Excerpt from Missions the Chief End of the Christian Church IN the spring of 1839, I happened to be appointed by the Established Presbytery of' Edinburgh to preside at the ordination of the Rev. Dr. Thomas Smith, as a new missionary to India. It was on that occa sion that the following discourse was de livered. Subsequently it was published in a small volume, along with the Charge and Address. That volume very rapidly passed through a number of editions; but for up wards of thirty years, it has been entirely out of print. Often has the author been solicited to bring out a new edition, but. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.