Another reason is the failure to set before the native Christians suitable objects to which they should contribute. Here perhaps the principal fault of the missionary lies. Having no pressing need for money in the conduct of these stations, and there being great danger to the natives in hoarding and manipulating money kept for future use, it was feared that an objectless contribution of money might only be a means of temptation and do harm. Last autumn the Christians in one of the hien occupied by my stations, subscribed about sixty dollars for employing a helper to devote his whole time specially to that hien, and would I think, have paid it cheerfully if the right man could have been found; but neither they nor I could obtain a man whose gifts and qualifications, as compared to those already in charge, were such as to make him worth having.

During the last few years I have urged the stations to contribute to the support of the helpers, as the most natural and available object which could be presented to them. They have done so to some extent; but the plan has not worked well. They have very naturally regarded the helpers as my men and not theirs, since they are chosen and directed by me in the carrying out of my plans. Not only have they shown this disinclination to contribute, but the helpers also are averse to receiving aid from them. I have been disposed to press the point against them, but during the past year have come to the conclusion that the instincts of the natives are right, and that my plan has been unnatural and impracticable. Here again we are led back by experience to the teaching of Scripture; as the Apostle Paul provided not only for his own wants but also for those who were with him, and appeared to the Churches to acknowledge the fact that none whom he had sent to them had received pay from them.

Rev. J. H. Laughlin is now assisting me in my work, and will, I trust, soon take entire charge of it. We are this autumn (1885) endeavoring to inaugurate the following plan, from which we hope for good results. The Christians comprised within the bounds. of each district or portion of each district, are to choose for themselves two men to go out as their representatives, and supported by them, to work for the evangelization of new districts. No change is to be made for the present in the relations and ordinary occupations of the men so used. They are to be away from their homes two months in the autumn and two in the spring, the time when both they and the people generally are at leisure, and the weather is most favorable for travelling; and when absent are not to receive a salary but only a sum to cover travelling expenses. We hope that in this way aggressive zeal and a habit of giving will be

developed; that much may be accomplished in the way of evangelistic work; that the reflex influence on the stations may be helpful; and that from the persons selected year by year, men may be found who, after the necessary testing and sifting, may be advanced to more important and responsible positions in the future.

These letters so far presuppose a state of things in which there are native Christians to be organized into stations. We will in the next letter consider questions relating to work in new fieldswhere there are neither stations nor enquirers.

WHAT OUGHT TO BE THE POLICY OF MISSIONARIES IN REGARD TO THE ORDINATION OF NATIVE PASTORS.

BY REV. H. D. PORTER, M.D.

IF F we look upon it in its true significance this theme has direct relation with the development of the Kingdom of God among men. The apostle Paul gives us the key note to all questions relating to that Kingdom. He shows at the same time how all seemingly insignificant themes assume a certain breadth and scope, are at once dignified and ennobled when viewed from the focus of that Kingdom. For he says "Even as Christ also loved the Church and gave himself for it, that he might present it to himself a glorious Church not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that it should be holy and without blemish." The question before us then is no simple and trite one, it has relation to a purpose so great and far reaching that Christ himself was guided by it, out of which sprang the passion and the victory. The purpose was to present to himself a glorious Church, an organized body of believers, so permeated by the spirit of grace as to be pure, peaceable, heavenly, that it should be holy and without blemish. As the Church is the embodiment of the Kingdom of God on the earth, so whatever concerns the right growth of the Church, its accumulation of strength and beauty, of spiritual energy and efficacy, claims our deepest and constant thought and study. We are so frequently using the phrase "The Kingdom of God," that we often lose the depth and fullness of its meaning A recent writer* makes a very just remark when he says:-"It is hardly a question if large numbers of the Church are not quite in ignorance of the breadth of the work which that marvelous phrase-the Kingdom of God-includes, and intimates to be far beyond the petty idea most of us have of it." * Andover Review, January, 1885, p. 44.

The Saviour came to be the master of human society. It is true he said "My Kingdom is not of this world." Nevertheless he had but a single purpose, that of transforming a world which was confessedly the kingdom of Satan, into a world of holiness and peace through the gospel.

The writer quoted above adds significantly. "The science of human society now opening its treasures of knowledge and experience, will very likely bring very much aid to the interpretation of the Kingdom of God, which, in its earthly relations, is only another term for the realization of the divine ideal of society.' It is not always easy to think the thoughts of God. The astronomer Kepler, discovering the laws of planetary motion reverently affirmed, "I think the thoughts of God." It is the inspiring element in the discussion before us, what we are seeking to discover the thought of God. We are seeking not merely to know what the divine ideal of society as permeated by the love of truth and righteousness may be e; we are seeking much more the realization of that divine ideal among men, the embodiment of the gospel in an organized form upon the earth; we are seeking no less a thing than the presenting to the Saviour a Church holy and without blemish, a people ready for good works. Dr. John Young, in his epoch making book, "The Christ of History," remarks:-"One who for the first time should intelligently examine the Christian Gospels could not fail to be struck with the idea manifestly underlying their whole extent, and often lifted up into singular prominence, of a Universal Spiritual Reign by the name of the Kingdom of God-the Kingdom of Heaven.' Such a man would reach the conviction that Jesus taught that the human race without distinction of Gentile or Jew, were destined to the highest spiritual elevation of which their nature and condition on earth admitted. It is the reign of God in men. It is the universal reception and dominion among men of all true, just holy, generous and divine principles. It is the highest stage of religious, moral, intellectual social, and individual cultivation. It is the triumph of good and of God over moral physical evil. The idea originated with Christ, was matured in his mind, was freely imparted in his teaching. His soul bestowed this imperishable thought, and kindled this inextinguishable hope." It is under the stimulus of such conceptions of the Kingdom of God among men, and the right methods of its healthful development, that we take up the question immediately before us.

I.-Policy subject to certain principles. It is interesting to observe that as our theme is in relation to the Kingdom of God, so the question presents itself as a question of policy. Derived

originally from the method of government of some large and influential city, the word policy suggests wise and successful methods of public administration; it presents to us some system of public order designed to promote the prosperity of a state. When applied to the growth of the Kingdom of God, it carries with it the idea of successful methods of practical administration, methods which not merely are designed to promote the prosperity of that Kingdom but which have promoted, and will in the future promote, those interests of spiritual life which are a part of the Church's inheritance. Any such policy must derive its vigor and sustained strength from certain underlying, but well defined, principles of action. In political life, the policy of any administration as in the United States, or of any government as in England, or of any Chancellor as in Germany, is upheld or denounced correspondingly to the well known, or easily ascertained, principles which guide and determine any series of governmental acts. The policy which missionaries ought to pursue must then be determined by some well known, and clearly effective principles of action.

II. An ideal state of the Church to be sought for. I think we shall not go astray if we affirm that the principle determining any wise policy, is that we seek to establish an ideal state of the Church. And here, let me not mislead into an error with respect to the word ideal. I use the word not in any sense of visionary and impossible, not with any intimation of a state of affairs existing only in thought, made of such stuff as spiritual dreams and enthusiasm are begotten of. Sir Thomas More wrote of Utopia, an imaginary island devoted to impossible perfections. The beautiful conception of such an existence will ever be a Utopian dream. It is not such a visionary condition of Church life that we are aiming after. By an ideal state of the Church, we may rightly mean its highest and best condition, a condition. which is the practical embodiment of the Saviour's plan and purpose, a Church without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, holy and without blemish. Let it be admitted that this is the realization of the highest conditions of Church life, it must be maintained as well, that this is the very pattern of the thing itself, this is in reality the normal and natural condition of life in the Kingdom of God. In justifying this assumption let me draw a few suggestions from the ascending if not already ascendant, though not necessarily transcendent, philosophy of evolution. Says Mr. Johnson, in an article on the " Evolution of Conscience:"-"The actual includes all that happens; but the ideal includes only a part of what happens. By comparing many individual specimens of a thing we arrive at a

conception of its most perfect development, and we form an ideal type which constitutes the fullest expression of the nature of this particular thing. In so far as individuals fall short of this type we legitimately declare them to be parts of nature that are unnatural.” Again. "If an organism appears to be moving in the line of the most perfect fulfilment of the end of its being we declare its movement to be natural. Moreover as there is an ideal type for each product of nature, so also there is an ideal type, or direction toward type of nature as a whole." In this view of things the ideal is the natural, that which works toward the highest possibilities is the normal. Whatsoever deviates from that normal idea or type is unnatural. That which makes for the highest results is the natural. That which has a tendency to realize its highest conditions, is the ideally real.

It is easy to see how attractive such a line of thought is to the student of the Gospels. The highest possible human life is presented as the normal type of manhood. The second Adam having wrought out the highest results, is establishing his Kingdom. In this Kingdom each individual must assume more or less the character of the ideal type. The spiritual man thus becomes the natural, while all sinful and depraved, take their proper place as unnatural and evil. The Church then, in like manner with the individual, has its ideal, its type. Whatever tends to realize the highest conditions of Church life, which represents the Kingdom of God, must determine for us the name and the law. In the wonderful struggle in the natural world the tendency is upward, the weaker and imperfect forms, by hypothesis, are discarded, in order that more and more permanent, more and more perfect, complete or beautiful forms may be reached.

When we speak of intelligent action, and of moral growth, we recognize and rejoice in the fact that there is manifest a purposeful progress towards that which is ever more true, and more real.

The Church of which Paul spake, that Church holy and without blemish, we fondly believe to be at the summit of moral attainment. The institutions of the Gospel have no less an aim than to perfect the saints, to complete the service of Christ, to edify the body of Christ. How significantly the apostle says, "Till we all come, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of Christ, that we may grow up into Him in all things which is the head even Christ, from whom the whole body-i.e. the Church-fitly joined together, maketh increase of the body unto the building up of itself in love." We may well recognize the divine impulse which placed before the first and the prince of missionaries, such an ideal. Paul who was commissioned to go far hence unto the Gentiles had a fixed and