Produced by Ron Swanson [Frontispiece: TAHITI.] Fruits of Toil IN THE LONDON MISSIONARY SOCIETY. ILLUSTRATED WITH MAPS AND SKETCHES [Illustration: POINT VENUS LIGHTHOUSE, TAHITI.] LONDON: JOHN SNOW & CO., IVY LANE, PATERNOSTER ROW. 1869. "Sow in the morn thy seed, At eve hold not thine hand; To doubt and fear give thou no heed, Broad-cast it o'er the land. "Beside all waters sow; The highway furrows stock; Drop it where thorns and thistles grow; Scatter it on the rock. "Thou canst not toil in vain; Cold, heat, and moist and dry, Shall foster and mature the grain For garners in the sky." Fruits of Toil IN THE LONDON MISSIONARY SOCIETY. When our fathers established this Society they were met by a formidable array of difficulties of which we know nothing. Gathered in fellowship when the infidel principles of the French Revolution were doing deadly work, and soon involved in the national struggle of the great war, they found little to encourage them in the outward aspects of their position. Christian men were few; Christian churches were small and scattered; money was scarce; Christian benevolence was little understood. The wide world of Christian effort opened to us was almost wholly closed against them. They could enter the South Seas; though their islands were almost unknown. But the West Indies were close shut. "If you preach to the slaves," said the Governor of Demerara to a missionary, "I cannot let you stay here." They were excluded from South Africa and from India. China was sealed, and remained so for forty years. Passages were expensive; voyages were full of discomfort; letters were few. They knew little of the manners and systems of heathen nations; they knew less of their literature; they knew nothing of their languages. Dictionaries, literature, buildings, converts, everything had to be produced. Their fields of labour were unprepared. Their message and their aims were little understood.