righteousness which is unto all, and upon all them that believe. These constitute the glad tidings of great joy which shall be to all people. When our sons and our daughters leave us to cross oceans, and climb mountains, and journey over valleys, we must charge them to repeat everywhere the story of the apostasy, and of the death of Christ to remove the curse. We must exhort them to say, God so loved the world, that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him might not perish, but have everlasting life.

These are the means by which we are to accomplish our object, and we need to be kept to them without deviation or faltering. But this can be done only by such a measure of divine influence, daily exerted upon our hearts, as shall cause the gospel to loom up largely and gloriously before us, and inspire us with a perfect confidence in its divinely appointed efficacy. As a missionary organization, the presence with us of the Good Spirit, is indispensable. No resolutions, however stringent, to require an orthodox creed in those who enter the foreign field-no well adjusted frame work of ecclesiastical supervision-no votes of councils or synods to commission only good men and true, will secure the giving of real, vital Christianity to the nations. These things may be useful and important, but they are not sufficient. The moment we ourselves become indifferent to the doctrines of total depravity, justification by faith, and regeneration by the Spirit, the trumpet we blow on the other side of the

globe, will give an uncertain sound. We shall plant no better religion than we possess.

There is a downward tendency in man-in the best of men-and in the best of men engaged in the holiest work,-which nothing can effectually counteract, but a constantly exerted divine influence. Charters, subscriptions, pledges, will not do it. These, when the heart gets wrong, are weak as a thread of tow. God, the Holy Ghost, must be with us at every step, or we shall even lose those things which we have already wrought, and never receive a full reward.

Let me add this view of the gospel, as the wisdom of God, and the power of God, will impart such an aspect of simplicity to our aims, and give such a type of homogeneousness to our efforts, as will help us to move forward with harmony in our great work. We shall not then lay out our strength on extraneous matters, or matters which, though valuable in themselves, do not properly belong to us as a missionary society. Our object, be it never forgotten, is not to make any direct attack upon forms of civil government, however cruel and despotic, or to carry a crusade into the arrangements of social life, however inconsistent they may seem with the highest degree of human happiness. These may be great evils here, and they may lie very much in our way, but the first assault is not to be made on these out-works. If we feel as Paul felt, or as Martyn felt, or as Christ felt, our chief desire will be to secure, for the real

gospel, a lodgment in the heart, assured that this is the divine method of reforming the life. We need not fear. Truth is like chain-shot-give one link its direction, and it will draw after it the entire charge. Make the heathen Christians, and they will not fail to become men.

Such is our work, and such are the appliances with which we are furnished for carrying it on. The gospel, preached with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven, is all we need to recover men from their sins, and make this world of ours vocal with the high praises of God. This comprises the length and breadth of our duty. Our service is performed when, in reliance on divine aid, we have testified in the face of all nations repentance towards God, and faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ. But,

II. Unless the Holy Spirit be with us, we shall never prosecute our work with proper energy.

No missionary enterprise can be expected to flourish, which does not take fast hold on the hearts, and deeply move the sympathies of its friends. This is a cause of too much import to be carried on lukewarmly. Some years ago, a number of young men, candidates for service in foreign lands, in the papal church, pledged themselves to God and to each other to be faithful, by each opening a vein in his arm and writing his name in his own blood. I plead not for this. It may have been superstition. But if covenanting in blood can bind man to his duty, then we are bound with ligatures which can never be broken.

It is easy to see that one of the main purposes of the Church on earth, is her own self-extension. We learn, on every page of the history of the early propagation of the gospel, that the apostles did not ordain elders in every city, chiefly, much less exclusively, to keep ground already gained, or to rejoice in conquests already made. With them the field was the world. Their plan was an out-going, an

aggressive one. But this is a kind of work which we shall never follow up with a full heart, except as our desire to spread the gospel, as well as our individual appreciation of it, is quickened by the Spirit of God. Neither of these things is natural to us, and unless supplied, as was the oil in the prophet's vision, they will grow weak and vanish away. We know, by sad experience, that our persuasion of a personal welcome to trust in Christ, becomes indistinct, whenever we are left to ourselves; and we also know that when thus left, we forget the claims of a dying world.

The church, every one admits, ought to place the sending of the gospel to the heathen among the most solemn and clearly ascertained of all her duties. It belongs to her to see that her members are kept apprised of the aspects and wants of this vast undertaking, cheerfully providing the means for every newly projected occupation of the enemy's country, and carefully watching over young Christians of promise, to mark the developments of their character, as to any special fitness for such service. These are points in relation to which there can be

no doubt. Who can hesitate to believe that the bringing forward of candidates for this high employment, should be an object of the deepest interest to every minister of the gospel, every professor of theology, and every ecclesiastical judicatory? Parents ought to prize such a post for a beloved son or daughter, above one in the retinue of an ambassador to the mightiest potentate on earth. Daily should prayer be made that the Holy Ghost would separate our Barnabases and our Sauls to the work of Christian Missions.

But how are we to get up to this state of feeling, and this standard of action? We shall but practice an imposition upon ourselves if we merely compare what is now doing with what was done a few years ago, instead of summoning courage to ask what the opening providences of God require at our hands, or what our own good hope through grace should prompt us to undertake. All seems bright and animated enough, when mingling in an immense congregation like this to exchange Christian salutations, and to sharpen each the countenance of his friend, by the rehearsal of some striking incident. We might almost suppose that the tribes of the Lord had assembled to decide which should have the honor of going up first to possess the land. There are ministers enough, and friends of the Redeemer enough to move the world. But let us beware how we take this as the actual guage of missionary zeal among us. We can attend anniversaries, and make speeches, and indulge in the