under the habitual influence of those truths which relate to and determine their own salvation; and we should never doubt, if successful in this endeavor, that we had most effectually secured their coöperation in every good work affecting the triumph of Christ in the earth, and the salvation of men. This is the piety which we need, and without which our churches must either dwindle away in the presence of a perishing world which it is their mission to save, or find the future marked with periods of devotion and revival, as fitful and evanescent as those which have marked the past few years. May we seek for, and may God give us, the piety which we need !-Bap. Reporter. "THE WORK IS GREAT." (Continued from p. 7.) If" the work is great"-to evangelize 600,000,000 of heathen souls;-if its local embarrassments cannot be shunned; if all its preparatory labors must be fore-accomplished; if it must be wrought on minds imbruted, dark, and powerless for good, and wrought in severalty on mind by mind; if it cannot be largely consigned to the undirected efforts of native helpers, and the laborers from Christian lands are few; and if, for the present generation, it must be wrought in thirty years-and the time cannot be lengthened;—what remains but to send more laborers? "The work is great" to SEND FORTH LABORERS,-to send forth laborers in numbers adequate to the work abroad.-To do the work abroad, the laborers should be multiplied an hundred fold. We need not ones but tens, not tens but hundreds. "What do these feeble Christians," the Horonite might say of us, and none rebuke him. The work is "great and large,” and we send few laborers; and we think to achieve the enterprise. But when, or how? Are the few to perform more labor? Shall we urge them to intenser, mightier, more agonizing appliances of mind and heart? Shall they consume more hours in toil, turning the night to day? Are they too provident of needful rest, too careful of life, too regardful of sultry heats, and storm, and pestilence? Shall we adjure them to a more self-sacrificing devotedness to the one and only end for which they live, and in the earnest prosecution of which they have freely "suffered the loss of all things?" Shall we "embitter their lives with hard bondage," and "make them to serve with rigor ?" Or, shall we entreat the Lord of all things to change his ordinances, and for a recompense of our improvident withholding, give larger increase? "Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap;" this is the first and great law of God's husbandry. And the second is like unto it; "He that soweth sparingly, shall reap also sparingly." Shall the Lawgiver reverse this law? And he that soweth sparingly, reap bountifully? Shall He so cast contempt on his own enactments? And shall men gather also grapes of thorns, and figs of thistles? Unquestionably it is in the power of the infinite Creator to annul his ordinances, and change times and seasons. He can make harvest-days of seed-time, and the season of harvest the time for bearing forth the precious seed. He can also make void the fixed proportions of things, changing their powers and susceptibilities, in kind or compass. But it doth not please him so to do. He may hasten in their time the appointed weeks of harvest. "The ploughman may overtake the reaper, and the treader of grapes him that soweth seed." He may "return into our bosoms good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over." He may "multiply our seed sown," even sixty and an hundred fold. But there are bounds beyond which He will not pass; statutes and purposes which may not fail. "Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God." "But how shall they hear without a preacher, and how shall they preach except they be sent ?” How shall one hear without a preacher; how shall one understand, "except some man guide him?" Then how shall the thousand and the million understand? "We need, to evangelize the Karen people, a thousand preachers." Let 900 be native, and the residue “be sent,” and we multiply our missionaries to the Karens alone tenfold. For all Burmah and Arracan we need 200 missionaries; for Siam 100, for Assam 50, for the Teloogoos 150. For the evangelization of these millions alone,—were we intent to fulfil our work—we would need, within ten years, to send 500 missionaries, or tenfold the whole aggregate of missionaries now laboring in all our missions. But for such progress we are unprepared. The home work of sending forth laborers, like the work abroad, has its local embarrassments; and there is, also, much preparatory labor indispensable to be done. "WHOM SHALL WE SEND? AND WHO WILL GO FOR US?" Our first embarrassment is want of men, men of an undivided heart, men of resolute purpose, men "ready not only to be bound but also to die for the name of the Lord Jesus." The hindrances to a free, full, earnest consecration to the missionany service, a consecration intelligent, deliberate, and not to be repented of, are great and many. Life, health, learning, honor, civic rights and duties, domestic and social pleasures, and unexpensive usefulness, obstruct the way. And, on the other part, are distance, indistinctness, solitary toil, uncertainty of success but certain peril and suffering, disease, and an early grave. There is obstruction also from parental tenderness and sense of filial duty; from the example of superiors,-teachers, pastors, and people; from the eager occupations of men, worldling and Christian, making things present real, and the distant shadowy and unsubstantial. There is the impediment of feeble-minded indecision; of unfruitful faith, being dead; of self-indulgent sloth, and of lukewarm love. Some of these obstacles must be surmounted; they lie imbedded in permanent relations; we cannot remove them, neither can we circuit round about them. Others of them may, and must, be taken out of the way, or brought low. This embarrassment from want of men is ever present, ever pressing, ever working discouragement, delay, disaster. It must be remedied, must come to a full end,- -or our work fails of accomplishment. Men must answer promptly to the Savior's call. Men "valiant for the truth upon the earth," must throng his standard, eager for enrolment; and the arduous work of the purveyors of missions must be, not violent impressment, not argument, not entreaty, but prudent distribution and equipment. There is embarrassment also from withholding of means to send. The earth is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof; the silver, the gold, and the cattle upon the hills. We are his stewards, to improve, appropriate, disburse, as He has ordained; servants left in charge, to 66 occupy till He come." But we are false to our trust; we waste his goods; He hath need of his own, but we withhold. We send few missionaries, for there is lack of means to send them; we are parsimonious of means, because there are few to send. We are not straitened in God, we are not straitened in the laborers abroad; but we are straitened in ourselves, in our unbelief, our lukewarmness, our love of ease, and our We penuriousness. "Our heart goeth after our covetousness." "And it tendeth to poverty;" to poverty of design and plan, and poverty of execution; to poverty and leanness of soul, and poverty of blessing. When the house of the Lord was to be built in Jerusalem, "the people rejoiced, for that they offered willingly; because with perfect heart they offered willingly to the Lord." When Jerusalem had been laid waste, and the chief of the fathers rose up, "with all them whose spirit God had raised," to go up to rebuild the house, "all they that were about them strengthened their hands with vessels of silver, with gold, with goods, and with beasts, and with precious things, besides all that was willingly offered." "And the foundation of the house was laid." build the house of the Lord. "The glory of this latter house shall be greater than of the former." "It shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it." "The Desire of all nations hath come." Yet we say "the time is not come, the time that the Lord's house should be built." "We dwell in our ceiled houses, and the house of the Lord lieth waste." This poverty of means, this poverty of conception and design, this "keeping back part of the price," we must put away from us. Exhortations to liberality, solicitation, remonstrance, must become needless and by-gone things. "To our power, yea, and beyond our power, we must become willing of ourselves." "The abundance of our joy and our deep poverty must abound unto the riches of our liberality." Shall these elemental, indispensable supplies be duly multiplied? Shall these embarrassments cease? Shall these preparatory labors be duly cared for; shall they be duly prosecuted; shall they have prosperous issues? The home work of missions,—the sending forth of laborers in adequate numbers,—is given us to do in view of implied conditions; and it greatly concerns us that the conditions be realized. It is given to us on the assumption that Christians are not their own,—that they have been "bought with a price," "with the precious blood of Christ;" that he is righfully lord of their bodies and spirits, and of their lives; that his title is not in word alone, that he has his own, that he has entered into possession; that it is an exclusive possession; and that the occupancy, on their part, is not of constraint, but willingly and of choice determinate. It is given to us on the assumption, that right of property is right of use, and if exclusive property, then exclusive use; that Christ may do rightfully what he will with his own; and being confessedly sole lord and proprietor of the purchase of his own blood, that he may, in deed and in effect, dispense, withhold, appropriate and use powers and properties and times and opportunities as seemeth to him good, with none to hinder. It is given on the assumption, that right and obligation are reciprocal; that as Christ may take his own, so ought we to render "the things that are his;" that as he commands, so should we obey; and that right and will, and duty and choice, are terms synonymous and interchangeable. This home work of sending forth laborers is given us to do, and its fulfilment is expected of us, on the presumption, moreover, that we rightly appreciate its nature, extent, and claims; that if there is first a willing mind, so also the understanding is full of light, and the thoughts of the heart established. Ignorance, uncertainty, perplexity, tendeth to sloth and shame. "A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways," and "he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea.' If ever laborers be sent forth in numbers adequate to the need, it will be when the churches, when Christians individually, shall have fully and irreversibly "settled it in their hearts," that this is the work which Christ would have them to do; when they shall know and be persuaded that they have seen "the heavenly vision," and that it was "for this purpose" Christ appeared unto them; when they shall cease to confer with flesh and blood; and whatsoever others may do, shall for themselves serve the Lord, and "follow him wholly." It will be when the churches of Christ shall have duly apprehended the greatness of this work, that it is work and not pastime, abounding not so much in recreations, and refreshments, and mutual gratulations, as in toils, and watchings, and fastings, and earnest consultations and doings; a work surpassingly glorious in its assured accomplishment, but in its urgent prosecution involving much hurt and damage, not only of properties but of lives, and compelling all who labor for its advancement, by a connatural law of its progress, to be strenuously, and ever, and with instant purpose, pressing forward. It will be when, having deliberately surveyed the kingdoms and tribes of men, and measured their degradation and wretchedness, the exceeding greatness of their numbers, their powerlessness to help themselves, and the multiplied and mighty impediments in the way of their succor, the friends of Christ and of humanity shall betake themselves to the enterprise as men who have counted the cost; who have comprehended its vastness, and difficulty, and stupendous issues, and, "expecting great things from God, are attempting great things for God." It will be when they shall enter on the work and labor in it as a work not to be contemplated, planned, begun merely, but to be worthily borne onward to its completion. It is one reason why some, professing to be Christians, continue laggards in the work, they have never yet received it into their heart that it is a work verily to be done. They hold the scheme as a thing grateful to the heart, and good for the growth of the social and Christian graces. The missionary, and the advocate of missions, "is unto them as a very lovely song of one that hath a pleasant voice, and can play well on an instrument;" but "they hear his words and do them not." The warfare is not one that is to be accomplished, the goal is not to be won. They run, therefore, "as uncertainly;" they fight, "as one that beateth the air." To ensure large results, we must bestow large labor; would we labor largely and effectively, we must devise liberal things; and for liberal devices we need large hopes and aims. Feebleness of faith, and poverty of hope and expectation, and contractedness of plans and measures, and sluggishness of effort, and insignificance of results, are all parts of one whole. They are members of one body, sympathizing one with another; and their union and reciprocity of influence are perpetual and indestructible. American Baptist Missionary Union. Leller of Rev. A. Sutton of Orissa. (Continued from p. 89.) Tavoy-Mergui. April 29. The Proserpine steamer having again been ordered to Tavoy and Mergui, we have at length secured a passage, and this morning went on board. We continued our course along evening, when we obtained a small a small congregation of attentive lisboat, and Mrs. S. and myself started teners. for Tavoy. The steamer returned, to proceed on her way to Mergui. We reached Tavoy ghat, or landing place, after midnight, and with some delay, at length, toward 3 o'clock found ourselves at the missionary premises. A shout of "br. Wade" soon roused up our old friend, and in a few moments we were all exchanging the hearty Christian salutation. Br. and sister Wade, - friends of twenty-two years growth,are still permitted to labor on in their Karen department. Br. W. is busy over his dictionary and other works, and sister W. has her Karen pupils just coming in to spend the rainy season. Br. Mason and his excellent wife have another I could fill pages with remarks on our visit to Tavoy, but I must not weary by prolixity. The steamer went on to Mergui, where there are br. and sister Brayton laboring all alone. Mr. Hough was on board, going to visit the government school at that place. He brought us back an account of the solitude of our friends there, and of their wishes for missionary associates. Mr. Sutton is led to remark at this point, with characteristic modesty, upon the comparative claims of the Burman and Karen Missions to more enlarged support; adverting, among other considerations, to the "fearful responsibility connected with holding Burmah nominally and exclusively to the Baptists, while they do not make adequate efforts for its evangelization." "There is something," he remarks, "so fearfully overwhelming in this to an eye-witness of the extent of field uncultivated, that I dare not attempt to expatiate upon it. And, indeed, after this, I do not care to add any other reason.” He then proceeds,— I Can any changes be made in Tavoy? answer, it is very doubtful if there portion of the same Karen field. He is also busy in translating the Holy can. While brethren Mason and Wade Book into the language of these jungle are spared to translate, it seems necestribes. They also have a school. Br. Bennett has the printing office and the should be kept up, or they must go sary the small printing establishment small Burman church. Sister B. is the after it. Possibly br. Cross might reLord's prisoner, but she looks so meek move to Obo with his theological class, and happy that one would almost envy and by uniting with br. Binney, carry her. Yet though confined to her on the whole establishment with greatcouch, she is by no means idle. Br. er effect, and afford some help to br. and sister Cross, the last arrivals, have Bullard in his department. This looks the Karen theological school for young fair, but there may be objections which preachers. I think I counted thirteen I do not know how to appreciate. in attendance, but, probably, the com-There should be a reinforcement at ing rains will bring an increase; many Tavoy, of young men growing up for of them seem to live on their premises. both the Karen and Burman fields, He also preaches on Sabbath evenings who should do nothing but itinerate in English. and preach, either at home or abroad. Return-Amherst. 3. On Sabbath day I heard br. Mason preach to a very interesting assemblage of Karens; perhaps about sixty present, the first instalment of the people coming in for the rainy season. They are a delightfully interesting people,-far more so than the Burmans generally, though there are exceptions. They are, moreover, better clothed, yet far less artificial in their habits. We felt our hearts glow with love to them. In the evening preached in English to But we must hasten from Tavoy. We rose at 5 o'clock on 6th of May, had our last meal and our last prayer with our beloved Wades, and, accompanied by all the brethren, hastened on board. And now farewell, sweet Tavoy. Very pleasant hast thou been to me, an oasis in our pilgrimage.-Dear brethren, dear sisters, "the Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord cause his |