TO THE Evangelical Magazine, FOR THE YEAR 1799. ADDRESS FROM THE DIRECTORS OF THE MISSIONARY SOCIETY TO A CANDIDATE FOR MISSIONARY LABOURS. CHRISTIAN BROTHER, OU have expreffed to us your defire of being em ployed by the Miflionary Society, to inftruct the Heathen in the knowledge and fervice of God. The office of Millionary is of great importance, and of great labour, and calls especially for a heart much crucified to worldly expectations, and deeply devoted to the promotion of the divine glory. It is our duty, in faithfulnefs to the interefts of our Saviour's kingdom, and to 3 our own foul al13, to recommend you to examine with great ferioufnefs, what are your motives, what your qualifications, and what your expectations, in engaging in this work; for unless you are actuated by right views, you may prove incompetent to its duties, faint under its difficulties, and thus bring difhonour on the name of Christ, and injure his facred caufe. Count then the coft, and estimate your ftrength, before you enter upon this warfare. Be not hafty in your determination, but when your refolution is deliberately formed, perfevere therein, and be faithful unto death. What then were your inducements to offer your felf to this work? Were your paffions excited by the foJemnity of our public fervices, or the perufal of our addreffes? Were you actuated by the confideration, that the office of a Miffionary confers upon you a diftinction, and VOL. VII. 4 E raifes raifes you above the level of common Chriftians? The heart, Brother, is deceitful; examine its fecret workings, and beware left you should be under the influence of motives unfanctified in their nature, or infufficient to carry you through the conflicts to which you may be expofed.-It is only a fincere, deep, and fteady love to Chrift, and a defire to promote his kingdom among men, even at the hazard of your life, and by the facrifice of worldly eafe and intereft, that form the foundation of the true Miffionary character, and can fuftain you under its unknown trials and unforeseen difficulties. Confider, therefore, ferioufly, whether your motives are founded in the affections merely, or whether they have their feat alfo in the understanding. Unless they are the refult of your deliberate judgment, they are not likely to be fteady or permanent. Do you then defire to engage in this work, from a conviction that it is your duty to devote yourfelf therein to the service of God that it is the moft beneficial way of employing your existence that it is your highest wisdom to be thus confccrated to his glory? and that this is the moft fuitable expreffion of your gratitude to him, which you are capable of making for the ineftimable bleffings of redemption which he has freely imparted to you? If these are your views, there is great reafon to hope that you will be fupported in your labours, and made fuccefsful in your miniftry. We recommend you alfo to confider how long it is fince the Mitionary work excited your attention. Is it but lately that you have formed the defire to engage in it? Then it would be proper to deliberate further upon it. Perhaps you may be confcious of great fincerity, and of great fervour in your fpirit, and may entertain no doubt of your ftability; but examine yourfelf, Brother; it is poffible you may be conftitutionally variable in your difpofition, unfteady in your affections, or uneafy in your prefent lot, and difpofed to novelty. In this cafe it would be defirable that a longer fpace pals away before you decide. Employ it in much prayer and felf-examination. Contemplate the nature of the work, confider its facrifices, eftimate its difficulties; and if, at the conclufion of that period, your mind thould continue firmly fixed, and entirely devoted to the fervice of God among the Heathen, there will be great reafon to infer that it is the effect of a fuperior impulfe; that you are fuitably difpofed for this impor tant tant work, and may therefore hope for the divine benediction in it. Examine alfo into the nature of your expectations in the difcharge of the Miffionary office. It is very neceffary that your ideas, in this refpect, fhould be well regulated, otherwife you might be liable to painful ditappointments, which would greatly difcourage you, and perhaps induce you to withdraw from it, by which means you would not only involve yourfelf in deferved difgrace, but alfo be refponfible for the injury which the facred caufe itself would fuftain through your means. What then are your expectations in refpect to fuccefs? You may, probably, have felt fo powerfully the imprchon of the Golpel on your own heart, and have feen its influence alfo around you in fo great a degree, as to lead you to conceive that, as foon as its glad tidings are made known to the Heathen, they will embrace the welcome meffage, and turn from their dumb idols to the service of the living God. Your imagination may have represented to you great and wonderful effects attending your ministry, miracles of converting grace accompanying your evangelical progrefs. Churches formed in different diftricts, and Hofannahs refounding in every direction. It is doubtless the province of him, with whom is the refidue of the Spirit, to determine the meafure of your fuccefs. If it fhould prove abundant, we fhall partake of your joy; and it is not for us to limit the Holy One of Ifrael. Neverthelefs, Brother, this has not been the ufual mode of the divine procedure fince the firft ages of the Chriftian Church. You will most likely have to wait long for the precious fruits of your fpiritual hufbandry. The Millionaries from the United Brethren laboured in Greenland with unwearied perfeverance for about feven years before the leaft effect was apparent: against hope they believed in hope; being strong in faith they gave glory to God; and when their patience had had its perfect work, the feafon of refrething from the prefence of the Lord arrived, the power of the crois was felt in the hearts of many fingers, and Chriftian Churches were formed, whofe faith and purity have long been a praife throughout the earth. Arm yourfelves, therefore, with the fame mind. Do not expofe yourself to difcouragement. by premature expectations.-The low flate of intellect in which you will find the Heathen, the indifference and ftupidity which they difcover refpecting refpecting fpiritual fubjects, as well as the levity of their difpofition, and their rooted attachment to their cruel and idolatrous cuftoms, would very much dishearten you, if you were not previously prepared to expect them. This circumftance, however, fhould not relax but invigorate your determination, fince thefe difficulties must every where oppofe the first attempts to introduce the Gospel into uncivilized countries; and fhould you only fo far fucceed as to lay a good foundation, on which others may raife the fpiritual building, great will be our joy, and great alfo your reward. It is in the next and fucceeding genera tions that the fruits of your labours may be expected to appear. Thefe will very probably fpring out of the inftructions you will communicate to the rifing generation of the natives, and it is, therefore, one of the most important duties of a Miffionary to devote himfcif to the edu cation and improvement of the children of both fexes. Let your expectations, therefore, be wifely regulated, as to the nature of your employment, as well as to the degree of your fuccefs among the Heathen. Perhaps, Brother, you may have conceived that the principal, if not the only engagement of a Miffionary will confift in public preaching, and you may contemplate this plan of life with complacency. This, doubtlefs, forms a confiderable part of your duty, and efpecially of those who may be more particularly fet apart as Minifters of the Gofpel; but the education of children, though a lefs gratifying, is not a lefs neceffary or ufeful branch of duty; and as it is to the faithful difcharge of this fervice to which we look for your principal fuccefs, we feel it to be incumbent upon us to ftate to you exprefsly that we expect from you a great degree of attention to this point, and that you muft, therefore, be fo completely acquainted with the rudiments of comnon learning, as to be able to fulfil this part of your duty. Should you ftand in nced of inftruction in this refpect, the Directors will affift you in procuring it. Perhaps you may have formed fuch ideas of the falubrious climate and productive foil of the country to which you may be fent, as to indulge the expectation, that the means of fubfiftence will be fo eafily procured, as to admit of a life of eafe and pleasure, and exempt you from the labours to which you have been fubject in your native country. If the expectation of eafe and outward enjoyment operates upon you as a motive, we admonith you to difiifs difmifs fuch improper ideas, as being inconfiftent with the Miffionary Spirit, highly injurious in their influence on your own mind, and fatal to the profpects of usefulness among the Heathen. It is not indolence, but exertion to which we invite you. The labour of your hands must, in general, produce to you the means of your fupport, and you must exemplify among the Heathen the advantages which arife from daily induftry, and the fuitable employment of time. You are to inftruct them efpecially in the cultivation of their foil, in the erection of their habitations, in the conftruction of their boats, and in the art of converting the productions of their country into articles of decent apparel. It is by thefe means your influence among them is to be promoted, and your usefulness encreased. In this way they may be gradually refcued from their pernicious courfes, which arite principally out of their wild and uncivilized state, and from the want of a regular and ufeful fyftem of moderate labour: thus they will be prepared to attend to religious inftruction, and its influence upon them preferved and protected from the fatal infection of Heathenifh manners. Confider, therefore, Brother, whether you are difpofed to this felf-denying process, this course of active fervice, and whether you are fitted for performing its duties-if not, we recommend that you fhould abftain from this engagement till you have received inftruction in fome of thefe or other equally neceffary qualifications. It is probable you may feel a difpofition to embark in this undertaking in the way of experiment, and may conclude, that after you have made the trial, and gratified your curiofity, an opportunity may be embraced of relinquishing the employment, and returning to your country and friends. If thefe fhould be vour reflections, be fo faithful to us and to the caufe of Chrift among the Heathen, as to avow them beforehand: the work is far too facred to be entered upon with fo light a mind, and fo unfteady a purpofe. He who puts his hands to the Miffionary plough, ought not to look back, but confider that perfeverance in the work is our juft expectation and his incumbent duty. Circumftances may indeed arife, in which it may be allowable to relinquish the appointed station: but the reafons must be fatisfactory, and the neceffity imperious. It is poffible you may entertain falfe ideas of indepenYOL. VII. dence, 4 F |
