was sealed, and remained so for forty years. Passages were expensive;
voyages were full of discomfort; letters were few. They knew little
of the manners and systems of heathen nations; they knew less of their
literature; they knew nothing of their languages. Dictionaries,
literature, buildings, converts, everything had to be produced.
Their fields of labour were unprepared. Their message and their
aims were little understood.

In all these elements of usefulness we occupy at this hour a position
of usefulness, in marked contrast to that of our predecessors. With
a mighty advance in practical freedom, in intelligence and education,
in social comfort, in material resources, the entire religious life
of England has secured a solidity, an elevation, and a general
influence of the most marvellous kind. In the number and wealth of
our churches, in the character and position of the ministry, the
Society ought to find supporters immeasurably in advance of the few
but earnest friends of seventy years ago. Our missions have made
indescribable progress. Our agencies continue to grow more complete.
Churches have been gathered; the members of which are no longer
novices in Christian truth and Christian life. The time has come for
a native ministry; and a larger number appear on our lists than ever
before. And last, but not least, the full and faithful preaching of
the gospel, for which our missionary brethren have ever been
distinguished, and the employment of Christian education, have made
a marked impression upon heathenism; have broken its prestige, have
silenced its objections, and have prepared the way for future
victories, more triumphant in their grandeur than anything the
Society has yet seen.

But this advanced and noble position, which is the proof of success