utmost moment to the after history of the world, was a matter worthy of the giving of signs from heaven, indicative of the interference of Providence in these affairs of earth. Truly, as Josephus declares, "the events that followed were of so considerable a nature as to deserve such signals."

6. That these miseries were such as were not from the beginning of the world.

Josephus (Pref. " Wars," 4) says, "It appears to me that the misfortunes of all men, from the beginning of the world, if they be compared to these of the Jews, are not so considerable as they were." And ("Wars," v. 10, 5), "I shall speak my mind here at once briefly:-That neither did any other city ever suffer such miseries, nor did any age ever breed a generation more fruitful in wickedness than this was, from the beginning of the world."

7. Concerning the Gospel being " preached in all the world for a witness," before the destruction of Jerusalem.

Forster, who confines himself to a verification of these prophecies only of the times preceding the destruction of Jerusalem, has the following note:

"Preached in all the world. From the most credible records it appears that the Gospel was preached by S. Jude in Idumæa, Mesopotamia, and Syria; in Egypt and Africa, by Mark, Simon, and Jude; in Ethiopia, by the converted eunuch, and Matthias; in Pontus and Galatia, and the neighbouring parts of Asia, by Peter; in the territories of the seven Asiatic Churches, by John; in Parthia, by Matthew; in Scythia, by Philip and Andrew; in the northern and western parts of Asia, by Bartholomew; in Persia, by Simon and Jude; in Media and several parts of the East, by Thomas; through the vast tract" from Jerusalem round about into Illyricum," by Paul. This Apostle was also in Greece and Italy, very probably in Spain and Gaul, and, we may add also with great probability, Britain; for Clemens, his contemporary, declares (Ep. Cor.' 20) that the nations beyond the ocean were governed by the precepts of the Lord. History, in fact, abundantly warrants the assertion that the Gospel has been generally preached throughout the world in some countries it has been rejected; in many, where it once flourished, it has been corrupted, or lost; but still ' God hath called the world from the rising up of the sun unto the going down thereof."

No. XII.

On xviii. 37; xxvi. 54.

MISSIONARY LABOUR IN APOSTOLIC AND SUBSEQUENT AGES.

To do justice to such a subject as this should be the aim of an essay of length-a digest, in fact, of Church history of the past, and of the result of modern effort. It may be, however, generally and briefly stated in what respects the experience of the apostolic missionary must have differed from that of his successors, and in what they must be identical.

The missionary of the apostolic age had, in the first place, to surmount various personal disqualifications, and prejudices of early training.

In going forth to the wide world with Abraham's promise, he required much of that grand and simple faith, and of that pure obedience (more akin to that of those who do God's will in heaven, than of those who are chosen to do it upon earth), which prompted Abraham, at the call and command of God, to set aside all the strong and rooted principles of life, which bind men to the homes and customs of their forefathers in the unchanging East, and to seek a new country, and to establish a new religion amongst men of an alien race, founder and heir of a Church and family of which there then existed not a single member. It is difficult for men of the Western world, so liberal in their views of the brotherhood of mankind, so prompt to transplant themselves into any other land in the interests of commerce and civilization, to understand and estimate fully the force of the restriction of Eastern thought and life. These, however, unfold themselves to the view of those who settle in Eastern lands, and attempt to introduce Western ideas, either on subjects of social intercourse, education, or religion. The surmounting of all early influences in the case of Abraham, made him the true father of the faithful to the end of time; of all who recognize no law superior to God's will, no interests more local than those of His Catholic Church, no country of earth more than a place of sojourn to the citizens of heaven. In the case of apostolic missionaries, his descendants lineally, equally rooted to home localities by every association of earthly training, and, in addition, tied to the restricted privileges and hopes of the Jewish religion, there was a necessity for faith in Christ, such as that of Abraham, and for an obedience as unhesitating. He, like his great ancestor, had to lay aside all the ties of locality, nation, and early faith, and to embrace the catholic spirit of the Gospel, which recognized all mankind as the heirs of the promise, and as children of God; and

which gathered the Gentile to him in a closer bond of fellowship than ever could the ties of national relationship, even when hallowed and centred in those peculiar to such a religious system as that of the Jewish Church; which made him no longer the citizen of a settled kingdom, and orthodox faith never to be subverted or superseded, supreme under God on earth, but left him, like Abraham, a wanderer, an Hebrew still, seeking upon earth a country and a kingdom beyond this world, and beyond time.

What changes of thought, and feeling, and of aspiration must he have undergone, who, as Christ's Apostle, went forth from Jerusalem, from the land of the promise, from the Jewish Church, and from the Temple services, to preach the Gospel to the Gentiles.

Again, when personal difficulties were surmounted in the inspiration of the Spirit of Christ, he must have become sensible of other disadvantages; those which must fetter an unlearned and ignorant man in going forth with a new and strange doctrine, which must refuse to be engrafted on, or to incorporate, any existing systems of religion, but which must triumph in the abolition of them all, amongst people, the educated chiefs of whom, at least, were infinitely his superior in worldly knowledge, and in all human learning. In knowledge of mankind also, and in acquaintance with the history, habits, and religious systems of various races, they were greatly his superior who came out of a closed and narrow corner of the earth, into the wide expanse of the inhabited world, with a mission to revolutionize human society, more uncompromising and more imperial than that of the empire of Rome. He required, therefore, miraculous power, and a heavenly inspiration to attest his words, and to direct his actions.

He had, however, these advantages: the world before him possessed a common language, which was recognized everywhere as the language of education in all civilized countries; there was also one imperial rule, within which were current the same standard of opinion and code of law. But he was himself educated under a different system, and had been trained to the belief in restricted privileges, which unfitted him to influence the minds of men of world-wide sympathies, and of indifference to, or toleration for, every other creed as well as their own; and he spoke a language almost unknown beyond his own country. He needed, therefore, inspiration with regard to the mode of thought prevalent within the world, and a gift of discernment of spirits, superior to any knowledge of mankind by intuition or study, and a gift of understanding and of speaking languages which he had never learned. There was, perhaps, one other circumstance which gave immediate currency to his word. The hold of ancient religion upon men's minds was not exactly that of devotion, nor yet of superstition; everywhere men of education were laughing at the follies and absurdities of idolatry; and the classes below them were prompted

to perceive their growing atheism. The teaching of idolatry did nothing to purify and hallow the relationships of daily life; it had no answer to give to the questions which the schools of philosophy canvassed freely, and treated with infinite wisdom and gravity. The ancient religion had interwoven itself with polite literature; and the beautiful stories of ancient mythology, the poetry, art treasures of the world, all allied to the old belief, must have had a charm for the educated mind of those days, even superior to that with which they have delighted scholars in all subsequent ages, to the present time. And for the lower classes there was the hold which national holidays, and the rites and ceremonies which distinguished them, have ever upon the popular mind. But neither the refined pleasures of literature and art, nor the consecrated license of the holiday, satisfy the deeper longings of the soul of man. And therefore, when the apostolic missionary, accredited by miraculous powers, and inspired with a Divine knowledge of men and of their deeper thoughts, and gifted with many tongues and dialects, came with the offer of eternal peace, answering all the unsatisfied aspirations and intuitions of the soul of man, teaching also a religion which could transform the society of earth into that worthy of heaven, which could purify the lives of men, and hallow the natural and domestic relationships of families, and consecrate the daily work of life-when a simple and true faith was thus placed before men, there were multitudes who turned at once from their superstitions, which they professed outwardly, and inwardly derided, to the truth of the Gospel of Christ. And thus the Gospel spread rapidly in many lands.

II. It was not long before a change took place in the position which advancing Christianity, and retiring heathenism occupied with regard to each other. The age of miracles passed away with the passing of the necessity for miraculous aid; for Christianity soon gathered to itself apologists as keen in thought and argument, and as deeply versed in worldly learning, as were any who maintained the old faith, and contended against the truth. Education speedily, and gradually the subtle powers of refinement, art, and science, passed over to the side of the new faith. It had also assigned her rightful place and revealed her proper duties, to woman; and she, from the first never hostile to Christ, began to train the rising generation to Christianity.

When converts were made, or disciples of Christ grew up, who went forth as successors in the commission of the Apostles to preach the Gospel in other lands, to wild and barbarous nations, they came before men as the modern missionary does; possessed of superior intelligence, and of the powers of cultivated thought, and of civilization; bringing blessings and offers of this life, together with those of the spiritual teaching of the Gospel, sufficient generally to attest the faith they proclaimed. It was then no longer the contest of

Divine wisdom with earthly wisdom; but of wisdom of the world, illumined with heavenly truth, against the darkness and cruelty of ignorance and error. Henceforward, the best missionary must be the man of intellectual power and attainments, possessed of knowledge of human character, and of tact to influence and mould the thoughts and wills of other men, of love like that of Christ to draw them, and to hold them; he must be a man of high spiritual excellence and energy, and well versed in the Scriptures of truth. It would not be sufficient to have simply a desire to spread the Gospel -the missionary should be a man selected from other men; for the gift of cultivated intellect, and the endowment of the treasures it can amass, must now take the place of that miraculous aid, now denied because no longer necessary to the demonstration of Christ's truth.

III. But there are still gifts which are common to the missionary of Christ in all ages; to the modern missionary equally with him to whom Christ committed the proclamation of the Gospel, in the presence of those five hundred witnesses, upon the mountain of His appearance in Galilee. He must be "sent" by Christ upon this high embassy to the souls of other men; and, if sent, graced with the inspiration of the Spirit, and with a true and earnest zeal; accredited, not now with miraculous powers, but evidently in the "demonstration of the Spirit and of truth."

IV. The subject thus briefly sketched must be closed; though, to the author writing in India, the temptation is great to speak of missionary work here; which is, in some respects, an exception to the missionary experience of former ages. Caste, engrossing all conditions of life in this world, and influencing all prospects in the future world, presents a steady front against the advance of Christianity. For it is not only that the convert must be won to Christ, but that means of work and life must be provided now; for when his caste is broken, he is an outcast from his hereditary profession. If the Gospel is offered to the Mahomedan, the difficulties connected with monotheism seem even greater than those of polytheism, or heathenism; as they have been in all ages. That principle of worship which brought the Jew and the Persian into friendly relationship, drives the Christian and the Mahomedan more widely apart than is the severance of heathenism.

And yet there are not wanting indications that the day of a splendid success is about to dawn upon the night of devoted effort, and of small apparent gain-that a mighty harvest will crown the patience of those that have sowed in hope. The impression of this dawning change seems equally present to the mind of the earnest missionary, and to that of the heathen amongst whom he is labouring; one by one the barriers of progress are disappearing, and truth and light advancing.

It remains that those who work for Christ in this especial com