glass of the other, after which they joined hands and kissed; the people then came forward and made obeisance to the Missionaries, as the friends of the Dayak kings, crying out with loud voices, "Let us be friends and brethren for ever, and may God help the Dayaks to obtain the knowledge of God from the Missionaries!" The two chiefs then said," Brethren, be not afraid to dwell with us, for we will do you no harm; and if others wish to hurt you, we will defend you with our life's blood, and die ourselves ere you be slain. God be witness, and this whole assembly be witness, that this is true." After Whereupon the whole company shouted, Baalak! or good,' 'be it so.' the ceremony was over, the travellers bade them farewell, and going on board their prow, returned to Benjarmasin, accompanied by the chiefs and people shouting and cheering as they went, forcibly reminding the Missionaries of the words of Isaiah: "For ye shall go out with joy, and be led forth with peace: the mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands." APPEAL FOR MISSIONARIES. The following communication from the Rev. W. H. Medhurst will, it is hoped, receive from the friends of missions the prayerful attention of which the important subject to which it refers at present stands so much in need. To the Editor of the The growing interest taken by British Christians in the affairs of Missions, and their increased liberality in this most important cause, added to the more complete information pouring in from all quarters, and the additional facilities opening up for the spread of the Gospel, all tend to animate Missionary Societies to extraordinary exertions. Past experience has taught us the impolicy and impossibility of fixing a scale of contributions for the future. Time was when the friends of the London Missionary Society thought that if they could raise their annual income to £20,000, they should do wonders; but the Lord has put our unbelief to shame, by showing us that double and treble that sum may be collected; and what should hinder the Society from putting forth energies ten times greater than ever it has yet done? The cry is, "Onward;" and in proportion as the zeal of the Christian Church comes up to blood-heat, and the selfishness of the people of God comes down to zero, so will their contributions and exertions in this best of causes. In consequence, however, of the late exposure of "the sin of the Christian Church," and from the indications recently manifested of the disposition of the pious rich to renounce that sin, it is not to be apprehended that the exertions of the Missionary Society will for some time be crippled for want of funds. Let the Christian public know that pecuniary difficulties are the main obstructions to the progress of Missionary efforts, and the silver and the gold will flow still more plentifully into the treasury of the Lord. The time will never come when useful and successful Missionaries shall be recalled for want of funds to maintain them in heathen lands; and the annunciation of a falling off in the annual in Missionary Magazine. come of our Society, will be only a signal for exertions to redouble its revenues. The grand secret of how we may best encourage the contributions of Christians at home, undoubtedly is, the devoted and well-directed efforts of Christians abroad. Only let the Society obtain agents in sufficient numbers, and of suitable qualifications, for producing (under God) an extensive effect in heathen lands, and those agents will never want support, or be obliged to relinquish their efforts through the failure of funds. Men, therefore, men are the great desideratum in the present day; and a fresh accession of agents in the great work is most imperatively and loudly demanded. On every side is this call heard: labourers now in the field, who have long borne the burden and heat of the day almost alone, are incessant in their demands for help. Missionaries, compelled by exhaustion and disease to return to their native land, have gone about the country, and in the pulpit and on the platform urged both ministers and people to come to their assistance. New kingdoms opening to our energies, fresh fields whitening to the harvest, bespeak the need of additional labourers; heathens entreating to be instructed, and native churches in want of pastors, re-echo the same cry; and the earnest, eloquent, and affecting appeals of the interesting Hot tentot lately among us, have moved not a few to believe and to feel that a number of Missionaries are immediately wanted. The Directors, perceiving the importance of this matter, have sent forth appeal after appeal, and have resolved greatly to increase the number of labourers in all parts of the world, if they can be found. It is not intended to add any thing at present to the pathetic and powerful statements already before the public; if they cannot produce some effect on the sympathies of British Christians, then must the hearts of British Christians be harder than the nether millstone. The object of the present paper is merely to show where Missionaries are needed, and to urge well qualified men to come up to the help of the Lord against the mighty. India, with her hundred millions of heathens, all open to our exertions, and all standing in the utmost need of our benevolent efforts, requires for herself more Missionaries than all our Societies ever have, or, according to their present scale of operations, ever can send forth. The London Society has at present about thirty Missionaries in British India, and twenty more are immediately wanted; indeed, the Society stands pledged to send them. The Ultra Ganges, (including China,) with a population of more than 400 millions, many of whom are accessible to the labours of Missionaries, and where the foundation for extensive usefulness has been laid by the devoted Morrison and Milne, has six Missionaries, and is it too much to say that ten additional labourers should be instantly despatched for that important, that interesting, and widely opening field? China may not be fully open to the Gospel, but enough of it is open, and facilities are presenting themselves in sufficient abundance to excite and encourage far more extensive exertion, so that the Directors of the Missionary Society have resolved to send out six additional labourers to Southeastern Asia, and two to Canton, as soon as they can be procured. South Africa has twenty Missionaries; and any one who had witnessed the countenance of Stoffles, when, stamping with his foot, he exclaimed, "I have a right to say, Come over and help us," would hardly think five new Missionaries too great a number for the population within and beyond the colony. The islands of the South Seas are at present blessed with about twenty Missionaries, and the advocate of that interesting people, now in this country, would hardly be content if we were to say that only five more were needed in that quarter of the world. In the West Indies, about twenty Missionaries are engaged; and though much has been done to prepare the slaves for their anticipated freedom, and to render the boon of Britain useful and beneficial to them, yet the addition of five more labourers would hardly keep pace with the removals, which in so unfavourable a climate may be expected to occur. Thus, without adverting to other fields, we absolutely need nearly fifty new labourers in pagan lands immediately, and this, upon a most moderate calculation, and without setting up the claims of one part of the heathen world against another, : Now, let us see what are our prospects of being able to supply this number. There are at present about thirty young men in various parts of Great Britain, studying with a view to foreign labours, under the auspices of the London Society; of these, onethird are merely pursuing a preparatory course, and have not yet entered any theological seminary. It would not be judicious, urgent as the claims of the heathen world confessedly are, to send any of them forth poorly furnished for their great and arduous undertaking the full term usually gone through by theological students should therefore be completed by them. If this be insisted on, there will not be more than half a dozen ready for embarkation in the course of the ensuing year; and what is this small number, compared to the fifty above shown to be absolutely demanded? Six is the sum total of ordained Missionaries sent forth by the London Society during the past twelve months, and apparently all that they will be able to despatch in the ensuing year. If this be the rate at which our operations are to be carried on, the Society will hardly hold its ground; for, on a moderate calculation, ten per cent. in a tropical climate, and five per cent. in more salubrious regions, is the average of Missionary deaths per annum; and as we have only about 100 ordained Missionaries in the field, the present rate of supply will scarcely be sufficient to fill up the vacancies occasioned by the demise of our present labourers. Should all the young men, now studying for the Missionary work, be ready immediately to enter the field, their number would not satisfy the present demand; and by the time they are ready, at the slow rate of six per annum, ten times more will be required. This surely cannot be the scale of operations which the churches of Britain are prepared to sustain? They would gladly respond to the call for increased funds, if the additional number of labourers entering the field demanded it. The heathen world annually requires ten times the number of Missionaries, and the Christian Church is prepared to support them. What, then, is wanting, but that men, suitable men, come forward and offer themselves for the undertaking? When this subject is urged by the Directors upon the attention of Ministers generally, and reiterated by their agents in various parts of the country, it induces sometimes those pastors of churches, who feel interested in the cause, to look about in their congregations for some promising Sunday-school teacher, or some useful village preacher, and recommend them to embark in the undertaking; or they bring the subject forward in their public addresses, with the view of inducing such to offer themselves to go abroad. It not unfrequently happens that the pastor represents the case of the young applicant to the Directors; the youth is sent to London, appears before the Examination Committee, and not exhibiting the necessary qualifications, is perhaps rejected; or it may be that the Committee resolve to take the individal on trial, send him to a preparatory institution, and in the course of time he is admitted to a seminary. There he must remain some three or four years, ere he can be sent forth as an ordained Missionary among the heathen. Some of these may and do turn out to be efficient Missionaries; but the time required for preparation retards the progress of the good work, and the number of ordained Missionaries annually entering the field is consequently quite insufficient. Assuming that the number of students under a course of instruction is really thirty, some half a dozen of these may either be deemed unfit for the work, or may themselves decline it before the period of embarkation arrives. The remainder, having to complete their course of four years, will only yield six per adnum as a supply for the Missionary field, which is just the number that have embarked during this, or may be expected to embark in the course of the ensuing, year. It has been shown that this number is utterly inadequate, and that the usual mode of supplying the Missionary ranks by putting forward uneducated young men, and carrying them through a theological and literary course, is far from meeting the demands of the case. What then is to be done? Why, we must endeavour to induce educated men to offer themselves, and that immediately, or the cause will remain at a stand; and perhaps retrograde, notwithstanding the calls for increased exertion, and the willingness of the Christian Church to sustain them. The matter might be somewhat remedied by pastors of churches, not only looking out for more suitable young men, and fixing their standard higher, but, also, by preparing these aspirants to the Missionary work, and giving them a year's instruction, before they urge them to offer themselves to the Society. They might, by that means, be better able to ascertain their abilities and qualifications for the undertaking, give a more particular and definite account of them to the Directors, and thus better insure their acceptance with the Board, besides rendering them more capable of profiting by the superior course of instruction with which they might be afterwards privileged. But even this would not meet the present exigencies of the case-men are wanted, qualified men, to the number of fifty, and that immediately. We must, then, turn our attention to those who are completing, or have completed their literary and theological course, and entreat them to consider, whether, under present circumstances, they are not called upon to go out to the heathen. But, before we do this, it may not be improper to advert to a few objections which may lie in the way of theological students offering themselves for Missionary work. The first objection may be supposed to arise from the constitution of our theological seminaries, some of which, having been established long before the present Missionary Societies were thought of, could not have contemplated the existing state of things, or have anticipated the educating of young men for foreign service. It may be, that, without considering the possibility of their students being required to go abroad, the founders of the above named institutions have expressly mentioned their design of qualifying young men for the work of the ministry in Great Britain and Ireland, and, in that case, the Committee or Managers presiding over them may feel disposed to discourage their students from offering themselves for foreign service; though, had the founders contemplated the present wants and wishes of the Christian Church, they would doubtless have left the matter entirely open, and would havebeen the last to restrict the yearnings of young disciples, over the extended miseries of the heathen world. The writer, having spent most of his days abroad, confesses himself comparatively ignorant of the circumstances which prevail at home, but hopes that some persons more familiar with these subjects will take the matter up, and endeavour to remove such difficulties as may cause the students in our older seminaries to refrain from offering themselves for foreign service. The difficulty is partly obviated by the Directors of the Missionary Society paying the expenses of the Missionary students at the several academies; still, as they can only be admitted where there is ample room, and but few vacancies occurring, the preference is always given to students who contemplate labouring amongst our churches at home. Another difficulty arises from the disposition of those who preside over our more modern theological seminaries. There appears to exist in the breasts of some of our leading religious men, a disposition to supply, extensively, the home pulpits with talented men, and a manifest disinclination to allow a single promising and energetic minister to leave the country. Hence, though bound by no trust-deed to confine their agents to home service, they are as necessarily led to favour the mother country, as if compelled by law; and while we must lament that the views of such men should be confined to any particular part of the world, yet it is evident that the feeling exists, and has a main influence in thinning the ranks of Missionary candidates, and keeping a number of first-rate men at home, who might, if not brought within the range of their influence, have described a wider and more extensive orbit. A third difficulty is to be found in the connexions formed by the students themselves. While still pursuing their theological course, they are not unfrequently called out to minister to different congregations, where they form connexions that induce them to confine their thoughts to home. Their talents are approved of, and they receive a call, which they consider an intimation in Providence, and content themselves with the prospect of settling in this country. But, notwithstanding these difficulties arising from the foundation of our theological seminaries, the dispositions of its managers, and the engagements of the students, there are yet arguments of sufficient force to induce zealous and pious men to prefer the foreign to the home service. When an individual has obtained the necessary facilities for doing effectual good to his fellow-men, the first and chief inquiry with him should be, "How shall I most glorify God, and best serve my generation? Where can I do most lasting and extensive good?" Doubtless, the fields that appear most destitute and most extensive would first demand the attention of the talented and qualified individual; and supposing him free to choose, and unfettered by engagements and circumstances, vigorous in constitution, strong in faith, with the love of Christ burning ardently in his breast, and compassion for lost man moving and melting his inmost soul, one cannot easily conceive how he could well choose any other than the most extensive and destitute field of labour. True, destitute fields may be distant, and may present difficulties; the people may be unwilling to hear, or may even oppose his efforts; years might roll on, and life almost wear away, before any visible impression would be made, or extensive change brought about; still Lis work would be with the Lord, his reward with bis God. Should it please his Divine Master to bless his labours, as be has promised to do; and should some effect be produced by his ardent, persevering, and self-denying endeavours, the result will be, the benefiting, not of a village, but of a tation-the awaking, not of a few families, but of a whole race of people; not merely the diffusing religious knowledge through the short-lived period of human life, but the founding a system of means that should extend its blessings to the latest generation. We know that heathen nations must be converted, and converted through the instrumentality of human agency; we know that no single nation will be brought to the knowledge of the truth without the expenditure of much time and money, apparently to very little purpose, at the commencement of the work of evangelization; but we know, also, that unless such expenditure be made at the commencement, the anticipated results are not likely to be realized. As, therefore, the heathen must be awakened at some time, and as they never can be evangelized, unless a system of means be used, then the patient, self-denying, persevering individual, who lays the first stone of the glorious edifice, will be as mainly instrumental, under God, in its erection, as those who bring forth the topstone thereof with shouting of, Grace, grace unto it! They who go forth weeping, bearing precious seed, do as mainly contribute to the harvest, as those who return with joy, bringing their sheaves with them. In future ages, therefore, the names of the first founders of the Christian faith in foreign lands will be remembered with rapture and gratitude; while those of the most popular and admired public preachers in an evange lized country will be comparatively forgotten. There can be no question, then, that the individual who shall engage in such an enterprise, even though he may not produce at first a single atom of visible good, will be more eminently and extensively useful than the man who is instrumental in gathering together the most flourishing church that England ever witnessed. True, the undertaking is beset with difficulties, and may be irksome and unpleasing; flesh and blood would prefer the more quiet and easy path of usefulness at home, and the human heart would doubtless be gratified by having to address hearers who would respond to every sentiment, and drink in every doctrine; but if convenience be coveted, if the facile and greeable be sought after, if difficulties be dreaded, and arduous labours avoided, then farewell the conversion of the world, and hail the perpetuity of ignorance and error, till another generation shall arise, which will prefer difficulties, and court dangers, if by that means they may more effectually glorify God in spreading his name among the heathen. A man of the right stamp, a man likely to effect any thing, would, in contemplating an undertaking, grapple first with the most difficult part of the enterprise, and, having accomplished that, would feel that success in minor things was sure. This one thing is certain, that nothing good, nothing great, was ever yet achieved without ardent, persevering, strenuous effort; and the world will never be evangelized until the church and people of God be aroused to a full sense of their obligations, and come forward with hearty goodwill and undaunted courage to the prosecution of the great undertaking. Perhaps some theological students may demur upon the plea of unfitness, and urge that they do not possess qualifications suited to so extraordinary and difficult an enterprise, and to what then are they looking forward? To the ministry at home? And do they not know, that even in the home service, unless they possess talents above the common order, they can never expect to be either eminent or useful. But, after all, much credit is not to be given to those who either exalt or depreciate their own capabilities; it is possible for them to err as much in the one as in the other; and the only fair estimate that can be formed of a man's talents must be taken from actual observation of his conduct and success in the management of affairs, which cannot have place, so long as he continues in a state of preparation or inactivity. But then a man's inclination may not lead him to embark in the foreign enterprise; he may be content to tread in the steps his father trod, and to keep quietly at home, in the plain but important path of domestic usefulness; and why should we seek to move a man against his inclinations, and what can we promise ourselves as to the result of such an effort? To this we reply, that we wish not to move a man against his inclination, but, if possible, to move the inclination itself, or to get him to sway it by the strong sense of duty. It is believed, that if we have to wait for spontaneous movements in the Missionary enterprise, we shall never see the world evangelized; but we must seek to beget the inclination, and men must put a restraint on their own wills, in order to bring about the desired result. Even in the home service, there are many irksome duties, which a man would not be led to engage in if left to the bent of his own heart, but which grace constrains him to do, in spite of himself; and when the object in view is great and overwhelming, even the natural dispositions undergo an amazing change. Whitfield used to say, that he was naturally of a cowardly disposition, and yet no man ever displayed more courage in the great and good cause than Whitfield did; and what was it that impelled him, but a sense of duty? In the military service, a man's inclinations are not studied when he is ordered to go on the forlorn hope, and in spite of his inclination he yields obedience to the commands of his general. It was the system of the Jesuits to demand instant and unreserved submission from all connected with their fraternity to the orders of their superior; and in this way cities have been won, and great objects gained. And shall the commands of a military officer, or the injunctions of a spiritual superior, obtain instant and necessarv obedience from those under their sway, while Christians, who are under higher and holier obligations, demur, and consult convenience and inclination, when required to "go into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature?' The managers of our theological seminaries probably could not, if they would, and would not, if they could, direct an individual to turn his attention to any particular section of the foreign field; and the Directors of the Missionary Society could not presume to dictate to a student not under their immediate patronage; so that the call which overrules inclination in the case supposed, must proceed from a man's own conscience, actuated by the word and Spirit of God; thus supported, it will doubtless prove effectual in confirming the wavering resolution, and bringing the devoted servant of God to say, "Here am I, send me." We do not, however, despair of seeing the day when the distinction between home and foreign service will be altogether annihilated, and when every labourer entering the harvest of the Lord of Hosts shall be willing to go into any part of the field to which his Master may direct. Hitherto we have been speaking of the best mode of meeting the present demand, which will doubtless require extensive volunteering; but when we contemplate the future filling up of the Missionary ranks, we must adopt some more certain and constant mode of supply. Whilst in search of agents, in order to meet our present necessities, our eyes are directed, not only to students, but to young ministers; for while we want educated men, we are in still greater want of tried men. Students just coming out of a theological seminary may possess talents and acquirements suited to the work, but they have not yet been put to the test; the churches do not know them; and when appointing agents to distant parts of the world, where many important interests are to be confided to them, it is necessary to send men in whom confidence can be placed; men who have been already engaged for a few years in the ministerial work at home, and who have given proof of their wisdom, piety, and zeal, in regulating the church of God. It is desirable that men should be obtained, who have not yet lost all the fire of youth, while they have acquired the discretion of age; and who have attained a respectable standing in society, without having sunk down into settled habits. There are numbers of these possessed of talents of a high order, yet wasting away their energies in a contracted sphere of usefulness, who would be rendering much greater service to God and man, and enjoying a much sweeter sense of the Divine approbation, were they stationed where the crying wants of the heathen world demand their aid. How often do we see men, who might have been extensive blessings to mankind, sitting down in a little village, containing a few hundred in |