y, formally at least, is quite easy; to give, is a
little more difficult; but to go, in the minds of most persons, is
entirely out of the question. Satan understood human nature when he
said, "All that a man hath will he give for his life." Speak of going,
and you touch the man, his skin and his bones. To go, requires that a
man have such feelings as to begin to act in earnest, as men do in other
matters. Men act in person, when they are deeply in earnest. In the case
supposed of a sick child, does the mother simply express a desire that
the child may recover? does she merely give money, and hire a nurse to
take little or no care of it? No: in her _own person_ she anticipates
its every want, with the utmost attention and watchfulness. When a son
is in bondage on a barbarous coast, does the father merely _pray_ that
his son may be redeemed? does he merely send _money_ for his ransom? No:
he chooses, if possible, _to go in person_ and carry the sum, that no
means may be left untried to accomplish the object he has so much at
heart. Men who are deeply interested in an important matter, where there
is much at stake, cannot be satisfied with sending; they choose to _go
themselves._ This remark is true in all the enterprises and transactions
of life the world over.

If then, after all, the measure of going is the true measure of
interest, to what extent, I inquire, have Christians of America gone to
the heathen? Alas! the number is few, very few.

Look at the proportion of _ministers_ who go abroad. In the United
States the number of preachers, of all denominations, is perhaps not far
from one to a thousand souls. This is in a land already intelligent and
Christian; in a land of universities, colleges, and schools; in a land
of enterprise, of industry, and of free institutions, where the arts
flourish, and where improvements are various and unnumbered; and more
than all, in a land where more than a million and a half of the people
are professed Christians, and ready to aid the ministers of Christ in
various ways. On the other hand, even if missionaries from all
Christendom be taken into the account, there is not more than one
minister to a million of pagan souls, with almost no intelligent
Christians to assist as teachers, elders, catechists, and tract
distributers; no physicians, artists, and judicious legislators, to
improve society and afford the means of civilized habits; no literature
worthy of the name; no colleges, or