LECTURES ON MISSIONARY WORK. 23 



scarcely over when King Frederick William issued a 

 proclamation stating that his "faithful soldiers had only 

 cleared the court yard at a walking pace, with their weapons 

 sheathed, and that the guns had gone off of themselves, 

 without, thanks to God, causing any injury." At Munich the 

 people had captured the arsenal, and only restored the arms 

 on satisfaction of their demands. The workmen of Paris were 

 parading the streets in thousands, and Prince Louis Napoleon 

 was making every effort to win the confidence of France. 



Thus far we have glanced at the surrounding aspect of 

 affairs, to show how much there was to excite the sympathies 

 and claim the attention of a man gifted with quick intelli- 

 gence and philanthropical instincts. These events simply 

 had the effect of strengthening Robert Boyle's conviction 

 that popular education, based on a pure Christian faith, was 

 the real bulwark of society, and he resolved to devote the 

 best part of his life to this work. 



What he had to do he did with all his might, and for a 

 certain period of his life he devoted his whole time to 

 lecturing on behalf of great missionary undertakings. His 

 lectures on missionary work in the South Sea Islands were 

 illustrated by dissolving views, with the aid of the oxy- 

 hydrogen light, the whole of the apparatus, even to the 

 grinding and polishing of the lenses, being the work of his 

 own hands. There are many now engaged in the earnest 



