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
in the past, and the guarantee and instrument of larger results in
days to come, is precisely that attainment and possession of our
Society, which the friends of the Society appear least to appreciate.
It seems to be thought that now, as ever, missionaries just preach
to the heathen and give away books; they teach a few boys and girls;
win a few souls; and send a few teachers into the districts around.
All that is true. But the high and solid work beyond it--all that
superior influence which the Society and its missionaries are
exercising, in Christianizing communities, in sanctifying all the
great elements of their public and social life, in destroying the
very roots of their heathenism, and in preparing the way for
enlightened, disciplined, independent churches, sound in faith and
full of life--all this has been little understood. Had it been duly
realised, it