eir preaching produces but meagre
results. In India, for instance, the Company will not admit them. In
Africa, the climate destroys them. The fanatical Turks and other
Mohammedan nations will not listen to their message; and it would be but
time lost and energies wasted were they to attempt to preach to the
cannibals of New Zealand and the other islands of the Pacific, or to the
almost baboons of Australia and New Guinea."

"You have not, I see, given much thought to the subject, David,"
observed my father, mildly; "God's grace is sufficient for all men. The
gospel is to be preached to all men, without distinction of race, or
colour, or nation, or rank. What says the Bible? `Go ye into all the
world, and preach the gospel to every creature.' Who is to decide then
from what depths of moral degradation the power of God's grace will fail
to lift up a human being? Certainly, we mortals, fallible, helpless,
sinful, as we must feel ourselves, are not capable of judging. All we
have to do is to receive the plain command, and obey it. Oh, there is
scope, believe me, for the exertions, not of one missionary only, but of
hundreds and thousands of the soldiers of the cross in those very
regions of which you have spoken. How can we dare to doubt how the
gospel will in the end be received? `Blessed are ye which sow beside
all waters,' `Cast thy bread upon the waters: for thou shalt find it
after many days.' `In the morning sow thy seed, and in the evening
withhold not thine hand, for thou knowest not which shall prosper,
either this or that, or whether they both shall be alike good.' Our
duty as disciples of Christ is plain. We are to sow. `God giveth the
increase.' That is not to be our care. We are to `preach the gospel to
every creature.' Some will hear; some will turn away from the truth.
With that we have nothing to do, except to pray and work on, awaiting
God's time. You have none of you seen more than the outside of my Uncle
John's journal. Indeed, I had not myself till lately looked into it.
He was, as you may have heard, a seaman, and he made more than one
voyage to the Pacific. Possessing more education than most officers in
the merchant service in those days, he seems to have carefully noted the
observations he made as he sailed from place to place. His descriptions
are graphic, and he was of an acute and inquiring mind; his remarks,
too, are of value. I think, therefore, that we may glean from it b