But what steps did he and his young associates take in order to execute their sublime purpose? There was at that time no foreign missionary society in America to which they could offer their services, and which would undertake their support in the foreign field. There was, indeed, the Massachusetts Missionary Society, founded in 1799, the object of which was to diffuse a missionary spirit among the Congregational churches in New England, and to carry the Gospel to the Indians and to the newly-settled parts of our own land. But this Society had not yet launched upon the work of foreign missions; and so Mr. Judson, and the young men who shared his purpose, first proposed to each other to enlist as missionaries under the London Missionary Society. Accordingly Mr. Judson wrote the following letter to the venerable Dr. Bogue, the President of the Seminary in Gosport, England, where the missionaries of the London Society received their training: “DIVINITY COLLEGE, ANDOVER, MASS., _April, 1810_. “REV. SIR: I have considered the subject of missions nearly a year, and have found my mind gradually tending to a deep conviction that it is my duty personally to engage in this service. Several of my brethren of this college may finally unite with me in my present resolution. On their as well as my own behalf, I take the liberty of addressing you this letter. My object is to obtain information on certain points—whether there is at present such a call for missionaries in India, Tartary, or any part of the _Eastern_ Continent as will induce the directors of the London Missionary Society to engage new missionaries; whether two or three young, unmarried men, having received a liberal education, and resided two years in this Divinity School, wishing to serve their Saviour in a heathen land, and indeed susceptible of a ‘_passion for missions_,’—whether such young men, arriving in England next spring, with full recommendations from the first Christian characters in this country, may expect to be received _on probation_ by the directors, and placed at the seminary in Gosport, _if that be judged expedient_; and whether, provided they give satisfaction as to their fitness to undertake the work, all their necessary expenses after arriving in England shall be defrayed from the funds of the Society, which funds will, it is hoped, be ultimately reimbursed by supplies from the American churches.