Christian missions illustrated by the acts of Paul in Athens. A sermon, preached before the American Missionary Association, at the annual meeting, at Chicago, Illinois, September 26, 1855.

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Sermons

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Christian fissions illustrate bp tbt glcts of |)aul in gthcns.

A s E R M 0 N ,

PREACHED BEFORE THE

ANNUAL MEETING,

CHICAGO, ILLINOIS,
SEPTEMBER *2«. 1855;

BY R E V. J AMES A . T II O M E

AMERICAN MISSIONARY ASSOCIATION,

Kristian gtissions illustrate bti t|}f gets of jgaul in

A SERMON,

PREACHED BEFORE TIIK

AMERICAN MISSIONARY ASSOCIATION,

AT THE

ANNUAL MEETING,

AT

CHICAGO, ILLINOIS,
SEPTEMBER 26, 1855:

BY REV. JAMES A. THOME,

CLEVELAND, OHIO.

Ncru-lork:

PUBLISHED BY THE AMERICAN MISSIONARY ASSOCIATION, 48 BEEKMAN ST
PRINT8I> BY JOBS A. GBAY, 95 A 97 CLIFF, CORNER OF FBANKFOBT BTRKBT.

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Sermons

SERMON.

CHRISTIAN MISSIONS ILLUSTRATED BY THE ACTS
OF PAUL IN ATHENS.

Acts 17 : 22-3.

Then Paul stood in the midst of Mars’ hill, and said, Ye men of Athens, I perceive
that in all things ye are too superstitious. For as I passed by, and beheld your de-
votions, I found an altar with this inscription, To The Unknown God. Whom
therefore ye ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you.

The missionary enterprise is the preeminent glory of the present
age ; but it is not because to this age belongs the honor of originating
Christian missions, or of contributing to them any new principle or
power. They are not the offspring of the nineteenth century ; but the
nineteenth century, with its advanced civilization, its boasted institu-
tions, its marvellous energies, is the maturing offspring of Christian
missions. They are not of modern nor of human origin. They are
as old as Christianity ; and they originated, with it, in the mind of
God.

The enterprise was instituted by Jesus Christ, inaugurated by the
Holy Ghost, and set in full operation under the Apostles ; and its
early successes illustrated the perfection of the scheme, and proved it
to be the wisdom of God and the power of God.

To succeeding generations of Christians was committed the work,
not of inventing new mission systems, nor of improving the original,
but of carrying it out in strict pursuance of authoritative directions
and primitive usages. Bound to conduct missions, yet laid under in-
terdict touching any material change of them, the Church ought to be
thoroughly acquainted with the divinely-prescribed principles, mea-
sures, and forces of Christian missions.

These are developed in the instructions of our Lord ; and they are

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exemplified, under the direction of the Holy Ghost, in the apostolic
labors, especially in the acts of the great apostle to the Gentiles ;
and preeminently so in the discourse of Paul in Athens. Of this dis-
course a distinguished modern author observes, it “ was the crisis and
consummation of the meeting of Christianity and Paganism and it
may be regarded as a manual for missionaries in every age.

The ACTS OF PAUL IN ATHENS claim our study, as illustrat-
ive of the established principles of Christian missions.

As missions, though simple in purpose are complex in plan, we
shall accordingly discuss the proposed subject by a consideration

I. Of the Field.

II. Of the Work.

III. Of the Agency.

I. The Field. Christ in one word defined it : “ The field is the
world.” One brief pregnant sentence of inspiration declares its moral
condition, “ the whole world lieth in wickedness.”

But Christ’s instructions, as he sent forth his disciples to preach,
and the general course of his Apostles, before and after his departure,
point to great cities as at once the representatives of the state of the
field, and the strongholds of the powers of darkness in it, and there-
fore as the principal points of missionary attack.

The Holy Land was a field within the field, a little world amidst
the great world, the favored seat for ages of partial light. Through
successive judges, law-givers, and prophets, God revealed himself to
his chosen people, and through kings and priests he ruled over them,
and maintained among them his worship. A long process of theocratic
culture trained the nation in the knowledge and fear of the true God ;
and gave a religious stamp to that extraordinary race. Their literature,
their civilization, their politics, their wars, even, were religious. On
every institution was inscribed, Holiness to the Lord. Grievous de-
partures from God were frequent ; but divine messages or chastise-
ments brought back the wandering people.

The national life of the Jews had a local centre : Jerusalem was the
seat of power, the place of worship. That city, crowned with the
Temple, sat amidst encircling hills, a queen, to whom all the genera
tions from David unto Christ paid tribute, and whose heritage was the.
memory of all the holy men of old. Jerusalem was the chief seat of
J udaism, and it was the principal scene of the evangelical efforts which
were expended on the field of Palestine. Within its gates, and in
the courts and precincts of the Temple, Christ spoke a largo share of
his words, and wrought many of his mighty works ; and within those

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inclosurcs tho Apostles labored : there they prayed, and there the
Spirit was poured out at the pentecostal revival.

Contemporaneously with the process of Jewish training, on the
great field of the Gentile world was advancing the work of Pagan
culture, conducted by priests, philosophers, and rulers, under the aus-
pices of the god of this world. History denotes the successive stages
of this culture in the arts and religions of Egypt, Assyria, Persia,
Greece, and Homo, and marks its culmination in Greece. At each
period we notice the predominance of the religious element ; and we
see Paganism concentrating its attainments, and consolidating its
powers in the great cities. Thebes, Nineveh, Babylon, were the ear-
lier seats of the old world ; where humanity congregated, where hea-
thenism flourished, where royalty had its courts, philosophy its
schools, art its galleries, commerce its marts, war its munitions, and
religion its altars.

At the advent of Christ, both these cultures, Jewish and Gentile,
had reached their acme, and begun to decline ; and we see the signs
of this in the condition of the principal cities. The glory had departed
from Jerusalem. Rome and Athens, the metropolitan foci of the
Gentile world, had seen the sun of their circle pass the zenith. From
the flood Paganism had held the field, had trained nation after nation,
had reared and ruled a succession of imperial cities ; and these were
its latest master products ; Rome embodying the results in arms and
government — Athens in philosophy, the fine arts, and religion. Rome
was empress, and grasped the sceptre of political power ; but Athens
was priestess, and held the wand of spiritual supremacy. Rome gave
Paganism a throne ; Athens gave it more, an altar, for every divinity
an altar. Hence, although but a provincial town in the Roman em-
pire, Athens was, at the beginning of the Christian era, the metropolis
of the empire of Paganism.

The ancient rhetorician uttered more than a fine rhetorical flourish
when he said of the Acropolis, “ Where the spirit that rested over
Athens concentrated, and which was one vast composition of architec-
ture and sculpture dedicated to the national glory and to the worship
of the gods, that it was the middle space of five concentric circles, of
which the outer four were Athens, Attica, Greece, and the world.”
And if Athens at length waned, it was because Pagan culture could go
no farther, and tended strongly to decay. What Christianity had not
yet gained in any city, Paganism had long held in Athens — the
supreme control of institutions, usages, and classes ; it consecrated to
piety, taste, genius, learning, wealth, and authority : the city was wholly
given to idolatry. Yet Athens was sinking in effeminacy and debase

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ment. Her philosophy had degenerated into the rival systems of the
Stoics and the Epicureans. Her fine arts, pandering to voluptuousness
in the name of virtue, and decorating galleries, streets, dwellings, and
temples with the fascinating forms of shamefulness, had made beauty
the patron of pollution. The public games and festivals, theatrical
exhibitions and Eleusinian rites, were occasions of shocking obscenities,
sanctioned by custom and sanctified by religion. Dead to moral in-
centives, the people cherished no manly aims, and made no earnest
endeavors. They were confirmed idlers, and desperate news-mongers ;
“ they spent their time in nothing else, but either to tell or to hear
some new thing.” The popular mind floated between philosophy and
gossip, or fluctuated from devotion to debauch. Religion was supreme
in Athens, but it was a religion that neither purified nor enlightened
its votaries. What though the Agora, the Areopagus, and the Acro-
polis were studded with sacred monuments'? What though every
god from Jove to Bacchus, and every goddess, from Juno to Venus,
had temple or altar ? — this did not prevent ignorance nor vice, but fos-
tered both.

Of the ignorance of the Athenians there could be no proof more
palpable than that which was presented to the eye of Paul, as he, a
stranger, and alone in the city, walked amidst countless edifices conse-
crated to devotion: it was the altar with the inscription : To the
Unknown God. When we consider that there was not one such altar
alone, but many, we are at a loss whether to regard this as the expres-
sion of a yearning after something higher and better than the Greek
mythology furnished, or to see in it the very excess and madness of
polytheistic lust, which, unsated with the multitude of familiar gods,
sought to swell the number with nameless deities conjured from the
dark unknown. Paul, who may have met with but one of these altars,
or, seeing that each had the same inscription, attached to all the same
significance, read in this an avowal of ignorance. A religion which
enshrouded the mind in impenetrable darkness concerning God, could
not promote enlightened philosophy or sound piety. When the world
by wisdom knew not God, its wisdom was folly. Thus in Athens, the
summit of pagan light, stood that monument at once of the best and
the worst aspect of idol-worship, for it spoke of a yearning after God
which idolatry suffered to find substantial expression, but could not
satisfy with all the resources of polytheism. That altar, really the
highest achievement of paganism, was a confession of its utter failure.
It betrayed the poverty of mythology. It revealed the vulnerable
point of paganism. To carry Athens was to conquer heathendom ;
and Athens showed that open door to the Gospel assailant. When,

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therefore, Paul stood on Mars’ hill, and pointed to that altar, he stood
where he might command the entire field of the heathen world, and
deal a fatal blow at paganism. And he did not fail to seize the oppor-
tunity.

Such was the relation of the cities to the old pagan world ; and as
heathenism has not essentially changed in character, it has not ceased
to fortify and glorify itself in cities. While, therefore, to-day, as at
the first, the field is the world, the fortresses of paganism are the Cal-
cuttas, the Bombays, the Bangkoks, the Jeddos, the Pekins, the Tim-
buctoos. And the primitive policy, commended if not enjoined by
the sanctions of Jesus Christ and the Holy Ghost, should be adhered
to in modern missionary operations. The cross should be planted in
every heathen city. Neither expense, nor difficulty, nor danger,
should deter from the occupancy of these citadels of Satan. They are
the measure of the strength of paganism, and they should be the mea-
sure of the strength of missions. The estimates of men and means,
of power and wisdom requisite to conduct Christian missions should
be made on this basis. It would cause a greater outlay of resources
at once, and make the struggle sharper, but the campaign would be
shorter, and the expenditure in the end be less ; and the energy of the
movement, being founded in a just apprehension of the scriptural
method, would honor God by displaying that faith which believes that
with him all things are possible.

There is no economy in conducting missions on low estimates,
made on the scale of ability, liberality, or missionary zeal in the
Church. The work is God’s, and his is the power, and he has said :
“ My people shall be willing in the day of my power.” He who said,
The field is the world ; and who sent his Apostles into the proud
cities of the Jewish and the Gentile world, He has counted the cost,
and will supply the necessary forces and funds. He now only waits for
his people to exercise mightier faith, and to show a commendable cou-
rage and earnestness by assailing the god of this world in his most
impregnable fortresses ; then he will give Zion glorious victories, and
subdue the nations under her.

The field of Home Missions differs from the foreign in these two
particulars, apposite to this discussion, namely, it embraces no sys-
tems of paganism, and no cities given to idolatry. It belongs neither
to Heathendom nor to Christendom, it is peculiar to the New World.
The great West, embracing the largest half of the territory of this
republic, is the field of Home Missions. This is rapidly filling with
a promiscuous population of unexampled energy ; the potent and
manifold elements of a vast social state are now seething in the gigantic

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caldron ; oriental magic is here outdone by the magnificent creations
of cities and states.

Preserved by a gracious providence from early discovery and con-
quest by the pagan powers, from the subsequent incursions of Mo-
hammedans and Catholics, and opened at so late a period to the occu-
pancy of chosen companies of Christians, purged and disciplined by
persecutions, the £1 or th- American Continent has clearly been destined
for the planting and growth of Gospel institutions, and for the predomi-
nance of Gospel principles, with ultimate reference, no doubt, to the
issuing hence of influences for the evangelization of the Old World.
The Church here flourishing amid favoring circumstances, might stamp
the growing communities around with the right impress, and send
forth also saving agencies abroad. Thus a two-fold work of evangeli-
zation devolved on the American Zion, the Home and the Foreign ;
both are imperative, and are coordinate branches of one great system.
While this new world can never be pagan, it may be indefinitely
more or less Christian : and in proportion to the moulding energy of
the Gospel in the home field will be its success in foreign lands. A
great problem, to be solved by home missions, is, Whether Christian-
ity or worldliness shall predominate in our Western cities 1 It can
hardly be expected that the Gospel will do more for Canton than for
Chicago. And what light is cast on this problem by the actual results
of the Gospel agencies in the older cities of our Eastern States 1 Is
Boston a Christian metropolis ? Is New-York a stronghold of god-
liness 1 They are the centres of missionary operations, the seats of
Foreign and Home Boards ; and wherever the American missionary
has gone, in the far West or in pagan lands, these cities are known,
and associated with Christian missions. But are Boston and New-
York wholly given to the worship of God 1

Allowing that they may as properly be styled Christian cities as
any in the world, will it be denied that the Gospel has but partially
overcome, even in the churches, the dominant forms of worldliness ?
Do not error and mammon, with divers minor divinities, dispute the
ascendency with Christ, or hold it in defiance of his claims 1

The partial influence of Christianity in its chief seats in America ad-
monishes us that the field is emphatically the world, that it compre-
hends not only the far-off pagan lands, and the distant West, but the
centres of Christendom, the cities of this Christian nation ; the earth
is one broad mission-field ; and so intimately related are the several
parts, that what is done at home will determine endeavor abroad. The
Church will not send forth a more energetic Gospel than it cherishes
in its own bosom. Hence, when we remonstrate against the tolera-

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tion of caste in the mission-churches of India, we may expect to be
answered by a reference to the covetousness tolerated in the churches
of America. And what shall we say to this 1 That the one evil can
not atone for the other ; that rather the covetousness at home betrays,
even more than the caste abroad, the defect of Gospel power, for which
not the Gospel but our faith is to blame, and proclaims that the field
is still the world, not one spot having yet been gained wholly to
Christ ; and the organized forces of sin remaining still predominant in
the heart of this land, in the very city of the Pilgrims.

II. The Work. What is the missionary work ? What is the mes-
sage 1 What are the measures ?

The Apostle’s course in Athens is in all material points a safe
directory in the operations of the foreign field.

1. We notice the promptitude with which ho seized every opportu-
nity to present saving truth. This is displayed in his disputations in
the synagogue with the resident Jews and devout Greeks, in his speak-
ing daily in the market with citizens and strangers, in his contending
with philosophers of variant schools, who, suspending their own con.
tradictions, joined to encounter the new teacher ; wherever the mis-
sionary could find hearers, regardless of their gibes, he preached unto
them Jesus and the resurrection. He despised not the humble, he
dreaded not the great. He accepted the lowest places, he spoke to
few or to many, discerning in every opportunity an opening prepared
by the Spirit ; and confiding in the power of the Holy Ghost to ren-
der the work effectual, and to open wider doors. And when the Spirit
inclined the Athenians to conduct Paul up to the Areopagus, and gave
him that most desirable position, he was ready to take advantage of
it. He stood before the most august tribunal in the pagan world,
not, however, to be tried, but to be heard ; for the grave judges of the
Areopagus had caught the infection of curiosity. A great concourse
had gathered about the preacher, priests and philosophers, learned citi-
zens and strangers, artists, traders, functionaries, even women unused
to such assemblages ; the Pireus, the Agora, the Porch, the Garden,
poured their confluent streams to the Areopagus. Christianity and
Paganism were there to encounter, as the true religion and Baalism
did a thousand years before on Mt. Carmel. And as on that occasion
our prophet of the Lord stood alone against the heads and hosts of
heathenism.

Had Paul refrained from speaking in the name of Christ till this
eminent post was accessible, he probably would never have stood on
Mars’ hill. His previous labors in humbler localities, extending

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through several days, had prepared the people, had paved the way to
the Areopagus, and had honored the guidance granted from on high.

On the other hand, had the solitary missionary shrunk from so con-
spicuous and trying a post, and deemed it more becoming his humble
character to teach in the market, or in the synagogue, he would have
lost a grand occasion of proclaiming the true God, and of inflicting a
stunning blow on paganism.

2. We learn what was the subject of the preacher’s communications,
on each successive occasion ; whether he broached it at once, or ap-
proached it gradually, with every precaution of courtesy, and every
prerequisite of instruction. He preached Jesus and the resurrection.
With this proclamation he entered the synagogue ; with this announce-
ment he made his appearance in the Agora ; with these strange words
he encountered the philosophers ; with these new things he attracted
the people of Athens. Nor did he, by any want of explicitness, leave
room to doubt whether he were setting forth deities or doctrines, or
both a deity and a doctrine. He made himself understood, as a setter-
forth of strange gods, and also of a new doctrine. The resurrection
was that which most excited his curious and cavilling audience, and
impelled them to take him up the Areopagus ; for when there they
said : “ May we know what this new doctrine , whereof thou speakest,
is ?” A God and a Resurrection were the missionary’s theme in
Athens : a God who had been on the earth in the form of man, and
had suffered and died for the sake of man, and who had gone away, to
return again at the end of all things ; a resurrection of the dead, of
the buried Jesus, (which had already transpired,) and of all the dead.

3. We notice the excellent wisdom with which the preacher ap-
proached his subject in the discourse he delivered on Mars’ hill.

(1.) He conciliates his captious hearers by a respectful acknowledg-
ment of their distinguished devotional habits, and by a courteous allu-
sion to their numerous temples and monuments sacred to religion.
He does not, as our version unhappily represents, censure them for
excessive superstition, but commends them for their extraordinary
zeal in the worship of the gods. He could consistently express ap-
proval of the giving to religion that preeminence which it held in
Athens, without sanctioning the kind of religion which prevailed
there.

(2.) He startles his hearers, of every class, and rivets on himself
their excited attention, by referring to an altar dedicated to the un-
known God. That altar represented an awful mystery, it marked the
limits of Athenian knowledge, and pointed to boundless regions of
doubt and darkness beyond : and the Grecian mind, inquisitive and

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speculative though it was, recoiled from that dreadful verge. Yet the
preacher took his audience thither, and with an assured air, advanced
as if the void beyond it were full to him of glorious truth, which he
could reveal to them. That was a master measure, that passing at
one step from the boasted domain of Athenian wisdom to the brink of
their acknowledged ignorance, and looking thence into the vast obscure
with a knowing eye, and starting from that boundary with intrepid
discourse.

Paganism gives to Christianity this vantage-ground. After it has
multiplied its deities indefinitely it still falls indefinitely short of ful-
filling the conception of God w hich is in the mind ; and where it stops
it must raise the altar to the Unknown, and thus give a stand-point
to the Christian preacher. Every missionary should find this point,
and occupy it as boldly as did the Apostle.

4. We notice that the inspired preacher undertook to enlighten the
confessed ignorance of his hearers. This was the next step in the
order he pursued, but is the first in the proper missionary work : to
make known God. “Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, him
declare I unto you.” This included two things — declaring God’s
nature, and also the worship acceptable unto him. Herein as just
before, the preacher set forth both a deity and a doctrine. Jesus and
the resurrection are not more intimately connected than are God and
worship. We have an example of the joint instruction requisite on
these topics in the teaching of our Lord : “ God is a spirit ; and they
that worship him 'must worship him in spirit and in truth.” In all
false religions great prominence is given to worship ; but the fault lies
not in this, but in the rendering of wrorship to things that are no gods,
and in the corrupting of the rites of worship. Worship was not car-
ried to greater excess in Athens in the time of Paul than it was in
Jerusalem in the days of Solomon ; yet in the latter instance it was
well pleasing in the sight of Jehovah. Christianity is misunderstood
if it is supposed to make little of worship. It should never be said,
with truth that the saints of the most High God are behind Moham-
medans or idolaters in devotion.

(1.) In declaring God, the Apostle taught that He is the maker and
ruler of the world, and of heaven, and of all things in the universe ;
that He is the creator of all peoples, the disposer of all nations, and
the provider of all supplies ; and that He has made all the different
races of men of one blood.

From the first of these doctrines it appeared that God could not
dwell exclusively in temples made by men, that no walls could inclose
him, no spot contain him. He must be vastly superior, therefore, in
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this to the gods of the Athenians, -who were included in their several
edifices, and confined to them.

From the second doctrine it was a plain inference that God needed
not any offerings of food, or of money, or costly array : and in this
he must be far above the Pagan deities, who were supposed to be de-
pendent on their votaries for “ material aid.”

From the third doctrine it followed that God was one, that there
could be no God besides ; and hence it was obvious that the polythe-
ism of Greece was utterly false and impious. Hence, too, flowed this
humiliating inference that the Athenians were not a superior race, but
brothers to all mankind. Thus in one statement the unity of God
and the unity of man was declared.

The ignorance concerning God’s nature was, in this simple way
effectually enlightened ; the Unknown was made known. And the
process that revealed God, exposed the absurdity of pagan mythology,
of idols, altars, and temples.

Moreover, the Athenians were hereby enlightened negatively
touching the nature of divine worship ; they were taught that it was
not necessary to repair to temples as the exclusive residence of deity,
nor to bring to the altars of devotion offerings of a costly sort, smok-
ing viands, and first fruits of the field. Their worship was thus clean
swept away, with their gods ; and little glory was left to their extra-
ordinary devotions.

(2.) They were then further and more positively instructed concern-
ing the right worship of God. They were taught that the Creator and
Ruler of nations had appointed to every people the bounds of their hab-
itations, that they might worship Him, and render their devotions
where he had cast their lot. They were informed that true worship
was communion of soul with God ; and that the sincere and earnest
endeavor to seek and feel after him, and to approach unto him in
prayer was acceptable service ; that nevertheless he was very near
unto all men ; insomuch that in him we live, and move, and have our
being : hence that it was not necessary to go to some distant favored
abode of God, nor to grope about blindly with a mere chance of find-
ing him here or there in charmed circles of air.

(3.) The Athenians were still more fully instructed in the nature of
God and of worship, by a revelation of the spirituality of both. God
was declared to be the Father of men, of the souls of men ; and, there
fore, himself a soul, or possessed of a spiritual nature, like in kind to
the human spirit, but superior ; the author of all spirits, divine, uncaus
ed, and infinite. Seeing, then, that enlightened men recognized an
essential difference between mind and matter, and asserted the exalta-

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tion of the human soul above the most precious materials in nature,
and the most elaborate works of art, they should own the same unlike-
ness and exaltation, in a for greater degree, in reference to God ; and
accordingly they should not think “ that the godhead is like unto gold,
or silver, or stone graven by art, and man’s device.” The Father of
spirits and supreme over them, he should receive the homage of the
soul, he should have a spiritual worship, rendered out of the heart,
and tendered without intervening image or cumbrous ceremony.

So Paul enlightened the religious ignorance of the Athenians ;
by revealing to them one God, creator of matter, and therefore above
matter ; Father of spirits, and therefore the Supreme Spirit ; universal
provider and ruler, and therefore over all, and independent of all ; omni-
present and omniscient, and therefore every place filled with his being,
and every spot the house of God.

(4.) In the course of this instruction, the Apostle revealed God’s
sovereign disposal of nations, asserting that he determined the times
of their rise, growth, and decay, and appointed the bounds of their
habitation or fixed their land-marks. lie thus taught the Athenians
that if they enjoyed superior local advantages, a more congenial clime,
a more smiling sky, than other peoples’, they were indebted for these
blessings not to fate or fortune, nor to their patron-gods, but to the
Lord God of heaven and earth. He also admonished them that they
owed to Him undivided praise and grateful homage, in the ratio of
their benefits ; and that the persistent withholding thereof would for-
feit their blessings, and provoke God to terminate their national exist-
ence. It could not but appear from this teaching that though unac-
knowledged, and hitherto unknown by them, God was and ever had been
their Supreme Ruler, and had absolute authority over people and
magistrates, temples and altars, customs and laws, philosophers and
judges, over their gods and goddesses, their institutions and organiza-
tions, over every thing belonging to the complex entity of a nation.

From the broaching of this radical doctrine in the midst of a course
of elementary instruction concerning the true God and his worship,
we may infer somewhat decisive touching the duty of all the ministers
of Christ to mingle with the spiritual teaching they impart sound in-
struction in relation to the religious obligations of nations, and to
assert the supremacy of the law of God over the laws of men.

5. The work of instruction having been completed, the missionary
steps from the position of a teacher to that of an ambassador ; and, as
though God himself spake, he said : The times of your ignorance have
passed, and the forbearance of the Supreme Being toward you because
of your ignorance, has ceased ; now, God commandeth you, and all

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men everywhere, to Repent. This is the first word of the Gospe!
message. The humble preacher proclaims God’s new message : and
the authoritativeness of his manner is only equalled by the imperative-
ness of the manifesto. That stern word comes from God, it is his
command to all men everywhere, to barbarians and Greeks, Jews
and Gentiles, to all the Athenians, to their wise men, to their venerable
judges, Repent. And it was sterner, more comprehensive, because it
was uttered alone, because it was not carried into specifications. It
was not repent of image-worship, repent of polytheism, repent of false
philosophy, of pride, of caste, of idle curiosity, of lasciviousness ; but
repent. Specific -wrongs belonged to individual men ; but the com-
mand was addressed to all men ; the forms of evil in Athens were
different from the forms in remote places, but the word came to all
men everywhere. It was aimed, therefore, at that which was com-
mon to all nations on all the face of the earth, namely, moral depravity.
Repent of sinfulness, repent of that wickedness of heart, out of which
proceed idolatries, blasphemies, darkness, and every evil work. The
axe was laid at the root of the tree. The message was urgent; re-
pent now, put away at once the heart of sin, uproot instantly the
accursed tree ; respect not its comeliness, pause not before its stateli-
ness, hesitate not because of its venerableness, spare it not a day, pluck
it up now. There were various points involved, which sinners then,
as now, might have pressed in favor of delay ; as, inability, want of con-
viction, insufficient emotion, and the like. Other pleas of a different
nature might have been used in limitation of the command to repent,
the modern forms of which are, organic sins, deep-rooted prejudices,
ancient customs, public institutions, property interests, national con-
cerns, wickedness in high places. All such considerations were disre-
garded ; no more deference was shown to the prerogatives of nations
than to the pleas of individuals. The instant command — repent,
swept the entire field, reached every altar and temple in Athens, de-
manded the renunciation of every idol, and required the immediate
establishment of the worship of God in the metropolis of paganism.

G. The Apostle next announced that God had appointed a day to
judge the world in righteousness ; and that the judge should be Jesus
Christ. The command to repent was sustained by the assertion of
final judgment, involving the certainty of punishment, without repent-
ance.

The doctrine of the unity of God and man had not been more morti-
fying to Athenian piety and pride, nor the preaching of repentance
more humiliating, than was this proclamation of a day of judgment,
when all the world should be arraigned, without distinction of race,

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15

nation, or class, to be tried, on principles of strict righteousness, by
that Man whom all the world had united to condemn and reject. It
placed all men on a common platform — of depravity. It proved that
God was in earnest with his creatures, and that he held them to a
moral accountability, as his offspring. It brought to light a future
state of existence, in which the condition of each soul should be deter-
mined by the conduct in this life. As the preaching of repentance in-
volved the doctrine of depravity and the present fact of man’s lost
estate, so the preaching of final judgment involved the doctrine of
future and endless rewards and punishments.

7. Th is all implied the reappearing of the dead ; hence the Apostle
declared the general resurrection, and established it by the assertion
of the actual resurrection of Jesus.

Thus far the preacher held the attention of his pagan hearers ; he
had conducted them to the point where conviction of sin, and dread of
judgment should have extorted the cry, What shall we do? How
shall we flee from the wrath to come ? — and so opened the door to
preach Christ, the Saviour of guilty and perishing sinners, when
Athenian pride, prevailing over Athenian politeness, drowned in dis-
cordant clamors the preacher’s voice, and abruptly terminated the
great discourse in the midst of its progress, or rather at the crisis of
its power. “ When they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some
mocked, and others said, we will hear thee again of this matter.”

Some mocked ; and not a few were these, nor inconsiderable per-
sons. The stoics mocked, whose morality had been weighed in the
balance and found wanting, ■whose philosophy had been reproved by
the wisdom from above, and whose proud indifference to all things
had been sensibly disturbed. The Epicureans mocked, whose skepti-
cism was stunned, whose sensuality, disguised under the name of hap-
piness, was rebuked, and whose frivolity was confronted with the
soberness of piety and the solemnity of the judgment. The devotees
mocked, whose zeal, at first complimented, was finally shown to be
without knowledge and without merit, and whose gods, and altars,
and offerings, were exposed. The Areopagites, too, forgetting their
dignity, or fearing for its security under the preaching of a judgment
higher than theirs, mocked. There was a great mocking then on
Mars’ hill — a fearful jeering, a fiendish scoffiing. The temple of the
Furies echoed the hisses, the statue of Minerva looked down derisive-
ly, the Acropolis shook with the laughter of the gods ; paganism had
a jubilee ; Paul, the babbler, was silenced. While the proud ones
mocked, the curious ones, greedy for novelty, said : “We will hear
thee again.” The extreme strangeness of the doctrines commended

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the discourse to them ; the revealing of the unknown God gratified
their morbid craving for some new thing ; the command to repent,
entertained them by the utter novelty of the message ; the story of a
coming general judgment enchanted them, it was tidings from another
world remote, and it opened to them glimpses into distant futurity ;
the news of the resurrection of Jesus, and of the final resurrection of
the dead, set them all agape with wonderment. Surcharged with such
and so many marvels, they cried: “We can hear no more now, but
we will hear thee again.” If Paul was silenced by the mockers, he
was sickened by these merry-makers ; and neither able nor disposed,
perhaps, to say more, he departed from among them. Pie had said
enough to enlighten, convict, and startle his hearers ; but he had not
preached the truth which converts and saves. He had delivered the
mandate of the law which kills, but he had not proclaimed the mes-
sage of the Gospel which makes alive. The offers of salvation, the
invitations of Christ, the terms of mercy, were smothered in the utter-
ance ; and the missionary of the cross went away from Athens never,
as it would seem, to return thither again.

A few persons only followed him, and hearing more fully of the
way, believed : one, a man of eminence, Dionysius, the Areopagite ;
another, a woman of sufficient note-worthiness, or notoriety, to be men-
tioned by name, Damaris. Athens, like Jerusalem, rejected Christ;
these two chief cities, and centres of the two reigning systems of
Paganism and Judaism, judged themselves unworthy of everlasting
life ; and they were forsaken of God. In neither, however, w'as the
missionary work a failure ; Christ conquered them, if not by conver-
sion, by consignment of them to remediless destruction ; for while
Jerusalem soon met a fate whose horrors are unparalleled in the his-
tory of Roman warfare, Athens sunk into a despicable insignificance
worse than the ruin of overthrow. Therefore, notwithstanding the
small success of Paul’s labors in Athens, estimated by the number
of converts, we may say, with another, “ the speech on the Areopagus
is an imperishable monument of the first victory of Christianity over
Paganism.”* And, with the same distinguished authority, we may
add : “ It was ‘ no mere effort for the moment,’ but it is a ‘ perpetual
possession,’ wherein the Church finds ever-fresh supplies of wisdom
and guidance.”

From the labors of Paul in Athens we derive the following instruc-
tions concerning the mode of conducting the missionary work in the
cities of the Pagan world.

1. That opportunities are to be improved as in the providence of

* Soe “Life and Epiatlos of St. Paul,” in loc.

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17

God they occur. However small, they are not to be despised, and
however great, they are not to be dreaded.

2. That the character, habits, and tastes of the people are to bo
studied, and their religious customs especially noticed, and that in
these particulars they are to be treated with unaffected courtesy.

3. That their idolatry is to be traced to the point where its own in-
herent defectiveness appears and stands confessed, or may be exposed ;
and there the Christian pulpit planted.

4. The missionary must then declare the true God, his unity, supre-
macy, and spirituality ; then teach the nature of acceptable worship ;
then declare the common brotherhood of man, and the moral depravity
of the race ; and the amenability of nations to God.

This is the process of enlightening the heathen.

5. Then he must preach repentance, as God’s command, radical,
universal, immediate repentance ; and he must enforce this duty by al-
leging the certainty of a future righteous judgment, at which all the
world shall be assembled, and stand before the crucified Jesus, the
judge; and this he must confirm by the doctrine of the resurrection of
the dead.

This is the preaching of the law and the testimony. And it must
precede the preaching of the Cross.

If the missionary, having proceeded thus far, and opened the door
by regular process to present the atoning Lamb of God, is interrupted ;
if the clearness of the light, and the claims of the law, and the author-
ity of the summons, Repent, and the awful sanctions of judgment and
resurrection, alarm or enrage the people, so that they will hear no fur-
ther, the missionary has nought left him but to depart from the city,
his work there is done ; nor shall it be in vain. Let not the modern
missionary presume that he is authorized to shun an apostolic exam-
ple, that has so little to recommend it in its apparent results ; and
that he shall exhibit a superior wisdom, by avoiding the great cities of
paganism, adjudging them hardened and hopeless beforehand, or
by adopting more moderate measures, with the view of securing a
permanent footing in them. Rather let him give due heed to this
rule of missionary labors,, to be drawn from the acts of Paul in
Athen : “ Preach the word, and leave the work with God.”

Of all his mission-labors, successful and unsuccessful alike, the-
great Apostle speaks in these inspired words of grateful approval
“ Now thanks be unto God, which always causeth us to triumph ic
Christ, and maketh manifest the savor of his knowledge by us in every
place. For we are unto God a sweet savor of Christ in them that are
saved, and in them that perish ; to the one we are the savor of death.

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unto death, and to the other, the savor of life unto life. And who is
sufficient for these things 1” And he subjoins these emphatic words :

“ For we are not as many, which corrupt the word of God ; but as of
sincerity, but as of God, in the sight of God we speak in Christ.”

Still more emphatic, if possible, is his language following : “ For
the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God
to the pulling down of strongholds ; casting down imaginations, and
every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God,
and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.*7

III. The remaining topic of the present discourse is, the Agency
that Christ has been pleased to engage in the work of Missions.

This is the main topic, for it relates to the power — the executive
power. W e might presume that herein the wisdom of God would be
most illustriously displayed. W e might pre-suppose that a work of such
magnitude that none but God could project it, and that weapons of such
sort and temper that they could be furnished only from the heavenly
magazine, would require nothing short of divinity in the agency. And
so the Scriptures teach when rightly understood. The agency is indeed
two-fold, divine and human, the Holy Ghost and the Missionary.
But the Missionary is to be filled with the Holy Ghost, employed by
him, controlled by him, energized by him, and subordinated in all
things to his will.

The human part of the agency, as brought to view in the commis-
sion of our Lord, and exemplified by the first Missionary to the
Gentiles, demands our special attention. When we have said, Christ
has called men of like passions with others to be his missionaries for
the conversion of the world to himself, we have declared what is
true ; yet, we have spoken but a small part of the truth touching the
matter. The best and mightiest men are wholly unfit for this agency,
of themselves ; they need, in all respects, to be fitted by special
divine training, and by ample divine endowments, to be co-workers
with God in the salvation of the world. Neither human training, nor
natural talents are disregarded ; on the contrary, physical powers,

* Dr. Macknight’s paraphrases of this passage (see 2 Cor. 10 : 4-5) makes it apply
particularly to such missionary labors as those of Paul in Athens : “ For the weapons
wherewith we carry on our war against the heathen religions, and against those
who support them, are not weak, but very mighty for the overturning of fortresses
erected by human policy in defense of idolatry. With these weapons we overturn
the reasonings of statesmen and philosophers, and every proud imagination raised
up like a rampart by the lusts and passions of men, against the knowledge of Cod,
to prevent its entering ; and wo load captive every thought, and make it subservient
to the obedience of Christ.”

AJCNUAL DISCOURSE.

19

mental gifts, and whatsoever qualification is derived from nature or
from education, is, or may be , accepted. God has called both the
foolish and the wise, both the small and the great, both the despised
and the admired ; but in either case he has trained and qualified them
to be his servants, deeming the infirmities of some no disqualification,
and the abilities of others no sufficiency, and esteeming it absolutely
essential that the power of Christ should rest upon all.

In the great Apostle Paul we see an early proof that distinguished
talents were sometimes respected in the choice of missionaries ; yet,
while we are struck with the adaptedness of Paul’s versatile genius
and varied acquirements to the work committed to him, we are far
more impressed with the qualifications he received from God, partly by
discipline, and partly through the impartation of the Holy Ghost. We
can not well avoid the conviction that his native endowments wero the
gift of Heaven, with reference to the holy vocation whereunto he was
predestined ; and that his extraordinary educational advantages were
providentially afforded and secured to him with a divine regard to
the same purpose. He more thaij intimates this himself in these
words of Gal. 1:15: “ But when it pleased God, who separated me
from my mother’s wombx and called me by his grace.” Neverthe-
less, these extraordinary powers did not qualify Paul to be a minister
of Christ ; but, after his conversion, when God revealed his Son in
him, that he might preach him among the heathen, immediately he
was put on a course of preparatory training. And this was not
committed to the apostles, but was conducted by the Holy Ghost
himself; so Paul testifies: “Neither went I up to Jerusalem to
them which were apostles before me, but I went into Arabia;”
and there he lived three years, under the tuition of the Holy
Ghost. During this time he had not conferred with flesh and blood,
he had not seen the apostles, and “ was unknown by face unto the
churches of India, which were in Christ.” Called to be a servant of
the Lord Jesus Christ, Paul must needs be taught by him, and could
be properly qualified only by the training of his Spirit, during a
term of years. Nor did this suffice. He must be endowed with
divers spiritual gifts, some strictly miraculous, (for special reasons
needed in order to the fulfillment of his ministry,) and others super-
natural, and needed by every minister of Christ. And, moreover,
the Apostle must be filled with the Holy Ghost, not only as a Spirit
of Inspiration, which was requisite in his case, but also as a “ Spirit
of love, and of power, and of a sound mind,” which was requisite
alike for all missionaries to the end of the world. It was ne-
cessary that Paul should be made a new' man, a holy man, a wise,

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a spiritual, a strong man; and, in order to all this, he must be
“ full of faith and of the IToly Ghost.” “ Our sufficiency,” saith
he, “ is of God, who also hath made us able ministers of the New
Testament, not of the letter, but of the spirit.” This God-given
sufficiency constituted Paul an ambassador of Christ, and of course
every qualification for the duties of this office was secured, so that he
was fully empowered to administer the New Testament, and to com-
municate the life-giving spirit of that Testament. With all these
spiritual qualifications, superadded to his natural and educational,
and with the spirit of Christ in him to energize his soul, and to
superintend his motions of thought, word, and deed, the Apostle
was “ a workman that need not be ashamed,” a worthy co-worker
with the Holy Ghost. The earthen vessel was divinely fitted to hold
the heavenly treasure. Yet it was not necessary that he should be
freed from all human infirmities ; rather there must needs be left, for
his humiliation, the thorn in the flesh, that he might be ever reminded
of his dependence on all-sufficient grace ; and we know that he learned
to glory in his infirmities mor^ than in his abilities, because they
were the occasion of the power of Christ resting upon him.

The amplitude of the Apostle’s spiritual qualifications is truly won-
derful. Independently of his miraculous gifts, which were the special
prerogatives of the apostles and primitive teachers, he had many
supernatural endowments, and withal he enjoyed in such fullness the
indwelling of the Spirit, that he was thereby enlightened, emboldened,
strengthened, sustained, and guided ; and the result of all this endu-
ing from on high, was his being fitted for every department of his
arduous service, and fortified for every hardship and peril that awaited
him. He was raised above fear, care, doubt, and want ; he was inde-
pendent of worldly policy ; he sought not earthly favor, he envied
not human wisdom, he deferred not to existing institutions, he dreaded
not “ principalities and powers.” He has left us in his own words,
recorded in the Acts, an account of his labors and of his fearlessness
amid persecutions. Addressing the Elders of Ephesus, he said : “Ye
know how I kept back nothing that was profitable unto you, but have
showed you, and have taught you publicly, and from house to house ;
testifying both to the Jews, and also to the Greeks, repentance toward
God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. And now behold I go bound
in the Spirit unto Jerusalem, not knowing the things that shall befall
me there ; save that the Holy Ghost witnesseth in every city, saying,
that bonds and afflictions await me. But none of these things move
me, neither count I my life dear unto me, so that I might finish my
course with joy, and the ministry which I have received of the Lord

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21

Jesus, to testify the Gospel of the Grace of God. Wherefore I take
you to record this day, that I am pure from the blood of all men, for
I have not shunned to declare the whole counsel of God.”

Paul’s separation from the ministers of Ephesus, on this occasion,
was like the separation of Elijah from the young prophet Elisha :
“ They all wept sore, and fell on his neck, and kissed him, sorrow ing
most of all for the words he spake, that they should see his face no
more.’ But in that final prayer with them all, what grace, wis-
dom, and power he besought to rest upon them, we may infer, assur-
edly, from his foregoing wrords : “ Now, brethren, I commend you to
God, and to the Word of his Grace, which is able to build you up.”
This great Apostle, so mighty through the Spirit toward the Gen-
tiles, at length finished his course, and rested from his labors. The
work, as yet but begun, must be committed to other laborers ; and
what manner of persons ought they to be who should succeed Paul 1
They surely ought to be like him, if not in native talents and in
learning, and in gifts of miracles, yet in training, teaching, and en-
dowments of the Holy Ghost, so as to be suitable co-laborers of the
Spirit. And that this was the divine intent from the beginning is put
beyond a doubt by Scripture testimony. Not, however, that there
was to be a mystical transmission of powers and prerogatives by
laying on of hands, constituting an apostolical succession ; but that
there should be fresh impartations from the Lord — that each one
called to be a servant of Christ in the Gospel, should receive the
necessary gifts from on high. This is implied in the injunction of
Christ to all his disciples : “ Pray ye, the Lord of the harvest, that
he would send forth laborers into his harvest.” This virtually pre-
scribes the committing of the matter of choosing, fitting, employing,
and directing successive ministers and missionaries to the Lord of the
harvest ; this whole matter being really too vital to the success of
the Gospel to be intrusted in other hands. Whatsoever instrumentali-
ties God might see fit to use in the training of his servants, as the early
precepts of godly parents, the instructions of pastors, the tuition of
schools, the salutary influences of the Church, still the work is His,
and the chief preparations (immeasurably so) must come from him,
and are to be sought by believing prayer. In this prayer of the
Church must be embraced the separating of future ambassadors of
Christ from the womb, the superintending of their physical condi-
tions, their mental development, and intellectual acquirements, the
seasonable securing of their conversion, and the discipline of their
souls in faith, obedience, and spirituality ; also, the imparting to them
of ministerial qualifications of a supernatural kind or degree, general

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ANNUAL DISCOURSE.

and special — the former making them able ministers of the New
Testament, and the latter fitting each for the particular work or field
to be assigned to him ; moreover, the renewal and increase of these
gifts by repeated baptisms from the Holy Ghost during the course of
the ministry, and the guidance of the labors, and the upholding of
the laborers by the indwelling Spirit, which is pledged in the pro-
mise : “Loll am with you always, even unto the end of the world.”

The men thus gotten from the Lord by earnest prayer, would be
esteemed by the Church as worthy of confidence and support ; they
would be regarded as God’s workmen, competent and trustworthy,
needing little supervision of Mission Boards. They would be men
full of faith, of love, and of heavenly wisdom ; therefore, fearless
and strong, not ashamed of the Gospel, not daunted by opposition
nor moved by persecutions, not abashed in the presence of mercenary
rulers nor confounded in the midst of cities crowded with the monu-
ments of paganism. They would stand confessed the foremost' men
in heavenly gifts and graces ; quite in advance of the ministry at
home, as it now is, and of the Church ; insomuch that it would be
difficult to find in the bosom of Christendom, the men spiritually
qualified to undertake the management of Foreign Missions. What-
ever modifications of the present mode of conducting missions might
result, it would be altogether likely to be an improvement. So
whatever changes might take place in the education of youth destined
for missionary service, or in the standard of qualifications, or in the
number of laborers sent forth, or in the contributions of the Church
for the support of missions, might confidently be expected to be for
the better. And with such a vast augmentation of spiritual power,
through the supernatural endowments liberally vouchsafed, the results
of missionary efforts must be indefinitely enlarged. Every foreign
mission station would be invigorated, and every pagan stronghold
would tremble ; “ One should chase a thousand, and two put ten
thousand to flight.”

, REMARKS.

In closing this discourse, I would call attention to the fact, that
nearly every question of moment concerning the operations of Christ-
ian Missions, depends on the amount of power and wisdom from on
high that shall accompany and endue the missionaries. The questions
above discussed : of heathen cities as the principal seats of evangel-
ical operations; of the relations of Home and Foreign Missions, and
of Christendom to both, and of the cities of each section to the whole
field, the world ; of the methods for presenting the truth to the
heathen mind ; of the boldness required to preach repentance without

ANNUAL DISCOURSE.

23

qualification ; of the degree of home superintendence necessary, and
many other questions of principle and of policy, that engage the at-
tention and divide the counsels of the friends of missions, will find
their solution readily in the adequate supply of laborers, whose
sufficiency, as able ministers, shall be of God. Every thing relating
to the management of missions must be under the direction, not of
human sagacity, but of the wisdom which cometh from above ; and
none but those who are liberally gifted in that heavenly grace is fit
to have a voice in the counsels, or a vote in the control of this great
work of God on earth.

Let me then urge with much earnestness on your hearts, my breth-
ren, the duty of prayer for laborers of God’s choosing, of his fitting,
of his sending forth and superintending. The field is the same as
when Paul wrought in it, the same world lying in sin, and presenting
its city-seats of idol-worship ; the truth is the same, the self-same
sword that Paul wielded ; the agency of the Iloly Ghost is the same
in power, the same in readiness : but where are the Pauls — the greater
than Paul 1 Evangelization wraits for men of God. The swTord of
the Spirit waits for a hand strong enough to grasp it, for an eye
steady enough to direct its blows, for a soul strung to exploits wor-
thy’ of it. Men of supernatural endowments have lived since the
days of miracles. Many of the Reformers wrere such men, and many
of the Pilgrims too. Luther was a mighty Reformer, endued of God
with energy and dauntless courage ; "Whitfield was a preacher of
apostolical zeal, trained and empowered by the Lord ; Martyn was a
mighty missionary, whose extraordinary genius and acquirements
were eclipsed by the gifts of God’s Spirit; James Brainerd Taylor
was a young man, full of faith and of the Holy Ghost, whose early
death deprived the Church of a minister of whom it might almost
be said, he was more an angel than a man. Why are there not at
this day a host of men of like heavenly endowments ? Why are not
the ministers at home, and the missionaries abroad, largely endued
with power from on high ? Why should we be skeptical concern-
ing supernatural gifts, and essay to carry on the enlarged operations
of Christian Missions, without men trained, enlightened, and ener-
gized by the Spirit of Christ ? Shall we pretend that the cause now
does not demand such men 1 Rather must we not be convinced that
missions have never required more imperiously the power and wisdom
that come from above 1 Old cities, the centres of empires of dark-
ness, closed since the Christian era began, are now opening their gates
to the Gospel. Blows may be struck in them which will be as de-
cisive, and may be more redeeming, than those of Paul in Athens.

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ANNUAL DISC0UR9E.

Obstacles, which to ordinary faith look mountainous, obstruct the
progress of evangelization, and will continue to obstruct until some
Zerubbabel shall be sent of God, before whom the great mountains
shall become as plains. Look at our Home Missionaries ; what are
they now doing ? Inlaying in the foundations of cities and states
the elements of soundness, strength, and stability which the Gospel
contributes. What manner of men, then, should they be ? common
men1? feeble men? time-serving men ? Nay! but men of holy valor,
of divine wisdom, of preeminent spiritual gifts ; this is God’s work,
and God’s workmen should be employed in it. Is not God from on
high calling on his people that they “ pray the Lord of the harvest,
that he would send laborers into his harvest” ? Have we ever offered
this prayer in faith, and with consideration of its import ? Have we
ever sounded its depths, and comprehended its breadth ? Have we
perceived how the sending forth of laborers is but one act in a series
of acts, beginning with the separation of them from the womb, the
superintending of their early and advancing education, the securing
in due time of their sound conversion, the furnishing them with every
requisite qualification, both natural and supernatural, the going with
them into the harvest, and the working with them, and the supplying
them with all needed resources ? Shall wc have faith to embrace all
this in our prayer, and to bear this mighty suit to the throne of grace ?

Let the officers, members, and patrons of this Association earnestly
unite in this prayer. Let every monthly concert throughout Christen-
dom groan beneath this burthen. Let all pastors strive to inspire
their people with this great desire, till every closet shall be vital and
every sanctuary shall be vocal, with this supplication. Let the solicit-
ing agents, as they visit our churches, press on the people of God, on
pious parents, on Sabbath-school teachers, on all who, from love to
missions, contribute money to the cause, the importance of praying
for laborers. Let the Foreign and Home Missionaries, as they send
to us the Macedonian cry, accompany it with the earnest charge to
the churches, “ that they pray the Lord, that He would send forth
laborers into his harvest.”

The Executive Committee are pointing us to the new fields that the
good hand of the Lord has so signally opened before this Association,
and they are calling for men • and for means to occupy those fields.
Do not these favoring providences, and these pressing calls, crowd us
to the mercy-seat? It is the Lord’s prerogative to send forth ; it is
our privilege to pray Him to do this. If liberality is requisite, faith
is far more. If the Lord will stir up his people to pray for men of
might and wisdom, he will doubtless move them to give the means

ANNUAL DISCOURSE.

25

of their support. It would be a luxury to such to minister of their
abundance to the needs of missionaries like Paul. They would pluck
out their eyes, if need be, and give them.

The world, lying in sin and shrouded in darkness, is outspread be-
neath the pitying eye of God; and to Ilis view it is one wide field,
white for the harvest. To Zion has been committed the instrument-
alities divinely ordained for this work, and they are perfectly adapted
and entirely adequate. With God is the power to execute and the
wisdom to direct, the patience to continue and the purpose to com-
plete what has been undertaken. Let now the Church, by the utmost
energy of faith grasp the whole work, and throw it into the arms of
God ; and then say, May we thy people, O Lord ! be willing in the day
of thy power ; we consecrate to thee our sons and our daughters, our
children, our infants ; graciously accept the offering, and choose from
among them the best, the most promising, and take them under thine
own training, put thy spirit in their hearts, endow them with wisdom,
endue them with strength, make them able ministers of the New
Testament, and send them forth into thy harvest ; and, Saviour, go
with them, and use them to bring the heathen tribes to thy feet.
Even so, Lord Jesus, come quickly !

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