Progress, the law of the missionary work. A sermon preached in Rochester, N.Y., Sept., 1843, before the American board of commissioners for foreign missions, at their thirty-fourth annual meeting

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2075

■ SloS

ProgrcH, tbe lav of the liuionary Work.

SERMON

PREACHED IN ROCHESTER, N. Y., SEPT., 1843,

BEFOBS THE

AMERICAN BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS

FOB

FOREIGN MISSIONS,

AT TBEIB

THIRTY-FOURTH ANNUAL MEETING.

«» w '

tA

BY REV. THOMAS H-^KINNER, D. D.,
Pastor of the Mercer-street Presbyterian Church, New York.

BOSTON:

PRESS OF CROCKER AND BREWSTER,
47, Washington-street.

1843.

3V

.St3

*

.»•

• • •

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ff

SERMON.

Philifpians, iii: 13.

Forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching
forth unto those things which a/re before.

When this service, by another's relinquishing it,
was unexpectedly devolved on me, I too should
most gladly have declined it, on account of the
imperfect state of my health, had there been any
one to whom I was at liberty to transfer it. And
there was another reason which might well have
led me to shrink from the duty of this hour, were
it not that providential calls are designed for those
to whom they come. I regard the present occa-
sion as of very great sacredness, and as imposing
on me one of the gravest responsibilities of my life.
The representatives of three thousand churches
are assembled to consult together upon the work
of giving the gospel to the world. They have ap-
pointed me to speak to them, in the name of
Christ, concerning the business of their meeting :

. J)

^^\

surely I may ask, without disparaging myself or
any other person. Who is 9ufficient for the just
performance of such an office ! It calls for so
unusual an unction from above, for so peculiar and
uncommon a baptism of the Holy Spirit, not to
mention other high qualifications, that I suppose
no one living, duly aware of its demands, could
undertake it without fear and trembling.

When I began to cast about my thought to find
an appropriate subject of discourse, this missionary
institution presented itself before me in two as-
pects. At first I beheld it as having already a
vast and most weighty charge on its hands :
eighty-six stations among the distant heathen,
with five hundred laborers ; sixty-two churches
with twenty-three thousand members ; and more
than six hundred schools with twenty-seven thou-
sand pupils ; besides numerous printing establish-
ments, with their founderies and presses for the
use of the missions : a trust demanding so large a
measure of liberality and of devoted and patient
care, and being in itself of so unrestrainable a ten-
dency to growth, that the fear would obtrude it-
self, of its becoming a burden which would not be
long endured, virithout retrenchment and reduction.
And this apprehension was strengthened by the
monthly returns of deficiency to meet the ex-
penses, which, until lately, was becoming larger
and larger ; and also by the following remarks in
the last Annual Report: ^^ While the heathen
world never presented such openings as now for

(

v

mbsioDarj labors, tbere are all over Christendom
indications as if the work would not be conducted
on a much broadior scale, without a new impulse
from on high." *^We are now only where it was
needful we should have been four years ago.''
^^ This great and favored community has been vir-
tually at a stand for a series of years in the work
of foreign missions : " and there was yet further
<%>nfirmation to this forboding, in certain intima-
tions here and there given, that the Board has ad-
vanced about as far as it is expedient it should go
in this work. These things almost seemed deci-
sive in favor of my making a discourse against re-
trogression—of undertaking to demonstrate that
the apprehension adverted to is groundless ; that
no station need be surrendered ; no missionary re-
called ; no church left in its infancy ; as sheep in
the wilderness without a shepherd ; no school
dissolved ; no pupil dismissed : that the business
of the society is in no danger of becoming unman-
ageable ; that this noble work of modern evange-
lism need not commence so soon a backward
movement. In this decision, however, I could
not rest ; for while I mused, this association as-
sumed another appearance. I regarded it as sus*
tainittg other relations and responsibilities. It ap-
peared in my view as a company of the followers
of Christ, banded together by his command and
his spirit, and also by mutual covenants . and
pledges to attempt the evangelization of the world.
Instantly, the large and numerous missionary as-
sociations already existing, with the extreme diffi-

6

culty of sustaiDing them, passed from notice.
They could no longer be thought of. For now
the whole earth, with its corruption, guilt, and
ruin presented itself as the field of action, and the
perfect occupation of it with christian churches
and institutions was the labor to be done — the
burden to be borne. To this enterprise, in its
world-wide extent, and with its demand for re-
sources existing only in God, every member of
this Board stood committed, by virtue of his holy
calling, so that it had been a violation of their
christian compact to disavow the accomplishment
of this, as what they distinctly designed, and what
they assuredly expected, along with others, and
with help from God, to be instrumental in achiev-
ing. With this apprehension of their character
and undertaking, such a strain of address as the
first view suggested, could have no reconcilement.
It was dismissed at once, and instead thereof, the
point which it seemed most needful for me to en-
large upon before my fathers and brethren of this
sacred association, was that they go forward with
their undertaking, on the principle which governed
the apostle in his personal religion ; namely, that
of forgetting those things which are behind, and
reaching forth unto those things which are before.
Accordingly I determined to speak to you with
whatever measure of grace and strength God
might give me, on the reasons for progress

IN the missionary work THE WORK OF EVAN-
GELIZING THE WORLD.

!• A great and fundamental reason lies in the
very nature of Christianity. In the christian
scheme the following facts are essential : — that
mankind are in a state of sin, and dying in this
state are utterly lost ; that their recovery can be
effected only by their being christianized , or
brought under the power of the gospel ; that the
gospel can do nothing where it has not been pro-
pagated or is unknown; that christian missions
are the necessary means of its propagation ; and
that, under the divine blessing, these means are
adequate, and their end certain. These facts
which are, we may say, the ground-work of mis-
sions, their plea, their justification, their praise,
are also an argument which no one can answer,
for their most thorough and vigorous prosecution.
They make an appeal to the hearts of Christians,
which, if it was justly responded to, would at once
constitute the universal church a missionary socie-
ty, and would keep missions advancing with in-
creasing speed and power, until no man would be
left beneath the wide vault of heaven without the
knowledge of the gospel. These great primary
truths of Christianity render all degrees of mis-
sionary apathy in the church her unspeakable dis-
honor and reproach, implying unparalleled hard-
ness of heart, if not downright insincerity in her
confession of Christ. We propound it, therefore,
as a matter self-evident and unquestionable, that
Christianity should either be renounced as an im-
posture, or else be propagated through the world
with all possible diligence ; that there is no middle

8

way, which reason does not instantly repudiate,
between denying the gospel altogether, and going
forward with the work of spreading it among the
nations of the earth, until the uniyersal human
race is Inrought under its influence.

IL The next reason is that the great mission'*
ary commandment has not passed away. The
charge of Christ to his first disciples was meant
for us who are here this day, as absolutely and
perfectly as it was for them. If our divine Lord
were at this meeting in bodily presence, and
standing up visibly before us, should address to ua
the words, '^ AH power is given to me in heaven
and on earth : go ye therefore into all the world,
and preach the gospel to every creature;" we
should be undet no obligation to obey him which
is not now upon us. The proof of this is what**
ever demonstrates that Christianity was meant to
be a permanent institute. The command to chris*
tianize mankind is a part of Christianity, as much
Sb as the law of brotherly love, or the ordinance
requiring the celebration of the death of Christ.
To submit to the gospel is to make this command
a rule of conduct. It is in the Christian's code^
and why is he not as firmly bound by it, as by the
precept. Let brotherly love continue ; or by any
other 'statute which the gospel enjoins? Indeed
there is proof special and peculiar that this com-
mand was not given to the first discipJes, except
as including their successors. This proof exists
in the annexed promise of our Lord, that he him^

self would be with them through successive gene*-
rations till the end of the world : a promise which
admitted of no fulfilment, and was unintelligible^
on the supposition that the first disciples alone
were in his intention.

Now why is not this a reason for advancing in
the missionary work, which, with every Christian,
should be as determinative and controlling as the
forces which keep the orbs of heaven in their eter-
nal circuit round the sun. It surely should have
had this influence on the first Christians, and why
on them only ? We cannot all be foreign mission-
aries ; but we all can either go, or send, or aid in
sending others ; and what we are now solemnly
insisting upon is, that whatever can be done here-
in, by every member of the church, is required to
be done, under the sanction of law, by the Al-
mighty Sovereign himself. It is our testimony, in
the name of Christ, that no disciple of his is left
at liberty in this matter ; that he is bound by his
oath of allegiance ; that necessity is laid upon him ;
that he may no more cease from doing what he
can in the work of missions, than from his daily
prayers, or from revering the name of Christ, or
believing in him as the Savior of the world.

III. It should be a motive to increased pro-
gress, that hitherto, almost from the beginning, the
missionary law has been, in respect of actual ob-
servance by the church, so nearly as an absolete
and dead letter. It has not been expunged ; but,

2

10

with exceptions, serving only to render the gen^
eral fact more astonishing, it has had no exempli'*
fication as a part of commanded and scriptural
piety. It has not been so with the other laws of
Christianity. Imperfectly as they have been kept,
not one of them has, by the general and allowed
and unlamented disregard of the church, been de-*
posed from its rank and authority as a law, bind*
ing on the conscience under the sanction of divine
majesty and power. No ; this has been the pecu-
liar fate of the one command to evangelize the
world. The first disciples were also impatient to
obey this command ; they were for a time laid
under a restraint. As soon as that restraint was
removed they devoted themselves and their sub-
stance to the propagation of .Christianity, and their
subsequent life was in unbroken harmony with this
noble beginning. They ceased not to look upon
their Master's last great charge as embodying his
sovereign will and his eternal majesty. They
never consulted together as to whether it was ex-
pedient to undertake to fulfil it. They never in-
quired whether its fulfilment was practicable, but
implicitly bowed before it, as revealing the pleasure
and pledging the supporting grace of their Lord.
But how few have, in this respect, imitated these
loyal disciples ? During all the following centu-
ries the church at large lay almost as in the sleep
of death, as to a sense of obligation to carry the
message of redeeming love to the nations of the
world. Individuals there were, great and singular
spirits, who felt themselves bound by this precept.

11

At different times, also, organized exertions were
made, more or less extensively, to spread nominal
Christianity in some countries ; but let the page
of history be turned to, which records of the gen-
eral church, at any period after the first, the merg-
ing of her will into that of her King and Head, in
regard to this one matter of christianizing man-
kind, or any just acknowledgment of his preroga-
tive as Lawgiver and Ruler herein. It might be
edifying, if there were time, to give the evidence
on this point, directly and at length, from the an-
nals of christian missions, so called. But the fact
is no less certain than the church's continued ex-
istence. Never, since the primitive era, has she
given indication that she felt herself under the
sanction of any authority to evangelize the nations
of the earth, while by twenty millions a year,
during eighteen centuries, they have been passing
to their eternal destiny, strangers to the influence
of God's recovering grace. And shall not the
faithlessness of so many ages, with the countless
and endless enormities which it has entailed, ad-
monish us not to pause quite yet in our begun
career of evangelism, but rather to do what in us
lies to retrieve the past by augmented haste in our
movements ?

lY. We should think only of quickening our
progress, when we consider how slow has been
our course since we began, and what little advance
we have made. When for the time, now about
half a century, the energies of the whole church

12

should have been enlisted on the largest scale of
operation, and the work nearly or quite done, oh
how partial and languid have been our movements !
We have done but little beyond launching forth in
this enterprise : we have hardly spread our sails
to the wind.

Slow and inconsiderable, however, as has been
our advance, compared to what it should have
been, we would not speak disparagingly of that
which has been done. The difference in itself, is
not small, between the present and forty years
ago, in regard to missionary operations. It de-
serves our fervent thanksgivings, that evangelism
-—not worldly policy and martial power, under the
cloak of religion, aiming chiefly at temporal ag-
grandisement and nominal submission — but the
pure and primitive missionary spirit, seeking sim-
ply to save the souls of men, — is now employing
1,500 missionaries at 1,200 central stations, as-
sisted by 5,000 native and other salaried agents,
at an expense of two and a half millions of dollars
a year.* The missions of the Protestant Church,
in its various branches, during the last forty or
fifty years, are doubtless more considerable, in
their direct and indirect relations to the world's
salvation, than those of the foregoing ten or fifteen
centuries. It is only, however, a contrast with
the past that excites our joy. When we look
again upon the vast field of human shame and woe

* These statistics are from Dr. HarriSi who appears to have taken much
care to make them correct.

13

that lies outspread in every direction, to the re-
motest bounds of the earth, and think of our obli-
gations and privileges, and of the church's thou-
sand years sleep over the very concern of her ex-
istence, no feelings seem appropriate but those of
astonishment and grief, that the scale of our mis-
sionary proceedings should be so small. If we
compare it with that of our home operations, inad-
equate as that is, the inequality appears enormous.
What the Protestant Church gives for the evange-
lization of the world is less than a tenth — ^yea, if
we do not misreckon, than the fifth of a tenth of
what she expends on hejrself. Out of her 80,000
ministers, but 1,500 are foreign, missionaries.
Without determining precisely the proportion of
resources which should be employed abroad, the
following considerations throw light enough on
this subject to stir the whole church to her centre,
with the spirit of reform. First, that she is not
more under law to care for her own well-being,
than she is to evangelize the world. Secondly,
that the unevangelized portion of mankind is at
least five times as large as the other portion ; and
thirdly, that in propagating Christianity, the apos-
tle's rule should be followed as essentially equita-
ble and christian, ^' To whom he was not spoken
of, they shall see, and they that have not heard
shall understand." We do not undertake to give
with precision the results of a just application of
these facts, but we do affirm with heaviness and
sorrow of heart, that it is not charitable — no, it is
neither merciful nor just on the part of the churchy

14

that, of a race all equally and infioitelj needing the
gospel, and equally entitled to it by the grace and
commandment of God, they should allow one fifth
the privilege of hearing the joyful sound all their
life-time, while the rest, through sixty generations,
should be left in total ignorance of the fact that a
Savior has visited the world. There is in this in-
equality a guilt which should fill the church with
the profoundest grief. It tramples upon the great
foundation law of God's empire ; it makes void
the Almighty Redeemer's last and most imperative
charge; it shows indifference to his honor: and
what wonder, that, while the consequence to the
world has been its continued and progressive ruin,
the church should have been enduring an incessant
struggle for existence, and should be compelled to
acknowledge the survival of her exposures and
conflicts as the greatest of wonders.

But the whole truth has not been told. It is
not the disproportionate allotment of the church's
actual expenditures and ministry, that measures
her indebtedness. She would be incalculably at
fault, if, of these, she divided to the heathen all
that would fall to them. For these collectively
are immensely deficient. Then would she be
found as a faithful steward in this matter, if the
expenditures for all purposes were as generous,
and the ministry as able and as large, as the inter-
est and honor of Christ demand ; and further, if
her private members were all duly engaged in the
work of human salvation ; and if now the heathen
should have their full share : here is the standard

15

by which the church should judge herself, as to
her arrears to the world. Who can estimate the
amount ? Shall we discharge it, — shall we not be
adding to it incalculably and continually, if we do
not proceed upon a broader scale of operations
than that with which we have been heretofore
content ?

y. The tokens of the divine complacency in
the missions of these times are most inspiriting
motives to progress in them. These are embraced,
in the condition in which the church has been
advancing since our missions began, in the success
of these missions, and in the signs of the times as
promising greater success.

1. From the time we began our missionary
work, the state of our churches has, on the whole,
been one of progressive prosperity. The entrance
on that work was the dawn of a good day, which
has been growing brighter and brighter, and which,
if we falter not in our undertaking, will, doubtless,
continue to shine more and more, until its light
shall become seven fold, as the light of seven days.
This favorable and advancing change is the result
of no hidden instrumentality ; but, manifestly, of
the blessing of God on the missionary undertak-
ing. This movement originated other kindred
and subservient ones, as the necessary means of
its accomplishment ; and while all have been con-
spiring together to forward the general design,
they have been as life to the dead to those who

16

bare been under their influence. The connection
of good agencies here is easily traced. The reso-
lution being once seriously taken to give mankind
the gospel, the necessity was soon felt for the
translation and diffusion of the Scriptures, for the
increase and improvement of the ministry, for the
multiplication and distribution of religious books ;
and as its accomplishment advanced, particular
evils called for their own means of reform : and
while the vast foreign sphere opened more and
more to view, with all its crying demands for the
gospel, the*conviction became deeper and deeper
as to the necessity of giving increased attention to
the interests of home, the source, under God, of
supplies to the heathen. In the mean time every
thing tended to impart a sense of dependence on
God, and to cherish the spirit of prayer for the
effusion of the divine influence. The result was,
that a system of benevolent agencies arose, which
has distinguished the age above all that have pre^
ceded it, since the primitive triumphs of Chris**
tianity.

Various incidental benefits have followed.
Christians of different sects meeting often to*
gether for prayer and consultation, in reference to
plans and measures connected with the cause of
human salvation, have, under the power of that
paramount and common object, forgotten their
party names and interests ; and thus the evils of
sectarianism have been gradually disappearing, and
christian union advancing ; insomuch, that the
cime seems rapidly approaching when denomina-

17

tional peculiarities among the evangelical seetSi
will be indeed, but as the differences among'mem-
bers of the same family, or regiments of the same
loyal and united army. — Again, there has been a
remarkable revival of biblical study and learning,
as it might have been expected there would be,
when the enterprise was undertaken of publishing
the Scriptures in the various languages of the
earth. There has also been an improvement in
the science of theology, the result of its being pur-
sued under practical injQuences, and in its relations
to practical effect. In the same way the general
pulpit has been improved ; and, likewise, by regu-
lar consequence, the general piety of the church.
And to crown all, outpourings of the Holy Spirit
have been granted . in increasing power, and also
with increasing frequency, until revivals of religion,
scarcely inferior to those of the apostolic period,
have become, especially in our land, ordinary and
every day occurrences, to which scoffers and gain-
sayers have almost become weary of making op-
position.

It is difficult to appreciate the change which
has taken place. There is, we know, a great dif-*
ference of impression in regard to it. That there
are some things in it to be deplored, perhaps no
one will deny. But viewing it in all its aspects,
it appears to us, both in itself and especially in its
promise, entitled to our grateful and adoring ad-
miration. We doubt if any one has an adequate
sense of its importance, or can have, until the ex-

3

18

isting state of things shall become historical and
be surVejed as lying in the past, connected with
antecedent times and with the just results of its
own influences and events. If by pausing in the
work of missions we should ultimately throw the
church back to where she was before, then would
it be seen whether an advance had been made or
not. Who can think we should not sustain a
mighty and irreparable loss, and deserve for our
inconstancy the indignation of God and man.

2. But we note the divine pleasure in our
work in the success which has attended it, as well
as in the prosperity of the church. Our success
is disparaged by comparing it with that of the
primitive days ; but this comparison should not be
made without also comparing the primitive times
and the present, in regard both to their respective
measures of the missionary spirit, and to their
means and facilities of evangelization. If in
Christ's first little flock there was a greater
amount of the proper kind of power, than can now
be collected out of the one hundred and fifty mil-
lions of protestant Christendom, why should it be
thought that our success w*ill bear no proportion to
theirs, unless its absolute quantity be equal?
What if among the early disciples the proportion
of those having the missionary spirit, were as it is
in our churches ; and, what if these few had pos-
sessed no more of that spirit than the generality
of the modern friends of missions ? then had their
scale of labors been nearer to ours : and would

19

they have so far transcended us in success ? If
the church now were made up of missionaries,
devoted in life and substance to the spread of the
gospel, then might we wonder if there was much
more tardiness in the work of evangelization under
our agency, than there was under that of the first
Christians. But when it is considered, that out
of eighty thousand protestant ministers only fifteen
hundred are employed in foreign missions, and that
of these, there is not, perhaps, one Brainerd, not
to say a Paul, in the spirit of evangelism ; and also
that while among the private members of the first
church, no man said ^' aught that he had was his
own," among us, there is almost no man who does
not practically say just the reverse ; giving for the
spread of the gospel, out of his abundance, and
living as self-indulgently as though he gave noth-
ing : when it is kept in mind that such is our
comparative measure of the missionary spirit, not-
withstanding that this is termed a missionary age,
must not the intelligent and sound conclusion be,
that the disproportion in our success, is not that so
little, but that so much, beyond all ground of an-
ticipation, has resulted from our missions ?

But account, we said, should also be taken of
the difference of means and' advantages. The
first propagators of the gospel had a supernatural
use of speech and other miraculous powers, which
almost superseded the necessity of preparative and
indirect modes of influence. They were perfectly
equipt for preaching wherever they went, without
the study of tongues and without scientific re-

20

search and arrangement. Our circumstances are
widely different. All forms of miraculous agency
are now unknown. We have surprising inventions
of science and art, and other great natural powers,
but these do not qualify our foreign missionaries
for going to work among the heathen, as our do-
mestic ones can do among their own countrymen.
They have multifarious labors to perform, which
could have had no place among the primitive
Christians. They are * required by the great dif-
ference of their means and circumstances (who
can think otherwise ?) to give themselves to the
study of languages, the translation of the Scrip-
tures, the reducing of barbarous tongues to writ-
ing, the gathering and teaching primary and other
schools, the preparing of books, the providing, in
short, a complete apparatus for introducing and
perpetuating a state of christian civilization ; and
thus laying such foundations for permanence and
growth in the churches planted by them, as could
not have been laid in the apostolic days. It may
be that they have not occupied themselves as
much in preaching as Paul and Barnabas in their
circumstances would have done. But we do not
forget that other great and arduous works have
been on their hands, which they have well dis-
charged ; and that they were bound to pursue, on
the whole, as they have nobly done, a system of
operations, demanding, for the production of its re-
sults, much time and patience. And now, if no
such sudden and overwhelming success come at
once, as that which followed apostolic ministra-

21

tions, shall we yield ourselves to the paraliziDg
influence of disappointment ?

The actual measure of our success has not been
small. It has far transcended our expectations.
What early friend of the cause was sanguine
enough to hope, that there would be at this day,
one hundred and eighty thousand converts from
heathenism in christian communion, and two hun*
dred thousand heathen minds under training in
christian schools ;* or that such scenes of divine
grace as those at the Sandwich Islands, would be
so soon realized ; that the greatest revivals,
scarcely excepting those of the apostolic period,
and the largest churches in the world, would be
there ; that of those, but as yesterday most bar-
barous people, a larger proportion would be spir-
itual Christians, than of the inhabitants of any
other portion of Christendom of equal extent ; and
that civilized life on firm supports would be rapidly
advancing among them to maturity ! The mis-
sions in the South Sea Islands, after wrestling
hard, like Jacob, against great seeming discourage-
ments, have had results not less surprisingly pros-
perous. "From that time to this," says their
martyr Williams, ^^ one rapid series of successes
has attended our labors, so that island after island,
and group after group have, in rapid succession,
been brought under the influence of the gospel ;
so much so, indeed, that at the present time, we
do not -know of any group, or any single island of

* See Gnat Conamiflnioa, p. 190.

22

importance, within two thousand miles of Tahiti,
in any direction, to which the glad tidings of sal-
vation have not been conveyed." But our suc-
cess is not limited by the number of our converts,
or the size and prosperity of our churches and
schools, or by our progress in the work of civiliza-
tion, or by the extent to which the gospel message
has been published. If in the apostolic times na-
tions had offered themselves to be taken under
christian training, if the praises of evangelization
had been pronounced in those days, by bodies of
scientific and learned men, on account of its influ-
ence on the civil, political, commercial, and literary
interests of mankind ; and if public sentiment, al-
most throughout the civilized world, had changed
from scorn or pity into earnest and warm approba-
tion, would not these facts have been counted
among the proofs and the items of apostolic suc-
cess? But by facts such as these, doth the provi-
dence of God most benignly and graciously smile
on the missions in which we are engaged. Surely
if any persons have been waiting for success to
move them to take part with us, they need wait
no longer.

We have had to encounter afflictions. Lives of
the highest promise have been sacrificed ; and
some of our plans have been thwarted ; but there
were such things in the days of Christ and his
apostles, and we have no cause to regard them in
any other light than as trials of our faith. Our
only real discouragement has been the great diffi-
culty of meeting the deipands for the church's

23

liberality, arising from the unlooked for and won-
derful prosperity of our missions.

3. But it is not only by smiling on our churches
and missions, that God hath expressed his high
delight in our work, but likewise by his providen-
tial agency in arranging and ordering things in the
state of the world. If any one has doubt on this
point, he must, we think, be of an unspiritual or
uninformed mind. The signs of the times, the
condition and circumstances in which the world
has been placed, and in which it has been contin-
ued, have been, from the commencement of the
work, such as to invite and allure us on to its most
diligent prosecution. How has the world been
and how is it yet standing before us, in those rela-
tions which most concern us as engaged in its
evangelization ? If we survey it in a religious
point of view, — of the three comprehensive divi-
sions to which it may be reduced, the Brahminic,
the Mohammedan, and the Christian, — the two
former present themselves, as enfeebled, decrepit,
inaggressive, decaying, ready and almost willing
to perish ; while the latter, after the conflicts of
eighteen hundred years, hath renewed its vigor,
and is bearing down upon the others with tri-
umphant force. If we look at it in its political
circumstances, where do we behold the ascendancy
of strength, greatness, and empire, but in those
nations which are the seats of our missionary as-
sociations, and the sources of the piety, liberality,
and self-sacrificing zeal by which the work is car-

24

ried on ? If we contemplate it, in regard of the
trade, the arts, the intellect, the literature, the en-
terprise, the wealth, the happiness of the people ;
still the advantages, in a pre-eminent degree, are
with those portions of it, which, in more senses
than one, may be termed the missionary countries
of the globe. And then, what does it mean, that,
for the last eight and twenty years, the great
powers of the earth have remained in so profound
a peace among themselves; and that, where hostili-
ties have had place, they have been so uniformly
overruled for the advancement of our design ?
This form of encouragement, we may remark, has
been almost constantly cumulative. If the last
year, the heathen world presented openings for
missionary labor which it had never done before,
the openings this year are wider, more numerous,
and more attractive. Since our last annual meet-^
ing, the great and insurmountable wall of China
has fallen; and thus hath been thrown open at
once, by a gracious and high-working Providence,
which should flood the universal church with joy,
a new and almost boundless field of missions—
a world in itself— containing nearly four hundred
millions of people, before regarded as almost inac-
cessible by any other than miraculous power.
And how signal and deserving of lofty praise have
been the recent interpositions and steps of the
divine power, with reference to the preservation
and establishment of peace between the nations
embracing our missionary boards? When we
consider the disastrous influence of a war between

28

those nations, especially on the work of evangeli-
zation, the eminent peril to which peace was ex*
posed, and the very remarkable measures and ar-
rangements, both in this country and in England,
by which the peril was removed and the bands of
peace rendered stronger than before ; can we avoid
recognizing, with thankful and rejoicing hearts, the
hand of God displayed to show us the profound
interest which he takes in our enterprise, and to
encourage us to go on with it to the uttermost of
our ability ?

In short, we are bold to say, without the least
hesitation, that if ever the light of the divine coun*
tenance was lifted up upon any human undertak-
ing, it is shining at this moment, in the fulness of
its expanding, vitalizing, and cheering influencei
on the missionary work in which English and
American Christians are engaged. By his blessing
on our churches and on our missions, and by his
providential disposals and movements among manr
kind, God so discovers his great pleasure in this
work, that he might well upbraid us with utter
indifference to his favor, if we are not steadfast, im*
moveable, and always abounding, in the use of
every appropriate means of its advancement*

VL The sixth motive to pfpgress is the ground
we have to hope that the future advances of the
gospel are to be exceedingly more rapid than the
past. We can only touch upon a topic, on which
we should rejoice to enlarge. The destined do-

4

26

minion of Christianity is universal. Its first vie*
tories, however glorious, will have no glory, com-
paratively, amid the splendors of those which it is
yet to achieve. All nations are to be evangelized ;
the world is to be renewed ; heathenism, Moham-
medanism, all false systems are to pass away ; the
kingdoms of the world are to become the king-
dom of our Lord and his Christ ; and the knowl-
edge of God and his truth is to cover the earth, as
the waters cover the seas. And it is in the highest
degree probable, if not wholly beyond doubt, that
the time for effecting this mighty triumph is short.
If it were to commence immediately, nay, if it
have already commenced, as it probably has done,
its course must be incomparably swift, in order to
reach its termination witUn the longest period, to
which, by the general belief of the church, it can
be extended. The conviction seems warranted
and demanded, not only by the sound interpreta-
tion of the prophecies, but by the entire panorama
of Providence, that the promised predominance of
the gospel is almost at the doors. The long dura-
tion of the limited and depressed condition of the
church ; the world's ripeness and readiness for a
change ; the facilities for an almost winged inter-
course with the most distant parts, making in
effect one end of the earth neighbor of another ;
the ubiquity of British and American influence,
and the rapid extension of the English language
and literature through Europe and Asia; the
honors paid to the work of evangelization by the
most enlightened persons and societies ; the un-

27

limited plans and eDterprises of christian philan*
thropy ; and above all, the vast increase of the
spirit of prayer, have conduced to the wide-spread
impression among the . more spiritual part of the
church, that the future march of Christianity to
universal empire Virill be more like an already
victorious army hastening to the spoil, than, as it
hath heretofore been, like one slowly, laboriously,
and painfully making its way over alpine heights,
to the field where the decisive battle remains to be
fought and won.

It is freely admitted that we see not in opera-
tion any sufficient causes for the production of the
great result. But our reliance is not limited to
natural or visible agencies. The work of evange-
lism is a work of faith. We look for sudden and
surprising interventions of the divine power, to ren-
der favorable influences effectual, and to overrule
unfavorable ones. We do this under warrant both
of Scripture and the analogy of the past. And
we do it with the more confidence, when we con-
sider the influence of prayer on the mind of God.
That influence hath been accumulating, day and
night, through all the ages of the past ; but in our
times, as it hath been very eloquently said, ^^a
chain of prayer beginning in the farthest east, is
carried round with the sun to the farthest west,
in the islands of the Pacific, through all the hours
of time." When we remember this, are we pre-
sumptuous in the hope, that, as the patience of
God bears long with the wicked until they have
perfectly filled their measure of iniquity, and then

28

gives free place to the full visitations of his reluc-
tant wrath ; so, after God hath kept his elect cry-
ing to him incessantly from the beginning, and
hath in our day so mightily augmented their num-
ber and their importunity, he will at length vouch-
safe, as in a moment of time, such unparalleled
and immeasurable effusions of his Spirit, as will
make the remaining course of the gospel almost
like the lightning, which lighteneth out of one part
under heaven and shineth unto the other part
under heaven.

But let it be observed, that we are pressing this
high hope as a motive to missionary zeaL If God
is about to work swiftly and mightily for the
peaceful extension of his kingdom, his people will
be set to working for this purpose, also swiftly
and mightily. It is only in and through their
agency that God exerteth his own. If he stretch
forth bis hand as in the beginning, the church will
be quickened, and moved, and engaged, as she
was at first. She will again feel, as it has well
been said, the presence of her invisible King and
eternal Lord ; the souls of Christians will again
overflow with the plenitude of spiritual and heav-
enly life ; and they will again cease to value
earthly existence, and be willing to sacrifice it in
the struggle against the powers of darkness. For,
as the church is the body of Christ, the fulness of
Him that fiUeth all in all, when she makes no re-
velation of saving power, none will be made.
We are looking therefore for a change in the
churchy of which the anticipated change in th^

29

state of mankind dball be but the just rosult aad
full developeaient. Indeed the latter change will
be nothing other than the former, extended^ bjr the
process of assimilation, even as the leaven, by the
same process, leaveneth the mass in ivhich it hath
been hidden. So that, as Paul told bis ship^
virrecked felkm voyagers, to. whom he had promised
safety in the name of the Lord, that unless the
shipmen abode in the ship, they could not be
saved, may it be said to the church, with all the
pledges and promises of the world^s Conversion
before her, that the world will not be converted,
unless she stir up herself to the requisite and ap^
propriate exertions for its recovery* And further,
as Christ said concerning Judas, *<The Son of
Man goeth a3 it is written of him, but woe to that
man by whom he is betrayed," may we not say to
the Christians of this generation, that, although
the world will be evangelized according to the
sure word of God, yet woe unto them, if, with all
their advantages and. encouragements for going
forward in the work of missions, they falter in
that work ere its end is fully reached^

VIL A seventh reason for advancement there^-
fore exists in the fact, that there is no guaranty
against the consequences of our halting. No
prophecies, no signs, no facilities and preparaticms,
no vivid anticipatioos of the latter giory as about
to break forth like the lightning's SaAj can shut
the door against these consequences. The eternal
principles of the divine government, the perfec-

30

tions of the divine nature, require that door to re-
main open. Close it, and the penalty of the high-
est disobedience, the displays of God's punitive
displeasure against aggravated sin, and of course
the divine benevolence will disappear : for no evil
can be compared to the relaxation of the bonds of
the divine empire. Let us then glance at the
consequences of not advancing. We shall not re-
main long at a stand, when we have once decided
against progress. Well did our report of last year
declare that it is the law of Heaven, that in the
christian race we should press onward, never con-
tent with present attainments, present doings,,
present sacrifices. There is the certainty of de-
cline, in ceasing to. be aggressive and onward.^
That halt is virtually a backward step, and it may
prove to be an irrecoverable fall. It shews in-
herent instability and weakness, and it inspires
distrust and discouragement. It has been justly
and very seasonably remarked,^ that the souls of
men are not likely to be stirred to support ade-
quately a work, even in its present state, unless it
give signs of continued advancement. If we come
to a stand, it will not be long before the churches
will begin to abate their interest, their prayers,
their confidence, their support. The results
hasten-— one after another our missionary opera-
tions come to an end, our schools are dispersed,
our missionaries recalled, our stations abandoned,
and at length our holy enterprise given over as

* By the Rev. Dr. Williams, of New York.

31

impracticable, or to be accomplished in other dajs
and by other hands. And then how much better
had it been for the cause of evangelization, if the
idea of modern missions had never been conceived.
At what immense disadvantages will the Chris-
tians of a future day enter on the work. And
how will Antichrist, whom our successes have en-
listed in active opposition, glory over us and the
cause, while occupying our deserted positions, and
either numbering our churches as his own, or per-
secuting them to death, or scattering them again
among the heathen. And by what strange and
terrible judgments upon our domestic churches
may we expect to be visited ? How long will our
revivals and annual jubilees of benevolence remain,
when the spirit of missions has departed ? What
else were to be anticipated, but that a general and
unparalleled blight would overspread the fair heri-
tage of God, and that all forms of error and cor-
ruption would infest it, until it became a scene of
utter desolation? And with such appalling de-
generacy in the church, what would be the state
of civil society ? Unless the loudest admonitions
both of Scripture and of history be as empty
noise, there will be commotions, revolutions, tribu-
lations ; signs in the sun, in the moon, and in the
stars ; and upon earth distress of nations with per^
plexity ; the sea and waves roaring ; men's hearts
failing them for fear and for looking after those
things which are coming on the earth. Fathers
and brethren, it is truly an awful responsibility
which we and our contemporary fellow Christians

82

are under. Oh with what interest does Heaven
look down upon this anniversary meeting ! Me-*
thinks the holy angels would fain appear among
us, if that might be, to animate us in our work.
Nor are the powers of darkness less interested in
this occasion. In such circumstances were it not
easier to give up our self-indulgences, our posses*
sions, our lives, than to entertain for one moment
the thought of standing still in this work ? Were
not those then alarming words, which were cited
near the beginning of this discourse, as it were
out of our own mouths : '^ This great and favored
community has been virtually at a stand for a
series of years in the work of foreign missions*''
Should we not tremble at this fact as portending
danger, and announce it again and again, with still
deepening awe on our minds, and continue the
announcement until our breath fail us, or until the
danger is seen, and if possible averted by a new
onward movement* May it not be that we our-
selves are not deeply enough impressed with the
reality and fearfulness of the danger ? May there
not be a lurking presumption in our minds that the
tree in this case will not be suffered to yield its
fruits ; that there will be some interference with
the stated connection and sequence of things ; that
the divine purposes and the prophecies cannot
otherwise be fulfilled ; that the great providential
preparations and arrangements of the times will
otherwise be without an end? Let us not be
taken in this snare. If such a presumption would
induce security in our minds, let us resist it^ bj

33

recalling the dreadful facts of history, which show
how unsafe is such a reliance, by remembering
that the relation of cause and effect is surer than
our pre-sentiments respecting the unfulfilled coun-
sels of God, or our interpretation of prophecy and
signs ; and by considering the temerity and guilt
of so limiting the Holy One, as to make him inca-
pable of accomplishing his purposes, except by vio-
lating the order of nature and the laws of his
government. The acceptable year of the Lord
has not seldom been also the day of the vengeance
of our God. If the time is at hand for giving
Christianity the empire of the world, judgments
may also be at hand to do, in the way of wrath
and destruction, that which might have been done
in the joyful and glorious way of converting and
saving grace, by the due prosecution of the work
of propagating the gospel.

VIII. The last reason which we shall urge for
going on with this work as vigorously and expe-
ditiously as possible, is, that this is demanded in
order to meet contrary movements occasioned by
the missionary proceedings of these times. The
great adversary hath not been an indifferent ob-
server of these proceedings. His plan of opposi-
tion has begun to reveal itself. It has had a four-
fold developement. A philosophical atheism is
displaying itself among us in seductive and auda-
cious forms. Rationalism, professing no unfriend-
ly purpose against Christianity, while renouncing

6

34

its divinity, its peculiar claims to inspiration, and
its miracles, is laboring to undermine its deep
foundations. Anti- protestantism has sprung up in
a new and dishonorable shape, and in the midst of
protestant churches and institutions, and by per-
sons holding membership in them, is freely re-
proaching the great leaders and martyrs of the
reformation as schismatics, and the reformation
itself as a deplorable event ; and though it avows
no intention of enthroning over us the man of sin
himself, is contending for the enormous delusions
and heresies of his system, and making justification
by faith, as held forth by Luther with such over-
whelming force against the empire of darkness, as
the chief and first-born of errors, worse than hea-
thenism itself.* And finally, papal propagandism,
with its well-planned and well-sustained missions,
is resolutely disputing the day with us, both at
home and abroad, employing against us its jesuiti-

* Whether any heresy has ever infested the church so hateful and un-
christian aa this doctrine— the Lutheran doctrine of justification — it is per-
haps not necessary to determine: none certainly has ever prevailed so
subtle and so extensively poisonous. It is not only that it denies some one
essential doctrine of the gospel, (as e. g. inherent rishteousness ;) this all
heresies do : it is not only that it corrupts all sound christian doctrine, nay
the principle of orthodoxy itself; though this also it certainly does ; but its
inroads extend farther than this ; €u far as its formal statements are eon-
eemed, it poisons at the very root, not Christianity only, but natural religion.
That obedience to the will of God, -with whatever sacrifice of self, is the
one thing needful ; that sin is the one only danger to be dreaded, the only
evil to be avoided ; these great truths are the very foundation of natural
religion : and inasmuch as this modem system denies these to be essen^
tial and necessary truths, we must plainly express our conviction, that a
religious heathen, were he really to accept the doctrine which Lutheran
language expresses, so far from making any advance, would sustain a
heavy loss, in exchanging fundamental truth for fundamental error. —
JSnOsh Critic for October, 1642, pp. 390, 391.

56

cal calumnies and deceits, its lying wonders and
miracles, its imposing pomp of ceremonies, its
ample treasures wherever they can be availably
applied, and ready and waiting, should there be
occasion and ability, to renew its deadly anathemas
and persecutions. The powers of darkness were
never more disturbed since the death of Christ ;
never more profoundly moved with hostile feelings
and designs against the Lord and his Anointed.
There are indications not a few of the coming on
of a spiritual conflict among men, such as the
world has not hitherto seen ; perhaps, as some
confidently think, the battle of the great day of
God Almighty. It is to Christians the most mo-
mentous problem that ever claimed their attention,
what should be their plan of action in these event-
ful times. The problem is not difficult of solu-
tion ; the path of wisdom is plain. Two things
are certain : First, that if we suffer ourselves to
be hindered in our missionary work, by any means
whatever, the enemy will obtain his purpose, his
plan will succeed. He will not be much discon-
certed, though we attack and put to rout one after
another, or all at once, the hosts he hath arrayed
against us at home, if he can but divert us from
our foreign campaign. It was our entrance on
that which originated his newly displayed wiles.
His great trouble is that we have undertaken in
the name of Christ to evangelize the world. His
plan has for its main purpose the putting an end to
this work. All our domestic annoyances are in-
tended to effect this result. Success here will

96

pacifj and content bim. Even his defeats be will
count for victories, if they contribute in any way
to oppose the missionary enterprise. The second
certainty is, tbat the most effectual way of over-
coming the adversary within our domestic and
neighborhood precincts, is vigorous and ceaseless
and insatiable aggression on his great foreign do-
minions. Let us achieve large and brilliant vic^
tories there ; let us go forth from conquering to
conquer among the unevangelized nations of the
earth ; and we shall be full of life and strength
and victory and peace within all our borders ; and
our home antagonists will be down-hearted and
discouraged^ and will soon give way before us,
having enough to do unless they repent, to bear
their own confusion ; while we sing our psalms of
praise at the spreading triumphs of the kingdom
of Christ*

The enemy's own example may be adverted to
for our instruction. When he found himself so
deplorably at fault at the reformation in his papal
kingdom, his scheme for raising up that kingdom
again and giving it honor in the eyes of men, was
by the society of the Jesuits to give it enlarge-
ment among his heathen territories ; a scheme
wisely laid, most faithfully prosecuted, and crown-
ed with astonishing success. It is lawful for us
to learn from him. Long enough has the church
been kept out of her just sovereignty over the
world by suffering herself to be embroiled, through
the artifice of Satan, in intestine controversies and
border conflicts. Let her at last escape from this

37

infiitoattoii. If she must contend at home, let her
do this, remembering that in so far as th»s conten*
tion shall interfere with the work of evangeliza^
tion, it IS, as to the main purpose for which she
has earthlj existence, the adversary's triumph, and
her own defeat and overthrow. Gain what she
may in particular victories, her gain is the loss of
the world; her petty victories she takes in ex«-
change for the empire of the universe. Let the
conquest of the globe, then, be the object of her
great ambition, her steadfast ami eager pursuit.
Especially let it be so now, since it was her recent
undertaking of this which has placed her into her
present circumstances of overwhelming interest.
These strange manifestations, these surprising and
astonishing tnovements against evangelical religion
all the world over, these signs of an approaching
crisis in the destiny of the human race, what are
they but the appropriate evolutions of an infernal
system of resistance to that work of evangelization
in which we are engaged ? Are the gates of hell
at the extremity of their zeal and wisdom to put
a stop to that work ? And is this the time for os^
to think of desisting from it ? Whatever of chris-
tian manhood there is in us is revolted at the sug-
gestion. The hour of decision is at hand. The
victory at home and in all the earth is ours, if the
sacramental host do but prove themselves good
soldiers' of Jesus Christ in the foreign warfare.

We have endeavored to plead earnestly for pro-
gress in the missionary work. Objections have

38

not been adverted to ; and we have almost doubt-
ed if in this case they should be noticed. Objec-
tions, however gravely and forcibly adduced, are
sometimes to be disregarded in proportion to their
probability of prevailing. It was a law in Israel
that if a man, however venerable by character or
office, should undertake to show that idolatry was
not wrong, so far from being listened to for a mo-
ment, he was to be put to death, even though he
should give a sign or wonder against steadfastness
in God's service, and the sign or wonder should
come to pass.^ If there were temporal penalties
now in the kingdom of God, who would be amen-
able to them, if not objectors against giviug the
gospel of salvation to a world perishing in sin ?

But what are the chief objections ? A mere
glance at them will be sufficient to convince us
that to stumble at objections here is but the part
of an uncandid or sadly misguided mind. No ob-
jections to progress in missions are weightier than
those which are derived from the following sources:
A certain interpretation of prophecy ; the expen-
siveness of enlarging our missionary operations ;
and the wants of home. The view of prophecy
in question is that, which, postponing the triumph
of Christianity to the personal return of Christ,
and making unprecedented corruption in the
church and in the world the occasion of that re-
turn, renders all previous attempts at evangeliza-
tion a wasteful and vain expenditure. But can

♦ Deotxiii: 1-^

39

there be a reasonable doubt as to the unsoundness
of an exposition or use of prophecy which makes
the Bible at variance with itself; which sets the
prophecies against the commandments, the plans
and purposes of God against obedience to his
revealed will ; and which makes void his gracious
promises. With whatever ingenuity and power
such teaching may be maintained, is it to be re-
ceived as the true sense of Scripture ; is it to be
believed in, or regarded for one moment with the
least allowance ? It is the charge of Christ to us,
that we give ourselves to the evangelizing of the
world : this we certainly know. Shall we now
hearken to expounders who would discourage us
from obeying our divine Master ? It is not for
any man to know with certainty the times or the
seasons which the Father hath put in his own
power : these are the secret things which belong
to the Lord our God. Among the things which
are revealed, and which belong to us and our
children, none is plainer, none more imperative,
none more important, than that we go forward
as fast as possible with the work of propagating
the gospel ; and to cease from, or to be at all
hindered in this work, because a prophetic theory
is against it, is to hearken unto man more than
unto God.

The objections from expense are not less repul-
sive. They imply either that the silver and gold
of the earth do not belong to God ; or that when
he created the precious metals he did not know

40

how tmich of them be should need for the accom*
plUhaieDt of his ends, or else could not create
enough; or that when he made us his stewards
be put himself out of ownership, so that we
were do longer to regard his interest in the use
of property ; or that he has given us particular
ifistruction against liberal appropriations for the
spread of the gospel, and against self-denial and
sacrifices of ease and pleasure for Christ's sake;
or, finally, that all these great and shameless im-
pieties are facts.

There is in these objections an effrontery which
entitles them to indignant resentment. They are
made in the face of existing facts, by which they
are reproved of glaring hypocrisy. While it is
alleged that our missions are too expensive to
admit of further advancement, there are not a few
members in our churches with more wealth
already in possession than can well belong to
any one without danger to his soul, who are yet
proceeding on to lay up treasures upon treasures
to themselves ; adding house to house, and field
to field, and investment to investment, and the
passion for accumulation is enlarged and strength-
ened by every new accession. And of the rest
there is only here one, and there another, who
restrict themselves of any indulgence for the gos-
pel's sake ! What respect should be paid to ob-
jections on the score of expense, while self-denial
is so great a stranger among the professed disci-
ples of the cross ?

41

And, after all, what is the truth as to the cost
of missions ? As a very remarkable illustration
on this point, a statement shall be repeated from
the Dayspring, with a few verbal changes, con-
cerning the mission at the Sandwich Islands. The
pecuniary expense of that mission during twenty-
three years has but a little exceeded half a million
of dollars^ And what has been the result ? The
language has been reduced to writing ; a variety
of religious works with the entire Bible have been
translated and printed in it, and circulated in great
numbers ; forty-two thousand persons have been
taught to read them ; twenty-two churches have
been organized, to which twenty-five thousand
natives have been admitted ; seminaries for train-
ing teachers have been established ; christian mar-
riage has been introduced in place of former un-
speakable licentiousness; intemperance has been
nearly banished ; and morality and social improve-
ment have been advanced among the rulers and
people ; a written constitution and laws have been
introduced; and the nation, as it were, a new-
created people, has recently taken rank among
the great nations of the civilized world : — all for
half a million. The result not only great but
good, and only good to all concerned^ There is
no painful drawback.

What is the cost of other things, and such as
wise men approve? The small army of the
United States cost last year four millions, nearly
eight times as much as this mission from the be-

6

42

ginning ; and wliat better revolts are there to be
dhewn for it ? The original cost of every one of
our ships of the line^ with one year's expense in
service, exceeds what has been spent on this mis^
sion. France has expended one hundred and
twenty millions, and twenty thousand lives in con*
quering and holding Algiers ; almost two hundred
and forty times as much in money, beside the
lives, as the entire cost of this mission, and yet
what good, to the conquerors or the conquered,
has come of itP Christian missions cannot be
carried on without pecuniary means. Progress in
them will increase the demand for money as well
as men. But they are gainful beyond calculation
on the whole. Their reflex influences, to say
nothing of their direct results, are more than a
hundred fold recompense ; and to object to them,
because of what they cost, is the madness not
only of a rebellion against God, but of sinning
against our own richest mercies.

Nor can the objections from domestic exigency
letter endure examination. They are wholly
without force, unless they assume, either that the
world has no claim while home has any want un-
supplied; t>r that the wants of home and the
world cannot both be met at once ; or, at least,
that they cannot be as well met by receiving simul-
taneous attention: and if they do involve these
Assumptions, or either of them, they proclaim
their own falsity and conftite themselves. For
what is more contrary to truth, than that the

43

church is hot a debtor to the world till all withiq
her own pale and neighborhood is as the garden of
God, or Deeds no improvement? And not less
erroneous are the other positions, that either the
world or home must be neglected ; that their in-
terests are conflicting ; and that, if foreign missions
advance, it must be by exhausting or limiting the
resources needed for domestic wants. The work
of human salvation is one — the work of God — on
whose resources, not ours, it depends; and its
parts are so related that it can be neglected no
where without injury to the whole, and advanced
no where without giving an impulse of new life
and strength to the whole : so that contributions
to missions, wisely made, are in effect contribu-*
tions to our own churches ; nor is it to be ques*
tioned that these churches are, at this moment,
more benefitted and blessed by means of what
they have given for evangelizing the heathen, than
they would have been by appropriating it directly
to themselves. So preposterous is it to set the
claims of home in collision with those of the
world, or to imagine that the former will be inter^
fered with by discharging the latter.

It is indeed wise and requisite, and conformable
to Scripture precedent, to give present attention to
certain portions of the great field rather than
others ; and among the different localities taken
under culture, to prefer some one or more far be-
fore the rest ; and, accordingly, it cannot be well
questioned that this country at the present time
should have a very uncommon measure of regard,

44

especially from the American branch of the
church. The importance of its thorough evange-
lization is probably overrated by no one. To the
soundness of the views which have been expressed
on this subject, with so much earnestness and
force, by men of great perspicacity on both sides
of the ocean, there can scarcely be a dissenting
judgment. So far as can now be seen, all proba-
bility and likelihood will fail, or the moral condi-
tion of these United States is to decide that of the
world. But it is not a logical consequence from
this, that we should come to a pause or retard our
movements in the work of foreign missions. Our
people, whatever they are destined to become, do
not yet amount to a fiftieth part of mankind ; and
it is neither love to the souls of men, nor love to
Christ, nor a wise economy, that, on a calculation
of what a small fraction of the race may grow to
in a century or more, will leave the great mass
till then to proceed on to destruction through the
third and fourth generations, while the means of
evangelizing the whole are at hand ; and while,
too, the fraction itself would be better attended to,
if the whole were in no way or measure neglected.
Never let it be overlooked that the spirit of evan-
gelism is essentially the spirit of foreign missions.
In its very nature it is spontaneously and inimita-
bly egressive. It cannot endure confinement. Its
irrepressible tendency is to be abroad in all the
earth to its utmost bounds, and in all the isles
of the sea, wherever man, the redeemed sinner,

46

dwells. To restrain is to enervate and oppress it.
It will not, cannot neglect home, if it be sent
away ; but if it go not away, it will be as an inva-
lid within doors, rather to be nursed than to dijQTuse
life and strength. What powerful teaching did
our Lord employ to enforce this truth ; and what
is better corroborated by reflection, observation
and experience? While, therefore, we institute
comparisons between our land and others, our
people and others ; and while America, in its pro-
spective greatness and power, rises in our thought
above all the rest of the globe, let us take heed
lest a selfish nationality, or pride, or carnal reason-
ing, so blind us to the true genius of evangelism,
that we be found opposing ourselves to the plans
and counsels of Infinite Love.

Nor should we think it needless to qualify our
confidence as to the coming fortunes of this or any
other nation. We do not certainly know that the
world's end will not come ere our anticipated im-
portance as a people can be realized. Or, if that
should not be, and if our national advancement
and influence be not impeded, we are not sure
that God judges as we do, in respect of our eligi-
bility, as the people by whom the world is to be
saved. As he has often done before, may he not
in this matter again disappoint human expecta-
tion ; and may not the world's enlargement and
deliverance arise from another place, which by
its comparative obscurity may render the hand of
God more conspicuous.

46

la coQcIusioni then, it remaineth, Fathers,
Brethren, and Friends, that we gird up the loins
of our mind, and strengthen ourselves in God for
the fulfilment of that glorious work, in reference to
which we have now come together. Better were
it for us to die than to be at a stand in our under-
taking* That must not be until God repent of
having determined to save the world. He hath
prescribed and commanded our race ; let us hold
on in it till he himself arrest us, even to the end,
forgetting those things which are behind, and
reaching forth towards those things which are be-
fore. The race, to an unbelieving heart, cannot
but seem impracticable and preposterous ; but it
hath been set before us by Him who calleth for
things that are not, and they come, and who has
also guarantied our success, by his promise, oath,
death, resurrection, and enthronement in heaven.
By these we know that we are not running in
vain. Let increasing progress then be our law, as
demanded by those great principles and truths of
the gospel, on which missions rest their plea and
warrant ; by the great precept, ^^ Go ye into all
the world ; '' by the long ages of neglect, which
this high behest of Heaven hath hitherto received ;
by the slowness of our own past movements ; by
the strong encouragement we have in the divine
blessing on our churches and missions, and in the
existing state of the world ; by the cause we have
to hope the future course of Christianity on earth
is to be wonderfully accelerated ; by the unspeak-
able dangers, in such circumstances as ours, of any

^'■

47

other than this onward way ; and by those rela'*
tions of profound and awful interest, in which our
missionary operations have placed us, with the
hosts of darkness. Let us turn objections into
arguments* Let us demand of those who would
dishearten us by their prophetic expositions, if
they would, by their theories, make void the grace
and command of God. Let us tell them who
would make missions too expensive, of the re*
sources of their Almighty Author, and of their
own bad stewardship, and of the cost of other
things, and of the countless gains of missions,
both to the world and the church. Let us reply
to those who plead against us, as opposing domes-
tic interests, that our Heavenly Father can take
care of the world and home at once, and that it
is home's honor and happiness, as well as duty,
not to confine its influences of ^^ saving health "
within its own narrow limits, but to expand and
spread them out to the ends of the earth. Let all
straitness and restraint be insufferable to us. If
required to enlarge our plans, let us praise God
for this and wrestle with him by prayer, and with
his people by doctrine and remonstrance and en-
treaty, for the means of enlargement, until they
come. If new openings present themselves, every
time we survey the field, let us praise God for
this ; yea, if a new world suddenly open itself to
us, for this also let us praise God ; and farther, if
the Spirit be poured out at all our stations, so as
to demand a universal movement on the part of
the church, equal to that of the primitive times,

48

still let us praise God with all our strength, and
cry to him day and night, and give him no rest,
until the demand be met, and the church look
forth again, as in the day of her espousals, beauti-
ful as Tirzah, comely as Jerusalem, terrible as an
army with banners, and become an eternal excel-
lency, the joy of the whole earth, having, by the
divine blessing on her influence, recovered the
human race from the curse of evil, and united it
through Christ to the society of the holy and the
blessed.