which
our societies have to contend with.

"You may be assured, sir, that we shall do all in our power, consistent
with the claims of our other missions, to send some person to Mackinack;
but we cannot promise to succeed immediately. Mr. Ferry, we hope, will
remain the next spring.

"Some embarrassment is felt by our Board, from the fact that foreign
fields, offering access to densely populated districts, where millions
speaking the same language, can be easily approached--are more
attractive to the candidates for the missionary work than the small,
scattered, and migratory bands of our Indians.

"I fear that a preference of this nature will cause our friends--the
Indians--to be neglected, if not forgotten. As Providence seems, in so
many ways, to be against the Indians, I often fear that no considerable
portion of them are ever to enjoy the blessings of civilization and
Christianity. But we must leave them in the hands of God, after using
faithfully the means which he places at our disposal."

"We are glad to hear that you still approve of the course pursued by our
missionaries in the north-west, and that the advancement of the cause of
Christ, in that quarter, is still a subject of care with you, and truth,
and divine grace, will enable you rightly to bear the responsibility in
this respect, which rests on you."

I have put in italics, in the above letter, a high moral truth, which
accords with all my observation and experience on the frontiers; and
upon the due appreciation and carrying out of which, the success of the
missionary cause over the world, in my judgment, depends. It is a
sentence that should be inscribed in letters of gold in every missionary
room in America. It is certainly a mistake to send feeble men on the
frontier, who are not deemed to have sufficient energy, talents, and
sound discretion to enter foreign fields. Our frontiers are full of
cavillers, and shrewd and bold gainsayers of Christianity, men of
personal energy and will, who generally stand aloof from such efforts,
and who, when they come into contact with missionary laborers, judge
them by common rules of judgment--who are, indeed, not the best fitted
to estimate "devoted piety and zeal," but who are, nevertheless,
disposed to respect it, in proportion as it is joined with "high
intellectual character, and judgment, and enterprise." In the frequent
want of this--we do not include Mackinack in this category--is to be
sought the true