THE GREAT COMMISSION: OR, THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH CONSTITUTED AND CHARGED TO CONVEY THE GOSPEL TO THE WORLD BY THE EEV. JOHN HARRIS, D.D., AUTHOR OF "mammon," " T II E GREAT T E A C U K R ," ETC Dayton, Ohio: UNITED BEETHKEN PUBLISHING HOUSE. W. J. Shuey, Agent. 1886. Conttnts PAGE INTRODUCTION ix PREFATORY NOTICE BY THE ADJUDICATORS xiii PREFACE " XVii PART I. THE MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE VIEWED GENERALLY IN ITS RELATION TO THE WORD OF GOD. CHAPTER I. THE SCRIPTURE THEORY OF CHRISTIAN INSTRUMENTALITY FOR THE CONVERSION OF THE WORLD STATED AND EXPLAINED. I. Mutual dependence and influence the law of the universe. II. Its perversion by sin. III. Its restoration by Christ. IV. The x>lan of its operation in the Christian Cliurcli for tl»e recovery of the world. 1. IIow it begins Avitli the individual convert — 2, Proceeds through him to the formation of a particular church — 3. Leads to the formation of other churches, and unites tlie wliole in one body — 4. The Spirit preceding and pervading it to give it effect. V. In this organization, every tiling becomes an element of influence, congenial with the cross, and subordinate to it. Kn)wledge — Speech — Relationships — Property — Self-denial — Com- passion — Pei^severance in Christian activity — Prayer — Union. ..21 (iii) IV CONTENTS CHAPTER II. THIS THEORY ILLUSTRATED AND ENFORCED FROM TUE PRECEPTS AND EXAMPLES OF THE WORD OF GOD. 1. From the paternal character of the antediluvian economy — 2. The migi-atory character of the Abrahamic — 3. The national and sta- tionary character of the Mosaic — 4. The life and character of Christ — 5. The agency of the Holy Spirit — 6. The commands of Christ, direct or implied — 7. The first missionary — 8. The first missionary Church — 9. The tenor of the Epistles — 10. Forms part of a universal plan, which includes the agency of angels — 11. And which devolves and accumulates all the moral influences of the Church from age to age 01 CHAPTER III. ILLUSTRATED AND ENFORCED FROM PROPHECY. 1. Does prophecy aff"ord any glimpses of the ultimate results of such instrumentality ? — 2. Will the final triumph of Christianity be in any way indebted to such agency ? — 3. Circumstances which now render this inquiry peculiarly important — 4. Millenarianism (as popularly understood) unfriendly to missionary activity. I. Millenarian doctrine at variance with some of the leading princi- ples of Divine truth — 1. With the fact that Divine commands imply the promise of aid and success — 2. With the sincerity of the Divine character — 3. With the Divine benignity — 4. With the ordinary and wise reserve of Scripture — 5. And is derogatory to the dispensation of the Spirit. n Not warranted by prophecy. III. The enlargement of the Church resulting from Christian activity. IV. This view corroborated by every part of the word of God by which its correctness can be fairly tested. V. The whole harmonized with the foregoing parts, and applied 102 CONTENTS. PART II. THE BENEFITS OF THE MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE. CHAPTER I. THE HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS. f. The state of the Church has varied m proportion as it has been faithful or otherwise to its missionary design. II. Progress of Christianity through the successive ages of the Christian era — 1. Sixteenth century, or reformation within the Church — 2. Seven- teenth century, or period of missionary preparation and promise — 3. Eighteenth century, or period of missionary association — 4. Nineteenth century, or period of missionary enterprise. Ill Events which may bo regarded as dividing the brief history of modern missions into epochs. IV. Statistical summary 138 CHAPTER II. ADVANTAGES OF THE MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE TO THE HEATHENS. SECTION I. TEMPORAL BENEFITS. What it has done in this respect for the various nations of Christen- dom — 1. Some islands owe their discovery to it — 2. Wandering tribes localized— 3. Taught useful arts and trades— 4. Languages reduced to a written form — 5. Education given — 6. Laws and government instituted — 7. Morality promoted — 8. Checked de- population and prevented extinction — 9. Mediated between hos- tile tribes, and prevented sanguinary conflicts — 10. Retrieved their slandered mental character — 11. Protected the oppressed, liberated the enslaved — 12. Various evils blotted out — 13. Ele- vating effect on the character and social rank of woman ; general views of temporal benefits ; benefits unascertained greater still 153 VI CONTENTS. SECTION II. II K L r J i; H II i; N K F I T S . ], Abolished idolatry — 2. Irnf)art<',d ('lii-iKtiaii iriHtrticiion — 3. Allevi- ated inoral iiiiHoricH — 4. liiHt,iijiji(;nt.!i.lly Cf»rivort(!(l and Havcd many — 5. IJildcs; ordinanccH ; cliurclicH — G, AcccsHioiiH to tlio . Church above 175 CIIAPTEll III. 'J mi; KI;i /,KX HENEFlTa of CirRISXIAN MISSIONS. ^ SECTION I. T K M I' O n. AT, A I> V A N T A K H . Tboso afford a fine illuHtraiion of the rornunerativo inflncnco of bcnov olcncc — 1. Itondered ^reat wervico to literature and Hoienco — 2. Correct(!fl and erdarged our viewH of the character and condition of man — 'i. Vindicated our own character in tho eycH of the Ju^a- then — 4. Preserved European life — 6. IJcnelited our cominercf; — G. And Hhipping 188 - — SECTION II. EBLIOIOUS UENEFIT8. IJroko up tlie prevailing monotony of tho religious community — 2. Enlivened the piety of Christians, and increased their liappiness — '). Produced denominational emulation among tluirn — 4. Led to the formation of other iuHtitutif^ns — 0. Taught us that tho cauHo of religion, abroad and at home, is one — G. (ireatly enlarged our Christian views — 7. Prfjmoted sympathetic union of Christians — 8. Increased pecuniary liberality — 0. Awaknnd(!Hco in the divinit,y of its character and the certainty of its triumphs — 14. Pcjen tho means of converting many of our countrymen abroad and at home — 15. And, in vari- ous ways, eminently glorified Ood 192 CONTENTS. VU CHAPTER IV. ARGUMENT DERIVED FROM THE BENEFITS OF CHRISTIAN SIISSI0N3 FOR THE INCREASED ACTIVITF OF THE CHURCH. I. Our missionary success fully j^roportioneJ to our efforts. II, Ad- vantages have flowed from tliem which nothing else could have conferred. III. The history of modern missions illustrates every part of the theory of Christian influence. IV. Supplies a pow- erful motive to the increase of our missionary zeal 210 PART III. ENCOURAGEMENTS OF CIIIIISTIANS TO PROSECUTE THE MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE. I. Encouragement from the history of Christianity. II. Encourage- ment fi-om the political aspect of the world. III. Encouragement from the moral state of the world. IV. Encouragement from tho state of the Protestant churches. V. Encouragement from tho word of God. Connection with the preceding parts, and application of the whole. 231 PART IV OBJECTIONS TO THE MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE. 1. The missionary enterprise unnecessary — the heathen safe. IF. Tho missionary enterprise impracticable. III. Civilization should precede Cliristianity. IV. We have "heathen enough at home." V. We have not the necessary funds. VI. Of no avail, till Chris- tians are united. VII. Of no avail, till the "personal reign" of Christ. VIII. The time is not yet come — "must not take God's work out of liis hands," etc., etc. Reflections 209 Vm CONTENTS. PART V. THE WANTS OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH, AS A MISSIONARY SOCIETY, EXAMINED. Found to consist, generally, in the want of entire devotedness to its office — 1. More particularly in deep humility— 2. In the due appreciation of the spiritual nature of its office — 3. A clear con- ception and vivid conviction of the missionary constitution of the Christian Church — 4. Missionary information should be more widely circulated, and more seriously pondered — 5. A greater depth of personal piety — 6. Holy wisdom to mark and improve the movements of Providence — 7. Greater devotedness to the missionary object among ministers at home — 8. Christian union — 9. Greater pecuniary liberality — 10. Missionary laymen — 11. Energy and zeal — 12. Prayer. The whole applied to the enforcement of entire consecration 300 PART yi. MOTIVES TO ENFORCE ENTIRE DEVOTEDNESS TO THE MIS- SIONARY ENTERPRISE. 1. To retrieve, if possible, the evil effects of past neglect — 2. As the only alternative of partial hostility against Chi'ist, at present — 3 The state of the heathen requires it — 4. The remarkable manner in which Providence is calling for it — 5. Some have thus devoted themselves — 6. It is only a devoted Church that is prepared to turn the characteristics of the age, change and transition, to a scriptural account — 7. We are likely to impart our character to the future — 8. Nothing done for Christ is lost — 9. All things belong to him — 10. The claim of redemption — 11. The relative object of redemption — 12. It would complete the honor of the gospel — 13, Our regai-d for the glory of God requires it — 14. And it would be the completion of human happiness. Conclusion .348 IPrtfator^ llolitf THE ADJUDICATORS To the mind of the Christian philanthropist, no subject can possess a deeper interest than the state and prospects of the world in relation to the gospel of Christ : its state, as pre- senting, in the middle of the nineteenth eentnrj of the Chris- tian era, so painfully mysterious an extent of ignorance, ungodliness, and misery : its prospects, as assured by the promises of the God of truth and mercy, of an approaching period of universal knowledge, love, purity, and happiness. Estimating the value of means by the value of the end to which they are subservient, the subject of missions to the heathen, for the subversion of false religions by the diffusion and Divine power of the true, cannot fail to hold a place pre- eminently high, in the minds of all who fear God, love the Saviour, and desire the good of their race. Influenced by such convictions and feelings, '' a few friends of the missionary enterprise in Scotland,'^ connected with the Scottish Establishment, but modestly concealing their names, formed the purpose, between three and four yeai"s ago, of at- tempting the infusion of fresh spirit into the benevolent exer- tions of the Christian Church at large, for the speedier evan- gelization of the world, by inviting a ''friendly competition" (xiii) XIV PREFATORY NOTICE BY THE ADJUDICATORS. of talent and piety, in the production of a work less ephemeral than "the many excellent sermons, tracts, and pamphlets, which, during the last forty years, have appeared on the sub- ject of missions to the heathen." With this view, these un- known philanthropists offered a prize of two hundred GUINEAS for the best, and another piize of fifty guineas for the second best Essay on The Duty, Privilege, and Encouragement of Christians to send the Gospel of Salvation to the unenlightened Nations of the Earth. The competition was understood to be confined within the limits of the United Kingdom. The extension of it to America was subsequently suggested ; but the sug- gestion, by whatever considerations recommended, came too late to admit of its being honorably adopted. The proposals issued were commended to public notice and Christian interest by the signatures of three eminent ministers of the Established Church of Scotland — of whom one has since gone hence, to receive the reward of a faithful servant — the Rev. Dr. Chalmers, the late Rev. Dr. M'Gill, and the Rev. Dr. Duff. The Essays (with the usual precautions for the concealment of the writers' names) were to be submitted to the examination of Jive adjudicators^ selected, on a princi- ple of honorable liberality, from those bodies of Christians with which stood associated the principal Missionary Institu- tions — the two Established Churches of Scotland and England, the Wcsleyan Methodists, the Independents, and the Baptists. Forty-two Essays were received, differing very widely indeed in character and claims, from some of an inferior order, rising, through higher degrees in the scale of merit, to a considerable number of sterling excellence. Between several of these the Adjudicators found no little difficulty in coming to a decision ; nor did they ultimately arrive at perfect unanimity. The Essay which is now presented to the public, the production of the Rev. Dr. John Harris, of Cheshunt College, was, PREFATORY NOTICE BY THE ADJUDICATORS. XV after hesitation and correspondence, placed first by four Adju- dicators out of tlie five; and, by the same majority, the se- cond place was assigned to the Essay which has found for its claimant the Rev. Richard Winter Hamilton, of Leeds. By one of the Adjudicators, the first place was given to a difi"erent Essay from either of these; which, also, in the judgment of more than one of the rest, competed strongly for the second, as a treatise of great excellence. In these circumstances, the Committee, desirous to give the cause every possible advantage, resolved on ofi"ering a distinct pre- mium to its author — subsequently discovered to be the Rev. John Macfarlane, minister of the parish of Collessie, Fife ; and, under their sanction, with the generous concurrence of the two successful competitors^ and with the recommendation of such of the Adjudicators as felt themselves at liberty to give it, this Essay, too, will be published. The Adjudicators, influenced in their decision by the senti- ment, arrangement, style, and comprehensiveness of the Essays, and by their general adaptation to the avowed object of the projectors of the prize, have given that decision in foro conscientke ; and they now leave it, so far as opportunity for judging is afforded, to the tribunal of public opinion. They consider it necessary, at the same time, to add, that, having selected the Essays which appeared to them the best, they are by no means to be understood as, either collectively or indi- vidually, testifying approval of every view or opinion of their respective authors. An apology is due, especially to the Essayists, for the long, and what to them must have been the somewhat vexatious delay on the part of the Adjudicators, in delivering their de- cision. Such apology they deem it sufficient thus to offer, on behalf of themselves, and of the Committee, without attempt- ing any detail of explanation, how satisfactory soever such detail miorht be rendereH. XVI PREFATORY NOTICE BY THE ADJUDICATORS. It now only remains that they breathe a united and fervent prayer for the success of this endeavor to advance the glory of God, and the happiness and salvation of men : a prayer in which they invite their fellow-Christians of every denomina- tion to join — that the present Essay, as well as such others as may pass through the press, may, under the providence of the Divine Head of the Church, contribute to the further ex- citement of his people's zeal in this highest and best of causes ; and so may accelerate the arrival of that happy pe- riod, when his own gracious and faithful assurance, confirmed with his oath, and pregnant with so vast an amount of bless- ing to mankind, shall obtain its full realization — ''As surely as I live, all the earth shall be filled with my glory/' e^^ ^ Jrtfate. If the writer may be allowed to engage tlio attention of his readers for a moment, before they enter on the perusal of the following pages, his only aim in so doing will be to facilitate that perusal. Of course, his first object in preparing this Essay has been to comply with the requirements of the advertisement, which, has, indirectly at least, occasioned its existence. His com- pliance with these, however, has not prevented him front aiming at a point higher still; rather, it has formed the pro- per and natural ascent to it. That aim, he trusts, has im- printed its character, more or less visibly, on every portion of his work. He would briefly describe it as threefold ; and endeavor to show that the Church of Christ is aggressive and missionary in its very constitution and design; its "field is the world;" that it is to look on the whole of this field as one, not regarding the claims of any particular portion as inimical to the interests of any other; but viewing the Divine command which obliges it to seek the salvation of any one individual, or the evangelization of any one country, as bind- ing it to attempt the recovery of the whole world; but th^t, in order to the accomplishment of this high design, more is 2 (xviij XVm PREFACE. necessary than mere activity ; that the entire consecration of all its resources is^ for obvious reasons, made indispensable to success. With this view, he has attempted to fill up the following outline. In the First Part, consisting of three chapters, his object has been to state and explain the Sripture theory of Christian instrumentality : to show, by a general examination of the Word of God, that this theory is there prescribed and made imperative ; and that the same Divine authority predicts and promises its triumph in the conversion of the world. Thus, if the first chapter states the plan by which all the holy influences of the 2)asf, should have been collected, mul- tiplied, and combined, the second exhibits and enforces the obligation of the present to that entire consecration which the plan supposes; and the third engages that such consecration shall certainly issue in the /iifu7^e and universal erection of the kingdom of Christ. Having thus, in the First Part, viewed the Missionary Enterprise generally in its relations to the Word of God, the writer has proceeded, in the Second Part, to exhibit the henejits arising from Christian Missions, with the view of still further illustrating and enforcing their claims. This he has done in four chapters, the first of which contains an historical sketch of the diffusion of Christianity, and of the rise and progress of Modern Missions, with a statistical summary of their present state :* the second enumerates the leading temporal and spiritual benefits accruing to the heathen from Missionary operations : the third describes their reflex * Terliaps the reader unacquainted with the fact ought to be in- formed that the "Evidence on the Aborigines," which is frequently appealed to in this part of the work, was given before a committee of the House of Commons, by the secretaries of the Church Missionary Society, the Wesleyan Missionary Society, and London Missionary Society, and by other competent witnesses. PREFACE. XIX advantages, temporal and spiritual ; and the fourtli shows that the history and effects of the Missionary Enterprise illustrate every view of the theory of Christian influence contained in the First Part, and supply a powerful inducement to the in- crease of missionary zeal. The Third Part exhibits the va- rious sources of encouragement — historical and political, moral, ecclesiastical, and evangelical — which urge and animate Chris- tians to advance in their missionary career. In the Fourth Part, he has endeavored to show that every objection to their course becomes, when rightly considered, an argument to redouble their efi"orts. But the Fifth Part ascertains the existence of a great defect — of the want of that entireness of consecration to their missionary office which is indispen- sable to complete success, and points out the various requisites which such consecration includes, and would infallibly supply ; while the Sixth Part enforces the principal motives which should induce their entire devotedness to the great objects of the Missionary Enterprise. Such, indeed, is the surpassing grandeur of the object of Christian missions, as to render any thing like justice to its merits impossible. Yet the writer feels humbled that the present contribution should fall so far short, even of his own conception, of what such a work might and ought to be. He is proportionally delighted, therefore, that since it was submitted for competent adjudication, so many able works on missions should have issued from the press as to render specification difficult ; and especially that, besides having for its precursor the very seasonable and powerful production of the Rev. Dr. John Campbell, it should be accompanied, or speedily fol- h;wed, by the publications of his well-known, able, and be- loved friend, the Rev. R. W. Hamilton, of Leeds; and of the Rev. John Macfarlane Evident as it is that a crisis in the Missionary Enterprise XX PREFACE. approaches — a crisis created partly by its successes abroad and by its reflex operation in calling into existence other societies at home, which divide with it the contributions of the faithful — his earnest prayer to God is, that this Essay, in connection with those of his Christian brethren referred to, may be among the means employed to convert that crisis into a blessing — the commencement of a new era of missionary prosperity. Cheshunt College, Feb. 12, 1842. THE GREAT COMMISSION. PART I. THE MISSIONARY ENTERPRISP: VIEWED IN ITS RELATION TO THE WORD OF GOD. CHAPTER I. THE SCRIPTURE THEORY OF CHRISTIAN INSTRUMENTALITY FOR THE EVANGELIZATION OF THE WORLD STATED AND EXPLAINED. I. Mutual dependence and influence is the law of the universe. Look in whatever direction, and examine whatever object we may, we find nothing insulated and alone. From the globe we inhabit, which is one of a visible community of worlds, up to the great sidereal system, the whole of which is apparently moving together through space, and down to the minutest atom that floats in the air, all are bound together, and constantly acting on each other, by definite and universal laws. The body of the reader and the book which he is read- ing are held, by gravitation, in union with the remotest parts of the created system ; while the material influences con- stantly transmitted from the most distant regions of space place them in physical contact with the universe. In this literal dependence of every part of the material economy on every other part, we behold an image of the reciprocal action and mutual relation of all animated being. Here, each is connected with all, and the whole to God. (21) 22 CIIRiSTIAN INSTRUMENTALITY Here, in the absence of sin, we behold the sublime spectacle of the infinitely blessed God surrounded bj distinct orders of sentient, happy beings ; so various as to reach from the arch- anp;el down to the insect, yet so closely related, as parts of a mighty whole, that no single member can be detached and made independent of the rest; while the well-being of each is an ingredient in the happiness of the whole; and all, ac- cording to their respective natures, ascribe glory to Him, their centre and their source, by whom they are alike per- vaded, and in whom they are all one. That this interdependence, as far as it relates to the hu- man family, is part of an original plan, is obvious. By cre- ating, at first, one common father of the species, the Almighty designed that each individual should stand related to all the rest, and feel himself pledged to promote their happiness. By rendering us necessary to each other's welfare, he sought to train us up to an humble imitation of his own goodness, to make every hand and heart a consecrated channel for his love to flow in, and thus to find our own happiness in the happiness of others. In such a state, he who approached nearest to the pattern of the Divine Benevolence would ne- cessarily have been the object of the greatest admiration ; and as admiration leads, by a law of our nature, to imitation, men would have been always advancing towards higher and higher degrees of perfection. Inferior excellence being con- stantly drawn upwards by the strong moral attraction of that which was above it, a process of assimilation to the blessed God would have been perpetually going on, which would have rendered earth a copy of heaven. The connection, then, subsisting between them would have been one, not merely of mutual dependence, but of recipro- cal influence. And this moral influence it is which would have invested their mutual relation with so much import- ance. Could we have looked down upon them, we should have seen that every word uttered projected an influence : that every action performed drew after it a train of influ- ence : that every relation sustained was a line along which was constantly transmitted a vital influence : that every indi- vidual was a centre ever radiating streams of living moral influence. Could we have selected one such individual, and have in- STATED AND EXPLAINED. 23 vestigated his moral history, we should have found that, from the first moment of his existence, his character went on daily and hourly streaming with more than electric fluid — with a subtle, penetrating element of moral influence : that, in what- ever society he mingled, he left on their character, secret, perhaps, but not imperceptible traces that he had been among them : that his influence operated involuntarily ; for though he might choose, in any given instance, what he would do, yet having done it, he could not choose what in- fluence it should have: that it operated universally; never terminating on himself, but extending to all within his circle, emanating from each of these again as from a fresh centre, and thus transmitted on, in silent but certain effect, to the outermost circle of social existence : that it was indestructi- ble, not a particle ever being lost, but the whole of it taken up into the general system of cause and effect, and always in operation somewhere. And thus we should have seen that, though he was apparently as isolated as a ship in the midst of the Atlantic, the waves which the motion of that ship gen- erates from shore to shore were only an image of his ever- circling, widening, shoreless influence; and that the influence which thus blended and bound him up with the whole race, invisible and impalpable as it is, is yet the mightiest element of society — the element wielded by God himself. But then, if such the relation and such the distinct influ- ence of these holy, happy beings, their responsibility for the use of that influence would have been proportionate. The very fact that God had invested them with such influence would^ without any verbal command, have been regarded by them as a sufiicicut expression of his will that they must use it to the utmost, and for his glory. They could not have lived to themselves if they would; for, from the moment they began to live, their influence necessarily linked them to the universe. And they would not if they could, for they would have found that living to God was usefulness, excellence, and happiness, all in one. They would have found that not more certainly is the order of the material world maintained by the action of matter upon matter, than the order of the moral world is by the action of mind upon mind. And un- der the hallowed influence of that reciprocal action, thcj 24 CliRISTJAN INSTRUMENTALITY would have been perpetually brightening and rising into the image of God. How far the inhabitants of the celestial world would — on the hypothesis of man having retained his primal innocence — have influenced, by intercourse, the human character, ad- mits of little more than conjecture. That He who has united distinct material worlds by indissoluble bonds, should leave two orders of holy intelligences, both of which had not only sprung from the same Fount of being, but acknowledged the same laws, and exhibited the same paternal image, to pursue their respective courses in perfect and un passable separation from each other, is, to say the least, highly improbable. That the angelic " sons of God" took a deep and rejoicing interest in the creation of our world, is fact of Divine Revelation. And the scriptural history of the foil of man leaves us to infer that, if such of the angelic order as " kept not their first estate" had access to the human mind for purposes of evil, those of them who retained their original purity would not have been denied access of a similar kind for purposes of good. And thus the intelligent universe would have ex- hibited the sublime spectacle of distinct orders of holy beings, each composed of innumerable members, producing and re- ceiving continual modifications of character by the mutual action of all its parts; and that modification assimilating them to the central and solar glory, on whom they were all alike dependent, and in whom they were all one. II. But suppose — it might have been said — suppose that, by some dreadful possibility, a i^rinciple of evil should obtain entrance into this all-i'elated system. If that entrance should be obtained, first, indeed, among the members of the human order, it is possible that the members of the angelic order, be- ing less accessible to us than we are to them, might escape the contagion. But if it should obtain, first, in the higher order, how likely is it that it will descend and be communi- cated, by intercourse, to the family of man ! In that event,^ — the very prospect and possibility of which appals, — the recip- rocal influence of mind on mind, mightily efficacious as it is for good, may become equally efficacious for evil. One being may become the tempter of another. By the union of each with all; the moral poison may be taken up and circu- STATED AND EXPLAINED 25 lated tliroug-"h the whole social system. The very first sin would be felt by all the race, and to the last moment of time. [f any thing were then wanting to hasten and seal the self- destruction of the guilty community, it would be only the presence of some leading spirit who should be competent to organize and work its complicated agencies on a comprehen- sive plan. Should such a consummation arrive, how direful the results to those immediately involved, and how incalcu- lable the effects on the universe at large I Now, this hypothetical case is only a literal description of the history and actual condition of the world. At the time of the creation, a principle of evil was at large in the universe. Satan, together with an unknown multitude of associate reb- els, having swerved from his allegiance to " the blessed and only Potentate," had been driven from the immediate pres- ence of God, cut off from the loyal part of the creation, and doomed to be the prey of his own mighty depravity. Actu- ated by that universal law by which each being and principle seeks to conform all things to its own nature, and stimulated by implacable hatred against God, he came to efface from our world the Divine image, and to stamp his own on its breast instead. In the execution of this dreadful project he succeeded. By no employment of force, but by the simple action of mind on mind, through the medium of the senses, Satan prevailed on man to sin. As the first sinner was the first man, human nature was poisoned in its fountain. The first man is sinning still, in effect, in each of all his posterity. The first sin is thrilling still, and will vibrate on through the whole line of being, till it reaches the last of human kind. How closely compacted, how vitally interwoven, must be the system of our mutual dependence, and how mysteriously penetrating and pervading the principle of our reciprocal influence, when a single sin can thus distract and derange the whole ! Yet now it was that man first made the monstrous essay of living to himself As if he had only to withdraw his alle- giance from God in order to dissolve relations with the uni- verse, selfishness now became the law of his sinful being. But such separation was impossible. Live to himself, in the sense of selfish appropriation, he might; but detach himself from the relaii(jiis of dependence and influence he could no* 26 CHRISTIAN INSTRUiMENTALITY Cease to be the centre of a hallowed influence he might; hut cease to be the centre of all influence he could not. From the moment he ceased to be a universal good, he became a universal evil. Each act of selfishness is the infliction of a universal injury. x\nd every successive sin awakens afresh the echoes of the original curse. Not only did our primary relations of mutual influence remain — the introduction of sin appears to have stimulated them into preternatural activity and power. Every man in effect became a Jeroboam — his life laid a train of evil for multitudes, and for ages to come. His infantine hand could open a floodgate of evil which the arm of Omnipotence alone could shut. His careless laugh could do more to counteract a moral principle than the pro- clamation of a law could do to enforce it. Though touching only one point in society, he could send an impulse of evil through the whole. While the thunders of Sinai soon died away to a whisper on the ear of the world, many a whisper of evil, as it passed from lip to lip, waxed louder and louder, till nations echoed with the sound, and distant ages received its reverberations as possessing all the authority of law. Parental influences, blending with the first rudiments of infant being, tainted character in its very source. Familiar intercourse became one of the grand ordinances of mutual temptation and ruin. Relationships, calculated to circulate happiness through all the veins of the social system, were per- verted by sin into so many channels of destruction. Tend- encies and influences of evil, which had long been gathering, gradually assumed the definite and enduring form of civil government, and gave a character to nations; from which, again, as from so many centres, they propagated their effects through all the globe and for all time. Evil example, acquir- ing the despotic power of precedent and custom, showed itself stronger than any thing human which could be brought to counteract it ; tended to displace every other power, and claimed to reign alone. In a word, the social principle, in all its forms, entered into the service of sin, and showed itself mightier for evil than for good. Thrones and temples, col- lecting the scattered elements of evil, concentrated, strength- ened, and gave them back again to the world under the sol- emn names of law and religion. Yes, religion itself, or that at least which bore the name, lived only to aggravate the evil STATED AND EXPLAINED. 27 .and to keep it in constant and destructive circulation. Satan became " the god of this world." Wherever he looked, the expanse was his own. Temptation in his hands had become a science, and sin was taught by rule. The world was for him one storehouse of evil — an armory, in which every ob- ject and event ranked as a weapon, and all were classed and kept ready for service. He beheld the complicated ma- chinery of evil, which his mighty malignity had constructed, in full and efficient operation, and the whole resulting in a vast, organized, and consolidated empire. • But more : not only did the laws of our mutual influence remain — ^not only did sin stimulate them into fearful activity — they increased in power with each successive age. The mechanical philosophy informs us that, on the principle of the equality of action and reaction, no motion impressed by natural causes, or by human agency, is ever obliterated. No sound or sentiment, therefore, which has ever been uttered, is or can be lost. The pulsations of the air, which the utter- ance set in motion, continue in iheir effect to operate still ; so that every sound or sentiment will be recoverable in the most distant ages. No deed has ever been performed without leav- ing behind it, on some part of the material universe, an inde- structible witness to its existence. Had any one of all these sentiments and deeds never been uttered or performed, cer- tain impressions would have been wanting from the material elements which they now contain ; so that they form at this moment a minute and faithful record, to an eye capable of reading it, of all the eventful past. Their existing state is the complicated result of all the impressions produced on them from the commencement of time, and presents to the eye of Omniscience a vast book of remembrance, from whose unerring pages he could read forth at large the history of the world. Just so, when the world had existed four thousand years, its moral condition was the exact result of the moral influ- ences of all the past; for it had received the collected eff"ect of the whole. Not only are all contemporaneous things mutu- ally influenced and connected, but there is also a constant increase in the onward course and widening stream of influence from age to age. As every generation owes some part of its character to that which preceded it^ so it imparts some por- 28 CHRISTIAN INSTRUMENTALITY tion of its own to that which follows it, and thus propagates the blended and augmented influences of itself and all its predecessors. And this shows the utter impossibility thero was that man himself should ever remedy his depraved con- dition. By necessity of nature, it became worse and worse. Ench age, in succession, inheriting the accumulated evils of the past, and adding to them something of its own, trans- mitted the whole to that which followed, and thus propelled the world in its downward course with an ever-augmenting force. Whilg the air he breathed was only the record of the past, the moral atmosphere in which he moved, from the first moment of his existence to the last, was not merely the record, but the substance of the past; and, as such, it was one of the elements — a part of the material— out of which his character was necessarily formed. It was the atmosphere of a pest-house, and he entered it not merely to breathe the deadly infection of all who had preceded him there, but to add to it the infection of his own disease for all who came after him. So that, even then, when, compared with the unity and amity of heaven, mankind presented the aspect of mutual hostility and universal disorganization, it might most truly have been said, in the sense of relative influence, "No man liveth to himself:" every act of selfishness and sin is the infraction of a universal law, and as such the infliction of a universal evil. III. What, then, is all lost ? Is the benevolent design of God, in appointing the laws of our reciprocal dependence and influence, irretrievably defeated ? Was the dreadful event of its perversion unforeseen and unprovided for? Has the chain of dependence, which unites us together, passed entirely into the hands of the destroyer, and is it henceforth to be used only for dragging mankind together to perdition ? If not, ichrre is the remedy? What can be the nature of that plan which, when all the influences of earth have been perverted to evil, can, without doing violence to any original principle, convert the whole into good ? What can be the nature of that Being who, coming into the midst of a world where all men are laboring to live to themselves, can say, with a power which fulfils its own word, "No man liveth to himself?" Who can arrest a world that has broken away from its proper centre, and can return it to its appointed orbit? — who can STATED AND EXPLAINED. 29 stand ia the midst of the great vortex of selfishness, and say to the mighty maelstrom, in the height and fury of its all- absorbing whirl, " Flow to the circumference;" and say it with an efiect which can make it refund and float its choicest treas- ures to the ends of the earth : in a word, which can make men, who were their own centre and circumference, take Him for their centre, and for their circumference the universe ? What can be the nature of such a Being, and where is he to be found ? ^' O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and the knowledge of God I" Not only was the fearful catastrophe not unforeseen — the event demonstrated that mercy had only been waiting the moment of its occurrence, in order to un- fold a plan which was evidently calculated on the certainty of that moment arriving — which took advantage of all its dreadful peculiarities — and of which every subsequent event in the Divine economy has been only a constituent part, and every age witnessed the progressive fulfilment. And still more : not only does the economy of our redemption propose to mitigate the destructive tendency of our influence on each other — it actually presses that influence into its own service ; and proposes, by the agency of the Holy Spirit, to sanctify and employ it as the chosen instrumentality by which to ex- pel from the earth the evils produced by its perversion ; till every man shall once more have become what he was prima- rily formed to be — an agent of unmingled good to every other man, and the world be restored to God. Without repealing or deranging any of the original relations or existing arrange- ments of nature, though they had all been perverted into means of destruction, a plan is superinduced which proposes to turn all those relations and arrangements to the highest account, as the means of his recovery : to make the chain of our mutual dependence once more fast to the throne of God. The seat of that plan was the bosom of God : the essence of that plan was, that the highest influence in the universe should be embodied and brought to bear on us : an influence emanating from Him who concentrates all the energies of the universe in himself, an influence streaming from the open heart of infinice love, should discharge its power on the heart of the world. The obstacle to that plan lay in the apparent impossibility of reconciling such benevolence with the known 80 CHRISTIAN INSTRUMENTALITY and necessary hostility of God against sin : of exercising such restorative influence on man, without relaxing general obliga- tion, and thus diffusing a disorganizing influence through the universe at large. But the organ and agent of that plan came forth from his bosom, equal to all its conditions, and bent on its fulfilment. And the glory of that plan consists ia this, that the greatest apparent obstacle was made the occasion of its greatest triumph ; that the same act which made it con- sistent for God to be gracious to man, made it impossible for man, when duly acquainted and Divinely impressed with it, to resist its attractive and subduing power. Around that plan the purposes of mercy had from eternity revolved. Its ear- liest announcement in Eden, though only conveyed as an obscure intimation, touched every spring of hope in human nature, and left an ineffaceable moral impression on the mind of the world. The mere anticipation of that coming fact had the effect, for ages, wherever it was duly cherished, of trans- forming human hearts, and of bearing them on into the pre- sence of God. And when at length the time for its fulfilment came, with the prospect of its grand results swelling and bursting his heart of love, it was that the Saviour uttered the sublime prediction, " Now shall the prince of this world be cast out; and I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me." As if he had said, '' The central power of the earth is a demon. I look for his throne, and find it in the midst of the world. There, where should have stood the throne of God, stands 'Satan's seat;' while in his hand are all the influences of earth, and at his feet all its prostrate homage. But there shall stand my cross. Casting him out, I will become the centre of the recovered world. Those human passions shall burn for me. Those countless idolaters shall bow to me. And all this will I do, not by force, but by influence alone. No single principle of human nature will I violate. Placing myself in harmony with them all, I will embody every element of influence, and engage every holy agency, in the universe. All evil influences have conspired : all good shall combine to oppose them. My benevolence can find employment for all. Man's depravity and danger require them all. None shall be absent. But chiefly thou. Eternal Spirit, my object requires that thou shouldst come to conduct and to give cfiiciency to the whole." STATED AND EXPLAINED 31 Thus the Saviour proposed to recover that principle of mu- tual dependence and influence by which sin was dragging the world to perdition, and to employ it as a golden chain for drawing all men to himself. Now, could we stay to analyze the elements of the charac- ter and work of Christ, as they relate to man, we should find that each of them was studiously adapted to act on the human mind as an element of influence; and the more minutely we could examine them, the more should we see to admire in their exquisite adaptation and attractive power. Dignity is influence ; and he demonstrated to our conviction that he was the Son of God. Identity of nature is influence; and he became "bone of our bone, and flesh of our flesh." Con- tiguity is influence; and he came and dwelt among us. llelationship is influence ; and, so far from dissolving existing relationships, he actually instituted a new one — he became a man ! Instead of moving away farther from us, as our guilt deserved, he came nearer : came, with all the fulness of the Godhead, to be one of ourselves : came to demon- strate before our eyes how much a God can love, a Saviour suffer, a Spirit effect, in order to our salvation. Character is influence : he saw that, as mind rules matter, character rules mind itself, draws other minds into sympathy with it, imparts new impulses to society, speaks with a voice heard by distant nations, and which goes down to future ages. He saw, therefore, that when his character should come to be truly known — known for his unconquerable devotedness to the cause of God and man, in having borne down, by a course of unexampled self-denial, the greatest obstacles in the uni- verse, made his way from heaven, through the ranks of hell, into the midst of the world, and direct to a cross — ^known for his self-sacrificing benevolence, in having effected an unbroken descent, from heights of glory no wing can scale, to depths of humiliation no line can fathom — known for having presented to a world, which refused to live, unto God, the amazing spectacle of a God living to it, turning his vrhole self into a sacrifice, compared with which nothing else would ever de- serve the name — known for the richness of his gifts and the vastness of his design, as including the happiness without measure of numbers without calculation, and for ages without end — all who should experimentally " know the grace of our S2 CHRISTIAN INSTRUMENTALITY Lord Jesus Christ" would be penetrated and possessed with the effect, and would compass sea and land to propagate the report. He knew also that a Divine influence — the influence of the Spirit himself — would accompany and give it effect. He could foresee, indeed, that the recipients of his grace, moved by the Spirit of truth, would throw all their sanctified human influences into the work of preaching it. But even they who would glory in it the loudest, and ' "or for it the most, would know but comparatively little of its excellence ; whereas, the Infinite Spirit knows it perfectly : knows it as the basis of his own agency : knows the central place which the cross occu- pies, as the means of atonement, in the councils of God, the influence which it exerts on every part of the Divine govern- ment, and the glory which it is destined to shed over the uni- verse ; and the Saviour saw, therefore, that the Spirit would invest it with a power over the human mind corresponding with its value and supreme importance ; and that so entirely would the whole economy be conducted from urst to last by his agency, that it would be distinctly known as the dispensa- tion of the Spirit. True, indeed, what would influence the human mind was not the only thing, was not the first thing, whit'i the Author of salvation had to provide. There was anothei mind to be consulted. There was the First, the Eternal Mind to be more than consulted — to be propitiated; for man had dared his judicial displeasure. Whatever adaptation, therefore, the gospel might seem to possess, it can contain no eff"cctual re- medy for man, unless it be in perfect harmony with that Mind. But to find that even he approves it; that he, who is himself the Infinite Reason, beholds in the satisfaction for sin which it provides a reason paramount to all law, a reason to which even justice bows, and before which it retires; that he who is himself absolute perfection should not only com- mend it as perfect in itself, but should actually employ it as his chosen instrument for restoring perfection to beings who had lost it; that all the laws of his moral government consent to it, and all the principles of his nature rejoice in it, is of itself sufficient to arm it with an arresting and attractive power. Now, the Saviour knew this : he knew that the cross, as the medium of forgiveness^ is the direct product of the STATED AND EXPLAINED. 33 Divine mind ; that all the riches of the Divine nature are poured into it; that nothing in the treasury of the Divine resources would be deemed too costly to adorn it, in order to commend it to the world, and to insure its acceptance. He could not doubt, therefore, that the cross, which had moved (rod in his judicial capacity, will finally be made to move the world; that, as it is the centre round which the purposes of mercy revolve, so all the affections of man will be gathered about it also ; that the very fact that God commends it would, when known, invest it w''\: an unlimited sway over every renovated human heart, i^es, he had looked into the mind of man, and he saw that, debased and imbruted as sin had made us, there are still slumbering within us those great prin- ciples and powers originally meant to control our nature, and that he who should succeed in awakening them would obtain the mastery over the whole man. He saw that by sufferinsj he should awaken its sympathies ; that by suffering for us he should engage its gratitude ; that by suffering for sin, which he hated — "bearing our sins in his own body on the tree" — he should be tl;e means of awakening its astonishment and love; that by thus giving to it "a good hope," he should be moving the very first principle of moral power. He was the maker of the mind, and knew all its mysterious laws and secr(i;3 springs. That singular law which we call the principle of i&rsociation, and which is to mind, in effect, what the law of attraction is to matter, drawing together ideas con- nected by common affinities, and repelling others having no such congeniality, was a law of his own appointment. And he saw how exquisitely the doctrine of the cross was adapted, resulting, as it does, from the first principles in the Divine nature, to touch and move the first principles in ours; and thus to become, through the agency of the Holy Spirit, a new principle of mental and moral association. But he knew that, besides this, the human mind was constituted for the recep- tion and enthronement of one central and ruling idea — the idea of God ; that that idea in its purity and vigor has been lost from the mind ; that, in the absence of this primary principle, the mind is involved in moral confusion, and the passions perverted by an unlicensed association of ideas; and he saw that the cross, embodying, as it does, the essential compassion and love of God, was divinely calculated to re- 3 34 CHRISTIAN INSTRUMENTALITY stoi:e order by obtaiaing ascendency, and to become the all- subordinating principle of the enlightened mind. Though we may not be able by an effort of our will to call up any one train of thought, we can, by the power of the will, select at pleasure any single thought in the succession, and dwell upon it with deep and prolonged attention ; and he saw how emi- nently the cross is calculated to be that object; to rivet the attention and engross the aifections of' the renewed mind. He saw that, as every truth, intellectual, moral, and spirit- ual, is invested by the God of truth with an influence and a power corresponding with its peculiar nature and its import- ance ; and that as spiritual truths are above and be3^ond all others, as relating to the spiritual and loftiest part of our na- tures; so the great truth of the world's redemption — the very greatest for a sinful and ruined spirit — would only need to be proclaimed and put into Divine activity; to be brought by the Great Spirit into vital contact and combination with the heart of the world, in order to draw it with irresistible attraction to the Author of that truth. Mighty truths were extant before — truths which created other truths — which, wherever they were announced, quickened into activity the general mind, called forth the mental resources of a people, and went vi- brating on through the universe. But a truth was wanting iitted to receive tlie great power of God — to be " the power of God unto the salvation" of all who should believe it —a truth which should animate all other truths — shed a flood of light and a stimulating influence on original but neglected obligations, and thus be the means of renovating the world. And the Saviour knew that his atoning sacrifice was that great conservative truth. He knew that, as no act terminates in itself, but tends to propagate an influence in obedience to its own laws, and commensurate with its own force — the event of his death for man's redemption — the greatest of all acts — greater than creation — greater than any which God has yet accomplished — would necessarily carry with it an influence greater than the influence flowing from any preceding acts, and therefore calculated, under the dispensation of the Spirit, to master and control the whole. He saw that as no object in the universe exists alone — that as every thing is the centre of an influence which extends to all within its circle — so the cross, including as it would the STATED AND EXPLAINED. 35 means of exciting that love -which is the very principle of all holy activity — complicated as it was with all interests of hu- manity, would become the centre of an influence, to which all other impulses would eventually yield obedience, and a centre of attraction around which all other objects would finally cir- culate — that the cross of Calvary would become the polar power of the spiritual world, to which every heart would tremble and turn. He saw in the earnest expectation of the creature waiting for the manifestation of the sons of God, struggling to be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God, joined with the Divine adapt- ation of the gospel to make that manifestation, and to effect that deliverance, a certain pledge of its universal triumph. '' For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travailcth in pain together until now." But with how much deeper an emphasis may it be said that lie knows it ! To his omniscient eye the whole race was present. He marked the multitudes struggling against their fallen condition — carryii^g their de- sires beyond the limits of the present — yearning after a some- thing undefined. Yes, he knew that his gospel is the hope of mankind — that every sigh and struggle of the whole crea- tion is an act of homage to the salvation he brought, and a guaranty that all men shall eventually be drawn to him. And be3-ond this, he knew that so delighted was the Father with his work of mediation, that this redeemed world would be made his property, that the hearts of his people would be his at will, and all their influences his to wield at pleasure. He knew that " for this cause he was to die, and rise, and revive, that he might be Lord of the whole." And when, by antici- pation, he heard them saying, " None of us liveth to himself: we are not our own : for us to live is Christ :" when, looking onwards, he saw the cross, in the hand of the Holy Spirit, attracting human hearts, combining human energies, turning every thing into influence, and all that influence into one channel, he exclaimed, "And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me." For " the joy which was thus set before him," He — the Son of God — "endured the cross," as the sacrifice for the world. Into that act were put the heart of Christ, the love of God ; and through it comes the mightiest influence of the 36 CHRISTIAN INSTRUMENTALITY Holy Spirit. That cross is the slirine and medium of the whole. By becoming the instrument of human redemption, it acquires the right and the power to give motives to all ac- tions, sanctions to all obligations, objects to all affections, a new nature to man, a new character to the world. ly. Here, then, is the cross — here are the means for mov- ing the world : where is the agency, or what is the plan for working the mighty engine ? The Eternal Father has been moved by it to lift its author up far above all heavens : what is the mode by which, now, in his new and exalted capacity, he will draw the world in homage to his feet ? So powerfully does its influence fall on the mind of God, as the means of moral compensation for sin, that he hath given all things into his hands : how is it to fall on the minds of men so as to in- duce them voluntarily to copy that Divine example ? This is obviously the critical part of the great process. 0, how im- portant a theatre has earth become ! Every eye in the uni- verse is bent on it. Here is to be fought out the grand struggle of evil with good — of hell with heaven. Here the influence of the cross is to challenge and vanquish every other power : who is not anxious to know the plan of the contest ? This brings us to consider the Scripture theory of Christian instrumentality for the conversion of the icorld. The early triumphs of the gospel demonstrated that the influence of the cross was not left to find its way through the world as it could — to operate at random. The plan which provided the in- fluence of the cross, provided, also, the method of its diffusion and propagation. And, on inspection, we shall find that plan so simple in its principle — so connected in its parts — so com- prehensive in its outline — and so well adapted for efficiency and success, as to show that the wisdom which framed it was Divine ; and that nothing but adherence to it is wanting in order to the conversion of the world. We have already shown that, by the constitution of our nature^ we are made to influence each other; that the perver- sion of that influence by sin is the great secret and means of the v/orld's continued depravity; that, through the agency of the Holy Spirit, the doctrine of the cross is the antago- nist principle, the counter influence by which sin is to be vanquished and man restored. We may expect, therefore^ STxVTED AND EXPLAINED, 37 that the instrumentality to be emplor^-^d in the service of the cross will consist of influence also. Ajid, accordingly, human influence, deriving its efficacy from Heaven, is the specific in- strumentality by which the gospel proposes to propagate its transforming efiects. But if so, it follows, of course, that such influence should be congenial with the character — the moral character — of tho cross, and be produced by it, for this sufficient reason, that every other influence is, in truth, opposed to the gospel, and constitutes that which requires to be changed by it. The cross stands alone in the world. It does not find friends : it makes them. If it wants an agency, it has to create it. If the iron is to attract, it must itself be magnetized. And if the Saviour proposes to employ human instrumentality for drawing all men unto him, he has first to magnetize that agency at the cross, the great centre of moral attraction. 1. But how shall the gospel commence its operations on man — indicidnallu or wckdlij ? Civilization commonly begins with man in his social capacity, by giving laws to a community ) expecting that they will gradually impart their appropriate in- fluence to each of its individual members. But Christianity contemplates man, in the first place, in Jiis individual cajya- city ; for, besides the fact of his personal responsibility to God, his reception of it, as far as human authority is concerned, is perfectly voluntary. The gospel, therefore, proceeds on the supposition that only a single member of a whole community may embrace it; and, by addressing men at first in their indi- vidual capacity, it saves that single member; whereas, had his salvation been suspended on the will of the community, it would have been made impossible, owing to their rejection of the gospel : besides which, Christianity proceeds on the sup- position so often realized, that it may only have a solitary agent to convey its message to a whole community; and that, in the midst of that community, he may long labor single- handed and alone. It begins with the individual, therefore, that it may advance to the society. In order to the* cohesion and polarity of the globe, every atom of which it is composed is, in its separate capacity, possessed of polarity and attraction. And, in order to the ultimate evangelization of the world, the gospel operates, as it advances, on each of its component parts. And here be it carefully remarked, that the doctrine of the 38 CHRISTIAN INSTRUMENTALITY cross triumplis, not in the same way as other kinds of truth produce then' results — by its mere fitness to convince the judgment, and approve itself to the mind. We believe, in- deed, that the gospel has this fitness : that light is not more suited to the eye, than the entire system of evangelical truth is adapted to the original principles of human nature. And we believe that, owing to this inherent adaptation alone, the gospel can produce the mightiest civil and social results, without the aid of any special supernatural influence. And we believe that, because of this inherent adaptation, it is that Grod employs it to produce the great spiritual result of regen- eration. ]3ut then we believe that in the production of this result, its mere adaptation alone would leave it quite impo- tent : that here it encounters a kind and a degree of resist- ance which renders a Divine agency indispensable : that here the influence of the Spirit comes into operation ; and that on this account it is called the ''power of God," because God alone renders it powerful to salvation. Hence, also, "faith" is termed "the gift of God." And God is repre- sented as "opening the heart to receive the word." Still, the Spirit of God is pleased to produce the efi"ect through the medium of the truth ; and hence the Apostle Peter represents Christians as those who " have purified their souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit." Most impressively, too, is the same combination implied in the command of Christ " to hear what the Spirit saith," although he himself was the speaker; reminding us that this is emphatically the dispensation of the Third Person in the glorious Trinity : that every voice in the Church — even the voice of Christ himself — is in a sense subordinate to the Spirit, and can be heard with salutary eff'ect only as the Spirit repeats it, and conveys it into the soul. Now, in attempting to describe its transforming power on the human heart, it is somewhat disheartening to reflect that we are most likely addressing those to whom the subject has become comparatively trite, and almost every mode of presenting it perfectly familiar. The very facility with which the understanding apprehends our meaning, and the readiness with which the judgment admits it, allows no time for the sublime truth to settle down upon the heart. In order, therefore, to do any thing like justice to the subject, it is necessary that the individual supposed to be STATED AM) EXPJ.AINED. 39 subjected to the influence in question should be taken, not from among ourselves, but from a region ^vhere the power and even the name of the gospel is unknown. Christianity is the only successful antagonist which sin has ever encoun- tered : in order, therefore, to exhibit its influence fully, he should be taken from the darkness and distance of nature, where sin had operated on him unchecked, working out all its deadly effects, and reducing him to its dreadful purposes; and he should be brought, with all his depravity and guilt upon him, into the full light, and under the direct power, of J^the gospel. Now, in this state, he is chiefly assailable at three points. Fortified in evil, as he may appear to be, there are yet three sides, so to speak, on which he may be approached, by the Spirit of truth, with irresistible efi'ect — his immortality, his g^ilt, and his infinite danger. These are subjects relating to -parts and principles of his nature which an abandoned world overlooks — it has little or nothing by which it can appeal to them if it would — and yet they lie at the very foundation of his constitution, so that whoever shall succeed in making him sensible of his immortality, in alarming his conscience to the danger to which all that immortality is exposed by sin, and then in delivering him from the whole, will necessarily acquire a master influence over his whole nature for ever. Now, the gospel does this. It does not affect a part of his nature merely. It does not operate superficially on the senses ; nor convince his judgment, and leave his heart uninterested ; nor move his passions merely, to the neglect of his judgment ^nd his will. It goes in, and down, to the depths of his nature. It goes directly to move that which moves the whole man. The world hides a man from himself — conceals from him the most important part of his nature. By shutting out the prospect of eternity, he loses sight of his immortality; and by constantly appealing to his senses, and thus keeping in exercise only the inferior parts of his nature, he tends to settle down into a mere creature of time. But the first effect, perhaps, which the gospel produces, is to reveal him to him- self. But coming to him as a message from another world, he starts into a consciousness of his relation to that world ; and by addressing itself to the spiritual part of his nature, he 40 CHRISTIAN INSTRUMENTALITY becomes sensible, however vaguely at first, that he is in some way related to the spiritual, the infinite, and the eternal. Now, it is obvious how this very first impression, by throwing open a part of the temple of his nature which had been hitherto shut up — the very sanctuary, containing the symbol of Divinity — prepares him to receive with deep efi"ect every other communication which may come to him from the same quarter. Not only does the world conceal from a man his spiritual and immortal nature, by allowing it to fall into disuse, — it tends also to merge the fact of his individual accountableness — his distinct personal responsibility. From living in society, and finding his interests and relations inseparably complicated with those of others, he comes to think of himself only as an undistinguishable part of a great whole. He loses himself in the crowd. But the gospel individualizes and detaches. It tells him of a law by which all the laws of society are them- selves to be judged, but of which his life has been an un- broken violation — of a book in which his personal history is recorded moment by moment — of a Being who can disen- tangle and detach him from all his complicated relations, and assign to his every thought and word its precise character — and of a place and a punishment so exactly and necessarily resulting from his guilt, and proportioned to it, that he is the onl}'- being in the universe to whom they could be assigned. The only way, therefore, in which it can treat with him is in person. It lays its awakening and arresting hand on his personal conscience. It demands a personal interview — a conference in the centre of his nature. It brings forward his guilt into the strong light of distinct consciousness. Even if the gospel allowed him to act by another, his own conscience is now too deeply interested' to permit it. All his faculties and powers seem collected into a point — the entire soul be- comes conscience, and that conscience is against him — ac- cuser, witness, and judge. As if the judgment had been set and the books opened, as if his personal case had been ad- judged, his doom pronounced, and he himself suspended over the bottomless gulf, he feels that he is lost. His nature is now stirred to its depths, and his soul is one region of alarm. Mere si/mpathij now will receive his deep, deep gratitude : deliverance would secure his heart for ever. The Being who STATED AND EXPLAINED. 41 shall now arrive to his rescue will infiillibly acquire an influ- ence over the whole man^ and may calculate on his allegiance for ever. To ask if the world, or any person or power belonging to it, can extend the aid which the crisis demands, would be sheer impertinence. That is the very power which has brought on the crisis, and from which he requires to be res- cued. So completely is he now detached from it in heart and hope, that he turns round and looks back on it with wonder at its infatuation, aversion for its sins, and yearning pity for its state. The cloud which threatens him with its bolt, impends also over it. What must he " do to be saved ?" In the absence of all the objects he has been accustomed to confide in, in the clear and open space which their with- drawn! ent has left around him, behold the cross ! All the forms of terror and ministers of justice which his sins had armed against him, blend and melt into a form of love dying for his rescue. The cross has received the lightnings of the impending cloud, and has painted upon it the bow of hope. To his anxious inquiry, "what he must do to be saved" the cross echoes back, Be saved, and every object around him joyfully repeats. Be saved. Then Grod is love ! and the cross is the stupendous expedient by which he harmonizes that love with the rectitude of his government ! Then the sinner need not perish ! and this is the amazing means of his salvation ! Had it ever been his lot to gaze on the ap- palling spectacle of an ordinary crucifixion, the sight would probably have left an image on his mind never to be effaced . Is it possible, then, that he can behold "Jesus Christ, evi- dently set forth crucified before his eyes :" that he can know the dignity of the sufferer, as God manifest in the flesh : can believe that he hates the sin as deeply as he loves the sinner : can reflect that the efi'ect of his death is to be his own deliv- erance; and can look into the heart of this great mystery and find it to be /ore, without experiencing a change? If every word which he hears spoken even by a fellow-man leaves some impression on his mind, can he hear that he is saved, and believe that the voice which assures him of salva- tion is the voice of God, without feeling it thrill through every faculty of the soul? If every object and event he may witness produces some effect on his character, is it possi 42 CHRISTIAN INSTRUMENTALITY blo that the event which is to effect his whole being for ever— which for hira shuts forever the gate of hell, and throws open and fills with visions of glory the ample spaces of eternity, should produce only a transient and slender impression ? Must he not, by necessity of nature, love him, without whom he would soon have had nothing in the universe to love, but have been eternally hateful even to himself? Must he not render obedience to him, without whom the chains of his slavery would soon have been riveted for ever ? He waits not for a reply : he needs not a command. He is under the mastery of a principle which is its own law — a principle of boundless gratitude and love. The power of the cross has moved the primary forces of his nature — the mysterious springs of Hope and Fear, of Adoration and Love. The world has lost him. His heart is at the feet of Christ. He dates life and happiness from the transition. Henceforth he moves in a region of which the cross is the central object, and where the benignant and attractive influences which stream from it in all directions, hold him in willing and delighted allegiance. Here, then, is the secret of that supreme influence which the gospel exercises over the man whom the world had debased and sin had ruined ; and this is the line of truth along which the Spirit of God delights to operate. By acquainting him with its immortality, it, in effect, gives him a soul, and gives it on the threshold of a new and eternal world. By acquaint- ing him with his responsibility and guilt, it calls his conscience from the dead ; and by unveiling to him the mystery of the cross, by which that guilt is cancelled, and that immortality entitled to heaven, one overpowering sentiment subjects his whole nature to the authority of Christ. The Spirit has taken of the things of Christ, and has shown them to him with §o transforming an effect, that he is "a new creature in Christ Josus," We are to suppose, then, that the gospel has, in this way, won its first convert; that the transforming effects, which the Saviour ascribed to his being lifted up from the earth, have taken place upon him. Here is a man imbued with the spirit of the cross, and ready to sacrifice life in its service — how is he to be employed ? He is not to live to himself; for by the sentence of a law which has gone forth from the cross, he STATED AND EXPLAINED. '13 who lives to himself is not a Christian. He has not been ''created anew in Christ Jesus" for mere self-enjoyment or idle show — that the act might terminate in itself. Every thing in nature exists for a purpose. Even the atom of the rock has its appointed place, and its definite end. Surely man — and, of all men, the Christian — is not exempt from this law ! What, then, is his destiny ? Here is evidently a fitting agent for Christ to employ. No other being in the universe has the shadow of a claim to him, beyond that which his new proprietor may choose to grant. Every part and property of his nature, and every moment of his future existence, have been bought — paid for with "pre- cious blood.'' And as the new interest to which he is pledged is opposed by every other, he cannot yield to any other claim- ant, even for a moment, without lending himself, during that moment, to a hostile party ; so that he has no alternative but that of devoting himself unreservedly to Christ. Accordinglj^, the Saviour claims him for himself. From the moment he felt the power of the cross, his duty became definite, impera- tive, one. If every other member of the human family were abandoned to live without control — if the sun itself were abandoned to wander through infinite space — Ms course would yet be minutely prescribed. As if he alone held the great secret of the cross, and were consequently the most important being on the fiice of the earth, his every moment is charged with an appointed duty. As if he had been recalled from the state of death -, yes, not merely as if he had been called out of nothingness into existence — not merely as if he had been selected and sent down from the ranks of the blessed above — but with stronger motives still, as if his guilty soul had been recalled from perdition, where the undying worm had found him, and the unquenchable flame had enwrapped him, and his dissolved body recalled from the dust of death- and as if he had literally come out of the tomb with Christ, and had received life and salvation together at the mouth of the sepulchre at the hand of Christ — all his new-found pow- ers are to be held by him as a precious trust for the service of Christ. As if he had come forth from the sepulchre at first with life only; and as if his reason, knowledge, affec- tions, speech, property, had there been restored to him sepa- lately, and in succession, with a distinct intimation accom- 44 CimiSTIAN INSTRUMENTALITY panying each, that he received it back for Christ, he is to look on himself, henceforth, as a part of the cross, as taken up into the great designs of Christ — as bound up for life and death in his plans of mercy. His character is to be a repro- duction of the character of Christ. Tlie disinterestedness which appeared in Christ, is to reappear in him. The tender- ness of Christ — his untold solicitude for human souls, is to live over again in his tones of entreaty, his wrestling prayer for their salvation. The blood of the cross itself is, in a sense, to stream' forth again, in his tears of anguish, his vol- untary and vicarious self-sacrifice to draw men to Christ. And if tempted to lend but a particle of his influence to any other claimant than Christ, his reply is at hand — " I am not my own, I am Christ's. He has put it out of my power to give him more than belongs to him, for he has purchased and challenges the whole through every moment of time; and out of my will to give him less, for, if I know any grief, it is that my all should so inadequately express my sense of obligation." 2. Now, all this necessarily invests the new convert with influence ; and with influence of the same kind as that which instrumentally drew him to Christ — influence already felt, perhaps, in inferior degrees by many around him ; and, ac- cordingly, we are to suppose that, under God, he becomes the means of drawing some of these to Christ. Now, as union is strength, would it not be desirable that he and they should be organized into a society for the purpose of combining and difl'using their influence farther still r* Here, then, is the next step in the theory of Christian influence — the formation of individual Christians into a Church. The primary de- sign of a Church, indeed, is the spiritual benefit of the mem- bers composing it ; that each might enjoy the assistance of all; that the Christian principles and graces of the whole community might be collected and concentrated into a focus, and each believer might stand at pleasure under its salutary and transforming influence; that scope might be afforded for the exercise of sympathy, and forbearance, and holy emula- tion ; that each might feel his weakness supported, and his courage animated, by the presence of the whole — feel that, although he is "the least of all saints," he is a vital member of an organized body, allied to Christ, the living Head, and, STATED AND EXPLAINED. 45 througli Him^ identified with all the excellence in the uni- verse. But the great ulterior object of forming them into a Church, is the increase of their usefulness to the world ; and hence it is that every increase of their own prosperity is so much in- crease of their capacity for usefulness. In other words, in the formation and design of this Church, we behold that prin- ciple of mutual dependence and reciprocal influence, which sin had perverted into the means of the world's destruction, recovering its original value as the means of the world's re- generation; for here, "the communion of the saints," by heightening their piety, quickening their activity, and com- bining their resources, increases their fitness for the world's conversion. As a Church, the mere circumstance of their separation from the world is, of itself, sufficient to attract attention. Their number invests them with comparative importance. Their formation into a visible society raises them into the rank of a distinct power. If we wish to render an object conspicuous, we detach it from surrounding objects, and place it apart; and if we wish to make it still more conspicuous. we increase it, multiply it to the utmost. The light of the sun is composed of particles inconceivably minute, which, taken separately, and placed at a distance from each other, would be lost in darkness; but, collected into that glorious orb, it attracts the eyes of ten thousand worlds, and becomes an image of the glory of God himself. Believers are to shine as lights in the world ; but this end they answer best when their radiance is collected into the orb of a Christian Church. As a Church, they are raised into an independence of the world; and thus furnish mankind with a standing represen- tation of another world ; of other laws than earth obeys ; and of a higher order of enjoyment and power than man possesses, derived from a source superior to all created means. Its union to him, and oneness with him, make it independent of all the universe besides. As a Church, they are to acquire and wield an influence of a character essentially distinct from that of all around, and incomparably superior to it. Whatever the uioral state of the world may be, their fitness to improve it will depend, under God, on the breadth and distinctness of the line of 46 CHRISTIAN INSTRUMENTALITY demarcation which separates them from it, and on the per- fection of contrast to the world which they exhibit. The world, for instance, is selfish, acts without reference to a su- preme will, and constitutes itself the end of all it does. How important, then, that they should embody the self-sacrificing- spirit of Christ I To do this by halves only, to study their own aggrandizement, or to live in comparative indolence and luxury, would be to symbolize with the world, and to confirm it in its besetting sin. But they are to exhibit that fiction of the world — a life of self-denial. By relinquishing all delights, all passions, all pursuits by which the world is engro.ssed and enslaved, and by going out of themselves, abandoning them- selves, evincing a readiness to sacrifice life itself in the cause of Christ, they are to sti\nd out in vivid contrast with the selfishness of the world, silently to condemn it, to proclaim a will higher than human, the responsibility of men to that will, and the supreme happiness of absolute conformity to it. And thus they are to prepare men to hear with effect of that sacri- fice compared with which nothing else can ever deserve the name. The world is sensual, supremely influenced by the visible and the present. The constancy and force with which the human body gravitates to the earth, is only an emblem of the manner in which the universal heart of man tends to the con- cerns and objects of the world. But the members of this new society are to come out from the world, and to ''be sepa- rate;" " to love not the world, nor the things of the world;" " to set their afi:ections on things above." The cross is to them the perpetual memorial of a nobler world, the represent- ative of the most glorious being there, and the medium of constant communication with it. As if they were daily stand- ing in the open portal of that celestial state, and surveying the glories within, they qre to evince a decided superiority to all the objects of worldly pursuit. And as if they were em- powered to take others with them there, and were only wait- ing here till they had succeeded, they are to move among them as men not of this world — angels partly on the wing. Now, this twofold principle of worldly selfishness, or selfish sensuality, is the ruling principle of man and the essence of his guilt. How important, then, that the Christian Church should stand out from the world in bold and bright relief, as STATED AND EXPLAINED, 47 the representative of the pure and unworldly benevolence of the cross ! As a Church, the fiiithful are intrusted with means emi- nently calculated to aifect and benefit the world around. They possess the ministry of reconciliation ; and of what use is that but to " beseech men to be reconciled to God ?" They are encouraged to pray, as a Church, by a promise of Divine success greater than any which is guaranteed to their separate and solitary requests. ''If two of you shall agree on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father who is in heaven. For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them." We are assured that, in reclaiming the sinner, " the effectual fervent prayer" of even one of the faithful " availeth much." But here is a promise made to the united prayer of the Church, over and above that which is made to private devotion, and a power conferred on it greater than that which is promised to all its members pray- ing separately. As a Church, they have a special sphere of labor. How- ever small the circle of Christian influence which each one separately filled before, from the moment they constitute a Church, the hand that so formed them may be regarded as drawing around them a circle which includes " the region round about." As a Church, they are now charged with a collective responsibility : all the souls within that circle are in a measure given into their hands. And hence all their means — the mite of the widow and the wealth of the afflu- ent — the leisure of one and the learning of another — the ardor of the young, the wisdom of the aged, the resources of all — are to be combined and devoted to the object of saving them. Here, the motto of each is to be, "None of us liveth to him- self:" each one is assigned a post of labor: the influence of each, by union with all, is made to be felt; and as often as others are added to them, they are to regard the circle as proportionally enlarged, and are again to fill it to the circum- ference with the influence of the cross. 3. In this way other Churches are supposed to be planted, Fach of these becomes the centre of a new circumference. ICvery place to which its influence reaches is to be a point for extending it forthcr still. Bursting the limits of neigh- 48 CHRISTIAN INSTRUMENTALITY borhood, and the confines of country, tliey are to carry the cross into other lands, there to rally around it other hearts, and thus to obtain the means of further conquests still. Now, if the influence of the first converts was augmented by col- lectiny sending forth the seventy to proclaim the kingdom of God through Judea, he taught that the piety of his people is to be diffusive, and was training his Church for that bolder flight which should eventually sweep the horizon of the world. In order to enlarge the sphere of Christian beneficence to the utmost, he annihilates the ancient dis- tinction between neighbor and enemy; teaches us to regard every man as our neighbor who needs our aid : to look on our field as the world. Taking us from that small circle which our selfishness prescribes, he conducts us to a mount of vision, from which all the territorial lines and artificial distinctions of society are no longer visible, and where the living land- scape presents us with the view of one vast community of immortal beings, claiming the same distinguished origin, in- volved in a common danger, invited to one grand deliverance, and passing together into the unseen state. By teaching us there to pray, " Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth, as it is done in heaven," he would open before us the prospect of unbounded progression and improvement, inspirit us to enter on a career of emulation with angels, to despair of nothing, to hope for every thing in the moral advancement of the world, and to call in at every step the almighty agency of God. By simply commanding us to do unto others as we would they should do unto us, he lays a principle of relative duty so broad and deep, that, if rightly built on, it would sus- tain a pyramid of benevolent and heroic deeds whose top should reach unto heaven ; and by leading us to the throne of God, and teaching us to pray that earth may be assimilated to heaven^ he reminds us that our means of doing good arc never ILLUSTRATED FROM SCRIPTURE. 73 exhausted, siucc wc are empowered at every step to touch and set in iDOtion the ahuighty agency of God. But if the glorious object of this prayer is to be realized, if the harvest of the world is to be gathered into liie garner of his Church, where are the reapers? "Pray ye, therefore, the Lord of the harvest," saith he, "that he would send forth more laborers into his harvest." But not only will reapers be necessary; so vast is the sphere of labor, that agencies of every kind will find scope for operation; and, as every follower of Christ can do some- thing, not to do it would evince indifference to his claims, and' would, in moral effect, be ranging themselves against him. " He," therefore, saith Christ, " that is not with me is against me;" a sentence which at once divides mankind into two classes, denouncing the absence of activity in any of his professed followers, and ranking it with positive liostility against him. For the same reason, however, that every member of his Church is to be employed in his service, it follows, of course, that every means of influence which each possesses should be employed also, and employed to the utmost. Accordingly, he not only startles the indolent, by the inquiry, " Why stand ye here all the day idle?" and by the command, "Work wliile it is day, for the night cometh wherein no man can work^" but our life in his hands is converted into a lamp, whicn, like the virgins in the parable, we are to keep biiglit ai]d burning; and into a stewardship, concerning every item of which we are to render him finally a faithful account. Our " every word," our "pound," our various endowments, whatever they may be, are so many talents which he expects us to multiply by constant use. He will not require the possessor of two talents to account for three, but neither will he permit him to account for one only. The very fact that he possesses two, constitutes his call and his obligation to em- ploy them; nor is he at liberty to set any limits to his endea- vors short of those which his means and opportunities pre- scribe. And, as Christian influence multiplies itself by use, he is held responsible not only for the right employment of his fwo talents, but for the other two, which that employment would have added to them. To deny himself for Christ is hia daily obligation ; but to show him how entirely he is the pro- 74 CHRISTIAN INSTRUMENTALITY perty of Christ, he is required to hold life itself in subordina- tion to the Christian cause, and to surrender it to martyrdom whenever the welfare of that cause may require. '' He that loseth his life for my sake shall find it." Having made it imperative on every individual disciple to consecrate his entire influence, from the moment of his con- version, to the diffusion of the gospel, the Saviour made it equally binding on them all to unite for the same object. By calling them " brethren," he would remind his followers that they form a brotherhood. Of all " the sheep which should hear his voice," he declared, " there shall be one fold and one shepherd." In the exercise of his high prerogative as the lawgiver of his Church, the only new command which he is- sued to its members was, " that ye love one another." That they might have a pattern which should move as well as teach, he proposes to them his own example, by adding, '^ as I have loved you, that ye love one another." To bind them together still more effectually, he made their affection to each other the badge of their discipleship to him : " By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to an- other," And, as if to render the obligation irresistible, he lifted up his eyes to heaven, and, as in the very presence of the cross, entreated "that they all may be one;" adding, as the great reason of the whole, " that the world may believe that thou hast sent me." At this practical and ultimate de- sign of their unity he had glanced, indeed, at the commence- ment of his public ministry; describing his people as "the salt of the earth," and "the light of the world." For as, in the former capacity, they are to suspend, by their holy and combined activity, the tendency of the world to a state of gen- eral dissolution, so, in the latter, they are placed to catch the radiance of his throne, and to transmit it to a world immersed in the shadow of death. Not only are they kindled in their respective orbits to irradiate the gloom immediately around, but as a Church they are to unite and constitute " the light of the world," And thus, from his opening discourse to his closing prayer, he constantly kept in view the combination of his people for the recovery of the world. For the same end he predicted and promised the mission of the Spirit. So candidly and explicitly had he described tho trials of their office, that such a promise was necessary, ILLUSTRATED FRCM SCRirTURE. 75 if only for their encouragement. Having, therefore, taken them to an eminence, and shown them the vast confederacy of evil arrayed against them, he reminded them that they were to fight in fellowship with all the children of light : that more than angels would mingle in their ranks : that the Eternal Spirit himself, arming their weakness with his might, would advance with them to the work, and convince the world of sin. And when at length ''the hour had come," when the Sou of man, having been lifted up from the earth, proceeded to put into motion the instrumentality which he had arranged for drawing all men unto him, as if he had been sitting on the circle of the heavens, and surveying all the possibilities and events that could occur down to the close of time, he answers the objections to this design before they are uttered, anticipates wants before they arise, and provides against dangers before they threaten. Was it necessary, for instance, that he should first legislate on the subject ? " Go/' said he — and he was standing but one step from the throne of heaven — " Go into all the world, and preach the gospel to every crea- ture." Still, plain as this command might at first appear, the duty which it enjoins is so novel, and the project which it contemplates so vast, that doubts are likely to arise as to its import and obligation : he repeats it, therefore, again and again : repeats it in other forms, as an old prediction that must be fulfilled, and as a new injunction : " Then opened he their understandings, that they might understand the Scrip- tures, and said unto them. Thus it is written, and thus it be- hooved Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day, and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. And ye are witnesses of these things." If they are to enter on their office at once, peculiar and even miraculous qualifications are necessary. " Ye shall receive power from on high," said he, '' after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you ; and ye shall be witnesses unto me, both in Jerusalem and in all Ju- dea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost parts of the earth." But peculiar dangers will assail them : "All power is mine," said he. "Go, and you shall move under the shield of Omnipotence." " Lo ! I am with you alway, even Jto the end of the world." Thus, making the most comprehensive pro- 76 CHRISTIAN INSTRUMENTALITY vision, and taking the wliole responsibility of success on him- self, his last word to his witnesses was, "Go;" his last act was to bless and dismiss them to their work; and the last im- pression he left on their minds was, that they held in trust the conveyance of his gospel to all mankind. And, as this was the last indication of his will on earth, we know how his first act in heaven corresponded with it. The Eternal Spirit himself came down — came expressly to testify of Christ — came to be the Great Missionary Spirit of the Church, to "convince the world of sin." We know how the apostles began at Jerusalem, when three thousand souls received their testimony. We know how their hesitation to quit Jerusalem and Judea was gradually overcome — how a Paul was added, like a new missionary element infused into their spirit — and we can conceive how they must have felt, as if, in the terms of his new commission to be a witness to the Gentiles, their own original commission had been renewed and reenforced. We know how they were divinely allured farther and farther from Jerusalem ; how vision after vision drew them on to invade the neighboring territories of idolatry; and how, at length, when even a Paul evinced a reluctance to pass the last limit of Jewish restriction, when even he scrupled to leave the confines of Asm, a vision was seen far back in the western regions of idolatry — a Macedonian sup- pliant — the emblem of Europe — saying, " Come over and help us." Bursting that last enclosure, the outermost circle of restriction, he was not disobedient to the heavenly vision ; and the Church found itself fully committed to its lofty office of traversing the world. And now, we might have thought, the Saviour has surely made it sufficiently apparent that his people are to be his messengers to the world. Nothing more can be necessary to show that this great object enters into the very design and principle of his Church. But not so thought the Saviour himself. Once more does he come forth, and reiterate the truth. When we might have supposed that his voice would be heard no more, once again does he come forth, and break the silence of the Church ; and the subject on which he speaks is the missionary character of that Church. Not that it had lost sight of its office. His servants were carrying their testimony in all directions. But, as if the angel having ILLUSTRATED FROM SCRIPTURE. 77 the everlasting gospel did not jet speed oq his way fast enough to satisfy the yearnings of infinite couj passion, or as if he feared that angel would stop ere the whole earth, the last creature, had heard the gospel testimony, he came forth personally, and announced, "The Spirit and the bride say, Come; and let him that heareth say, Come; and let him that is athirst come ; and whosoever will, let him come and take of the water of life freely." Here is the summing up of all his arrangements and com- mands for the diffusion of the gospel. Having opened the fountain of eternal life in the midst of the desert world — the Spirit — the Church — every member of that Church — every power of every member, even if he can only utter the exclamation, Come, are all to be combined and devoted to the grand object of inviting the perishing world to partake. Every one that hears the call is to transniit it farther still — ■ there is no point at which it may stop — a chain of living voices is to be carried round the globe in every direction, till the earth grows vocal with the sound of the Church inviting men to Christ. Thus, if the last act of Christ on earth was to make the world the heirs of his grace, his first act in heaven proclaimed that he required all the benevolent agency of his Church to be put into full activity, in order to do justice to the purposes of his love ; and as this is his last recorded command, the post- script of the J3ible, he would have it impressed on the mind of the universal Church, in every age, with all the freshness and force of a parting injunction. VII. If the preceding exposition of the will of Christ con- cerning the missionary character of his Church be correct, we may expect to find a further illustration of that will in re- corded sentiments mid ^'^ acts of the a^^ostles^ and ^^ primitive churches." Let us look at the great missionary of the Christian Church — the apostle of the Gentiles. It is admitted, indeed, that he had been specially designated to the office; but by this cir- cumstance he is so far from ceasing to be an example, that the Head of the Church may be regarded as saying, " For this purpose, partly,' have I called and employed him, and placed his history on record, that my people may possess in him a model of the missionary character for all succeeding times." 78 CHRISTIAN INSTRUMENTALITY It is admitted, also, that Christians generally, and even Chris- tian ministers, are not called to the literal imitation of his missionary career. At the same time, it is meant that they should more than admire it — that they should imbibe and imitate its entire spirit. The same principle of loyalty to Christ and love to man they must possess; and from thiit same principle must they rise superior to selfish indulucnce, and be able to appeal to their self-sacrificing piety that for them "to live is Christ." The apostle could do this ; and it was the sole secret of his heroic devotedness and missionary enterprise. In the oar of the selfish and the worldly, the language doubtless sounds extravagant and absurd. In the ear of God, and indeed of every enlightened being, it is only the language of sobriety and wisdom. It was dictated by no mere mo- mentary impulse of zeal, but was the result of a sober cal- culation frequently repeated, and of enlightened principle gradually matured. There was a time when, in common with the world, he regarded life as superlatively valuable; but he now looked on it as comparatively insignificant, for he had found an object of unspeakably greater importance. Others might copy the example of their fellow-raen, but lie had risen to the high and holy ambition of copying the ex- ample of incarnate perfection, of God manifest in the flesh. Others might waste their precious time in ease, and sloth, and worldly indulgence; but he aspired to enter into the counsels of Heaven, to become a co-worker together with God, and instrumentally to mingle in the operations of Almighty love in renewing and blessing a world of apostate but immortal beings. Others might content themselves with the praise of men, with the good opinion of creatures perish- ing like themselves ; but he aspired to the high distinction of pleasing God — of being received and welcomed into the presence of the Supreme, with the sentence, " Well done, good and faithful servant." Others might be satisfied with their own personal salvation, but, feeling that he had a Saviour for the world, he panted to go everywhere, claiming that world for Christ — panted to "present every man perfect in Christ Jesus" — "travailed in birth" for the regeneration of the human race. Hence the secret of his self-denial — " I am made all thinirs ILLUSTRATED FROM SCRIPTURE. 79 to all men, If hy any means I miglu save so7ne." Hence, too, the spring of his Christian zeal — "7/' by any means I may provoke to emulation them who are my flesh, and might save some of them.'' This was the reason of his prudence and vigihince — " I please all men in all things, not seeking mine own profit, but the profit of many, that they may he saved." And hence, too, his joy in suffering — " It is for your consolation and salvation." This was the object at which he aimed, and which filled the whole sphere of his vision ; comparatively speaking, he saw nothing else. Ease might offer him indulgence ; wealth might display her bribes; pleasure might exhibit her charms; but these had lost their power to tempt; to him they had become objects of supreme indifference. Persecution might bring out and spread in his path a fearful array of scourges, and chains, and axes — -all the instruments and apparatus of torture and d<3ath. But he looked at the cross, and, beholding the Son of God suspended there, he armed himself '' likewise with the same mind." He looked around ; and he saw the assembled Church of Christ urging him, for the glory of the cross, for the sake of perishing humanity, to go forwards. He listened, and heard the whole creation groaning to be delivered. He looked above; and he saw "a great cloud of witnesses" bending with intense interest from their. blessed seats; and beyond and above them all, he saw the throne of the Lamb and him that sat on it ; and in his hand a glorious crown of life; and he saw that it was extended toward him; and thus sustained, he could point to all the instru- ments of torture, and exclaim, " 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 to testify of the gospel of the grace of God." And thus impelled, again and again he led the van of the army of the cross, stormed the very strong- holds of idolatry and sin, proclaimed the name of his sove- reign Lord " where Satan's seat" was, planted the standard of the cross in the very citadel of the foe, till his progress from place to place was to be traced, not indeed by blood — or if so, by no blood but his own, for he was covered with the scars of the Christian conflict— but with the fall of idol tem- ples, the plantation of Christian Churches, the trophies of 80 CHRISTIAN INSTRUMENTALITY ransomed human souls, and with tlic song of the Christiac warrior, exulting, " Now thanks be unto God, who always causeth us to triumph in every place." And yet, in all this heroic devotedncss and self-consuming zeal, was he exceeding his obligations — doing any thing more than carrying out prin- ciples to their legitimate application — living to Christ? Did he ever utter a word which implied that he considered him- self an exception to what others should be? that no one was bound to be so zealous for Christ as he was — that a lower standard of benevolence was sufficient for them ? On the con- trary, how humbly did he account himself less than the least of all saints, how uniformly did he speak of himself only as one of a number constrained and borne onwards by the love of Christ, and how earnestly did he say to all, " Be ye fol- lowers of me, even as I also am of Christ." VIII. Now, if such be an exemplification of what, in spirit and principle at least, each individual convert should be, let us next glance at the illustration of that mis-sionary spirit and principle as exliibltcd in the conduct of a primitive Church. The Church at Jerusalem was denominational, con- sisting exclusively of converted Jews. The Church at An- tioch, including as it did all believers, irrespective of their nation, was the first Catholic Christian Church — "Now there were in the Church that was at Antioch certain prophets and teachers: as Barnabas, and Simeon that was called Niger, and Lucius of Cyrene, and Manaen, who had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch, and Saul. As they ministered to the Lord, and festcd, the Holy Ghost said, Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them."* Deeply impressed with their individual responsibility, different members of the Antiochian Church had already made certain unconnected efforts for the diffu- sion of the gospel. Grateful in the last degree for their own salvation, and encouraged by the conversion of the Roman Cornelius, they could not but speak of the things which they had seen and heard — "And the hand of the Lord was with them, and a great number believed and turned to the Lord."t But the time had now arrived when they were to attempt * Acts xiii. 1, 2. f Acts xi. 21. ILLUSTRATED FROM SCRIPTURE. 81 A united and systematic effort for the same object. It was not likely that such piety, wisdom, and zeal, could long com- mune together without making a combined movement. One, we may suppose, would insist on the evident design of a Christian Church to extend the gospel : another, on the au- thoritative icill of Christ: a third, on the dejiraved condition of the heathen; and a fourth, on the instances in which they themselves had seen the gospel prove '' the power of God unto salvation ;" while all would acknowledge the import- ance of a more direct, vigorous, and sustained effort than had yet been made for enlarging the kingdom of Christ. " But who is sufficient for these things?" Agents must be selected — a sphere of labor appointed them — and their hands sustained by the prayers, and,. if need be, by the con- tributions, of the disciples remaining at home — for this is to be a mission of the Church. Conscious' of their own incom- petence, and anxious to take no step which God has not encouraged, they wait together before him by prayer and fasting. ''And, as they ministered to the Lord, and fasted, the Holy Ghost said. Separate unto me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them." Here we see the Church whose members had been the most zealous, individuaU//, for the extension of the fiiith, honored to be the first missionary society for the conversion of the heathen. While from the l)ivine designation of the two most distin- guished members and ministers of that Church to be the first missionaries, we learn, that Christians will never evince that they estimate the missionary office as God does, till they select for it the choicest instrumentality which the churches contain. ''And when they had fasted and prayed, and laid their hands on them, they sent them away." Directed, probably, to their particular scene of labor, by the same Divine autho- rity which had nominated them to the work, Barnabas and Paul proceeded to Seleucia, the nearest port, and sailed at once to the isle of Cyprus. Paul had already gratified the instinctive longing of the young convert, to benefit those first to wliom he is most nearly related, by preaching the gospel in his native Cilicia. And now Barnabas enjoys the same sacred gratification, by preaching salvation in his native 6 82 CHRISTIAN INSTRUMENTALITY Cyprus. Thus it is that tlie gospel recoguizes all the na- tural and social relations of life, and teaches us that in seek- ing to evangelize a distant region, we are not to overlook the prior claims of our family, neighborhood, and native land. Crossing to Peninsular x\sia, Paul and Barnabas prose- cuted their mission by traversing Pamphylia, Pisidia, and Lycaonia, till they touched on the borders of Cilicia, where Paul had already published the gospel. In this way, the whole of the intermediate country between their two native places resounded with the preaching of Christ crucified. In establishing this chain of Christian posts from point to point, they proposed to make it the base of a future mission into the region beyond. And here we find the apostle, on a sub- sequent occasion, enlarging the sphere of his labor by preach- ing in the remoter regions of Phrygia, Galatia, and Mysia. An apt illustration, this, of the expansive power of the gos- pel; of the manner in which it enlarges the circle of its beneficent operation; and in which the Christian Church should ever be meditating further conquests for Christ, and preparing for the final occupation of the entire globe. Having touched the boundary of Cilicia, Paul and Bar- nabas retraced their steps, revisited the Churches which they had planted, and then "returned to Autioch, from whence they had been recommended to the grace of God for the work which they fulfilled. And when they were come, and had gathered the Church together, they rehearsed all that God had done with them, and how he had opened the door of faith unto the Gentiles. ''* Regarding themselves as the representatives of the Church which had sent them forth, and still retaining their communion with it, they take it for granted that all its members will feel the liveliest interest in the results of their mission. In the same way should every thing connected with the progress of the gospel in heathen lands now thrill through the heart of the Church at home, and be regarded as a subject of deep personal interest by each of its members. The Church at Antioch was now surrounded, as far as its position would permit, with the wide field of its missionary * Acts x^.v. f^6, 27. ILLUSTRATED FROM SCRIPTURE. 83 Operations. In whatever direction it might look, it had the hallowed satisfaction of beholding the fruits of its labor stretch away to a remote circumference — an image of the manner in which every particular Church, and in which the whole col- lective Church of Christ, should sit in the centre of a widely- extended missionary domain, filled to the verge with the influence of the cross, and thus prepared to enlarge and extend its circle till it embraces the world. For what is there in all this piety and zeal which is not equally obligatory on the Churches of the present day '/ "What had the Lord of the Church done for the Christians at An- tioch, which he has not equalled, and, in some providential respects, even exceeded, for us ? " Compassion moved them ;" but is heathenism less depraving, or sin less destructive, or hell less fearful, now, than then? "Zeal for the glory of Christ incited them;" but are we less indebted to redeeming love than they ? We do not hope for less than eternal life, and did they expect more ? " The Spirit of God impelled and directed them ;" but it was in answer to earnest, united, and persevering prayer; and is the throne of grace less accessi- ble to us than it was to them ? or the promise which encour- aged them to repair to it repealed — "Ask, and ye shall receive ?" And is not the same Spirit saying to every Church, by the voice of Scripture, and the movements of Providence, as distinctly as to the Church at Antioch, " Separate unto me your Paul and your Barnabas. Select your holiest, ablest men ; cultivate their mind and piety to the utmost ; and set them apart to the missionary office ?" "A Paul and a Barnabas were among them, and if we could command such agents — if we could select even an Eliot or a Swartz — we would strain every effort to send them forth; but there are few, or none, such among us.''^ Yes, there are ; or, if not, there might be. " Who, then, is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers by whom ye believed, even as the Lord gave to every man ?" By the grace of God they were what they were; and, by the same grace, their distinguished excellences can be reproduced and repeated in every Church. Only let not Christians expect their agents to be apostles, in order that they themselves may sit at home in indolence — only let them expect that their agents will be their representatives^ and nothing more — only let them look for a Barnabas in a 84 CHRISTIAN INSTRUMENTALITY Church worthy of a Barnabas, and look for him by earnest and united prayer to God — and they will find the Spirit of God raising up an agency as suitable for the present day as that of Paul and Barnabas for apostolic days. IX. If we now proceed to examine the inspired epistles to the Churches, we shall find that, as the missionary character of the Apostle Paul is only an exemplification of what, in spirit and principle, every other Christian should be, so the missionary conduct of the Church at Antioch is only a model for all other Christian Churches. The Churches at Ephesus and Colosse are exhorted to be fervent, incessant, and united, in prayer for the wide and suc- cessful propagation of the gospel. For well the apostle knew that the zeal for Christ, which led them to become suppliants for that object at the throne of grace, would lead them, while there, to inquire, ''Lord, what wilt thou have us to dof" — that, so far from there expiring, it would there rather be fanned and fed, and rise into a flame, into which property, influence, life itself, if necessary, would be ofl"ered up as an oblation to his glory. The Philippian Christians were to shine as lights, exalted to irradiate the surrounding gloom, " holding out the word of life.'' To the Christians at Galatia, the apostolic injunction is, "As ye have opportunity, do good unto all men ;'' language which laid under tribute every moment of their time, and every energy of their renewed nature, for the good of the world. In his Epistle to the Romans, the calling and conversion of the heathen world is a subject of constant recurrence. "But how shall they call on him in whom they have not believed ? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard ? and how shall they hear without a preacher ? and how shall they preach except they be sent?"* Leaving it to be inferred, that if the proclamation of the gospel be necessary to the salvation of the world, the greater the number of her- alds employed, the greater the number of conversions which, by the agency of the Spirit, would ensue ; and, consequently, the j'.reater the obligation of every Christian community to pray * llora. X. 13, 14. ILLUSTRATED FROM SCRIPTURE. 85 the Lord of tlie Church to raise up and send forth from among them the greatest number of missionaries which their resources can supply. The members of the Church at Thessalonica ''became ensamples to all that believe in Macedonia and Achaia; for from them sounded out the word of the Lord."* Not only was the report of their conversion circulated by others through all the neighboring districts, but they themselves followed that report with as loud a call to those regions as they could raise, to " turn to God from dumb idols, to serve the living and true God." While to the Church at Corinth the apostle writes, "We are come as far as to you also in preaching the gospel of Christ, . . . having hope, when your faith is increased, that we shall be enlarged by you . . . abundantly, to preach the gospel in the regions beyond you.""!" Already had he hastened from province to province, "weeping over the wreck of immortal souls," and leaving behind him, wherever he had been, monuments of the power of the gospel to save. But, much as he rejoiced in this, the vast circuit which he had already filled with the sound of salvation could not limit his desires or his labors. There were " regions be- yond;" regions which were still immersed in the shadow of death ; and the weight of their misery rested on his soul. If he reposed a moment, therefore, it was only to gather strength for his onward course. If he remained a short time with a Church already formed, it was only that their flame might supply him with the means of kindling another light in the distance. If he rejoiced in his success at Corinth, it was chiefly as it enabled him abundantly to enlarge the sphere of his labors in " the regions beyond." He takes it for granted that the members of a Church have "a claim to the exclusive enjoyment of the Christian ministry only until they have reached a certain maturity in religious" attainments; but that, from that moment, they are equally bound with hitnself to extend the knowledge of Christ into "the regions beyond." All their resources are to be taxed for the enlargement of his *1 Thess. i. 7, 8. f 2 Cor. X. 14-16. See an excellent discourse on this text in tie Works of the Rev. Richard Watson, vol. iii. 86 CHRISTIAN INSTRUMENTALITY kiogdom. Circle beyond circle of benevolent effort is to be described by the Christian Church, till the earth is encom- passed in the vast embrace of mercy. And has the missionary enterprise diminished, by the lapse of time, either in its obligation on the Church, or in its mag- nificence ? St. Paul is still exhorting " that supplications, prayers, and intercessions be made for all men;" and declar- ing that " this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour, who will have all men to be saved, and to come to the knowledge of the truth."* St. James is still announcing to the Church, ^'Let him know, that he who converteth the sinner from the error of his way," — let him ponder the mighty truth — let him publish it through the Church as a proclamation from the throne of God to inflame the zeal of others — "let him know, that he shall save a soul from death. "f What an inducement to the united Church to attempt the stupendous object of saving a world from death I The Apostle Peter is still affirming that the existence of the world continues, because God is " long-suffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance."! And St. John is testifying that "the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world ;"§ and leaving us to draw the startling inference, that if " he who seeth his brother have ne<3d, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, is a murderer," the Christian Church can wash its hands from the crimson guilt of murdering the souls of the heathen only by making the mightiest effort of which it is capable for their salvation. X. But if it be true that this theory was prefigured by former dispensations ; that it was substantially realized in the person of Christ ; that it is called for by the office and agency of the Holy Spirit ; that our Lord prescribed it ; and that his primitive Churches either practically exemplified it, or were authoritatively exhorted to do so, might we not venture to sug- gest that most probably a scheme so wide in its sweep is evf n more comprehensive still ? Knowing, as we do, that God acts by general laws — laws which include in their range worlds as well as atoms, and systems as well as worlds — may we not * 1 Tim. ii. 1, 3, 4 J 2 Peter iii. 9. f James v. 20. 1 1 John iv. 14. ILLUSTRATED FROM SCRIPTURE. 87 suggest that a principle which unites and lays under tribute all the sanctified influences of earth, adds to them also the influences of heaven ? Revelation decides that this is the fact; that as there is but one object in the universe at which to aim, so there is but one plan on which it is pursued, and one being by whom it is conducted, the Lord Jesus Christ. From the moment — if we may be allowed to employ the language of time in speaking of things which acknowledge no date — from the moment when the Eternal Father determined to create, and to exhibit his glory and impart his fulness to his intelligent creation, a scheme of mediation became indis- pensable. The Son of God, as the only adequate representa- tive of his person, and medium of his fulness, became indis- pensable to that mediatorial scheme. And from the moment he began to fulfil its conditions, and realize its designs, he became, by right and by appointment, the centre of the whole. ''For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers : all things were created by him and for him ; and he is before all things, and by him all things consist. And he is the head of the body, the Church ; who is the beginning, the first-born from the dead : that in all things he might have the preeminence. For it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell ; and having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth or things in heaven." And from that moment he acquired the right and the power to lay all the agencies and influences of this vast system of existences, economies, and constitutions, as it revolved around him, under tribute, in order to maintain the union, dependency, and order of all its parts to each other, and of the whole to himself. To withhold this tribute in the least degree is to derange the entire plan. Should such derangement occur even in the remotest part of the system, every other part and being be- longing to it would sympathize with the shock, and feel him- self personally aggrieved. Should it be announced, as the supreme will, that the off'ending party be reclaimed and saved, every order of being, every rank, each individual, would feel himself bound to task his energies to the utmost, as far as they could be made available^ and to combine them with all 88 CHRISTIAN INSTRUMENTALITY the rest, in a grand endeavor to reclaim and restore the offender to the place and the happiness which he had lost. Even if some of those orders, owing to the difference of their nature, should not be able to minister directlij to his recovery, they would take the liveliest interest in every stage of the process, and never rest till it was brought to a happy conclu- sion ; while every being of his own order would feel himself bound, by the particular obligation of kindred, as well as by the general obligation of loyalty to Christ, to unite in an untiring endeavor for his recovery. Now, who does not recognize in this representation a sketch of what has actually taken place ? Not an individual merely, but an entire race, has broken the law which bound it up with all the orders in the mediatorial government of Christ. The integrity of the universe, as a union of diiferent intelligent orders under one head, is destroyed. But by virtue of an eternal purpose, that integrity is to be restored : they are again to be '' gathered together in one." The disclosure of this sublime "purpose which God had purposed in himself," stirred the entire universe of holy beings; and for its execu- tion every agency it contains is not only put into motion, but into actual requisition. The whole, animated and united by this one design, move towards the scene of revolt. The Me- diator himself descends into the midst, carrying with him the intensest sympathies, if not also the actual presence, of all the beings who retain their first estate. For one of them to have withheld his sympathy, or to have evinced that less than his entire nature was interested, and held ready for the occa- sion, would have been to inflict the shock of a new revolt, if not even to create a pause in the onward movement of mercy. But " he was seen of angels." In the whole of his progress from the throne to the cross, they may be said to have formed one unbroken and undeviating procession. He advanced to Calvary with all the lovers of mercy, the friends of man, the servants of God, in his train. In the sacrifice which he there presented, they beheld the means of mediation made visible to the universe, and complete for eternity. There they saw the doctrine, of which they had ever been enjoying the advantage, and the fact, or means, of which it had never entered into their minds to conceive, meet and become one. In its aspect toward God, as a fact, they saw mercy answer- ILLL'STRATED FROM SCRIPTURE. 89 ing the claims of justice with an infinite compensation ; and in its aspect towards man, as a doctrine, they saw both unite in appeaUng to the heart of the world, and establishing an infinite claim on its grateful and instant return. They themselves, indeed, are personally benefited in a great variety of ways by the advent and death of Christ. " To the principalities and powers in heavenly places are made known by [means of] the Church the manifold wisdom of God." But on account of its remedial aspect on man it is that they chiefly prize it. They know that the race among whom the altar of atonement is erected, is the race whom it chiefly concerns; and their perfect sympathy with its gracious intention makes them conscious of a holy impatience to see that intention fully realized. Reasons, indeed, sufiicient to prevent their repining, forbid them from presenting them- selves visibly in the Church, or carrying the gospel audibly to the world ; but not the less ardently do they burn to see this done by those on whom it devolves. Does not the first tear 'of the penitent create a sensation of joy through all their adoring ranks ? As if to show the identity of their interests and ours, was not an angel employed to dictate that last portion of Scripture which discloses the vicissitudes of the Church to the end of time?* Have they not been heard rehearsing for the day when they will have to lead the anthem of the blessed, and celebrate the triumph of the mediatorial scheme in our recovery? In fine, " are they not all minister- ing spirits, sent forth to minister to them who shall be heirs of salvation ?" and when the success of the gospel provokes the hostility of the world, is it not theirs to sound the trum- pets and to discharge the vials of judgment ? and are not all their ministries combined, as far as compatible with the laws .of their economy, for advancing the progress of the gospel '/"j* and would the}- not denounce the highest intelligences among {hem, who should withhold a single ministration which was due to this object, as a traitor to the cause of mercy? And if it is ever permitted them to ofi"er a petition, must it not be one which prays, " Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven ?" — one which shows they are travail- ing in birth for the conversion of the world, and panting to ^ Eev. xxii. 16. f Acts v. 20: Rev. xiv. 10. C/0 CHRISTIAN INSTRUMENTALITY see the Church on earth as devoted to its office as the Church in heaven, and both co(3perating together for this great con- summation ? Had it been permitted to angels to occupy the place of man in the administration of the gospel, would whole regions have been now sittiuo- in darkness and in the shadow of o death ? would not each of them have resembled him who was seen in vision flying with the everlasting gospel through the midst of heaven ? Or were they now to be permitted by God, and authorized by the Church, to prescribe its duties and to dispose of its resources, would not a revolution be speedily effected in its state which would say to numbers who are now slumbering at home, " Go, stand, and speak unto the people [in the distant temples of idolatry] all the words of this life;" and which would put them in possession of the means of going ? Or were it permitted them even to address us on the subject, what could the import of their language be, but an urgent exhortation to diffuse the knowledge of that mediation by which they and we are made one? " Brethren"^ in Christ," they would say — for in him "the whole family in heaven and earth is named" — "you have been brought back into order and harmony with the universe : how can you live for any other object than that of aiming to add others to your number ? When we saw you restored to the circle from which you had been lost, we exulted in the event; for not only did we behold you, by anticipation, occupying your ap- pointed place in heaven — we saw your appointed place in the Church on earth ; saw that you were called to occupy it as agents for Christ, and knew the happy consequences which would ensue from your required devotedness to its duties. Not more certainly is the throne of every believer prepared in heaven, than his appropriate place is prescribed on earth.. In the system to which you now belong, every being, from the loftiest archangel to the lowliest saint, has his course assigned, and every holy act its appointed effect. You ' have come to an innumerable company of angels.' But the only object in which you and we can practically sympathize and unite is in the enlargement of the kingdom of Christ, and the celebration of his glory. In every thing which relates to this, so truly are we one, that never can you put forth the least effort for its furtherance, but the act thrills through all ILLUSTRATED FROM SCRIPTURE. 91 our principalities and powers, and carries with it all our sym- pathies. So distinctly do we see the design of Christ in call- inj^ you to occupy a place among the agents of his media- tion ; so evident is the adaptation of his Church to collect all such agencies as they arise, and to combine them with those already in operation; and so evident the certainty with which the whole is calculated instrumentally to repair the effects of sin and restore the harmony of the universe, that we beseech you, by the new fellowship to which you are admitted, and by our gathering together in him, that you do the will of God on earth as unitedly and devoutly as we your co-workers are doing it in heaven. From the higher ground we occupy, we can survey the fearful consequences of your neglect in all their aspects, bearings, and dimensions — the glory lost to God, the happiness lost to yourselves and to us, and the immortal spirits which you are allowing to pass into misery in un- broken procession, unwarned, and unsaved — consequences so fearful, that, were the exchange permitted, gladly would we resign our heavenly places to you, that we might discharge your trust, wield your influence, and win the honors which are off"ered to you in drawing men to Christ. So eager are we to behold the completion of the mediatorial scheme, as it relates to the recovery of man — to gaze on the Only-Begotten of the Father on the throne of the universe, encircled by the thrones and dominions, principalities and powers, of heaven, and by the number which no one can number, saved from the earth — all radiant with his glory, living in his smiles, and joined in his praise — and so fully are we pos- sessed with the conviction that the entire consecration and union of all your sanctified instrumentality are essential to bring it to pass, that we adjure you, by the glory which shall then be revealed, that you ' henceforth live, not unto your- selves, but unto Him who died for you and rose again.' All in heaven is ready for the great consummation : each angel, as an agent of Providence, is at his post — each vial of judg- ment waits to be discharged on your foes. He in whom we both are one is on his throne, ' from henceforth expecting' the glorious issue. What other mediatorial wonders may await the disclosures of eternity we know not; but as if the restoration of man were only the first in a series of wonders — as if infinite plans were held in abeyance — the happiness 92 cimrsTTAN instrumentality of unknown worlds were kept in suspense till this be com- plete, unite all your influence in a great endeavor to make good our announcement at the advent of Christ, ' Glory to God in the highest, on earth peace and good-will towards man.' " Now this, in effect, is the language in which the hierarchy of heaven may be regarded as perpetually stimulating the apathy, and urging the efforts, of the redeemed on earth. To the eye of faith they stand revealed, and are ever present. as a great cloud of witnesses. Never are they absent from our midst, either actually mingling their agencies with ours, or through the medium of our faith shedding a practical influ- ence on our conduct ; and thus, in the mediatorial economy, all the sanctified influences of heaven and earth are combined in the prosecution of its saving design. The chain of rela- tionship and mutual influence passes not only from hand to hand through the Church militant, but through "all the fam- ily in heaven and earth," holding the entire community in union for the good of the world. XL But, further, this economy not only unites all the diversified influences which it includes into one agency — it also combines all their accumulations from as-e to ac;e, and seeks to devolve the whole entire on each successive genera- tion in the Church ; so that we of the present day are living under the collected influences of all the past, and moving under an impulsive power greater than that of any preceding age. . ^ ^ The analogy of this truth indeed runs through all nature;* and the moral influence of national history furnishes perhaps its best illustration. A people rich in the wealth of ances- tral worth possess strong incentives perpetually urging them to noble deeds. To this cause much of Roman greatness is ascribed. "The Roman citizens adorned the vestibules of their dwellings with the images of their ancestors; so tliat the faces of the patriot, the warrior, and the philosopher, were ever present to remind them of their exploits, and to stimu- late them to imitation. The design was crowned with suc- cess. The virtue of one generation was transferred by the magic of example into several ; and heroism was propagated * See Bishop Butler's Analogy, Part ii., Chap. iy. ILLUSTRATED FROM SCRIPTURE. 93 tlirougli the commonwenltli." '^Among no other nation/* says Schlegel, in his Philosophy of History, " did historical recollections, even of the remotest antiquity, exert such a powerful influence on life, or strike so deep a root in the minds of men." But, surely, (if it be allowed to bring sacred history into the comparison,) the Jewish nation must be regarded as forming a grand exception. According to apostolic authority, tlie " advantage of the Jew was much every way, but chiefly that unto them were committed the oracles of God." That which distinguished them far above all the nations of the earth was, that, from the time of their settlement in Judea, they lived and moved under the direct influence of their miraculous history; while one design of the temple appears to have been, that, by making it the shrine of their most ancient and sacred relics, and the visible abode of religion, that influence might constantly act on them with ever- augmented force. If it be true that the man is little to be envied who could walk "indifierent and unmoved over any ground which has been dignified by wisdom, bravery, and virtue — whose patriotism would not gain force upon the plain of Marathon, or whose piety would not grow warmer among the ruins of lona — that to abstract the mind from local emo- tion would be impossible if it were endeavored, and would be foolish if it were possible," how deep and lasting the impres- sion calculated to be produced on a people who had to walk daily amidst the solemn and gorgeous magnificence of an ancient economy adjusted and adorned by the immediate hand of Deity I As if inhabiting the sacred enclosure of the temple itself, they were addressed perpetually by solemn voices from the past, and called on from every side by influ- ences accumulated from the creation of the world. So deep was the effect produced on them — though, alas ! a perverted one — that ages on ages of sufl'ering have not been able to efface, nor hardly to impair it. Now, all the wealth of moral influence which belonged to that dispensation has been poured into the treasury of the Christian Church. We "have come unto Mount Sion." It is not lost, but transferred, accumulated, and put into wide circulation. True, the temple is gone — its most sacred things have disappeared — the economy itself is abolished — the very nation scattered to the winds of heaven — but all its 94 CHRISTIAN INSTRUMENTALITY proper and mighty influence still exists. Nothing that be- longed to it existed for itself. Every judgment that made it awful looked on beyond its own time, and is frowning still. "All these thiugs happened unto them for ensamples; and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come." Each of its prophets spoke less for his own time than for ours ; so that for us he is prophesying 8till, " Not unto themselves but unto us they did minister the things which are now reported unto you by them that have preached the gospel unto you with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven ; which things the angels desire to look into." Every event which distinguished it is still in actual operation, diffusing the elements of other events, and propagating its influence somewhere. And where shall we look for that in- fluence, but within the limits of the Christian Church ? The Bible is the true conductor of all the holy influences the world has contained since the dawn of creation. From it the Jew- ish Church received, in a concentrated form, all that had dis- tinguished the preceding economies, from the giving of the first promise to its own establishment in Judea. Not even the holiest of all its members would have been what he was, had Enoch never " walked with God," or had the Bible omit- ted to record the fact. In that Church, therefore, it may be truly said, Abel, though dead, was ever speaking ; and "Enoch, the seventh from Adam," was ever prophesying of the coming of the Lord. There, the patriarchs came and lived again for their posterity. There, the rod of Aaron was ever blooming ; the manna ever fresh ;* the rod of Moses ever working and repeating its wonders. There Sinai reared its awful head, and from its thundering top the law was ever demanding for God the heart of the world, and demanding from every man the love of all the rest. In the same sense the Bible has now discharged all the accumulated moral influences of the last economy into the present. The cross has received and transmitted the whole. Here, in efiect, the temple of Jerusalem still stands. Though in a literal respect not one stone of that sacred pile remains upon another, in the hallowed influence which it sheds over the Church of God it still lifts up its awful front — its flics * Heb. ix. 4. ILLUSTRATED FROM SCRIPTURE. 95 Still burn — its victims still bleed — its day of atonement still returns — its sanctity is still calling on the Church for its en- tire consecration. We behold these objects now — we shall see them in eternity. All the great events and solemn trans- actions of the Old Testament may be regarded as having taken place in the Christian Church. Here, in the ministry of the gospel, they do come and occur again. Here its mira- cles are still convincing, and its angelic messengers still ap- pearing. Here Moses is still teaching self-renunciation, by wishing himself '' blotted out from the book of life'' for the good of others ; and David leading the intercessions of the Church for the salvation of the ends of the earth ; and the prophets still "testifying of the sufferings of Christ and the glory that should follow." And, what is more, here they are all present at once. Truths and events which for the Jewish Church were scat- tered thinly over a long tract of time, are here collected to a point and made operative at once. Ages, with the men who made them memorable — and dispensations, with all the miraculous facts and sublime disclosures which distinguished them, pass in quick and close succession before our eyes; and we feel ourselves standing under the eye and influence of the whole. And, more even than this, there is reason to believe that great as was the influence which that economy was calculated to exercise during its actual existence, that influence has gone on gathering strength with each successive age, and is incal- culably mightier at this moment for us than for those who lived in its immediate presence. Not only do all its parts act on us at once, they act on us also in their highest and noblest form. For us it is all meaning and spirit, emancipated prin- ciple, and active power. Liberated from its former restraints, brought into the light of a more spiritual economy, and allowed free scope in the ampler sphere of the Christian Church, its power is greater now than during its actual reign on Zion. As it was typical, it was temporary — formed for, and acting upon, "the time then present;" but as it em- bodied evangelical and immortal principles, it was far in ad- vance of its time, and destined to act chiefly on the future. Who will not admit that the character of the Psalmist, for instance, is exercising much greater moral power now than 96 CHRISTIAN INSTRUMENTALITY when he was alive ? Who does not feel that his prayers for the universal diffusion of the truth, and the splendid visions of prophecy in which those aspirations were seen realized, have not yet attained their proper place of power ? that they have all along been struggling to reach it; that they are only as yet beginning to produce their legitimate effect ; and that with every successive year that effect, under God, is likely to in- crease ? What manner of persons ought we to be to whom all this rich inheritance has descended ! But together with all this influence from the former econo- my, there blends a mightier influence peculiar to the present, a power so irresistible, that wherever it has had " free course" it has swept away the thrones of idolatry, changed the aspect of society, and left its impress on every object it has touched. Ours is the cross — the great power of God — not only absorb- ing and concentrating all the influences of the past, but charged with a new power direct from God — containing in its bosom all the springs of benevolence the world will ever know; an energy of expansive goodness capable of replenish- ing the universe with light and love. Here God is seen en- riching the world with a gift which leaves it nothing to dread, or to ask for more. Here Christ is seen taking the world to his heart — seizing our nature as it trembles over the bottom- less gulf — assuming it into union with his own — taking our place under the descending stroke of justice, and suffering in our stead. Before our eyes "Jesus Christ is here evidently set forth crucified amongst us.'^ Here the Infinite Spirit himself descends from the heights of his everlasting dwell- ing-place, as a rushing mighty wind, and the cries of peni- tence are heard around. Here angels, drawn from heaven, bend to gaze, and labor to comprehend the mystery of incar- nate love. Apostles come to lose themselves in wonder, and exclaim, "Herein is love;" and to surcharge their hearts with a benevolence which impels them to the ends of the earth, testifying that "the Father hath sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world." Here the bigotry of the S^^na- gogue, the doubts of the Academy, and the pride of the Por- tico, are seen kneeling around, and humbled in the dust. And here he who was the fit representative of them all, comes to smite on his breast, and say, "God forbid that I should lienceforth glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ," ILLUSTRATED FROM SCRIPTURE. 97 and hastens away to fill the nations with the report of its glories, and to call on all who believed it to help him onwards to the regions beyond. If the influence of promises comparatively vague in their meaning, and indefinitely distant in their fulfilment, could produce, under God, the martyr-piety of Abel, the dauntless fidelity of Enoch, the persevering obedience of Noah, the missionary pilgrimage of Abraham, and the self-sacrificing zeal of Moses ; if the comparatively feeble influences of tlie Jewish dispensation could create, under God, those splendid constellations of excellence which glow and burn in the eleventh chapter to the Hebrews, who shall set limits to that moral greatness and Christian devotedness which the mightier influences of the gospel should produce ? To know that, in practical efi'ect, a whole economy has existed for us, that is, for the Church of which we are members — that for us its heroes lived, and its martyrs died — to know that for us that economy of a thousand years was at last dismissed, as for us it had at first been called into being, leaving to us all its rich accumulations of inspired wisdom, godlike example, and moral wealth — this, alone, should surely be sufficient to teach us the greatness of living for the future, and to kindle in our hearts the unquenchable desire of transmitting the great in- heritance to those who succeed us, not merely unimpaired, but augmented by the influence of our own devotedness. But to know that that which displaced that economy was the personal advent, the visible humiliation, the actual sacri- fice of the Son of God — that the eternal Father should have so loved us as to give from his bosom ''the express image of his person" — should surely come on us with an effect which should leave us no power but that of obedience — no wish but that of multiplying our means of serving him a thousand- fold. " He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also," asks the apos- tle, "freely give us all things?" Might he not, with equal conclusiveness, have inquired, How shall we not for him also freely give him all things '/ Before that gift could have been bestowed, the ocean of the Divine benevolence must have been stirred in all its unfathomable depths : should the shallow stream of our gratitude be only rippled on the surface ? Of all his infinite resources, he freely gave the sum : of the mite 7 98 CHRISTIAN INSTRUMENTALITY like penury of our nature, shall wo return him only a part ? To know that he who was rich should for our sakes have become poor — that the Second Person in the mysterious God- head should have personally descended to our rescue — de- scended from one depth of humiliation to another, till a cross arrested his farther descent, and made it impossible for Divine condescension itself to stoop lower — this is knowledge which, as it has moved all heaven, should surely be sufficient to move and agitate all earth. To hear that event succeeded by the sounds and signs of another advent — the advent of the Holy Spirit, as the converter and sanctifier of human souls — to find that thus each of the three Persons in the awful and myste- rious Godhead is infinitely interested in our recovery — that there has actually been disclosed, in consequence, a new bond of their ineffable union in the fact of their cooperation for that recovery — and that so intently is the compassion of the Triune God set on the object, that no truth is left untaught, no miracle of mercy unperformed, no angel or agency unem- ployed, no part of the universe unmoved, no perfection of the Divine nature unconcerned, no aspect of the Divine character unexhibited, which is in the least essential to its accomplish- ment — surely this should leave no portion of the Church at rest, no means within its farthest reach untaxed for the attain- ment of the .same end. To find that this is clearly the Divine design: that Christ, as the Head of the Church on earth, authoritatively requires that each individual Christian surrender himself and live supremely for the conversion of others ; that these unite into particular societies for the conversion of greater numbers still; that all these societies, in every land, combine in sym- pathy and purpose for the salvation of the entire race; to find that, as the President of the universe, having "all power in heaven and on earth," he commands and combines the sympathies and instrumentality of the Church in heaven with that of the Church on earth — assigning to angels the time and the place for their agency in providence, concurring with the movements of his kingdom of grace; and to find that in the same mediatorial capacity he even adds the presence and the renewing power of the Holy Spirit himself — surely this should leave no Christian unemployed, no Church unrelated, no agency we could invoke in earth or heaven to be absent ILLUSTRATED FROM SCRIPTURE. 99 from our combined endeavor to carry it into effect. And to find that this design is as practtcahle as it is obligatory ; to hoar other Christians avowing their readiness to be messen- gers or martyrs — honored or " accursed," any thing or nothing — so that they might be instrumental in promoting it; to see Churches selecting and sending out such men to carry the gos- pel onwards — other Churches emulating their example ; to find that each convert, as he comes into the Church, is ex- pected to proceed to his post and to commence his service, and that each Church, as it comes into being, is expected to enter into the general fellowship, and to help forward the common object of the whole; to see that the success of one Church is rejoiced in as the triumph of all, and that, if they suspend their song of praise for a while, it is only to read over again the command which first sent them forth, " Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature" — to pros- trate themselves in prayer for that aid which the Spirit alone can impart, and which furnishes them with renewed occasion for louder triumphs still — this is a spectacle which should surely leave no other question on the lips of the individual Christian than, "Where is my post, and what shall I do?" and no other law for the Church universal than that of entire consecration. Now, this was the prayer of Christ, not for the apostles only, '-but for them also," he adds, "who shall believe on me through their word ; that they all may be one, . . . that the world may believe that thou hast sent me." Finding themselves acted on by hallowed and benevolent influences from every quarter, and, from the remotest period of the Church, surrounded by lofty examples of Christian devoted- ness, and ever standing in the presence of his wondrous cross, he prayed that they might feel themselves impelled to make his consecration the model and motive of their own, that God might be glorified, and man be saved. Be it remembered, also, as we shall hereafter have occasion to show, that there is a sense in which we of the present day sustain the accumulated responsibility of the eighteen centu- ries which have revolved since that prayer was uttered. In each succeeding age " the truth" to which it refers has, through the promised agency of the Holy Spirit, been exer- cising its consecrating influence, and instrumentally creating 100 CHRISTIAN INSTRUMENTALITY eminent examples of conscientiousness wliicli treated no duty as unwelcome, and which evaded no obligation — of fidelity which spared no sin, nor allowed any iniquity, however splen- did and powerful, to pass unrebuked — of courage which cowered before no danger, and shrank from no conflict — of enlarged benevolence which knew no limits to its plans, and toils, and travels for the welfare of man — of Christian self- abandonment, which swore eternal devotcdness to Christ, though in the presence of the flames which were kindled for its martyrdom — and of love for man, which, even in those flames, wept over the misery of the world, and agonized in prayer for its recovery. These examples are not lost, though their memory is not embalmed in the volume of inspiration ; their influence has been really added to that of patriarchs and prophets, of apostles and primitive saints. Whether we are conscious of its stimulating power or not, we are all at this moment reaping its advantage, and are consequently standing under the weight of an increased responsibility. And to this, as the next chapter is intended to evince, is also to be added the influence acting on us from the prophetic disclosures of the future. The torch which the hand of prophecy holds up, throws its beams onwards to the consum- mation of all things. By this light we catch glimpses oi noble examples yet to arise, and of glories yet to dawn. Many are seen running to and fro with the message of salva- tion — the Spirit poured out from on high to give it success — multitudes flocking to embrace it — angels discharging de- struction on its foes — mountainous obstacles rolled from its path — nations walking in its light — heaven and earth cele- brating its triumphs — and Christ encircled by his redeemed myriads, and receiving the homage of the universe. One of the obvious intentions of these disclosures is, that, by the cer- tain prospect they afford of ultimate success, the Church may be encouraged to act out its Divine design, and to throw all its sanctified energies into the object of the world's recovery. This is the effect which they have had on many of its mem- bers in every age. '' Having seen them af^ir oft*," and caught their inspiration, the martyr for Christ has embraced the block; the minister has startled the slumbering Church ; the missionary has gone forth to awake the slumbering world ; the saint, like David, has poured out as his latest prayer, " Blessea ILLUSTRATED FROM SCRIPTURE, 101 be his holy name for ever and ever, and let the whole earth be filled with his glory;" and the Church has echoed with the response of thousands, adding, '^Amen, and amen !" And for us the light of prophecy still burns, that on us it may pro- duce the same-efl'ects. And who is sufl&cient for these things ? " We are placed/ as it were, in the middle of a scheme, not a fixed but a pro- gressive one." The character of the economy under which our lot is cast is, in this respect, unity in progress — unity with all the past, in progress for all the future. Upon our heads, the relations, influences, and consequent responsibili- ties of all the past meet and rest, and to us the ends of the earth, the remotest generations of time, and all the holy beings and interests in the universe, are looking for corre- sponding fidelity and zeal. Whoever may deem it necessary to form plans of independent action, we are surely exempted from the necessity; for we ourselves form parts of a mediato- riaj plan, whose provisions prepared a place for us, and be- spoke the entire activity and influence of our whole nature, even before we came into existence; so that the only solici- tude left for us is, how best we may satisfy its high require- ments. Boast who may of extensive relations and influence, this plan connects us with every being and agency the past has known, and places in our hands lines of interminable re- lation and influence with all the universal and endless future. Tremble who may under a sense of responsibility, "upon us the ends of the world are come.'' Our very position conse- crates us to the loftiest service, loads us with the weightiest obligation, surrounds us with anxious eyes and cries of solici- tude from every quarter of the Divine dominions. For the Church to be faithful now, is to save the world. Now, if ever, " the weak should be as David, and David as an angel of the Lord.'' Now, if ever, prayer should wrestle, liberal'- ity should bring forth its richest offering, its final mite, the Church should unite and clothe itself with zeal. For now, if ever, crowns may be gained, and kingdoms won, and a world, in the crisis of its danger, be saved, crowns to be cast at the feet of Christ, kingdoms of which he is rightful Lord, and a world from which he is destined to derive his richest reve- nue of praise for ever. 102 CHRISTIAN INSTRUMENTALITY CHAPTER III. CHRISTIAN INSTRUMENTALITY FOR THE EVANGELIZATION OF THE WORLD ILLUSTRATED AND ENFORCED FROM PROPHECY. If such be the theory of Christian instrumentality, if its place in the Divine administration be so definite, its obliga- tions so solemn, and its capabilities, under God, so great, we may reasonably expect that in a book so abounding with pro- phetic disclosures as the Bible, some glimpses, at least, will be afforded us of its ultimate results. That the kingdom of Christ is not to be always limited and depressed, is clearly affirmed and universally admitted. For, as it has been justly remarked, "The prophecies respecting the kingdom of the Messiah, its extension and duration, and the happiness of his innumerable subjects, are in a much greater proportion than those which describe his humiliation to sufferings, and his dreadful death.'"*" The isles are to wait for his law, the ends of the earth are to fear him, all nations are to be blessed in him, the heathen are to become his inher- itance, and the uttermost parts of the earth his possession; for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it. Inspired by the kindling influence of such a prospect, the Christian Church has, in every age, sung of a millennium : a period during which all the authorities of earth are to take law and life from the lips of Christ; all nations to be enrolled among his subjects; all flesh to come before him; and all his enemies to be placed beneath his feet. But if the Bible be thus the prophet of hope, and if the loftiest strains of those who believe it be of a glory yet to come, it becomes proportionably important to inquire whether *Rev. J. P. Smith, D. D. ILLUSTRATED FROM PROPHECY. 103 it deigns any disclosures conceiniing the means wJiicJi are to lend to it : whether the universal triumph of the gospel is to be achieved, for example, by the noiseless and gradually augmented instrumentality of the Christian Church, accom- panied by the energizing influence of the Holy Spirit ; whether it is to be effected in a manner quite irrespective of such instrumentality, and calculated to disparage it before the eyes of the universe as misplaced and officious; or whether the grand consummation shall be realized by a mid- dle course, which, while it will be always demanding, em- ploying, and absorbing all the sanctified resources of the Christian Church, will yet leave room for the marked, and frequent, and direct interference of Heaven, and which will render such interposition indispensable to final and complete success. This, indeed, has been a subject of the deepest interest to the Church in every age. For as her heralds have gone forth to proclaim the gospel, and her martyrs have poured out their blood to seal its truth, which of their bosoms did not swell with the ennobling thought which fired the bosom of Latimer in Smithfield : that they were assisting to enkindle a light which should never be extinguished — that their devotedness would be in some way connected with the eventual triumph of the cross, and be made subservient to it? In proportion, however, as the time of the end approaches, the question as to the relation which sanctified human instrumentality bears to it acquires additional interest. A thousand signs are sup- posed to prognosticate that the end draweth nigh ; and each of them awakens the inquiry anew, " What is the relation which the sanctified agency of Christians sustains to it ? Is their benevolent activity essential, in the order of means, to the latter-day glory ? or does the tenor of prophecy indicate that, so far from contributing aught to its arrival and its splen- dor, they should rather ' stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord V '' Still more important does this inquiry become in proportion as Christians, awakening to what they regard as the voice of duty, multiply their institutions, and enlarge the sphere of their activity, animated by the hope that their humble endea- vors shall certainly be crowned with success. Who that sur- veys the wide field of missionary effort in the present day, 104 CHRISTIAN INSTRUMENTALITY and marks the "note of preparation" for still greater activ- itj, can feel indifferent to the inquiry, whether or not it is to lead to any valuable result ? Who does not perceive that on the answer to this inquiry depends, if not the very continu- ance of our activity, much, at least, of the cheerfulness of our obedience, and the degree of our devotedness? And who does not perceive that if the glory of the millennium is to burst on the world quite irrespective of Christian instrument- ality, to urge such instrumentality as the appointed means of hastening that period is to indulge in delusion for the present, and to prepare mortification for the future ? But should there be those in the Church of any considera- tion or influence, whose views of prophecy induce them to de- preciate, if not even to deprecate, the high attempt which aims at the conversion of the world, it becomes a step of the first importance to inquire into the authority of such views, and, if found unscriptural, to obviate their paralyzing effect. AVe are aware, indeed, that among those who, for the sake of distinction, are called millenarians, there are to be found di- vines of considerable reputation, and Christians of the high- est sanctity. And equally aware are we that under the ge- neric name of millenarianism is included a great diversity of opinions as to the order of the events immediately preceding the millennium, and the kind of means which will be made contributory to it ; that it does not necessarily disparage the benevolent endeavors of the present day, nor seek to dis- courage them by constantly harping on their ultimate failure; but that many of those who hold it profess to derive from it motives to increased diligence in the cause of God. And, accordingly, some of them, we are aware, number among the liberal and active supporters of our religious institutions. Still, however, we cannot but suspect that in man)/ of such instances we are indebted for what they do, rather to the very natural desire of recommending their peculiar views to others than to the views themselves : that their conduct is, in this particular, better than their creed : that it is the triumph of their piety over their opinions; and that, as a vehicle put into rapid motion will continue to advance for a while by its own momentum, after the power which first propelled it is with- drawn, their present activity is the result of principles which date anterior to their peculiar views of prophecy. Our war- ILLUSTRATED FROM PROPHECY. 105 rant for this fear is to be found in the fact that of those who, prior to their adoption of millcnarianism, " did run well/^ and who even subsequently continued for a while to move in the same direction, a very large proportion are now acting, in reference to the diffusion of the gospel, as if a prophet had been deputed to say to themj '' Your strength is to sit still." That such must be the necessary effect of all views of the future which tend to show that the endeavors of the present will prove abortive, is evident. Hope is the parent of all activity. We ourselves "are saved by hope;" and we shall attempt instrumentally to save others only as we are animated by the same principle. To be doomed to labor without hope, has been mythologically represented as one of the punishments of the lost. To expect, then, that the same efforts will be made where failure is certain as where success is anticipated, is to overlook a fundamental principle of human nature. To say that "duty is ours and events are God's," and that therefore we are to advance, whatever the result may be, is to forget the important fact, that, in the case before us, the "events," according to the millenarian, are no longer God's, for he is supposed to have clearly foretold them. This pro- verbial saying, therefore, has no application here. As long as the result of a course of duty is doubtful only, hope and fear alternate ; nor would it be possible for fear entirely to prevail, without bringing the mind to the full and fatal pause of despair. But in the question under consideration, we are not supposed to be left in a state of uncertainty as to the issue of our endeavors, but to be distinctly apprised that they will end in defeat. And the known and inevitable tendency of such a state of mind is (with certain exceptions of the kind we have noticed) to produce relative inaction ; for if the members of the Christian Church were to be now divided into those who are strenuous in the cause of missions, and those who are comparatively inert, where should we expect to find the latter but among those who are postponing the moral im- provement of the world to the second coming of Christ; and who, relying on the sufficiency of ihixt futiwe miracle, antici- pate little or no advantage from the use of prese???* 7??t'677?s.^ Nor would our expectation, it is to be feared, be disappointed 106 CHRISTIAN INSTRUMENTALITY On a question, then, involving nothing less than the move' ments and hopes of the Christian Church in relation to the world, and the practical aspect of prophecy toward each, it is important that we should distinctly state what it is we ob- ject to in others, and what are the views and expectations which, from a consideration of prophecy, we ourselves are led to entertain. With the minor points of controversy in the pre-millennial creed, we have at present nothing to do ; nor even with the great question of the ^'personal advent." From more than a cursory survey of prophecy, the writer is free to admit that the hope of those who anticipate that the happy reign of piety on earth will be attained by the peaceful and uninterrupted progress of the means at present employed, and by these alone, is unwarranted by Scripture. The cause of Christ, as now conducted, is no doubt des- tined to sustain many a severe encounter and disheartening reverse. And even his coming* — the advent of his power, in strange providences and at critical junctures — may again and again be necessary, in order to turn the battle at the gate, and to crown it with success. But that which we strenuously oppose is the practical inference too generally drawn from the pre-millennial creed, and which operates, as we think, both to the dishonor of the prophetic Scriptures, and to the discour- agement of Christian activity — namely, that because a mighty conflict may await the Christian Church, and because the marked interposition of Christ may be necessary to terminate that struggle, and to take actual and entire possession of the earth, therefore but little real good is to be expected from the most devoted endeavors of the Church at present. And that which we hope to substantiate is, first, that such an inference is at variance with some of the admitted principles and neces- sary deductions of Divine revelation ; secondly, that it is not warranted by prophecy itself ; but, thirdly, that the very reverse is the doctrine of the prophetic Scriptures, and, fourthly, is found to be in perfect harmony with every other part of the word of God, by which its correctness can be properly tested. * The Trapovoia, or "coming of Christ," is referred to various pro- vidential events by some of those, even, who believe that it relates preeminently to a personal pre-millennial advent. ILLUSTRATED FROM PROniECy. 107 The prosecution of this inquiry will, if we do not greatly mistake, disclose the important facts, that whatever conflicts may hereafter ensue between the Church and the world, will be provoked chiefly by the success of the gospel, and that whatever judgments the earth may yet be called to witness, they will only concur with the power of the gospel, like the miracles of the primitive Church, to enlarge the domains of the Christian faith • so that those very predictions which are too often made to depress the hopes and dishearten the zeal of the Church, will be found calculated, when rightly under- stood, to animate its activity as with the blast of a trumpet. It will then be our aim, in concluding the chapter, to harmo- nize the whole with the chapters which have gone before; and to show the bearing of the entire Part on the consecration of the Church for the conversion of the world. I. ''Every single text of prophecy," remarks Bishop Hors- ley, " is to be considered as part of an entire system, and to be understood in that sense which may best connect it with the whole.'' Extending still farther the application of this valuable rule of prophetic exposition, we may add, that the entire scheme of prophecy itself is to be regarded as a part of the great system of revelation, and to be understood in that sense which may best harmonize with every other part. 1. Now, if there be a principle in Scripture to be relied on, surely it is this, that the Divine injunction of any relative duty implies a promise of the Divine assistance requisite to its performance, and of success proportioned to the degree in which we avail ourselves of that assistance. In illustration of this position, it will be sufficient to quote the familiar passage, "Train up a child in the way he should go; and when he is old, he will not depart from it." Nor does this language, or the large class of scriptures to which it belongs, imply any thing more than that the moral department of the Divine government is conducted on a plan equally with the natural or physical ; that, in the world of mind as well as of matter, certain causes produce certain eflfects. The eff'ects, indeed, may not result precisely in accordance with human calcula- tions. As in the ministry of Christ, they may be long de- layed, and even apparently be made frustrate. But though ''he was despised and rejected of men," the same chapter which foretold his rejection adds, "He shall see of the tra- 108 CHRISTIAN INSTRUMENTALITY vail of his soul, and shall be satisfied;" and every subsequent age has witnessed its gradual fulfilment. This constancy of connection, indeed, between means and ends — between causes and efiects — seems essential to the character of a wise and gracious government, as well as to furnish some of the motives necessary to obedience ; especially, too, as it still reserves to its Divine Sovereign the right of exceeding his promises in whatever way he pleases. But, according to the views of many of those of whom we are speaking, here is a grand exception to the uniformity of the Divine procedure. Yes, in the very last act, the closing scene of the great drama of Providence — where, if apparent irregularity had previously obtained, we should rather have looked for the explanation and coincidence of the whole — even here, forsooth, the universe is to witness the disruption of a principle which had previously maintained the stability of a rock : a great gulf is to open and yawn between means and ends. For though the commands of God had pointed to a particular issue — the conversion of the world ; and though the hopes and endeavors of his people had, in dependence on his gracious aid, travelled in the same direction, it is then to appear that they had never tended to realize it, and that a stupendous miracle alone can prevent the dreadful result. Thus the prophecies of Scripture are made to clash with its commands. 2. Equally at variance does such an interpretation appear with the unimpeachable sincerity of the Divine character. The substance of all the relative commands which God has enjoined is this, " Evangelize the world;" and the substance of all his promises corresponds with it — '' The world shall be evangelized." In obedience to this command, and animated by this promise, his Church is beginning to address itself more seriously than ever to its great vocation. But while it is al- lowed that the command which enjoins this duty, and the promise which inspires this hope, stand out so clearly on the sacred page that he who runs may read, it is contended by the party in question that a third class of Sacred Scripture comes to light; more occult, it may be, in meaning, and requiring very prolonged and careful consideration; but the practical result of which is, that obedience to the command will prove all but fruitless for the end proposed, and that the hope of ILLUSTRATED FROM PROPHECY. 109 personal success inspired by the promise is almost entirely unfounded. As if a king should forward to the commander of his forces positive orders to engage the foe, accompanied with assurances of certain triumph, but should interline the dispatches with a secret writing in cipher, which required to be held to the fire and laboriously studied in order to be un- derstood, and the inference to be drawn from which was, that the campaign would end in all but entire defeat, and that the victory promised would ensne in a manner quite irrespective of his conflicts. Such a communication would throw at least a deep shade on the sincerity of him who sent it. 3. Nor does such an interpretation seem less to impugn the benignity of the Divine character. Instead of taking it for granted that we should be enamored of duty for its own sake alone, he evinces the kindest consideration for our fallen condition by accompanying his commands with appropriate promises and blessings : graciously alluring us to cultivate the tree by engaging that its fruits shall be our own. The Saviour himself was not called to suffer without enjoying the sustaining prospect of its glorious results. On the lofty moral elevation of the cross, the triumphs of his gospel, through all the ages of time, passed in review before him; and "for the joy which was thus set before him, he endured the cross, despising the shame." But on the hypothesis in question, his followers are required to labor and sutler, not only without the hope of consequent usefulness, but even in the clear foresight of comparative failure. Now to expect that we should be as active in our efforts to evangelize the world in the face of this foreseen defeat as we should be in the prospect of success, is, to say the least, at variance with that benignity by which we are accustomed to regard the Divine requirements as ordinarily distinguished. 4. It may properly be objected, also, that the hypothesis which makes prophecy disclose the comparative failure of a course of conduct which the command of God has yet made obligatory, is at variance with that wise reserve of Scripture concerning such events of the future as involve the freedom of human action. While some of the prophecies predictive of happy results are so constructed as to encourage the obe- dience of those whom they chiefly concern, and others pre- 110 CHRISTIAN INSTRUMENTALITY dictive of evil arc calculnted to produce repentance, and wliile they thus denote the beniij^nity of their Author, by fur- iiisliiiiij; motives to holiness, there is none which, if rightly interpreted, can be regarded as furnishinsj:; a sinible. The Goths had probably received the gospel in the century preceding; for in the early part of this century we find a Gothic bishop at the council of Nice. T\\Q JiftJt century was signalized by the nominal conversion of several of the German nations. In 432, Patricius, a Scotsman, induced the Irish to embrace Christianity. And in 496, the Franks assumed the Christian name, and induced the Alemanni to follow their example. In i\\Q sixth century, Christianity was professedly embraced by many of the barba- rous nations bordering on the Euxine Sea, and was more widely diffused among the Gauls. From about the year 565 to 599, the Irish monk Columban labored with considerable success among the Picts;| and in 596, Augustin succeeded in converting Ethelbert to the profession of the Christian faith ; whose example was immediately followed by his Anglo- Saxon subjects in Kent, and soon after by the other Anglo- Saxon kings of England. Ecclesiastical missionaries from England, Scotland, and Ireland, carried the gospel, in the seventh century, to Batavia, Belgium, and several of the German nations. Traces of its extensive propagation, by the Nestorian Christians of Syria, Persia, and India, are also to be found, at this period, in the remotest regions of Asia; and, if the Monumentum St/ro-Sj/n- 'icum is genuine, it obtained a footing in China about the year 636. Tartary, parts of Germany, Frieslaud, and Saxony, were the principal additions to the domains of Christendom * Those who would assign to the event an apostolic date, have little ground except their own wishes. That the Apostle Paul visited Eng- land, rests on the ij)se dixit of Jerome, a Latin father of the fourth century. f Vol. i. § 37. The authorities for the statements above, when the works are not specified, are derived from the Ecclesiastical Histories by Mosheim, Gieseler. and Neander i Bede. Eccl. Hist., b iii. chap 4. THE HISTOllY OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS. 148 in the eighth century. In the ninth, Denmark and Sweden, Bulgaria and Moravia, professed subjection to the faith, as well as parts of Slavonia* and of Russia. From Moravia, the gospel was carried into Bohemia. In the tenth century, the raj's of Christian light began to enter Poland; in Hun- gary, Christianity was made the national religion by a royal decree ; and in Xorway — where it had been first introduced from England — it was imposed by the severest measures. From Xorway it was carried into Iceland, the Faro and Shet- land Islands, and even to Greenland. The eleventh century saw Christianity established as the national religion of Ilussia, and records its wider diffusion in the East. Conquest and conversion had now come to mean nearly the same thing; and hence, in the tv:elfth cen- tury, the political subjugation of Pomerania was followed by its nominal subjection to the Christian faith; the island of Ruegen, long the stronghold of heathenism, was subdued, and its inhabitants baptized; and the conquered Fins were com- pelled to submit to the same rite. The nominal Church was still further enlarged, in the thirteenth century, by the forced submission of Prussia, Livonia, and many of the northern provinces ; as well as by the recovery of portions of the Sara- cenic territories in Spain. The fourteenth century was marked by the professed conversion of the Lithuanians, one of the last of the heathen nations of Europe which embraced Christianity; while the fifteenth was indelibly stained by the forced subjection of parts of the newly-discovered hemisphere. Towards the middle of the sixteenth century, Ignatius Loyola founded the order of the Jesuits; one of whose grand objects was the propagation of Christianity among heathens and infi- dels by means of missionaries. Accordingly, the missions of the Jesuits form an important part of the history of their society. Xavier led the way into India and Japan ; and, within a very short period, the agents of this formidable body spread over South America, and penetrated into almost every / part of Asia.f ^ * Cyril of Thessalonica, and his brother Methodius, invented the Slavic alphabet, and translated the Bible, and some Greek and Latin authors, into the Slavic tongue. Balbini Miscell., part i. t Concei-ning other papal missionary institutions, it may be snffi- 144 THE HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS. It is historically true, indeed, that many of the agents em- ployed, from century to century, in this wide diffusion of the gospel, were men whose wisdom, piety, and zeal, would have adorned the apostolic age ; but it is notoriously known that Its principal instrumentality consisted of worldly policy and martial power;* and consequently that its immediate results were only territorial aggrandizement and nominal submission. Accordingly, as many of these conquests had been made by the sword, by the sword many of them were subsequently lost. Civilization itself, at one period, suffered a decline. Ages of darkness rolled over the Church; until Christendom, so far from being in a capacity to convert the world, stood itself in the most urgent need of substantial conversion. That glorious change, of which the signs and means had long been gathering, was the great event of the century of which we are now speaking. But, essential as the renovation of the Church was to the conversion of the world, the direct effect of the Reformation, properly so called, was confined to the Church itself. Indeed, so far from immediately benefiting the world, its primary force was soon exhausted within even a small circle of Christendom. Nor has the line of demar- cation between Protestantism and Popery been materially moved during the two hundred and fifty years which have gince elapsed. The seventeenth century was an age of missionari/ pi^epara- tion and promise. The close of the preceding century, in- deed, had witnessed the first attempt, on the part of Protest- ant Christians, to make a descent on heathenism. The distinguished honor of making it belongs to the Swiss. For, cient here to notice the College de propaganda fide^ founded at Rome in 1622, by Gregory XV., and soon enriched with ample resources. Another college — pro fide propaganda — founded in 1G27, by Urban VIII., and very munificently endowed, appears to have been merged, in 1641, in the preceding institution. In 1663, Louis XIV. instituted the Congregation of Priests of the Foreign Missions; while an eccle- siastical association founded the Parisian seminary for the missions abroad; and the apostolical vicars of these societies were soon found in Siam, Tonquin, Cochin-China, Persia, etc. * This has been ably shown, as far at least as the latter part of tlie period referred to is concerned, by the Rev. Dr. John Campbell, in his late excellent Treatise on *' INIaritime Discovery and Christian Missions." THE HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS. 145 In 1556, fourteen missionaries were sent by the Church of Geneva to plant the Christian faith in the newly-discovered regions of South America.* In 1559, a missionary was sent into Lapland, by the celebrated Gustavus Yasa, King of Sweden. Early in the seventeenth century, the Dutch, hav- ing obtained possession of Ceylon, attempted to convert the natives to the Christian faith. About the same time, many of the Nonconformists, who had settled in New England, began to attempt the conversion of the aborigines. Mayhew, in 1643, and the laborious Eliot, in 1646, devoted themselves to this apostolic service. In 1649, during the Protectorate of Cromwell, was incorporated, by act of Parliament, the *' Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in New England." In 1660 the society was dissolved ; but, on urgent applica- tion, was soon restored; and the celebrated Robert Boyle was appointed its first governor. The zeal of this distinguished individual for the diffusion of the gospel in India and America, and among the native Welsh and Irish ; his munificent dona- tions for the translations of the Sacred Scriptures into Malay and Arabic, AYelsh and Irish, and of Eliot's Bible into the Massachusetts Indian language ; as well as for the distribu- tion of Grotius de Yeritate Christiance Religionls ; and, lastly, his legacy of £5400 for the propagation of Christianity among the heathens, entitle him to distinct attention. In 1698 was instituted the "Society for promoting Christian Knowledge;" whose objects comprise, to a certain extent, the labors of missionaries. Its missions, chiefly in the East, are subsequently associated with such names as Ziegenbalg, Gericke, and Swartz. And besides these incipient efforts to diffuse the gospel, glowing sentiments on the subject are to be found scattered through the sermons and epistolary corre- spondence of the age, which show that many a Christian heart was laboring and swelling with the desire of greater things than these. Still the century closed with witnessing little more than individual and unsustained endeavors. Had they been all suddenly arrested, only a very feeble call would have been made for their resumption. Like the repeated flights of the dove of the deluge, they served to show that there was * Picteti Orat. de Trophaeis Christi in Fabricii Lux Salutaris Evan- gelii, etc., p. 586. 10 146 THE HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS shut up within the ark of the Church a principle of activity impatient to be free, and which promised, when opportunity served, to traverse the globe. The eighteenth century began to fulfil that promise, and may be denominated the age of missionary association. In 1701, the ''Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts" was chartered; having in view exclusively the benefit of our plantations and colonial possessions. In 1705, Frederic the Fourth, King of Denmark, was induced, by one of his chaplains, to send two missionaries to Tranquebar, on the coast of Coromandel. One of these, Ziegenbalg, may be considered almost as the parent of the Eastern missions. The Society in Scotland for " Propagating Christian Knowledge" was instituted at Edinburgh in 1709. The philosophic Dr. Berkeley, then Dean of Derry, published his noble proposal for the erection of a college in the Bermudas, with a view to the conversion of the American Indians ; a plan in the prose- cution of which he displayed a degree of self-denial, gene- rosity, and devotedness, rarely equalled. The persevering Egede sailed from Bergen, in 1721, for the coast of Green- land. Influenced partly by seeing at Copenhagen two Green- landers who had been baptized by Egede, the persecuted Moravians commenced a mission to the same country in 1741. To their everlasting honor, and to the deep disgrace of the rest of the Christian community, it is to be remembered, that when they sent out their first missionaries, their entire con- gregation did not exceed six hundred persons, and that of these the greater part were suffering exiles. Yet so noble and extensive were the exertions which they made for the evange- lization of the heathen, and so abundantly were their unos- tentatious endeavors blessed by the great Head of the Church, that within the short period of ten years their heralds had proclaimed salvation in Greenland, St. Croix, Surinam, and Bio de Berbice; to the Indians of North America, and to the negroes of South Carolina; in Lapland, Tartary, and Algiers ; in Guinea, the Cape of Good Hope, and Ceylon. Brainerd entered the field of missionary labor in 1743. In the year 1784, at a Baptist Association held at Nottingham, it was determined that one hour on the first Monday evening of every month should be devoted to solemn and special in- tercession for the revival of genuine religion, and for the THE HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS. 147 extension of the kingdom of Christ throughout the world ; hence the origin of Monthly Missionary Prayer-meetings. Wesleyan Methodism, being strictly missionary in its charac- ter, extended its operations to the AVest Indies in 1786. The "Baptist Missionary Society" was organized in 1792. The "London Missionary Society," on the principle of embracing all denominations, arose in 1795. The year following, the "Edinburgh Missionary Society" was instituted. And in 1801 arose the "Church Missionary Society." From this brief outline, the progress of Christian associa- tion for missionary purposes during the last century is obvious. Not only were societies organized to send forth and to sustain the missionary of the cross, but, unlike several preceding organizations, they were instituted for this object alone. While, among the happiest signs which accompanied their formation, it may be remarked, that missionary information began to be regularly circulated in periodicals; that sermons began to be addressed to large and interested audiences, exclu- sively on the obligations of Christians to diffuse the gospel ; that the people generally responded to the call by their willing contributions; and, especially, that thousands of them met at stated times to implore the influence of the Holy Spirit on the new field of missionary labor : signs which indicated the approach of yet further association, and of greater enterprise, for the recovery of man. The missionary character which will belong to the nine' teenth century remains to be seen ; for one half of its sands have not yet run out. "Were we required, however, to give a descriptive name to that portion of it which has elapsed, we should unhesitatingly denominate it the age of general Chris- tian association for the missionary enterprise. The union of Christians for this great object has yet to become universal ; but the interest felt in it now, compared numerically with that which existed at the close of the last century, may be said to be general. The object could not be suddenly withdrawn from the Christian world now, without occasioning a sensation of dismay which would thrill through the entire community, and which would raise the cry of tens of thousands for its return. Its presence has taken the rank of a new power; and its absence would be felt as a great general want. The correctness of this representation will be seen from a 148 THE HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS. further enumeration of the societies which the missionary enterprise has originated. The "Glasgow Missionary Society" commenced its operations soon after the establishment of the London Society. In 1808 was organized the " Society for promoting Christianity among the Jews." In 1816, a Mis- sionary Seminary was established at Basle ; the interest in which continuing to increase till 1821, the "German Mission- ary Society" was then formed, or, as it is sometimes called, the "Evangelical Missionary Society." In 1816, also, was formed the "General Baptist Missionary Society," in distinc- tion from that of the particular Baptist body of 1792. As early as 1799 a missionary spirit was awakened in various parts of Germany; in consequence of which, first Elberfield, and then Barmen, originated societies for the contribution of funds to missionary and kindred institutions. In 1828, these societies united, and having been since joined by the societies of Cologne and Wesel, they together form the "Khenish Mission- ary Society." About this time, also, the " Netherland Mis- sionary Society" commenced operations, and was associated with the name of the enterprising Gutzlaif, And in 1822 was organized the "French Protestant Missionary Society." Nor should it be omitted, that the claims of the heathen to Christian instruction have so far attracted the attention of the society of Friends, that they have commenced a solitary mis- sion to Western Africa. The Missionary Societies of America demand distinct re- gard. The land of the Mayhews and of Eliot, of Brainerd and of Sergeant, could never be entirely lost to the cause of Missions while their names continued to be revered, and their journals to be read. It was not, however, till the inspiring accounts of a Carey, a Vanderkemp, and a Buchanan, had been extensively circulated, that American piety became divinely awakened to its claims. With that awakening, the names of Mills, Judson, and their coadjutors, stand vitally connected. On these youthful students in divinity, the mis- sionary spirit had eminently rested ; and, having presented a memorial on the subject of Missions to the General Associa- tion of the Ministers of Massachusetts in 1810, the "Ameri- oan Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions" was formed the same year ; and in the year following sailed the first mis- sion sent from America to any foreign heathen land. In 1814 THE HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS. 149 waa formed the "American Baptist Board of Foreign Missions." The '"American Methodist Episcopal Missionary Society" followed in 1819. In the year ensuing, the ''Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States" commenced its operations, and in 1831 the Presbyterian Church instituted the "Western Foreign Missionary Society." III. Now, in marking the principal circumstances which have accompanied this rapid accumulation of missionary organization within the last forty years, and which may be said to divide its brief history into important epochs, we may notice, — 1. The formation of the Tract Society in 1799, and the origin of the Bible Society in 1804 — institutions which have proved the right arm of missionary activity, and increased its means of usefulness to a very considerable extent. 2. An important era for missions arrived when the fact was practi- cally and openly admitted, that no sect or denomination of Christians can sustain a reputation for Christian consistency without laboring to extend the gospel to pagan lands. 3. The accession of the American Churches to the missionary enter- prise was another and a glorious stage in its progress. 4. But if the adhesion of Christians to this object, in their denomi- nations and larger divisions, was important, equally important was it to be able to announce that the missionary spirit had descended to the individual members of the particular churches and congregations of which these denominations are composed, and had created for itself a deep, general, and permanent interest in the mass. 5. The formation of branch and auxil- iary societies, by which the cause of missions becomes located among a people, draws them gradually within the circle of its action, and lays all the piety which may exist among them under contribution for its advancement, is to be marked as another leading event. 6. The conviction which has now generally obtained that the missionary service deserves the consecration of the greatest talent, and the most marked wis- dom and piety, which the Churches can supply, is a distinct indication of another stage in the progress which that service is making in public opinion, and is full of promise as to the character of its future agency. 7. Another era in its history was the employment of native agency, and the project of in- 150 THE HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS. stituting colleges abroad with an ultimate view to the educa- tion of that agency for more efficient service. If we are not intending to furni.sh the nations with an adequate supply of stated preaching from our own land, and for generations to come, the heathen must be rendered independent of Christen- dom for their religious instructors as soon as possible. And in no other way can this be done than by taking the necessary steps for raising up a native ministerial agency. 8. And another important step in the progress of missions is the con- viction which is beginning to obtain, not only that the Chris- tian Church must be brought to look more closely and practi- cally at the object of evangelizing the earth, but that for this end it must act on a system. The more vast its projects, the greater the necessity of a fixedness of design, and a steady adaptation of means to the end. On this principle it is that an American Missionary Society has lately presented the out- line of a plan for its own operations, the filling up of wdiich, under the Divine sanction, will plant four or five hundred stations in the more eligible parts of Africa and Asia, as well as thirty or forty theological seminaries, and require about twelve hundred ordained missionaries, and three hundred laymen, as physicians, printers, and teachers. Thus the most enlarged desires are beginning to assume that distinctness of plan which is essential to their wise and steady prosecution. lY. The following table [p. 151] contains a statistical sur- vey of our principal missionary societies, arranged alphabeti- cally,* and of their present operations. Other societies exist of a strictly missionary character; but they are not here intro- duced, not because they are not equally meritorious with those named, but because they do not directly contemplate the conversion of the heathen. Such are the Colonial Mis- sionary Society; the European Society for aiding the Diffu- sion of Evangelical Christianity on the Continent of Europe; and the Society for the Promotion of Female Education in the East. From this survey, and from other inquiries made by the writer, but to which the replies have not been sufficiently definite to justify insertion, it will be seen that there exist at * Where a dotted line occurs in the table, it denotes that the results under that head, if there are any, have not been ascertained. THE HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS. 151 ! t B S o 2 ff-3 ** g S = 2 S M « o 5 c fill B S. =• 3- 2 to M o iii'i SS^S.3 B = 5 S" ^ =« S 3 g-i-Sa I !§■■ Ill I iii § r^j 953^ ^ = 9u d C . o a S = - : :;-^^ - g CO cogooo CO ococoo co oo O O K: 4:*. 00 f* ^ O Ct OS g S W ?? CO 05 05» *. I*. CC C §g £; n. 5; fe *. Dai/ of Formation. Central or Principal Statiotts. Ordained Missiona- ries. Members, or Communi- cants. Printing Establish- ments. Colleges. s ^ 152 THE HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS. present, in Britain and America, about* fourteen missionary societies, of which seven may be denominated first-rate : the remaining seven, were they blended into one, would not much more than equal a single society of the former class. That the annual income of these societies amounts to about £505,000; of which about £400,000 are contributed by British Christians, and the remainder by the Christians of America. That the number of missionaries at present in the field of labor is about fifteen hundred; and that these mission- aries occupy about twelve hundred principal or central stations. That at these stations are to be found, in subordinate co- operation with the ordained missionaries from Britain and America, about five thousand native and other salaried teach- ers, catechists, readers, helpers, and assistants of various kinds, engaged in the ofiices of education and religious in- struction. That about fifty of these stations have printing establishments. And that all the missions, combined, exhibit about 180,000 converts in Christian communion ; and about 200,000 chil- dren and adults belonging to their schools. The only remark which it would here be in place to add is, that these results have been attained gradually : that, taking the collected reports of all the missionary societies for any given year, they will be found to exhibit an advance on the reports of the year preceding, leaving us to indulge the hope that by the same blessing by which they have been progres- sively brought to their present state of enlargement, they will continue to report an annual increase of resources, activity, and usefulness, for an indefinite number of years to come. The practical benefits arising from missionary labors will next become the subject of distinct consideration. * Of course, these figures claim to be regarded only as an approx- imation to the truth. Even the income of one society, as compared with that of another, is to be understood with this qualification, that one society includes in its general accounts the pecuniary support which it receives for a particular field of labor, for the pi'osecution of which, perhaps, another Christian denomination maintains a dis- tinct society. In this summary the three continental societies are omitted. TEMPORAL BENEFITS OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS 153 CHAPTEK II. ADVANTAGES RESULTING TO THE HEATHEN FROM THE MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE. SECTION 1 TEMPORAL BENEFITS. At the commencement of the preceding chapter we re- marked, that such are the gracious arrangements and pro- mises of God, that every return of the Church to its mission- ary design entitles it to hope for corresponding prosperity. Having taken a general survey of the manner in which Chris- tians have recently resumed their missionary vocation, we are the better prepared to look after the expected results of their activity. And here, the first fact which meets us on opening the in- quiry is, that, independently of the direct and spiritual bene- fits at which we aimed, a host of minor but magnificent temporal advantages have been gained, and which alone would have amply repaid all the cost of the missionary eflfort. This is as if, in attempting to estimate the benefits of the Saviour's mission, a contemporaneous inquirer, who had only heard of him as a Teacher sent from Grod, and had only thought of spiritual results, should have had to make his way to those results through the thronging and grateful ranks of those who had been healed, and who insisted on presenting themselves first, as a part of the fruits of that mission. And, indeed, what was the character of Christ, but the character of his dispensation ? and what was the design of his Divine mission, but that it should be the source and type of all the good attending the march of his gospel through the earth ? 154 TEMPORAL BENEFITS OF Accordingly, we find, that even where Christianity has, for obvious reasons, produced but slender spiritual results, the inferior benefits which it has scattered have rendered its progress through the nations as traceable as the overflowing of the Nile is by the rich deposit and consequent fertility which it leaves behind.* This is a well-known subject of devout exultation in many of the inspired epistles. The apo- logies of the Fathers prove it; and the records of profane history, unintentionally, but abundantly, confirm it. Every city which the gospel visited presents itself in proof of its corrective influence; and every nation we enumerated in the preceding chapter, stands forward as a witness to the same effect. It produced charity ev*en in Judea, humility at Athens, chastity at Corinth, and humanity at Rome — cleansing her imperial amphitheatre of human blood, and evincing that her boasted civilization had been only a splendid barbarism. Softened by its influence, the Armenian, says Jerome, lays down his quiver, the Huns learn to sing the praise of God, the coldness of Scythia is warmed by the glow of faith, and the armies of the Goths carry about tents for Churches. f Theodosius and Justinian took much of their codes from its inspired lips; and thus the gospel may be said to have read laws to the Yisigoths and Burgundians, the Franks and Saxons, Lombards and Sicilians. On the Irish, as well as on many other nations, it bestowed a written language, and made Ireland, for centuries, the university of Europe. It raised the German barbarian into a man ; and elevated the wander- ing hordes of the Saxons, Marchomani, and Bohemians, into civilized communities. It approached the Dane, and he for- got his piratical habits; and the Swede and the Norwegian stayed within their own boundaries, and ceased to be a general terror. It called the Russians, Silesians, and Poles, to take rank among the nations ; won the Livonians and Portuguese from their idols ; and taught the Lithuanians a worship supe- rior to that of reptiles, or of the sun. Virtue went out of it in every age, and wherever it came. The Roman empire was rushing to ruin : the gospel arrested its descent, and broke its fall. Nearly all the nations of * Vide Ryan's EflFects of Religion on Mankind, passim. f Epist. Ivii. CHRISTIAN MISSIONS. 155 Europe which we have named, were sitting at a feast on human flesh, or immohiting human victims to their gods : it called them away from the horrid repast, and extinguished their unholy fires. The northern invasion poured a new world of barbarism over Christian lands : the spirit of Chris- tianity brooded over the chaotic mass, and gradually gave to it the forms of civilized life. Where it could not sheathe the sword of war, it at least humanized the dreadful art. It found the servant a slave, and broke his chains. It found the poor— the mass of mankind — trampled under foot; and it taught them to stand erect, by addressing whatever is Di- vine in their degraded nature. It found woman — one half of the species— in the dust; and it extended its protecting arm to her weakness, and raised, and placed her by the side of man. Sickly infancy, and infirm old age, were cast out to perish : it passed by, and bade them live ; preparing for each a home, and becoming the tender nurse of both. ' Yes, Christianity found the heathen world without a single house of mercy.* Search the Byzantine Chronicles, and the pages of Publius Victor; and, though the one describes all the public edifices of ancient Constantinople, and the other of ancient Rome, not a word is to be found in either of a charitable institution. Search the ancient marbles in your museums; descend and ransack the graves of Herculaneum and Pompeii ; and question the many travellers who have visited the ruined cities of Greece and Kome ; and see if, amidst all the splendid remains of statues and amphithea- tres, baths and granaries, temples, aqueducts, and palaces, mausoleums, columns, and triumphal arches, a single frag- ment or inscription can be found " telling us that it belonged to a refuge for human want, or for the alleviation of human misery." The first voluntary and public collection ever known to have been made in the heathen world for a chari- table object, was made by the Churches of Macedonia, for * There is ground to believe that the provision by some of the Greek states for those wounded, and for the children of those slain in battle, flowed from martial policy alone ; and that the Valetudina- rium of the Romans was only an infirmary for the sick servants and slaves of a great family. Si quis sauciaius iii opere noxam ceperit, in valetudinarium deducatur. — Col. xi. 1. Conf. Sen. Epist. 27. 156 TEMPORAL BENEFITS OF the poor saints in Jerusalem. The first individual known to have built a hospital for the poor vras a Christian widow. Search the lexicons for interpreting the ancient Greek authors, and you will not find even the names which divine Christian- ity wanted, by which to designate her houses of charity — she had to invent them. Language had never been called on to embody such conceptions of mercy. All the asylums of the earth belong to her. And be it remembered, that Christianity has accomplished much of this under circumstances the most unfriendly to success. As yet it has had but a very limited influence even in what are denominated Christian countries. But yet, while bleeding herself at a thousand pores, she has saved whole tribes from extermination, and comparatively stanched the flow of human blood. Though a prisoner herself, and walk- ing in chains, she has yet gone through the nations, pro- claiming liberty to the captive, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound. Even when Popery had converted her creed into a libel on her name,- it yet contained truths which eclipsed the wisdom of Greece, and which consigned the mythology of Kome to the amusement and ridicule of childhood. Even there, where her character was most mis- understood, so high had she raised the standard of morals, that Socrates, the boast of Greece, would have been deemed impure; and Titus, the darling of Rome and of mankind, would have been denounced as a monster of cruelty. When disfigured to a degree which would have made it difficult for her great apostle to have recognized her, yet, like him, she went about " as poor, yet making many rich, as having no- thing, and yet possessing all things." Herself the victim of universal selfishness, she yet left on every shore which she visited everlasting monuments that she had been there, in the hospitals and edifices of charity which lifted up their heads, and in the emollient influences which stole over the heart of society. We are warranted in affirming, then, that, as far as the temporal welfare of man is concerned, the history of the past demonstrates that even the worst form of Christianity is pre- ferable to the very best form which heathenism ever knew. Who has not heard, for instance, of the atrocities which men sailed Christians committed in her abused name in South CHRISTIAN MISSIONS. 157 America? Yet even there, though her pretended priesthood was an army, and though they hewed their path with the sword, her humanizing influence was quickly felt. No longer are wives buried with their deceased husbands in Congo; nor do the' aborigines of Florida quench the supposed thirst of their idol in human blood. At Metamba. they no longer put the sick to death; nor sacrifice human victims at funerals in Angola. No longer do the inhabitants of New Spain offer the hearts of men in sacrifice, nor drown their children in a lake to keep company with the idol supposed to reside within it. But why do we speak of other lands '/ Britain itself owes every thing, under God, to the influence of the gospel. The cruelties of Rome did not humanize, nor the northern super- stitions enlighten us. The missionary who first trod our shores found himself standing in the very temple of Druid- ism. And wherever he turned, he heard the din of its noisy festivals, saw the obscenity of its lascivious rites, and beheld its animal and human victims. But Christianity had marked the island for its own. And although its lofty purposes are yet far from being worked out on us, from that eventful mo- ment to the present, the various parts of the social system have been rising together. Even when most at rest, its influ- ence has been silently penetrating the depths of society. When most enfeebled and corrupted itself, its authority has been checking the progress of social corruption, rendering law more protective, and power more righteous. When miost disguised and repressed, its wisdom has been modifying our philosophy, and teaching a loftier system of its own. A Howard, sounding and circumnavigating the ocean of human misery, is only an obedient agent of its philanthropy. A Clarkson and a Wilberforce have only given utterance to its tender and righteous appeals for the slave. A Raikes, a Bell, and a Lancaster, have simply remembered its long-neglected injunction, '' Suffer little children to come unto me." AVhile all its Sabbaths, Bibles, and direct evangelical ministrations, are only the appropriate instrumentality by which it has ever been seeking to become the power of God to our salvation, and preparing us for the ofiice to which Providence is now dis- tinctly calling us, to be the Christian ministers and missiona- ries of mankind + 158 TEMPORAL BENEFITS OP To have predicted, then, at tlie commencement of modern missions, that the diifusion of the gospel would be attended with the diffusion of, at least, temporal good, would only have been making the past the prophet of the future. Let us pro- ceed to inquire how far such a prediction would have been verified by actual results. 1. Judging from the costly price at which civilized nations have purchased distinction, it would seem that it is no small advantage to he known. Now, there are some tribes of the human family which are indebted to Christian missions for their discovery. The first vessel known to have visited the islands of Mitiaro, Mauke, and Earotonga, was steered by a missionary of the cross ; while other islands, though dis- covered, had not been visited, or, though visited, had remained almost entirely unknown, until sought out by Christian per- severance and compassion ; so that, hereafter, when they shall have acquired historical importance, they will have to record that they were called from their original obscurity by the servants of Him who came to seek and to save that which was lost. 2 As the primary object of the Christian missionary is to bring the heathens, to whom he is sent, under the influence of the gospel, it is important that, if they have been accus- tomed to roam from place to place, they should renounce their ■wandering habits, and adopt a settled abode. And, hence, one of the first and necessary consequences of a desire to hear a " man of God" is, a disposition to locate themselves in his vicinity. This is the first step of their transition from a horde of the wilderness to a civilized community. But this, has been the almost uniform efi"ect of the introduction of the gospel among such a people. Who does not here think of the dwellings of Nonanetum rising around Eliot in the wil- derness? of the twelve Indian villages of Zeisberger ? of Brainerd's Indians coming from the far-off forks of the Dela- ware to his beloved Crossweeksung; killing a supply of deer that they might be able to listen to him for days together without interruption; and then ''building themselves little cottages" up to "his own door?" and of the Esquimaux com- ing from Okkak, as far as to the Moravian settlement at Hopedale ? " where," said the missionary, " our congregations are blooming like a beautiful rose." Not more certainly was CHRISTIAN MISSIONS. 159 the erection of the tabernacle in the wilderness a signal for the Israelites to pitch their tents around it, than the success- ful introduction of the gospel among a roving and uncivilized tribe has led to their settlement. The North American In- dian emerging from his filthy wigwam, the Greenlander leav- ing his burrow in the snow — compared with which the den of the bear itself is inoffensive — and the Hottentot coming in from the bush, have alike proceeded to prepare for them- selves comfortable abodes. The New Zealander may be seen making bricks, and the South Sea Islander burning lime, for the erection of a house. " The traveller through the Chero- kee settlements/^ says the Report of the Methodist Episcopal Mission in America for 1835, "observing cottages erected, regular towns building, farms cultivated, the Sabbath regu- larly kept, and almost an entire change in the character and pursuits of the people, is ready to ask with surprise, 'Whence this mighty change?' Our only answer is. Such is the effect of the gospel. Here is a nation at our door, our neighbors, of late remarkable for their ferocity and ignorance, now giv- ing the most striking evidence of the utility of missionary exertions.'' And '• instead of their [the South Sea Islanders] little con- temptible huts along the sea-beach, there will be seen a neat settlement, with a large chapel in the centre, capable of con- taining one or two thousand people ; a school-house on the one side, and the chief's or the missionary's house on the other, and a range of white cottages, a mile or two long, peep- ing at you from under the splendid banana trees, or the bread- fruit groves; so that their comfort is increased, and their character is elevated."* 3. But when the wanderers of the wilderness or of the plain become localized, their erection of permanent dwellings supposes many a previous step of instruction and improve- ment; their new condition entails on them wants which they never knew before; and labor becomes necessary in order to supply them. Accordingly, all the more useful among the arts and trades of civilized life are to be found accompany- ing the progress of the gospel. In the schools of Sierra * Evidence on the Aborigines, before a Committee of the House of Commons in 1833-35, p. 3u7 160 TEMPORAL BENEFITS OF Leone, the girls are taught to spia cotton, and the boys to weave.* Even the New Hollander may be seen ploughing and reaping for the missionary, and planting corn, melons, and pumpkins for himselff The journal of a missionary catechist at New Zealand records his daily superintendence of the natives while occupied in the various labors of the blacksmith's shop, of house-building, and of the plough. The testimony of Lieutenant Stockeustrom, lieutenant-governor of the eastern division of the Cape of Good Hope, imported, that the land at Kat river was cultivated, " to the astonish- ment of everybody who visited it, in proportion to the strength and means of the Hottentots. "J "xVt the station where I live," said the head of the Moravian Missionary Institution in- South Africa, " one half of the population subsists by working at mechanical arts — cutlers, smiths, joiners, turners, masons, carpenters, shoemakers, tailors, and so on."§ " We have ploughing, wagonmakers, and shoemakers, and other tradesmen amongst us," said Andrew Stoffel, a Hottentot; ^' we can make all those things except a watch and a coach." [j The following is a concise enumeration of the useful arts, the animals, and the vegetable productions, which have been in- troduced by the missionaries into the various stations they have occupied in the South Seas : USEFUL AKTS. Smith's work. House-building. Ship-building. Lime-burning. Turning. Sofa, chair, and bed- stead-making. Growth and manufac- ture of tobacco. Sugar-boiling. Printing. VEGETABLE PRODUCTIONS. A variety of valuable es- culents. Pumpkins, melons, sweet potatoes, etc., etc. Oranges, lemons, and limes. Pine-apples. Custard-apples. Coifee. Cotton. Indio;o. Goats. Sheep. Horses. Asses. Cattle, etc. Pigs, into sev- eral islands. Turkeys. Geese. Ducks, etc. Fowls, f 4. When the missionary has thus put a uewly-reclaimed people in the way of providing for their immediate wants, it * Evidence on the Aboi'igines, p. 89. f Idem, p. 110. X Idem, p. 353. g Idem, p. 355. *[ Williams's Missionary Enterprise, pp. 578, 579. Idem, p. 360. CHRISTIAN MISSIONS. 161 might be supposed that the next step would be to devote every moment of their leisure, which could be spared from their religious instruction, to their mental education. Having taught them the alphabet of civilization, the alphabet of their own language would seem naturally to follow. But perhaps the language is without an alphabet. In many instances, the modern inissionary, like an Ulphilas, a Patricius, and a Cijril of earlier times, has given to the people a written lan- guage. From the time when the " Indian Evangelist" re- duced the Massachusetts Indian language'*' to form, in 1660, down to the present day, when the New Zealander, the Caflfre, and the Rarotongian, are just beginning to learn the written signs of their respective tongues, this is a benefit which the Christian missionary has often conferred. With scarcely any aid besides that which they derive from the oral and uncer- tain explanations of the natives, the missionaries of a single American society have constructed the framework of at least seven languages from the foundation; forming the alphabet, determining the orthography, arranging the grammar, and presenting the whole in a written form ; and, where circum- stances have required, other societies have been proportionally useful in conferring on the heathen the same benefit. Quali- fied missionaries are employed at the present time in reducing to a written form the Australian, Foulah, Mandingo, and other languages. In this way, Christian missions are inci- dentally laying the foundation for all the literature which the millions of these various nations may ever possess. Besides which, the treasures contained in the Hebrew, Greek, Latin, French, German, and English languages, are in the process of transmission into all the written and unwritten tongues which our missionaries employ. 5. The next step in the civilizing process is education. As the missionary does not address the heathen in his own name, but in the name of God, and as the book containing the will of God is made ready to their hands, what more natural than a mutual anxiety that they should be able to consult it ? Ac- cordingly, as soon as possible, every mission opens its infant, youth, and adult schools ; and the natives generally both hasten "* Of which Mather said that the words looked as if they had been growing ever since the confusion of Babel. 11 162 TEMPORAL BENEFITS OF to it themselves, and seud their children. x\bout two hun- dred thousand children and adults are now receiving instruc- tion through the agency of missionaries ; perhaps nearly an equal number have already enjoyed it. Here may be seen the infant learner, who, but for the timely interposition of the Christian missionary, would have been immolated, as all his brothers and sisters had been ; and there may be seen the hand that would have done it, tracing the alphabet. Here, the parent is seen learning of his child ; and there, the female is seen imparting instruction, where, once, her presence would have been deemed pollution, and have incurred her destruction. Who does not prospectively recognize in many of those youthful pupils the future instructor of other tribes, and the missionary to distant lands? Who does not see in many of those schools the promise of theological seminaries, and the germ of future colleges ? And in the press, with which many of them are connected, who does not recognize the sure prevention of a return to barbarism, and the founda- tion of national cultivation and of future mental greatness ? 6. Education tends, in a variety of ways, to create a de- mand for the institution of laws. By teaching them to read, a people obtain a knowledge of the customs and advantages of law in civilized lands : by enlightening their minds, such knowledge shows them the evils which they have sufl'ered from the want of law : by quickening their moral nature, it awakens a craving after a rule to walk by; and, by thus humanizing them, it prepares them to conform to the law enacted. Hence the missionary, as their only adviser and friend, is often called on to become, in effect, their lawgiver. The Cherokees of North America,* and the Caflfres of the Little Namaquas, have their respective codes. f The Sand- wich Islands recognize the authority of law. Formerly, in the Island of Rarotonga, "the king, when a thief was caught upon his premises, would have him cut up, and portions of his body hung in diiferent parts of the farm on which the depredation had been committed. But when Christianity was embraced by them, they saw immediately that such sanguinary proceedings were inconsistent with the benign spirit of the gospel, and they inquired of us what would be done in Eng- * Evidence on the Aborigines, p. 51. f Idem, p. 157 ' CHRISTIAN MISSIONS. 163 land, and "what was consistent with the Christian profession We informed them that there were judges in England, and all such offences were tried regularly, and particular punish- ments awarded. They immediately said, ' Will it not be well for us to have the same?' and, after months' and months' con- sultation with them, and explaining those things to them, a very simple code was drawn up."* The Tahitians have also a simple, explicit, and wholesome code of laws, as the result of their imbibing the principles of Christianity. This code of laws is printed and circulated among them, understood by all, and acknowledged by all as the supreme rule of action for all classes in their civil and social relations. The laws have been productive of great benefits ;f and of these benefits all the* Society Islands are more or less partakers. To the prac- tical working of these laws, impartial and ample testimony has been borne as to " one of the greatest temporal blessings they have derived from the introduction of Christianity. "J; By making the New Testament the basis of their civil enact- ments, they have placed their government under the Di- vine protection, and laid a foundation for lasting national prosperity. A — 7. To say that the gospel has erected a standard of moral- ^ ity among those of whom we are speaking, is only to state what is clearly implied in the paragraph preceding; for it is not until men are becoming a law unto themselves, that they begin to think of enacting rules for their own conduct, or for that of others. To say that they have been rendered moral, compared with their idolatrous fellow-countrymen, would be to fall far short of the truth : in many respects their example is a loud lecture on morality to the civilized Briton. Not in vain has the Bible said to the Sandwich Islanders, ''Thou shalt not commit adultery." Having enacted a law in 1825 prohibiting the sins which violate that law, and having ex- tended it to foreign visitors as well as to themselves, "the rage of the former, who came in the ships in the autumn of the year, was such that they could scarcely be restrained from acts of the most violent outrage." " Once," write the missionaries, " we thought a single couple would be exposed ■^ Evidence on the Aborigines, p. 300. t Idem, p. 180. + Idem, p. 182 164 TEMPORAL BENEFITS OF to insult from the natives : now the natives are a defence from lawless foreigners, to whose violence we are all ex- posed.'"^ Not in vain has the gospel said to the New Zea- lander, " Let him that stole, steal no more." '' Ten years ago, a person scarcely dared to lay a tool down, as it was almost sure to be stolen : now, locks and bolts are but little used, and but little needed; working tools are safe, although lying in all directions. "f Not in vain for the Hottentot and the Tahitian has the 13ible denounced drunkenness. The former has petitioned from Kat river that no canteens might be allowed in the settlement : the latter has enacted a law which prohibits trade with ships which come for the purpose of introducing ardent spirits; and, indeed, the Island of Pora- pora is the only one that retains the use of ardent spirits in the whole of the Tahitian and Society Island group. J The Honorable Justice Burton informed Doctor Philip, of the Cape of Good Hope, after a circuit tour, that he had made three journeys over the colony as a circuit judge : that, during these circuits, he had had nine hundred cases before him, and that only two of these cases were connected with Hottentots who belong to missionary institutions, and that neither of them was an aggravated case. On a comparison of the population at the missionary stations with that of the rest of the colony which was under the jurisdiction of the circuit court, the fact stated by the Judge marked the proportion, of the crimes as one to thirty-five. § 8. If, in some instances, heathen tribes are indebted to Christian missionaries for their discovery, in still more, pro- bably, have they been saved, hy the same agena/, from ex- tinction. A competent witness testifies, in his "Evidence on the Aborigines," II that " wherever the gospel has not been in- troduced among the Indians of Upper Canada, there the pro- cess by which the diminution of their numbers is effected is steadily going on ; but wherever Christianity has been estab- lished, there a check has been opposed to the process of de- struction ; and on the older stations, among the tribes that have been the greatest length of time under the influence of * Evidence on the Aboriguies, pp. 42-44. f Idem, p. 119. X Idem, pp. 351, 301, 276. ^ Tract Society publication. |j Page 145. CHRISTIAN MISSIONS. 165 Christian principles, there the proportion has begun somewhat to increase." The missionary establishments have " unques- tionably done much good," said Mnjor Dundas,* ^' in bringing together, and in keeping together, the wrecks of the Hottentot nation." The depopulation of the Sandwich and South Sea Islands, since the time of their discovery by Captain Cook, is truly fearful. His estimate of the number of the inhabitants was probably much too high ; but, within the memory of the missionaries, the prevalence of wars of extermination, of in- fanticide, and the introduction of European diseases and vices, had reduced the population of some of the islands from thou- sands to hundreds, and of others from hundreds to tens. But the Christian missionary " stood between the dead and the living, and the plague was stayed." Since Christianity has prevailed among the people, there has been a reaction : the population is supposed to have increased about one-fourth. Thus the gospel came between them and annihilation.^ 9. Missionaries frequently act the part of mediators between chiefs and tribes at variance, and have thus been the means of arresting many a sanguinary conflict, and of reconciling the parties to each other. On some of these occasions they volun- teer their mediation, bring the hostile chiefs together, and continue to exert their peaceful influence till a friendship is effected. But so well is their peace-making character known, and so highly is it esteemed, even by those natives who have not embraced Christianity, that they are often sent for to in- terpose ; and, generally, from the moment they come between the parties at issue, the breach is considered to be as good as healed. Even when the hostile ranks have been confronted, with thousands on a side, ready at a word to rush in savage and deadly encounter, the missionary has pitched his tent of peace between, and, for days together, has gone from tribe to tribe, and from chief to chief, till they came to a resolution of peace. J 10. But, if the Christian missionary confers a benefit on heathen tribes in preventing wars of extermination, and saving them from extinction, still more does he serve them, accord- * Evidence on the Aborigines, p. 347. f Idem, pp. 51, 292. \ Missionary Enterprises, p. 457 ; and Evidence on the Aborigine!, pp 15,211-218 166 TEMrORAL BENEFITS OF ing to the ordinary mode of calculation, by rescuing their mental character from undeserved ignominy, and restoring them to the rank of our common humanity/. A false philoso- phy, while complacently monopolizing all the genuine philan- thropy to be found in the world, has yet most strangely evinced its philanthropy by consigning a large proportion of the species to neglect and extermination, as irreclaimably de- generate and savage. The advocates of such a philosophy, while affecting this superiority over their brother savage, must have forgotten that those very airs are among the certain marks of an imperfect civilization : that they are shared by every untutored tribe on the face of the earth ; and that there was a time, in the history of Britain, when the ances- tors of these very philosophers were deemed by similar philo- sophers at Rome to be too stupid even for slaves — when Cicero could advise his friend Atticus not to obtain his slaves from Britain, ^' because they are so stupid, and utterly inca- pable of being taught, that they are unfit to form a part of the household of Atticus." But that which the gospel effected for us, its modern missionaries are accomplishing, under God, for the slandered heathen of the present day. The Moravian missionaries soon discovered, when the gospel began to affect the Greenlander, that his previous condition had been one, not of hopeless stupidity, but of utter ignorance : that in pro- portion as the influence of grace prevailed on his heart, his torpid mind awoke and came forth : that the dawning of spiritual light, like the return of the sun after the one long night of his own winter, ended both his brutishness and his vice, and gave him a mind and a heart together.* The Hot- tentot, through all his varieties, is found as eager for instruc- tion, and as capable of cultivation, as the European himself. "j* The liberated negro child at Sierra Leone is soon found worthy of being prepared to become a native teacher ; while the enslaved adult negroes have abundantly proved their equality, at least, to those who have held them in bondage. " Your missionaries have determined that : they have dived into that mine from which we were often told no valuable ore or precious stone could be extracted ; and they have brought * Game's Li\es of Eminent Missionaries, vol. i., p. 247. f Evidence on the Aborigines, pp. 350-353 : also, p. 104, CHRISTIAN MISSIONS. 167 up the gem of an immortal spirit, flashing with the light of intellect, and glowing with the hues of Christian graces/'* Even the native children of New Holland, placed by common consent in the lowest grade of humanity, are found in no de- gree inferior in intellect, or ability to learn, to children in general in an English school. f How mighty must that influ- ence be which can thus disinter the mental faculties, and quicken into quivering sensibility what appeared to be a mass of unconscious brutality ! And how beneficent that agency which takes whole tribes and nations, whom a worldly philo- sophy had struck out from the family of man, and exalts them, through grace, into the family of God ! 11. Christian missions have proved eminently beneficial in affording j)^otect ion to the opj^ressed, and in procuring liberty for the enslaved. At some stations, the mere presence of the missionary has proved a salutary check on the lawless barbari- ties which Europeans had been accustomed to commit on the aborigines. At others, he has obtained magisterial interfer- ence in behalf of the oppressed, and has secured their rights in defiance of their cruel taskmasters. In one place, he has guarded against the danger of domestic slavery by inducing the natives themselves to prohibit it by law. In another, he may be seen hastening with presents to ransom captives taken in war. While in other instances, the influence of that gospel which he has preached has induced the converted natives volun- r tarily to break the chain of their slaves, and to let them go free. J But the great triumphs of Christian missions, in ameliorat- ing the state of the slave colonies, and liberating the slave, have yet to be recorded. No one acquainted with the history of negro emancipation will for a moment question that these happy results were hastened and eff"ected by Providence, through the moral influence of Christian missions. The ordi- nance issued at the Cape, in 1828, by the provisions of which the Hottentots and other free persons of color within the colony were placed on a civil and political equality with the white colonists, was the undeniable eff"ect of missionary perse- * Rev. R. Watson on the Religious Instruction of the Slaves. f Evidence on the Aborigines, p. 107. X Evidence on the Aborigines, pp. 5-21, 30-35, 157, 238, 247. Missionary Enterprises, p. 325. -f-: 168 TEMPORAL BENEFITS OF verance and fidelity. The publication of "Researches in South Africa," and the proclamation of this African bill of rights — this Magna Charta of the Hottentot nation — stand together in the relation of cause and effect. The great Act which enacted that, *' from 'the first of August, 183-4, slavery be utterly and for ever abolished through- out the British colonies, plantations, and possessions abroad," was doubtless the result, chiefly, of missionary influence. By bringing to light the real condition of the slave — his brutal Ignorance and heart-rending wrongs — the religious part of the community had long been preparing for some great movement in his behalf. By the frantic and murderous violence with which some of the planters assailed the men who were engaged in his instruction, the people of England were ultimately aroused to petition Parliament for the overthrow of the system. And by the influence of the compassion thus awakened, and which stopped not to count the ransom for suffering humanity, the nation generously cast twenty millions at the feet of the slaveholder, as the price of the negroes' deliverance. Thus humanity triumphed through religion, and religion through her missionaries. Nor have their services in the cause of the negro been less important since the Act of Emancipation took efiect. On the recorded testimony of colonial governors, we learn, that to their invaluable influence partly it is to be ascribed that the colonies have been brought so safely as they have through the successive stages of the critical transition. And from what we know of the past, we may confidently add, that not only have their known character and activity, as the friend of the negro, tended to check his distrust and impa- tience, and to inspire him with confidence, but that the same causes have equally tended to secure for him, what otherwise he would not speedily have obtained, the unperverted opera- tion of the Act which treats him as "a man and a brother."* 12. But colonial slavery is only one of a long catalogue of evils which Christianity has blotted out by the hand of her missionaries. If the tapu, one of the chief obstacles to New Zealand civilization, has been abolished, it is to be ascribed entirely, under God, to " the agency of missionaries.""}" If [*See Introduction.— T. 0. S.] f Evidence on the Aborigines, p. 218. 4-- CHRISTIAN MISSIONS 169 habKBCRi idleness, one of the most prolific evils of savage life, has Deen extensively replaced by honest industry, the change has been effected entirely by the new wants and habits which Christianiiy has created, and by missionary instruction in the arts or civilization. If an order in Council has been issued for the suDpression of the pilgrim tax in India, it was obtained by the expression of Christian opinion in this country, and that opinion was sustained and made active by the representa- tion ot our missionaries there. If a cannibal would now be sought I'or In vain, or an altar stained with the blood of human sacrifices, throughout nearly the whole nation of Polynesian Asiatics, the glory of the happy change redounds entirely to the influence of the gospel. If the fearful trade of the ''infant-Killer" has ceased to exist throughout the same vast region, and if the Ganges no longer receives its accustomed number of new-born babes, it is because the gospel is going through the world restoring a heart to the human bosom. If the Indian suttee no longer receives its annual holocaust of 30,000 widows, it is because its unholy fires have been dimmed, and all but extinguished, by the rising of the Sun of right- eousness. If Brahminism is rapidly falling into discredit, and the cruelties and immolations practiced in honor of the Indian Moloch greatly diminished, Christianity has been mainly in- strumental in producing the change. In a word, if populous islands and regions of the earth have been lately wrested from the empire of idolatry, and brought under the happy influence of an enlightened civilization, the change has been effected by the blessing of God on the diffusion of the gospel. 13. Among the most distinguished benefits accruing to the heathen world from Christian missions — so distinguished that we deem it worthy of separate notice — is their elevating effect on the moral cliaracter and social rank of woman. Wherever our missionaries have gone, they have found that degradation is the condition of the sex, and insult and suffering its reward- Of the Chinese women, Gutzlaff writes, they are the slaves and concubines of their masters, live and die in ignorance, and every attempt to raise themselves above the rank assigned them is regarded as impious arrogance.* As might be ex- pected, suicide is a refuge to which thousands of these igno- * Preface to Voyages, p. xxiv. 170 TEMPORAL BENEFITS OP rant idolaters fly.* And a large proportion of their new-born female children is destroyed. Even in Pekin, the residence of the emperor, about 4000 are annually murdered ;"!" and to ask a man of any distinction whether he has dauuhters, is a mark of great rudeness. | The condition of the Hindoo women is, if possible, worse. '^Any thing," says Bishop Heber,§ "is thought good enough for them; and the rough- est words, the poorest garments, the scantiest alms, the most degrading labor, and the hardest blows, are generally their portion." And yet China and India alone are at this moment holding two hundred millions of immortal beings in this abject condition ! If there are those who can account for the entailed slavery of the negro race only by resolving it into a Divine malediction, where is the curse recorded which can account for the social slavery and wretchedness of one half of the human race ? For be it remembered that Divine Christianity is the only system which denounces the enormity. Mohammed- anism adds its authority to that of Hindooism and Budhism, in excluding woman, by system, from instruction, and in pro- nouncing her soulless and irreclaimably wicked. But if such be the verdict of civilized heathenism, what may we expect to be her doom in uncivilized lands ? To be prohibited from certain kinds of food which are reserved for the men and the gods, and from dwelling under the same roof with their tyran- nical masters, are among the lighter parts of their fate. Well might the female barbarian of North America look on the coming of Eliot as that of an angel. || Well might the Caffres denominate a missionary "■ the shield of woman. "^ While every other system makes her the butt of their cruel shafts, the eiFect of the gospel is to provide her with a shield. By exalting marriage, and denouncing licentiousness in all its forms, it provides for her the honorable relation of a wife, and the comforts of a home. By discountenancing polygamy, it dries up unnumbered sources of domestic discord, and chal- lenges for her the undivided affections of her husband. By extinguishing infanticide, and inculcating the parental duties, * Abeel's Appeal to Chi-istian Ladies. t Abeel. J Gutzlaff. ^ Twenty-fourth Report of B. and F. S. S., p. 39. II Carne, vol. i., p. 19. ^ Evidence on the Aborigines, p. 323. CHRISTIAN MISSIONS. 171 it multiplies the ties of conjugal endearment, and increases her importance to the welfare of her family. And by devel- oping her mind, and exalting her character, it adds respect to domestic love, and renders her influence useful and lasting. A.11 this Christianity has done. Ten thousand happy Polyne- sian, African, and negro homes attest it. And the operations of the " Society for promoting Female Education in China, India, and the East," are calculated, by the Divine blessing, to increase their number. - Now, that the benefits which we have enumerated are among the results of Christian missions, is become an estab- lished and familiar fact. To ask for any vouchers of the truth of our representation, beyond those which we have given, would betray ignorance of the passing events of the day, and an anxiety for something more and other than the truth. " These things have not been done in a corner." The narratives of impartial witnesses have recorded them. A succession of officers in the army and navy have borne spontaneous testimony to them. They are registered in colonial reports, and taken for granted in government dispatches. Our commerce wafts us to them ; and the re- claimed idolaters themselves have come amongst us, as the representatives of their fellow-countrymen, to exhibit in their own persons the value of the missionary enterprise. Even the anti-supernaturalist, who regards their conversion as the natural result of their contact with missionary morality and in- telligence, does not hesitate to ascribe it to missionary instru- mentality. So important an element of civilization has that agency become, that the continental literati and savans — the Balbis and Kiefl'ers, the Jouffroys, Remusats, and Klaproths — regard it with admiration. So conspicuous are its triumphs, that Kome itself, in the spirit of envy or emulation, is essay- ing to achieve the same with her enchantments. And so de- monstrable and valuable is its practical bearing on the tempo- ral welfare of man, that the highest municipal body in the kingdom has given it aid; ''not as forming a precedent to assist merely religious missions, nor as preferring any sect or party, but to be an extraordinary donation for -promoting the great cause of civilization, and the 7noral improvement of our common species;'' while the inquiries of our legislature, in seeking " Evidence on the Aborigines," have established 172 TEMPORAL BENEFITS OF the fact, that Christian missionaries are the great agents of civilization, and rank amongst the most distinguished benefac- tors of mankind. The social and moral advantages, then, which the mission- ary enterprise has conferred on the heathen, are before the world. And had the good which it has imparted terminated here, who does not feel that it would have ampl}^ repaid the cost and toil with which thej have been attended ? What vast tracts has it rescued from barbarism, and with what crea- tions of benevolence has it clothed them ! How many thou- sands, whom ignorance and selfishness had branded as the leavings and refuse of the species, if not actually akin to the beasts that perish, are at this moment rising under its foster- ing care; ascribing their enfranchisement, under God, to its benign interposition; taking encouragement from its smiles to assume the port and bearing of men ; and, by their acts and aspirations, retrieving the character and dignity of the slan- dered human form ! When did literature accomplish so much for nations destitute of a written Ian<2;uao;e ? or education pierce and light up so large and dense a mass of human igno- rance? When did humanity save so many lives, or cause so man}'- sanguinary ''wars to cease?" How many a sorrow has it soothed; how many an injury arrested; how many an asy- lum has it reared, amidst scenes of wretchedness and oppres- sion, for the orphan, the outcast, and the sufferer! When did liberty ever rejoice in a greater triumph than that which missionary instrumentality has been the means of achieving? or civilization find so many sons of the wilderness learning her arts, and agriculture, and commerce ? or law receive so much voluntary homage from those who but yesterday were strangers to the name ? By erecting a standard of morality^ how vast the amount of crime which it has been the means of preventing ! By asserting the claims of degraded woman, how powerful an instrument of social regeneration is it pre- paring for the future ! And by doing all this by the principle and power of all moral order and excellence — the gospel of Christ — how large a portion of the world's chaos has it re- stored to light and harmony and peace ! Had human philosophy effected such results as these — or only a thousandth part of them — how soon would her image be set up, and what multitudes would fall down and worship I CHRISTIAN MISSIONS. 173 By leaving a single esculent on an island, Kotzebue plumed himself with the assurance of having secured its ultimate civilization. J?ut great as are the benefits which we have enumerated, and most of which can, in a sense, be seen, and measunid, and handled, we venture to affirm that those which are at present comparatively impalpable and undeveloped are greater still. The unseen is far greater than that which appears. The missionary has been planting the earth with principles ; and these are of as much greater value than the visible bene- fits which they have already produced, as the tree is ntore val- uable than its first year's fruit. The tradesman may take stock and calculate his pecuniary afhiirs to a fraction ; the as- tronomer may count the stars ; and the chemist weigh the in- visible element of air; but he who in the strength of God conveys a great truth to a distant region, or puts into motion a divine principle, has performed a work of which futurity alone can disclose the results. At no one former period could either of our missionary societies have attempted to ''number Israel," to reduce to figures either the geographical extent or the practical results of its influence, without having soon received, in the cheering events which followed, a dis- tinct but gracious rebuke. How erroneous the calculation which should have set down the first fifteen years of fruitless missionary labor in Greenland, or the sixteen in Tahiti, or the twenty in New Zealand, as years of entire failure ! when, in truth, the glorious scene which then ensued was simply that which God was pleased to make the result of all that had preceded — the explosion, by the Divine hand, of a train which had been lengthening and enlarging during every mo- ment of all those years. So that, were the whole field of missions to be suddenly vacated, and all its moral machinery at once withdrawn, we confidently believe that the amount of temporal good, arising from what has been done, will be much greater twenty years hence than it is at present. Who can say, for instance, to what extent the entire fabric of idolatry is undermined? remembering the fact that the Sandwich Islands abandoned their gods at the mere rumor of Tahiti's conversion, and before a Christian missionary had ap- proached them ; although that report had to be borne across the waters nearly three thousand miles. Who can walk to the 174 TEMPORAL BENEFITS OF Circumference of the moral circle of which a missionary sta- tion is the centre, and saj, here its useful influence will be exhausted ? For the gospel moralizes even when it does not convert; and where it does not so much as induce the aban- donment of idolatry. It checks unnumbered evils, unveils the deformity of vice, restores the lost influence of shame, and thus p-adually diminishes crime, and raises the moral tone of society : even the hemlock and the nightshade grow less rankly where the sun shines. Who can calculate tlie effect of emancipation in the West Indies on the servile pop- ulation of the Union ? " The sympathies between the colonial inhabitants of the two regions," says an American authority, '' must become more and more extensive. No legal enactments, no armed cordon around Florida, can prevent it. News of the progress of human freedom will fly faster than civil proclama- tions. Human sympathies cannot be blocked up by negotia- tions, nor by ships of war. Rumors of this sort will fly on the winds of heaven."* This, too, is the prospective view to be taken of that mu- nificent gift, by which the nation charmed the dragon slavery from its victims. True, its immediate purpose may, in some respects, have partially failed ; but not one of all its higher ends. Twent}^ millions of enactments against slavery would not have made a return to that enormity so impossible as that gift has done. Twice twenty million hearts beat quicker in the cause of humanity than ever. More than that number of benevolent impulses have been sent thrilling through all the departments of social improvement. We meant it for our country — it has touched the heart of the world. We meant it to take full and final effect on a day at hand — it will operate till the last day. We meant it for a given number of slaves — in an important sense, it has bought the freedom of mankind. And thus nothing good is lost. The feeblest act for God, not by any inherent strength of its own, but by being linked on to some great principle of the Divine government, is carried on through all time, and, for aught we know, through all worlds. And who does not foresee that, owing materially to mission- ary influence, the whole system of British colonization, as far as it affects the aborigines, is likely to be essentially improved ? [* See Introduction.— T. 0. S.J CHRISTIAN MISSIONS. 175 lij exposing the fa<3t that for ages we have been imitating tlie Spanish and the Portuguese in the worst parts of their policy, and in the bhickest features of their national character ; that while we have been priding ourselves on our superior human- ity and civilization, we have been laying whole regions deso- late, and consigning entire tribes to destruction. Christian missions have aroused the national indignation, and thus taken the first step towards remedying the evil. While, by pointing out the only legitimate method of colonization ; by perseveringly imploring, and, through the public voice, de- manding, in the name of outraged justice and humanity, that this method shall be adopted; and by continuing to report every fresh violation of it, they are powerfully tending, under God, to base our future intercourse with the aborigines on righteousness and peace, and thus to promote, on a most ex- tended scale, the temporal welfare of myriads of mankind. SECTION II. THE KELIGIOUS BENEFITS AND SPIRITUAL RESULTS OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS AMONG THE HEATHEN. Great as are the social and moral blessings which Chris- tian missions have been the means of imparting to heathen lands, they have only, in a sense, been imparted incidentally, by aiming at greater things than these. The great design of Christ in coming into the world was to erect his cross, and the supreme object of his missionary is instrumentally to dis- pense its blessings — blessings as much superior to those which relate only to the present, as the nature and duration of the undying soul surpass the body which enshrines it. While he rejoices, therefore, in being made the medium of imparting temporal benefits, he values them chiefly as the signs and the means of yet greater good. He remembers that, important as they may be in the class of blessings to which they belong, they are only accidental to religion — the dust of that diamond which constitutes her crowning gift — the shed blossoms of that tree of life of which his office is to dispense the immortal fruit 176 RELIGIOUS BENEFITS OF In enumerating the benefits glanced at in the last section, then, we have only been ascending the steps of that temple which it is the design of the missionary enterprise to erect. And although it is allowed us to sing our "song of degrees" as we ascend them, our great business is within. Here angels join us, and mingle their joy with the grateful tears of myriads of reclaimed penitents. Here the Kedeemer himself sees of the travail of his soul, and is satisfied. 1. But in order that we may be the better prepared to estimate this spiritual result, let us begin with the first reli- gious benefits of Christian missions, in effecting an extensive abolition of idolatry. If there existed a region on the -face of the earth where, in defiance of the law which commands, " Thou shalt have no other gods before me,^' the Divine Law- giver himself were forgotten, and demons placed on his throne; where the moral darkness had for ages been deepen- ing and concealing abominations, till diabolical ingenuity itself had exhausted its hideous devices ; and where a cloud stored with the bolts of Divine displeasure had been conse- quently collecting and impending, ready every moment to dis- charge a tempest of destruction, would he not be an instru- ment of immense good who should hold up a light in the midst of that darkness, by which the deluded worshippers should see that they had been sacrificing to devils, not to God, and before which those demons should fly? Such regions there are. The entire empire of polytheism is a realm of diabolical dominion. It assembles its votaries only to blaspheme the name of God ; erects its temple only to attract the lightning of the impending cloud on their devoted heads ; calls them around its altars only that in the very act of supposed atonement they may complete their guilt ; and gives them a pretended revelation only "that they should believe a lie." And such an angel of mercy is the Christian missionary. To say nothing, at present, of the decline of idolatry in India, and of the conversion of some of the tribes of Africa and^ North America, where now, we ask, is the idolatry which lately revelled in the Sandwich, the Marque- san, the Paumotu, the Tahitian and Society, the Austral, the Hervey, the Navigators, the Friendly Islands, and New Zea- land, and in all the smaller islands in their respective vicinities ? Idolatry still reigns in Western Polynesia, and still steeps its CHRISTIAN MISSIONS. 177 victims in blood and guilt : what benevolent power rias swept tbe curse from Eastern Polynesia? The missionary of the cross has been there, proclaiming that " there is one God, and one Mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus" — and about ninety islands have '^cast their idols to the moles and to the bats," and about four hundred thousand idolaters have become the professed worshippers of the only living and true God. We admit, indeed, that the mere abandonment of idolatry is very remote from scriptural con- version to God, But if the inspired history exhibits the Almighty in one continued contest with idolatry, is it nothing to find, though it be only about the fifteen hundredth part of his infatuated foes lay down their arms, and virtually acknow- ledge their guilt ? If the mere casting out of a demon was a benefit to the dispossessed which called for his ardent and lasting gratitude, is it nothing for whole demoniac communi- ties to have the fiend of idolatry, whose name is Legion, cast out of the body politic, and to be now found " clothed, and in their right mind ?" The renunciation of a false religion is at least one step towards the adoption of the true one. 2. If we knew of a region where the sun of knowledge — if ever it shone there — set long ages ago; where the absence of truth has not merely left the mind vacant, but in actual possession of destructive errors, like a deserted mansion, converted into a den for robbers and murderers; and where truth is not only lost to man, and fatal error is in full posses- sion, but where man is actually lost to the truth — lost to the power of even intellectually apprehending it when first pre- sented to his mind ; and if there existed a process by which that darkness could be pierced, those errors exploded, and this power restored, would not he be a great benefactor who should attempt and conduct it to a successful issue ? That region is heathenism ; that process is education ; and that benefactor the Christian missionary. Visit, in thought, the two hundred thousand youthful and adult scholars sitting at his feet to receive instruction, and imagine what all those immortal beings would have been if left to themselves. A considerable number would doubtless have been destroyed in infancy, had he not gone to their rescue; while, for the rest, the past would have been all a fable, the future a blank, and 12 178 RELIGIOUS BENEFITS OF the present would have been spent in a perpetual conilict whether the fiend or the brute should predominate in their nature. Does the reader deeply commiserate such a condi- tion ? Let him remember that the depth of his compassion is a measure, however inadequate, for estimating the value of that process which enables them to emerge out of it. Let him observe, further, as the process advances, how the facul- ties recover their proper pliability, how the understanding re- joices in the power of apprehending truth, and reason gradu- ally resumes its throne, and even the countenance itself is humanized, '' losing the wild and vacant stare of the savage" in the mild and intelligent expression of the reasonable being; and let him remember that the pleasure which he experiences in marking the transformation is another measure by which to estimate the value of missionary effort. Let him not suppose, however, that he has all the evidence of its value before him till he has ascertained the importance attached to it by the recipients themselves : till he has marked the adult barbarian indignant at his own slowness of compre- hension ; till he has seen the negro parent patiently submitting to be taught by his own children ;* and the New Zealander establishing schools in his own villages, under the direction of native youths ;-j" till he has beheld the fierce warrior of a hundred battles presiding at the examination of the children of his people, and has seen amidst the beaming looks of the parents who had spared their children, and the tearful coun- tenances of those who had immolated theirs, some venerable chieftain rise, and, with impassioned look and manner, exclaim, '' Let me speak : I must speak ! that I had known that the gospel was coming ! that I had known that these blessings were in store for us ; then I should have saved my children, and they would have been among this happy group, repeating these precious truths ; but, alas ! I destroyed them all, and now I have not one left;" then, cursing the gods which they had formerly worshipped, and adding, with a flood of tears, '' It was you that infused this savage disposition into us; and now I shall die childless, although I have been the father of nineteen children. that some one had seized my ♦Evidence on the Aborigines, p. 105 f Idem, p. 249. CHRISTIAN MISSIONS. 179 murderous hand, and had told me, The gospel of salvation is coming to our shores !"* And even then let the reader re- member, that in estimating the value of missionary instruc- tion, the chief element is wanting, unless he could foresee the number who will go forth from enjoying it, "wise unto salva- tion/' 3. If there existed a region where the mind of millions, heaving and surging like the laboring ocean, was ever seeking rest and jBnding none, would not he be conferring on it an in- comparable good who should instrumentally allay its perturba- tions, and minister to its enlightened repose? Such a region is to be found wherever the terrors of superstition prevail. How dense must be that moral darkness which is only comparable to the shadow of death I What must be the state of that mind which could realize its conception of the invisible powers only in the forms of idols so monstrously distorted and horrible as to shock the imagination ! How intense must be that anguish of soul which can impel men to lacerate their flesh, and inflict agonies of self-torture ! which can burst the sacred bonds of humanity, and off"er a brother- man in sacrifice ! or which can even suppress the still more sacred feelings of the mother, and induce her to immolate her infant child ! Then what must be the amount of obli- gation conferred on the victims of such a reign of terror by him who takes into the midst of them an infallible remedy for the whole! And yet the Christian missionary does this. He goes to tell the dupes of imposture of essen- tial truth ; to tell the infanticide mother that she may save her offspring, and may press them to her heart ; and the de- votee of the Ganges of the washing of regeneration, and the renewing of the Holy Ghost ; and the self-torturing votary of cruelty that the name of God is Love; and the self-immo- lating worshippers of Juggernaut of the sacrifice ofl"ered once for all, and of the blood which cleanseth from all sin. Whether the heathen avail themselves of the proffered good or not, he takes into the midst of them light which can dissipate the gross darkness of ages, unveils a propitiation which expiates the guilt of a world, and the offer of a peace which reflect* the cloudless tranquillity of heaven itself. * Missionary Enterprises, p. 5G4. 180 RELIGIOUS BENEFITS OF 4. Nor does his usefulness stop even here. At this point it assumes its loftiest character, and only begins to produce its noblest results. An agency there is which can not only take these blessings into the midst of a heathen tribe, but which can then dispose that tribe to receive them; and by that agency the Christian missionary is actually accompanied. A change there is which new-creates the soul; and of that change he is the honored instrument. Pointing to a hundred and eighty thousand Christian converts, he can say, ''Ye were darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord." Name the most depraved and degraded of the species, and pointing to those converts he can say, ''Such were some of you; but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified, in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.'" Do we speak of " the vision of dry bones" as a scene typical of a great spiritual triumph ? Here is, at least, " an exceed- ing great army" raised from the dead by the same renewing power, and whose spiritual change is worthy of being classed with the most stupendous miracles of grace. Do we point to the three thousand converts of the Pentecost, and pray for a similar triumph of the converting Spirit ? Here are, numerically at least, the fruits of the Pentecostal scene fifty times repeated. 5. If we knew of a volume, parts of which were pre- pared for converts such as those we have described, and the whole of which, written by the finger of God, was calculated to reflect light, and love, and glory around them; if we knew of a day on which they could statedly assemble together to worship God, and associate in spirit with the seraphim around the throne, and enjoy a foretaste of the Sabbath above; and if there existed a society instituted by Christ, enjoying his perpetual presence, and designed expressly to train them up for the perfect society of the blessed, would not he who should be the means of putting them in possession of all this do more than confer on them the wealth of a world ? Such a volume there is, and with incalculable toil the missionary has prepared and placed it in their hands; and as they bend over the sacred page, or press it to their hearts, the language which beams in their eye, and escapes from their lips, is, " Lord, to whom shall we go but unto thee '/ thou hast the words of eternal life!" Such a day there is; and as it ^ CHRISTIAN MISSIONS 181 dawns with all the hallowed tranquillity of the first Sabbath, ten thousand dwellings, once the habitations of cruelty, re- sound with the morning hymn of praise ; and as its sacred hours advance, a number greater than "the number of thera that are sealed," "of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues," maybe seen assembled "before the throne" of grace, and "before the Lamb," worshipping God "in the beauty of holiness,", and "crying. Salvation unto our God, who sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb." And such a Divine society there is; and to all those worshippers the Christian missionary can say, "Ye are come unto Mount Siou ; .... to the general assembly and Church of the first- born, which are written in heaven." Upwards of a thousand particular Churches, belonging to the great community of the faithful, are at this moment to be found in heathen lands. In each of these, truths are statedly proclaimed, and ordinances administered, which the wise and the holy of former times panted and prayed in vain to enjoy; and on which infinite wisdom and grace have expended their most precious re- sources. So richly worthy of God are they in their constitu- tion and design, that did even the least of thera all exist alone in the earth, it would form a study for angels, from which they might " learn the manifold wisdom of God." So important and precious are they in the estimation of Christ, that while he is represented as only extending his sceptre and dispatching his messengers to other parts of his dominions, he himself "walks in the midst of his Churches." And, con- sequently, so ennobling are they in their practical influence, that every act, and privilege, and law, by which they are dis- tinguished, tends directly to prepare their members for the loftier worship of the beatified Church above. 6. And this reminds us that the bright and ultimate re- sults of Christian missions are nowhere to be found on earth. They are to be looked for in heaven. Could we actually traverse every part of the wide field of missionary labor of which we have spoken, and could we compute the value of its spiritual fruits with the accuracy of the angel who mea- sured the ancient temple with a golden reed, vast as the total would be, it would only furnish us with the first figure of the mighty reckoning which the subject requires. In order to estimate their value aright, we must stand where the seer of 182 RELIGIOUS BENEFITS OF the Apocalypse did, and command a view of heaven. For be it remembered, that since the modern missionary enter- prise commenced, heaven has been constantly receiving ac- cessions from its triumphant labors. And be it observed further, that could the number of these be counted, and be added to the missionary converts now on their way to the hill of Grod, still, in order to calculate the mighty sum of good, we should require to know the trains of usefulness which they have been enabled to lay for all the future. But what do we attempt ? Even then the computation would be only commenced. Were the last Christian missionary sent forth, and the last missionary proclamation of mercy deliv- ered, the spiritual good already effected or commenced by such instrumentality is infinitely beyond the reach of num- bers. Empty, weak, worthless as it is in itself, the Holy Spirit of God has been pleased to employ it as a means by which guilt which might destroy a world has been cancelled ; iron chains of sin have been burst asunder; misery, second only to that of hell, has given place to the peace of God ; hearts, stored with pollution, made habitations of God ; where "Satan's seat" was, happy communities have been formed; large tracts of the earth have been blessed by it; and heaven has been deriving from it some of the richest trophies of redeeming grace. It is important as the salvation of myriads ; precious as the blood of Christ; immeasurable as the joys of heaven ; incalculable as the revolutions of eternity. The mind which at first put it into motion can alone compute the value of its results. If an apostle felt constrained to " give thanks to God always" for the converts of a single Church; if the fact that at Thessalonica a small number had been "turned from idols to serve the living and true God," called forth the perpetual thanksgiving of one who had labored in the missionary field more than all his contemporaries, what should be the amount of our gratitude on beholding our sur- passing success, and recollecting how little we have done in- dividually to achieve it ? " Not unto us, God, not unto us, but unto thy name be all the glory." CHRISTIAN MISSIONS. 18H CHAPTER III. THE REFLEX BENEFITS OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS. , SECTION I. TEMPORAL BENEFITS, One of the most benevolent arrangements of the Divine government is to be found in the fact that no one can impart, or even attempt to impart a benefit, without himself being benefited. " He that watereth, shall himself also be watered.'^ This is not to be regarded so much in the light of a promise, as of a law of the Divine administration — a law by which the streams of beneficence are kept, like the waters of the ocean, in perpetual circulation, so that they are sure, sooner or later, to revisit their source ; and a law, therefore, of which the great Author is himself the sublime illustration. And one of the brightest exemplifications of this law, in modern times, is to be found in the reflex influence of Christian missions. In proof of this, we may begin by calling attention to a class of benefits which even the most sanguine and far-sighted friends of the missionary enterprise hardly contemplated at first — the temporal advantages which it returns to the people with whom it originates. Had one of its more calculating and sagacious friends ventured at the outset to prophesy such eifects, the intimation would have been likely to excite greater contempt, if possible, from the world, than even the expected spiritual result; and even some of the Church would have been ready to say, ''If the Lord would make windows ic heaven, might this thing be." Yet such is the imposing mag- 184 REFLEX TEMPORAL BENEFITS OP nitude to which this class of its results has now attained, that men who care for no other or higher benefit, acknow- ledge that this alone would amply repay the effort by which it is gained. 1. As one of the lowest, but very important advantages of Christian missions, we might name the services which they have rendered to literature and science. Geographical and statistical information, to a very large amount, has been fur- nished by the missionaries respecting Western Africa.* The Christian Researches of Buchanan in India, and of Jowett in the Mediterranean, Syria, and the Holy Land; the journals of Heber; the biographies of Martyn, Hall, Turner, Thom- ason, Brown, and others; the periodical accounts of the Serampore brethren ; and the voluminous reports of several of the missionary institutions, are of great value to the his- torian and the naturalist. The Travels of Tyerman and Bennett; of Gutzlaff' in China; and of Smith and Dwight through Georgia, Armenia, etc. ; the Polynesian Researches of Ellis, and Heartley's Researches in Greece and the Le- vant; Gobat's Abyssinian Journal; Williams's Missionary Enterprises in the South Sea Islands ; Medhurst's China ; and the invaluable volume of " Evidence on the Aborigines," are books whose attractions of subject and style have secured them an admission into the library of the philosopher as well as of the Christian. Geography, geology, natural history, philology, and ethnography — the science which classifies na- tions according to their languages^ — have been greatly en- riched by them. "Numerous materials," says Balbi,| " for the comparison of languages, have been collected at various times during the last three hundred years. In this field, along with many other very useful laborers, the ministers of Christian- ity have occupied the first rank. To the zeal of the Moravian, Baptist, and other Protestant missionaries, as well as to the * See the Life of S. J. Mills ; the eleven volumes of the African Repository ; the London INIissionary Register ; and Reports of the African Institution. f Or, more strictly, the science which has for its object to classify nations. X Preliminary Discourse prefixed to the Atlas Ethnographique, Paris, 1826 CHRISTIAN MISSIONS. 185 members of Bible Societies* of all Christian sects, ethnogra- phy owes its acquaintance with so many nations hitherto unknown in India and other regions of Asia, in various parts of America and Oceanica, along with the translation, in whole or in part, of the Bible, in more than a hundred differ- ent languages." In philology especially, the contributions of the missionaries have been distinguished. By correcting prevailing errors re- specting linguistic affinities ;f by bringing to light some of the choicest literary treasures of antiquity ;;|; by their valuable translations from the languages of the East;§ by reducing many of the unwritten languages of the earth to order and intelligible classification ;|| and by the patient and laborious preparation of English and foreign dictionaries and gram- mars,^ they have laid the philologist under permanent obli- gation. Accordingly, not only has commerce been indebted to them, and an embassy employed them,** but even learned societies')"!" call in their aid, and accord their grateful * The British and Foreign Bible Society has printed the Bible in nearly two hundred languages and dialects. f Rev. Mr. Lieder, of the Church Missionary Society, seems to have determined that the Berber language of North Africa has no resem- blance to that spoken by the Berberi of Nubia, as supposed by Balbi and others. His investigations throw great light on the languages spoken in Nubia. X The German Missionary Society entertains the hope that its missionaries at Shoosha will soon succeed in publishing that most precious relic of the Armenian Church, their earliest transUition of the Bible, dating from the fourth century. [.4 hope since disappointed, by the expulsion of the missionaries. '\ ^ Mr. Thomson is understood to have engaged to translate, for the Oriental Translation Society, some original works fi'om the language of the Bugis, or principal nation of Celebes. II See the chapter preceding. % Here Morrison — the Johnson of Christian lexicographers — stan Is conspicuous. Klaproth, in a detailed critique on his Chinese and English Dictionary, in the Allgemeine Litteratur Zcitung, places it be- side "the great lexicon of the immortal Meninski." Montucci goes much beyond this praise. M. Abel Remusat, Davis, and Huttman, pronounce on it the highest eulog3^ ** Dr. Morrison, in the suite of Lord Amherst, and Chinese inter- preter to the British commission at Canton ; in which office he was succeeded by Gutzlaif. tf The Oriental Translation Society. See above. 186 REFLEX TEMPORAL BENEFITS OF thanks;* while the leading critics and journalists record their praises, f and the graver encyclopa3dist| registers the activity of their labors for the information of posterity. § 2. Christian missions have corrected and enlarged our views of the character and condition of man. In vain would it now be for a Rousseau to repeat his foolish fancies con- cerning the perfections of the savage man, and the happiness of the savage life, and quite unnecessary that a Forster shuaicl gravely adduce evidence to the contrary, || a Ferguson honor them with a philosophical investigation,^ or a Burke expose them to ridicule.** The universal degradation and misery of unreclaimed man, even of that boast of a false phi- losophy, the North American Indian, has, chiefly by the cir- culation of missionary information, become a fact as fully ac- credited as that of his existence. In vain would it now be for a certain class of Europeans to paint in glowing colors, as they once did, the virtue of Asiatic pagans, and to eulogize their mythology as the most perfect system of morality which ever demanded the homage of the heart. That spell of false- hood Buchanan broke, by the exhibition .of Juggernaut and his horrors. And if there was not in so old and well-exam- ined a thing as human nature any new principle of evil to be brought to light, missionary disclosures have at least shown some of its known evil principles operating in the mild Hin- doo, " with such an absoluteness of possessive power, and displaying this disposition in such wantonly versatile, extrava- gant, and monstrous effects, as to surpass all our previous * At a meeting of the Oriental Translation Society, in London, June 23cl, 1832, a vote of thanks to this effect to the American mis- sion in Ceylon, proposed by Sir A. Johnston, and seconded by Sir W. Ouseley, was unanimously carried. f "These authors," says the Foreign Quarterly Review, No. 28, referring to Marsden, Raffles, and Crawford, "have been folio-wed, and, at least, in practical acquaintance with the languages of the Eastern islands, surpassed, by several of the English missionaries." X See Balbi. I In the American Biblical Repository for January, 1836, there is an article on the subject of the above paragraph, replete with inform- ation, to which the author gratefully acknowledges his obligations. II Observations, etc., by J. R. Forster, LL. D., 1778. ^ View of Society. ** Vindication of Natural Society CHRISTIAN MISSIONS. 187 imaginations and measures of possibility."* And, on the other hand — for the same persons who profess to regard the perfection of one class of pagans as all but inimitable, can, with singular versatility, pronounce another class irreclaim- able — in vain would they now refuse the claims and rights of humanity to any portion of the species. " Ten years ago/' says the reportj" for 1820 of an American missionary society, '' the aborigines of our country were regarded by this great community, with the exception of here and there an indi- vidual, as an utterly intractable race, never to be brought within the pale of civilized society, but doomed by unalter- able destiny to melt away and become extinct; and a spirit of vengeance and of extermination was breathed out against them in many parts of our land. Now, the whole nation is moved by a very different spirit." The missionary experi- ment has determined that there is no form of humanity, how- ever lost to civilization, which cannot be restored to it; or however sunk in the brute, which cannot be raised, recovered, and taught to hold communion with the skies. x\nd almost equally in vain will it soon be for the disciples of the French naturalist to continue to deny the origin of the race in a single pair. '^ God has made of one blood all na- tions of men to dwell on the face of the earth." In this doctrine of a common nature, and the consequent closeness of relationship among all the branches of the human family, is laid the foundation of all the social affections and duties. •AVhatever tends to confirm this doctrine, therefore, must be pronounced of vital importance. Now, the philological labors of the Christian missionary are serving to simplify that pro- cess which goes to show that all the known languages of the earth are but dialects of one now most probably lost. J Be- sides which, the identity of effect which the preaching of the gospel universally produces, contributes new and satisfactory species of evidence of the identity of the origin of all man- * FosV;r's incomparable Missionary Discourse, or profound Treatise, bound up witli his Essay on Popular Ignorance, p. 422. I The Eleventh Annual Report of the American Board of Commis- sioners for Foreign Missions. + The French Academy, after long research and deliberation, have given to this view their decided approbation ; so also Schlegel and other distinguished scholars. 188 REFLEX TEMPORAL BENEFITS OF kind. When we see how Christ was "■ followed by the Greek, though a founder of none of his sects; is revered by the Brahmin, though preached to him by men of the fisherman's caste ; worshipped by the red man of Canada, though belong- ing to the hated pale race; we cannot but consider him as destined to break down all distinction of color, and shape, and countenance, and habits, and to form in himself the type of unity to which are referable all the sons of Adam, and to give us, in the possibility of this moral convergence, the strongest proof that the human species, however varied, is essentially one."* 3. But not only has the Christian missionary contributed to correct and enlarge our views of the distant branches of the human family — in numerous instances he has been the means of correcting and elevating tlieir views of our charac- ter. Numerous and substantial services have accrued to the European from this source, especially in the islands of the Pacific. The single illustration we shall cite, however, has its scene in semi-civilized India, " Do not send to me any of your agents," said Hyder AH, in his messages to the coun- cil at Madras, "for I do not trust their words or treaties; but, if you wish me to listen to your proposals, send to me the missionary Swartz, of whose character I hear so much from every one — him I will receive and trust." And in his letter to the Marquis Cornwallis, General Fullarton writes, " On our second march, we were visited by the Rev. Mr. Swartz, whom your Lordship and the Board requested to proceed to Serin- gapatam, as a faithful mediator between Tippoo and the Com- missioners. The knowledge and integrity of this irreproach- able missionary liave retrieved the character of Europeans from imputations of general depravity T '\ 4. To a very considerable extent. Christian missions have hefin instrumental also in the preservation of European life. On the capitulation of Cuddalore, in 1782, the influence and efforts of Gericke were the means of saving numbers from the fangs of Hyder, and from all the accumulated miseries which he heaped on his victims. J " When Bishop Johannes de Watteville was on a visitation -■■ Wiseman's Lectures, vol. i. p. 257. t See Gutzlaff on this subject, Voyages, p. 58. X Smith and Choiiles's Histoi-y of Missions, vol. i. p. 31. c^ CHRISTIAN 3USSI0NS 189 of the negro congrep;ations in the Danish West India islands, the governor pointed to the church of the missionaries, and remarked tliat it was the principal fortress, and considered by him as the great safeguard of the island. He added, that before it was built, he had not ventured to sleep a night out of the fortress on his plantation ; but now he had no fear ; for even if there was a conspiracy among the slaves, the Christian slaves were sure to hear of and to discover it.'"^ But on this important though incidental service rendered by Christian missions, the " Evidence on the Aborigines" abounds with illustrations. When, in consequence of unpro- voked injuries inflicted by whalers and others, the natives have determined to seize, in blind retaliation, on the next European vessel that touches their shores, the missionary has often succeeded in dissuading them from the execution of their fatal purpose. f Disputes which could have ended only in personal conflicts between European crews and native tribes, have been terminated amicably by missionary mediation. | And even when a conflict of mutual destruction has actually oc- curred, the missionary station — as in the late insurrection of the Caffres — has been a city of refuge to the fugitive Euro- pean. Not only were their own lives saved, but, owing to the influence which they possessed, they were the means of preserving several of the traders. § 5. This reminds us that commerce itself is under no small ohligations to missionari/ influence. In vain were all the at- tempts of the colonial government to establish a commercial intercourse with the Caffre tribes, until the Christian mission- ary had gained a footing amongst them.|| But not only does he now form a connecting link in the chain of civilization be- tween the colonies and the Caffres and other tribes^ — by the introduction of the plough, he is likely to be the means of turning the attention of the aborigines from pastoral to agri- cultural pursuits; in consequence of which their cattle will no longer prove a source of irritation and conflict with the frontier colonists,'*'* and a much narrower compass of land will be sufficient for their comfortable support. *|"j" * Ryan's Effects of Religion on Mankind, p. 229. t Evidence on the Aborigines, pp. 47, 48, 285. X Idem, p. 207. I Idem, p. 344. || Idem, p. 339. \ Idem, p. 346. **- Idem, p. 155. ff Idem, p. 93. 190 REFLEX TEMPORAL BENEFITS OF New Zealand is unquestionably the key to India, on the one hand, as the Cape of Good Hope is on the other. And if, as events increasing!}^ indicate, a wise policy should require our government to enter into a friendly treaty with that country, the measure would be greatly facilitated, if not entirely owing, to the favorable predisposition created in our behalf by mis- sionary influence.* Up to a very recent period, the South Sea Islands were, in a commercial point of view, a complete blank; but now they are made to contribute to our wants, and to take off our man- ufactures to a considerable extent. f Sugar is cultivated, and taken in native-built vessels to the colony of New South Wales;! and more arrowroot has been brought from thence to England in one year, than had been imported for nearly twenty previous years. § Between two and three hundred thousand of the natives are now w^earing European clothing, and using European implements and articles, who a few years ago knew nothing of our manufactures. || 6. The shipjnng of our country, too, dei'ives as much ad- vantage from Christian missions as its commerce. This will appear if it be recollected that intercourse between Europeans and the untaught islanders of the Pacific is always dangerous, and has often proved fatal. The adventurous Magellan fell at the Ladrone Islands ; Captain Cook was barbarously mur- dered at the Sandwich group; the ship Fe?nics of the day, it rendered a service to the Church which those who are accustomed to the variety of the present time can scarcely estimate. ^. 2. The striking manner in which the missionary enter- prise enlivened the piety, and increased the happiness, of those who first espoused it, may be illustrated best by the fol- lowing quotations : '' There was a period of my ministry,'^ said the devoted Andrew Fuller to a friend, " marked by the most pointed systematic effort to comfort my serious people; but the more I tried to comfort them, the more they com- plained of doubts and darkness. ... I knew not what to do, nor what to think, for I had done my best to comfort the mourners in Zion. At this time it pleased God to direct my altention to the claims of the perishing heathen in India; I felt that we had been living for ourselves, and not caring for their souls. I spoke as I felt. My serious people wondered and wept over their past inattention to the subject. They began to talk about a Baptist mission. The females espe- cially began to collect money for the spread of the gospel. Wo met and prayed for the heathen ; met and considered n 194 REFLEX SPIRITUAL BENEFITS OF what could be done amongst ourselves for them ; met and did what we could. And, whilst all this was going on, the lamentations ceased. The sad became cheerful, and the de- sponding calm. No one complained of a want of comfort. And I, instead of having to study how to comfort my flock, was myself comforted by them. They were drawn out of themselves. Sir, that was the real secret. God blessed them while they tried to be a blessing.^' "After the departure of our brethren" — the first Baptist missionaries to India — says the brief narrative of the Baptist mission,* "we had time for reflection. In reviewing the events of a few preceding months, we were much impressed. The thought of having done something towards enlarging the boundaries of our Saviour's kingdom, and of rescuing poor heathens and Mohammedans from under Satan's yoke, rejoiced our hearts. "We were glad also to see the people of God ofi"ering so willingly; some leaving their country, others pour- ing in their property, and all uniting in prayers to Heaven for a blessing. A new bond of union was formed between distant ministers and churches. Some, who had backslidden from God, were restored; and others, who had long been poring over their unfruitfulness, and questioning the reality of their personal religion, having their attention directed to Christ and his kingdom, lost their fears, and found that peace which in other pursuits they had sought in vain. In short, our hearts were enlarged; and if no other good had arisen from the undertaking than the effect produced upon our own minds, and the minds of Christians in our own country, it was more than equal to the expense. ""j" 3. The benefit of Christian activity became general; for the missionary spirit, seizing in steady succession the v^arious sections of the Christian community, quickened them all into emulation. The movement of one department was a signal for the movement of every other. And long before the last tribe of our British Israel had unfurled its banners and fol- lowed the van, the Churches of America, excited by our ex- ample, gave " note of preparation," and took the field. In * Second Report of the Southern Board [American] of Foreigu Missions. f Smith and Choulcs's History of Missions, vol. i., p. 189. r CHRISTIAN MISSIONS. 195 equally quick succession, their tribes came ''forth to the help of the Lord," and were soon seen " provoking one another to love and to good works." Nor, indeed, has the hallowed pro- vocation on either side of the Atlantic been confined, sufjse- queutly, to its own hemisphere. The identity of our object has given us a reciprocity of influence which places each separate portion of our respective communities under the im- pulse of the whole ; so that a movement made by one is almost instantly felt by all. What an illustration has the working of our missionary institutions thus created, of the incalculable value and power of Christian influence ! 4. Nor was the institution of one missionar}'- society a sig- nal for the establishment of other societies of the same kind, merely. The Spirit of God had moved upon the face of the eccle- siastical waters, and each succeeding period was distinguished by creations of its OAvn. Like a true scion from the life-giving tree of prophetic vision, "which bare twelve manner of fruits," the missionary enterprise soon found itself the stock of varioua kindred institutions. AYhile, judging from the subsequent renovation of some other societies of a prior existence, it has had the efi"ect of fertilizing and improving institutions which it has not originated. So that, pointing at many of our asso- ciations and eff'orts for the distribution of Bibles and tracts; for the establishment of Sunday-schools, and the advancement of village evangelization, we may ask. Which of these did not receive either its existence, or its impulse, from the mission- ary enterprise ? 5. And thus we have been gradually regaining the long- forgotten but invaluable conviction, that the cause of religion at home and ahroad is one. If Christian missions have taught us, on the one hand, that the same principles which prompt us to train up our children in the fear of God, and to seek the salvation of those immediately around us, impel to evan- gelical eff'orts for the benefit of every portion of the human race, and that to attempt to separate living piety from expan- sive beneficence is almost as vain as it is unscriptural, by bringing to light new and fearful scenes of foreign destitution, and by thus arousing attention and quickening our Christian sensibilities, they have been the means, on the other, of pre- paring us to feel a livelier interest in the claims of home. Evils to which we had become resigned, because they were 196 REFLEX SPIRITUAL BENEFITS OF continually before our e^-es, and wliich escaped our animad- version almost as much as if they formed an inseparable part of the course of nature, have consequently been not only deplored, but successfully assailed. The reasons which are assigned for sending the gospel abroad, are felt to acquire augmented force when applied to the wants of the perishing at home. Besides which, the efforts which are made abroad are found to demand more than an equal effort at home to supply their expenditure. While this improvement at home, demanding a wider sphere than the country which gave it birth, is transferred to the unlimited range of missionary labor; and thus the infant-school of yesterday has its counter- part to-day in the glens of /Vfrica, the Australian wilderness, and the islands of the Pacific; and what is -gained for hu- manity in any one spot, is found not to impoverish any other, but to be gained for humanity throughout the world.* 6. By this and similar means, the. views of the Christian Church have been greatly enlarged. The missionary enter- prise could have been conceived only on the top of Pisgah. It refuses to entertain any design less than the ameliora- tion of the species. Taking it for granted .that every true interest is universal, it consults, as it prosecutes its march, the map of the world. Its appropriate type is an angel flying through the midst of heaven. Even the discovery of a new continent, and the enlarge- ment of the universe by the invention of the telescope, gave an impulse to Europe, the force of which is still felt, and still carrying us forward. And should the objects and prospects of the missionary enterprise produce impressions less power- ful or sublime ? So lofty is the mount of contemplation to which it conducts us, so boundless the prospect which it there stretches before us, and so completely does it famil- iarize our minds with the vast designs of God, and the ample plans of his providence, that our purposes may well seem to enlarge greatly beyond the proportion of our means. The statesman, who plans only to preserve the balance of empire, and whose scheme embraces an age beyond his own, is praised for the reach and comprehensiveness of his views. But what are the purposes formed, and the ends aimed at, by the friends * Douglas's Advancement of Society, etc., p. 216. CHRISTIAN MISSIONS. 197 of missions ? They lie in a sphere so lofty, that the ambition of the warrior has never reached it, and require so ample a scope, that the policy of the statesman would be spent in it and lost. Their field is the world ; and their aim is to carry the torch of truth into the shadow of death ; to prepare the savage for society, and to give society a sure foundation ; to rescue the slave from his chains, and to welcome him to the liberty of the gospel ; to hush the discord of war, and to restore the various branches of the human race to each other by restoring them to God; and to see all the crowns of the world at the feet of Christ. These are their daily thoughts, their most familiar designs. If true greatness ennobles what- ever it touches, must not the missionary enterprise tend to dignify all who voluntarily come under its influence? By employing us as its agents, it has involved us in the mightiest conflict which the universe ever saw, and has invested us with its own exalted character. It has given to the prayer, "Thy kingdom come,'' a sublimity in ten thousand eyes, which would otherwise have been blind to its grandeur. And twice ten thousand who, but for it, would most likely have been immured at this moment within their little denominational enclosure, and complaining, like Elijah, of their supposed isolation, are exhorting each other in the glowing language of Isaiah, and saj-ing, "Lift up thine eyes round about and see : all they gather themselves together, they come to thee; thy sons come from afar, and thy daughters are nursed at thy side. Then 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.'' 7. But such Christian enlargement of spirit leads to the sijmjyatlietic union of all wJio become conscious of its expand- ing influence. True, it must be deplored with deep humilia- tion before God that the cementing tendency of Christian missions has of late years met with lamentable interruptions. In the midst of those very interruptions, however, the mis- sionary spirit, by often triumphing over them, has been the means of exemplifying the surpassing power of genuine piety, and of furnishing the strongest ground to hope for their final and utter removal. Forgetting their scruples and their prefer- ences, the friends of missions have at times been seen accord- 198 REFLEX SPIRITUAL BENEFITS OF iuGT their hearty support of the glorious gospel, by whomsoever diftiised. With a happy inconsistency, they have hailed the missionary successes of others, and have thus crossed the de- nominational line of separation, and seized the fruits which belong to a season of visible union. While, by every prayer the}^ have breathed for missionary efforts, they have been virtu- ally affirming and consecrating this catholic principle, that it is becoming and scriptural to aid the diffusion of the gospel abroad, whoever the Christian agents may be; and to aid them in the mightiest of all forms, by invoking in their behalf the blessing of God. But besides affirming this great principle of Christian sym- pathy, under circumstances the most adverse to more visible and entire union, the missionary enterprise has been exten- sively the means, under God, of preventing many a rupture which w^ould otherwise have occurred, and of strengthening many a bond of attachment which would else have been burst asunder. As a fine illustration, we quote the following ex- tract from the Report* of an American missionary society : ^' The whole business of forming these Boards [of Foreign Missions] was conducted in all three of the Synods with entire unanimity, and was felt by all to have exerted on these bodies, and on the cause of religion as they are related to it, a most happy influence. In the Synod of South Carolina and Georgia, the business was concluded by the unanimous adop- tion of the following resolution : 'Resolved, That this Synod acknowledge with gratitude the goodness of God, in bringing before them the great subject of foreign missions, and in di- recting thera to a unanimous and blessed result.' " And a member of the Synod, a pastor of one of its most important churches, speaks of the influence of these proceedings as follows, in a letter to one of the secretaries: "This Synod has been by it saved from disunion and discord. It has been harmonized and united. It has been melted down into one mass. It has now one soul, and breathes one sentiment — to live, not for ourselves, or our own sectional interests, but for the conversion of the world. Such a happy, holy, rejoicing, and blessed meeting of Synod has never, according to the •^ Twenty-fifth Annual Report of the American Board of Commis- sioners for Foreign Missions, 1834, pp. 30, 31. CHRISTIAN MISSIONS. 199 opinion of the eldest members, been witnessed and enjoyed. There were dark and portentous clouds hanging over it. Every mind was filled with apprehension. Each feared to ask the sentiment of his brother. But the clouds are dis- persed and gone. Our fears are changed into joys, and we parted from each other in the warmest interchange of bro- therly aifection. And all is attributable — and, by a solemn recorded resolution of the Synod, is ascribed — to the discussion of the missionary subject, and engagement in the missionary cause. The scene which occurred when we all stood up, after uniting in prayer, to adopt the whole constitution, was over- powering. There were few dry eyes, even of those unused to tears. There were frequent and loud sobbings. There was the solemnity of eternity. There was the cool intrepidity of a band of soldiers, preparing for a charge upon the citadel of an armed and enraged enemy. After adopting the constitu- tion, we sang the missionary hymn, when it seemed that heaven heard the sound, and earth responded with a glad 'Amen.'" 8. But the same missionary enlargement of spirit which tends to unite all who partake of it into one sympathetic brotherhood, has also led to the willing consecration of their 'property. Such was the boundless benevolence of Clirist, that ''for the joy set before him," and which consisted partly in the prospect of human salvation, he '' endured the cross, despising the shame.'' Was it, then, to be wondered at if his professed followers should so far share in his benevolence as to contribute a portion of their property for an object for which he gave " his own self?" Accordingly, the widow has been seen casting into the mission treasury of her penury, and the rich man of his abundance; and though the scale of Christian liberality is still far below the standard of the gos- pel, yet how much lower would it have been, humanly speak- ing, but for the ennobling influence of Christian missions ! How many have been led to abandon the notion that we may allowably hoard up our property while we live, if we will only make a religious bequest of a certain proportion of it at death ! Strange as it would have appeared to us all a few years ago, and strange as it seems even now to those who are behind their age. Christians can be found whose religious charities considerably exceed a tenth of their income. Mil- 200 REFLEX SPIRITUAL BENEFITS OF lions have been contributed to Christian missions, a hirge pro- portion of which would otherwise have been given to '* the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life." And the number is increasing of those who are ready to add to their other offerings upon the altar, themselves and their children. In three respects especially has the missionary enterprise produced a most salutary effect on Christian liberality. It has shown that, like every other disposition, benevolence is strengthened by exercise ; for in proportion as information concerning heathen wretchedness and Christian obligation to alleviate it has been circulated, every increased demand for Christian charity has been regularly met with an increased supply. 2, It has led many who gave from impulse only to contribute from principle, and on a system; and has thus given to charity the character of a holy philosophy, 3. And it has produced an auspicious dissatisfaction with the highest scale of liberality hitherto attained, and awakened a conviction that the pecuniary resources of a Church adequately alive to its obligations w^ould, under the Divine administration of Him who multiplied a morsel into a feast for five thousand, prove indefinite and inexhaustible. 9. Nor has the missionary enterprise less directly tended to awaken and cherish a sjyirit of prayer. We have already spoken of the period when monthly missionary meetings for prayer were commenced as an era in the history of Christian missions ] and though every division of the Christian com- munity may not have formally adopted the same course, there is no portion perhaps which has not in consequence been favorably influenced ; certainly none which the missionary spirit has not quickened into increased devotion. Owing to the same cause, how much greater a prominence has be.n given to the doctrine of Divine influence, and how much more deeply have thousands felt their dependence upon it ! How many a public meeting has solemnly resolved to the effect, '' That, recognizing their dependence on the gracious agency of the Holy Spirit for all success in labors for saving the heathen, and the indispensable importance of fervent and importunate supplication to Almighty God for this purpose," Christians should be exhorted and excited to increased inter- cession I And how many an instance of private devotion has CHRISTIAN MISSIONS 201 ensued, unknown to njan, but witnessed by angels, and re- corded in heaven, in which such resolutions have been car- ried into effect " with strong crying and tears !" Indeed, what is now the one ardent, all-comprehending desire of the holiest portion of the Christian Church but this, "Let the whole earth be filled with his glory?" — a desire which, in the eye of God, is equally a prayer, whether it be "uttered or unexpressed;" so that it may be regarded as always ascend- ing; a desire which gives birth in every heart that cherishes it to a thousand kindred desires, each of which brings down the Divine blessing, not on the missionary enterprise alone, but on the entire field of Christian activity; and a desire which, as it cannot be urged in prayer without being fulfilled, so it cannot be fulfilled without multiplying the number of Christian suppliants, and thus filling the Church with inter- cessors for the world. " Thou that hearest prayer, unto thee shall all flesh come." 10. What nolle specimens of Christian character has the missionary enterprise given to the Church and to the re oriel ! The enterprise itself is a pure creation of Christianity. It is a combination, not of the worldly and selfish to advance their own peculiar interests; not of the powerful and the wealthy to tyrannize over the poor and the helpless; but an associa- tion of the great and the good, of the aged pastor, the ardent missionary, and the young disciple — of all that is excellent in the Christian Church; an association in which the wealth of the affluent, the tongue of the learned, the prayer of the poor, and the mite of the widow, are combined and engaged to give the gospel to all the tribes and nations of the earth. But among the friends and agents of this unworldly con- federation there are some whose character shines with pecu- liar lustre. Here female piety has recovered and displayed anew the glory which it won when it wept at the cross, and was early at the sepulchre. Here offerings more costly than those of the " sweet spices" of the sepulchre have been pre- sented by the Christian Marys of modern times. Here many a mother, whom the world knows not, has, in the depth of her own heart, like the mother of Mills,* dedicated her off- spring to a post of distant labor. What Spartan mother of * Smith and Choules's History of Missions, vol. ii., p. 234. 202 REFLEX SPIRITUAL BENEFITS OF old, when buckling on th^ armor of her son, and bidding him, as she gave him his shield, '' either to bring it back, or to be brought back upon it," can compare with the widowed mother of Lyman, when she replied to the intelligence that her son had been murdered by the cannibal Battas, " I bless God, who gave me such a son to go to the heathen, and I never felt so strongly as I do at this moment the desire that some others of my sons may become missionaries also, and may go and preach salvation to those savage men who have drunk the blood of my son."* What ancient Hebrew women, receiving " their dead raised to life again," surpassed the self-denying faith of the widowed mother who could say of a son to whom herself and her seven children were beainnino; to look for support, ''Let him go: God will provide for me and my babes. And who am I, that I should be thus honored to have a son a missionary to the heathen ?" and who, when that son had labored successfully in India, and had died, could say of a second, who aspired to walk in the footsteps of his brother, '' Let William follow Joseph, though it be to India, and an early grave ?"f Here the accomplished and highly intellect- ual female may be seen meekly, yet firmly, devoting herself to a distant and arduous career: vying with the hero in his defiance of dangers, and with the martyr in the endurance of them. If self-devotion deserve our applause, who can pre- sent a stronger claim than Harriet Newell? If the heroic en- durance of suffering is to be embalmed in the memory, who deserves a brighter memorial than Anne Hazeltine Judson ? But to speak of all the examples of moral greatness asso- ciated with the missionary enterprise, is to speak of a number which '^ the time would fail me to tell." Who does not think of those men of the western wilderness who first taught us in modern times Jioio the savage is to be reclaimed ? Who does not think of the Moravian heroes of Greenland and Labrador in the north; of the early mission to Tranquebar in the east; and of those who first toiled and fell in Africa, south ? and who can think of them without feeling that, under God, they and their successors have served, and saved the character of, the Christian Church ? To admire self-devotion and noble daring in theory only is * Holt's Missionary Anecdotes, p. 260. f Idem, p. 262. CHRISTIAN MISSIONS. 20B cheap virtue; and yet, prior to the rise of missions, but few Christians were doing more than this. If the rising offspring of religious parents would read of wasting privations endured, of dangers braved and vanquished, and of conflicts attempted and achieved — the most attractive topics for the young — they had to seek them in the pages of the enterprising merchant, the soldier, or the scientific traveller. To practice self-denial which should be repaid only by conscience, to think of benefi- cence without fame, to do any thing more than admire the disinterested zeal of the reformers, confessors, and missiona- ries of former times, would have been deemed not less im- practicable by the Church, generally, than irrational by the world. Now, to the men who have been raised up by God in the service of modern missions we are greatly indebted for the termination of this guilty delusion. They have shown that the Church need not be tame and uninteresting in its character ; that the world need not be allowed to monopolize all that is fascinating in youthful eyes; that real greatness need not be suspended in the clouds, and admired as a rain- bow, but that it may be brought down and embodied in actual life. Who does not feel that their example has instru- mentally created in the Church the atmosphere of a nobler piety, and that we are living under its influence? The lowest benefit they have conferred is, that they have robbed the apathetic of their plea; so that, till the voice of history shall be dumb, wherever an eff'ort shall be made to invade the kingdom of darkness, their example will be pre- sent to silence the objection that, though the theory is good, it is impossible to put it in practice. There is virtue even in their memory. It imposes a restraint on the worldliness of thousands. As their professed admirers, we feel ourselves bound not to fall too glaringly below their standard of excel- lence. But if they are only preventing some from filling below a certain point, they are exciting numbers to rise. And who does not recognize the wisdom of God in appointing that some of the pioneers in the modern missionary field should have been giants in holy daring and strength, and, as such, fitted to be exemplars to all who came after them in the same career? In the vocabulary of the Church, their names have become synonyms for every species ^of active excellence. 204 REFLEX SPIRITUAL BENEFITS OF Eliot, Zelsberger, and Brainerd, are but other names for indefatigable labor and enterprise, and self-consuming ardor. We think of Swartz, and the might of character. The ac- complished youth, panting to live for Christ in distant lauds, but derided as a visionary, thinks of Martyu, and takes cour- age. Pious and disinterested poverty reads of Carey, and emerges from its humble cell to perform labors which excite the devout thanksgiving of the Church. Faith looks at the origin and early history of the Moravian mission, and, undis- mayed by the scantiness of her human resources, girds up the loins of her mind, and addresses herself to her task afresh. Their biography is creating for the Church a literature of its own. Their example is reproducing itself in a second race. To the influence of Brainerd the Church is chiefly indebted, under God, for the labors of a Milne. The pious father gives their names to his sons, as a title of excellence, and an incite- ment to attain it. Their zeal for God has kindled a fire at which numbers daily are lighting their torch. And thus, in various ways, have they given ardor to holy activity, and mul- tiplied the power of truth; while the Church below unites with the Church above in " glorifying God in them.^' 11. Owing to some of the particulars last enumerated it is that the Christian Church has been gradually awakened to the practicability of the missionary enterprise, and to the con- viction that it 'is the duty of all its members to espouse it. The rising children of the Church may regard this duty as so self-evident that it could never have been doubted. They are to be assured, however, that its practical admission is but of recent date, and that their fathers in Christ had first to be convinced of it themselves, and then laboriously to convince others. They are to be assured that it was but as yesterday that Christians generally were regarding the enormous abomi- nations of paganism with a kind of submissive awe, as if they had been inevitable conditions of humanity ; or, if they thought of their ultimate removal, it was expected only as the result of a miraculous intervention which it was almost presumptuous in them to urge, and in prospect of which it became them rather to '' stand still and see the salvation of God." Meanwhile, the heathen were perishing through their neglect. He who had laid all their powers under tribute for the service; was " walking in the midst" of them, and repeat- t CHRISTIAN MISSIONS. 205 ing, " Go into all the world, preach my gospel to every crea- ture;" and the guilt of centuries of disobedience, accumulated at their door, was daily and hourly rising higher. Who, then, can duly estimate the magnitude of the benefit conferred on the Church by that instrumentality by which it has been aroused to attempt the salvation of those heathen, to obey that high connuand, and, at least, to prevent that mountain of guilt from rising higher? Yet such is the nature of the benefit conferred by the missionary enterprise. Not only has it been the means of creating lofty specimens of individual Christian character — it has given a new character to the col- lective Church. The knowledge which it has circulated even in the most retired parts of the country, and among the lowest ranks of society, concerning the state of the heathen, has moved the compassion of the faithful generally. By the en- forcement of scriptural obligation on the subject, it has made them all feel, in different degrees, that every one can do something. }3y the organization of auxiliary societies, it has excited and engaged the aid of the humblest, and seeks to engage the cooperation of all. By the noble examples of self-consecration which it has placed before the Church, num- bers have been led to inquire whether or not they are living as they ought for the conversion of the world. While, with each returning year, the sentiment of a thousand resolutions proposed at public meetings, and responded to by twice ten thousand hearts, is substantially this — "that more must be done." In this way the Church is becoming more than ever militant and aggressive. The spirit of missions is felt to be the true spirit of the gospel. The noblest ambition is aroused. — the ambition of turning the world's darkness into an empire of light and peace. 12. But by conferring this benefit on the Church, and di- recting its attention to the state of the world, the missionary enterprise has been gradually reducing the strongholds of injideltfy, and "taking from it the arms wherein it trusted," As far as the assaults of this monster evil have been made, at any time, against the grounds of our faith. Christians have only themselves to thank. That the world should voluntarily lay aside its hostility to holiness, do whatever the Church may, is not to be expected ; but that hostility is divisible into 206 REFLEX SriRITUAL EEXEEITS OF two kinds — that which is directed against Christianity^ and that which is aimed at its professors. And what Cliristiaa would not rather that it should be levelled at his own charac- ter, than at that of the gospel, or of his ever-blessed Lord ? And who does not perceive, judging from the history of the Church, that Christians may generally choose which shall be the object of the world's attack — the gospel or its profess- ors ? Let them take the field, act on the aggressive, carry their arms into the enemies' country, and we hear scarcely a word against the truth of the gospel : we give the world no leisure to indulge in speculative skepticism ; it finds enough to do in stigmatizing our character as hypocrites, enthusiasts, and fanatics. But let us quit the field, shut ourselves up in self-indulgence within the walls of the Church, and the world will advance, as an earthly army in similar circumstances would do, and will sap and mine our defences as the only means of reaching and destroying us. Our indolence, in that case, leaves it nothing else to do. Now the eifect of modern missions, on the tactics of infi- delity, illustrates the truth of these remarks. Where now is the infidelity of Spinoza and the Pantheists ; of Bayle and academic doubts; of Voltaire and ridicule; of Hume, Gib- bon, and Kousseau ? Since the missionary enterprise com- menced, it has almost entirely changed its ground and its weapons. Was it one of its favorite objections that the apathy of Christians for the heathen demonstrated that they did not believe their own book ? Every additional missionary that goes forth is assisting to convert that objection, from a weapon of attack, into a means of Christian defence. Was the extreme limitation of Christendom, as compared with the world at large, another of the objections on which it relied? Every new region reclaimed from idolatry, and every addi- tional Church planted in heathen lands, blunt the edge of this objection. After pointing with scorn at the contracted limits of Christendom, did it then pour ridicule on Christians for attempting to enlarge those bounds? But this could have arisen only from the supposed impotence of the gospel by which they proposed to effect the change. So conspicuous, however, have been the triumphs of the cross, in many of the most hopeless parts of the heathen world, that even the magi- CHRISTIAN MISSIONS. 207 cians of worldly philosophy themselves begin to acknowledge that "this is the finger of God," and to despair of ever being able to " do the same with their enchantments." 13. But besides assisting to disarm infidelity, the mission- ary enterprise has eminently i^romioted the cause of biblical study, augmented the evidences of Christianity , and 2^Tnpor- tioncdly increased our confidence in the divinifi/ of its char- acter, and in the certainty of its ultimate triumphs. If sacred science be distributed into the critical or verbal, the devout or practical, and the scientific or theological, the culti- vation of the first of these may be considered as laudably characteristic of the present day. Now, whatever advantage may accrue from this source to the cause of truth in general, must be ascribed, partly, if not chiefly, to the influence of Christian missions. For by creating a demand for the circu- lation of the Holy Scriptures in heathen lands, and by secur- ing their translation into many of the languages of the earth, it has, in conjunction with the Bible Society, necessarily led to the unprecedented cultivation of this important branch of sacred study. And even as to the other departments, which we have specified, the influence of missions has conferred on the Church a greater benefit than all the theological polem- ics of the last century; for if it has not confuted any heresy, it has rendered perhaps a still more important service, in causing some to be practically extinguished and forgotten. While, by the new demands which it has devolved on the Church, and the new relations which we find ourselves called to sustain, the entire Bible has come to assume a compara- tively missionary character. Not merely single verses, but whole masses of truth, have acquired a meaning and an im- portance in our eyes, before unknown. The missionary enterprise has contributed in various ways to illustrate the divinity of the gospel. It assumes that men are everywhere the same — guilty and depraved. But who could be aware of the fact except '' the God of the whole earth?" When the gospel was written, vast regions of the earth remained to be explored, and populous countries to be discovered. How, then, could the writers of the gospel have accurately described the character of men in unknown lands, if they had not '^ spoken as they were moved by the Holy Ghost?" Infidelity has often essayed to prove that the de- 208 REFLEX SPIRITUAL BENEFITS OF pravity of man admits of large exceptions; that in some states of society he is innocent; and that nothing but the discovery of a new people was wanting to demonstrate the truth of its theory. Who, then, could sketch a likeness of man, which men of all times and tongues should recognize as their own, but He who ^' knew what was in man V By the same means, the universal adaptation of the gospel has received the most stinking additional iiroof. Not only have missionaries in India been charged by the natives with forging its faithful delineations of heathenism after their arrival in that country, but when it has filled the soul with a sense of guilt approach- ing to agony, and which nothing human could allay, it has further demonstrated its divinity by saying, '' Peace, be still, and there was a great calm," How often has the convert from heathenism acknowledged, like Cupido, the well-known Hottentot, that, while listening to the gospel for the first time, he was compelled involuntarily to exclaim, *' This is the truth : that is what I want !" At the bare announcement of the words, '' The blood of Jesus Christ, his Son, cleanseth us from all sin," the devotee walking on spikes to atone for his guilt has thrown off his torturing sandals, and exclaimed, "This is what I need," and has become ''a living exposi- tion of the truth." " ' How beautiful, how tender, how kind,' — Anundo, a pupil in the General Assembly's school, Calcutta, was often heard to exclaim, while reading the Ser- mon on the Mount — ' How full of love and goodness ! 0, how unlike the spirit and maxims of Hindooisra ! Surely this is the truth !' Never was there a more striking exemplifi- cation of what Owen calls ^ the self-evidencing power of the Bible.' "* And so strong and sufl&cient does this self-com- mending internal evidence prove, that missionary converts are almost uniformly found to embrace the gospel independ- ently of its external proofs. But this circumstance itself is additional evidence in its behalf. Hindooism, without leav- ing its native land to challenge examination, has been falsified and disproved. The microscope alone has laid its pretensions in the dust, by proving that the Maker of infusoria and ani- malculas could not have been the author of its Shastres. Ge- *Holt, p. 129; furnished by Rev. Dr. Duff, in the Scots Presbyte- rian Review. CHRISTIAN MISSIONS. 209 ography has done the same for Mohammedanism, by showing that the " Grod of the whole earth" could not have been the author of the Koran ; for to require its disciples, during the Ramadan, to fast from the rising to the setting of the sun, is to proclaim its ignorance of the arctic and antarctic circles. But wherever Christianity has gone, it has derived additional evidence of its self-commending excellence and universal adaptation ; thus strengthening our conviction that the Maker of man and the Author of the gospel is one — " the only liv- ing and true God." Still further is this conviction deepened by the illustration which the missionary enterprise affords of the saving power of the gospel. Had the primitive Christians been perplexed with doubts concerning the sufficiency of the gospel to meet cases of extreme depravity, how eminently fitted was the con- version of Saul of Tarsus to remove them ! After him, of whom need they despair ? Now, that the Christians of mod- ern times did very generally entertain doubts of this descrip- tion, is matter of authentic record. Whatever they might hope from its introduction among the civilized and inquiring, they were more than distrustful of its reception among the barbarous. How solemn but gracious a rebuke, then, have missionary successes been the means of administering to our unbelief, and what illustrious evidence have they supplied that the gospel is still '^ the power of God unto salvation to every one that believethi" If Christianity has conquered Tahiti and Labrador, New Zealand and Caffraria, what coun- try can stand before it when accompanied by the grace of its Author ? In the history of its progress we recognize almost every display of gracious power of which the mind can conceive. It has melted the inflexible Iroquois into penitence and tears; and has enabled the shrinking Hindoo to brave the loss of caste and the martyr's pangs. By a mightier exorcism than the negro or the Esquimaux had ever imagined, it has de- livered the one from the enslaving fears of the Obeah, and cast out the terrible Torngak from the creed of the other. What other evidence of its power can be necessary? Under its subduing and humanizing influence, the convert from the frozen zone has been hailed as a brother in Christ by the Christian Indian in his native wilderness, and the once savage 14 210 REFLEX SPIRITUAL BENEFITS OF warrior of America has sent letters of peace and love to the fisher of Greenland. At its sound the barbarian veteran of a hundred battles, and of a hundred years, has become a little child ; and a host of warriors, each of whom would once have preferred death to a tear, have wept, '-so that there was a very great mourning, like the mourning of Hadadrimmon."* What other evidence can be necessary ? Instruments which had never been used but for war and murder, it has converted to useful and even sacred purposes;"}* and tribes which had never met but in deadly conflict, it assembles together around the table of the Lord. It has declined no contest through fear of defeat; and wherever it has gone, it has erected monu- ments of its saving power. What other evidence can be necessary? To my mind, says the eloquent Richard Watson, there is nothing in the history of the Church which so strikingly exhibits the power of our religion, as its triumphs over the moral evils so uniformly and necessarily inherent in a system of slavery. Glorious were the effects of Christianity among the slaves of the ancient world. It gave cheerfulness to submission, and patience to wrong; it created charity where gratitude could have no place; shut the lip of reproach, and silenced murmuring. But owing to the greater evils of modern slavery, religion, in our colonies, has triumphed more gloriously still. Its light has penetrated, so to speak, the solid darkness of mind left without instruction ; it has struck the chords of feeling in hearts unaccustomed to salutary emotion ; it has reconciled man to the degradation of color and feature ; it has produced charity towards those who have dealt out to them the most humbling kinds of insult ; breathed over passions which, when once awakened, are terrible, the calm of resignation ; and taught the spirit, spurned from every other resting-place, to rest in God, and to wait for his salvation. J What other evidence of its power can be necessary ? Among its converts are men whose depravity would have compared with that of a Jeroboam, a Manasseh, or a Saul of Tarsus : Ananke, the Esquimaux murderer ; and the Mohican, Tschoop, ^ Brainerd's Journal. f Ellis's Polynesian Researches, vol. ii., p. 619. IX See Introduction.— T. 0. S.] CHRISTIAN MISSIONS. 211 a monster of debauchery and vice ; Africaner, the plunderer of neighboring tribes, and the destroyer of missionary settle- ments; Tamatoa, once blasphemously worshipped as a god; Vaza, the procurer of human sacrifices; and Roniatane, the devastator of islands. By the ministry of the gospel, the Sa- viour speaks to them as from heaven, and '' behold, they pray I" The epitome of vice becomes an epistle of Christ. The demon is transformed into " a pattern of the believers. "" The sanguinary chief is the first to beseech and adjure, with tears of entreaty, those to whom his name had been a terror, and whose race he had almost exterminated, to embrace sal- vation. What other evidence of its power can be necessary? If the success of the gospel on its first promulgation forms an evidence of its divinity, the success of the modern mis- sionary enterprise must be received as an additional evidence to the same efiect. It has been attended with spiritual tri- umphs of the same kind, and which can only be resolved into the same supernatural cause. Then surely our confidence in its sufficiency, as the instrument of human salvation, should be proportionally increased. Thus it was with the apostles." And if doubts of the Divine sufficiency of the gospel ever haunted our minds, imparting feebleness to its ministry, and creating indifference as to its difi"usion, what should, what must be the effect of its subsequo-nt triumphs, but to impart ardor to our activity, and earnestness to our prayers, and a moral dignity to our onward step, eminently conducive, through God, to still greater success '( 14. And not only has the missionary enterprise increased our confidence in the final conversion of the heathen — it has been attended by the salvation of many of our oicn countri/- men, both at home and abroad. In commencing our remarks on the reflex spiritual influence of Christian missions, we adverted to the service they had incidentally rendered the Church in helping to break up the prevailing monotony of its religious occupations. Who can doubt but that, humanly speaking, many a youth whom that monotony would have re- pelled, has been held, by the new attraction of Christian activity, in allegiance to the outward service of God, till re- newing grace has changed his heart? And who can ques- tion but that the missionary spirit, thus excited and bound up with early associations, has given its character to the man, 212 REFLEX SPIRITUAL BENEFITS OF and is animating and determining the useful course of many, who, but for this, would have been lost to the Church, and devoted to the world ? Indeed, the conversion of some has 'actually taken place, not in the sanctuary, and by the ordinary means of grace, but at the public meetings of our religious societies. Still more marked have been the saving effects of the mis- sionary cause upon our countrymen abroad. Between thirty and forty years ago, Buchanan wrote, " There are not ten righteous men to be found in Calcutta." "At that time," says another missionary, "you might have travelled from one extremity of India to the other, and have found no premoni- tion of the Sabbath-day except the waving of flags at the military stations. As to the mercantile classes, to have closed a single house of agency on the Sabbath, would have been looked on as a strange deviation from the customs of com- mercial life. Now, it would be deemed as strange a departure from decorum in India, were a single commercial house to keep open its doors on that sacred day." Then, many of our countrymen went .there, not only almost as much strangers to the gospel of peace as were the Hindoos and Mohammedans themselves, but, amidst the polluting influence of heathenism, they became ten times more the children of hell than they were before they left their native shores. Now, among all classes, but especially the various armies in Her Majesty's and in the Honorable Company's service, a redeeming change is exhibited to a most remarkable extent. Many an officer emulates " the centurion of the Italian band," in devout and active piety. Many a regiment has its " praying company," ' and its active agents of Christian benevolence. Many a prodigal has there been met by missionary instrumentality ; has himself become a missionary, and preached the faith which he once destroyed; and many others, after an absence in India of ten, fifteen, or twenty years, have returned to be I the means of the conversion of their own parents, and to prove distinguished blessings where once they had been a curse. 15. And innumcrahle are the occasions with which Chris- tian missions have furnished the Church for glorifying God. Not only did the design itself originate with God, in the sense of its being a duty to be found in his gospel, but, on looking CHRISTIAN MISSIONS 213' back and remembering the stony indifference to that design evinced by the Church in general ; and the actual opposition to the first steps of the missionar}^ enterprise, oifered by many a professed Christian ', and the truly insignificant measures in which the work began — measures in which the actors often owed their toleration to contempt — who can doubt that the primary human movers were themselves moved by God? If the apostle could say of the primitive Churches, "They glo- rified God in me," how often have we been constrained to recognize the hand of God in raising up and baptizing with a measure of the apostolic spirit many a modern missionary ! If they acknowledge the Divine superintendence in selecting their spheres of labor, and preparing the way for their suc- cessful occupation, how often have we been called to adore the presence of the same agency in the missionary field, mani- fested in unexpected interpositions, in the universal concur- rence of multiplied and repellent circumstances, and in the issue of the whole in some most unforeseen success ! How many a burst of sacred joy has been occasioned by the intel- ligence of new conquests achieved over heathenism, and new honors accumulated around the name we love — ^joy, the most pure, ennobling, and rich, which grace can awaken in the faithful on earth, and which, more than any other sentiment, connects the Church below with the Church above in one spontaneous ascription of praise ! As to the manner in which some of the most distinguished of these triumphs were won : who can mark the sudden aban- donment of idolatry in the Polynesian islands north and south — in the latter, when the mission was on the point of being re- linquished in despair; and in the former, by the spontaneous will of the natives before any missionary had reached them — without perceiving how evidently God designed to secure the glory of the work to himself? How often and how emphati- cally have we been taught the same lesson by the superior success which has crowned the artless efforts of the native teachers — success which has frequently left the British mis- sionary nothing to do, but, like Barnabas, to go and see the grace of God, and be glad. On comparing the missionary contributions and activity of the Churches at present — small as they still arc — with the apathy of the past, and remember- ing the grandeur of the results to which they tend, how many 214 REFLEX SPIRITUAL BENEFITS OF a Christian has been led to say, with the mingled abasement and gratitude of David, " Who am I, and what is my people, that we should b<. able to offer so willingly after this sort, . . . to build thee a house for thine holy name?'^ What deep humiliation has been felt by thousands — and never perhaps was more deeply felt than at this moment — at the fact that the heathen world is crying to us for spiritual help, and per- ishing in its cries; that God is saying to us by his word and providence, " Hasten to their relief with the gospel," and yet that we should be so deplorably unprepared to obey I What grateful admiration, that God should have afforded us so many distinguished proofs that he is still in the midst of us ; and what earnest entreaties that he would arouse the entire Church to a sense of its new and vast obligations, and would gra- ciously pour out upon us his Spirit from on high ! The direct tendency of all our missionary operations hitherto is to bring the Church on its knees before God in unfeigned gratitude for the past, and entire dependence for the future ; prepared to inscribe on the sublime result of the whole, '* To the praise of the glory of his grace." From this review of the spiritual benefits of Christian mis- sions on the Churches at home, we repeat the question with which the section commenced, in the full expectation that it admits but of one reply : Had the same amount of effort which the missionary object has received been devoted to the diffusion of piety at home, is there any reason to conclude that our country would have reaped greater advantage than it is now enjoying from the reflex influence of that object? Is it likely that more would have been done to impress a deep, salutary, and general conviction of the infinite importance of the gospel; more to call forth the resources and multiply the agencies of Christian usefulness; more to counteract the worldliness of the Church, and to give enlargement and eleva- tion to its views and affections; more to illustnite the excel- lence, and to raise the standard, of Christian charity; more to silence the irreligious objector, to engage the intercessions of the faithful in the behalf of the world, to fill us with devout dependence and holy anticipation for the future, and to pre- pare the Church to arise and shine as the light of the world, and to prove, through God, a universal blessing ? So far from thiS; we venture to affirm that not only would less have been CHRISTIAN MISSIONS. 215 done in all these respects, but that, humanly speaking, had it not been for the influence of the missionary cause, many a society now in active operation expressly for home would never have come into existence; many a heart, which now beats high with a hallowed patriotism, would have been cold to the claims of home ; and many a Christian Church, now known as the centre of a large circumference of local benevo- lence, would have been compai'atively living to itself. And, indeed, what is all this but saying, in efi"ect, that the history of Christian missions will eventually be found to furnish a grand illustration of that sublime principle of a kingdom founded in love, that ^' it is more blessed to give than to re- ceive ?" 216 THE BENEFITS OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS CHAPTER IV. ARGUMENT DERIVED FROM THE BENEFITS OF CHRFSTTAN MISSIONS FOR THE INCREASED ACTIVITY OF THE CHRIS- TIAN CHURCH. If the Christian Church is expressly designed to embody and diffuse the influence of the cross, and if its full efficiency for this end depends, under God, on the entireness of its con- secration to this office, we may expect to find that every page of its history illustrates and corroborates the fact. Such is the remark with which we opened this Second Part. But as the nature and limits of our subject forbade us to open the volume of ecclesiastical history, we contented ourselves with remarking generally, that the period of the first and greatest activity of the Church was the season of its greatest prosper- ity; that the subsequent decline of its devotedness was the decline of its prosperity; and that, as every departure of the Church from its missionary design has been invariably avenged, so every return to that character may be expected to be Di- vinely acknowledged and blessed. Such a return, in part, we professed to recognize in the operations and aims of our Pro- testant missions. • And the subsequent chapters have been intended to enable us to show that, as far as their history is concerned, it may be made most clearly and impressively evi- dent that every step in return to the aggressive design of the Christian Church is a proportionate return to its first prosper- ity. It remains, therefore, that we make such use of those chapters as shall tend to render this fact apparent; thus con- necting them with the former part, and strengthening the whole by enforcing the additional motive supplied to entire Christian consecration. AN ARGUMENT FOR INCREASED ACTIVITY. 217 I. Now, this may be done by showing, first, that our mis- sionary success has been fulhj ]iroporf.ioned to our efforts. Perhaps the only persons disposed to question this proportion of success will be found among those who would have been the last to commence those efforts. For it is characteristic of a certain class, that, though they would never have origi- nated an enterprise, they are among the earliest and the loud- est in their complaints if it is not speedily crowned with com- plete success. No sooner do they awake from the slumber of doing nothing, than they seem to expect that every thing will rush to their aid, and are mortified at finding that they are doomed, like all their predecessors, to work by means and not by charms. But we would ask such persons what is the stand- ard by which, in the present instance, they regulate their ex- pectations of success. Is it by the rapidity with which the gospel was diffused in apostolic times 'i But surely they do not expect this, independently of the zeal, self-denial, and earnest supplications which distinguished those times. Or would they say that the proportion of success now is much less, as compared with the means employed, than it was at that time, even allowing for the present diminution of zeal? But how is the rate of this diminution to be ascertained '^. and yet, until it is, an essential element of the question remains un- determined. The truth is, that although the Church of late has begun to exhibit a spirit of missionary activity, of zeal it knows comparatively little. We might ask the persons sup- posed, for instance. How many years, or rather how many hours, have you given to this object of your professed solici- tude ? To how many seasons of wrestling in prayer with God; and to how many acts of practical self-denial; and to how many efforts to enkindle the zeal of others, has it led ? Do you not think that it will be high time for you to complain of slender success, when you can return a less self-condemna- tory answer to inquiries such as these ? Or would they regulate their expectations of success abroad by the standard of home ? But we have shown, in a preceding chapter, that much of our domestic prosperity itself is ascribable, under God, to the reflex influence of our evangelical operation's abroad. Independently of this, how- ever, could we only bring together the happy results of those operations from the various parts of the wide field over which 218 THE BENEFITS OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS they are scattered, and place them beside the fruits which re- ligion has reaped within the same period at home — making, of course, the necessary allowance for the vast disproportion of means — we should see that, if these fruits at home call for ordinary thankfulness, the results abroad demand the loftiest ascriptions of praise. Are we asked, then, to sum up the benefits resulting from Christian missions? Enumerate them we can, and have; but estimate their value we cannot. We have no standard by which to rate the worth of even their temporal, much less of their spiritual advantages. We can refer the inquirer to the temporal good they confer on the land which sends them forth ) and if he be a patriot, he will rejoice to hear of it. But unless he can furnish us with an instrument for deter- mining the value of literature and science; of correct and enlarged views of the actual condition of man ; of our own national character; of human life; of commerce; and of safety and supplies for our shipping ; we must leave the pre- cise worth of that good to his own imagination ; for in all these respects have they been eminently useful. Does he ask for vouchers ? Let him consult the records of learned socie- ties ; the voluntary testimony of disinterested travellers; the '' Evidence on the Aborigines;" the incidental as well as direct testimony in official reports and government returns, to all of which we have distinctly referred. Let him ask the crew just liberated from cannibal hands, at what price they rate the value of the missionary influence which has saved them, and let him ascertain how many crews would by this time have been sacrificed but for that influence; or what would have been the amount of the waste of European life before commerce could have obtained even a footing in those barbarous regions where, owing to that same influence, it now finds a welcome and a home 1 Let him do this, and we will leave him to his own conclusions respecting its value. Is he a philanthropist ? We can take him into the distant missionary field, and point him to happy homes and peaceful villages rising amidst wastes where lately man roamed restless and ferocious as the beasts with which he contested for supre- macy : to multitudes, now diligently busied in the arts of civ- ilized life, whose hands were but yesterday red with the blood of their fellows : to thousands of children and adults troop- AN ARGUMENT FOR INCREASED ACTIVITY. 219 iog to their respective schools, where, a short time ago, all the visible signs of a language were utterly unknown : to or- ganized societies and the ascendency of law, where, but re- cently, to be lawless was reckoned essential to enjoyment, and to kill at pleasure the highest prerogative : to sober, honest, highly moralized countries, where, lately, rage and intemper- ance revelled at will : to tribes which till lately never met but for mutual destruction, but whose intercourse now consists en- tirely in the reciprocation of benefits and tokens of love : to the animalized savage, acting the man : to the debased slave, now" walking at large as an heir of freedom : to degraded wo- man, raised from the dust and restored to be the partner of man : to hundreds of thousands rescued from the curse of the darkest idolatry, and brought into the light of truth, and sur- rounded with the means of social improvement and unend- ing happiness. But this is not enough. Having surveyed the happy change, let him place in strong imaginary contrast with it what would probably have been at this moment the actual state of all those human beings had it not been for missionary intervention. Let him imagine how many of those women and slaves would have pined and perished under brutal oppression : how certainly those implemerfts of peace would all have been in request as weapons of murder and war; how many of those children would have been immolated; how many of those islands would have been depopulated, and of those tribes exterminated ; and then in what way the wretched survivors would most likely have been now employed. Let him then say, if he can, what is the value of the change which has been produced ; of the knowledge by which all that igno- rance which was in actual possession has been displaced ; of the morality and freedom by which all that vice, bondage, and idolatry have been swept away ; of the humanity by which that effusion of human blood has been prevented, and all those lives been saved ; and of those moral principles, and social habits, by which all that has yet taken place will only be era- ployed as means of improvement for all the future. Let him do this, and we Avill tell him the worth of the missionary en- terprise to the cause of philanthropy. Or is he who urges the inquiry a Christian ? To you, wo might reply, to you we can speak of spiritual results. Not that you value the temporal benefits less than the patriot or 220 THE BENEFITS OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS the philanthropist, for you are both ; but that you value the spiritual blessings more. Tell us, if you can, how all the property by which the missionary object has been sustained would have been employed; how all the time would have been spent which has been occupied in collecting, pleading, and laboring for the object, or in reading and hearing of it; and what would have been the character of all the myriads of thoughts and feelings which would, during that time, have left their eternal signature on the mind, had that object never existed to engage and engross it; for, in order to compute its value, it is necessary to know the evil which it has been the means of preventing, as well as the positive good which it has been instrumental in producing. Tell us, if you can, the value of that knowledge which maketh wise unto salvation ; of that love which passeth knowledge ; and of that peace which pas- seth all understanding, and we will tell you the worth of mis- sionary instrumentality, for it has been the means of imparting all these to thousands. Tell us, in answer to the question of our common Lord, " What shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world, and yet lose his own soul ?" and from the amount of that fearful loss we will compute the gain of mis- sionary instrumentality, for it has been the means of saving the souls of thousands. Tell us, or ask the redeemed in glory to tell, by what line we can sound the depths of that pit from which they have escaped ; by what scale we can take the height of the bliss to which they have attained; or where are the balances in which we can lay an eternal weight of glory, and we will tell you the value of missionary labor; for it has instrumentally saved thousands from hell, and prepared them for heaven. Think of the state in which the Christian mis- sionary found *' the nations of them that are saved;" of that horrid system composed of lies, and crimes, and curses, and woes, which he found in tyrannical possession ; of the dread- ful aspect with which it confronted heaven ; of its mad de- votedness to the spirit and purposes of hell. But now, see, the whole has vanished. The first house they build is the house of God. Almost their only book is the Bible. Among their days they now number and keep holy the Christian Sab- bath. And almost the only form of society they know is that of the Christian Church. "Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men/' and he graciously dwells among them. If you AN ARGUMENT FOR INCREASED ACTIVITY. 221 could not have looked down, with Balaam, upon the vast en- campments of Israel on the plains of Moab, without emotions of delight : if you could not have witnessed the scenes of Pen- tecost, or have ''seen the grace of God at Antioch," without being " glad," how can you adequately express your grati- tude and joy at beholding these fruits of Christian missions r* If you are truly conscious of Christian compassion, think of all the bodily sufferings, the moral evils, the mental anguish, which they have been the means of preventing or removing; of the hope, and peace, and joy, they have imparted on earth; of that "wrath to come," from which they have instrument- ally snatched immortal souls; and of that *' joy of your Lord," to which they have introduced them; and you will fall down afresh and bless God for the honor which he has put on the missionary enterprise. If you are sincerely "jealous for the Lord of hosts," think of all the instances in which they have been the means of converting idol temples into places of Christian worship ; of disparaging idolatry in the very spot where for ages it had reigned; and of calling the idolater himself to join in the worship of the only living and true God. And think what honor has, in every such instance, been put on the love of the Father, on the mediation of Christ, and on the agency of the Holy Spirit ; with what infinite complacency they have contemplated the glorious change ; and what strains of seraphic joy it has called forth among the angels of God; and you will gratefully acknowledge, with a depth of convic- tion which, perhaps, you never felt before, that our missionary success has immeasurably exceeded the proportion of our efforts. Yes, exceeded I for think how recently those efforts were commenced. The generation that began them has not yet entirely passed away. How much of the short time which has since elapsed has been necessarily consumed in prepara- tory work : in learning the languages of the people visited ; translating the Scriptures into these languages; preparing elementary books; instructing the natives to read; in erect- ing the requisite machinery, and bringing it into working order ! How many alterations and improvements have been suggested ; and how much we had to learn, as to the best method of conducting missionary labors ! And how small a proportion of the Church even yet is zealously engaged in 222 THE BENEFITS OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS promoting them ! Many of these disheartening considerations were graciously allowed to remain hidden from the eyes of those who originated the missionary enterprise. But could we ask the most sanguine among them whether, notwithstanding, the event had equalled their first expectations of success, and could we show them at the same time all the salutary influence which that enterprise has reflected on the cause of religion at home, we should hear from them all a repetition of the grateful language, so often on their lips, " What hath God wrought! He hath done exceeding abundantly above all we asked or thought I" Nor have our missionary successes exceeded our expecta- tions in a single respect only. They have been the means of accomplishing good of a kind which we did not contem- plate. Who thought, for instance, of their benefiting the slave in any but a religious respect? And had any one been heard to pray that they might lead to his emancipation, he would certainly have been silenced for his indiscretion or his presumption. So remote was such an issue from our views, that for years our missionaries rather concealed the miseries of the slave, lest, by displeasing the planter, they should be denied access to the objects of their solicitude. x\nd yet to missionary influence, under God, the abolition of slavery is unquestionably to be ascribed.* Nor has the sphere of this influence less exceeded our ex- pectations than the kind of good which it has effected. We thought only of sending the gospel to heathen lands; but our oivn country, as we have seen, has been a gainer, by the enterprise, of the richest blessings. And as in the sphere, so in the time when this reflex influ- ence began to operate. While we were calculating on the good to result to others in a coming period, we found ourselves in actual possession. In merely designing to bless, we our- selves were blessed. The benefit flowing from Christian missions dates, not from the first year of their existence, nor from their first hour, but from their earliest moment. From that auspicious moment to the present, they have been dis- charging on the Churches, generally, showers of the richest influence. And have they been the means of doing so much [* See Introduction.— T. 0. S.] AN ARGUMENT FOR INCREASED ACTIVITY. 223 good? Why did we not begin them sooner? and why are we not now prosecuting them with greater zeal ? II. We may expect to find also that advantages have flowed from our returning activity which nothing else could have conferred. And the reason of this is sufficiently obvious : — the planet is now moving in its appointed orbit : the Church is advancing in a line with the purposes of Omnipotence, and in harmony with its own principles. If, before, it had been hampered with forms, customs and corruptions, at eveij .'iftbrt which it now makes to move, some portion of these old incrustations of evil fall ofi": a desire to advance aright sends it to consult the word of God; a concern to retrieve its past indolence fills it with a zeal that calls on " all men everywhere to repent;" the conversions which ensue furnish it with a means of enlarging its sphere of activity. The existence of all this both proves the presence of the Divine Spirit in the midst of it, and leads it to earnest cries for still larger effusions of his influence ; and thus, by an action and reaction, an increase of its prosperity leads to importunate prayer for larger impartations of the Spirit, and larger im- partations of the Spirit necessarily produce an increase of divine prosperity. Let us look at the Christians and Christian denominations of Britain at present; and say, what but their activity for God, and the salutary effects of that activity on themselves, constitute the sign and means of their visible prosperity ? Take away this, and what single feature would remain on which the spiritual eye could rest with pleasure ? Theii orthodoxy? That would be their condemnation; for, if their creed be scriptural, activity and zeal for God are neces- sary, if only to make them consistent with themselves. The numbers they include ? The world outnumbers them ; and it is only by their aggressive activity, blessed by God, that they can hope to keep their disproportion from increasing. Their liberality ? Apart from this Christian activity, where would be the calls on that liberality ? It is this which brings it into exercise, and by exercise augments it. Their union with each other? This activity for enlarging the kingdom of Christ is almost the only bond which, at present, d.-^es unite them ; take away this, and nearly the last ligament of their visible union would be snapped. Their spirit of prayer '/ 224 THE BENEFITS OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS That has been called into exercise almost entirely by niean3 of their (christian activity; for, feeling the utter insufficiency of their own endeavors, they have earnestly entreated God to make bare his arm in their behalf. From our returning activity, then, in the cause of human salvation, advantages have resulted which nothing else could have conferred. Amidst scenes of political strife, it has brought to us visions of a kingdom which is not of this world. Amidst scenes of ecclesiastical discord, it has pro- vided one standard around which all can rally against the common foe. Amidst the icy selfishness of the world around, it has called forth warm streams of Christian liberality. It has given employment to energies which would otherwise have been wasted in the arena of angry controversy. It has been the means of originating various institutions, which are destined to hasten the great consummation ; and of calling into existence specimens of Christian excellence and heroism of which the world is not worthy. To the visible Church it has given a heart, stirred its deepest sympathies for the world, brought considerable accessions to its numbers, imparted ad- ditional interest to its services, enlivened its piety, enlarged its views, and brightened its visions of the reign of Christ. It has been the means of disarming infidelity of some of its most specious objections, illustrated afresh the divinity of the gospel, increased the confidence of Christians in its ultimate triumphs, and furnished them with some of the most remark- able occasions for ascribing glory to God. Many of them it has filled with a sense of self-dissatisfaction, of utter depend- ence on God, of aching want and craving desire for some- thing more and something better for the Church than it yet possesses ; so that their loudest prayers are prayers for the promised outpouring of the Holy Spirit. From all of which we infer, that a full return in faith and prayer to the aggres- sive design of the Christian Church, would be a full return to its original prosperity. III. But this is further apparent, and the whole of this Second Part connects itself with the former by the important fact that the history which it details of the missionarj^ enter- prise remarkably illustrates every particular there advanced on the theory of Christian influence. This, indeed, might have been expected ; for it is only saying that the same prin- AN ARGUMENT FOR INCREASED ACTIVITY. 225 ciples, when put into operation under the same circumstances, produce the same effects. Accordingly, the records of modern missions might easily be made to furnish the most strikinibit- ^'tm- fho mouth of the Ganges to the Amoor, and to indite a book — for nearly all can read — for more than one-third of the hu- man race ! The despotic unity of its government, by whitjh the will of one man moves and rules the entire mass, may itself be made the means, under God, of its more easy and effectual reconstruction on Christian principles. At all events, the unity of character resulting from this unvarying uniformity of literature and government, is attended with this advantage to the missionary — that to comprehend the senti- ments and reply to the objections of a single mind, is to mas- ter the views and objections of three hundred and sixty mil- lions of human beings. In this respect, too, the magnitude of the population, once regarded as appalling, presents the niissionary with an advantage not to be met with elsewhere. But that which calls for special observation is, both that the Chinese mode of writing is current and legible for beyond the limits of China, throughout Cochin-China, Corea, and Japan, and that the population of China itself is bursting forth on every side, placing itself in voluntary contact with Christians, and seeking the shelter of European governments. Millions are already to be found in Burmah and Siam, in Pegu, Assam, and the Malayan Archipelago. All these are accessible to missionary efforts. What has been accom- plished of late among these by the ardent and persevering zeal, of two or three individuals, encourages the hope and points out the way of benefiting China at large. For only let suitable measures be taken to evangelize the emigrant Chinese, and a race of missionaries will be thus provided, which, in spite of imperial edicts, will find their way into all parts of the empire, and become, in the hands of God, the instruments of its renovation. 4. The most considerable body of barbarians on the face of the earth at present, living contiguously in the same re^j!:ion. is the forty millions of Central Africa. To the evangeliza- tion, or even the civilization, of this dense mass of barbarism, five obstacles formerly presented themselves, each of which was deemed insuperable — the judicial sentence of God against them, their mental imbecility, the demoralizing influ- ence of slavery, the deadly nature of the climate, and the ferocious character of the native superstitions. To the first of these it is now considered a sufficient reply, that the gospel 246 ENCOURAGEMENTS TO PROSECUTE repeals every national malediction, and addresses itself to every creature. Missionary culture has proved that, as to the second, the charge of mental inferiority must in future lie rather against those who bring it than against the African. The third will be gradually obviated in tlie universal abolition of slavery — for the sentence of indignant humanity has gone forth against it. While the emancipation of our slaves might go far to obviate the fourth \ for what agency so fitted, phys- ically and morally, to evangelize the inhabitants of the torrid zone, as their converted brethren of the West Indies?* And, as to the last, — the ferocious character of African supersti- tion, — it is now well ascertained that while their religious creed is too meagre and undefined to possess a powerful hold on their minds, their religious practices, consisting of' Obeah and Fetishism, form a "reign of terror" against which a very slight inducement would raise them in revolt. And hence, wherever the gospel has been preached to them, "Ethiopia has stretched out her hands unto God." 5. The other savage portions of the earth wear a more encouraging aspect still. As there is no peculiar obstacle to the religious instruction of the aborigines of the Americas which European injustice has not created, it may be hoped that the Christian sympathy awakened in their behalf will be successful in removing it ; while their comparative vicinity to the American Churches encourages the hope of their more speedy recovery. Experiment has proved that the New Hol- lander may be reclaimed and elevated to Christian humanity; and that New Zealand may become a province of the Prince of peace. Nearly the whole of Eastern Polynesia is converted to the Christian faith. x\nd still, as the missionary stretches away towards the Fijis, and approaches New Caledonia, New Britain, New Ireland, and New Guinea, he finds the islands waiting for the law of the Lord. 6. Christendom naturally divides itself into the Greek, Romish, and Keformed Churches : reserving the last for con- sideration in the next section, we may remark of the first, that, with all its unvarying childishness and love of toys, it is not without the prospect of improvement. Education is en- couraged and promoted by the Emperor of Russia. The career of civilization on which that vast country has entered [* See lutroductiou.— T. 0. S.] THE MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE. 247 will necessarily bring her into contact with superior moral influences, and there is nothing in the constitution of the Greek Church to prevent her deriving advantage from them. According to a recent edict of the emperor, Russian Georgia is to be "evangelized:" signs of missionary activity, even of the lowest kind, are signs of hope. 7. There is reason to believe that the palmy days of the Romish Church have passed, never to return. In the activity which she here and there exhibits, we see only the restless- ness of petulance, and the hurried and uncertain expedients of fear. The Reformation has left no part of Popery what it was before. The press has imparted a power to public opinion by which the Inquisition — the extinguisher of opinion — has itself been extinguished. The circulation of the Bible has kindled a light from whose beams that system of darkness will never be able effectually to retire. The light of truth and the force of opinion are both against it. Even in Spain and Portugal, two of its strongholds, principles obtain with which, m its present form, it cannot long coexist. But let us glance at European Christendom in its two great divisions of north and south — Germany and France. The Rationalism of German}^ has been long on the decline. Almost of a sudden, and without any cause which could be historically traced, a general dissatisfaction and disgust with It seized the community. The teachers who favored infidelity saw themselves in the minority. Philosophy, previously hos- tile to religion, declared itself the servant of the Christian faith. Supernaturalism obtained ascendency; and the still growing popularity of the "Pietists" augurs well for the dif- fusion of evangelical religion. The Naturalism of France, like the Rationalism of Ger- many, is on the wane. Voltaire, Diderot, and Cabanis are no longer authorities with cultivated minds. And, though the threat bulk of the people are still plunged in materialism, the ] hilosophy of spiritualism alone (such as it is) is popular with the educated; while, among the most enlightened part of the ration, a strong presentiment is said to prevail, of some ap- { roaching religious change. A spirit of religious inquiry is certainly abroad in France, such as has not been known since the time of the Reformation. And the multiplication of Protestant Religious Societies, the gradual increase of faithful 248 ENCOUKAGEMEMS TO PROSECUTE » pastors in the Reformed National Church, and the eminent names of Neff, the Baron de Stael, Gonthier, with those who are at present livinfr, exert an influence which naturally awakens the hope that that spirit of inquiry may lead, under God, to the happiest results. 8. Nor can we conclude these remarks on the moral condi- tion of the various divisions of mankind, without adverting- to the fact that even the mind of the Jews is beginning to awake. And though the philosophy of Mendelsohn is transferring them from the silly reveries of their rabbins to the anti-supernatural- ism of Spinoza, the very circumstance of their change shows that much of their obstinacy is to be ascribed to their igno- rance, and that Christian kindness and instruction could never meet them more seasonably than now, in their passage from credulity to infidelity. Reformed synagogues have been opened at Berlin, Leipsic, Vienna, Carlsruhe, Breslau, Lon- don, and other places. The Karaite Jews, or Scripturists, have an especial claim upon the attention of Christians. And let us remember that " the partial blindness that has fallen upon Israel shall continue (only) till the full con:iplement of the nations shall have been brought in, and then shall univer- sal Israel be restored.^' So that, as nation after nation opens its gates to welcome the entrance of the Christian faith, the Jews cannot look on without being in some degree ''provoked to jealousy," nor can we fail to recognize signs of their ap- proaching recovery. Such are the moral signs of the times. We do not for a moment mistake them for signs of incipient conversion. We do not even interpret the most hopeful indication among them into a token of direct readiness to embrace the truth. NChe mind may leave one class of errors only to embrace a worse. All that we infer from the moral aspect of the world is, that if it be a more promising undertaking to assail a system of error in the season of its age and weakness than in the hour of its strength, that encouragement is now held out, for that season has arrived. If the time for recasting the metal is when it has reached a state of fusion, now is the period for employing the mould of the gospel, when the human mind is so generally indicative of being in the crucible, and of pos- ?.essing unusual susceptibility for new impressions. Look in what direction we will^ the horizon of hope enlarges and THE MISSIONARY EXTERrillSE. 2 i9 brightens. The fanatical zeal of the Mohammechin has burnt out. The priestly power of the Brahmin is broken, and hin demons wait in vain for their prescribed libations of blood. The altar of the Chinese, empty, but standing, is waiting to welcome the advent of an unknown God. The South African chief comes from the remote interior, and offers his herds for a Christian teacher; the vast kingdoms and islands beyond the Ganges are ready for the reception of a number of mis- sionaries. In one quarter, Idolatry is losing its hold on mil- lions; in another, the savage is awakened from the sleep of centuries ; here, Popery is falling off from a nation, as a snake casts its gaudy but shrivelled skin ; there, philosophy is wea- ried out with its ever promising but unsatisfactory illusions ; and, elsewhere, childish credulity is becoming a man and putting away childish things. Everywhere are to be seen an impatience of the present, a deep presentiment that it is has- tening to decay, and a spirit of inquiry, anticipation, and change, looking out on the future. As it was with Judea and the East generally about the era of the advent of the Son of God, the world is waiting for the advent of some principle or means which shall change its destinies. Now, then, is the time for the Church to proclaim to it, "Behold j'our God!" SECTION IV ^ ECCLESIASTICAL ENC0UKAGE3IEXT TO PROMOTE THE 3IISSI0NARY ENTERPRISE. Of Protestant Christendom we propose to speak separately. And as our subject here will be to point out the ecclesiastical auspices of the missionary enterprise, we shall direct our at- tention chiefly to England and English' America. For, although some of the Protestant Churches of Switzerland and Holland, France and Germany, are prepared to send their contingents into the field of missionary labor, it may be ex- pected that their resources will be almost entirely needed for years to come to meet the demands of home; while the simi- 2f;0 ENCOURAGEMENTS TO FROS:.CUTE lar resources of England, meimtime, and of her religious ally, are of a decree which devolve on them preeminently the office of the religious instructors of the world. That peculiar encouragements for the execution of the office exist, we have already seen. In vain would it be, how- ever, to show that considerations, historical, political, and moral, conspired to animate the missionary enterprise, if, at the same time, every thing in the Church itself seemed to forbid the attempt — if the missionary spirit, for instance, had yet to be enkindled; or if, having been excited, it was evi- dently on the decline; or if, having existed for years, it yet exhibited no signs of improvement at home, nor was attended with any success abroad. But in reality, the direct reverse of each of these suppositions is found to be the truth ; and hence our ecclesiastical encouragement to advance. 1. For, first, a missionary spirit does exist in our Churches. There was a time, and that not many years ago, when it did not exist. Here and there a Christian divine might occasion- ally advert to the desirableness of such a spirit; a Christian poet might tune his lyre to celebrate its glorious results; and a Christian philanthropist wish to behold the sublime reality. But so far from entertaining any definite views or manifesting any active zeal on the subject, the Christian community, in general, resembled rather the altar and off'ering of Elijah when immersed in water. And as, in great undertaldngs, the first step is commonly the most difficult and important, so here, now that fire has descended from heaven to ignite the mass, we are prepared to see the whole gradually' become a flaming sacrifice for the glory of God. That such a sacred kindling has commenced, we have already demonstrated at large. Holy men of God have devoted themselves to the missionary enterprise ; Christians have associated for the purpose of sending them forth; and the result has been, that voices have been heard in various parts of the moral wilderness of tlie world, crying, ''Prepare ye the way of the Lord." 2. But let us rather proceed to show that not only does the missionary spirit exist, but that it is also progressive. It has, we presume, passed that critical period in the history of a society or institution when, losing* those sympathies which kindle so easily on contact with new objects, it must rely od j»rinciples, or perish. At first, the warm impulses of pioua THE MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE. 251 feeling; alone might serve to prompt to the effort, and to sup- ply the place of sober and substantial principles. But *' that spring-time of novelty has passed. The ardent feeling and the excited imagination which threw so much interest over the prospect of the work, have given way to the grave reality of the work itself." Every year has in- creasingly based its support on its own intrinsic claims. The great truth that every Christian is bound to do something for the diffusion of the gospel, long hid from view, like a sand- covered pyramid of the east, has been gradually disinterred and brought to light; till now it stands before the Church in its majestic proportions, and is universally recognized as the fundamental principle of the missionary enterprise. No longer is it deemed necessary to support it by arguments. Being admitted as an axiom in Christian ethics, all that re- mains is to point out its application, and to enforce its im- portance. And, further, to show that the Church has been brought to act from a calm and simple sense of obligation, we might advert to the fact that, since its modern missionary activity commenced, it has, in some instances, endured pro- tracted trials and severe discomfitures, which would have put to flight all mere impulse, and which only a grave and deep- seated conviction of duty could have sustained. Notwith- standing the conviction that in this, as in every grand and lasting enterprise, the great law will obtain, that " one soweth and another reapeth," the friends of missions have continued to go forth to sow. It is an auspicious sign of the progress of a cause, when it can not only dispense with the impulse of mere excitement, and fall back on its principles, but when, at the very same time, it is found to extend and deepen its influence on the public mind. Now, the missionary cause has done this. "Not to pray for the coming of the Messiah," said the ancient Jewish proverb, "is not to pray at all." And not to pray for the diffusion of his gospel, it may now be said, is not to pray at all. Every prayer is expecfed to include it. In every religious family, the infant lisps of it in his earliest hymn. The "missionary box" is an object of notice alike in the nursery and the school-room, in the private residence and the public shop. The missionary tract is in universal request in every Sunday-school. The missionary "branch," "OZ ENCOLT.AGE.MEXTS TO PROSECUTE or '' auxiliary," is to be found in activity in every district and every congregation. The missionary anniversary is hailed as the return of a most welcome festival. The subject is to be met with in newspapers, and journals, and libraries, of almost every description. Far and wide through the land does it enter into our literature, and form a part of the public reading. Nor is it confined to any one class of society. Beginning principally in the middle ranks, the missionary spirit has descended and pervaded the mass of the Christian poor, and at the same time has gradually drawn within its influence many in the highest circles of the nobility. Nor is it limited to any one denomination of the Christian community, or even to any particular portion of Christendom. Though some Churches have attached themselves to the great missionary organization more tardily, and are less powerfully influenced by the object than others, yet every orthodox Protestant body in Christendom has at length joined it, and gives signs of being aff"ected by it in a similar manner. Among all Chris- tians holding the doctrines of the Reformation, there is now a common mind in favor of the missionary enterprise. The prosperity of a cause is indicated also when the nu- merical increase of its supporters is not made an excuse for the reduction of individual effort, but both are seen advan- cing together. Now, the missionary cause exhibits this sign. Each successive year has witnessed an increase on the income and activity of the year preceding. Christians, trained to liberality by its beneficent spirit, have, in many instances, doubled and quadrupled their subscriptions. A salutary re- action has been constantly going on between the increase of our labors abroad and the enlarged demand on our resources at home. The more we have given, the more we have been enabled to do; and the more we have done, the more we have been constrained to give. The spiritual wants of the world have been brought to light so much faster than we have been prepared to supply them, that we have happily been able to think little of what we have done, in the prospect of the prodigious field of labor yet to be occupied ; while every attempt to raise the standard of Christian liberality and activ- ity has been, upon the whole, so promptly responded to by the great body of the faithful, that we are impelled to the THE MISSIONAHY EXTERrRISE. 253 conclusion that considerable resources are yet to be explored, and to the holy resolution that every succeeding year shall continue to develop and employ them. And may we not on these grounds v^arrantably hope that, though partial relapses may occasionally mark the missionary spirit, and even particu- lar societies fail, the next generation will prosecute the work with greater ardor than the present, and the generation fol- lowing with still increased zeal ; and that thus the devoted- ness of the followers of Christ will approximate nearer and nearer to the elevated standard of his blessed gospel ? And it augurs well for the prosperity of a cause when it allows of receiving, and actually adopts, from time to time, the improvements which, being human, it indispensably re- quires. Many an institution, full of promise at first, has perished through want of compliance with this easy but im- portant condition. Now, the history of Christian missions is a record of successive corrections and improvements. We may instance the gradual improvement in the kind of instru- mentality which they have employed. To say nothing of the sword alone ; and then of the sword and the symbol of the cross, conjoined — for these belonged to a too distant period and a too questionable object — we behold in the early history of modern missions the strange conjunction of the missionary and a royal edict, as in the mission sent to Lapland by Gusta- vus Vasa; the missionary and commerce, as in the first Danish mission to Greenland;* the missionary and the pro- mise of civil distinctions, as in the attempts of the Dutch to evangelize Ceylon. And even in the early history of our present institutions, it was considered in some instances es- sential to success that the missionary should be lyreccded by civilization rather than be the means of introducing it; while in others, perhaps, there was too great a tendency to neglect the means of civilization, even after Christianity had obtained a footing. The missionary without the Bible has been, and ever must be, while Popery remains what it is, the great defect of Catholic missions; and yet some of our early eiforts to con- vert the heathen were in danger of suffering from the same deficiency. Then came the full conviction that education, * The King of Denmark ordered ■a. lottery in favor of the Greenland mission and commerce. 254 ENCOURAGEMENTS TO PROSECUTE never, perhaps, entirely neglected, should uniformly accom- pany the preaching of the missionary, and form an essential part of his regular labors. On this followed the clear percep- tion, that if the Bible was to be translated, the barbarian to be civilized and instructed, and a Christian community built up, the missionary corj)s should be '^picked men;" that, instead of rating their requirements lower than those of the ministry at home, the holiest and ablest men the Church could send forth were the fittest. And then came the convic- tion of the importance of training and employing native Christian agency — a step, perhaps, more pregnant with good to the missionary enterprise than even the increase of our own missionaries. During all this time, too, the friends of missions have been learning the importance of system in their proceedings ; while the wisdom which they have been acquiring by experience has enabled them to systematize in the manner best adapted to their ultimate object. On the happy reciprocal influence of home and foreign activity; on the kind of preparation necessary for the missionary work ; on the right selection of missionary stations; and on the mutual adaptation of agents and stations — on these, and a variety of correlative particu- lars, their views have been receiving perpetual correction and expansion. And it may not be out of place to remark here, that if their object be to publish the gospel everywhere in the shortest time, a more judicious selection of missionary posts could hardly have been made than that which, by a wis- dom higher than their own, they now occupy. Few as those stations are, compared with the vast field of heathenism, they are so distributed that the efforts of the Church must soon be heard of by the great proportion of mankind; and the entire "world, meantime, may be said to be calling for relief within view and hearing of the Church. 3. Another auspicious fact is, that at such a conjuncture the providence of God should furnish so many facilities and auxiliaries for the prosecution of the work. The intercom- munity between all the provinces of the Roman empire which aided the early propagation of the gospel, and the newly- formed power of the press which came in aid of the Reforma- tion, though parallel facts, are not to be compared with the subsidiary aids in the service of the gospel at present. What, THE MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE. 255 for instance, was the intercommunity to which we have alluded, compared with the facilities ailorded now, by im- proved navigation alone, for visiting the remotest parts of the earth ? Was the central position of Judea a favorable cir- cumstance for the first diffusion of the gospel ? Britain is the Phoenicia of the modern world, with everj^ part of which we are in constant communication. Was the early propaga- tion of Christianity materially promoted by the dispersion of the Jews among the surrounding uations ? Still more widely are British Christians distributed among the nations now, and still more effectually, therefore, have they the means of con- tributing to the same glorious end. Did the greatness of the Roman empire present an ample iield for missionary exertion ? It is only an angle of the field which now awaits our labor. The transmarine possessions of Britain have an area of 2,200,000 square miles, a sea-coast of 20,000 nautical miles, and a population of 120,000,000. But our labors are not limited to these: our "field is the world." Did "the gift of tongues" conduce to the primitive diffusion of the gospel? The power of the press has come to us in its stead, enabling us to speak to the nations in a manner not dependent on the utterance of the speaker, but which often anticipates his arrival, prepares the minds of a people for his message, and continues to echo it, after his departure, from generation to generation. So mighty a power and so rich a gift is this, that had we to choose between it and the gift of tongues, we should all probably give it our decided preference. In a single year it multiplies copies of the Holy Scriptures by thousands and hundreds of thousands ; and, if need be, it could multiply them in the same time by as many millions. So that as far as the means for the propagation of the gospel are concerned, the Bible Society alone gives us a decided advantage over the primitive Church. Having "rolled a noble stream of truth through the earth, it requires that the nnssionary should stand upon the banks and cry, ' Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters !' " Success is seldom or never the result of a single influence ; and in addition to the complex aid to the missionary enter- prise we have already named, we may notice the favorable influence of the British character. The fact of our success in arms, our love of regulated liberty, and our priority in the 256 ENCOURAGEMENTS TO PROSECUTE race of scientific and civil iniprovement : our national enter- prise, and the unparalleled extent of our colonial possessions : our reputation for commercial integrity, for all that is hu- mane, generous, and noble in designs of benevolence; and the multiplicity of our moral means for accomplishing them : these, and many other elements of individual worth and na- tional greatness, tend to invest our missionary character with additional weight in every part of the earth. How far the general diffusion of the English language and literature may have already subserved the missionary object we know not, nor how much that object would be likely to be promoted by their ultimate universality; but it is clear that if any lan- guage is likely to become universal, that language is the English ; and that, considering how deeply most of our early standard works are imbued with a religious spirit, none could have fallen in with our evangelical design more directly than this. We might invite special observation to the fact that certain influences which a few years ago were arrayed, not against the missionary enterprise merely, but against evangelical religion itself, are now ranged on their side. Science — chemistry alone — destroys polytheism, root and branch. All the superstitions of the world involve more or less the worship of the elements; but chemistry can decompose those very elements themselves, and thus leave the Hindoo with- out his gods; so that a child armed with a microscope is mightier, and more to be dreaded by Brahminism, than Samson by the Philistines when he slew them '' heaps upon heaps." The aspect which the national government, and that mighty power called public opinion, now presents to the cause of missions, exhibits an auspicious contrast with the past. There was a time when the English missionary in India was indebted for protection to the Danish crown. There was a time when the cry was raised, for anti-missionary purposes, that our empire in India was an empire of opinion, and when all the force of that empire was against us. There was a time when the press was kept in spasms of activity by the Christian ad- vocates of heathenism for India : when pamphlet after pam- phlet proclaimed their veneration for the ancient Hindoo pantheon, and their rage at any mark of contempt shown to niE MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE. 257 it, as if an affront had been oitered to a valued friend, which they were bound most indiunantlj to resent. But let us mark, in a single instance, the indication of a change. " It is a happy circumstance," says the '' Friend of India,'" "■ that Providence has placed so great a number of the Burmese provinces under the sway of Britain, in which the mission- aries" (driven from Ava and Bangoon, where a cruel perse- cution has been raised against the native converts) " are at liberty to carry on their benevolent labors without hindrance. It is not a little singular that whereas the Burmese mission grew out of the persecution of the British government thirty years ago, which constrained the missionaries to seek for spheres of labor beyond the reach of British interference ; at present, the salvation of the Burmese mission is owing, under God, to the protection which that same government, more alive to its Christian obligations, is enabled to afford in its conquered provinces." In addition to all these auxiliaries to the cause of missions, we might point attention to two to which we have already incidentally adverted, — to education and native agency. By the former of these we are comparatively foregoing par- tial and immediate success, for the sake of preparing with much greater certainty, and to an incomparably wider extent, the future overthrow of idolatry, and a consequent way for the march of the truth over its ruins. And, by the latter, we are not only taking to the converted heathen the fruits of the tree of life, but, in a sense, are planting the tree in their soil, and leaving it to grow and flourish among them. Now, if our remarks on missionary progress proved that there is more of a missionary spirit in the (Jhurch at present than has ever existed since primitive times, our observations on missionary facilities tend to show that our amount of means for the conversion of the world is considerably greater than existed even during those times. All the weapons of victory which they possessed, with the exception of miracles, are at our disposal ; and others of equal and even superior power are added to them. Some of these, indeed, are chiefly in the service of the world, but they exist for the Church. Others were obstacles, but have become auxiliaries. Indeed, whatever designates Britain as the country destined by Pro- vidence to take the lead in works of beneficence, must be 17 258 ENCOURAGEMENTS TO PROSECUTE regarded as an encouragement to the missionary enterprise ; and to a Church alive to this object, all things around are ready and offer themselves as an apparatus for its successful prosecution. 4. But not only is the missionary spirit in existence, in progress, and surrounded by numerous and powerful auxili- aries — -it has been crowned with signal success. Had only a single instance of usefulness attended its endeavors, even that would have been sufficient to redeem the enterprise from mere hopelessness. But the preceding Part contains abun- dant evidence to show that our success has been fully pro- portioned to our efforts : that advantages have flowed from our activity which nothing else could have conferred; and that the glorious result has abundantly exceeded the most sanguine expectations of those v/ith whom the enterprise began. We will here add only two remarks, that, great as our missionary success has been already, the Christian Church is filled with the expectation of seeing greater things than these. While a sentiment of despondency and vague apprehension hangs over the regions of false religion, in the Christian Church the present is an era of expectation and hope; and the influence of hope contributes not a little to the accom- plishment of its own predictions. Besides which, the friends of Christian missions are entertaining a confident persuasion of the approach of a period when the influence of the Spirit will descend with much greater efficacy, and their success will be far greater than at present, in proportion to the mea- sure of their exertion. They deem it " reasonable to .believe," says Foster, in the admirable Discourse already adverted to, '^ that when once a certain point of success has been attained, the mere accumulation of power and influence on the side of truth will impart an irresistible momentum and a greatly accelerated velocity to religious principles, so that the last conquest of Christianity shall be accomplished in an incom- parably shorter period than has been occupied in achieving its first successes." Judging from the past, they think it likely that when the native mind of a populous heathen land begins to awake and act, it will act in masses ; that the law of sympathy becoming subservient to a higher influence, the *' wind will blow where it listeth," so that no one will be able THE 3I1SSI0NARY ENTERPRISE. 259 to say whence the impulse came, or what is the direction it will take. Thus may ''a nation be born in a day." "Be- hold, the days come, saith the Lord, that the ploughman shall overtake the reaper, and the treader of grapes him that sow- eth seed." The conversion of many parts of the earth, like that of Polynesia, will probably be effected with a rapidity which will take even the Church by surprise. And thus it will be seen that "God had prepared the people, for the thing was done suddenly ;" and "■ he shall bear the glory." SECTION V. EVANGELICAL ENCOURAGEMENT TO PRO?IOTE THE MISSIONARY ENTER- PRISE. But our great fund of missionary encouragement is evan- gelical, being derived exclusively from the word of God. And so animating and ample is this, that were all the others not only wanting, but converted into so many sources of ap- prehension, we should yet rely on the ultimate success of our endeavors. 1. In order, however, that we may not retread the ground we have already passed over, nor open too wide a field for fresh observation, we shall here confine ourselves to three specific grounds of encouragement. The first of these con- sists of the fact that the missionary enterprise has to receive the benefit of a vast amount of prayer, as yet unanswered, in its behalf. It was predicted of Solomon, as typical of Christ, '"' prayer also shall be made for him continually." And it is cheering to reflect, that in the present day there is a sense in which the prophecy has received, literally, its evan- gelical accomplishment. " Last evening," wrote a mission- ary from China, a few years ago, " a small party of the disci- })les of Jesus held a meeting for prayer in my rooms, in behalf of the heathen around, and for the kingdom of Christ throughout the world. In this land of the rising sun, we may probably be considered as beginning that series of prayer- meetings which are kept up all around the world on the first 2G0 ENCOURAGEMENTS TO PROSECUTE Monday of the month; a chain of prayer, beginning at the farthest east, and carried rcind successively as the sun ad- vances to the farthest west in the islands of the Pacific Ocean, and thus continued for twenty-four hours, monthly." Now, it is only to pursue this calculation, and to suppose that wherever there are Christians to pray monthly in public for the kingdom of Christ, there are some to pray daily in private for the same object, and then we are brought to the delightful conclusion, that prayer is made for him contin- ually ; that as the aged believer, like David, breathes out his last prayer for the glory of his reign, another generation is just beginning to lisp, " Thy kingdom come;" and as the Christians of one province are rising from their knees before the throne of grace, the Christians of another province are just beginning to take up the language of supplication for Christ; and thus a chain of prayer, beginning in the farthest east, is carried round with the sun to the farthest west, in the islands of the Pacific, through all the hours of time. And how much more pleasing does this reflection become, when we add to it the thought, that of all the prayers which are thus offered for the reign of Christ, making one unbroken strain of supplication, not one ever has been or can be lost Is it true that every sin committed by his enemies is noticed by a God of unspotted holiness ? that every transgression adds something to the treasures of his wrath; and that when the cup of vengeance is full, he pours it forth on the heads of the guilty ? As certainly true is it that every prayer of faith offered by his people in behalf of his Son, is noticed by a God of infinite love; that every such prayer adds some- thing to the treasures of his grace; and that when these treasures have accumulated to a certain amount, he pours them forth upon the Church and the world. It is as certainly true that at the very moment when such a prayer is offered, in that very moment he answers it in his Divine intention, though he may wisely delay for a time to answer it really. The suppliant himself may forget his own supplication, or may despair of obtaining an answer; but He is still mindful of it. And, however obscure the suppliant, he prizes it. It is a prayer for his Son, and, as such, it is music in his ear, of which he loses not a single note. It is a prayer for the coming of his kingdom, and, as such, he places it among the perfumed sup- ■^ THE MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE. 261 plications already offered by the saints of past generations ; he places it among the last aspirations breathed by "David, the son of Jesse," and of every ancient worthy; among the mighty prayers which ascended from the fires of the early martyrs ; among the loud cries of those whose souls are heard from under the altar; among the earnest entreaties of the wide creation, which sighs to be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the sous of God. It is a prayer for the salvation of a world which he loves; and, with delight, he beholds it flow into a channel in which a stream of prayer has been for ages flowing and accumulating without a moment's pause, and which shall finally overflow and pour forth a healing flood of heavenly grace over the whole earth. If the success which has hitherto attended our missionary efl"orts is to be regarded as sent partly in answer to prayer, an indefinite amount of success is yet to come, if only to complete that answer; for that prayer has aimed at nothing less than the salvation of the world. And our par- tial success proves that it will come ; proves that, like the vapor which the earth sends up to heaven to be returned again in fruitful showers, the supplications of the Church form a cloud which is at this moment suspended over the whole field of moral cultivation, ready, at the word of God, to discharge its fertilizing contents. " Ye that love the Lord, keep not silence." 2. But the eff"orts of Christians to evangelize the world have also to receive the benefit of many a yet unfulfilled promise and prediction of Divine influence. This is a source of encouragement additional to the former; for it both anti- cipates our praj^ers, and directs us to the object at which they should aim. We are taught to believe, in the word of God, that for every degree of spiritual success we are entirely dependent on the agency of the Holy Spirit. Eut, in order that this doctrine might tend to animate our efforts, as well as to ren- der us humble, we are also assured that a measure of his in- fluence shall accompany every scriptural effort we make, and be imparted in answer to every prayer of faith we present. The whole system of religious means, indeed, is Divinely appointed, and expressly intended, as that in immediate con- nection with which He is to act; and all the spiritual good 262 ENCOURAGEMENTS TO PROSECUTE already accomplished has been effected, so far as we can ascertain, by the Holy Spirit in this connection. But we are taught, also, that this gracious arrangement still leaves him at liberty to exceed that assurance as he pleases. Indeed, we are taught this by the manner in which he often fulfils that very assurance; for while he never disappoints the just expec- tations which it has excited in his people, the circumstances attending their fulfilment exhibit the endless diversity of un- confined and unconfinable power. Hence the reason of the language, " In the morning sow thy seed, and in the evening withhold not thy hand ; for thou knowest not whether shall prosper, this or that." But while we are to regulate our expectations as to the success of particular efforts, we are animated with confidence as to the final success of the entire work. If it is not given us to assign the manner or the degree in which particular instances of success will take place, it is only, perhaps, that our confidence may be more undivided and fixed on the suc- cess destined to crown the great system of means taken as a whole. For the substantial import of numerous Divine pre- dictions is, that the Spirit shall be poured out from on high ; that he shall be poured out upon all flesh ; and that then the wilderness will be a fruitful field, and the fruitful field be counted for a forest. Now, as he uniformly operates for the truth, or in connection with it; and as the object of the mis- sionary enterprise is the universal diffusion of the truth, we are encouraged to look for the fulfilment of these predictions in the success of this enterprise. And since the only way in which he has ever acted as if he had forgotten his promise, is by doing exceeding abundantly above all which it had led us to ask or think, we are encouraged to hope for a period when the amount of his influence will be much greater than at present, as compared with the amount of our activity. But if such a period be in reserve, it must be nearer now than at any preceding moment; and if any signs are to indi- cate its approach, we may surely recognize some in the re- turning anxiety and activity of the Church for the salvation of the world, and in the preparation which the world exhibits for some great moral change. And what else will be neces- sary but the arrival of such a period for the consummation of all our missionary designs ? Only let the Church behold THE MISSIONARY ENTERrRISE. 263 the fulfilment of the promises and predictions which relate to the impending influences of the Holy Spirit, and the work will be as good as accomplished. The three thousand souls added to the Church in one day by the preaching of St. Peter, would then prove to have been intended as a mere earnest of the rapid progress which the faith should make universally. Like the first rumor of victory, the news of salvation should seem to fly swifter than the speed of the messengers sent to proclaim it; and wherever proclaimed, the people should bow before it. V. 3. And then, finally, all our scriptural activity for the diffusion of the gospel is in obedience to the will of Christ, and its final success is secured by the fact of his mediatorial reign. The essential connection of these two propositions was established by Christ himself, when he said, ''All power is given unto me, in heaven and in earth. Go ye, therefore, and teach all nations;" intimating, that not only is the great system of universal providence committed to his hands, but that it is committed to him expressly that it may be made subservient to the successful diffusion and eventual triumph of his gospel. As if, having entered the spacious treasury of God, and taken account of all its infinite stores : having reck- oned up all the orders of heavenly intelligences, and marked their respective capacities for his service ; having looked down through all the ages of time, counted its generations, and numbered its events, he had said. All these shall be har- monized, combined into a system, and made contributory to the one object of human salvation. Vast as is the space they occupy, there is not a point in it which shall not in some way be impressed with the signs of their activity : a theatre less ample would not be adequate to the development of my plan. Diversified as are the kinds and degrees of influence they are calculated to exert, and even hostile as many of them are to my purpose and to each other, there is not one of them all which cannot, and which shall not, yield its proportion of willing or unwilling service. And distant as is the period when the last soul shall be saved, there shall not be a mo- ment through the whole of the mighty interval in which all these countless and far-reaching agencies shall not be grad- ually concentrating their forces, and pointing, more and more directly, to that grand consummation. "AH power is given l'G4 ENCOURAGEMENTS TO PROSECUTE unto me in heaven and in earth; go ye, therefore, and preach the gospel." The connection of these encouraging views with the pre- ceding Parts, as well as their practical application, are direct and important. The facts and sentiments of which these Parts consist, are themselves encouragements to missionary exertion; and as such, they naturally fall in with our present train of remark, and multiply our incentives to increased activity. For instance, is it a slender encouragement to those who are embarked in the missionary enterprise to find that the Christian Church is constructed expressly with a view to that great object? Should it afford us only slight encouragement to find that the aggressive principles of such a Church were .shown to be practicable as soon as they were made known, and were attended with unexampled success as soon as they were put into activity ? Ought it to yield us only small en- couragement to find that the tenor of prophecy, even to its last words, tells of missionary labors and of a triumphant gos- pel y Or ought it to be regarded as auspicious only in a very slight degree, that, as far as we have acted under the influence of these encouragements in modern times, they have proved authentic ? that our missionary usefulness has been fully pro- portioned to our endeavors ? and that advantages have flown from it both of a kind and a degree on which the most san- guine of those with whom it commenced had never calcu- lated ? And, considering the obstacles which stood in the way of this success, and the remarkable manner in which many of them have been removed, how considerately and kindly our impatience has been rebuked, our errors corrected, and our ignorance instructed ; how opportunely suitable agents have been raised up for occupying peculiar spheres of useful- ness; and how unexpectedly aid has come in from the most unlikely quarters, and enemies and apparent evils been con- verted into valuable auxiliaries and friends — are we not con- strained to trace it to the glorious fact that " The God of our Lord Jesus Christ hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the Church, which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all?" We commenced the present Part by showing that the his- tory of Christianity, from the earliest times to the present, is THE MISSIONARY EXTERPRISE 265 replete with encouragement to attempt its further propaga- tion ; that even in the first age of its existence, when it was the mark at which every weapon, human and infernal, was levelled, each of its conflicts was a splendid victory; that even its moral weakness has been too strong for barbarian might; that its false friends have never been able to corrupt it beyond its power of self-renovation, nor its avowed ene- mies to assail it, even at its greatest disadvantage, without finding to their cost that it is still as vigorous and aggressive as {iyeY^:^ Now, after all this accumulated evidence that Christ is invested with supreme power, and that he wields it for the protection and progress of his gospel, can we believe that he is the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever, without feeling that our cause is invulnerable, and its triumphant issue secure ? On taking a survey of the political world in its relation to the Church, we have seen that all the rest of the globe seems placed by Providence at the disposal of Christendom; that of all the nations of Christendom, those which are especially distinguished with political influence over the pagan and JMo hammedan regions are the Reformed and anti-Papal powers; and that of these powers, Britain and America, the 0!ily Pro- testant nations capable, at present, of becoming the religious teachers of the world, are the nations to which has been given the political command of those regions. Now, can we mark these " wheels within a wheel," can we account for these imperia in imj^erio, without resolving them into the sublime truth that the Lord reigneth '/ Or can we believe that this threefold collocation of the various parts of the world around tiie missionary portion of the Church, results from his me- diatorial arrangements, without hearing the loud and encour- aging call which arises from it to " go forwards?" Besides which, the moral aspect of the mass of mankind, as we have seen, presents encouragement to the same effect. Not only is the heathen world arranged, in a sense, around the Church, but its state is that of feebleness, exhaustion, and desire of relief. Without knowing what is the nature of its malady, it is sick at heart, and panting for a change. Now, if its political position in relation to the Church evinces the provident activity of the reign of Christ, is not that evidence materially increased when viewed in connection with its moral 1 266 ENCOURAGEMENTS TO PROSECUTE condition ? It is not only brought to our door, but brouirlifc at a moment when it is famishing. It is not merel}' placed within our reach, but is actually fallen at our threshold. Could any conjunction of circumstances afiFord us a better op- portunity of presenting the gospel, or a more encouraging prospect of its favorable reception ? And should it not add something to our hopes that this happy juncture has arrived at the very moment when the Church, after neglecting the world for centuries, is awakening to its missionary obligations ? Is not such a coincidence in- dicative of providential arrangement, and worthy of it? Is it nothing that the commencement of the missionary enter- prise should have proved like the bursting forth of a fountain of internal prosperity in the Church itself? Is it nothing that Missionary, Bible, and Educational Societies should have arisen precisely in that oriier of succession which the nature of the case required ? Should it pass unnoticed that all the great discoveries and improvements of science are more or less auxiliary to missionary purposes ? and even if no other encouraging consideration could be adduced, ought not the single fact that God has smiled on our efforts to be sufficient of itself to induce us to proceed ? Ought not the firm per- suasion that there are many who, by the blessing of God on our instrumentality, have been rescued from the depths of heathenism, and who are at this moment swelling the chorus of the blessed above, to animate our zeal, and redouble our endeavors ? But the great evangelical fund of encouragement remains to be considered. Does the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man avail much? The missionary enterprise in- herits the praj^ers of the entire Church. All the redeemed in heaven have prayed for it; and it engages their sympathies still. And, what is infinitely more, it enjoys the intercession of the Great Advocate himself. Is the influence of the Holy Spirit essential to missionary success ? Drops of the coming shower have already fallen; and still the cloud enlarges and descends, and gives signs of the impending blessing. Is it necessary that infinite faithfulness and power should show themselves interested in it in order to assure us of its suc- cess ? All power in heaven and in earth is given to Christ to render the success of his gospel certain. The present THE MISSIONAHY EXTr.UrRTSE. 2G7 evana;elical economy exists for it. All the inaehinevy of Providence is constructed to advance it. The world itself is maintained only as the theatre for its progress. Nature, pro- vidence, and grace, are not three independent departments of the Divine government; they are only concentric circles revolving around one centre — the cross of Christ. For the diffusion' of its influence Christ himself reigns, and harmo- nizes and administers all their revolutions. To this object, nothing within the vast circumference of his government is indifferent. Nothing is too great to serve it, or too minute to promote it. Nothing opposed to it is allowed to triumph ; nothing friendly to it can fail to yield its mite of auxiliary influence. Nothing, absolutely nothing, is allowed to quit the stage of activity, without leaving behind some tribute to its claims. And are these our encouragements to prosecute the mis- sionary enterprise ? What else means the mediatorial Sove- reign by associating the command to proclaim his gospel with the announcement that all power is his? What else means the sublime declaration that all things are hy him and for him ? What else mean the conspicuous and undeniable facts that only two or three thrones of paganism are left ; that a hand mightier than Samson's should be laid upon these ; that the gospel, after surviving a thousand conflicts, should be seen exhibiting the vigor and activity of its youth? and that the Church, in awaking to its diff"usion, should have opened a new source of internal happiness and prosperity for itself? Are these our encouragements to expect success ? Then '' be silent, all flesh, before the Lord ; for he is raised up out of his holy habitation." Be hushed the language of com- plaint and unbelief: be silenced the taunts of infidelity, in- quiring, Where is the promise of his coming? be stilled the din of opposition to the progress of his cause, and the shouts of frantic superstition in every idolatrous temple. Then '•the idols he will utterly abolish. ^^ Kalee, Vishnu, Jugger- naut, your shrines are doomed, your da3's are numbered, your end draweth nigh. Then it is the voice of him that crieth in the wilderness which we hear — '^ Prepare ye the way of the Lord: make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low; and the crooked shall be made straight, 2GvS ENCOURAGEMENTS TO MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE. and the roush places plain, and the gloiy of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together." Islands of the sea, ye shall not wait in vain for his law. Africa, there is hope in thine end : the hands of all thy children shall soon be stretched out to God. All thy myriads, India, shall re- joice in a true incarnation, '- God manifest in the flesh." And, China, thy only walls shall be salvation, and all thy gates praise. All for which the Saviour endured the cross, despising the shame; all for which the past has been prepar- ing, and which the present is needing and desiring — all shall be accomplished. "The great trumpet" has been blown : its reverberations of mercy roll round the earth, and the world shall hear it and live. And are these our encouragements to proceed ? Then our course is obvious, our duty clear. At the most dim and dis- tant prospect of such scenes, the ancient prophets were rapt into an ecstasy of delight. With encouragements incompar- ably less than we possess, aft irpostle was inspired with a con- fidence of success which nothing could dismay, and with an ardor of activity which nothing could quench. For us, then, to decline the missionary cause, or to look coldly on its pro- gress, is to merit the execration of the world we are neglect- ing, and of the Church we are refusing to assist. But scrip- turally to aid it, is to place ourselves in harmony with all the purposes of God, and to hasten the recovery of the world to Christ. PART lY. OBJECTIONS TO THE MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE, OK PLEAS AND EXCUSES FOR NEGLECTING IT. So obvious are the obli2:ations of the missionary enterprise, and the encouragements to discharge them so numerous and strong, that, if facts did not loudly proclaim the contrary, we might well believe it impossible for a single objection to be raised against it. We know, however, that no degree of ex- cellence, even when accredited from Heaven, has ever proved sufficient to exempt a cause entirely from opposition; and that its success, whether great or little, has never been owing to any lack of difficulties feared by its professed friends, or cre- ated by its avowed foes. Indeed, the loftier its aims, and the greater the spirituality of its character and claims, the more numerous the obstacles likely to be cast in the way of its pro- gress. The missionary cause, then, by aiming at the most unworldly ends, and by taking the whole earth for the sphere of its activity, may be expected to exasperate every form of irreligious hostility, and to be encountered by every kind of objection. And when it is remembered that the ignorant are always ready to accept such objections, however futile, as so many unanswerable arguments against it; that the indolent are glad to construe them into a full discharge from all activity in its behalf ; that the timid are for waiting until they are all silenced, and the ground completely cleared of difficulties; and that, however often they have been met already, error is likely to revive and repeat them again with the lips of each succeeding generation — it is by no means supererogatory or unimportant that such objections should be obviated again; (2G9) ^^ f 270 OBJECTIONS TO THE especially, too, when nearly all of them may be so easily con- verted into argunients for serving the very object they were intended to weaken or destroy. I. Now, if we propose to notice these objections*''' in order, the first, perhaps, which demands our attention, is that which would represent the missionary enterprise as unnecessary. According to the objector, the heathen are comparatively safe already : their ignorance of the gospel is involuntary : they are a law unto themselves : they will not be judged by the high requirements of the Bible, but by the light of nature : their eternal destiny, therefore, is far from hopeless ; and to pronounce it otherwise is uncharitable and cruel. To this representation we ^lould object, 1. That it over- looks the true condition of mankind in relation to the moral government of God. It forgets the momentous truth that "all have sinned," and are condemned already. 2. It makes the salvation of the heathen a question of right and justice. It supposes that, by saving those who believe the gospel, the Almighty has brought himself under a kind of obligation to throw open the gates of heaven to the whole mass of the heathen world. 3. And it virtually constitutes idolatrous ig- norance a better security for the future happiness of mankind than is afforded by the means of grace enjoyed under the gospel. The question is not, be it remarked, whether or not, in con- sequence of the mediation of Christ, the heathen are in a salvable state. This we not only joyfully admit, but are pre- pared, if necessary, earnestly to contend for. But this fact only proves their present condition to be more" fearful than if no such salvability existed; for it shows they are the subjects of moral government, and as such exposed to punishment for disobedience. Nor is the question whether many, but whe- ther any, of the heathen are saved ; for we presume that the objector himself does not suppose that any large proportion among them are rescued from destruction; that he is not oven prepared to prove that any of them will certainly be * Some of these objections are very ably met in a -u'ork entitled "The Missionary Convention at Jerusalem; or, An Exhibition of the Claims of the World to the Gospel. By the Rev. David Abeel, Mis- sionary to China.'" MISSIONARY ENTERrr.ISE. 271 saved. And where, we ask, is the charity of ahandoning them all to a vague hope of deliverance ? or what is gained by the admission that one here and there is possibly saved? This single ray leaves the nations sitting in the darkness of destruction still. The true question 'is, Are the heathen, as a whole, idolatrous and immoral as they are, spiritually safe? Every part of the word of God — the only authority compe- tent to reply — affirms that they are not. -4-^ For, Jirst, they are condemned by the light of nature. They will not be condemned for the infraction of a law of which they never heard, nor for the rejection of a Saviour who was never proclaimed to them. The ground of their condemnation will be, that they loved darkness rather than the dim light of reason, conscience, and tradition, which they enjoyed : that bad as their creed was, their character was worse : that single as their talent was, and on that account all the more precious, they hid even that in the earth, '-so that they are without excuse." ( SecoYidli/, the word of God confirms the sentence of their \ condemnation. Although the heathen of the present day are involuntarily ignorant of the Sacred Scriptures, never having heard of their existence, yet as the first act of idolatrous wor- ship in every nation must have been perpetrated in defiance of every thing sacred; and as the descendants of these idol- aters evince as strong a dislike to recover the knowledge of God as they themselves did to retain it, not only neglecting to avail themselves of "that which may be known of God," but entailing their idolatry from generation to generation with accumulated abominations, they are Divinely pronounced to be inexcusable. The opening of the Epistle to the Romans is devoted directly to the establishment of this solemn fact. Having affirmed that " the Gentiles who have not the [re- vealed] law are a law unto themselves," the apostle convicts them of the grossest violations of that unwritten law ; and draws the solemn conclusion that they who have thus "sinned without [the revealed] law, shall also perish without law." ■*^ Nor, ihirdli/, does the gospel afford us any ground to hope that the sentence of their condemnation will be reversed through the mediation of Christ. That faith in the mediation of Christ is indispensable to the personal salvation of those to whom the gospel has been proclaimed, will be generally 272 OBJECTIONS TO THE admitted. But when the apostle inquires concerning the heathen, •' How shall thej believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher?" if there be meaning in language, he obviously intends that it is as impossible for a heathen to be saved by Christ without believing in him, as it is for him to hear of Christ without a preacher. But salvation includes the renewal of the heart by the agency of the Holy Spirit, as well as the remission of sins through faith in Christ. Now, that this spiritual change is indispensable to the salvation of all to whom the gospel comes, and that the truth is the instrument by which it is effected, will also be generally admitted. But when we hear it Divinely declared to the great apostle of the Gentiles, that the object of his mission was "to open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God," what can we infer, but that a spiritual renovation is essential to their recovery, and that the instru- mentality of the gospel is essential to that renovation ? To such as would argue against these conclusions, from the probable salvation of the offspring of heathen dying in in- fancy, we need only say. You are arguing from the case of those who have no actual sin, to those who are covered with the guilt of personal transgressions : from those who can neither sin nor believe, to those who have the capability of both : by a very slight extension of your argument, therefore, you may proceed to infer that as those dying in infancy are probably saved through Christ without exercising faith in him, all are probably saved by him, though in the same desti- tution of faith. y But, foitrthli/, we cannot be adequately impressed with the "^'danger of the heathen, unless we remember that their idola- trous condition is never represented in Scripture as a pallia- tion of their guilt, but as constituting its vilest element. In speaking of its origin, it is there traced to two sources: " because they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them up to vile affections." Here, a hatred for the truth combines with an act of judicial dereliction to seal their doom; for if the former adds the last shade to their guilt, the latter entirely extinguishes the hope of their deliv- erance. ^ MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE. 273 And hence, Ji/thI J/, the Divine piinishinent of idolatry has- frequently comraenced in the present life. The Jewish dis- pensation was one perpetual protest against it. Whole nations of idolaters were exterminated to make way for the worship- pers of the one living and true God. Almost the only thing against which " the wrath of God was revealed from heaven" for ages, was idolatry audits immediate fruits. In the pun- ishment of these, the great cities, thrones, and nations of an- ti(|uity were involved in a common ruin. But, sixthly, if we have recourse to the word of God for direct statements on the subject, the answer of the living ora- cle is strictly corroborative of our worst fears : " The whole world," saith St. John, " lieth in wickedness." A people destitute of Divine revelation are spoken of as " having no hope, and without God in the world." If we ask of their fu- ture state, we are told that "idolaters" are adjudged to "the second death," and that the " nations who forget God are turned into hell." And how truly affecting to find that this fearful view receives an appalling confirmation in the fears and distressing convictions of the converted heathen them- selves, concerning those of their relatives who have died in heathenism! Strongly predisposed, as we may well imagine them to be, to hope the best of their eternal state, they are free to confess that, taking the Bible for their guide, they can see no escape from the dreadful conclusion that every impenitent idolater is lost. And from this harrowing consid- eration they derive a strong ground for upbraiding us that we did not earlier send them the gospel, and for an earnest appeal that we would now redeem the time by redoubling our efforts for its universal diffusion. Away, then, with the false philanthropy which indolently and charitably abandons the everlasting happiness of millions to a mere peradventure. Let ours be the only scriptural and consistent charity, which, while it fears the worst, aims at the best ; and while it dreads their destruction, labors to the utmost for their salvation. By this method, at least, we cannot injure them : by any other, we may be probably leaving them to hopeless destruction. II. Another class of objectors are inclined to regard the missionary enterprise as impracticable. They entertain a vague opinion, the grounds and merits of which they have never examined, that heathenism is a system too old to bo 18 274 OBJECTIONS TO THE altered, too deep-seated to be subverted, aud too vast to be materially reduced. And hence they are apt to fortify this objection by the addition of another — that little or no good has been hitherto accomplished by missionary efforts, and that some stations have been actually deserted by the mission- aries, through want of success, or the fierceness of heathen opposition. Now, we might justifiably satisfy ourselves by bringing this objection under the neutralizing intiuence of the preceding, and asking, how the view that the heathen are so good as to be in little danger of destruction, is to be reconciled with the opposite assumption that they are so bad as to defy all means, human and Divine, for their moral improvement. But we do think it enough to refer the objector to the Second Part of this Essay, on missionary successes, as containing a full reply to his opiuion that but little benefit has hitherto resulted from Christian missions; and to the Third Part, on missionary encouragements, in answer to his objection on the impracticability of the work. As to any difficulty which he might feel arising from the occasional reverses aud partial failures of the missionary en- terprise, we would remind him, Jirsf, that temporary reverses are not peculiar to the diffusion of the gospel ; that science has sustained them, and yet ultimately triumphed; that an Alexander encountered them, and yet became the conqueror of the world ; that from many of our present colonies the British arms have more than once been beaten off, and com- pelled for a time to retire, but have finally gained their object ; that even where our hopes have been most disappointed, and are at this moment at the lowest point, our prospects are such that, were our object military conquest or national aggrandize- ment, instead of Christian usefulness, we could not entirely relinquish our attempts without incurring the charge of cow- ardice or treason ; aud on what principle are ice to expect im- munity from similar trials, or to construe them into a sign of certain and universal defeat ? .^ We would remind him, secondly/, that such reverses are not attending the diffusion of the gospel now for the first time ; that its plantation in our own country was not the work of a day, nor effected without the endurance of persecution and death; that the apostles themselves were often driven from ^ MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE 275 city to city; and that we have no right to expect exemption from similar vicissitudes. But, tliirdbj, we have reason to believe that, owinj^ to a change of circumstances, the instances of missionary stations once occupied, but now deserted, are incomparably fewer than similar reverses were in primitive times; that, if these few instances were examined, it would be found that the majority of desertions had arisen from the opposition, not of heathen, but of nominally Christian governments; and that such opposition from this quarter is gradually ceasing to exist. Fourtlily^ Ave have to remind him that such failures, so far from being final, have commonly been followed by the most signal successes; that as, in primitive times, the "bonds" of the apostle " turned out rather for the furtherance of the gospel,'' so, in the history of modern missions, the scene of our greatest discouragement and disaster has often become the scene of our most grateful triumph. The Caffre tribes, which formerly came down on the missionary community in marauding bands, approach it now only to invoke the instruc- tions of a Christian teacher. Where once the missionary was prevented from landing, the New Zealand chief has since been seen heading hundreds of natives to honor and welcome his arrival. And in the Sandwich, Tahiti, and So- ciety Islands; in the Hervey, Navigators', Friendly, Austral, Paumat;u, Gambler, Marquesan, and other groups, where once the Christian preacher dared not approach, or fled with unconcealed terror, are now to be found exemplary Christian churches, and societies for sending native missionaries into the regions beyond. Let the objector remember, next^ that even if the mission- ary enterprise had been aj;tended with no direct benefits whatever abroad, its reflex influence on the state of piety at home has been most amply remunerative ; so that even if the salvation of our own countrymen were our exclusive duty, we could not think of limiting the gospel to our native land : if we were at full liberty to seek the welfare only of our own people, in order to attain that end in the shortest time, and in the highest degree, we should feel bound to obtain the reacting influence of Christian missions. But, y«/ta%, we have to remind him, that eminently useful 276 OBJECTIONS TO THE as their legitimate reaction has been on the state of religion at home, there is reason to believe that a greater number of conversions has taken place in heathen lands, in proportion to the amount of means employed, than has been etfected in the same time in Christendom. So that, unless the objector is prepared to arrest and destroy all the Christian instrumentality now in operation at home, on the plea of inutility, consistency requires that he should advocate the continuance and encour- agement of the same instrumentality, on the ground of its usefulness abroad. III. Having yielded to the preceding reasons, the objector may allege, further, that "If the conversion of the heathen must needs be attempted, philosophy and learning must, in the nature of things, take the precedence. Indeed, it should seem hardly less absurd to make revelation precede civiliza- tion in the order of time, than to pretend to unfold to a child the Principia of Newton, before he is made acquainted with the letters of the alphabet." This, be it remarked, is not an objection imagined for the occasion, but the veritable lan- guage of one who was literally applauded by thousands for uttering it, and whose words doubtless echoed the thoughts of thousands more. Indeed, at the commencement of mod- ern missions, the opinion very generally prevailed among the friends of missions themselves, that, in barbarous lands, civ- ilization must pioneer the way for Christianity, but on this important condition — that the Christian missionary himself should be the pioneer; while the class of objectors in question would have him to remain at home till his way is prepared by philosophy and science. 1. NoWj conceding to the objector the credit of being himself a philosopher, we might begin our remarks by inquir- ing, Do 3'ou not know that philosophy has not yet decided wdiether the most perfect state of man be not the least civil- ized ? And lest you should suppose that such a question was peculiar only to the dreaming school of Kousseau, we have further to remind you that travellers and historians are still found describing the life of the savage with so much rapture, as to compel the belief that they would fain propose it as a model to the rest of the species; and so copiously applying to that state the epithets " simple," '' virtuous," and " happy," as to awaken the inquiry whether it would MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE. 27"/ not be wiser to employ missionaries for restoring tlie civil- ized to barbarism, rather than for raising the barbarous to civilization. 2. We vrill suppose, however, that all men pretending to philosophy have arrived at the philanthropic conclusion that the savage tribes of the earth should, if practicable, be civil- ized. But here we have next to ask the objector, Are you not aware that the almost unanimous conclusion to which your order has arrived is, that those tribes are utterly irre- claimable ? Nearly two centuries elapsed, for instance, after the discovery of America, before its inhabitants attracted the attention of philosophers. And when they did, it was only to be described by one as "a race just called into existence, and still at the beginning of their career;" '" and, by another, as "animals of inferior order, incapable of acquiring reli- gious knowledge, or of being trained to the functions of social life."'!' And do you not know that this representation of the natural inferiority of uncivilized man became so prev- alent in the class of philosophic writings referred to, that had the writers been constituted a committee on the subject, they could not have "brought up" a more consistent report? Do you not know that the consequent belief of this inferiority became so popular, that the public mind is yet far from being disabused of it ? but that, as far as it has been dis- abused, Christian missionaries have been mainly instrumental in dislodging the error by developing the intellectual and moral capacities of the traduced aborigines, through the medium of religion ? 3. Now, it must be allowed that to report a people irrecov- erably brutish, is a strange and ominous commencement of their civilization. For, "having classed their fellow-crea- tures among the wild beasts of the forest, these claimants to the exclusive title of human beings are likely to find little difficulty in defending, at least to their own satisfaction, what ever measures may be necessary for the subjugation or de- struction of the common enemy." | Accordingly, we have next to remind the objector that, with singular unanin)ity, * M. de Buifon, Hist.. Nat. iii. 484, etc. ; ix. 114. f M. de P. Recherches Philos. sur les Ameiic. passim. j Lord Glenelg's Dispatch to Governor Sir B. D'Urbau. 278 OBJECTIONS TO THE they liave decreed that untutored man must be destroyed. Yes, the very men who would scout the idea of the Christian missionary attempting- to benefit the savage before they liave visited iiim with their grand specific of civilization, have yet banded together, in eifect, for his destruction. "Nothing but powder and ball," said a European officer, "can civilize these savages." The tribes to which he referred have since been both civilized and evangelized, by the Divine blessing on missionary endeavors. "Do you think it possible," said Sir Rufane Shaw Donkin to Doctor Philip, in the Committee of the House of Comm(^ns, " to prevent enlightened Eu- ropeans, who settle in a country, from ultimately extermi- nating the unenlightened inhabitants?" from which we must infer that the certainty of the destruction of a barbarous tribe is in exact proportion to the advanced enlightenment of the c >lonists. In a proclamation issued by Sir B. D'Urban, the Caffres are denounced as "irreclaimable savages;" and this in the very face of the fact, as stated in the dispatch of Lord Glen- elg, that "under the guidance of their Christian ministers they have built places of public worship: have erected school- houses, and sent their children thither for instruction : have made no inconsiderable advance in agriculture and in com- merce : have established a trade amounting to not less than £30,000 per annum in the purchase of European commodi- ties; and when as many as two hundred British traders were living fiir bej^ond the boundaries of the colony, protected only by the integrity and humanity of the uncivilized natives." And yet it is of this same people that we read in a volume just issued from the press, that "it furnishes matter of amaze- ment to every thinking person, how those who have legislated for the affairs of the colony should not long ago have seen the imperious necessity, dictated alike by reason, justice, and humanity, of exterminating from oif the face of the earth such a race of monsters."* "The uncivilized must give way to the civilized," says the editor of the journal of the Royal Geographical Society, "and better sooner than late."f But, * Narrative of an Expedition into Southern Africa, etc., by Captain W. C. Harris. f Vol. v., part ii., 1833, p 315. MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE. 27U /or tlie full exposition of this extarniinating philosopb}^, we must refer to the following passage in Sir John Ross's Sec- ond Voyage to the Arctic Kegions : " Our brandy was as odious as our pudding to our Esquimaux visitors, and they have yet therefore to acquire the taste which has, in ruining the morals, hastened the extermination, of their American neighbors to the southward. If, however, these tribes must finally disappear, as seems their fate, it is at least better that they should die gradually by the force of rum, than that they should be exterminated in masses by the fire and sword of the Spanish conquest, since there is some pleasure, such as it is, in the mean time ; while there is also a voluntary but slow suicide in exchange for murder and robbery. Is it not the fate of the savage and the uncivilized on this earth to give way to the more cunning and the better informed, to knowledge and civilization ? It is the order of the world, and the right one ; nor will all the lamentations of a mawkish philanthropy, with its more absurd or censurable efi"orts. avail one jot against an order of things as wise as it is assuredly established." * 4. But next, we have to remind the objector that those who should have been the advocates and agents of civiliza- tion, having concluded, to their own satisfaction, that the uncivilized must be destroyed, have destroyed them ac- cordingly. ''An uncivilized people," says Niebuhr, " has never derived benefit from contact with a civilized race." So uniformly has the extirpation of the former followed the arrival of the latter, that, as we have seen in the preceding- paragraph, a theory has been formed to account for and justify the wide-spreading calamity. Man has impiously ap- pealed to the purposes of God in vindication of his own atrocities. The ordination of Divine Providence — a Provi- dence ever just and kind — has been represented as obtaining its fulfilment in the erection of an altar to Molech, at which millions of human victims have bled. And here, let it be observed, we are not speaking of days long gone by — of the Red Cross Knights of Mexican and Peruvian butcheries — ■ but of the deeds of to-day j of the last new creed of philoso- * Narrative, etc., vol. i., p. 257. 280 OBJECTIONS TO THE phy on the subject of civilization ; of the principle just evolved by the spirit of the times from an induction of mul- tiplied facts, as the only principle to be relied on and em- bodied in practice; and this is it — the uncicilized icorld ■must he hlotted out. /^ 5. Next, we have to show the objector that where the \ civilization which has hitherto attended the progress of our anus, commerce, and colonization, has not exterminated a people, so far from preparing them for the reception of Chris- tianity, it has; 'proved the greatest obstacle to its introduction. And how could it be otherwise ? For what have the means of such civilization been, but the overflowing of our national depravity, and the exercise of injustice and oppression ? Philosophy has prepared the way for the demons of avarice, cruelty, and licentiousness, by proclaiming the hopeless bru- talization of savage tribes. A civilized legislation has trans- ferred whole regions to colonists — transferred those regions from under the feet of the aboriginal inhabitants, without rendering them an atom of compensation. A legalized com- merce has for ages devoted one quarter of the globe to a market for human flesh. And, in its considerate regard fur the welfare of the native tribes, one of the first buildings which a Christian government has erected in some of its colonies has been a jail for the reception of the supera- bundant depravity of home; and one of the first colonies which it has planted has been a colony of convicts. About two thousand runaway sailors and convicts are at large in New ■ Zealand and the adjacent islands alone, carrying demoraliza- tion and ruin wherever they come. And again philosophy steps in with her timely aid ; and, lest the work of destruc- tion should proceed too slowly, announces the crowning and seasonable discovery, that such destruction is perfectly in harmony with the plans of Heaven. Are we to wonder that, influenced by such examples, and in obedience to such doctrines, the civilized savage fdiould have degraded the uncivilized savage from a brute into a denion, making him twofold more the child of hell than before ; that he should have introduced among the natives European vices, violently seized their women, taught the horrid traflic of hcentiousness, and introduced a train of new diseases and ^ MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE. 281 frightful evils too revolting to meet the public eye ?^' that he should have forcibly seized their lands, plentifully supplied them with ardent spirits, excited quarrels among the diticrent tribes, and then furnished them with arms for the purpose of mutual destruction ? and that the direct eifect of all this should be to prevent the progress of education and religion ?f Are we to wonder that the only question of colonial policy with many of the colonists themselves has come to be simply this, whether the natives should be destroyed slowly or speedily — by the gun, or by drunkenness and disease? Are we to be surprised at finding that they themselves have come to stand in much greater need of the restraints of law than even the natives : that while these only need the Christian missionary, those require both the missionary and "the super- vision of an efficient police V\ or that a society should have at length arisen for the protection of those aboriginal victims of civilization? Are we to wonder that one missionary should be heard deprecating the influence of such civilization on the natives? that another should declare, "I had ten times rather meet them in their savage state than after they have had intercourse with Europeans?" and that all should unite in deploring the effect of such intercourse, as amongst the greatest obstacles to success which they are called to encoun- ter ?§ And can we be astonished to find the prejudiced, injured, and demoralized native turning away, and spurning the cup of salvation, because it is proffered to him by a Chris- tian hand ? G. Advancing a step farther, we would show the objector, next, that instead of civilization being necessary to prepare the way for Christianity, Christianity is indispensable to a true civilization. When we speak of a true civilization, we mean to imply that a spurious and superficial state of social ad- vancement — in which houses are built instead of wigwams, the clothing of the loins extended over the body, and the work of conquest and human butchery is conducted scien- tifically — may obtain independently of religion. But if by * So revolting, that, in the "Evidence on the Aborigines," it i? necessarily omitted. See pp. 20, 23. f Evidence on the Aborigines, passim. I Idem, p. 63. I Idem, pp. 27, 173, 277. 282 OBJECTIONS TO THE civilization we understand a state in which the rights of men are respected, and the proprieties and charities of life are cultivated, Ave are prepared to show that it has never been found but as the inseparable companion and effect of Divine Christianity. For, first, admitting; that barbarous tribes could be reclaimed without the intervention of Christian missiona- ries, 'Hhe mere civilizing plan does not furnish motives strong enough to induce men to give up the comforts of home merely to teach them civilization/' Hence, when Dr. Coke, about forty years ago, was induced to form a plan for civilizing the Foulahs of Western Africa, preparatory to the introduction of the gospel, a plan patronized by Mr. Wilberforce and other leading men of the day, it failed entirely, "and failed for this very reason, that the agents [mechanics] engaged to carry the scheme into effect did not find sufficient motives to induce them to persevere. On reaching Sierra Leone, their courage failed them." But Christianity could find agents for that very sphere — has found them; and the result is, that religion and civilization are advancing among the Foulahs hand in hand."*" Nor, secondly, does civilization furnish motives sufficiently powerful to induce the heathen to be taught. " The fruit ripens," they say, "and the pigs get fat, while we are asleep, and that is all we want; why, therefore, should we work?" In vain did the Governor of Upper Canada repeat his attempts to induce the Chippeways to renounce their wandering life, and to attend to civilized pursuits. "Who knows," said they, " but the Munedoos [gods] would be angry with us for aban- doning our own ways"/" and the homes which he had kindly built for them remained unoccupied — monuments of the impotence of civilization without religion. The apparent tanieness of civilized life possesses no attractions sufficiently strong to induce the barbarian to abandon his roving habits, and to encounter the anger of his gods for its sake. Such is the explanation of the fact furnished by the barbarian himself, when reclaimed by the influence of the gospel. And, conse- quently, so uniform and complete has been the fiiilure of the mere civilizing plan, that many intelligent Americans have been led to adopt the conclusion that the aborigines are utterly * Evidence on the Aborigines, pp. 124, 125, 129, 338. MISSIONARY ENTERrRISE. 2S3 incapable of being reclaimed, and must be banished from the neighborhood of the white popuhition."'^ But thirdly, if these difficulties were surmounted, the civili- zation of the heathen would not predispose them to the recep- tion of the gospel. That part of our nature which religion especially addresses would still be left unimproved. And hence India and China are not found to receive the gospel the more readily for the fact that they have been for ages in a state of semi-civilization. The plan which the Society of Friends adopted in their early intercourse with the Indians was, to attempt civilization first. This plan they have steadi- ly pursued for years, for ages, at a considerable annual ex- pense. And what is the result of this long and costly experiment? "Within the last few years," says one of the members of the committee for conducting it, ''we have had occasion to review the whole' course of proceedings, and we have come to the conclusion, from a deliberate view of the past, that we erred, sorrowfully erred, in the plan which was originally adopted in making civilization the first object; for we cannot count on a single individual that we have brought to the full adoption of Christianity."f And then, fourthly, while we are not aware of a single instance in which civilization has prepared the way for Chris- tianity, facts innumerable might be added to those already adduced, to show that it has had a contrary efi'ect. Why is it that the most savage tribes are more easily brought under the influ- ence of the gospel, than the partially-civilized nations of China and India ? Which of the Indian nations offered the most obdurate resistance to the gospel, but the Mohawks of Upper Canada, who, through the kindness of his Majesty, had enjoyed the educational and civilizing process for forty years? Their proverbial abandonment to vice was often urged by their ignorant heathen neighbors as an objection against the Chris- tian religion itself.t And the reason why the influence of civilization is thus unfriendly to religion is obvious. "Man," says an eloquent writer, " may master nature, to become in turn its slave. Civilization, so far from being able of itself * Evidence on the Aborighies, pp. 12G, 127, 142, 143, 154, 178, 294, 337. t Idem, pp. 187-197. t Idem, pp. 133, 134. 284 OTijr.cTioxs to the to give moral strength and elevation, includes causes of degra- dation, which nothing but the religious principle can with- stand." It multiplies the desires and passions of the heart, without any increase of power to the regulating principles; and thus only adds to the length of the lever by which vice subverts both our moral constitution and the fabric of society. " Reason and experience forbid us to expect," said Washing- ten, on resigning the presidency in 1796, "that morality or political prosperity can prevail in exclusion of religious princi- ples." And in 1802, the French republic were constrained to confess, " For want of a religious education for the last ten years, our children are without any idea of a Divinity, without any notion of what is just or unjust : hence arise barbarous manners, hence a people become ferocious." 7. We have to show the objector, further, that wherever Christianity and civilization have presented themselves before a heathen tribe in company, the former has been invariably embraced before the latter. Now, this fact, we should sup- pose, ought to be conclusive. The plan of missionary pro- ceeding which wisdom and experience sanction is, not to act as if a savage tribe would be civilized by merely preaching to them the doctrines of the gospel, — this would be only the opposite error of those who imagine that rude people may be civilized without the influence of religion, — but to act on the principle that, while Christianity alone can excite in them a desire for improvement, nothing should be omitted of a civil- izing nature likely to subserve that desire. For from the moment that the Christian principle begins to operate upon the mind of man, from that moment the wants and cravings of civilization begin and advance. And we repeat, that wherever, in harmony with these views, Christianity and civilization have thus labored among a barbarous people con- jointly, the former has been invariably embraced first. Fif- teen years of effort were made by the missionaries in the South Sea Islands to introduce the arts of civilized life with instruc- tion in the truths of the Christian religion — but apparently in vain. At the end of that time, Christianity was adopted by the people, and from that moment their civilization com- menced.* Another fifteen years of missionary effort were * Evidence on the Aborigines, pp. 176, 177. MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE. 285 occupied in New Zealand in a similar manner, and apparently without effect ; but the " very moment that Christianity established itself i-n only one instance in the island, from that moment civilization commenced, and has been going on hand in hand with Christianity, but never preceded it/'* 8. And, finally, let the objector know, that wherever Christianity has gained a footing, civilization has invariably followed. The first house which the barbarian builds is commonly a house of God. In vain did government erect habitations for the Chippeways in order to lure them to the habits of civilized life ; but no sooner did the gospel affect them than they applied to the governor for that very aid which they had before rejected: this was afforded, and they settled on the river Credit. In vain were the influences of civilization showered on the Mohawks : the only effect was increased demoralization. But no sooner did they begin to embrace the Christian faith, than " each appeared to vie with the rest which should give the strongest proofs of industrious habits. "f The same mere civilizing process has been tried on the Wyandot Indians and the Cherokees, and with the same comparative failure; but "the missionary has marched up to the savage heart, adapted his mode of instruction to the condition of the Indian, and his conversion to Christian- ity has followed. This accomplished, he has been easily brought by gentle steps to walk in the path of civilization." | Evidence to the same effect might easilyi be adduced from the history of Christian missions among the West Indian ne- groes, the remains of the Carib race, the various tribes of West and Southern Africa, the Hindoos of India, the Budhists of Ceylon, the cannibals of New Zealand, and the other islanders of the South Sea.§ The missions of everj' denom- ination of Protestants, says Bannister, in his " British Coloni- zation" — those of the Church of England, the Moravians, the Independents, the Baptists, the Wesleyans, the Scottish — all present animated spectacles of workshops, farms and school- houses thickening around their churches and chapels; and the occupations of merely civilized men carried on with vigor and success, hand in hand with Christian duties, by * Evidence on the Aborigines, p. 250- f Idem. p. 142. J Idem, pp. 14G-153. ^ Idem, pp. 132, 16G, 174, 250 ^, 286 OBJECTIOXS TO THE tens of thousands whose fathers, and often themselves, were lately naked, and houseless, and possessionless barbarians. * While they are under the influence of their superstitions, they evince an inanity and torpor from which no stimulus has proved powerful enough to arouse them, but the new ideas and principles imparted by Christianity. And if facts can convince — if the question is to be decided bj" evidence — the objector is bound to receive it as an adjudged case, that the missionary enterprise is incomparably the most effective ma- chinery that has ever been brought to operate on the social and civil, as well as on the moral and spiritual interests of mankind, f IV. Convinced that Christianity is the great agent of civ- ilization, an objector may yet allege in excuse for not assist- ing to send it abroad, that we have heathen enough at home : that charity begins at home, and that we must evangelize home first. These are pleas which, by wearing the appear- ance of a pious patriotism, often beguile the sympathies of the unreflecting, and tend to foster a spirit of indolence in the cause of God, whose exposure should be its utter condem- nation. Let us first endeavor to exliibit their hollowness, and then specify certain principles by which they are to be met, and the truth defended. '' We have heathen of our own at home,'^ you say, by which we are to suppose that you intend persons who are very igno- rant and very vicious. But if such persons are existing around you in any considerable number, does not the fact implicate you in the tremendous guilt of having neglected them ? And will you plead that which results from your own sinful omission of duty towards those thousands, as an excuse for neglecting a similar duty towards as many millions? But in extenuation of your conduct towards your irreligious neigh- bors, you probably plead that they have been far from entirely neglected : that the knowledge and means of religion have been within their reach from infancy. From which wo learn, on your own admission, that they are ignorant, not by neces- sity, but choice — self-constituted heathen men, who deliber- ately prefer practical atheism to Christianity. And we ask, Is the world to be kept in ignorance — are the millions abroad * Evidence on the Aborigines, p. 174. f Williams, M. E MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE. 28'i to be left to perish — because there are those at home who " hate instruction," and " love darkness rather than light?" Such a sentiment you profess to repudiate; but while you theoretically admit the heathen to a share in your sympathies, you still contend that — y ''Charity begins at home." To which it should be suffi- cient to reply, that this is a saying which, so far from sub- serving an objector to the missionary enterprise, tells directly against him ; for it obviously implies that charity is diffusive, and, instead of remaining at home, only begins at home. There is but one way, then, in which this proverb can avail you, and that is by implying that there has not yet been suffi- cient time for charity to begin her domestic duties; in answer to which we will only suggest the inquiry. If upwards of a thousand years form too short a period for the mere work of preparatory benevolence at home, how many thousands are likely to elapse before the ends of the earth will be blessed with the gospel ? For your third proposition, that " w'e must evangelize home first," implies not only the order of benevolent opera- tion, but also the high degree of success which must attend it before you could think of aiding Christian missions. But for such a requisition we are surely justified in expecting that you can plead the most substantial warrant both from Scrip- ture and experience. You should be able to show, for in- stance, that the apostles made the evangelization of Judea the condition of their attempting the conversion of the Gentiles, and that, as they failed of entire success at home, they never proceeded abroad. And you should be prepared to prove, in addition, that this course has been uniformly sanctioned by the Divine blessing wherever it has been followed ; so that to con- fine our Christian activity to the limits of home, is the true secret of real prosperity. Now surely you need not be re- minded that almost the only particular in which the apostles incurred the public rebuke of Providence, was for indulging the very disposition which you exhibit — for confining to their own country labors which were meant for the world : that you owe it to the violation of that rule which you hold so sacred, that you yourself, and all your countrymen, are not living in heathenism ; and that when the apostles came to understand their duty, they no sooner encountered rejection from thp 288 OBJECTIONS TO THE Jews in any of the cities and regions they visited, than they forthwith " turned to the Gentiles " And as to the conclusion, derivable from experience on the subject, we would merely suggest the inquiry, whether it is not high time to suspect the W'sdoni of a plan whose j)ractical operation and jiroposed re- sult never promise to approach each other. The following principles, we think, require but a very slight effort of attention, and of application to the subject, in order to show 3'ou that your objection is utterly untenable. The first of these principles is, that as the gospel is designed for every creature, we are bound to attempt its universal dif- fusion. This obligation arises partly out of our community of nature and interest — a relationship by which the entire race, instead of consisting of a multitude of detached and i.so- lated individuals, is formed into a family so closely united by reciprocal ties, that the well-being of each is connected with the good of all. To complete the obligation, however, the will of Christ has made it authoritative and divine. Do you ask where and how he has expressed that will ? Not merely by commands to be found on almost every page of his gospel, and which re(}uire us to " do good unto all men." Not merely by the authority of his own example in '' taking away the sin of the world." But also by the diffusive nature of the gospel itself, by which it no sooner takes effect on an in- dividual than he feels himself impelled to proclaim its virtues to others, and to urge its acceptance. And still more, if pos- sible, by the divine constitution of the Christian Church ; by which, as we have shown at large in the First Part, having composed it of such as have themselves found mercy, he re- quires them to act as a body organized and appointed for the recovery of others. But while every Christian is thus bound to aim at the wel- fare of the entire race, a second principle is, that there is an order in which his benevolent efforts are to be made. This law of succession is the order of nature, by which those who are most nearly related to us have the first and strongest claims on us ; the order of Providence, by which we are ena- bled to administer the means of salvation to those who are placed near to us earlier, and at less expense, and in greater variety and abundance, than we can to those who are more re- mote from us; the order of Scripture example, in which we MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE. 289 see the apostles uniformly preaching first, wherever they went, to those of their own nation ; and nho the order of the future judgment, according to which no plea of attempting good at a distance will be admitted as an answer to the charge, "I was a stranger, and ye took me not in." But in saying all this, we may appear to be only repeating the sentiments of the objector. So far from this, however, we are insisting on a very different subject, and one which, by implication, refutes liis objection. For while we are only showing the order in which we are to work from the centre of our own circle out- wards, he is contending for the time we are to remain in that •"circle, and the amount of good we are to accomplish there, before we attempt any thing beyond it, and is thus practically denying any order of usefulness at all. Whether the com- mand of Christ to his apostles, that they should "begin at Jerusalem,'' is applicable here, admits of a question ; for it is quite possible that the reason of that injunction arose out of his relationship to the Jews, and not from that of the apostles : a relation which, as it was perfectly unique, cannot be a ground of obligation to his followers. 13ut allowing that it is appli- cable, and that it thus harmonizes with our present position; you, we say to the objector, you, by pleading exclusively for home, are acting directly at variance with it; for while it al- lows you to begin at home, it does not permit you to rest till you have aimed to diffuse the gospel " among all nations.". And this shows that the order in which our benevolent efforts are to be made is not only the order of nature, of Providence, of scriptural example, and of the final judgment, but also the order of self-increasing Christian usefulness; the order, that is, by which, in seeking the salvation of those immediately around us first, we multiply our means, through the grace of Cfod, for usefulness to the world at large. Hence, a third principle is, that by observing the scriptu- ral order of Christian activity, success at home becomes the means of increased usefulness abroad. Home duties, then, are to be discharged partly with the view of ultimately aug- menting our resources for every sphere of usefulness beyond : so that we may say to the objector, The Christian philan- thropist has all your motives for seeking the welfare of those around him, and one in addition of which you know nothing, — the powerful motive of thus multiplying his means of bene 11) 290 OBJECTIONS TO THE fiting the world at large. How many a Christian mother has foxinrl a strong additional inducement to the discharge of ma- ternal duties, from having devoted her Samuel in heart to the public service of God ! How many a Sunday-school teacher has labored in his high vocation with increased devotedness, when the thought arose that perhaps his class contained some youthful Eliot or Brainerd for the missionary field ! And what a strong incentive to persevering diligence has the faith- ful pastor found in the recollection that the prosperity of his flock was an element in the prosperity of the Church at large, and consequently in the welfare of the entire world ! ' But from this arises, fourthly, the important principle that, in proportion as we scripturally seek the good of others, we ourselves are benefited. For, in the instances referred to, the mother, the teacher, and the minister, would be the first gainers by their increased attention to their respective classes of duties; and the sou, the pupil, and the flock, would be the next, though the ultimate object aimed at was the good of parties still more remote. And do you not know, we might say to the objector, that this is only in harmony with the law of the Divine government, which ordains that "he that water- eth others shall himself be watered ?" You surely do not suppose that the fulfilment of this gracious declaration de- pends on geographical limits. If it guarantees to the indi- vidual Christian the reflex benefit of all the good he aims to impart to his friend, and if it secures to a particular church the advantageous reaction of all its efi"orts for the welfare of home, it equally engages that Christians at home cannot unite to benefit the world, without finding the benefit return in showers of blessings upon themselves. The history of modern missions is, as we have already shown, a continuous illustra- tion of this great truth. So great has been the beneficial influence which they have been the means of exerting upon the Church at home, that, if the missionaries had eff"ected little or no good among the heathen, they have accomplished more for their own countries by going abroad than if they had remained to occupy the most distinguished station at home. But of all this reflex influence you would deprive your coun- try. By limiting benevolent exertion to your own circle, you would arrest the operation of a law by which all you do beyond that circle is repaid a hundred-fold, and without which, iMISSlONAHY ENTERPRISE. 291 probably, there would be no benevolent activity at this mo- ment within that circle itself. And then, fifthly^ this reciprocity of religious advantage reminds us of the great principle that the cause of human welfare is indivisible and one. Whereas your objection pro- ceeds on the assumption that the interests of religion at home and abroad are opposed to each other; so that whatever is done to promote the one is so much lost to the other. But is this a supposition worthy of the professed follower of Him who embraced all the interests of humanity in his own person, and who left his gospel in trust for '* every creature?" It is true that the claims of a religious society are sometimes mag- nified beyond their due proportion of importance, and enforced in a manner which threatens with neglect or collision certain kindred institutions. And in some instances, a prior duty of inferior importance is underrated and neglected for a more remote but magnificent enterprise. But these are errors and evils incident alike to the cause of religion at home and abroad. The advocates of each, however, should remember that all our duties, temporal and spiritual, are so related, that he who neglects the least will find no excuse in pleading that he was attending to the greatest; and that all our Christian societies are so connected, that he who promotes one at the expense of another, inflicts injury upon them all. The ex- ample of our blessed Lord in looking down from the cross, and tenderly providing for a mother's comfort in the very crisis of the world's redemption, shows that all the true in- terests of humanity are indivisible, and that all duty is sacred and one. V. Supposing the objector dislodged from the preceding position, he may yet allege that, even if it be our duty to attempt the evangelization of the heathen, we have not the necessary funds. This objection, we might reply, is untena- ble on various grounds : it proceeds on the assumption that we have already reached the maximum of our contributions for missionary objects; whereas the steadiness with which, for so many years, they have gone on annually increasing, war- rants the expectation rather that they will still continue to increase. The objection assumes, too, that the Christian Church is either so good or so bad as to admit of no improve- ment; whereas we confidently anticipate that, in answer to 202 OBJECTIONS TO THE prayer, the Spirit will exalt the character of its piet}', and that, as one of the necessary consequences, the pecuniary resources of Christians will be consecrated in a larger pro- portion than ever to the service of God. Another of the fa]*-^- The prosecution of the inquiry discloses, if we mistake noti> the important facts, that whatever couflicts may hereafter ensue between the Church and the world, will arise from the success of the gospel; and that whatever judtrments the earth may yet be called to witness, will only concur with the power of the gospel to enlarge the domains of the Christian faith. So that those very predictions which are too often made to depress the hopes and dishearten the zeal of the Church, will be found calculated, when rightly understood, to animate its activity as with the blast of a trumpet. VIII. And another objection, not very remotely allied to the last, amounts to this : '' The time is not come, the time that the Lord's house should be built." When that selected time arrives, the Almighty will easily find means to accom- plish the conversion of the world; and till then, all our efibrts are premature and presumptuous, and must prove abortive. In reply to this Islamite doctrine, we might sny to the ob- jector. Your conduct in urging this objection is inconsistent with your creed ; for how do you know that it is the will c God that you should urge it'/ Why ''use the means" fc, correcting our supposed errors ? Are you not by this ver^ act '' taking God's work out of his hands V Had you not better leave him to take care of his own cause? When " thi time comes" for God to correct our errors, will he not fin^hich would be ever devising fresh meth- ods of usefulness, practicing self-denial, and laying itself out in the service of Christ ; and a perseverance which would never rest till the whole familj^ of man should be seated together at the banquet of salvation. But if, by thus imploring an eifusion of the Spirit on the Church, we are, in effect, interceding for the world, since it is through the instrumentality of the Church that the world is to be converted to Christ, how important that we should real- ize in thought the dignity and responsibility of our office ! We go to God as the earthly representatives of mankind. We pass to the throne of grace through multitudes, myriads of human beings. May we not hear them, as we go, implor- ing a place in our supplications ? May we not see all Africa assembled in our path, urging us to go to God for them, to describe their wrongs, to ask for the blessings of the reigu % 840 THE WANTS OF THE CIirRCH of Christ for them ? And before we have done pleadiug for Africa, China comes with its untold myriads, entreating us to intercede for them. And while yet we are pleading for China, India comes with its tale of lamentation and woe, and entreats us to speak for it ; and can we refrain ? And when w^e grow faint, they all combine their entreaties that we cry to God for them louder still; that we call in help — more intercessors, and more still — till all the Church be prostrate in prayer. And when we move to quit the throne of grace, they all, in effect, entreat us not to leave them unrepresented before God. "If there be a God," they say, '-and if prayer can reach him, do not leave us thus, or we perish. Our only hope is in the God you worship, the Saviour j^ou proclaim. Pray that the blessings of his grace may be extended to us." Did we habitually realize our office thus, our prayers would rise to a degree of importunity to which nothing could be denied essential to the success of our missionary endeavors. And be it remarked that prayer is not only desirable, ob- ligatory, urgent, — the time has come when, in an unusual sense, it is inevitable. We read of the Church of old being shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed. The Church at present is shut up unto prayer. It must sub- mit to deep disgrace in heathen lands, or call down unusual measures of help from heaven. It is so completely ensnared by success, that it must sound a retreat, or betake itself to God in unwonted prayer. Happy necessity, which shall drive it to this resource ! Blessed exigence, which shall bring the whole Church on its knees before God ! The time to favor her, yea, the set time will then have come. "God, even our own God, will bless us." Gazing from his throne upon his Church suppliant at his feet, he will say, " Behold, she pray- eth : let the windows of heaven be opened, and the blessing- be poured out." xVgain, then, we return to the position with which we com- menced this part of our subject, — and our survey of the necessities of the Church has only deepened our conviction of its truth, — that its great practical want as a missionary Church is a spirit of entire devotedness to its office. He who knows any thing of the human mind, knows that its full energies are never put forth unless its object be single. He who knows any thing of the relative design of the Christian IN RELATION TO MISSIONS. 341 Church, knows that it deserves the undivided attention and entire consecration of the whole Christian. And he who knows any thing of the history of that Church, is aware that those who have effected the greatest good in their own age, and who are producing the greatest impression on posterity, were distinguished for the entireness with which they gave themselves up to the service of Christ. Not that they occu- pied a public sphere, perhaps, nor that they were distin- guished by any one peculiar mode of doing good; but, what- ever their station, and however diversitied their Christian activity, they could each say, like the apostle, though in another sense, "One thing I do." One all-pervading passion, one all-controlling purpose, bound their various and versatile efforts together, causing the whole to result, like the intricate motions of a complicated machine, in one entire effect. Their talents, which, without this spirit of devotedness, would have been comparatively wasted, or have ranked as insignifi- cant, by it acquired a concentration and a power which arrested attention, and moved society. Feeble rays of know- ledge which, without this, would have been useless to all but the possessors themselves, by it were collected into a focus, and made to illuminate and burn. Powers of persuasion and reasoning, which, vfithout it, would seldom have moved or convinced, by it acquired an impassioned earnestness which icoidd be heard, and could not fail to be felt. Each appeal which they made for God, however simple the terms in which it was couched, was charged high with feeling and fervor : each sentence an arrow with barbed and sharpened point : each attempt to reason for God, "logic set on fire." Oppor- tunities of usefulness which, without it, would have passed by them unseen and neglected, were, by it, anticipated, waited for, met, seized, improved, multiplied. Characters which, without it, would have been unnoticed, by it acquired an air of originality and greatness, and even obtained a widespread ascendency over other characters. There are men now occupied in the field of missionary labor whose names, but for this, would never have been heard of beyond their own immediate circle ; but whose praise is now in all the churches, and will be to the end of time. Not a man of this kind ever lives without leaving on society perma- nent traces that he has been among them. And why '/ J/artly 312 THE WANTS OF THE CHURCH for this reason : that the undivided and devoted man of God will be ever and anon impelled, by the very law of his de- votedness, to advance a step, at least, beyond his contempora- ries; to carry out into vigorous action f-ome principle which they are content to retain slumbering in their creeds; to give himself up to the power of his principles. True, by so doing he may often attempt more than he can effect; but what then 't He will effect more than most men attempt. xVnd is not the devoted Christian the only one likely to de- velop and draw out into benevolent activity the resources of those around him, and of the Church in general? No one else will feel sufficiently concerned to attempt it; or if he did, the attempt, counteracted as it would be by his own example, would prove nugatory on others, and recoil with shame on his own head. But the Christian whose heart is wholly devoted to Christ, cannot see the paucity of his own means'in contrast with the magnitude of the work to be performed, and then look around on the unemployed and ample resources of the Church, all of which are due to the service of Christ, but nearly the whole of which are lying open to the incursions of the world, without attempting to reclaim them for Christ. He cannot recollect that each member of that vast body of the faithful has his post assigned in the cause of human sal- vation ; that in that post all his Christian influence should be put into constant requisition ; and that every thing dear to God is suspended and suffering, owing to the general neglect of this truth, without feeling impelled to warn his fellow- Christians. He believes, and, therefore, speaks ; while his example, louder than words, reminds them that they are not their own : that they are exclusively the property of Christ. And is not the Christian whose devotedness is such that he cannot be satisfied with giving himself less than wholly to the service of Christ, and who would fain see all the resources of the Christian Church pressed into the same service, and all its members cooperating with him to the utmost ; is not he, for the very same reasons, likely to be the most earnest in his entreaties for the indispensable influences of the Holy Spirit'/ Yes : whatever else may be essential in order to the conver- sion of the world, he will insist first and last on the agency of the Holy Spirit. Remembering that the present is em- phatically the dispensation of the Spirit, that to convince men IN RELATION TO IMISSIONS. 343 of sin is the office of the Spirit, that the ordinances ot tne Church are the instruments of the Spirit, and that every Christian member is at once the mouth of the Church and the organ of the Spirit, in their united appeals to the world ; he feels as if he could not move without the Spirit ; but re- membering, also, that his influence is promised to prayer, he cannot do less than cry earnestly for his aid. Thus earnestly sought, and appropriately honored, the presence of the Spirit will be felt, nourishing and enlarging his piety into an ele- ment; not affecting a part of his character merely, but per- vading the whole; consecrating his knowledge, and turning it into heavenly wisdom ; keeping him on his watch-tower, looking out for the signs of the times, and the means of im- proving them to the glory of God; inspiring him with a growing confidence in God, in the sufficiency of the gospel to meet the wants of the Church and of the world ; concen- trating his powers to the one great object of human sal- vation ; impelling him, under a sense of the magnitude of the work to be accomplished, to excite and engage the agencies of all around him; and yet deepening his conviction that, could all these agencies be put into full activity, the power of the Spirit alone could crown that activity with success. As certainly as he believes this he will pray : as certainly as he prays he will obtain the Holy Spirit; and as certainly as he is actuated by the Spirit of God, his will be a devoted and effi- cient instrumentality. Now, such entireness of consecration is, not among other things, but above all other things, in the order of means, in- dispensable. Always obligatory, it has now more than ever assumed a character of pressing, crying urgency. The spirit- ual wnnts of the heathen become apparent faster than we can supply them. Cries for missionary help thicken around us more rapidly than we can meet and appease them. The Church is distracted by the multiplicity of demands made on it, compared with the scantiness of means at present at its disposal. Entire devotedness would remedy the evil ; not so much by adding to those resources the thousand means of in- fluence which are now wasted in the world, as by certainly se- curing an unmeasured blessing from on high. God would- arise out of his place; and then, although our means were S 14 THE ^yANTs of toe cnuRcn much scantier than they now are, the work would rapidly pro- ceed to a o-lorious consummation. Christians, then, must live to Christ for the conversion of thie world. The individual believer must come to feel that liis very hnHiness as a Christian, his calling^ is to propa<:;ate his reliu'ion. Instead of waiting for great conjunctures to arise before he begins to serve the missionary cause, or delay- ing until he has been transported to some distinguished tield of usefulness at a distance, he must remember that, wherever he is, the sphere of his duty is always l^'ing around him. In- stead of waiting for others to move, each one must act under a sense of his individual responsibility to Christ, and as if he heard the Saviour's voice singling him out to tax his pow- ers to the utmost in his service. Instead of taking example from the generality of those around him, he must take his standard from the word of God, and he will be furnishing a model for them, giving a pattern to the future, becoming the founder, not of a new doctrinal sect, but of a body of Chris- tians distinguished by simply harmonizing their life with their professions. Instead of admiring the devotedness of Christ at a distance, he must feel that, like Christ, he has a work given him to do — the extension, or prolongation, in a sense, of the very same work : that as the course of Christ led direct to the cross, his life is to be a continua- tion of the same course, from the cross to the sinner whom it concerns; so that the same object for which his Lord came into the world and died, he is to live for till, he quits the world. Heads of families must remember that parental influence and domestic relationships are to be consecrated to the same object. Not only must they train their children to habits of benevolence, early impressing them that the principal value of money consists in its subserviency to the cause of Christ : they niust look higher and farther even than this. They must themselves feel that the chief value even of their child- ren, consists in their consecration to the same glorious cause. And, therefore, they must early begin to train them to lake part in it; instructing them in the nature and progress of Christian missions ; impressing it on them that the conver- sion of the world to Christianity is the noblest enterprise in IN RELATION TO MISSIONS. 845 which they can engage; inspiring them, if consistent with other claims, "with zeal to embark in it ; and in the event of their so doing, preparing, as far as possible, to support them in it. Christian ministers must not regard the fact that they are occupying spheres of usefulness at home, as a sufficient rea- son for declining to enter the missionary field. They are to consider that as long as the demand for laborers is so much greater among the heathen than it is here, there is a standing call in Providence to exercise their ministry among them ; and that unless they can show the best reasons for non-com- pliance, they are bound to listen and obey. Should such rea- sons, however, exist, they must be missionaries at home. Their ministry, to be effective, must develop all the resources of the Church, and bring them forth into actual operation. The holder of the five talents was to increase them, not by acting without them, but with them; and the man of God, when put in trust with the ministry of a particular church, is to look on each of its members as a talent concerning which the Divine Proprietor is saying, " Occupy till I come : em- ploy every member — every moment and faculty of every member — to the best advantage, that each may be the means of winning another, and that my church of five hundred may be the means of gaining other five hundred more." With this solemn charge resting on his spirit, he will feel that his first object is to make the most of that church with whose instrumentality his Lord has intrusted him. Its members may not be educated, wealthy, numerous, nor, in a worldly sense, influential. But they are such as God hath collected and formed into a church, to take part in his sublime purpose of saving the world. One thing is certain, therefore, that they are all to be employed. In this sense, there are to be no ''private Christians'' among them. Every believer is a public man, taken up into the universal designs of the God of grace. In whatever sense they are private, then, like the ranks of an army, all are to take the field i the only concern of the minister must be how to dispose of his forces so as to render them most effective in the cause of God. A ministry which begins and ends with itself — however pious, intelli- gent, and eloquent it may be — is only the ministry of one man; and even that counteracted, neutralized, and often rcn* 846 THE WANTS OF TUE CHURCH dered worse than useless, by the slumbering and selfish inac- tivity of the people. But a ministry which sets and keeps in motion an entire church, however destitute it may be of other qualifications, becomes, in effect, the ministry of all its mem- bers, and thus proves an instrumentality of the widest influ- ence and of the greatest efficiency. And never, till the entire Church is thus moved, and all its resources put into actual requisition, will the full value of the Christian ministry be seen; for never till then will it fully answer the high object of its Divine appointment in the conversion of mankind. Why should not each church, or Christian community, take into sober consideration what is its proportion of the agency necessary to evangelize the world ? Every church has its few active and its many indolent members; or, at least, those who are kept from indolence chiefly to avoid the shame and the remonstrances to which it would lead; and well do the few know that if the many were as active as themselves, their collective usefulness might be greatly increased. And well does each of our great missionary societies know that if all the unemployed resources of the community to which it belongs were but brought out from the napkin in which they are shrouded, and from under the bushel where they are hid, and placed at its disposal, soon might the sphere of its opera- tions be enlarged to an almost indefinite extent. Now, this must be done. The Lord of the Church has made it the duty of his people statedly to pray that more laborers may be sent forth into the moral harvest. But this supposes that we are all anxious to furnish the requisite number, and that as soon as any who are eligible for the work appear in the Church, we regard it as an answer to our prayers, and take the necessary steps for sending them forth. Accordingly, instead of contenting itself with an annual contribution merely, each church must become, in a sense, a complete missionary society. If suitable agents, or those who may bo made such, exist within its bosom, it must seek them out, and press them into the service. If the minister hinjself should express a desire to dedicate himself to the work, let the people generously sacrifice their own wishes for the good of the heathen. If the missionary preacher cannot be found among them, the missionary layman may. If the wealthy Christian has no hioher reason for remainino; at home than IN RELATION TO MISSIONS. 347 that -wluch arises from his comfort and convenience, he must be affectionately admonished that the least he can do is to send and support a missionary in his stead. The churches severally mubt feel a distinct responsibility : each must per- form a portion of duty: the whole work must be taken up more in detail ; and each individual Christian must have the appeal carried home to his conscience as to the manner and the extent in which he will obey the last command of Christ, till he feels that it is a question which he must personally^ and in the presence of God, decide. The Church universal must unite. Not only must denomi- nations of Christians verbally acknowledge the common guilt of their existing dissensions — they must be seen practically repenting, sympathizing, cooperating, and even emulating with each other in the sublime struggle of saving a world of souls from death. " The plague is begun." For ages the plague has prevailed. Countless myriads of immortal beings have, in consequence, perished. And still its desolating influence sweeps over the nations. The recovery or destruc- tion of unknown multitudes depends on the instant applica- tion of the Divine remedy. That remedy is in the hands of the Church ; and it is there that she may rush with it " be- tween the dead and the living.'^ And what she may do, she must do; nor must she expect to achieve ''any deliverance in the earth," any signal or final triumph, until she has laid her- self out to the utmost with a view to it. '' When Zion tra- vailed, she brought forth," and not till then. '^A woman when she is in travail hath sorrow;" and so has a Church laboring, and in pangs for the regeneration of the world. The only question with such a Church will be, and the only consideration for us must be. Is it within the compass of our power to send the gospel through the world ? Not whether we can send it with a small effort, or in a way which shall not materially interfere w^th our favorite plans of ease and habits of personal gratification. But can we, by "strong crying and tears," by the practical activity of a bold and vigorous faith, by the most strenuous and persevering exertions, furnish a dying world, the Saviour's world, with the means of salva- tion 't The question must be answered by the actual experi- ment of unreserved devotedness. PART VI. MOriVES TO ENFORCE THE ENTIRE CONSECRATION OF CHRISTIANS TO THE GREAT OBJECTS OF THE MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE. It now remains that we exhibit and enforce some of the motives which exist for entire consecration to the great ob- jects of the missionary enterprise. And remembering how much may depend, under Clod, on their right selection and earnest inculcation, the writer cannot but humbly and earn- estly implore the gracious aid of the Holy Spirit, that none of the precious and momentous interests involved may suffer in his hands. As if all the heathen world were present as his clients, and he were pleading for them in the audience of the entire Church assembled on their behalf, and within hear- ing of the reproaches of the myriads whom the Church has suffered to go down unwarned to perdition, and within sight of the great tribunal, and of Him who sits on it, he would faithfully, affectionately, solemnly urge the duty of unreserved devotedness as the only hope, from the Church, for the heathen world. Let Christians, then, devoutly consider the grounds on which we urge this, and the reasons which bind them to comply — reasons so affecting and weighty that, although the wisest and the holiest men have in all ages vinited to enforce them with tears and entreaties, and though some of these men of God appeared to have been continued on earth chiefly to enforce them, devoting their whole lives to the work, yet they never have, never can have, full justice done to them ; reasons so vast, that in order to comprehend them, we must compute the worth of all the souls perishing in ignorance of Christ through the want of it, and of all the ( 343 ) CONSECRATION TO MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE. 349 alorj which through eternity would redound to God from their conversion; and reasons so deeply laid in the Divine purposes, that the great object of the advent itself — the sal- vation of the world — is suspended on their taking effect. Some of those reasons we have enforced already; not wait- ing till we approached the close of the subject, but urging them as they arose successively out of the various Parts. Indeed, the whole of the First Part may be considered as an exposition of the scriptural obligations to the duty \ while the Second Part, on the benefits of the missionary enterprise, afforded us an opportunity of showing that the nearer we have approached to entire devotedness, the greater have been the advantages to ourselves and others : the Third Part, on missionary encouragements, showed that nothing but such devotedness is requisite in order to give the gospel to all mankind : even the objections to the missionary object, enu- merated in the Fourth Part, were shown to be either utterly unfounded, or easily convertible into motives to the most self- denying zeal for its advancement; and the Fifth Part pro- fessed to show that such consecration forms the moral fitness which the Church wants, and to specify the various respects in which, under God, it would tend to supply our missionary defects. -^ I. We would now entreat the reader to consider that this entire devotedness is called for, if only to retrieve^ as far as possible, the evil effects of our jmst conduct, both as individual Christians, and as members of the visible and universal Church. As converted men, we can probably look back to a period when we lived exclusively to ourselves. During the whole of that time, we are to remember, our life was planted in battery against Christ. Through that entire period, our character was full of influence — daily and hourly increasing the power of old trains, of evil influence, or originating new ones. Each of these trains is still in existence : all of them are at this moment in operation somewhere: some of them doubtless in eternity — in hell. Tremendous reflection ! they have entered into the character of some of the lost — become elements of damnation; and are now, while we are here at ease, imparting a darker shade of malignity to their thoughts, and deeper, coarser accents to their blasphemies. And on they will go, extending and multiplying their fearful effects, 850 MOTIVES TO ENTIRE CONSECRATION till all of them have worked out and discharged their proper results in the same appalling issue. And is it for us to be now satisfied with the consecration of less than the whole of our remaining influence to counteract the evil ? Even if Christ did not expressly require it — if he were even to give us a dispensation from it — would our sense of obligation, our agony of solicitude to retrieve the past, allow us to accept it ? If tears could wash away the evil of the past, could we do less than wish that our head were a fountain of waters, that we might weep night and day ? But tears cannot : to remove its guilt there must be blood of infinite value ; and to coun- teract its depraving influence, a Spirit of almighty power; while all that we can do — and surely we shall not plead for doing less — is to be the devoted, unintermitting channel for the communication of both to the world. Besides which, we now stand related to the Christian Church ; and this entire devotedness is called for to retrieve the efl"ects, not only of our own conduct, but also of those who for ages have been the professed representatives of dis- honored Christianity to the world. Let us think what that conduct, age after age, has been. From the moment the command went forth, " Preach the gospel to every creature," the world was divided into two classes. Those who possessed the gospel were to view themselves as standing to the rest of mankind in the relation of guardians — agents of mercy — instruments of salvation. What they ought to have been we have seen ! — alas ! how perfect the contrast to what they have been ! It is fearful to think that, since then, forty thousand millions of human beings should have been allowed to pass through this world of guilt and woe on their way to a dark and dreadful eternity, without having heard from the Church a single accent of mercy and salvation. It is startling and alarming to reflect that there should be a greater number of heathen in the world at this moment than at any previous period since the gospel dispensation commenced : greater even than about fifty years ago, when the modern missionary eff"ort began ; for while, owing to our languid measures, we are proselyting them only at the rate of some hundreds cr thousands annually, they are yearly adding to their ranks, by mere increase of population, about three millions and a half. But we speak not of mere neglect. Simply to have dis- TO THE MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE. 351 regarded the command of Christ to evangelize them, would have been harmless, perfect innocence, compared with what men called Christians have done under the pretence of obey- ing it. Simply to have left the heathen to perish in igno- rance and idolatry, would have been mercy, benevolence, com- pared with the cruelties they practiced under the name of conversion. As they ascended, generation after generation, to the bar of God, and were asked the solemn question, "Where is thy heathen brother?" to have been able to reply, "Gone down unwarned to perdition," would have been com- parative merit. But his blood was on their hands — they were there reeking from his slaughter — his injured spirit was there to accuse them. Let us track their progress among the heathen ; and, if we can find it by no other marks, we haye only to select the path most strewed with the wrecks of humanity — it is sure to be theirs. What was Southern America a century after the first nominal Christians landed there ? the vast and crowded sepulchre of her murdered sons. Ask Northern America, Wliere are thy children of a thousand tribes? and the hill and the valley which knew them once can only echo, W^here ? — for men called Christians have been among them. A voice is heard in the South, " lamentation and bitter weeping, [Africa] weeping for her children, refuses to be comforted because they are not. Thus saith the Lord, Kefrain thy voice from weeping, and thine eyes from tears; for thy work shall be rewarded, saith the Lord; and they shall come again from the land of the enemy. And there is hope in thine end, saith the Lord, that thy children shall come again to thine own border." But whose is that land of the enemy ? and why were they taken there ? Whose can it be but the land of Christians? and what could they aim at but their conversion ? Unexampled infatuation ! In each of the instances we have named, the system of fiendish iniquity was commenced in the dishonored name of Christ, and for the professed extension of the faith. And yet — unparalleled inconsistency ! — the only men they martyred were those who attempted scripturally to extend that faith I* But speak we of the past ? Still the evil rages and extends. At this moment, men called Christians are the main props of [* See Introduction.— T. 0. S.] -I 852 MOTIVES TO ENTIRE CONSECRATION idolatry in Itidia — more useful to Juggernaut than his own hereditary priests. They aspire not to serve at his altar: they are content to hold up his train. Jesus and Juggernaut are alike to them; and they lend the sacred shield of the one, to guard the blood-stained and worn-out throne of the other. Slaver}'-, under another name, driven from disembowelled Africa, is coasting other shores, seeking whom it may devour, ■he monster has tasted blood, and will not soon be driven 'from human flesh. Colonization and commerce still advance, with murder in their van. Those ships, whose holds arc iilled with distilled poison ; those decks, piled with the instru- ments of destruction ; that large fleet, freighted with opium — all proclaim their sleepless activity and their chosen means. Go, mark the thousand shores and islands of the Pacific, and say, with what are their tribes maddened, but with the liquid fires which they have imported ? with what are they slaughter- ing each other, but with the weapons which their hands have supplied ? with what are they pining and wasting away, but with the loathsome diseases which their vices have left behind ? Missionaries of Christ ! is there a single coast, a solitary island, whose virgin soil has not yet been defiled by their touch ? Hasten away, or they will be there before you: there, to propagate an influence which ages of Christian effort will not be able to eflace — there, to render the Christian name a name for avarice and treachery, licentiousness and blood. True, there are exceptions to these statements; but rare ex- ceptions they are. True, most of the actors in these tragic scenes have been Christians only in name ; but in name they have been, and therein lies the evil. True, we are not directly answerable for the evil ; but deeply implicated we are. When Christians should have been protesting, counteracting, moving heaven and earth against it, they all slumbered and slept. "Were they not then implicated in the guilt? And the only condition on which we can escape the same implication is, by doing what they neglected. Let us omit a single prayer; withhold a single mite; send out a single missionary less than we could ; delay a single moment to do any thing short of all VTe can do; and, during that moment, and to the full amount of that neglected means, we are implicated in the guilt, and are abetting the destructive influences which for ages have been turning the Christian name among the heathen into a curse. TO THE MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE. 358 Even if it were possible for Christians instruraentally to arrest and annihilate at a blow all the wide-spread machinery of evil which they have allowed to cover the earth in their name, ages would elapse, time itself must expire, before the pernicious influence of what has been done would cease to work against them. But, till that blow be struck, not only will those evil influences already in action continue to extend — new ones will be daily originated and augmenting their force. For the sake of the Christian name, then, in which the foulest atrocities have been committed ; for the sake of the Church which has guiltily allowed it; for the sake of that world which has meantime suifered the dreadful eff"ects, and which often thrusts away the cup of salvation because proffered by Christian hands, let no one bearing the Christian name live to himself. Could each one multiply himself and his means a thousand-fold, all would be necessary, if only to retrieve the guilt of the past. II. Entire devotedness to the cause of Christ is necessary, not only to retrieve the pa.sf, hut as the onhj alternative of 'partial hostility against him at preseiit. He that is not with me, saith Christ — and therefore during every moment in which he is not with me — is against me. Lax views on this subject are the origin of much of that inferior piety by which the Church is enfeebled, and its usefulness impaired. Chris- tians generally appear to proceed on the supposition that there is a sense in which they are still partially their own ; that there are considerable portions of their time in which they are at perfect liberty to relax as they please ; that at such times their conduct is quite neutral in its influence; that any thing short of positive hostility against Christ, is to be put down to the account of so much service done for him. Now, were this supposition as true as it is false — were it quite pos- sible for the Christian to withhold from Christ a portion of his resources, without rendering by such an act the least advantage to the foe, it would still be highly inconsistent and unjust. For at the very moment we are relaxing in his ser- vice, unnumbered agencies of his are at work for us. At the moment we are self-indulging, we are doing it with his money, in his time, at his expense, by the light of his sun. But when we remember that every particle of influence withheld from Christ, is so much employed against him — that neutrality 354 MOTIVES TO ENTIRE CONSECRATION here is impossible, the consequences of such conduct are alarming. Were it possible for us to ascend some mount of vision whence we could look down upon the consequences of our conduct, we should see that at the moment when we thought ourselves most perfectly detached from all around us, there is a sense in which we were then standing in the midst of the universe with lines of relation uniting us with all its multitudes. We should see that often, when we thought our character most unobserved and at rest, it was giving out moral influences without intermission ; that the moment they ceased to be good, they began to be evil; that, however apparently unimportant, they have ever since been swelling that tide of evil by which myriads are borne on to perdition. We should see that the world is the scene of a moral conflict ; that in that conflict we hold an appointed post; that at that post every thing we possess is a weapon of war; that never have we ceased to wield it either for evil or for good ; for the mo- ment in which we thought we were only pausing, a shout of joy ran through the ranks of the invisible foe, who beheld in that pause a proof of our weakness, and the sign and means of their own strength ; so that when we thought we were only doing nothing for Christ, they hailed us as an accession to their own ranks acting against him; and thus we should see why it is that Meroz was cursed because they came not out to the help of the Lord, and why it is that, in the final judg- ment, those who did nothing will find themselves standing side by side with them that did evil, and involved in the same condemnation. It follows, then, that if we are doing a particle less than all we can do for the kingdom of Christ, we are incurring a pro- portion of the guilt of those who are doing nothing, and for the very same reason. The obligation which binds us to take any part in the grand conflict which is waging, not only holds us responsible for doing every thing in our utmost power, but actually regards whatever is short of this as so much opposi- tion, with our cognizance, against him. Let us not suppose, then, that because we are doing something, we are sufficiently demonstrating our fidelity to his cause : if we are only doing one-third, so to speak, of what we could do, the other two- thirds are operating, as ours, in hostility against him, as truly as that one-third is operating, as ours, in his behalf. If TO THE MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE. 855 there be, for instance, somewhere in the heathen world a cer- tain amount or form of evil which my agency, armed with power from Heaven, might entirely subdue, and I have aimed at the destruction of only one-half of it, the other half must be regarded as my agency for upholding the cause of idolatry. If a Church, or an individual, support — as some do — a native teacher of Christianity in India, on the condition that he be called by the name of the Christian contributor, and if, while supporting only one, he could support two, he must be re- garded as working there by two representatives — one for Christ, the other against him. True, the second or evil agent has not been named after him, is not supported by him ; but inasmuch as he could, by the Divine blessing, be counteract- ing double the amount of evil influence which he is, that por- tion of it against which he proclaims no war, and makes no effort, is to be held as WQrking against Christ, with his conni- vance, and in his name. Precious influence ! each grain of which exceeds all calculable value. Well might our Lord be jealous for every particle; since there are but two treasuries in the universe, one for him, and the other for Satan ; so that every grain withheld from his, falls into and enriches the other. And well may the Christian regard himself with all the sacredness of a temple, since he cannot yield himself to any other claimant than Christ, even for a moment, without yield- ing himself, during that moment, to a hostile party. So that, in truth, our only escape from partial hostility to Christ, is that of unreserved devotedness to his service. III. The reference we have made to the great moral con- flict which is pending, reminds us next, that the state of the heathen is such as to require the entire amount of Christian influence for its amelioration. It is affecting to think that while we are sitting, perhaps in our home, comparatively un- moved, there are, elsewhere, above^ix hundred millions of our race under the almost undisturbed domination of Satan; that these myriads are the wretched survivors of untold generations, who have lived and died under the same vassalage ; that, as if they were horn and were living in hell instead of on earth, the destroyer is living and walking amongst them ; and that almost all the influences under which they pass across the stage of life, and which are perpetually darting and acting upon them from all sides round, are the influences of a systeui 356 MOTIVES TO ENTIRE CONSECRATION which he has been thousands of years constructing and matur- ing; to which he has been constantly adding something, and the sole merit of which, in his eyes, consists in the etficacy and certainty with which it invades and destroys them. Such, we may suppose, was the sight which Jesus beheld, when from the mountain's top the tempter meant that he should see only '' the kingdoms of the world and the. glory oi them," And is it true that, after the gospel has been amongst us nearly two thousand ^^ears, that spectacle is to be seen still? Ascend, in thought, the same mount — we might say to the inquirer — and you behold substantially the same vision. Take ft hasty glance at them, at least; more you cannot; for were ^ they to assume the most dense and compacted form, days must •■"iC.^ elapse before they would all have passed. Look down upon ' them — if the thick darkness which hangs over them will per- mit — look down and mark their condition. Listen to the din of the great Babel : do you hear any voice of prayer ? do you see any hopeful sign ? It is true they have priests — but they are impostors and murderers ; and altars — but they are stained with human blood; and objects of worship — but they " sacri- fice to devils, and not to God." Look closer still; and as you look, think of all the elements of influence — ancestry, wealth, numbers — you cannot name one which is not made to min- ister to their destruction. Enumerate the vices — avarice, sensuality, revenge — you cannot specify one which is not, not merely embodied, but adored ; for these are their gods, under other names. You cannot point out a single object in the air, the earth, or the waters, which might be pressed into the ser- vice of sin, and which is not actually so employed. You can- not discover a single individual who is not acting on every 'jther being in all that countless mass in confirmation of their common depravity. You cannot name a sense of the body, a faculty of the soul, an evil propensity of our nature, which is not seized and held fast by as many hands as some of their false divinities possess, and which does not lend its willing aid in return. You cannot name a single moment, from birth to death, in which the whole of this infernal machinery is not everywhere in destructive activity, shedding poison and raining death ; an activity, compared with which the utmost mechanical velocity, or the still greater activity of the material elements themselves, are mere quiet and repose. TO THE MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE. 357 And having surveyed this dense array of evil — having- ex- plored this living continent of depravity — do you wonder that God does not burn it from the earth ? does not forthwith sweep the whole of these myriads away with the besom of destruction ? Them I Destroy them ! Their guilt is, in one respect, venial, compared with the sin of the Christian Church. Their state, fearful as it is, is explicable, compared with the conduct of those who hold in their hands the known means of their rescue, but refuse to employ them. Look, we entreat you, look at those myriads again. Yoa "' think, perhaps, that you do see them ; many, at least, may flatter themselves that they do ; but no, they have not yet — their conduct proves it. See, the countless mass is at worship — before the throne of Satan, glowing as with the heat of an infernal furnace — with rage, lust, and cruelty for their reli- gious emotions. Look at them again — their demon-worship is over; but are they satisfied '/ How eager their looks ! how objectless and restless their movements ! how the living mass of misery heaves, and surges, and groans, and travails in pain together ! * Look at them once more : they are travellers into eternity : V mark how vast the procession they form, how close their ^ ranks, how continuous the line, how constant and steady the advance ! Do you see them now ? Then you see that angry cloud which hangs over their ranks — which moves as they move — and which ever and anon emits a lurid flash : it is stored with the materials of judicial wrath. Do you mark them still? Then you see that thousands of them have reached the edge of a tremendous gulf — it is the gulf of perdition, and they are standing on the very brink. Are you sure that you see them ? God of mercy ! They are falling over — they are gone ! And we never, never tried to save them ! Father, forgive us : we know not what we do. Sa- viour of sinners, spare us yet another year. We know they are lost — lost to happiness and lost to thee ! We could have told them of thee — shown them thy cross — given them thy gospel — pointed them the way to heaven. But they are lo.st ! Talk not of enthusiasm ! He who has felt most has not yet felt enough. We are speaking of scenes of misery over which a Paul wept with anguish ! We are living in the very world for which Christ bled in agony ! Those very scenes \ o58 MOTIVES TO ENTIRE CONSECRATION which hardly raise an emotion in us, are the scenes which moved the heart of God — which produced the cross of Christ. 80 that were every Christian to tremble with emo- tion —were the members of every Church to meet on the subject, to start from their supineness as one man, and to utter a loud cry of lamentation — were the whole Church to be seized as in travail for souls, it would be only what sym- pathy with Christ requires, and what the state of a perishing world demands. W. The duty of intense devotedness to the work of impart- ing the gospel is greatly increased h^ the remarkable manner in which Providence has brought and placed the world at our feet in order to receive it. There might have been but one unenlightened district left on the face of the earth — but one unconverted man; and he a miserable object, the lone inhabitant of some distant and desert isle. Yet such is the human soul; so inconjparably superior, owing to its spiritual nature, its endless duration, and its vast capabilities, to the whole material universe, and so momentous an object is its recovery in the estimation of Christ, that, if necessary, it would be the duty of all the other inhabitants of the earth to have embarked their trea- sures, joined their supplications, combined and taxed their utmost resources, for the conversion of that solitary man. But if all this would be justified for the salvation of one man — if a particle less than all this would be a betrayal of our trust, an insult to all injmortal natures, and treason against the throne of Christ, when only one soul was concerned, what must be the guilt of less than entire devotedness when the unconverted are so many that they are cr.iwded in cities, swarming on islands, overflowing continents, teeming every- where ? If, when the Church had so far '• multiplied, and replenished the earth," as to have left but a single district unenlightened, it would yet be bound, if necessary, to dev(»tc all its united energies to the recovery of that solitary region, where could we find language strong enough to describe the inconsistency of that region, if on the contrary supposition that it alone possessed the gospel, and all the rest of the earth were perishing, it yet contented itself with a few cheap and easy expressions of concern for their salvation ? But though this supposition partially represents our actual TO THE MISSIONARY EXTEIIJ'UISE. 359 position and conduct in rulation to the lieathen world, our opportunities of saviiiii; them miuht have been such as to render tlie attempt all but hopeless. We might have been held in cruel slavery, unable to move without a chain ; or tho scattered inhabitants of some arctic region, comparatively cut oiF from intercourse with the rest of the world ; or imprisoned, for every missionary purpose, in the heart of a vast continent ; or the idolatrous nations generally might be so averse to Christianity, as rigorously to inflict death on any of its agents, who might dare to approach them. And yet if, even then, less than entire devotedness to the world's salvation would have been the highest guilt, by what plea can we now excuse ourselves for less, when the world, in a sense, is given into our hands ?* We might have been originally an island of bar- barians, the prey of every roving pirate, and the trembling victims of civilized oppression. And if then the dayspring from on high had visited us, and prepared us for all our sub- sequent improvement — if, as our ancient oppressors declined, and were recalled from the stage of action, we gradually emerged, and rose into national importance — if, when the ark of the truth was in danger, we were honored by God to act as its defenders — if, as often as our foes combined to destroy us, they were not only defeated, but doomed to the mortifica- tion of seeing us rise to greater prominence than before — if a name and a character became ours which operated uni- versally in our favor as a moral charm — if our commerce were welcomed in almost every port — if our political influ- ence were felt in every cabinet — if surrounding powers were dispossessed of their foreign dependencies that we might enjoy them — and if other vast and populous regions of the earth came unexpectedly into our possession, till a consider- able portion of the race were sitting at our feet — should we not feel that each stage of our course had brought with it an increase of responsibility, till our position had become one which left us no alternative but that of entire consecration to its duties? But who does not know that this is far below the reality of our history ? What was our pulitieal condition only a century ago? The great powers which divided the empire of the world did not reckon us among them. The total number of British subjects, including those of all our dependencies, did uol 300 MOTIVES TO ENTIRE COX.SECUATION exceed 13,000,000. Wliat is their number now? Upwards of 152,000,000, which is more than a sixth portion of the human race; considerably more than the popidation of the ancient llonian empire ; nearly double that of the nations now subject to Mohammedan rulers; and great h' exceed in with an additional motive to do like- wise, and will render us the more inexcu-^djle if we do not. Are we asked the names ot" such uumi, and who they were? Ask — we reply — ask inspiration the n imes of tin; men who first filled the world with the news of salvation, fro.n the burning Paul to the humblest evangelist of his day. Ask Protestant Christendom the names of her refor.ners and con- fessors ; and she will tell y'>'» of a Wycliffl' and a Zuiiigle, a Luther, a ^lelancthon, and a Huss — men of whom the woi'ld was not worthy. Ask our missionary societies the names of their honored founders, and they will tell }ou of \mi\ who travelled, pleaded, wept, while the world around them slept. Ask them the names of the missionaries they most (hdight to honor, and they will give you a long list of worthies, from an Eliot of the seventeenth century, penetrating the depths of the xVmerican wilderness, to the Moravian heroes of tin; eighteenth century, braving the snows of (Ireenland, down to the man of "Missionary Enterprises," just gone to explore the Southern Pacific for fresh fields of go-pel triumph.* And what shall we more say? for the time would fail us to tell (tf a Brainerd and a Stach, a Swartz and a Coke, a Martyn and a Morrison, a Carey and a Marshman, who through faitli sub- dutid kingdoms to the obedience of Christ, turned spears into pruning-hooks, civilized savage tribes, smote olf the fetters of the slave — gave the Bible to the nations — and went every- where claindng those nations for God. Had the Grecian sol- dier a loftier character to sustain after TherniopyUc and Mara- thon? What a character have we to sustain since such men trod the earth! Yet ask them the secret of their success ; ask fhem, we say — for they are near us — do we not fejl their presence? are we not sensible of a gi-eat cloud of witnesses? Ask them the secret of their success — and, whih^ they point to [run at whose feet they cast their crowns as the (dficicnt cause, they will tell you that, instrumentally, they owe it to the singleness of their aim, the unity of their purpose, the utter devotedness of their lives to their great objejt. And yet * Now ginic to Ills rev/artl, as the " MaiMjT of Eriomaiiga." TO THE MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE. dOo ardent, devoted as they were, in what respect did tliey exceed their duty ? Holy, honored, illustrious men, what are we that we should be admitted to your jilorious fellowship ! Had ijoa not lived, we should have applauded deeds which now we must pass unnamed I We cannot talk of what we give in yuur pres- ence — you gave yourselves. We cannot boast of our enthu- siasm in your hearing— your zeal consumed you. AVe dare not speak of our sacrifices before you — you would remind us that the world has had but one sacrifice, and never can have another — and yet you gave your lives, your all. How have you raised the standard of Christian action ! What new responsibilities have you devolved ! Never can we vindicate our title as your successors, nor complete what you began, but by binding ourselves up with it, as you did, for life and for death. VI. The importance of a devoted Church will appear, if we reflect that the dlstinguiahinf/ cJiaracterL&tlc of the age is that of change and transition, and that only such a Church is prepared to turn this peculiar if t/ to the proper, the highest account. Never, since time began, was the human mind in such close, quick, constant, sympathetic, universal commu- nication as now. And, consequently, never was there so general and thorough an awakening of mind as now. Look where we will, it is quivering with impulses, thrilling with excitement, restless for change, panting for a good which it has not. This state of things has been brought about, partly hij Christian activity — entirely for that activity. The world could not take the proper advantage of it, if it would, for it has not the means; nor would it, if it could, for it has not the motives; nor might it, under any circumstances, for the great changes and iiiiprovements of society are evidently reserved by God to be effected by his Church. Hence, all the great and beneficial movements of the day — the liberation of the slave, the religious education of the young, the advancement of civilization — have, in fact, originated with Christians; and for this obvious reason, that the glory might be exclusively his own. l^ut for the same reason that these great movements have not originated with a worldly philosophy, the greater and more spiritual changes yet to take place will not originate with a worldly Church. We want one of the primary means. 361 3I0TIVES TO ENTIRE CONSECRATION which is visible union. And tliis makes it evident — evident to the world — that we v/ant one of the prin)ary motives — tliat zeal for Christ, and love for souls, Avhich would impel us to unite. And hence it is obvious that, in the eyes of the world, we must be wanting- in weiut in all these instances, be it remarked, the character which has exercised the greatest influence is that which approached nearest to a union of in- tegrity and disinterestedness — -in other words, a character formed of holy benevolence. Now, what is this but the iden- tical character which the gospel concentrates all its power to produce? What was the character of Paul but this? and what could wealth, rank, the world, have added to his influ- ence for good? His disinterested, self-denying devotedness to the service of Christ, armed him with a power which will continue to be felt to the eiid of time, and which will probably be felt incomparably more then than now. But if the char- acter -of a single Christian can exercise such a sway, what would be the influence of a society of such men ? Not living to themselves; not meeting for purposes of gain, but freely sacrificing it all ; not prosecuting the Christian cause slowly and timidly, but, from enlightened conviction, precipitating themselves into it; abandoning themselves to it; showing themselves ready to sacrifice life for it ! And if the influence of a single society of such men would be great, who can calcu- late the results which would ensue, were such the character of the entire Church? Were all the influences of which we spoke in the opening chapter — the influences arising from knowledge, speech, relationships, property, compassion, self- denial, perseverance, union, prayer — were all these developed in the Church to their utmost, and placed under holy princi- ple, so as to become the sacred influence of Christian charac- ter, what a halo of glory would be shed over the whole of its earthly course ! AVere our conscientiousness in the service of (Christ such, that we welcomed every duty, however trying; and such our courdge in his cause, that we shrank from no danger; and such our sympathy with the travail of his soul, that our toils and travail for the same object knew no limits — • what a kind of emblazonment would be thrown over the very name of Christianity ! If we had simply acipiired the char TO THE MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE. 381 acter of not liviup; to ourselves; of sincerely eounniserating the miseries of the world, and of practically devoting our- selves to their removal — how impossible it would be to pro- nounce that name, without calling up in the heart feelings of homage and love! The character of the Church would give it the mastery of the world, and invest it with glory in the eyes of God 3 ''and upon all the glory there should be a defence." Now, what was the character of Christ but this? And ^hat is our character to be but u copy of his ? As his repre- sentatives, Christiainty is to possess us, to live over again the life of Christ in us — speaking through us, breathing in us, icting by us. And it is this identity of character with the character of Christ which is to invest our every movement ?ith so much influence. It is not to arise, as we have inti- nated already, from the increase of property and resources Nhich. such a self-denying character would necessarily place dt our disposal — though that is to be taken into the account — but from its placing our character in harmony with perfection. The influence of Christ himself arises from his having placed himself, in an infinitely higher sense, indeed, in per- fect harmony with the will and character of the Father. Sin had introduced apparent disorder into the Divine government, arraying law against law, and justice against mercy. Every principle of that government — every law in the universe — • was calling, crying, for vindication in the punishment of man ; while love, in apparent opposition to them all, was call- ing for his deliverance. Christ met them all with the cross ; appeased them all, harmonized them all, and set them all again at liberty. His cross owes its influence entirely to the fact that he thus placed it, as the means of atonement, in harmony with all the great laws of the Divine government. By abandoning himself entirely to these, he moved the universe. All moving powers, all spiritual influences, the Holy Spirit himself, have thus become his. And as he acquired his infinite influence in the mediatorial government by placing himself, as the great sacrifice for sin, entirely at the Divine disposal, and by identifying himself with the cause of holiness and mercy, the subordinate influ- ence of our character is to arise entirely from our identity with his. But moving only in a line with him, taking law 8S2 MOTIVES TO ENTIRE CONSECRATION from no lips but his, copying no example but his life, and livino- instrumentally for no end but that for which he efficaciously died, our character would be in eftect the pro- longation of his own, and our influence his influence. 'J'he world could not doubt our identity with Christ; for they could not hear us speak, in our Christian capacity, but they would hear the compassionate voice of Christ; nor could they look on our conduct without being reminded of his ex- ample. They could not doubt of the power of Christiai; principle; for they would see that it secured the self-denying energy of the whole man, the whole Church. They could not question the distinctiveness cf the Christian character; they would feel that the world had nothing like it; that the entire Church was an organization as distinct from every other society as if it had come down direct from heaven ; and yet that it stood apart from the world and above it, only that it might draw them more effectually to Christ. They could not doubt our belief of their danger, or the depth of our concern for their deliverance, for they would see it in the unremitting earnestness of our efforts to save them. Nor could they doubt any longer the power of the gospel to transform the world; for every day would bring them the report of fresh accessions made to the kingdom of Clirist. Only let the Church be itself; only let it become the devoted agency which it was meant to be ; and the world should soon be given into its hands. Who could see it move in its missionary path without being ready to pre- cede it as its eager herald, shouting, " Prepare ye the way of the Lord ?" for Christ himself would be with it. Who could look down on the idolatrous regions which lay in its route without summoning them to surrender in the name of the Lord, and feeling the certainty of their speedy subjection to Christy Who could look into the rolf of prophecy without the full conviction that all those predictions which paint the universality and glory of Messiah's reign had reached the eve of their fulfilment? The honor and triumph of the gospel would be completed. XIII. Our regard for the glory of God requires this con- serration. This motive alone should be sufficient to engage the entire Church in one unsparing effort for the world's con- version. Darkness still covers the earth. Satan is still the TO THE MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE. 38h god of this world. Idolatry continues to defy the heav(^ns. Alas! what a debased and maddened world turns round to the eye of God ! What shouts of hostility arise from it I What spectacles of shame, what enormities of iruilt, are ex- hibited upon it! Now, can we remember whose character it is which is most insulted by this fearful state of things, and whose interest it is which is most wronged, without feeling "grieved at heart?" Can we imagine him "looking down from heaven," as of old, "upon the children of men, to see if there are any that understand and seek after him," and then picture to our minds the scenes which present them- selves to his holy eye — the polytheism and practical atheism, the sottish ignorance, the horrid rites and ceremonies, the depraved passions, unnatural cruelties, and revolting immo- ralities — without feeling a holy zeal for God kindling within us? Can we imagine him listening to the sounds at this moment ascending from the vast regions of Asia, and think of "the lords many and gods many" whose names he hears invoked, while his own is comparatively unpronounced, with- out feeling even an anguish of concern for the vindication of his righteous claims? Can we remember that the Being who is thus robbed of the homage of his creatures is "God over all blessed for ever?" and that the being who appro- priates that homage is the enemy of God, and the desti'oyer of souls, without feeling "very jealous for the Lord God of Israel?" Or can we remember, that while much of the great array of evil of which this world is the scene, is main- tained in open defiance of his reign, as if he were the Tyrant instead of the God of the universe, many of the prevailing atrocities are perpetrated in his name, and as acceptable hom- age to his throne, as if he were the great Patron of iniquity — can we think of this without lifting up our eyes to heaven, as Jesus did, and exclaiming, " righteous Father, the world hath not known thee !" But might they not have known him? And, if so, must not the guilt of their ignorance, at present, rest on those who might have made him known ? And can we remember what it is that we have to make known concerning him, without feeling that every moment during which we continue to with- hold the gospel from the nations, we are virtually withholding from God his highest glory; that we are concealing from theju 384 MOTIVES TO ENTIRE CONSECRATION a scheme of mercy from which he is expecting to derive his richest revenue of prai^se for ever? The knowledge of tlie arts, the discoveries of science, the treasures of philosophy — all these might be kept from them with comparative impu- nity; but that we shouki keep back from them, age after age, knowledge so in^portant that prophets have been sent to im- part it, angels have been the bearers of it, the Spirit himself has uttered it, till, in these last days, God has actually spoken to us by his Son ; knowledge which so deeply concerns his own character, that it cannot be withheld without the most fatal results, nor imparted without reflecting on his name eternal glory — this should surely cover us with shame as it does with guilt. What if no news had come from heaven since the voice of inspiration died for a time on the lips of Malachi ; what if no voice had ever cried in the wilderness, " Prepare ye the way of the Lord;" and no intimation been afforded that " Grod is love" — what at this moment would have been the state of the world but that of universal gloom and desolation? its only light streaming from the fires of" demon-worship, its only sounds yells of defiance against Heaven? Yet such, in effect, is the lamentable condition in which we are voluntarily allowing large portions of the earth to lie. As if God had never spoken to us, we have never spoken to them. As if he were the cruel Molech they sup- pose him to be, we have never told them the glorious fact that He is love — that he hath '"'so loved the world as to give his only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." As if he were quite as much in love with obscenity, revenge, and blood, as they choose to believe him, we have not chosen to warn them to the contrary. As if he had taken no steps whatever to cor- rect the fatal error, had evinced no concern at the stain which thus blots out his glory — though in every age, and through every moment of the time that he has been suffering the foul and enormous wrong, he has been reminding us that he is filled with jealousy for his name's sake, and urging us to preach the gospel to every creature, as the only way of put- ting an end to the great lie which is everywhere told and believed against him — we have taken no steps to vindicate his blessed name. And the consequence is, that the glory of the incorruptible God is still represented by the most de- TO THE MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE. o85 graded and loathsome forms, and " the trutii of God is changed into a lie." And yet we profess to feel for the dishonor put on him ! Where, considering our means — where is our con- sistency ? But grievous as this dishonor is when considered simply by itself, there is a consideration which, in the eye of God, ag- gravates it without measure — the fact that it should be in- flicted on him at the expense of his only-begotten and well- beloved Son. To have kept back the disclosures concerning himself made by his mere human messengers, would have been highly dishonoring to God; but that we should keep back from the dark world, not only his glory, but the very ^'brightness of his glory;" that we should conceal from a world filled with the most revolting and hideous images of Deity, "the Express Image of his person" — this is to put a slight on the character and work of Christ, which he cannot away with. That we should have seen the cross of Christ, and should yet have allowed the world to go on offering its human and other sacrifices, as if he had not " died once for all;" that we should have held this gospel in our hands, and yet have allowed a thousand impostors and demons to pub- lish their Shastres and Korans instead; that we should " know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ," grace so amazing that it is ever receiving ineifable expressions of the Father's complacency, and filling all heaven with praise, and yet that we should account it hardly worth reporting — this is to "wound the Father through the Son;" and that we should act thus, knowing as we do know how the heart of God- is set on the glory of Christ, the height to which he has exalted him, and the promises of universal dominion and homage he has made to him — this is not merely to dishonor Infinite Ma- jesty, but, what is incomparably worse, to inflict a wound on the very heart of Infinite Love. Or can we, finally, remember what is to be the end of the whol-e mediatorial economy — that it is to redound " to the praise of the glory of his grace" — without feeling that to do any thing less than the utmost in our power to hasten the great consummation, is to publish our guilty indiiference con- cerning it? It is impossible, even now, for the true Christian to hear of a single rebel submitting to God, and being brought back into harmony with the holy universe, without rejoicing: 25 38G MOTIVES TO ENTIIli: CONSECRATION in the honor which it brings to Grod. The very angels rejoice on account of it, in the presence of God. They see so many laws harmonized by it, so many claims satisfied, so much glory reflected on every attribute of the Triune God, that they rehearse for the last great chorus of the universe. But if the recovery to God of a single sinner redounds so greatly to his praise, what will be the glory accruing to him from a recovered world '/ In some respects he will be hon- ored more by the obedience of earth than by the homage of heaven. There his glory has never been obscured; here it has suffered a long and dreadful eclipse 5 when, therefore, it shall again irradiate the world, well may the unfallen before the throne exclaim, " Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!" When, in de- fiance of the machinations of the prince of darkness, and the mighty depravity of man, the empire of grace shall be everywhere triumphant, what honors will be recovered to the blessed God of which he has long been defrauded ! When all things shall be sacred to his name, and all hearts reflect- ing his image, what expressions of his purity and love will be poured over the earth as the waters cover the sea ! How will the mountains echo it to the valleys, and the valleys roll it back again to the mountains, that eoen here, at length, "the Lord God Omnipotent reigncth !" How \y\\\ one con- tinent proclaim it to another, and the ocean waft it to the main, that " the kingdoms of this icorld have become the kingdoms of our Lord and his Christ !" And when it shall be distinctly seen that, from first to last, the recovery of the world was entirel}^ owing, through every stage and every step, to his boundless grace, what ascriptions of honor will the as- sembled and admiring universe pour forth, like the sound of many waters, to God and to the Lamb I Now, is it possible for us to know that for that glory lie is waiting; that his Church is constituted expressly to promote It; and that he is looking to every member of that Church to hasten its arrival, without feeling ourselves called on individ- ually to put forth all our energies for its speedy consumma- tion ? Can any object in the universe be so momentous as the vindication of the Divine character, and the completion of the Divine glory'/ All other interests, compared with it, are lighter tlian nothing, and vanity. Compared with this, no TO THE MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE. 3S7 thing is sacred, great, or precious. At the least signal, all heaven would rush together for its vindication ; every holy intelligence become a champion in its behalf. And is it possible, that though the vindication of his glory has in an important sense been given into our charge, and though all the world is denying his existence, aspersing his name, or usurping his rights, yet, on turning his eyes from that great spectacle of blasphemy, to see what his Church is doing for its abatement, he should find us conniving at it, and, by our conduct, confirming it? Is it possible that the least stain cast upon our own name should arm our every power for its vindication, while the sight of hundreds of millions tramp- ling his honor in the dust, and laboring in mad enmity to extinguish the last ray of his glory, should yet leave us calmly to give nearly all our time and attention to " what we shall eat, and what we shall drink, and wherewithal we shall be clothed?" ''Father, forgive us, we know not what we do." But not long can this state of things continue. The great cause of the Divine glory has come on in the heathen world. Ages have elapsed since the Christian Church was commis- sioned to plead that cause in all the earth. Still, however, the momentous controversy remains undecided. But God is giving indubitable signs that he will now bring it to an issue. Every minor interest must stand by. The theatre of the world is clearing for the decision. The Church is im- peratively summoned to appear and give witness for God. To us he is saying, as he did to the members of his ancient Church, " Ye are my witnesses, that I, even I, am God, and besides me there is no Saviour." Christians, the world is waiting to receive your evidence. " By the mercies of God," will you not go and testify in his behalf? Satan is witness- ing against him, and millions are crediting the revolting tes- timony : will you not hasten or send to testify for him ? Atheism and Buddhism are denying his existence; and China, one-third of tb.e human race, believe it; will you not go and proclaim, "This is the true God, and eternal life?" His ancient people are scattered over all the earth, each of them still with a veil over his heart, and stained with the blood of the Just One : v;ill you not beseech them to " look upon him whom they have pierced," and urge on them his 888 MOTIVES TO ENTIRE CONSECRATION claims as their own Messiah ? Popery is concealing, im- prisoning, destroying his word as a dangerous book, and embracing an image or an amulet instead : will you not enable and urge its votaries to " search the Scriptures," to consult them as the '^oracles of Grod ?" Mohammedanism is denying the Divinity of his Son, and honoring an impostor in his btead : will you not attest that there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we can be saved, but the name of his Son our Saviour? Hindooism is affirming that his name is Kalee, and that he has given one half of the human race to be slaughtered for his honor ; that it is Jug- gernaut, and that his worshippers must be covered with the scars of self-torture, and his chariot grind its way through a path strewn with their prostrate bodies : will you not arouse, will you not impel others to join you, and will you not speed to tell them all that " God is love ?" universal and infinite love ? Shall his cause have only a few friends to espouse it ? Shall " the Church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood," find few tongues to proclaim that that " blood cleanseth from all sin?" Followers of God, his cause, your cause, the cause of a deluded and dying world, is before you. In every part of the world he has obtained for you a hearing, and is awaiting your arrival. At this moment he is saying to his Church, to every individual member, to the Christian reader of this book — and saying it, not for the third, but the thousandth time — " Lovest thou me?" Then, by the tender and melt- ing considerations which led you at first to surrender your- self to my claims ; by the weight of all the obligations under which my grace has laid you ; if there be any thing in my gift of Christ to excite your love, any thing in his blood to benefit the world, any thing in my glory to engage your con- cern, awake to your high prerogative and office, call down the aid of the Holy Spirit, and let every creature hear you " testify that the Father sent the Sou to be the Saviour of the world." Soon should "my name be great among the heathen; and in every place incense and a pure offering would be offered on my altar." No longer should my char- acter be defamed, my government impugned, my designs im- peached and opposed, nor my honors usurped; but every- where would my claims be brought forward to the public view. TO THE MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE. 389 and everywhere should I be acknowledged as '^ God over all^ blessed for ever." The earth should be " filled with my glory, and all flesh see it together." XIV. Then such a consummation of the Divine glory would be equally the completion of human ]iapj)iness. In- deed, what but this constitutes the happiness of heaven ? Conceive of the will of God "done on earth as it is in heaven," and you conceive of "the days of heaven upon earth.'' The last idol would have been cast away, and the last rod of the last oppressor broken. Every government would but execute the law of God, and every subject would but obey the gospel. The activities of mind, the discoveries of enterprise, the accumulations of wealth, the changes of em- pire, the revolutions of time — all would be seen laid at his feet, and falling into his plan. Every habitation would be a house of God ; every occupation a holy exercise ; every day a return of the Sabbath; for whatever was done "would be done to the glory of God." Like what a sea of glass would the universal mind of man become ', everywhere pure and un- ruffled, and reflecting only the colors of the rainbow round about the throne ! What a world ! when, compared with its all-pervading peace, and loveliness, and light, "the former heavens and the former earth shall not be remembered nor come into mind." And is there ground to conclude that this sublime result shall be realized ? " The mouth of the Lord hath spoken it." " I have sworn by myself, the word hath gone out of my mouth in righteousness, and shall not return, that unto me every knee shall bow, and every tongue shall swear." At what precise period, or to what exact point of perfection the result may be realized, we cannot say, and are not anxious to know. Sufficient is it for us to know that the time shall come when the world shall be seen prostrate before God in worship. And then will it be clearl}'- perceived that this has been brought to pass as the result of all that God has planned, and Christ has suff'ered, and the Spirit has effected. The very mention of his name then will be suflScient to bring the world into a posture of adoration. They will come before him hungry for his blessing, languishing for his Spirit, coveting, craving the gifts of his grace. . "0 Thou that hearest prayer, to thee shall all flesh come !" They shall not 890 MOTIVES TO ENTIRE CONSECRATION be satisfied to enjoy thee alone; they shall go out, and with a friendly violence compel others to come in, and share thy favors with them. "It shall come to pass, that there-shall come people and the inhabitants of many cities; and the in- habitants of one city shall go to another, saying, Let us go speedily to pray before the Lord, and to seek the Lord of hosts; I will go also. Yea, many people and strong nations shall come to seek the Lord, and to pray before the Lord.'' Churches shall come to adore him, cities to consult him, nations to surrender to him, all the kindreds of the earth to fall down before him. They shall not be content to praise him alone; they shall feel as if they wanted help — the help of the world — to raise a song adequate to his praise, and a prayer equal to the ardor of their desires. "And it shall come to pass that from one new moon to another, and from one Sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before me, saith the Lord." Theu man will have found his only proper place; will have returned to the only spot in the universe which becomes him — at the feet of God. And, having found his proper place, his ultimate end, there will he rest; going out of him- self, and losing himself in God. Then God will have recov- ered his proper glory ; every idol will be abolished, every rival power cast out, the eyes of all will wait upon him, all flesh will be seen staying themselves upon him ; he will be seen by the universe as the centre of a lapsing creation, the support and stay of a sinking world. Then the design of the whole gospel constitution will be completed — "that no flesh should glory in his presence;" every thing will have redounded to the glory of his grace. And when all flesh shall thus be seen, in effect, prostrate before God in prayer, what will it be but a prelude to the worship of heaven ? What will remain but that the whole should be transferred to the employment of praise above I Infinite love, ascending the throne, and put- ting on the crown, shall sit down and enjoy an eternal Sab- bath of love I while the myriads of the redeemed and glori- fied, casting their crowns before him, shall ascribe their happiness to him, and the jubilee of eternity shall begin. And is such to be the end of the missionary enterprise r* And is this the object at which it calls us to aim ? Chris- tian, where else are interests like these at stake? Where TO THE MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE. 391 el.se, aiiiiilst all the enterprises of time, does so wide a field stretch before the view, or such momentous consequences await the result? To overrate such an object is impossible; to stand aloof from it, or even to regard it coldly, is enormous guilt. What, then, is the amount of practical interest which you are taking in it? Ask yourself — is it at all commensurate with its mighty claims ? The policy of statesmen, and the projects of national am- bition, may lay wide their schemes over other realms, and subordinate passing events, and entail the fulfilment of their designs on their successors to a distant posterity; but here is a scheme so vast in its sweep, as to subordinate all other plans to its design; so varied in its workings, as to demand the strenuous activity of every agent in the universe ; and yet so self-sufficient as absolutely to stand in need of none. Need you be reminded that in the arrangements of that plan a post of activity is assigned to you; and that in that post the whole of your sanctified influence is laid under tribute through every moment of life? Great, indeed, is your guilt if you are acting on any independent plans of your own ; if you are planning for any thing but how best you may blend with its working, and aid in its accomplishment, A mere worldly philanthropy may boast of its generous doings, and point to its schools, and hospitals, and humaniz- ing institutions — though even these were originated indirectly by the influence of Christianity; but here is a cause which, having done all this, would yet hardly count its work begun; which scatters these minor blessings as it advances to ac- complish a good infinitely greater; which can point to igno- rance sitting at the feet of Christ, hordes of the wilderness converted into Christian Churches; the worshippers of de- mons made kings and priests unto Grod,and actually mingling in the adorations of the temple above. But how much of all this, and what particular part of it, were you the means of originating or efl'ectiiig? And what are you now doing to augment these happy results ? \\hat source of tears are you now laboring to dry up? AVhat particular form of evil is now engaging your attention and filling you with concern ? What object engaging your special and earnest supplication ? Science may talk of the future, may promise largely, and be sanguine of its useful results; but here is a cause which 392 MOTIVES TO ENTIRE COxNSECRATION makes all the wants and woes of the world its own, and will never count its work complete till they have all been removed and forgotten. On this cause, all the treasures of the uni- verse have been lavished, all creation is o-roaning- and travail- ing in pain together for want of it, and all the voices of heaven and earth are urging you to take part in it. What are you doing for its promotion ? Is the utmost extent of your instru- mentality in its behalf a small donation in money^ and occa- sionally a languid prayer ? History may record her eventful eras, when all the powers of earth were drawn up in hostile array, and all its interests suspended on a single conflict. Such may be regarded to have been the case when the great question was to be decided by a single blow between Greece and Persia, whether freedom or slavery should be the future inheritance of mankind ; when the victory of Constantino determined whether paganism or Christianity should hold the throne of the Roman empire; when, on the plain of Tours, it was decided whether the Crescent should prevail over the Cross in the west as it had in the east — whether Imposture should drive the Truth from the earth; and when, on the event of the Armada, it was to. be decided whether Popery or Protestantism should prevail, whether the earth should belong to Christ or to Antichrist. But here, all that is left of these ancient elements of conflict is marshalled anew; every thing depraved and malignant is here found in conflict with every thing benevolent and holy, and the issue is to involve the final destiny of immortal myriads. Are you conscious of having caught the spirit of the contest? of feeling how much may depend, under God, on your single arm ? and are you, accordingly, to be found at your ]»ost, and acquitting yourself as a good soldier of Jesus Christ ? Eventful times and great enterprises may have produced extraordinary men — men whose memory biography may have embalmed; whose honors heraldry may have emblazoned; whose likeness art and genius may have taxed their powers to multiply; whose fame is accounted so precious, that nations may have charged themselves with the office of guarding it; and the youth of each succeeding generation may be taken to their tomb as to a shrine, and be taught to regard them as filling the place of a glorious ancestry, urging them by their TO THE MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE. 393 exauiple to an emulation of their noble deeds. But here is a cause which has ever been producing men '• of whom the world was not worthy :" men " whose names are in the book of life :" men " whose praise is in all the churches/' kindling holy enthusiasm, and who, by their influence, are reproducing themselves in the useful lives of others : men who, '' though dead, are yet speaking,'^ speaking together, and saying, "Be ye followers of us, as we followed Christ." xVre you heeding the exhortation ? Might it be fairly inferred from any thing visible in your conduct that you are living for the great object for which many of them cheerfully died ? that you sympathize with them in the intensity of their concern for the salvation of the world? Philosophy may boast of her martyrs, and tell her disciples what severity of discipline, and what un- tiring patience and perseverance, the prosecution of her claims and projects requires; but here is an object which demanded the actual sacrifice of the Son of God, and which is over demanding the unrelaxing and unqualified devotedness of all his followers in all succeeding times. What sacrifices are you making in its behalf? and in what do those sacrifices con- sist ? Here is an object which brings j^ou into contact with more than prophets and apostles, and which requires you to imitate a higher example than that even of confessors and martyrs. By summoning you "to the help of the Lord," it calls you to act at his side, places you under the notice of his eye, and requires you to " follow his steps." Have you ever been seized with the hallowed ambition of copying his ex- ample ? Are you aspiring to win from his lips the " Well done, good and faithful servant," which awaits each of his devoted followers, on their arrival in his presence above ? Others may boast of comprehensive designs, and talk of final causes; but here is the final cause itself — an end so great, that all other ends stand to it only in the relation of means — so lofty, that there is nothing higher — so glorious, that every thing in the universe is honored by serving it. The one point, the sole end, to which every thing in the government of God is tending, is, "to the praise of the glory of his grace ;" and to this point it is tending with the direct- ness and force of a universal law. Every mite given, every Bible distributed, every missionary sent forth, every Church planted, falls in with that stream of events, and forms a part 894 MOTIVES TO ENTIRE CONSECRATIOX of that vast combination of means by which God is reducing and restoring all things unto himself. Even now, the agen- cies of Providence are urged into unusual activity — all things are rushing to that final issue. Delay to join in the march of mercy, and you will lose opportunities of honoring God, and of serving your race, such as never occurred to the Church before, and can never be enjoyed by you again. Be indolent, covetous, self-indulgent now, and the very stones will cry out. Continue to live for yourself, and the universe will upbraid 3'ou — the perishing will point at and reproach you as accessory to their destruction — the Judge himself will say, '^I never knew you."s^ On the contrary, be faithfui now, and the very trees of the field will clap their hands : live uuto the Lord, and all things shall live for you, and be ready to serve you in his cau.se : be entirely devoted to his claims, and others shall be moved by your example, and the world blessed by your influence, and Christ himself shall rejoice over you. Less than entire consecration has been tried for ages ; and the fatal result is to be seen in the thou- sands perpetually passing — passing at this moment — to the bar of God from regions where the sound of salvation has never been heard. If you sympathize with Christ, then, in the travail of his soul, you will from this time see what entire devotedness can do for their recovery. Moved by his ex- ample, you will look through your tears on a world perishing in its guilt ; and you will feel that you are never imitating him so much as by self-denying, painstaking endeavors for its salvation. Subdued by the tenderness of his claims, you will freely acknowledge that you are not your own : that the same reasons which bind you to do any thing for Christ, bind you to do every thing in your power, and to do it in the best pos- sible manner : that you are bought with a price which might well purchase the entire dedication of a whole universe of intelligent beings to all eternity. Affected and engrossed by the magnitude of his cause — the cause of the world's recov- ery — you will feel that to throw less than all your energies into its promotion is an insult to all the momentous interests which it involves. Not only, therefore, will you task your own powers in its behalf — you will task them partly in an earnest endeavor to move heaven and earth to join you. In a word, constrained by his love, you v/ill " thus judge" — and TO THE MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE. 395 never cau you be said to be moved by his love except as you are thus judgino;, and "laboriously acting on the judgment — • ''that if one died for all, then were all dead; and that he died for all, that they who live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him who died for them and rose again." Hasten, then, into his presence, fall down at his feet, and surrender yourself, and every thing you have, to his service. He will graciously accept the dedication ; and ten thousand ages hence you will be still praising him that you did so; and an unknown number will join in blessing him on your account. INDEX. PAGE Abraham, holy agency of. 62 Activity, a means of usefulness 56 Christian, final success of.... 202, 3u7 Agancy, Christian, Divine origin of.. 69 true character of 21 America, aborigines of 246 resources atiresent state of 169 Christ, anticipation of his glory 34 character of ." 381 Christ, devotedness of, to his engage- ments 65, 9fi j influence of his advent on man.. 29 I intercessory prayer of 123 I irresistible claims of, on the de- votedness of his people 97 I jealousv of, in addressing his ■' Church .r l.So kingdom of, gradually set up 126 mediatorial right of 368 pity of, for the lost world 125 promise of his presence 127 satisfaction of, in his concinest of the world 132 Christian, closeness of his identity with Christ 71 fitness of, for usefulness 43 motives for his activity 133 object of Christ in redeeming 373 prayer of, for the world 72 Chi'istians. expectations of Christ from 67 past conduct of, to be retrieved... 353 present responsibility of 99 tlieir means of usefulness 48 union of, for the diffusion of the gospel 74 Christendom, the divisions of 216 Christianity', influence of, on individ- ual man 37 means of its early extension 141 temporal benefits aft'orded by 153 tendency of, to form society 45 Christian influence, prominence of, in the New Testament 69 instrumentality, tlieory of 3;) labor, impos.sibility of being lo.st 366 Church Missionary Society, origin of 147,151 the completion of its triumphs... 378 decline of its devotedness ami prosperity 139 Bivine displeasure with the su- pineness of 387 duty of individual members of... 388 increase of its influence y3 influence of unity in 4S missionary constitution of 311 present transition state of 364 prosperity, arising from activity 138 separation of, from the world .... 4o usefulness of 4d (397) m INDEX PAGE Cliurcli, views of, enlarged b}' mis- sions 196 Churclies, the reformed 2i7 Civilization, how produced by Chris- ti.mity 158 Clean water, how sprinkled on the Church 121 Ionization, peculiar to Christianity 237 C ming of Clirist, scriptural import of the phrase 106 Ginimerce, promoted by missions 189 Compassion, a mean of usefulness.... 57 Consecration, Christian, importance of 306,342 required by our regard for the glory of God 3S2 Consistency, Christian, influence of.. 378 Conversion, triumphs of 180 Covenant, new. cliaracter of 120 Creation, anticipation of the delivci-- ance of 35 Cross of Christ, influence of 35, 127 David, tabernacle of, its reference to the Church 119 iJependence and influence, universal law of 21 Devotedness, Christian, examples of. 362 importance of 357 iJisunion among Christians, evils of.. 302 Dry bones, valley of 119 Dutch missions 1-45 Edinburgh Missionary Society, ori- gin of 147 Education, promoted by missions 161, 178 Emulation, Christian, promoted by missions 194 Era, commencement of a new 305 European character, raised by mis- sions 188 Evil, moral influence of the introduc- tion of 26 Foulalis, civilization of the 282 France, naturalism of 247 French Protestant Missionary So- cietj"^, origin of 148 Friends' mode of civilizing Indians.. 283 Future, disclosures of the, made to the Church 91 General Baptist Missionary Society, origin of 148, 151 Geneva missions 154 Gentiles, why first preached to by the apostles 123 German Missionary Society, origin of : 148,151 Germany, rationalism of 247 Glasgow Missionary Society, origin of 148 GftI, character of, pledged for the success of the gospel 108 eminently glorified by missions. 212 promises of, as to the success of his word 108 I P.AGE i Gospel, adaptation of. to the mind.... 38 I influence of its success Iu7 I perpetuity of the preacliing of... 124 j power of, illustrated by missions 2U9 I published by an angel 128 j result of its publication '..... 3'i9 : withholding of, dishonor done to I Cln-ist 385 Greek Cliurcri, i)resent state of 24u Happiness, lunnan, completion of 389 Harvest, influence of Christians on the moral 73 of the world, how reaped by Christians 125 Heathen, awfully dangerous state of 271,357 not to be neglected on account of the state of home 236 readiness of, to receive the gos- pel 161 Heaven, how fully prepared for the redeemed 90 the heathen prepared for by mis- sions 182 History, encouragement given by, to Christian agency 231 eventful eras of 392 Holy Spirit, agency of, in the Church 68 given for the diffusion of the gospel 74 glory of his dispensation Ill influence of, on man 30 influence of, essential to useful- ness 49 promise of his influence 68 promise of, in connection with injunctions to duty 107 work of, to glorify Christ; 70 Hope, influence of, on Christian ac- tivity 105 Horsley, Bishop, quoted on the rule of prophecy 107 Humanity promoted by Christian missions 162 Humility, Christian, vast importance ot 308 Idolatry abolished by missions 173 Impending judgments, usefulness of 122 India, early missions in 143 present state of 239, 256 Indians, missions to 145 Infanticide abolished by missions 1 9 Infidelity lessened by missions 205 Influence, moral power of 22 Christian, constantly accumulat- ing 92 mighty i)ower of 224 prominence of, in the New Testament 09 moral, stimulated by sin 29 Instrumentality, Christian, theory of 36 holy, employed by the patriarcli.? 61 Jehovah, love of, to man <^<> INDEX 399 Jerusalem, conduct of tlie church at SO Jewish economy, adaptation of, to bless the world r.3 Church, a type of the Christian. 64 influence of 93 separation of, from the world 64 Jews, awakening among 248 conversion of, by the gospel 118 society for the conversion of, ori- gin"of 143 Johnson, Dr. S., extract from 93 Judgments, great, overruled for the salvation of the world 114 Karaite Jews, claims of 248 Kingi'om, establishment of Christ's.. 130 of Christ, certain progress of the 122 gradually set up 126 Knowledge, a means of usefulness... 50 Laws, institution of, promoted by Christian missions 162 Laymen, necessity of the missionary agency of ■ 329 Liberality, necessity of increased pe- cuniary 3-24 Literature jiromoted by missions 184 London Missionary Society, origin of 147,151 Man, dependence of, on others 22 knowledge of, promoted by mis- sions 187 Mediation effected by missionaries ... 1G5 Methodist Missionary Societies. 147, 149, 151 Millenarianism opposed to Scrip- ture 106,112 Millenarians, mistakes of 104 objections of, to missions, refuted 294 IMillennium, Christian exjiectation of 102 Ministers, necessity of their increased attention to missions 320 Missionaries, earliest, sent from Brit- ain 142 Missionary activitj', origin ami his- tory of 141 efforts, success equal to 217, 2.38 • enterprise, simimary of 151 temporal benefits of 153 information, importance of tlie diffusion of 314 societies, tabular statement of.... 151 influence of their origin 147 spirit, existence of, in early ages 141 existence and progress of, in the churches 2.50 Missions, benefits of, beyond calcula- tion ". 170 Christian, history of 138 Church constituted for 264 conviction of the Church as to its duty towards 209 evidence furnished by, of the truth of Christianity 207 PAGE Missions, .mjiortance of the due ap- preciation of 309 inlluence of, on the increase of the Komish Churcli 140 induence of science on 254 motives to engage in 348 must precede civilization 276 nut impracticable 273 objections to, answered 2C9 obiiiiations not lessened by want of funds or union !... 291-293 peculiar advantages derived from 223 Protestant, origin of 141 providential facilities for 254 iNIorality promoted by missions 1C3 Moravian missions, origin of 146,151 Mosaic dispensation, agency of 62 Nations, existence of, preserved by missions 164 Native agencj', success of 226 Netherlauils Miss. Society', origin of.. 148 New creation, the 131 New England, Christianity planted in 145 Opposition to the gospel, destruction of 129 Parental influence, corruption of 20 Paul, conduct of, in reference to the gospel 77 self-denial of ." 78 Peace, promoted by missions 179 Persevering activity, a means of us(;- , fulness 57 Philanthroi)y, worldlv, iuefhciency of ." 891 Piety, importance of an increase of.. 315 Prayer, a means of usefulness 58 increase of, for missions 259. 2( 6 need of a larger increase ol 334 spirit of, prompt^ by missions.. 259 Preaching, importance of. in the con- version of the W(uld 123 Property, a means of usefulness 54 consecrated to missions l'J9 Prophecy, favorable infiuence of, on missions 26] influence of, on the Church 102 wise reserve of 109 Providence, dispensations of, favor- able to missions 358 Piationalism among Christians and Jews 247,248 Picdeinption. claim of 371 harniuny of, with the Divine mind .32 its Divine origin 2'J Relationship, a means of useful- ness 31. 52 Religion, cause of, but one 195 Remedy for selfishness, how provided 28 Renovation of the world, an object of ancient expectation V2i Responsibility, extent of nioial 25 400 INDEX. PAGE Rhenish Missionary Society, origin of .'. 14S, 151 Roman greatness, its character 92 Romisli Church, influence of missions on the inci-ease of 140 present state of 247 Russia, early establishment of Chris- tianity in 142 education in 246 Sabljath, observance of, promoted by missions 180 Satan, conquest of, over man 27 subdued by Messiah 80 Schlegel, extract from 82 Science, inefBciency of 391 promoted by missions 184 Self-denial, a means of usefulness.... 55 Self-examination, importance of 301 Selfishness, its origin 25 remedy for 28 Shippijig interest, promoted by mis- sions 190 Smith, Dr. J. P., extract from 102 Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, origin of 145 for Pi'opagating Christian Know- ledge, origin of 146 for Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts 146 for Propagation of the Gospel in New England 145 Speech, a means of usefulness 50 Stone, progress of the living 129 Suttees abolished by missions 169 Swartz, character of 188 gwedisli missions 145 PAfiE Swiss missions 145 Swiss, the, originators of Prr testant missions 144 Tapu. abolished by .Miissions ICS Temple, erection of the spiritual IGO the ancient, type of the Christian and the Church 375 Tract Society, origin of the 149 Truth, evils of partial views of 29S moral influence of 34 Union, a means of tisefulness 59 Christian, importance of 321 Christian, promoted by missions 197 Universe, dependence and influence, the law of 21 "Watson, Richard, quoted IGO "VVesleyan Missionary Society 147, 151 Western Africa, mission of Friends to 148 "Wisdom, holy, increase of. 316 Woman, rank of, elevated by mis- sions 169 Work of Christ, relation of, to man.. 29 World, entire conquest of t 393 effect produced by surveying it.. 376 moral aspect of, favorable to mis- sions 252, 265 moral state of 381, 387 pernicious influence of, on man .. 39 political state of, favorable to missions 235 present awful state of 355 result of the conversion of 385 Young men, appeal to 367 Zeal, Christian, necessity for an in- crease of 332 THE END. w^^. ::.f Date Due ^^mm^^^' ^^.immmmlmm- ^ PRINTED IN U. S. A.