WE are anxious to hold up to the Church, in strong relief, the duty and necessity of Missionary exertions, in these times in which God has cast our lot. Hence, we have been induced to place in our first number, the following appeal to the judgment and the religious feelings of our brethren on this important subject. BRIEF DISCOURSES. No. 1. Those holy cause of Missions. The duty and necessity of Missionary by its own innate strength. They exertions. "After that, in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God, by the foolishness of preaching, to save them that believe." 1 COR. i. 21. In these words the following propositions are distinctly exhibited: First. The world by wisdom cannot know God. Second. The world by wisdom has not known God. aimed their well directed attacks at the credit of their opponents as historians; and at their system as polemics; and in the opinion of the learned and the candid, the fair fabric of opposition melted away and disappeared, like the gay allusions of a summer morning's dream! powers tem which plants itself down in oppoIt is not enough to say that the syssition to the Missionary cause, is unsupported by scripture. We denounce Third. The preaching of the gos-It places certain it as unphilosophical and irrational!-pel is the only means of divine ap- in the minds of Pagans-which in reand resources pointment made known by the revela-ality have no existence even in the tion of God, to save them that cultivated minds of enlightened sociebelieve." FIRST: I have said That the world by wisdom cannot know God! 66 The Christian has been standing too long in the attitude of defence: and too long has he been contented with the triumphant results of his defensive operations only. It is time for us to act in the offensive-and to carry the war into the enemy's camp. What professor Halyburton did a century ago, in the deistical controversy: and what Bishop Horsely did against his antagonist-ought to have been done by us against the enemies of the ty. If that thing "within," which is supposed to possess innate resources, and powers sufficient to lead men to immortal glory, be a creature-then it cannot unfold to man the mind of the Deity. Infiniteness alone possesses the power of entering the secrets, and the mind of the infinite God. The Holy Spirit-and he only, "searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God." If this power and internal resources be God dwelling in us—then, as neither philosophy nor reason reveals such an inhabitant "within"the proof of the thing must be derived from divine revelation. To that we island you discovered the print of a willingly follow you-and there we human foot; and some specimens of read the condemnation of this theory. exquisite workmanship:-you infer It is there written that God dwells not the existence of these human beings : in the hearts of the unregenerate; but you infer their ingenuity and wisdom. in "the temple of the heart"-sancti--But rouse into activity the energies fied by the Lord of the new creation, of your souls, call forth these resourthrough the gospel of God. ces which the wisdom of the world puts "within" the pagan mind: and try the experiment of discovering the thoughts of these human beings, who are before you in the satisfactory proofs of their existence: discover their plans, their purposes, their loves, their hatred. It is utterly impossible. The supposition involves the greatest absurdity. To the full measure of absurdity does the supposition come up, which maintains that the soul has And, moreover, the soul receives all its ideas from the faculty of sensation, and the faculty of consciousness. -Now suppose the object on which we wish it to put forth these powers is really not visible nor tangible :---and suppose that it presents itself not even to the consciousness of the soul by any exhibition of itself:-it really will have no idea of that object:-it really can have no idea of it.-Now the Deity presents himself in no written ex-powers and resources sufficient to hibitions of his mind and purposes, be- know the infinite mind of the Deity fore the heathen world: He moves in without his presenting himself in the the invisibility and mysteriousness of exhibitions of a revelation before their his being over all nature, and in the minds. It actually supposes that the kingdom of his providence; and from soul receives ideas through means; his footsteps, and from the traces of and, moreover, in ways, not only unhis hand, there are proofs of his exist-known to the philosophy of the hu ence, and of certain awful and grandman mind: but contradicted by uniperfections-reflected back on the hu-versal experience. It is unphilosoman mind, clearly and distinctly from phical! It is irrational!-We charge his works and his providence. But it upon "the wisdom of the world," as the Deity, as the object of worship, a species of philosophical fanaticism and his will, and his intentions towards which floats widely over the society of us, and willingness to accept of such mere men of letters, and the philoguilty and unholy beings-are not pre-sophical circles; and which, in point of sented to the human race in Pagan absurdity and danger, beggars the lands, by any of the ways by which most grotesque forms of religious ideas are communicated to the soul. mysticism on the records of human Hence the wisdom of this world does folly! not know him: and human nature, as Nor are the defects, and the utter long as it remains human nature, never inefficiency of the wisdom of the can enter into the heights and depths world, confined merely to the theory of the infinite mind: it never can know of the system: In the practical part him as the object of an acceptable wor- there is conclusive evidence of a total ship.-Descend even to the case of a failure. It cannot devise means to fellow being :-let a human being pre-stop the progress of sin and folly in its sent himself in the existence of the devoutest followers: It cannot eradioutward man before you. You have before you the proofs of his existence, and of the features of his face, and his figure. But he sends forth in words, no revelation of his thoughts, and feelings and intentions. Or suppose that on the solitary shore of an uninhabited cate from their bosoms the principles of sin: It cannot name the price, or the sacrifice which the Deity would accept: It tells me of no Mediator: of no kind and Heavenly Father: It cannot point to a door of hope in the "valley of trouble." It cannot tell me of the great body of the Jewish nation, who crucified our Lord. The presentation of these pure and sublime doctrines: the demonstration of these unparalleled miracles produced on the great body of that generation no happy results. The children of the wisdom of this world turned away from Christ. And those lips which at the sight of his miracles had shouted hosannas,- -now cried out "Crucify him.... Crucify him!" of a position before the throne of the | ral experiment of its wisdom and powholy and just God, which the trembling ers.-They failed totally in the case sinner may occupy in the peace and calmness of a joyful acceptance: It cannot lead me to the fountain in which the tortured conscience may wash away its pollutions, and its sorrows: It cannot tell me of the light, and the purity, and capacity of a glorious preparedness for the throne of my God, and the spotless company of the "spirits of just men made perfect." Oh! no! I see in the historical facts gleaned from the records of Paganism the most affecting proofs of this. I see the proofs of it in the criminal and degraded lives of heathen: in the wretchedness of their deaths; when "cursing their King and their gods, they look upward"-and plunge into the dreariness of an unprovided for eternity! No! my brethren: Over all the wide extent of Pagan regions, there never was offered such another opportunity of testing the internal resources and powers of human wisdom. And there never was given such another demonstration of its total inefficacy! The world by wisdom cannot know God! Nor, my beloved hearers, am I taking an undue advantage of the sys- SECOND: In point of fact, "the tem, by selecting my cases for illus-world by wisdom HAS not known God." tration from the darkest lands; and The decision on a point of this kind the deepest shades in the character of can be had only from a collection of Paganism. I would follow it over the facts. And these facts ought, perclassic lands of ancient Egypt and haps, to be collected from regions Greece and Rome. Nay, I would where this "wisdom" has been perfollow out its real pretensions and mo-mitted to put forth its powers long and ral tendency, in lands and in circum-unshackled. We have seen how it stances the most favourable that can be failed even in Judea, in the days of imagined for its displays. Let us se- our Lord's humiliation. To follow lect, for instance, the days of our Lord up the demonstration of its total failChrist when he directed on the ure, let us draw facts still farther from minds of his audience his pure doc- the regions of Paganism purely. trines, arrayed and presented in the And here, to reach our point by captivating simplicity of his style.-proof from facts, we might lead you When he urged-and persuaded-over the wide field of Paganism. And and entreated-and commanded- we might hold up in detail, the state of and thundered; when to all this he knowledge; and of belief; and of the added the proofs of his supreme Dei-morals of fierce and untutored savaty: and the proofs of the heavenly ges of the west: and over the vast origin of his doctrines:-the strongest empires of Asia: the Hindoo and Chiwhich could be made to bear on the nese, the Tartar, and Turk, and Afri-. sensitive and intellectual powers of can, and New Zealander: and then man....the proofs by miracles. He we might open the commentary of cured all manner of diseases: he rais- Paul in the Romans on their idolatry ed the dead: he cast out demons:- and cruelty, and destitution of all corNever was the wisdom of this world rect knowledge and their unbridled -never were the resources of the hu- licentiousness.....and see the fact illustrated in the history of all these nations that "they are without Christ.... man soul placed in more advantageous circumstances to make the great moVol. I.-3. : having no hope....and without God in the world." We might next turn to the classic fields of Greece and Rome: and surely, if a system of nature's fabrication which makes the true God its pure and only object of exhibition and reverence-if a system of human devising sufficient to guide the bewildered minds of Pagans to immortal glory ever can be found-in Greece and Rome, it is to be found:-if not there -then never can it be found! In casting our eyes over the classic names of antiquity, we feel an awe and veneration. We feel more-we feel, in spite of the checks of sober reason -the charms of our youthful enthusiasm. And it costs us an effort to shake off undue prejudices in their favour. human monster-of vast physical force-with scarcely one fine trait of humanity: his whole glory was to hew down the ranks of his fellow beings!* And the very heaven of the prince of poets, is a place of impurity and violence: the elements in the character of its inhabitants, are discordant and repulsive; full of vice and profligacy! Nor is there perceptible on the pages of the ancient philosophers, one effective moral tendency to produce or mature pure virtue or piety. The melancholy proof is written out in their defective and contradictious systems; and in the impurity of their morals. They neither recognised nor taught the unity of the Godhead: they conjectured, but never proved the immortality of the soul; their worship was a combination of idolatry and shocking barbarity. Human blood streamed on the altars of the refined Greeks and Romans! They had no conceptions of a pure and spiritual heaven : nor of the doctrine of the resurrection from the grave. But with all my enthusiastic admiration of the classic name and remains -I will not let down one single concession in favour of their morality. With all my enthusiastic admiration of them, I do assert, that there is that on the pages of the most admired classic writers, which has a direct and irresistible tendency to engender and cherish the most destructive princi-mon operations of human depravity. ples! And the morals of Pagans were not merely the natural result of the com Their very worship was contrived to I except not even one. Poet and degrade them, and render them infaphilosopher are all equally involved in mous. The favorite idols of Paganthe guilt. I appeal to every scholar. ism, the highest and the best of them, I point to the pages of the proudest on were covered with crimes and polluthe hills of classic fame and glory. tion. The morals of their gods were Amid the sweet poetry, and touching the standard of their morals. The eloquence of their best poets, what a more accurately the Pagan imitated combination of absurdities! What his gods, the more deeply did he sink motley opinions! What puerile con- in crimes! The whole system of ceits!....And, above all, what a dis-their theology and philosophy, even the play of revolting morals! The idol of the Iliad and presiding deity is.... Revenge....with scarcely one redeeming virtue. The greatest virtue of the Homeric heroes is accorded to him Nor was this the opinion of Chriswho sheds the deepest and widest tians only. Their sages and postreams of human blood. With his ets saw it-and affected to bewail it. heroes, forgiveness and pity over a And we have the picture of a moral fallen foe is a vice base as coward-man of Athens drawn by the pencil of ice! The character of the chief hero Hume, who revived, even in the menof the best poem of antiquity is revolting and execrable. He is a great very nature of their devotions, therefore, had an irresistible tendency to produce degradation and moral pollution. *Foster's Essays, vol. II. tal advances and light of modern | shed forth no steady, no permanenttimes, the spirit of the Academic philosophy-and who was incapable of being partial to the Christian religion. "An Athenian man of merit," says he, "might be such a one as with us would pass for incestuous; a paricide; an assassin; an ungrateful perjured traitor: and he might conclude his life by a desperate act of self-murder: and die with the most absurd blasphemies on his lips."* no holy light to guide the foot of man, over the dark mountains of time, into the fulness of the vision of immortal glory! Oh! no-no. Reason failed! Science failed! Philosophy failed! No human genius-no human energy can regenerate man. The fact of their total failure and discomfiture is recorded on the pages of the history of human destiny. The best of the sons of wisdom sunk beneath the sweeping torrent. And the angel of pity raised its wailing shriek over the helplessness of fallen man at the grave of Socrates-which was the grave of the last hope; and the grave of the pride of human wisdom! Holy Bible with them; and expounding it in the preaching of "Christ, and him crucified," is the only means of Divine appointment for carrying salvation to the human family. "It pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe." Oh! how deplorably wide of the sober truth are the theories of men; who, sitting at their ease, and in the joyous light of civilized and Christian society-far from the frightful scenes, and the living realities of Paganism prose about the glory and the happy LAST: I said also that the exhibitimes of the classic ages; and about tion of the gospel by the commissionthe fire of classic genius; and the un-ed ministry of the Lord; carrying the equalled splendours of their eloquence; and the polish of their style; and the elevation of their sentiments; and the depth of their researches; and the ingenuity of their systems; and the tendency of their theology, and their philosophy to cure barbarism, and bring the golden age back over a happy world! Oh! But they see not that there is something interwoven in the very system of Paganism; and combined with its very materials, which has rendered abortive their best schemes; and weakened their finest and their best conceptions: and by a most natural process has neutralized power and moral tendency of the purest system of antiquity The geniuses of antiquity-these ornaments to human nature, did shine-it is truebut they shone fitful; like the gleams of lightning across the darkness of midnight. They flashed through the dark firmament. But the very flash of their light helped to reveal the revolting deformities over the wide moral wastes around them: where the flowers of paradise never sent forth their divine fragrance, nor the freshness of their blossoms: where every vice grew up rank and luxuriant! These classic geniuses the The proof of this stands out fully before every one of us in the uniform spirit of the gospel; and in the language which it holds to man. "Whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved: how then 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 ?".... "So then faith cometh by hearing; and hearing by the word of God." "The words that I speak they are spirit and they are life." The gospel comes forward in the peculiarity and exclusiveness of its claims. It will share its efficacy and its honours with no human system, and with no created power. Every one of its institutions and doctrines, evinces in its effects, the accompanying agency of Divine power. Now "it is the Spirit that quicken* Hume's Essays, vol. II. p. 399. Edin. edit. | eth.” He only is the author of |