however, of a younger growth and a more recent type of
migration. "May the spirit of Lord Jesus Christ," is his pious remark,
"be with, and direct you all in the great work of leading souls into the
kingdom of his grace! It is a fearful responsibility, but if you look to
him, and him alone, for guidance, he will bless and prosper
your efforts."

_19th_. Rev. David Greene, Missionary Rooms, Boston, discusses in a
letter of this date, some questions respecting the policy and high
function of missionary labor--the present state of the Mackinack
mission; and the character and fitness of educated persons of the native
stocks for evangelists, which are of high importance. He remarks:--

"All you write respecting the impropriety of being disheartened--the
demand of the Indians on our church, and candidates for missionary
service--the necessity of withdrawing our dependence for success and the
work of converting men, from any particular human instruments, and
placing them on God alone; and the propriety of having missionaries
released from secular cares and labors, as far as practicable, accords
perfectly with my own views, and, so far as I know, with those
entertained by our committee.

"But the difficulty, after all, remains, of obtaining suitable persons
to carry forward our plans--of making our young men feel that they ought
to turn away from the millions, in the populous nations of Asia, and go
among our scattered tribes. Here is our whole ground of discouragement.
So far as conversions are concerned (and these are the great objects of
a missionary's labor), none of our missions have been more successful
than those among the Indians; and if we had a hundred men of the spirit
and activity of David Brainerd, or Eliot, I should have the strongest
expectations that all our Indian tribes would be converted without great
delay. But we have no prospect of obtaining them. I fear there are few
such in our churches.

"I think that the mission of Mackinack has been a very successful one,
especially in exerting an extensive religious influence, and being, as
you justly remark, 'the nucleus of Christianity in the north-west.' How
far the recent changes in the arrangements of the American Fur Company
are going to affect its importance in these respects and others, I
cannot say, but our Committee are by no means disposed to relinquish it,
while there is a hope of doing sufficient good there to justify the
keeping up of the requisite