Christianity-the bearers of its comfort to their sick and dying, of its lessons whether of warning or encouragement to themselves and to their children? The pleasing discovery of which every day is now multiplying the instances is, that, with the exception perhaps of not one in a hundred, the religious philanthropist finds a cordial admittance at every door -that, generally and almost universally, there is a welcome and a good will attendant upon his footsteps, a grateful response to the overtures wherewith he is charged; and, though he comes in what might be held a somewhat invidious capacity, as a reformer of their habits and a reformer of their lives, that nevertheless he makes good his entry not into their habitations only but into their hearts; and that, if he but concentrate his attentions on a territory small enough for becoming the acquaintance of all the families, he will earn, as the fruit of his moral and benevolent assiduities, the confidence and the affection of all. We do not say that he will gain over the convictions of all; but, by dint of his fidelity and honest friendship in the midst of them, he will very nearly gain over the kindness of all. He may not secure a full acceptance for Christianity. But to a great extent he will secure at least a hearing for it. Such at least is the common finding of those, who have attempted in a sustained way, to make a lodgment for the ministrations of the Gospel in the churchless villages and before unentered city recesses of our own land teeming with unknown and hitherto neglected myriads of immortal creatures, among whom Christianity has been suffered to wane into

extinction; but who, nevertheless, have still the human feelings and the human consciences by which to find a way to them. There is a natural cordiality almost with all, in virtue of which the bearers of the truth are welcomed, when, in the prosecution of this their moral and benevolent enterprise, they make their descent upon the families. But this alone would not suffice, but for that credibility in the truth itself, which introduces it first to the attention, and then wins for it the full and final acceptance of the mind; and, to meet this, there is a natural conscience in all, which, made awake and intelligent by the Spirit of God, can take knowledge of the word that is spoken, and do homage to the divinity which is therein manifested. Both these, the natural cordiality and the natural conscience, may be regarded as parts of human nature by which provision is made for the access of Christianity to the people; or, by which, Christianity is rendered so portable -both throughout the habitations, and into the hearts of men. The conjunction of these two forms a mighty encouragement to all missionary work. It is with the second of these that the consideration of the internal evidence has properly to do.

But the first, as not having been much

"We speak of Scotland. We have not had much experience of the people or towns in England; but there is certainly a more general impression in that part of the island, that, to secure a general welcome among the families of the working classes, the offered services of Christianity must be accompanied with the gifts of ordinary kindness. We apprehend that there is a fatal incongruity between these two ministrations; and that every scheme for the christian education of the people, should stand dissevered from all ostensible measures for the relief of poverty.

adverted to, is what at present we shall most dwell upon as furnishing the most important facility to the great enterprise, if not of carrying Christianity abroad among the distant wilds of Paganism, at least of obtaining entry for it among the families of our own population. It is a glorious achievement to plant the Gospel in other lands. But, if reckoned less glorious, it is surely not less useful to fill up the blanks and lighten the dark places of our home territory.

11. There is a barrier at the outset of the foreign which does not obtain in the home enterprise. In the former we go forth as bearers of a hostile religion. We come into conflict with the prejudices of an hereditary faith. We encounter the hazard of impassioned resistance, often of personal violence. In the latter we experience the reverse of all this. We go forth among the people, not to root out a hostile, but to revive a decayed religion-transmitted to them from their fathers; and which, though extinct in power, is not unknown to them by name, and is in harmony with all their remaining associations of sacredness, however feeble or almost forgotten these might be. It is thus, that, in the very first movements from house to house of the home missionary, there is often a certain reverential feeling awakened; and, at all events, as kindness is the moving principle of the operation, there is throughout a very general sense of that kindness, that is both warmly felt and gratefully acknowledged, and which secures, not a decent only, but a welcome reception to our adventurer on this new walk of benevolence. At

the very least, encouragement enough is given and a way is sufficiently opened, for announcing his errand to them as their christian friend or christian adviser, who will preach in their immediate neighbourhood on the Sabbath, and is willing to render through the week all those attentions and services of which they may choose to avail themselves. There is often a promise to attend on the public, and still oftener an invitation to repeat the personal visit and so the profession of a willingness to accept of the private or the household ministrations. If this process be steadily persevered in, if to these stated movements oft repeated among the people, there be added a frequent occasional movement, whenever the call of sickness or of death or any sort of family distress shall have opened the hearts and the houses of the afflicted to the entry of christian kindness-the result of these assiduities through the week, is the gradual building up of a congregation on the Sabbath. The people even of the most outlandish district, in places the most destitute and depraved, may thus be gathered into a parochial family, and trained to parochial habits. Children of all others may be made to participate most largely in this improvement. Under the moral ascendancy of the pastor, who has assumed their territory for his vineyard and earned as the fruit of his daily and weekly labours the confidence and attachment of the people, education will grow apace among them. Even by the time when only perhaps a few are converted, many will be at least humanized-for, such is the savour of Christianity, that, over and above

its own proper influence on the individuals whom it sanctifies, it has a secondary and wide spread influence over the community, whose standard of morals it exalts, and whose general habits it refines and civilizes. Altogether, with the power of that kindness which the messengers of Christianity might bring to bear upon human feelings, and the power of Christianity itself over human consciences, there never was so effective an instrument as the one which we now describe, for reclaiming men from what might appear even the most hopeless and impracticable degeneracy. For the latter power, Christianity stands indebted to its own evidence, to the aspect of likelihood which it wears even at the first, and its perpetually growing claims on the attention and moral earnestness of every inquirer till at length the conclusive revelation. is made to him of such credentials, as satisfy his mind that the religion is true. For the former power it is indebted to that peculiarity in the human constitution, by which it is that the manifested good will of one man tells so immediately and with such subduing effect on the heart of another man. As a pioneer or a precursor to the ministrations of the Gospel, this principle is invaluable-though, till of late, but scarcely adverted to; and far too little use has been made of it. It of itself forms no part of the evidence for the truth of the christian religion; but it is the avenue by which the portable evidence of Christianity finds its way to the population-not that which carries the belief, but that which gains the atten