against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Wherefore, take unto you the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all to stand. Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness: and your feet shod with the preparation of the Gospel of peace; above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked."

I now turn for a moment to those, who are to be associated with you as helpers in this mission.

MY DEAR CHRISTIAN FRIENDS,

You also have enlisted as soldiers in this important expedition. You have set your faces towards Owhyhee, as a part of the promised land which remaineth yet to be possessed. I hope you have seriously and prayerfully counted the cost. The Captain of salvation requires volunteers in this service, who have made up their minds to "endure hardness," and never to desert his standard in the day of action. You are going up to the "help of the Lord against the mighty;" but, blessed be his name, it is not with carnal weapons that you are to fight; it is not with fire and sword that you are to make a descent upon the Sandwich Islands. It is not to enslave the free, or circumvent the ignorant, or stimulate rival chiefs to acts of hostility-but it is to "proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison doors to them that are bound." It is to persuade them to "beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning hooks. It is to

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save their children from the shark, and to make them acquainted with the arts and improvements of civilized nations. It is to pour in upon their benighted minds the light of science and literature; to multiply among them the sources of enjoyment in this life, and above all, to prepare them for endless happiness in the world to come. To God and the word of his grace we fervently commend you. Be ye "faithful unto death and he will give you a crown of life." Some of you, instead of leaving, are now to return native lands. You are going back to tell your astonished friends and countrymen, about the Lord Jesus. But where is your elder brother? Ah! his head lies low, he sweetly sleeps in yonder valley. Obookiah cannot go with you to Owhyhee. He will not, however, forget you. Perhaps, if you should prove steadfast in the faith, he may look down and smile upon you from heaven. Possibly, he may even be permitted to visit you, though unseen; to strengthen you in the hour of temptation, and to whisper consolation to your souls in seasons of despondency.

From a land of Bibles and Sabbaths, and churches, where you have been nurtured and instructed by Christian charity; where you have enjoyed the prayers and counsels of the wise and good; and where some of you hope that you have been made savingly acquainted with the Lord Jesus Christ, you are going back to that land of idols and darkness, from whence you came. O, my beloved young friends, what if you should be left again to welcome that darkness and return to the worship of those idols! How many pious hopes would it blast forever! How many Christian hearts would it break in

America? Above all, how would it crucify afresh the Son of God, who died to save your souls!

You shudder at the thought. You, I doubt not, are firmly resolved to live and die Christians. But remember the Apostolical admonition, "Let him that thinketh he standeth, take heed lest he fall." It is impossible for you to know what will be your feelings, when you come to behold again your kindred and your country; or to foresee, what earnest persuasions, or terrible persecutions may be employed to shake your resolutions. You will need special grace to keep you from falling, to endow you with prudence, to inspire you with holy courage, and to make you instruments of saving good to your people. For that grace, then, let me exhort you daily and hourly to pray. And may the Lord bless you, and keep you, and bring you at last with all your benighted countrymen to his heavenly kingdom.

This assembly will, I hope, indulge me for a moment longer, and I shall have done. "Blessed are our eyes for they see, and our ears for they hear." How animating, how rich in hopes, are the opening prospects of the contemplated mission. This is a new scene in Connecticut;-if, indeed, it be a reality, and not a heavenly vision of future times, kindly vouchsafed to increase the faith and give new fervency to the prayers of the Church. It is, it is a blessed reality. Here we behold a little consecrated band, ready to go forth in the name, and under the banners of the Savior, to claim the Sandwich Islands, as the rightful possession of the Church. A spectacle so novel and so interesting, is calculated, for the time, to occupy the whole field of vision. We think

much of this expedition, and certainly, when we take into view all the circumstances connected with its origin and progress, we may well inquire, "what hath God wrought?" But my brethren, what are the preparations now making, in comparison with the actual wants of the single island of Owhyhee? Are we not in great danger, while we are doing a little, and crediting ourselves largely for it, of forgetting how much remains to be done? A vast empire is to be subdued "to the obedience of Christ," by his blessing upon the efforts of the Church. Fired with zeal to bear a part in this glorious enterprize, we dispatch a file or two of volunteers, to occupy a single out-post, in a remote corner of the empire, and then, even before they depart, we felicitate ourselves and congratulate each other, as if the capital had already surrendered. Our hearts are pained, perhaps, when we think of the "dark places of the earth, which are full of the habitations of cruelty," and we say they must be enlightened. We enter at first with ardor into the good work. We joyfully cast our gifts into the treasury of the Lord, in hopes perhaps, that a few such offerings will suffice; and when it is found that giving increases the urgency of new and more frequent applications, some are ready to ask, Are these importunities to be always sounding in our ears? Are we never to be released from this tribute to the heathen? No, my friends, never, unless you will abandon them to their fate and deprive yourselves of the honor of being instrumental in their conversion. There is much more to be done, than is likely to be accomplished in one day. We shall have at last to leave a great work for our chil

dren, if not also, for their posterity. Instead of closing our hands, or relaxing our exertions, when we have fitted out this expedition, we shall certainly find occasion to redouble our diligence in behalf of the heathen. If the world is ever to be evangelized, the efforts of Christian benevolence must not only be every where continued, but greatly increased. The Christian philanthropist, who looks abroad upon the immense field which is yet unoccupied, rejoices, not so much in what has been done, or is now doing, as in the gladdening promises which clustre around the millennial glories of a coming day. Since then

so much remains to be done, let every one, in his proper station, and according to the ability which God giveth, labor for the salvation of a perishing world. Surely if we who "tarry by the stuff," hope to share equally with our brethren who "go down to the battle," in the honors and rewards of victory, we must never cease to help them, by our prayers and our contributions.