and
unprecedented extent. In manufactures, in the mechanic arts, in
agriculture, in education, in the science of government, men are awake
and active; their minds are all on the alert; their ingenuity is tasked;
and they are making improvements with the greatest zeal. Shall not the
same enterprise be seen in moral and religious things? Shall not
missionaries, especially, aim at making discoveries and improvements in
the noblest of all practical sciences--that of applying the means which
God has provided, for the moral renovation of the world?

"There are many problems yet to be solved before it can be said, that the
best mode of administering missionary concerns has been discovered.
What degree of expense shall be incurred in the support of missionary
families, so as to secure the greatest possible efficiency with a given
amount of money; how to dispose of the children of missionaries, in a
manner most grateful to their parents, and most creditable to the cause;
in what proportion to spend money and time upon the education of the
heathen, as a distinct thing from preaching the Gospel; how far the
press should be employed; by what means the attention of the heathen can
be best gained at the beginning; how their wayward practices and habits
can be best restrained and corrected; how the intercourse between
missionaries and the Christian world can be conducted in the best
manner, so as to secure the highest responsibility, and the most entire
confidence; and how the suitable proportion between ministers of the
Gospel retained at home, and missionaries sent abroad, is to be fixed in
practice, as well as in principle: all these things present questions
yet to be solved. There is room for boundless enterprise, therefore, in
the great missionary field, which is the world."

I have not attempted to discuss all the topics here named, but have
endeavored to cultivate in some degree, as enjoined in the paragraph, a
spirit of _enterprising inquiry_.

If this book shall impart any light on the interesting topic of
Christian duty to the heathen, and be owned by the Saviour, in the
great day, as having contributed, though but in a small degree, towards
that glorious consummation of which the prophets speak, and to which we
all look forward, I shall be richly rewarded.

Your affectionate classmate,

SHELDON DIBBLE.

LAHAINALUNA, _Feb. 17, 1844_.

THOUGHTS ON MISSIONS.

CHAPTER I.

THE TRUE SPIRIT OF MISSIONS.