believers, gathered in sorrow into the upper chamber at Jerusalem ! How amazing the difficulties they must meet, in carrying out the command of their ascended Lord! One would almost think that the fewness of the number of the disciples, as compared with the host of their enemies, would necessarily eventuate in their entire discomfiture. How could they expect even to arrest attention, or to gain a hearing for their story? That insensibility to eternal interests, which even lays its palsying influence upon the devotee of a false religion, as well as upon the hypocritical professor of the true faith; had so spread itself among the people as to leave but faint hopes of success. The cares of the world, the pursuit of wealth, and the gratification of lust and passion, added their peculiar difficulties in the case. As a general thing, no natural predilections or inbred associations in favor of the pure religion of Jesus, existed. Some Anna, bent with age, might be seen watching day and night within the temple walls, with a true heart, to see him of whom the prophets had spoken. And among the despised and down-trodden of Israel's flock, a chosen few might be found who would not be offended because of the lowly, earthly condition of the Messiah, or of the severe and self denying principles of his religion. But, (sad fact!) almost every step that Christianity gained was against the most fearful opposition. There is not, probably, in the world's history, the record of a resistance so general and sudden as that which appeared against the gospel dispensation. It spread with the subtlety and rapidity of the electric fluid, mocking the general laws that govern the public mind. It could be accounted for only

by supposing the invisible agency of a malignant, superhuman power.

In addition to this, the opposition was characterized by a virulence, and exhibited such effects in the persons of the opposers, as to stamp it with awful interest. It was not simply the firm encounter between two powerful parties, in which, though the contest be long continued and severe the honorableness of fair debate is held sacred; and personal courtesy, and respect to age and sex are held inviolate. No : a demon-spirit was abroad. Men high in office, and amply furnished with the intellectual wealth of that intellectual age, seemed maddened with rage when they saw how surely the foolish things of this world could confound the wise, and the weak could vanquish the mighty. Many a Saul might have been found, with commission from the great Sanhedrim, to put to death those who were willing to own and follow Christ. In short, all that the malice and treachery and cunning of the enemy of righteousness could do to crush the infant church, was promptly arrayed against it.

Thus hinting, merely, at some of the opposing forces that met the first missionary band; leaving to the reader the filling up of the dark picture, if he please, it may now be asked,-if there be not at the present day the same seeming inadequacy of means to effect any change upon the nations?

It is true that less of malignity is experienced by the modern missionary than marked the treatment of his prototype in early days. But the cause of this unquestionably is, that, the heathen see less clearly, than did opposers formerly, the real bearing of Christianity upon their

individual lusts and wickedness. And further, the priests of false religions see little or no immediate danger to their craft. In fact, the startling inquiry forces itself upon the Christian's mind-and calls loudly for an answer:What have the latter to fear, when, in the language of the poor Mahratta," it is eighteen hundred years since Jesus Christ ascended to heaven, and yet we (they) never heard of him or his religion till four or five years ago !"

But while there is less of malignity for the modern missionary to contend with, there is what is still more discouraging, namely, an appalling indifference to his message. The close student of human nature would far rather see the fires of opposition flashing around, and hear the uneasy swellings of concern, than find the ear of those to whom he would address himself, heavy; and their feelings in nowise moved at his coming. That this indifference exists to an almost disheartening extent, cannot be denied. At the Sandwich Islands, and perhaps a few other missionary stations, it may not be difficult to collect a crowded and attentive audience to attend upon the preaching of the gospel. But with these few exceptions, groups of forty, fifty, or a hundred only, can be gathered; while there are, perhaps, within reach of the preacher's eye a thousand idlers, and thrice that number bowing before an idol-god. This point deserves more than a passing notice, for it illustrates the subtlety of Satan's policy; who, at one time goads his followers on to mad persecution, and at another almost stupifies their intellectual as well as moral faculties. We may not fondly think that, because no martyr-blood flows on the plains

of India, the arch-enemy of our faith is weary of opposition. Alas! far otherwise is the fact.

To show that the indifference to which we have alluded is real, the following extract, among a score at hand, is given. "The number of occasional hearers" says the Rev. Hollis Read, "varies of course with times and circumstances. At the Bombay station, where a person in order to hear the preacher, must formally enter the chapel, go up a flight of steps and seat himself among the assembly, the number of occasional hearers does not probably, on an average, exceed three on each Sabbath. The number at Ahmednuggur is much greater. Our preaching places there are open sheds, by the side of a public street, or near some place of concourse. As the people pass and repass, they are attracted to the place by seeing the little assembly which those who are required to attend make. They then stand without, or enter, as they choose, and come and go, as they please. In this way our occasional hearers sometimes amount to fifty; sometimes a hundred."

Here it ought to be remarked that, the general indifference spoken of, in nowise clashes with the encouraging facts that come to us from heathen lands. All those reports are, beyond a question, true. They may be increased a thousand fold without trenching upon the proposition under consideration. The anxious Karen may again and again come from his distant home on purpose to procure a tract which tells of Jesus Christ; and crowds may gather around the faithful Gutzlaff as he shall pursue his voyages along the eastern coast of China, while the mass of heathen mind may lie as motionless as the

Dead Sea. How long this state of things shall continue is known only to Omniscience. But of one thing we may be certain, that, when the claims of God's pure and holy law shall pierce the heart of the religious teachers, and shall measurably pervade the public mind, the missionary will find the fires of bloody and malign persecution kindling around him.

In addition to this disheartening influence-which has taken the place, for a time, of the persecuting spirit of former days-we must take into account, not only the forms of wickedness and error common to all unregenerate men; but those superinduced by idolatry, than which, nothing can be more appalling, and difficult to combat. It were in vain to attempt the presentation of facts in the latter connexion. In the recesses of heathenism there is a complexity and profundity of abomination, incommunicable by human language. The poor missionary to a certain extent understands it, and he only.

Surely all these considerations will force to the conclusion that so far as the seeming inadequacy of the means to effect a desirable change is concerned, the latter missionary occupies no vantage ground over the former.

The third point which it would seem necessary to establish, before we leave entirely untried the missionary plan marked out by the Saviour, is, that there was an object formerly contemplated different from the missionary purposes of the present age.

If there were this difference, then, as a matter of course, we might, if we pleased, vary from that model. It would be excuse sufficient were we to show that other ends were in view. But it is presumed no such opinion will be ad