act that at
this hour the three hundred Churches gathered through the ministry
of this Society contain thirty-five thousand members; and that round
them, looking to them for instruction, and influenced by their
example, lives a population of not less than one hundred and ninety
thousand souls, who have given up all idolatry, and call Christianity
their religion.

* * * * *

The GENERAL CHARACTER of these church members, their attainments in
knowledge, the amount of their moral strength, the enlightenment of
conscience, their peculiar deficiencies, are topics frequently
dwelt upon in missionaries' letters, and find a conspicuous place
in the annual reports. Who can doubt that, should occasion arise,
the converts of MADAGASCAR would still emulate the fidelity of the
brethren who gave themselves to clanging fetters and the fiery flame
rather than deny Christ? When bitterly persecuted by bigoted priests,
the Christians of UEA still possess their souls in patience, and with
their chapels burnt, their plantations desolated, and their
companions beaten, they hold on to the truth as it is in Jesus, and
refuse to bow the knee to the Baal of Rome. In the Calcutta Mission
last year, as heretofore, converts have been found to bear reproach
and shame for Christ rather than be numbered among idolaters. Still
do the tried Christians of POKLO show how grace reigns in China.

The great Christian virtues, the fruits of the Spirit, are developed
in these churches as in the older realms of Christendom. In them
enlightened conscience makes war with sin; Christian love casts out
fear; the eye of faith sees heaven in a dying hour. Scarcely a report
is written that does not illustrate these excellencies. We must not
undervalue what here we have gained. It is not only that so many
individual souls have been saved. We have rescued them from
heathenism, from false religion, from the advocacy of error, from
the practice of error, from open, unchecked vice and crime. We have
drawn them from the world's disorders and cruelty, from wrong and
misery. In the great warfare with vice, they have changed sides, and
are now valiant for the truth. We have drawn not only them but their
children; we have drawn them, not as isolated individuals, but as
families, as neighbours, as fellow citizens, as nations. We have
drawn into the church, for man's happiness, and the Lord's glory,
all the influences of their private, social, a