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 LIBEARY 
 
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 BV 2063 .S546 1836 
 
 
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 Thoughts on evangelizing the 
 
 
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THOUGHTS 
 
 EVANGELIZING 
 
 THE WORLD. 
 
 ^ 
 
 THOMAS H. SKINNER. 
 
 NEW-YORK 
 
 JOHN S. TAYLOR, 
 
 Brick Church Chapel, Corner of Park Row aad Nassau-streets 
 
 1836. 
 
Entered, according to the Act of Congress, in the year 1836, 
 
 BY JOHN S. TAYLOR, 
 
 Iu the Clerk's Office for the Southern District of New-York. 
 
 [H. Ludwig, Printer.] 
 

 PREFACE. 
 
 The following discourse was deliver- 
 ed at the opening of the Mercer-street 
 Presbyterian Church, and is published 
 at the request of the Session and Trus- 
 tees. 
 
 In acceding, after some hesitation, to 
 the request for its publication, the au- 
 thor had no higher hope than that pos- 
 siblyhe might , directly or indirectly, ex- 
 cite somewhat more of reflection on the 
 subject of his remarks, than has gene- 
 rally been given to it. He feels per- 
 fectly sure, that not the want of know- 
 
IV PREFACE. 
 
 ledge, but merely of reflection, in the 
 true sense of the word, hinders the prin- 
 ciples which he has advanced, from 
 asserting ascendant power in the 
 Church, and harmonizing all Chris- 
 tians in their influence and efforts in 
 behalf of the salvation of mankind. 
 The great difficulty in the way of 
 the universal spread of the Gospel, 
 he is persuaded, is not physical, but 
 moral. The event to be achieved de- 
 mands indeed, the exertion of the Om- 
 nipotent arm ; but is not Omnipotence 
 pledged for its achievement whenever 
 wisdom, or a just regard to what on the 
 whole is best, does not forbid? And 
 that prohibition never stands in the 
 way, as the Scripture plainly teaches 
 if there is a certain condition of 
 things in the Church, which cannot 
 
PREFACE. V 
 
 be wanting but by the Church's own 
 fault. Were the state of the Church 
 what it should and might be, the work 
 of converting men would cease to lin- 
 ger. This, it is supposed, cannot be 
 doubted. The world has not been con- 
 verted, because the moral estate of the 
 Church has been so low, her unfaithful- 
 ness and perverseness so great, that the 
 divine intervention necessary to her 
 triumph, could not consistently with the 
 ends and arrangements of infinite wis- 
 dom, be vouchsafed. This is the les- 
 son of the scripture which stands at 
 the head of the discourse ; a scripture 
 deserving, particularly at the present 
 day, the profoundest meditation. The 
 psalmist had no expectation that the 
 world would ever be enlightened and 
 reformed, but by means of an antecedent 
 
VI PREFACE. 
 
 reform in the Church: he therefore 
 prays that God would show his sanc- 
 tifying and illuminating mercy to the 
 Church, to the end that the world 
 through the appropriate instrumental 
 influence may be partaker of the same 
 mercy. His prayer accords with the 
 established order of God in respect to 
 this matter, as revealed every where 
 in his word, and as acknowledged 
 in all ages by the Church. Would that 
 due reflection might be given to the 
 known and unchangeable counsel of 
 Heaven, on which this prayer proceeds, 
 and which, with so much pathos it en- 
 forces ! Has not the Church entered 
 unprepared upon her work ? Has she 
 not begun it without being endued with 
 power from on high ? Has she received 
 the pre-requisite anointing of the Holy 
 
PREFACE. Vll 
 
 Spirit ? Do not continued contentions 
 and divisions and other deplorable 
 evils within her own enclosures, make, 
 her a reproach and a proverb in the 
 view of that world which she has 
 undertaken to gain over to her side? 
 This will be admitted, probably ; but will 
 it be reflected upon, will it be laid to heart ? 
 The Church will plead guilty, but who of 
 her members will reform ? I hearkened 
 and heard, but they spake not aright: 
 no man repented him of his wickedness, 
 saying; what have I done ? Every 
 one turned to his course, as the horse 
 rusheth into the battle. 
 
 If what is advanced in this discourse 
 shall be the means of directing the en- 
 livened attention of only a few devout 
 and vigorous minds to the subject- 
 matter of it, the author will have strong 
 
Vlll PREFACE 
 
 hope of some good from its publication. 
 The time is drawing nigh when the 
 sentiments of it, he is confident, will 
 not be as much disregarded in practice, 
 as they have been ever since the de- 
 generacy of the Church. 
 
THOUGHTS ON 
 
 EVANGELIZING THE WORLD. 
 
 " God be merciful unto us, and bless m, and cause 
 his face to shine upon us : Selah ! That thy way 
 may be known upon earth ; thy saving health 
 among all nations." Psalm lxvii. 1, 2. 
 
 The present times are in many of their 
 appearances and prognostics different from 
 all preceding ones, and from nearly all, in 
 this, that the Church have undertaken to 
 evangelize the World. This, be it thought 
 of as it may, stands high among the enter- 
 prises of this innovating age. Christians, 
 to a wide and constantly enlarging extent, 
 
 are becoming awake to the fact, that evan- 
 
 2 
 
10 THOUGHTS ON 
 
 gelizing the world is a work which their 
 Saviour has required them to attempt, and 
 one which by his aid will be accomplished. 
 It has accordingly been systematically en- 
 tered upon. The process of planting 
 Christian churches and institutions among 
 the unevangelized millions of mankind, 
 with the declared purpose never to cease 
 from the undertaking until it is gone through 
 with, has been begun and is now going on. 
 And it is going on, under the advantage 
 of recent inventions and improvements in 
 philosophy and the arts. The press is 
 exerting its surprising powers on a vast 
 scale, to give the scriptures and other ve- 
 hicles of Christian knowledge free circu- 
 lation in all the tongues and dialects of 
 man. Christian education also is patient- 
 ly insinuating its quiet but resistless influ- 
 ences into the great mass of human igno- 
 
EVANGELIZING THE WORLD. 11 
 
 ranee. A manifest improvement too has 
 taken place in the character of the minis- 
 try. The Apostles and first evangelists, 
 seem as it were to have risen from the 
 dead in some of our missionaries. The 
 character likewise of preaching and pasto- 
 ral labour, in many parts of Christendom, is 
 undergoing an important change. The 
 end pursued in preaching, both publicly 
 and from house to house, is now as it was 
 at first, the immediate conversion of men ; 
 and the results are correspondent. And 
 the general piety of the Church is gradu- 
 ally becoming more and more like that of 
 the primitive Christians. In appropriate 
 and efficient methods, the private members 
 of the churches, are co-operating with 
 their pastors in self-denying labours to 
 bring the human mind universally under 
 the power of the gospel. It deserves 
 
12 THOUGHTS ON 
 
 moreover, grateful recognition, that the 
 present, in a degree unprecedented since 
 the primitive times, is an age of liberality. 
 The hope seems almost warranted by 
 present appearances, that the day is not far 
 distant, when the world will see in the 
 Church, the complete triumph of the spirit 
 of beneficence over avarice. Christians 
 in greater numbers and more abundantly 
 than at any former period, excepting the 
 first, consecrate their wealth to carry be- 
 nevolent plans into effect in the far distant 
 isles, and in the uttermost ends of the 
 earth ; and we have specimens of munifi- 
 cence which would not have done dishonour 
 to the apostolic age itself. The religious 
 movements of the times, look manifestly 
 to an indefinite enlargement of the church 
 as their end ; and as such enlargement is 
 the high theme of prophecy, so, unless we 
 
EVANGELIZING THE WORLD. 13 
 
 misjudge, is it the promise of the present 
 course and aspect of Providence. 
 
 It is a privilege of the infant church 
 which takes possession, for the first time, 
 to-day, of the place in which its future 
 worship is to be paid to the Most High, 
 that it has had its birth, and it is to devel- 
 ope its powers, and to grow to maturity, 
 and take shape and complexion, if it please, 
 under the benign and ennobling influences 
 of this most auspicious period. How 
 great must become its usefulness and fe- 
 licity, if it fall in with these influences, 
 and avail itself fully of them, in seeking the 
 appropriate end of its calling, and its exis- 
 tence as a church of Jesus Christ. How 
 unhappy, on the other hand, should it con- 
 travene these influences, or fail to become 
 an instrument of their just developement. 
 It is under no necessity to do the one or 
 2* 
 
14 THOUGHTS ON 
 
 the other of these things ; which of them 
 it shall do, depends on its own choice ; 
 and its choice, in this instance, will proba- 
 bly decide its character and its destiny. 
 
 Thus persuaded, I have supposed that 
 I could make no better use of the advan- 
 tage which the present occasion gives me, 
 than to employ it in inculcating some of 
 the most important of those principles, by 
 which, I think, Christians should be regu- 
 lated in exerting their influence in behalf 
 of their great cause ; principles, which, if 
 we faithfully observe them, will I doubt not, 
 by the blessing of God, make this young 
 church a praise and a rejoicing in the city 
 and in the land. 
 
 I assume, that the principal design for 
 which all Christians, whether as individu- 
 als or as associated in churches, should 
 live, and move, and have their being in the 
 
EVANGELIZING THE WORLD. 15 
 
 world, is not selfish but benevolent, not 
 private but public, not the advancement 
 of their own interest separately, but of the 
 great interest of our Lord Jesus Christ ; 
 in a word, the spread and triumph of Chris- 
 tianity among mankind. I assume this, 
 and I may safely assume it now, for it is 
 fast becoming, as has already been remark- 
 ed the general conviction of Christians. 
 But were it not so, we ought still to main- 
 tain this position. There is nothing more 
 unquestionable, nothing more manifestly 
 true. It is true, and it is a truth which 
 should be asserted and published, until the 
 full power of it is felt throughout Chris- 
 tendom and the world. The supreme ob- 
 ject for which every Christian on earth 
 should live, is the discipling of the nations, 
 the evangelizing of mankind. The reli- 
 gion of Christians was intended for uni- 
 versal propagation, and it is what all men 
 
16 THOUGHTS ON 
 
 infinitely and alike need. Wherever this 
 religion is not, there is the land of despair, 
 the region of the shadow of death. And 
 Christians are the selected instruments of 
 its propagation, and have been charged by 
 their Saviour himself, to undertake the 
 work ; and while he has plainly said that 
 the work shall be done, he has said not 
 less plainly, that it will not be done except 
 by the personal sacrifices and labours of his 
 followers. And besides all this, the very 
 genius of Christianity, like the light of day, 
 is boundlessly diffusive, and leads every 
 mind whom it influences to seek its bound- 
 less spread. Nor is it possible for a man 
 to do a thing more eminently Christian, or 
 take any step better adapted to advance 
 himself in the Christian life, than to give 
 himself entirely to the work of making the 
 world Christian. I will only add that all 
 our obligations in this great concern, re- 
 
EVANGELIZING THE WORLD. 17 
 
 ceive extraordinary enforcement from the 
 spirit of the age, as briefly sketched at the 
 outset ; and that Christians and churches, 
 who do not in these times make the chris- 
 tianizing of man, the chief end of their 
 enterprize and zeal, should indulge small 
 hope of success, unless they can prevail 
 both against the inherent powers of their 
 religion, and against as strong a current of 
 providential influences as ever men, in the 
 madness of their hearts, attempted to re- 
 sist. 
 
 Taking then for granted that to evan- 
 gelize the world is the great object of pur- 
 suit to all Christians, I advance and shall 
 endeavour to maintain the following, as 
 principles, by which their efforts in prose- 
 cuting this object should be regulated ; — 
 namely : 
 
 That they should seek to propagate 
 
18 
 
 THOUGHTS ON 
 
 substantial Christianity, rather than any 
 sectarian form of it ; 
 
 That they should lay their plans 
 of evangelism, so as to admit the coalition 
 of all Christians ; 
 
 That they should so conduct their 
 proceedings as to evade as far as possible 
 opposition from the world ; 
 
 That nevertheless, the utmost zeal 
 and resolution are indispensable to carry- 
 ing the work forward ; But, after all, 
 
 That they should depend for suc- 
 cess, not on their own exertions, however 
 unexceptionable, but on the co-operation of 
 the divine Power. 
 
 I. My first remark is, that in our efforts 
 to evangelize the world we should seek to 
 propagate substantial Christianity rather 
 than any sectarian form of it. Perhaps it 
 is necessary that I should here explain 
 myself. 
 
EVANGELIZING THE WORLD. 19 
 
 Among the various sects of true* Chris- 
 tians, there are of course peculiarities 
 which distinguish and unhappily divide 
 them from one another ; and there is also 
 a common faith, which distinguishes them 
 all from the world, but which indissolubly 
 unites them to one another and to the great 
 family of God in heaven and on earth. 
 Their common faith is substantial, and 
 their party peculiarities are sectarian Chris- 
 tianity. My position is, that in their ef- 
 forts to spread the Gospel among man- 
 kind, Christians should seek to propagate, 
 not the latter but the former, their common 
 
 * As all were not Israel who were of Israel, so all are not Christians 
 who have assumed the Christian name. I speak not of nominal but 
 real Christians. My object does not require me to specify the points in 
 which the latter are always distinguished from the former. That there 
 are such points is certain ; and it is also certain, in my own belief, that 
 these points, relate to doctrine, as well as spirit and conduct. I assume 
 that these points are known, and that those only are admitted to be true 
 Christians who are not radically delinquent in respect to them. I speak 
 exclusively of those who are admitted to be the true followers and 
 friends of Christ. 
 
20 THOUGHTS ON 
 
 faith — not their sectarian peculiarities, what 
 they agree, not what they differ in, — what 
 unites, not what divides them. To be, if 
 possible, yet more explicit, I mean to say, 
 and shall attempt to prove, that their ob- 
 ject should be to propagate not both what 
 they agree and what they differ in ; but 
 what they agree in exclusively of what 
 they differ in.* I am aware that there are 
 those who may consider this a startling 
 paradox, and I should not advance it but 
 
 *It were well, I think, if even ordinary discourses from the pulpit were 
 restricted to these undisputed points. These points are sufficiently nu- 
 merous and comprehensive to engross all the time and strength of 
 preachers ; and it is doubtful if there is a promiscuous congregation on 
 earth that are not liable to be more injured than profitted by polemical 
 sermons. To what does the most laborious indoctrination of the com- 
 mon people in polemical divinity generally amount ? But have I not 
 used an improper epithet ? It is not controversial preaching that de- 
 mands labour, but the practical enforcement of the great fundamentals 
 of the gospel! Is not this among the reasons why controversy in the 
 pulpit is so common? If a preacher wishes to make what most of his 
 hearers will think an able discourse, at little expense of either time or 
 thought, let him take as his theme, not some common-place topic of 
 morals, or some article of the common faith, but a subject which will 
 allow him to raise and resolve sectarian questions at pleasure. 
 
EVANGELIZING THE WORLD. 21 
 
 from the most imperative sense both of its 
 truth, and of the infinite importance of its 
 being practically acknowledged as truth. 
 The following are the grounds of this 
 conviction. 
 
 1. Importance belongs to what Chris- 
 tians agree in, comparative nothingness to 
 what divides them into sects. Of this, 
 much as it is practically contradicted, per- 
 haps no Christian would be thought seri- 
 ously to entertain a doubt. What Chris- 
 tians agree in is what makes them Chris- 
 tians; what they differ in, is what has 
 given rise to their other names — names 
 which will not be known in heaven, and it 
 were well if they should from this moment 
 pass into perpetual oblivion. This thought 
 I would fain indelibly impress on every 
 mind, that it is the faith all Christians hold 
 in common, in which salvation lies. It 
 
 does not lie in points of sectarian contro- 
 3 
 
22 THOUGHTS ON 
 
 versy, but in those great fundamentals which 
 unite all Christians together, and make them 
 one brotherhood, one indissoluble body, 
 the body of Christ. Let me state this 
 truth strongly, for so I think it should 
 be stated. Presbyterians are not saved by 
 their Presbyterian peculiarities, nor Epis- 
 copalians by theirs, nor Independents by 
 theirs ; but all are saved by what all hold 
 in common, by what makes them Chris- 
 tians, not what makes them sectarians. 
 A man may be a sincere and zealous sec- 
 tarian and yet be at heart an enemy to 
 Christianity, and be lost ; lost he cannot be, 
 and be a Christian. He may be a secta- 
 rian without being a Christian, and he may 
 be a Christian without being a sectarian ; 
 and if he is but a Christian, he is a child 
 of God, a member of Christ, and an heir 
 of the kingdom of heaven, though every 
 sect on earth should deny him its distinctive 
 
EVANGELIZING THE WORLD. 23 
 
 name.* It is this unquestioned fact, that 
 justifies the remark, that sectarian differ- 
 ences, compared to substantial Christi- 
 anity are unimportant. The remark is 
 true, unless it be not true that nothing 
 temporal and momentary is worthy to be 
 compared with the salvation of the immor- 
 tal soul. Now as to the conclusiveness 
 of this remark, as an argument for my po- 
 sition ; — the propriety of insisting upon 
 points, comparatively unimportant, de- 
 pends always upon the nature of the busi- 
 ness in hand. If the business be trivial, 
 
 * There are those who deem the divisions and disputes of the various 
 churches, a sufficient apology for not connecting themselves with any 
 particular church. But if these persons could justify themselves in their 
 visible disunion from the church, the non-existence of the visible church 
 itself were perhaps desirable, since that event would take place if their ex- 
 ample should be universally followed. Deeply as the existence of sects 
 is to be deplored, it is well on the whole that the visible church, divided 
 as it is, remains; it is not wholly deserted by Heaven, and what God in 
 his forbearance and grace accepts, man should not be so zealous for 
 perfect purity and peace as to disown. The author speaks, in the text, 
 not of those who will not belong to the visible church, because if they 
 do so, they must connect themselves with a sect ; but of those whom 
 the sects will not, while admitting them to be Christians, receive into 
 their associations. 
 
24 THOUGHTS ON 
 
 and the consequences of no moment, 
 whether it be done or not done, then little 
 matters may have attention ; but if the bu- 
 siness be of the gravest sort, demanding 
 the utmost application and despatch, it is 
 most unmeet and unrighteous to give any 
 place whatever to unimportant things. If 
 for example, the nation was at war with a 
 foreign power, and the crisis of the contest 
 had come, and the leaders of the national 
 forces should, the hour previous to entrance 
 on the decisive battle, give themselves to 
 disputes about matters of personal or pri- 
 vate difference, instead of confining their 
 attention to what was peremptorily de- 
 manded by the great exigency they were 
 called to meet, with what indignation would 
 their conduct fill the land ? They would 
 deserve the indignation and abhorrence of 
 all men. Now the enterprise of propa- 
 gating Christianity, if it be not perfectly 
 
EVANGELIZING THE WORLD. 25 
 
 visionary and idle, is the gravest, the 
 weightiest, the most pressing work in 
 which men or angels ever were engaged : 
 it is an enterprise contemplating the rescue 
 of a world from eternal ruin. The case is 
 this, unless our religion be a fable : Man- 
 kind are in perishing circumstances ; an 
 enemy is among them of such amazing 
 malignity and power, that he accomplishes 
 their everlasting destruction at the rate of 
 twenty millions a year. Christianity is an 
 influence which can overcome this enemy, 
 and Christians undertake to apply this in- 
 fluence. I simply ask, are they serious in 
 the undertaking. I make the appeal to 
 you, whether if they are so, they can, with 
 any propriety, or can at all, wish to engage 
 the attention of mankind to their sectarian 
 differences and disputes ? The adversary 
 can be defeated, men can be saved, with- 
 out doing this ; and till men are saved, 
 3* 
 
26 THOUGHTS ON 
 
 how can those who are seriously seeking 
 their salvation, do any thing to occupy 
 them, or wish to see them occupied about 
 things which do not accompany salvation 
 or tend to secure it ? The perishing world 
 are in no circumstances to enter into the 
 doubtful disputations of the Christian 
 sects ; they are not likely to be benefitted, 
 and may be fatally injured by giving 
 thought to these matters ; their tendency 
 especially upon worldly minds, is to divert 
 attention from the concerns of the soul ; 
 and to endeavour to persuade the world to 
 embrace this or that side of these vexed 
 questions, is more irrelevant and improper, 
 than would be a debate about some matter 
 of taste in literature or the arts, with per- 
 sons whom we were endeavouring to rescue 
 from the waves or the fire. This is my 
 first argument for limiting the zeal of 
 Christians in their efforts to evangelize 
 
EVANGELIZING THE WORLD. 2*7 
 
 mankind to the propagation of substantial 
 Christianity. It is, that there is compa- 
 ratively no importance, in points of secta- 
 rian strife and division, no importance 
 whatever relatively to the high end pursued, 
 the recovery of immortal beings perishing 
 in sin ; and that seriousness in seeking 
 this end, is incompatible with being occu- 
 pied ourselves, or wishing to occupy oth- 
 ers about matters, which instead of promot- 
 ing may defeat it. I do not say that it is 
 absolutely of no importance what side be 
 right or what side wrong in sectarian 
 •controversies, but that the importance is 
 small, comparatively ; and that to seek to 
 enlist the world, whether on this or that of 
 these contending sides, is not the way to 
 save them from the infinite ruin which is 
 impending over them. If all men were 
 already saved, I will not say what might 
 ;be done, if charitably and peaceably done, 
 
28 THOUGHTS ON 
 
 in respect to disputable points ; but if the 
 world be as all Christians hold it to be, in 
 sin and under wrath, — if graceless men 
 pass into endless wo, as fast as they pass 
 away from the earth, they should, unques- 
 tionably, have nothing to do, in their pre- 
 sent circumstances, with points of doubtful 
 disputation ; and Christians should not, 
 while professedly aiming at their salva- 
 tion, make these points any part of the 
 subject-matter of their teaching and en- 
 forcements. This is the argument, and I 
 think it must commend itself to the com- 
 mon-sense of my hearers, so long as it 
 shall be admitted that the world is in a 
 perishing state, and that the end of evan- 
 gelizing is to convert and save it. Till 
 then, whatever zeal may be shown in pro- 
 pagating sectarian peculiarities, will, I can- 
 not but think, appear to all, who, in this 
 matter, have their senses exercised to dis- 
 
EVANGELIZING THE WORLD. 29 
 
 cover what is congruous and proper, as out 
 of time, out of place, misdirected, mis- 
 spent. 
 
 2. Another reason why we should not 
 seek to propagate sectarianism among 
 mankind is, that there ought to be none 
 among ourselves. For if there ought to 
 be none among Christians, there ought 
 certainly to be none in the world, and if 
 there ought to be none in the world, Chris- 
 tians should not endeavour to propagate it. 
 The fact here asserted, however, will 
 probably be assented to by some, who will 
 yet think it, as an argument to my pur- 
 pose, inconclusive ; because, as they may 
 allege, the same reason why there ought 
 to be no sectarianism among Christians, 
 demands that there be no differences, no 
 sin among them ; thus running up the argu- 
 ment, and so destroying it, into a perfec- 
 tionism, which, it is supposed, is never to 
 
30 THOUGHTS ON 
 
 have place on earth. But they mistake 
 what is meant by the assertion : I mean 
 that there ought to be no sectarianism 
 among Christians, notwithstanding their 
 differences. Let them, if need be, have 
 their differences, but let not their differen- 
 ces develope themselves in sectarian divi- 
 sions and parties. I fear this is an obser- 
 vation which some will be disposed to re- 
 solve into a visionary cast of mind, but I 
 must beg them not to disparage their own 
 claims to superior judgment, by discarding 
 it, before they have dispassionately reflect- 
 ed upon it. My position is that there 
 ought to be no sectarian divisions among 
 Christians on account of differences 
 among themselves. It matters not what 
 the differences may be, they cannot justify 
 their going off from one another, and form- 
 ing distinct sects, and taking sectarian de- 
 nominations on the principle of agreement 
 
EVANGELIZING THE WORLD. 31 
 
 in differences, and thenceforth admitting 
 none within their respective denomina- 
 tional pales, however Christian, who do 
 not adopt their distinctive peculiarities ; 
 and thus keeping themselves apart from 
 their brethren, and as things are in this 
 world, making rivalry and contention 
 among the members of the body of Christ, 
 certain and unavoidable. There is, I 
 aver before heaven and earth, no justifica- 
 tion of things like these, and no one should 
 on any ground attempt to justify them. 
 No matter, I repeat, what the differences 
 may be, the fact that they are differences 
 among Christians is decisive, that they 
 form no sufficient basis for sectarianism. 
 They are differences among persons who 
 agree in such and so many respects, that 
 to divide on the ground of differences, is 
 so unnecessary, so unnatural, that I can 
 think of nothing which, in these respects, 
 
32 THOUGHTS ON 
 
 can be compared to it. It is worse than 
 if a man should part from a friend, dearer 
 to him than life, simply because of some 
 almost imperceptible dissonance in the 
 tone of his voice. It is, according to an 
 inspired illustration, as if the members of 
 the body, the feet and hands, should fall 
 into schismatical strife, because they hold 
 not the same place in the system. There 
 are those, I am aware, who would smile 
 at these statements ; but I must think 
 they would be less disposed to do so T if 
 their spiritual sympathies were purer, live- 
 lier, and more intelligent. If they had but 
 a just sense of the magnitude and impor- 
 tance of those things in which all Chris- 
 tians agree with each other, and with 
 Christ and his kingdom, they would ex- 
 change their pity at my earnestness against 
 sectarian division, for wonder and grief 
 that the thought of sectarianism was ever 
 
EVANGELIZING THE WORLD. 33 
 
 indulged. I cannot now dwell upon these 
 great points of union ; I have no time even 
 to state them ; but if I had an angel's 
 tongue I could not set them forth in their 
 full greatness, beauty, and excellence. Let 
 me only say that it is losing sight of these 
 points, it is treating them as if they were 
 nothing, to regard any points of difference 
 as cause for sectarian separations. 
 
 It has been said, however, that unjusti- 
 fiable as sectarianism may be, better have 
 it, than that Christians should remain to- 
 gether, feeling as they do, in respect to 
 their differences. Nay, it has even been 
 urged that sectarianism is on the whole, 
 gain to Christianity. But did Christ think 
 so, when he made unity among his disci- 
 ples the badge and evidence to the world, 
 of their union to himself;* the means 
 
34 THOUGHTS ON 
 
 by which the world is to be convinced that 
 Christianity is true ;* the main subject — 
 matter of the prayer! which he poured 
 forth from his heart of love in behalf of all 
 who should ever bear his name, just before 
 his passion ? Did Paul think so when he 
 likened division among Christians, to a 
 war between the members of the same hu- 
 man frame; | and demanded of the church 
 of Corinth, if they were not carnal and did 
 not walk as men, because there were divi- 
 sions among them ; and said to the parti- 
 zans in that church, is Christ divided 1 and 
 to the party that would be called by his 
 own name, was Paul crucified for you ? or 
 were ye baptized in the name of PauH|| 
 and besought the church of Rome§ to 
 mark them who caused divisions and of- 
 fences, and avoid them, as being persons 
 
 * John xvii. 21 J John xvii. $ Rom. xii. 25. || 1 Cor. i. 13. 
 \ Rom. xvi. 17, 18. 
 
EVANGELIZING THE WORLD. 35 
 
 who served not our Lord Jesus Christ, but 
 their own belly 1 Did another holy Apos- 
 tle think so, when he spoke of those who 
 separate themselves as sensual, not having 
 the spirit ?* Is it from the scriptures that 
 the doctrine is derived, that sectarian divi- 
 sions are gainful to Christianity ? It is, my 
 hearers, if sensuality, and the loss of the Ho- 
 ly Spirit's presence, and what the Apostles 
 and Christ thought the supreme reproach 
 of the Church, be gainful. Let the thing 
 be mentioned, if it can be, from which 
 scripture leads us to fear as great harm to 
 Christianity. Can it be the sober judg- 
 ment of any one that it is better to have 
 sectarianism than not to have it ? I can- 
 not believe this. There is one thing worse 
 than sectarianism. It is better to have 
 sectarianism than no Christianity ; but 
 
36 THOUGHTS ON 
 
 not better than to have no sectarianism. 
 It is not better in other words, to have 
 Christianity with sects, than Christianity 
 without them. It is not better, and no one 
 I am persuaded can think it better. No, if 
 such a state of things might be once again 
 in the earth, as Christianity and no secta- 
 rian names and parties, there is no true 
 Christian who would not long for the dawn 
 of the happy day when it should be seen. 
 While sectarianism remains, God, who has 
 determined that the Gospel shall ultimate- 
 ly triumph, restrains its evil tendencies ; 
 but still it is an evil at whose abolishment 
 heaven and earth would have occasion to 
 keep jubilee a thousand years. Sectari- 
 anism ought, at this moment, to have no 
 place : and the Feeling which gives rise to 
 it, ought to have none. Christians ought 
 not to feel as they do in view of their dif- 
 ferences among themselves. I will not 
 
EVANGELIZING THE WORLD. 37 
 
 name this feeling extravagant, it is in a just 
 of view of things altogether groundless : 
 nor could it have existence, but from a 
 state of heart which makes great and little 
 to change natures ; and which indulged, 
 leads to absolute moral blindness. It 
 is carnal, sensual, criminal feeling; it 
 ought not to be indulged, but rebuked, 
 repented of, and corrected ; or if it prove 
 intractable, the evidence of its evil and 
 pernicious nature ought to be proclaimed 
 and dwelt upon ; and all who have not 
 fallen under its infatuating power, ought to 
 keep up constant lamentation and regrets. 
 It ought no more to be indulged, than en- 
 vy, or wrath, or malice, or lust, or covet- 
 ousness, or any other bad feeling of the 
 heart. There ought, I repeat, to be no 
 such thing as sectarianism among Chris- 
 tians, and this sentiment should be hence- 
 forth, and in every appropriate way, incul- 
 4* 
 
OO THOUGHTS ON 
 
 cated in all the churches until it comes to 
 be thought heresy and schism, not to be- 
 lieve and practically acknowledge it. 
 
 This is the second argument against the 
 propagation of sectarian Christianity. It 
 is an argument which none can misunder- 
 stand, and none, I presume, will attempt to 
 resist it. 
 
 3. The third and last is, that the world 
 cannot be evangelized by the propagation 
 of sectarianism. It will ever be fatal to 
 the success of the undertaking. This I 
 think, every one must be convinced of, 
 who will consider the matter either in the 
 light of scripture, or his own common- 
 sense. As to scripture-testimony, I will 
 only observe that the zeal of our Lord and 
 his Apostles against divisions, manifestly 
 has this for its great argument, that the 
 success of the Christian cause demands 
 that as to divisions there be none. As to 
 
EVANGELIZING THE WORLD. 39 
 
 the verdict of common-sense, let any one 
 call to mind how things are in Christen- 
 dom, and how they have been since it was 
 split into contending divisions and parties ; 
 let him remember the bitter animosities, 
 the reciprocal exclusions and anathemas, the 
 altars against altars, the preaching against 
 preaching, the systems against systems ; 
 let him remember how the labours of the 
 different sects have always been crossing 
 and checking, and neutralizing one ano- 
 ther ; and how, in consequence, Christen- 
 dom itself has been an almost perpetual 
 desolation, and is so at the present day ; 
 and how the world, instead of yielding to 
 the power, or even confessing the truth of 
 Christianity, have hardened themselves in 
 a contemptuous and scornful infidelity, by 
 observing how Christians deny their own 
 principles in their dealings with Christians 
 as well as with themselves ; let any one, 
 
40 THOUGHTS ON 
 
 I say, seriously consider these fruits of 
 sectarianism in Christendom, and then 
 believe if he can, that either Christendom 
 or the heathen nations, will ever be truly 
 evangelized by the propagation of secta- 
 rian Christianity. Will the tree which 
 has been bringing forth these poisonous 
 fruits in Christian lands, bring forth better 
 ones by being transplanted into the wild 
 soil of heathenism. No, it is a manifest 
 certainty, and it ought to be held as an 
 axiom by all Christians, that Christianity 
 to be triumphant in this world, must go 
 forth, not with her robes torn and defiled, 
 her visage marred, her strength exhaust- 
 ed, by sectarian violence and abuse, but 
 in her own native unity, simplicity, and 
 beauty. Such is Christianity now, as held 
 by all true Christians in common ; the 
 same simple, peaceful, consistent, dig- 
 nified daughter of the skies, as at first ; 
 
EVANGELIZING THE WORLD 41 
 
 such, then, by general consent, let her go 
 forth, and let every one who bears her 
 high name, lay aside, as far as may be 
 needful, his other name, imposed by a 
 sect, and join in the enterprise of giving 
 her, in her pristine integrity and simplicity, 
 the empire of the universe. Thus, most 
 certainly, must she triumph, if she tri- 
 umph at all. 
 
 II. So high and unassailable are the 
 proofs of our first proposition ; but not 
 less so are those of the second. It is as 
 evident that there should be no sectarian- 
 ism in our plans and measures for propagat- 
 ing the gospel, as that there should be none 
 in our aim and object. Our plans, it was 
 said, should be such as to admit the coali- 
 tion of all Christians, whatever may be 
 their sectarian names and opinions. 
 
 This is a doctrine, I know, which since 
 
42 THOUGHTS ON 
 
 the corruption and dismemberment of the 
 Church, has found little favour, practically, 
 in Christendom ; but it is still most mani- 
 festly true and Christian doctrine, and was 
 held and inculcated by the Apostles, and 
 with the primitive church, in their trium- 
 phant efforts to spread the gospel, it had 
 controlling influence ; and objections to it 
 do but show, how mighty is the spirit of 
 sect to blind and infatuate the heart, and 
 are objections, to a return to the spirit and 
 practice of the primitive times — to obey 
 the requisitions of scripture and of con- 
 science. I feel myself compelled to insist 
 on the adoption of this doctrine, as of vital 
 importance. It must be adopted. The 
 necessity of its adoption is as manifest as 
 the absurdity of attempting to convert the 
 world by propagating the bigotry, contradic- 
 tions, and angry animosities of sectarian- 
 ism. Without controversy, it must and will 
 
EVANGELIZING THE WORLD. 43 
 
 be adopted, before the gospel achieves its 
 destined victory over the world. That 
 victory will be won by anti-sectarian Chris- 
 tianity, propagated by anti-sectarian mea- 
 sures of evangelism. 
 
 That the measures as well as the reli- 
 gion, must be anti-sectarian, is as obvious 
 as that means used to accomplish a result 
 should not in their own nature and ten- 
 dency be adapted to defeat that result. 
 Employing sectarian measures to promote 
 an anti-sectarian object, is like raising the 
 wind to still the waves, or pouring oil 
 upon flames in order to quench them. It 
 is cherishing sectarianism in one place, 
 while professedly desiring and aiming to 
 destroy it in another. It is filling the 
 fountain in order to dry up the streams. 
 It supposes that Satan is divided against 
 himself; it is setting Satan to cast out 
 Satan. 
 
44 THOUGHTS ON 
 
 It is strange, passing strange, that our 
 plans should be sectarian if our object be 
 not so. With what show of consistency 
 can we adopt such plans ? Consistency 
 is manifestly disowned by adopting them. 
 I appeal to you, whether this be not 
 the fact. Believing that importance be- 
 longs to what we hold in common with all 
 Christians, and that there is, compara- 
 tively, no importance in what separates 
 Christians from one another, and that the 
 state of the world demands that we let un- 
 important matters alone in endeavouring to 
 propagate our religion, and bestow our 
 pains on the great things in which we are 
 all united ; thus believing, we professedly 
 engage in the work of spreading the com- 
 mon salvation. We avow as our object 
 the advancement of nothing peculiar to 
 ourselves as sectarians, but of what no 
 more concerns our own distinctive de- 
 
EVANGELIZING THE WORLD. 45 
 
 nomination, than all of every name and 
 sect who love the Lord Jesus Christ : 
 and yet we adopt measures and plans of 
 procedure in which none can join us with- 
 out embracing our own denominational 
 singularities. Is this to be consistent? 
 We say to all Christians, we will not work 
 with you, and you shall not work with us, 
 unless you are baptized as we have been, 
 and submit to our modes of discipline, and 
 adopt our peculiar creed, and subject your 
 charities and labours to our supervision and 
 disposal ; while our ostensible design is to 
 advance, not our own cause by any means, 
 but a cause in which every denomina- 
 tion's interest is as vital as ours — the Com- 
 mon Cause of all denominations, of all 
 saints in heaven and earth, of Christ and 
 his universal Church ! Such is the glaring 
 inconsistency of Catholicism in object, and 
 
 sectarianism in spirit and proceedings. 
 5 
 
46 THOUGHTS ON 
 
 And what reason is there why we should 
 repudiate consistency by retaining secta- 
 rianism in our measures 1 Do we not by 
 so doing disparage all our pretensions to 
 liberality ? The sect which pursues such 
 a course will never, can never be believed 
 in its catholic professions : no, it will and 
 ought to be distrusted : it will be regarded 
 as after all having sectarian ends ; and 
 before God and man, it will display a sec- 
 tarian banner, and to all intents and pur- 
 poses, be most devotedly sectarian, both in 
 plan and in object. 
 
 But if sectarianism in our plans were 
 not incompatible with the absence of it 
 from our object, still it should have no 
 place in the former, provided it really 
 have none in the latter. No, if it were 
 possible by sectarian modes of action 
 to favour the propagation anti-sectarian 
 
EVANGELIZING THE WORLD. 47 
 
 Christianity, such modes should not be 
 used. All sectarianism, as I have shewn, 
 ought to be forthwith renounced, and to 
 disappear out of the world. It is the great 
 scandal of our religion, which all Chris- 
 tians should combine to abolish. But this 
 is not done by those who put their modes 
 and plans of effort under the exclusive 
 control and dictation of the spirit of sect. 
 If they oppose sectarianism in one way, 
 they promote and build it up in another. In 
 short, nothing can be plainer, than that the 
 proof of our first proposition is virtually 
 the proof also of that which is now before 
 us. Admit that our object should be to 
 propagate substantial Christianity, and it 
 is at the same time admitted that we 
 should have no sectarianism in our plans 
 and measures of evangelization. 
 
 If it should be thought that our respec- 
 tive denominations have claims upon us, 
 
48 THOUGHTS ON 
 
 which interfere with our uniting, in unsec- 
 tarian plans and societies, with other 
 Christians, I have only to request that this 
 assumption may for one moment be look- 
 ed at with a candid eye. It will not bear 
 such an inspection. It will be found at 
 once to be the very strong-hold of secta- 
 rianism. It is an error, a manifest and 
 palpable error. As the Church of Christ 
 now is upon the earth, no one can visibly 
 join the Church, which it is certainly each 
 person's duty to do, without associating him- 
 self with some one of the Christian sects ; 
 but when he joins a sect, he joins, and if 
 his views be just, intends to join the great 
 brotherhood of Christians, the divinely 
 compacted, indissoluble body of Christ. 
 From conviction, from education, from do- 
 mestic relationship, from local conven- 
 ience, or from undefinable feeling, he may 
 be inclined to connect himself with one 
 
EVANGELIZING THE WORLD. 49 
 
 denomination, rather than another ; but 
 what mainly leads him to seek admission 
 into a particular church, is what consti- 
 tutes him a Christian, the one spirit which 
 pervades the whole family of God in heav- 
 en and earth ; and the tie which binds him 
 to his chosen sect, is as the spider's most 
 attenuated thread, is less than nothing, 
 compared to those everlasting bonds which 
 make him and his Saviour, and all Chris- 
 tians, through time and eternity, one. It 
 is to the cause of his Saviour that he con- 
 secrates himself, not to the cause of his 
 sect. There is no covenant, no agree- 
 ment, no understanding to the contrary of 
 this. He binds himself indeed to seek 
 the peace and edification of his brethren, 
 and to be obedient, in the Lord, to their 
 usages and requisitions ; but he does not 
 bind himself, in any respect, or instance, 
 
 or manner whatsoever, to walk contrary 
 
 5* 
 
50 THOUGHTS ON 
 
 to the infinitely higher laws and demands 
 of that great relation which he bears to 
 the universal Church. The sect which 
 he joins has itself no right to go contrary 
 to, or disregard these demands ; and can 
 hardly do so without violating its title to 
 the Christian name. If then a case should 
 arise, in which the interests of the general 
 cause of Christ, require an anti-sectarian 
 movement, concurrence in such a move- 
 ment is binding upon the sect and every 
 individual belonging to it. But the inter- 
 ests of the Christian cause, demand, as we 
 have seen, the very non-existence of sec- 
 tarianism. The conclusion is, and — unless 
 we are ready to confess ourselves so in 
 love with the spirit of sect, as for the sake 
 of it to fall out with reason — let us not resist 
 this most logical conclusion, that every 
 sect and every Christian on earth, is bound 
 to concur in appropriate movements for 
 
EVANGELIZING THE WORLD. 51 
 
 the abolition of sectarianism ; and it were 
 well, it were cause for unspeakable joy, 
 if every Christian should henceforth 
 to the end of his days, give to such 
 movements the complete devotion of his 
 heart and strength. When a sect charges 
 its members with unfaithfulness, because 
 they are unsectarian in their associations 
 and plans for spreading the gospel, it 
 imputes to them as a fault, what it should 
 praise as a rare excellence, and univer- 
 sally imitate. 
 
 There is, assuredly, no good, no suffi- 
 cient reason for opposing anti-sectarian 
 modes of effort. They are proper modes, 
 and the only proper ones. Without a 
 continued series of miracles, the end pur- 
 sued is attainable by no other means. 
 I pray that it may be inquired into and 
 decided by all sects of Christians, wheth- 
 er I have not now uttered the truth. I ad- 
 
52 THOUGHTS ON 
 
 dress myself to the common-sense of 
 mankind, and ask before the face of the 
 world, if it be not a manifest certainty, that 
 there is no cause to hope for the general 
 triumph of the gospel, from sectarian 
 plans for its advancement. I make the 
 same appeal to the scriptures. Their 
 voice, in perfect consonance with that of 
 our own common-sense, gives authorita- 
 tively and strongly, a negative answer : 
 such an answer comes as in accents of 
 thunder, from the recorded charges, re- 
 monstrances and prayers of Christ and his 
 apostles against sectarian separations. 
 With perfect confidence, I should antici- 
 pate the same answer from all the sects 
 themselves, if they would give their delib- 
 erate decision on the point. It is then 
 settled and agreed to, that measures per- 
 vaded and regulated by the spirit of sect, 
 
EVANGELIZING THE WORLD. 53 
 
 are not appropriate and will not be suc- 
 cessful. 
 
 Nevertheless, sectarian movements re- 
 main. They remain, and by some are 
 most zealously contended for and promot- 
 ed, as exclusively deserving of patronage. 
 Will there ever be a limit to human incon- 
 sistency ? And on what pretext think 
 you, is this marvellous inconsistency 
 maintained ? On the no less marvellous 
 pretext, that the time for ceasing from sec- 
 tarianism has not arrived. Sectarianism, 
 it is conceded, is wrong and undesirable, 
 and must cease before the restraints which 
 hinder the diffusion of the spirit of Chris- 
 tianity are removed, and will one day 
 cease ; but the time is not yet come. I 
 wish it to be pondered, that this is the ar- 
 gument and the only argument for the 
 continuance of the sectarian establish- 
 ments and operations of these times. An 
 
54 
 
 THOUGHTS ON 
 
 argument advanced, most surely, through 
 inadvertence. As if a state of things 
 which is certainly to come, and to come by 
 the use of means suited to produce it, and 
 for which the church and the whole crea- 
 tion are sighing and languishing, might all 
 the while previously to its occurrence, be, 
 of set plan and purpose, justifiably oppos- 
 ed and contended against ! Let Chris- 
 tians generally fall in with the measures of 
 sectarianism, and when think you will the 
 time come for its abolition ? Most cer- 
 tainly never, while they continue to do so. 
 Wherefore, I beseech you, as you de- 
 sire to see the end of the Church's re- 
 proachful divisions and the bright day of 
 her triumph, have nothing more to do with 
 any sectarian plans for evangelizing men. 
 I address this entreaty to you as individuals ; 
 my object is to pursuade you, one by one, 
 each man for himself, to renounce perfect- 
 
EVANGELIZING THE WORLD. 55 
 
 ly the spirit of sect in efforts and associa- 
 tions for the spread of Christianity. And 
 I do this, from the full persuasion, that 
 the individual non-concurrence of Chris- 
 tians in sectarian measures, is the way and 
 the only way in which these measures and 
 their object can be brought to an end. 
 There is no hope that the sects as such, 
 will formally resolve against sectarian ac- 
 tion, or think the time come for ceasing 
 from it, until it is actually ceased from by 
 a decided and manifest majority of the in- 
 dividuals composing them. No ; they 
 will as long as possible, and by every 
 means which the party feeling that per- 
 vades them can invent, perpetuate and 
 defend such action. Nor is it by seces- 
 sions, and new organizations on professed 
 anti-sectarian principles, that the evil is to 
 be destroyed. To withdraw from a sect, 
 admitting it to be composed of Christians, 
 
56 THOUGHTS ON 
 
 is essentially the same thing with sectari- 
 anism itself ; it is, if I mistake not, the 
 very sin of schism. There is however 
 one way, and as far as I can see, but 
 one, in which the great object of desire 
 may be accomplished ; that way has been 
 mentioned; it is by each individual Chris- 
 tian's repenting apart of his past secta- 
 rianism and having no more to do with 
 it, in any manner or instance whatever, 
 the rest of his life. This is the way, 
 and it is a sure and easy way to bring 
 sectarianism to an end. In this way the 
 abolition of the evil might be accomplish- 
 ed at once, and accomplished quietly and 
 happily. In this way, it is most cheering 
 to remark, its abolition is already in pro- 
 gress. That it is so, is the chief glory of 
 the age. If I were asked to designate what 
 I regard as the fairest of the signs of these 
 times, I should mention this. Christians 
 
EVANGELIZING THE WORLD. 57 
 
 of all sects, beginning to feel the power 
 of those eternal bonds which bind them 
 together and make them one in Christ, 
 and the weakness of the causes, which have 
 kept them apart, are associating in plans 
 for evangelizing mankind, on the broad 
 principles of their common faith ; and 
 God is manifestly with them in these holy 
 associations ; and every day, their numbers 
 their resources and their successes are 
 augmenting. And notwithstanding some 
 recent indications that a spirit of opposi- 
 tion is rising up, I cannot think it possible 
 effectually to resist the anti-sectarian im- 
 pulse of these associations. No, the 
 strength of God, I doubt not, is in it ; the 
 day of the latter glory of the gospel is 
 dawning : the time of the abolition of sects 
 and sectarianism, if not come, is nigh at 
 hand : happy is every one who, by appro- 
 6 
 
58 THOUGHTS ON 
 
 priate prayer and effort, aims to accelerate 
 its progress. 
 
 III. I proceed to the consideration of 
 the third principle by which the conduct 
 of the enterprise should be governed : It 
 is, to evade as far as possible, that is, as 
 far as may be done consistently with faith- 
 fulness in pursuing the great object, all 
 opposition from the world. 
 
 This principle, thus explained, will not, 
 I presume, be controverted ; since the 
 question, how far faithfulness in carrying 
 on the work may consist with efforts to 
 evade adverse consenuences, is left unde- 
 cided. Some indeed seem to hold that 
 faithfulness is incompatible with all re- 
 spect to such consequences, and will not 
 even admit a question on this point ; but I 
 cannot help thinking that even these per- 
 sons, clearly and seriously apprehending 
 
EVANGELIZING THE WORLD. 59 
 
 the real matter, would probably decline 
 gainsaying it. Much of the discourse 
 which has of late been held in the press 
 and in the pulpit, against expediency, mis- 
 names, as it seems to me, the object of its 
 denunciation. That object, is in fact, 
 carnal policy, a selfish time-serving man- 
 agement, a most unchristian and unprin- 
 cipled thing truly, which deserves to be 
 universally denounced ; but why should it 
 be identified with expediency ] Expedi- 
 ency, in the just sense of the word, is a 
 very different, and, common as it has be- 
 come to speak against it, I must say, a 
 very good thing. Nay, what is expedient, 
 is what on the whole is for the best ; and, 
 what is for the best, i s best; and virtue 
 and the law of God, of course, demand 
 that it be pursued. It can be consistently 
 denounced or stigmatized, surely, by none 
 but malevolent persons. Will it be said 
 
60 
 
 THOUGHTS ON 
 
 that what is for the best in the present 
 case, is already ascertained to be, to pay 
 no regard to consequences ; so that we 
 have nothing to do with the question of 
 expediency ; and that to consult expedi- 
 ency, now that what is for the best is 
 known, is indeed one with consulting with 
 flesh and blood 1 This, I answer, rests 
 upon an assumption, which manifestly 
 leads to all the extravagancies and mis- 
 chiefs of fanaticism. The assumption is 
 that we already know that what is for 
 the best in efforts to evangelize mankind, 
 is to pay no regard to the consequences 
 of our measures ; not even to ask the 
 question, whether they will be likely to ex- 
 cite opposition or not. But is this the fact? 
 Let the proof of it be shewn. There is 
 no explicit assertion of it in scripture ; 
 nay, both the examples and precepts of 
 Christ and the apostles, are directly 
 
EVANGELIZING THE WORLD. 61 
 
 against it. The first propagators of the 
 gospel exercised the most consummate 
 discretion in their use of measures ; and 
 they required their successors to walk in 
 their footsteps. It is not sufficient, ac- 
 cording to their teaching, that we aim at 
 the accomplishment of a good end, and 
 that we pursue that end with self-renounc- 
 ing zeal, and prepare ourselves to die, 
 in carrying the design forward ; but we 
 must take heed to ourselves, in every step 
 and turn of our proceedings, lest we do, 
 say, feel, or conceive somewhat, which 
 may not be wise, or in itself adapted to 
 effect our purpose. I need not recite the 
 places which make this extreme care im- 
 perative upon us.* 
 
 Is it objected that our Saviour taught 
 his disciples that prudent as they might 
 
 * See Matt. x. 16. xvii. 27. Rom. xiv. 13. 1 Cor. viii. 9—13, ix. 12, 19- - 
 23, x. 23, 24, 32 33. 2 Cor. vi. 3. 1 Tim iv. 16. 2 Tim. ii. 24, 25. 
 
 6* 
 
62 THOUGHTS ON 
 
 be, the world would oppose them, nay 
 that they were to embark in the work 
 with the assured expectation of encoun- 
 tering the world's opposition in the most for- 
 midable shapes ? I grant that he did so : 
 But does this imply that we should not 
 as far as in us lies, endeavour to evade 
 that opposition 1 If it must come, may it 
 not, on many accounts, be important, that 
 it come not by any imprudence or impro- 
 priety on our part 1 If we must be oppos- 
 ed, will it not be an advantage to us, to 
 be opposed on account of wisdom rather 
 than folly ; of discretion rather than rash- 
 ness in our measures ? Our Saviour did 
 assure his disciples, that the world would 
 reproach and persecute them, but he gave 
 them that assurance, it deserves to be 
 considered particularly I think in these 
 times, as a reason not for recklessness, 
 but for the greatest possible prudence of 
 
EVANGELIZING THE WORLD. 63 
 
 procedure. "Behold," he said, "I send 
 you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves !" 
 What hope, even of escaping with life, 
 in such circumstances 1 But should we 
 therefore dismiss all care about our ways 
 and movements 1 The very reverse : 
 " Be ye therefore wise as serpents, and 
 harmless as doves." There are, it has 
 been remarked,* neither teeth, nor stings, 
 nor venom, nor wreaths and folds of 
 serpents which ought not to be known ; 
 and our knowledge of these should not 
 be more perfect than our measures 
 in respect to them, should be wise and 
 judicious. In no way whatever, — nei- 
 ther in deed nor word nor look nor 
 thought, should we give just occasion of 
 offence : Nothing needlessly severe, 
 nothing rude, nothing ill-timed, nothing in 
 
 * By Lord Bacon, as the reader would probably have inferred from 
 the manner of the expression. 
 
64 THOUGHTS ON 
 
 any respect injurious, or wrong, or un- 
 lovely, or on any ground exceptionable, 
 will find the least countenance, either 
 from our Saviour's precept or practice.* 
 If we must become a prey to the world's 
 teeth, let it be because of our innocence 
 and faithfulness not because of our pas- 
 sion and imprudence. 
 
 Let me now mention a manifest mis- 
 take, which, as I apprehend, lies at the 
 basis of most of the unwise movements of 
 religious benevolence. It is the enforce- 
 ment of what is called abstract truth or 
 right, without due consideration of the end 
 pursued. A prudential regard to the end is 
 not allowed to shape and regulate the man- 
 ner of the enforcement ; but it is enough 
 that what is enforced, be what, in abstract 
 
 * To allege in disproof of this remark, the sternly reprehensive strain 
 of our Lord in Matt, xxiii. is to lose sight of the peculiar character both 
 of the speaker and the persons addressed. Boldness may be wisdom. 
 
EVANGELIZING THE WORLD. (55 
 
 justice and truth, cannot be found fault 
 with, and ought to obtain ; a principle 
 of proceeding which, human nature and 
 human society being what they are, rests 
 the hope of success, on miracle or acci- 
 dent, or on means which do not concur 
 with but tend to countervail, the immuta- 
 ble laws of the moral world. It ought not 
 to be overlooked, that this mistake, pal- 
 pable as it is, is one to which we are 
 specially liable, through the vehemence of 
 our passions, in carrying forward our en- 
 terprises of religious zeal. Sacred story 
 tells us that two of the apostles fell into 
 this plain mistake. " Lord wilt thou," 
 said the ardent sons of Zebedee, "that we 
 command fire to come down from heaven, 
 and consume them,* as Elias did 1 ?" 
 These disciples, in their indignation at the 
 
 * The inhospitable Samaritans. 
 
66 THOUGHTS ON 
 
 incivility of the Samaritans, thought of 
 nothing but an instant execution of what 
 was abstractly just, upon these guilty per- 
 sons. Their Lord corrected them by 
 putting them in mind of what they had for 
 the moment forgotten, the very obj ect of his 
 appearance in the world : " The son of 
 man is come, not to destroy men's lives, 
 but to save them." The consideration of 
 the end in this case was the lodestar to 
 what was judicious, and christian, and in 
 every sense rigid, as to measures. It 
 brought the minds of the disciples to a 
 balance, and showed them the difference 
 between madness and wisdom in dealing 
 with men in order to win and convert 
 them. 
 
 Let us not be above learning wisdom 
 in the same way. The object of all 
 christian zeal, let us never forget, is not 
 that men be treated according to their de- 
 
EVANGELIZING THE WORLD. 67 
 
 sert ; or be convicted of guilt, or exposed 
 to reproach, or tormented before the time, 
 or tormented at all, but that they be re- 
 covered to the paths of holiness and eter- 
 nal life. This is the end, and all our 
 measures of reform and of religious be- 
 nevolence, should have constant respect 
 to it, and be adapted in their own nature 
 and tendency to produce it. As servants 
 of Christ seeking the object which he 
 sought and requires us to seek, we have 
 no right to use measures, however war- 
 ranted by simple justice, or by what men 
 deserve, of a contrary tendency. Our 
 measures should be those which wisdom 
 in subservience to benevolence and mer- 
 cy, not which naked distributive justice 
 demands. It is not what men deserve, 
 or what they have done, or are doing, that 
 should be mainly considered, but what is 
 suited to reclaim and save them. Their guilt 
 
68 THOUGHTS ON 
 
 unquestionably should not be disregarded, 
 but as our object is not to expose and pu- 
 nish their guilt, but to bless and save them, 
 our measures should have to do with their 
 guilt, only in so far and in such manner as 
 may comport with the earnest and wise 
 pursuit of that object. It may be neces- 
 sary, indeed, in order to save some men, 
 to pursue measures in respect to others, 
 impossible, as the case is, to be pursued, 
 without exasperating and hardening them ; 
 but this necessity is of rare occurrence, 
 and never should we move in such extra- 
 ordinary cases but with the meekness of 
 wisdom in an extraordinary degree. Our 
 great business, we should ever remember 
 with humble and adoring gratitude, is the 
 business of reclaiming and saving men, 
 not the awful work of judgment and con- 
 demnation. 
 
 I regard this principle, the due conside- 
 
EVANGELIZING THE WORLD. 69 
 
 ration and observance of the end, as the 
 summary of truth and wisdom in respect 
 to methods of procedure in carrying on our 
 great work. Steadfastly followed it would 
 have prevented mistakes, and a recurrence 
 to it will cure them. Let us but first dis- 
 cipline our minds to candour and docility, 
 and well consider what is to be done, and 
 the ways and means of doing it will natu- 
 rally suggest themselves. We shall almost 
 intuitively see, both the measures proper 
 to be used and the proper manner of using 
 them. We shall need no other directory. 
 Better, as a guide in the way of practical 
 wisdom, is this law of consideration, than 
 were a book of minute instructions res- 
 pecting measures in every instance in which 
 we shall ever be required to act. Such a 
 book would be rendered useless by its bulk 
 and worse than useless by superseding the 
 exercise of discretion and prayer, and by 
 
70 THOUGHTS ON 
 
 the consumption of time in consulting it. 
 Let it not be thought that we may thus be 
 led to the adoption of measures, in them- 
 selves unlawful; unlawful measures are not 
 and can not be adapted to accomplish a 
 good end. A good end and one proper to 
 be pursued, implies the lawfulness of what- 
 ever means are suited in their own nature 
 and tendency to effect it. The requisite 
 means cannot be in themselves unlawful, 
 just because the end is a lawful one: other- 
 wise it may be right to do a thing and yet 
 wrong to use the means of doing it! It is 
 a lawful and an excellent work to seek the 
 salvation of the world ; the death of Christ, 
 the divine command, and the glorious re- 
 sults involved in this work, make it so ; and 
 this demonstrates the lawfulness of what- 
 ever measures are demanded in order to its 
 accomplishment. Let the end be holy and 
 the means which it calls for are of course 
 
EVANGELIZING THE WORLD. 71 
 
 holy also.* And further, no other means 
 are holy or legitimate, besides those for 
 which the end does call. If we are using 
 means not in themselves adapted to effect 
 the specific object of christian enterprise, 
 means not suited by their own direct ten- 
 dency to convert and save men, we are, in 
 this violation of the dictates of common 
 prudence and discretion, violating holiness, 
 discarding the wisdom which cometh down 
 from above. If the scope and tendency 
 of our proceedings be, simply to inflame 
 the enmity of mankind, or to convict them 
 of guilt or to involve them in merited re- 
 proach, or aught else than their recovery 
 
 * The principle condemned by the apostle, (Rom. iii. 8,) "let us do 
 evil tbat good may come," respects the production of good out of evil 
 not as a means, in the proper sense of the word, but as giving occasion to 
 Divine Providence to display its counter-working wisdom and good- 
 ness in making that result in good which in itself tends only to evil. 
 Strictly speaking when the end is good, the means, that is, an instrumen- 
 tality suited in itself to effect the end, cannot be evil.— Evil-doing tends 
 not to good but universally to evil. " He that committeth sin is of the 
 deviL' 
 
72 THOUGHTS ON 
 
 to holiness and God, then are our proceed- 
 ings however evincive of self-denial and 
 zeal, evincive also of self-delusion or ma- 
 lign passion; and well might we be ad- 
 dressed with the reprehensive question of 
 the prophet, "who hath required this at 
 your hands?" 
 
 I would therefore propound and enforce 
 this simple principle, with all possible ear- 
 nestness, Let the end* be considered to 
 learn the means. It is a sure and a suffi- 
 cient guide ; and we have no other. I re- 
 peat it, we have no other. There is no 
 other preservative from the excesses and 
 irregularities of fanaticism, no other path of 
 wisdom, no other trustworthy guide. If we 
 consult the scriptures, they give us no 
 other ; if we ask directly of God, he en- 
 
 * It may be thought that circumstances should have been added ; but 
 it is the consideration of the main thing to be done that will show us 
 how to proceed in respect to circumstances. Whether we are wise or 
 unwise in our treatment of a prejudice, for instance, depends on what 
 we wish to accomplish. 
 
EVANGELIZING THE WORLD. 73 
 
 lightens us by his Spirit in no other way 
 than by leading us to meek and patient re- 
 flection on the appropriate end of our un- 
 dertaking: The Son of man is come not to 
 destroy but to save. If dispassionate and 
 devout and just consideration of what is to 
 be done, does not show us what measures 
 to employ, we are left without any sure di- 
 rection as to particular measures, human 
 or divine. Neither by his word, nor in 
 answer to prayer, does God directly in- 
 struct us, as to the specific measures pro- 
 per to be used in particular cases. His in- 
 structions are general, not particular : as 
 to myriads of minutiae, we must proceed 
 in the light of our own discretion, after im- 
 buing our hearts by prayer and meditation 
 with the meekness of heavenly wisdom, or 
 walk in the darkness of our own self-will 
 and pride. 
 
 Guided by the principle of common 
 
74 THOUGHTS ON 
 
 sense now brought into notice, we come at 
 once to the following results, which, as 
 maxims of conduct in this great work, I 
 might profitably occupy hours in illustrat- 
 ing, but which I have time barely to men- 
 tion. They are announced not as new 
 discoveries, but as old and familiar pre- 
 cepts, which amidst the excitements and 
 stirs of the times, ought not to lose their 
 place in our remembrance. 
 
 1. To have respect in our proceedings 
 to general and future consequences, and 
 not to immediate and particular ones only. 
 Our work is complicate and progressive ; 
 what we do at one time and place, may 
 have influence on what we may, hereafter 
 have to do ; and if ill done, may hinder us ; 
 and however gainful at the moment, may 
 be a loss on the whole. 
 
 2. To work, not as if we were isolated 
 agents, exerting each one his own strength 
 
EVANGELIZING THE WORLD. 75 
 
 apart from all others, but as those should 
 do, who are workers together with others, 
 whose movements they should seek not to 
 interfere with, but to second and promote. 
 The end we are seeking is one which 
 others are seeking along with us, and mea- 
 sures adapted to thwart their measures, or 
 evincive of contempt or disregard of them, 
 may be such as a just consideration of the 
 end would lead us to forego. 
 
 3. To vary our measures so as to have 
 them always as perfectly adapted as possi- 
 ble to the varieties of character and cir- 
 cumstances in those on whom they are to 
 be tried : not to deal with common men, 
 as if they were pharisees who had com- 
 mitted the sin against the Holy Ghost; nor 
 with intelligent and educated men, as if 
 they knew nothing; nor with men of taste 
 and manners, as if they were barbarians ; 
 nor with rude and ignorant persons as if 
 
76 THOUGHTS ON 
 
 they were philosophers. Consideration of 
 the end in specific cases will at once dic- 
 tate to us, as it did to the great apostle, 
 the expediency of following this rule. 
 
 4. Not to think, that, as a matter of 
 course, we are unfaithful or time-serving, if 
 we do not assail directly and with intense 
 censures, whatever we find wrong whether 
 in Church or State, communities or indi- 
 viduals. Things may be wrong and it may 
 be our duty to aim at reforming them ; but 
 instead of an instant assault, the true mode 
 of correction may be not the direct but an 
 unobtrusive and indirect one. Peculiar 
 wisdom is necessary to regulate us in re- 
 gard to the different modes of proceeding 
 proper in respect to different sorts of evils ; 
 but considering the end with meekness of 
 heart, and reliance on the Holy Spirit, and 
 a readiness to walk in the footsteps of 
 
EVANGELIZING THE WORLD. 77 
 
 Christ and the apostles, will supply that 
 wisdom. 
 
 5. ]\ T ot always to aim at doing what is 
 abstractly or absolutely best, but to con- 
 tent ourselves with doing the best which 
 can be done, in the circumstances in which 
 we find ourselves placed. It may be, that 
 far less energetic measures than those we 
 could wish to use, are the only ones the 
 case admits of; and thus our benevolence 
 may be restrained by circumstances which 
 cannot be altered. We cannot relinquish 
 our purpose ; we cannot do all we could 
 wish to do, in order to accomplish it ; let 
 us then do the best we can, in the circum- 
 stances in which we are required to act. 
 
 6. Not to judge ourselves unfaithful if 
 we do not on all occasions tell the whole 
 truth, and tell it as strongly as possible, 
 and tell it at once ; but to use discretion in 
 bringing forth the truth, and bring it forth, 
 
78 THOUGHTS ON 
 
 if need be, very gradually and by instal- 
 ments ; letting the rays of knowledge 
 gently in at first, and proportioning their 
 increase, to the increase of men's ability to 
 bear them. It is often perfectly manifest, 
 that the end, without a miracle is attainable 
 in no other way. 
 
 7. To address ourselves assiduously 
 and skilfully to every thing in man which 
 may be made to contribute to the attain- 
 ment of our purpose ; not to conscience 
 only, or a sense of guilt only, or fear only; 
 but to the social principle, to self-respect, 
 to the love of excellence, to the desire of 
 happiness and every other natural power 
 and susceptibility. This course is right, 
 nay, is obligatory and necessary, in justly 
 and wisely pursuing such an end as that 
 in question, reclaiming men to holiness 
 and heaven. 
 
 These then I propound as maxims of 
 
EVANGELIZING THE WORLD. 79 
 
 evangelism: They are manifestly founded 
 in fitness and propriety, and it might be 
 shown, if time were not wanting, that they 
 have the sanction of our Saviour's and the 
 apostles' practice, and further that they 
 have been strictly conformed to, by the Su- 
 preme Disposer and Ruler himself, in the 
 general course of the divine dispensations 
 toward man from the beginning of the 
 world. 
 
 IV. I am aware that the period ordina- 
 rily given to the exercises of public wor- 
 ship is already past, and yet I must not 
 leave the remaining parts of the subject 
 wholly uninconsidered. A word or two at 
 least on each of these must be spoken. 
 
 If any one should suppose from what 
 has been said under the former division, 
 that zeal is not demanded in spreading the 
 gospel, I must protest against the infer- 
 
80 THOUGHTS ON 
 
 ence not only as the exact reverse of my 
 belief, but as by no means contained in the 
 premises. Are zeal and discretion anta- 
 gonist qualities 1 or must we be counted 
 the enemies of zeal because we prefer a 
 different kind of zeal from that driving 
 sort so stigmatized in scripture 1 May not 
 zeal work by discretion, and have its 
 sphere and its operations thus enlarged ? 
 Assuredly, there is quite as much occasion 
 for zeal, according to the view which has 
 been given of the plan of proceeding in 
 the foregoing remarks, as according to the 
 opposite or any other view. Why may we 
 not be as zealous in pursuing the path of 
 wisdom as the path of indiscretion? The 
 power of motive is not diminished but in- 
 creased. The magnitude of the end is 
 better appreciated, and the consciousness 
 of pursuing it wisely, gives the strongest 
 assurance of success, and thus induce- 
 
EVANGELIZING THE WORLD. 81 
 
 ment to effort, is eveiy way, augmented. 
 Let no one then mistake the drift of my 
 former remarks. I have not meant to en- 
 courage lukewarmness in the work of 
 God. I have not meant to intimate that 
 the Church generally, or any single indivi- 
 dual in the Church, is too zealously engag- 
 ed in this work. I have not said this, and 
 I do not believe it. Far otherwise is my 
 conviction. Active as the age is, it must 
 doubtless be incomparably more active in 
 the department of religious benevolence, 
 before the world is evangelized. There is 
 not excitement enough, not intensity enough 
 in our general tone of feeling, to convince 
 mankind that we are in earnest in seeking 
 their salvation. They do not believe, and 
 while we proceed as we now do, they will 
 not believe, that we are sincere; and hence 
 their deep infatuation in respect to their 
 
 eternal relations and interests. The facts 
 
 8 
 
CW THOUGHTS ON 
 
 of our religion, demand that we give 
 ourselves up to the work of saving our 
 fellow-men as the one all-absorbing con- 
 cern of life ; and we must meet this de- 
 mand, or notwithstanding all our profes- 
 sions and reasonings, instead of making 
 mankind Christians we shall confirm them 
 in their infidelity and delusion. Much as 
 we should lament the extravagances of a 
 few in the Church, the apathy of the many 
 is a thousand-fold more to be deplored. 
 Yes, here after all is the cause for sadness 
 and sorrow. The whole world are asleep 
 in sin, and Christians themselves are not 
 sufficiently awake to sound an effectual 
 alarm in their ears. This, this is the mat- 
 ter for grief and wonder. The work of 
 death and destruction is always advancing 
 with terrible rapidity, and almost nothing 
 is done to resist it. Who is there that 
 thinks there is or can be too much zeal in 
 
EVANGELIZING THE WORLD. 83 
 
 saving men, on the part of Christians ? 
 There was not too much in the apostolic 
 age, and it is quite as imperatively called 
 for, quite as necessary now, as it was then. 
 When our ministers preach and pray and 
 labour as much as did the apostles, and 
 when the private members of our churches 
 are as self-denying and devoted to Christ 
 as were the primitive Christians, then and 
 not till then, let us think that our times are 
 characterized by an exemplary zeal in 
 spreading the gospel. Let all the Church 
 assuredly know that this work demands 
 the entire strength of every living Chris- 
 tian, nor should any one engage in it with- 
 out intending and pledging himself by the 
 grace of God fully to meet the demand. 
 
 And if thus it were prosecuted, times of 
 trial would speedily return ; and zeal 
 would call for resolution ; and the work 
 would be at a stand, if devotion to it were 
 
84 THOUGHTS ON 
 
 not stronger than the love of life, and if 
 Christians would not again be sooner 
 counted as sheep for the slaughter than be 
 be moved from their purpose of evangeliz- 
 ing men. Be it known then that what was 
 said before in favour of expediency, was 
 not spoken out of regard to the personal 
 comfort or safety of Christians : No, the 
 principle and drift of those remarks were 
 as much higher, as the glory of God and 
 the salvation of a world, are more impor- 
 tant than any individual interest. Not that 
 I suppose that life is to be needlessly ex- 
 posed, or that a Christian may any more 
 die than live to himself ; but that the risks 
 and labours of all Christians should be 
 kept under the control of perfect wisdom, 
 so that the cause of Christ may suffer no 
 damage by improvidence. I have not sup- 
 posed, my brethren, that we should, for our 
 own saJces, count our lives dear to us ; or 
 
EVANGELIZING THE WORLD. 85 
 
 that we might, by adopting the doctrine of 
 expediency, be spared from the necessity 
 of surrendering our lives. This is not my 
 belief. On the contrary I think that if we 
 add zeal to wisdom in equal measure, we 
 shall be strangely inconsiderate if we do 
 not from the first, lay our lives with our sub- 
 stance and our all upon the altar, as a 
 whole burnt-ottering to Jesus Christ. The 
 work we undertake cost our blessed Lord 
 life, and he forwarned his first servants 
 that it would cost them life likewise, and 
 it did so : And if wisdom could not save 
 them, neither, if our zeal be equal to theirs, 
 will wisdom save us ? It may rather ex- 
 pose us to greater peril. The more perfect 
 our wisdom, if zeal keeps equal pace, the 
 more shall we sect in exercise that invisible 
 sagacity, which is the remote spring of all 
 opposition to the gospel ; and thus be more 
 
 annoyed by well-contrived schemes of re- 
 
 8* 
 
86 THOUGHTS ON 
 
 sistance. It is not rashness but wisdom in 
 measures, that our great adversary fears ; 
 the former he promotes, the latter excites 
 his apprehensions and his deep-plotting 
 wrath. Nor is there any thing in the state 
 of the world, whether in Christendom or 
 in heathen nations, to interfere with his re- 
 newing the scenes of ancient persecution, 
 if he should think these to be again ne- 
 cessary. 
 
 V. My last remark relates to the 
 ground of all just expectation of success ; 
 but here I regret that I must not dwell, 
 though the topic deserves the deepest 
 consideration. Let me only remark that it 
 it a fact, as explicitly asserted in Scripture 
 as any other, that the power by which 
 Christian enterprise, however wisely and 
 energetically conducted, prevails, is not 
 the inherent power of the enterprise, but 
 
EVANGELIZING THE WORLD. 87 
 
 the supernatural and unsearchable influ- 
 ence of the Spirit of God : And that as 
 this is the sole ground of hope, it should, 
 for many obvious reasons, be distinctly, 
 constantly, and in every proper way, ac- 
 knowledged. Here is the light and the life 
 of enterprise, the spring of incitement to 
 holy daring and a martyr life, the strength 
 which earth and hell cannot resist, the ex- 
 haustless treasury of resources, the basis of 
 assured faith, the earnest and pledge of 
 triumph, the immoveable rock of hope and 
 trust : and never, never should this be for- 
 gotten. No, it should infuse itself into all 
 our prayers, all our plans, all our thoughts, 
 and be ever working within us like the 
 working of our heart. Read the history 
 of the first doings of Christian self-denial, 
 and mark how all was incited, strengthen- 
 ed, superintended, succeeded, by the al- 
 
88 THOUGHTS ON 
 
 mighty agency of the Holy Spirit. Read 
 the epistles of the leading actors in those 
 scenes of glorious wonder, and mark how 
 they ascribe to that agency, whatever was 
 accomplished through their instrumenta- 
 lity ; and, as far they were right or favour- 
 able to the cause, even the secret exer- 
 cises and feelings of their minds. The 
 dispensation we live under, is the dispen- 
 sation of the Spirit; and therefore is it the 
 dispensation for evangelizing the world. O 
 let us not for a moment forget this, while 
 prosecuting our measures for spreading the 
 everlasting gospel. Let us go forward 
 with our measures, looking for success not 
 from our measures, which even angelic 
 power could not make efficient, but from 
 the invisible and omnipresent energy of 
 the Holy Spirit of God : strengthened, by 
 that Spirit, with all might in the inner 
 man: Filled with all the fulness of God. 
 
EVANGELIZING THE WORLD. 89 
 
 Such, as it seems to me, are the great 
 principles,by which the present effort of the 
 Church to give the gospel triumph in the 
 world, should be conducted. I am very 
 sensible that I have done them no justice 
 in this short discussion. I have not how- 
 ever supposed that much enlargement, ex- 
 cept for the purpose of awakening attention 
 and feeling, can in regard to either of them 
 be necessary. They carry their evidence 
 with themselves, and need only to be look- 
 ed at in order to be believed in and em- 
 braced by every candid mind. Nor have 
 I thought to accomplish any thing more 
 by my plain remarks than to give some 
 impression to known and undoubted truths, 
 to quicken reflection in some degree, on 
 what I am sure all must admit to be enti- 
 tled, in the highest degree, both to their 
 meditative and practical regard. And 
 why is it, let me ask in conclusion, that 
 
90 THOUGHTS ON 
 
 these principles have not been respected 
 and acted upon, from the commencement 
 of the recent movements for the salvation 
 of the world? Is it not because of this 
 that the business of spreading the gospel 
 has advanced so slowly in our hands? If 
 when modern Christians undertook the 
 work which prospered so remarkably in 
 the primitive age, they had returned to pri- 
 mitive principles and ways of procedure, 
 is it to be doubted that they would have 
 had somewhat of primitive encouragement 
 and success ? I cannot pursue this hint, 
 but leave it for reflection. Of this how- 
 ever there is no room for doubt, that 
 whatever may be urged as to the difficulty 
 of returning to the principles of the first 
 times, they are the true principles of the 
 word of God, the settled and unchange- 
 able rule of the divine administration in 
 
EVANGELIZING THE WORLD. 91 
 
 respect to this great matter. They never 
 will be altered, they must be returned to ; 
 and will as certainly be returned to, as that 
 Christianity will again triumph. This is 
 my conviction, and hence I have ventured 
 to advance them on this occasion, and 
 with some earnestness to propose them to 
 this newly-formed Church, as the guide and 
 rule of all their labours in the cause of their 
 Lord and Saviour. I know of nothing so 
 likely to be said against them with effect, 
 as that they are incongenial with the pre- 
 sent state of things in the Church on 
 earth: I admit that they are, and if this 
 state of things were the best, or were ne- 
 ver to be changed, this admission would 
 be inconsistent with my zeal in insisting 
 upon them. But what is the present 
 state of things in the Church? Alas! is 
 it not a state which every Christian 
 must lament, and long to have changed 
 
92 THOUGHTS ON 
 
 without more delay? And is it not with 
 full certainty to be changed? And further, 
 is not the time of the change drawing nigh? 
 But can it ever be changed for the better 
 by being encouraged and promoted, or by 
 pursuing plans and principles which suit it 
 entirely, and fall in with its spirit and ten- 
 dencies? Where, my brethren, is the con- 
 sistency or the benefit, of sighing and pray- 
 ing for achange, and at the same time doing 
 nothing to bring it about, nay exerting our- 
 selves to prevent it? The sentiments and 
 strain of this discourse I am deeply con- 
 scious, do not, for the most part, harmo- 
 nize with the existing condition of things 
 in the Church; but my apology is that they 
 do harmonize with the spirit of the gospel 
 and with what the Church should be ; and 
 that repentance should take place where 
 there is wrong, not where every thing is right 
 and perfect. Let the Church reform : so 
 
EVANGELIZING THE WORLD. 93 
 
 demands the great Head of the Church; so 
 the salvation of the world requires ; so I 
 have intended to insist in these free re- 
 marks. Let the Church reform: Would 
 that God would raise up another prophet, 
 like him of old,* full of power by the Spi- 
 rit of the Lord, and of judgment, and of 
 might, to declare unto Jacob his trans- 
 gression and to Israel his sin, until princi- 
 ples admitted to be divine and unchange- 
 able, and more important than the tongue 
 of man or angel can express, are no long- 
 er practically treated by the Church as if 
 they were false and pernicious and a terror. 
 Shall I conceal it, that it is my heart's 
 desire and prayer to God for this Church, 
 that it may be a Church in which the spirit 
 of the gospel may predominate over the 
 spirit of sect, and bring forth fruits after its 
 
94 THOUGHTS ON 
 
 own heavenly and anti-sectarian kind : 
 that it may live too much in the temper 
 of the Church above, too nigh to the throne 
 and mercy seat of God, and too much in 
 communion with its blessed Head and 
 Lord, and have too much love for souls, 
 and too much zeal for the general cause of 
 Christ, to be inclined to take part in those 
 strifes of words and doubtful disputa- 
 tions, and party movements and contri- 
 vances, by which the face of the times, 
 especially in this country is beginning to 
 be overcast. Ought I to refrain from ex- 
 pressing this as the most fervent of my 
 wishes in behalf of this Church ? And if 
 not should I have suppressed, or should I 
 now take back, any thing which I have 
 this day uttered in enforcement of the 
 principles of life and conduct which must 
 followed, or all hope be abandoned that 
 my desire will be fulfilled? No; these 
 
EVANGELIZING THE WORLD. 95 
 
 principles deserve, and I trust thej will 
 soon receive, open adoption in all the 
 churches. The voice of Providence calls 
 aloud, and will call I doubt not yet louder 
 and louder, for their universal acknowledg- 
 ment in practice. But if others will not 
 hear the call shall it not be heard by you, 
 my brethren, who have as a Church just 
 commenced life? You have nothing to in- 
 terfere with your acknowledging them : no 
 usages, no associations, no rooted pre- 
 judices. You can acknowledge them, 
 without detriment or difficulty of any sort 
 whatever. Not so, however in respect to 
 your not acknowledging them. You can- 
 not take that course without great hazard : 
 There is a spirit in the times in which we 
 live, which if I understand it aright de- 
 mands that you take not that course, and 
 to resist that demand may be fatal to your 
 usefulness and your prosperity. 
 
96 THOUGHTS ON 
 
 It is well known how much success in 
 worldly matters, whether of individuals or 
 associations, depends on their coinci- 
 dence of purpose and effort with favour- 
 able tendencies in times and occasions: 
 not less important may be such coinci- 
 dence in order to spiritual success on the 
 part of Christians and churches. When 
 Moses, seeing one of his brethern suffer 
 wrong, avenged him that was oppressed 
 and smote the Egyptian, he supposed that 
 his brethren would have understood how 
 that God by his hand would have deliv- 
 ered them, but they understood not ; and 
 the penalty of their inadvertence was a 
 forty years' protraction of their bondage. 
 Is it not but too probable that there are 
 now both individuals and churches, that 
 instead of advancing in spiritual strength, 
 are pining away and ready to die, amidst 
 the best advantages ever granted to man- 
 
EVANGELIZING THE WORLD. 97 
 
 kind, simply because, from their blindness, 
 or wilfulness, or both, they do not concur 
 with, but resist and thwart that mighty 
 momentum in the moral world, which has 
 manifestly set in, of late years, in favour 
 of a second and more perfect victory of 
 the gospel. Beware, said Paul in his ex- 
 hortation to the Jews, lest that come upon 
 you which is spoken of in the prophets ; 
 Behold ye despisers and wonder and pe- 
 rish: for I work a work in your days; a 
 work which ye shall in no wise believe 
 though a man declare it unto you. Let 
 us take heed, that this ancient warning be 
 not fulfilled in us. God is performing a 
 work in our days, and the evidences of the 
 fact are before our eyes. Let us see to 
 it that we duly acknowledge those evi- 
 dences by becoming workers together with 
 God ; aiming at the same end, and pursu- 
 ing that end, according to the measure of 
 9* 
 
93 THOUGHTS, &c. 
 
 our ability, with the same spirit the same 
 singleness of heart and the same zeal. 
 Eye hath not seen ear hath not heard 
 nor hath entered the heart of man, the 
 good which this Church may on the one 
 hand accomplish, or on the other hand 
 hinder and destroy, according as it con- 
 curs or declines concurring with divine 
 demands and intimations, in this very pe- 
 culiar and interesting age. 
 
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CATALOGUE OF BOOKS. 3 
 
 tie volume would be attended with conse- 
 quences beneficial to society, since a prac- 
 tice of its recommendations could scarcely 
 be refused to its solemn and affectionate 
 spirit of entreaty. 
 
 THE MINISTRY WE NEED. By 
 H 
 
 cents. 
 
 S. H. Cox, D.D., and others. ui- 2 - 
 
 From the Literary and Theological Review. 
 
 This neat little volume comprises the 
 inaugural charge and address which were 
 delivered on occasion of inducting the 
 Professor of Sacred Rhetoric and Pas- 
 toral Theology in the Theoligical Semi- 
 nary at Auburn. The friends of Dr. Cox 
 will not be disappointed in his inaugural 
 address. It bears the impress of his ta- 
 lents and piety ; his enlarged views and 
 catholic spirit. To analyze it would con- 
 vey no adequate idea of its merits. His 
 theme is the ministry of reconciliation ; 
 " the chosen medium by which God con- 
 ciliates men ; the mighty moral enginery 
 that accomplishes his brightest wonders ; 
 the authentic diplomacy of the King of 
 kings working salvation in the midst of the 
 earth." The manner in which he treats his 
 subject, in relation to the importance 
 of the Christian ministry, and the kind 
 
4 CATALOGUE OF BOOKS. 
 
 of ministry needed in this age and nation, 
 we need hardly remark will amply repay 
 the perusal of his brethren, if not be in- 
 teresting and instructive to the church at 
 large. 
 
 " Error-scenting notoriety" may not al- 
 together like the odour of this little book; 
 and the " lynx-eyed detectors of heresy" 
 will not be forward to approve a work in 
 which they are handled with unsparing 
 severity ; but by "all the favourers on prin- 
 ciple of a pious, sound, educated, scriptu- 
 ral, and accomplished ministry in the 
 church of God, and throughout the whole 
 world, as the ministry we need, to whom 
 this little volume is most repectfuly in- 
 scribed," it will be read, and, we trust, 
 circulated. 
 
 THE CHRISTIAN'S POCKET 
 COMPANION. Selected from the works 
 of John Rogers, Dr. Owen, David 
 Brainerd, President Edwards, and 
 others, with an Introduction by Rev. John 
 Blatchford, of Bridgeport, Conn. 25 
 cents. 
 
 The following is from Mr. Blatchford's Letter to the Publisher:— 
 
 I am happy to learn, through your let- 
 ter of last evening, your design of publish- 
 ing the little work containing the private 
 
CATALOGUE OF BOOKS. 
 
 rules by which the lives of such men as 
 Edwards, and Brainerd, and Rogers, and 
 Mason, were regulated. 
 
 That little volume (which is the only co- 
 py that I have ever met with) was, for 
 many of the last years of his life, the 
 pocket-companion of my honoured father, 
 the late Samuel Blatchford, D.D., of Lan- 
 singburgh. This circumstance alone would 
 give it a value in my estimation, as also 
 with the many who were associated with 
 him as a father in the ministry, as well as 
 those who were permitted to receive " the 
 message of salvation from his lips." 
 
 But in addition to this, who is there that 
 loves the cause of Christ and the souls of 
 men among the ministers of the Lord Je- 
 sus in our day, that has not often, amid 
 the toils and discouragements and anx- 
 ieties which so thickly beset their path, 
 turned away to such men, and inquired 
 the secret, if any there was, by which they 
 accomplished so much for the Church, 
 and secured to themselves a. character for 
 such eminent holiness 1 This little book 
 answers these questions, and introduces 
 us to these " men of God," in the closet, 
 in the family, in the social circle, in the 
 labours of the pulpit, and in the discharge 
 of their multiplied parochial duties ; and I 
 
6 CATALOGUE OF BOOKS. 
 
 am confident that no one can rise from its 
 perusal without being incited to more 
 prayer and more diligence in their varied 
 effort to adorn the " doctrines of Christ 
 their Saviour" themselves, and in preach- 
 ing Christ and him crucified to others. 
 
 Wishing you all success in your under- 
 taking, I would most fervently commend 
 it to the blessing of God, believing that in 
 giving it to the public, you will greatly sub- 
 serve the best of causes, and in a very ac- 
 ceptable manner. 
 
 JOHN BLATCHFORD. 
 
 From the New York Observer. 
 
 Christian's Pocket- Companion. — This 
 very small but neat manual, just published, 
 is a compilation of some of the purest senti- 
 ments and holiest aspirations of such men 
 as Owen, Rogers, Brainerd, and President 
 Edwards. We venture to say that no 
 Christian can make it the familiar compa- 
 nion of his heart, as well as "pocket," 
 without becoming evidently a holier and a 
 happier man. 
 
 PRACTICAL THOUGHTS. By the 
 
 late Dr. Nevins, of Baltimore. 50 cents. 
 
 THOUGHTS ON POPERY. By 
 
 Dr. Nevins. 50 cents. 
 
CATALOGUE OP BOOKS. 7 
 
 From the New-York Observer of April 9th, 1836. 
 
 The Practical Thoughts consists of 
 forty-six articles on prayer, praise, profess- 
 ing Christ, duties to Sabbath Schools, the 
 monthly concert, the conversion of the 
 world, violations of the Sabbath, liberality, 
 man's inconsistency, the pity of the Lord, 
 Christian duty, death, &c. ; the last of 
 which are " Heaven's Attractions" and 
 " The Heavenly Recognition," closing 
 with the words, "By the time we have 
 done what I recommend, we shall be close 
 upon the celestial confines ; perhaps with- 
 in heaven's limits." * * * 
 
 There the sainted author laid down his 
 pen, leaving the article unfinished, and 
 went, none can doubt, to enjoy the blessed 
 reality of the scenes he had been so vividly 
 describing. 
 
 These articles combine great simplicity, 
 attractiveness, and vivacity of thought and 
 style, with a spiritual unction scarcely to 
 be found in any other writer. Thousands 
 of minds were impressed with them as they 
 first appeared : they reproved the incon- 
 sistent Christian, roused the slumbering, 
 and poured a precious balm into many an 
 afflicted bosom. While writing them, the 
 author buried a beloved wife, and had daily 
 more and more sure indications that the 
 
 10 
 
8 CATALOGUE OF BOOKS. 
 
 hour of his own departure was at hand ; and 
 God enabled him, from the depths of his 
 own Christian experience, to open rich 
 fountains of blessing for others. 
 
 The Thoughts on Popery are like, and 
 yet unlike, the other series. There is the 
 same sprightliness of the imagination, the 
 same clearness, originality, and richness 
 of thought, with a keenness of argument, 
 and sometimes irony, that exposes the base- 
 ness and shamefulness of the dogmas and 
 superstitions of Popery, and that mustcarry 
 home conviction to the understanding and 
 heart of every unprejudiced reader. Piece 
 by piece the delusion, not to say imposition, 
 of that misnamed church are exposed, un- 
 der the heads of the Sufficiency of the 
 Bible, the nine Commandments, Mortal 
 and Venial Sins, Infallibility, Idolatry, 
 Relics, the Seven Sacraments, Penance, 
 the Mass, Celibacy of the Clergy, Purga- 
 tory, Canonizing Saints, Lafayette not at 
 Rest, The Leopold Reports, Supereroga- 
 tion, Convents, &c. We know of nothing 
 that has yet been issued which so lays 
 open the deformities of Popery to com- 
 mon minds, or is so admirably adapted to 
 save our country from its wiles, and to 
 guard the souls of men from its fatal 
 snares. 
 
CATALOGUE OF BOOKS. 9 
 
 A VIEW OF THE AMERICAN 
 SLAVERY QUESTION. By E. P. 
 
 Barrows, Pastor of the First Free Pres- 
 byterian Church. 31J cents. 
 
 From the New- York American of March 26th, 1836. 
 
 A View of the American Slavery 
 Question, by E. P. Barrows, jun., Pastor 
 of the First Free Presbyterian Church, 
 New- York. John S. Taylor. In this 
 little volume is embodied the substance of 
 two discourses, preached, as we learn 
 from the Introduction, " by the Author, in 
 October, 1835, with particular reference to 
 the condition of own his church." " Their 
 result was a spirit of harmony and good 
 feeling in the church." Such will not, 
 we apprehend, be the result of their pub- 
 lication ; for they maintain modestly, 
 but firmly and conscientiously, the right 
 and duty of reasoning and remonstrating 
 with our southern brethren against the 
 enormity of slavery, and of urging, in all 
 lawful ways, its extinction. The North, part- 
 ly from mercenary and partly from political 
 motives, and with too many, perhaps, from 
 culpable indifference, seem anxious to 
 stultify all their past efforts against sla- 
 very, and yield even the right of discuss- 
 ing its evils, and exhorting to its abandon- 
 ment ; and hence Mr. Barrows' modest 
 
10 CATALOGUE OP BOOKS. 
 
 and sincere efforts will not be very wel- 
 come to Northern recusants, while its doc- 
 trines will of course be abhorrent to that 
 chivalrous region where slavery is deemed 
 an ornament and a privilege. Neverthe- 
 less, Mr. Barrows may console himself 
 with having borne his testimony to the 
 truth. 
 
 PLEASURE AND PROFIT, vol. 1, 
 or The Museum. By Uncle Arthur. 37^ 
 cents. 
 
 PLEASURE AND PROFIT, vol. 2, 
 or The Boy's Friend. By Uncle Ar- 
 thur. 37| cents. 
 
 PLEASURE AND PROFIT, vol. 3, 
 
 or Mary and Florence. By Uncle Ar- 
 thur. 371 cents. 
 
 MISSIONARY REMAINS, or 
 
 Sketches of Evarts, Cornelius, and 
 Wisner. By Gardiner Spring, D.D. and 
 others. 37 \ 
 
 ADVICE TO A BROTHER. By 
 
 a Missionary. 31 cents. 
 
 EARLY PIETY. By Rev. Jacob 
 Abbott. 18| cents. 
 
 SCRIPTURE GEMS. Morocco, 
 gilt. 25 cents. 
 
Princeton Theological Seminary Libraries 
 
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