version, further instruction, with a view to their becoming helpers and Ministers of the Gospel-or to conduct the business of Printing, and keeping a Depôt of Bibles and Tracts. Of these three objects, the first may be accomplished by a single Missionary Family, as well as by many; but such family must, in order to superintend a School with effect, be stationary: the second, if there should be many converted young men, would certainly require that a Missionary Preceptor should be generally fixed in one place, so that he may be referred to and known to be prosecuting this one great object, surrounded by a library and all other means requisite to give completeness to his instructions: the third would, probably, require the co-operation of several persons; and would need, more than any thing else, to be a fixture.

But, taking a general view of Missionary Operations in the world, is the time come, or is it likely that for a few years longer it will have arrived, when considerable Establishments shall be seasonable for our Missions in Turkey? Compare things according to their existing proportions: compare the amount of books, and the number of effective living preachers. There is an immense quantity of books prepared and preparing for the use of unconverted nations, in all languages; but there are as yet very few Missionaries, expert at speaking these languages, and labouring in the work of preaching the Gospel among the Natives, publickly and from house, to house. In this state of things, then, it is a fair consideration, into which of these two channels ought the tide of pecuniary contribution and of public opinion to be turned the more copiously. The

question has a special reference to Western Asia. Whether is the complicated and powerful machinery of Missionary Institutions, or the simplicity of Oral Preaching, the more called for at present? It is not for me to give an opinion: different Nations, different Societies, different Denominations of Christians, and even different individuals of the same, will incline to opposite sentiments; while some will aim at so modifying, as to combine, both objects. The benefit of there being many Societies is, that probably every measure of utility will, in turn, be accomplished to the full. In the meanwhile, I have aimed at giving some insight into the particulars of a subject, which has already excited much interest; and which must, in process of time-perhaps within a short period-call on different Societies to make their decision.

4. In whatever light the preceding remarks concerning Establishments may be viewed by different persons, all, who have visited the Levant or who have had opportunities of studying the relations of society in these regions, must be deeply persuaded of THE FITNESS OF THE TRAVELLING OR ITINERANT CHARACTER for the execution of a Mission there.

Let nothing which has been said against Monasticism, as a System, be considered to disparage the peculiar suitableness of unmarried men (all other circumstances being equal) for Apostolical Services throughout the whole of Turkey. Ought it not, however, to be laid down, in the first place, as a rule almost indispensable, that unmarried Missionaries should go forth two and two? The maintenance of a devout and cheerful frame of mind seems

to require this: the method adopted by our Lord himself (Luke x. 2.) goes near to prescribe it': and the general usage of St. Paul and the other Apostles serves peculiarly to recommend it.

This being admitted, to the advantages of the single state as implied by St. Paul (freedom from secular cares, the exposing of a narrower front to the aim of the persecutor, and the superior facility of escape from his reach) we may add the following points worthy of consideration: the unmarried may freely take a more extensive range of journeys by sea and land; nor are they tied down by the necessary rules of domestic order: a family must observe set hours, as nearly as possible; but a single man may neglect his meals, may prolong his studies, or may, when need requires, continue his discourse or his conversation till midnight: a family must have separate rooms, and the children and servants must all know their place and keep it: the entrance of a stranger, which to the single man may be a welcome circumstance, may to a family be an intrusion : the talk of a promiscuous company would occasion distraction to the domestic circle, but, to the unmarried Evangelist, would afford the opportunity most desired by him for explaining the Gospel to them: one or two individuals, also, may with greater ease become inmates in a family for a

season.

Whoever has visited the Levant, and has remarked the peculiarly vacant, irregular, and listless habits of the natives the way in which they saunter into a house; and, generally, the houses are open all day long-their manner of loitering about a stranger, accompanying him, following him, listening to him,

gazing at him-will not have failed to receive a far more vivid impression of Scripture Scenery, than an Englishman could possibly acquire in his own exact, busy, and well-ordered country. The crowds, who followed Jesus from far out of every city; who staid with Him three days, till they had nothing to eat ; who so pressed upon Him at the house-door, that they trode one upon another, and even to that degree that he could not eat his food; who, at another time, crowded him off from the shore, so that he was constrained to preach to them from a ship or boat; who brought with them, in these excursions, wives and children, accounting little of time, fatigue, precarious livelihood, and, what seems most material, domestic order-such crowds would again be assembled in the Holy Land, should competent Missionaries be enabled to itinerate among them. And this being the genius of the country, is it probable that Missions will ever obtain great success among them, unless this method, as well as others, be systematically and skilfully adopted?

5. This mode of Missionary Operations (by far the most important, in the Author's view of the present wants of the Levant) implies the possession of one qualification, which is not to be obtained without great industry, and a considerable sacrifice of time and spirits to a pursuit very uncongenial to the reasoning habits of an adult. It is, ABILITY TO

DISCOURSE WITH THE NATIVES IN THEIR OWN LAN

GUAGE. It is superfluous to say, that this is an indispensable qualification. If the first miracle of the Day of Pentecost had not demonstrated this truth, common sense alone would suffice to prove it.

TO SPEAK, READ, AND UNDERSTAND ARABIC

FLUENTLY AND WELL-IS ESSENTIAL TO THE PROPER CONDUCT OF A MISSION IN SYRIA AND PALES

TINE. This attainment, under ordinary circumstances, is not the work of so short a period as five years! The principal causes which occasion the slow progress of Missionaries in the study of Arabic have been observed to be the following: the actual difficulties of the language itself; confessedly great even to a Native who speaks it; much more so to the minds of Western Students, which have been moulded in a different idiom-the want of systematic Masters, who are not easily to be had from among the Native Christians-the necessity of attending to other languages-climate, acting upon the constitution, and interrupting the powers of mental application-the desire, so natural, and, indeed, the duty so expedient, of soon beginning to attempt, although in an imperfect manner, some kind of Missionary Work; such as travelling, distributing the Scriptures, maintaining correspondence, occasionally preaching in our own language, keeping a School, &c.—to which may be added, in some cases, the habit of conversing in European Languages, with our own family or with Franks; whereas he, who would learn Arabic, must be for months together in circumstances where the mind can have no escape from Arabic Conversation and Reading: it cannot be learned, as young persons learn French, by giving an hour or even two hours a day to the study of it: not only the eye, the ear, the throat, the hand, the memory, but all the social and sympathetic affections must be pledged and pressed into this hard