conversion, to nominal Christianity at least, was universal through the kingdom. An. 950-1000.

"Adalbert, archbishop of Prague, visited Hungary, and afterwards travelled as a missionary into Poland, and planted the Gospel in Dantzic. Here his labors appear to have been successful. In visiting a small island he was knocked down with the oar of a boat; but recovering himself, he and his fellow laborers quitted the place: indeed, he was obliged to flee for his life; and was, at length, murdered in Lithuania; Siggo, a pagan priest, being the chief instrument of his death. An. 997.

"No man distinguished himself in zeal for religion beyond Otho, surnamed the Great, emperor of Germany. His efforts to promote learning, and to erect bishoprics, to endow churches, and to propagate the Gospel among barbarous nations, were highly laudable. So ready were his exertions, and so amiable his private life, that there is reason to hope: he was a real Christian. His empress Adelaide, was no lessremarkable for her zeal and liberality.

"Harold, of Denmark, conquered rather by the sword of Otho, than the arguments of Poppon, consented with his subjects to become Christians, that they might secure their independence as a nation. His son, Suevo, apostatized; but adversity brought him back, and Providence restoring him to his kingdom, he became a zealous advocate for Christianity.

"Norway, after long resistance to her monarchs, in rejecting the Christian profession, at last submitted to the strong arm of Olaus, who finding all other methods ineffectual, visited his provinces with an army capable of commanding obedience. Multitudes were driven to the font, and receiv-ed the sign of the cross. The English missionaries (Bernard particularly) were the active instruments; and their zeal carried them to the Orkney islands, and even to Green-land, where they planted the standard of the cross.

"Thus, in an age of proverbial darkness, the Gospel continued to spread. The efforts of missionaries at this period: had their defects; yet they form the principal glory of those times, and appear to have been attended with the power of the Holy Spirit, the genuine conversion of numbers, and the improvement of human society. It is easy to find fault with. past times; but it would be well if, with all their advantages,

the moderns displayed half that zeal for the propagation of the Gospel, which marks the annals of the darkest ages.

[Collected from the ecclesiastical histories before mentioned.]

After mentioning the subject of the contest between the Papists and the Mahometans in the eleventh century, Mr. Burder says, "Nobler objects were, nevertheless pursued by Christian Missionaries. The work of God was crowned with further success in Hungary. Stephen, the king of that country, often accompanied the preachers of the Gospel, and pathetically exhorted his subjects. He restrained vice, and formed an excellent code of laws. Having subdued the prince of Transylvania, who had invaded his deminions, he restored him to liberty on condition of his permitting the Gospel to be freely preached to his people. He lived to see all Hungary become externally Christian. He died in 1038.

"Robert Guischard, a valiant Norman, who had conquered the dukedom of Apuglia, had received baptism; the Pope promised to make him king of Sicily, if he would recover that beautiful island to the Christian pale. This he effected, and Christianity, which had become nearly extinct, was revived.

"Zealous Missionaries extended the conquests of the Cross among the remaining tribes of Russians, Poles, and Danes. In Denmark, especially, the word of the Lord appears to have been glorified. Othingar, a bishop of that country. and Unwan, the bishop of Hamburg, were instruinents of the work: the latter cut down the idolatrous groves which the people of his neighborhood frequented, and erected churches in their stead.

"The effect of the word in Denmark was such as to prove its divine origin. Adam of Bremen, an historian, thus expresses it:-Look at that very ferocious nation of the Danes; for a long time they have been accustomed, in the praises of God, to resound Alleluia! Look at that piratical people; they are now content with the fruits of their own country. Look at that horrid region, formerly altogether inaccessible on account of idolatry; now they eagerly admit the preachers of the word. We owe this passage, says Mr. Milner, to Gibbon, who, by admitting its truth, admits consequently the beneficial effects of revealed truth: for that religion must indeed be divine which could trans

form the heart of an ancient Dane, and produce such effects in the country. Hume, another infidel writer, says, 'About this time, that restless people learned the use of tillage, which thenceforth kept them at home, and freed the other nations of Europe from the devastations spread over them by those piratical invaders This proved one great cause of the subsequent settlement and improvement of the southern nations.' This effect, which Hume ascribes to tillage, ought fairly to be ascribed to the knowledge and. power of the Gospel; and it affords a strong argument for missionary exertions, seeing that civilization is so effectually promoted by the Gospel of peace. Nor can the general civilization of the globe be rationally expected from any other methods. When the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the Lord, then, and not till then, will the ferocious manners and bloody wars of jarring nations terminate.

"It should be mentioned to the honor of the Danes, that no Christian nation, considering their ability and opportunity, has been more distinguished for missionary zeal. Britain now, however, emulates her example.

"The labors of the English missionaries, before mentioned, appear to have been much blessed in Sweden and Norway. Besides Bernard, we find the names of Sigefred, Gunichild, and Rudolf: these appear to have been sent over by Ethelred, king of England, at the request of Olaus, king of Sweden. Some of these worthy men were murdered by the pagan nobility. Such was the zeal of king Olaus to promote religion, that he used to travel about with the preachers, and second their exhortations by his own. At length the Pagans, aided by Canute, king of England, defeated and slew him in 1030.

"Ulfrid, a learned and virtuous Englishman, preached the faith, first in Germany, and afterwards in Sweden, where he was an instrument of converting many, till in the year 1028, preaching against the idol Thor, and hewing it down with a hatchet, he was slain by the Pagans.

"Gotebald, another English Missionary, was appointed. bishop of Norway, and preached in Sconen.

"Eschil was also an English Missionary; he was murdered, while preaching Christ, by some of the savage tribes in Sweden.

"William, an English priest, who attended Canute in one of his voyages to Denmark, was so affected with the idolatry

of the Danes, that he desired to be left among them as a Missionary. His labors were successful, and he was appointed bishop of Roschild, in Zealand. He died in 1067.

"But of all the missionary efforts to propagate the Christian religion, none seem to have been more effectual, and to have been founded on purer principles, than those of the Nestorians in the East, who penetrated still further into Asia, and spread the knowledge of the truth among the vast hordes of northern Tartars.

"The successful propagation of the Gospel, by the ministry of the Nestorians, in Tartary, China, and the neighboring provinces is a most important event, and every way worthy to employ the researches of some able writer well acquainted with Oriental history."-Burder, f. 29-132.

"Twelfth century. Boselaus, duke of Poland, who had conquered the Pomeranians, granted them peace on condition of their embracing the Gospel, and receiving the Missionaries he sent; of whom the most eminent was Albert (or Otho), bishop of Bamberg; for in those days there were not wanting bishops themselves, who were emulous of this honor. The Madgeburg Centuriators have preserved a letter from Boselaus to the bishop, encouraging him inthis work. An. 1125.

"Waldemar, king of Denmark, displayed the like zeal. among the pagan tribes on the Baltic; by his victorious armics, as much as by the zeal of the archbishop of Lunden and his associates, he compelled them to become Christians.

An. 1168.

"The Finlanders received their profession nearly by the same means. The sword of Eric, king of Sweden, and the zealous archbishop of Upsal, who accompanied him in the expedition, bent their reluctant necks to the Christian yoke; but an angry chieftain avenged a penance, imposedby the too rigid missionary prelate, by his murder.

"The Esthonians and Livonians were converted by the same effectual means. Mainard, mortified at the little attention paid to him, procured a new commission with the episcopat, from pope Urban III. and the zealous missionary bishop immediately levied an apostolic army, to accomplish by the sword, what he could not effect by persuasion; and, baptizing at the point of the spear, wrought wonders.

"The Sclavonians still abhorring Christianity, called forth the military zeal of Henry, duke of Saxony, and the mission

ary labors of Vicelinus, bishop of Oldenburg. He is very highly spoken of by Mosheim and other writers, and is said to have wrought wonderful conversions; but as many of the missionaries about this time had bishoprics in view, and princes at their elbow, their labors and successes are not free from suspicion. In fact, a new military order, called knights sword-bearers, was instituted by pope Innocent III. for the express purpose of converting Pagans; and the clergy, in return, seized every thing valuable into their own possession, and took the government, body and soul, of their greatly obliged, certainly greatly humbled, converts. Of the grand doctrines of Revelation, it may be feared, that most of them remained ignorant; and that their practice was the reverse of what the Gospel enjoins; and herein their apostles too frequently kept them company; but they were all taught the sign of the cross; to make the proper genuflexions and salutations, and especially to profess obedience to the see of Rome-the first article of the Catholic creed in those days: they believed the lying miracles, adored musty relics, and bowed the knee to the Roman pontiff and his booted apostles."-Burder, p. 138–134.

In the the thirteenth century "the madness of the crusaders continued to deluge the world with blood, and disfigure the face of the Christian church. Miseries indescribable 'flowed from this wretched source, weakened all the powers of Europe, and disgraced the profession of the Gospel; but about this time God raised up a new people called the Waldenses (from Peter Waldo, a merchant of Lyons, who dated his conversion to the sudden death of one of the company with which he had supped: he was a most eminent and successful reformer, and died about 1179). These maintained the distinguishing doctrines of grace, and made a noble stand against the usurpation and idolatry of the Roman sec. But they were maliciously slandered by the popish clergy, and persecuted in a dreadful degree. In 1304, no fewer than one hundred and fourteen persons were burned alive in Paris only.

"The pale of the visible church was still further extended in this century among the idolatrous nations; and though the methods of propagating Christianity were too often un christian, some Missionaries seem to have been actuated by an apostolic spirit.