founts of blessing, whose streams shall sweep on till time shall be no more. Materiality has an important part in our new probation. When man sinned, the created world, changed for his sake, furnished the field of a new state of trial, suited to his fallen nature. Materiality is closely connected with our redemption. God has been "manifest in the flesh;" and by the assumption of a material body, Christ not only became capable of physical suffering, but also identified himself with the race, and became our brother. Material ity renders us a race, instead of a mere aggregate of independent existences; and thus, as physical vitality and moral corruption descend to us from Adam, so from Christ, the second Adam, we receive the new birth and life everlasting. Instead, therefore, of bewailing the indignity which the soul suffers in its union with matter, would it not be wiser for us to say, with the Psalmist : "I WILL PRAISE THEE, FOR I AM FEARFULLY AND WONDERFULLY MADE?" ART. V.-MISSIONS IN AMERICA. 1. Cyclopædia of Missions, by Newcomb. 2. History of the Methodist Episcopal Missions, by DR. BANGS. 5. Executive Documents. CHRISTIAN missions, wherever they have been established and prosecuted by the Church of Christ, are subjects of abiding and extensive interest, whether considered in their past history, their present influence, or their future promise. In all these respects they are, and have been, of very great importance to America. There is no country for which Christian missions have done more than for ours; nor is there a country which offers a wider field for their present usefulness than this. We have feared that the importance of missions to us as a people, and our importance to them for the conversion of the world, have been overlooked, or, at least, under-estimated, by the Church, whose work it is to prosecute them. This may be a groundless fear; the Church may see her whole duty clearly in this connection, and feel her entire responsibility; if so, our articles may still serve to stir up to increased activity. For our facts we shall draw upon the reports and other publications of the various missionary societies; and the more connected histories of missions. In accordance with usage, we have placed some of these works at the head of this article. By America, in this connection, we include the entire continent, for we consider this the legitimate mission-field for the American Protestant Church. Our attention, however, will be more particularly given to the United States and Territories; because of their greater importance to us, and pre-eminent claims upon us. In order that we may have a more distinct view of our subject, we will divide American missions into Native and Foreign; and briefly sketch the history, condition, and prospects of each. In our native missions we include first, those established among the Indians. The modern Protestant missionary spirit had its origin in connection with the New World, about the middle of the sixteenth century. The spirit of adventure was directed hither, and Christian sympathy allied itself with it in behalf of the savage aborigines. The first actual development of this spirit was in connection with a French Colony to Brazil, in 1555. At the suggestion of Admiral de Coligny, two Protestant ministers were sent out with the expedition, under promise of protection from Villegagnon, the leader, who was a Romanist. As usual, faith was not kept with heretics, and by ill-treatment the missionaries were compelled to re-embark for France. We can but imagine how different would have been the history of Brazil, if the Reformed religion had been permitted to establish itself there. The colonists to the New World, whether Protestant or Roman, professed to seek, as one of their principal objects, the salvation of the heathen. It may be proper for us to glance at some of the more prominent of the Roman missions, though we are not disposed to accord to them the character of Christian missions, without very great abatement. The true character of these missions may be seen in the following extracts from an "agreement" between the King of Spain and Oñate, a Spanish adventurer in Mexico, in 1595. One article stipulated that the king should furnish him "six priests, with a full complement of books, ornaments, and church accoutrements," for the purpose of Christianizing the savage inhabitants. In another article we find the following significant inquiries: "In case the natives are unwilling to come quietly to the acknowledgment of the true Christian faith, and listen to the evangelical word, and give obedience to the king our sovereign, what shall be done with them, that we may proceed according to the laws of the Catholic Church, and the ordinances of his majesty? And what tributes, that they may be Christianly borne, shall be imposed upon them, as well for the crown as for the adventurers ?" This furnishes a correct idea of Romish missions in the New World. Tribute was the great object. The most successful missions of the Romanists were in South America and California. The Jesuits have been the pioneer missionaries. In 1586 they commenced their celebrated missions in the interior of South America, of which the city of Cordova became the center. The priests made extensive and toilsome journeys among the Indian tribes, and soon reported hundreds of thousands of converts to Christianity. The Romish priests, however, have great facility in making converts among the heathen. Baptism and the reception of the cross and a string of beads by the subject are sufficient. In 1602 the general of the Jesuits recommended the South American missionaries to form their converts into fixed settlements, instead of pursuing them as wandering tribes. In this work they were wonderfully successful, and laid the foundations of that vast Jesuitical establishment, which has been the subject of so much political and religious discussion. In 1642 their towns or townships numbered twenty-nine; and the form of their government had attained a perfection that was the envy of every other in Spanish America. We cannot trace the history of their operations now, though it is an exceedingly interesting one. Their establishment became a vast political power, and a source of immense revenue. Some of the most intelligent Spanish writers have estimated that the fathers of these missions transmitted to their superiors in Europe an annual amount of nine hundred thousand pounds sterling. They were conducted on Oñate's principle of "tribute" from the Indians. The Jesuits were driven out of the country in 1767, and their missions soon went to ruin. Their next largest and most successful missionary enterprise in the New World, was among the California Indians; and as early as 1612 the Canada missions were begun, also by Jesuits. Indeed the indefatigable Romish missionary has traversed the length and breadth of this vast continent; but we look in vain for the evidences of Scriptural Christianity in his track among the heathen. And these missions, such as they were, are now no longer prosecuted. Romanism is doing nothing for the Indians in South America; nothing for them in Mexico, or California, or in the territories. There are more signs of life, perhaps, in their Canadian missions. But, be this as it may, Christianity has nothing to expect, in the way of advancement, from Romish missions. Our Protestant fathers, also, set forth, in the charter of the Plymouth and Massachusetts Colony, their great desire to convert the Indians; and honestly and earnestly was this work commenced by them, soon after their arrival in the New World. Individual efforts were first made for their benefit, and were crowned with satisfactory results. In 1636 colonial action was taken, and laws were passed for preaching the Gospel to the Indians. And this, we believe, was the first united Protestant missionary effort in behalf of the heathen world. It was a whole generation before the efforts made under the auspices of the "Dutch East India Company" in Ceylon. This movement by the colonists in New-England, led to the formation of the first society in the mother country for the propagation of the Gospel. This society was formed about the middle of the seventeenth century, by the Nonconformists of England, and its funds appropriated for the benefit of the North American Indians. Bishop Burnet says this example of the Nonconformists was the occasion of the formation of the "Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge," in 1698, by the members of the Church of England. The records of the beginnings of missionary effort are very imperfect, and difficult of access; but, so far as we can learn, the first Protestant missionary organization was the one above named among the Non-conformists. This is a matter, to say the least of it, gratifying to American Christians, that the great modern missionary movement, by which the world is to be instrumentally saved, had its beginning in connection with our own country, and found its first field of labor upon our own soil, and among our "red brethren." The Rev. John Eliot had the honor of being the first minister of Christ who devoted himself exclusively to missionary work among the Indians. This he did as early as 1646. Having learned the language of the Mohegans, he preached Christ to them, and translated the word of God for them, and witnessed its saving power on many of these wretched sons of the desert. And here we have another interesting historical fact. This translation of the Scriptures was the first Bible printed in America. The first American Bible, and for the American Indians! How exceedingly appropriate was this. And was it not, also, the very first translation of the Scriptures in connection with missionary work to the heathen, and the forerunner of the hundreds made under the patronage of modern Bible societies? This translation, by Eliot, was made only thirty-five years after that of King James into English. Dr. Cotton Mather says it was all written with one pen. This work, so early and so nobly begun, was crowned with great success. In a short time, under the labors of Eliot, hundreds of Indians renounced their heathenism and embraced Christianity. As early as 1660 he had gathered ten settlements of Indians, who were comparatively civilized, and under religious influence. At the same time Thomas Mayhew was prosecuting a similar work, on the Islands of Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard, with even greater |