wisdom teach us a like lesson? If it be needless for us to preach Christ unto the heathen, who have not yet heard of him, then it was needless for Jesus Christ to have come npon earth at all; for man could have been saved without his appearing. Is not such reasoning as this fitted to strike down all religion together? Nor is it a better argument against sending the gospel among the heathen, to say that they will neglect it; for God hath commanded us to preach the gospel to "every creature," to "all nations ;" and therefore the duty is ours, and the consequences must be left in God's hands. He will vindicate his own righteousness and wisdom. And what if some believe not the message, shall their unbelief make the faith of God without effect? The gospel will always be a savour of life unto life to some, a savour of death unto death to others; whether they be heathens, or persons already brought within the Christian covenant. Shall we abstain from sending the gospel, lest they should neglect it? Did none neglect the blessed Saviour's own preachings and miracles and spotless example? Shall we, therefore, dare to say it had been better for the Saviour never to have come? No. Let us judge of the duty of sending missionaries to the heathen by the light of God's own word, and by the common sense which he hath given to man. St. John saith of Christians (both professing Christians as opposed to heathens, and practical Christians as opposed to mere professors), "We know that we are of God, and the whole world lieth in wickedness." And the prophet, and also the evangelist, saith of the gospel: "The people which sat in darkness saw great light; and to them which sat in the region and shadow of death light is sprung up." And how can we take any other view of the glorious light of revelation bursting upon the darkened heathen nations? The little light which they have, and which we call the light of nature, is but the polluted and glimmering relics left of the traditions which their forefathers received from Noah, from Shem or Ham or Japheth. It is founded upon truth; for it is a feeble ray from that light of divine revelation vouchsafed unto the patriarchs before the scriptures were written. But, O, how dim and distant is the relic now remaining in heathen mindslike the feeble gleaming of a single fixed star, immeasurably far off, which indeed is a real light, but will not avail for any useful purposes of labour or business, save to point out that there is such a place as heaven, and to tell that light cometh from thence. This light, which lingers among the heathen, teaches little further than that there is a God, and a

future life after death; that there is a difference between actions, making some to be good and some to be bad; that there is a need of another to suffer for us-a sacrifice of some kind. But can it tell the character of God, and of his holy will? Can it tell the nature of heaven and of hell, and how to flee from one and gain the other? Can it tell which actions are according to God's will, and which are against his law? Can it tell what the only sacrifice is "that taketh away the sin of the world," and how a man shall gain the benefit of that blessed and precious atonement? No. On all these things tradition is silent and dark among the heathen. And what can reason find out among them of such points? Is not the highest wisdom of the heathen merely a greater degree of cunning, or of skill, or of policy? and, when applied by them to religion, is it not, in its clearest shining, merely a subtle philosophy closely resembling infidelity?

And shall we, then, say that the heathen have no need of our sending them the glad tidings of God, and of that "light which is the true light that lighteth every man that cometh into the world"? "Can the blind lead the blind?" saith the gospel to-day; shall they not "both fall into the ditch ?" If the wisdom of their wise men, the religion of their religious teachers and masters, be such as I have described, how can they instruct them? The disciple is not above his master. Will they not count every one perfect who is as his master; because they know no higher law, no better standard, whereby to judge of their God, their duty, and their future existence? Is it not, therefore, our duty to send them that which they need, and which we have power to send them? Leave out of view that which none but God can bestow, but take heed that you send them freely what God hath entrusted to your care; remembering that "with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again."

III. Let me call to your minds, in what spirit. we ought to exert ourselves for God; whether in the cause of missions, or of any other object.

Are not all the sons and daughters of mankind of one blood with us? Who hath made us to differ from the heathen? What have we that we have not received? Shall we not all stand at the judgment-seat of Christ, along with the benighted heathen, to whom it is now our duty to send the means of grace? Why should we wrap ourselves up in separated feelings from the poor savages? They have souls, like ours, destined to live for ever and ever in heaven or in hell.

What are we

doing for them-doing as a nation, as a church? God bids us call upon him as "our Father;" and is he not the Father of the spirits of all men? And shall we not teach them the goodness, the mercy, the power of our common Father? What are we doing towards this end? The church of England has two great foreign societies: one for the heathen, and the Society for Propagating the Gospel, devoting itself to England's vast colonies. Do not measure the one society against the other: both are necessary; both have been greatly blessed of God; and both have laboured, and are labouring, hard for the cause of God. The united sum they collect together, in the year, is about 160,000l. from all this wealthy nation-the richest nation in the earth: about one shilling in a year for every house in the kingdom; not a monthly halfpenny from every adult person in England. Is this a fitting return from our church and nation for what God hath done in giving us the blessings of Christianity? To double the whole sum would but require a monthly penny from every grown person. Let us be ashamed, rather than boast, of what England has done for the missionary work. Were we to measure this sum by the yearly wealth of the kingdom, it would seem a still more miserable sum. The whole of it is not the thousandth part of the income of those who are wealthy enough to be subject to the income-tax; and yet, small as it is, how much of it comes from those who are far lower in station than that standard fixes! O, let us be ashamed of the miserable sum which our nation gives for this purpose!

But perhaps you say, "I' already give much. I give to other objects as well as to this; and I give as largely as God enables me to do." Of this point God is the judge. It is not so generally the poor who fail to give their mite; but it is more often the richer, who do not give as God hath prospered them. Those, whose hearts God hath opened, generally give to their power, yea, and beyond their power; but we do not all do so. We give, perhaps, our guinea subscription. We give, perhaps, our shilling, or a little larger sum, at a collection. Can we say this is enough? Will it seem so when we come to die? "Judge ye yourselves," saith the scripture, "that ye be not judged; and remember with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again."

It is the Lord who giveth us power to get wealth. He daily loadeth us with benefits. Why should we not daily give unto him a little of what he hath given unto us? and, as a constant repetition of smaller efforts will

do more in the end than one or two great efforts, so this would enable us to do more for God. In what spirit do we live, and deal with God's good gifts to us? Are we not his stewards? He hath entrusted to our keeping all that we have; and he will require an account of our stewardship.

Nor is this feeling only right as regards missions. Let us look at it in a wider view. Soon will this world be done. What will then avail us all we have? Why should we not live as belonging to another world—that world to which we are hastening? Freely we have received, why should we not freely give? It is written, "The liberal soul deviseth liberal things, and by liberal things shall he stand." With how measured a band do we often give for God's purposes! With what a free and open and ready a hand do we bestow for our own enjoyments, or interests, or honour! These things ought not so to be. Let us look upon all we have as belonging to God, who giveth us richly all things to enjoy. It is not sinful to taste the rich blessings which he places within our power, nor to enjoy the lawful pleasures which he gives us the means of doing, provided at the same time we fully and liberally give in equal freedom to all the purposes and objects which are for the spread of his kingdom, whether they regard the comfort and sustenance of God's poor, or the promotion of true religion in our own land, or the bringing in the heathen to the Christian church. O, my dear friends, let us look on these things in a common-sense light. What have we that we can call our own, in respect of God? Did he not give us all we have? and shall we refuse, or shrink, or give sparingly, or, as scripture expresses it, "grudgingly, or of necessity," when his blessed will commands, when his glorious kingdom requires? Did he deal so with us? Did he spare his own life, his precious blood, when our salvation required it? Doth he refuse us the gift of the Holy Ghost when we entreat him? What more could have been done for our salvation that he hath not done for us? Now, therefore, he calls upon us, saying: "Be ye merciful even as your Father in heaven is merciful: with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again."

IV. As there is nothing trifling or immaterial which concerns our relations towards our Maker, let us accustom ourselves to look at this subject with an eye to the great day of account. How will the subject, then, appear to us?

St. Peter saith, "What manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness, looking for and hasting unto

the coming (or, as you find by the margin, that it means hastening the coming) of the day of God?" Accordingly, our church, in the burial service, prays, that "it would please God of his gracious goodness shortly to accomplish the number of his elect, and to hasten his kingdom." We know that all the kingdoms of the earth shall become the kingdoms of the Lord, and of his Christ. What are we doing to hasten that glorious day, and the second coming of the Lord? or do we look upon the whole matter as a dream, which either has no reality, or concerns not us? Why do we put it into the power of the visionaries, that start up in society every few years, to rebuke us for losing sight of the coming again of the Lord? It is because we neglect the bible part, and the common-sense part of this solemn subject, that they can thus seize the opportunity of adding their foolish and vain fancies to the simple scripture truth, that he "shall in like manner come again, as the apostles saw him go up from Mount Olivet." What though we know neither the day nor the hour, it is for that very reason that we are commanded to watch, in the diligent performance of our duties as Christians, and as members of Christ's kingdom. And are we living in that spirit? and are we labouring and helping to bring the heathen nations into subjection to our Lord's kingdom? Were we not sent upon earth for God's glory? Are we not kept alive for his glory? And are we to say as Cain did, Am I my brother's keeper?" Are we not bound by every duty, every motive, to help our poor brethren of mankind -those of one blood with us, all over the world to help them to escape the dreadful ruin and doom which the fail has brought alike upon all, and to tell them of the remedy which God hath provided for that ruin. He hath entrusted to us to publish that remedy to all nations: he hath increased our political power and our wealth, and hath spread our commerce over the whole earth, that we may have the ability to send forth every where the glad tidings of salvation, viz., "that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved." How shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher? and how shall they preach except they be sent ?" And are we, who have the power, are we sending them? We entreat you to give the means of sending them fix and stablish it in your minds as a part of your great and unchangeable duty to God, to help forward the preaching of his glorious gospel among the heathen.

Feel an interest in it. Look on it as a part of the work which God your Father has committed to you to do, and to persevere in, as long as you live.

When sickness presses heavily on you, and death seems to creep stealthily about your bedside, only watching as it were for God's permission to grasp you and bear you down to the grave, Ó how do earth and time fade away and seem of little moment, until no place is found for them in your busy thoughts of another world! How do you then look upon money or exertions laid out for the cause of God and religion? They do not seem to have been too much, but too little. Why not live and act now as you are sure you will wish you had done when the future world seems close at hand? How far different would our lives always be if we did so!

Let me go one step further: "We must all appear before the judgment-seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or whether it be bad." To us, while we live, that seems a vision-a dim and distant dream; but, my dear friends, it is a reality; and we shall find it true. When, therefore, we stand at that judgment-seat, and see gathered around us the millions and millions of heathens, who have grown up and died in the practice of heathen wickedness, who have lived hateful to each other, hating God and holiness, delighting in impunity and abominable idolatries, who have habitually yielded to the corruptions of man's fallen nature, never having heard of a Saviour in whom to believe, nor of a Sanctifier who could make them holy, what will be our feelings? I leave out of view all those heathen children, who died in infancy, concerning whom the word of God gives us no right to say they have perished, but rather the contrary. I leave out of view those who, having not the law, were a law unto themselves, and showed the work of the law written in their hearts. Alas, how few such are there to be found among heathens, whatever view be taken of their case! I speak of the great mass of heathen, who are avowedly and beyond all doubt living in the practice of all that God's law forbids and speaks of with abhorrence. When we shall stand at the judgment-seat of God, and see the millions of heathen-open and gross transgressors-gathered around us, if it should appear that many of these might have been saved, so far as we are concerned, had we sent them the scriptures and missionaries, O what will be our feelings at that hour? Shall we then feel that our yearly guinea, or our piece of silver dropped