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tried; and that, if the result of that experiment should be as its advocates clearly anticipate it will, the world at length, and after every other method of investigation has failed to produce a satisfactory issue, will be put in possession of the true solution of many a profound problem in the philosophy of human nature. On this ground merely we, perhaps, might rest our case; at least we might fairly demand of the enemies of missionary undertakings, that before they presume to VOL. V.-July, 1834.

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THE

METHODIST MAGAZINE,

VOL. XVI, No. 3.

AND

Quarterly Review.

JULY, 1834. NEW SERIES-VOL. V, No. 3.

From the Wesleyan Methodist Magazine.

REVIEW OF KAY'S CAFFRARIAN RESEARCHES.

Travels and Researches in Caffraria :-describing the Character, Customs, and Moral Condition of the Tribes inhabiting that portion of Southern Africa: with Historical and Topographical Remarks, &c. BY STEPHEN KAY, Corresponding Member of the South African Institution.

WE have often thought what a profoundly interesting chapter might be added to the history of man, by collecting together all the various records of missionary operations during the last half century. Persons we know there are who would no more condescend to exercise their great minds in the consideration of the subject, than they would tolerate the high canons of Christian doctrine and morality; and little should we care for their contemptuous neglects. But that men should be found, of strong and candid spirit, speculators on the condition and social destinies of human kind, who are content, as too many of them notoriously are, to remain in almost total ignorance of the perpetual advances which Christianity is making in heathen countries, is to us a matter equally of astonishment and regret. Nor does it greatly increase our satisfaction to know, that occasionally some extraordinary and signal demonstration of the power of Christian truth compels the notice of those whose general defect of observation we lament. Small indeed must be that knowledge of the state and prospects of the unchristian world, and miserably incorrect withal, which includes within its range of acknowledged facts only the few striking and wondrous instances of popular conversion which have gladdened the hearts of all devout philanthropists. Regard with what feelings we may the attempt to reclaim from their pollutions and various degradation the barbarous races of mankind, it is impossible to deny that a mighty experiment is being made; that the moral capabilities of human beings, under all disadvantages of circumstance, are now, for the first time, being fairly tried; and that, if the result of that experiment should be as its advocates clearly anticipate it will, the world at length, and after every other method of investigation has failed to produce a satisfactory issue, will be put in possession of the true solution of many a profound problem in the philosophy of human nature. On this ground merely we, perhaps, might rest our case; at least we might fairly demand of the enemies of missionary undertakings, that before they presume to VOL. V.-July, 1834.

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vehemently oppose the exertions of our numerous societies, they should take the trouble to investigate this one important pretension. That they have never yet done so, we do not hesitate to affirm: nor is it possible to consider how commonly they have thrown entirely out of sight the intermediate and less obvious steps of moral progression, without being struck with a vivid sense of the unfairness which has characterized their blind and persevering opposition. And yet we are inclined to think that there is in truth less reason than many people imagine, to deplore the prevalence of that hostility which the great cause of Christian missions has had so often to encounter. The Church of God, in all ages, and in all its separate departments, has gathered strength from persecution, of what kind soever the persecution may have been. There would seem indeed to be a certain fixed and immutable law, by which the innate and unconquerable energy of religious truth maintains its own victorious superiority to all the strength of its assailants. Or, let us say, rather, that the Almighty has so constituted the human mind, that having once laid hold on that which is true, it clings but the more firmly for being buffeted and vigorously assailed. And this is not all: pour in upon the provinces of a free and glorious land the desolating legions of an invading army, and you kindle in the hearts and spirits of her children a fire that will eventually consume you. Then arise the TELLS and HOFFERS of the subjugated country; the indomitable champions of right and liberty; and peasants start forth from their native obscurity to pull down the tyrant from his throne of usurpation, and to wield the sword of battle, and the sceptre of dominion. So it is, so it has ever been, where the blessed truths of Christian hope and duty have had to sustain invasion or terrible assault. What but "the fury of the oppressor" drew forth from Luther his fearless promulgation, his learned and unanswerable defences, of the doctrines of the reformation? What but the unwearying enmity, the abiding and relentless oppugnancy, of a large proportion of the magistrates and clergy of this realm, to the spiritual instruction of the people generally, produced and strengthened in Mr. Wesley his deep conviction of the necessity of laboring arduously, unshrinkingly, and with entire and life-long devotedness, to make known the uncorrupted doctrine of our holy religion throughout the empire?-a conviction which, illustrated as it was by the marvellous activity of that distinguished man, has been productive of consequences as momentous and remarkable as any that the world has witnessed since the days of the apostles. And what again, by awakening in the friends of missions a desire of self vindication from the injurious charges of their adversaries, what but the mistaken and too often ferocious counteraction of which we have been speaking, has stirred them up to their more recent and gigantic efforts to carry the transcendent blessedness of Christian faith and joy, with all its attendant benefits of moral elevation, practical virtue, civilization, freedom, into the dark places of the earth?

One of the commonest, and also one of the most shallow and fallacious objections to the whole missionary scheme, is that which asserts the impossibility of effectually inculcating the principles of Christian truth upon the unprepared and previously unenlightened heathen mind; which demands the presence of some pre-existing civilization, toge

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