ascended Lord. Then we should have a burning desire to make known the Gospel of the grace of God for the salvation of the world. Such a desire must have been in the heart of Robert Moffat when, being asked, after his fifty years' mission work in South Africa, to write in an album, he complied with the request : "My album is the savage breast, Where tempests brood and darkness rest To write the Name of Jesus there, And point to worlds all bright and fair, Noah must have had help in building the ark. That help might be given by some good people whom God would probably take to Himself ere the flood covered the earth. But it might also be given by some from a desire to have a plank in such a big ship, and even from contemptuous pity for the poor man who entertained such wild ideas. And there might be others, highly respectable in their way, who might give him some assistance without ever believing a word of his preaching. So it may be with us in helping Missions. For we may have little or no interest in the ends and issues of any mission work. We may forget that, as Professor Max Müller says, "as for our religion, its very soul is missionary, progressive, world-embracing; it would cease to exist if it ceased to be missionary, if it disregarded the parting words of its Founder." Yet we may give a little money and profess our interest in it, and even occupy ourselves in carrying it on. Meanwhile we may be cherishing a secret dis like to it, and an inward belief that the heathen may be better without the Gospel of Christ, or at least that their chances are as good as our own. And when we entertain such beliefs they certainly are. But how does all this agree with the words of the apostle?" Neither is there salvation in any other; for there is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved." How did it fare with Noah's carpenters when the flood of waters was upon the earth? A SURVEY OF MISSIONS THROUGHOUT THE WORLD. I. ASIA. 1. JEWISH MISSIONS. "To the Jew first," says St Paul. Yet the Churches have more frequently read it, "To the Jew last." Now, however, they are turning their attention to the seed of Abraham. In Scotland we have been led to this chiefly by the publication of the 'Narrative of a Mission of Inquiry to the Jews,' more than fifty years ago. It is a most interesting book, and it could not fail to be so, since it was written with grace, with truthfulness, and with Christian simplicity by the Rev. Dr A. A. Bonar and the Rev. R. M. M'Cheyne, who, accompanied by the Rev. Drs Keith and Black, went on that mission. They were saintly men, and their praise might well be in all the Churches of Christ. They were sent as a deputation by the Church of Scotland in 1838 to inquire into the state A |