eparate
embodiment.

In writing the history, one of three methods was to be adopted;
either to embrace all the missions in one continuous narrative; or
to carry forward the narrative of each mission, separately and
continuously, through its entire period; or, rejecting both these
plans, to keep the narratives of the several missions distinct, but,
by suitable alternations from one to another, to secure for the
whole the substantial advantages of a contemporaneous history. The
first could not be done satisfactorily, so long as the several
missions have a separate existence in the minds of so many readers,
and while so many feel a strong personal interest in what is said or
omitted. Even on the plan adopted, so much must necessarily be
omitted, or stated very briefly, as to endanger a feeling, that
injustice has been done to some excellent missionaries. As for the
second, the author had not the courage to undertake consecutive
journeys through so many long periods; and he believed not a few of
his readers would sympathize with him. If, however, any desire to
read the history of any one mission through in course, the table of
contents will make that easy. Each of the histories is complete, so
far as it goes.

No attempt has been made to write a philosophical history of
missions. The book of the Acts of the Apostles is not such a
history, nor has one yet been written. The time has not come for
that. There are not the necessary materials. The directors of
missions, and missionaries themselves, have not yet come to a full
practical agreement as to the principles that underlie the working
of missions, nor as to the results to be accomplished by them; and
it must be left to competent writers in the future,--when the whole
subject shall be more generally and better understood,--after
patiently examining the proceedings of missionary societies in
America, England, Scotland, and Germany, to state and apply the
principles that may be thus evolved. The most that can now be done,
is to record the facts in their natural connections, together with
the more obvious teachings of experience. If the author has been
successful in doing this, his end is gained.

In the present state of religious opinion respecting divine
Providence among a portion of the reading community, it may be
proper to state the author's strong conviction, that the promise of
the Lord Jesus, to be with his missionaries, pledges the divine
interposition in their