punishment. And yet this system claims the merit of showing forth to a surpassing extent, the glory of divine benevolence! The favorite appeals of the friends of this system might be retorted upon themselves in greater number. We have restricted ourselves to but three points, the justice, the competency, and the benevolence of God. The length of the article admonishes us to bring these remarks to a close. We shall conclude with expressing the hope that the continued existence and spread of universalism will attract more than they have yet done the attention of the friends of truth, and elicit from them such countervailing exertions as will save our flocks through the divine blessing, from the encroachments of this moral gangrene.

ARTICLE V.

MISSIONARY SCHOOLS.

By Rev. Rufus Anderson, D. D., one of the Secretaries of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, Boston.

It is thought by some, that modern missionaries among the heathen give too much attention to schools, and that they do this at the expense of time which ought to be devoted to the preaching of the gospel. There may have been something to justify this opinion in a few of the missions, especially in their earlier stages. In general, however, the impression is probably a mistaken one; at least in respect to the missions with which I am acquainted. The misapprehension may be owing to two causes. First, in the annual reports of missionary societies, the statistics of education are usually given more in detail and with greater precision and prominence, than those of preaching -a result not easily avoided. Secondly, the precise object of education, as a part of the system of modern missionary operations, appears not to have been generally understood hitherto by the community. Perhaps I ought to add, that its proper object has not always been well understood by the directors of missions. What this object is, will be explained in the sequel.

The proportionate attention given by missionaries to schools, is by no means as great as many seem to suppose. Those who attended the last annual meeting of the American Board of

Commissioners for Foreign Missions, will remember the result of inquiries on this subject there proposed to the Rev. William Richards, of the Sandwich Islands mission. It appeared that not only was the average attendance of natives on preaching, at the fifteen stations of that mission, greater than it is in any one considerable district of our own country, but that the missionaries preached oftener than is here customary among the settled pastors. And in general, the missionaries of that board among the heathen will bear comparison, in respect to the frequency of their preaching, with their more zealous brethren in the pastoral office at home. And the same is no doubt true of the missionaries of other societies.

Still it is admitted, that schools constitute a prominent part of the system of modern missions, and that there is no evidence of their having formed any part of the missions prosecuted by the apostles. The inquiry therefore is very natural and proper. Why this departure from apostolical usage? To this inquiry the present article is designed to furnish a reply.

Our first object will be to ascertain the extent of territory embraced by the apostolical missions.

The inspired history gives no information that the apostles and their companions extended their personal labors beyond the Roman empire. Fabricius has collected from the New Testament the names of all the places there mentioned, at which they planted churches, some forty or fifty in number; and also the names of the different countries which they are said to have visited.* These countries were Judea, Syria, Asia Minor, Macedonia, Illyricum, Greece, Italy, and the islands of Cyprus and Crete, with several others of less note. Mesopotamia should probably be added, on the strength of 1 Pet. 5: 13. All the principal districts or provinces of Asia Minor are named in the Acts of the Apostles. The parts of Arabia in which Paul spent several years, are supposed to have been adjacent to Damascus, and within the modern Syria; and there is no evidence in Scripture that this apostle actually made his contemplated journey into Spain. The whole territory, therefore, traversed by the apostolical missionaries, so far as the Scriptures inform us, was within the Roman empire, and formed but a part of it; and, so far as territory is concerned, but little more than

* Fabricii Lux Evan, exoriens, etc. p. 83.

was afterwards governed by the eastern or Byzantine emperors.* If we inquire what further light ecclesiastical history throws on this subject, we shall not be able greatly to extend the travels and labors of the apostles. Mosheim gives it as the result of his researches, that "the stories often told respecting their travels among the Gauls, the Britons, the Spaniards, the Germans, the Americans, the Chinese, the Indians, and the Russians, are too recent and fantastic to be received by an inquisitive lover of the truth." "A great part of these fabulous stories," he continues, "were got up after the days of Charlemagne; when most of the christian churches contended as vehemently about the antiquity of their origin, as ever the Arcadians, Egyptians and Greeks did.” Dr. Murdock, the American translator of Mosheim, believes-chiefly in view of the authorities quoted by Fabricius-that Peter, after preaching long in Judea and other parts of Syria, probably visited Babylon, Asia Minor, and finally Rome; that Paul, after his captivity, visited Judea, Asia Minor and Greece, and returned to Rome, but did not proceed further westward than Italy; that John, after remaining many years in Judea, removed to Ephesus, where, excepting the time of his banishment to Patmos, he remained til his death; that James the younger (the elder James was put to death by Herod) spent his life in Judea; and that Andrew probably labored on the shores of the Black Sea near the modern Constantinople, and perhaps in Greece. Philip," he adds, "either the apostle or the evangelist, is reported to have ended his days at Hierapolis, in Phrygia. Thomas seems to have travelled eastward, to Parthia, Media, Persia and India. Bartholomew took perhaps a more southern course, and preached in Arabia. Matthew is also reported to have travelled east, in the Modern Persia. Of Simon the Canaanite, nothing to be relied on can be said. Thaddeus, Lebbeus, or Jude the brother of James, the author of an epistle, is reputed to have preached at Edessa, in the north of Syria. Of the companions of the apostles-Timothy, after accompanying Paul many years, is said to have been stationed at Ephesus, where he suffered martyrdom under Domitian or Nerva. Titus, another companion of Paul, is reported to have been stationed in Crete, where he died. Mark, or John surnamed Mark, at

* The countries mentioned Acts 2: 9-11 ; add Media and Parthia to the above named.

tended Paul and afterwards Peter, and probably preached the gospel in Egypt. Of Luke, Ime can be said, except that be acconspasies Pall, and wrote the book of Acts and a Gospel. Of Bamates, nothing can be said worth relating, except what is jearned from the New Testament-From this account. imperfect as it is, we may conclude that the apostes and their com pacious scarcely extended their labors beyond the boundaries of the present Turkish empire."*

To the countries, then, which are mentioned in the New Testament as favored with the missionary labors of the apostles and their companions, ecclesiastical history adds Egypt, Southern Arabia, Persia, Media, Parthia, and India. But we have nothing that throws light on their manner of proceeding in these countries. For information of this kind, we must look solely to the missions described in the New Testament. These were in Syria, Asia Minor, Macedonia, Greece, Italy, and the islands of Cyprus and Crete. I say Crete, for although we have no account of the labors of the apostle Paul in that island, we have his epistle to Titus, instructing him how to proceed in his mission to the Cretans.-I omit Judea, as being the source of the missions, and not a heathen country.

Our next inquiry relates to the state of education in these countries.

The mere mention of Syria, Asia Minor, Macedonia, Greece and Italy, is enough for the reader of history. What were they in those times but the very foci of civilization? Where were other countries in the wide world, to be compared with them in this respect? And the time, too, in which the apostolical missions were performed, was it not in the palmy age of Roman literature? But though the evidence of the high state of general civilization and individual intelligence in those countries at that period, is unquestionable, it is not easy to show precisely what means of education were possessed by the people at large, nor to what extent the multitude was actually educated.

Two events must have exerted a powerful influence on the minds of men and on the tone of education throughout the field traversed by the apostles ;-viz. the general dispersion of the Greeks, with their language and philosophy; and the general dispersion of the Jews, with their inspired books and their religion.

Mosheim's Eccl. Hist. vol. I. p. 55, 56—Note.

The Macedonians, upon the conquests of Alexander the Great, planted their colonies everywhere. They built Grecian cities even in Media. "On the Tigris, Seleucia was principally inhabited by Greeks: to the southeast was the magnificent Ctesiphon; and to the northwest was Sitace. Babylon imitated Macedonia; in its neighborhood lived Greeks and Macedonians. From thence along the Euphrates upwards lay Nicephorium, a Grecian city, surrounded also by other Greek towns; and further on in Mesopotamia was Charrae, a settlement of the Macedonians. But not to enter into details, we refer (in Appian) to a large catalogue of cities in Further and Hither Syria, which were reckoned to the Greeks. Tigranes, the Armenian, in his march to Phenicia by way of Syria, destroyed no less than twelve Greek cities. Between Syria and Babylonia we meet with the ruins of Palmyra, on which are found more Greek than Palmyrene inscriptions. Even some written in the Palmyrene character, are nevertheless in their language Greek. In Hither Syria, on the boundaries of Palestine, and in Palestine itself, the Greeks, as was natural from the situation and neighborhood, made still greater intrusions." Antioch, the capital of Syria, was peopled by its founder with Greeks and Macedonians, and acquired a reputation for Greek refinement and science. Tyre and Sidon adopted the Greek language. Caesarea was peopled chiefly by Greeks. Gadara and Hippos, on the east of the Jordan, became Greek cities, and the former possessed men learned in Greek science. So also did Gaza, a city on the southwest border of Judea. Philadelphia, east of the Jordan, is still majestic in its Grecian ruins. Indeed the country east of the Jordan, was towards the north Greek, and towards the south mostly in possession of the Greeks.*

In this manner were the Greek language, manners and institutions generally diffused. As early as the time of Cato, that language was understood and spoken throughout the civilized world. Homer was read in Persia, and it is supposed even in India. In Carthage navigators described their voyages of dis

* Hug on the prevalence of the Greek language in Palestine, etc. Bib. Repos. Vol. I. pp. 536–550. Prof. Pfannkuche, in his dissertation on the prevalence of the Aramean language in the same country in the time of the apostles, restricts the use of the Greek to narrower limits. Bib. Repos. Vol. I. pp. 317-363. The reader will in cline to the views taken by Prof. Hug.