strained also to yield the palm of superiority to his powerful and improved intellect. Often did he labour to impress upon our hearts our inviolable obligations to the heathen; but where arguments failed, surmises, excuses, and puzzling inquiries were always at command, and each retained his former opinion. But now, in the wise providence of God, another method was to be employed. Suddenly he was attacked with a violent disease, and his malady was soon pronounced to be fatal. Aware of his situation, he called us to his bedside, and forgetting his agonies, entreated us with tears to reconsider the question of personal duty in reference to missions. He assured us, that according to his most solemn convictions, all our reasons for declining this service were untenable that we had never felt the importance of the calling, and never considered it with impartiality; nay, that our hearts revolted at the self-denial and sacrfice it required, and that we were consequently guilty in the sight of God. He solemnly warned us against the voluntary mistakes we were cherishing. He pointed us anew to the hopeless condition of the myriads of our fellow creatures whom we of all others were bound to pity, and entreated us to beware, lest our skirts should be found crimsoned with their blood.

As his tremulous voice uttered these fearful

truths, my soul was convicted of guilt, and when the last words were faltering on his dying lips, I resolved before that Being whose presence his struggling spirit was just seeking, that with divine assistance, I would ascertain and perform my duty to the heathen. And now the light began to penetrate my mind, and like the opening of the morning, it continued to increase, until voluntary ignorance and vain excuses like the shadows of the night vanished away. I cannot describe the process. It was like a new conversion- strikingly similar in many respects, to that which turned my heart from the service of Satan to the allegiance of Christ. "Old things passed away, behold all things became new.”

A moment's reflection convinced me that the real interests of my own country did not in the least interfere with the claims of the world. Indeed, I saw, that according to the principles which had been adduced from Scriptures,-the kingdom of Christ had no reference to particular localities,

that the ministry was established for mankind at large,―nay, that even had I been bound to labour exclusively for the benefit of my own country, I could discharge this obligation in no better way than by becoming a foreign missionary.

I did not think my talents would qualify me for the most important stations and difficult la

bours; but this sounded now like the voice of ambition. I knew that if I could not lead, I could follow-that if the languages were too difficult in one place, I could go where they were more simple — if incapable of the higher efforts of translation, and writing with idiomatic accuracy, there were many humbler departments which I might fill. My health was not robust; but as this did not disqualify me for all exertion at home, I did not know that it would present any greater obstacle abroad. Besides, the field is the world, and I was not compelled to go to climates to which my constitution was not adapted.

My parents and friends demurred at my plans. On this point I was sorely tried. Many of my dearest relatives were not converted. I was an only son. They clung to me with the fondest affection, and presented, among other things, the necessity of their salvation as an argument to detain me. My heart bled; but I could not linger. I saw that they were actuated chiefly by personal feeling-to this I dared not yield. "Let the dead bury the dead; but go thou and preach the kingdom of God," sounded in my ears as though it had just broken from the Saviour's lips. I believed too, what has been fully realized, that I should be of more service to them by leaving them, and endeavouring to interest them

through my efforts in the progress of the truth, than by remaining at home.

It is true I did not feel that internal call to which I had previously attached so much importance. I discovered, however, that I had mistaken the nature of that call. That there was a call, I clearly perceived a thundering call from the miseries and necessities of the heathen worldbut that my obligations resulted from heeding that call appeared to me as absurd as to conclude there is no light at mid-day because the eyelids are kept closed. At first, I felt At first, I felt very little interest for the heathen. I scarcely knew, I never seriously considered their condition; but the more I read, and reflected, and prayed, and conversed, and acted, with reference to their conversion, the more deeply did this external call penetrate my heart — the more irresistibly did it address every passion there.

I saw no obstacle in providence to my becoming a missionary. I was now persuaded that looking for anything beyond this--for those leadings or signal interpositions which I before believed necessary, was nothing less than expecting a miracle to convince me of an evident duty. My previous views appeared extremely inconsistent and absurd. I had professed to be afraid of forestalling Divine Providence. I objected to a de

termination to spend my days among the heathen, before I had finished my preparatory studies; at the same time, I saw no incongruity in employing the ordinary means to obtain a situation at home, without expecting any such previous direction. In the latter case, I exerted myself to secure a providential intimation; in the former, I argued that such exertions were inadmissible. Thus my errors were not those of an impartial judgement, but of a biased inclination.

Having swept away all the cobweb-excuses which my bribed fancy had spun, and my indulgent heart preserved, I felt myself prepared to examine my obligations to the heathen. I weighed the claims of my own country-I glanced my eye over the desolations of the unevangelized world. From the laws of the office for which I was preparing, I concluded that I was bound to go where the ministry which was entrusted to me was the most needed that ceteris paribus num

bers and destitution combined were sufficient to give direction to my efforts. Now the heathen world presented in innumerable places a much greater proportion of souls destitute of the knowledge of the Saviour, and of the means through which that knowledge is communicated, than could be found in any part of Christendom. I concluded that it was my duty to go to the heathen;