It is no undue "stretching of ourselves beyond our measure" to say that on England and the United States must probably devolve the chief burden of the world's conversion, so far as means are concerned. At least-the striking out of plans and the making of beginnings in the several departments, and among the various kindreds of the earth, will be done by the Anglo-American race. This, Providence seems evidently to intend. But when we look to the mother country, what do we behold? Beneath her strong foundations, both of church and state, there are felt the laboring throes of a volcano that must soon burst its rocky crust; and the more massive the superstructure, the more ruinous will be the overthrow. The leaven of Papacy now fermenting in the established church of England, is likely soon to employ her chief attention and strength, in doing over again and more effectually, the work left incomplete by the Reformation. This struggle, together with her social agitations, must greatly hinder, for a time, her share of the direct agency in converting the heathen world. There is therefore the greater need of the sanctification of American treasure and talent to carry the Gospel to the unevangelized. If, then, we consider only the interest of Foreign Missions, it is apparent, that it is a most short-sighted policy to make our domestic operations a matter of inferior interest. Side by side, with equal pace, let the two departments of missions at home and abroad go forward; nor let "the hand say to the foot I have no need of thee." They are bound together by ties which God has ordained. The one bears to the other the relation of the means to the end; and great as we would have that end to be, so great in proportion must we make the means. From whatever quarter, therefore, we derive considerations on this subject, they all lead to the same result. The state of our own people; the work forced upon us by Divine Providence; the facilities given us for its accomplishment; the short space in which it must be done; our present and future relation to the Pagan world-all combine to make the conversion of the United States THE GREAT PROBLEM OF THE AGE, on the successful solution of which depends more of the interests of man, than tongue can tell, or heart conceive. We ask the pastors of our churches, we ask the patrons of our benevolent institutions, one and all, to meditate on these things. We ask them to compare their annual donations to the cause of Home Missions with those made to the Foreign Board, and to say-while they diminish not a whit their offerings to the latter, but rather enlarge them steadily, year by year-WHETHER THEY OUGHT NOT GREATLY TO MULTIPLY THEIR EFFORTS TO TURN THE WILDERNESSES OF THEIR NATIVE LAND, INTO THE GARDEN OF GOD. Correspondence of the American Home Missionary Society. MISCELLANEOUS. PROOFS OF A NECESSITY FOR INCREASED HOME MISSIONARY RESOURCES. In the preceding article it is pleaded in behalf of the Home Missionary cause, that it can profitably employ-nay, that its exigencies urgently demand, an income manifold greater than it receives. Among the proofs of this necessity it is mentioned, that the scanty pay of the ministry in the new states, not only hinders the usefulness, but breaks the spirit and often ruins the health of the toiling missionary, or drives him from a work he loves, to some secular calling, in order to get his bread. It is proper in this connexion to add a few illustrations, out of scores which might be taken from our correspondence, which will confirm the truth so well expressed in the following extract of a letter, From a Pastor in Massachusetts. I believe Home Missions are not thought enough of. More must be done for our country. I have read your periodical it ought to be read by every pastor and layman in the land. I have felt of late distressed for my brethren at the West. Our Home missionaries are not cared for by the churches as they ught to be. They are martyrs, if we have any, in our country's cause. Something must be done to wake up our churches to the great work of evangelizing our own country. Now is the time for successful action-Now or NEVER! I am determined, for one, to press this subject more and more upon my people. Cannot every pastor be induced to do the same? I am not for extra efforts, but for an extra effort continuous as life. From a Missionary who has been several years in the field.' Personal privations. The renewal of my commission and the amount of aid promised by the committee, afforded me great pleasure. I had met with disappointment after disappointment in my expectation to obtain the funds necessary to pay my debts-some of them contracted years ago and called for; others, a few months since, and under promise of paying them within a few weeks, until I felt the necessaries of life. My promises that I was compelled to forego some of had been broken, and my purse was empty. I had sorely felt the evil of being loaded down with debts, as Bunyan's Pilgrim was with another commodity, and had resolved that I would not involve myself. Though in need of clothes to render me comfortable in my frequent exposures, pride, or some better principle, forbade the exposure to an evil that I dread more than the cold. My coat, whose third anniversary might soon be celebrated, still receives the highest honors of that species of my wardrobe. My only other garment of the kind now in use, I wore when a student in the Seminary, eleven years ago, and whose repose, after years of rest, would not have been disturbed but for very obvious reasons. Misapprehension corrected. I have been pained to think that any of the friends of the Home Missionary enterprise should, after such an array of evidence has been produced, seem to doubt whether, after all, it is true that many of their brethren are situated as repeatedly described. Perhaps some would be ready to say, "I would not endure such privations. If there is any place where ministers can fare better I would find it." A noble position. representations might be made by very good brethren with whom I am acquainted. I was told a few months since, by one whose salary is not less than eight hundred dollars, "that he did not trouble himself about being able to obtain the necessaries of life-that if he was faithful, the Lord would not suffer his bread and water to fail." thought at the time, and have thought ever since, that his faith was well founded. And I and many others would have more of that same kind of faith, if we could have half that amount made sure to us. I The sober truth in regard to many of us is, we have adopted this country as our home under a deep conviction of duty as servants of Christ. We understand Him to require us to live and labor here where we must literally "endure hardness as his good soldiers." And the longer we endure the evils incident to such a choice or perform the duties assigned us, the more we feel the importance of the arrangement, and the more firmly have we resolved to abide the consequences, rather than abandon fields that have already nearly I rejoice that there are a few places gone to waste for want of earlier culti- even in each of these new states, where vation. And could we command plea- much labor having been bestowed from sant locations, or such as would be even the very settlement of the country, more desirable, in some respects, in older preachers meet with as few pecuniary sections of the country, I do not be- embarrassments as are to be met with lieve our ranks would be thinned by the any where in the United States. But hope of better society or more con- such cases are so far from being the veniences. So long as we can be sus-general rule, that they are very rare tained in such a manner that we can give ourselves wholly to our work," I hope we shall feel most cordially disposed to do so. 86 But I know the question has been seriously agitated by one, whether duty to himself and family did not require some different arrangement to secure, if possible, a more sure support. We rely with the most perfect confidence exceptions in the circle of my acquaintance. And one who has never been otherwise situated, does not, and cannot, know, the difficulties of one who is laying the foundations of churches in the midst of opposition, poverty, igno rance, and their accompanying evils. tories. upon the sum guarantied by your Com- From a Missionary in one of the Terri mittee; but beyond this, disappointment has been so often experienced that we look upon a considerable portion of what is promised, as either very doubtful when due, or entirely worthless. This has been true more especially for some time past, and to such an extent, that we cannot make our contracts for the necessaries of life with any thing like a feeling of dependance upon the stipulations of our people. And they can find pretty good ground for an apology, when many of them are in debt, and money is so scarce that it is supposed there is not enough in these counties to pay the taxes. But if this deficiency on their part arises measurably from a want of more fixed moral principles, they certainly need the Gospel, and withholding it would not be very likely to bring them up to their duty. But I am aware that very different Before I close this, I am under the painful necessity of saying a few words in relation to my support, which I would most gladly avoid. My family numbers nine, including myself and wife, with five daughters from the age of one year upwards. The health of my wife has been for some years so poor as to require assistance. **** In our house, barely sided up with clapboards, one outside door, with some pieces of carpeting for inside doors, and some temporary partitions, we are trying to be comfortable, contented and happy. We have denied ourselves many of the necessaries of life to do thus much to our house. In order to render our habitation more comfortable, and to purchase a horse, (for the want of which my labors are much hindered in destitute neighborhoods, in and out of my parish,) requires an addition to my income. And | now, with a sense of my obligation for aid already received, and without which I could not have avoided great suffering in my family, permit me to inquire if your Board can do any thing for me in my present extremity? To avoid this question, I have gone through cold and wet with only about half the clothing I used to deem necessary and even indispensable to health. I think I am ready to endure privations with my brethren, as long as any without murmuring. But situated as I am, what shall I do? What can I do! From a Missionary in Illinois. It has been a matter of surprise to us, here in the far West, that any doubt should exist about the condition of missionaries, who are called to live in an expensive region on about one half the ordinary very moderate income of eastern country clergymen and still more astonishing is it, that one who has seen the West should express doubts of our pecuniary destitution. I could tell such an one, and the churches of the Lord Jesus on your side of the Alleghany, that I know a minister of the Gospel, a missionary of your body, who for the last five years has not purchased, because he was not able, a winter garment of any description, save a very coarse, slazy great-coat and two under shirts, but has been supplied during the time wholly by the cast-off clothes of his friends, who are in somewhat better circumstances; and his summer clothing has been either of the same description or of the cheapest material. His wife and children have been clad to a considerable extent in the same way. And, indeed, what better can one do, who without any property of his own, has to subsist a wife and five children on an income of less than two hundred and fifty dollars? Such is the fact with the missionary of whom I speak. From a Missionary in N. Western Ohio. Looking up the sheep in the wilderness. The following report, written not for pub On the 12th of October last, I started of Lucas, Henry and Williams counties, on a tour of exploration in the back part bordering on Michigan. I had heard of some christians on Bean Creek, and took that route to Farmer, Williams co., to visit that little church, and to see how they came on. I rode 30 miles, or more, the first day, and preached at Pike, he had not then arrived)-made an ap (where brother Johnson now preaches, pointment at Amboy. Next morning, I felt a deep, sharp pain in my breast. Next day, after a ride of 16 miles, called on a friend who went with me to Bean Creek, 8 miles further-found two families of Presbyterians. One man had joined the ; another stood firm, with his wife, but they had lost some of their children. He said they had numbered eleven, but now were but 5 or 6-that I was the first minister of their order who had been there since the commencement of the settlement, now 7 years old! I told him, "Heads up!" that he must not be discouraged, that there certainly would be a church of his order there "wait patiently and with good hope." He is quite an inthere for the next Monday evening; at telligent man. I left an appointment another place, for Tuesday, 10 o'clock, A. M., and at my friend's at candlelight on the same day. I was to be at home on the following Thursday, at preparatory lecture, &c. Sickness away from home. I then went on to Farmer, and arrived there quite unwell; took medicinegrew worse, had a violent attack of lung fever and pleurisy—and, of course failed in all my appointments. The next week my son came in search of me, and found me at the end of two days, 60 miles from home. It was then I found how much a family and home had sent me $60, and the Home Missionary Society had renewed my commission for this year, and sent me a barrel from Braintree, Mass., and a box from Leba were worth, at least in some degree. || days to a trip,) and told me that Although I was in a good family, (deacon E.'s) who were very kind, and in a comfortable log house, yet I was among comparative strangers-not at home. A good physician was in the neighbor-non, Ct., containing bedding, clothing, hood, which was a great favor. For a time he had much doubt whether I should recover. I tried to be reconciled to a near view of death-God gave me peace. It was hard to give up my family, and church, and labors, and plans; but through the power of the Gospel, this can be done. I was quiet until God gave me hope, strong hope of recovery; then, I desired it with an intensity I cannot describe. God had showed me the preciousness of the Gospel by stripping me of all; the world was gone, my family far away; a dark log-cabin and my medicine were about all of earth there was left. Then I learned to realize the poor sinner's case, who comes to a dying hour without an interest in Christ; and I felt, that if I recovered I should feel more for him. How dark must be the hour of death when the faith of Jesus brings no light! How certain will darkness come to such as know not Christ! Convalescence and Return. I rode out to Defiance in the seventh week, and remaining there seven days, came home the ninth week from my departure. My wife and children saw me while yet a great way off, and ran to meet me and fell on my neck-and after we had what answered instead of "the fatted calf," we had less talk and more feeling. Little S-, who came late from school, after embracing me, went away into a dark corner of our cabin to cry. Anxieties Relieved. While at deacon E.'s I suffered all sorts of fears and distress for my family. How would my little crops be securedmy house mudded for winter-provisions furnished? And as I saw Mrs. E. and her daughter clothing their family, what, thought I, will become of my prairie birds? Who will clothe them? Soon after this my dear boy came to see me the third time, (four and shoes. I felt condemned for my solicitude, and overwhelmed with a sense of the Divine goodness! Does God "feed the ravens"-" take care for oxen?" "How much more will He not clothe you, O ye of little faith?" I had then had my clothes on three days in succession, though very weak. It snowed and rained. I felt that I could not let my son go without going with him. Had the weather been fair, and were I not distressed on account of my family being alone when my son was absent, I should have kept him a day or two, and then tried to go with him. As it was, I felt obliged to see him go off alone. He had 30 miles to go in the storm-and not well defended-to make half his journey, in a fearful road, through mud and ice. Pity for him, and solicitude for my family, in my weak state, quite unmanned me, and I wept and rejoiced all that day-wept in view of these trials, and rejoiced that God cared for me! The physician understood my case, and he was the only one near that did. He visited me 40 times, and called in advice once. His bill was $40. Mr. E.'s family took turns in watching with me; this was done by the father and three sons. When the sons sat up they wrote temperance lectures, prepared business for the County Bible Society, and composition; this was a great comfort to me. The various articles of dress all came in excellent play in a family of 8 children, the eldest only 16 years old. May God bless you, as almoners, and the dear benefactors with the best of blessings! I cannot begin to tell you how timely and how comfortable this box and barrel were to us. [Here follow some details, which, though deeply affecting, as illustrating the goodness of God in causing the articles to arrive at that particular time, are judged unsuitable for publication.] What think you of such a report ? It is but a brief record of plans broken up, business deranged, suffering of sickness, receiving of gifts, rejoicing in |