they want this characteristic mark. But I take this predilection to be a thing which may be acquired, and acquired simply by a pious and devoted mind being directed with due attention to the consideration of the subject. I have spoken of learning also as among the qualifications of a missionary; but learning is an acquirement, not a natural gift. They possess peculiar advantages who have made this acquirement (i. e. learning) in early life, and they stand upon vantage ground who have had their attention early turned to the missionary work, and so have betimes acquired the predilection for it, to which we have given a place among the list of qualifications. But it may

happen that diligent study at a later period of life may repair the defects of a neglected education in youth. And the attention of a pious man being at length directed to the nature and obligation of missionary service among the heathen, he may acquire, though late, the preference for the work which a right hearted missionary ought to

possess.

The predilection I speak of is not a romantic, enthusiastic feeling, resting upon no sufficient grounds, and for which no adequate cause can be assigned; but a sober, although warm and decided choice and preference of that which recommends itself to the enlightened and sanctified judgment, as well as to the best dispositions of the renewed mind. And the work is one which may well beget such a desire to engage in it—and fully justify the choice made of it, a choice rational and laudable, and as honorable to the head as to the heart of him who forms it.

I think it quite consistent therefore to press upon a suitable person the duty of devoting himself to

this cause; his not already possessing a predilection for it may be owing to want of due consideration of its claims. He may have wanted light to see it as worthy of being preferred to certain other objects of pursuit, which hitherto may have appeared to him the best and most important. But by acquiring juster and more enlightened views of duty, he may become possessed of the desire to engage in this "good work."

This view of the subject will at the same time obviate the objection, that our affections are not at our own command; and that we cannot love and hate, and choose and reject, at the bidding of another. It is sufficient to repel this excuse, should it ever be urged by one who pleads the disqualification of not having a predilection for this service as a reason why he should not undertake it, to point to the numerous precepts of Scripture where men are commanded to exercise love, desire, hatred, fear, &c. This of course is to be accomplished with the help of God, and simply by setting and keeping steadily before the mind the objects suited to excite these respective affections.

Should any one possessing the requisite qualifications in point of learning, talent, and, as far as men might judge, piety, and having no reasonable ground for declining this service of Christ, still feel no desire to engage in it-feel no predilection for it, after having the subject properly brought before him, that person, I grant you, is most undoubtedly disqualified, and ought by no means to assume a character in which he could at best but act the hypocrite.

LETTER XV.

ON THE INFLUENCE OF SUCCESS ON MISSIONARY OPERATIONS.

My dear Friend,

THE measure of success in a matter of ascertained duty ought not to be made the measure of our zeal in the performance of it. Yet who is not sensible of the general proneness to adopt this standard of measurement. Success, which is at best but an encouragement to persevere and abound more and more, is made the main spring of obedience. This is taking an ultimate effect, and. turning it into a primary cause-inverting the natural process of proceeding under a sense of duty, in the hope of final success, and giving to present success the power of an impelling motive; and to the want of present success the power of a prohibition to persist farther in the performance of the duty.

Were this practical error exhibited to view in this naked form, many would disclaim it;-they would admit that they feel encouraged when their labors are successful, and discouraged when they are not but that they make success or defeat the criterion of duty, and the spring of action, they deny. Be it so, and let their conduct prove that we were mistaken.

These observations are not offered because I think the missions now in operation are, generally speaking, not blessed with success in the degree that might have been expected; but because I think it of prime importance to adhere scrupulously

to principles. A departure from them may seem at first a trivial error, but in the end may produce the most disastrous consequences. And I should have thought it not the less necessary to expose the evil of converting success into a criterion of the favor of heaven, or a chief incentive of zeal, had every plan for the evangelization of the heathen been successful to the utmost extent of the wishes of the agents employed. I should then have thought it equally needful to lift up a warning voice to prepare them for a possible reverse. I should have considered it time to give a serious premonition that it might be well to count upon yet unknown trials of their faith-" a great fight of afflictions”— the withering of their fairest hopes-the defection of converts the introduction and spread of errorsthe blast and mildew of heresy and schism-or the revival of the spirit of idolatry in countries where it appeared to have been utterly extinguished— and to examine how far their criterion and incentive would stand them in stead in those circumstances.

It is not so much from the view I take of the prosperity or adversity that forms the prominent feature in the history of any particular mission, nor of the progress that has been made in the attainment of the object of missions generally, that I have adverted to this subject, as from a persuasion that the evil against which these remarks are pointed is common to all ages, to all parties, to all circumstances, to the missionary abroad and to the friends of missions at home.

Future ultimate success, as we have the most ample assurance, is certain. This we "believe and therefore speak” and labor; and hence the work of the ministry is "a work of faith," and any pre

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sent tokens of divine power in giving effect to the word of reconciliation are to be improved for strengthening that faith, while they cause many thanksgivings to God. But this does not render the ministry, at least it ought not, a work of sense; but this is in effect done, if we abuse the present effect of our labors, whether prosperous or adverse, by making that the measure and rule of our duty.

Read over the epistles to Timothy and Titus, those rich magazines of divine wisdom in all that relates to the work of the ministry, and mark if they contain a single sentiment that can be construed as favoring the idea that the visible and immediate success of our efforts is to be taken for our encouragement to labor, or the contrary a reason for relinquishing the work, or growing slack in the performance of it. There is much said about the character of the men engaged in this. sacred service, much about their duties, their trials, their support, their example, their making full proof of their ministry; but not a word of success as any concern of theirs in the way of motive. Having devoted their lives to the ministry of the Gospel, it would have been preposterous if they had been indifferent whether their labors were successful or not. But feeling the deepest interest in the work itself, and the strongest desire to see the effect of their exertions, they must, nevertheless, assured that the power to "send prosperity" was in better hands than theirs, go on cheerfully and zealously in their work, feeling themselves in a certain sense independent of the immediate results whether as affecting their hearers or themselves. Paul speaks of having "great sorrow and continual heaviness in his heart on ac