And does not the LORD CLAIM from us this larger service? He has shown the need of the heathen world more clearly, and made the argument for instructing it unanswerable.
We have prospects for the future to which the gains of the past are poor. With our skilled agencies, all shaped by experience, with plans well-tried, with our versions and our literatures in every tongue, with China opened widely in answer to prayer, with India deeply moved, with Africa free, with Polynesia raised and civilized, with Madagascar purified by fire—what tokens have we of manifest blessing, of approval, and of divine help! The old systems have fallen, or are paralysed, or are trembling with fear; and the young life of the world is drawing towards freedom and truth. Our results are incomplete; they are but an earnest of successes yet to be gathered; and the full reward will be reaped more truly as the years go by. But how noble that reward will be!
A pleasant custom prevails in India which will illustrate our position. At all the military stations of the Empire, the troops are summoned to parade in the early morning by the firing of a gun. The night may still be dark; the restless sleeper may fancy it will yet be long. But suddenly amid the stillness loud and clear booms out the morning gun. The stars are still shining, and the landscape is wrapped in gloom. But THE DAWN IS NEAR; and soon every eye is open, every foot astir, and the busy, waking life of men again begins. The fleecy clouds that hang on the eastern horizon grow ruddy with gold; and the arrowy light shoots its bright rays athwart the clear blue sky. The dust and foulness which the night has hidden stand revealed. But in the forests and hills the pulses of nature beat fresh and full; the leopard and the tiger slink away; the gay flowers open; the birds flit to and fro, and with woodland music welcome the rising day. In the city all forms of life quicken into active exercise. The trader sits ready on his stall; the judge is on the bench; the physician allays pain; the mother tends her child. The claims of human duty come again into full force; benevolence is active; suffering and disappointment, forgotten in sleep, press with new weight on weary hearts. What a mighty change one hour has made!
Long has the night of heathenism and of wickedness ruled over the world. "Darkness has covered the earth, and gross darkness the people." But the gun has fired and "THE MORNING COMETH." The nations once wrapped in gloom are waking to life and truth. Divine light is quickening all the pulses of human thought; the heart beats more warmly; the eye looks upward, and the great world is drawing nearer to its Father. The Gentiles are coming to the light, and kings to the brightness of His rising. And when at length the Sun of Righteousness shall rise in power, His new creation, "with verdure clad, with beauty, vigour, grace adorned," shall give Him loving welcome; and He shall shine, to set no more, on "the new heavens and new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness."
APPENDIX.
Extension of our Missions.
One valuable result has followed the recent revision of the Society's missions, which was scarcely expected when that revision began. The Directors already find themselves able to contemplate an extension of our missions into new localities long crying out for aid. They are moving in the following direction:—
For several years past the SOUTH SEA MISSION has taken up but a small quantity of new ground. Small groups like the Ellice group, the Lagoon Islands, and the Tuamotus, with a few hundred people, have been instructed. But since Niue and the Loyalty group were evangelised, nearly twenty years ago, not a single large island has been occupied. Meanwhile the Theological Institutions have been training native students in considerable numbers, and many are now ready for evangelistic work. The Directors therefore are anxious to commence such work in new localities without delay; and they have arranged that, during her next year's voyage, the John Williams shall visit the large islands of the northern New Hebrides, together with the Kingsmill and other groups, in order to establish new missions among the thousands of heathen which they contain. The Directors hope that not less than thirty competent and devoted native evangelists will go forth on this expedition. In due time English missionaries will follow: and three of our valued brethren on the spot have already volunteered for the service. In Eastern Polynesia the brethren in Tahiti and the Leeward Islands will complete on system the efforts which they have recently commenced in the Tuamotu or Pearl Islands. For this desired extension funds have been already provided or offered by two of the Society's warm friends.
The Mission towards CENTRAL AFRICA suggested by Mr. Moffat and Dr. Livingstone, was zealously commenced eleven years ago. Successfully established, notwithstanding many disasters, it has continued to hold its ground. When their revision commenced, the Directors proposed at once to strengthen this important mission. Several new stations have been named by the missionaries which the Directors hope in due time to occupy. During the last two years three new missionaries have been added to the former staff of labourers, and two others will join them next summer. The missionaries north of the Orange River will then be thirteen in number, of whom nine will be engaged in direct missionary work. This increase, required by our duty to the tribes waiting on our instructions, is entirely dependent upon the Society's general funds.
Many years ago the MONGOLIAN MISSION, which had been carried on by our honoured brethren, Messrs. Swan and Stallybrass, near the Siberian edge of the Tartar deserts and among the Buriat Mongols, was broken up by the Russian Government, and our brethren were withdrawn. The Directors have not forgotten that mission, nor lost their interest in the Mongol tribes. Recent enquiries have shown that the effort may be renewed with excellent prospects, on the China side of Mongolia, and that the city of Peking will form a suitable base of operations. Among their present missionary students the Directors believe that they have found a suitable man; and he will proceed in the spring to Peking to take up his new position. The funds necessary at the outset have already been provided in the generous gift of Mrs. Swan.