at present in a very different attitude: so much is expected from the minister on the Sabbath, that he cannot take bread to the hungry in a neighboring hamlet: and his absence from the religious services of the week, produce either the grief of disappointment, or the frown of discontent. A missionary pastor will find, that the dissatisfaction of his own flock will be the most harassing obstacle to all his attempts, to gather those who are as sheep without a shepherd; he will feel the force, and the keenness too, of the warning of our Saviour, that, in the propagation of his interests, a minister's "foes shall be they of his own pastoral household." This smothers and quenches a missionary spirit in the church, even while it presents to the attention of the world a splendid pile of missionary collections. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto a church professing to be apostolic. "Remember, therefore, from whence thou hast fallen, and repent, and DO THE FIRST WORKS; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent."

4. The church is enjoined to make the supply of evangelists, missionaries, and pastors, a topic of express prayer and of earnest entreaty. Christ said to his disciples, "The harvest truly is plenteous, but the laborers are few: pray ye, therefore, to the Lord of the harvest that he will send forth laborers into his harvest." What God has made the subject of promise, Christians should make the subject of prayer. God has said "I will give you pastors according to mine heart, which shall feed you with knowledge and with understanding." We can, therefore, look to him for discernment and wisdom to discover them, and to employ them according to their several ability. The number of ministers and missionaries is not adequate to meet the demands of the world, the calls of our institutions, and the facilities of Providence for the conversion of the nations. The prayers of the church ought to be as numerous and as loud as the cries of the world: and these prayers should consist not of compassionate desires only for agents, but also of active search and enquiry for them. When the church prays earnestly for laborers, the reply of the Holy Spirit always is, "Look ye out from among yourselves men of good report," men who have been observed, marked, and watched by you, as calculated for your work. The exigencies of the world ought to quicken, enlarge, and multiply our prayers, and employ our compassion, judgment,

and liberality, to supply them. When we pray God to send forth laborers, we do not expect him to send them from heaven, but to send them "from among our own selves ;" and he will not send them forth without the agency, the discrimination, and the preparation, of the church which is to furnish them. All the abilities, wisdom, skill, and faithfulness, necessary to missionaries and apostolic ministers for the conversion of the world, come from God, and having been prayed for, the church should look among its members for evidences of them as answers to prayer. A church praying for missionaries supposes earnest and expectant entreaty, that God would endow its members with suitable qualifications for the work, give evidences of their call to it, subdue all their reluctance to the enterprise, open doors for their usefulness, and prosper them in their glorious work. If we are sincere in these petitions, we shall continue anxious and watchful to see the proof of their being answered.

5. The church at Antioch, where the disciples were first called Christians, presents to our churches a beautiful specimen of the devotion, with which we should contemplate the work of missions. "Now, there were in the church at Antioch certain prophets and teachers, as Barnabas and Simeon, that was called Niger, and Lucius of Cyrene, and Manaen, which had been brought up with Herod the Tetrarch, and Saul. As they ministered to the Lord and fasted, the Holy Ghost said, "Separate me Barnabas and Saul, for the work whereunto I have called them ;" and when they had fasted and prayed, and laid their hands on them, they sent them away." Probably this is the first meeting held by any apostolic church, for the distinct purpose of forming a mission to the Gentiles, and it was consequently an event of no ordinary interest to the Christians at Antioch. They had long pitied the districts round their city, and now they set apart a day for fasting and prayer, to see what could be done to supply them with the means of salvation. "As they ministered unto the Lord," waiting and attending on him in devotion and willingness to serve, they received direction from the Holy Spirit what measures to adopt, and what agents to select. After this intimation they continued their fasting, and persevered in prayer praying for wisdom in the plans which they were concerting, for discernment in the selection of their agents, and for the fullness of the blessing of the gospel of Christ to accompany their mission. The first stone of the missionary

temple was laid in prayer, and the first missionaries were sanctified by prayer. An enterprise so novel, so public, so full of danger, and so pregnant with interest, humbled the church into deep solemnity and devout awe; they knew the hardships of the undertaking; they felt their dependence on God; they therefore sought his direction, and supplicated his aid; and while they were yet praying the Holy Spirit directed them to suitable agents, and crowned their plans with his highest sanction.

6. A church, in the apostolic habit of looking out for missionaries and evangelists, would at once derive and produce the most valuable benefits. By this means Christians would give to the world the strongest evidence, that they regarded the religion which they professed of such worth, as to deserve to be communicated to others; they would be in the way most likely to discover suitable and willing agents, and consequently to prevent the griefs and the defeats produced by improper characters; they would take a more lively interest in the various stations occupied by their missionaries; they would provide the best support of a missionary's confidence under harassing difficulties, in the fact, that he occupies his present position, not by his own wayward inclination, but at the request of the church of Christ; they would sustain and promote missionary efforts with steadfastness and untiring perseverance, for the habit being once formed, they would not be easily induced to abandon it; their own hearts would be so much enlarged in prayer and effort that scanty success would not give them ease and satisfaction; and they will be preparing for themselves an accession of happiness in the society of the blessed, for, next to the vision of God and the Lamb, will be the sight and the presence of those to whom we have been the instruments of saving from sin, and of introducing to heaven.

SECTION III.

The Motive of the Church and the Spirit identical.

"No man can say that Jesus is Lord, but by the Holy Ghost." Men without the Spirit can say, Lord, Lord, and call him Lord; but no man, without the revelation of the Holy Spirit, could have discovered that Jesus is Lord; and without the data supplied by the Spirit, no man could reason out, and demonstrate to others, that Jesus is Lord; and no man

who denies the influences of the Spirit can maintain, against the passions and dialectics of the world, that Jesus is Lord. Without the Holy Spirit we should have known nothing of Christ his office in the world is to reveal Christ, and to make him known; and his motive, for undertaking this official work, is the glory of the person and character of Christ. The assumption of this office by the Holy Spirit was itself an honor to Jesus Christ: and his mission in the name of Christ, and for the purpose of promoting the interest of Christ, invested the character of our Lord with the most distinguished glory. The Holy Spirit searching into the deep things of Christ, and comprehending them in all their beauty and vastness, can set them in radiance before the eyes of the world, until men are brought to admire, extol, and glorify Christ. By the word, he reveals, in chastened splendor, the grandeur of the person of Christ; his consummate fitness to meet the sinner's case and the claims of God; the transcendent worth of his atonement as the honorable ground of pardon; and the grace and the power of his intercession in heaven. In the presence of such dignity and excellence, the sinner becomes humbled in heart, his best works appear worthless, his proud notions are abased, his sin looks hateful and revolting, and Christ alone is seen in glory, and, in Christ's mediatorial arrangements, he finds all that he needs for life and death; and the hope of possessing him for a Friend, an Advocate, and Brother, animates his heart with the inspirations of love, honor, and praise. The Holy Spirit glorifies Christ by unfolding the beauties of his character, and by bringing men to believe in him, to submit to his authority, to worship and serve him, and to ascribe their salvation and happiness entirely to him. Thus, he revealed Christ miraculously to the apostles, and thus he now, by the gospel, displays the doctrines, the facts, and the promises, and all "the things of Christ" to men, to bring them to indulge the most exalted thoughts of his person, to surrender themselves unreservedly to his service, and to employ all that they have to show forth his glory and to further his interests. "Whether they live, they live unto the Lord, or whether they die, they die unto the Lord, so that whether they live or die they are the Lord's."

§ 1-The Glory of Christ the Motive of Christian Effort.

In the labors of Christians, as in the mission of the Holy Spirit, the promotion of the honor of Christ is the end, and the intrinsic glory of Christ is the motive. As water in conduits is forced to rise as high as its fountain, so a sense of the glory of Christ will constrain the mind to issue in streams of usefulness to glorify Christ: the first cause of our love will be the last end of our actions. Christ demands the heart, keeps his eyes on all its movements, and marks the springs of all our feelings and actions. He counts nothing as acceptable service, but what has been done intentionally for him. So far is he from making any allowance for the disinclination of the heart to serve him, that he regards that very indisposition as a heinous insult to his claims, and inflicts upon it the severest and direst condemnation. If he be presented with the most splendid services, performed under or through the force of any other motive, than the constraining impulse of his own glory, he spurns it as a glittering bubble. The most accurate compliance with the letter of his request, without unfeigned and thorough conformity to its spirit and truth, he regards as none other than accomplished and finished hypocrisy. He expects every feeling and thought, every word and action, to be influenced and pervaded by a sense of the glory of his own person, and the worth of his own character. Christian motive is essential to the acceptableness of Christian duty, for without it all Christian services are worthless and reprobate. It is, therefore, a matter of infinite concernment to us, to know what are the evidences which we can have for ourselves, and present to others, to prove that we act under the influence, impulse, and constraints of the love and glory of Christ, and that our life and character glorify him.

To glorify Christ is to ascribe to him the worth and the excellency which we find in him, and to bring others to think highly of him, to speak his praise, and to extol his character and service. This is the manner in which the Holy Spirit discharges his office of glorifying Christ, and Christians actuated by the same motive will glorify him in the same way.

1. Christians glorify Christ, by producing upon the world deep impressions of the high estimation in which the glory of Christ is held in their own hearts. To glorify Christ is to honor the authority of Christ by submitting to its claims, and