E are to sketch in this paper the present position and circum. stances of the Sierra Leone mission. We have seen that the good work there was uphill work, as all good work in this world must ever be. The faith of the early labourers was "tried as by fire;" and many faithful missionaries, like the devoted Apostle, "counted not their lives dear to them." Perhaps in no mission like this, our oldest one, has so much death been put into the work for the Redeemer's sake and after His example, and from few missions has a more abundant harvest been reaped as the fruit of it. "Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone; but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit."

The colony of Sierra Leone consists at present of some 40,000 souls, of whom nearly two thirds profess Christianity, and 14,000 are reckoned to belong to the Church of England. The first Bishop of Sierra Leone was appointed in 1851. The rapid succession of bishops sadly proves that West Africa still maintains its title of the "White Man's Grave." Bishop Vidal died in less than two years; Bishop Weeks in less than three; Bishop Bowen in two. Yet there have never been wanting for this mission volunteers to man the forlorn hope: and Bishop Cheetham, whom it was our privilege to meet in England on a recent visit to raise funds for mission purposes, has abundantly shown in labours manifold his simple devotion to the Master's work.

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The following is a brief extract from Bishop Cheetham's first charge to the Sierra Leone clergy-many of them native pastors. more deeply touching and spiritual exhortation and appeal has seldom been addressed to those who are called to the work of the ministry.

"Let this be the central truth of all your

position as preachers at all: for who would come to preach a message of condemnation only? From this centre you must start; hither you must return-God is love.' Every other truth must be presented in harmony with this; must revolve each in its proper orbit around this central sun. Preach as the highest possible explanation, at least to human ken, of God's infinite love, the Atonement of Christ, Christ's vicarious sufferings and death for the sin of the world. Preach the Atonement as presenting the highest possible motive to holy obedience. Preach sanctification and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord. And in all your preaching be continually tracing back the whole work of man's redemption, not to anything good in us, but to the infinite, unsearchable, inexhaustible love of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost!

"And above all things, exemplify your preaching in your life. Know that you have a Father-no mother's breast so tender, so beating with love as His. Know that you have a Saviour, in whom is hid all the fulness of God for you; an Elder Brother, who will keep all that you have committed unto Him; know your union with Him and all its consequent privilege. Know that you have a Divine Comforter, who is able yet to reveal heights and depths of the love of God which it will take eternity to fathom. Know all

this, and live on the earth as 'kings and priests unto God,' happy in Jesus, happy in the possession of a good hope through grace, happy in your ministry and in humble dutydoing, finding alike your privilege and happiness, ever looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ."

Such is the Gospel preached in Sierra Leone-preached in past years; and, thank God! preached still. Scarcely need we add, it has proved "the power of God" to the salvation of many. The Bishop enters into a thorough statistical account of his diocese and

ling almost constantly from place to place (for it must be remembered his diocese is very large, extending far beyond the single colony of Sierra Leone); but confining ourselves to Sierra Leone alone, we learn that there are ninety-six Sunday services, twenty-two week-day services, and one hundred other class meetings, Bible classes, etc., held weekly. The Sunday morning services are attended by about 6500 persons, the second services by about 5250 persons, and the week-day services by about 1000. As before said, about 14,000 persons profess to have attached themselves to the missions of the Church of England, and of these 4215 are communicating members. Then there are forty-four day schools and ninety-two Sunday schools. Two thousand six hundred is the average attendance at the day schools, and about two thousand in the Sunday schools. Ten of the parishes have native pastors only; whilst there is not a church in the colony where a native clergyman does not share in the work; neither is there a school in which the teacher is other than one born in the land.

Strangely must that mind be prejudiced which fails to see in these remarkable statistics the conclusive evidence of the blessing of God on the labours of His servants; and well may the Bishop thus comment on the results secured in this portion of the mission field:

"The country in which this has been achieved is on the west coast of Africa; the people among whom Christianity has been thus planted are a people redeemed from slavery; and the work is only half a century old! Has not God been faithful to His promises? May not those who have sown in tears reap in joy? Has not philanthropy, notwithstanding all its toils, reaped a great reward ? Have not the men of faith who planted here the standard of the Cross reaped even beyond a reasonable expectation ? reasonable expectation ? What would Granville Sharp and Robert Clarkson, what would William Wilberforce and Sir Fowell Buxton, say-names ever to be cherished in our midst-could they behold the things our eyes behold? How would Scott and Venn, how would Pratt and Bicker

hath promised? Surely here the wilderness is becoming a watered garden which the Lord hath blessed!"

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The Bishop's charge, from beginning to end, is most interesting; and as a testimony borne on the spot, in the presence of eyewitnesses and actual workers in the Mission, even those who are ready to think lightly of a missionary speech at home cannot call it in question. One has heard of so-called men of science "ridiculing the possibility of African elevation to European equality, as if God had not "made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth." Such men of science (science often falsely so called-the science of unbelief) should read Bishop Cheetham's practical Charge to the African clergy. I remember the visit two or three years since of one of these clergy to the city of Worcester. I heard him address a congregation from my pulpit with remarkable freedom and power. He afterwards spoke in the Guildhall, and astonished some of the audience by telling them of the African lads in the college at Sierra Leone who could translate Latin and Greek as well as many boys in our English schools. I had much conversation with him, and I was charmed with the richness of his intellect, as well as the graces of his heart, and the retiring humility of his disposition.

Of course the work in Sierra Leone, as in England and everywhere else, has its darker shades. What has been done is not all that needs to be done. The Bishop in his charge refers to the mistake of over-estimating our success, sometimes made when the bright side only is exhibited at our missionary meetings. He points to many sad features of Sierra Leone society. The habits of a people are not soon changed, and the habits which are engendered-spring out of the degradation of slavery—are not lost in a generation or two. Moreover, the population is comparatively poor, especially the truly Christian portion of it. Worldly colonists may be prospering, but the Christian Church is sadly hampered for means. Hence, the Bishop says: "The hearts of toiling husbandmen in the spiritual harvest are oppressed, and their

This lack of means is the more to be regretted, because, from a special point of view, Sierra Leone, if the silver and the gold were at the disposal of Christian workers there, might become a centre of direct mission work far into the interior of Africa. The bishop calls particular attention to "God's providential gathering together of so many tribes in Sierra Leone." He asks," What can it be for ?" And he traces God's pur

pose in such a mixture of tribes to " produce a strong and mighty nation, which, in days to come may at all events exercise a dominant influence over a much larger territory than the mere peninsula of Sierra Leone." Already the influence of Sierra Leone is greatly extending throughout the fifteen hundred miles-more than three times the length of England-which measure the west coast of Africa; and in the vigorous branch missions at Lagos and Abbeokuta, and on the banks of the Niger, and towards Central Africa. And, it will be remembered, it was Dr. Livingstone's earnest plea that a colony might be formed upon the coast of East Africa from among the native Christians on the West coast, as affording the best hope of introducing civilization and Christianity into those still benighted regions.

I think our glance at mission work in Sierra Leone may well furnish a practical comment on the wonderful words of the great missionary, the Lord Jesus Christ: "The kingdom of heaven is like to a grain of mustard seed, which a man took and sowed in his field which indeed is the least of all seeds; but when it is grown, it is the greatest among herbs, and becometh a tree, so that the birds of the air come and lodge in the branches thereof " (St. Matt. xiii. 31, 32). When these words were spoken, how improbable must the fulfilment of them have seemed! But He who spake them knew His own purpose, and could read the present in the light of the future. Christianity was then verily "the smallest of all seeds," and yet what England now is she owes to Christianity! The Bible, as our Queen declared to the African prince who asked her to tell him the secret of our greatness-"The BIBLE is the secret of England's greatness." And in due time we

doms of the world shall become the kingdoms of our God and of His Christ."

As a lesson then for every reader, let it be our aim to sympathize more and more with Christ's purpose toward those who are still "sitting in heathen darkness." As we do this, our self-denying interest in mission work will increase. We shall be anxious to do our part-to do what we can. Let no one say, "My influence is small." Though it be as a grain of mustard seed," consecrate it to the Lord, and He will perfect His strength in your weakness.

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God has always put honour on the weakest instrumentality. The history of the progress of the Church of Christ, its great seasons of true spiritual revival, have ever turned upon the faithfulness, the love, the zeal, the devotedness of humble individual members of His Church. Look at Luther, the pray erful, Bible-searching monk. What a development, what a growth of" the mustard seed," was the glorious Reformation! Superstitious multitudes, despotic princes, a persecuting priesthood,-all yielded to the solitary monk," who, strong in the Lord and in the power of His might," truly "shook the world." Look at Wesley and his praying companions at Oxford, and trace as the result the revival of spiritual religion in our own Church and land. Ponder that spectacle which the illustrious Wilberforce described twenty years after in the House of Commons, as the "sublimest that could be conceived "-the devoted Carey, the poor village cobbler, forming the resolve to give to the millions of Hindoos the Bible in their own language; and connect with "the cobbler's dream" its marvellous fulfilment in his personal labours, and in the combined offerings of himself and his companions Marshman and Ward in the time of their prosperity of a sum approaching £80,000 to carry on the mission work in India! Nay, to come to our own home experience, let us trace any local awakening in spiritual life and activity back to its source, and we shall discover that it sprang from some "upper" or "lower" room, in which two or three unnoticed and unknown disciples were wont to meet together for simple prayer to God to use them in bringing about His own