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 ESSAY 
 
 WANTS OF THE WORLD, 
 
 THE WAY TO RELIEVE THEM. 
 
 BY THE REV. WILLIAM NEVIN3, A. M. 
 
 Pastor of the First Presbyterian Church in Baltimore. 
 
WANTS OF THE WORLD, &c. 
 
 It was in view of tlie multitudes on every side, who 
 had none to feed them with spiritual food, and to direct 
 them in the way in whicli they should go, and were 
 famished and wandering- as sheep without a shepherd, 
 that our Saviour, moved with compassion, said to his dis- 
 ciples, " The harvest truly is plenteous, but the labourers 
 are few. Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest that 
 he icill send forth labourers into his harvest." 
 
 The moral aspect of the world g-enerally, and of every 
 large section of the inliabited world in particular, 
 makes now as strong an appeal to the compassions of 
 Christ, as did once the exhibition which he saw around 
 him, as he travelled through the land, that was the 
 scene of his personal ministry. Which ever way the 
 eye of the observer is directed, and at whatever distance 
 it rests; whether he look northward or southward, to the 
 east or to the west ; whether he contract his field of 
 vision to the neighbourhood in which he lives, or enlarge 
 it to embrace the entire earth, he sees the same painful 
 and pitiable sight, which every district of Palestine pre- 
 
244 THE WANTS OF THE WORLD, 
 
 sented to the eye of the Redeemer. He sees vast multi- 
 tudes of human beings, in the impressively figurative 
 language of the Saviour " scattered abroad as sheep hav- 
 ing no shepherd." He beholds the empire of truth and 
 righteousness occupying only here and there a spot of 
 the pe<ipled globe, while all the immense remainder ap- 
 pertains to the dominions of error and ignorance, with 
 which impiety and immorality, vice and crime, reign to- 
 gether as their inseparable co-partners. He perceives 
 by far the more numerous part of the great family of 
 man, making the brief pilgrimage of life, under every 
 possible disadvantage ; without any cultivation of their 
 minds ; without any restraint on their passions ; without 
 any exercise of the best affections of the heart; without 
 civilization and a knowledge of the practical sciences, 
 and useful arts of life ; without domestic happiness ; 
 and in short, an almost utter destitution of whatsoever 
 gives value to existence, and makes this mortal career 
 either honourable or happy. 
 
 The statement might be illustrated and confirmed by 
 apposite facts, but it is to be presumed that you are fa- 
 miliar with them, and indeed this is one of those few 
 propositions to which, it is believed, the discordant 
 minds of men of necessity yield their unanimous as- 
 sent. 
 
 My object now is not to cover so large a field as this. 
 It is true, there is a dearth of every kind of knowledge, 
 a famine of every kind of intellectual food, a deplorable 
 lack of the means of every species of improvement, 
 very extensive in the world ; but it is to one particular 
 
AND WAY TO RELIEVE THEM. 245 
 
 kind of destitution that I would at this time direct your 
 attention. I say, then, that there is an incalculable num- 
 ber of intelligent and immortal beings, on their way by 
 death to the judgment seat and the eternal world, who 
 are destitute of the most important knowledge, and of 
 the only effectual means of moral improvement. They 
 have no correct notions of the character of God. They 
 are ignorant of themselves. They are unacquainted 
 with any way of salvation. They know not — whether 
 from an unwillingness to know, or an impossibility of 
 knowing it, matters not — the details of their duty to 
 their Creator and their fellow-creatures. They have no 
 knowledge of the only balm of life, and the only allevia- 
 tion of death. They do but conjecture the immortality 
 of the soul. They are ignorant or unmindful of their 
 accountability to God. They are unacquainted with or 
 uninfluenced by the most effectual motives to right and 
 virtuous action. They know not the fact that there ex- 
 ists a revelation from God, or, if aware of the fact, are 
 not informed of its contents. They receive no repre- 
 sentation of them, or they receive a misrepresentation of 
 them. The name of Christ they have never heard, or 
 they have only heard it. They know not that there is a 
 Holy Ghost, or they are ignorant of his oiBces, and of 
 the way of obtaining his gracious influence. They 
 have never had the Gospel preached to them, or they 
 have ceased to have it, or they have it at such distant 
 intervals, and in such a manner, that it is of little or no 
 benefit to them. Such is, in brief, their condition. I 
 have purposely made the statement so as not merely to 
 
246 THE WANTS OF THE V^ORLD, 
 
 embrace the Pagan world, but to comprehend multitudes 
 within the limits of Christendom, and many in our own 
 land. Will it not be acknowledged, that those who an- 
 swer to this description are destitute of the most impor- 
 tant information, and of the most valuable moral advan- 
 tao-es; and can it be denied that a very large majority of 
 the milHons that are going to the grave, and to the retri- 
 butions that are beyond it, do, in the main, answer to this 
 description ? How few of the eight hundred millions 
 that are now crossing the desert, belong to the caravan, 
 which the column of cloud and fire goes before, and the 
 spiritual rock follows ! 
 
 But much more is implied in the assertion, " the har- 
 vest truly is plenteous," than that there are extensive 
 moral wants existing, and many ungathered millions 
 that are wandering as sheep without a shepherd. It is 
 implied that there is a capacity in these necessitous in- 
 dividuals to receive the necessary information and ad- 
 vantages ; that there is an ability and an opportunity to 
 impart them; that there, is to some extent, a disposition 
 and an expressed desire to receive them ; and, in tine, 
 that much has been done, in removing obstacles, and in 
 preparing the way for what now rem.ains to be done. 
 It is only on this ground that the use of the term " har- 
 vest," in reference to the moral condition of mankind, 
 can be justified, as that w^ord imports the maturity of 
 something that has long been in progress. There is 
 then, I affirm, a capacity of receiving. The Pagan mind 
 is susceptible of all the illumination which the Christian 
 enjoys. The heathen heart is as convertible as any 
 
AND WAY TO RELIEVE THEM. 247 
 
 Other. Wliy else was the order issued to preach the 
 Gospel to every creature, and the oblig-ation imposed on 
 the Church to disciple all the nations? There is no 
 soul in the body so far gone in error, so besotted by ig- 
 norance, so degraded by vice, so abandoned, as to be in- 
 capable of being enlightened by the truth and of being 
 influenced by the principles and motives of the Gospel, 
 in the hand and under the ministrations of the Spirit. 
 The Hindoo of the lowest caste, and even the Hottentot, 
 lower than he, and last upon the human scale, has 
 been raised up from his degradation, and been made to 
 sit in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. 
 
 There is also an ability and opportunitrj to impart. 
 There is money, and there are men, and there are means 
 of communicating with every country, and almost with 
 every creature on the face of the earth. The world was 
 never so wealthy, mankind were never so enterprising, 
 and the facilities of intercourse between man and man 
 have been increased beyond what it was once thought 
 they could be. The Church has never had it in her 
 power to discharge her responsibilities to the world, 
 with anything like the ease and cheapness with which 
 she can do it now. The practicability of the conversion 
 of the world need no longer be a problem with the most 
 sceptical. Conceive the difficulties that must have 
 stood in the way of conveying the Gospel from Palestine 
 to Britain in the days of the apostles, the time that must 
 have been occupied, (he dangers encountered, the self- 
 denial endured ; and yet it was done, and, peradventure, 
 before the death of Paul. What want we but the same 
 X 
 
248 THE WANTS OF THE WORLD, 
 
 constraining love in our hearts to convey it to every 
 land ? If, with all the disadvantages of that age, its 
 sound went forth in all the earth, and its words to the 
 end of the world, is there any insurmountable difficulty 
 in making it extend as far now ? What section of the 
 world is not more accessible to us now, than Britain 
 was then ? There is scarcely a human soul that can 
 now be said to be absolutely out of our reach. A single 
 Christian may now literally make his benevolence to be 
 felt to the very ends of the earth. His prayers could al- 
 ways embrace the whole human family. His influence 
 may now raise up a missionary that shall erect the 
 standard of the cross on tlie most distant shore : and 
 his donation place a Bible, translated into his own pro- 
 per tongue, into the hands of the most remote man. 
 
 There is to some, indeed, to a very great extent, a dis- 
 position to receive. The success of missions, and the wel- 
 come of missionaries, both domestic and foreign, prove 
 this incontestibly. There is desire, as well as want. From 
 every quarter, particularly of our own land, the call for 
 teachers of religion is distinct and loud. They who pre- 
 side over the theological training of youth, receive, if I 
 mistake not, applications of this kind, at least tenfold more 
 than they can supply. The issues of Bi!)le Societies are 
 inadequate to the demands for the Bible; and it is grate- 
 fully received in many cases, even by those v.'hose creed 
 seems to dispense with it as unneccessary. Where can- 
 not a pious missionary get a hearing, and gather a people ? 
 Where can the population be found that will not receive 
 and cherish him ? Who tliat has travelled through our land, 
 
AND WAY TO RELIEVE THEM. 249 
 
 has not been surprised to find how manjt individuals, 
 and families, and villages, there are in all its length and 
 breadth, whose moral state is such, that all which seems 
 to be wanted is the labourer to thrust in the sickle and 
 reap the ripened harvest? A multitude of facts might 
 be adduced in proof of this apeged disposition to receive 
 instruction. What a moral phenomenon is presented in 
 the Sandwich Islander suing for schools, and the native 
 African stealing spelling-books in his eagerness to learn I 
 Is not the human mind every where waking up, and a 
 thirst for knowledge commencing, and a spirit of in- 
 quiry going out I Now if the right direction be given 
 to that mind, and the right answer to that inquiring 
 spirit, all will be well ; but, if otherwise, it had better 
 have slept on. 
 
 I remark further, that a great deal has been done, and 
 much preparation made for the extensive diffusion of 
 the light and advantages of the Gospel. And here I 
 would bring together a number of facts, which will 
 have no other connexion with each other, than as they 
 serve the purpose of a common illustration. The human 
 mind is more awake on every subject than it has been 
 wont to be. A spirit of inquiry and investigation has 
 come in the place of unquestioning submission to dicta- 
 tion. This is a fact that is very much in favour of the 
 Gospel, for it appeals to the wakeful, and it courts in- 
 quiry. Within the last half century, a most im.portant 
 experiment has been made. Infidelity, as a substitute 
 for Christianity, has been fairly tried, and found utterly 
 wanting ; and there is less danger now of any general 
 
350 THE WANTS OF THE WORLD, 
 
 return to that chief of the refuges of lies. There has, in 
 some parts of our own country, and in some of the conti- 
 nental kingdoms of Europe, where error has long had the 
 dominion, an extensive and powerful reaction commenced 
 in favour of the truth. The descendant of Abraham 
 has started of late from the stupidity of eighteen centu- 
 ries, and has begun to look about him : and though he 
 has not yet asked what he must do to be saved, yet he 
 has asked a question which is preliminary to that. He 
 has asked, and who that has heard of it, has not felt his 
 soul thrilling with expectation, what his sufferings 
 mean? He has begun to consider. It deserves also 
 to be mentioned, that the various systems of false reli- 
 gion are loosening their hold on the hearts of men; and 
 there has been one instance of an idolatrous people, be- 
 fore they had been visited by Christian missionaries, re- 
 nouncing their idolatry, and destroying those objects of 
 worship to which they had been immemorially devoted. 
 The signs of the times are strongly marked, and they 
 are unusual. The affairs of tlie human family seem to 
 be just on the eve of some great moral crisis. Let the 
 Church be upon the look-out, let her be prepared for 
 action 1 
 
 There is another class of facts, which belongs to this 
 ^lace. Within the last thirty-five years, more has been 
 done by Christians for the advancement of the cause of 
 truth and holiness, than was done in all the centuries 
 before. The work of translating the Bible into the va- 
 rious languages of men, has pz-oceeded far, and missions 
 iiave gained an establishment in almost all the most im- 
 
AND WAY TO RELIEVE TIIEM. 251 
 
 portant locations on the earth. There is an unwonted 
 liberality among those who love the Lord Jesus Christ, 
 to give of their worldly substance to multiply his tri- 
 umphs, and spread the news of salvation. And never 
 went there so many prayers into the ear of God for the 
 speedy dawning of the latter-day glory, as ascend now ; 
 and the cloud' of incense that rises is becoming more 
 dense and more extended every day. To mention but 
 one other fact. There never was a generation coming 
 up the acclivity of life with such preparation for the 
 saving influences of the Gospel, with so much know- 
 ledge and impression of its truths. It is a fact as novel 
 as it is interesting, that in Great Britain and America 
 alone, something like one million five hundred thousand 
 children are receiving the benefits of Sunday School in- 
 struction. What an immense harvest are not these in- 
 stitutions thus ripening for the reaping ! I have ad- 
 duced these facts to prove, that the season of immaturity 
 is past, and that the harvest, to a very considerable ex- 
 tent, at least, is already ripe. The previous labour has, 
 in a great measure, been performed, and little now re- 
 mains but to thrust in the sickle and reap. The labour 
 that remains to be bestowed, will be more productive 
 than heretofore. The same amount of talents and in- 
 fluence in the Ministry, if controlled by piety, is likely 
 to accomplish more now, than it has ever been able to 
 do in time past. The necessity for labourers is more 
 urgent now than ever it has been before, because it is 
 the season of harvesting. Causes have been for years 
 and centuries past in silent operation, which have at 
 X 2 
 
252 THE WA?JTS OF THE WORLD, 
 
 length brouglit things to a maturity, when the most ac- 
 live exertions are necessary to secure the fruits that 
 have been ripening. The season of the maturity of 
 every thing is short. The labour must be bestowed soon, 
 or it will come too late. The crisis will have passed. 
 The harvest will have ripened into rottenness, and not 
 only will the labour that has been expended be so much 
 lost, but it is to be feared that a period of greater and 
 more extensive moral corruption will ensue. 
 
 Let it be observed, in the next place, that the harvest 
 of the Lord is to be reaped and gathered in by human 
 labourers; or, in other words, tlie instructions and ad- 
 vantages which are so much needed by mankind are 
 mainly to be imparted by the instrumentality of men 
 devoted to this work ; " the harvest is great, but the la- 
 bourers are few, pray ye the Lord, that he will send 
 forth labourers." This is the plan that God, in his wis- 
 dom and sovereignty, has adopted for the propagation 
 of his Gospel. Why he has adopted this, and whether 
 he might not have adopted another as effectual, are 
 questions in which we have no concern. It is suflicient 
 that of all the methods by which his saving truth might 
 have been communicated and impressed, he has selected 
 the oral method. It is enough that it pleases him by 
 the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe ; 
 and that he hath committed to men the ministry of the 
 reconciliation which is by Christ, thereby constituting 
 them his ambassadors to negotiate between him and 
 sinners. God has uniformly acted in pursuance of this 
 plan. The reformations v/hich from time to time took 
 
AXD WAV TO RELIEVE TIIEM. 253 
 
 place among the Jews, were brouglit about chiefly by 
 the preaching and personal exertions of the proplicts. 
 Who can calculate the amount of influence that such 
 men as Elijah, and he on whom his mantel descended, 
 exerted among their colemporaries ! How much more 
 deplorable would not the condition of Israel have been, 
 humanly speaking, had it not been for the voice and ex- 
 ample of these men of God ! And the same kind of 
 remarks might be made in reference to many others. 
 Such was the excitement produced by the preaching of 
 John the Baptist, that the inhabitants of Jerusalem and 
 all Judea, and all the region round about Jordan were 
 attracted to him ; and men of every class, pharisees, 
 publicans, and even soldiers, came inquiring of him their 
 duty, and were baptized, confessing their sins. Does 
 any one suppose that any written testimony or any 
 printed appeal could have produced such effects as these ? 
 No, nothing but the voice of one crying in the wilder- 
 ness, "prepare ye the way of the Lord," could have 
 done it. The Lord Jesus himself made use of this 
 method : and the commission which he gave to his 
 Apostles, and which v^all remain in full force until the 
 Gospel shall have filled the world, enjoins the preaching 
 of the Gospel, and in this manner the disciplining of all 
 nations. So the apostles understood their commission ; 
 and acting upon it, they were successful. The preach- 
 ing on the day of Pentecost alone was blessed to tlie 
 conversion of three thousand souls. The extensive 
 triumphs which Jesus Christ won among the Gentiles 
 by their apostle, were efiected through the preaching of 
 
254 THE WANTS OF THE WORLD, 
 
 the cross. It was not the Eunuch's reading- of Isaiah, 
 that was blessed to his conversion, but PhiUp's ex- 
 position and enforcement of it. Cornehus was admon- 
 ished of God to send for Peter, wlio should tell him 
 words, whereby both he and his house might be saved. 
 The injunction might have been communicated in 
 another way, in the vision which directed him to send 
 for Peter ; but God chose to communicate it in this way. 
 So the Lord opened the heart of Lydia to attend unto 
 the things that were spoken by Paul. 
 
 It may be supposed by some, that the invention of 
 printing was intended, in the providence of God, to 
 supercede, in a great measure, the oral method of com- 
 municating the Gospel. But this does not appear to be 
 the fact. God blesses his printed Gospel, but he blesses 
 his preached Gospel yet more abundantly. The preach- 
 ing of the cross is still his unrepealed ordinance for the 
 conversion of souls. It is found that not where there is 
 the most general diffusion of the Bible, but where the 
 Gospel is most frequently and faithfully preached, there 
 is the greater number of conversions; though where this 
 is the case, it should be observed, that tliere the Word 
 of God is most extensively diffused, and most attentively 
 read. To mention only one illustrative fact, there were 
 in 1630, under a single sermon in Scotland, five hundred 
 persons hopefully translated from death to life. 
 
 There 7nust be labourers, then, not because the harvest 
 of the Lord cannot be gathered in without them, but be- 
 cause he has determined that it shall not be. God is 
 not necessarily dependent on the utterance and exer- 
 
AND WAY TO RELIEVE THEM. 255 
 
 tions of men, but he has, in his wisdom, chosen to make 
 himself in a manner dependent on them: in which, how- 
 ever, he gives up none of his sovereignty, inasmuch as 
 he can, and does work in them botli to will and to do of 
 his own good pleasure. 
 
 It has occurred to me, that the plan which is getting 
 into general use, of communicating all the various kinds 
 of knowledge by Lectures, is an acknowledgment, on 
 the part of men, of the wisdom of the divine appoint- 
 ment of preaching, as the principalmeans of enlight- 
 ening and converting the world. 
 
 But not only must men be employed in this work — 
 some men at least must be devoted to the work. It 
 must be their sole care, their only business. They must 
 give themselves wholly to it. It is a work that de- 
 mands and deserves the entire time, and talents, and 
 toil of them that are engaged in it. This seems to me 
 to be implied in their being labourers, and especially in 
 their being harvesters. There is no period when the 
 husbandman is so singly and sedulously employed as in 
 the time of harvesting. The reaping and the gathering 
 in, occupy the whole of his time and attention, and he 
 works longer and harder now than ever. It is neces- 
 sary. The grain is ripe, and the season is brief, and he 
 is short of hands, perhaps ; and he is willing to do it. 
 It is but a little while that he must labour : and then 
 will come the season of safety and repose, and he shall 
 sing the harvest home. Brethren, the harvest of souls is 
 ripe ; and it is plenteous, and the labourers are few, 
 and the season is short. The fields are now white, but 
 they will soon change their colour. If it is the season 
 
256 THE WANTS OF THE WORLD, 
 
 of maturity now, the period of putrescence is at hand. 
 7^he labourers must be multiphed, and they must work, 
 and work hard. Now is the time, and they ought to be 
 willing- to do it. The Church might, with less loss and less 
 guilt, have taken her rest in time past, and she may per- 
 haps innocently do it to some extent in the time to come, 
 in the sabbatic period which she is anticipating, but 
 she may not, must not, do it now. Wo to them that are 
 at ease in Zion now, when the call of her king is to 
 reap and to gather in the ripened harvest ! 
 
 I pass to another observation. It is, that the number 
 of labourers employed upon the harvest of the Lord, 
 bears a very small proportion to the extent of the har- 
 vest, and to the amount of labour that is to be performed, 
 and that behooves to be performed immediately, " But 
 the labourers are few.''^ At that time they were abso- 
 lutely few. At no period during our Saviour's sojourn 
 on earth, did they amount to one hundred. Besides him- 
 self, the twelve apostles, and the seventy disciples, who 
 were they ? What is the state of things now ? The 
 labourers are numerically many. But some of them are 
 unfaithful, and some unskilful : and many seem not to 
 know what the appropriate work of the Ministry is. 
 Subtract these that have either not the will, or not the 
 knowledge, to do the Lord's work, and who tread down 
 the harvest, instead of reaping and gathering it in : and 
 if still there are many left, 3'et what are they to work 
 on a Jleld which is the world, almost every part of 
 which is compactly covered with the standing harvest ? 
 What call a few dying thousands do with a thousand 
 
AND WAY TO RELIEVE THEM. 257 
 
 dying millions ! There must be more labourers, or the 
 consequence is inevitable ; all the previous labour will be 
 lost, all the advantages that have been gained hitherto, 
 will have been gained to no purpose, and the fruits of 
 the harvest will perish. How much has already per- 
 ished for tlie mere want of the sickle ! And how fast 
 it is hourly going into a state of putrescence! Mankind 
 are dying at the rate of many thousands a day, and mul- 
 titudes who are spared, are every day going deeper in 
 sin. There must be more labourers. How is it in our 
 own country ? There is nothing like enough labourers 
 to meet the desires of the people of these Stales; how 
 much less to meet their wants, which far, very far, ex- 
 ceed their desires! There are by no means so many as 
 our population is loilling to employ ; to say nothing of 
 the number that ought to be employed. It is calculated 
 that five thousand Christian labourers are needed for our 
 country alone, to supply the existing want ; and then five 
 hundred a year to supplj'- the vacancies occasioned by 
 death, and to meet the increase of population, which is 
 computed to be at the rate of one thousand a day. I have 
 no means of calculating accurately how many labourers 
 are annually supplied, nor at what rate their number is 
 increasing. This however is certain, that at the present 
 rate of increase, they can never overtake the wants of 
 the country, and cannot even supply the yearly defici- 
 ency. The evil is growing upon us. The melancholy 
 disproportion is increasing; and it will go on increasing, 
 until there is more prayerfulness, and self-denial, and 
 liberality, among the lovers of Christ. These are appal- 
 
258 THE WANTS OF THE WOLRD, 
 
 ing facts. If our politicians be Christians, it must make 
 them tremble for the liberties of the land, to see this great 
 and growing disproportion ; and they may well fear lest 
 another experiment should be made, whether civil free- 
 dom can long sustain itself without the aid of the Gospel. 
 If the facts that have been adduced, have made that 
 impression upon us, which, in their abstract sense, I 
 think they ought, we shall be disposed to inquire, what 
 Jesus Christ would have his disciples do, in view of this 
 extent of field, and abundance of harvest, and dearth of 
 labourers. He has told us what our duty is. It is not 
 to rush forth self-moved to the field, and to undertake, in 
 all our own unskilfulness, to cut down and gather in the 
 suffering harvest. No, we must carry the matter to 
 Christ first, we must go with it to our closets, and our 
 knees. "Pray ye, therefore, the Lord of the harvest, 
 that he will send forth labourers into his harvest." It 
 is the province of the Lord to select and send forth 
 the labourers. No man may put in the sickle to reap 
 here, except the Lord call, and appoint him to the work. 
 No man may take the honour to himself, but he that is 
 called of God. The apostle speaks of himself and his 
 fellow-labourers, as of God put into the Ministry. Not 
 but that there is something in furtherance of this glo- 
 rious ingathering, which every Christian may, and 
 should do, without waiting for any more distinct and 
 definite call than he has in the Bible. There is some- 
 thing, there is much, which it is both his privilege and 
 his duty to do. He is authorized and obligated to go so 
 far sometimes as to address his fellow-creatures under 
 
AND WAY TO RELIEVE THEM. 259 
 
 certain circumstances, on tlie subject of religion. "Let 
 him tliat heareth, say come." The qualifications for 
 repeating is only to have lieard the report. One 
 must be careful to hear distinctly and correctly, before 
 he repeats it. Yet it must be confessed, that the message 
 which the passage authorizes him to deliver, is very 
 simple. It is only to say, " Come." But in reference to 
 official and exclusive labourers, which my remarks re- 
 spect, they must be sent of the Lord. They may not 
 go unsent ; and what is more, if they understand the 
 nature of the work, and consider their own insufficiency 
 for it, tliey will not go unsent. They will want the in- 
 clmation, as well as the authority, from Christ. In the 
 primitive age of Christianity, it is certain, that a power- 
 ful divine impulse was necessary to induce even pious 
 nien to engage in this work. The disciples are com- 
 manded to pray the Lord of the harvest that he would 
 send forth labourers. The force of the original word is 
 not preserved in the translation. It implies the use of 
 some sort of moral violence. Thrust forth expresses it 
 better. There was a disinclination to be overcome. The 
 work of the Ministry was then one of great toil, self- 
 denial, and danger. Even the pious heart revolted from 
 it. The state of things now is in some respects different. 
 The ease, the credit, and the emoluments of the ministe- 
 rial office attract many, and they thrust themselves into 
 it. But these persons do not the work of the Ministry. 
 They scarcely know what it is. The work of the Min- 
 istry, the sowing of the seed, the word of God, and 
 then the anxious and prayerful waiting for the growth, 
 Y 
 
260 THE WANTS OF THE WORLD, 
 
 and the watering with tears, and then, after all, the gath- 
 ering in of the ripened fruit — this care of immortal in- 
 terests is, and ever will be, a work of unequalled arduous- 
 ness and anxiety. And it is said, that no class of men 
 go down to the grave so prematurely as these. The re- 
 mark is not made in commendation of those who sustain 
 the office of the Ministry; for it is confessed, tliat they 
 all fall short of this work, and that if they please to haz- 
 ard their souls, they can make it light and easy. But I 
 speak of it as God has made it, and I say, that if it be 
 fairly viewed and well understood, there is a shrinking of 
 the soul from it, which nothing but a divine impulse can 
 overcome. Such labourers as will work hard, and faith- 
 fully gather in the harvest, there wants a supernatural 
 influence to incline : and such, we are directed to pray 
 the Lord of the harvest to send forth. 
 
 There is no being so much interested in securing 
 the harvest as the Lord of it. It is the very joy that 
 was set before him, and in view of which he endured 
 the cross. It needs no persuasions and entreaties to in- 
 duce him to send forth the necessary labourers. And 
 yet he makes it the duty of Christians to pray to him on 
 this behalf, and withholds the labourers while he waits 
 for their prayers. Neither the twelve nor the seventy 
 were sent forth, tintil after this direction was given, and 
 I suspect, not until after it had been obeyed. This is 
 another interesting arrangement in the economy of 
 grace. Here again God suspends the success of the 
 Gospel on the will of man. He has not only made the 
 reaping of the harvest dependent on the exertions of 
 
AND WAY TO RELIEVE THEM. 261 
 
 men, but also tlic sending of the labourers on the pray- 
 ers of men. lie makes Ministers one link in the chain 
 of salvation, and he makes Christians another; and if in 
 so doing he gives an importance to us, he does also lay a 
 proportional responsibility upon up. It is an honour, 
 but then it is a most fearful honour, to have the destinies 
 of immortal beings in any measure suspended on our 
 fidelity ! 
 
 I would ask, if this duty of praying for an increase of 
 labourers is attended to in any wise as it ought to be ? 
 Is it not greatly neglected ? I have asked myself the 
 question, and it has been negatived. How is it with 
 you ? Ask ye at conscience, and hear her report. Do 
 we not forget to make this one of our petitions in our 
 daily prayers? There must be labourers, and they 
 must be sent ; and they will not be sent, unless we pray 
 that they may be. We are commanded thus to pray. 
 It is but a few things that we are expressly directed to 
 pray for, and this is one, as being an object of pre-emi- 
 nent importance. Pray ye, then, for more labourers. 
 
 But is this all that is required of us ? I imagine not. 
 It is rarely our duty merely to pray for an object. It is 
 most commonly our duty to do something more for it 
 than that. There are very few interests which we can- 
 not promote in other ways, than by our prayers merely ; 
 and if we are disposed to promote them by our prayers, 
 we shall be disposed to promote them in every other man- 
 ner that is possible. There is a multitude of parts in 
 the Christian character, and a beautiful consistency be- 
 tween them. It is not the shooting up and spreading 
 
262 THE WANTS OF THE WORLD, 
 
 forth of a solitary virtue, but the simultaneous develop, 
 ment and uniform growth of a multitude of virtues and 
 moral excellencies. 
 
 It is our duty and our delight to pray that labourers 
 may be sent forth ; it is manifestly our duty, and ought 
 to be our delight to go ourselves, if sent, and to be will- 
 ing to be sent. Consistency requires this. You pray 
 God to select and send forth from a company, of which 
 you are yourself one. This implies that you are willing 
 he should select you. But if obviously it be not your 
 duty to engage officially in this work, is there therefore 
 nothing remaining for you to do, but just to pray that 
 labourers may be sent forth ? Is this all that consis- 
 tency requires of you? It is, if it be absolutely all that 
 you can do. Your obligation is collateral with your 
 ability. But you can do more than this. You are 
 bound then to do more than this. You can encourage 
 and assist others to engage in this work. Then it is 
 your duty to do it. If there be those who seem to be 
 qualified in point of piety and natural capacity, it is 
 your duty to help them, if help they need, to become 
 qualified in point of literature and theology. For the 
 Ministry requires furniture of earth, as well as of hea- 
 ven; the stocking of the head, as well as the storing of 
 the heart. Ministers were once miraculously furnished ; 
 and so furnished were they, that there was not one of 
 those apostolical fishermen that could not, if he pleased, 
 entertain as well as instruct the politest audience. We 
 have no such fishermen now ! Now, men are furnished 
 for the Ministry in the ordinary, and slow, and expen- 
 
AND WAY TO RELIEVE THEM. 263 
 
 sive manner in which they are furnished for other em- 
 ployments; and if in this they need assistance, and you 
 can render it, you ought to render it. 
 
 And now, in concluding these remarks, I may observe 
 tliat two points of great importance have been presented 
 in the progress of them. Firsts the necessity of great 
 exertions being made at this present time — that the 
 whole strength of the Church should be put forth at this 
 particular crisis; that we should all set to at once to 
 gather in and secure the ripened harvest. Oh, that there 
 were such a heart in us ! The other is, that much of 
 the strength of the Church should be put forth in prayer 
 to the Lord of the harvest, and that she should exert her 
 power more in wrestling with Him. There may be some 
 danger of the Church's placing too much reliance on mo- 
 ney, and setting too little value on prayer. The gift of 
 God cannot be purchased with money. It is needed, it 
 is true ; but the widow's mite, accompanied with her 
 prayer, may be worth more to the cause, than the rich 
 man's munificence without it. It is not money, it is not 
 physical force, nor intellectual effort, nor secular in- 
 fluence, but prayer that operates upon the lever which 
 moves the world. Prayer is the power. This was the 
 secret of Abraham's influence with heaven — this the 
 mean's of Jacob's prevailing — in this lay the strength 
 of Elijah. What has it not done ? What can it not do? 
 It has opened heaven once, and can do it again. It can 
 remove moral mountains. It can save the spiritually 
 sick. The Church is omnipotent by prayer. There 
 must be prayer, and /nore prayer, and prayer of the right 
 
264 THE WANTS OF THE WORLD, &C. 
 
 kind, and prayer impregnated with love, and made 
 buoj'ant by faith, coming from the heart, and carrying 
 the heart along with it, in the name of the great High 
 Priest. And then there will be more labourers, and they 
 will be labourers divinely sent and trained; and then there 
 will be voluntarily offered all the money that is wanted, 
 for the silver and gold of the world belong to Him who 
 hears prayer. And I think we should get more for re- 
 ligious objects, if we practically recognized this truth, 
 and solicited God as importunately as we sometimes so- 
 licit men. It is at the throne of grace that our hearts 
 are made sensitive to feel, and become large to commu- 
 nicate. It is there in communion with God that we ap- 
 proximate, as near as we can, to the knowledge of the 
 worth of the soul, and learn the comparative worthless- 
 ness of every thing but the soul. Oh, if a man will but 
 pray, so as to be heard on high, he may do as he pleases 
 in other things, for his pleasure will be his duty. God 
 forbid that we should sin against him, in not praying 
 the Lord the harvest, that he will send forth labourers 
 into his harvest. 
 
 God forbid that any youth should go, unsent by Hirn. 
 It were better for him that he had never been born I And 
 God forbid, that at such a day as this, any whom He 
 calls should refuse to go ! He will at last enter heaven if 
 he be God's child ; but if that be possible, he will enter 
 it with a blush of shame ! How can he meet Martyn, 
 and Buchannan, and Mills, and Urquhart, and Paul, and 
 the Lord of the harvest! How can he bear the sight, at 
 the last day, of souls lost, because, when the Lord called, 
 he refused! 
 
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