reacher of the
Scriptures consecrated to Christ on the death of Krishna Prosad, while
the missionaries thus saw again answered the invocation they had sung,
in rude strains, in the ship which brought them to India:--

"Bid Brahmans preach the heavenly word
Beneath the banian's shade;
Oh let the Hindoo feel its power
And grace his soul pervade."

So early as 1806 the missionaries thus acknowledged the value of the
work of their native brethren, and made of all the native converts a
Missionary Church. In the delay and even failure to do this of their
successors of all Churches we see the one radical point in which the
Church in India has as yet come short of its duty and its privilege:--

"We have availed ourselves of the help of native brethren ever since we
had one who dared to speak in the name of Christ, and their exertions
have chiefly been the immediate means by which our church has been
increased. But we have lately been revolving a plan for rendering
their labours more extensively useful; namely, that of sending them
out, two and two, without any European brother. It appeared also a
most desirable object to interest in this work, as much as possible,
the whole of the native church among us: indeed, we have had much in
them of this nature to commend. In order, then, more effectually to
answer this purpose, we called an extraordinary meeting of all the
brethren on Friday evening, Aug. 8, 1806, and laid before them the
following ideas:--

"1. That the intention of the Saviour, in calling them out of darkness
into marvellous light, was that they should labour to the uttermost in
advancing his cause among their countrymen.

"2. That it was therefore their indispensable duty, both collectively
and individually, to strive by every means to bring their countrymen to
the knowledge of the Saviour; that if we, who were strangers, thought
it our duty to come from a country so distant, for this purpose, much
more was it incumbent on them to labour for the same end. This was
therefore the grand business of our lives.

"3. That if a brother in discharge of this duty went out forty or fifty
miles, he could not labour for his family; it therefore became the
church to support such, seeing they were hindered from supporting
themselves, by giving themselves wholly to that work in which it was
equally the duty of all to take a share.

"4. We therefore proposed to unite the support of itinerant brethren
with