affected by the recurrence of the fact, in every instance, of the rapid decay of the Indian population. Not only the living generations to whom Eliot and others preached, have long since slept with their fathers, but their posterity have dwindled to a few families, or disappeared altogether; and it seems the inevitable destiny of these hapless beings, tribe after tribe, to become extinct as civilization advances into their wildernesses.

The fifth chapter supplies us with narratives of the dissemination of Christianity by the Danes, in two extremes of the globe; in the East Indies, where they possessed only one small colony, and in Greenland, where they claim the undisputed sovereignty of an icy desert, two thousand miles in extent. To the honour of Denmark be it remembered, that the government, in both these cases, have displayed a zeal according to knowledge and a fidelity of purpose, in supporting these Missions, which no other Protestant government can pretend to have rivalled. For nearly a century in Greenland, and more than a century in Tranquebar, they have regularly maintained Christian preachers, who have generally been able, active, conscientious ministers of the Gospel, on the one hand to the shivering savages under the pole, and on the other to the indolent voluptuaries in the torrid zone. Among the latter, one of the most eminent was the late Mr. Swartz, of whom frequent and honourable mention is made in these days, though a few years ago his name was unheard of, and the very existence of a Danish Mission at Tranquebar was scarcely known in this country. In Greenland, the forerunner of the Moravian Brethren was the Rev. Mr. Egede, a man who, in defiance of every discouragement and difficulty at home and at court, began to preach Christ to the miserable natives; and amid hardships and sufferings unimaginable by those who live at ease in their possessions, continued his exertions for many years. Though his success was apparently small, his labours were duly rewarded by his Master, by whom alone their number, and their issue could be estimated.

In relationship to the Missions of the United Brethren, more generally called Moravians, we have had repeated opportunities of bearing testimony to the humble, patient, and invincible perseverance, with which, in simplicity and fervour of spirit, they serve the Lord Jesus Christ. For upwards of fifty years these people were little known, or only known by the calumnies circulating against them on their first appearance in this country, and which they answered effectually, by living so that nobody at length believed their traducers. As for their Missions, they were scarcely heard of in Christendom, till their growing prosperity fairly compelled attention from a gazing world; and well might the world gaze, when, on the one hand the wilderness

began to rejoice and to blossom like the rose, while, on the other, the mountains brake forth into singing, and the dark places of the earth shone with the glory of the Lord. Then, indeed, were the Brethren's Missions admired, honoured, and imitated} for, by the universal assent of their fellow Christians, they are at this day allowed to have exhibited plans and means of con verting the most rugged and refractory heathen, worthy of general acceptation. The records of their carly Missions having become exceedingly scarce, Mr. Brown, in his History, supplies succinct views of them, abridged from "Crantz's Greenland;" "the History of the Brethren," " Loskiel's North America,” and the "Periodical Accounts."

We shall give one extract from the section concerning Greenland, because it affords us an opportunity of making a very important remark.

In 1750, when the Greenlanders removed from their tents into their winter houses, they amounted to upwards of three hundred, and the number who had been baptized, within little more than eleven years, was no fewer than two hundred and fifty-six. In that part of the country, it was formerly deemed impossible for two families to find subsistence; yet this great number of persons not only subsisted, but were able to afford relief to those who were in need, though there had been such famines in other places, almost every year, that even where provision used to be most plentiful, many had died of want. Some of the savages from Kangek had lately buried an old man alive, and when they were called to an account for their conduct, they pleaded, in excuse, that it was done at his daughter's request, because he had got a putrid hand, and could do nothing for his own support! The Christian Greenlanders had never been reduced to such extremity, for they had learned not only to pray, but to work, and even to be good economists. They now, indeed, enjoyed great advantages for the preservation of their provisions, in the storehouses which were lately erected for the use of them and the missionaries. Christian David, when he was in Greenland, with the new church, observed the need which they had for some accommodation of this kind, as for want of it their dried meat, fish, capelins, and other articles, which they preserved under heaps of stones, were often either half-devoured by the foxes and ravens, or reduced to a state of putrefaction, and this was apt to be succeeded by scarcity or infectious disorders. He had, therefore, returned some time ago, with suitable materials, and erected a large store-house for the Greenlanders, and a small one, together with a wood-house, for the missionaries. Vol. I. pp. 384-385.

Here is exhibited a striking example of the effects of Christianity on the temporal condition of savages; it civilizes, it enriches, it enlightens, it exalts them as social beings. The wisdom of man says, First civilize barbarians, and then christianize them; and the wisdom of man has proved itself foolishness in every experiment of the kind which it has made,

though it must be confessed, that it has been too prudent or too selfish to make many. The wise counsel of God is very different. This says, Go and preach the gospel to the Gentiles, whether Greeks or barbarians; if to the latter, you will civilize them by so doing, and just in proportion as they are christianized, they will be civilized. No motives less powerful than conviction of sin, fear of hell, faith in Christ as a Saviour, bis love shed abroad in their hearts, and hope of everlasting life; no motives less powerful than these can command attention from fierce, obstinate, sensual savages, to plans of civilization, much less wean them from their roving, indolent, cruel habits, and make them stationary, social, gentle, self-denying, humble beings. If there be an instance to the contrary, in all the intercourse of Europeans with untutored Pagans in Asia, Africa, or America, let it be produced as a confutation of our remark; but instances in confirmation of it may be produced in every quarter of the globe, among Greenlanders, Esquimaux, Indians, Negroes, and Hottentots. If the Danes and Moravians had perseveringly endeavoured first to humanize, and then to convert the Greenlanders, by teaching them letters, economy, and arts, the work of conversion would have been unbegun at this day! Thousands of these poor people, now, we trust, in glory, would have gone out of the world, unchanged in this life, and unprepared for the future eternal world, by any knowledge of the Gospel of peace; and instead of Greenland being, as we readily believe it to be, the most Christian country on the face of the earth, scarcely a trace of idolatry being left, and almost all the people being truly taught of God, by faithful ministers, it would still have been a coast of barren rocks and islets, engirdled with tempestuous seas, and thinly haunted, rather than inhabited, by a species of human beings, less enviable in their temporal condition than the seals, and bears, and sea-fowl, on which they preyed, and more miserable than these, inasmuch as the grave itself would have offered no refuge to them, as immortal beings, from the evils of life.

We mention Greenland particularly, because the plan of reformation, by teaching the natives useful arts and moral lessons, was tried for a while, and to a sufficient extent, both by Mr. Egede, and the first Moravian missionaries, to prove its utter impotence to reclaim a single adult savage from his rude habits and his hideous superstition; whereas, by preaching the love and the sufferings of Christ, in plain and simple terms, and publishing "redemption in his blood" alone, the Gospel, after a progress of four-score years, may now be said to have completely triumphed over the hearts and manners of this obdurate race: they are christianized almost without exception, and so far civilized, that in proportion to the population of each country, there are, probably,

in Greenland more persons who can read, than in Britain. It is true, that in the former there is scarcely a man to a square league of wilderness; but the victory of the cross has, for that very reason, been the more signal. The few inhabitants were scattered in solitary families along a coast of two thousand miles, and there was not such a thing as a village in the whole country; yet have these wanderers been gathered into one fold, under one Shepherd, in a spiritual sense; and those of them who belong to the Moravian Brethren, are settled in three pleasant neighbourhoods, at the distance of several hundred miles from each other, where they live together in true Christian fellowship.

Dr. Brown next gives some account of the Methodist Missions in the West Indies. There, indeed, Mr. Wesley's followers have been eminently instrumental in bringing thousands of Negro Slaves into the liberty of the Gospel. Among other heathens, this class of Christians have perhaps done less than might have been expected from their known zeal and activity at home, and in North America. It seems probable, however, that in the course of a few years, they will not be behind the most zealous of their contemporaries, as teachers of the Gentiles. The recent tidings from their friends in the Island of Ceylon, where a native Budha Priest has been the first fruit of their evangelical labours, promise, at least to our hopes, a great harvest of good.

Then follow accounts of the interesting and astonishing labours of the Baptists, both in the conversion of souls and in the translation of the Scriptures. In the conversion of souls, considering the time, and the circumstances of the people among whom they are domesticated, they have done as much as any of their forerunners in India; but with respect to the translation of the Scriptures, they have absolutely done more than all their fore-runners and fellow-labourers, either in India or in any other part of the world. For this work they seem to have been especially sent out; and on them there has been poured such a spirit of grace and power to accomplish it, that it may truly be said, the gift of tongues has been extraordinarily, though not miraculously, bestowed upon them. Their proceedings are so generally known, and so fully approved among other denomi nations of Christians, that we need not further enlarge upon their successes.

Our Author, in detailing the romantic and multifarious history of the first experiments, or adventures as they might be called, of the London Missionary Society, has not spared the errors of good men full of zeal, and altogether unexperienced in the work which they undertook to direct; nor the apostacy of false brethren employed by them in the execution of their

magnificent plans. The principal misfortunes in the commencement of the operations of this Society, were occasioned by the appointment of improper persons, who offered themselves as candidates for this new and noble service. Its managers have become wiser by the knowledge which cost them so dear in the outset They have learned that it is easier to raise money than Missionaries; God alone can send these; and we believe, that now they are as discreet and as happy in the choice of persons to intrust with the charge of bearing the vessels of the Lord in distant climes, as any of their brethren who are engaged in the same holy service. That due honour may be done to a Society which is the glory of one class of Christians, the Independents, and reflects equal lustre upon professors of every denomination who can conscientiously unite with them for the furtherance of the pure Gospel of "Christ crucified," we shall quote the following passage.

We question, indeed, if in the whole history of the propagation of Christianity in modern ages, a mission is to be found so fruitful in important and interesting lessons, as the mission to the South Sea Islands. We shall make only one other remark, and we think it is an observation of considerable importance. The mission to the South Sea Islands, though it has been attended with little or no success in that quarter of the globe, has yet been a powerful mean of promoting the interests of Christianity in other parts of the world, particularly in Pagan countries. Eliot, and Mayhew, and Brainerd, the Danes, the Moravians, and the Baptists, had all engaged in missionary undertakings, and most of them with considerable appearances of success. But their operations never awakened the Christian world from the lethargy into which it had fallen. Individuals were interested and delighted with their exertions; but the great body of professed Christians scarcely ever heard either of them or their labours. It was not till the Missionary Society was formed;-it was not till the magnificent mission to the South Sea Islands was undertaken, the splendour of which dazzled the eyes of mankind, that the Christian world was aroused from its slumbers. Then a general concern was excited throughout the whole of Christendom, for the conversion of the Heathen. Old establishments were revived, or at least supported with more vigour, and prosecuted with fresh zeal. New institutions were formed for the propagation of the gospel at home and abroad, some of which have already been crowned with extensive success, while others promise a yet more abundant harvest. In short, a new impulse appeared to be given to the operations of the Christian world; and this, we think, may be traced in no inconsiderable degree, to the splendour and magnificence of the mission to the South Sea Islands. pp. 402–403.

The concluding chapter of Dr. Brown's Work, includes sundry narratives respecting the exertions of the Edinburgh Missionary Society in Africa and Tartary, and those of the