stant; teaching them more promptitude and scope of Christian enterprise; and giving them new energy of spirit in the service of their Lord. The Christian who barely contributes to these charities-if he does it with a willing mind-reaps an advantage to himself worth more than what his contributions cost him. The Christian who, in addition to bestowing of his substance, takes some agency in the promotion of the cause derives from it still more advantage. And therefore I say, that if we would raise the standard of Christian character, we cannot operate more powerfully than by promoting this moral discipline of benevolent action. The parish in which there are not found in operation branches of some two or three among the great benevolent institutions of the times, is either a very small parish and a very poor one, or a parish in which there is some great and deplorable delinquency. 4. There ought to be more of Christian intercourse among Christians. Ministers and churches have their ecclesiastical business meet ings, all over the land. But these meetings are not the thing which we need, to raise the tone of Christian feeling and intelligence, and the standard of Christian enterprise. Ministers and Christians may have their meetings for ecclesiastical business-such meetings are necessary; but ought they not also to assemble themselves together, that they may consider one another to provoke unto love and good works, and so much the more as they see the day approaching? Ought they not to have their meetings for devotion, that they may bind themselves together with new ties of brotherly affection-that they may warm each other's hearts and rouse each other's energies? The success which has attended what are called conferences of hurches, wherever they have been introduced, and in whatever form, goes far to answer such questions. And if the experiment had not been tried, would it not be obvious, that stated meetings of ministers and brethren from a circle of churches expressly for mutual improvement must have a salutary influence? Let such meetings, organized after the models which wisdom and experience approve, become general; and then the healthful spirit of intelligence shall circulate like the lifeblood through our Christian community; the piety of all our churches shall become more constant, fervent, and pervading; the stir of Christian enterprise shall rouse the languid, and urge on the backward; and Christians shall stand up like men, and shall act with the energy of combination and the boldness of devotion, for the cause of holiness. 5. Let me add yet one word more. Every Christian should bear in mind the responsibility of living in these circumstances, and should make great personal efforts to attain that measure of Christian character which the times demand of him. If any man lack wisdom let him ask of God. The Holy Spirit is given to earnest and unceasing prayer. What was it that fitted Luther for his work? What was it that furnished Brainerd with that holy unction which made his solitude so often a paradise, and with those graces which have made his name a watchword to the Christian? What was it that girded Martyn with the armor of salvation, for his warefare? What but prayer, and a high mark to aim at, and personal effort to attain it? By such means must every believer be furnished for the station in which his God has placed him; and if he does not attain that measure of Christian character which will qualify him for such responsibilities as God calls him to sustain, who will bear the blame of it in the great day? IMPORTANCE OF AN EARLY CONSECRA TION TO THE MISSIONARY SERVICE. THE claims of the missionary enterprise upon personal service, has become a subject of deep interest to Christians, especially to young and educated Christians. Time was, even within our recollection, when most of the disciples of Christ seemed to feel as if their duty was discharged, when they had so far conquered prejudices and objections, as willingly to be reckoned among the advocates of missions, and to bestow their stinted donations to aid others in carrying them on. But while Christians have mused on the subject, the fire has burned; a demonstration of the Spirit and of power has accompanied the enterprise, and the last command of the ascending Saviour is now beginning to be felt as of personal application. It often happens, however, that inuch time elapses, before a rule of duty, which Christians have long neglected, is fully developed in all its applications, or acted upon to its full extent. The import of the direction, go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature, is yearly unfolding its broad meaning with greater distinctness, and laying a stronger claim upon the possessions and services of belivers. And many more false maxims, which selfishness and worldliness have introduced into the creed of Christians, will, it is believed, fall before its searching application. There is one prevalent opinion, upon which I propose to make a few remarks on this occasion, that stands, if I mistake not, in this predicament. There exists extensively an impression that the question of personal consecration to the missionary service should not be decided early. The young convert may think upon the subject, but he may not definitely decide it. He must first take his seven years ramble in the walks of literature and science; and not until he has com pleted his collegiate course, and entered the halls of the Theological Seminary, may he form and express the fixed resolution to become a missionary. And the reason for this delay is surely important. It is the fear that the young convert may decide too hastily, without thoroughly weighing the nature and magnitude of the work, or his own qualifications for it. But though this reason be good for some delay, it does not justify so long a period of indecision as is usually allowed. A question so momentous in its bearings upon the individual concerned, and upon the interests of religion, ought not, indeed, to be decided without mature and deliberate reflection and oft repeated fervent prayer. And I doubt not but the extreme caution and hesitancy that have been usually adopted on the subject, have rendered less frequent, the instances of apostacy, unfaithfulness, and incompetency among missionaries. But there are many reasons that render an early decision of this question desirable, and delay injurious and dangerous. Whether these reasons are more than sufficient to counterbalance the dangers incident to an earlier decision, you will be able to determine, when I shall have presented the most important of them to your consideration. In the first place, the happy influence of decision upon the mind in fitting it for more efficient action, is a plea in favor of an early consecration to the work of missions. A preparation for the ordinary duties of the ministry at home, is, indeed essentially the same as for the missionary service. Yet there are important peculiarities in the latter, that deserve the most serious attention; because the best intentions and the best natural qualifications may utterly fail of success, from the want of such attention. Both the body and the mind should undergo a special discipline to fit them for the new sphere in which they are to move. The body should be accustomed to the most laborious muscular effort without sinking under it, and very great changes and irregularity in diet and exercise; because the missionary will be exposed to the necessity of making such efforts, and of submitting to such irregularity, when he goes forth among the heathen; and if not habituated to them beforehand, the strongest bodily constitution will soon give way. Peculiar mental habits also, should be acquired. The mind should learn to act with great promptness, and to apply itself with great vigor under circumstances the most unpropitious to study. It should learn how to detect the sophistry of an argument, and to command all its resources, so as to employ them in the most advantageous manner, in the exhibition of truth, with no time for preparation. Added to the ordinary routine of knowledge in a course of public education, other branches, adapted to the circumstances of a missionary life, should receive some special attention. An acquaintance, for example, with the most common processes in the arts, so as to be able to introduce them among a barbarous people, is almost indispensable. A practical knowledge too, of the most striking and curious experiments in natural philosophy and chemistry, would often prove of most essential service in arresting the attention, and exciting the curiosity of the heathen, and in producing a desire for instruction. Thus a skilful use of the galvanic battery procured the release of an English traveller in central Africa, and Mr. King mentions that no present he ever made to the wandering Arabs of Palestine, did more to conciliate their favor, than a few phosphoric matches. The missionary, also, should possess a more thorough acquaintance with natural history than is important for the minister in this country. He penetrates into regions where new and interesting animals, plants, and minerals surround him; and if he be able to describe them with scientific accuracy, he will attract to the perusal of his journal, and interest in his labors, very many who would otherwise turn away in disgust from his recital. And thus might he, without essential interference with his appropriate labors, enlarge the boundaries of human knowledge, and win over more of the learned to be advocates of missions. In addition to this bodily and mental discipline, peculiar attention must be given to the cultivation of the heart. Something more is necessary than merely that the piety of the individual should be ardent and elevated. Certain passions and certain active virtues should be most prominent în the missionary character. Resentment of injuries must be a stranger to his bosóm; and his patient endurance under insults and sufferings must know no limits. His situation also, will often furnish room for the most vigorous exercise of the sterner and more active virtues. He never will firmly plant the standard of the cross among the heathen, without an exhibition of the most undaunted resolution and courage; nor will he triumph over the difficulties in his way, without a double portion of fortitude and perseverance. Is it not obvious that this triple discipline of the corporeal, intellectual, and moral powers, cannot be the work of a day? The young man may have diligently cultivated good natural talents in the ordinary way; his piety may be of the most decided and promising character; and his bodily powers may have been subjected to systematic exercise; and yet lacking that peculiar discipline at which I have hinted, he wants what is important, if not essential, to his success as a missionary. suppose he has delayed to devote himself to this service till his education is nearly completed; when shall this special discipline be gone through? Not to much purpose surely, in the few months, or the Now year, in which he is busy in preparation to leave his friends and his country. Of course he must enter the field of labor under all the disadvantages which such a deficiency imposes upon him. But had he in earlier stages of his education settled the question of personal consecration to the missionary service, he might, almost without interference with his prescribed course of study, have made those special attainments, ere its completion, which seem so desirable to success. He would have employed the intervals of regular study, which are usually spent in pursuits not having any definite object, in moulding his body and his soul to the missionary work. Thus would the duties and labors of the missionary have become familiar to him, long before entering upon the work; and when at length actually among the heathen, few situations would occur, which he had not already revolved in his mind; and for his guidance, he would only have to apply principles long before digested and settled. I derive a second argument in favor of an early consecration to the missionary service, from the history of other pursuits. In every art and science individuals have appeared, either prodigies or anomalies of genius, mocking experience and setting established rules at defiance; and rising to distinction in the face of every obstacle and in spite of prophecy. But these are exceptions to general rules; no more proving that such rules do not exist, and are not applicable to human conduct in a vast plurality of instances, than the excentric wanderings of the comet show that the planets move not in regular orbits, and that their places cannot be calculated. Under what circumstances, then, do we usually find excellence and perfection in any art or profession? Not when the individual enters late upon the pursuit, having given his earlier energies to something else. But in the case of him who gives to a particular branch the freshness and flexibility of youth, nor ceases to cultivate it with the strength and maturity of manhood. Does a man excel in philology? Our thoughts revert to his school-boy promptness in his recitations of language. Is he spoken of as the profound mathematician? We see his early thoughts carried along by the slow but sure current of calculation, and his early conceptions loaded with lines and angles. Has he succeeded in charming the fastidious ear of taste by his poetry? We know that his boyish rambles were among the deep dark forests, along the winding streams of the valley, or the mountain torrents, and up the rocky and impending precipice; and that the works of imagination and feeling were the objects of his first literary love. Is he distinguished as a metaphysician? Then did he early begin to watch the movements of his own mind and to analyze its powers. Does he in mature life take the lead in Natural Philosophy, or Chemistry? Then were the air pump, the crucible, and the retort, among the most prominent of his youthful associations. Does he arrest attention as a painter, or a sculptor? Who can doubt that the amusements of his childhood abounded in rude delineations or carvings of natural objects? Does he enchain listening multitudes by his musical performances ? Those flexibilities and fine modulations and easy transitions of voice were never acquired in such perfection, but by a discipline of the organs of speech while yet they were supple and yielding. In fine, we always refer excellence in any art or profession to early discipline, unless the case be expressly excepted, and then we wonder at the prodigy. Even in those cases, where, in spite of this general law, men, commencing late, have become distinguished, we perceive that an earlier beginning would have insured them still greater distinction. They may rear a spacious edifice; but it will want symmetry in its proportions, elegance in its parts, and polish in its completion. You may easily bend the yet tender shrub in any direction, and make it conform to great irregularities. But when it has shot up into the mountain oak, it will resist all your efforts to change its direction. So the mind, easily bent and moulded at will in early life, soon becomes too rigid to conform itself to all the minute sinuosities of art and science. If this principle be applicable to all other pursuits, why should it not be true of the work of missions, one of the most difficult of them all? It is applicable. Nor will it render the application nugatory, in relation to to the point under consideration, to say, that it is sufficient for the pious youth to commence his studies with a view to the ministry in general, without deciding the question, whether that ministry shall be exercised at home or among the heathen. For I have already pointed out many important peculiarities in the previous discipline of the missionary; and that list might have been greatly enlarged. The conclusion then, from my second argument, is, that, other things being equal, the earlier a man devotes himself to the work of a missionary, the greater the probability that his labors will be successful. My third and last argument for an early consecration to the missionary service, is founded upon the danger of delay. I refer to the danger which delay brings along with it, by leading many to the conclusion that it is not their duty to become missionaries, when in fact, there is no good reason why they should be excused. This danger proceeds from several sources. In the first place, it sometimes originates from an unusual degree of literary distinction or favor with the public. There is probably no one thing in this world so likely to injure the Christian character, as popular applause. It attacks the weak part of that character, and while its honied accents fall so sweetly on the ear, its poison is insinuated into the heart. Thence it circulates through every part of the moral system, and its paralyzing influence is felt in every holy exercise. A student commences study with a sincere desire and intention to employ all his acquisitions in promoting the glory of God, with the impression, perhaps, that it may be his duty to devote himself ultimately to the missionary service. missionary service. But he finds some particular branch of literature or science peculiarly congenial to his taste, and ere he is aware of it, he has outstripped his fellows in his attainments, and discovers at length, that his acquisitions have won him no contemptible name abroad. The inquiry arises, has not Providence given him such peculiar capabilities in a particular branch of learning, that he might do more good by remaining in his native land, to instruct others, than by going among the heathen, where this peculiar faculty, and these distinguished attainments, will be entirely useless? By the aid of some unhallowed desires after the glory of a name among men, he easily persuades himself that he has no call to go to the heathen. Another student of similar views in the beginning, perceives ere long, that whenever he is called to address a public assembly, he is capable of commanding their fixed attention ; and in the circle where he moves, the palm of excellence in public speaking is awarded to him. Fired with the hope of becoming a distinguished pulpit orator, he gives himself so assiduously to the cultivation of style and manner, that the cultivatien of his heart is neglected. And when devoted piety is sunk in the ambitious orator, easily does he persuade himself that God does not require him to throw away such powers of eloquence as he possesses, |