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the institution of this instrumentality. | wither your prospects, and blast your The first is, that the instrumentality is not local, or temporary; but that it is universal and permanent, adapted to all countries, and to continue through all ages. The second is, that the instrumentality is, of itself, utterly inadequate to accomplish the end proposed, and can only be rendered efficacious by the communication of the Divine influence. The first of these considerations is suggested in the gracious promise which accompanies the commission-" Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the world;" and the second in the command, that they should wait in Jerusalem until they were endued with power from on high.

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fairest hopes. Was it not this that pricked the three thousand to the heart, under the first Gospel sermon that was ever preached after the outpouring of the Spirit from on high— three thousand, who had sent up to the astonished heavens, the frantic cry, and the dreadful inprecation, of Away with him-crucify him-his blood be on us, and upon our children?" It was this that pricked them to the heart, subdued their enmity, won them to the Saviour, gathered them to his cross, and united them to his church. Was it not the faithful preaching of Christ crucified by that monk Luther, that shook the dominions of papal domination and tyranny to its very foundations, at the era of the Reformation? Was it not this that caused such a shaking among the dry bones in Great Britain and America, when Whitfield and John Wesley, those noble and dauntless men, took the field; and thousands, dead in trespasses and sins, heard the voice of the Son of God, and lived? Is it not this that warms the heart of the shivering Esquimaux with the love of Jesus, and causes Christian churches to bloom, like gardens of the Lord, amidst his dark and dreary clime? And is it not this that, more recently, has constrained Tahiti to cast the gods of his forefathers to the flood and to the flame, and abandon the worship of demons for the worship of the true Jehovah ?

Though the power with which the first preachers of the Gospel were endued, was unquestionably a miraculous power, while that agency which is continued in the church in modern times is altogether divested of this character, let it be remembered, that the power of working miracles was imparted to the first promulgators of the Gospel for the accomplishment of a specific purpose; which purpose being accomplished, the power is withdrawn, while that agency of the Holy Spirit, which is as equally efficacious to the accomplishment of the great ends, of the Christian ministry, and the regeneration, and the sanctification, of the souls of men, is continued. So that inferior as we confessedly are in our labours, and in our success, the meanest of our missionaries, the humblest of our pastors, need not envy the miraculous endowments of a Peter or Paul. Still, my brethren, it is not by might-it is not by power-it is not by miracles-it is not by eloquence it is not by argument-it is not by wealth-but it is "by my Spirit, saith the Lord" it is the faithful and distinct announcement of the great and glorious truth, that "God so loved the world that he gave his only begot-cellency and the power may be of God, ten son, that whosoever believeth on him might not perish, but have everlasting life." This it is that God has owned and blessed in every age, for the accomplishment of these great ends; and nothing else will he own and bless. In proportion as any thing else is blended with it, and brought to its aid, in that proportion he will

Aye, my brethren, and there is in this instrumentality such an obvious inefficiency to the accomplishment of the great end proposed, that it is recorded with infinite complacency by the blessed Saviour, (for it completely removes all ground of confidence and boasting from man, and it secures the undivided and entire revenue of glory to himself,) why he thus puts treasures in an earthen vessel-" that the ex

and not of man." My brethren, the missionary may be ardent as Peter-he may be bold as Boanerges-he may be tender as John-he may be pathetic as Apollos-he may be learned as Paul— he may be impassioned as Whitfield— he may be laborious as Wesley; yet until the Spirit be poured from on high, he may as well preach to mouldering

skeletons, and to marble statues, as to men dead in trespasses and sins. But when once the Spirit, the living Spirit, the Spirit from on high, accompanies the prophetic message, and breathes upon the slain-oh, then, there is a shaking among the dry bones; bone cleaves to its kindred bone, and limb to its fellow limb; and an exceeding great army starts up in that vale of moral darkness and spiritual death, to celebrate the praises of the living God. And has not God taught you this lesson in a manner the most solemn and impressive, by the circumstances which attended the first promulgation of the Gospel in the world? Who, I ask, were the first heralds of salvation? Were they mitred abbots? Were they croziered ecclesiastics? Were they belted warriors? Were they learned schoolmen? Were they subtle courtiers? Were they men of high rank, with a name and an authority that commanded universal homage and respect? And did the princes and potentates of this world resign their conquering armies to their command, and hurl the thunder of their indignation against all who opposed their doctrines, or resisted their progress? No such thing. They were fishermen, tax-gatherers, netmakers. They came from the very dregs and refuse of society-at least with a few exceptions it was so. They had no learning-the Sanhedrim soon discovered they were unlearned and ignorant men. They had no moneytheir master was so poor that he was obliged, on one occasion, to work a miracle in order to obtain the tribute money, although it was but a penny. They had no arms, save that spiritual panoply with which their master had furnished them. And any man that had seen them assembled together, in an upper room at Jerusalem, and had been told of the enterprize they contemplated, would have thought them fitter for the cells of maniacs, than the haunts of sober men. Yet these very men went forth, in the face of opposition and resistance the most formidable; and though they were threatened with fine, and confiscation, and racks, and dungeons, and flames, they went forth; and, with a system calculated to excite, to irritate to madness, the malignant enmity of the human heart-a system that smote at the

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foundation of every thing which man had been taught, by the observance of ages, to regard as great and venerable

they went forth; and although they were fined and imprisoned-although they were racked, and gibbetted, and burnt, the cause which they had abetted triumphed, the tree which they had planted grew, and took deep root in the soil; it became fairer, and firmer, and more vigorous, by every drop of their martyred blood that was shed, till it stretched forth its arms far and wide, covered with luxuriant foliage, laden with the richest fruit; and at length the Emperor of the world rejoiced to sit down beneath its shadow. So mightily grew the word of God and prevailed; and such were the fairest and earliest samples of the triumphs of the cross.

And now, men and brethren, let me remind you that that instrumentality is yours; you have it in your hands: and the cries, the groans, the tears, the miseries, of six hundred millions of the human race, call on you to employ, to the utmost possible stretch, your influence and agency; and, if you do so in humble dependance on Divine assistance, and with a single eye to the glory of God, that agency, which alone can render it effectual, will not be wanting. The residue of the Spirit is with God, and he will pour it out in abundance on his faithful disciples. Oh, let me plead with you this day on behalf of this great cause. Let me set before you this day the claims of six hundred millions of the human race. Think, I beseech you think, of the ignorance in which they are sunk, and from which we are anxious to deliver them. Of the Pagan nations it may be said in truth, literally, that they are sitting in darkness and the shadow of death: no light beams on their dark understandings-no sabbath dawns on their dreary habitations. They read no bible, they hear no sermons, there are none to tell them of the character of God, or the way the sinner is accepted. There is no hand to shed a cheering light on their path in sickness and sorrow, and dispel from them the gloom that settles on the grave, or unveil before them the dreadful and enduring realities of the eternal world. And yet, my brethren, ignorance on all these topics is the greatest

curse which can rest on man; because with them is connected, indissolubly, the dignity, and purity, and happiness, of his immortal nature. Oh, look on the poor Pagan; pity his sad, his forlorn condition. Conscious that he did not make himself, does he say, Where is God my Maker? There is none to tell him where. He feels after him, if haply he may find him; but he feels in vain; for though he is not very far from every one of them, the light of nature was never found, in a single instance, sufficient to pierce and penetrate the gloom that veils him from their sight. Frightened and agonized with the stings of conscience, does the poor Pagan cry out, What must I do to be saved? The stillness of death pervades the moral solitude by which he is surrounded; and they give him back nothing but the echo of his own voice. And what must he do? He has tried the penance and the prayer he has tried the offering and the sacrifice he has tried the toilsome pilgrimage and the self-inflicted torture the lash has resounded from his agonized limbs-the crimson stream has flowed down by the spiked sandals from his bleeding feet; and still there is within him the heart-sickening consciousness that it is all in vain. What must he do? Must he lie him down and die, crushed beneath the wheels of the monster-idol's car, a voluntary victim to the Moloch of his adoration? Poor wretch! thine is a grief that might wring tears from marble eyes, and kindle burning emotions in a breast of ice; and yet we can sit unmoved, contemplating it: we can sit, nor shed a tear, while six hundred millions of our species are uttering that piercing cry, "What must I do to be saved?" Oh, tell them-oh, assist us in our efforts to reach them oh, send to them the glad tidings of salvation-oh, send to them the lively oracles-oh, send to them the living missionary-oh, send to them the preached gospel-oh, send to them the written word-oh, send it, send it, ere they are placed by the stroke of death beyond the reach of your sympathy and your prayers.

Think, I beseech you, of the degraded superstitions by which they are enslaved, and from which we are anxious to emancipate them. When

we have told you that the heathen are without a true God-that they are destitute of the written word—that they know nothing of real religion-we have not told you all-I had almost said, it were well for them if we had. But they have gods of their ownthey have Shasters of their own-they have a religion of their own-they have oracles of their own, gods and ministers of cruelty and crime:-Shasters that tolerate the commission of deadly sins -a religion filled with pollution and clotted with gore-oracles that give utterance to the deadliest and most distracted lies. Oh, what is Paganism? It is an hideous monster, from the contemplation of which every thing benevolent, every thing holy, every thing rational, turns with mingled abhorrence and disgust. The same essential features characterize it in every form of its existence, in every period of its history, in every scene of its influence; and whether you ponder it in the records of ancient history, or in the journies of modern missionaries-whether you explore its haunts by the old Tiber, or whether in the windings of the Ganges, or whether in the temples of the Druids, it is the same horrid compound of the beast and the dragon. And yet millions of mankind, rational and immortal as they are, pressing to the same tribunal, and born onwards by the stream of time and the waves of eternity-millions are bowing down beneath its iron sceptre, are agonized by its tortures, and wallowing in its pollutions. Oh, help us in our efforts to snatch some of these brands from the burning-help us in our efforts to teach some of these deluded people a milder system and a better way-help us, who would fain assist in reaping this rich harvest of mankind, and gather it into the garner of God-help us, and you shall have a share in the triumphs, and you shall help to sing with exaltation and rapture the harvest-home.

Oh, think again, think, I beseech you, of the solemn account which must be rendered, and the dreadful damnation which we would fain avert. There are some persons who delight to tell us about the virtues, and the amiable qualities of the Hindoos. They say, that paganism presents a state of society quite as innocent and pure as ours; and they affect to regard us as

and laborious men, to send the gospel to the Heathen, if, after all, they can be saved without? I limit not the Holy One of Israel; I would not presume to legislate to the Supreme Moral Governor of the Universe; I take not the destiny of the Heathen into my own hands; but this I know-I am sure that there is no other name given under heaven among men, whereby we must be saved, but the name of Christ. Therefore, that the Heathen may not perish in ignorance and sin, I am anxious-and I ask you to help in the effort to send to them the knowledge of that name, that they may embrace it, and live.

Do I need to press on this audience the obligations by which they are

cause? I believe you possess a benevolent feeling, and I appeal to that feeling on behalf of the object that lies before me. Is the Gospel the bread of life that is to feed a starving world? Is the Gospel the balm of Gilead which is to heal the nations? Is it the uni

ministers of bigotry, because we suggest the possibility of their being finally condemned for errors which, they say, are but the results of ignorance; and they profess to entertain no doubt at all, as to the final salvation of the conscientious Pagan. My brethren, we who have the Bible in our hands, and believe it to be the word of God, and bow down to its high authority, are compelled to arrive at a very different conclusion. I ask, is not Pagan idolatry the grossest dishonour that can be done to God? I ask, is not Pagan idolatry a compound of cruelty and crime, on which the pure and benevolent Deity can look only with detestation and abhorrence? I ask, are not the Pagans wrapt in the darkness of their superstition, because their fore-bound in connection with this great fathers did not choose to retain the light of Divine revelation? I ask, is not the toleration of crimes and immorality that distinguishes Paganism, is it not all in perfect harmony with their corrupt imagination, and their own depraved nature? I ask, does not conscience condemn them in ten thou-versal specific which is to cure the sand instances, in the absurdities they practise, and in the habits they indulge? I ask, are they not transgressors emphatically? Are they not chargeable with every crime, and with idolatry, the master-piece of hell, which embodies in itself the essence of every other? I ask, are they not sinners? and is there any way but one, by which sinners can be saved? And do they know that way?—can they discover it for themselves?-is it possible that they ever should? Answer these questions -answer them faithfully; and then tell me, whether the condition of the Pagan nations is not such as to awaken the deepest emotions of intense anxiety and sorrow, in the breast of every man that knows the value of a soul, and the realities of the eternal world. I beseech you, my brethren, let not the natural benevolence of feeling, nor the subtle influence of a sceptical philosophy, combine to shut your eyes against the coming destiny of the Pagan nations, their awful responsibility, and the dread account they have to yield. Why, I ask, should we spend such sums of money-why should we employ such a mass of instrumentalitywhy should we sacrifice so many precious lives-lives of holy and devout

moral maladies by which our nature is infected? Do you possess that boon, and have you the power to impart it? and by imparting it, are you sure you shall not impoverish yourself? Is a spark of feeling burning in your bosom if you can withhold it for a moment? I believe there is not one of you in this congregation that would not be disgusted with himself, if he thought it possible that, like the Priest and the Levite, he could pass by on the other side, and leave a poor stranger fallen, and wounded, and weltering in his blood. You could not do it; and yet multitudes can listen to the miseries of the heathen without a sigh. The claims of the heathen may be presented, but they awaken no responding emotion, and call forth no efforts. I know not how to designate that species of benevolence, that dubious unaccountable kind of charity, that expends itself entirely on individual cases of woe and misery which death will terminate; but, when millions press on it, and ask its aid-its aid, too, for the removal of miseries that stretch out to eternity

its powers of compassion are instantly dried up.

If I take high ground in pleading this cause, I take the ground of justice.

You are a debtor to the heathen, and your debt you are bound to pay. Does any man in this assembly ask, Who is my neighbour? I answer him, Every man is thy neighbour. Am I my brother's keeper? I answer, Yes. It always occurred to me, that there was never a more powerful and touching appeal made to the benevolence of the British nation on behalf of the sons of Africa, than that which represents one of her children stretching out his hands, bearing the shackles of his bondage, and crying, "Am I not a man, and a brother?" Yes; he is a man and a brother. That Chinaman is your brother that Hindoo is your brother that Javanese is your brother-that Malay is your brother. And he has a brother's claim; and if you refuse to acknowledge his claim, there is one who will plead his cause, and will plead it against you; and the voice of your brother's blood, if he perish through your apathy and neglect, will cry against you from the ground. Think you, because he speaks a different language-think you, because he wears a darker skin-think you, because he lives in a distant land, that the bond of brotherhood is broken, and that he has no claim on you? You have ships that can reach him, you have men that have learned his language, and can speak to him all the words of this life; and the same blood flows in his veins as flows in your own. We have one God and one Father; and there is a day of reckoning coming, when that God and Father will call you to account, for the way in which you have discharged a brother's obligations, and a neighbour's duties.

Do I weary? Then, brethren, gird yourselves again this day to this great and glorious enterprize. What is the Gospel you profess?-what is its excellency?-what its character? Is it selfish?—is it monopoly? No; it breathes a spirit of the purest and the most diffuse philanthropy: and that man is an utter stranger to its influence, whose heart it has not made large enough to embrace in its sympathies, in its efforts, in its prayers, the whole human race. The Gospel has a message for all-is has a friendly aspect for all-it has a boon for all-it hangs around the cup of life in a dying world-it says, "Ho, every one that

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thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money: come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price." The Spirit and the bride say, come." You heard it, and you embraced it; you have bowed down, and you have drank; you have felt the life giving influence of the stream that gushed from the rock. Then, him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come." Tell them, they are welcome, around the wide world. "And let whosoever will, take of the water of life freely." Go forth by your missionaries-by your bibles-by your agents-to the utmost range of the earth: and over distant seas let the sound be heard,

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Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, and good will toward men." And as to success, it is as certain as that Jehovah will secure his own cause, and the purposes of his own heart. Glory to God in the highest." The angels who sang that song saw the close of one mighty dispensation, and the commencement of another-like him who stands on the summit of a lofty mountain as the storm is passing. By looking down the periods of the past, they saw the rites and ceremonies of the Mosaic dispensation, like gigantic shadows, rolling rapidly away. By looking up the ages of the future, they saw the rise, and progress, and spread, and triumphs of the Gospel. They saw the Jews reject it, and they saw the Gentiles welcome it; and they saw the Jews and Gentiles at length sweetly blended in one Christian church. They saw every Pagan idolatry-every Papal superstition-every Mahomedan delusion prostrate beneath the Redeemer's chariot wheels. They saw the Shasters of the Brahmin, and the Koran of the Mussulman, and the Mass of the Roman Catholic, scattered to the winds. They heard the distant murmurs of mighty mingling voices, myriads in heaven responding to myriads on earth, till it grew, and pealed like mighty thunder, through the universe of God

"Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty. The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever." Amen. Amen. Amen. Even so, come Lord Jesus.

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