THE MISSIONARY LIFE. 23 



given us from above for the purpose of bringing to the 

 benighted the knowledge of a Saviour. If you knew the 

 satisfaction of performing such a duty, as well as the 

 gratitude to God which the missionary must always feel, 

 in being chosen for so noble, so sacred a calling, you 

 would have no hesitation in embracing it. 



For my own part, I have never ceased to rejoice that 

 God has appointed me to such an office. People talk of 

 the sacrifice I have made in spending so much of my life 

 in Africa. Can that be called a sacrifice which is sim- 

 ply paid back as a small part of a great debt owing to 

 our God, which we can never repay? — Is that a sacrifice 

 which brings its own blest reward in healthful activity, 

 the consciousness of doing good, peace of mind, and a 

 bright hope of a glorious destiny hereafter ? — Away with 

 the word in such a view, and with such a thought ! It 

 is emphatically no sacrifice. Say rather it is a privilege. 

 Anxiety, sickness, suffering, or danger, now and then, 

 with a foregoing of the common conveniences and cha- 

 rities of this life, may make us pause, and cause the spirit 

 to waver, and the soul to sink, but let this only be for 

 a moment. All these are nothing when compared with 

 the glory which shall hereafter be revealed in, and for, us. 

 I never made a sacrifice. Of this we ought not to talk, 

 when we remember the great sacrifice which He made 

 who left His Father's throne on high to give Himself for 

 us ; — " Who being the brightness of that Father's glory, 

 and the express image of His person, and upholding all 

 things by the word of His power, when He had by Him- 



