Moral dignity of the missionary enterprise. A sermon delivered before the Boston Baptist Foreign Mission Society on the evening of October 26, and before the Salem Bible Translation Society on the evening of November 4, 1823. ...

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y>» - S e v rw . w ay 1 'a n ci f r.

i

The Moral Dignity of the Missionary
Enterprise.

A

SERMON

DELIVERED BEFORE

2Thc Boston Baptist jForrifiu fHtssfon Sonets

on the Evening of October 26,

AXD BEFORE

SFfte Salem Bthle ^Translation Society

on the Evening of November 4, 1823.

By F. WAYLAND, jux.

PASTOR OF THE FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH IN EOSTON.

Third Edition.

boston:

JAMES LORING, 2 CORNHILIn

1S24.

*

‘

§

1 ,

SERMON.

Matthew xiii. 38.

THE FIELD tS THE WORLD.

Philosophers have speculated much concerning a
process of sensation, which has commonly been denomina-
ted the emotion of sublimity. Aware that, like any other
simple feeling, it must be incapable of definition, they have
seldom attempted to define it ; but, content with remarking
the occasions on which it is excited, have told us that it
arises in general from the contemplation of whatever is vast
in nature, splendid in intellect, or lofty in morals. Or,
to express the same idea somewhat varied, in the language
of a critic of antiquity,* “that alone is truly sublime of
which the conception is vast, the effect irresistible, and
the remembrance scarcely if ever to be erased.”

But although philosophers alone have written about this
emotion, they are far from being the only men who have
felt it. The untutored peasant, when he has seen the
autumnal tempest collecting between the hills, and as it
advanced, enveloping in misty obscurity, village and ham-
let, forest and meadow, has tasted the sublime in all its

• Longinus, Sec. VII.

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■reality ; and whilst the thunder has rolled and the light-
ning flashed around him, has exulted in the view of nature
moving forth in her majesty. The untaught sailor boy,
listlesly hearkening to the idle ripple of the midnight
wave, when on a sudden he has thought upon the unfath-
omable abyss beneath him and the wide waste of waters
around him and the infinite expanse above him, has enjoyed
to the full the emotion of sublimity, whilst his inmost soul
has trembled at the vastness of its own conceptions. But
why need I multiply illustrations from nature ? Who does
not recollect the emotion he has felt whilst surveying aught
in the material world of terror or of vastness?

And this sensation is not produced by grandeur in ma-
terial objects alone. It is also excited on most of those
occasions in which we see man tasking to the uttermost,
the energies of his intellectual or moral nature. Through
the long lapse of centuries, who without emotion has read
of Leonidas and his three hundred’s throwing themselves
as a barrier before the myriads of Xerxes, and contending
unto death for the liberties of Greece !

But we need not turn to classic story to find all that is
great in human action ; we find it in our own times and in
the history of our own country. Who is there of us that
even in the nursery has not felt his spirit stir within him,
when with childlike wonder he has listened to the story ot
Washington? And although the terms of the narrative
were scarcely intelligible, yet the young soul kindled at
the thought of one man’s working out the deliverance of a
nation. And as our understanding, strengthened by age,
was at last able to grasp the detail of this transaction, we
saw that our infantile conceptions had fallen far short of its
grandeur. O if an American citizen ever exults in the

o

contemplation of all that is sublime in human enterprise,
it is when, bringing to mind the men who first conceived
the idea of this nation’s independence, he beholds them
estimating the power of her oppressor, the resources of her
citizens, deciding in their collected might that this nation
should be free, and through the long years of trial that
ensued, never blenching from their purpose, but freely

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redeeming the pledge they had given, to consecrate to it
“ their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honour. ”

“Patriots have toil'd, and in their country’s cause
Bl* d nobly, and their deeds as they deserve
Htceive piMud recompense. We give in charge
Their names to the sweet lyre. The historic muse,

Proud of her treasure, marches with it down
To latest times; and sculpture in her turn
Gives bond, in stone and ever-tl uring brass.

To guard them and immortalize her trust.'*

It is not in the field of patriotism alone that deeds have
been achieved to which history has awarded the palm of
moral sublimity. There have lived men, in whom the name
of patriot has been merged in that of philanthropist ; who,
looking with an eye of compassion over the face of the earth,
have felt for the miseries of our race, and have put forth
their calm might to wipe off one blot from the marred and
stained escutcheon of human nature, to strike oft' one form
of suffering from the catalogue of human wo. Such a man
was Howard. Surveying our world like a spirit of the
blessed, he beheld the misery of the captive, he heard the
groaning of the prisoner. His determination was fixed.
He resolved single handed to guage and to measure one
form of unpitied, unheeded wretchedness, and, bringing it
out to the sunshine of publick observation, to work its utter
extermination. And he well knew what this undertaking
would cost him. He knew what he had to hazard from the
infection of dungeons, to endure from the fatigues of inhos-
pitable travel, and to brook from the insolence of legalized
oppression. He knew that he was devoting himself upon
the altar of philanthropy, and he willingly devoted himself.
He had marked out his destiny, and he hastened forward
to its accomplishment, with an intensity “which the nature
of the human mind forbade to be more, and the character
of the individual forbade to be less. ”* Thus he commenced
a new era in the history of benevolence. And hence the
name of Howard will be associated with all that is sublime
in mercy, until the final consummation of all things.

* Foster’s Essay.

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Such a man is Clarkson, who, looking abroad beheld
the sufferings of Africa, and looking at home, saw his
country stained with her blood. We have seen him, laying
aside the vestments of the priesthood, consecrate himself to
the holy purpose of rescuing a continent from rapine and
murder, and of erasing this one sin from the book of his
nation’s iniquities. We have seen him and his fellow
philanthropists for twenty years never waver from their
purpose. We have seen them persevere amidst neglect
and obloquy and contempt and persecution, until the cry
of the oppressed having roused the sensibilities of the na-
tion, the “ Island Empress” rose in her might, and said to
this foul traffick in human flesh, Thus far shalt thou go
and no farther.

It will not be doubted that in such actions as these,
there is much which may truly be called the moral sublime.
If, then, we should attentively consider them, we might
perhaps ascertain what must be the elements of that enter-
prise, which may lay claim to this high appellation. It
cannot be expected that on this occasion we should analyze
them critically. It will, however, we think be found, upon
examination, that to that enterprise alone has been awarded
the meed of sublimity, of which the conception was vast,
the execution arduous, and the means to be employed
simple but efficient. Were not the object vast, it could
not arrest our attention. Were not its accomplishment
arduous, none of the nobler energies of man being tasked
in its execution, we should see nothing to admire. Were
not the means to that accomplishment simple, our whole
conception being vague, the impression would be feeble.
Were they not efficient, the intensest exertion could only
terminate in failure and disgrace.

And here we may remark, that wherever these elements
have combined in any undertaking, publick sentiment has
generally united in pronouncing it sublime, and history has
recorded its achievements among the noblest proofs of the
dignity of man. Malice may for a while have frowned,
and interest opposed ; men who could neither grasp what
was vast, nor feel what was morally great, may have ridi-

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culcd. But all this has soon passed away. Human nature
is not to be changed by the opposition of interest or the
laugh of folly. There is still enough of dignity in man to
respect what is great, and to venerate what is benevolent
The cause of man has at last gained the suflVages of man.
It has advanced steadily onward, and left ridicule to won-
der at the impotence of its shaft, and malice to weep over
the ineflicacy of its hate.

And we bless God that it is so. It is cheering to ob-
serve, that amidst so much that is debasing, there is still
something that is ennobling in the character of man. It is
delightful to know that there are times when his morally be-
dimmed eye “beams keen with honour;” that there is yet
a redeeming spirit within him, which exults in enterprises
of great pith and moment. We love our race the better
for every such fact we discover concerning it, and bow with
more reverence to the dignity of human nature. We re-
joice that, shattered as has been the edifice, there yet may
be discovered now and then a massive pillar, and here and
there a well turned arch, which remind us of the symmetry
of its former proportions, and the perfection of its original
structure.

Having paid this our honest tribute to the dignity of
man, we must pause, and shed a tear over somewhat which
reminds us of any thing other than his dignity. Whilst
the general assertion is true, that he is awake to all that
is sublime in nature, and much that is sublime in morals,
there is reason to believe that there is a single class of ob-
jects, whose contemplation thrills all heaven with rapture,
at which he can gaze unmelted and unmoved. The pen of
inspiration has recorded, that the cross of Christ, whose
mysteries the angels desire to look into, was to the tasteful
and erudite Greek, foolishness. And we fear that cases
very analogous to this may be witnessed at the present day.
But why, my hearers, should it be so ? Why should so
vast a dissimilarity of moral taste exist between seraphs
who bow before the throne, and men who dwell upon the
footstool ? Why is it that the man, whose soul swells w ith
ecstasy whilst viewing the innumerable suns of midnight.

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feels no emotion of sublimity when thinking of their Cre-
ator? Why is it that an enterprise of patriotism presents
itself to his imagination beaming with celestial beauty,
whilst the enterprise of redeeming love is without form or
comeliness? Why should the noblest undertaking of mer-
cy, if it only combine among its essential elements the
distinctive principles of the gospel, become at once stale,
flat, and unprofitable ? When there is joy in heaven over
one sinner that repenteth, why is it that the enterprise of
proclaiming peace on earth, and good will to man, fraught,
as it would seem, with more than angelick benignity, should
to many of our fellow men appear worthy of nothing better
than neglect or obloquy?

The reason for all this we shall not on this occasion
pretend to assign. We have only time to express our re-
gret that such should be the fact. Confining ourselves
therefore to the bearing which this moral bias has upon the
missionary cause, it is with pain we are obliged to believe,
that there is a large and most respectable portion of our
fellow citizens, for many of whom we entertain every sen-
timent of personal esteem, and to whose opinions on most
other subjects we bow with unfeigned deference, who look
with perfect apathy upon the present system of exertions
for evangelizing the heathen ; and we have been greatly
misinformed, if there be not another, though a very different
class, who consider these exertions a subject for ridicule.
Perhaps it may tend somewhat to arouse the apathy of the
one party, as well as to moderate the contempt of the other,
if we can show that this very missionary cause combines
within itself the elements of all that is sublime in human
purpose, nay, combines them in a loftier perfection than
any other enterprise, which was ever linked with the desti-
nies of man. To show this will be our design ; and in
prosecuting it, we shall direct your attention to the grand-
eur of the object; the arduousness of its execution; and
the nature of the means on which we rely for success.

1st. The grandeur of the orject. In the most
enlarged sense of the terms, The Field is the Jt’orld. Our
design is radically to affect the temporal and eternal inter-

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e9ts of the whole race of man. We have surveyed this field
statistically, and find, that of the eight hundred millions
who inhabit our globe, but two hundred millions have any
knowledge of the religion ol Jesus Christ. Ot these, we
are willing to allow that but one half are his real disciples,
and that therefore there are seven of the eight hundred
millions to whom the gospel must be sent.

We have surveyed this field geographically. We have
looked upon our own continent, and have seen that, with
the exception of a narrow strip of thinly settled country,
from the gulf of St. Lawrence to the mouth of the Missi-
sippi, the whole of this new world lieth in wickedness.
Hordes of ruthless savages roam the wilderness of the
West, and men almost as ignorant of the spirit of the gos-
pel, are struggling for independence in the South.

We have looked over Europe, and behold there one na-
tion putting forth her energies in the cause of evangelizing
the world. We have looked for another such nation; but
it is not to be found. A few others are beginning to awake.
Most of them, however, yet slumber. Many are them-
selves in need of missionaries. Nay, we know not but the
movement of the cause of man in Europe is at present
retrograde. There seems too evidently a coalition formed
of the powers that be, to check the progress of moral and
intellectual improvement, and to rivet again on the human
mind the manacles of papal superstition. God only knows
how soon the re-action will commence, which shall shake
the continent to its centre, scatter thrones and sceptres and
all the insignia of prescriptive authority, like the dust of
the summer’s threshing floor, and establish throughout the
Christian world representative governments, on the broad
basis of common sense and inalienable right.

We have looked over Africa, and have seen that upon
one little portion, reclaimed from brutal idolatry by mis-
sionaries, the Sun of Righteousness has shined. It is a
land of Goshen, where they have light in their dwellings.
Upon all the remainder of this vast continent, there broods
amoral darkness, impervious as that which once veiled her
own Egypt, on that prolonged and fearful night when no
man knew his brother.

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We have looked upon Asia, and have seen its northern
nations, though under the government of a Christian prince,
scarcely nominally Christian. On the West, it is spell-
bound by Mohammedan delusion. To the South, from the
Persian gulf, to the sea of Kamschatka, including also its
numberless islands, except where here and there, a Syrian
church, or a missionary station twinkles amidst the gloom ;
the whole of this immense portion of the human race is sit-
ting in the region and shadow of death. Such then is the
field for our exertion. It encircles the whole family of
man, it includes every unevangelized being of the species
to which we belong. We have thus surveyed the mission-
ary field, that we may know how great is the undertaking
to which we stand committed.

W e have also made an estimate of the miseries of this
world. We have seen how in many places the human
mind, shackled by ignorance and enfeebled by vice, has
dwindled almost to the standard of a brute. Our indigna-
tion has kindled at hearing of men immortal as ourselves,
bowing down and worshipping a wandering beggar, or pay-
ing adoration to reptiles and to stones.

Not only is intellect every where under the dominion
of idolatry prostrated ; beyond the boundaries of Christ-
endom, on every side the dark places of the earth are filled
with the habitations of cruelty. We have mourned over
the savage ferocity of the Indians of our western wilderness.
We have turned to Africa, and seen almost the whole con-
tinent a prey to lawless banditti, or else bowing down in
the most revolting idolatry. We have descended along
her coast, and beheld villages burnt or depopulated, fields
laid waste, and her people, who have escaped destruction,
naked and famishing, flee to their forests at the sight of a
stranger. We have asked, What fearful visitation of Heaven
has laid these settlements in ruins ? What destroying pes-
tilence has swept over this land, consigning to oblivion
almost its entire population ? What mean the smoking
ruins of so many habitations P And why is yon fresh sod
crimsoned and slippery with the traces of recent murder?
We have been pointed to the dark slave-ship hovering over
her coast, and have been told that two hundred thousand
defenceless beings are annually stolen away, to be murder-

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ed on their passage, or consigned for life to a captivity
more terrible than death !

We have turned to Asia, and beheld how the demon ol
her idolatry has worse than debased, has brutalized tire
mind of man. Every where his despotism has been griev-
ous ; here, with merciless tyranny, he has exulted in the
misery of his victims. He has rent from the human heart
all that was endearing in the charities of life. He has
tausrht the mother to tear awav the infant as it smiled in
her bosom, and cast it, the shrieking prey, to contending
alligators. He has taught the son to light the funeral pile,
and to witness unmoved, the dying agonies of his widowed,
murdered mother !

We have looked upon all tliis ; and our object is, to
purify the whole earth from these abominations. Our
object will not have been accomplished till the tomahawk
shall be buried forever, and the tree of peace spread its
broad branches from the Atlantick to the Pacifick ; until a
thousand smiling villages shall be reflected from the waves
of the Missouri, and the distant valleys of the "West echo
with the song of the reaper; till the wilderness and the
solitary place shall have been glad for us, and the desert
has rejoiced and blossomed as the rose.

Our labours are not to cease, until the last slave-ship
shall have visited the coast of Africa, and, the nations of
Europe and America having long since redressed her aggra-
vated wrongs, Ethiopia, from the Mediterranean to the
Cape, shall have stretched forth her hand unto God.

How changed will then be the face of Asia ! Bramins
and sooders and casts and shasters will have passed away,
like the mist which rolls up the mountain’s side before the
rising glories of a summer’s morning, while the land on
which it rested, shining forth in all its loveliness, shall,
from its numberless habitations, send forth the high praises
of God and the Lamb. The Hindoo mother will gaze
upon her infant with the same tenderness which throbs in
the breast of any one of you who now hears me, and the
Hindoo son wall pour into the wounded bosom of his widow-
ed parent, the oil of peace and consolation.

In a word, point us to the loveliest village that smiles
upon a Scottish or New-England landscape, and compare

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it with the filthiness and brutality of a Caffrarian kraal,
and we tell you that our object is to render that Caffrarian
kraal as happy and as gladsome as that Scottish or New-
England village. Point us to the spot on the face of the
earth, where liberty is best understood and most perfectly
enjoyed, where intellect shoots forth in its richest luxuri-
ance, and where all the kindlier feelings of the heart are con-
stantly seen in their most graceful exercise ; point us to the
loveliest and happiest neighbourhood in the world on which
we dwell ; and we tell you that our object is to render this
whole earth, with all its nations and kindreds and tongues
and people, as happy, nay, happier than that neighbourhood.

We have considered these beings as immortal, and can-
didates for an eternity of happiness or misery. And we
cannot avoid the belief that they are exposed to eternal
misery. Here you will observe the question with us is not,
whether a heathen, unlearned in the gospel, can be saved.
We are willing to admit that he may. But if he be saved,
he must possess holiness of heart ; for without holiness no
man shall see the Lord. And where shall we find holy
heathen ? Where is there the vestige of purity of heart
amomj unevangelized nations ? It is in vain to talk about
the innocence of these children of nature. It is in vain to
tell us of their graceful mythology. Their gods are such
as lust makes welcome. Of their very religious services,
it is a shame even to speak. To settle the question con-
cerning their future destiny, it would only seem necessary
to ask, What would be the character of that future state,
in which those principles of heart which the whole history
of the heathen world develops, were suffered to operate in
their unrestrained malignity ?

No ! solemn as is the thought, we do believe, that dying
in their present state, they will be exposed to all that is
awful in the wrath of Almighty God. And we do believe
that God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten
Son, that whosoever bclieveth on him should not perish,
but have everlasting life. Our object is to convey to those
who are perishing the news of this salvation. It is to furnish
every family upon the face of the whole earth with the
word of God written in its own language, and to send tp.

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every neighbourhood a preacher of the cross of Christ. Our
object will not be accomplished until every idol temple
shall have been utterly abolished, and a temple to Jehovah
erected in its room ; until this earth, instead of being a
theatre on which immortal beings are preparing by crime for
eternal condemnation, shall become one universal temple,
in which the children of men are learning the anthems of
the blessed above, and becoming meet to join the general
assembly and church of the first born, whose names are
written in heaven. Our design will not be completed until

“One song employs all nations, and all cry
Woithy the Lamb, for he was slam for us;

The dwellers iu the vales, and on the rocks
Shout to each other, and the mountain tops
From distant mountains catch the (lying joy;

Till, nation after nation taught the strain,

Karth rolls the rapturous husanna round."

The object of the missionary enterprise embraces every
child of Adam. It is vast as the race to whom its opera-
tions are of necessity limited. It would confer upon every
individual on earth, all that intellectual or moral cultivation
can bestow. It would rescue a world from the indignation
and wrath, tribulation and anguish reserved for every son
of man that doeth evil, and give it a title to glory, honour,
and immortality. You see, then, that our object is, not
only to affect every individual of the species, but to affect
him in the momentous extremes of infinite happiness and
infinite wo. And now we ask, What object ever under-
taken by man can compare with this same design of evan-
gelizing the world P Patriotism itself fades away before it,
and acknowledges the supremacy of an enterprise, which
seizes, with so strong a grasp, upon both the temporal and
eternal destinies of the whole family of man.

But all this is not to be accomplished without laborious
exertion. Hence we remark,

2d. The missionary undertaking is arduous

ENOUGH TO CALL INTO ACTION THE NOBLEST ENERGIES
OF MAN.

Its arduousness is explained in one word, our Field is
the World. Our object is to effect an entire moral revolu-
tion in the whole human race. Its arduousness then re-
sults of necessity from its magnitude.

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1 need not say to an audience acquainted with the
nature of the human mind, that a large moral mass is not
easily and permanently affected. A little leaven does not
soon leaven the whole lump. To produce a change even
of speculative opinion upon a single nation, is an undertak-
ing not easily accomplished. In the case before us, not a
nation, but a world is to be regenerated : therefore the
change which we would effect is far from being merely
speculative. If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature.
Nothing short of this new creation will answer our purpose.
We go forth not to persuade men to turn from one idol to
another, but to turn universally from idols to serve the
living God. We call upon those who are earthly, sensual,
devilish, to set their affections on things above. We go
forth exhorting men to forsake every cherished lust, and
present themselves a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable
unto God. And this mighty moral revolution is to be
effected, not in a family, a tribe, or a nation, but in a
world which lieth in wickedness.

We have to operate upon a race divided into different
nations, speaking a thousand different languages, under
every different form of government from absolute inertness
to unbridled tyranny, and inhabiting every district of coun-
try, salubrious or deadly, from the equator to the poles.
To all these nations must the gospel be sent, into all these
languages must the Bible be translated, to all these climes,
salubrious or deadly, must the missionary penetrate, and
under all these forms of government, mild or despotick,
must he preach Christ and him crucified.

Besides, we shall frequently interfere with the more
sordid interests of men ; and we expect them to increase
the difficulties of our undertaking. If we can turn the
heathen to God, many a source of unholy traffick will be
dried up, and many a convenience of unhallowed gratifi-
cation taken away. And hence we may expect that the
traffickers in human flesh, the disciples of mammon, and
the devotees of pleasure, will be against us. From the
heathen themselves we have the blackest darkness of igno-
rance to dispel. We have to assault systems venerable for
their antiquity, and interwoven with every thing that is
proud in a nation’s history. Above all, we have to oppose

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the depravity of the human heart, grown still more invete-
rate by ages of continuance in unrestrained iniquity. In a
word, we go forth to urge upon a world dead in trespasses
and sins, a thorough renewal of heart, and an universal
reformation of practice.

Brief as is this view of the difficulties which surround
us, and time will not allow us to state them more in detail,
you see that our undertaking is, as we said, arduous enough
to task to the uttermost the noblest energies of man.

This enterprise requires consummate wisdom in the
missionary who goes abroad, as well as in those who man-
age the concerns of a society at home. He who goes forth
unprotected, to preach Christ to despotick or badly gov-
erned nations, must be wise as a serpent, and harmless as
a dove. With undeviating firmness upon every thing es-
sential, he must combine the most yielding facility upon
all that is unimportant. And thus w hile he goes forth in
the spirit and power of Elias, he must at the same time
become all things to all men, that by all means he may
gain some. Great abilities are also required in him who
conducts the mission at home. He must awaken, animate,
and direct the sentiments of a very large portion of the
community in which he resides, whilst at the same time,
through a hundred different agents, he is exerting a power-
ful influence upon half as many nations a thousand or ten
thousand miles off. Indeed it is hazarding nothing to pre-
dict, that if efforts for the extension of the gospel continue
to multiply with their present ratio of increase, as great
abilities will, in a few years, be required for transacting
the business of a missionary society, as for conducting the
affairs of a political cabinet.

The missionary undertaking calls for perseverance ; a
perseverance of that character, which, having once formed
its purpose, never wavers from it till death. And if ever
this attribute has been so exhibited as to challenge the
respect of every man of feeling, it has been in such instan-
ces as are recorded in the history of the missions to Green-
land and to the South Sea Islands, where w'e beheld men,
for fifteen or twenty years, suffer every thing but martyr-
dom, and then, seeing no fruit from their labour, resolve

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to labour on till death, if so be they might at last, save one
benighted heathen from the error of his ways.

This undertaking calls for self denial of the highest and
holiest character. He who engages in it must, at the very
outset, dismiss every wish to stipulate for any thing but
the mere favour of God. His first act is a voluntary exile
from all that a refined education loves ; and every other
act must be in unison with this. The salvation of the hea-
then is the object for which he sacrifices, and is willing to
sacrifice, every thing that the heart clings to on earth.
For this object he would live ; for this he would die ; nay,
he would live any where, and die any how, if so be he
might rescue one soul from everlasting wo.

Hence you see that this undertaking requires courage.
It is not the courage which, wrought up by the stimulus of
popular applause, can rush now and then upon the can-
non’s mouth ; it is the courage which, alone and unap-
plauded, will, year after year, look death, every moment,
in the face, and never shrink from its purpose. It is a
principle which will “ make a man intrepidly dare every
thing which can attack or oppose him within the whole
sphere of mortality, retain his purpose unshaken amidst
the ruins of the world, and press toward his object while
death is impending over him.”* Such was the spirit which
spake by the mouth of an Apostle when he said, And now
I go bound in the spirit unto Jerusalem, not knowing the
things which shall befal me there ; save that the Holy
Ghost witnesseth in every city, saying that bonds and
afflictions abide me. Y et none of these things move me ;
neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I may
finish my course with joy, and the ministry which I have
received of the Lord Jesus.

But above all, the missionary undertaking requires
faith, in its holiest and sublimest exercise. And let it not
be supposed that we speak at random, when we mention
the sublimity of faith. “ Whatever,” says the British
moralist, “withdraws us from the power of the senses;
whatever makes the past, the distant, or the future pre-
dominate over the present, advances us in the dignity of
thinking beings. ”t And when we speak of faith, we refer

• Foster. t Tour to the Hebrides. Iona.

17

to a principle which gives substance to things hoped for, and
evidence to tilings not seen; which, bending her keen glance
on the eternal weight of glory, makes it a constant motive to
holy enterprise ; which, fixing her eagle eye upon the infinite
of future, makes it bear right well upon the purposes of to-day;
a principle which enables a poor feeble tenant of the dust to
take strong hold upon the perfections of Jehovah ; and, fast*
ening his hopes to the very throne of the Eternal, “ bid earth
roll, nor feel its idle whirl.” This principle is the unfailing
support of the missionary through the long years of his toil-
some pilgrimage ; and, when he is compared with the heroes
of this world, it is peculiar to him. By as much then as the
Christian enterprise calls into being this one principle, the
noblest that can attach to the character of a creature, by so
much does its execution surpass in sublimity every other.

3d. Let us consider the means by which this moral
revolution is to be EFFECTED. It is, in a word, by the
preaching of Jesus Christ and him crucified. It is by going
forth and telling the lost children of men, that God so loved
the world, that he gave his only begotten !Son to die for them ;
and by all the eloquence of such an appeal, to entreat them,
for Christ’s sake, to be reconciled unto God. This is the lever
by which, we believe, the moral universe is to be raised ; this
is the instrument by which a sinful world is to be regenerated.

And consider the commanding simplicity of this means,
devised by Omniscience to effect a purpose so glorious. This
world is to be restored to more than it lost by the fall, by the
simple annunciation of the loveof God in Christ Jesus. Here
we behold means apparently the weakest, employed to effect
the most magnificent of purposes. And how plainly does this
bespeak the agency of the omnipotent God. The means which
effect his greatest purposes in the kingdom of nature, are
simple and unostentatious ; w hile those which man employs
are complicated and tumultuous. How many intellects are
tasked, howr many hands are wearied, how many arts exhaust-
ed in preparing for the event of a single battle; and how
great is the tumult of the moment of decision. In all this,
man only imitates the inferior agents of nature. The autum-
nal tempest, whose sphere of action is limited to a little spot
upon our little wrorld, comes forth attended by the roar of

18

thunder and the Hash of lightning ; while the attraction of
gravitation, that stupendous force which binds together the
mighty masses of the material universe, acts silently. In
the sublimest of natural transactions, the greatest result is
ascribed to the simplest, the most unique of causes. He
spake and it was done ; he commanded and it stood fast.

Contemplate the benevolence of these means. In prac-
tice, the precepts of the gospel may be summed up in the sin-
gle command, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy
heart, and thy neighbour as thyself. We expect to teach
one man obedience to this command, and that he will feel
obliged to teach his neighbour, who will feel obliged to teach
others, who are again to become teachers, until the whole
world shall be peopled with one family of brethren. Animos-
ity is to be done away by inculcating universally the obliga-
tion of love. In this manner we expect to teach rulers jus-
tice, and subjects submission; to open the heart of the miser,
and unloose the grasp of the oppressor. It is thus we expect
the time to be hastened onward when men shall beat their
swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning hooks;
when nation shall no more lift up sword against nation, neither
shall they learn war any more.

With this process, compare the means by which men, on
the principles of this world, effect a melioration in the con-
dition of their species. Their almost universal agent is,
threatened or inflicted misery. And, from the nature of the
case, it cannot be otherwise. Without altering the disposi-
tion of the heart, they only attempt to control its exercise.
And they must control it by showing their power to make the
indulgence of that disposition the source of more misery than
happiness. Hence when men confer a benefit upon a portion
of their brethren, it is generally preceded by a protracted
struggle to decide which can inflict most, or which can suf-
fer longest. Hence the arm of the patriot is generally and
of necessity bathed in blood. Hence with the shouts of vic-
tory from the nation he has delivered, there arises also the
sigh of the widow, and the weeping of the orphan. Man pro-
duces good by the apprehension or the infliction of evil. The
gospel produces good by the universal diffusion of the princi-
ples of benevolence. In the former case, one party must
generally suffer; in the latter, all parties are certainly more

19

happy. The one, like the mountain torrent, may fertilize
now and then a valley beneath, but not until it has wildly
swept away the forest above, and disfigured the lovely
landscape with many an unseemly scar. Not so the other;

u It droppeth as the gentle vain from heaven
Upon the place beneath ; it is t»ice blt vs'd.

It blcssetli him that gives, and him that takes.”

Consider the efficacy of these means. The reasons
which teach us to rely upon them with confidence may
be thus briefly stated.

1. We see that all which is really terrific in the mis-
ery of man results from the disease of his moral nature.
If this can be healed, man may be restored to happiness.
Now the gospel of Jesus Christ is the remedy devised by
Omniscience specifically for this purpose, and therefore we
do certainly know that it will inevitably succeed.

2. It is easy to be seen, that the universal obedience
to the command, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with
all thy heart, and thy neighbour as thyself, would make
this world a heaven. But nothing other than the gospel of
Christ can persuade men to this obedience. Reason cannot
do it ; philosophy cannot do it ; civilization cannot do it.
The cross of Christ alone has power to bend the stubborn
will to obedience, and melt the frozen heart to love. For,
said one who had experienced its efficacy, the love of Christ
constraineth us, because we thus judge, that if one died
for all, then were all dead; and that he died for all, that
they which live should not live to themselves, but unto
Him who died for them, and rose again.

3. The preaching of the cross of Christ is a remedy
for the miseries of the fall which has been tested by the
experience of eighteen hundred years, and has never in a
single instance failed. Its efficacy has been proved by
human beings of all ages, from the lisping infant to the
sinner an hundred years old. All climates have witnessed
its power. From the ice-bound cliffs of Greenland to the
banks of the voluptuous Ganges, the simple story of Christ
crucified, has turned men from darkness to light, and from
the power of Satan unto God. Its effect has been the
same with men of the most dissimilar conditions ; from the
abandoned inhabitant of Newgate, to the dweller in the

20

palaces of kings. It has been equally sovereign amidst
the scattered inhabitants of the forest and the crowded
population of the densest metropolis. Every where and at
all times it has been the power of God unto salvation to
every one that believeth.

4. And lastly, we know from the word of the living
God, that it will be successful, until this whole world has
been redeemed from the effects of man’s first disobedience.
As truly as I live, saith Jehovah, all the earth shall be
filled with the glory of the Lord. Ask of me, saith he to
his Son, and I will give thee the heathen for thine inherit-
ance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy posses-
sion. In the Revelation which he gave to his servant John
of things which should shortly come to pass ; I heard, said
the Apostle, great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms
of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of
his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever. Here then
is the ground of our unwavering confidence. Heaven and
earth shall pass away, but one jot or one tittle shall in no
wise pass from the word of God, until all be fulfilled.
Such, then, are the means on which we rely for the accom-
plishment of our object, and such the grounds upon which
we rest our confidence of success.

And nowr, my hearers, deliberately consider the nature
of the missionary enterprise. Reflect upon the dignity of
its object ; the high moral and intellectual powers which
are to be called forth in its execution ; the simplicity, be-
nevolence, and efficacy of the means by which all this is to
be achieved ; and we ask you, Does not every other enter-
prise to which man ever put forth his strength dwindle into
insignificance, before that of preaching Christ crucified to a
lost and perishing world ?

Engaged in such an object, and supported by such
assurances, you may readily suppose, we can very well
bear the contempt of those who would point at us the fin-
ger of scorn. It is written, In the last days there shall be
scoffers. We regret that it should be so. We regret that
men should oppose an enterprise, of which the chief object
is, to turn sinners unto holiness. We pify them, and we
will pray for them. For we consider their situation far
other than enviable. We recollect that it was once sard

21

by the Divine Missionary, to the first band which he com-
missioned, He that despiseth you, despiseth me, and he
that despiseth me, despiseth him that sent me. So that
this very contempt may at last, involve them in a contro-
versy infinitely more serious than they at present antici-
pate. The reviler of missions, and the missionary of the
cross, must both stand before the judgment seat of Him
who said, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel
to every creature. It is affecting to think, that whilst the
one, surrounded by the nation who, through his instrumen-
tality, have been rescued from everlasting death, shall re-
ceive the plaudit, Well done, good and faithful servants
the other may be numbered with those despisers who won-
der and perish. O that they might know, even in this their
day, the things which belong to their peace, before they
are hidden from their eves!

J

You can also easily perceive how it is that we are not
9oon disheartened by those who tell us of the difficulties,
nay, the hopelessness, of our undertaking. They may point
us to countries once the seat of the church, now overspread
with Mohammedan delusion ; or, bidding us look at nations
who once believed as we do, now contending for what we
consider fatal error, they may assure us that our cause is
declining. To all this we have two answers. First, the
assumption that our cause is declining, is utterly gratuitous.
We think it not difficult to prove, that the distinctive prin-
ciples we so much venerate, never swayed so powerful an
influence over the destinies of the human race as at this
very moment. Point us to those nations of the earth to
whom moral and intellectual cultivation, inexhaustible
resources, progress in arts, and sagacity in council, have
assigned the highest rank in political importance, and you
point us to nations whose religious opinions are most closely
allied to those we cherish. Besides, when was there a
period, since the days of the Apostles, in which so many
converts have been made to these principles, as have been
made, both from Christian and Pagan nations, within the
last five and twenty years ? Never did the people of ihe
saints of the Most High look so much like going forth in
serious earnest, to take possession of the kingdom and do-
minion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole

22

heaven, as at this very day. We see, then, nothing in the
signs of the times which forebodes a failure, but every thing
which promises that our undertaking will prosper. But
secondly, suppose the cause did seem declining ; we should
see no reason to relax our exertions, for Jesus Christ has
said, Preach the gospel to every creature. Appearances,
whether prosperous or adverse, alter not the obligation to
obey a positive command of Almighty God.

Again, suppose all that is affirmed were true. If it must
be, let it be. Let the dark cloud of infidelity overspread
Europe, cross the ocean, and cover our own beloved land.
Let nation after nation swerve from the faith. Let iniquity
abound, and the love of many wax cold, even until there is
on the face of this earth, but one pure church of our Lord
and Saviour Jesus Christ. All we ask is, that we may be
members of that one church. God grant that we may throw
ourselves into this Thermopylae of the moral universe.

But even then, we should have no fear that the church
of God would be exterminated. We would call to remem-
brance the years of the right hand of the Most High. We
would recollect there was once a time, when the whole
church of Christ, not only could be, but actually was, gath-
ered with one accord in one place. It was then that that
place was shaken as with a rushing mighty wind, and they
were all filled with the Holy Ghost. That same day, three
thousand were added to the Lord. Soon, we hear, they
have filled Jerusalem with their doctrine. The church has
commenced her march. Samaria has with one accord be-
lieved the gospel. Antioch lias become obedient to the
faith. The name of Christ has been proclaimed throughout
Asia Minor. The temples of the gods, as though smitten
by an invisible hand, are deserted. The citizens of Ephe-
sus cry out in despair, Great is Diana of the Ephesians!
Licentious Corinth is purified by the preaching of Christ
crucified. Persecution puts forth her arm to arrest the
spreading “superstition.” But the progress of the faith
cannot be stayed. The church of God advances unhurt,
amidst racks and dungeons, persecutions and death ; yea,
“smiles at the drawn dagger, and defies its point.” She
has entered Italy, and appears before the walls of the Eter-
nal City. Idolatry falls prostrate at her approach. Her

ensign floats in triumph over the capitol. She lias placed
upon her brow the diadem of the Ctesars!

After having witnessed such successes, and under such
circumstances, we are not to be moved by discouragements.
To all of them we answer, Our Field is the World. The
more arduous the undertaking, the greater will be the glory.
And that glory will be ours; for God Almighty is with us.

This enterprise of mercy the Son of God came down
from heaven to commence, and in commencing it, lie laid
down his life. To us has he granted the high privilege of
carrying it forward. The legacy which he left us, as he was
ascending to his Father and our Father, and to his God and
to our God, was, Go ye into all the world, and preacli the
gospel to every creature ; and, lo, I am with you always,
even unto the end of the world. With such an object
before us, under such a Leader, and supported by such
promises, other motives to exertion are unnecessary. Each
one of you will anxiously inquire, how he may become a
co-worker with the Son of God, in the glorious design of
rescuing a world from the miseries of the fall!

Blessed be God, this is a work in which every one of
us is permitted to do something. None so poor, none so
weak, none so insignificant, but a place of action is assign-
ed him ; and the cause expects every man to do his duty.
We answer, then,

1. You may assist in it by yrour prayers. After all
that we have said about means, we know that every thing
will be in vain without the influences of the Holy Spirit.
Paul may plant, and Apollos water, it is God who giveth
the increase. And these influences are promised, and
promised alone, in answer to prayer. Ye then who love
the Lord, keep not silence, and give him no rest, until he
establish and make Jerusalem a praise in the whole earth.

2. You may assist by your personal exertions. This
cause requires a vigorous, persevering, universal and sys-
tematick effort. It requires that a spirit should pervade
every one of us, which shall prompt him to ask himself
every morning, What can I do for Christ to-day? and
which should make him feel humbled and ashamed, if at
evening, he were obliged to confess he had done nothing.
Each one of us is as much obligated as the missionaries

24

themselves, to do all in his power to advance the common
cause of Christianity. We, equally with them, have em-
braced that gospel, of which the fundamental principle is,
None of us liveth to himself. And not only is every one
bound to exert himself to the uttermost, the same obligation
rests upon us so to direct our exertions, that each of them
may produce the greatest effect. Each one of us may influ -
ence others to embark in the undertaking. Each one whom
we have influenced, may be induced to enlist that circle of
which he is the centre, until a self-extending system of in-
tense and reverberated action shall embody into one invin-
cible phalanx, “the sacramental host of God’s elect.”
Awake, then, brethren, from your slumbers. Seek first the
kingdom of God and his righteousness. And recollect that
what you would do, must be done quickly. The day is far
spent; the night is at hand. Whatsoever thy hand findeth to
do, do it with thy might ; for there is no work, nor device,
nor knowledge, nor wisdom in the grave whither thou goest.

3. You may assist by your pecuniary contributions.
An opportunity of this kind will be presented this e' oning.
And here, I trust, it is unnecessary to say that in such a
cause we consider it a privilege to give. How so worthily
can you appropriate a portion of that substance which Prov-
idence has given you, as in sending to your fellow men,
who sit in the region and shadow of death, a knowledge of
the God who made them, and of Jesus Christ whom he hath
sent? We pray you, so use the mammon of unrighteous-
ness, that when ye fail, they may receive you into everlast-
ing habitations. But I doubt not you already burn with
desire to testify your love to the crucified Redeemer. En-
throned in the high and holy place, He looks down at this
moment upon the heart of every one of us, and will accept
of your offering, though it be but the widow’s mite, if it be
given with the widow’s feeling. In the last day of solemn
account, he will acknow ledge it before an assembled uni
verse, saying, In as much as ye did it unto one of the least
of these my brethren, ye did it unto me !

May God of his grace enable us so to act, that on that
day, we may meet with joy the record of the doings of this
evening; and to his name shall be the glory in Christ. Amot: