MRS. J. A. BAILEY.
(The first lady missionary of the Society.)
With the exception of South America, there is no considerable quarter of the globe in which they are not represented. They may be found ministering to Esquimaux within the Arctic Circle, and to the Indians of the vast expanses of Canada; they are shepherding the Maoris of New Zealand; in India their stations may be discovered alike amongst the wild tribes of the northern frontier, the strange aboriginals found here and there in the continent, and the milder races of the south; in Africa the Society begins in Egypt, but goes no farther south than Uganda, though it is both on the east coast and the west; it is strongly represented along the coasts of China, as well as in the inland province of Sze-Chuen; it works both amidst the Japanese themselves and that strange people the hairy Ainu; it is domiciled in Ceylon and Mauritius; it has not forgotten Persia. From Madagascar it has retired, and it has shown a wise indisposition to enter upon new fields whilst the old are still insufficiently manned. It has ever been known for the strictness with which it observes the comity of missions; and it may fairly be said that the zeal with which its friends have worked in behalf of foreign missions has reacted on all the missionary agencies which have their origins in Great Britain, as well as upon some which express the zeal of America and the Colonies.
From Greenland's icy mountains,
From India's coral strand
Where Afric's sunny fountains
Roll down their golden sand,
From many an ancient river
From many a palmy plain
They call us to deliver
Their land from error's chain
What though the spicy breezes
Blow soft o'er Ceylon's Isle
Though every prospect pleases
And only man is vile?
In vain, with lavish kindness,
The gifts of God are strown
The heathen in his blindness
Bows down to woods and stone!
BISHOP HEBER'S MISSIONARY HYMN.