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broad foundation of Christianity, without any reference to 
party distinctions. The founders, who were of different 
denominations of Christians, were men of enlarged and 
liberal minds; and the principle we have stated was evi¬ 
dently the only one by which they were actuated, being 
precisely that upon which their missionaries have uniformly 
proceeded in their respective spheres:—with the Bible in 
their hands, and looking up to God for assistance, they 
have gone forth in the true spirit of the Gospel, to preach 
amongst the Heathen ‘^the unsearchable riches of Christ.” 
Notwithstanding this, the Society has had much oppo¬ 
sition to contend with in the first years of its existence. 
However respectable, both in character and property, the 
individuals were who constituted its lists of directors, they 
were looked upon as enthusiastic visionaries, who were 
throwing away valuable lives, and the property entrusted 
to them, to no beneficial purpose; — and, as it respected 
the British colonies in the East, to a very bad one; for it 
was a question which occupied the attention of the British 
government during a considerable time, whether the 
Society’s missionaries should be allowed to proceed 
thither; a large proportion of those concerned in India 
affairs being decidedly of opinion, that not only would 
no good be effected by such an admission, but that any 
interference with the religious superstitions of the eastern 
nations, would be attended with consequences prejudicial 
at least, if not utterly destructive, to the British interests 
in that part of the world. 
But it was not from hence alone that the opposition pro¬ 
ceeded : there was another class of men, whose conduct 
was calculated in a still greater degree to damp the zeal of 
the directors, had not a superior and unseen Power sus¬ 
tained their minds, and impelled them to go forward. We 
refer to the negative, but cutting opposition of the friends 
of Christianity, who asserted or believed that the time for 
the conversion of the heathen was not arrived. We have 
