This is no visionary enterprise. Its final success is certain. It is no hazardous contest. The mighty power of God is secured to give effect to every welldirected stroke of the weapons of his appointment. The battle is the Lord's. And however disproportioned the force employed may be, in the eye of reason, to the magnitude of the object, he can give the victory to a few as well as a multitude. Faith is to occupy the place of ordinary calculation; and prayer will draw down strength from above. If, like the faithless spies, our hearts shall faint, and we say, the cities are walled and very great, and there are giants, the sons of Anak, men of great stature, we are not able to go up against them, for they be stronger than we-then the possession of the land will be delayed until another generation more faithful shall arise, who shall reap the glory which our pusillanimity had failed to secure. But, if in faith and confidence in his power who commands us to proceed, we shall go on, it will be found that the defences of the enemy have already departed from them; and that the terror of the Lord having fallen upon them, will render the conquest easy. Present indications seem to give peculiar ground to believe that the time has come, or at least is not far distant, when the kingdoms of the earth shall be given to the saints of the Most High, to be held for their Lord. Simultaneously with the awaking of the church to the object, singular changes have been going on in the relative positions and internal state of the nations. While the solitary missionary of the cross has been making his way, unknown and unheeded by those who have been guiding the helms of civil government; God has been so controlling their policy and directing their movements, as to remove out of his way insurmountable obstacles, which would have prevented his access to the heathen. His providence is evidently going before, as the breaker up of the way, leveling the mountains, exalting the vallies, making the crooked ways straight, and the rough places plain. While we witness, in some parts of the world, symptoms of the spontaneous decay of paganism; we see, in others, a commencement of the downfall of the ascendency which the man of sin has exercised over the political movements of the nations of Christendom. We see the invincible obstacles which have defended the dominions of the man of sin from intru We sion, beginning to give way. We see the restrictions removed which had prohibited access to the city where the Son of God offered his sacrifice of atonement, and the land where his feet trod, and where the apostles first published the gospel of peace. see the inveterate prejudices of the rulers of the dark places of the earth against the religion of Christ, subsiding. We see the distance to which the nations were removed from each other, diminishing, and they approximating, by the wonderful improvements of science and art. We see the spirit of discovery penetrating the darkness of unknown regions, and lifting the veil which has covered them from the sight of civilized man. We see the spirit of pure and evangelical religion reviving where it had been extinguished by a cold and lifeless philosophy. We see the nations becoming sick of war and bloodshed, and substituting a peaceful policy for the lust of conquest and the glory of military achievement. We see the principles of civil and religious liberty making their way, unnerving the arm of despotic power, severing the bonds, and knocking off the fetters, which ecclesiastical and civil tyranny had imposed on the consciences and the bodies of men.-What do these signs in the heavens and on the earth indicate, but the coming of the Prince of peace, to assert his claims, and to establish his kingdom of righteousness, over this long oppressed and guilty world? In view of the long unfulfilled command of the Redeemer to send the gospel to all nations—of the certain declarations of Scripture with regard to the conversion of the world-of the providential indications of the approach of that period, when he shall come to claim the heathen for his inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for his possession-of the fact, that these triumphs are to be obtained by the power of God attending human instrumentality-of the visible success which has more recently attended the partial and feeble efforts which have been made-the followers of Christ are called upon and encouraged to more vigorous, united, and extended exertions in the great cause of missions. On the Christian church of this age, has come down all the responsibility which has been descending and accumulating ever since the risen Redeemer took his departure from Mount Olivet, to ascend to the right hand of his Father. And from the peculiar blessings of providence and grace bestowed on the Christians of this land-the extensive territory occupied-the high privileges of civil and religious liberty possessed-the extensive means of intellectual and moral culture enjoyed-the facilities of intercourse opening, by navigation and commerce, with all parts of the world-a great part of that responsibility rests upon them. Let the church arise, clear as the sun, fair as the moon, and terrible as an army with banners. Honor and glory are in reserve for the church of this age, if she shall faithfully meet her responsibilities, and come up, in her strength, to the help of the Lord against the mighty. She shall witness the introduction of the· millennium, and share in the glory of the first victories by which it shall be introduced. Then shall she arise, and shine, for her light shall have come, and the glory of the Lord shall have risen upon her. She shall increase in purity and splendor, as she shall extend her empire over the earth, and fill it with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord. The darkness which had brooded over the nations, shall recede before her. Idolatry, infidelity, superstition, oppression, shall crumble under her feet-life, happiness, and joy, spring up in her path. She sheds celestial light on the habitations of men-and more than Eden's bloom adorns the earth. |