means of heralds or preachers sent forth among the nations, who would so love the despised and insulted Nazarene, as not to value even their lives in comparison of his honour, and his cause, and the conversion of the nations to him: would not this, my brethren, have been derided as the illusion of partial regard, or the dream of frantic enthusiasm? Yet all this was even vastly exceeded!— The disciples, recovered from their stupor, prayed to the Lord of the harvest, and he sent forth labourers, by hundreds and by thousands, whose zeal, courage, patience, philanthropy, wisdom, and selfdenial, are above all praise, and exceed the imagination of most Christians in this Laodicean age. Many, who at the time of our Lord's crucifixion, or long after, were either totally indifferent, or determined opposers, became zealous heralds of Immanuel's glory: a multitude of the priests were obedient to the faith; and in all probability employed, as being themselves "reconciled to God," to proclaim "the word of reconciliation." And, though the persecutor Saul by no means closed the list of that company, who at length preached the faith which once they destroyed, yet he stands so pre-eminent and distinguished above the rest, that it would be highly improper not to mention such a signal instance of the omnipotent grace of God, and of the efficacy of believing prayer. For doubtless many, with dying Stephen, prayed for the murderers of that first martyr, and the persecutors of the infant church, among whom Saul stood forth the most active and violent zealot.

From the time that the apostles and the remnant of believers saw and adored their risen Lord,

it may reasonably be supposed that they recollected and obeyed the injunction of our text. But it should especially be noted, that from his ascension to the day of Pentecost the whole company 66 con"tinued" in unremitting prayer and supplication; and on the day of Pentecost they were all " with "one accord in one place," doubtless engaged in the same manner, when the Holy Spirit was poured out upon them. Immediately, not only were the apostles endued with the gift of tongues, and animated to a degree of zeal and courage far beyond what they had before manifested; but the prophecy of Joel, as quoted by St. Peter, was literally fulfilled,' and multitudes, like Isaiah, when the seraph had touched his lips with a coal from the altar, were ready to say, "Here am I, send me :" though just before many of them were involved in the guilt of murdering, or consenting to the murder of, "the Prince of life!" Such effects were then produced by the Lord of the harvest, in answer to the prayers of a small company! Let us not forget that he is "the same yesterday, to-day, and for "ever."

The zeal, the courage, the compassion for perishing sinners, cannot be so low at present as it was when Christ died on the cross; believers are immensely more numerous, and prejudices cannot be so strong and general against his cause; nor can the minds of men be so repugnant to the work, and danger, and hardship, of attempting to evangelize the gentiles, as at that crisis. Who then can say, but that within a few years, or even months,

'Joel ii. 28, 29. Acts ii.

hundreds, yea thousands of labourers, like the first evangelists, may be sent forth into the harvest?

To fix the impression, which I should hope this plain statement of facts from the sacred records has made, I shall,

I. Briefly consider the largeness of the harvest: II. The small number of the labourers:.

III. The duty and efficacy of prayer in this behalf.

I. The largeness of the harvest.

And here, my brethren, I must assume those principles which pervade the scripture; namely, man's fallen and depraved state and character, whatever part of the globe he inhabits, and his exposedness to the righteous indignation of God on that account; insomuch that, as his soul is immortal, and his body shall rise again, he must be finally lost and for ever miserable, unless he be reconciled to God, and renewed to holiness. Every unconverted sinner on earth, viewed in connexion with the gospel, and the command of Christ to his disciples to preach it to every creature, and the hope that he may be converted and saved, should in this respect be considered as a part of the harvest.

Now, you well know that even in Christian countries, even in Britain, there are vast multitudes of this description. If indeed regeneration, repentance, faith, love of God and man, and holiness, be necessary to salvation, who can help exclaiming, "How "strait is the gate," how "narrow is the cc way that leadeth unto life!" how few there be that find it how few among my acquaintance seem to know any thing of it!' Ignorance, irre

ligion, formality; damnable heresies or barren orthodoxy; absurd superstition or wild enthusiasm ; pharisaical self-righteousness, or some kind or other of antinomian abuse of the gospel, occupy a very large proportion of the Christian world; in which infidelity has of late made extensive depredations.

View the vast proportion of professed Christians who still support the tottering cause of the papal Antichrist; and that multitude who are hoodwinked in the half popery of the Greek church! Then view the reformed and protestant churches: and ask yourselves, whether; in case the multitudes of nominal Christians should ever become true Christians, the harvest even here be not very plenteous?

Then cast your eye on the poor, the pitiable and yet generally unpitied Jews, Through them we have all our light and hope: yet the darkness in which they are enveloped is" darkness that may "be felt." All the prophets and apostles were Israelites, and almost all the sacred writers; yea, our Saviour himself was a Jew. Yet how are they neglected! even more than Mohammedans or pagans! Perhaps that nation is now more numerous than it was in the days of Solomon. What a plenteous harvest here then presents itself to our view and our hope! Oh that some plan of persevering attempts for their conversion might be formed!

I will only hint at the vast and populous regions of China, Tartary, Japan, Hindoostan; in short all the continent of Asia, containing perhaps four hundred millions of inhabitants; dying, yet immortal; sinners, yet generally without even the means of grace;' and how then should they have

'the hope of glory?' idolaters, with their bloody sacrifices and detestable rites, or Mohammedans, sunk in sloth and sensuality, and buoyed up with pride, and the ambition of proselyting by the sword!

Nor shall I dilate on the abject condition of the unnumbered multitudes inhabiting much-injured Africa; nations yet unvisited by avarice or ambition; who never heard of Christians or Britons, but by report from those distant shores, that have felt the detestable crimes of men who disgrace at once their country and their religion. Their brethren also, the wretched Africans in our West Indian islands, whom their cruel lords of late seemed determined to deprive of consolation and of hope, in prohibiting the preaching of Christianity to them, by men who have shewn themselves willing to fare as slaves themselves, for the pleasure of imparting to poor negro slaves, the blessed gospel of God our Saviour. What a contrast between the missionaries and the slave-holders! They seem not to be of the same species: certainly, in one sense, they are not of the same nature.

I have heard, indeed, that this cruel law is repealed; and heartily do I pray, that those who enacted it, and all that counselled it, may " repent "and do works worthy of repentance," for their own sakes at least as much as for the sake of the missionaries and the negroes.

The vast regions of America, the numerous isles of the immense oceans which separate the continents; all, all inhabited by human beings! all living "without Christ," and dying "without hope!"

This, my brethren, is the field from which the