services are greatly needed, could they not enter into engagements with those of the same spirit and pursuits at home? Might they not be thus secured from loss, and even assisted in their labours. The merchants, if no better way suggested itself, might act on commission, and their brethren at home might become their employers. Should there be any loss, it might thus be dividedif any gain, it could be consecrated. There could be very little individual hazard, if a sufficient number were combined. I have uniformly found that there is a variety of ways, in which I might be useful in almost every station I have visited. If individuals went who could do nothing more than relieve the minds and hands of missionaries from secular cares, they would lend the most valuable assistance. By multiplying the labours of missionaries, they would in reality accomplish as much as if they themselves performed those additional labours. But there is another class of Christians who might prove the most valuable helpers in the conversion of the heathen. I allude to those whom the last speaker addressed-men of wealth who are not prevented from leaving their native countries, and who might spend at least a portion of their lives in some parts of the unevangelized world, with the greatest advantage to the cause of Christ. And why should they not go? Because others have not preceded them? Should they establish the precedent, probably others would folfow them. Or is it because they have wealth? And has it not been shown that this is an additional talent to be accounted for? If qualifications and facilities for usefulness impose an obligation, none are more imperatively bound to go to the heathen, than those who have property to employ where it is so much needed. I wish they could be induced to make the experiment for a few years. I have no question they would be thankful for the result. Their interest in this work of benevolence would increase, until it became dearer to them than life itself. I speak of those who offer themselves daily a living sacrifice to God. There would be no necessity to prepare themselves by long and laborious study for the ministry. They are already qualified to act a most honourable and useful part in the scene of missions. All their time-all their energies-all their wealth, might be employed and the nation to whom they devoted their all, would hold them up to future generations as one of their greatest benefactors. - Another expedient of great importance in conducting missions in many parts of the heathen world, is missionary ships. Where countries are insular and widely separated, as among the Poly nesian islands and the Indian group, ships are almost indispensable. I rejoiced to read a few months since, that a distinguished missionary had returned to the South Seas with a vessel of this description. Among the numerous islands and populous coasts of eastern Asia, such a ship would be of essential service. It could ascertain the best stations-transfer the missionaries to them, and annually supply their wants. The vast extent of these regions, and the numerous errands of mercy on which such a ship might be sent, would consume all her time. When I see property thus employed, I shall have new views of the divine wisdom in converting "the daughter of Tyre," and "the rich among the people." CHAPTER XXX. A PIOUS Surgeon belonging to a government ship, which had visited several missionary stations, arose, and requested leave to read a few extracts from a joint letter he had recently received from several missionary ladies. "We have been informed," say they, "of a missionary convention to be held at Jerusalem; and having heard that you will be present, we beg your advocacy in favour of the department in which we are engaged. Some of our names you will recognise as the wives of missionaries— others as teachers, sent out by different societies. Our province, as you know, is the mental and moral elevation of our own sex. You have had some opportunity of judging of their condition; but you know only in part. You have seen the mere exterior, and this is enough to agonize the heart; but heathenism lies deep beneath the surface. Have you never walked on the shore of the ocean, after the angry hurricane had swept by, and seen the remains of what was once a gallant ship, whose stately form and exquisite proportions were the admiration of all eyes? Such is the wreck of former grandeur - such the disorganized fragments of intellectual and moral beauty, which the human soul, under the influence of heathenism, exhibits. Among our sex this ruin is universal. Here no attempts are made at reparation. Their minds and hearts are left to utter desolation. How rational, reflecting beings can endure existence under the weight of wretchedness which crushes them, we can scarcely conceive. Yes, we do conceive the reason; but it only enhances their real misery. Though rational, they are too ignorant to reflect; though crushed, they know of no better allotment. Their treatment in the most sacred relations of life as mothers, wives, daughters, shows the absence, not only of human feeling, but often of brute instinct. Affianced without their knowledge, and married without their consent; doomed to bear the drudgery of life, or, if wealthy, made to share its most sacred relations with numerous jarring rivals; in widowhood solitary and neglected, if they escape the pile or the grave; and frequently left in the decrepitude of age to suffer and die from mere want, if not cruelly murdered; what can add to the dark catalogue of their present sufferings ! What our eyes have seen in the places in which we reside would fill a volume. To you such nar |