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THE angels take the liveliest interest in matters pertaining to man's salvation; they are anxious spectators of the race which he is running the guardian and ministering spirits of the heirs of salvation; and rejoice over every "sinner that repenteth" with a universal and a great rejoicing. What a rebuke is this to the dullness and apathy and negléct of too many Christians!

The angels in Heaven and Christians on earth, have one and the same great interest, and grand theme, to enlist and call forth their love and service. And hence they should have a fellow-feeling. The desire, the anxiety, the joy of angels ought to be the desire, the anxiety, the joy of every good inan. Christians ought to look upon sinners with the pity of angels, yearn over them with the tenderness and solicitude of angels, and joy over their salvation with the joy of angels. Redemption should so awake our sensibilities, and sway such a power over our minds and hearts, that the sight of a fellow-sinner plucked from endless ruin and recovered to God and life, should give us the highest joy-thrill our being as nothing else can do. Earthly joy, earthly gain, earthly triumphs, what are they all worth in the scales of an immortal soul, made in the image of God-made for happiness, glory, and endless life-converted from the error of his ways and made an heir of glory? When all beneath the sun has been reduced to ashes, that soul will rise to God, resplendent in moral worth and beauty, and shine for ever in glory, as a star of the Redeemer's crown. The salvation of the meanest sinner that ever lived on earth, is worth all the treasures of tears and toil and blood, that the Christian church has ever poured out at the feet of Jesus.

Is this the feeling of Christians? Is concern for the sinner made the great concern of their hearts? Do their souls melt and rejoice over a repentant sinner with a celestial feeling? Have we as Christians adequate views of the worth of the soul; of the extent of the ruin which sin has brought upon it; and of the need and preciousness of its redemption? Is salvation the theme of themes with us? Does it set the heart on fire-inspire the tongue, nerve the soul, and command life's best and noblest service? Alas! must we not confess to an apathy here that is the grief and sorrow of angels? We do not fully enter into the spirit of the thrilling scenes which are transpiring in this apostate and gospel-world. We do not half feel for sinners who are perishing eternally on every hand-in our streets, in our sanctuaries, in our own dwellings. We do not wait and watch for the repentance of sinners, and pout out the full tide of the heart's gratitude and joy when any are found returning of give glory to God. We do not put our hears in living contact with the cross of Christ, and fully fellowship its sympathy and travail and agony and joy and glory in the blessed work of saving sinners. Oh, that we had the spirit of Christ-the spirit of angels! Then would one great thought-the rescuing of souls from sin, and death-engross our minds, enlist every faculty and energy, and constrain a willing, undivided, untiring service for God and salvation.

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THE kingdom of God is that new and spiritual dominion, which Divine grace establishes in the hearts of men. Its subjects are regenerated sinners. Once they were not under the spiritual do. minion of God. They neither loved him, nor served him. "But they are washed, but they are sanctified, but they are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God." A new dominion is set up in their hearts. They love God. They aim to do his will. And though extremely imperfect still, yet they are the subjects of the Prince of Peace, and shall be more and more conformed to his will, till finally, he shall present them before the throne of the Father spotless.

This kingdom of God is set up in the souls of men, through God's appointed means of grace, and the blessings of the Holy Spirit accompanying them. The Word of God, especially the word preached, the sacraments and prayer, are the main instrumentalities for the recovery of this revolted and miserable world to God.

In the text, we are instructed by the Saviour to pray for the coming of this kingdom in all the world. The very next petition is, "thy will be done as in heaven, so in earth."

The pious in every age have prayed for this. They have expected it. They "have seen the promises afar off, and been persuaded of them," and have known that the time is coming when Jesus Christ shall reign in the hearts of men; when every darkened nation shall have received light; when every hostile weapon

*Preached on the day of a collection for Home Missions.

shall be dashed to pieces; when the song of praise shall echo from the side of Atlas and tremble over the waves of Ganges; and when from every hill top and every valley the shout shall go up, one universal brotherhood of voices, "the kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ."

Effort, to more or less extent, has been put forth by the church to extend her light, and love, and influence, and bring men into this kingdom of God. Alas! that she has done so little! Generations have vanished out of her sight, borne on upon the mighty roll of turies into another and unseen world; while, it would seem, the church has never mustered her strength as she ought, and laid down her offerings on the altar of God, and proved the power of prayer, and never expected as she ought to prepare these dying generations of men to stand before God !-But she has done something. Duty in this respect is no longer a secret. The precept and the promise are now too plain for any lingering doubt with an intelligent Christian; and the wailing eternity of dying millions, borne on every breeze that sweeps round the world, falls on the hearts of thousands of believers, as the voice of the Master calling on us to pity and save the poor! We hear this beseeching cry. We heed it. It affects our hearts to think what millions of men are dying and unfit to die; and have no means to save them; and the last words they utter are moanings of dreadful despair! These are not times for inactivity; and this morning we are going to make the annual contribution for the cause of Missions in our country.

This one cause, in the opinion of him who speaks to you, is second now to none other in the arguments it presents for your liberal contributions. In the same opinion it is more overlooked, in proportion to its real importance and the propriety of its receiving support, than any other of the prominent objects, which solicit your aid and receive it from month to month.

We are going to present to you some considerations on this subject. Our object is not so much to give you counsel, or give direction to your charities, or even to give you instruction, as it is to induce you to think and decide for yourselves. "I speak as to wise men, judge ye what I say."

I. The different modes in which good people strive to advance the Redeemer's kingdom ought to be maturely considered :

When benevolent men are solicited in behalf of different objects, and all good ones, they usually, if not always, find themselves unable to bestow as much as they would be glad to have it in their power to do. They cannot do everything. Their Lord has not given them the means. He has kept some of them in very narrow circumstances, perhaps for the very purpose of having them exercise a more severe industry, and a more careful economy, and a more constant and virtuous self-denial, in order to be able to extend a helping hand to those who are in want. Others

are not so straitened; but then, there are many ways of doing good-they are all costly-and the most favored are obliged to portion out their liberality, not according to what is needed for the evangelization of the world, but according to what they have the ability and the heart to give. And therefore it becomes necessary to compare one object with another, one way of doing good with another, and come to a conclusion, how much of that which they have to bestow shall be appropriated to one object or way of doing good, and how much shall be appropriated to another. They must do this. They cannot avoid it. It arises from the necessity of the case. Not an intelligent and kindhearted believer in all Christendom is able, whatever be. his wealth, to bestow upon objects he approves, as much as he would be glad to give. Every benevolent man who is accustomed to this benevolence at all does do this. He does it in every instance of benefaction. He gives much or little according to his ability and benevolence, and according as the matter before him appears to him more or less important at the time. And more every man who gives anything ought to do this. He ought not to avoid it if he could. He ought in the exercise of a sound discretion, to make such a use of what he has to bestow for the establishment of the kingdom of God, as shall do most good. He ought by no means to act blindly. If he does, his benefactions may fail of the good they might do, not only, but they may do positive injury to the very cause he loves and attempts to aid. For it is by no means to be questioned, that, under the influence of misguided men, matters are brought up, which present an appearance of propriety, and whose advocates plead strongly for them, and ask for much liberality in their behalf; when, in reality, every penny bestowed upon them is worse than flung away. that a sound and careful discretion-a discrimination in reference to the nature of the calls that are made upon our liberality, is one of our incumbent and, important duties, as Christians and

as men.

So

And these ideas are enough to show us, in what regard we are to hold that declaration, which we hear from so many amiable people, that one religious object ought not to be compared with another. The declaration is false. It is utterly unrighteous and un-Protestant. One object ought to be compared with another. As Christians, as men of duty and good morals, we are bound to do the most good we can, with the means we have to employ. This must be our intention, or we have not a righteous one. We have no right to squander our means, or employ them to do a less good, when they might do a greater, in any case wherein we are left to be governed by our own mind. Our mind should be a wise and righteous mind. If we were not Protestants-if we had given up our moral principles and feelings to the control of some ghostly conscience-keeper, then indeed we might consistently bestow without discrimination, and trust him to direct our bounty, whom we had

already entrusted to keep our conscience. But, as those who are under the Bible and not under an "Apostolical succession," falsely so called as those who expect to give account each one for himself unto God, it becomes us to look wisely at the objects which solicit our charities, to compare one object with another, and do the most good we can with the means put into our hands. There can be nothing wrong in our asking advice of those better informed than ourselves, of ministers, or any body else. But as far as possible, "let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind." And let not the common people take every thing upon trust, and leave it to ministers to appropriate their benefactions and manage them as they will. Ministers are generally bad financiers; and if they had wisdom enough, I am afraid they would not long have grace enough, to manage justly the benevolence of the church, if left to their own will.

Let it not, then, be said among Protestants and Bible Christians -among those who keep their own conscience, that one religious object is not to be compared with another. You do make this comparison: you ought to make it: if you give anything you cannot avoid making it, except by the un Protestant device of committing your conscience in benevolence to the keeping of somebody else.

II. It seems to us that there is reason to believe that peculiar circumstances have led the people of this country to overlook too much the object before us.

ed over.

The objects you patronize here from month to month, are all good. They all have the same great object in view,-to set up on earth the kingdom of God. None of them could properly be passWe need the Bible Society-the Tract Society-the Sunday School and Seamen's Cause-the Education SocietyHome and Foreign Missions. In no one of these is there any such pre-eminence as to give it a claim, from its own nature, superior to the claims of others.

A claim of precedence or superiority has sometimes been advanced for the Bible Society, and has been pleaded in the ears of multitudes; just as if there were no room to question, but that cause is more important than any other not only, but just as if the heaviest part of our different donations should certainly be devoted to that cause. But we can easily conceive, that other matters, necessary for the world's conversion, may cost more than it would cost to give a Bible to every inhabitant of the globe. If such a gift were all, the work would soon and easily be done. We can easily conceive also, that whole nations of men may be in such a state of ignorance and degradation and irreligion, that you would do them more good by giving them Tracts which they would read, than the Bible which they would neglect. Some cautious judgment, therefore, is needful-some discrimination-some comparing one mode of doing good with another. A Bible is not so costly a thing as a minister. It needs not like him, daily "bread to eat and raiment to

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