hem a superficial knowledge of the great
truths of the Gospel. God blesses his labors. The people throw away
their idols; many sincerely embrace the Lord Jesus; and the community at
large acknowledge Christianity as the religion of the land.

Now, a superficial thinker might imagine that the work of elevating the
people was almost done; but, in truth, it is but just commenced. The
missionary looks upon his people, and wishes them not only to be
Christians in name, but to exhibit also intelligence and good order,
purity and loveliness, industry and enterprise; in a word, a deportment
in all respects consistent with the religion of Jesus. But what is
their state? The government is despotic, and the principles of its
administration at variance with Scripture and reason. This takes away
all motives to industry and thrift. Then again, the people are ignorant;
have no mental discipline, no store of useful knowledge, but their minds
are marked with torpor, imbecility, and poverty of thought: while at the
same time they are full of grovelling ideas, false opinions, and
superstitious notions, imbibed in childhood and confirmed by age. The
children, too, are growing up in ignorance of all that is useful and
praiseworthy. Entirely uninstructed and ungoverned by their parents;
they range at large like the wild goats of the field. The people know
not the simple business of making cloth, of working iron, or of framing
wood; and have but a very imperfect knowledge of agriculture.

Of course, men, women and children, are almost houseless and
naked--destitute of everything but the rudest structures, the rudest
fabrications, and the rudest tools and implements of husbandry. A large
family herd together, of all ages and both sexes, in one little hut,
sleep on one mat, and eat from one dish. From irregularity of habits and
frequent exposure, they are often sick; and with the aid of a
superstitious quackery, sink rapidly and in great numbers to the grave.

The missionary looks upon his four thousand villagers, though nominally
Christian perhaps, yet still in this state of destitution, degradation
and ignorance. He sees, that to elevate them requires the labors not
only of a preacher of the Gospel, but the labors of the civilian, the
physician, the teacher, the agriculturist, the manufacturer, the
mechanic and the artist. Can all these professions and employments be
united in one man? Can one missionary sustain all this variety of labor?
Y