"Sow in the morn thy seed,         At eve hold not thine hand; To doubt and fear give thou no heed,         Broad-cast it o'er the land.       "Beside all waters sow;         The highway furrows stock; Drop it where thorns and thistles grow;         Scatter it on the rock.       "Thou canst not toil in vain;         Cold, heat, and moist and dry, Shall foster and mature the grain         For garners in the sky."

When our fathers established this Society they were met by aformidable array of difficulties of which we know nothing. Gatheredin fellowship when the infidel principles of the French Revolutionwere doing deadly work, and soon involved in the national struggleof the great war, they found little to encourage them in the outwardaspects of their position. Christian men were few; Christianchurches were small and scattered; money was scarce; Christianbenevolence was little understood. The wide world of Christianeffort opened to us was almost wholly closed against them. They couldenter the South Seas; though their islands were almost unknown. Butthe West Indies were close shut. "If you preach to the slaves," saidthe Governor of Demerara to a missionary, "I cannot let you stayhere." They were excluded from South Africa and from India. Chinawas sealed, and remained so for forty years. Passages were expensive;voyages were full of discomfort; letters were few. They knew littleof the manners and systems of heathen nations; they knew less of theirliterature; they knew nothing of their languages. Dictionaries,literature, buildings, converts, everything had to be produced.Their fields of labour were unprepared. Their message and theiraims were little understood.

In all these elements of usefulness we occupy at this hour a positionof usefulness, in marked contrast to that of our predecessors. Witha mighty advance in p

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