tihvaxy of Che theological ^tminaxy PRINCETON • NEW JERSEY Part of the Addison Alexander Library which w§8 presented by- Messrs, R.L. and A. Stuart BV 2075 .14 1845 - --ctuary VOICE FROM THE SANCTUARY MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE: BEING A SERIES OF DISCOURSES DELIVERED IN AMERICA, THE PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL BOARD OF FOREIGN MISSIONS, THE AMERICAN BOARD OF FOREIGN MISSIONS, &c., &c. L £^{^^/ul£^ L'-if C C L-( U^x.^,^ %/ 1.1-1- ,^^ ccie ^yL . I' BY THE MOST EMINENT DIVINES OF THAT COUNTRY, BELONGING TO VARIOUS DENOMINATIONS. WITH AN INTRODUCTION, BY JAMES MONTGOMERY, ESQ. LONDON. HAMILTON, ADAMS, AND CO., PATERNOSTER-ROW. noc'iii'., pr.iNTKR, 2-'), ii^V;...» ^.1.. {_ ^y r 111 L\ '^ ill A^w.J > \TK'S0L0GIG A L ^^ ;«^' *"* I HAVE often tliought, if some good man, living aboiit the middle of the last century, — one, like Barnabas of old, " a good man, full of faith and of the Holy Ghost," — if such an one, on a Sabbath morning, before he went to the sanctuary, having just risen from his knees, after pouring out his soul in a flood of prayer and intercession for the greatest blessings which God has promised in the Gospel, to be bestowed upon himself, his family, his neighbours, his countrymen, and all mankind, — had then sat down and meditated by what human agency those prophecies might be fulfilled which, through a succession of in- spired messengers, had announced that a time would come when " the earth should be filled with the knowledge of God, as the waters cover the sea ;" that " the glory of the Lord should be revealed, and all jlesh should see it together ;" — it might naturally, if not necessarily, have occurred to his mind, that, through the union of all those among whom God is known, and Christ is named, this might be accomplished, by sending forth ambassadors of mercy into all lands, translating the Scriptures into all languages, publishing religious tracts for the instruction of every class of human beings wherever the Gospel was carried, and the Bible introduced ; at the same time teaching the children of all the families of the earth to read for themselves, in their own tongue, the wonderful works of God. One great Society for effecting all these separate and combined purposes might have been conceived, projected, and undertaken — on the suggestion of the good man whom I have imagined — by the most zealous and faithful members of the true Church of Christ in this kingdom, however diversely named and distinguished from each other, on questions where the monotony of unison could not be attained, but having, what is far preferable, the harmony of opinions, different without being discordant, produced by the consonance of souls all equally tuned (o the praise and the glory of God. Had, however, such a Society been XIl INTKODUCTION. tlien organized, — magnificent in theory, and splendid in promise, beyond everything else under the sun, — it must assuredly have been found im- practicable on trial. No multitude of counsellors would have had wisdom to carry out all these objects to the accomplishment of the one perfect end, through the requisite measures for raising the money as well as the men, and directing the operations of the latter so as to ensure the indispensable uniformity of doctrine and discipline. The administration of an empire's affairs would hardly have been more difficult, complicated, and defective, under the most advantageous cir- cumstances. The London ^Missionary Society, on a small scale, attempted something of the kind, by proposing to ally all Christian professors, in one bond of peace and unity of spirit, to evangelize the world. Without any falling out among themselves by the way, or any unfaithfulness on the part of the venerable Founders and the first Directors, the experience of a few years taught them, and through them taught all other Christian bodies, that the conversion of sinners among the Gentiles can be best conducted by bretliren of the same denomination, just as they conduct it, and conduct it successfully, in their respective spheres among their countrymen-sinners at home. No conceivable union of all sections of the Church here, however wisely planned, ably supported, liberally endowed, and zealously affected in the one good cause, could have done so much towards the teaching of all nations in the way of salvation, as has been actually done, during the last fifty or sixty years, by the Episcopal, Presbyterian, Baptist Inde- pendent, Wesleyan, and Moravian Missionary Societies. Of the labours and fruits of these distinct agencies, it may be said that the pure Gospel has been more extensively and effectually preached by the messengers of their respective Churches, in Pagan lands, and to the ends of the earth, than had been done by all the generations of nominal Christendom through fifteen hundred years preceding. And it is remarkable that from the time when the Missionary spirit was poured from on high upon our ftithcrs, towards the close oi' the last century, first one Society and then another, without any previous concert or mutual under- standiii'f amonu' the ori'nnators, was formed for effecting the several INTRODUCTION. XUl distinct purposes wliich I have presumed some good man (" being in the Spirit on the Lord's day," and, like John the Divine, permitted to foresee, in the visions of God, the glory to be thereafter revealed) might have comprehended as the various and necessary means for evangelizing the whole world, in this late day of the universal Church, by the union of all Christians in one purpose to promote "peace upon earth, goodwill towards men, and glory to God in the highest." This, in the simplicity of his inexperience, any good man might indeed have preconceived : but God's ways are not our ways, nor God's thoughts our thoughts ; and He, in infinite wisdom and goodness, caused those very means to be devised and brought forth in detail and in succession which every one who has marked the beautifully gradual developement of the divine counsel in regard to this matter, must have clearly perceived to be not only practicable, but signally effective, for the progressive accomplish- ment of the greatest and best work now being carried on throughout the inhabited regions of the globe. The kingdom of heaven, under the existing dispensation, has indeed come thus far without observation by the wise and the prudent of this world, though it has been continually causing joy among the angels, in the presence of God, who desire to look into such things. And there may be, at this hour, a greater number of true subjects of Messiah's kingdom below, than have ever before existed contemporaneously among all people between the rising and the going down of the sun ; except, perhaps, during the brief era of primitive Christianity. Many persons may be startled at such a supposition, but when they consider the manifest effects of the revival of Gospel religion throughout the British dominions in the early part of the eighteenth century, together with the faith and patience, as well as the labours, the sufferings, and the sacrifices of the Lord's praying, believing, and obedient people, towards making his way known upon earth, and his saving health among all nations, the idea may appear not altogether unfounded or presump- tuous. Be this as it may, the language of Moses, on the borders of Canaan, may be reverentially accommodated to the present actual state of the Christian Israel of God : — " The Lord your God hath multiplied you, and behold ye are, at this day, as the stars of heaven for multitude." XIV INTRODUCTION. And yet there remains so much land to be possessed, tljat the accom- panying benediction of the great Jewish legislator to his people may be fervently offered up by all who are already, in our day of grace, among " the called, and chosen, and faithful :" — " 'J'he Lord God of your fathers make you a thousand times so many more as ye are, and bless you as he hath promised you." (Deut. i. 11.) The religion of the Bible is that which has been, is now, and may be to the end. There never was a day since the creation w-hen it w^as altogether unknown, unacknowledged, or unenjoycd. Through pro- gressive changes under the Patriarchal, ^Mosaic, and Christian dis- pensations, it lost nothing of its lustre, its purity, or its power. It gained accessions under each new aspect, till, like the shining light out of darkness that lay for ages on the face of the earth, it shone more and more imto the perfect day, when life and immortality were brought to light by its divine Author himself in person. Moreover it is capable of universal extension, and perpetual continuance ; being equally bgne- ficent at all times, in all places, and to all conditions of men. There is not a country in which it may not be planted, and prevail, to the annihilation of every system of worship invented by man ; nor is there a human being in existence now, or to be born till tlie consummation of all things, who may not, who ought not to be made a partaker of its blessings. Now, none but a true religion can become either universal or perpetual. All false religions, being of temporary origin, and local in their influence, are of necessity incapable of more than limited adoption or continuance. The true religion may seem for awhile to be extinct, as in the days of Elijah, who imagined himself lei't alone amidst an apostate generation ; but, as in his time, so in all succeeding times, God has reserved a remnant who have not bowed their knees to any JJaal, or acknowledged any other (iod than himself, the living, true, and only one. The religion of the liible may thus seem extinct for awhile, but it will as surely revive as its Author rose from the dead. On the other hand, a false religion once disappearing can never be restored. Where are Isis and Osiris, Apis and Anubis, the gods of Egypt? Can .lupiter regain his thunder and his throne, or Olympus; or Neptune his trident over the seas i ('an Moloch rekindle his INTRODUCTION. XV burning fiery furnace, or Cliemosh again perpetrate his abominations ? All these, and hundreds more of the forms under which he, who is awfully styled in Scripture, " the god of this world," was worshipped of old, having blinded the eyes of his devotees, — all these were, they are not, and they will he no more for ever. No future combination of imaginable events can ever reinstate one of them, any more than the terrible divinities of our fathers, Woden, Thor, or Tuesco, can emerge from oblivion, and Druidism again be the established religion of this island. No ; for it may be safely foretold that under whatever devices Satan unbound may hereafter be allowed to go forth to deceive the nations, not one of his obsolete mythologies can ever, either in whole or in part, be adopted by any people under heaven ; whether barbarian or civilized. Heathen or Christian. This alone proves that all the perished idolatries were false ; the entail of each has been irrecoverably cut off, and there is neither heir nor inheritance to one of them left. So perish all existing superstitions ! Yea, and they shall, in like manner, inevitably and everlastingly perish. But the word of God abideth for ever ; and that word once spoken is addressed to every one that hears it, individually, as well as to all nations collectively. And that is " the word of faith, which (Mis- sionaries) jyreach,'' as St. Paul, the Apostle of the Gentiles, testifies concerning himself and his doctrine ; (Romans x. 8 ;) adding in the context, " The righteousness which is of faith speaketh on this wise, — If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved." The message is universal, the invitation to every one, and the promise jiersonal. " For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord, shall be saved." This, in the economy of the Gospel, has hitherto been God's way of converting sinners, and we have no authority to presume that he will ever change his counsel in this respect ; for as it was in the beginning and is now, so may we conclude that it will be till the end of the dispensation of " grace, mercy, and peace, from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ," to all that are or shall be " sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours." (1 Cor. i. 2.) XVI INTRODUCTION. So long, therefore, as it sliall please God " by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe," the Gospel must be as diligently and faith- fully communicated to all the dwellers under heaven, and preached as if the salvation of the whole human race depended upon the blessing of God accompanying that instrumentality with power and with the de- monstration of the Spirit. But if it be asked, " Is there no other way in which the world, lying in wickedness, can be, or will be regenerated, except by the preaching of the Gospel?" the answer maybe direct; ^^ None other is clearly revealed; no other is commanded.''' There are, however, some among us, at this time, who say that the world never will, never can be evan- gelized by the preaching of Jesus Christ and him crucified ; but that, by a triumphant Saviour, appearing in glory and majesty, the fulness of the Gentiles shall be brought in, and all Israel be saved. This hypo- thesis they found upon their peculiar interpretations of prophecy ; and, believing the period, the crisis, to be at hand, they assert that it is the business of the Church to be looking, expecting, and praying for this second coming of Christ in his kingdom. Without venturing to condemn or even to question, in this place, the soundness of their in- terpretations of " some things hard to be understood," not only in the epistles of St. Paul but in other parts of the oracles of God, recorded in the two Testaments, Old and New, it cannot be altogether right for such persons, who are waiting, in their character of saints, to welcome the millennial reign of the Redeemer on earth, to be neglecting the only means through which we are warranted by Scripture testimony to hope that all the Heathen, Mohammedans, and Jews shall be con- verted from the evil and the error of their ways respectively, or that any portion of the living generation of these "aliens from the common- wealth of lsra(!l, and strangers from the covenant of promise, liaving no hope, and without God in the world," shall be brought nigh, in our own day, by the blood of Christ, who came himself a Missionary from the very throne of God, from the very l)osom of the Father, and preached peace to them which were afar oft", and to them that were nigh. (lijih. ii. 12 — 17.) Now it is matter of history, and not of speculation, that, to this hour, wherever the Gospel has been faithfully preached, among INTRODUCTION. . XVll Christians, Jews, Turks, or Infidels, it has proved, in a greater degree or a less, the power of God unto salvation to them that believed. Then let us preach the Gospel ; for if we have it ourselves, woe is unto us if we preach it not. And for what purpose was the Gospel given ? to edify the saints only ? No ; though that is a glorious and a blessed privilege : it came into the world as its divine Author came, — to call sinners to repentance. In the Revelation we read of an angel whom John saw standing in the sun, and crying with a loud voice to all the fowls that fly under heaven, " Come, and gather yourselves together to the supper of the great God ; to eat the flesh of Kings, and captains, and mighty men ; of horses, and of them that sit on them ; and the flesh of all men, both bond and free, both small and great." To what era of the sufferings of a guilty world this awful proclamation may refer, we know not. This, however, we do know, that the angel is not now standing in the svm, not now uttering his appalling summons ; but that there is another angel, mentioned in the same book, now actually on the wing, " flying in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting Gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people." His voice we hear, his shape we see, wherever a Christian Missionary, in any part of the earth, presents himself to those who sit in darkness, like the shepherds of Bethlehem on the night of our Saviour's advent, saying to them, " Fear not, for I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people ; for unto you (also) was born in the city of David, a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord." (Luke ii. 10, 11.) Yea; and wherever that one angel is sent with the message of mercy, to a few or to many, there are those who, like the shepherds, run to see the things which the Lord hath made known unto them. This has been verified beyond example in modern times, in Greenland, Labrador, Caflfraria, the East and West Indies, and throughout the isles of the Pacific Ocean, where multitudes of the most barbarous, ignorant, despised, and oppressed inhabitants of this naughty world, having been persuaded to " seek glory, honour, and immortality," have found for themselves " eternal life, the gift of God, through our Lord Jesus Christ." Looking back through the vista of past ages, we cannot discover a XVIU INTRODUCTION. time when there was so sure a hope of the literal fulfilment of ancient predictions concerning the universal diffusion of the knowledge of the only true God and Jesus Christ whom he hath sent, as we may confidently cherish in this day of salvation, when " the mighty God, even the Lord, hath spoken, and called the earth from the rising of the sun to the going down thereof." (Psalm 1. 1.) What, indeed, hath God wrought within the last fifty years! In 1793 was there a man of faith and prayer who could have believed, if it had been told him, what would be the veritable effect of the labours of Missionaries sent forth by the Societies then commencing ? That effect we see in 1845, in changes so great and decisive, that we cannot help exclaiming, " This is the Lord's doing, and it is mar- vellous in our eyes." Yet all this is hut '^ the be(jmninr- severancc of that character which, having once formed its purpose, never wavers from it till death. And if ever this attribute has been so exhibited as to challenge the respect of every man of feeling, it has been in such instances as are recorded in the history of the Missions to Greenland, and to the South-Sea Islands ; where we beheld men, for fifteen or twenty years, suffer everything but martyrdom ; and then, seeing no fruit from their labour, resolve to labour on till death, if so be they might at last save one benighted Heathen from the error of his ways. This vindertaking calls for self-denial of the highest and holiest character. He who engages in it must, at the very outset, dismiss every wish to stipulate for anything but the mere favour of God. His first act is a voluntary exile from all that a refined education loves; and every other act nuist be in unison with this. The salvation of the Heathen is the object for TliB MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE. 55 which he sacrifices, and is willing to saerifice, everything that the heart clings to on earth. For this object he would live ; for this he wovdd die : nay, he would live anywhere, and die anyhow, if so be he might rescue one soul from everlasting woe. Hence you see that this undertaking requires courage. It is not the courage which, wrought up by the stimulus of popular applause, can rush now and then upon the cannon's mouth ; it is the courage, • which, alone and unapplauded, will, year after year, look death in the face, and never shrink from its purpose. It is a principle which will " make a man intrepidly dare every- thing which can attack or oppose him within the whole sphere of mortality, retain his purpose unshaken amidst the ruins of the world, and press toward liis ol)ject while death is impendhig over liim." Such was the Spirit which spake by the mouth of an Apostle when he said, " And now, behold, I go bound in the Spirit unto Jerusalem, not knowing the things which shall befall me there : save that the Holy Ghost witnesseth in every city, saying that bonds and afflictions abide me. But none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy ; and the ministry, which I have received of the Lord Jesus." But, above all, the Missionary undertaking requires /a;7A, in its holiest and sublimest exercise. And let it not be supposed that we speak at random, when we mention the sublimity of faith. " Whatever," says the British moralist, " withdraws us from the power of the senses ; whatever makes the past, the distant, or the future, predominate over the present, advances us in the dignity of tliinking beings." And when we speak of faith, we refer to a principle which gives " substance to things hoped for, and evidence to things not seen ; " which, bending her glance on the " eternal weight of glory," makes it a constant motive to holy enterprise ; which, fixing her eye upon the infinite of future, makes it bear upon the purposes of to-day ; a principle which enables a poor feeble tenant of the dust to take strong hold upon the perfections of Jehovah ; and, fastening his hopes to the very throne of the Eternal, " bid earth roll, nor feel its idle whirl." This principle is the unfailing support of the Missionary through the long years of his toilsome pil- grimage ; and when he is compared with the heroes of this 56 THE MORAL DIGNITY OF world, it is peculiar to him. By as much, then, as the Christian enterprise calls into being this one principle, the noblest that can attach to the character of a creature, by so much does its execution surpass in sublimity every other. III. Let us consider the means by which this moral REVOLUTION IS TO BE EFFECTED. It is, in a word, by the preaching of Jesus Christ, and him crucified. It is by going forth and telling the lost children of men, that God so loved the world, that he gave his only- begotten Son to die for them ; and by all the eloquence of such an appeal, to entreat them, for Christ's sake, to be reconciled unto God. This is the lever by which, we believe, the moral universe is to be raised; this is the instrument by which a sinful world is to be regenerated. And consider the commanding simplicity of this means, devised by Omniscience to effect a purpose so glorious. This world is to be restored to more than it lost by the fall, by the simjolc annunciation of the love of God in Christ Jesus. Here we behold means apparently the weakest, employed to effect the most magnificent of purposes. And how plainly does this bespeak the agency of the omnipotent God ! The means which effect his greatest purposes in the kingdom of nature are simple and unostentatious ; while those which man employs arc com- plicated and tunudtuous. How many intellects are tasked, how many hands are wearied, how many arts exhausted, in pre- paring for the event of a single battle ; and how great is the tunuilt of the moment of decision ! In all this, man only imitates the inferior agents of nature. The autumnal tempest, whose sphere of action is limited to a little spot upon our little world, comes forth attended by the roar of thunder and the flash of lightning; while the attraction of gravitation, that stupendous force which binds together the mighty masses of the material universe, acts silently. In the sublimest of natural transactions, the greatest result is ascribed to the simplest causes. *' He spake, and it was done ; he commanded, and it stood fast." Contemplate the benevolence of these means. In practice, the precepts of the Gospel may be summed up in the single com- mand, " Thou slialt love the l^ord tliy God with all thy heart, THE MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE. Oi and thy neighbour as thyself." We expect to teach one man obedience to this command, and that he will feel obliged to teach his neighbour, who will feel obliged to teach others, who are again to become teachers, until the whole world shall be peopled with one family of brethren. Animosity is to be done away by inculcating universall}^ the obligation of love. In this manner we expect to teach rulers justice, and subjects sub- mission ; to open the heart of the miser, and unloose the grasp of the oppressor. It is thus we expect the time to be hastened onward wdien men shall " beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning-hooks; when nation shall no more lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more." With this process, compare the means by which men, on the principles of this world, effect a melioration in the condition of their species. Their almost universal agent is, threatened or inflicted misery. And, from the nature of the case, it cannot be otherwise. Without altering the disposition of the heart, they only attempt to control its exercise. And they must control it by showing their power to make the indvdgence of that disposition the source of more misery than happiness. Hence when men confer a benefit upon a portion of their brethren, it is generally preceded by a protracted struggle to decide which can inflict most, or which can sufler longest. Hence the arm of the patriot is generally and of necessity bathed in blood. Hence with the shouts of victory from the nation he has delivered, there arises also the sigh of the widow, and the weeping of the orphan. Man produces good by the apprehension or the infliction of evil. The Gospel produces good by the universal difl'usion of the principles of benevolence. In the former case, one party must generally suffer ; in the latter, all parties are certainly more happy. The one, like the mountain torrent, may fertilize now and then a valley beneath ; but not until it has wildly swept away the forest above, and disfigured the lovely landscape with many an unseemly scar. Not so the other, — " It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven Upon the pLice beneath. It is twice bless'd ; It blcsseth Him that gives, and him that takes." 58 THE MORAL DIGNITY OF Consider the efficacy of these means. The reasons which teach us to rely upon them with confidence may be tlius briefly stated : — 1. We see tliat all which is really terrific in the misery of man results from the disease of his moral nature. If this can be healed, man may be restored to happiness. Now the Gospel of Jesus Christ is the remedy devised by Omniscience spe- cifically for this purpose, and therefore we do certainly know that it will inevitably succeed. 2. It is easy to be seen, that universal obedience to the com- mand, " Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and thy neighbour as thyself," would make this world a heaven. But nothing besides the Gospel of Christ can persuade men to this obedience. Reason cannot do it ; philosophy cannot do it ; civilization cannot do it. The cross of Christ alone has power to bend the stubborn will to obedience, and melt the frozen heart to love. " For," said one who had experienced its efficacy, " the love of Christ constraineth us, because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead : and that he died for all, that they which live should not live unto themselves, but unto Him who died for them, and rose again." 3. The preaching of the cross of Christ is a remedy for the miseries of the fall, which has been tested by the experience of eighteen hundred years, and has never in a single instance failed. Its efficacy has been proved by human beings of all ages ; from the lisping infant to the sinner a hundred }'ears old. All climates have witnessed its power. From the ice- bound cliffs of Greenland to the banks of the voluptuous Ganges, the simple story of Christ crucified has tiuuied men from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God. Its effect has been the same with men of the most dissimilar conditions ; from the abandoned inhabitant of Newgate to the dweller in the palaces of Kings. It has been equally sovereign amidst the scattered inhabitants of the forest, and the crowded population of the densest metropolis. Everywhere, and at all times, it has been " the power of God unto salvation to every one tliat believeth." 4. And, lastly, we know, from the word of the living God, thai it will be successful, until this whole world has been THE MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE. 59 redeemed from the effects of man's first disobedience. " As truly as I live," saith Jehovah, " all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord." " Ask of me," saith he to his Son, " and I will give thee the Heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession." In the revelation which he gave to his servant John, of things which should shortly come to pass ; " I heard," said the Apostle, " great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ ; and he shall reign for ever and ever." Here, then, is the ground of our unwavering confidence. Heaven and earth shall pass away, but one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the word of God, until all be fulfilled. Such, then, are the means on which we rely for the accomplishment of our object, and such the grounds upon which we rest our confidence of success. And now^, my hearers, deliberately consider the nature of the Missionary enterprise. Reflect upon the dignity of its object ; the high moral and intellectual powers which are to be called forth in its execution ; the simplicity, benevolence, and efiicacy of the means by which all this is to be achieved ; and we ask you. Does not every enterprise to which man ever put forth his strength dwindle into insignificance before that of preaching Christ crucified to a lost and perishing world? Engaged in such an object, and supported by such assurances, you may readily suppose we can very well bear the contempt of those who would point at us the finger of scorn. It is written, " In the last days there shall be scoffers." We regret that it should be so. We regret that men should oppose an enterprise, of which the chief object is to turn sinners unto holiness. We pity them, and we will pray for them. For we consider their situation far other than enviable. We recollect that it was once said by the Divine Missionary, to the first band which he commissioned, " He that despiseth you, despiseth me; and he that despiseth me, despiseth him that sent me." So that this very contempt may, at last, involve them in a controversy infinitely more serious than they at present anti- cipate. The reviler of Missions, and the Missionary of the cross, must both stand before the judgment-seat of Him who said, "Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel to 60 THE MORAL DIGNITY OF every creature." It is affecting to think, that whilst the one, surrounded by tlie nation who, through liis instrumentality, have been rescued from everlasting death, shall receive the plaudit, "Well done, good and faithful servant;" the other may be luunbered with those " despisers who wonder and perish." O that they "might know, even in this their day, the things which belong to their peace, before they are hidden from their eyes ! " You can also easily perceive how it is that we are not soon disheartened by those who tell us of the difficulties, nay, the hopelessness, of our undertaking. They may point us to countries once the seat of the Church now overspread with Mohammedan delusion ; or, bidding us look at nations who once believed as we do, now contending for what we consider fatal error, they may assure us that our cause is declining. To all this we have two answers: First, the assumption that our cause is declining, is utterly gratuitous. We think it not difficult to prove that the distinctive principles we so much venerate, never swayed so powerful an influence over the destinies of the human race as at this very moment. Point us to those nations of the earth to whom moral and intellectual cultivation, inexhaustible resources, progress in arts, and sagacity in council, have assigned the highest rank in political importance, and you point to us nations whose religious opinions are most closely allied to those we cherish. Besides, when was there a period, since the days of the Apostles, in which so many converts have been made to these principles, as have been made, both from Christian and Pagan nations, within the last five and twenty years ? Never did the people of the saints of the Most High appear to be going forth in such serious earnest, to " take possession of the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven," as at this very day. We see, then, nothing in the signs of the times which forbodes a failure; but everything which jn-omises that our undertaking will prosper. But, secondly, suppose the cause did seem declining, we should see no reason to relax our exertions ; for Jesus Christ has said, " Preach the Gospel to every creature." Ap])earances, whether prosperous or adverse, alter not the; obligation to obey a ])ositive command of Almighty God. THE MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE. Gl Again : suppose all that is atFirmcd were true. If it must be, let it be. Let the dark cloud of infidelity overspread Europe, cross the ocean, and cover our own beloved land. Let nation after nation swerve from the faith. Let " iniquity abound, and the love of many v.'ax cold," even until there is on the face of this earth but one pure Church of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. All we ask is, that we may be members of that one Church. God grant that we may throw ourselves into this Thermopylae of the moral universe ! But even then we should have no fear that the Church of God would be exterminated. We would call to remembrance " the years of the right hand of the Most High." We would recollect there was once a time, when the whole Church of Christ not only could be, but actually was, " gathered with one accord in one place." It was then that that place was " shaken with a rushing mighty wind, and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost." That same day, three thousand were added to the Lord. Soon we hear, they " have filled Jerusalem with their doctrine." The Church has commenced her march. Samaria has with one accord believed the Gospel. Antioch has become obedient to the faith. The name of Christ has been proclaimed throughout Asia Minor. The temples of the gods, as though smitten by an invisible hand, are deserted. The citizens of Ephesus cry out in despair, " Great is Diana of the Ephesians ! " Licentious Corinth is purified by the preaching of Christ crucified. Persecution puts forth her arm to arrest the spreading " superstition : " but the progress of the faith cannot be stayed. The Church of God advances unhurt, amidst racks and dungeons, persecutions and death ; yea, " smiles at the drawn dagger, and defies its point." She has entered Italy, and appears before the walls of the Eternal City. Idolatry falls pros- trate at her approach. Her ensign floats in triumph over the capital. She has placed upon her brow the diadem of the Caesars ! After having witnessed such successes, and under such circumstances, we are not to be moved by discouragements. To all of them w^e answer. Our field is the loorld. The more arduous the undertaking, the greater will be the glory. And that glory will be ours ; for God Almighty is with us. This enterprise of mercy the Son of God came down from 62 THE MORAL DIGNITY OF heaven to commence, and in commencing it he hiid down liis life. To VIS lias he granted the high privilege of carrying it forward. The legacy which he left us, as he was ascending to his Father and our Father, and to his God and to our God, was, " Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature ; and, lo, J. am with you always, even unto the end of the world." With such an object before us, under such a Leader, and supported by such promises, other motives to exertion are unnecessary. Each one of you will anxiously inquire how he may become a co-worker with the Son of God in the glorious design of rescuing a world from the miseries of the fall. Blessed be God, this is a work in which every one of us is permitted to do something. None so poor, none so weak, none so insignificant, but a place of action is assigned him ; and the cause expects every man to do his duty. We answer, then, 1. You may assist in it by your prayers. After all that we have said about means, we know that every thing will be in vain without the influence of the Holy Spirit. "Paul may plant, and Apollos water : it is God who giveth the increase." And this influence is promised, and promised in answer to prayer alone. Ye then who love the Lord, "keep not silence, and give him no rest, until he establish and make Jerusalem a praise in the whole earth." 2. You may assist by your personal exertions. This cause requires a vigorous, persevering, universal, and systematic effort. It requires tliat a s])irit should pervade every one of us which shall prompt him to ask himself every morning, " What can I do for Christ to-day ?" and which should make him feel humbled and ashamed, if at evening he were obliged to confess he had done nothing. Each one of us is as much obligated as the Missionaries themselves, to do all in his power to advance the common cause of Christianity. We, equally with them, have embraced that Gospel, of which the fundamental principle is, " None of us liveth to himself.'' And not only is every one bound to exert himself to the uttermost ; the same obligation rests upon us so to direct our exertions, that each of them may produce the greatest effect. Each one of us may influence others to embark in the undertaking. Each one whom we have THE MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE. G3 influenced, may be incUiced to enlarge that circle of which he is the centre, until a self-extending system of intense and rever- berated action shall embody into one invincible phalanx, " the sacramental host of God's elect." Awake, then, brethren, from your slumbers ! " Seek first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness." And recollect that what you would do, must be done quickly. "The day is far spent; the night is at hand." " Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might ; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowdedge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goest." 3. You may assist by your pecuniary contrihntions. And here, I trust, it is unnecessary to say, that in such a cause we consider it a privilege to give. How can you so worthily appropriate a portion of that substance which Providence has given you as in sending to your fellow-men, who sit in the region and shadow of death, a knowledge of the God who made them, and of Jesus Christ whom he hath sent ? We pray you, so use "the mammon of unrighteousness, that when ye fail, they may receive you into everlasting habitations." But I doubt not you already burn with desire to testify your love to the crucified Redeemer. Enthroned in the high and holy place, He looks down at this moment upon the heart of every one of us ; and will accept of your offering, though it be but the widow's mite, if it be given with the widow's feeling. In the last day of solemn account, He will acknowledge it before an assembled universe, saying, " Inasmuch as ye did it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye did it unto me !" G4 THE LOVE OF CHRIST DISCOURSE V. THE LOVE OF CHRIST THE MOTIVE OF MISSIONARY EFFORT.* BY THE REV AVILLIAM R. DE WITT. 2 Corinthians v. 14. " The love of Christ constraineth us." It is only when men feel deeply that they act with energy. The mere calm intellectual contemplation of an object will avail but little in calling forth the energies of the soul in untiring action to secure its accomplishment. That object must seize hold upon the heart. It must break up its deep fountains of feeling, and bring the mind under the influence of its high and powerful excitement. Under such an impulse, men have gone forward in the successful prosecution of enterprises which, to other minds, have appeared embarrassed with difficulties, and encumbered with dangers, that would have rendered every attempt at their accomplishment the effect of childish folly or mad presumption. Superior eminence in any of the pursuits of life has usually been the result of an engrossing passion for that pursuit. No great moral or political revolution was ever achieved without first awakening an enthusiastic devotion iu its behalf. Though this principle of ovu* nature has been perverted by depravity, and men, under the strong impulse of unholy feeling, have been borne onward, with indomitable energy, in the work of death ; yet, in itself, the feature is god-like. Its prototype is found in Ilim who is the perfection of excellence^ It was not the mei'c calm intellectual contem])lation of our apostacy * Preached in Norwich, Connecticut, 181-2, before the American Board of Com- missioners for Foreign Missions. THE MOTIVE OF MISSIONARY EFFORT. 65 and consequent ruin that led to the achievement of man's i-c- demption. That achievement, in which has been made the fullest and clearest developement of uncreated excellence ; which has waked up the strains of the everlasting song; and which will yet fill God's holy kingdom with perfect and eternal blessedness, is the fruit of the throes of infinite love. It is to the strong impulse of this holy affection that we owe the gift of God's eternal Son ; that we are indebted for those scenes of thrilling interest through which he passed during his voluntary exile from heaven ; and for that dark and mighty, though ultimately triumphant, conflict in Gethsemane and on Calvary. It is incarnate love enthroned in heaven that now holds the sceptre of universal dominion ; and, with an eye that never sleeps, and an arm that never wearies, is carrying forward to their consummation the purposes of infinite benevolence. This same affection, with a congruity so characteristic of God, he has made not only the brightest ornament of Christian character, but the impulsive motive to every duty required of us, as his followers. In the lives of the Apostles and primitive Christians, we are furnished with the best examples of its power. The love of Christ constrained them. In the context, the Apostle is justifying the conduct of himself and his fellow-labourers against the cavils of false and mistaken brethren in the church at Corinth. They had represented their zeal as fimaticism ; as the indication of a monomania, that ren- dered them incompetent to instruct and govern the Church of God in those periods of peril. The Apostle seeks to coi-rect the impressions made by these representations, by stating the prin- ciples and the motives that influenced their conduct. "Whether we be beside ourselves, it is to God ; or whether we be sober, it is for your cause ; for the love of Christ constraineth us : because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then v/ere all dead : and that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again." It is, we conceive, of little importance, whether we understand the Apostle as referring to the love of Christ for us, or our love to Christ. If the former, it only becomes a motive to devoted effort in his cause, by exciting in our hearts a reciprocal affection. If the latter, (which we think F GO THE LOVE OF CHRIST the Apostle intended when he penned this passage,) it is ever the effect of Christ's love for us. This affection, my brethren, is the fruit of the Spirit of God ; and springs from a spiritual apprehension of the transcendent glory of the Redeemer's person, and from a deep sense of indi- vidual obligation to him for his unmerited mercy. It is an affection which seeks its own nourishment, and grows strong and permanent, by daily meditations on the scenes of Geth- semane and Calvary, and by daily connnunion with its object at a throne of grace. Such was the affection which reigned in the hearts, and governed the lives, of the primitive disciples of our Lord ; which bore them onward through trials and per- secutions, and led them to count not even tlieir lives dear, in their efibrts to bring the world under the holy and peaceful dominion of the Son of God. It was the love of Christ trans- fusing its purity through their characters, and breathing its sweetness in all their actions, that gave them, under God, their efficiency, and crowned their labours with such abundant success. It will not then, I trust, be deemed inappropriate to the present occasion, to illustrate, in a few particulars, the adapta- tion of this affection to our holy vocation ; especially as called, by the providence and the grace of God, to sustain an important agency in sending the Gospel of Christ, as the richest boon of heaven, to every creature. I. In the prosecution of this object, I remark, in the first place, that the love of Christ is an elevating affection. The Missionary enterprise associates mankind, universally, with the destinies of an immortal existence. The results at which it aims lie above and beyond this woi'ld, and reach onward through the ages of eternity. It does, indeed, effect the im- provement of their condition in this life. But this is only an incidental good. The great, the ultimate, object is, to bring them under an influence from Heaven, that will enlighten and purify their souls, restore tliem to the knowledge and friendship of God, and prepare them for a deathless existence beyond the grave. This is an object in which most men feel no interest, for which the world at large has no sympathy. It is as far above the designs of its greatest philanthropists as the heavens THE MOTIVE OF MISSIONARY EFFORT. ()7 are above the earth ; and it can be properly appreciated and succcssfvilly prosecuted by those alone, whose views, and pur- poses, and feelings have undergone a corresponding elevation. Such an elevation, my brethren, the love of Christ secures, by bringing us into intimate connnunion with himself; by destroying, as far as it prevails, every low and selfish purpose ; and by identifying our very being with his interests and with his glory. The tendency of ardent affection is to mould, insensibly, the character to the image of the object loved. It seeks its own gratification in the intimacy of friendship, and dwells with delight on those attributes which have called it into exercise, until the mind yields to their impression. Beholding, as in a glass, the glory of the Lord, we are changed into the same image, even from glory to glory. While this affection produces this conformity to the image of Christ, it destroys, as far as it prevails, every selfish purpose, and makes us one with him. It identifies our interests wdth his interests, our glory with his glory. It elevates the thoughts and purposes of the mind above the current of this world's influences, and associates them with the great objects of the mediatorial reign ; — with the scenes and the destinies of eternity, in which that reign will be consummated. Brethren, the relations and the interests of time will ere long terminate for ever. The fashion of this world is passing away ; and soon the last ray of its glory will rest upon the bosom of that dark cloud which comes charged with its final doom. But earth has interests connected with the councils of an eternity that is passed, and with the ages of an eternity to come. Over the ruins of our apostasy the thoughts of the Son of God linsrered, before the foundations of the world were laid, or the heavens were stretched abroad as a curtain. Even then, in anticipation of achieving the redemption of man, he rejoiced in the habitable parts of the earth, and his delights were with the sons of men. Immediately on the fall of man he interposed his mediation to arrest the progress of the curse, and to bring the apostate race under a dispensation of mercy, which, in its final consummation, will realize all that infinite benevolence can desire. From that period he has gone forward in the pro- F 2 68 THE LOVE OF CHRIST secution of liis plans. For this the worhl has been upheld in existence. Empires have risen and fallen. Nations have dashed against nations. The earth has been one scene of wild misrule. But over this scene the Son of God has presided, ordering and directing all with unerring skill, for the attainment of his own ends. It was not until he had made, by his sacrifice on the cross, an expiation for sin, and thus laid a sure foundation for his eternal kingdom, that his regal dignity was formally assumed and publicly announced. Then, having spoiled principalities and powers, he visibly ascended, in his glorified humanity, to his throne in heaven. There he now reigns, and will reign, until he has put all enemies under his feet ; until he has extended his niild and peaceful sceptre over a redeemed and subjugated world, and accomplished the purposes of infinite benevolence by gathering into his eternal kingdom the multi- tudes of the saved. The love of Christ, my brethren, elevates the soul to com- munion with him in the vast designs of his mediation. He in whose heart it predominates, is absorbed in the greatness and glory of the achievement. To him it is not less real than sublime. He sees around him the agencies that are now in active operation for its accomplishment, and he anticipates the grandeur of its consummation with unhesitating certainty. The relations and the interests of time are lost sight of, and he regards it as his highest honour to be associated with Christ, though in toil, iu suffering, and in rcproacli, in carrying forward his designs. Such is the elevated spirit of our holy enterprise. Such was the spirit of the Apostles and primitive disciples of our Lord. No one can read their lives without admiring their abstraction from the secular interests that surrounded them, and the vivid impressions of eternal realities under which they lived. Though in the world, they were not of the world. They lived above the current of its influences. They gazed upon the visions of eternity. At Jerusalem, at Athens, or at Rome, surrounded by the imposing ceremonies of their ancient faith, by the proudest monuments of art, by academic groves, or by the splendours of the Eternal City, they lost sight of all in the absorbing anticipations of their Redeemer's glory, when he should come to gather into his kingdom the purchase of his THE MOTIVE OF MISSIONARY EFFORT. 69 blood, and seal up the doom of the lost. Regardless of reproach and toil, they prayed and wept, and entreated men to fly from the wrath to come, and lay hold on eternal life, as though they were listening to hear the sound of the last trumpet, the wailing of the lost, and the triumphant shout of the glorified. Such was the spirit of faith and love that glowed in their bosoms, that elevated them above the world, and bore them on in the duties of their high calling. In proportion as the Church has possessed this spirit, has she enjoyed the blessings of her exalted Head, and been honoured with success in her efforts to extend his kingdom. May this spirit be ours, brethren, in its largest measure, that we may be prepared to go forward to the achievement of that glorious destiny to which God is now calling his Church. II. In the second place, the love of Christ is admirably adapted to the peculiar exigencies of the Missionary enterprise, as it is not only an elevating, but also a self-sacrificing affection. It is the nature of love to seek its highest gratification in the happiness of its object. Love lives in the enjoyments it bestows. This is the element of its existence. It delights in occasions of manifesting its strength by the extent of its sacrifices in promoting the good of those that are loved. The eye, brethren, can linger upon nothing more beautiful than the manifestations of this affection. The heart can be subjected to no influence richer in the purest enjoyment. The brightest emanations of Deity, ever contemplated by created minds, are the outgoings of this affection toward our guilty race, by our Lord Jesus Christ. He loved us, and gave himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for our sins. The gift was the most costly that could be bestowed. The treasures of the vuliverse are nothing in comparison with it. To comprehend its magnitude we must comprehend the nature and resources of the Godhead, for its fulness dwells in him ; we must comprehend the infinite delight of his own bosom as he surveyed, from his exalted throne, myriads of holy beings to whom his power had given existence, brightening and exulting in the sunshine of his complacency, pouring forth the song of ecstacy in his praise, and bowing down in solemn adoration at his footstool ; and from these celestial heights we must descend through all those stages of deep humiliation, and those scenes of unparallelled sufferings 70 THE LOVE OF CHRIST through which he passed, until, on the cross, he exclaimed, " It is finished," and bowed his head in death. Though there were seasons when, pressed down under his extreme agony, he prayed that, if it were possible, the cup of bitterness might pass from him, he knew from the beginning what he must endure. He knew that poverty, toil, reproach, and persecution, would be his constant attendants ; that upon him would be poured the fury of the powers of darkness, and the wrath of offended Heaven ; that, smitten, afflicted, and forsaken of God, he must die in un- told agonies on the accursed tree. Yet, such w^as the strength and devotcdncss of his love, that he willingly came. He delighted to enter upon his work. He pressed forward with holy im- patience to the darkest hour of his agony, and bared his own bosom to the sword of eternal justice, that man might be saved. Such, my brethren, is the love of Christ ; the grand example, the exalted pattern, after which God will movild, in eternal assimilation to himself, the subjects of his holy kingdom. The minds of the Apostles were absorbed in admiration of this love. In their solitary musings it was the subject of their devout medi- tations. It was the theme, the burden, of their public minis- trations. It woke up in their bosoms a reciprocal affection, that sought its highest gratification in pleasing Christ ; and rejoiced in occasions of manifesting its strength and devotedness by the greatness of the sacrifice made in behalf of his cause. For Christ they forsook all. They cheerfully suffered the loss of earthly friendships, riches, and honours ; and endured poverty, reproach, sufferings, and death itself. Nay, they gloried in tribulation, and rejoiced that they were counted worthy to suffer for the name of Christ. It was the impulsive influence of this self-sacrificing affection that bore them onward from land to land, and from shore to shore, amid perils the most imminent, though the Holy Ghost bore them witness that bonds and afllictions awaited them wherever they went. But none of these things moved them. No regard for their own personal safety, nor the solicitations of weeping friends, restrained them from pressing forward into thickest dangers where duty called them. They counted not their lives dear unto themselves, that they might finish their course with joy, and the ministry they had received from the Lord Jesus, THE MOTIVE OF MISSIONARY EFFORT. 71 Brethren, with this spirit of self-devotedness must the Church be deeply imbued before she will be prepared to discharge her solemn obligations to her ascended Lord. We cannot do what God requires from us in the conversion of the world, abiding in our sealed houses, enjoying the pleasures and luxuries of wealth and refinement. Nor will we approximate to the measure of our responsibility, by offering up a few prayers for the success of Missions, and giving a few dollars of the increase of our substance to aid in sustaining them. The work indeed is the Lord's, and "cursed is the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the living God." But now, as ever, the agencies by which he will accomplish this work, he has entrusted to his Church, and upon her has he imposed the solemn responsibility of employing them, in humble dependence on his blessing. Who, as he surveys the moral condition of the world in the light of God's word, of his promises and commands, and contrasts with it the efforts that have been made, or are now making, to reclaim it from its guilt and degradation, is not painfully convinced that the Chvirch, as yet, is far from having any adequate views of the extent of her obligations, or pos- sessing, in any adequate measure, the spirit of her high vocation ? If, with her numbers, her wealth, her political and social in- fluence, and the facilities she now enjoys for employing the means ordained of God for the conversion of the world, the Church possessed the same spirit of self-sacrificing devotion to the cause of her Redeemer, which distinguished her primitive members, how soon would she realize the brightest visions of prophecy respecting her future glory ! Under the influence of this spirit, ambition, and pride, and the love of worldly ease and pleasure, would disappear. Wealth, now held with a miser's grasp, would be cheerfully consecrated to God. Talent and learning, now devoted to vain speculations in philosophy, and to the bitterness of unhallowed controversy, would be devoted to the affectionate and earnest preaching of the Gospel, in the fulness of its blessings. Thousands and tens of tliousands of devoted youth would come from the soul-subduing contem- plations of the scenes of Gethsemane and Calvary, with hearts filled with the love of Christ, ready to part with all for his name's sake ; to endure toil, suffering, and death itself, if need be, to (2 THE LOVE OF CHRIST make known the provisions of eternal love to a perishing world. Then, from united and believing hearts, importunate sup2)lication would continually ascend to the throne of God for the inter- position of his almighty arm, and the communications of his Holy Spirit. That arm would then be made bare for salvation, and that Spirit poured out from on high ; and the earth would soon be filled with the knowledge and the glory of the Lord. III. In the third place, anotlier attribute of this affection which commends it, as peculiarly adapted to the Missionary enterprise, is, that in its greatest strength, and to whatever sacrifice it prompts, it is a reasonable affection. Though, as has been said, it is only when we feel deeph' that we act with energy, yet, in order to secure the permanency of such action, our feelings must be sustained by a sound judg- ment, and meet with an approving response from an enlightened conscience. These are their appointed arbiters ; and there are seasons of frequent occurrence in every man's life, however borne forward by strong emotion, when they will vindicate their high prerogatives, and sit in judgment on the character of those affections which excite and control their actions. Unless these affections meet with their decided sanction, there will be mis- givings that will cool their fervour, repress their energy, and induce that hesitancy which must ever be fatal to the accom- plishment of results embarrassed with difficulties. The Christian, and especially the Christian Missionary, can have none of the excitements to effort which the world ad- ministers to its votaries. To him it is of the utmost importance that the motives which induce him to enter upon his self- denying, and often perilous, career, should be sustained in those seasons of retirement, when, thrown back on his own sober reflections, they undergo the scrutiny of a sound judgment and an enlightened conscience. The love of power and the prospect of earthly renown feed the fires of unhallowed ambition, and ner.ve the soul with energy in the prosecution of difficult and dangerous enterprises. The field of battle is the field of earthly glory. There, amid the perils of the conflict, are displayed those energies of mind which, with stern composure, control the fury and direct the storm of war ; and the proud and haughty bearing of the \ictor THE MOTIVE OF MISSIONARY EFFORT. 73 shows that he is conscious of the world's admiration, though he has crushed beneath his feet every sentiment of justice, and every feeling of humanity. But the Christian toils in obscurity. He wastes his energies in unremitting effort to do good, without attracting the notice of the world. He tears himself from home, from kindred, from the sympathies and the privileges of Christian society ; goes to unfriendly climes, seeks an abode among the dark and degraded Heathen ; and, exposed to the most imminent dangers, he toils, and suffers, and dies, that he may bring them the knowledge of salvation, and direct them in the way of life. But no trumpet heralds his fame. No garlands are wreathed to deck his brow. No festive board is spread as the tribute of admiration for his self-denying deeds of beneficence. Reproach instead of honour, denunciation as a madman or a fool, are the only rewards bestowed by an ungodly and a misjudging world. Even from the bosom of the Church, where he had a right to look for that sympathy and that encouragement which are his sweetest earthly solace, he sometimes meets with a repulsive apathy, far worse than direct opposition. Thus is he thrown for suj^port on his own deep and sober conviction of the reasonableness of the motive by which he has been actuated, and his confidence of its approval at the bar of God. This conviction, and this confidence, brethren, will not fail to yield their support, if the love of Christ has been his constraining motive. In this hour of its greatest trial, and under the severest scrutiny, it will receive the sanction of reason, and meet with the approving response of conscience. The more calmly the Christian w^eighs the claims of his Saviour, the deeper will be the conviction of his obli- gation, and the more reasonable will appear that affection which constrains him to withhold nothing, but cheerfully to consecrate his all to his blessed service. In those seasons of sober reflec- tion, it is not w'hat is given, but what is withheld, that troubles an enlightened conscience. To be entirely relieved from per- plexing embarrassments, and fears, and doubts; and enjoy the fulness of that liberty with v/hich Christ blesses his people, the heart must let go its hold on everything else, and cling to him in the strength of his love. Then the conflict between the convictions of duty and the power of selfishness and unbelief /4 THE LOVE OF CIIKIST ceases ; and there is peace, quietness, and assurance for ever. Never was tliere a cup of cold water given, from love to him, without its reward : and the greater the sacrifice we make, the more will his consolations abound in the soul. " There is no man, that hath left house, or parent, or brethren, or wife, or children, for the kingdom of God's sake, who shall not receive manifold more in this present time, and in the world to come, life everlasting." With what striking and beautiful illustrations of this truth are we furnished in the biographies of our Missionaries. Some- times, brethren, when I have thought of them as far off, sur- rounded only by the darkness and degradation of Heathenism, suffering every privation, toiling from year to year under every outward discouragement, with no friendly voice to animate them, and no sympathizing bosom on which to repose their aching heads, in the hour of despondency and gloom ; — when 1 have thought of the delicate, the refined, the enlightened female Missionary, the dew of her youth wasted in ceaseless anxieties and unremitted toil ; — w^hen I have followed her in my imagination to some secluded spot to which she is wont to retire, perhaps in the stillness of the evening hour, to think of her home, and to recall the looks and the afiections of those from whom she is separated until they meet beyond the vale of death, where parting is unknown ; — and when I have there witnessed the deep convulsive throes of her heart, while the tears chase each other over her pale and care-worn cheeks ; — I have said in my haste, " It is too much. Can, does God require it ?" But when I have read of their love for their work, and how their consolations abounded in the midst of their trials; — when I have read of their holy enjoyment in God, of their sweet peace of mind, of their ardent aspirations after heaven, as faith unfolded to their enraptured vision the brightness of its glory ; — when I have read of their composed, of their peaceful and triumj)hant, deaths, and thought of the unfading brilliancy of that crown which shall encircle their brows ; — I have said, " It is not a vain thing to serve the Lord : whatever sacrifices it in- volves, its rewards are infinitely preferable to earth's highest honours and purest pleasures." 1\. In the fourth place, the love of Christ is an affection THE MOTIVE OF MISSIONARY EFFORT. 75 peculiarly adapted to the exigencies of the Missionary enterprise, as it is the bond of union among the followers of the Redeemer, and thus prepares them for efficient co-operation in the advancement of his kingdom. Union to Christ, and their participation, in common, of one spirit from him as their living head, is the only firm and enduring bond among his people. To those thus united to Christ, he is the common foundation on which they all rest, as lively stones, in one spiritual temple. He is the vine to whom all adhere as branches, receiving from him those vital influences by which they live, and grow, and bring forth the fruits of righteousness. He is the common object of their faith, their hope, and their love. In his cause centres all their interests, and his glory is the end at which they all aim. The one spirit they receive from Christ is pre-eminently the spirit of holy love. It uproots, as far as it prevails, the pride and selfishness of the human heart. It abolishes private and separate interests, and unites them in cheerful and self-denying efforts to advance the kinnfdom of their common Saviour. The manifestation of this spirit is among the means ordained of God to convince men of the divinity of the Gospel. It illustrates more than anything visible, its power over the otherwise unconquerable dominion of human depravity ; and it demonstrates its heavenly origin by bringing the victims of this depravity from the collisions and strifes of pride, and selfishness, and lust, into one peaceful brotherhood of holy love. • How intensely was the heart of Christ fixed on this union among his people ! It was the burden of this petition, in his last prayer for his Church : " Neither," says he, " pray I for these alone, but those also which shall believe on me through their word; that they all may be one, as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they all may be one in us ; that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. And the glory which thou hast given me, I have given them ; that they may be one, even as we are one : I in them, and thovi in me, that they may be made perfect in one ; that the world may know that thou hast sent me." Can we hope, brethren, for the conversion of the world to God while the Christian Church presents the spectacle it now 76 THE LOVE OF CHRIST does ; organized into various sections, whose separate interests, sometimes advanced even by artifice and slander, are guarded with sleepless vigilance? While the professed friends of Jesus, instead of combining their efforts to advance the common cause, are marching under the banners of party rivalship, and ex- hausting their strength by mutual hostilities? At the close of the last century, when Christians first began to vmite their elTorts for advancing the kingdom of their Redeemer, it seemed to some, in the ardour of Christian hope, as the very dawn of the millennium. " Astonishing spectacle !" said one at that time, " the spell of party is broken ; the antipathies of the cradle expire ; the strife of ages ceases ; and a sweeter harmony of heart and of measvu-es is produced in an hour, than has been granted to the entreaties, the labours, and the prayers of the best men for centuries."* O, that this union, so auspiciously commenced, had been permitted to go on until consummated in that blessed result for which the Saviour wept, and prayed, and died! But, alas ! after the expiration of nearly half a century, what do we witness in portions, at least, of the Church of Christ ? The spell of party and antipathies of the cradle are revived ; and the strife of ages is renewed ; and the fond anticipations of pious hope are blasted by the bitter animosities and strifes that have been engendered by the am- bitious and the violent, who, regardless of the prayer of the Redeemer, have torn asunder the cords of Christian union, and given occasion to the common enemy to glory over the wasted and ruined heritage of God. Among the fallacies which the arch-deceiver has imposed upon the minds of some, in this divided and weakened condition of the Church, is the one, that separate and sectarian action will effect more for the conversion of the world, than the combined efforts of the consecrated host of God. It is unnecessary to suggest even an argument in confutation of a position so at variance with the whole genius and spirit of Christianity, with the dictates of sound discretion, and with the experience of ages. Is it too severe a judgment to allirm, in regard to such * Sevnioii of the Rev. J. M. Mason, ])rcached 1797, before the New York Missionary Society. THE MOTIVE OF MISSIONARY EFFORT. 77 an opinion, that it is the spirit of party, seeking its own justification by virtually repudiating the magnanimous spirit of Christian love ? There is, brethren, but one remedy for all these evils in the Church of God. It is the love of Christ shed abrond in the hearts of its members by the Holy Ghost given unto them. United to Christ in the bonds of this pure affection, we shall be united to each other. Individual and sectarian feelings and interests will all be merged into that love which " seeketh not her own," but the things of Jesus Christ. Then the prayer of the Redeemer will be answered ; and, one in affection, one in purpose, and one in effort, the living members of his spiritual body, his Church, will go forth in the spirit of might to accomplish the predicted glory of Zion. V. In the fifth place, this affection is of the utmost importance in accomplishing the great object of our association, as it involves a spirit of holy dependence on Christ, and of earnest believing prayer for his blessing. Love is a confiding affection. The Christian in whose heart the love of Christ glows, delights in reposing on the almighty arm of his Saviour, and in seeking directly from him the blessing he desires, and giving him all the glory in their reception and enjoyment. It is, my brethren, a question of great practical importance, whether, in this age of comparative zeal and benevolence for the spread of the Gospel, there is cherished in the hearts of Christians, that deep sense of dependence on God, and that habit of holy, earnest, believing prayer in secret, which are essential to secure that blessing, without which all the efforts of the Church must be in vain. While there is a beautiful consistency and harmony, according to the economy of grace, between the spirit of unceasing and laborious activity in the cause of Christ, and the spirit of entire dependence on him, and earnest believing prayer ; yet it cannot be disguised, that, owing to the imperfection of Christian character, we need to watch constantly, lest, in the cultivation of the one, we overlook the other. The Apostles united both. They gave themselves continually to prayer and to the ministry of the word. Un- ceasing and self-sacrificing as were their labours, it was with 78 THE LOVE OF CHRIST tliem a practical truth, that pressed with all its weight upon their hearts, that, whosoever planted and whosoever watered, God must give the increase. They felt, that of themselves they could do nothing ; that all the instrumentalities they employed, though mighty through God, to the pulling down of the strongholds of Satan, and building up the kingdom of Jesus Christ, were feeble, were weakness itself, without his co- operation. With what confidence, then, must they have reposed on the arm of their almighty Saviour, as they girded themselves for the conflict, and went forth to contend not merely against flesh and blood, not merely against the organized forms of evil on earth, but " against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places." With what holy importunity must they have borne on their agonizing hearts, before a throne of grace, the cause of a world perishing in sin. They prayed without ceasing. They continued instant in prayer. They went from their knees to their work, and intermitted that work only to seek the blessing of God, their Redeemer, in prayer. This, unques- tionably, was one principal cause of their success. They prayed like Jacob when he wrestled with the Angel of the Covenant, and would not let him go without the blessing. They prayed like Abraham when he pleaded for Sodom, and prevailed with God. The same spirit of earnest prayer was a striking characteristic of the Reformers. The age of the Reformation was an age of mighty intercession with God. And the whole burden of prophecy intimates that the Church will be deeply imbued with this spirit as she enters upon her millennial glory. What can be accomplished, brethren, without the arm of the Almighty ? and what can we not achieve if that arm be made bare for salvation ? The results that have been already secured are the earnests of what he is willing to grant. When tlie people of God, reposing with unlimited and affectionate confidence on the arm of their almighty Saviour, and pressing his throne with their ceaseless supplications, go unitedly forward, in the spirit of self- devotement to the work of their high calling, how soon will they exclaim, in holy astonishment at the result of their own cflbrts, "Who are these that fly as a cloud, and as doves to *, THE MOTIVE OF MISSIONARY EFFORT. 79 their windows?" *'Then," says God, "thou shalt see, and flow together, and thine heart shall fear, and be enlarged; because the abundance of the sea shall be converted unto thee, the forces of the Gentiles shall come unto thee." Finally, brethren, the love of Christ is an affection adapted to the great objects of our association, as it is itself the essential element of successful effort. " Knowledg-e is power," is the saying of one of the most gifted of mankind. But a greater than Bacon has taught, and demonstrated, too, that love is power. The Author of our being has interwoven with the very fibres of our existence a strong susceptibility to its influence. Depravity must, indeed, have wrought a fearful ruin in the soul that is steeled against its impressions in every form. It may be doubted whether such a monster is permitted to live in this world, as yet the scene of moral probation. Before such a consummation takes place, the soul is removed to those dark regions where malignity reigns unrestrained, and despair, with raven wings, broods over his immortal destiny. Go where you will, among the most debased, the outcasts of mankind, and you will find, amid the ruins that sin has affected in their moral natures, there still lingers a chord responsive to the manifestations of goodness. Nay, where reason itself is dethroned, and the darkest images of horror haunt the mind, or maniac rage distorts the features, the love of kindness has subdued the soul to gentleness, and won the heart to confidence and gratitude. It was this that gave to Howard his power over the reckless and the violent. Beneath his look of benignity the heart of the hardened convict relented, and at his voice of kindness the dawn of hope gleamed over the sullen gloom of the desperate in wretchedness. What influence has wrought that wonderful, that almost miraculous, reformation among the inebriates of our land ? Our statute-books are crowded with penal enactments against the drunkard. Society frowned indignantly upon his vice. The respectable loathed his appearance, and turned him with disgust from their doors. Argument and expostulation were tried in vain, until the friends of temperance, wearied with their fruitless efforts, gave over the confirmed inebriate to a hopeless doom. But love interposed. She sought, with tears of pity, the poor 80 THE LOVE OF CHRIST degraded outcast in the dens of pollution and infamy. She took bim from the loathsome gutter, and addressed him with the voice of kindness. She whispered hope to his heart, inspired him with confidence, and thus redeemed him from his degradation, and restored him to respectability and usefulness. Amid the ruins of the fall, the susceptibility to the power of love remains in the human soul, to save it, by the grace of God, from utter abandonment, and bring it back again, under the dominion of holiness, that it may eventually be prepared for the purity and bliss of heaven. It has not with more eloquence than truth been observed, that, *' God, who knew what was in man, seems to have known that in liis dark bosom there was but one solitary hold that lie had on him ; and that to reach it he must put on a look of graciousness, and tell us he had no pleasure in our death, and manifest towards us the longings of a bereaved parent, and even to humble himself into a suppliant in the cause of our return, and bid his messengers bear, through all their habitations, the tidings of his good-will to the childi'en of men. — And now that every barrier which lay across the path of acceptance is levelled by the power of Him who ti'availed in the greatness of his strength for us, is the voice of a friendly and beseeching God lifted up without reserve in the hearing of us all ; and this one mighty principle of attraction is brought to bear upon our natures, that might have remained sullen and unmoved under every other application." * And, brethren, with a congruity so like God, he has entrusted the publication of his loving-kindness not to angels' lips, of burning eloquence, but to the children of depravity and wretchedness, whose hearts have been won and subdued and blessed by the power of this love, that from the fulness of their own experience they might testify of its truth and richness to their brethren in depravity and wretchedness. Then it is, when, subdued and burdened with a sense of their personal obligation to their Saviour, they go, as redeemed sinners, to speak of his infinite goodness, to conmiend him as the hope of the guilty and the wretched, and urge them with tears of tenderness and love to confide in his mercy ; then it is that their words find their way to the hearts * Dr. Chalmers. THE MOTIVE OF MISSIONARY EFFORT. 81 of their hearers, subdue them to penitence, warm them into love, excite them to confidence in God, and fill them with holy peace. And when the hearts of the Ministers and members of the Church of Jesus Christ are bathed in the pure fountain of a Saviour's love ; when they live, and pray, and preach, and labour under its constraining influences ; it will not be long before, from the mount of God, they rejoice with joy unspeakable over a redeemed and regenerated world. If these things be so, beloved brethren ; if I have not unduly estimated the importance and adaptation of this holy aff*ectiou to our high vocation (especially as called by the providence and grace of God) to sustain an important agency in sending the Gospel to every creature, then it only remains that I urge you, not forgetting my own obligations, to cultivate this holy affection. How numerous and how solemn the motives that press upon us this duty ! The claims of that Saviour who loved us, and gave himself for us ; the vows we have made before God and man; the condition of a perishing world; the signs of the times ; the shortness of life ; the approacliing retri- butions of eternity, and the importance of being fully qualified to achieve, under God, the high destiny to which we are in- dividually called, — all, all urge us to cherish the love of Christ in our hearts, as the controlling motive of our lives, and to devote ourselves unceasingly to the advancement of his kingdom. Brethren, there is one thought connected with this subject to which, I trust, the occasion will justify me in alluding. We are not left without the most delightful examples of the power of this sacred love to incite us to its cultivation: and the place where we are now assembled, on this return of our anniversary, brings to our remembrance the names of many* who liere imbibed this spirit, until, constrained by it, they tore themselves away from their weeping friends and kindred, to go and carry to the benighted Heathen the tidings of salvation. There are few places where we could meet with so many hearts, connected by the most tender recollections, and the most solemn associ- * The city of Norwicli, and its immediate vicinity, has furnislied twenty-eight Missionaries to the Heatlien. 82 THE LOVE OF CHRIST THE MOTIVE OF MISSIONARY EFFORT. ations, witli our lioly enterprise. There are many here, honoured of God, who have resigned the cherished objects of their fondest earthly love to the claims of Christ and the Heathen. Some of these are now in the field of labour, bearing with cheerfulness the burden and heat of the day; while others, having finished their work, have been called to their reward in heaven. The very places consecrated by the prayers and tears of these devoted servants of God, where, constrained by a Saviour's love, they first gave themselves to the cause of Missions, are full of interest. Around these places we could linger, musing on their bright example, until we caught a portion of their spirit, and were excited to emulate their devotedncss. But, brethren, there are places and scenes of far deeper interest, that invite our attention. It is among the deep shades of Gethsemane, and at the foot of the cross on Calvary, that we nuist linger, and meditate, and pray. It is here, in the contem- plation of the love of Christ for us ; a love, the height, the depth, the length, and the breadth of which, no finite mind can measure, that we must learn to estimate the extent of our obligations, and imbibe the spirit which will prepare us to act our parts in achieving the vast results of his mediatorial reign. Toils and sulferings, in the prosecution of our work, may be ours. We may not see what our eyes long to see, before our lips are sealed in death, and our bodies descend into the grave. But the kingdom of the Redeemer shall be triumphant. The diadem of the nations shall adorn his brow. At his feet shall bow a ransomed world ; and in the day of his glory, among the myriads of the blessed, as they ascend, with the shout of triumph, to the kingdom prepared for them from the foundations of the world, shall all appear who have here yielded their hearts to the constraining influence of his love. MORAL FREEDOM CONFERRED ONLY BY THE GOSPEL. 83 DISCOURSE VI. MORAL FREEDOM CONFERRED ONLY BY THE GOSPEL.* BY THE REV. WILLIAM ALLEN, D.D., PRESIDENT OP BOWDOIN COLLEGE. John viii. 36. " If the Son shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed." In this world truth and error are struggling for victory. The field of contest is the human intellect. The prize contended for is man, immortal man ; and it is his destiny either to be bound for ever in the chains of error, or to be led forth in eternal freedom and glory by the hand of truth. From the earliest times, this conflict has been going on ; the war is still waging ; nor will it cease, until delusion shall loose its hold of the human mind, and the kingdom of truth and righteousness be established throughout the earth. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, coming from heaven, brought the truth to men, in order to liberate them from the miserable bondage of sin. It is implied in his instructions, connected with the text, that all other supposed methods of freeing men from the servitude of error and iniquity are ineifectual. " If the Son shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed." The point here set before us is, that THE Gospel is the only power which can disenthral ENSLAVED MAN, AND BESTOW UPON HIM THE FREEDOM OF HOLI- NESS AND JOY. I. In attempting to establish this position, I shall first con- sider the inadequacy of the other influences which have been supposed to have an important bearing on the welfare of the world. L The power of civUization is feeble in the contest with * Preached before the American Board of J'oreign Missions. g2 84 MORAL FREEDOM CONFERRED moral and natural evil. Althougli the contrast is very striking between a barbarous and civilized state, and although the de- scriptions which have been given of the Arcadian simplicity and innocence of the children of nature have been found to be mere romance ; yet the blessings of civilization are often very limited, and fail to remove the evils by which the family of man are afRicted. In the result of civilization we may see the deep spirit of revenge and the secret blow of retaliation yielding to the power of law. Many domestic and social virtues may spring up. Many conveniences and luxuries, before untasted, may be enjoyed. But civilization has not the effect of removing the most cruel superstition and degrading idolatry. The most refined of the nations of antiquity were worshippers of gods of every name and form, often with rites of indescribable turpitude. The very governments themselves which had been established supported idolatry, and bound the people to it by chains which could be broken only by the power of God. Even now there are nations highly civilized, where yet the people are the wretched thralls of superstition and the most deplorable idolatry. Besides this, there have prevailed, and still prevail, among civilized states, very gross and flagrant \'ices ; and sometimes enormous crimes are tolerated. The government established is, perhaps, a grinding tyranny; and, although the subject may be shielded against injuries from a fellow-subject, yet all may be in the power of a proud master, accustomed to indulge his passions without restraint and without fear. What can be more wonderful than to see civilized nations punishing with merited death the midnight assassin, or solitary murderer, and yet eagerly, and for slight occasions, arraj'ing themselves for battle, — rushing upon each other with hideous shouts, with the ferocity of wild beasts, and the malignity of devils, and in the shock falling together by thousands in miserable deatJi ? What can be more astonishing than this, excepting that the civilized sur- vivors agree to obliterate from their minds the thought of murder, and speak only of noble bearing, and heroic resistance, and glorious victory ? Yet such has been the custom of civilized nations in all ages. 2. The progress of meclianical ingenuity is incompetent to secure the happiness of the human family. Never has the ONLY BY THE GOSPEL. 85 power of mind over matter been so wonderfully displayed as in the present age. The elements are now made to perform, with the greatest rapidity, the work which was formerly done by the slow and tedious labour of human hands. The super- intendence of one, with the aid of water and fire, now brings out results which formerly required the toil of thousands. Millions of little wheels, apparently self-moved, are spinning the threads which, by shuttles, seemingly thrown by invisible hands, are woven into the finest webs. The old method of travelling by the fleetness of horses is going out of repute, and three or four times the former speed is now gained by the power of steam. Whether the same power will unyoke our oxen from the plough we are not yet able to determine. Many, however, are cherishing high hopes of the improvement of the human race from the progress of mechanical philosophy. It has been thought that human hands will be so freed from the necessity of labour, that ample leisure will be furnished to the great mass of mankind for intellectual culture, and thus that a new aspect will be given to the condition of the world. Will these hopes be realized ? The accumulation and general diffusion of wealth in the community will indeed release many hands from labour; but the leisure enjoyed may be abused to purposes of luxurious and criminal indulgence, and will he, without the restraint of moral and religious principle. Besides, there are yexy obvious limits to this anticipated release from manual industry. Almost all the hundreds of millions who are nourished on the earth, are dependent for their food on the careful, toiling hand of agri- culture. The ground must be cvdtivated; the seeds cast into the furrow ; the fruits of harvest gathered. Mechanical im- provements will not repeal the sentence passed upon man, — " Cursed is the ground for thy sake ; in sorrow^ shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life : thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee ; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field ; in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground." Were it possible to release all men from the necessity of labour, would there be any reason to hope that the amount of happiness would be increased ? In the present state of society. 86 MORAL FREEDOM CONFERRED who is the most virtuous, and who partakes most fully of earthly felicity, — tlie man of wealth and leisure, or the industrious hus- bandman ? Should we survey the manners of the idle masters of slaves in the tropical climates, could we think that they are as uncontaminated, pure, and virtuous, as the hardy cultivators of the soil where slavery is unknown ? It may well be doubted whether, with the present relative power of virtue and vice in the world, there would be any moral advantage in the diminution of the necessity of labour. If the man of leisure is likely to suffer his fticulties to rust in indolence ; or if, when excited to action, his course is likely to be ungoverned and disastrous ; it were better for him and for the community that he should be subjected to constant and innocent toil. If, however, while mechanical philosophy shall create leisure for men, they shall be taught to live for objects for which only life is of any value, then the influence of me- chanism, or of labour-saving inventions and improvements, will be favourable to the world. But in mere leisure, by reason of the easy supply of physical wants, — in leisure unguided and unemployed in wise, mental, and moral pursuits, — there is no promise of good. 3. The influence of general education, and the prevalence of free institutions, through the earth, however important, will not alone secure the happiness of man. Never, perhaps, was there so great confidence as at the present moment in the power of education. When the unthinking people shall be roused to thought, and their wild, uuinstructed children shall be trained up in various useful branches of learning, then, it has been supposed, the golden age will come. There are, doubtless, important effects which would residt from the general diffusion of knowledge. Men, now ground to the dust, if they become enlightened, and discern their natural rights, and per- ceive how they have been despoiled of them, will no longer bear the yoke of debasing servitude. Old and flagrant abuses will cease to be tolerated. Could all the inhabitants of Europe be made intelligent, and have before them in distinct vision the miserable degradation to which so many are reduced, — not by any necessity of nature, but by the sensuality, the vanity, the pride, the ambition of their rulers, and particularly by the sj)irit of ONLY BY THE GOSPEL. 87 war, which in the last fifty years has expended five thousand millions of dollars, and which annually extorts from them five hundred millions of dollars for the support of the pageantry and murder of several millions of soldiers, — think you that they would approve of a system which overwhelms them with the most oppressive taxes ? Think you that half a million of intelligent, undeluded, unenslaved men would, at the call of a demon-spirit, march into the wilds of Russia, to perish by cold, and famine, and the avenging sword ? Could the beams of knowledge be poured upon the mind of the Turk, would he any longer, cheerfully, and as a matter of duty, yield his neck to the Sultan's scimitar ? or would he not be likely to strike for liberty ? But oppression is only one of the evils to which the family of man is subjected; and such is the condition of the world, that sometimes submission to injustice is a matter of prudence, and resistance often aggravates the misery which it aims to remove. In countries already free, useful knowledge may easily be diffused among the people, and great improvements may be made in the methods of education ; but perhaps with an entire failure of the grand anticipated results. If with the culture of the mind there should be no culture of the heart ; if a moral and religious influence is to be banished from our schools and colleges ; if man, an immortal being, shall study only the laws of the material world, and overlook his relation to God and to the scenes of eternity ; if he is taught everything excepting that which it is ineffably the most important that he should under- stand ; then we shall find that a new and terrible energy is given to unholy passion, and, although knowledge is power, that undirected, misapplied, perverted power is an object of dread. For the advantages of civil liberty in our country we have great occasion of gratitude to God. Our rulers proceed from ourselves, and are responsible to the people. The Church is distinct from the State. Our Ministers of religion are not idle shepherds, who care not for the flock, yet clothe themselves with the fleece, dyed in scarlet. Our Ministers, happily for our country, are loorking men ; not working in the cause of superstition and delusion, but in the cause of the people, and 88 MORAL I'RKl'.DOM CONFERRED in the cause of God ; and every man is allowed to worship God agreeably to the dictates of his owni conscience, and is under no compulsion to support any form of religion whatever. The Jew and the Mohammedan may live among us undisturbed ; the Infidel and the Atheist have nothing to fear, excepting from truth, and their own conscience, and God. Never can we be sufficiently grateful to Heaven that we behold the temple of liberty rising in fair proportions, capacious, easy of access, an asylum to the oppressed of all nations. But while the people are free from external restraint, are they also free from the malignant influence of party, and the sway of unholy passions ? Is there not something else necessary to their happiness besides the knowledge and enjoyment of their natural rights, and the protection of the most perfect government on the face of the earth ? Have we not seen, and do we not sec, in our country exemplified and verified, the maxim, that " party or faction is the madness of many for the benefit of a few ?" We are apt to attach great importance to the party distinctions which have prevailed since the adoption of the federal constitution. The success or the defeat of a particular party has been thought to have a decided bearing on the welfare of the community, and the great interests of republican liberty. But on this point listen to an eminent statesman, w^ho says, " Our collisions of principle have been little, very little, more than conflicts for place." Such is the humiliating resvilt of the experience and observation, for forty years, of one who has witnessed all the conflicts of party, and has occupied the highest place in the government of the United States. If this be a true account of the past, then is it not probable that, unless some new influence be felt, the futui'e will resemble it ; and that hereafter, as heretofore, the earnest struggles of party will be struggles for office ? Our citizens will be arrayed against eacli other for bitter conflict ; but the end will be like that of most of the wars which have ravaged the eartli, — after the battle is over, at the expense of the hardships and sufferings of the combatant dupes and slaves, a few men, their leaders and masters, reap all the little honour and profit of the warfare. Were this evil remediless, it were idle to dwell upon it: but a ciu-e may be found in the diffusion of moral and religious ONLY BY TUE GOSPEL. 89 i7istruction, in connexion with literary and scientific improve- ment. Let there be a fii'm and immovable principle of Chris- tian virtue, conjoined with intelligence, among the people, and they \\dll prefer the triumph of right to that of party, and they will ask for no other victory but that of truth. A calm and virtuous mind wdll detect the imposture of the pretended patriot, who speaks much of the public good, meaning only his own. To the man of covetousness and greedy ambition, what is the peace of the community ? what are the great interests of morality and order, of virtue and religion ? The welfare of the people is the pretence, the lure ; but self is the mo\ang power. Let the people be disciplined in virtue ; let a spirit of nuitual kindness and goodwill govern them, instead of a spirit of scorn, and hatred, and defiance ; and they will not suffer themselves to become the instruments by which the unprincipled and worthless may lift themselves to office and power. Let them unite \'irtue with intelligence ; and then will wholesome laws be uniformly carried into effect. But were the energy of our laws always sustained ; were our Magistrates always men of upright, noble, disinterested views, having no aim but the public welfare ; what is the amovmt of good which vi^ould spring from this perfection of government but this, — that the facilities of procuring a subsistence, or of acquiring wealth, are increased, and that the people are pro- tected in the enjoyment of their rights ? Let it be that a good government will shield from injustice the lowest as well as the highest ; let it be that such a government will shut out the losses, the corrupting influence, the desolating miseries, of war. But can government stay the destroying plague, which, in its march from India, has trampled on the lives of fifty millions, and has come to our shores ? Or can government stay the prevalence of error and vice which infects our whole atmosphere, predisposing and preparing victims for eternal death ? No. This freedom from sin and consequent misery is not the direct result of government ; but of the truth of God. The Gospel must come with its purifying energy to the hearts of mankind, or the deadly plague of sin will still prevail, and continue to people hell with its victims. 4. The confidence, which is placed in philosophy for the 90 MORAL FREEDOM CONFERRED advancement of liiunan happiness, will be found fallacious. If even the general education of the people will not of itself secure the ]niblic welfare ; what shall we think of those grand antici- pations of human improvement and perfectibility which are founded upon the progress of science among the learned ? Are they anything more than the creations of fancy? The most learned nations, nations which have been the most prolific of philosophers, have not always been the most virtvious and happy. Science has ever been attended with a corruption of manners. It might be an error to regard them as bearing the relation of cause and effect. Both may have a common origin in a high degree of civilization and national prosperity, affording, on the one side, leisure and opportunity for intellectual culture in minds eager for philosophical inquiry ; and, on the other side, furnishing scope for depraved and degrading indulgence. Who is not aware, that some of the most learned men have been abandoned to enormous vices ? And who is not aware also, that, among nations holding a proud rank in science, the moral virtues have been, like the plants in a sandy desert, rarely seen, and, when seen, struggling for life in the arid plain and under a parching sun ? Of all the sciences of the present day the most boastful as to its effect on human happiness is political economy. Its aim is the production and distribution of wealth : but is wealth the highest good of man ? Let it be, that this science may lead to the abrogation of many absurd laws, which put chains upon human activity, and may teach the few, who have leisure for its study, to add wisely to their individual wealth. But can political economy ever abrogate the law of God, which is stamped upon the condition of man, and which subjects him to the necessity of procuring his bread by the sweat of his face? Can the six hundred millions of men live without food, and clothing, and habitations? And will the stubborn earth yield its fruit, without human labour, at the call of political economy ? or, while the hand of man is idle, will the prolific ocean deliver its finny tribes upon the shore for our subsistence ? Though the wheel and the loom may move without human power, yet can the materials for clothing be raised by the magic of science? or will the rocks, and the clay, and the trees of the forest fashion ONLY BY THE GOSPEL. 91 themselves into houses for indolent, happy man ? Political economy has for a few years past been the pride of Great Britain. What has it effected ? Let the ten thousands of the degraded and starving population of Britain, who have been poured upon our shores in pursuit of work and of bread, bear witness. It is metaphysical philosophy, which peculiarly and emphat- ically claims the name of philosophy, and which in different ages has called forth the utmost efforts of men of the most powerful intellect. If the truth makes men free, how can philosophy have any effect in promoting the liberation of man, unless it be true ? And what has been the character of human philosophy ? What has been its relation to truth ? What have been the proud theories, which learned, contemplative men have constructed by the toil of years, and what have been most of the celebrated schools, which have succeeded each other from age to age, down even to the present day, but theories and schools of error and folly ? What shall we think of the system of Pantheism, which makes all nature, all worlds, every plant and animal, a part of God ? and what of the opposite system, which asserts, in the metaphysical language, an absolute unity, exclusive of all plurality, and which regards the world as having merely a shadowy existence, and our relation to it as an illusion? Yet for these theories have learned philosophers in different ages contended, — for a world without a God and a Creator, or for a God without a world ; for a visible God to the denial of spirit, or for an invisible God to the denial of matter. What shall we think of a philosophy which wastes its strength in the discussion of ideas as the eternal essence of things residing in absolute intelligence, and as general existences, which make the foundation of all true knowledge ? Yet such was the philosophy of Plato, which still clouds the minds of many learned men. What shall we think of the philosophy which asserts that pain is no evil ? or of that which says that motion is impossible, and that nothing is certain except its own scepticism ? What shall we think of the philosophy which asserts that all human volitions result from causes beyond the control of man, who is thus made a machine, instead of being a 92 MORAL FREEDOM CONFERRED moral asfent, and which infers that man has no occasion for the sentiment of remorse, and cannot be exposed to future punish- ment ? Yet such is the doctrine of modem Socinianism, and of ancient Materialism. The same philosophy is that of Kapila in India, maintaining that our determination or volition, which we imagine to be free, is only a necessary effect ; thus subjecting man to Fatalism. We might let huge errors or absurdities pass unnoticed, were they harmless ; but if philosophical theories, which God permits in order to humiliate the pride of reason, are perilous to morals and religion, then it is time to examine the foimdations on which they are built. If the ancient Atomists deduced from the doctrine of Fatalism consequences unfriendly to virtue ; if the same consequences were deduced by the Materialists of India ; if the Infidels of France and Great Britain have as an inference denied the guilt of man or transferred it to God; if Socinianism concludes confidently, that the Necessarian has no cause for self-reproach ; and if modern Universalism, in its influence blasting to morals and piety, derives all the nourishment at its root from the conceit that God absolutely and irresistibly forms every man's sinful character ; then surely they who hold to the doctrine of necessity must have a difficult task to prove, that all these conclusions, in which men of diflferent ages, and nations, and intellect, and moral character have concurred, are really illegitimate deductions ; and that man, though bound in chains of iron, walks forth unshackled, free, and moveable as the air of heaven. The present most distinguished pliilosopher in France, after describing the succession of what he deems the four great and best S3rstems, into which the philosophy of every age may be resolved, sensualism, idealism, scepticism., and mysticism, — all, in his opinion, very good and useful, though in part erroneous, — comes to this conclusion, which strikes as with a thunderbolt the pretensions of philosophy, — " Error is the law of our nature ; we are condemned to error ; and in all our opinions, in all our words, there is a great mixture of error, and even of absurdity." Such is the sentence which the eloquent Lecturer at Paris pronoiuices upon the host of ])hilosophers who liave preceded him for three thousand years. His own attempt to present an eclectic system in which the wheat is winnowed from ONLY BY THE GOSPEL. 93 the chaff, shows very clearly that his sentence upon others is not inapplicable to himself. Such is the judgment of a dis- tinguished metaphysical philosopher : " Error is the law of our nature." But Jesus Christ says, " I am the way, and the truth, and the life. He that believeth in me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life." After examining the history of philosophy in the different ages of the world, one is constrained to believe, that, by the wild, contradictory, incredible, monstrous philosophical systems which have risen one upon the ruins of another, it has been the purpose of Providence to " stain the pride " of human reason, and to show to the universe that " the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God." The mere philosophy of man is thus brought into contempt, that the revelation from God might be honoured, and that men might see the wisdom of receiving, with the docility and the implicit confidence of chil- dren, the instructions which their omniscient Father has given them. The conclusion from this survey of philosophy is this, — We must come to the Bible as the fountain of moral and religious wisdom. When the Scriptures are proved to be the word of God, and the plain, obvious meaning of the revelation from heaven is unfolded; when the truth is thus brought to the mind of the sinner ; then, and then only, can we hope to see the blessings of salvation descend upon the soul. Philosophy is powerless in this work of saving. If it does not lead down to hell, it can never guide up to heaven. The Bible, the Bible only, contains the true philosophy which, accompanied by the divine Spirit, reconciles man to God, changes the depraved character into the form of excellence, and conducts the poor child of mortality through the dark valley of death to mansions of eternal light and glory. 5. The general happiness of the world can never be secured by irreligion, nor by any erroneous and corrupt form of religion. What has been accomplished by Atheism and Infidelity for the benefit of mankind ? You may learn by looking at ancient Rome, when the restraints of superstition were loosened by the prevalence of the atheistic system : for soon the general dis- solution of manners destroyed the foundations of pubhc order. 94 MORAL FREEDOM CONFERRED and despotic power rose upon the ruins. From the horrors of the Revolution in France, at the close of the last century, it is impossible to separate the systems of Atheism and Infidelity, which, by the banishment of all moral restraints, had prepared the minds of men for every enormity of crime. A decided and thorough spirit of irreligion pervaded the people. Infidelity extinguished the fear of God ; it resigned conscience to passion ; it rescued no victim from the bloodtliirsty aspirant ; nor lifted a voice of mercy against the ferocious madness of the times. No. It is not by denying a God, a Providence, a future reckoning, an eternal judgment, that the dagger is wrested fi'om the hand of the assassin ; that property is secured against the grasp of covetousness ; and that the pollution of universal lust is changed into purity and honour. There must be a divine law, of unchanging rectitude, and a stern sanction, whicli is com- petent to bend the iron sinew of pride, and to bring the terrors of eternal justice to bear upon the solicitations of appetite, and the otherwise ungovernable energies of passion. Infidelity in Great Britain and America is seen in a different point of view from the public theatre on which it was displayed in France ; its appropriate influence is to be sought in the pro- fessed principles and in the more private lives of the masters of the school. In their lives we shall find either degrading vices and crimes, or a dearth of the great and generous virtues ; and in their doctrines we shall find loose moral instructions, accommodated to the unholy passion^ of the heart, and designed to fortify the depraved spirit in its hostility to the pure and perfect law of God. It lias been manifested and proved to the world, that the system of Infidelity, by denying the righteous government of God, and the rewards and punishments of eternity, subverts the foundation of morals ; that it breaks down the distinction between right and wrong, substituting every man's variable judgment in the place of the immutable standard of Heaven ; that under powerful temptations to crime, arising from insatiable cupidity or raging ambition, it removes, if there be a prospect of present impunity, all restraint; and that it cherishes an absorbing egotism or vanity, an unpitying ferocity, and an unbridled sensuality, by the indulgence of which the trcuiquillity and happiness of society are laid waste. ONLY BY THE GOSPEL. l)0 Paganism is the great parent of iniquity and of unutterable abominations among several hundreds of millions of the human family. Sliall we ask for truth, for instance, from the religion of India ? Among the sects of the Braliminic system, to which shall we apply? Shall we ask the followers of Vishnu, of Sheeva, or of Bramha ? The voice that responds to us will speak of numerous forms and incarnations of male and female gods ; of successive annihilations and reproductions of all created existence, including the gods ; of interminable and ridiculous fables ; and of idolatrous and shameless worship, which in a Christian country cannot even be named. Shall we ask for virtue, purity, goodness, from the religion of India ? Alas, the question mil excite only a smile ! Indian idolatry is drenched in pollution, and the idolatry of every other country is asso- ciated with crime and misery. Mohammedanism is the religion of sensuality and of violence, awakening the spirit of scorn instead of a spirit of benevolence, and cherishing with the utmost care, and as the first object, the ferocious energies of war. Ignorant, degraded, profligate, en- slaved Turkey, exhibits at the present day the benefits which the world may expect from Islamism : the millions who have perished by the sabre of the Prophet and his followers, could they rise from the dead, would speak aloud of the character and tendency of the Mohammedan religion. Romanism has set up an authority on the earth, which comes in the place of God, and exhibits an ecclesiastical Monarch at Rome, often of a notoriously profligate character, who, either by himself or a Council, claims the right of settling for the whole human race the faith of the understanding and the decisions of conscience, and which thus would enslave to ambition, pride, lust, and coveteousness, the intellect and moral feelings of all mankind. Popery appears under the double aspect of a frightful persecuting power, and the teacher of most pernicious and fatal error. In its history we may see mingled the flames of perse- cution, the blood of the martyrs, the tortures of the Inquisition, the various massacres of heretics, with the idolatry, covetous- ness, pollution, pride, and horrible crimes, which have marked the seat of the beast on the seven-hilled "Eternal City." Is the dread of Popery an idle apprehension, produced by a bugbear ? 96 MORAL FREEDOM CONFERRED We trust it may be so soon. It may be so now, in some Protestant countries : it may be so in our own. But Popery has been in past ages, and is still in many nations, a most terrific povver. We may, indeed, look without trembling on the yellow-maned lion of Africa, who is brought to America in a strong cage : but on his native sands, where he roams in majesty. King of the desert, there is neither man nor beast that can abide his roaring. Has not the foot of the Pope trodden on the neck of Monarchs ? It was but a few years before the French Revolution, that the degraded, enslaved States of Europe annually poured into the treasury of the Roman Churcli nuire than two millions of dollars, while the revenue of the Papal territory itself, was three millions ; making an income to the pretended Vicar of Jesus Christ of five millions annually. Had the Pope been, indeed, the Vicar of Jesus Christ, with this sum annuall}^ poured into his hands, it would seem, that in any period of half a century it would have been in his power to have sent out such an agency of truth, as would have converted the whole family of man to the Christian faith, and made this desolate earth as the paradise of God. But instead of being employed in building up the kingdom of Jesus Christ, the revenue of the Catholic Church has been wasted in supporting the regal splendour of the servant of servants ; in providing for his nephews, as a nearer relationship is conveniently expressed ; in purchasing curious works of art ; in building splendid churches and palaces ; in keeping up a standing army, and in carrying on war ; and the consequence is, that this god on the earth is now burdened with a public debt of a hundred millions of dollars, which he will never be able to pay. Popery, as to its physical power, is now comparatively weak. Its spiritual dominion also has been much curtailed by the resistance of reason and common sense to absurdity and tyranny, resulting, from the want of Protestant light, in a wide-spread infidelity in the Catholic covmtries of Europe. Still a great part of the people of Europe know nothing of the Christian religion but in that new form of idolatry into which it has been cast by the great magician at Rome. And who is not aware, that Popery exerts in no moral country a powerful moral influence, and that the history of the ])ast forbids the h()[)e tliat it will ever be able to nudiorate ONLY BY THE GOSPEL. 97 the condition of the Pagan nations of the earth ? We may hope, that at no remote period, as the authority of Romanism sinks into contempt, and the judgments of God strike the guilty city, the Kings of the earth, whose fetters shall be broken, will say, " Alas, alas that great city Babylon, that mighty city ! for in one hour is thy judgment come." Then will " the merchants of the earth weep and mourn over her, saying, Alas, alas that great city, that was clothed in fine linen, and purple, and scarlet, and decked with gold, and precious stones, and pearls ! For in one hour so great riches is come to nought." And then will all, who love the truth, say, " Rejoice over her, thou heaven, and ye holy Apostles and Prophets ; for God hath avenged you on her." The various forms of error among the Protestant Christian sects cannot be pointed out. Happily, most of the principal sects have a considerable degree of harmony in respect to the most essential articles of their faith. If some sects deny the great and essential doctrines of the Gospel, and discharge the con- science of the sinner from the dread of future retribution ; we cannot be ignorant, that their errors have no tendency to restrai; men from criminal indulgence, nor to lead them to the aban- donment of iniquity, nor to excite them to the generous toils of a self-denying charity, without which the face of the earth will never be renewed. Thus it is obvious that civilization, mechanical invention, intellectual culture, government, philosophy, and false religion, are incompetent to secure the happiness of man. 11. The Gospel has jJower to liberate enslaved man, and to render him holy and happy. That, when the earth was the abode of error and crime, and the unhappy race of man was corrupt and lost, God so loved the world as to send his Son, the brightness of his glory, by whom he created the universe, down from heaven to appear in the form of man as the Minister of his mercy ; to expiate sin by his death upon the cross ; to rise from the dead as a victorious King; and to disclose the laws, truths, and motives, — pure, sublime, and energetic, — by which, through the power of the Holy Spirit, the human character is transformed, and depraved man is made the friend of God, — seem to be the chief elemen- tary principles of the religion of Christ. II 98 MORAL FREEDOM CONFERRED 1 . The power of the Gospel is seen in the nature of its instructions. The Gospel frowns upon and banishes those pernicious maxims of conduct, by which the peace of society is destroyed and communities arc laid waste. The eager thirst for honour, the insatiable ambition which preys on many a mind, often leading to the commission of great crimes, and, in a powerful Monarch, leading to the destruction of thousands or millions of lives in war, is not tolerated by the Christian morality. The honour which comcth from God may be sought ; but not the honour which cometh from man. In like manner the maxims of retaliation and revenge are condemned ; and, instead of being devoted to the busy cares of covetousness, occasioning injustice, fraud, and oppression, men are required to toil chiefly for incorruptible treasures. Besides interdicting all false principles, the Gospel makes known and enjoins right rules of conduct, the observance of which by all men would completely change the face of human affairs. Were the precepts universally obeyed, " As ye would that others should do unto you, do ye even so unto them ; " " Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself ; " much of the complicated machinery of government would be superseded and rendered useless. As no wrongs would be suffered, so there would be none to be redressed. Courts might be generally abolished ; prison-houses pulled down ; chains, and bars, and bolts, thrown away. Wise legislators might certainly rest from many of their labours, together with scheming politicians and subtle statesmen ; and the affairs of the world would go on prosperously without the pageantry of a Court. It is to be considered also that the Gospel, in order to promote virtue, and consequent happiness, not only prescribes right rules of conduct, but also presents motives to obedience, powerful at all times and in all circumstances. The fine-spun theories of moralists relating to the beauty of virtue and the fitness of things, are at once brushed away l)y any strong temptation. Even a regard to present interest is often borne down by \dolent passion. But the Gospel demands obedience Avith the threat- ening of everlasting punishment, and invites to holiness with the promise of everlasting joy and glory. Its influence is felt in all the conditions of our being; binding the soul in secret as well as ONLY RY THE GOSPEL. 99 in public ; addressing with authority the reason and conscience ; warning of a greater evil than death ; and urging to the resolute performance of duty in the midst of scorn, obloquy, and perse- cution, with a firm confidence in the promised favour of the Almighty. There is one peculiar principle of action inspired by the Gospel, of amazing efficacy; and that was announced by the Apostle, when he said, " The love of Christ constraineth us." Wlien the sinner, condemned and perishing, becomes a true believer in the crucified Son of God ; when, by faith, he is redeemed, pardoned, justified ; when he is led forth from his prison by the hand of his Saviour, and, through grace, breathes the air of freedom ; his heart swells with unutterable emotions of gratitude and love to his great Deliverer, and he is impelled to live, not unto himself, but unto Jesus Christ, who loved him and died for him. This is the principle which causes liberality to abound even in the depth of j^overty; this is the principle which carries the Missionary of the cross to the Heathen, and the mart}T.' to the stake, and W'hich, in every age since the Gospel w^as made known, has achieved wonders of beneficence that have surpassed the comprehension of a selfish world. Wliile the Gospel produces the character of true virtue, it also confers permanent felicity on those who feel its influence. Under the unavoidable trials of their condition, in poverty, affliction, and sickness, it gives them submission to the cor- recting but merciful hand of God. The raging passions, w^hich cause much of the misery of men, are quieted. The fury of the tempest is converted into a calm. The selfish toils of men are changed to honourable and joyous labours of charity, which bring their own reward with them. But the Gospel also inspires the loftiest hopes of good beyond the grave ; of new and perpetual discoveries of God's character ; of pleasures "which eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, nor the imagination conceived ; " of visions of the grace and mercy of Him who died for sinners, and who is altogether lovely; and of communion with all that is venerable, and holy, and majestic in the universe. Under the inspiration of such hopes the Christian meets the King of terrors without dismay. He goes down into the grave, as the Ceylon diver after pearls plunges into the 100 MORAL FREEDOM CONFERRED wave, uatli the cci'tainty of coming up, loaded \y\i\\ treasures, to behold tlie splendours of heaven, 2. Tlie Gospel has already wrought a great change in the condition of the world, and when its influence shall he universal, all nations will he made virtuous and blessed. The power of the Christian religion, it is well known, has changed many of the evil customs of the world. It has abolished many cruel super- stitions, and banished many enormous crimes ; it has cast dowm the idols from their pedestals, and purified the temple of worship; it has mitigated the ferocity of war; it has broken the fetters of the slave; it has made provision for the poor, and established hospitals for the sick: it has promoted civilization, refinement, learning, charity, and every thing that tends to enlarge the mind and ennoble the character. In this country, which owes its form of government to the early Christians of New-England, it has created for ten millions of men free institutions, which are perceptibly spreading their leaven through the earth. When the influence of the Gospel shall be universal, the horrible superstitions and crimes by which the earth is desolated will no longer exist. There will be no more sacrifices of purity and of life in the service of idolatry. No man will be found lifting his hand against his brother. No covetous, hard-hearted oppressor will catch the poor man in his net. There will be none who trade in the flesh and blood of their fellows. No throne of iniquity will be supported ; no proud despot will reign over outraged and degraded subjects. Wlaen Jesus Christ shall have dominion " from sea to sea, and from the river to the ends of the earth," there will be peace to all people ; the rude and boisterous passions will be quelled ; the tempest of war will no longer sweep over the globe ; the King in Zion will "judge the poor of the people ; he will save the children of the needy, and break in pieces the oppressor." When the Son shall make men free, they will be " free indeed." Nor is there any other hope for the world. God is wiser than man. Infinite benevolence and wisdom have devised and disclosed the way of human improvement. Tlie rational off- spring of God nuist be assimilated to their Creator. Intelligent and moral agents must be enlightened by the truth, and^per- ONLY BY THE GOSPEL. 101 suacled to choose the right, and to practise holiness. The perfect laws of the universe must be obeyed, or happiness will take its jflight from the earth. Other hopes will fail. The fine- woven theories of perfectibility, not associated with religion, xvill prove but webs of gossamer. Even in our own country, the boasted intelligence of the people, if unallied to goodness, will be found inadequate to the security of the public welfare. If we stand before God as his enemies, with the stain of national crimes unavenged and tolerated, he will punish us ; we shall have, like other nations, our retribution upon the earth. Nor are the instruments of punishment difficult to be found. The angel of the pestilence may breathe upon us ; the tempest may spread desolation ; angry, ambitious spirits may dissever the bonds of our union ; our fields may be reddened with blood. Should we be ripe for ruin, God cannot fail to find instruments for our destruction. No ; it is not by the wisdom of statesmen and legislators ; it is not by civil institutions, by the checks and balances of the powers of government, by laws and courts, by armies and navies, that the peace, and order, and happiness of mankind can be secured, and crime and suffering banished from the world. By these the flame may be smothered for a while, but it will again burst out. These expedients have been tried ; and what has been the result ? The history of mankind is but the history of crime and misery. It is the history of cruel superstitions, and debasing idolatries. It is the history of pride, envy, malignity, and ferocious ambition. It is the history of per- petual wars, by which fields have been ravaged, cities plundered and burnt, and countless millions of infuriated men swept from the earth. It is the history of crimes and iniquities of every hue ; of inhuman oppressions and fiend-like tortures ; of secret assassinations, and of more open and w'hat are called honourable murders ; of frauds, thefts, and robberies ; of secret slanders, bitter revilings, and savage contests ; of headlong gaming, besotting intemperance, profligate indulgence, and heaven-daring blasphemy. Make a true survey of the past history and the present condition of mankind, including our own favoured country, and then say whether there is any remedy for the miseries of the world but in the pure Gospel of the Son of God? 10;^ MORAL FREEDOM CONFERRED 1. It may be inferred from these considerations that we are bound to make the most strenuous and unceasing exertimis to spread the Gospel through the world. The bonds of our common nature oblige us to this charity. Our Master says to us, " Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature." There is no way by which the lost children of men can be saved, except by the knowledge of the truth ; and there is no appointed way by which the truth is to be spread through the earth, except by human effort. What if, in the spirit of Mohammedanism, we could send armies of well- accoutred and brave Clu'istians to all the nations, and, wdth the alternative of conversion or death, subdue them to the Christian profession ? Wovild this set them free from error and sin ? What if, in the spirit of Romanism, we could subject all the tribes and families of man to the Papal yoke, and impose on every forehead the Roman mark ? This woidd not be con- ferring liberty. The beams of truth must come upon the dark- ness of the mind. Hence it is that in our Protestant endeavours to propagate the Gospel, we send the Bible to the nations, and that we send out religious tracts, — those little lights, which revolve round the great central orb, the glorious sun in the firmament, the Bible. And hence it is that we educate young men to explain the Bible, and that we send them out, not to make converts to a shadow; not to baptize ignorance and super- stition into the Christian name ; but to "teach all nations" the great truths and dvities of the kingdom of Clu'ist. For we believe that it is Christian truth, and that only, which can save men ; not the knowledge of natural or political science, but the knowledge of the relation of man to God, of the law and govern- ment of God, of the mercy of God in the amazing scheme of rcdemi)tion, of the judgment of the great day, and of eternal retribution ; the knowledge of those truths which will subdue the violence of passion, and turn the energies of tlie soul from the pursuit of the low trifles of earth to the pursuit of the lionour of God, of the welfare of immortal beings, and of the everlastiu"' "■lories of heaven. But these truths are to be communicated by the effort of man ; and what it is the duty of the whole Church to promote, it is the duty of every individual to promote according to his ONLY BY THE GOSPEL. 10,3 ability. It seems to be the purpose of God to caccomplish all his great designs on the earth in such a manner, by the efforts of individual Christians, as to combine the perfection of their own character witli the enlargement of his holy kingdom. This is the honour to which we are all invited, — to toil for God, and at the same moment to rise in resemblance to him and in pre- paration for the immortal bliss of his presence in heaven. Christians are to attain to new purity, elevation, and energy ; and, as a sure consequence and glad reward, they will see the cause of their Redeemer spreading and trivimphing. If money is requisite for the conversion of the world, the silver and the gold are God's. He might have touched the heart of one man in our country, and, from his single accumu- lations, have poured, in the present year, into the treasury of Christian enterprise from ten to fifteen millions of dollars. But it was not the will of God in this manner to supersede the self-denying offerings of a multitude of believers, who are poor in this world, though rich in faith. Instead of such a splendid bequest, we may look at a nobler spectacle, — that of sixteen thou- sand poor Moravians, who, at an annual expense equal to several dollars each, now support one hundred and thirty Missionary establishments, originating in the purest benevolence, and con- ducted by a strong faith in the power of Jesus. Here is an example of obedience to the command of Christ ; a model for the imitation of the Church. Shall not American Christians generally go and do likewise ; and, in the proportion of their numbers and wealth, enlarge those holy enterprises which send out truth and happiness to the world, and bring back to the conscience sweet peace and heavenly joy ? 2. While the truth is communicated, the strength of the depravity which it is designed to subdue, should impress us with the necessity of divme power to give efficacy to truth ; and a view of the promises of God should lead us to seek and expect the exertion of that power. Whoever may plant or water, it is Jehovah only who giveth the increase. It is not light alone, though always necessary to moral action, which can change the heart. Is the devil ignorant of the great principles of Chris- tianity ? Is it supjjosable that he can have any shadow of doubt that Jesus Christ died upon the cross, in order to expiate the 104 MORAL FREEDOM CONFER RI'.D sins of the world, and to desti'oy his works and kingdom ? Yet he remains the adversary. And so it is with the heart of the sinner. Light may shame and may terrify him ; hut, unaccom- panied by the Holy Spirit, it will not convert him. We see on the earth — we see every day among respectable citizens — the same hostility to God's truth which rages in the world beneath ; and it is indicated by contempt, scorn, ridicule, uncharitable surmises, malignant accusations, and flagi'ant acts of injustice. To rouse up by solemn words of terror a slumbering conscience, and to array conscience against unyielding pride, or any pre- dominant and cherished sinful passion, is to enkindle the rage of the depraved heart ; and the most humble and benevolent teacher of God's truth will be accused of priestcraft, of planning a union of Church and State, of wishing to destroy political freedom, and to domineer over the imprescriptible rights of man. If such is the resistance to truth in a country where republican liberty protects the Preacher from violence, in other countries the same resistance of the heart will arm itself with the power of persecution. How can the truth anywhere triumph without the interposing grace and converting energy of the Almighty ? And that grace, we are assvired, is adeqi;ate to the conversion of every sinner whose obstinate rebellion it may be the purpose of God to subdue. Let all Cliristians, then, pray most earnestly to God that he will cause his " kingdom to come." When Paul and Silas, in the dungeon at Philippi, prayed to God, the numerous prisoners heard the ap})eal of those righteous men to the Almighty, and innnediately there was a great earthquake, which shook the foundations of the prison, and burst open the massy doors, while at the same moment every prisoner was disencumbered of his fetters. Good Chris- tians! pray in earnestness to your God, and the great prison- house of idolatry, and delusion, and error, and inicjuity, in this world will tremble to its deep foundations: every strong iron- bolted door will ily open ; and the startled prisoners, dropping tluir chains, wdll rise up in astonishment, the freemen of the Lord Jesus Christ. 3. In the success which has already attended Missionary efforts, we have grounds of encouragemenl to engage with new zeal in ONLY BY THE GOSPEL. 105 the attempt to bring tlie whole world in sweet submission to the law of Christ. No one, acquainted with the history of tlie world, can be ignorant, that the efforts of Romanism have been very ineffectual in respect to the enliglitening of the minds and the purifying of the hearts and lives of the Heathen. The Pope has long had at Rome a college for the propagation of the faith, and several of the sects and orders of Romanism have sent out Missionaries to different parts of the world, to Syria, to Egypt, to Ethiopia, to India, to China, to Paraguay, to Mexico, to Canada ; and many of these Missionaries have been men of learning, who wrote interesting descriptions of the countries they visited. But of all that has been accomplished by the Catholic Missionaries on the face of the earth, scarcely a fragment of good remains. The reason is, that their system of new idolatry has not the capacity of contending with more ancient idolatry, and that their labours have not been directed to the communication of the simple, uncorrupted truths of the Gospel. A few Protestant Missionaries in a small spot of the earth have within tliirty years past accomplished more for the overthrow of idolatry, and for the illumination and renovation of the dark-minded and depraved Heathen, than all that has been accomplished, during three hundred years past, by all the Missionaries wdiich Romanism has employed. Do you doubt this? Repair then to an island of the Pacific Ocean, and compare the present condition of its inhabitants with their depravity and wretchedness, before the English Missionaries went to them with the message of God's mercy in the Gospel, and you will now call it "an island of the blest." Or repair to another cluster of islands, occupied at a more recent period by our American brethren. The sudden change from horrible crimes to Christian virtue, from abject misery to pure and heavenly joy, is almost too wonderful for belief. We have in the condition of these islands an emblem of the happy state of the world, when Jesus shall make all men free ; free from idolatry, superstition, error; free from pride, ambition, malig- nity, avarice, and lust; free from crime, and guilt, and woe. But we need not limit our views to the islands of the Pacific. God has given animating success to our Missionary labours in other parts of the world, at Bombay, at Ceylon, and among 106 MORAL FREEDOM CONFERRED various tribes of our own Indians. At the lifty-llvc Missionary stations of the Board, there are thirty-six churches as lights in a dark i)lace, having eighteen hundred members, who seem to be walking in the fear of God. ]\Iore than twelve hundred schools are supported, containing about sixty thousand scholars. Kight presses are at work in eleven different language's. Thus is the seed sown, which, we may confidently hope, will in good time yield an abundant harvest. But are sixty-eight Preachers, with their companions and assistants, the whole amounting to only two hundi'cd and thirty-seven, all that our three thousand Congregational and Presbyterian Churches, having three hundred thousand communicants, ought to scud out for the conversion of the world? Is the average of one-third of a dollar to each communicant the proper limit of our contributions for the holiest, sublimest, dearest, and most blessed of all objects? The spirit which we should engage in the support of Missions, and thus in the extension of the kingdom of Christ through the world, is the same spirit of faith which animated the Apostles, the martyrs, and the Reformers of Christianity; the same spirit which burned in the hearts of Swartz, of Mayhew and Eliot, of Brainerd and Wheelock, of Vander Kemp, Buchanan, and Martyn, and many others, who have toiled for the conversion of the world. Let us hope that a new spirit of heavenly zeal will be awakened in our Churches. Let us hope, that the race of such men as Newell and Hall, of Mills and Parsons and Fisk, of Richards and Warren, who have entered into their rest, will ere long be increased tenfold. Let us hope, that in a few years the Missionaries from America shall go out as the faithful Preachers of the Gospel to all the nations of the earth. Even now our well educated, noble-minded young men, accompanied with the grace and loveliness of woman, may be seen mingling with the savages of our western forests ; breathing the sultry air of Ilindostan ; walking in the cinnamon groves of Ceylon ; ascending the long rivers of Burmah ; knocking at the gates of China ; climbing the volcanic hills of the Pacific Islands; encountering the pestilential atmosphere of Turkey, and the hot gales of Malta; sitting amidst the ruins of Athens; and dwelling near the sacred mountain of Lebanon ; not for the gratification ot ONLY BY THE GOSPEL. 107 their taste as travellers, but as the laborious, self-denying teachers of Christ's truth to their brethren. But I had forgotten two, who are in a more interesting position than any of those, and who, for confiding in the in- tegrity and good faith of our general Government, and preaching the Gospel to the Cherokees, are now grinding in the prison-house, not of some eastern despot, but of an American free state ; of Christian Georgia, which was originally settled for the avowed purpose of doirig good to the Indians ! " Tell it not in Gath, publish it not in the streets of Askelon ! " Let us hope, however, soon to see many of our young men, — fearless of great trials, and even rejoicing if counted worthy to suffer shame for the name of Jesus, — passing the Rocky Moun- tains of the west, and penetrating tlie vast plains of the south ; contentedly sharing with the Greenlander in his coarse and cold fare ; reposing with the African in the shade of his palm-tree, or following, mounted on his camel, the hardy Moor in his marches through the desert ; breathing the spices of Arabia, or wandering amid the flowering shrubs of Persia ; accompanying the Tartar hordes in their migrations ; passing the wall of China, and jienetrating to the villages of its two hundred millions of j^eople ; aj^proaching the throne of barbaric Kings, and visiting the huts of the lowest of their subjects ; gliding from island to island in all the seas of the cast and the west ; and everywhere assailing idolatry, conflicting with error, making known to men the true God and Jesus Christ whom he hath sent ; and by instruction, example, and prayer, conducting their grateful, happy brethren in the way to glory, honour, and immortality. But for the accomplishment of such a hope every Christian must do his duty. And to this we are called by a voice from the perishing Heathen, which says, — By the love of Jesus Christ, wlio came down from heaven and died for you and for us, by the hope which ye cherish of awaking from the dead in his likeness, by the grace and mercy of God which ye have experienced, by the horrors of that awful destiny which ye have escaped, and by the glories of that eternal heaven which ye regard as your sure inheritance, we entreat you to send to us *' the truth as it is in Jesus," that we also may be made '' free." Then, with you and with all the redeemed from among men, a 108 THE GOSPEL ADAPTED TO great nmltitude of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, shall we stand before the throne and before the Lamb, and join in the loud song, " Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne, and unto tlie Lamb ! " Amen. DISCOURSE VII. THE GOSPEL ADAPTED TO THE WANTS OF THE WORLD.* BY THE REV. NATHAN S. S. BEMAN, D.D., 1 _ thoy. Psalm Ixxii. 17. "His name shall endure for ever: his name shall be continued as long as the sun: and men shall be blessed in him: all nations shall call him blessed." This divine song has a ])rimary reference to the kingdom of Solomon, the son of David ; but was intended, at the same time, to typify the kingdom of Jesus Christ, David's more exalted Son. With this single explanatory remark, I would leave the general structure of the Psalm, and the exposition of its various parts, to your own reflections. The passage to which I particularly invite your attention, asserts the extent and duration of the reign of Jesus Christ upon the earth ; and presents a glowing picture of its prosperity and happiness. In relation to its extent, it is to embrace " all nations ; " and in duration, it "shall be continued as long as the sun." In other words, the kingdom of Jesus Christ, the Gospel kingdom, shall embrace all the nations of the earth ; and endure, with undiminished power and glory, while the world itself shall stand. It is clearly asserted, too, that the happiness of the Preached in Providence, 1810, before the American Board of Foreign Missions. THE WANTS OF THE WORLD. 109 human family will be greatly increased under the predicted reign of the Sou of God. " Men shall be blessed in him : all nations shall call him blessed." Nothing can be more obvious than that this prediction asserts, that the religion of the Gospel will hereafter become, and will continue to be, the prevailing religion of our world. This fact is fully settled in the Bible. It was, for ages, the grand theme of the Old Testament Prophets ; and the truths which they committed, in strains of exalted poetry, to the sacred lyre, have been taken up and expounded with such clearness by their New Testament successors, by the Son of God and his Apostles, that not a shadow of a doubt can rest upon their import. The same fact, that is, that Christianity will become the religion of the world, might be inferred, with equal certainty, from the ad- mission that God is its Author, or that the Bible contains a revelation from heaven. But, waiving these considerations, there is another important truth intimately associated with the universal spread of the Gospel, to which I would invite your attention on the present occasion. The truth to which I refer is this : — that the religion of the Bible is adapted, in its nature, to become the exclusive religion of our world. This sentiment, it is apprehended, is more than intimated in the text. Jesus Christ, the appointed King of Zion, shall not only reign as long as the sun shall shine upon the earth, but " men shall be blessed in him : all nations shall call liim blessed." The Gospel is adapted to man as such ; to all men. It contemplates, not a specific class or order of men, but man in the large and generic sense. The Son of God has "received gifts for men." His empire embraces and secures the best interests of our fallen race. " Men shall be blessed in him : all nations shall call him blessed." The Gospel is adapted, not to the Jew, nor to the Gentile, alone; not to the civilized, nor to the barbarous, exclusively ; but to " all nations." And one nation after another, under the agencies which God has ordained, shall welcome the Gospel, as adapted to their common circumstances and their common wants; till an entire world of nations shall mingle their voices and send up the homage of their hearts in one universal song. The single sentiment I shall attempt to illustrate is this : 110 THE GOSPEL ADAPTED TO The RELIGION OF THE Bible is adapted, in its nature, TO BECOME THE EXCLUSIVE RELIGION OF OUR WORLD. 1. It is accommodated to every stage of human society. I shall not here enter upon any nice speculations respecting the natural state of man, considered merely as an intellectual and social being ; nor attempt to settle the question whether that state is savage or civilized. The apostacy of our race occupies so early a page in the history of the world, that it may be difficult for us even to picture to ourselves, with any degree of certainty, what our condition would have been, as it regards social habits, intellectual progress, or the arts of cultivated life, had sin never marred this once lovely heritage of God. What is now called the state of nature (the wild and savage state, to which we may easily trace back the most refined and polished nations) would probably never have existed ; and the more elevated conditions of society, which are now altogether adven- titious, and which are superinduced by much care and culture, might have been perfectly natural to man. But, these specu- lations apart, it is sufficient for my present purpose to refer you to the social condition of nations as it is, and remind you of the diversified forms of human society which the world actually presents. These are not less marked and various than the geographical surface of different countries, or than personal form, the colour of the skin, or the features of the human face. A single glance at the world as it is (and this the intelligent eye has already taken) will save the speaker the necessity of entering into detail. We have on the surface of this globe a population almost infinitely diversified : the polished European, and his descendants, not less elevated, in almost every land ; the wild Arab ; the wandering Tartar ; the inert southern Asiatic ; the bigoted Jew ; the proud and self-confident Turk ; the fierce cannibal of Australia ; the debased Hottentot ; the ignorant Greenlander ; and the rude and savage tenant of our own native forests : and these furnish but a mere specimen of the human race. Nations difler in almost everything ; in their modes of obtaining a livelihood, in civilization and intellectual culture, in moral habits and religious rites. But the Gospel makes an appeal which men, in all these diversified national circumstances, arc capable of feeling. This THE V.'ANTS OF THE WORLD. Ill appeal they have felt. In tlie days of the Apostles, tlie truth of God overleaped the framework of national caste, and evinced, in every land where its truths were announced, its power to save. And facts of the same character are interwoven with the whole history of modern Missions. Such have been the triumphs of the Gospel in our day, that the foolishness of infidelity, which has loudly asserted that Christianity cannot be propagated among the nations who differ in their habits and religions from those who have long been under the influence of this system, has been rebuked and put to silence. The religion of the Bible is just such a scheme as is demanded in order to accomplish the great objects which it proposes. As it is designed for a world, so it is suited to the exigencies of a world. It has a universality of purpose, and a universality of character, in order to carry out and perfect that purpose. It takes the world as it is, and goes about the work of making it better. It can reach men just where they are, notwithstanding their national peculiarities, and make them the friends of God and the heirs of heaven. It needs no pioneer. It asks for no herald to invoke other agencies to prepare the way for its coming and reception. It is itself the pioneer of Jehovah ; the herald of the great King. These things can be affirmed only of the Gospel. Were we to examine all the systems of ancient and modern philosophy which have proposed to make men wise and happy, and sub- mit them to a critical analysis, we should perceive that they are all strongly tinged with the spirit of the age and nation in which they originated ; and were, at the same time, capable only of a limited application. Carry these systems across a few lines of latitude or longitude, and they become exotics in an ungenial clime, and perish of themselves. Protract their exist- ence a single century upon the very soil which gave them birth, and among the very people who originated and cherished their dogmas, and they become superannuated, and die of old age. The same is true of the religions of the world. They are all local and temporary ; and well they may be, for they are dependent on circumstances for their very existence. It would be a thing next to impossible to bring the Turks and the Greenlanders to exchange religions ; and yet Turkey and Greenland may be made to feel the truth of God, and submit 112 • THE GOSPEL ADAPTED TO to its power. No system of false philosophy has ever been universal ; no single form of Paganism lias established its do- minion over tlie nations of the earth. But the (iospel is indigenous in every soil where it is planted. It is at home in every land. It accomplishes its own appropriate work wherever it goes ; for God is in it. I would not intimate in these remarks that different states of society may not be more or less favourable to the propagation of the Gospel ; nor deny that auxiliary agencies may be em- ployed to u^nfold, diffuse, and enforce the truth of God ; and least of all would I affirm that the Gospel will leave a nation as it finds it. Civilization and the useful arts of life, letters and refinement, — in one word, all that can elevate man in the scale of being, promote his happiness, or adorn and beautify his social character, — have never failed, other things being favourable, to follow in the footsteps of this revelation from heaven. 2. The Gospel is suited to the common wants of man. This system was not contrived to relieve us from some fac- titious evils, nor to minister to our artificial wants ; but it contemplates the world in its true light, and undertakes at once to mitigate, and ultimately to root out, all suffering from the kingdom of Christ. And here we may see the difference between the Gospel and every antagonist and conflicting system. It is the difference between what is particular and what is general, between what is limited to individuals, and what is common to all men, between what is restricted to one country or one age, and what may be applied with equal propriety and practical effect to every country of the globe, or to every period from the beginning to the end of time. The Gospel overlooks, as unworthy of its high and heavenly aims, that which is circum- stantial, local, and temporary; and selects, as the object of its benevolence, that which is essential, unlimited, and enduring. Among the Pagans, many a deity has derived his existence from a mountain, stream, or forest. Altars and forms of worship have been called into being to avert some impending- calamity, to stay the ravages of famine, to mitigate the rage of l)estilence, or to turn aside the bloody scourge of war. The THE WANTS OF THE WOULD. l\-J form and productions of a country, the customs of doinestic raid social life, the prevalence of certain types of disease, the peaceful or warlike habits of a people, and an endless catalogue of like circumstances, have not only shaped and modified, but have actually created, systems of religious belief and practice. But the Gospel is constructed upon another principle. It professes to supply what is most needful for man, upon a nobler and more magnificent scale. It never attempts, as most false religions do, to remove the trivial and incidental evils of life ; to guard men against the disabilities which belong to their specific circumstances; nor to ward off disease or death by charms or talismanic power ; but regarding all these as light afflictions which endure but for a moment, it settles down at once upon the common wants of men, as pilgrims on the earth, and the heirs of eternity. A few of the common wants of our dying world, for which the Gospel effectually provides, may very properly be enumer- ated in this place. Man, in relation to all kinds of knowledge, is the subject of instruction ; and in nothing does he more imperatively demand it than in religion. The lights of this world have become so dinuned, that he never clearly sees, nor fully performs, his duties to God or his fellows, till a purer and brighter orb in heaven shines upon him. Sin has well nigh obliterated the perceptions of God and duty from the human mind. The world is perishing for the want of spiritual knowledge. This is seen and felt everywhere. Not a soul on earth can find the way to heaven without the special interposition of God; and whether he communicates himself silently and mysteriously, in here and there a solitary case, without a written revelation, we are not informed, and it is a problem which we are not required to solve. But this we do know, for God has taught it, that the Bible is the grand source of religious instruction. The nations are in midnight without it. It is a darkness without a prospect of a dawn. It is deep, dense, central, visible ; and not a star of promise has been seen in the heavens, as the harbinger of an opening day, by any telescope which nature or art has been able to construct. Without the Gospel, men are everywhere I 114 THE GOSPEL ADAPTED TO destitute of tluit knowledge necessary to the well-being of the soul ; and with it, they have everything which God himself deemed essential when their salvation was the grand object to be accomplished. This fallen world needs an infallible guide, and that guide is to be found alone in a wi'itten revelation. No decrees of Popes or Councils can supply its place. No tradition, though it were to descend from heaven, and emanate from the throne of God, can become a substitute. The Jew, the Pagan, the Mohammedan, the Catholic, the Protestant, all need this volume. It is adapted to the common wants of a world ; and the nation, whether refined or bai'barous, that is destitute of it, is living without tlie sun. But man needs not only an infallible instructer, but support under the nameless evils which siii has inflicted upon him. In every country under heaven, on every continent and every island of the sea, he is hardly less miserable than he is sinful. And yet the religion of the Saviour can mingle the ingi'edients of comfort in every bitter cup. Passing over a long list of ills wliich flesh is heir to, I would fix your attention on two to which ail men are subject, in w^hatever state of society or condition of life, and for which the Gospel provides a perfect remedy. I refer to remorse of conscience, and the sting of death. These are co-extensive witli the fallen race. Sin is an evil of so malignant a character, that it reveals itself in the present life, it is followed by a present retribution. Verily, there " is a God that jvidgeth in the earth." The poor Pagan feels this, and hence his sacrifices and his self-inflicted tortures. It is on this principle that penance and pilgrimages belong to most systems of false religion. But the Gospel alone can calm the troubled spirit, pluck away the deep-seated anguish of the heart, and inspire that hope wliich prophesies of heaven. And not only are tlie great evils of life provided for by the religion of Christ, but death itself; that event everyw'here dreaded in our world; that event, which may, in itself, be considered the sum and concentration of all earthly ills, the primeval curse of God upon a world of rebels, may be divested of all its unloveliness, and disarmed of all its inflictions, and be converted into the richest blessing. The Christian victor's song is, *' O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?" THE WANTS OF THE WORLD. 115 3 The Gospel is adapted to every order of mind. In this respect it differs from all human systems. Among the most distinguished ancient nations they had one religion for the learned, and another for the illiterate. This was true in Greece, and probably, to some extent, in Rome. Their great men, and especially their sages and philosophers, gave little or no credit to the doctrines of polytheism admitted by the vulgar; but on the other hand approximated to something like a pure theism in their religious belief. I would not affirm that this is universal, possibly it was not even general ; but, in many cases, it is an unquestioned fact. As to their systems of philosophy, they were too refined and subtle to be received by common minds. I do not say understood, for it may be fairly doubted whether they were understood by any. They were marked by intellectual caste ; and this stamp had been put upon them intentionally, in order to protect the prerogatives of great minds, and to show the common mass of men that they had no right to think. Neither the system of the Stoics nor of the Epicureans could have become universal. They were limited by their very nature ; the former to a certain order of mind, and the latter to a certain moral or physical temperament, and both of them entirely inapplicable, in all their parts and ramifications, to the society or population of any country. Were we to examine the speculations of any or every ancient philosopher, trace out the various systems, examine their origin, scrutinize their purposes or intentions, and follow their progress to their final results, we should arrive at this conclusion, — that they were never designed for the world at large ; and being adapted to a particular order of intellect, their influence, whether good or bad, would be restricted to a small number of individuals, wherever their doctrines might be embraced. By the side of these intellectual and moral schemes, contem- plate the character of the Gospel in relation to the single feature of its adaptedness to every order of mind. While some religions are suited to the unlettered, and some to the cultivated, and while the same may be affirmed of certain systems of philosophy and morals, the Bible scheme is adapted to the intellect of every man. No elevation of mind can rise above the sublimity of its truths, no stretch of thought can go beyond the vast reach I '^ 110 TIIR GOSPEI, ADAPTED TO of its purpose, no analytic powers can detect a discordant ele- ment in its grand and complicated system. It teaches the great man, and makes him wiser and better. Time would fail me were I to attempt to enumerate the men of mighty minds, the giants of the earth, who have towered above their fellows, as the oak above the saplings of the forest, w^ho, at the same time, have acknowledged themselves indebted for their best lessons of instruction to the Bible. Boyle, of whom it has been said, " To him we owe the secrets of fire, air, water, animals, vegetables, fossils, so that from his works may be deduced the whole system of natural knowledge," was in the habit of reading this letter from heaven upon his knees; and New^ton, that child-like sage, investigated the wonders of revelation with an intensity not less excited and profound than that which he scanned the starry heavens, or passed his measuring- line around the earth, or unbraided the complicated tissue of light. Nor was this communication from God made for the instruc- tion or entertainment of great minds alone, but is equally adapted to the humble and the unlettered. It is in revelation as in natvu-e : sublimity and simplicity are always united. The same volume which furnishes the richest instruction to the sage, can be understood and enjoyed with as fine a relish by the husband- man who follows the plough, by the mechanic in his work-shop, or by the child in the Sabbath-school. What a vast variety, with respect to mental power and acquirement, may be found in the ranks of believers ; and yet, gathered as they are from the four winds of heaven, they all entertain essentially the same views of the way of salvation, and have manifestly imbibed the same spirit. Indeed, I may add, what no one who has studied this subject can have overlooked, that the Gospel, being designed for a world as it is, a world in which the great majority of its inhabitants are ignorant and uninstructed, has been formed for the very pur})ose of meeting this case. It is a revelation to the benighted and the lowly. It teaches the sublimcst truths in such a manner that babes may understand them, and inculcates the simplest with such a heavenly elevation and pathos, that minds of the largest compass and the profoundest thought arc instructed and delighted. THE WANTS OF THE WORLD, 117 4. The Gospel counteracts sin in every possible condition. Sin is the source of all the other evils which prevail under the government of God; and the object of the coming of Christ, and the introduction and propagation of the Gospel, is the extermination of this great evil from our world. The Bible describes its nature, and tells us of its present and future conse- quences. It holds up, in the sun-light of eternal truth, its malignant features, and, for an illustration of its fruits, points us to a bleeding earth and a burning hell. The introduction of this evil into our world was the work of Satan; and ''for this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil." No other system of morals or religion has made an attack upon sin as such. Some particular sins have been denounced, and to a certain extent, no doubt, counteracted by their practical influence ; but it was reserved for the Gospel alone to proclaim war against every sin, great and small. It spares no man ; it has no protecting shield for the transgressor. It has no mantle of charity to inwrap the sinner, and thus cover up his true character as the enemy of God. It lays the axe "at the root of the trees," and hews down the tall cedar as well as the withered bramble. It con- demns the sinning Monarch in terms as unsparing and uncom- promising as it does the sinning beggar. For the city and the country, for the refined and the ignoble, for Christian and for Pagan lands, there is but one law : " Without holiness no man shall see the Lord." It has no respect to age, station, learning, country, kindred, sex, family, or profession in life, but bears testimony against all who love and practise sin. But the Gospel does something more than describe the nature of sin, and point out the present and future woes which hang around a wicked heart and life. It proposes a remedy. It would relieve our sinful and suffering world from its accumu- lated evils by striking a death-blow at the very root of all mischief. The Gospel is a scheme contrived of God, and re- vealed from heaven, for the removal of sin. It undertakes to make men happy only by this process. It provides for the pardon of sin, though the blood of the atonement ; and, by the instrumentality of truth, and the agency of tlie Spirit, carries on, in the heart of the penitent and believing sinner, a work of 118 THE GOSPEL ADAPTED TO progressive ScUictification, which will be rendered perfect and triumphant in heaven. And unless this effect can he produced, of what use is any scheme of religion for such a world as this ? A man may pass through a thousand changes, and till he pass from death to life, from sin to holiness, he wears his chains, and is on the way to execution. The great curse is still on him, and he must be miserable. Sin is uncancelled, and he cannot be happy. Of what avail are the stripes and lacerations which are self-inflicted by the poor Pagan ; or the austerities and penance of the Romanist ; or the fine speculations of the Unitarian, or the Deist, on the beauty of virtue, and the benevolence of God ; while no radical change is effected in the character ? Man is every- where a sinner ; and in all these human schemes and devices, there is no provision for the removal of this fundamental evil. No system of religion, whatever name it may wear, whether Chris- tian or Pagan, can supply the moral demands of such a world as ours, unless it commence with sin. Spare this, and you ruin the world. Leave this unprovided for, and you shut for ever the gate of heaven. Omit this single item, and you open wide the door of perdition. Strike out from your scheme the provision for pardon, and the power of sanctification, and you have a religion which can never become universal ; and would be of no use were it to become universal, for it would bring no relief to a sinful world. But such is not the Gospel of the Son of God. 5. The Gospel is not dependent on any system of humj.n philosophy. The Bible teaches " as one having authority, and not as the Scribes." In narrating facts, it records them as they are, and in their proper relations ; in the revelation of doctrines, it pre- sents them as fundamental truths which are to be accredited ; and makes no explanations of the former, and enters into no reasoning respecting the latter. It discloses facts and principles of which all men, or the generality of men, were before ignorant; or in which, at least, they were but imperfectly instructed ; and there it leaves them. And there these truths stand stereotyped for ever, without cluuige of form and feature. The Gospel borrows nothing from the reigning philosophy, for it lias nothing to decorate that it may attract the eyes of men ; nothing to render palatable by courting the popular taste; THE WANTS OF THE WORLD. 119 nothing to explain ; * nothing to reconcile. From the com- mencement to the close of its communications to our world, though these extend through more than fifteen centuries, and were furnished by a large number of sacred penmen, it never loses sight of one fixed purpose, and that is to tell men what truth is. And when this is done, its work is finished. It never comments or philosophizes upon its own production. Hence the Bible, like its Author, has a kind of ubiquity, and can live everywhere ; and, like him, it has a pei'petuity of existence, and is the same in ever}?^ age. Systems of human philosophy may rise and fall; and yet Bible truth fi.ows on in a steady and majestic stream, and not even its surface is rippled by the change. In the interpretation of revealed truth, and in the con- struction of human creeds and symbols, as well as in all the systems of false religion, the philosophy of the age, both intellectual and moral, and perhaps I might add, in some cases, natural philosophy too, has exerted a very perceptible influence. This is what we might expect. If men construct a religion, it must be, of course, a human religion ; and it will partake of human thoughts and qualities. Men cannot beget angels. We can hardly look upon one of these earthly productions without being able to detect its parentage, and to tell the age and country of its birth. The same is the case, to some extent, of all human symbols of the true religion. The creeds and com- mentaries of each particular age and nation embody nuicli which belongs to that age and nation. Indeed, we cannot expect it should be otherwise ; for they are the productions of men, and fathers generally live a second life in their children. But the Bible occupies an independent position. It is the production of God. It depends on no other system. It borrows nothing from any other. Other systems live, flourish, wane, and die ; but this remains the same. It has already survived, amidst the changing theories and speculations of the world, almost six thousand years ; and it is yet clad in all the freshness of its glory, as it was in the day when it was born in heaven, and sent down to the earth for our instruction. Time has not whitened its locks, or palsied its hand, or chilled its heart. Systems of philosophy, and modes of interpretation, one after another, have gone done to the sepulchre, and are known only in 120 THE GOSPEL ADAPTKD TO their epitaph; but the Gospel lives, and is })owei("ul to save. Other systems, which are founded in error, will in like manner pass away; but the religion of the Bible will never cease to exist and act upon the world, till all that God has greatly purposed, and kindly promised, shall be fully accomplished. Its truths may be tinged, or obscured, by a false philosophy, or by human speculations; but this effect is local and tem})orary. These tilings are no part of the system. The Bible remains the same ; and, at another day, or in another country, all is restored. Clouds and mists may, in one hemisphere, or for a few days cover the face of the sun and shut out the light ; but the sun is not extinguished. He is always shining somewhere ; and the clouds and mists of all human theories will, by and by, be dissipated ; and he will break forth, and in full-orbed radiance shine everywhere. 6. The Gospel has no necessary connexion with any form of human government. The Bible acknowledges the right, and sanctions the powers and prerogatives, of civil government ; but it does not prescribe any particular form. The most that is said on this subject in the New Testament, is rather incidental than direct; and is addressed, principally, to Christians ; enjoining it upon them to be peaceful subjects of whatever government may happen to exist. The following are specimens : — " Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God. Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resistcth the ordinance of God; and they that resist shall receive to themselves danniation." And again : " Render therefore to all their dues : tribute to whom tribute is due; custom to whom custom; fear to whom fear; honour to whom honour." It is also said, "Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake : whether it be to the King, as supreme; or unto governors, as unto them that are sent by him for the punishment of evil-doei's, and for the praise of them that do well." This language is accommodated to the existing governments (;f the Apostolic age ; but the spirit of these precepts may be applied with equal propriety to any and every form of civil and political ir.stitutions. Had the Gos})el assumed any other ground THE WANTS OF THE WORLD. 121 than this, it would liavc been fatal to its prospects as designed for a universal religion. If any one form had been selected and approved, and otliers condemned, it would have converted the message of heaven into a political proclamation, and all nations, except those whose institutions might have received its approval, would have armed themselves against its approach. It would have been met and repelled with the same S2)irit with which men are accustomed to meet and repel invading fleets and armies. That the Gospel is friendly to the rights of man, and the liberties of the world, is a proposition too obvious to need proof. The influence of this system, wherever it is cordially received, is felt upon every great interest of society ; upon the people and upon the government. It will show itself upon the legislation of a country; upon the character and the execution of its laws ; and in various ways, and by pervading and controlKng influences peculiar to itself, destroy oppression ; and diff'use and protect equal rights among men. It makes good citizens and good rulers, without interfering, directly, either with the form or administration of government. It was owing to this characteristic of the Gospel, that the flrst heralds of the cross gained access with their message to every country, notwithstanding the peculiar jealousies of the age respecting international communication ; and though often accused of treason, they were never convicted of tlie charge. And it was on this principle that, without an attack upon any political institution, they introduced a train of moral causes which have greatly modified, and well-nigh revolutionized, the governments of the civilized world. And it is on the same principle that modern Missionaries might be permitted to go everywhere, and freely and fully proclaim their message, with- out any alarm on the part of existing governments. Indeed, this is the prevailing temper of the reigning powers of the earth at this moment. And in those cases wiiere Christian Missions are excluded by the laws of the land, their enactments are either founded on ignorance of the real objects of the enterprise ; or, as is more generally the fact, are designed to protect some false system of religion whicli has become publicly wedded to the State, and which, every one must know, would inevitably fall before the ])owers of the Gospel. 122 the gospel adapted to Remarks. 1. The religion of the Bible must be true. It cannot be the pvoduct ol" the human niiiul. Its ada])tation to the complicated circumstances, to the wants, the sins, and the miseries of the whole world, and that too through every period of its existence, is peculiar to itself, and has a parallel in no other system. This one property of the Gospel would require a greater compass of thought and stretch of ingenuity ; a more intimate knowledge of facts ; a clearer perception of causes and eiFects, and final results ; of existing evils, and their infallible remedies ; than belong to the finite mind. You have only to compare the religion of the Bible with other systems, and you discern the difference between God's work and man's. The one undertakes only to provide for what is limited to time and place ; the other, dispensing with ages and localities, takes a broad sweep, like the mind of its Author, and actually pro- vides for what always exists, and is everywhere to be found. There is not an individual religion of Paganism among the nameless varieties that fill the world ; not a speculation of ancient or modern philosophy ; not a thought in the Vedas or shaster of the Hindoos ; not a disclosure in the Koran, the pretended revelation of Mohammed ; not a system of error, or any part of a system, in any age or country, but might be the production of the human intellect and heart, and would ever be likely to be, in the same existing circumstances. But I ask. Who but God could make the Bible ? I speak now only of its adaptcdness to the purpose for which it was intended. What eye but that which surveys the world at a glance, and beholds all iiations, with their multifarious ills and complicated wants, as they are, and reads with intuitive certainty the moral 2)ulsation of every heart, could see far enough, and wide enough, and deep enough, for such a work ? What but the all-comprehensive Mind could devise a religious system, humble in its grandeur, and majestic in its simplicity, which should be equally appli- cable to men in every nation and every age ; which has power to reclaim the heart and control the life ; to disarm the world of its enmity against God; to restore the wanderer; raise the disconsolate ; and light up a smile on the pale cheek of death ? Surely this is no common undertaking. There is but one Being THE WANTS OF THE WORLD. l2'o who ever thought of doing it ; and the volume that reveals this purpose has, written deeply and indelibly upon its sacred page, the sigjKtture of God. 2. The Gospel will finally prevail. This might be inferred with great certainty from the fact, or the admission, that God is its Author. If he constructed the scheme, it was with some object in view ; for some great and worthy purpose. The sins, and teai's, and death-groans of our world had gone up to heaven, and God had fixed his heart on man's redemption. For this he formed the plan, sent his Son, accepted the sacrifice of his blood, and made, in his name, pro- clamation of pardon and peace to this great family of rebels. And shall not this plan go into full eflfect ? Will the great Architect leave his noble edifice half-finished ? " God is not a man, that he should lie ; neither the son of man, that he should repent : hath he said, and shall he not do it ? or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good ?" Hear his own declaration : — " The Lord hath made bare his holy arm in the eyes of all nations ; and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God." His purpose is clearly expressed, and every jot and tittle shall be accomplished. For the renovation of this world we are not to forget that God has adopted a system of agencies suited to the object to be accomplished. The Gospel is not a dead letter ; but " the power of God, and the wisdom of God." It embodies in itself the most effective moral influences which operate anywhere in the vast empire of God. It was contrived for a world in the ruins of sin ; and it is the master-piece of Jehovah, the concen- tration of all that is wise and magnificent in heaven. It is just what the dying millions of our world need. It can reach and save them. Its appeals are such as human minds and hearts can comprehend and feel. It comes home to " the business and bosoms" of men with a conviction and pathos with which no other system is armed. Every blow it strikes in our world is felt upon some interest, and tells upon its final destiny. And securing, as it does, in the hands of a faithful ministry and a praying Church, the presence and power of the Spirit of God, it will go forth in its strength to the conquest of the world. And what shall stay the progress of that scheme of grace and 124 TUB GOSPEL ADAPTED TO restoration wliicli God has constructed ; which is adapted to man anywhere and everywhere ; which has already gathered the first-iruits of the coming harvest; which has saved its millions in ages past ; which is sa\'ing its tens of millions in the present age ; and in reference to the faithful administration of which, by his devoted servants, Christ himself has said, " Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world?" 3. All who possess the Gospel should do all they can to com- municate it to others. This subject makes an appeal to Christians which they must not, cannot resist. The Gospel, my brethren, has been com- mitted to us ; and there is no tispect in which this matter can be viewed which does not urge, in the tenderest and most powerful manner, our duty and our responsibility upon us. We have the very scheme of mercy which the world needs, and without which the world must perish. And this dearest gift of heaven was put into our hands, not that we should imprison or chain it, but that we should, to the very last stretch of our power, give to it *' the wings of the morning," and bid it fly to the uttermost parts of the earth. The wants of our dying world, the nature of the Gospel, the command of heaven, the principle of benevolence, the pledge of success, the seal of God upon all past efforts, and the cheering aspect of this heaven-born enter- prise of Missions, all, all urge us to stand up like men upon whom the vows of God rest, to whom the eyes of perishing millions are directed, and whose hearts have taken hold on the interests of eternity, and then do as Christ and conscience would have us. God has opened wide the door of the world before us. llic unevangelized millions of the earth feel at this moment, more deeply than they ever felt, their need of the Gospel and its attending institutions, and its consequent moral, literary, social, and political blessings. And can we go back, or even stand still, when we contemplate what God has already per- jnitted us to do, or has kindly done by us, in the work of making the world what he would have it ? Let the American iJoard and American Christians look at things as they are ; — at their eighty Missionary stations, which appear as so many cultivated spots scattered here and there through the deep and dense wilderness of Paganism ; at their four hundred and THE WANTS OF THE WORLD. 125 seventy-eight foreign and native labourers, whose toils have already beautified these gardens of God ; at their ten thousand eight hundred and ten reclaimed wanderers who have taken shelter in the bosom of the Church the last year ; at their twenty-four boarding-schools, with their eight hundred and seven pupils ; at their four hundred and fifteen free-schools, with their twenty-one thousand six hundred and six little inmates 2:)raying for instruction ; — and then ask, Shall this work cease ? Shall another midnight succeed this dawning day ? This is the time and this the place to settle this question. O ! let us lift our streaming eyes and bleeding hearts to heaven ; and, with a simple reliance on God, say. This work must not cease We, my Christian friends, are engaged in an enterprise that lionours God and blesses men ; an enterprise in which the angels might wish to bear even an humble part ; the progress of which is intensely engaged upon by all the good on earth, and all the perfected in glory ; and the completion of which will fill the world vdth songs of blessedness, and heaven with shouts of endless triumph. May God inspire us for this work, and take the glory to him- self ! Amen and amen. 126 HOPE FOR THE HEATHEN. DISCOURSE VIII. HOPE FOR THE HEATHEN. BY THE REV. JOHN M. MASON, D-D. OF NEW VORK. Isaiah xxv. 6, 7. "The Lord of hosts— will destroy in this mountain the face of the covering cast over all people, and the veil that is spread over all nations." The exercise of divine mercy towards man is coeval with his need of it. The shock of the fall was hardly felt, remorse had only begun to prey upon the conscience, and guilt to rally his terrors, when a hope, as consoling as it was unexpected, dawned from heaven upon our revolted race. " I will put," said God to the tempter, "I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed ; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel." In this original promise were included all subsequent revelations concerning the redemption of sinners. The doctrine of Messiah's person, of his sacrifice, of his triumph, together with that vast system of prediction which extends from the beginning to the end of time, and all the corresponding dispensations of the new covenant, are nothing but its regular developement. But this being slow, as well as regular, and all flesh corrupting his way, the Lord selected the family of Abraham to be for ages both the witnesses of his grace, and the depositaries of his truth. To them were com- mitted his living oracles; to them, the ordinances of his worship; to them, the symbols and doctrines of the great atonement. Among them he deigned to dwell, and to raise up an illustrious line of Prophets, who should direct their faith and hope to Jesus the Saviour. " To him," saith Peter, " give all the Prophets witness, that through His name whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins." • Preached before the American Board of Foreign Missions. HOPE FOR THE HEATHEN. 127 But though the cliildren of Israel enjoyed these privileges while other nations were " suffered to walk in their own ways," they were taught that the covenant of peculiarity should one day he abrogated, and be succeeded by a more general and more glorious economy. " In thee and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed," was the catholic promise to Abraham, their father. As the time of its accomplishment approached, the circle of prophetic vision grew brighter and larger. Later Prophets were enabled to explain the enigmas of their predecessors ; and to speak, with precision and clearness, both of the coming of the Messiah, and of the glory that should follow. Isaiah, in particular, appears to have been favoured with the most liberal disclosure of the divine purposes. Borne on high, by the revealing Spirit, he sees far beyond the common horizon. The extremes of the earth, and the ages of futurity, are commanded into his view. He sees the Sun of Righteous- ness ascending the heavens, and breaking in upon the thick darkness which inwraps the globe. He sees the fiends of night stretch their foul wings, and fly from the spreading day. He sees the tabernacle of God descending to dwell among men : his eye rolls ardent over the wondrous scene ; his bosom heaves with mighty emotions ; and when utterance is granted, he bursts forth in the language of the text, " In this mountain will the Lord of Hosts destroy the face of the covering cast over all people, and the veil that is spread over all nations." The Lord hath not been slack concerning his promise, nor have the words of his servant fallen to the ground. The elementary dispensation of Moses is no more ; its shadows have received their substance, and its types their truth, in the person and offices of the " Word made flesh." Millions of Gentiles, and among them believers of this assembly, who were once " afar off, are now brought nigh by the blood of Christ, and are no more strangers and foreigners ; but fellow-citizens of the household of God." But though all this hath happened, according to the Scrip- tures, much is yet required to their complete fulfilment. Many families of the earth are still unblest. These, too, are reserved for the trophies of Emmanuel's grace, and are to be subjected to his authority, by the same means which he hath 128 HOPE FOK TTIF, HEATHEN. ever om])loye(l in converting sinners, — tiie Gospel of his cross. There are three topics of discourse, not less appropriate to the design of our meeting, than plainly suggested by the text : For "in this mountain shall the Lord of Hosts destroy the face of the covering cast over all people, and the veil that is spread over all nations." I. Many families of the earth arc yet unblest. They arc described as destitute of spiritiu-J and saving knowledge : an idea obviously conveyed by the figures of a " veil " and a " covering." Darkness, thick darkness, enshrouds their minds, and conceals from them those facts and principles which it most interests them to know and to improve. Of the nations thus under a veil we reckon four classes. 1. The famiKes which adhere to the man of sin. Enticed by his lying wonders, and given up to strong delusions, they have deviated into the paths of apostacy; they arc under the vail of anti- Christian error. 2. The families of rejected Israel. Having disowned their Messiah when he came, and being disqualified, by judicial blindness, for discerning the real sense of their Scriptures, which testify of him, the vail upon their hearts is the veil of obstinate unbelief. 3. The families which embrace the doctrines of Mohammed. Turned aside after fables, and amusing themselves with the belief of lying vanities, they are under the veil of gross imposture. 4. The families which are usually called Pagan. Witli no other instruction than the glimmerings of natural reason, and the refracted rays of distant tradition, they are covered with the veil of deplorable ignorance. All these arc characterized in the text. But our attention is invited more immediately to those wdio are without any scrip- tural revelation. Though true of all, it is of them pre-eminently true, that they are under the double veil of a benighted understanding, and an erring conscience. God is the source of intellectual light, for he alone is perfect reason. Wisdom in natural things is his gift; much more that wisdom which is spiritual and divine. Loss of ability to discover the chief good, was at once the just reward, and the ItOPE FOR THE itEATHEN. 129 native consequences of revolt. For as all spiritual light in the creature beams from the effulgence of the Godhead, whenever sin had intercepted the communion of man with his Maker, the day which shone around him vanished ; the gloom of the pit thickened on his soul; and from that accursed hour to this, unless illumined from above, he hath wandered out of the way, and his feet have " stumbled upon the dark mountains." Does the assertion need proof? Proofs innumerable are fur- nished by the unhappy Heathen. Of the very God who "breathed into their nostrils the breath of life," on whose bounty they are continual pensioners, and at whose tribunal they must shortly stand, they are fatally ignorant. The "heavens may declare his glory, and the firmament show forth his handy work ; " but the Pagans, unaccustomed to decipher their language, and to study their lessons, do not thence derive, in fact, just and clear perceptions even of his eternal power and Godhead ; far less of his moral character ; less still can they learn that he is the only satisfying portion of rational beings, and least of all, that he is accessible to the rebellious. Those general notices of his being which have prevailed in all countries and at all times, have never sufficed to direct men aright in their inquiries after him ; nor do they now prevent the most foolish, the most extravagant, the most abominable conceptions of liis nature, and of his operations. Mistake in the first principles of religion and of morals, must generate uncertainty in all the subordinate principles of both. The rule of obedience, is, therefore, at best, a subject of conjec- ture. What is the genius, measure, and manner of acceptable wor- ship ; whatare the relative duties of society ; wherein they come short ; and what shall be the fruit of transgression ; few of the Heathen ask ; and none can tell. Yet they are under a law of righteousness which saith, " The soul that sinneth, it shall die." The origin of their wants and woes they are unable to explore. To the demerit and wages of sin they are utter strangers. The consequences of death they are utterly unprepared to meet, or to estimate. All beyond the grave is impenetrable obscurity. Their notions of immortality are less a speculation than a dream. When called hence, they plunge into the world of spirits, unconscious of their destiny ; and, till that consunnnation of sorrows, they K 130 HOPE FOR THE HEATHEN. grope, at a venture, after the path of life; hut grope, alas! in vain; "having the understanding darkened; heing alienated from the life of God, through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart." Of this intellectual darkness the inseparable companion is an erring conscitmce. Although light in the understanding does not, of course, imply moral excellence, yet, without the former, there can be none of the latter. To this it is necessary not only that there be a law of morals, but that it be obeyed from a regard to the authority of the lawgiver. Both the lawgiver and law must, therefore, be known, or conscience will inevitably go astray. The general sentiment of right and wrong, though sufficient, if violated, to leave men without excuse, will by no means conduct to the proper discharge of duty. The fact is notorious, and a glance at the heathen world will descry a thousand monuments of it. To those who have the advantage of revelation, no truths appear more simple and luminous, than that there is but one God, and that he only is entitled to religious homage. Yet how dubious, on these f)oints, were the most celebrated Heathen philosophers! how embarrassed their research! how conjectural their opinion ! And of that spiritual devotedness which is the life of real religion, they had as little knowledge as the sons of modern unbelief. If from them we turn to the mass of their cotemporaries, or to those who arc now in a similar condition, we are startled and shocked to see them " worship and serve the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever." One poor idolater bows to " the host of heaven ; " another trembles before an evil spirit. Here, he tinds his divinities in birds, and beasts, and reptiles ; there, he " changes the glory of the incor- ruptible God into an image made like unto corruptible man," and lies prostrate before a deity of stone or of wood, the work of his chisel or his axe. "He heweth him down cedars, and taketh the cypress and the oak. Pie burnetii part thereof in the fire ; with part thereof he eatetli flesh; he roasteth roast, and is satisfied: yea, he warmeth himself, and saith. Aha, I am warm, I have seen the fire : and the residue thereof he maketh a god, even his graven image : he falleth down unto it, and worshippeth it, and prayeth unto it, and saith. Deliver me, for thou art my HOPE FOR THE HEATHEN. 131 god. And none considercth in his heart, neither is there knowledge nor understanding to say, I have burned part of it in the fire; yea, also I have baked bread upon the coals thereof; 1 have roasted flesh and eaten it: and shall I make the residue thereof an abomination? shall I fall dow^n to the stock of a tree?" The rites of Paganism are worthy of its creed. Instead of a worship, reasonable, reverend, and pure, it exhibits all the frightful varieties of whatever is absurd, or blasphemous, or obscene. Its effects on individual and social character, are pre- cisely such as we might anticipate. Unrestrained by any just apprehensions of God, of his law, or his government, the most baneful passions domineer in the heart, and the most horrible excesses pollute the life. Moral distinctions confounded, the sense of relative obligation extinguished, crimes the most atrocious perpetrated with deliberation, and upon principle, are, among the Heathen, the result of being without God.* If, in the midst of this degradation and these enormities, the thought should occur, "that they who do such things are worthy of death," a secret horror creeps through the blood; conscience, the scorpion of guilt, strikes his sting into the bosom ; fore- bodings, equally dark and intolerable, the mysterious presen- timent of "judgment to come," harrow up the soul. Whither, in this extremity, shall they turn for succour? All around them is one dreary waste ; the reign of silence and of desolation. No friendly voice is borne to the listening ear ; no tower of help rises up to the anxious eye. The Coiuforter, who should comfort their souls, is afar off". They have not heard, like you, of the name of Jesus. They have none to tell them of "redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace." And the termination of their mortal course. O brethren, how tremendous! The heavens blacken, the tempest roars, the whirlwind rushes by, down pours the torrent, and without a refuge, and witliout a hope, they are swept away in the ruin of the nations tliat forget God. Exposed to this melancholy fate, the Heathen claim our * Ward's " Histor}' of the Law of Nations," Vol. I. K 2 132 HOPE FOR THE HEATHEN. synipatliy; and we eagerly ask, Is their tlooiii to such woe irreversibly sealed? Are they shut out, for ever, from the divine compassions? No! to the praise of his grace, Jehovah hath thoughts of mercy, rich mercy, towards them. He will DESTROY, saith the Prophet, " the covering cast over all people, and the veil that is spread over all nations ; " a design, the con- templation of which forms II. The second part of discourse. From the days of eternity, the Father hath given to Messiah " the Heathen for his inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for his possession." The whole earth, therefore, being included in the covenant-grant, shall be filled with the knowledge, and suhdued to the obedience, of Jehovah. On the maxims of carnal wisdom, the fact is, indeed, impossible, and the expectation wild. To extirpate prejudices, implanted in infancy, nurtured by habit, confirmed by example, and con- secrated by tradition ; to enlighten the stupid idolater, and soften the ferocious savage ; to persuade men to despise as contemptible, and loathe as abominable, the objects of their respect and veneration : in a word, to cliange the opinions, the customs, the characters, of nations, and unite them in a religion, simple, holy, heavenly; a religion opposed to every vicious prin- ciple, and every vicious act ; a religion wliich proscribes all human merit, and prostrates all human pride ; this is an undertaking which equally defies the policy and the power of man. And the belief that it shall at any time be attended with success, furnishes incessant matter of derision to the philosopher, and of sneer to the witling. Their mistake lies in supposing the God who made them to be as foolish and as feeble as themselves, or as little concerned in the salvation of sinners. But we, according to his promise, look for the interposition of his arm ; by which, however mean the instruments, this prodigious revolution shall be effected with no less ease than certainty. For, 1. He directs the complicated movements of the universe. However confused and contradictory things may appear to our little minds, with Him whose *' understanding is infinite," there is neither surprise, perplexity, nor chance. " Known unto the Lord are all his works from the beginning of the world." Not only are the laws of matter his sovereign will, and their HOPE FOR THE HEATHEN. 133 operation his continual agency, but the whole system of intellect is under his control. All the discordant passions, interests, designs, which dash, in eternal collision, the affairs of men ; all the activities of superior intelligences, as well the enmity of fiends as the ministry of angels, are combined, in the harmony of Providence, to produce the result which he hath ordained ; and hither every occurrence irresistibly tends. " He doth according to his will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth." He causeth " the wrath of man to praise liim, and the remainder of wrath he will restrain." The unpromising situation, therefore, of the Heathen is no obstacle to Israel's God, and should be none to Israel's faith. Be the mountains of difficulty ever so impassable, at his pre- sence they flee away. Let the " nations rage, and the kingdoms be moved," if he *' utter his voice, the earth is melted." 2, The glory of Messiah is a chief end of the dispensations of Providence. The vicissitudes of Kings and kingdoms, and all the stu- pendous events which shine in ancient annals, were important chiefly as they served to prepare the way, and to spread the triumphs, of Him who was *' a light to lighten the Gentiles." For this God gave the learning of the world to Greece, and its empire to^ Rome. Both contributed to facilitate and extend the victories of the Gospel. The same design is prosecuted in the events which, at this moment, astonish the world. If *' nation rise up against nation, and kingdom against kingdom ; if establishments, imposing from their antiquity, and formidable from their strength, be undermined by the progress of opinion, or shattered by violent explosion ; if impiety and ambition, and all the infuriate passions, be permitted to take their course, and scenes of desolation and blood, such as history hath not learned to record, nor imagination to paint, be opened to our view,— it is, that God 'may destroy the dominion of hell by her own chosen legions, and make them subserve the introduction of that kingdom, which " is righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost." Thus saith his high decree, " I will over- turn, overturn, overturn, until He shall come whose right it is, and I will give it him." 3. In the Scriptures of the Prophets, the spiritual revolution 134 HOPE FOR THE HEATHEN. by which the " kingdoms of this world shall become the king- doms of our Lord and of his Christ," is frequently predicted, and strongly marked. " All the ends of the world shall re- member and turn unto the Lord : and all the kindreds of the nations shall worshij) before thee." " It shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills ; and all nations shall flow unto it. And many nations shall come and say, Come, and lot us go up to the moun- tain of the Lord, and to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths." So that "from the rising of the sun, even unto the going down of the same, his name shall be great among the Gentiles ; and in every place incense shall be offered unto his name, and a pure offering." Is there then a nation that yet "sit in darkness and the shadow of death ? " For them " light is sown," and to them shall " light spring up." Is there a nation "mad upon their idols ? " Jehovah shall " famish all the gods of the earth," and teach their votaries that he " is the God of salvation," and that "there is none beside him." Is there a nation enslaved to superstition, or abused by imposture ? He shall "frustrate the tokens of the liars, shall make the diviners mad," and convert the bondage of their followers into the liberty of his dear children. "Rejoice therefore, ye Gentiles, with his people." "Faithful is he that hath promised, who also will do it." But here occurs an important qviery. By what means are these predictions to be fulfilled, and these prospects to be realized? The means arc prepared; they arc extremely simple; they are in your hands, — even "the doctrines of the Gospel of peace." And this is the III. Third and last topic, which I proposed to discuss, "/w tfiis mounta'm" saith the Prophet, "shall the Lord destroy the veil that is spread over all nations." Mount Zion, to which Isaiah refers, is a figure, most familiar to the Scripture, of the Church of Christ. The Apostle Paul, addressing believers under the New Testament, says, " Ye are come unto Mount Zion." And the plain sense of the text is, that the Lord will bless tlie Heathen outcasts, by "causing them to pass under the bond of his covenant," and to inherit HOPE FOR THE HEATHEN. 135 the privileges of his house: and this shall be eifected, by diffusing among them the glad tidings of salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. *' Behold," saith the sure word of prophecy, "behold, thou shalt call a nation that thou knowest not, and nations that knew not thee shall run unto thee, because of the Lord thy God, and for the Holy One of Israel ; for he hath glorified thee." Our faith on this point will, indeed, provoke the ridicule of a tribe equally vain and licentious, who claim to be the exclusive benefactors of mankind. Rejecting, with opprobrium and insult, the Gospel of Christ, they hail, as they speak, a new order of things, and the world is to be regenerated by a reason without conscience, and a philosophy without religion. " No doubt ye are the people, and wisdom shall die with you." But after all the ostentation and clamovir of Infidels, what reformation has been wrought by their doctrines or by their spirit? During forty centuries, reason and philosophy had the world almost to themselves. Where did they overthrow the reign of idolatry ? From wdiat vice did they reclaim the nations ? One sect of philosophers rose on the ruin of another, to be itself the aggran- dizement of a third. But the world lay still in wickedness ; its diseases rankled with increasing fury, and struck deeper and deeper their poisonous roots, under the successive treatment of these ** physicians of no value." Eighteen centuries more have nearly elapsed since " God manifested in the flesh put away sin by the sacrifice of himself;" and what has been done in ele- vating the character, in purifying the morals, in ameliorating the condition of man, that has been done without the aids of his Gospel ? What countries have the priesthood of unbelief rescued from barbarism ? Where have they resisted the influ- ence, or wiped off the shame, of profligacy ? Where have they promoted either happiness or virtue in public or in private ? Whom have they taught to " deny ungodliness and worldly lusts, and to live soberly, righteously, and godly ?" " By their fruits ye shall know them." How different is the genius, and how different has been the career, of the Gospel of Christ ! When it was promulgated to the Heathen, the philosopher pronounced it folly, and stalked disdainfully by the Missionary of the cross. Yet through the 136 HOPE FOR THE HEATHEN. cross did the Missionary preach forgiveness of sins, and life everlasting ; and, lo, the throne of darkness tottered to its fall ; the Gentiles "turned from idols to serve the living God." Abandoning at once their prejudices, their delusions, and their lusts, they " fled for refuge to lay hold on the hope set before them." The face of the world was changed, and the worldling knew not how. No deep speculations, no subtle reasonings, no displays of science, converted the nations. The process was very short, and very simple. Their guilt and their depravity ; their certain destruction, without pardon and renovation ; the grace of God in sending Christ Jesus to die for sinners ; his ability to save unto the uttermost ; and the freedom of his sal- vation to the most worthless and vile, are the truths which won the Gentiles to the obedience of Christ. It is this same Gospel which, at this hour, turns men " from darkness to light," and which is destined to *' carry the banners of the cross victorious round the globe." Those refined moral disquisitions which, under the garb of sermons, expel vital godliness from the Church, will never introduce it among the Heathen. Whoever hopes to gain them to the faith, must imitate the Apostle Paul. He must "preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumbling- block, and unto the Greeks foolishness ; but unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God." Adapted to every clime of the earth, to every stage of society, and to all descriptions of its members; unveiling their real misery, and bringing near the only remedy ; discovering at once their wants, and the means of supplying them ; and seconded by the energy of the quickening Spirit, this precious Gospel fastens on the conscience, melts the heart, thrills the very bones and marrow, and transforms the most obdurate rebel into a willing subject of Jesus Christ. When the " Lord gives testimony to the word of his grace," it shall have "free course and be glorified." No darkness is too dismal for it to dispel, no prejudices too obstinate to subdue. "Mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds," this very Gospel shall force its way through every physical and every moral difficulty ; and in his name and strength shall its mes- si'Ugers cast down imaginations and every high thought that liftoth itself up against the obedience of Christ. " Every valley HOPE FOR THE HEATHEN. 137 shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low : and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain : and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together : for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it." Come, then, my brethren, let us ascend the hill of God ; and, aided by the torch of the skies, let us look through the sur- rounding gloom to the glories that lie beyond. See ! an "angel flies through the midst of heaven, having the everlasting Gospel to preach to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people." The standard of Shiloh is reared ; his banner waves on high ; the great trumpet is blown ; the nations hear and gather unto him. From the east, from the west, from the north, from the south, they press into the kingdom. On the one hand is the plundering Arab ; on the other, the pitiless savage. Here, are the frozen children of the pole ; there, the sable tribes of Afric ; and yonder, the long-disinherited Jew steals silently to his Messiah, weeping as he goes. Hark ! the din of arms, and the tumult of battle, cease ; discord and war retreat back to hell ; and again that hymn of angels is heard below, " Glory to God in the highest, on earth peace, good-will towards men." The redeemed of the Lord raise their responsive song, " Now is come salvation and strength, and the kingdom of our Lord, and the power of his Christ." Brethren, it is no illusion ; it is " the sober certainty " of truth divine. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this. Hallelujah ! And now, dear brethren, shall not the first sentiment of our hearts be a sentiment of gratitude for the grace of God mani- fested unto us ? Let it never be forgotten that we, in our ancestors, were among the perishing outcasts. Yet to us hath the word of salvation been sent. Without the Gospel of Jesus, we should this day have been burning incense unto idols ; without the Gospel of Jesus, we should have been strangers to that blessed hope which gives to life its best relish, and takes from death both his terrors and his sting. O Christian, Christian, remember that if thou hast escaped the wrath to come, and art made " an heir of God, and a fellow-heir with Jesus Christ," it is to the praise of sovereign mercy ! Thy father was an Amorite, and 138 HOPE FOR THE heathen. thy mother a llittite ; and thou uiightcst have been left, witli the Amorites and Hittites, to die in thine iniquity. Yet thou livest ; livest unto God ; livest for glory ; and slialt never come iuto condemnation, and never taste of the second death. Thrice blessed Gospel, which " hath brought life and immortality to light !" Tlirice glorious grace, which hath constrained any of us to receive " the truth in the love thereof!" And thrice con- descending Saviour, who hath "washed us from our sins in his own blood, and luith made us Kings and Priests unto God and the Father !" 2. Since the Lord liath destroyed the veil that was spread over us, by revealing to us the great salvation, let all who have hitherto been indifferent about it be deeply impressed with the duty of embracing it witliout delay, and with the sin and danger of neglecting it. " It is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save" the chief of " sinners." On the authority of the most high God, that Gospel which we jjreacli tenders to 9/ou, my brethren, to every one of you, a free grant of this Saviour, and, in him, of eternal life ; and suffer me to add, with all solemnity, enjoins your acceptance of it at the peril of your souls. This is his conmaandment : this, there- fore, is //our duty, your immediate, your indispensable duty, — to believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ, that you may be saved. A refvisal is the most aggravated crime which you can possibly commit. For it not only approves, with deliber- ation, all your deeds of rebellion against the God of your inercies, bvit pours contempt on the riches of his grace, and throws scornfully away the only hope that ever has been, or ever shall be, proposed to guilty men. The experiment, there- fore, is not less dangerous than sinful. For if ye reject Christ Jesus, the Lord, '* there remaineth no more sacrifice for sin." And wlien Jehovah writeth up tlie people, he will count tliat ye " trampled under foot tlie Son of his love, and deemed the bk)od of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unlioly thing, and did despite unto the Spirit of grace." Think not that this is a matter of trifling moment. If the Gospel, which you hear from day to day, be not the instrument of your con- version to God, it shall be the occasion of your more di'eadful HOPE FOR THE HEATHEN. 139 condemnation. If not " the savour of life unto life," most certainly " the savour of death unto death." The Heathen will rise up in the judgment against you, and will condemn you ; for they never shared your means of salvation. The devils will rise up in the judgment against you, and will condemn you ; for no Saviour was provided for them, and therefore, whatever be their crimes, the rejection of a Mediator's blood will not be one of them. Now, then, " as though God did beseech you by us, we pray you, in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God." O that ye may know, in this your day, the " things that belong to your peace, before they be hid from your eyes !" 3. In the assurance that Jehovah will destroy, by the pre- valence of his Gospel, the veil spread over the nations, believers may see how little they have to fear for the existence or for the triumph of their religion. Infidelity, it is true, prospers, and hath assumed a most efii'ontful air, and a most imperious tone. Her threats are loud, and her expectations sanguine. But threats as loud have, more than once, been put to shame ; and expectations as sanguine, more than once, been blasted. Seventeen centuries ago did the adversaries of the Church predict her speedy down- fal ; but, unlike the Prophets of Jehovah, they proved to be the seers of a lie : she hath lived to see their rage perish, their monuments moulder, their names sink into oblivion. And such shall be the issue of her present conflict. She can meet with no assault more furious and formidable than those which she hath a thousand times met, and a thousand times foiled. " God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved : God shall help her, and that right early." Therefore, "no weapon that is formed against her shall prosper ; and every tongue that risetli against her in judgment she shall condemn." The temporary success of the Infidel should, indeed, confirm our faith ; because it verifies the Scriptures. Our Master, Christ, hath told us that this shall be one of the signs of his approach ; — " When the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth ?" Every Infidel under heaven is, then, a witness for Christianity, and carries in his forehead the proclamation that it is divine. Let him enjoy his exultation. Under a control which he can neither elude nor resist, he is really, though ignorantly, working 140 HOPE FOR THE HEATHEN. Lis own destruction, and tlic aggrandizement of Messiah. His progress shall be arrested, and liis boast confounded, whenever he shall have f)erformed the part allotted to him in the " deter- minate counsel and foreknowledge of God." In our patience, therefore, let us possess our souls. What though blasphemy display his columns in defiance to the armies of the living God ? What though disorder spread from pole to pole, and mingle the nations in universal uproar ? AVhat though the foundations be destroyed, their fabrics overturned, and earth quiver under the falling wreck ? That Jesus whom we worshij), sitteth King for ever. He " Rides in the wliirlwind, and directs the storm." Witli all power in heaven and earth, he will bring order out of confusion, and light out of darkness. In the moment of decision he will arise and plead his own cause. When he appears in glory to build up Zion, his enemies shall lick the very dust. The Infidel, to his astonishment, will find that in planting the seeds of unbelief he was planting laurels for the cross ; and the believer, to his unspeakable joy, that all the trials of the Church, and all the tumults of the world, were but preparative to the reign of righteousness " in the ages of peace." 4. The subject which has this evening occupied our attention, places in a strong light both the obligation which lies on Chris- tians to evangelize the Heathen, and their encouragement to attempt it. If we count it life eternal to know the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom he hath sent, our bowels must yearn over those who are acquainted with neither. But it would be more than unkind, and worse than reproachful, were our best sym- pathies to evaporate in empty words, or empt}^ wishes. We are called not merely to condolence, but to action. A number of the families yet under the veil are our neighbours. They border on our country ; they are accessible to our enterprise. Prompt and spirited measures for introducing among them the Gospel of Christ are our bounden duty. Our duty, — because we have the means of grace, and they have not. The unsearchable riches of Christ have been poured in u])on us, while they are languishing in spiritual poverty. HOPE FOR THE HEATHEN*. 141 They must address themselves for help to some more favoured than themselves ; and to whom with a more imperious claim than to us? The very difference of our situations creates us their debtors: the vicinity of our residence doubles the debt. The word and ordinances were bestowed upon us, not only that ourselves might be saved, but that we might minister to the salvation of others. Our possession, therefore, of the glorious Gospel, implies, in the very nature of the privilege, an obligation to extend it as far as possible. Freely ye have received, freely ye must give. This is the way in which the Gospel ever has been and ever must be diffused. Though the employment would dignify angels, God hath committed it to men. They who possess the treasure must impart it to others; and these again, to more ; till passing, " in earthen vessels," from people to people, and from clime to clime, it enrich the world. An attempt to monopolize, or, which amounts to the same thing, a refusal to circulate it, is treason against the law of the kingdom. And let it not, my brethren, be our dishonour and our crime, to betray both ingratitude to our Redeemer, and cruelty to our fellow-men, by declining to communicate to them the mercies which, through the instrumentality of others, he hath lavished upon us. With the superiority of our privileges, the genius of our profession conspires to challenge our interference in behalf of the Heathen. As Christians, we profess that the glory of the Lord Jesus is the object most dear to our hearts, and most wortliy of our pursuits. We profess to believe that the redemption of the soul is precious, and that, without the virtue of his blood, it ceaseth for ever. Is this a sincere profession? Can it at all consist with unwillingness to use every means in our power for diffusing, far and near, the sweet savour of his name? Must not a guilty blush crimson our faces, if we presume to pray, " Thy kingdom come," when we are conscious that we have done nothing, are doing nothing, endeavour to do nothing, for the promotion of his kingdom ? Do we, in very deed, believe that there is no salvation in any other; no " name given under heaven whereby sinners can be saved, but the name of Jesus Christ;" and yet look coolly on, while multitudes of the Heathen are perishing within our reach, nor ever stretch 142 HOPE FOR THE HEATHEN. out a hand for their relief? Yes, my brethren, a generous and persevering attempt to proclaim among them the glad tidings of a Saviour, is a tribute to the decency of our Christian pro- fession ; and it is a tribute which their most afflicting necessities forbid to be deferred any longer. If you heard of a number of human beings shut out from every sustenance, and falling, in rapid succession, the victims of famine, and knew, at the same time, that vigorous exertion might rescue the survivers, what anxiety would thrill every heart, what eagerness animate every countenance ! How would the hand pour forth its spontaneous benefactions! How speedily would messengers be dispatched with the staff of life ! Alas ! my brethren, we speak to you of a more terrible famine ; "not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the word of the Lord." We plead with you not for expiring bodies ; it is the spirit, the spirit that dies ! To tlie heart of the Christian be our appeal. Suppose thy Bible taken from thee; thy Sabbaths blotted from thy days; the mercies of the sanctuary fled; thy Father's fellowship denied; thy hopes, "full of immortality," vanished; the shadows of eternal night stre telling over thy soul. And if the thought be more intolerable than ten thoiisand deaths, think of yonder Pagans, without God, and without hope. Ah ! while the sentence is on my lips, they are passing, by hundreds, into that world unseen, with no renewing Spirit, and no atoning blood! "O that mine head were waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears," that I might weep unceas- ingly over the mighty ruin ! If any additional argument can be needed to render the proof of our duty, on this point, completely triumphant, that argument is supplied by the command of our Lord Jesus Christ. When he left this world, and went unto the Father, his parting- injunction to his followers was, " Go ye, and teach all nations." And that the precept is binding upon the whole Church to the end of time, the promise of his presence and support most clearly evinces, "Lo, I am witli you always, even unto the end of the world." The command, being express and full, leaves no room for evasion. It cither obligates all or obligates jwne. If we may be exempted without sin, the exemjition must extend to every Christian society under heaven; and tlien the Master's HOPE FOR TIIF. IIEATTIEN. 143 commandment would be a nullity, and lus promise have neither grace nor meaning. In this matter, therefore, my brethren, we are by no means guiltless. With a single exception,* all denominations of Christians among us have violated their faith to their Lord ; and are now chargeable with habitual disrespect to his authority. Instead of hastening, with generous emulation, to the aid of the Heathen, we have gone, one to his farm, and another to his merchandize : we have clamoured for the shibbo- leths of party, and have been unanimous (ah ! shameful unan- imity!) in declining, on carnal and frivolous excuses, that work of faith, that labour of love. " Now, therefore, thus saith the Lord, Consider your ways." If we persist in neglecting these Heathen, while we have the means of sending the Gospel to them, they shall die in their iniquity; but their blood may be reqviired at our hands. Let no one object difficulties.f In a question of plain duty. * The honour of this exception belongs to the Moravian brethren. f An objection to Missions among the Indians, or otlier savages, which many view as imanswerable, is, " that some considerable progress in civilization is previously necessary to prepare a people for the reception of Christianity. You must first make them men, say the patrons of this opinion, before you make them Christians. You must teach them to live in fixed habitations, to associate in villages, to cultivate the soil, and then you may hope that they will hear and understand when you unfold the sublime principles of the Gospel." * Plausible and popular as this objection is, it is equally unsupported by reason, by Scripture, or by fact. If the Gospel cannot succeed among the Indians, for example, the obstacle must be either in their understandings, or in their manner of life. The former opinion " supposes a wider difference between the imderstanding of the man of the woods and the man of the city, than what does, in fact, take place. The human mind is not, in any covmtry, below the reach of discipline and religious instruction. The American Indian, the Pacific Islander, and the African Negro, are shrewd men, whose intellectual capacity will not suffer in comparison with the uneducated classes of people on the Continent of Europe." f Why should it, since it is culture, and that alone, which destroys the level of abilities naturally equal ? Surely the Indian, whose necessities compel him not only to hunt and fish for his subsistence, but to be, in a great measure, his own artificer, as well as the guardian of his private and public right, must be superior, in point of general understanding, to those vast bodies of Europeans whose intelligence the division of labour has confined » Dr. Hardy's (of Edinburgh) Sermon before the Society, in Scotland, for propagating Religious Knowledge. Page 14. t Ibid. Page 15. 144 HOPE FOR THE HEATHEN* a believer is not to be deterred by difficulties. " Thus saith THE Lord," is his warrant: and as long as there is notliing too hard for Omnipotence, there is nothing to justify disobedience to a (letcachcd article of manufacture, or to the merely servile operations of agri- culture. Indeed, all the national transactions with the Indians show them to possess great acuteness, and no small share of, what learning cannot bestow, — common sense. How seldom will you find, I do not say among the vulgar, but among the polislied orders of society, better specimens of well formed idea, and of genuine eloquence, than are frequent in the Indian talks ? If, on the other hand, their manner of life be considered as presenting the decisive obstacle, this opinion supposes it much more difficult to alter outward habits than inward principles. Christians will not dispute that the Gospel can, and does, trans- form both the heart and the character; yet it is thought unable to overcome a propension to wandering from place to place. The plain meaning of the objection, therefore, is this, that some means more powerful than the Gospel nmst be applied to civilize the Indians, and prepare them for its reception. For if it be admitted that the Gospel can civilize, as well as save, the objection falls at once to the ground. But if its power to civilize be denied, while its power to save is admitted, it becomes the objectors to show the reason of this distinction, and also what those more eifectual means of civilization are. Be they what they may, since the Gospel is excluded, they must be merely human ; and then the principle of the objection turns out to be this, — that the wisdom of man is better adapted to civilize the Indians, than the wisdom of God. Further: the objection supposes that savages are to be civilized without any religious aid. For whatever arguments prove the utility, in this matter, of religion at all, conclude, with tenfold energy, in favour of the religion of Christ. But to neglect the religious principle, would be to neglect the most potent auxiliary which can be employed in managing human nature ; and to act in the spirit of that wise philosophy which would erect civil society upon the basis of Atheism. It would swell this note into a dissertation, to state the various considerations which militate against the idea of civilizing the Indians before we attempt to Christianize them. But granting this, for a moment, to be necessary, who shall eifect it ? Philosophers ? Merchants ? Politicians ? If we wait for them, the sun will expend his last light, and the business be unfinished. The Indians have had intercourse with the whites, in the concerns of trade and policy, nearly two hundred years, and most of them are as wild as ever. To put off^ evangelical Missions to them, till, in the ordinary course of tilings, they become civilized, is, therefore, equivalent to putting them off for ever. 2. If the opinion that the Gospel can succeed only among civilized people receives little comitenance from reason, it receives less from Scripture. No such restriction of its influence is contemplated in prophecy. Its miiversal reception is the subject of numberless predictions ; but they contain not a hint tliat the want of civilization shall be such a bar to its progress as is commonly imagined. On the contrary, it is exjiressly declared, that the most roving and untutored tribes shall rejoice in Messiah's salvation, even while tliey retain their unpolislicd characters and maimers. " Sing iiiilo tlie Lord a new song. Let the wilderness and the HOPE FOR THE HEATHEN. 145 or demur. Unbelief looks at opposition, and faints. Faith looks at the promise of God, and conquers. In the strength of cities thereof lift up their voice, the villages * that Kedar doth inhabit : let the inhabitants of the rock sing; let them shout from tlie top of the mountains.' Beyond all controversy, the general sense of the Prophet, in the words of that elegant scholar, Bishop Lowth, is, that "the most uncultivated countries, and the most rude and uncivilized people, shall confess and celebrate, with thanksgiving, the blessing of the knowledge of God graciously imparted to them." f And he particularizes, as an example, those wild Arabs, who, in every point of comparison, were as inaccessible to the Gospel as the American Indians. No such restriction was thought of by the Apostle Paul. He was a debtor not more to the Greeks than to the barbarians. He maintains, that in the body of Christ "there is neither Greek nor Jew, barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free.'' A position which evidently assumes, that barbarians or Scythians might be Christians no less than Jews or Greeks, bondmen or free. No such restriction is to be found in the commission which the Lord Jesus hatli left his Church. Thus it runs, '' Go and teach all nations. Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel to ever// creature," manifestly every human creature, for such only are the objects of the Gospel salvation. Not a syllable about civilization. And unless it can be proved that Indians, and other savages, are neither nations nor human creatures, or, if they are, that they are in no part of the world, the prejudice we are combating must be abandoned as in direct opposition to the will and the commandment of Christ. Such a restriction, moreover, elFaces the chief character and glory of the Gospel, namely, that "it is the power of God to salvation." Were it, what many take it to be, a system of mere moral suasion, of cool, philosophic argument, the case would be different, and the prejudice just. Indians and Hottentots are, indeed, rather rough materials for a religion cantly styled rational. But whoever knows anything of 7-eal Christianity, knows that the conversion of a sinner is the exclusive work of Jehovah the Spirit. It is this principle, and this alone, v/hich makes tlie preaching of the word to men " dead in trespasses and sins," a reasonable service. Now, to say that the Gospel cannot succeed among a people not previously civilized, is to say, either that it is 710I the jjower of God, or that tliere are some things too hard for Omnipotence. 3. This opinion, dissonant from reason and Scripture, is also contrary to fact. Was the world universally civilized when Christianity was promulged ; or did it prosper only in civilized countries ? What were the ancient Getulas, in Africa ; the Sarmatians and Scythians, in Europe ? If we can credit history, they were as remote from civilization as the American Indians. Yet among these, and other nations equally uncultivated and savage, had the Gospel, in the time of Tertullinn, established its reign.;!: And in Britain it penetrated into those places which Roman arts and arms had never been able to reach. § * Orients. t Translation of Isaiah. Notes, page IDS. 4to. t Tertull. adversus Judaos, cap. vii. § Inaccessa Romanis loca. Id. ib. A number of testimonies to tlie same facts are collected in that learned work of Grotius, Dc Vcritale Religionis ChrhtiantF. I. 140 HOPE FOR Tin: heathen. the promise, worm Jacob thrashes the mountahis, and beats them small as chaff. It is the way of the Holy One of Israel to order his servants on difficult duty, without showing them immediately how they are to succeed. Reserving to himself the manner and praise of their victory, he lays upon them a necessity of trusting his faithfulness ; and they never did and never shall trust it in vain. But why do I speak of difficulties ? The most formidable ones which must be encountered in a Mission to the Heathen have been overcome, and are daily overcome, by the firmness and intrepidity of carnal men. They can visit the savage tribes ; can cross their rivers, climb their mountains, traverse their forests ; can learn their language, conform to their manners, acquire their confidence : can patiently submit to hunger and cold, fatigue, and peril. For what? To decorate earthly science, or to collect the dust of lucre or the vapours of fame. They pretend to no divine command ; they think of no divine support. Yet we, who talk familiarly of both, turn pale at the mention of those obstacles which they continually surmount. Whence this resoluteness on the one side, and this timidity on the other? The uncourtly truth is, that the men of the world are in earnest and we are not. And what must they, what can they, conclude from our supineness ? Either that our religion is false, or that we do not believe it. How long ere this reproach be wiped away ? Duty urges, misery implores, thousands of precious This general assertion might be amplified in an interesting detail, and might receive additional force from the sanctions of modern history. But either would protract, to an immoderate length, a note already too long. We may, however, ask, why the Gospel should be unequal to the effects which it formerly produced, and of which its friends made their just and unanswerable boast ? Let us fairly risk the experiment, whether the cross of Christ has lost its influence on barbarian minds. Instead of waiting till civilization fit our Indian neighbours with the Gospel, let us try whether the Gospel will not be the most successful means of civilizing them. The grace of the Lord Jesus will do what philosophy and the arts will never do, — tame the wild heart: and there is no doubt of a corresponding alteration in the conduct. One Christian institution alone, the holy Sabbath, will go farther to civilize them in a year, than all liuman expedients in a century. Driven con- tinually before an extending frontier; tlieir manners debauched by the commerce of unprincipled whites; their numbers diminished by war and vice; the only alternative wliicli seems to be ofTered them, is.— conversion or extermination. HOPE FOR THE HEATHEN. 147 souls are the depending stake, and not a moment is to be lost. In the work before us, in the immortal work of evano-elizinf the Heathen, let us rouse each latent energy, and brave opposition like good soldiers of Jesus Christ. And certainly the encouragement is as great as the call is pressing. As far as man, with the lights of prophecy, can judge, the time is not very distant when God shall arise, and have mercy upon Zion. What means these dire convulsions? this crash of kingdoms? these torrents of blood ? He who can discover only the shock of human interests, or the madness of human passions, hath not penetrated beyond secondary and instrumental agencies. From tlie eminence of scriptural prediction, a humble believer overlooks the mole-hill of worldly politics, and descries the moving power, and the necessary effect, of the machinery of Providence. To him it is evident that Jehovah "shakes the nations," and is shaking them, that "the Desire of all nations may come." And hence his faith derives an establishment, and his hope an elevation, which earth is as unable to destroy as to create. Impending calamity, then, should stimulate, and not dishearten, the disciples of Jesus. The walls of Jerusalem are commonly built in troublous times. Nor hath the career of the Gospel been ever more ample and brilliant, than in the days which were memorable for "distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring; men's hearts failing them for fear, and looking after those things which were coming upon the earth." In these circumstances of disaster and dismay, the people of God are charged to look up, and lift up their heads, because their redemption draweth nigh, and the Son of man is coming with great power and glory. If these are, in any degree, the signs of the times, then 7iow is the time for the armies of Israel to gird every man his sword on his thigh, and follow David, his King, to conquest and glory. If from the sphere of politics we turn to that of religion, we should behold events which ought to convert every doubt into proof, and every wish into a vow. While the spirit of discord rages in the world, the spirit of union and of love descends upon the Church. Beyond the waters of the Atlantic, our brethren in the faith and patience of Jesus rejoice in his most benignant influences. Astonishing spectacle! the spell of party is broken, L 2 148 HOPE FOR THE HEATHEN. the antipathies of the cradle expire, tlie strife of ages ceases, and a sweeter harmony of heart and of measures, among Chris- tians, of different name, is produced in an h(;ur, than has been granted to the entreaties, the labours, the prayers of the best of men for centuries together! Do you demand the cause of this unanimity? It is the doing of the Lord. Its object? It is the extension of the Mediator's kingdoin. Its fruits? They are, already, embassies of peace to the Heathen. Great is the comj)any who have gone forth, with primitive zeal, to publish the word of life. The probability is that Christ crucified, that Christ whom our souls love, is, at this moment, preached to the barbarians of the southern seas; and that an evangelical Mission is on its way to the interior of Africa! Ye servants of the most high God, who show unto the Gentiles the way of salvation, all hail! May the Breaker go up before you ; even Jehovah on the head of you ; may he cheer you with his presence, fill you with his Spirit, clothe you with his blessing! And what more auspicious omen can we, my brethren, desire? When the work is actually begun, when it has received the most unequivocal tokens of divine approbation, shall we still linger, and tempt the Lord by asking any further signs ? To him who is not blind, the finger of his providence points; to him who is not deaf, the voice of his providence calls. Incitement of a more inij^erious kind would encroach on the province of miracle. If to these encouragements wo add the promise of our Master in heaven, reluctance will be cut ofiT from her last retreat. He hath said, that he will be with his people in their attempts to teach the nations. If, on a design so truly Christian, we go in }iis name, and in his strength, we have a rjcjht to expect his aid; nor is it possible that he should abandon us, or put us to shame. He hath bound himself, by the oath of his covenant, to beat down opposition before those who, obedient to his authority, constrained by his love, and confiding in his truth, enter upon arduous duty; and the glory of his crown is staked on the issue. With the Lord of hosts on our side, whom or what shall we fear? To him all dilKculties are alike. At his command the treasures of the carthling shall fiow in the service of the cross; and hundreds sh.all arise to solicit, as an enviable distinction, the HOPE FOR THE HEATHICN. 119 office of a Gospel herald to the savages. Clad in the armour of the sanctuary, and conducted by the " Captain of salvation," they shall go forth " conquering and to conquer." Ere his promise fail, the mountains shall sink, the valleys rise, the rivers be driven back to their sources, and ocean again divide his waters. Who, then, are on the Lox'd's side? Who prefer the salvation of men above their chiefest joys? Who burn to hide the dishonour of the past in the glory of the future, and aspire to the dignity of being fellow-vv^orkers with God ? Let them, with one heart and one soul, in the faith of the Gospel, In the good-will of brethren, in the bowels of Jesus Christ, forthwith pledge themselves to each other, to those apostolical believers beyond the sea, to the Heathen who are perishing for lack of vision, that they will unite their efforts to fill the dark places of the land with the light of God's salvation. Should we succeed in the conversion of a single Pagan, the acquisition would infinitely repay our expenditure and our toil. For our Lord himself hath pronounced the wdiole world, in comparison with one soul, to be a thing of nought. But O, my brethren, who shall count the number, or define the extent, or limit the duration, of those blessings which our exertions may be instrumental in imparting to the Heathen? Who shall stop the river of life in its course through their parched soil? Most transporting thought ! that thousands of believers whom we shall never see in the flesh, and tens of thousands who shall come into being when we are gathered unto our fathers, may trace their knowledge of the Saviour to the execution of that plan in virtue of which I address you this evening! and that its magnificent result may never be fully disclosed, till the mystery of Providence be finished, the election of grace brought in, and the shout of final redemption thunder through the temple of God! 150 CONCERN roil THE DISCOURSE IX. CONCERN FOR THE SPIRITUAL WANTS OF MEN.* BY THE REV. EDWARD PAYSON, D.D. PORTLAND, MAINE. PiriLippiANS ii. 20. " 1 have no man like-minded, who will naturally care for your state." The rare and exalted character which St. Paid here sketches at a single stroke, belongs to Timothy. The passage which contains it appears to have been written at a time when the Apostle was particularly solicitous to obtain correct information respecting the state of the Philippian Chiu'ch. He was unable to visit Philippi himself. He could not immediately send Tim- othy ; and among the persons then around him, there was no other on whose concern for the welfare of the Church he could rely. This passage suggests several remarks which have a direct and imjDortant bearing upon the object of the present discourse. I. The first remark suggested by the passage is, That the SITUATION OF MANKIND, IN A MORAL AND RELIGIOUS VIEW, IS SUCH AS OUGHT TO AWAKEN THE UNAFFECTED CONCERN OF GOOD MEN. This proposition is, I conceive, fairly deducible from our text. The Apostle evidently supposed it to be necessary that some one should care for the state of the Philippian Church. Yet neither in this Epistle, nor elsewhere, does he intimate that there was anything peculiar in their situation, which rendered it more necessary to care for them than for others. On the contrary, that Church appears to have been at this time in a remarkably flourishing state. It was furnished, as we learn from the introduction to the Epistle, with Pastors Preached a short time previous to ihe Author's triumphant death. SPIRITUAL WANTS OF MEN. 151 and subordinate officers. Of course, it enjoyed all tlie means of grace. Its members bad recently given the Apostle proofs of their affectionate remembrance, and their liberality, by sending him pecuniary supplies; and he expresses a strong persuasion that God had begun a good work in them, and that he would perform it unto the day of Jesus Christ. Now if such a Church, if persons professedly and hopefully pious, favoured with the enjoyment of Christian privileges, and disposed to improve them, still needed some one to care for their state, how impe- riously does the situation of a very large proportion of our fellow-beings call for attention and concern ? If it were neces- sary to corroborate this remark, it might easily be done. From the immense mass of information which has been collected and embodied by a zealous few, who care for the state of perishing men, it would be easy to select a multitude of the most alarming facts, illustrative of the moral and religious situation of the world; facts sufficient to convince insensibility itself of the necessity of vigorous exertion, and to rouse the most torpid into activity. But can it be necessary to do this, after sucli a flood of light has been poured upon the situation of the dark places of the earth; bringing afresh to our view the fact long known, but little regarded, that they are filled, not with the habitations only, but with the temples and altars, of cruelty and lust? Must we again lead you through the recently explored and almost immeasurable wilds of Paganism ; again measure the length and breadth of this Arabian Desert of the moral world ; again show you six hundred millions of immortal beings sitting in the darkness and shadow of death; and place before you the new-born infant sacrificed, or exposed by its parents; the widow's funeral pile; the blood-stained car of Juggernaut; with other sickening scenes from which even unsanctified nature recoils ? Or, escaping from those regions of moral death to the shores of our own comparatively favoured land, must we repeat the calls which have so often summoned you to survey the waste places of her Zion, and to explore her moral wildernesses ? Must we repeat the melancholy truth, that a large proportion of our countrymen are destitute of stated religious instruction, and tJiat in consequence of the unexampled increase of our popu- 152 CONCERN FOR THE lation, tliis deficiency is annually increasing, notwithstanding all the exertions which are made to supply it ? With these facts, and wdth the Bible before us, can any thing farther be requisite to prove that the religious state of a very large proportion of mankind is such as demands the most active, unremitting concern ? If this be not the case, why has the all- wise God lavished such a profusion of care upon us ? Why did he send his Son into the world ? Why did his Son send forth disciples ? Why direct them to pray the Lord of the harvest, that labourers might be sent forth into his harvest ? Why was it his last command; — "Go into all the Vvorld, and preach the Gospel to every creature ? " Why did his first gift, after his ascension to heaven, consist of Apostles, Prophets, Evangelists, Pastors and teachers, sent expressly to care, to watch, for the souls of men ? Why did those Apostles ordain Elders in every city ? Why charge those to whom they left the care of the Churches to commit the things they had received to faithful men, who should be able to teach others also ? Has all this provision for the spiritual wants of men ceased to be necessary ? Has such a change taken place in their character and condition, that watchmen are no longer needed? Are the enemies which once opposed their salvation dead, or asleep, or converted to friends ? Docs the broad road no longer lead to destruction? Are the fires of hell extinguished? Are the ghn-ies of heaven departed ? Or, has the long expected day arrived in which it is no longer necessary to "teach every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord?" No, my brethren, we hav^e around us but too many proofs that this is not the case. You well know that the moral state of our race is still essentially the same as in the days of the Apostles: that the dangers to which they are exposed are still as great, and the enemies that oppose their salvation as nu- merous, as artful, and as powerful as ever: and that, tiicrefore, they still need faithful watchmen to care for their souls. Has not experience taught you, my brethren, that such watchmen are necessary for yourselves ? If so, remember, they are no less necessary to others. And if they are thus necessary, then care and exertion arc requisite to [)rovide them. J)y uhom ^liall SPIRITUAL WANTS OF MEN. 153 this care be exercised, this exertion made ? Will you reply, by those whose necessities require them ? And is it then needful to remind you that by them it will never be done ? Have not observa- tion and experience taught you, that men are never more insensible to their spiritual wants, than when those wants are most numerous and pressing? This, this is the circumstance which, above all others, renders it necessary to care' for the spiritual state of mankind. They will not ; no, they will not care for themselves. When would the Son of God have made his appearance in our world, had he waited till its prayers drew him down? When would he have sent his Apostles to the Heathen, had he waited till they solicited such a favour? And when, O Christian, would the Spirit of God have visited your heart, had he waited till it became spontaneously desirous of his presence ? Why then should we expect the present inhabitants of the world to be more spiritually wise, more concerned for their eternal interests, than former generations, or than we ourselves have been? Like the merciful God, we must have compassion on those who have no compassion on themselves, and listen to the speechless cry of their necessities. But why do I insist on this obvious truth ? From many of the destitute an imploring cry is already heard. Wakened by the still small voice of God, or by the occasional warning of some transient messenger of the cross, they are becoming sensible of their wants, and beseech us to care fox them. Hundreds and thousands would at this moment receive with gratitude and joy the fragments, the crumbs, of your spiritual repasts. They cry for the bread of life, but there is none to break it to them. To provide a supply for themselves is beyond their power. And even if it were not so, — -if all the destitute of our own country and in the world possessed the disposition and the ability to care effectually for themselves, — who is to care for posterity, for your posterity ? Who is to make the present exertions which are necessar}^ to preserve them from suffering a famine of the word of God? Of this, chimerical as the apprehension may appear, tliere is no small nor doubtful danger. Onlv suffer things to pursue their present course, and it is certain that your descendants, at no very distant day, will experience the fulfilment of that awful threatening; "Behold 154 CONCERN FOR THE the days shall come, saith the I^ord, that I will send a famine upon the land; not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but a famine of hearing the word of the Lord." You can, in some faint degree, conceive of the miseries attendant upon a famine of bread, though the unmerited goodness of God has never permitted you to witness them. But what are these in comparison with the evils occasioned by a famine of the bread of life? As far inferior, as is corporeal pain to mental anguish; as is the death of the body to that of the soul; as are a few days of suffering to an eternity of wretchedness. To witness these evils, is to see the moral wilderness, with all its briars and thorns, its wild beasts and noxious reptiles, rapidly encroaching upon the vineyard of God. It is to see our golden candlesticks successively removed out of their places, and one burning and shining light after another extinguished ; w^hile none are set up in their room to dispel the hourly increasing darkness. It is to see the ways of Zion mourn because few come to her solemn feasts ; the houses of God decaying, shut up, or desecrated ; the temples of vice multiplying ; the barriers which protect the sanctity of the Sabbath prostrated; the Bible cast aside and forgotten as a useless book; the exertions of religious and charitable institutions suspended, and even their existence terminated; the few remaining disciples of Jesus destitute of strength, of activity, and almost of life, constantly dimin- ishing in number ; the rising generation growing up without God and wdthout hope ; and darkness which may be felt overspreading the land; while an insulted God, looking down from above, connnands the clouds to rain no rain upon it, and pronounces it a spot rejected, and nigh unto cursing, whose end is to be burned. Such are some of the effects which result from a famine of the word of God; such the evils under which a large proportion of our own country and of the world now groans. If we wish either to remove this most terrible of God's judg- ments from those who are now suffering it, or to avert it from our posterity, innnediate and vigorous exertion is indispensably necessary. Will any one reply. These apprehensions are groiuidless ? It is impossible that in our country, or at least in the most highly favoured parts of it, the gloomy scenes which have been SPIRITUAL WANTS OF MEN. 155 portrayed should ever be realized ? My brethren, let no one be too confident of this. Must I remind you that every spot occupied by the Church on earth is a spot which, like the territory of Holland, has been won from an ocean ; and that nothing but an adequate mound can prevent that ocean from reclaiming what it has lost? This mound consists, under God, in a faithful and well educated Christian ministry. Remove this, or neglect to repair the breaches which are constantly making in it, and you will soon see the billows, whose rage it even now scarcely restrains, bursting upon you with irresistible violence, and sweeping away the labours of ages in a day. Where are now the seven churches of Asia, which rose and smiled like so many verdant islands amid the surrounding waves ? Go to Asia, or take up the glass of history, and see. II. A second remark, suggested by our text, is this : Men WHO PROPERLY CARE FOR THE SPIRITUAL STATE OF THEIR FELLOW-BEINGS ARE RARELY TO BE FOUND. This was the case in the days of St. Paul. It has been so ever since ; and, we are constrained to add, it is so still ; though, blessed be God, in a less degree than formerly. Will any one attempt to disprove this assertion by referring to the numerous societies which have been formed, to the sums which are collected, to the zeal and activity which are displayed, for the promotion of almost every religious object? To every thing which can be urged of this natvire, I would allow its full weight. That much has been done, that much is now doing, to meliorate the moral condition of man, is readily acknowledged. Still there exists, I conceive, ample foundation for the remark, that men who are suitably concerned for the spiritual condition of their fellow-beings are very rarely to be found. It must be re- collected that warmth and coldness are relative terms, no less in the spiritual than in the natural world. Our climate might be thought warm by a visiter from Nova-Zembla; but how would it appear to a native of the torrid zone? So to us, natives of this frozen world, the present temperature of our spiritual climate may appear sufficiently high. But how would it appear to an inhabitant of heaven, were he condemned to reside among us ? How would it appear to our benevolent Saviour, should lie revisit the earth? Would he not find it intolerably chilling? 15G CONCERN FOR THE Would lie not regard the wannest love, the most fervent zeal, which are to be found among us, as comparatively cold ? Would he not tell us that in comparison with what ought to have been done, almost nothing has been done ? And, to allude to a term employed by ovir translators in the text, how small a portion of that which is done appears to be done naturally? How much of the concern displayed for the destitute is artificial; how much of it is forced into action; what exertions, what importunities, what appeals to every principle of our nature are required to procure even the most scanty supply for their necessities! Alas! my brethren, were the fervent Apostle of the Gentiles now on earth, labouring, as he was wont for their salvation, would he not too often have occasion to address them in the language before us, — " I have no man who will naturally care for your state ? " III. It ^^^ll not perhaps be departing from our subject, certainly not from our object, to notice some of the principal CAUSES OF THIS UNCONCERN : for a knowledge of the causes of existing evils is often necessary to their removal. Of these causes, one is an inordinate and criminal self-love. To this cause the Apostle ascribed the deficiency of which he complained. "All," says he, " seek their own, not the things which are Jesus Christ's." It is needless to remark, that this cause still operates with undiminished force. It is frost in the heart, and palsy in the hand. It draws around us a magic circle, beyond which our aiiections and exertions with difficulty pass. It presents to our eye a false glass, through which our own interests ap])ear immeasurably important, and the interests of others comparatively trifling. It is ever suggesting some scheme of self-gratification, or self-aggrandizement, which engrosses, and exhausts the vigour of the soul, and leaves nothing but spiritless languor for plans of benevolence. In a word, it prom2)ts us to care so much for ourselves, that we find little leisure or disposition to care for others. This cause, however, prevalent and operative as it is, does not alone appear sufficient to produce all the evils of which we complain. It does not, except in some few instances, prevent us from relieving the wants of the body. Why, then, should it prevent us from relieving the far more pressing wants of the soul ? SPIRITUAL WANTS OF MEN. 157 The most selfish individual among us would scarcely suffer a beggar to famish and expire at his gate. Yet how many, who are by no means slaves to avarice, suffer their immortal fellow-beings, while within hearing of their cries, to expire under the pressure of spiritual famine ! Inordinate self-love, then, however pre- valent, is not alone sviflicient to account for the existinsr indifference to the religious interests of mankind. We must seek a still more general and operative cause ; and such a cause we may find in the prevalence of unbelief. We do not, my brethren, properly believe the account which inspiration gives us of the spiritual state of mankind. Still less do we believe its awful descriptions of the fate of those who die in their sins. Did we fully credit the declarations of God, relative to these subjects; did we, like the Apostle, "know the terrors of the Lord; " concern for the spiritual state of sinful men would be one of our main-springs of action ; and to effect their sal- vation would be the great object of our exertions. Were such a belief universally prevalent in Christian countries, it would engage their whole population in one grand, combined effort to rescue slaves of ignorance and depravity from impending ruin. Comjiaratively speaking, no tears would then be shed for merely temporal calamities ; for they would be regarded as light afflictions, and not worthy to be compared with that far more exceeding and eternal weight of wretchedness, which must overwhelm the impenitent. Natural sympathy alone would then do more for the salvation of mankind, than Christian benevolence has ever done since the days of the Apostles. This is not mere conjecture ; it is a conclusion foimded on facts. For, look at the scenes which were exhibited in Europe, during those dark ages when men really believed the dogmas and superstitions of Papal Rome. See the churches which were erected, the convents which were endowed, the treasures which were la\'ished, the numberless masses which were said, and the almost endless succession of prayers which were offered, for redeeming departed souls from the purgatorial miseries they were supposed to be suffering. Had all the exertions thus made, to redeem sinners from a fancied purgatory, been em- ployed, under the direction of an enlightened zeal, in arresting their progress to a real hell, every nation on earth would now 158 CONCERN FOR THE be enjoying the benefits of a preached Gospel, and the Bible would be in the hands of every individual of our race. And why is this? Why has superstition possessed, apparently, greater power to touch the heart and open the hand, tlian faith has had, at least in these latter ages of the Church ? Because, I answer, our faith is so weak that it scarcely deserves the name. Because the Papists did, in one sense, believe the existence of a purga- tory; and we do not, or act as if we did not, really believe the existence of a hell. Brethren, these things ought not so to be. As far as the sufferings which we believe to await impenitent sinners beyond the grave, surpass in magnitude and duration those fancied sufferings which excited the compassion, and called forth the exertions, of Papal devotees ; so far ought we to surpass them in our efforts : and so far we should surpass them, did we properly believe the declarations of eternal truth. We should then feel, that he who prevents but one innnortal from incurring those sufferings, takes more from the mass of human misery, and adds more to the sum of human happiness, than would he who should banish sorrow from the earth, and secure the highest temporal felicity of the whole human race. It must, however, be acknowledged that there is another cause of supineness and inaction, which, perhaps, affects those most powerfully who are least affected by the causes mentioned above ; and that is, despondency. When the persons to whom we now refer, contemplate the situation and prospects of sinful men, as portrayed by the pencil of inspiration ; when they survey the mighty mass of human wretchedness, together with the apparently insurmountable obstacles which oppose its dimi- nution, and the many powerful causes which are ever operatmg to increase it ; they are overwhelmed, crushed, and paralysed. They feel like men required to empty the ocean by the daily removal of a drop, while a thousand rivers are incessantly pouring into its bosom. All that their utmost exertions can effect, appears so much like nothing, that they almost resolve to attempt nothing, and to say that nothing can be done. It appears, then, that the three great causes, to whose in- fluence all our vniconcern for the spiritual wants and miseries of mankind is to be ascribed, are seljishness, unhelh'f, and dcspond- oirij. And ])y which of these, my hearers, permit me to ask, SPIRITUAL WANTS OF MEN. 159 can 3^011 consent to be influenced ? Shall it be selfishness ? Is any one willing to acknowledge, even to himself, that he is controlled by a principle so base ? Is any one prepared to say as follows : — " I renounce all pretensions to that charity which seeketh not her own ; all pretensions to any union of feeling with the benevolent Redeemer, or any similarity of character to those whom he approves and rewards ; and when the great Husbandman gathers in the immortal harvest, it shall not be said, that any of the seed which produced it was sown by my hand, or watered by my tears ? " If this language appears too shocking to be adopted, will any one say, " Selfishness shall not control, but it shall counsel, me ; it shall not entirely repress, but it shall limit, my exertions ? It shall preserve me from the dangers into which a too ardent charity might plunge me, and prevent its sacred flame from rising too high?" My brethren, if any of you are in danger of loving your neighbour more than yourselves, of surpassing in benevolence the Son of God, or even of exceeding his Apostles, it may perhaps be necessary to ask the advice of this base counsellor. But if no such danger exists, its advice may safely be dispensed with. And if no one is prepared to utter such sentiments in language, let no one express them in action. Shall we, then, yield ourselves to the palsying influence of unbelief? Shall we plead a disbelief of God's declarations, as an excuse for disobeying his commands ? Even if we dis- believe, or explain away, the declarations of Scripture relative to the present and future state of sinners, how shall we evade the no less plain and forcible language oi facts which it records. The plain, the undeniable, inference from all these facts is, that the situation of mankind witliout a Saviour, without a know- ledge of the Gospel, is unspeakably dangerous. Nor can this inference be avoided ; unless we assert, that neither the Apostles, nor our Saviovir himself, knew anything of the matter. Unless we are prepared to assert this, we must, with the Apostle, judge, "that since one died for all, then were all dead;" that if Christ died to redeem men, from the " curse of the law,", from the " wrath to come," from the " power of sin," and from " spiritual wickedness in high places ; " then, to all these evils and dangers are men exposed. IGO CONCKRN FOR THE Yielding to tlie impressive language of these facts, and escaping from the insensihility of unbelief, shall we ..then plunge into the dead sea of despondency ? Believing- the threatenings, shall we inconsistently disbelieve the promises, of revelation, and forget the faithfulness and omnii)otence of Him who has said to his Son, " I will give thee the Heathrpn for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth jfor thy possession ? " Could a Roman exhort his countrymen.;>iot to despair of the commonwealth.-,, and shall we despair ^of the / kingdom of Christ, supportexl and defended as it is by the j : eternal purpose and oath of Jehovah? We talk of difficulties ; | but what are difficulties to Omnipotence ; to Him who speaks- \ and it is done? Away, then, with every desponding thought: and while you contemplate a world in wickedness, remember who hath said, " The knowledge of the Lord shall fill the earth, as the waters cover the seas." And now, who is prepared to deny that the principles \vhich lead to this melancholy unconcern for the spiritual wants of men, are base, sinful, and utterly unworthy of rational, social beings? Will you not, then, by displaying an enlightened, active, and liberal concern for your destitute fellow-men, evince your freedom from the power of such principles ; and efficiently patronize the Society * in whose behalf 1 address you ? With the great object of this Society you are already ac- quainted. By educating pious, indigent youth, of promising talents, for the Gospel ministry, it seeks to supply the melancholy and alarming deficiency of religious teachers which exists in our own country, and in the w^orld. Including among its friends and supporters. Christians of different religious denominations, it aims at nothing less tlian furnishing all our destitute fellow-men, at home and abroad, with a well-educated and pious ministry. Without derogating from the imjjortance of other benevolent objects which claim and receive the support of the friends of religion and mankind, it may be said with truth, that the object of this Society is second in importance to no other. Its success is essential to the success of every other object of a religious nature. The exertions of Missionary * The American Education Society for the training of Missionary Canilidates. SPIRITUAL WANTS OF MEN. 161 societies must be circumscribed and paralysed, unless suitable men can be obtained to be employed as Missionaries. The distribution of the Bible will eftect but a comparatively small part of the good which it is designed and calculated to produce, if its contents are not explained by able and faithful interpreters, giving voice and utterance to its solemn truths, and pressing them upon the heart and conscience. Already are the Scriptures in the hands of thousands, who, were they asked in the words of Philip to the Ethiopian nobleman, " Understandest thou what thou readest ? " would be constrained to reply with him, " How can we, except some one should guide us ? " It is by hearing, rather than by reading the word, that faith comes. It is by the "foolishness of preaching, that it pleases God to save them that believe." But "how can they hear without a Preacher? and how can they preach except they be sent?" And who is to send them, if we do not? By educating pious, indigent youth for the ministry, we shall instrumentally send many into the vineyard of our Lord, who, without our assistance, will never enter it. We shall aid Bible and Missionary societies, by furnishing the former with skilful interpreters, and the latter with faithful labourers. In a word, we shall put in motion the means which God has aj)pointed for the salvation of men; means which he will therefore crown with success. And now, my brethren, what will you say ? or rather, what will you do ? I am aware that the calls upon your liberality are many and great ; but they are calls which it seems impossible to disregard. They are the calls of immortal beings, perishing for want of the assistance which it is in your power to afford. They are the expiring, agonizing calls of a drowning world : a world deluged by a flood of ignorance and misery, far more terrible than all the waters of Noah. Shall those, then, whom the arm of omnipotent grace has snatched from the fatal flood, rest unconcerned while millions are sinking around. "If thou forbear to deliver them that are drawn unto death, — if thou sayest, Behold, we knew it not ; doth not he that pondereth the heart consider it? and he that keepeth thy soul, doth he not know it ? and shall not he render to every man according to his works?" My brethren, thousands of your countrymen, and millions of your fellow-men, are drawn unto death, and you M 162 CONCERN FOR TIIL cannot even say, " Behold, we knew it not." If, then, we refuse to care for their state, will not He vyho pondereth the heart consider, and He that keepeth the soul, will not He know it? and as we have refused to deliver the soul of our brother, A\dll He not refuse to keep our souls ? Has not the voice of inspir- ation said, " Whoso hath this world's goods, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him ? " Much more, then, may we conclude that the love of God never entered the heart of him who, seeing his brother ready to perish for ever, and possessing the means of affording relief, refuses to afford it. But I will not suppose that you need to be urged by motives of this nature. Appealing to your compassion, rather than to your fears, I will ask. If a Saviour had never been provided for the world, and could wealth or suffering procure such a blessing, what, with your present views of the spiritual state of mankind, would you give, what would you suffer, to purchase it for them ; to draw down an all- sufficient Saviour from heaven, with pardon, and peace, and salvation in his hands? Would any sacrifices, any sufferings, appear too great for the attainment of such an object? My brethren, without making great sacrifices, without any personal sufferings, you can, in an important sense, do this. The situation of those who are destitute of the Gospel is in effect the same as if a Saviour had never been revealed. In vain, as it resjjects them, have the glad tidings of great joy reached our world. In vain have life and immortality been brought to light, and the gates of heaven opened. Of these wonders of redeeming love, of the only name given under heaven whereby men can be saved, they have never heard. He, then, who shall send them the Gospel, will instrvimentally provide for them a Saviour, snatch them from perdition, and give them life and immortality. He who restores sight to one that is blind, not only gives him eyes, but does in effect give him the luminaries of heaven, the colours of which adorn the earth, the beauties of nature and of art ; in a word, all the benefits which the faculty of seeing imparts. So he who sends the Gospel to the destitute, gives them Christ, gives tluni a Saviour, and all the blessings which that Saviour has SPIRITUAL WANTS OF MEN. 163 purchased. O what gifts, what blessings, are these to be dis- pensed with a mortal hand. Wlio will not spring forward with eagerness to share the privilege of dispensing such treasures? Who will not thank that God who thus allows us to imitate himself? to share with him the happiness of doing infinite good? Compared with this privilege, even the miraculous powers of the Apostles, which gave sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, and life to the dead, shrink into insignificance. We may place a Saviour, a heaven, within the reach, not of one only, but of thousands. It may be fairly presumed, that every pious, indigent youth who is educated for the ministry, will preach the Gospel to at least a thousand souls. The question, then, whether a pious young man shall be prepared for the ministry, whether the means necessary for his preparation shall be afforded, comes to this; — Shall a thousand immortal souls be favoured with the Gospel, or possibly live, and die, and perish without it ? What a question is this for the consideration of accountable beings ! Is there, can there be, any doubt respecting the proper answer? Again : reasoning from what has taken place within a few years, it is not perhaps too much to suppose that every j)ious and well-educated youth who is introduced into the sacred ministry, will be instrumental in the conversion and salvation of one hundred persons. These, in their turn, will prove instru- ments of converting and saving others ; some of whom may also become Ministers, and preach the Gospel to thousands after we are laid in dust. Thus the happy effects produced by one whom we assist to educate, like a river widening as it runs, will flow down to posterity, and produce consequences which finite minds cannot estimate. Compared with such results, how worthless, how insignificant, does wealth appear! And yet, when employed in bringing about these results, how un- speakable is its value ! Viewed in this light, it is the most valuable of all temporal gifts which Providence bestows : more valuable even than intellectual talents, or literary acquirements ; since he who possesses it may call into the service of Christ greater talents than any one man ever possessed. He may exert a power over minds little less than creative. He may call from the poverty and obscurity in w^hich it now lies, the most M 2 164 CONCERN Foil THK SPIRITUAL WANTS OF MEN. vigorous intellect ; may develop its energies ; cause its fciculties to expand and brighten ; and send it forth to promote, beyond all calculation, the glory of God, and the happiness of men ; he may thus prepare it to shine hereafter, with a great multitude of others, " as the brightness of the firmament, and as the stars for ever and ever." What, my hearers, is the building of a palace, a pyramid, or a city, in comparison with the erection of such a pillar as this in the temple of our God above ? Learn then, O learn, ye wealthy, the true value of riches ! Leam it at the foot of Ennnanuel's cross. Learn it of Him to whose words we have been attending ; and who by that cross was crucified to the world, and the world to him. Were he now on earth, and possessed of your wealth, to what end would he apply it? But the example is too bright for the imitation, almost too dazzling even for the eye of this cool, calculating age. Christianity, at least as she exists in our hearts, seems to feel, in common with men, the contracting influence of old age, and to have lost the sympathetic, compassionate ardour which warmed her youthful bosom. O ! to see her once more in her pristine form, adorned with the beauty, and strong with the vigour, of renovated youth ; breathing that fervent benevolence which she inspired when she first descended from the bosom of Lifinite Love ; when not wealth, but blood, was the price paid for the privilege of communicating her blessings to an un- grateful world ; and when that price was paid by her disciples more cheerfully than a small portion of wealth is given now ! Blessed be God, some symptoms of this desirable renovation begin to appear. Christianity, as it exists at the present day, resembles, in some faint degree, Christianity as it glowed in the breasts of Apostles and martyrs. But, brethren, let us strive to make the resemblance more perfect. Let us convince mankind that our heaven-born religion still glows with the ardour of youth ; still breathes the angelic sentiment, " Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good-will toward men." And let us never forget, that our approximation to the standard of primitive Christianity must bo estimated by the degree in which we make Christ, and his cause, all and in all, and manifest a readiness to do all things, to sufler all tilings, and to part with all things, for his sake. 1G,> DISCOURSE X. THE OBLIGATION OF CHRISTIANS TO PROMOTE THE EXTENSION OF CHRIST'S KINGDOM. BY THE REV. BEllIAH GREEN, PROFESSOR OF BIBLICAL LITEKATURE IN THE WESTERN RESERVE COLLEGE, OHIO. Romans xiv. 7, 8. . " " For none of us liveth to himself, and no man dietli to himself. For whether we live, we live unto the Lord ; and whether we die, we die unto the Lord: whether we live therefore, or die, we are the Lord's." This passage contains a comprehensive description of Chris- tian obligation and character. The good man refuses to "live unto himself." In all his designs and movements he feels bound to act " with an eye single" to the glory of the Saviour and the extension of his kingdom. Thus briefly explained, this 2)assage lays the foundation for the following statement, which it is my present purpose to illustrate and apply : The friends of the Lord Jesus OUGHT TO DEVOTE THEMSELVES, WITHOUT THE SLIGHTEST HESITATION OR THE LEAST RESERVE, TO THE SINGLE OBJECT OF STRENGTHENING THE INTERESTS AND EXTENDING THE LIMITS OF THE CHRISTIAN Church. A Construction is often put upon the obligations asserted in this statement, which makes them rest easy upon the conscience of the lax professor. This construction may be thus given : — We ought in our hearts to give up ourselves, all we are and all we have, to the Saviour, with the resolution, if God requires, actually to make the surrender. Thus many a professed Christian is ready to rejoice that he has fallen upon better times than those in which others have been led to prison and to death. He rejoices, that besides the demands which his religious profession has upon him, he is permitted to have another department of interest and exer- tion. After devoting a small portion of his income to the 16G THE OBLIGATION OF CHRISTIANS TO PROMOTE support of Christian institutions at home and abroad, he is hap2)y to think that he may expend his strength in enlarging his possessions, in securing the luxuries and elegancies of life, and in accumulating an inheritance for his children. This is a construction of the Christian's obligations as mischievous as it is false. It has furnished a pillow on wliich not a few professed disciples lay their heads in deep slumber, while the perils of perdition thicken around them. They are invited to con- template their obligations under a very different construction. According to this, they ought actually to devote themselves, in the strictest sense of the thrilling terms; they ought actually to devote themselves, " arm and soid," to the interests of the Cluu'ch. Tlie meaning of this language I hope to place beyond the reach of misapprehension. I know a man belonging to a class which is called indigent. For the support of his growing family he depends, under God, upon his daily industry. He is a Christian. And when at the Missionary meeting he threw a dollar into the treasury of the Lord, he thus explained the grounds on which he proceeded : — " All I am, and all I have, I have joyfully devoted to Him who redeemed me with his blood. I am under the most sacred obligations to do what I cun to promote his kingdom. From these obligations I cannot, would not, break away. I cannot help, then, tasking my ingenuity, and urging my powers to the utmost, to furnish my proportion of the means of diffusing far and wide the sweet influence of Christian truth. What that proportion is, it may help me to determine, to reflect upon the exertions I certainly should make to redeem a child from servitude. Poor as I am, I know full well that, by practising the most wakeful industry and the most rigid economy, I should be able, besides supporting my family, to raise a considerable sum every year far such an object. And, O ! can I do less to save a world, weltering in its own blood, from the horrors of eternal death ? " Another man I know, who has a full competence. He also is a Christian. He thinks it not enough to maintain among his fellow-men a reputable profession. " Bought with a price," how can he think himself his own? Whatever he is and has, he resolves shall be sacred to the Saviour. In the general outline THE EXTENSION OF CHRIST's KINGDOM. 167 and minute details of business he feels himself bound, contin- ually, to act with a direct and honest reference to the welfare of the Church. When he sows and when he reaps liis fields ; whenever he goes a journey, and whenever he makes a contract ; in the style of his living, and in the education of his children ; he is governed in every movement by strong desires to extend the kingdom of the Saviour. For this he "lives." Here is the spring of his activity, the source of his enjoy- ment. The other man, you see, is a "ivealthy disciple." He is one of the few who, in despite of the obstacles thrown in the rich man's course, is making progress in the " strait and narrow way." A happy exposition of the principles on which, as a Christian, he feels bound to act, you may find in a short address once made to his collected family. "It is my distiiignished privilege," he said, " to be a Christian. Alas ! how few who are held by the same embarrassments, rejoice in the same hopes! May I never for a moment cease to feel the peculiar obligations under which discriminating grace has placed me ! What return can I make, as a proper expression of gratitude and love to my gracious Benefactor? I am his, wholly his, his for ever. You would not expect, you would not desire, that your father, held by such obligations, would consult his own ease, or j'our natural propensities. Your father is a Christian. He may not live to himself. The large resources which are placed within his reach, are sacred to the Saviour. To appropriate them as an inheritance to you would be little less than sacrilege. Know, then, that from your father you may expect whatever may contribute to form your character on the Christian model. The best means of mental and moral discipline he will promptly furnish. He will not fail to do his utmost to prepare you to be extensively useful and happy in the stations which may be allotted you. But further than this he cannot go. The Church is required by her Lord to j^ut forth an agonizing efibrt to save a sinking world. God forbid that I should be wanting to this effort. My time, influence, and property I cannot withhold. It is my duty and privilege to bring forward whatever acquisitions I can command, to meet the various claims of my Christian profession." Illustrations such as these may sufficiently explain 1G8 THE OBLIGATION OF CHRISTIANS TO PROMOTE the obligations asserted in the statement with which this dis- course begins. Of .the truth of this statement, strong presumptive evidence may be found in the fact, that to every profc.sacd Christian is furnished, in the provide?ice of God, a s^ihere of exertion in building vp the Church, which demands the highest exercise of all the poioers he may possess. A company of firemen with their enginery gather around a house. At different points the smoke ah-eady begins to issue through the covering. Here and tliere the pent-up flame fitfully breaks forth. The proprietor is at a distance, the family are asleep, the neighbourhood is unalarmed. These men are trained to the work of contending with the flames ; the agency through which they may exert their powers with decision and effect is fully within their reach ; a sphere of exertion is open before them, which demands the highest efforts they are able to put forth. Can they dovibt for a single moment what they ought to do? Are not their obligations to exert every power clearly written out on the smoking building before them ? Take another case. A surgeon, a physician, and their at- tendants, enter a hospital. Here lies a wretch with a mangled leg, and there another with a broken arm. On that heap of straw lies a poor creature, well-nigh consumed with a burning fever ; and at no great distance beyond, a companion in affliction ready to die through mere neglect. Can these men, skilled as they are in the healing art, doubt what they ought to do ? Do not the imploring looks, the deep groans, the wasted frames of the sufferers before them, urge home their obligations clearly, impressively, powx^rfully ? Will not the sphere of usefulness on which they have entered, constrain them to see and feel that a demand is made for whatever of professional skill and activity they are able to employ? Contemplate, Christian brethren, the circumstances in which the providence of God has placed you. Behold a w^orld " lying in wickedness." There at a distance, wrapped in the gloom of the shadow of death, arc unumubcred Pagans. Here, near at hand, are young conununitics, growing settlements, feeble cliurches, " ready to perish " for the bread of life. Does not every object wiiich you see, and every sound which you hear, THE EXTENSION OF CHRIST's KINGDOM. 169 urge you to do what you can to save a dying world ? Are you qualified to preach the Gospel ? Have you received a discipline, intellectvuil and moral, which hasfitted you to explain, apply, and enforce the truths of the Bible ? And can you not see and feel, that to this work you ought to devote your time and strength, cordially, skilfully, untiringly ? How can you indulge in literary leisure, engage in secular employments, toil for the luxuries of life, while those who are " bone of your bone, and flesh of your flesh," are sinking by hundreds and thousands to perdition, for want of the aid which you are able to assist in furnishing! How can you help feeling called upon, as by a thousand voices breaking on your ears, in tones of deep distress, to rise up and toil, to the utmost of your powers, for guilty, bleeding humanity ! Or, it may be tliat you are distinguished for skill and expe- rience in forming the young mind to habits of correct thought and feeling. You are qualified to arrest and fix their attention ; to interest and animate their minds ; to urge home, with warm affections and arousing pungency, the healing truths of the Gospel. Extend your view, then, to the " Valley of the Mis- sissipi." Behold the multitudes of youth and children! Here, their education is utterly neglected ; there, it is entirely per- verted. In one place, they are left to wander in ignorance, and become the prey of some artful superstition ; in another, the life-blood is poisoned at the fountain by Infidelity. And yet these young minds, thus neglected or perverted, are, under God, at no distant day, to give shape to the destinies of this mighty nation ! Can you think of this, and not see a sphere of exer- tion, which loudly and imperiously demands the exercise of all your powers ? Now extend the limits of your field of observa- tion. A world is before you. Unnumbered millions of young immortals stretch out their hands, and, by signs of distress which cannot be mistaken, implore assistance. And can you doubt whether you ought to make sacrifices, and submit to self-denial, to task every power of mind and body, to afford relief? Or, perhaps, you are distinguished by elevated station ; weight of character ; extent of influence. Your name is known, your opinions are quoted, your views are adopted by a large circle. Look upon your right hand and left. Wherever you go do you 170 THE OBLIGATION OF CHRISTIANS TO PROMOTE not behold appalling mouunicnts of hostility to the Son of God ? At the inn, in the stage, on board the steam-boat ; in the fashion- able circle, and the literary club ; in the hall of legislation, and on the seat of justice, do you not often see your Saviour contradicted, opposed, derided ? And can you look on without emotion ? Are not appeals thus sent home to your souls, calling you to stand up in the defence of the name and truth of your Redeemer? Ought you not to put forth prompt, decisive, untiring efforts to purify public sentiment? Can you hesitate a moment on the question of your obligations ? Or, perhaps, you are affluent. O, tlicn, consider the wants of the Church, and the miseries of the world! Mark the condition of the various institutions around you, whose object and ten- dency are to diffuse the light of life. See, by what embarrass- ments their movements are retarded. Can you look upon their exhausted treasuries without feeling your obligations to conse- crate your gold and silver to the service of your Lord ? Ought you not to lay your accumulated treasures at the foot of the cross ; to devote your shining dust to the great work of extend- ing the triumphs of your King ? Whatever, fellow-Christians, may be the stations which you occupy ; whatever the means of usefulness you command ; the spheres of Christian effort opened before you clearly and impressively require you to devote all you are, and all you have, to the single object of building up the Church. A SECOND argument, to sustain the statement at the begin- ning of this discourse, may be found in the design of the 2^roba- tion by which the Church, considered collectively or individually, is to be trained up for heaven. As individuals, Christians are to be trained up in the Church, to find their happiness in the service and enjoyment of God. In this, heaven itself consists. There, the disciples of the Saviour behold the glory of their Lord. There, " His servants serve him." To find in his service the source of eternal blessedness, to find in his presence the fountain of life, our character must be conformed to his. Otherwise his service would disgust us ; Jiis presence would torment us. Now, just so far as we are under the control of that benevolence which appropriately expresses itself in exer- tions to build up tlic Church, just so far is our character con- THE EXTENSION OF CHRIST's KINGDOM. 171 formed to the divine. And in whatever degree we are selfish, in the same degree must we be unable to find our happiness in God; and nothing but selfishness can lead us to cultivate a field of exertion, and maintain a deportment of interest, separate from the kingdom of heaven. A just estimate of the diflferent objects to which we are related, of the different interests in which we are concerned, would constrain us to regard ourselves, in all our plans and movements, as entirely subservient to the glory of his name, and the advancement of his cause. Practically to regard ourselves in this light is to be benevolent ; is to be like God. That discipline which is fitted to bring us thus to regard ourselves, is adapted to the design of the probation in which we are placed; and this discipline is involved in the obligations which bind us to consecrate ourselves, without hesitation or reserve, as a living sacrifice to God. Those who yield to these obligations secure this discipline. Its healthful influence reaches their inmost hearts. The plague which was preying upon their vitals is stayed. Life throbs through all their veins. They are "strong in the Lord." The image of the Saviour, in all its beauty, smiles through all their " inner man." They already enter into the sympathies, and breathe the spirit, of their brethren in heaven ; and when they pass from probationary scenes, they will be prepared to enter into " the joy of their Lord." As Christian communities, if they would answer the end of their probation, the Churches must devote themselves altogether to the service of Christ. They are here to be trained up, in their collective capacity and social interests, for the everlasting employments and joys of the upper world. This can be done only by a discipline which will bring their feelings to flow forth in the same strain with delightful harmony ; all their powers to act in the same direction, in full, unbroken concert. But this precious result can never be produced, while they " look every one upon his own things." While to any extent they allow themselves to pursue selfish designs, harsh discord must inter- rupt or mar the songs of Zion. Separate interests, private objects, will set brother against brother; discord will rend the Church. Of the truth of these statements, what frightful illus- trations may be found on almost every page of our history. To be prepared for the harmony of heaven, professed Chris- 172 THE OIJLIGATION OF CHRISTIANS TO PROMOTE tians must receive the very discijiline which an entire consecra- tion to their Saviour's service affords. Mark the movements and study the character of a Christian community, to which a description like the following may be justly applied. The object which attracts their attention, and engrosses their affec- tions, and calls forth all their active powers, is the extension and prosperity of Zion. Every man, woman, and child in this community, keeps his eye upon this object, as the end of his existence. To advance the common design, they all seek and find each his proper place, the sphere best suited to his own talents and means of usefulness. Whatever of intellectual vigour, of mental acquisition, of impressive eloquence ; what- ever weight of authority, extent of influence, amount of pro- perty ; whatever sagacity, skill, and energy they may- possess ; they bring directly and unceasingly to bear upon the great enterprise in which they are engaged. From this they never turn their eyes, never withdraw their hands. Now tell me, is not this community acting under an influence which binds them together as by golden bonds ? Must they not see eye to eye ? Must not heart mingle with heart ? Will they not bow, as by a common impulse, before the throne of Messiah ? Will not the same desires move their hearts? the same songs flow from their lips ? Will not the same living peace pervade every heart, soothe every bosom, smile upon every countenance ? And when, you look upon this community, you cannot help recog- nising the image of heaven. They are prepared, as a body, when they reach the presence of their King, to fall each into his appropriate place, and act in concert in fulfilling his sove- reign will. They have secured the very discipline which the holy employments and joys of the upper world demand. A THIRD argument, sustaining the same position, may be found in the conditions on which ive are required to lay hold of the henejits offered in the Gos'pel. Consider, brethren, the import and bearing of the following piercing words, from the Saviour's li])s : " lie that lovetli father or mother more than me, is not worthy of me : and he that loveth son or daughter more than me, is not worthy of me ; and he that taketh not up his cross and foUoweth after me, is not worthy of me.. He that findeth his life, shall lose it ; and he that loseth his life for my sake, THE EXTENSION OF CIIRISt's KINGDOM. 173 shall find it." Strong language ! And yet not too strong to describe the conditions on which the benefits of redeeming mercy may be secured. The glory of your King, the extension of his sway, the fulfilment of his designs, you are to prefer to the dearest earthly gratification, to the highest worldly interest. The ties which bind you to the nearest relative, your hold on life itself, you must break asunder, if the interests of the kingdom of heaven demand the effort. Wherever you may go, you must bear around a cross, prepared at any time to " be lifted up upon it." Nor can you think these hard con- ditions on which to receive the ofl'er of eternal life, till you forget the atoning agonies which broke the heart of our great High-Priest. Now it was a leading object of the Saviour to be the " light of the world." To this object his labours and sufferings were directed. The balm of life he would offer to a bleeding world. It is his sovereign will, that to all the human family infected " with the plague of the heart," his healing power should be proclaimed. His gracious heart is set upon bringing all nations under the shadov/ of his throne. Whoever, then, loves the Son of God more than every other object, will feel himself con- strained at all times, and in every thing, to act with simple reference to the prosperity of his kingdom. This reference will give shape to every plan, and force to every movement. Is he engaged "in business?" He will see that its claims and ten- dencies do not interfere with his obligations to the Saviour. Whatever goes to diminish his influence as a Christian he will promptly avoid. The means requisite to enlighten his under- standing, to keep his conscience wakeful and tender, to bring his heart under the full control of Christian motives, he will not fail at any expense of time and strength to employ. Whenever the question arises (and such questions will arise) whether he shall lay out his resources in gratifying taste, in humouring appetite, in pampering passion, in feeding avarice in hiniself and children, or in efibrts to build up the Church, he will not long hesitate. He will not forget the cross which his profession requires him to bear. How can he toil for the elegancies and luxuries of life ; gratify the demands of ambition or cupidity ; or divide his substance among worldly-minded 174 THE OBLIGATION OF CHRISTIANS TO PROMOTE heirs ; and still be complying with the conditions on which the smiles of Messiah are dispensed ? In this connexion it may be proper to repeat another decla- ration of the Saviour. " Whosoever he be of you that for- saketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple." Who- ever wdll examine this declaration, in the connexion to which it belongs, wdll see that it involves a clear exposition of the terms of Christian discipleship. Along with this statement it may be well to contemplate the practical application of the general principle it contains, which the Saviour himself has given to us. A young man, of fair morals and amiable spirit, once presented to him the incjuiry, " What shall I do, that I may inherit eter- nal life?" Our Lord first directed his attention to the obliga- tions which grew out of the relations he sustained to his fellow- men. UjDon this the young man assured him, that to these obligations he had ever paid a practical regard. The amiable aspect of his character attracted the Saviour's love ; and he immediately called his attention to the great principles on which Christian character is formed, and on which Christian hopes may be justly cherished. Hitherto only the relations which man sustains to man had been brought to view. The principle, just alluded to, then was presented in a form modified by these relations. " Go thy way, sell whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven : and come, take up the cross, and follow me." With the condi- tion of salvation implied in this direction, the youth refused to comply. He clung to his wealth at the expense of his soul. If he must devote himself entirely to the cause of benevolence, or make shipwreck of his hope of heaven, his hope of heaven, though with many tears, he was prepared to relinquish. W^hat think ye. Christian brethren, of this practical exposi- tion of the conditions on which you are to be admitted to the fountain of life ? Say not that its application was peculiar to the poor yovmg man to whom it was first applied. You cannot help seeing that the exposition just covers the ground furnished by the abstract principle already quoted. The principle, then, with its exposition, belongs to you, belongs to every professed Ciu'istian. Take home, then, to your inmost thoughts the con- dition on which the life of your souls is suspended. THE EXTENSION OF CIIRIST's KINGDOM. 175 What, friends of the Lord Jesus, will you do with your wealth, your talents, your influence ? Will ycu live merely or chiefly to promote your own private interests ? Will you extend your possessions, for the sake of exulting in affluence ? Will you increase your influence for the sake of bending your fellow-men to your designs ? Will you seek an exalted station for the sake of enjoying the pomp of place ? Ah ! brethren, this you may not do without drawing down the curse of Jesus Christ. If you would have his smiles, you must yield up your souls to the control of that charity which brought him from the bosom of blessedness to the agonies of crucifixion. You must live for the single purpose of doing good. Whatever strength you have, you must freely expend in urging forward the triumphal chariot of Messiah. In this connexion, the last injunction which fell from the Mediator's lips well deserves attention. " Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature." The obliga- tions of this command reach every professed Christian. It may be said, that they direct their binding influence especially to Christian Ministers. It may be so. What then ? Are not their Christian brethren held by the same solemn bonds to furnish the Ministers of Christ with whatever means are requi- site to enable them to offer the " bread of life " to the famishin"- nations? "Who goetli a warfare at his own charges?" The great work of gathering the human family around the cross, lies fully before every friend of Jesus. In this work he is bound, by the authority of God, to engage with a zeal and resolution proportioned to the magnitude of the task imposed upon him. Remember, then. Christian brethren, that your " field is the world." A frightful majority of the human family are shrouded in gloom, palpable as the darkness which once oppressed Egypt. It is yours to offer them the "light of life." While you linger, myriads fall to rise no more. With your utmost efforts, a multitude, " which no man can number," will miserably perish before your hands can reach them. With every breath you draw, they are sinking by thousands into the abyss ! Your Saviour bids you haste to their relief ; to snatch them from ruin, "as brands from the burning." If they die through your neglect, you must answer for their blood ? What, 176 THE OBLIGATION OF CHRISTIANS TO PROMOTE then, ought you to do? To stand unmoved amid the ruins of the world ? With the censer in your hand, will you refuse to rush in " between the living and the decid," to contend with " the plague" which is every moment sweeping thousands to an untimely grave ? And for what ? That you may be at ease ? That you may heap up golden dust ? That you may attract the gaze of admiration ? That you may crush your children with the weight of an inheritance ? And wall you sell " the souls for which Christ died" for trifles such as these? This you cannot do without casting off your allegiance to Christ, and breaking the ties which bind you to his throne. A FOURTH argument, adapted to convince professed Christians that they ought thus, unreservedly, to consecrate themselves to the service of the Church, may be found in the example of the best men, ivho have risen up from time to time to bless mankind. The example of the man Christ Jesus shines with peculiar lustre. O, let us keep our eyes upon it ! He came into the world to place the Church on a foundation which could not be shaken. Now trace his course, from the manger to the cross, from the cross to the mediatorial throne. How is every footstep marked, every movement distinguished, by entire consecration to the kingdom of heaven ! How did the most vehement desires for the immortal happiness of man move his soul ! With what ardour did his affections cleave to this object? How studiously and skilfully did he improve every opportunity, and employ every agency, which might promote his design ! When did he shun an effort, however expensive; decline self-denial, however trying ; shrink from sacrifices, how- ever expensive, which the glory of God and the " saving health of nations " required ? Surely, not when in solitary places he poured out his soul in prayer at midnight ; or when " he went about doing good ; " or when he " endured the contradiction of sinners;" or when he lay prostrate in agony at his Father's feet in the garden ; or when he meekly bore the taunts and jeers and bufletings of his accusers, in the judgment-hall; or when, in agonies unutterable, he "gave up the gliost" upon the cross! *' Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us ; and tve ought to lay doivn our lives for the bretliren." THE EXTENSION OF CMRIST's KINGDOM. 177 And what shall we say of the example which the primitive Churches set? Observe with what devotedness they cling to the heavenly cause. Their time, substance, influence, are sacred to the Saviour. " Of one heart, they have all things common." Whatever the common interest demands, each in his proper place is forward to supply. They " take joyfully the spoiling of their goods ;" they welcome the prison, embrace the stake, when their Christian profession requires the sacrifice. Are these your own brethren? Trace their shining course; and answer the inquiry. Read the history of the Apostle to the Gentiles. How he breathes the spirit of Christian heroism. Now he encounters the perils of the deep, and now the dangers of the wilderness. He welcomes heat and cold, hunger and thirst, in his sacred work. He shakes the lean hand of poverty, meets the frowning face of opposition. He breaks through every embarrassment, and rises above every obstacle. " One thing he does." And to this one thing all he is and has is cordially devoted. " Brethren," you may hear him say, " he followers ofme." And what shall we say of the course of our Missionary breth- ren, who are carrying the lamp of truth to the " dark places of the earth ? " Were they to keep back aught " that they possess," should we be slow to expose in pointed terms their delinquency? We require them " to know nothing save Jesus Christ, and him crucified ;" to live merely to extend the triumphs of the cross. But say, brethren, are they held by obligations from which you are free ? Were they bought with richer blood, with severer agonies, than you ? Was higher grace displayed in the means employed to bring them to the Saviour's feet, to raise them to the hope of heaven, than has been bestowed on you ? Do they need a more rugged discipline than you, to wean them from the world, to fix their hearts upon an enduring treasure ? Do not you live under the same government ? Are you not bound by the same laws? Let such inquiries receive an honest answer. You cannot help seeing that you ought, in your own proper sphere, to be as much devoted to the kingdom of heaven, as the most laborious and self-denied Missionary ? The truth of all this some of your brethren, engaged in secu- lar as well as sacred employments, have already, welcomed. 178 THE OBLIGATION OF CHRISTIANS TO PROMOTE Their daily business they have learned to transact with an " eye single to the glory of God." They push forward their designs with proni})tness and energy, merely to be able to do good. These men may be found all along on the declivity, from the heights of affluence to the vale of poverty. The Lord increase them a hundred-fold ! Now what is Christian example, however modified, and wherever presented, but human obligation, embodied in a living and attractive form. Behold the form ! Can you resist charms so divine ? Can you refuse to imbibe a spirit so heavenly ? How can you refuse to tread in the foot-prints of those who " through faith and patience inherit the promises?" I see a heavenly vision. " The ransomed of the Lord," each in his appropriate place, gather around the " Captain of their salvation." None is wanting ; none reluctant. Behold the *' sacramental host of God's elect ! " One object engrosses their attention ; one spirit animates their bosoms ; one enterprise calls forth their collective powers. The " one thing " they do is to support the throne, and extend the kingdom, of their Messiah. To accomplish this they glory in labours, sacrifices, tribulations. They task every power to fulfil the will of the Majesty by whose behest they are awed and controlled. As it is his will, so it is their steadfast purpose, to bring a world in subjection to his feet. Thus they welcome the condition on which his smiles are bestowed. Thus they are receiving the very discipline by which they may be prepared to join the heavenly hosts. Thus they are breaking the chains in which a w^orld has long been held ; and, lo, the shout of emancipated myriads, " like the voice of many waters," shakes the pillars of the universe ! The foregoing train of thought involves a test by which professed Christians may try their own character. Let each of us, dear brethren, seriously weigh the inquiry. Do I belong to that happy number to whom the Apostle applies the graphical description, " None of us liveth to himself, and no man dieth to himself; for whether we live, we live unto the Lord; and whether we die, we die unto the Lord; whether we live, there- fore, or die, we are the Lord's ? " This, clearly, is a description of Christian character. Am i, then, a Christian? Is it the great end oC all my designs, plans, and exertions, to glorify the THE EXTENSION OF CHRISt's KINGDOM. 179 Saviour, and build up his cause ? Do I rejoice to live and toil for an object so dear to God? Or do I regard the prosperity of Zion only as an object of secondary importance? Do I meet the expenses which are requisite to support Christian institu- tions, at home and abroad, reluctantly and grudgingly ? Am I more anxious to enjoy the privileges of the Gospel cheaply, than to derive from them the highest benefit? When called to incur expense and sacrifices, for the sake of advancing the Redeemer's kingdom, am I apt to be cold, impatient, peevish ? Am I prone to wish that the friends of God and man, in their efforts to " spread the Gospel," would act on plans less compre- hensive and expensive ? Am I often tempted to suspect the purity of their motives, to misinterpret their language, and misrepresent their conduct? Do I often eagerly and loudly complain of the burden which my Christian profession imposes on me ? Do I sometimes detect in myself sentiments of regret that I ever joined the Christian standard ? Ah ! brethren, these, and such as these, are serious questions, and deserve a serious answer. They bear directly on the soundness of our religious character. They point to the ground on which multiplied decent professors betray the rottenness of their hearts. It is high time for us to urge home upon our souls, with searching hand, the inquiry, whether we are living to God or to ourselves. The apathy and selfishness of thousands in the Church have already occasioned the endless ruin of unnumbered millions. Long ago, had professed Christians, as a body, yielded to the obligations by which their Lord had bound them, long ago had the "earth been filled with his glory." Never will his grace and power be universally known, till the Church more generally and accurately answers to the description of character given at the commencement of this discourse. Let those who would not, in the final day, be required to answer for the blood of their breth- ren, look well to this matter. Woe to the false disciple who, in despite of obligations as sacred as the authority of God, lives to himself; lives for any other object than the prosperity of Zion ! He may have his frames, his joys and sorrows, his fears and hopes, and after all miserably perish. Who, then, is he who, while he lays his soul at the feet of Jesus Christ for salva- tion, is ready to devote himself a living sacrifice to his service? v N 2 p- 180 IIINOERANCES TO THE He is tlic mail wlio, in tlie day of retribution, shall be welcomed to the " joy of his Lord." Be ours the blessedness of, and i'ull participation in, his labours and rewards! DISCOURSE XI. HINDERANCES TO THE SPREAD OF THE GOSPEL. BY THE REV. LEONARD WOODS, D.D.,* PROFESSOR OF THEOLOGY IN THE THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY, ANDOVER, MASS. Isaiah Ixii. 1, 2. " For Zion's sake will I not hold my peace, and for Jerusalem's sake I will not rest, until the righteousness thereof go forth as brightness, and the salvation thereof as a lamp that burneth. And the Gentiles shall see thy righteousness, and all Kings thy glory." Such was the love which the evangelical Prophet felt for Jerusalem, and such his desire that its glory might be extended. It was a desire which gave him no rest, but prompted him to incessant labour and prayer for the accomplishment of its object. Desires similar to this have been felt, and similar efforts made, by the faithful servants of God, from age to age, for the propagation of the Christian religion. Since the commencement of the present century, the spread of Christianity has been a subject of growing interest. Good men have been excited, in an unusual degree, to unite their efforts and prayers for the enlargement of the Church. The God of heaven has shown, by the promises of his word and the dispensations of his providence, that he regards this object with the highest favour, and that it is his unalterahle purpose that the eartli shall be filled with his glory. It would certainly be reasonable to expect tliat the cause of Christianity, thus aided and siip))orte(l, would soon prevail * Preached before the American Board of Foreign Missions. SPREAD OF THE GOSPEL. 181 tlirough the world ; that the reign of righteousness and peace would speedily be extended from the rising of the sun to the going down of the same. And it becomes a subject of serious inquiry, why this is not the case. Why has not this blessed cause, which is eminently the cause of God, become universally triumphant? Why has not the inherent excellence of the Christian religion, united with the power of all holy beings in heaven and earth, brought the whole world to feel its influence and receive its blessings? No doubt this would long since have taken place, had there not been some mighty obstacles in the way, some opposing causes powerful enough to counteract the salutary tendencies of Christianity itself and all the influ- ence which has been exerted in its favour. That the world is not converted to Christianity cannot be ascribed to the operation of any one cause exclusively. In this, as in most other things, a variety of causes are at work. The chief of these are found in all unsanctified men, consisting in their sinful affections and pursuits. These are referred to in the parable of the sower, as the great hinderances to the good effect of divine truth. The seed which fell on good ground sprang up and bare abundant fruit ; while the fruitfulness of the other seed was prevented by the state of the ground, and other unpropitious circumstances. The hinderances referred to in the parable were the unholy dispositions of the human heart, together with those temptations and snares which beset unre- newed man, and which derive their influence chiefly from his moral corruption. Besides the general causes just mentioned, there are causes which are peculiar to particular classes of men ; such as the superstition and ignorance of the Hindoos, and the power of caste among them ; the intellectual and moral state of Jews, Mohammedans, and Papists. By these and such like causes, the minds of men are closed and barred against the truth. Preaching the Gospel to them in their present moral state generally proves like sowing seed upon the face of a rock, or upon the snows of winter. Other hinderances may be found in the hostile and persecuting power of civil governments ; and others still, and perhaps the most diflScult of all to be overcome, in the radically erroneous impressions made upon the minds of men in different parts of the Heathen world, and even in 18/J IIINDERANCF.S TO THR countries blessed with the light of the Gospel, by the flagrant errors and vices of nominal Christians. A greater obstacle to the spread of true Christianity can hardly be conceived, than the influence which the emissaries of the Church of Rome have exercised by their attempts to make proselytes. To account fully for the little progress which has been made by Christians in their endeavours to evangelize the world, it would therefore be necessary to bring into view all the obstacles just alluded to ; obstacles so many and so great, that they have left but a small measure of success to the most faithful servants of Christ in any age. But there is another class of hinderances to the spread of the Gospel; I mean those which are found in Christians themselves. It is this class which I propose particularly to consider on the present occasion. The members of this Board, together with a large portion of the Ministers and people of these United States, have been engaged for twenty years in sending the Gospel to the unevangelized parts of the world. What we and our fellow-labourers have performed in this great work has not been in vain ; and we are encouraged to go forward in our endeavours to spread the Gospel through the earth. But still how small the measure of our success compared with our desires ! How little has been done compared with what remains undone ! Remembering that I am never again, on such an occasion as this, to address my beloved brethren, the members of this Board, and other friends of Missions now present, and confiding in your candour, I shall use an affectionate plainness of speech, endeavouring with sincerity of heart to promote that precious ,cause which, I trust, is the supreme object of our desires. * Our particular inquiry is. What obstacles to the con- version OF THE world ARE FOUND AMONG THOSE WHO, in different ways, are enlisted in the cause of Foreign Missions? The first obstacle I shall mention is, the defect of our Christian character, or the want of a higher degree of ho/ in ess. In order to form a just estimate of our religious character, we must examine ourselves by the standard of (jod's perfect law. And what is the fair result of such an examination? Wl>en, in the hour of retirement and stillness, we honestly compare our SPREAD OF THE GOSPEL. 183 affections and lives with those divine precepts whicli require us to love God with all the heart, to love every human being as we love ourselves, and to be holy as Christ is holy ; what can we do but adopt the language of humble confession, and say, " If thou, Lord, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand?" Before Him who searcheth the heart and knoweth all things, and in whose sight the heavens are not clean, we must, every one of us, be filled with shame and self-abhorrence, and penitently cry out, " Behold, I am vile ; what shall I answer ? " That this imperfection of our Christian character must prove a great hinderance to the success of the cause we are endea- vouring to promote, appears from the very nature of that cause. It is the cause of holmess. And no one can be a fit instrument to promote such a cause, except in the degree in which he himself is holy. The proper agents to be employed in this work are men who walk in the Spirit ; men dead to the world, and alive unto God. Without holiness, no right efforts for the enlargement of the Church and the propagation of true religion through the world, will ever be made. Without holiness, we are unfit to have any agency in this undertaking. The work of converting sinners and building up the Church is a holy work, and should not be touched with unholy hands. We may be willing to employ our time and our worldly substance in the cause of Missions, and to do this in the highest degree which can be justly demanded of us. Still if we contribute these external services without love to God in our hearts, how little shall we be likely to accomplish ! The system of means necessary to the spread of the Gospel is indeed partly external and visible ; but it has also an inward invisible part, consisting in compassion to the souls of men, and in strong desires and fervent unceasing prayers for their salvation. However im- portant may be the outward means above-mentioned, these inward operations of holiness, these benevolent desires and fervent prayers, which are visible only to the eye of God, are still more important. It is this inward, invisible machinery (if I may so call it) which gives efficiency to these external means. It is this spiritual, devout, fervent action of a purified heart, which exerts the most certain and powerful influence in pro- moting the salvation of men. Who can estimate the amount of 184 IIIN DERANGES TO THE good which twelve men, possessing the character of tlie twelve Apostles, might accomplish at tlie present day ? Let it be remembered, brethren, that if we fall short of the proper degree of holiness, our success in the cause of Missions will be essentially hindered. And though we may give a portion of our time and our substance to this cause ; though we may statedly meet to deliberate and act in behalf of the perishing millions of our race ; yet those humble Christians who live in retirement, and who take no part in these more public transactions, may in reality stand higher than we do as instru- ments of good to the world. By their pure affections and fervent prayers in secret, they may do more for the advance- ment of Christ's kingdom than can be done by any outward means, unaccompanied by the spirit of holiness. The God who rules' over all will so conduct the affairs of the Church' and the world, as to make it manifest that he is the immutable friend of holiness. Secondly. If the mere want of a proper measure of holiness detracts from our success in spreading the Gospel, this unhappy effect must result in a still higher degree from the direct indul- gence of affections which are selfish and earthly. Selfish, earthly affections aim at a selfish, earthly interest. But the spread of the Gospel through the world is a benevolent and spiritual interest. These two interests are directly opposite to each other ; and the dispositions and efforts which are suited to the one are not suited to the other. If, then, while we seem to be labouring for the spread of the Gospel, we give a place in our hearts to pride, ambition, or any selfish affection, we throw an obstacle directly in the way of our success in pro- moting that benevolent object. This is true, even where the sinful affections we indulge do not make themselves visible by any irregular conduct. If, when we retire for secret devotion, or kneel around our family altars ; if, when we meet in the sanctuary, or at the monthly concert, there should be in our hearts a predominance of worldly alfections ; especially, if we should bring these affections with us, when we engage in more public and more im])ortant transactions relative to the interests of Christ's kingdom ; such a state of mind would prove a mighty oloo- to the cause of benevolence. With the outward man we SPREAD OF THE GOSPEL. 185 might, indeed, be labouring to advance that cause ; but the inward man would be a hinderance in the way; a hinderance invisible, perhaps, to man, but none the less real. Indeed, such a secret, invisible counteraction is attended with peculiar danger. It is a concealed enemy, whose power cannot be successfully opposed, because it cannot be seen. When, therefore, the cause in which we are enlisted is at a stand, and our various Mission- ary operations are attended with no encouraging success, it will become us to inquire, very seriously, whether this may not be owing, in a great measure, to some unholy passion which finds indulgence in our hearts ; and which, like the sin of Achan, provokes the displeasure of a holy, heart-searching God. But the operation of these counteracting causes is not always concealed. If worldly and selfish passions prevail in any con- siderable degree, they will have a visible influence. And we may be somewhat aided in getting a just conception of what this influence will be, and also of the opposite influence, by taking a comparative view of two public bodies of men, one of which is influenced by right motives, the other by those which are worldly and selfish. Look, then, first, into an assembly of Ministers and Christians, who have come together to consult for the salvation of their fellow-men, and who are influenced in all their deliberations by holy affections. Delightful, happy assembly! Their object is one. Their hearts are one. They are knit together in pure and fervent love. They consult, not for their owni interest or honour, but for the cause of Christ ; and they do it in the spirit of Christ. Each one contributes to that cause all the intelli- gence and all the active power which he possesses. Each one is gratified with all the talents and influence which belong to his brethren, for the same reason that he is gratified with his own. And if others are able, by their superior talents and influence, to contribute more than he to that object which is dearest to his heart, the more is he gratified. No one expends his zeal in favour of any measure because he was the first to propose it. And no one has such confidence in himself as to suppose that a measure must be right because it originated with him. No one is pertinacious, or self-willed. The wisdom which reigns among them " is from above ; and is pure, peaceable, 186 IIINDERANCES TO THE gentle, easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, with- out partiality and without hypocrisy." In such an assembly, all is candour and kindness. Tlic inquiry is. What will please Christ ? What will promote the prosperity of his kingdom ? If on any subject the members for a time differ in judgment, they still agree in feeling ; and in the end are likely to agree in judgment too; so that important measures are not commonly carried either by a small or large majority, but with perfect unanimity. Thus, pursuing their object with Christian love and condescension, and singleness of heart, and with earnest prayer for divine guidance, they enjoy the presence and favour of God. He graciously superintends their deliberations, and gives them success in promoting the Redeemer's kingdom. Look, now, at an assembly professedly engaged in promoting the same cause, but among whom a selfish, earthly spirit prevails. A regard to reputation, or some worldly policy, may, perhaps, preserve them from open disorder and violence, and induce them to pursue such a course as will render their assembly respectable and honourable. But when their business is specially important, and when circumstances are such as to try men's souls, and to require special effort and self-denial, they are likely soon to show what their ruling passions are. Being without any common affection to unite them, they will have division and strife. Individuals will strenuously oppose a measure, though altogether salutary in its tendency, because it is not calculated to gratify their personal feelings, or to promote their private or local interests. It is manifest, from their transactions, that they have lost sight of the great object of Christian benevolence. And as they do not truly consult for the prosperity of the Redeemer's kingdom, their measures are not suited to promote it. And if the cause of Christ is in any measure advanced, yea, if it is not essentially injured, it will be owing to that sovereign providence of God which brings good out of evil. The same selfish spirit, which has such a blasting influence upon Ministers and Christians in their public transactions, will show itself also in their private life, and will hold them back from those labours, and sacrifices, and prayers which are the appointed means of extending the reign of Christ. Men will act according to their ruling passion. If the love of any worldly SPREAD OF THE GOSPEL. 187 object predominates, their thoughts and efforts will be directed to that object. As to the measures which ardent, devoted Christians are pursuing, for the salvation of men, they will look upon them with coldness or aversion. Now, what influence can such men be supposed to have in promoting the salvation of the world ? Thirdly. The advancement of Christ's kingdom is essentially hindered by division and strife amotig his followers. The cause of Missions must be promoted by the itnited exertions of Ministers and Christians. The good actually accomplished must be the result of such exertions. If, then, any disunion prevails among those who are enlisted in that cause, the amount of good tliey will be able to accomplish will certainly be diminished. The injury which division occasions is twofold. First, it detracts from the benevolent efforts of the individuals concerned. Though the subject about which they disagree may be ever so unimportant, it is likely to occupy no inconsiderable portion of their thoughts, and to turn off their attention from the cause of Christ, which is the great end of their united efforts. In consequence of this, each one will have less affection for that cause than he otherwise would have, and will do less to promote it. Besides this, there is a clashing of influence. The efforts actually made for the cause of Christ by one part will be more or less resisted, and their good effect prevented by the counter efforts of another part. Just as it is with an army, divided and contending among themselves. The different portions of it, instead of making an united assault upon the common enemy, are broken and exhausted by annoying each other ; and the few efforts they may make to gain a victory over the enemy are rendered powerless by division an d counter movements among themselves. As the want of a cordial union among Ministers and Chris- tians is such a hinderance to the spread of the Gospel, how great is the evil of whatever tends to produce division. By indulging such feelings or pursuing such measures as have this tendency, by unscriptural novelties in doctrine, by abstruse or eccentric speculations, or by any such disputes as are likely to gender strife among the friends of evangelical religion, we may 188 HINDERANCES TO THE tlirow ail obstacle iu tlie way of the success of the Gospel, which our most painful efforts will not be able to remove, and which will be a subject of deep regret to us through the re- mainder of our life. Fourthly. We may hinder the cause of Missions, by the unnecessary excitement of jx^pular prejudice. The Missionary enterprise must fail of success, without the cordial affection and support of the Christian community. It essentially needs the aid of their efforts, contributions, and prayers. Now, if those who are entrusted with the sacred interests of Missions are chargeable with any misconduct, or any manifest indiscretion, such misconduct or indiscretion pro- claimed, as it will be, in the ears of the public, may cool the affections, excite the prejudices, and prevent the contributions and prayers of thousands. In this way, our power to do good may be greatly diminished, and a lasting injury be done to the cause which we are striving to promote. Fifthly. We hinder the spread of the Gospel, so far as tee fall short in otir duty in regard to the benevolent use of property. Just in proportion to the magnitude and excellence of the object, should be our liberality in contributing of our substance for its promotion. It is the dictate of sound judgment, as well as of piety, tliat we should use our worldly property in such a manner as will afford us the greatest pleasure in our future reflections. Now, let any Christian consider how he will view this subject after the delusions of the present world shall have passed away, and the light of heaven shall reveal things as they are. Let him inquire with himself, " Will it be most pleasing to me, in the mansions of the blessed, to remember that I devoted this particular sum, be it larger or smaller, to the cause of Christ in Heathen lands, or to remember that I used it for the purpose of self-gratification, or the aggrandizement of my family ? Shall I have the greatest pleasure then iu reflecting that such an amount of property was made the means of advancing the kingdom of Christ, or the means of increasing the wealth of my heirs ?" Brethren, sufler me to speak freely. The Christian com- munity has of late years been waking up, in a measure, to better views in regard to the proper value and use of money; SPREAD OF THE GOSPEL. 189 and many examples have been exhibited of a vei-y honourable liberality in contributing to benevolent objects. But is not the prevailing practical sentiment still very far below the right standard ? Can it be that men of wealth make the cause of Christ their great object, when they generally give it so small a proportion of their substance ? They love religion, no doubt, and wish to communicate its precious blessings to those who are ready to perish; and with a view to this object they contribute from year to year, and contribute liberally, too, in comparison with the generality of those around them ; and then make legacies to some charitable societies. For these acts of Chris- tian love we sincerely honour their memories ; and we thank God, who gave them the ability and disposition to do good. But, after all, what is the real amount of their charities, compared with the whole of their property ? In a few instances, after a comfortable provision for their families, they devote the residue of their estate, which is the greater part, to the service of God. This is as it should be. But how is it generally with them that are rich ? Have we not often occasion, after they are gone, to regret their mistakes, and to mourn that they did not entertain such views of the value of wealth, while in this world, as we are sure they must in the world above ? After the decease of one good man and another, are we not constrained to say, " How happy would it be, had they, while here, anticipated the feelings they now have as to the riglit use of their property, and had their contributions and legacies done full justice to their own hearts, and made it manifest, not only that they loved the cause of Christ, but that they loved it supremely ? Alas ! it is evident that Ministers and Christians generally need stronger faith, more deadness to the world, and a clearer view of eternal things. They are not as spiritually-minded as they ought to be. They have not fully emerged from the darkness of a worldly life. In this state, do they not look at their property chiefly as the means of pleasing themselves, and promoting worldly objects ? And if they use it in some measure for the interest of Christ's kingdom, is it not still manifest that they make that no more than a secondary object? Now, whether we have more or less of worldly substance, if we entertain mistaken or inadequate views of our duty respecting the use of it, and fall 190 IIINDERANCES TO THE short of the high standard of self-denial and benevolent action set before us in the word of God ; if we give one dollar when we should give ten, or ten when we should give a hundred, a thousand, or ten thousand ; this deficiency will be sinful in the sight of God, and will directly hinder the success of the Mis- sionary cause. This is one of the great hinderances which now stand in the way of the propagation of Christianity. Ah ! brethren, there are better times approaching. Generations of Christians will ere long rise up, in the diflferent walks of life, who will remember that the earth is the Lord's and the fulness thereof, and that the silver and the gold are to be devoted to his service. The time, we trust, is not far distant, when the Church and its Ministers will have higher views of duty, inore self-denial, more simplicity in their modes of living, more devo- tion to that blessed cause for which the Son of God became poor. And those better Ministers and Churches will look back upon us, in this our season of twilight and heaviness, and will wonder that we did so little for so great an object, and that the work of evangelizing the world was carried forward so slowly in our day. Through the mercy of God, there is to be a visible growth of Christian character. Our children and children's children will, we doubt not, rise far above the highest zeal and devotion of the present time; will be heartily grieved at the remembrance of our deficiencies ; and will say among themselves, " We honour the memory of our fathers, who lived in the former part of the nineteenth century. We bless God that they had such a measure of zeal for the spread of the Gospel, and began to labour and pray in earnest for the salvation of the Heathen. But it is truly a matter of regret, that they had so imperfect a view of their obligations in regard to the use of their property, and that they contributed so little to the march of Christianity through the world." The only remaining obstacle to the spread of the Gospel, which I shall mention, is, the want of a proper feeling and and acknowledgment of onr dependence on God, for the success of onr efforts. There is nothing which stands in more direct opposition to the truth, than the spirit of pride and self-dependence. For whatever importance we may attach to our own efforts in the SPREAD OF THE GOSPEL. 191 work of evangelizing the world, and whatever good we may expect from the faithful labours of Missionaries, yet all success comes from God. The Gospel, which is to be preached among the Heathen, does, indeed, contain the most interesting truths, and urge the most powerful motives. But such is the moral state of man, that the preaching of it, even by the most faithful Ministers, will be, as it always has been, utterly in vain, unless it is made effectual by the power of the Holy Spirit. The word of God teaches, and universal experience teaches the same, that the unrenewed heart is enmity against God ; that it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. There is in man a loftiness of spirit, a love of the world, a selfishness which pertinaciously resists the influence of divine truth, and all the attractions of divine love. So that the Gospel, both in Christian and Pagan lands, will be preached in vain, unless this resistance in the hearts of men is effectually subdued. But it is too strong to be subdued by any power short of Omnipotence. In the most favourable circumstances, therefore, nothing can be effectually done to bring men into the kingdom of Christ, except by tlie special operation of God. And we depend equally upon the divine blessing, for the success of those measures which we adopt as preparatory to the extension of the Church. The efforts we make to stir up the people of our country to com- passionate those who are iu moral darkness, and to contribute of their substance to the salvation of the world ; and all our efforts to train up young men for the Missionary service, and to send them forth to different fields of labour, will entirely fail of their effect, unless they are accompanied with the divine influ- ence. As friends to the Heathen world, we are engaged in a benevolent, holy work. The unrenewed heart is against us. The spirit of the world is against us. The remaining ambition and selfishness of good men is against us. The whole current of earthly interests and pursuits is against us. These hostile powers, which form such a mighty combination, both without the Church and within it, are unceasing in their opposition. They never sleep. They are always watching for opportunities to obstruct the progress of the Christian religion. And even when we seem to be most prosperous, and when the prospect before us is the most bright and animating, and we may begin 192 HINDER ANCF.S TO THE to congratulate ourselves, as though the victory were won, we may soon find that there has been some counter current beneath, some malignant cause working, and gaining strength in secret ; ajid this malignant cause, thus concealing itself till it becomes powerful, may mix itself with the self-interest, the passions, and the prejudices of the irreligious, and with all that is earthly in the pious ; and so a torrent of dreadful force may be formed w^hich will scorn all restraint, and be ready to overwhelm us and our cause. The hostile powers of which I now speak meet us everywhere. Whatever measures we adopt for the enlargement of Christ's kingdom, in oiir own or in foreign lands, we must look for resistance from the thousand forms of depravity exist- ing in the world, in the Church, and in our own hearts ; resist- ance so subtle and determined, as not only to check our success, but entirely to dishearten us, and to constrain us to abandon our object, unless God interpose to strengthen us, and to turn back the power of the enemy. Now, as we are thus encompassed with dangers, as we are so feeble and imperfect ourselves, and are labouring to promote the spiritual kingdom of Christ in a world where self-interest, and pride, and numberless other forms of sin are constantly arrayed against us ; and as the unsanctified hearts of men are everywhere full of unyielding opposition to the holiness of Christianity, we ought ever to remember and to feel, that our success depends ultimately on the mercy and power of God. If we do not feel this ; if we do not remember that we are nothing, and that God is all in all ; if we rely upon the wisdom of our measures, upon the strength of our arguments, or the persuasiveness of our eloquence, or even upon our prayers ; and forget Him, whose Spirit prompts all wise counsels, and all holy endeavours, and whose blessing alone renders human efforts effectual; we place ourselves in opposition to the truth, we rob God of his glory, and make ourselves an offence and an abomi- nation in his sight; and so we cut ourselves off from that divine blessing on which our success absolutely depends. For how can we expect that he will give us success in such a way as will minister to our pride ? If we bring into our trans- actions, for the promotion of Christ's kingdom, a spirit of self- dependence, we create an obstacle to the progress of our SPREAD OF THE GOSPEL. 193 cause ; we act against our prayers, and bring a blast upon our labours. Beloved brethren of this Board, and all friends of the Mis- sionary cause, the great object for which we are unitedly labour- ing is, the establishment of Christ's kingdom in Heathen lands. This is the object for which the Saviour submitted to suffering and death. This is the cause which tiie prayers and labours of the saints and the ministration of angels are intended to sub- serve. It is the cause, to the promotion and ultimate triumph of which God is directing all the movements of his providence. With such labours and prayers on earth, and such powers and operations in heaven in its favour, we should think this glorious cause must make rapid advances. And it certainly would make rapid advances, and would speedily triumph in every part of the world, were it not for the many and mighty obstacles which resist its course. These obstacles, so far as they arise from our- selves, we have now taken into serious consideration. We have seen that those who are engaged in promoting the kingdom of Christ may obstruct its progress, by the want of higher degrees of holiness ; by the indulgence of selfish and eartlily passions ; by division and strife among themselves ; by unnecessarily ex- citing popular prejudice; by falling short of duty in regard to their vvorldly substance ; and by the want of proper feeling and acknowledgment of their dependence on God for the success of their efforts. If, then, we would effectually advance the reign of Christ, we must take care not to put any of these hinder- ances in its way, nor to leave them there. We must rise above that low and defective state of piety which tends to obstruct our success ; and by higher attainments in holiness, prepare ourselves to be better instruments, and to exert a higher and better agency, in extending Christ's kingdom. We must oppose and subdue all selfish and earthly passions ; as these passions, so far as they prevail, will array themselves against the benevolent spirit of the Gospel, and will turn us off from our great work to those interests which are private or local, and which ought never to be permitted, and which I trust never will be permitted by us, to come into competition with the interests of the Redeemer's kingdom. We must look upon division and strife among friends of the Missionary cause as a great evil ; and, for o 194 IIIN DERANGES TO THE the sake of preventing it, wc must watchfully guard against all indiscretions, all rash and doubtful projects, all, in our modes of thinking and acting, which would be needlessly offensive, all love of pre-eminence, and all aiming at personal or selfish objects. We must earnestly seek the wisdom which is from above, and endeavour to be followers of Him who was meek and lowly of heart. In pursuit of our object, we must form a just conception of the real value of property, and faithfully use it as a means of doing good. We must endeavour to have our wants few, and cultivate a taste for Christian simplicity. As to the objects of benevolence, our hearts should be large. We should make it our maxim to be sparing in self-gratifica- tion, but liberal in giving ; to save what would please the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life, that we may contribute more bountifully to the cause of our blessed Redeemer. And, finally, in regard to the building up of the Church, and the conversion of the world, we must remember that we are nothing, and that the blindness of man's under- standing, and the perverseness of his heart, will baffle all our efforts, unless God is pleased to interpose, and accomplish the work by his own omnipotence. While we devote ourselves unreservedly to Christ, and make faithful exertions in his service, we must watchfully check every tendency in our minds to self-esteem and self-dependence, and rely wholly on the grace of God to give us success. This renunciation of self-depend- ence, this deep sense of our insufficiency, and humble, child- like confidence in divine grace, is more pleasing to God, and will have more influence in advancing his kingdom, than the highest intellectual powers, and the most splendid actions, without it ; for God resisteth the proud, but bestows favour upon the humble. We have now seen what are the obstacles on our part to the accomplishment of the great and excellent work we have under- taken. Let us only keep these obstacles out of the way, and the religion of the Gospel will soon make more rapid progress, for the causes which operate in its favoin-, under the administra- tion of a benevolent (xod, are nvunerous and ])()werl'ul ; and, in my view, there never was a time when they were so numerous and powerful as they arc now, or when the accomplishment of SPREAD or THE GOSPKL. - 195 the great and precious promises in favour of the Church was so manifestly approaching. If we and our fellow-hibourers only keep in our place, and do our work faithfully, and throw no hinderances in the way, the cause of our Redeemer in Chris- tian and in Heathen lands will prosper. Powers, human, angelic, and divine, are united in its favour, and will press it forward. All the perfectiojis of Jehovah, all the principles of his merciful administration, all the truths of his word, the power of his Spirit, the glowing benevolence and swift obedience of myriads above, and all that is pure and holy in the affections and labours and prayers of Christians on earth, conspire together to bring forward the salvation of the world. See what a mighty influence these various causes are exerting ! See what a brio-ht prospect there is that things will soon be accomplished for the salvation of men, which Prophets, Apostles, Martyrs, and Re- formers never saw! Behold the Son of God coming to inherit all nations ! O ! take care, brethren, not to cast any hinderance in his way. I charge you and myself not to clog the motion of any of these wheels of Divine Providence. If we have put a hinderance in the way, let us quickly remove it. And if any one finds himself a hinderance, let him remove himself. Better be an exile from creation, than to stand in the way of God's work. Finally. Let us never forget that it is owing to the grace of God that the cavise of Christianity, with so many obstacles in its way, has made such progress in the world. Is it not rather a matter of wonder, that this light of the world has not been totally extinguished, than that it does not shine more brightly ? I might have pointed you to the general perverseness and obduracy of man, the whole current of the world, and the powers of darkness, as obstacles to the progress of Christianity. But I have dwelt only upon our own deficiencies. We who profess to be friends to religion, and to act in its favour, how little have we done to promote it, and how much to hinder it? May not some of us have reason to fear, that the cause of Christ has been more injured by our failings than benefited by our services ? O ! what would become of this precious cause if left in our hands, and if its success rested ultimately on our faithfulness ? What would be the consequence if the salvation o 2 19G IIINDERANCES TO THE SPREAD OF THE GOSPEL. of men had no better security than onr own efforts? Were all our affections devoted to it, and all our powers exerted in its behalf, still how feeble we are, and how little we should be able to accomplish ! But have we devoted all our powers and affections to this holy cause ? Has not the greater part of the little we possess been on the wrong side ? And it becomes a very serious inquiry, whether, taking our whole character and life into view, the spiritual kingdom of Christ might not have been better without us than with us ? Is it not a miracle of divine power, that religion maintains a place in the world, and is making any progress, when there is so much to oppose it even among its friends ? For, go where we may, wdiat Christians are there who do not mingle great impei'fectious with all they do in the service of Christ ? Let it, then, be an abiding sentiment of our hearts, that the cause of religion cannot be entrusted to man ; that it is safe only in the hands of Him who is the author and finisher of our faith ; that whatever we may do, and what- ever our Missionaries may do, the Heathen will never be enlightened except by the power of Him who first caused the light to shine out of darkness; that not a soul will ever be quickened and saved, except by the sovereign energy which raises the dead. Let, then, the pride of man be abased; let every high thought be brought low, and let God alone be exalted. 197 DISCOURSE XII. THE MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE DEPENDENT ON THE RELIGION OF PRINCIPLE FOR SUCCESS.* BY THE REV. ALBERT BARNES, PHILADELPHIA. Luke xiv. 28—32. *' For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it .' Lest haply, after he hath laid the foundation, and is not able to finish it, all that behold him begin to mock him, saying. This man began to build, and was not able to finish. Or what King, going to make war against another King, sitteth not down first, and consulteth whether he be able with ten thousand to meet him that cometh against him with twenty thou- sand? Or else, while the other is yet a great way off, he sendeth an ambassage, and desireth conditions of peace." It may be admitted that this passage of Scripture originally had reference to the views with which an individual should enter on a religious life. With such a reference, it implies that he who becomes a follower of the Saviour should calmly and deliberately look at all the consequences of such an act, and be prepared to meet them. Men, in other things, act with prudence and forethought. They do not begin to build without a reasonable prospect of being able to finish. They do not go to war when there would be every prospect of defeat. It implies, also, that we are to expect difficulties in religion. It will demand of us a life of self-denial, and will involve a conflict with spiritual foes, and, perhaps, expose us to the enmity and scorn of the world. It implies, also, that there is a necessity of a calm and fixed purpose of soul in true religion ; and that no man can properly enter on a religious life who does not resolve, by the grace of God, to struggle until the victory shall be achieved, and who has not confidence that there are resources sufficient to enable him to secure the triumph. * Preached before the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, at Worcester, Mass., September 10th, 1844. 198 TIIF, WISSION.UIY ENTERPRISE DEPENDENT But still, though this was the primary meaning oi" the text, it is not departing from a fair interpretation of it, to make use of it with reference to the great purpose for which we are con- vened. Substantially the same principles in religion apply to an individual, and to the aggregate of individuals who compose the Christian Church ; to the one, in securing his own salvation ; and to the other, in the highest enterprise in which it can be engaged, — that of spreading the Gospel around the world. Thus applied, the text would mean, that in this work there should be a calm survey of the strength and resources of the enemy, and the means of overcoming him ; that there should be a resolu- tion to persevere in the work in the midst of all embarrass- ments ; that it should be conducted under the direction of firm principle, and not by impulses and temporary excitements ; and that it should be undertaken with a belief that the enterprise is practicable, and that the ultimate success is certain. A tower may be built from various motives, and different reasons may urge on the architect to the completion of his work. It may be prosecuted under the auspices of a settled plan, includino- all practicable estimates of the expense and time requisite for its construction, and of the obstacles to be over- come ; or it may be hastily begun, with no proper sense of the expense and of the difficulties to be encountered, and carried forward by impulses, rather than by settled design. The archi- tect may rear it as a place of refuge from an invading foe, or to perpetuate some illustrious deed in the history of his nation, and may be stimulated to complete it with the thought, " that the last object on the sight of him who leaves his native shore, and the first to gladden him who re-visits it, may be something which shall remind him of the liberty and glory of his country ;" and with the " wish that infancy may learn the purpose of its erection from maternal lips, and that weary and withered age may behold it, and be solaced with the recollection which it suggests." A war, also, may be cngnged in and conducted from a variety of motives. It may be a war of principle, where, though the inunediatc matter in issue may be of trilling importance, yet some great point is involved, on which is suspended the liberty of a nation ; or it may be a war commenced with the love of ON THE RELIGION OF PRINCIPLE FOR SUCCESS. 199 conquest, tlie desire of fame, and the purpose to extend the limits of empire. Its expenses may be met, and its perils may be encountered, because everything dear is at stake ; or it may be rushed into under the impulse of excited feeling, and be sus- tained by the love of glory, and the hope of brilliant achieve- ments. Settled })rinciple ; the love of country ; ambition ; the glare, and pomp, and splendour of military triumph ; or a desire to humble a rival, may all be motives entering into the com- mencement or the prosecution of a war, and may all play their part in the perils and privations to wliich it is incident. The Saviour speaks of a tower built as the result of deliberate cal- culation ; of a war prosecuted where the plan was calmly laid, and where the issue could not be regarded as doubtful. It is the design of this discourse to show, that the Missionary enterprise is to be carried forward in a similar manner, not by impulses, but with deliberation and system ; and that it must rely for success, not on temporary excitements, not on the ro- mance of Missionary feeling, not on brilliant achievements, and not on the beauty and grandeur which may be thrown around the enterprise, but on the religion of settled principle. It is presumed in the Missionary enterprise that religion does not concern us as individuals only. It teaches us to look on our families, on our country, on the world. There are great things to be accomplished on the earth, to which nothing else is adapted but religion. There are, indeed, valuable objects wliich can be secured by education, by science, by good government, by com- mercial regulations, by treaties of peace, by the wholesome influence of laws. Valuable as these things are, however, there ai-e interests pertaining to men of greater magnitude which they can never secure, and which are reserved for the influence of religion alone. No advancement in the organizations of social life ; no progress in the physical sciences ; no improvement in the methods of education ; no perfection which the science of government or jurisprudence can reach, can accomplish the objects which it has been reserved for religion to secure. There is a field which is entirely its own ; and no encroachment has been made on its prerogative by any advance in the other departments of human influence and action. Those objects relate to such points as the following : — the renovation of the 200 THE MISSIOXARY ENTEUPRISE nEPENDENT human heart ; the imparting of peace to a guilty conscience ; the reconciliation of the alienated soul to God ; svipport in times of trial, and in the hour of death ; the elevation of debased and degraded communities to the enjoyment of equal rights ; the emancipation of the soul from the fetters of superstition ; and the diffusion over the earth of the knowledge and worship of the Creator. Into this sacred and wide circle of influences other things enter not with power sufficient to accomplish the great results desired ; and however much they may be made tributary to these objects when kept subordinate, the power which is to achieve the result is religion. It is also presumed that there are gi'eat and undeniable evils existing upon the earth, which can be removed only by religion. Those evils are not removed by victories achieved in battle, however brilliant they may be, for the triumph decreed to the conqueror furnishes no evidence that the moral and social evils of mankind have been in the least diminished by the success of arms. They are not wholly remedied by science and education. Valuable as the discoveries of science, and the teachings of education, are, yet there are evils in the human condition which the perfecting of the telescope, and the measuring of the dimen- sions and distances of the stars, and the analysis of minerals do not remove. The knowledge of the chemical properties of alcohol does not of necessity reform the drunkard, nor will the most thorough scientific acquaintance with its effects on the human frame save the well-educated youth from a di'unkard's grave. They are not remedied by outfits for discovery, nor in exploring foreign regions can we find a cure for human ills. The traveller to distant lands brings back no knowledge that will remove the evils of his own, nor will his passage through those lands for scientific purposes remove the evils there. They are not remedied by political changes. Such changes occur in a higher region, and the great and far-spread ills which affect the mass of mankind are little more influenced by them than tlie condition of the vapours in an humble vale is allocted by the storm in the higher regions of the air. The tenq^est sweeps along the Appenines ; the lightnings play, and the tluniders utter their voice, but still the malaria of the Canq)agna is unaffected, and the pestilence reigns there still. So with most ON THK RELIGION OF PRINCIPLE FOR SUCCESS. 201 of the evils that affect mankind. The malaria remains settled down on the low plains of life, and scarcely is the snrface of the pestilential vapour ag-itated by all the storms and tempests of political changes. Under all the forms of despotism ; in the government of an aristocracy, a republic, or a pure democracy ; and in all the revolutions from the one to the other, the evil remains the same. There are evils in the world which have survived all political changes ; and which are destined to live until they are reached by some more efficient reforming power than mere political revolutions. Great evils among the Greeks survived all changes in the government. Such evils lived among the Romans substantially the same under the Tarquins, the Consuls, and the Ceesars ; when the Tribunes gained the as- cendency, and when the Patricians crushed them to the earth. They lived in more modern Europe, when the northern hordes poured down on the Roman empire, and when the Caliphs set up the standard of Islam in the Peninsula. They lived in all the revolutions of the middle ages, alike when spiritual despo- tism swayed a sceptre over the nations, and when they began to emerge into freedom. Under the British rule they lived in the time of the Stuarts, during the Protectorate, and under the ad- ministration of the House of Hanover. In all the fierce contests for rule in this land ; in the questions about changes of adminis- tration, there are evils which are no more affected, whichever political party gains the ascendancy, than the vapour that lies in the valley is by all the changes from sunshine to storm on the summits of the Alps or the Andes. Such changes are to be wrought only by the influence of religion. To effect these changes there are the following kinds of religion upon the earth, on one or all of which reliance is to be placed ; that of sentimeid, that of form, that of feeling, and that of jyrhiciple. The religion of sentiment is fou.nded on the beautiful and grand in the works of nature, or in the scenes of redemption. It finds pleasure in the contemplation of the starry heavens, of hills, and streams, and lakes ; of the landscape and the ocean ; and is willing in these things to admire and praise the existence of the Creator. In the contemplation of these things there is no reluctance to admit the existence of a God, or to dwell on his % 202 THE MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE DEPENDENT natural perfections; for in the ])lacid beauty of a landscape, in the silvery murmuring of a rivulet, and in the opening of the rosebud, no attribute of the Deity is revealed on which the mind, even of the gay and wicked, is unwilling to dwell. This religion is found in all the departments of poetry, and in all the conceptions of mythology. It most abounded among the Greeks, a people who carried the love of the beautiful to a higher pitch than any other, and who embodied it in the conceptions of their " elegant mythology," and in their unequalled works of art, illustrative of that mythology. Over each of the works of nature ; over every element, and every event ; over each tree, and fUnvcr, and breeze, and waving field, and running fovuitain they suj^posed a divinity to preside, and the art of the chisel, and tlie harmony of verse, were employed to embody and per- jjetuate their conceptions. It is impossible that the religion of the beautiful should be carried to higher perfection than it was at Athens. The character of the people led to it, as the character of a people always gives form to their religion, or is reciprocally moulded by it. 1 his is still the religion of poetry and romance, and over a large portion of the world, claiming particularly to be ranked amomr the refined and the intellectual, it maintains its dominion. The names, indeed, which were used by that refined and elegant people with so much propriety, to express their conceptions, are eni))loyed no more. Statues of breathing marble no longer embody those conceptions, but tlie notions of the divinity differ little from the conceptions of Grecian mythology. The heaven to which they looked forward, differs little from the Elysian fields. That which is needful to prepare for that world, dificrs little from the kinds of virtue which a refined Athenian deemed necessary to fit him for the world of beauty and of joy to which he looked forward. Delighting, too, in the beautiful, this religion may find a species of pleasure in the scenes and events of redemption. There is much in the Bible which the religionist of this descrip- tion may admire, and such admiration may be mistaken for true Christian piety. There is no book which has more to gratify the taste for the beautiful and the sublime, than the ]>ible. When the scholar can overcome his reluctance to look ON THE RELIGION OF PRINCIPLE FOR SUCCESS. 203 into it, because it is a religious book, there is no book in whicli lie will find more to meet all tluit a scholar loves than there. There is no department of poetry, (if we except the epic, which was not consistent with the design of the book, and the dramatic, which was either unknown to the Hebrews, or re- garded as perilous to virtue,) which may not be found, in the most exquisite form, in the sacred Scriptures. The world may be challenged to produce specimens of elegiac, lyric, and pas- toral poetry, that can be compared with that which is found in tile poetry of David ; and for sublimity of thought and language Isaiah confessedly outpeers all that was ever produced out of the land of Palestine. This delight in the beautiful, in the religion of sentiment, may be carried farther than this. It may find a kind of pleasure in the peculiar scenes of redemption; and in the enterprise and romance of carrying the Gospel to distant nations. " I confess," said Rousseau, who, more than any other man, has illustrated the nature of this religion, " that the sanctity of the Gospel is an argument which speaks to my heart; and I should regret to find any^'ood answer to it. Look at the books of the philosophers, with all their pomp ; how little they appear by the side of this! Can it be that a book, at once so sublime and so simple, should be the work of man ? Can it be that the person whose history it relates, was a mere man? Is such the manner of an enthusiast, or a mere sectarian ? What sweetness, what purity, in his deportment! What touching kindness in his instructions ! What profound wisdom in his discourses ! What promptness, what ingenuity, and what pertinence in his replies ! What entire command of his passions ! Where is the man, where the sage, who can act, suffer, and die, without weakness, and without ostentation ? Yes, if the life and death of Socrates are those of a sage, the life and death of Jesus are those of a God ! " This religion, too, aims to hide away what is repellant in the stern character of the justice of God; turns away the thoughts from future wrath ; adores the divinity within man ; regards it as the great object of religion to raise him up to the perfection of his nature ; would conceal all that is repulsive in the grave, and goes forth to beautify the tomb, with the charms of nature and of art, to make the grave itself a pleasant place .»'• 204 THE MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE DEPENDENT of repose ; " the last device of man, without religion, to get rid of the fear of death." The faith of this class of religionists is recorded on marble monuments, and proclaimed in obituaries and eulogies. If we may credit such records, heaven is made up of poets and philoso2)hers ; of warriors and statesmen ; of the amiable, the refined, and the gay ; of the beautiful and the accomplished; of those who have lent a charm to society by their wit, or diffused happiness through halls of pleasure by the sweetness of their manners. The religion of forms is founded on different things. It has been the prevailing religion of the world, and there is no other to whicli the great mass of men have so strong a tendency. In the time of the Saviour it had become the prevailing religion of the Hebrews, and found ample gratification in the gorgeous rites of the temple service. The Saviour aimed to introduce in its place a religion of simple spirituality ; with no gorgeous rites, no splendid ritual, no imposing ceremonies. Scarcely, however, had the last of the Apostles died, before, in the very Churches planted by their hands, the last remains of spirituality had disappeared ; and in the rites and ceremonies which had been borrowed from Judaism or Paganism, all that had contri- buted to sustain formalism in the Pagan world, was introduced entire into the Christian Church. Thenceforth, for centuries of night, Christianity became a religion of forms. Ages rolled by. Luther, Farel, Zuinglius, Calvin, rose. They di-ew off" the true Church, and restored the spirituality of the Gospel; and all that was left was, and continued to be, a religion of forms. But the tendency to this kind of religion was not effectually checked. It still lives, and it requires all the influence of advancing intelligence, of the spirit of liberty, of revivals of religion, and of the withering rebukes of Providence, to check it ; and, despite all these, nothing is more apparent than the tendency to forsake all that is spiritual in Christianity, and to relapse into the religion of forms. This kind of religion relies on the efficacy of prescribed forms of devotion in conveying grace to the soul, rather than on simple truth applied by the Holy Spirit. It has an extraordinary respect for tradition, as if wisdom died with the Fathers, and they had authority to prescribe rites and ceremonies in the ON THE RELIGION OF PRINCIPLE FOR SUCCESS. 205 Church. It looks with diminished respect on the Bible, as the great fountain of truth, and as embodying the doctrines which convert and save ; and relies much on truth supposed to be con- veyed through other channels. In this religion, a superior sanctity is attributed to men made more holy, by office, than the rest of their brethren, and appointed to convey grace to the soul. The efficacy of the truths of the Gospel is not secured by any intrinsic power which they possess, or by the direct agency of the Holy Spirit on the soul, but because they are conveyed in the channel of a ministry of regular succession. The sanctity of those through whom grace is conveyed is not in the men, but in the office ; it is not in clean hands and hearts, but in an unbroken succession; it is not moral, but official, worth ; it is not an excellence arising from superior mental or moral endowments, or from a greater degree of industry or dead- ness to worldly influences, but that which imparts or indicates official superiority, in the view of the mass of mankind. There is grace conferred in ordination ; grace in the sacraments rightly administered ; grace in absolution ; grace in ordinances adminis- tered at the bedside of the sick and dying. This mode of religion regards certain places, and scenes, and times, as holy above others ; and as somehow conveying grace to the soul. It consecrates temples, churches, chapels, and altars, and regards them as possessing a mysterious holiness. From a consecrated shrine goes forth a sanctifying power, which could be secured in no other place, and which works as a charm in subduing sin, and saving the soul. The place where the dead repose is holy, and a mystic virtue, securing salvation, encircles those who are buried there. From such a place the grossly wicked are excluded, and all others sleep there with the hope of a blessed resurrection. " There is a religion that worships God, and another that worships the altar : a religion that trusts in Christ, and another that trusts in the sign of the cross, the wafer, and holy water ; a religion that brings every thought into subjection by love, and a religion that bows down the soul under the weight of ceremo- nies, and binds its freedom by numberless rites; a religion of broad phylacteries, and of cleansing the outside of the cup and platter, and of garnishing the tombs of the Prophets, and a religion of cleansing the heart, and of reliance on the simple A:f 206 THE MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE DEPENDENT efficacy of truth, and of making the sonl pui-e before God ; a relifnon where grace is conveyed to the sinner by human hands, and in the Apostolic line, and a religion where grace is conveyed by the direct influence of the Holy Ghost ; there is a religion whose justification, and whose material, external, and internal, is form, and a religion whose whole essence is faith on the Son of God." The religion of feeling or emotion differs from tiiose of sentiment and of forms. It is not founded in the love of the beautiful, or the grand, in the works of nature or redemption ; and is not satisfied with that which has power merely to charm and allui'e. It does not attempt to substitute form for spiritu- ality, for it is often of a highly spiritual nature, and may have the most thorough contempt for forms. It lives by whatever excites the affections, appeals to the sympathies of the soul, or opens the fountains of tears. It measures religion, not by the amount of truth embraced, or by the calmness and consistency of a holy life, or by the strength of principle evinced in resisting temptation, or in carrying forward great enterprises against organized opposition ; but by the amount of excitement which can be secured, and the joy that can be made to flow into the sovil. Emotion, not principle, becomes the prompter to re- ligious duty ; happiness the gauge by which the amount of piety is determined. The facility in shedding tears at the remembrance of sin, or at the cross, is the evidence of repent- ance ; joy in the belief that sins are forgiven is the proof of con- version. That preaching is of the right kind whicli excites the passions ; those appeals only are conformable to the (xospel which wake up the tumultuous feelings of the soul; and religion in a community, or in the heart of an individual, is not the dew gently falling each night on the meadow, but the shower descending at uncertain intervals; it is not the stream calmly and constantly flowing, or the fountain ever bubbling, but a succession of jets irregular in the time of their bursting forth, but beautiful ; it is not the calm glory of the svm, but the sudden and ravishing brilliancy of the meteor. This religion lives, not in settled convictions of truth and duty, but in emotions, and tears, and raptures. The religion of principle is different from cither of those ON THE RELIGION OF PRINCIPLE FOR SUCCESS. 207 which have been specified, though it will embrace whatever is excellent in either of them, or all. In common with the religion of sentiment, it may have a clear perception of the beautiful and the grand in the works of God, and in the scenes of redemption. In common with the religion of forms, it will be the patron of order, and will show all due respect for sacred places, and times, and modes of devotion. In common with the religion of feeling, it will cultivate the affections of the heart, and tends, more than any other religion, to produce tender sensibility and warm emotions. It refuses not to shed tears at the remembrance of sin, and in view of the sufferings of the Saviour ; it weeps over the wants and woes of the world ; it is filled with joy in view of pardoning mercy ; and it bursts forth into praise when the Re- deemer's kingdom is advanced on the earth. But it does not consist wholly of these things. It is founded on the intelligent adop- tion of a rule of right, and on a steadfast adherence to it. This rule is adopted, not from whim, caprice, or custom, or civil authority, but because it is believed to be the will of God. It is adopted, not because it is beautiful ; not because it can be wrought into poetry; not because it will contribvite to popular favour; but because it is true. It may appear rough and rugged, harsh and severe; it may infringe on many customs in society, or even on the laws of the land ; it may require that our strong natural feelings should be suppressed, and that the tender ties which bind us to country and home should be severed, that we may go and do duty to our Saviour in a foreign land ; but the will of God is regarded as final in the case. It is not, in such a religion, a question that is asked whether the matter at stake be of great or little value ; or whether what is done will be blazoned abroad, or will be unknown. What is done will be done because it is right, not because it is beautiful or grand, or will be emblazoned by fame ; what is resisted will be opposed because it is wrong, not because the evil is of vast magnitude, and the resistance will immortalize the man. To those who do not well understand the nature of religion, this kind of religion often seems to be an obstinate adherence to trifles, and is set down as fiinaticism; yet it need not be said, that a i^rinc'iple is often tested by what seems to be a small matter, as the mass of gold is tested by the assay of the smallest 208 THE MISSIONARY ENTEKPRISE DEPENDENT portion. In the beginning of the American Revolution, it was not tlie amount of the tax that was attempted to be levied ; it was the question whether the British Parliament had a right to tax the Colonies without their consent at all ; and this could as well be determined by a single sheet of stamp paper, a single pound of tea, or a single box of glass, as by an attempt to support all the expenses of the Government by drains from the Colonies. As an illustration of the religion of principle, I may refer to an incident which occurred in our history, and which may show the manner in which all who are descended from those referred to, should embark in every enterprise connected with religion. The " Mayflower," a name now immortal, had crossed the ocean. It had borne its hundred passengers over the vast deep, and after a perilous voyage had reached the bleak shores of New-England, in the beginning of winter. The spot which was to furnish a home and a burial-place was now to be selected. The shallop was unshipped, but needed repairs, and sixteen weary days elapsed before it was ready for service. Amidst ice and snow it was then sent out, with some half-a-dozen pilgrims, to find a suitable j)lace where to land. The spray of the sea, says the historian, froze on them, and made their clothes like coats of iron. Five days they wandered about, searching in vain for a suitable landing-place. A storm came on ; the snow and the rain fell; the sea swelled; the rudder broke; the mast and the sail fell overboard. In this storm and cold, without a tent, a house, or the shelter of a rock, the Christian Sabbath approached, the day which they regarded as holy unto God ; a day on which they were not to " do any work." What should be done ? As the evening before the Sabbath drew on, they pushed over the surf, entered a fair sound, sheltered themselves under the lee of a rise of land, kindled a fire, and on that little island they spent the day in tlie solenni worship of their Maker. On the next day their feet touched the rock, now sacred as the place of the landing of the pilgrims. Nothing more strikingly marks the character of this people than this act, and 1 do not know that I could refer to a better illustration, even in their history, showing that theirs was the religion of principle, and that this religion made them what they were. The whole scene, ON THE RELIGION OF PRINCIPLE FOR SUCCESS. ^O'J the cold winter, the raging- sea, the driving storm, the houseless, homeless island, the families of wives and children in the distance, weary with their voyage, and impatient to land ; and yet, the sacred observance of a day, which they kept from principle, and not from n^ere feeling, or because it was a form of religion, shows how deeply imbedded true religion is in the soul, and how little it is affected by surrounding difficulties. In matters indifferent, and not enjoined by the high authority of God, this religion is gentle as the breathings of an infant, and yielding as the osier, or the leaf of the aspen ; in all that is commanded, all that is a matter of duty, all that pertains to the law of God, it is like an oak on the hills. There it stands ; its roots deep fixed in the earth ; and, perchance, clasping some vast rock below the surface ; its long arms stretched out, and its upright trunk defying the blast. There it stands the same, whether the sun shines calmly on it, or wdiether the heavens gather anger, and pour upon it the fury of the storm. It is on this kind of religion that, under the divine blessing, we are to rely in the work of Christian Missions. The great objects contemplated by religion in the worlds cannot be secured by the religion of sentiment. I mean, that we cannot place reliance on that in effecting what Christianity is undoubtedly designed to accomplish, in fulfilling the great com-^ mandof the Saviour to publish his Gospel in all lands. That in the theory of a Missionary enterprise there may be much attractive beauty, and much that would commend itself to this kind of religion, there can be no doubt. There is a beauty, a charm, a romance, a " high emprise," a manifest be^ nevolence, and an acting out of the feelings of brotherhood, in such an undertaking, which would accord well with this species of religion. Whatever is beautiful, romantic, grand, agrees with its nature ; and whatever of external glory may be thrown around this great enterprise, may be expected to awaken sym- pathetic feeling in the bosom of its votaries. In the Missionary cause, viewed from the scenes of quiet and ease in a Christian land, there may be much which we should expect would make no appeal to this kind of religion. The glory of ex|)loring unknown regions; of studying nature there in forms which we have never seen ; of surveying man in modes of living, of p ^10 Tlir. MISSIONARY F.NTF.RPUISE DKrCNDENT " opinion, and of laws which have tlic charm of novelt}i to us ; the glory of being- tlie first to convey there the results of science, and of causing the flowers of literature to bloom in hitherto barren wastes; the glory of carrying there the triumphs of the healing art, and of founding asylums and hospitals ; the glory of unloosing the fetters of bondage, of giving to man, as an intellectual and moral being, the rank which he was designed to have in the scale of being ; and of diffusing over lands now barren the beauties which smile " on a Scottish or New-England landscape;" the glory of founding schools and colleges, and of seeing pure temples rise to the honour of God, may have a charm in the view of one all whose religion is the religion of sentiment, and in such an enterprise all that there is in that religion we may suppose would be gratified. To such an one it might be supposed that the Missionary cause would present itself as the noblest in which man can engage. And so it docs in theory ; but the romance of Missions soon dies away, and with it all the zeal of such religionists in the cause. It becomes not a thing of ideal beauty, but of sober reality, and demands other principles to sustain it, than the love of the beautiful or the grand. To leave one's country, and home, and friends for ever; to bid adieu to the comforts and refinements of a Christian land ; to mingle ever onward with savages, on whose souls " fair science never dawned;" to witness their degradation ; to partake of their fare ; to originate among them the first notions of social order, decency, and taste ; to labour on from year to year, and see scarcely any progress made ; to be poor, and to be forgotten by the mass of mankind, and to be sick in a far distant land, friendless and alone, and to die there, and be buried, with, perhaps, not a friend to weep, and not a stone to mark the spot ; all this is a trial, to which the mere admiration of the beautiful in religion is not adapted to prompt the soul. The religion of sentiment does not find its home in such scenes. On tlie soft couch of luxury, in scenes of refined social life, in the drawing-room, in the banqueting hall, or in the gorgeous temple of religion, is its appropriate abode. There, adapting itself to whatever is refined and cour- teous in social life ; engaged in the pursuits of elegant literature or in the arts ; the patron of whatever is urbane and courteous ; ON THE RELIGION OF PRINCIPLE FOR SUCCESS. i?l 1 and diffusing a sweet charm over life, and makino- lovely the the face of society, it meets the instinctive desires in the human bosom of a religion of some kind, and it keeps the conscience at ease. But it is not adapted to such rough and perilous scenes as the Apostles engaged in, and such as are inseparable from the life of a modern Missionary. There is not enough in this religion to sustain those who are willing to peril their lives in such a cause. To prosecute this cause is to be a work of steady sacrifice and self-denial. It is to pursue the steady plan amidst the coolness of friends, and the opposition of foes. It is to embark in it, expecting that life will close before it is completed, and that future generations will prosecute and complete it. Now there is no mere love of the beautiful in religion that will do this. There is no pro- tracted charm of romance that will do it. There can be no illusive splendour thrown over the enterprise to make a father willing to part with his son whom he has carefully trained, or to press to his bosom for the last time his daughter, that their lives may be spent far away in Heathen lands, to labour, per- chance, without sympathy there ; to be sick, with neither father nor mother to sustain them ; and to die, and be buried, and forgotten there. Great enterprises for the amelioration of the world depend for success on sterner principles than this. " It is not by flowers and verses, by declamations on the beauty of the spring, and the goodness of the Deity ;" by the love of adventure, and the charm of novelty, that the soul is to be supported when called to part vvith earthly comforts, and to meet with persecution or neglect. No mere sentimental feeling led Howard to gauge the misery of the prisons of Europe, and to inhale their pestilential air ; no mere admiration of the loveli- ness of freedom led Clarkson and Wilberforce to devote their days and nights to the relief of the oppressed African ; and no romance in the struggle for freedom could have induced Han- cock and Adams to peril their lives and their fortunes in the cause of American freedom. Accordingly, the religion of senti- ment has never given birth to Missions. The Grecian sage, in whose bosom this religion found its most congenial home, made no efforts to carry it abroad. He was content to impart a knowledge of its beauties in the academy, or to transmit it in p ^ 212 THE MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE DEPENDENT the "mysteries;" and though Solon and Pythagoras crossed seas and deserts to (jain kmnvledge in other lands, they made no joui'neys to secure proselytes to their religion there. The Sadducce, who, among the Hebrews, was the type of this religion as it exists in other lands, originated no Missions, and submitted to no sacrifices, that his views might he propagated among the nations of the earth. Rousseau contemplated no Mission to those on whom the beauty of religion, as seen by him, had never dawned ; and the theophilanthropist was content to strew flowers on the altars which he had erected in Paris, and to deliver homilies on the beauties of morality there, with no attempt to shed this light on the darkened souls of the Heathen. No transcendentalist leaves the calm retreats of the academic grove to fix his abode in CaflVaria or New Zealand ; nor among all those who are so charmed by the beauty of religion, by the purity of the precepts of Christ, and by the moral perfection of his character, but who deny his atonement; so loud in proclaiming the perfectibility of man, and so eloquent in praise of that Gospel which has brought life and immortality to light, but who deny the absolute depravity of the race, and tlie necessity of the new birth ; so much in love with a religion which gives a superior cultivation to the intellect, and a charm to manners in social relations, but who see no attractiveness in the severer views of the evangelical system, has a Mission to the Heathen ever been originated and sus- tained. Of all this class there is not now a single Missionary to propagate these views in any Heathen land, nor does all the zeal with which these views are defended at home, nor the eloquent descriptions of the elevating tendency of that religion, and its adaptedness to remove the evils which afilict our race, prompt to a single effort to rear a temple in honour of that religion on a Pagan soil. Equally true is it that the religion o^ forms is not ada})ted to such an enterprise. It cannot be denied that it has some advantages for such a work, above the religion of sentiment, and that this religion has given birth to enterprises involving sacrifice and self-denial, which would be an honour to any cause. It cannot be denied that it has often turned its atten- tion to Christian Missions, and that powerful organizations have ON THE RELIGION OF PKINCIl'LE FOR SUCCESS. '213 been formed, and arc still in operation, under its auspices, con- templating the spread of a species of Christianity, amono- tliose who arc " sitting in darkness and in the shadow of death." No man will hesitate to attribute the praise of a burning zeal to Xavier ; and the sacrifices and self-denials of Brebeuf, and Raymbault, and " the delicate Lallemand," among the North American Indians, have gone into the permanent records of history. From such sacrifices and self-denials, I do not intend to deny that the Missionaries of a purer Gospel may learn many an invaluable lesson, nor should the praise which is due to heroic ardour be withheld from their memory. For such zeal inspired by the religion of forms it would not be difficult to account, but it is easy to see that the great object contemplated by the Saviour can never be secured under the auspices of such a religion. The attachment for a religion of forms seizes with such power on the soul, that they who are devoted to it are willing to make great sacrifices in its defence, and even to become martyrs in spreading it through the world. It has a power which is never found in the religion of sentiment, for it regards religion as a momentous thing, and deems it essential to the salvation of man. Such is the sense of the value of religion; so deep becomes the conviction that this particular kind of religion is essential to salvation ; so exclusive is it in its very nature, and, perhaps, too, so strong- is the love of power, and the desire of a wide dominion unconsciously substituted for religion, that it may summon the mightiest energies of the soul for its diffusion, and boast of a catalogue of martyrs as extended as any other. The Pharisees, the great type of this kind of religion all over the world, compassed sea and land to make one proselyte, and it is not strange that the same kind of religion sliould produce the same zeal in every age and country. But what will be the real objects aimed at under such auspices ? What will be the effect on the converts made ? The Saviour said, in reference to a convert made by enterprises of this nature, " And when he is made, ye make him two-fold more the child of hell than yourselves." (Matt, xxiii. 15.) They Avho engage in such enterprises, will be the patrons and advo- cates of a religion of forms wherever it may be found, and will endeavour to adopt these forms, and accommodate them to 214 TIIF, MISSIONAUY ENTERPRISE DEPENDENT their own religion, as if the woi'k were to convert forms to new names, rather than to convert tlie souls of men. In the systems of the Heathen there are many forms of religion, which only need a new name, and new associations, to become all that is contemplated in a religion of Christian forms. Let a Chi'istian name be given to a Heathen temple ; let the existing Heathen priesthood, even without a change of vestments, be baptized and adopted into the ranks of a Christian priesthood ; let the altar on which Heathen sacrifices have long ascended, remain, and be re-consecrated, still to be an altar in a Christian temple; let the incense continue to be wafted by other hands ; let baptism be substituted in the place of ablutions ; let the worship of canon- ized Christian martyrs be substituted in the place of that of heroes ; let the days consecrated to the memory of the gods become days to commemorate the virtues of the saints ; and let the reverence for a sacred order of men, and for sacred places, temples, shrines, and burial-places, remain unchanged, and the w^ork of Missions contemplated by a religion of forms is accomplished. The heart is unconverted. The mind is debased and degraded still. There has been a transfer of a religion, not the regeneration of a soul ; a conversion of rites and ceremonies, not the renewal of the alienated human heart. The gain has been in enrolling a name among the outward friends of Christianity, not in record- ing it in the book of life. In the sixth century, it is said that Gregory sent to Britain, ordering that, for the accommodation and allurement of the Pagans, and to make Christianity sit easy upon them, the days on which they had been accustomed to sacrifice to the gods, should be appointed as festivals to the saints, and so the populace be allowed to bring and kill their victims, and perform their sacrifices as usual. If, in enterprises of this kind, the Gospel should be sent to those among whom the forms of Christianity already have an existence, the purpose will be to become identified with those forms, and, perhaps, to make common cause against a purer and simpler religion. T!ic grand aim will not be to breathe the ])ure spirit of religion again into those dead forms, but to ex])ress towards them a fraternal feeling, to trace out the features of resemblance and consanguinity, and to glory that a new argument is found in a collateral line for tlie Apostolical succession. On such a ON THE RELIGION OF PRINCIPLE FOR SUCCESS. 2\5 religion, therefore, we cannot depend for the conversion of the world to God. Equally clear is it that we cannot rely on the religion of feeli/ig or emotion. The reasons for this are too obvious to make it necessai'y to enter into a formal statement of them. There is enough in the condition of the world to excite the deepest emotion, and to appeal to all the tender sensibilities of the sovd. By no one, with whatever talent he may have been endowed to work upon the sympathies of mankind, has the description of human misery been overdrawn. We may be certain that such descriptions never go beyond the reality, and that, when in view of human guilt and WTetchedness, our eyes run down with tears, the emotion is not caused by imaginary woes. There is ignorance and misery in every Heathen com- munity so deep as to secure us against the possibility of ever being reproached for weeping over fancied sorrows. The descriptions of the widow burning on the funeral pile ; of children devoted to the Ganges ; of the Hindoo swinging on hooks ; of infanticide in China, and in the islands of the South Sea ; of the painful postvires of the Brahmin ; of the sickening scenes in the festivals in honour of Juggernaut; of human sacrifices, and of the debasing vices of the Heathen world, over which our hearts bleed when our brethren return from distant lands, and tell us what they have seen, are all drawn from reality, and we need not apprehend that they are over-coloured. When the Christian has wept over these things in his closet, there has been occasion for his tears ; and when the great con- gregation has been held in breathless stillness by a description of Heathenism, by one who has come to tell us of this woe and degradation, there has been occasion for all our sympathy. It was right to weep. It was what the Saviour did when on earth he looked on dying men; it is what he would do if he dwelt among us now. But can we depend on this sympathy, this mere emotion, in the enterprise of carrying the Gospel around the world ? There are great laws of our nature which forbid it. God has made us creatures of sympathy and feeling, to prompt us to action where something is to be done for which it would not be safe to rely on cool rellection ; but not with reference to enterprises which 216 THK MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE DEPENDENT demand years or ages for their luliilment. We console tlie sufferer, we relieve the afSicted, we press through the flames or plunge into the stream to rescue a child from death, prompted by instantaneous emotion where reason would be too slow to come to the aid of the sufferer. When the pestilence breathes through a land, or the earthquake engulfs cities and towns, we at once, under the influence of feeling, open our hands and hearts for the relief of the sick and the dying, prompted to it so soon that cold avarice may not prevent the exercise of sacred charity. From the same law of our nature, we open our doors to receive the wounded soldier, and spread for him a couch on whicli to die. But we consult about the constitution of a republic; we found colleges and schools; we lay down an iron road, or dig a canal, or construct a breakwater; we endow an hospital or an asylum that shall diffuse blessings over distant generations, under different auspices. These things depend on a different law of our being, and appeal to different principles of our mental constitution; nor could the foundation of emotion be raised so high as to make it the basis of a calculation that these great objects could ever be secured. There is another law of our nature which shows tliat, in securing these objects, you cannot depend on feeling or emotion. To secure the promptings produced by emotion, the object must be before you, or must be so vividly painted that you see it as a reality. As long as it acts it must be in the eye. But how could that object of pity be kept so steadily in the eye amidst the necessary business and the allurements of life as to prompt to steady action? How can the image of distress be so con- stantly before us as always to affect the heart ? The circum- stances of our being forbid it; and even if it were always there, the laws of our natui-e would make us soon cease to be afiected by it. Soon, for our nature cannot bear long excitement, we learn to look on scenes of woe without emotion. We go into a hospital and shed not a tear; we walk over a battle-field, strewed with the dying and the dead, without emotion ; we hear the piteous wail of the beggar without concern; and we should soon learn to look u])on the sufferings of the whole Heathen world, without being prompted to any great effort for their relief. The crv, too, that comes from the Heathen world, ON THE RELIGION OF PRINCIPLE FOR SUCCESS. 217 is distant. It almost dies away before it reaches our cars; and when the vibrations come to our atmosphere, they are so driven from their direction, and so drowned in the hum of business, that they reach not the ears of the great mass of those who call themselves Christians, and we continue to urge on the affairs of commerce, and ambition, and pleasure, as if not a Heathen had a soul to be saved. You cannot depend, then, on the religion of feeling or emotion, to accomplish the great purpose contemplated by Christian Missions. But if you can depend on neither of these kinds of religion, there remains but one other source of reliance. It is The Religion of Principle. We shall see its value, by a brief specification of particulars in reference to the nature of the work to be accomplished. First. It is an enterprise stretching into coming ages. It is not expected, unless it be by a few visionary men, to be accom- plished in a single generation. They who embark now in the enterprise for converting the world, do not dare to hope that they will see its consvunmation. They expect to be withdrawn from the field before the standard of victory waves on the ramparts of the enemy, and, perhaps, before a single blow is struck that shall make its strongholds tremble. The laurels which they hope to wear are not those which shall be conferred as the result of the final triumph ; and whatever bamiers they may see floating " when their eyes shall be turned to behold the sun in heaven for the last time, they do not even hope to see, what they believe will yet be seen, the banners of salvation, all clothed with living light, floating over the sea and the land, and in every wind under the whole heaven," in demonstration that the kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ. That sight will be reserved to greet and bless other eyes here below. They will see it when they shall look down from the battlements of heaven ; or, if from those heights they cannot look upon the earth where they dwelt, and toiled, and prayed, they expect to learn that the victory is achieved from those who shall come up redeemed out of every nation, and kindred, and people, and tongue, under the lieaven, to mingle their hallelujahs before the throne. There is not upon l\\e earth an enterprise commenced whose 218 THE MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE DEPENDENT couiplctioii stretches so far into futurity, or wliich makes so large a calculation on the fidelity of coming ages, as the Missionary cause. In most of the undertakings in which we engage as individuals, we hope to see the completion ourselves. Of the orchard that we plant, we hope to eat the fruit ; in the house that we are building, we hope to dwell ; the avails of the commercial adventure in which we embark, we hope to enjoy; the land from which we cut away the primeval forest, we hope to see covered with tlie goklen harvest; and in the growing honours that shall gather around the son that we educate, we hope, in our old age, to rejoice. And so in more public under- takings. On the canal that we are excavating, we hope to see borne along the productions of the teeming soil ; over the rail- way that we are laying down, though valleys are to be filled and mountains levelled, we expect to see the lengthened train of cars fly rapidly along ; the ship whose keel we lay down, we expect soon to see riding majestically on the deep ; the college whose corner- stone we lay, we expect soon will open its doors to receive the youth of the land ; and in the solemn temple whose walls we rear, we trust that we and our children will soon worship God. We have faith, indeed, in the next generation, that it will finish what we have begun ; and faitli, in all future ages, that they will preserve what we secure by our valour, or establish by our wisdom. But how few private enterprises would be commenced if it were foreseen that they could not be completed before the life of the individual would be closed! And how few public undertakings would be embarked in, if their completion was luiderstood to depend entirely on the fidelity of far-distant generations ! Who would lay the foundation of a college or a temple of worship, if this were the anticipation ? Who would engage in a war, even for freedom, if it was foreseen tliat tiie fury of conflict was to rage from generation to generation ; that the sohlier and the officer were to die in the struggle, unblessed with the sight of victory, and that the laurel was to be won, if at all, by some victor of a far-distant generation, to whom your name would be unknown ? The Missionary enterprise stretches farthest into futurity, implies the highest confidence in the fidelity of future ages, and anticipates the most steady and persevering self-denial, in those ON THE RELIGION OF PRINCIPLE FOR SUCCESS. 219 ages, of any cause in which men are now embarked. In this respect, it involves two things : First, Faith in God ; a firm belief that he is the patron of the cause ; that he will continue to keep it before the minds of his people ; that he will give them the means to prosecute it ; that he will convert our childi-en, and children's children, and incline them to devote themselves to the work of rearing the glorious temple whose foundations we lay. Second, Faith in coming generations ; that they will approve the wisdom of our plans ; that they will be willing to deny themselves, and take up the cross, to finish what we have begun ; that they will bear the cause on their hearts before God ; that they will consecrate their wealth to the work ; that they will devote their sons and their daughters to teach in the schools that we establish ; that they will give up their choicest youth to publish the Gospel in the places where we lay the foundations of Churches ; that they will finish trans- lating the Bible, which we had begun to translate ; and that when, in this warfare, every leader and subaltern has fallen, others will rush in to supply their places, till " The dwellers in the vales and on tlie rocks Shout to each other; and the mountam-tops, From distant mountains, catch the flying joy; Till nation after nation taught the strain, Earth rolls the rapturous hosauna round." Such an enterprise cannot be commenced and carried forward to its completion, except under the auspices of the religion of principle. If this does not exist in the Church, after a few fitful and spasmodic efforts ; after the sensibilities of the Church have been plied, until, by repetition, they have become para- lysed ; the cause will be abandoned, and the Heathen nations will continue to slumber on in the wretchedness of unbroken niarht. Secondly. The enterprise to which the Church is called in the prosecution of the work of Missions, is one which contemplates such difficulties, embarrassments, and discouragements, that everything else but principle would be appalled. The friends of religion are not insensible to the existence of those diffi- culties. They have endeavoured, as far as possible, to gauge 220 THE MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE DEPENDENT them before they embarked in the undertaking. They liave tried to explore the extent of the unbroken wilderness that is to be made to bud and blossom as the rose ; to take the height of the mountains that are to be levelled, and the depth of the valleys that are to be filled up. They have made it their business, as far as they were able, to "eount the eost," and to "number the hosts that come against them," before they have gone forth to the conquest. There has ])robably been no great enterprise in which man has ever embarked, where the true nature of the diificulties to be encountered has been better understood, or where there has been less effort to conceal or disguise them. Christians have been instructed by their Master not to antici- pate an easy triumph, or a conflict with a feeble enemy. They understand that the warfare is against " ])rinci2)alities and })o\vers, and the rulers of the darkness of this world, and spi- ritual wickedness in high places." They have seriously engaged in the great work of converting this whole world to God, and of establishing everywhere the reign of righteousness and peace. They know the obstacles before them. There are not far from six huncb-ed millions of Heathens who are to be reclaimed and elevated ; there are one hundred and twenty millions of followers of the Prophet of Arabia, who are to be converted to the faith of Christ; there are one hundred millions of nominal Christians, who are to be brought to a purer faith and a holier practice ; there are three millions of the descendants of Abraham, who are to be led to mourn over the act of their fathers in crucifying their own Messiah, and over their own belief. This great mul- titude is to be subdued and changed without arms, or the aid of civil power, or the might of navies. It is to be done by the simple Gospel. They who embark in this undertaking are not ignorant of the moral condition of that world of mind which is to be reclaimed and elevated. They do not expect to find it prepared to welcome the Gospel ; disgusted with prevailing suj)orstitions ; rising to intelligence and purity by a recuperative power of its own ; or ready to cast its idols " to the moles and to the bats." They do not suppose that the nations will be awakened from their hnig, leaden slumbers by the first ray of liglit that breaks on their lunizon ; or that the budding charities of the soul, which have died under the long winter of super- ON THE RELIGION OF PRINCIPLE FOR SUCCESS. 221 stition and sin, will of themselves swell into life. They do not expect to find minds prepared by science to welcome a pure faith, or to appreciate at once tlie argument for Christianity. Tliey do not expect to find the Heathen making progress in the arts, and carrying forward the conveniences and elegancies of life, till they approximate what Christianity would do, and prepare them to welcome that system as the completion and perfection of their own. They expect to find the soul as dark and debased as it can be, and the space which divides the human race from the brute reduced to the narrowest possible dimen- sions, consistently with preserving that distinction at all. Tlie Heathen are, of themselves, making no advances towards the truth, or towards a better system of religion. They make no progress towards civilization, intelligence, liberty. There is no elastic energy in a Heathen mind, no recuperative power to bring it back to God, no well-spring of life to purify the soul. The effect of time is only to deepen the darkness, and to drive the Heathen farther from God. They only adore more shape- less blocks ; they bow before worse-looking idols ; they worship in less elegant and more polluted temples. The idols of the Heathen are not constructed with half the skill and taste with which they were two thousand years ago, nor are their temples built with such exquisite art. No idol of the Heathen world could now be compared with the statue of Minerva at Athens ; no temple can be likened to the Parthenon ; no sentiment originated now in China, India, or Africa, equals in sublimity or purity the views of Socrates. The Heathen world is becoming worse and worse ; more degenerate, more abominable, more pitiable, from age to age. The friends of this great cause do not suppose that that degraded Vv'orld of mind will arise by an elastic energy of its own ; or that the river of pollution and death, by rolling longer, will work itself pure. They have entered on this work, too, feeling that evil in the Heathen world is organized and compacted ; that it is sustained by law, and incorporated with institutions having the sanction of ages, and with all their views of science ; that it can bring to its aid the authority of a priesthood, supposed to be heaven-appointed ; and that their poetry, their apothegms, their traditions, all support the religion which we seek to displace. This great 222 TIIK MISSIONAKV KNTERPItlSE DEPENDENT enterprise has been engaged in, also, in full view of the apathy, and coldness, and want of zeal of the great body of the Chris- tian Church; of all the prejudice which has been caused on Heathen shores by those bearing the Christian name, who have gone for unholy gain, for plunder and rapine ; of all the un- righteous wars which j^rofessedly Christian Sovereigns have waged there ; of all the injury done by slave-ships approaching a Heathen coast under the abused flag of a Christian nation, to seize and fetter its unoffending inhabitants, and to bear them away to hopeless bondage : and we expect to prosecute this great work in the very light and blaze of burning villages and hamlets, fired by those who bear the Christian name. This immense and far-spread prejudice we hope to overcome by the exhibition of that benevolence to which the Gospel prompts, and by making the Heathen understand, by a long course of efforts pursued for their good, that all who bear the Christian name, do not visit their shores for plunder and rapine. And this work has been commenced, in full view of the belief that all this evil is systematized and arranged under the control of one master-mind, the presiding spirit of evil, and that it is " metho- dized and wielded with a comprehension of plan which no man can explain vipon the principle of accidental coincidence." Under this comprehensive plan, these various forms of evil arc all mar- shalled and wielded, and every point may be defended by a leader who seems to have the power of ubiquity of action to strengthen whatever position is attacked. In such an enterprise, on what kind of religion shall we rely ? Not the admiration of the beautiful is to accomplish the work, not that religion which would go to assimilate itself to these systems or to adopt their forms as its own, and not that " goodness " which, " like the morning cloud, soon vanishes away." Thirdly. The Missionary enterprise is one which is to be pur- svied through scenes of alternate hope and fear ; in times of elation and depression, when the sea is smooth and a steady brc{>ze swells all the canvass, and when the storm arises and the billows roll. The appeal is not to be made to the Church on the ground of success. The heart is not to be unduly elated when o])p()sition yields, and the (jospel achieves great triumphs ; nor is it to be depressed when opposition becomes formidable, aud ON THE RELIGION OF PRINCIPLE FOR SUCCESS. 223 no impression is made on the powers of darkness. The Churcli is not to become self-confident or suddenly flushed with the hope of victory, when her sons press forward to fill the ranks of those who have fallen in her service ; nor is she to be disheartened when they prefer the gains of commerce, the honours of a learned })rofession, or the calm retreats of the porch or the academy, to tlie paths of self-denial which must be trod by the Christian Missionary. It is the nature of this work to be calm, and con- fident in God, though the last herald of salvation on Heathen ground, faint and feeble, should lift up the cry for help, and not a youth in the land should run to his aid. The Church is not to be elated unduly, when religion seems to make its way tri- umphantly among mountain fastnesses, to find out an old and dilapidated church, and to kindle up again the flame of pure devotion in its ancient temples ; nor is she to despond though armed hosts follow the adventurous tread of the Christian Mis- sionary, and murder the Priests of religion, and lead Christian matrons and virgins into captivity, and extinguish there the holy flame wliich had begun anew on those mouldering altars. From the very nature of Christianity, it will visit these mountain fast- nesses again, undismayed, with the firm confidence that the holy light of religion will yet shine unextinguished there. Nor is the Church to place her reliance on the wisdom of men, or to feel unduly elated when the leaders in this cause are blessed with uncommon prudence and sagacity, or be dismayed when such men are removed. The enterprise lives on while its earthly leaders die. It is not essentially disturbed, though such a man as Worcester, or Evarts, or Cornelius, orWisner, be taken from its councils ; for the Great Leader and Counsellor lives. Those were uncommon men. Few causes in which men have been embarked have had such men to lose ; many a cause could not have parted with them and yet survived. Many an enterprise has been begun and ended under a single leader ; and when the great mind that conceived it was withdrawn, no one was found to carry forward the plan which he had formed, and the f;ibric which he had reared fell by its own weight. The plans whicli had been commenced by Alexander could have been matured and perpetuated only by his own talents, and when he died, tlie iuimense empire which he had founded crumbled to fragments. ¥»> .^4 THE MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE DEPENDENT The empire over which Napoleon ruled rose under his own mighty genius, and had he never been driven from his tlironc, the world would not have had an intellect fitted to perfect his plans when he died. Cromwell left no successor to carry out the principles of that Protectorate which had made England more formidable, and more respected, than she had been under all her dynasties of Kings from the time of Alfred; and, deprived of his mighty mind, the nation bowed to the sceptre of the most miserable specimen of royalty that ever occupied a throne. Not so when perpetuity and triumph depend on principle. Had Samuel Adams and John Hancock, when proscribed by the British Government, been arrested and put to death ; had the voice of Patrick Henry been silenced by a poniard or a bi'ibe ; had the sagacity of Franklin and Sherman been withheld from the councils of the Revolution ; nay, had the ball from the rifle of the Indian Chief, aimed with a skill which had never before failed, pierced the heart of Washington, there would have been other Adamses, and Hancocks, and Henrys, and Shermans, and Franklins, and Washingtons, to conduct the nation to freedom ; for there were great principles of liberty involved which could neither be proscribed, nor bribed, nor put to death. So in the cause of spreading the Gospel around the world. No matter what earthly leader falls, the cause is to live. There are great principles involved in that cause, and it must live on from age to age : and when a leader falls, the Church is not to be dismayed. She has embarked in this enterprise expecting that this is to be ; and has learned to anticipate that a long succession of such men as Worcester, and Evarts, and Cornelius, and Wisner, must die before her object is accomplished. Fovirthly, the Missionary enterprise contemplates such sacri- fices as can be met only hy steady principle. It supposes that there must be great self-denials, great expenditure, great sufferings. It was an elementary idea in the work of the Saviour, when he undertook our redemption, that he was to be poor, despised, and forsaken ; that he was to grai)})le, single- handed, with the most mighty enemy of God that the universe contains ; that he was to endure the keenest tortures which the human frame could be made to bear. It was an el(>mcntary idea in the religion of Paul, tliat he was to abandon his splendid ON THE RELIGION OF PRINCIPLE FOR SUCCESS. ^■25 prospects of distinction ; that he was to look away from the honovirs of scholarship, office, or eloquence, which had glittered In his youthful eye ; that he was to be regarded as the ** ofF- scouring of the world;" that he was to leave his country and his home ; that his dwelling was to be among strangers, and that his life was to be spent " in perils of waters, and of robbers; in perils among his own countrymen and among the Heathen ; in the city, in the wilderness, in the sea, and among false brethren ; in weariness and painfulness ; in watchings, and hunger, and thirst, and fastings, and cold, and nakedness." The great enterprise in which the Church is embarked now involves similar sacrifices and self-denials. It is supposed that there will be found in the Church, from age to age, sufficient Chris- tian principle to meet the requisition for those sacrifices and suffi?rings. When the Declaration of Independence was adopted, tliere was such a depth of principle required among those who signed it, as to be ready to seal their attachment to it with their blood. John Hancock supposed that his conspicuous name might make him distinguished among those who might perish on the scaflTold ; and in full view of svicli a possible result, he and they pledged to each other their " lives, their fortune, and their sacred honour." The sentiments of all those men are well known ; and the language eloquently attributed to one of them (John Adams) will express the feelings of patriotism founded on principle, and may express ours in the cause in which we are engaged. " I see, I see clearly, through this day's business. You and I, indeed, may rae it. We may not live to the time when this Declaration shall be made good. We may die ; die colonists ; die slaves ; die, it may be, ignominiously, on the scaffold. Be it so ; be it so. If it be the pleasure of Heaven that my country shall require the poor offering of my life, the victim shall be ready at the appointed hour of sacrifice, come when that hour may. But, whatever may be our fate, be assured, be assured, that this Declaration will stand. It may cost treasure, and it may cost blood ; but it will stand, and it will richly compensate us for both. Through the thick gloom of the present, I see the brightness of the future, as the sun in heaven. My judgment approves of this measure, and my whole heart is in it. All that I have, and all that I am, and all that I Q 226 THE MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE DEPENDENT hope in this life, I am now ready here to stake on it; and live or die, survive or perish, I am for the Declaration." Such was principle, in a cause and on an occasion the most noble that the earth has witnessed, except that in which the Church is engaged of spreading the Gospel around the globe. That is more noble ; that involves still higher principle, and that may demand still higher and more continued sacrifices. The youth, who gives himself to Christ, should do it prepared to brave the cold of the north, or the burning heats of the line, in carrying there the pure Gospel ; and with the expectation that, after an hour of nnpitied suftering, he may lie unburied in a foreign land. The father is to be ready to part with his son, the pride of his heart, and the anticipated stay of his age; the son, whose early course has been radiant as the light of a morning without clouds, and who is qualified by native endow- ment to adorn the bar, the bench, or the senate chamber, — to preach the Gospel to savages ; and is to lay his hand on him and bless him, as the ship is loosening from her moorings, expecting to see his face no more. The mother is to press her much beloved daughter to her bosom for the last time, as she leaves her native land to meet the j^erils of the deep and the desert ; and to die, perhaps, surrounded by strangers, and where l/er hand cannot sootlie her dying sorrows. Youths, educated with all the care and skill that a Christian land can furnish ; accustomed to the comforts and the elegancies of life ; with minds classical, tasteful, and refined, like that of Henry Martyn, and with accomplishments that might adorn any circle, are yet to sing on many a deck, as the Missionary ship glides away, " Yes, my native land, I love tliec; All thy scenes, I love them well; Friends, connexion, happy country ! Can I bid you all farewell '! Can I leave you, Far in distant lands to dwell? " Home ! thy joys are passing lovely; Joys no stranger heart can tell ! Happy home! 'tis sure I love thee; Can T, can I say, Farewell? Can I leave thee, Far in Heathen lands to dwell? ON THE RELIGION OF TRINriPLE FOR SUCCESS. '221 " Scenes of sacrod peace and pleasure ! Holy clays, and Sabbath bell ! Richest, brightest, sweetest treasm-c ! Can I say a last farewell? Can I leave you. Far in Heathen lands to dwell? " Yes, I hasten from you gladly, From the scenes I love so well ; Far away, yc billows, bear me ; Lovely, native land, farewell ! Pleased I leave thee, . Far in Heathen lands to dwell. " Bear me on, tiiou restless ocean ; Let the winds my canvass swell; Heaves my heart with warm emotion. While I go far hence to dwell. Glad I bid thee, Native land! Farewell! Farewell!" ^ To engage in and prosecute a work tlius stretching- into future ages ; a work which contempLates such difficulties, embar- rassments, and discouragements ; a work which is to be pur- sued tlu'ough such scenes of alternate hope and fear, and a work contemplating such sacrifices, self-denials, expenditures, and sufferings, there can be no reliance but the religion of principle. It is this religion, originated only by the Holy Spirit of God, which, we trust, gave birth to the enterprises undertakeii by this Board, and which has thus far animated and sustained the Board and its Missionaries, in the great work of giving the Gospel to Heathen lands. The circumstances under which we meet, fathers and brethren, are adapted forcibly to impress this truth on our hearts. Thirty-three years ago the Board held its second annual meeting in this place. It had then but nine members, and but little more than a thousand dollars in its treasury, and had no Missionaries in the field. It had four young men under its care, ready to go whci'ever the Providence of God should guide them ; and whose wish to devote them- selves to the work of Missions was as clearly formed under the influence of prii/cij^lc, as any purpose ever undertaken by man. 228 THE MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE DEPENDENT With similar feelings they who then constituted the Board, hut one of whom now survives, assembled here to look over the condition of the world. It was not a spirit of romance, termi- nating in a Missionary enterprise, which led to their organiza- tion ; it was not a desire to extend and perpetuate a religion of forms ; it was not under the influence of mere temporary excitement. The Holy Spirit of God had created in their hearts a permanent conviction of the duty of obeying the last command of the Saviour, and of sending the Gospel to distant nations. One third of a century, the period of a generation of the human race, has passed away. The income of the Board has in- creased from one thousand, to more than two hundred and thirty thousand dollars. There was then no Missionary station under their care, now there are ninety -five stations. Then, no American had left his native land, to be a Missionary among the Heathen. Now, one hundred and thirty -five ordained American Missionaries proclaim the blessed Gospel to the nations of the earth, and almost five hundred labourers are employed by this Board, in various departments of effort, in Pagan lands. Then, not one had been converted among the Heathen by the instrumentality of this Board. Now, there are sixty-three churches, and more than twenty-five thousand members. Then, the Board convened in this place in a private parlour. Now, the largest edifice will not accommodate its members and friends. During the time which has elapsed since that meeting, there have been reverses and discouragements, trials and death. But the religion under whose auspices the Board was formed, has proved itself equal to the exigencies which have arisen, and adapted to the work. The ends of the earth have felt the in- fluence of this Board. The sun never sets on its Missionary stations ; and in all its history there has been no occasion to doubt that the religion of principle is adapted to convey the Gospel around the globe. Fathers and brethren ! from the past let us take courage in regard to the future. Lot us never be disheartened by reverses ; let us not be unduly elated with success; let us never confide in nnj)ulses and temporary excitements; let us, above all, never trust in our own wisdom and strength. Leaning on the arm of our God ON THE RELIGION OF PRINCIPLE FOR SUCCESS. 229 and Saviour, and seeking to cultivate in our own hearts, more and more, the spirit of that pure Gospel which is itself nothing else than the religion of principle, let us go on, under all reverses and discouragements, labouring patiently till the Master shall call us home, and then leave the work to other hands, with faith in God, and faith in coming generations, that it will be accom- plished. We shall die, some of us will soon die, all of us at no distant period. But this work will not die. It will be as deeply embalmed in the affection of those who succeed us as it has been in ours; it will be as steadily prosecuted ; it will make as triumphant a progress in future times as it has done in our own. Its final triumph is the only thing that illuminates the darkness of the future ; but that result is as clear as the sun in heaven. By the grace of our God we will do our duty while we live ; we will be found at our post when we die ; we will pass the work, then, into other hands, and in our final abode in heaven we will calmly wait until, from a redeemed world, a voice, loud as the sound of many waters, comes swelling up on high, " The kinofdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ ; and he shall reign for ever and ever." 2o() OIUr.CTIO.NS onVlATED, AND GOD (iLORIFlED, BY ft DISCOURSE XIII. OBJECTIONS OBVIATED, AND GOD GLORIFIED, BY THE SUCCESS OF THE GOSPEL AMONG THE HEATHEN.* BY THE REV. ARCHIBALD ALEXANDER, D.D., rnoFESSOU in TIIF, theological seminary, rniNCETON, NEW-JERSEY. Acts xi. 18. " When they heard tliese things, tliey held tlieir peace, and glorified God, saying, ■^ Then liath God also to the Gentiles granted repentance unto life." ^ It gives us a peculiar pleasure to accompany the Missionaries through those regions, and along the very paths, once conse- crated by the residence and the journeys of Christ and his Apostles. But how much more interesting to the Missionaries themselves, to walk in the footsteps, and stand on the precise spot, where our blessed Lord walked and stood, when upon earth ! What mingled emotions nuist be enkindled in the bosom of the pious pilgrim, while he drinks of the same fountain which afforded refreshment to the Son of God when weary with journeying ! and not only this ; but enjoys the privilege of gazing on the hallowed place where he became incarnate ; where he first saw the light of this world; where he closed his eyes in death ; where he arose from the sepulchre ; and where he was parted from his disciples, and ascended into heaven, while in the \ery act of blessing them. It is no super- stition to be tenderly affected by scenes like these : it is the gciuiine eflect of the association of ideas, in minds imbued with the love of Christ. It must have occurred to the attentive reader of the journals of our Missionaries, that they often pre- sent facts which bear a strong resemblance to incidents recorded in the Acts of the Apostles ; and we are especially struck with * J'roached at Albany, before the American Board of Foreign Missions. THE SUCCESS OF THE GOSPEL AMONG THE HEATHEN. 231 this analogy, when the facts occurred in the same place : as, when we read the accounts of their visits to Jerusalem, to Bethany, to Getlisemane, to Calvary, to Rethlehem, to Nazareth, and to the sea of Tiberias; and of their journeys through Samaria to Galilee, and along the coasts of Tyre and Sidon. It is worthy of remark, also, that the principles on which the Gospel is now opposed, and its Preachers persecuted, are the same which had influence in the days of the Apostles ; and that its converts are inspired with something of the same spirit of constancy and inextinguishable zeal which characterized the primitive disciples. There is, moreover, a resemblance in tlie manner in which the Gospel is introduced and obtains footing. The success of the Apostles on their first visit to a town or city was commonly small : a single family, or one or two indi- ' viduals, were often the first-fruits of the preaching of Paul or Peter; but these formed the germ, from which a flourishing Church soon arose. " The kingdom of heaven is like to a grain of mustard-seed, which a man took, and sowed in his field : which indeed is the least of all seeds : but when it is grown, it is the greatest among herbs, and becometh a tree, so that the birds of the air come and lodge in the branches thereof." The commission which our Lord gave to his disciples was universal in its extent, and couched in terms as perspicuous as could have been selected ; and yet so inveterate were their national prejudices, that they confined their ministry to the Jews and Samaritans. The idea that the Church was still to be limited to their own nation had taken such complete pos- session of their minds, that even the plenary inspiration of Pentecost did not remove the error. It became requisite, there- fore, that a special revelation should be given to the Church on this subject ; which was communicated, by a vision, to the Apostle Peter, while he was sojourning at Joppa. An angel was, in the first place, sent from God to a Roman centurion by the name of Cornelius, a devout and charitable man, who had his dwelling at Cesarea ; directing him to send to Joppa for Simon, whose surname was Peter; "and he," said the angel, "will tell thee what thou oughtest to do." The angel himself could have readily informed this man of everything which he could learn from Peter : but God chooses that the Gospel 232 OBJECTIONS OBVIATED, AND GOD CiLORIFIED, BY should be preached by men of like passions -with ourselves ; and having instituted the ministry of reconciliation, he has resolved to honour that as the means of bringing the Heathen to the knowledge of the truth as it is in Jesus. Angels are ministering spirits, sent forth to minister unto the heirs of salvation ; and, although they deliver short messages to the saints, they have re- ceived no commission to preach the Gospel. Cornelius was, there- fore, directed to send to Joppa for Peter, who should tell him what he ought to do. But what would Peter think of such a message from a Gentile, with whom he had always been accustomed to believe it was unlawful to hold any intercourse ? The same God who had sent his angel to Cornelius, had taken care to prepare the mind of the Apostle for this extraordinary com- munication ; for, while he was engaged in fasting and prayer, in the retirement of the house-top, he saw a vision, the import of which was, that all national distinctions between Jews and Gentiles was done away, and that the middle wall of partition was broken down. But doubting, at first, what the meaning of this vision might be, he was relieved from all suspense by the suggestion of the Holy Spirit, who said to him, " Behold, three men seek thee : arise, therefore, and get thee down, and go with them, doubting nothing : for I have sent them." Peter, in obedience to the divine command, went with the men, and preached the Gospel to Cornelius and to all that were in his house ; and the Holy Ghost having manifestly come u})on them, he proceeded to receive them by baptism into the Christian Church. These were the first-fruits of that glorious harvest of converts who were, in a short time, gathered into the garner of the Lord from among the Gentiles. Tidings of this extraordinary event soon reached the Apostles and brethren at Jerusalem, and produced no small surprise and agitation among them ; and as soon as Peter was come ujj, they who were zealous for the Mosaic rites and distinctions con- tended with him, and said, " Thou wentest in to men uncir- cumcised, and didst eat with them. But Peter rehearsed the matter from the beginning, and expounded it in order unto them ;" and concluded his defence by saying, " Forasmuch tlieu as God gave unto them the like gift as he did unto us, who believed on the Lord Jesus Christ ; what was I, that I sliould THE SUCCESS OF THE GOSPEL AMONG THE HEATHEN. 233 witlistand God ?" '* When they heard these thiiig^s, they held their peace, and glorified God, saying, Then hath God also to the Gentiles granted repentance unto life." It is pleasing to observe how ready these good men were to yield to the truth ; and how sincerely they rejoiced that God had granted r^entance unto life to the Gentiles, as well as to the Jews. In accommodating these words to our present circumstances, I will, from them, take occasion to show, — That the manner in which God, hy his providence and grace, has prospered the efforts of his Church to extend repentance unto life to the Heathen, in our day, ought to silence all the objections which have been made to this benevolent enterprise ; That the success which has attended the labours of Mission- aries among the Heathen should induce all Christians to glorify God for his great goodness ; and, That hence it may be inferred that they should go forward in the good work with increasing vigour, zeal, and confidence. I. When it was first proposed to propagate Christianity in Hindostan, a great clamour was raised against the design, by interested men, who pretended that any attempt to change the religion of that people would be attended with civil commotion of the most alarming kind ; and that the consequence, in all probability, would be the subversion of the British empire in the East. This objection to Missionaries was founded on principles merely political, and, if it had been true, ought to have had no weight with Christians to prevent them from propagating the Gospel for the salvation of men. But when the experiment was made, what was the result ? Were the predictions of those wise politicians verified ? So far from it, that in no single instance has the attempt by Missionaries to propagate the Gospel in India been followed by the least tumult or civil com- motion ; and it is a notorious fact, that the innnense population of that country has never remained so tranquil and submissive as since the period of the introduction of Missionaries. But another objection was made, which could have no other basis than indifference to all religion. It was alleged, and strongly urged, that the Heathen were contented and happy in the possession of a religion of their own, to which they had 234' OHJECTIONS OBVIATED, AND GOD GLOKIFIED, 1!Y been long accustomed, and wliich Vvas ada])ted to tlieir genius and climate; and, therefore, that it uas not only impolitic, hut inluunan, to disturb their minds with a new religion. The amount of this objection is, that all religions are equally good, and equally safe; and that Christianity possesses no such tran- scendent excellency as would make it a rich blessing to any and every people. Now who does not perceive that this ob- jection, though coming from the mouths of nominal Christians, is replete with the spirit of Infidelity ? Bu.t, even on mere 2>rinciples of humanity, and in relation to temporal happiness, it is capable of the clearest demonstration, from undoubted facts, that Christianity would confer on the Heathen more important benefits than can be derived from any other source. Turn your eyes to the horrid system of idolatry which prevails in India, and other Heathen countries ; contemplate the multitudes whose lives are sacrificed to the gods of their cruel superstition ; consider the slavish and desolating effects of these false religions upon the minds of all their votaries, not only in eradicating every virtuous and generous principle, but also in withering every kind and amiable affection of our nature : and having contemplated this scene, turn your attention to the benign influence of the Christian religion, in its tendency to control and mitigate the fierce passions of man ; to civilize and refine society; and to cause the obligations of justice and truth to be felt : and then, without any regard to its divine origin, or its necessity to secure future happiness, ask yourselves whether benevolence does not require that we should make every ex- ertion to rescue our fellow -men from the horrors of superstition, by inducing them to adopt the religion of Jesus ? There exists not upon earth a greater foe to human happiness than Pagan superstition. While the body sim])ly is enslaved, the mind may be tranquil and free, and may enjoy consolations which no external violence can interrupt or destroy ; but when the soul is held in cruel bondage, all sources of rational pleasure are cut off". And even as it relates to the sufferings of the body, no severer tortures have ever been invented or endured than those inflicted by conscience, misguided and terrified by supei'stition. There can, therefore, be no woik of greater benevolence tlian to rescue our fellow-creatures from this wretched thraldom, by THE SUCCESS OF THE GOSPEL AMONG THE HEATHEN. 235 the diffusion of knowledge, and the propagation of just ideas respecting the character of God, and the true nature and extent of human duty. And if we admire the phiLanthropy of Howard, who devoted his life to the alleviation of the miseries of those unhappy men whose bodies were innnurcd in loathsome dun- geons, how can we withhold our cordial approbation of the faithful Missionary, who labours in the midst of appalling dangers and difficulties to deliver men from the intolerable bondage of superstition ? As the Apostle Peter silenced all objections to his entrance among the Gentiles by a simple statement of facts, in humble imitation of his example, I would refer to the well-known facts which have occurred in our times, relative to the happy change produced by the Gospel in the temporal condition of some of the most wretched of our race. Let the objector impartially consider the melioration of condition in degraded Africans, rescued from slave-ships ; let him ponder the wonderful progress of civilization and good moral habits among the Hottentots, the Caffres, the inhabitants of the Society and Sandwich Islands, and also among our Cherokees and Choc taws ; and he will never be disposed again to bring forward this objection. But this leads me to the consideration of one of the most plausible objections ever made against Christian Missions; which is, that it is impossible to communicate the sublime truths of our holy religion to men in a savage state, or to bring them under the influence of its moral precepts. It was confidently asserted by philosophers, and reiterated by reverend theological professors, that civilization must pi'ecede Christianity. These opinions, during the last century, were so often inculcated, and so confidently repeated, that many persons, well disposed to the diffusion of the light of the Gospel, received them as undoubted axioms. But how civilization was to commence and be carried on, no one undertook to explain. None appeared to possess zeal enough to go among the savage tribes to civilize them ; and thvis, as far as these sentiments prevailed, all Missionary effort was paralysed, and a cloud of discouragement cast over every prospect of seeing the Heathen brought into a better condition. It was well, however, that all Christians did not fall under the influence of this philosophical delusion : some continued to 2S6 OBJECTIONS OBVIATED, AND GOD GLORIFIED, BY believe that the only effectual means of civilizing barbarous nations was to send them the Gospel ; and, acting on this principle, they braved the ridicule and contempt of the wise men of this world, and zealously engaged in the glorious work of evangelizing the nations, — a work which, we believe, will never be arrested, until the desired end is fully accomplished. By mere reasoning, this class of objections could never have been so answered, as to convince those by whom they were made ; but God, in his Providence, has, by a series of facts, as gratifying as they are wonderful, silenced for ever, as we would humbly hope, these philosophical dogmas, w^hich stood in the way of the progress of the Gospel. And it was so ordered, as if on purpose to refute these prevalent opinions, that the first remarkable success in Protestant Missions should take place among the most savage and degraded tribes of the human family. The Greenlanders, the African Negroes, tlie Cafi'res, the Hottentots, the Bushmen, and the wandering aborigines of America, furnished the first trophies of Missionary exertion. And to these were soon added the inhabitants of the Islands of the South Sea and of the Pacific. Certainly, no people more remote from civilization existed in the world than some of those who have, by Missionary labours, been converted to Chris- tianity. And, however uncandid men depreciate the w^ork, and affect to believe that nothing has been done ; yet, in the view of the wonderful reformation wrought, and the extraordinary exaltation of the character, not of a few individuals, but of whole tribes and nations, the friends of Missions have just grounds for mutual congratulation and triumph. The problem is now solved, and it is by incontrovertible facts decided, that the Gospel is capable of producing its genuine effects on the most barbarous, as well as the most refined, of the human species ; and that it possesses the power of civilizing men the most savage. Indeed, if it were not so, the Heathen never could be converted to Christianity without a miracle ; for we know of no other means than the Gospel by which savage fero- city can be subdued, and Pagan ignorance enlightened. And if we could connnunicate the arts and refinements of civilized life to savages, it is not evident that this would at all prepare and dispose them for the reception of the Gospel. When tiie THE SUCCESS OF THE GOSPEL AMONG THE HEATHEN. 237 most refined and civilized nations tlirow away all regard for religion, tliey become, as the history of our own age attests, the most ferocious of all mankind. Genuine civilization must connnence with reformation of heart ; and nothing but true religion is capable of producing this effect. Another objection, nearly allied to the above, and proceeding from the same quarter, was, that the enterprise was impracti- cable, by reason of the established prejudices of the Heathen. The idea of converting the world to Christianity, has been ridiculed as weak and fanatical. To the philosophic eye of men of reason, there seemed to be no proportion between the means and the end proposed to be accomplished. That a few zealots, unsupported by civil authority, and unpatronized by the learned and the powerful, should think of revolutionizing the religion of the nations of the earth, all of whom are wedded to their own systems of worship, and many of whom, by reason of their caste and prejudices, are almost inaccessible, was viewed with ineffable contempt by men who looked no farther than to second causes. And, indeed, if the Missionary enterprise be contemplated merely on the principles on which human calcu- lations of success are usually made, the opinions of such objectors do not appear so very unreasonable. If the special aid of Almighty God might not be hoped for, then the pros- pect of accomplishing so great an object, by means so feeble and inadequate, would be discouraging enough. But if there be truth in holy writ, the conversion of the world is an event decreed in the counsels of heaven ; and there is every reason to believe, that it will be brought about by human instrumentality. And it accords with the known methods of divine administration, in the establishment and advancement of the Church, that instruments and means are often selected which appear con- temptible in the eyes of the world ; and frequently, from small beginnings, the most glorious events are made to follow. Of the truth of this remark, the original propagation of the Gospel is a sufficient illustration. But the best answer which can be given to this objection is, as before, to point to the facts, and to say, ^^ See what God hath wrought ! '' Behold the wonderful progress of the Gospel, in a short time ; and where the obstacles w^ere as great as any that exist elsewhere. Contemplate the 238 OLUECTIONS ODVIATEI), AND GOD GLOKIFIEn, BY straiifTC spectacle of wliolc nations casting away their idols ; and Princes and people, tlie aged and the young, sitting down at the feet of the Missionaries, to be instructed in the things which relate to their salvation. I am aware, indeed, that some persons in our country have been pleased publicly to represent the Missionary enterprise to be a failure. They have gloried, as if the wisdom of their predictions was now verified ; and as if, indeed, nothing had been accomplished. Now, I know not what these men \vould consider a successful Missionary opera- tion ; but, if the efiects produced by the exertions of Mission- aries in South Africa, in Tahiti, and the neighbouring isles, in the Sandwich Islands, in many parts of India, and among the tribes of our own continent, can be believed to be events of no importance, then it may be supposed, that if the world should be converted, if the Jews should be brought in with the fulness of the Gentile nations, these incredulous, or rather, uncandid persons, would not believe that anything was yet effected. With such prejudices we do not contend: they are too invete- rate and deep-rooted to be shaken by argument. The facts are before the world; let every one judge of them as he pleases; but, in the mean time, the great and glorious work is advancing and spreading, in spite of the prejudice and envy of men. And what is doing in the Missionary cause, I doubt not, will, in the eyes of posterity, be viewed as far more important and glorious than the most considerable political events of our times. Then it will be admitted, that Hall, and Newell, and Mills, and Judson, and Parsons, and Fisk, and Kingsbury, and Stewart, and King, aud Bingham, with their faithful coadjutors, did not labour altogether in vain. No ; when the en%'y and prejudice of the present generation shall have died, the memory of these men will be blessed ; and the simple narrative of their indefatigable labours and patient sufferings will be read with interest and gratitude, in the four quarters of the world, and in the nu)st distant corners of the earth ; and that, too, when the names of the enemies of Missions shall rot in complete oblivion. The next objection to combined and vigorous Missionary efforts, which I shall notice, is, that the tinie is not yet come, — the time for the conversion of the nations unto God ; and that, THE SUCCESS OF THE GOSPEL AMONG THE HEATHEN. 2.39 until God's appointed time shall arrive, although some partial effects may be produced, yet no general or great success will attend Missionary efforts, however wisely they may be planned, or vigorously executed. If we were certain that this objection rested on the ground of truth, it would indeed discourage our hearts ; but it would not alter our duty, or remove the obliga- tion of the Saviour's command, to " preach the Gospel to every creature ;" for neither the purposes of God, nor his predictions, are made the rule by which we are bound to regulate our conduct. What God requires of us is, to obey his command- ments ; the effects which may be produced by our exertions belong to him, and he will regulate them according to his own good pleasure, and according to his faithful promises. But this objection may be founded, either on the prophecies, or on the present aspects of Providence. Now in regard to the first, it may be observed, that the Church will probably wait long before she begins her efforts, if she suspend them until an agreement shall take place among expositors respecting the times and seasons predicted in Scripture. Prophecies are seldom capable of a precise interpretation until they are fulfilled. We also know that learned men, who have devoted themselves to the study of prophecy, have been egregiously deceived in their most confident predictions of the course of future events. And for ourselves, we believe, " that secret things belong to God, but those which are revealed, to us and our children ;" and that the "times and the seasons" are among the things which "the Father hath kept in his own power." But considering the objection as it relates to the present aspects of Providence, we are disposed to maintain that it is destitute of a shadow of foundation. On the contrary, we are persuaded that almost everything in the existing state of the world, proclaims aloud to Christians, in a voice not to be mis- understood, that the door of access to the Gentiles is now opened, and that they are required to enter into fields which are already white to the harvest. The facilities of propagating the Gospel in foreign countries are multiplied far beyond any conception which our forefathers could have entertained on the subject. Formerly, by reason of the imperfection of naval architecture, the want of astronomical instruments, and the defect of skill in 2\0 OBJECTIONS OBVIATRD, AND GOD GLORIFIED, BY navigation, it was considered a prodigious thing for any one to circumnavigate our glohe ; an event in our days of the most common occurrence. Not many centuries ago, the art of printing did not exist ; all Looks were ])roduccd by the slow process of writing every letter with tlie lumd ; and, long since this wonderful art was invented, the ability to multiply cojhcs of the Scriptures, and other books, was extremely limited; but recently, by the improvements of the press, and the ap])lication of steam, and other mechanical powers, books can be multiplied almost at will ; and at prices far below those at which they could be afforded previous to the commencement of the present century. The facility of acquiring foreign languages is also greatly in- creased in our times. More literary men travel in lands once little visited, and a greater number of those who remain at home apply themselves to the study of various languages ; by which means, teachers of foreign tongues are greatly multiplied, as well as the necessary apparatus of grammars and lexicons. To all which, it may be added, that the intercourse between parts of the earth widely separated is much more frequent and intimate than in precefding ages ; so that now there is scarcely an inhabited covmtry or island on the globe which is not visited by our hardy and enterprising seamen. Missionaries, at present, find no difficulty in reaching the place of their destination. A voyage around the Cape of Good Ilo^ie, or Cape Horn, is not, in our day, considered too arduous for tender females. But there is another weighty consideration which shows that the time for Missionary exertion is come ; and that is, the fact, that scarcely an effort has been made, by any society, in our day, which has proved abortive. Almost all denominations of Pro- testants have engaged in this good work, and all appear to be successful. But I have already had occasion to refer to the success of Missionary exertions, and will not now dwell upon the subject. The only other objection to foreign Missions which I think it necessary to notice, is, that by the prosecution of this enter- prise we injure the Churches at homo, and neglect to supply with the means of grace the vast and increasing population in our new settlements ; and that, by our exertions to send the THE SUCCESS OF THE GOSPEL AMONG THE HEATHEN, ^iil Gospel to the Heathen, we exhaust those funds which arc re- quisite for the successful operation of our benevolent institutions ; and also take away from our destitute Churches some of our best men, whose services at home can very inconveniently be dispensed with. More prominence is given to this objection in the statement than to the others ; because w^hile they spoke the language of Infidelity, or prejudice, or at best, philosophy, this speaks the language of pious zeal ; and no doubt has often pro- ceeded from the mouths of those sincerely attached to the cause of God. And if the eifects of foreign Missions w^ere indeed such as is here supposed, it would behove us to pause and consider our ways, if not retrace our steps. But I appeal again to facts, and on these we are walling to rest our cause. We say, then, that if the prosecution of foreign Missions has actually lessened the resources, or diminished the zeal and vigour of our Churches at home, we will cease to urge the subject any longer upon your attention. But how stands the fact ? I appeal now especially to those who, like myself, are advanced in years. My brethren, has anything occurred within your remembrance which has given so great a spring to vital piety in the Churches, as the enterprise of sending Missionaries to the Heathen ? Has it not been the means of enlarging the views and elevating the aims of Christians, in regard to the duty of promoting pious and benevolent objects of every kind ? When before has so much been done to dijffuse religious knowledge, and to extend the means of instruction to the poor and destitute ? And who are they who most abound in acts of beneficence toward these objects ? Are they not those very persons who are most zealous and liberal in the supj^ort of foreign Missions? The fact is, that a new and holy impulse has been given to the Christian Church, in con- sequence of this enterprise ; and already the Churches have been more than repaid for all their sacrifices and contributions for this cause. The waves which have by this means been put in motion, still go forward with increasing swell, and we cannot anticipate what will be the full effect. And as to the loss of men, I say, they are not lost, — not lost to the American Churches. The disinterested and noble act of forsaking their native land, and all their affectionate friends for ever, does more good to the Cliurch than a lifetime of conunon R 212 OBJECTIONS OBVIATED, AND GOD GLORIFIED, BY labour. It teaches the whole religious community that Chris- tianity has not lost its original power by the lapse of ages. It casts a dark shade upon the grovelling pursuits of this w^orld, and has a mighty tendency to lift the soul up to God. The departure of a few devoted Missionaries does not diminish the number of faithful Pastors, or labourers, in the home Mission ; it increases them manyfold. Many a pious youth is led to devote himself to the service of the Lord, in the Gospel of his Son, in imitation of the foreign Missionaries; and many a youthful heart has received its first permanent religious im- pressions, from perusing the accounts of the labours of these faithful men. And, for myself, I cannot doubt, that the published journals of the Missionaries have done us more good, than the labours of their lives would have done, had they continued at home. I hope none will think that I disparage the labours of Pastors and home Missionaries : this is far from my purpose. They too are engaged in a good work, — in the same work ; but their labours are rendered more useful by the existence of foreign Missions. The standard of their motives, in entering on and prosecuting their work, has been elevated by the self-denial of the foreign Missionary ; so that they all begin to feel, more and more, that they are called to forsake all for Christ ; to consecrate every faculty to Christ ; and to deter- mine to know nothing but Christ, and him crucified ; and to glory in nothing but the cross of Christ. II. The second thing proposed in this discourse is, to take a brief survey of the grounds furnished, by the course of events, in regard to Missions, for thanksgiving to God, and for en- couragement with respect to the future. When the Apostles and brethren, at Jerusalem, heard Peter's narrative of the cir- cumstances of the first entrance of the Gospel among the Gentiles, " they glorified God " for his goodness in " granting repentance unto life " to those whom they had before con- sidered as abandoned to hopeless perdition. As to numbers, there was, indeed, as yet, but little to boast of; one family only had been gathered into tlie Churcli ; but they viewed this as the first-fruits of a glorious harvest. Their eyes were now opened on a new field of labour. Their commission, they now perceived, instead of being confined to the small nation of the THE SUCCESS OF THE GOSPEL AMOX(; THE HEATHEN. 2Ui Jews, was co-extensive with the world. By this interesting- fact, their views of their future work and success must have been exceedingly enlarged. It is not wonderful, therefore, that with one voice, and with one accord, they gave praise unto God, whose goodness and grace ajipeared so glorious, in granting repentance unto life to the Gentiles. And here I would observe, that the situation of the Christian Church now is, in some respects, analogous to that of the infant Apostolic Church, at the time when this event took place. It will, therefore, be worth our while to spend a few moments in sur- veying more particularly some of the reasons which demand the fervent gratitude of every Christian and of every philanthropist, arising out of the recent Missionary operations of the Church. And, first, it is a solid ground for thanksgiving, that the friends of Zion have been awaked from their long slumber on this subject ; and have been, in some measiu'e, made to feel their obligation to send the Gospel to the Heathen. It is truly astonishing that, among so many men of eminent piety as have flourished since the Reformation, so few should have been impressed with the duty of bringing the Heathen to the know- ledge of the truth. The great Reformers themselves seem not to have turned their attention seriously to the perishing con- dition of the world : but it may be pleaded in apology for them, that they had work enough at home ; that the obstacles which they met, and the persecutions with which they were pursued, rendered it impossible to concert a plan, or to acquire the necessary resources, for such a work. But their successors cannot be so easily justified ; many of whom lived at ease, and enjoyed favourable opportunities of commencing the good work of sending Missionaries to the Heathen : and, especially, it strikes us with surprise, that none were found among the Puritans (a people eminent for piety) willing to carry the glad tidings of salvation to their perishing fellow-men in Heathen lands. When two thousand godly Ministers were at once ejected from their cliarges by the ruthless hand of tyranny, why did not some of them, yea, many of them, turn their faces to lands covered with Pagan darkness ? Numbers of them, it is true, sought an asylum in this wide continent, and brought with them the Gospel in its purity, the light of which we now R 2 244 OBJECTIONS OBVIATED, AXO GOD GLORiriED, BY enjoy ; l)ut, although suvroviuded Ly Pagans, few seem to have felt the importance of communicating to them the words of everlasting life. Such men as Eliot and the Mayhews will indeed be remembered by the friends of Missions as long as the world stands ; but in the midst of a pious people, and sur- rounded by faithful Pastors, they stood almost alone in their generation, as the advocates for the Heathen of this country. And, at a "later period, the Brainerds, without the hope of an earthly reward, or even the expectation of being noticed in their self-denying work, wore out their lives in fatiguing and arduous labours for the conversion of the ' savages of America. And although the name of David Brainerd is now known and honoured by many in the four quarters of the world ; yet, perhaps, dvu-ing his life, no Minister in this land pursued his course in greater obscurity, or with less sympathy and en- couragement from his brethren. But let God have all the glory : the scene is now happily changed. The United Brethren set the example of Missionary zeal, patience, and perseverance. The Church of God in Great Britain next felt the sacred impulse ; and the most distant shores now see her sons coming to the Heathen, " in the fulness of the blessing of the Gospel of Jesus Christ." Churchmen and Dis- senters vie with each other, in holy emulation, to be foremost in extending the knowledge of a Saviour. Other European Christians have not been backward to engage in the glorious work ; and none have laboured in this field with more wisdom and success than the little band of Danish Missionaries. Ame- rica, also, has caught the heaven-enkindled flame; and hereafter her Missionary exertions will form the brightest pages in her eventful history. The spirit of evangelical Missions has, for years, been expanding and diffusing gradually its benign in- fluence through our Churches. Every year witnesses an increase of zeal on this subject, manifested by a more enlarged and active benevolence. May this leaven still continue to ferment until the whole lump is leavened ! A very small portion of the Church is yet aroused to the proper tone of feeling on this subject ; but for what God has done for us, we are bound with grateful hearts this day to glorify his name. THE SUCCESS OF THE GOSPEL AMONG THE HEATHEN. 245 Another reason why we should gratefully acknowledge the goodness of God in the review of the IMissionary events of the last few years, is the increasing ardour with which a large number of Christians have been inspired. Their pious and benevolent affections have not only been increased in intensity, but have been elevated and enlarged, so as to comprehend in their embrace a much nobler and wider field than before. For- merly, the minds of Christians were occupied altogether with the concerns of their own salvation, and of those immediately around them ; and no one seemed to have his heart expanded wdth a benevolence which took in the whole world: but now the fact is far otherwise. Many have been impressed with a feeling of tender solicitude for the salvation of their brethren of all nations, and these feelings have gone on increasing in depth and expansion until they have prompted some to acts of noble munificence, and others to still more glorious acts of self- denial ; so that we now begin to come to some just under- standing of the spirit which actuated the primitive disciples of Christ. Another ground of rejoicing which we have in the retrospect of Missionary transactions is, that men of suitable character have been provided to carry on this enterprise. When foreign Missions were first spoken of in this country, so low and con- tracted were the views of some of us, that we could scarcely be induced to believe that any persons would be found willing to leave all, to take their lives in their hand, and commit them- selves to the mercy of a Heathen population. I can well remember the emotions of surprise excited in the minds of many serious people, when it was announced that 'the Baptist Missionaries (Carey and his company) had actually sailed for India; and also, afterward, when so many Missionaries left England for the South Sea Islands. But the impression became deeper when it was known that a number of young men in our own land had devoted their lives to the service of God among the Heathen. Now such facts have become so common, that they produce little surprise; but then it was like a new idea, which, while it startled, enlarged and elevated the mind. But the point to which our attention should now be turned is the excellent character, appropriate talents, and devoted spirit 216 OBJECTIONS OUVIATED, AND GOD GLORIFIED, BY of the persons who have undertaken this arduous work. Call into review the Missionaries employed by every Society, and you will not easily find a brighter constellation of worthies. Some of them have been adorned with eminent gifts, as well as endued with large measures of grace, and have made acquisitions in literature which place them on a level with the most learned men of the age ; and when we take into consideration the motives by which they were induced to make these attainments, they deserve a rank far more elevated than that to which mere literary men can ascend. The character of the Missionaries of the present day has not yet been justly appreciated : by future generations they will be more highly honoured, both on account of their learning, and their benevolent labours. The Missionary enterprise is in itself so noble and benevolent, that when the mind of any man is fully occupied with it, it elevates not only his moral, but intellectual, character many degrees above the point to which it could have arisen in any other pursuit. Is it not a fact that some of our Missionaries, who, if they had remained at home, would never have risen above mediocrity, have manifested a wisdom and energy in their character which may be justly termed extraordinary? In com- position, few writers of the present day excel some of them in those qualities which are characteristic of a truly good style. But it should not be thought strange that the prosecution of an enterprise so great and benevolent should elevate the cha- racter and impart unusual vigour to the intellectual faculties ; for it is a principle of our constitution that the mind receives its cast and complexion from the objects with which it is con- versant, and from the pursuits in which it is engaged. It also affords good ground for joy and thanksgiving that there has arisen no discord among the friends of foreign Mis- sions, to distract their counsels, and paralyse their elforts. Both in Europe and Amei'ica, the utmost harmony has prevailed among those, however different in denomination, who have been engaged in the Missionary operations of the day. The little, narrow feeling of party and sect, which has on other occasions operated so banefully, has had no influence here. The Mis- sionaries, attached to different Societies, and bekmging to dif- ferent denominations, meet in foreign lands as brethren of the THE SUCCESS OF THE GOSPEL AMONG THE HEATHEN. 247 same family. They feel that they are labouring in the same cause, and serving the same glorious Master. With hearty good-will, and mutual confidence, they are accustomed to coun- sel and assist one another in the prosecution of their arduous work. Nowhere upon earth does the genuine spirit of Catholi- cism more prevail than among Missionaries, and the ardent friends of Missions. While it is convenient for the several ecclesiastical bodies, respectively, to devise their own Missionary plans, and super- intend their operation, there is no ground for jealousy or sus- picion ; and there should be no provocation of one another, except to " love and good works." The field is wide enough, and the work ample enough, for all ; and, under existing cir- cumstances, they can bring forth their resources more effectually than if they were all united in one body. And it should be felt, and I trust is felt, that the success of one Society is the success of all. For the same reasons, there should exist no feeling of rivalry between home and foreign Missions. The cause of both is the same, and the love of Christ and his king- dom is the impelling motive of both in their various operations. Let, then, this brotherly love continue, and this harmony ever prevail. In that moment in which Missionary Societies begin to contend with each other for influence and pre-eminence, in that same moment it will be manifest that the true spirit of Missions has departed. And whoever shall have any agency in enkindling discord among the friends of this blessed work, will be guilty of a great offence ; and wo to him by whom such an offence shall come. But it cannot, it must not, be that the progress of this work of God should be retarded or hindered by the petty jealousies of its professed friends. A better spirit prevails ; and will, I trust, more and more prevail, until all our sectarian distinctions shall be melted into the complete " unity of the spirit ;" when all the servants of God " shall see eye to eye," and the bond of union shall be truth, peace, and CHARITY. The only other cause of praise to God which I shall mention at this time is, that so many benighted Heathen have already been enlightened with the rays of divine truth ; and that there is a cheering prospect that the light which has been enkindled 218 OBJECTIONS OBVIATED, AND GOD GLORIFIED, BY in Heathen lands will be diffusive ; and that the knowledge of Christ, now i-eceived by many, will be handed down to their posterity, to the most distant ages. The success of the Gospel among the Heathen in our day, considering the small number of Missionaries employed, and the formidable obstacles which stood in the way, is truly wonderful. In the islands of the great sea the word of the Lord has indeed had free course, and is glorified. In Africa, Hindostan, Ceylon, and even among the Burmese, there are converts to Christianity ; in opening, softening, and sanctifying whose savage hearts, the power of God has been manifested as remarkably as in the days of the Apostles. Nor should we overlook the numerous instances of sound conversion, evidenced by a holy life, which have occurred among the wandering tribes of our own forests. Of these, some have already finished their earthly course, and, in dying as well as living, have proved the efiicacy of Gospel grace to support and comfort the soul in the most trying circumstances. Who, that knows the value of one immortal being, will not rejoice and glorify God for his unspeakable mercy, in granting repentance unto life to so many perishing Heathen ? These fruits are the product of the humble and painful labours of your Missionaries; but they are not the harvest ; they are merely the first-fruits. The precious seed which has been sown shall not be lost; it will hereafter spring up abundantly, and gladden the hearts of all who love Zion, and pray for her prosperity. The past success of Missionary labours ought not to be estimated so much by the actual number of converts, as by the preparation made for future and more extended operations. The holy Scriptures have, by the diligence and learning of Missionaries, been translated into many different languages; and are now in the progress of wide and rapid circulation. Tribes, destitute of a written language before they were visited by your Missionaries, have been taught to read, and already begin to peruse the wonderful works of God, recorded in the liiblc, in their respective tongues. Thousands of Heathen children are now collected in schools, through the assiduous labours of Missionaries, and are daily taught lessons out of the lively oracles. Native teachers have been raised up in many places, and are now engaged in proclaiming a crucified Savioiu- THE SUCCESS OF THE GOSPEL AMONG THE HEATHEN. 24-9 to their deluded countrymen. Surely, these are not the effects of mere human exertion ; but God has been with his faithful servants. He has, in much mercy, bowed his heavens and come down, to aid and bless their labours ; and has, through their instrumentality, " granted repentance unto life to the Gentiles." They have received the same spirit of faith and obedience which is given unto us; and now rejoice in the ntune of Jesus, as we do ; and place all their confidence in his atoning blood. Have w'e not reason, then, to exult ? and ought we not, without ceasing, to praise and glorify the name of God, the Maker of heaven and earth ? III. In conclusion, I would say, that, having so much cause of thanksgiving from a retrospect of the past, it behoves us to be animated with renewed zeal and courage in the further prosecution of this great work. The way of the Lord is made ready, even a highway for our God. The most appalling dif- ficulties have been encountered and overcome ; Jordan is already passed, and the land of promise lies before us ; while behind, there is nothing but a barren wilderness. The Macedonian cry, " Come over, and help us,'' is heard from a thousand tongues. Your Missionaries most earnestly beseech you to send them aid : not because tliey are weary of their work, but because the harvest is too great for them to reap. Their most painful feelings arise from their inability to satisfy all the the importunate demands made upon them for instruction. Only cast your eyes on the Sandwich Islands ; behold the ardour with which knowledge is there sought, by the high and low, by Princes and people, by the old and the young. Methinks I see the withered hands of the aged, stretched out to us in earnest entreaties that we should send some to teach them the way of salvation before they sink into the grave, shrouded in all the darkness of Heathenism. The multitudes of dear children, who are pressing into your schools, and the half of whom cannot be accommodated, seem to send across the wide waves of the ocean a piercing cry for more Mission- aries, more Teachers, more books. And while this is the condition of a part of the Heathen world, of which we, as a Society, have taken solemn charge as our own peculiar field of labour, shall we be contented with Vv'hat has already been done ? 250 OBJECTIONS OBVIATED, AND COD GLORIFIED, BV How can we be at ease, or suffer this subject of powerful interest to pass away from our thoughts, for a single hour? An individual cannot do much, but the combined efforts of many can accomplish all that is wanted, so far as relates to funds. Now is the time for the wealthy to invest their money to the best advantage. Now they have a precious opportunity of making to themselves friends, by means of the unrighteous mammon. Now, the man whose heart dcviseth liberal things, may make such an appropriation of his riches as will produce a blessed gain to many and to himself through eternity. Why have we not at least a hundred Missionaries in the Sandwich Islands? Ai-e they not needed? No one can dispute it. Are there no more pious men and women who are willing to devote themselves to this service ? Doubtless there are hundreds, will- ing to go, who might be useful in that field ; if not as public Preachers, yet as teachers of youth. What, then, is the obstacle ? I am ashamed to mention it. It is the want of adequate funds. Will future generations credit the account ? Will it be believed that one-thousandth part of the sum spent by serious Christians in acknowledged superfluities, was sufH- cient to support all the Missions in the world; and yet that it was found impossible to induce them to consecrate this small portion of the goods which God gave them, to the honour of his name, for the advancement of the Redeemer's kingdom, and for the salvation of immortal souls ? How they who owe them- selves to the Lord Jesus, and who have been bought with the price of his invaluable blood, can withhold anything which his cause needs, we cannot understand. Dear brethren, if you ever mean to act with zeal and energy in this work, now is your time. The night is far spent, the day is at hand ; it is, there- fore, high time to awake out of sleep. Some of us will soon have made an end to all our earthly labours. Perhaps, before another meeting of this Board, some of its present members will have been called to give up the account of their steward- ship. If we have any remaining duty to perform, in aid of foreign Missions, let us address ourselves to the work without delay. Since our last annual meeting, this Board lias been deprived by death of three of its venerated members; * one of * Tlic Jlon. John Jay, Hon. Jolin Hooker, and tlie Ilev. John Chester, D.D. THE SUCCESS OF THE GOSPEL AMONG THE HEATHEN. 251 wliom was among the youngest of our number ; and it deserves to be remembered, that we are now met in the house in which our amiable, enterprising, and accomplished brother was wont to lift up his voice in the compassionate warning of sinners, and in preaching the unsearchable riches of Christ. May each of us who survive be ready to welcome our summons to another world, if we should be called away before the expiration of another year. But, my beloved brethren, while we live, let us be found diligently and faithfully engaged in our Master's work. Let us gird up our loins, and be found watching and labouring when our Lord shall come. And those of you who have wealth to account for when you stand before the judgment-seat of Jesus Christ, make, I beseech you, that disposal of it which you have reason to believe would be pleasing in his sight. If any of you are meditating in your hearts to offer something to the Lord, in a way in which it may be beneficial to the cause of Christ ; remember, I entreat you, the hundreds of millions who are perishing for want of the bread of life. Defer not the execution of your pious and benevolent purpose until you shall be under the necessity of resigning everything into other hands. Testamentary charities are useful ; but they are often suspicious as to their motive. It is giving when we can enjoy our property no longer, and when it can scarcely be called our own. What proportion of their property or their income Christians should devote to the peculiar service of God, we presume not to pre- scribe. Let every one consult the suggestions and promptings of his own benevolent feelings, "and as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give ; for the Lord loveth a cheerful giver." The temple of God was reared of old only by freewill offerings, and the spiritual temple must now rise in the same way. We present no motives to provoke you to liberality, but such as are truly Christian. But we will say, that they will be blessed indeed, to whom shall be granted such love to Christ, and such benevolence to men, that they will cheerfully offer, not merely a part, but the whole of what they possess, for the furtherance of the Redeemer's kingdom, and the conversion of the world. And tliis would not be a new thing under the sun ; for in primitive times many, out of love to Chris.t, gave up all their 252 THE GOSPEL HARVEST, possessions, that they might serve him more entirely. And let those of us who have neither silver nor gold to give, be careful to bestow such things as we have ; and which may be much more precious than worldly treasure. Especially, let us be mindful to pray for the prosperity of Zion, and the peace of Jerusalem ; and give no rest to our covenant-keeping God, until he has fully given to his Son " the Heathen for his inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for his possession." The fervent, inwrought, united, persevering prayers of the true Israel of God, shall at last be the effectual means of accom- plishing the great object which we seek to promote, and which Jehovah has so repeatedly promised to his Church, in the latter days. DISCOURSE XIV. THE GOSPEL HARVEST, AND CHRISTIAN'S DUTY.* BY THE REV. THOMAS DE WITT, D.D., NEV.' YORK. Luke x. 2. " Therefore said ho unto them, The harvest truly is great, but the labourers arc few : pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he would send forth labourers into his harvest." The history of the world, in all ages, exhibits the extended prevalence of ignorance and error, of sin and misery. The mind of the philanthropist feels oppressed with the contemplation, and naturally inquires. Shall this state of things always continue ? Will the time never arrive w^hen truth, and holiness, and peace shall pervade the earth .'* Philosophy, falsely so called, has specu- lated on the perfectibility of human nature, while, in infidel * Preached at Boston, before the American Board of Foreign Missions, 1830. AND christian's duty. , 253 rejection of truths the most simple and sacred, she lias minis- tered, by her spirit and her instructions, to the pride and corruption of our nature. The legitimate fruit of her theories and of her practical influence, aj)peared in that harvest of pollution and woe which is still vivid in the remembrance of many. The humble Christian, whatever may be for the present his griefs and disappointments, cherishes the confidence that a brighter scene will yet be unfolded through the world ; a scene of blissful reality, succeeding the darkness and depravity which now abound. He believes that this will be accomplished through the word of divine truth. He believes this, because this truth is precisely adapted to the state and wants of human nature, as it unfolds the true character of God and man, reveals the way of salvation, prescribes a perfect rule of duty, and is accompanied by an influence adequate to subdue the heart and life to holy obedience. He believes this, because numerous instances are presented of its efficacy in renovating the heart and character, and thus becoming the "wisdom and power of God unto salvation." He believes this, in view of the numer- ous and emphatic promises of Him who is infinitely true and faithful. Promises like the following remain to be fulfilled, and claim and deserve the Christian's faith and hope : — " Audit shall come to pass in the last days, tliat the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills ; and all nations shall flow unto it." " The glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it." " For from the rising of the sun even unto the going down of the same my name shall be great among the Gentiles ; and in every place incense shall be offered unto my name, and a pure offering." " And the seventh angel sounded ; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and his Christ ; and he shall reign for ever and ever." The Christian believes this, because the Redeemer, for his obedience unto death, is promised " the Heathen for his inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for his possession." Jesus now sees of the travail of his soul, in the victories of his grace among men ; and the full fruit of that travail will be enjoyed when the earth shall be rendered 254 THE GOSPEL IIAUVEST, tributary to his glory, and filled with liis salvation. For this purpose, exalted as Mediator, he has authority in heaven and on earth, and rules in the kingdom of providence, as well as grace, rendering all events subservient to the fulfilment of his counsels, and to the final and universal diffusion of his kingdom, which is "righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost." The minis- try of the Gospel is the great instrument for accomplishing these results. " Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power." " The Lord shall send the rod of thy strength out of Zion ; rule thou in the midst of thine enemies." " When he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men. And he gave some, Apostles; and some, Prophets; and some, evangelists ; and some, pastors and teachers." In organizing his Church he has committed (if we may so speak) into her own bosom the principle of her perpetuity and universal triumph. From the faithful discharge of the trust committed to her, under the blessing of God, stability and enlargement will assuredly result. The words of our text were spoken by Jesus to his disciples, as he contemplated the multitudes destitute of the means of religious instruction. " He was moved with compas- sion on them because they fainted, and were as sheep without a shepherd." The compassion that dwelt in the heart of Jesus is not foreign to the hearts of his peo])le, for they arc of one spirit with him. The text, I. Presents an argument for Missionary efforts.. " The harvest truly is great, but the labourers are few." II. Urges a duty in reference to them. "Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he would send forth labourers into his harvest." I. An argument for Missionary efforts. " The harvest truly is plenteous, but the labourers are few." This harvest will be gathered when the Christian religion shall universally prevail. It is well denominated great in view of, 1 . The field lohich it will cover. 2. The blessings it conveys, 3. The imtrumentality it requires. 4. The means and prospect nmo furnished by Providence. \. It is great in view of the field which it will cover. " The field is the world." As yet, Christianity lias extended its AND christian's duty. 255 influence to but a small part of the earth ; and where that influence has been found, it has been partial in its character. Here and there a spot has appeared in some degree verdant, amid a surrounding, wide-spread, arid desert. But this desert in all its extent will be cultivated and rendered fruitful. All obstacles vnll be overcome, and the whole earth exhibit the triumphs of truth. Benighted, degraded, and oppressed Africa shall become enlightened, elevated, and disenthralled ; the wall of China (like that of Jericho) shall fall at the sound of the Gospel ; the castes of the Hindoos shall be broken, and one bond in the faith and service of Christ shall unite them ; the Heathen shall everywhere cast their idols to the moles and to the bats, and worship the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom he hath sent ; the worship of the false Prophet shall cease, and the pure light and peaceful influence of Christianity shall spread over the regions where now Mohammedism exerts its sway ; the isles shall receive the law of the Lord ; all the perversions of the religion of Jesus shall be removed, and the truth shall be received in love, and exhibit its fruits wherever professed. Then shall be realized " Scenes far surpassing fable, yet all true! Scenes of accomplisli'd bliss ! " 2. The harvest is great m view of its many hlessings. The religion of Christ blesses the life which now is, and prepares for happiness in the life to come. It exalts the intellectual character of man. It restores that balance and harmony in the intellectual and moral powers of man, which are so important in the proper cultivation of both. It corrects those prejudices, and subdues those corruptions, which prevent the investigation and reception of truth. Its truths, when rightly viewed, come home to the duty, interest, and affections of all ; and claim, among the many proofs of their divine origin, their wonderful adaptation to the character and wants of men. It was at first a peculiar distinction of the Gospel, that it was " preached to the poor," and it will ever remain so ; while it is the only source of spiritual instruction, and can alone instil that influence which will lead to mental cultivation in the mass of the people. Where the Gospel is not knowai or embraced, whatever intellectual 256 THE GOSPEL HARVEST, culture may exist amoug a privileged few, the multitude will be fouud iu ignorance and degradation. The spirit of Chris- tianity has wrought itself into the frame of civil government, and in connexion with the diffusion of its light and power, w^e trace the existence, growth, and stability of civil and religious liberty. The religion of the Gospel refines and purifies the social affections, hallows the domestic scene, and while it dries up the sources of defilement and bitterness, it opens springs of pure and refreshing peace and joy in the various relations of life. Take the map of the world, and select those countries where Paganism, Mohammedism, and Popery bear sway, and let the following inquiries receive an answer. Are knowledge and intellectual cultivation generally diffused ? Are civil and religious liberty enjoyed ? Is the female character elevated and respected ? Are the duties of domestic life discharged, and its delights mutually participated ? Do purity and peace pervade the connnunity ? The negative to these inquiries appears in full view. As we take the contrast, and mark the countries where the Bible has shed its influence, we discover the blessings adverted to all following in the train. But the religion of Christ sustains its distinguishing and commanding value as a revelation of truth and grace, and as the great instrument of our deliverance from everlasting death. The truths peculiar to it respect man's fallen and ruined state -, redemption through the atoning merits of the divine Saviour ; the regenerating and sanctifying influence of the Holy Spirit in restoring to that holiness " without which no man shall see the Lord." These truths, and others innnediately connected with them, constitute the vitality of the religion of the Gospel. Without them its glory departs, its influence ceases, and spirit- ual death continues to prevail. Under their influence the sinner, awakened and renewed, returns in penitence to his God; gratefully embraces the salvation which is in Christ Jesus; takes up feebly, yet sweetly, the song of redeeming love ; cultivates purity of heart and life ; and devotes himself, in reliance upon divine strength, to active exertions for the promotion of the divine glory, euid the best interests of his fellow-men. These are the truths which give life to benevolent effort in seeking the sj)iritual and eternal welfare of men, Wh(>n they are not cor- AND christian's DUTY. 5^57 (lially embra