Society in foreign lands constitute the central force and stimulus
of a wider agency, numbering twelve hundred persons, gathered among
people once heathen, now Christian; an agency adopting the same aims,
ruled by the same Christian spirit, and fulfilling the same Divine
command. This body of true and devoted men were never rendering to
the Society a nobler service than at the present time; and were never
more worthy of our highest esteem. It is, therefore, with indignation
and regret that Christian men have seen the recent attacks made on
the whole missionary body, and the contemptuous terms in which their
labours have been described. Looking away from all that is temporary
and special, and contemplating that which springs from their
ordinary duties, the Directors would never forget what a noble
position missionaries occupy, and how truly great, from its very
nature, their work is. They have gone forth from home and country
as ambassadors of God, to preach His message of forgiveness; to bring
the Saviour in His human life to those who have never understood Him;
to save the perishing, and bind them as with golden chains to the
feet of God. They are battling with error, and breaking up the iron
systems of priestcraft, inhumanity, and wrong, which have enslaved
men for ages, and have shut off from them the light and love of their
Heavenly Father. They are staying the progress of crime; they lay
the hand of law on the slaveholder; they appeal to the drunkard; they
clear out the dens of vice; and to the hopeless and despairing they
open up long vistas of light and gladness, which terminate only in
Heaven. Everywhere they are preaching with power. Their Divine
message is quickening the dead conscience of nations: it is
converting the wicked, and saving souls from death; it is lifting
women from the dust; it is purifying family life; it is putting trade
under rules of honesty, and teaching humanity where cruelty was the
universal rule. Its principles are going down to the very roots of