whose choice of missionaries is conditioned on this single qualification—their "ability to study barbarous languages and prepare dictionaries"! It strikes too as much against white missionaries abroad as against black men; for are they "best adapted," in these respects, compared with such distinguished divines and scholars as Dr. Robinson, Dr. Goodrich, Dr. Turner? Besides, how many dictionaries have the fishermen of Galilee transmitted to modern times? What evidence have we of an eminent scholarship among them like to this demanded of us? Or where is the proof that even the Holy Spirit regarded "the preparation of dictionaries," or a critical lingual capacity as the qualifications of missionaries?
We read the history of the Church, and see the conquests of the faith in ancient times in Europe, Asia, and Africa. But how rare a thing is it, to find such preeminent scholarship as, for instance, that of Henry Martyn, Bishop Middleton, and David Tappan Stoddard, the accessories of the devoted missionary spirit, which has converted millions, and brought whole nations into the kingdom of Christ! St. Paul founded the churches of Asia and Greece. But where is the proof that even he was an eminent critical scholar? Christianity was revived and energized in England by Augustine in the 6th century, and then travelled onward with conquering power, until the time of the Reformation; and since then the evangelization of England has been progressing with a resistless march to the present. But the first English dictionary we know of is that of Dr. Johnson.
If I do not mistake the spirit of the New Testament,
