~XEWCISES
A'r THE
ORDINATION
OF
FIVE MISSIONARIES,
UNDER APPOINTMENT OF THE
AMERICAN BOARD.
CHICAGO, APRIL  I 8 TH, I 867.
CHICAGO:
AMERICAN BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS FOR FOREIGN MISSIONS,
PUBLISHED BY THE DISTRICT SECRETARY.
8 67.








ORDINATION OF MISSIONARIES.
In response to Letters Missive issued by the Union Park Congregational Church of Chicago, a council convened April 15th,
1867, to examine, and ordain, if approved, the following persons
as Foreign Missionaries: William  E. DeRiemer, Samuel E.
Evans, Carmi C. Thayer, Spencer R. Wells, and William Henry
Atkinson.
These young men were members of the graduating class of
Chicago Theological'Seminary.
The churches invited to sit in the council, were the Congregational and N. S. Presbyterian Churches of Chicago, Plymouth Congregational Church, Milwaukee, the Congregational Churches of
Appleton, Paris.and Bristol, Berlin and Delavan, Wisconsin; Farmington, Normal, Harvard, Lisle and Jacksonville, Illinois; Dana,
Massachusetts; Berkley St. Church, Boston; and the Broadway
Church, Chelsea, Massachusetts. The following ministers were
also invited: Rev. T. M. Post, D.D., St. Louis, Rev. Prof. Henry
Smith, D.D., Lane Seminary, Rev. G. W. Wood, D.D., Secretary
A.B. C. F. M., New York, Rev. Profs. J. Haven, D.D., S. C. Bartlett, D.D., and F. W. Fisk, D.D., Revs. H. L. Hammond, G. S..
F. Savage, J. E. Roy, and S. J. Humphrey.
The council was organized by choosing Rev. Wm. W. Patton,,
D.D., Moderator, and Rev. S. J. Humphrey, Scribe.
After a peculiarly interesting relation of their christian experi —
ence, by the candidates, and of the motives which had led them.
to desire the ministry and the missionary work, they were ex —
aniined in their views of christian doctrine. The council then
voted unanimously to proceed to set them apart for the work to
which they had been manifestly called.
The ordination took place at the Second Presbyterian Church
of Chicago, April 18th. A crowded audience were in attendance, and the services were of the most interesting and impressive character.




SERMON.
The Sermon was preached by Prof. HENRY SMITH, D.D., Lane
Seminary, Walnut Hills, Ohio, from the text  "And I, if I be
lifted up, will draw all men unto me. (John xii. 32.) The limits
of this pamphlet allow only the closing portion of it to be given,
It was an able and eloquent presentation of the Attraction of the
Cross, by indicating some of the universal and controlling principles of human action, to which the great truths represented in
the tragedy of Calvary make their appveal. The conclusion was
in the following words:
In the full faith of the power of this blessed Gospel to subdue
the world to Christ, Lane sends, through me, her best greetings,
her joyful gratulations, her heartiest "All hail" to her sister
Seminary of Chicago. Not with envy, but with joy does she
behold her sister in one noble gift, reaching one-fourth the entire
number, which, during a motherhood of five and thirty years,
she herself has been able to consecrate to the work of Foreign
Missions. Yet with tears of thanksgiving, she points to her own
twenty sons, who have listened to the MlIacedonian cry of the
world of heathen darkness. Some of them, indeed, have fallen
asleep in Jesus, but most of them continue to this present.
The beloved young brethren who are to receive our "God
speed you" to-night, Lane charges with a commission of love to
her own well-remembered sons. To whatever section of the
globe, shrouded in heathen darkness, you bend your steps, you
will find them there. Bear, then, the salutations-yea, the heartfelt love and benedictions of their theological mother to the Williamsons, father and son, among the red men of the West; to
Bushnell and Preston, in Afirica; to Smith and Montgomery, in
Turkey; to Shedd, in Persia; to Chandler and White, in India;
to Williams and Stanley, in China; to Andrews and Pogue, in
the islands of the sea;- and especially does she charge you not
to pass by without a visit to the sacred mounds which mark the
last resting-place of her departed and glorified ehildren. She
charges you to drop a tear, and, if Providence permits it, to plant




3
some green and fragrant shrub, in token of her unforgetting love,
at the graves of Caswell and Spaulding, and Campbell and Bonney-of Cummings, and Wheeler, and Porter.
AMen and brethren, ministers, messengers and members of
Christ's churches in the West, whom this unwonted spectacle has
drawn together to-night, are you ready for this sacrifice? I know
that you are ready, for this act is fill of the very spirit of Christ.
This good news is for all men. You believe that. It is suited to
the nature and to the condition of all men. You believe that. It
is to be published in the ears of all men. You believe that. But
when, 0 Christian - when?  Gird yourself, I beseech you, in
whatever vocation Christ has called you to labor-gird yourself
anew and instantly for this work.  Christ has laid it.upon you;
Christ has laid it upon me. Go ye into all the world, and preach
the Gospel to every creature. Go in person - go by proxy - go
now, for now is the time in which men are perishing for the lack
of this Gospel. God has laid this work upon us, in whatever
form of effort he has called us to serve him.
Let us labor for it-let us pray for it-let us give for it; and as
we labor, pray and give, let us have faith in the principles and in
the power of the Gospel. It shall triumph - Christ hath promised it: " And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all
men unto me." God hath declared it: "' To him every knee shall
bow and every tongue confess." It shall prevail, and spread, and
prosper, until the kingdom, and the greatness of-the kingdom,
under the whole heaven, shall be given to the people of the saints
of the Most High God. Oh,'wonderful scheme of redemption!
Oh, love infinite and unsearchable! What heart will not respond
to it? What Christian will not rejoice in it? What poor, perishing sinner will not be melted by it into penitence and love?
" Oh, the sweet wonders of that Cross,
Where my Redeemer loved and died I
Her noblest life my spirit draws
From his dear wounds and bleeding side.
" I would for ever speak his name
In sounds to mortal ears unknown;
With angels join to praise the Lamb,
And worship at his Father's throne."




4
Rev. Truman M. Post, D.D., St. Louis, offered the ordaining prayer, assisted
by the following ministers in the laying on of hands: Rev. R. W. Patterson,
D.D., Rev. S. B. Treat, Prof. J. Haven, D.D., Rev. P. C. Pettibone, Rev. Z.
M. Humphrey, D.1D., Rev. C. D. Helmer, Prof. S. C. Bartlett, D.D., Rev. J.
Collie, President J. M. Sturtevant, D.D., and Rev. L. Taylor.
CHARGE.
PROF. SAMIUEL C. BARTLETT, CHICAGO THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY.
MY DEAR YOUNG BRETHREN, -History repeats itself to-night.
Fifty-five years ago, in the oldest city of New England, Judson,
and Newell, and Mills, and Nott, and Rice, stood up before
Spring, and Morse, and Worcester, and Woods, and Griffin, for
missionary ordination-the first fruits of America and of Andover.
Instead of the fathers, are the sons and the grandsons. And here
to-night, on a spot of which the Indian then held long lease, you
come to us, another missionary five — only the first fruits, we
trust, of these North-western churches, and of this young Seminary. We are here to bid you go. And this council have
appointed one who has often spoken to you in the lecture-room,
but who will so speak to you no more, to give you their solemn
charge.
While I shall not anticipate your particular instructions from
the American Board, neither may I forget that we have ordained
you specially for the missionary work. Let me then address you
with the charge of the great apostle of the Gentiles to his young
helper in the work of missions: " Watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of
thy ministry."
" Watch" ye; be wakeful and watchful "in all things."  And
first of all, be watchful over your own hearts. In the delusion
that a sacred calling exempts from temptation, you do not share.
You know that he who once crawled into Paradise, can linger
round the Seminary, can climb the pulpit, or follow on the track
of the missionary.  You will be encompassed, not alone or
chiefly by the ardor of the young convert, but by the low worldliness of the earthen man of China, the gross vices of the out-caste
Mahar, by the mumnmied forms of a dead Christianity. A mission
field is not all heaven. Depravity and corruption will be seething
around you. Like the sainted Poor, you, too, will get new light




on the first chapter of Romans. Now, it was the marvel of
Christ's divine humanity that, with a heart day and night in contact with all that was most earthly, that heart beat only of God
~and heaven. It lay pure as moonlight on a mass of decay. And
it is the glory of our missionary band that, from the midst of all
that is hard and sensual and hateful, they invariably return to
kindle the flame of devotion at home. Such a high spiritual
frame, I know, can be maintained only by incessant vigilance.
Therefore watch over your hearts with all vigilance, and keep
them full of the. Holy Ghost.
Be watchful over your lives. I do not warn you against the
gravitation of heathen morals, and the poison of the pagan
atmosphere all around. I speak of your relations to your missionary brethren. Shut in upon yourselves in fixed relations,
specially guard against the friction of a hard and wiry spirit, an
unlovely temper, or uncomfortable ways. An uncomfortable
man at home, like a live coal, can be hurried along or quietly
dropped. There he must burn and blister. Even while I am
uttering this hint, it seems to me well-nigh superfluous, so wise
have commonly been the arrangements of the Board of Missions,
and so admirable the spirit of its missionaries. And yet, in view
of the infirmities of human nature, and the momentous interests
at stake, let me enjoin upon you that heavenly wisdom of practical life which is pure, peaceable, gentle, and easy to be entreated, both toward your missionary brethren and the missionary
board.
You must be watchful over your minds. I judge that in all
your incessant toils, you should not suffer your intellect to rust,
nor cease to enlarge your acquisitions. You go to the old homestead of the nations. In spite of his- wooden looks, the Chinaman is sharp; the Brahmin is quick and keen at a sophism; and
even the Turk 4can propound to you difficult questions on the
Trinity. Your intellectual work will not be all play. Henry
Martyn carried with him the highest scholarship of Cambridge,
and left behind him the name of the man who never was beaten
in an argument. Doubt it not, even in those far-off lands, your
power for good will be increased by the whole momentum of
your intellectual weight. And often with the sword of the Spirit
and the helmet of faith, you will need the spear of Ithuriel too.
Be watchful over the body, as well as the heart and the mind.
We send you as laborers, and not martyrs or victims; sacrifices,




6
but living sacrifices. You have spent too many years of preparation to throw away your lives as a thing of naught. Christ's
kingdom knows no such economy as that. The Master said:
" Occupy till I come."  You are to use, and not bury your talent.
A late divine once published a sermon entitled "Death a duty."
But, brethren, be very sure death is not your duty, so long as
you can live to labor. Your sympathies will be sadly, terribly
moved by the whiteness of the harvest and the fewness of the
reapers. But if you prematurely break yourselves down, you
but make the reapers fewer and the harvest sadder. Work,
work to the full extent of your powers, but not beyond. Heed
the first symptoms of danger,'and rescue yourselves for other
years of toil. You are too precious an offering to have your
heart's blood spilled like water, and every year will add to your
value. Remember, at times, the minister who hoped to preach
more sermons than WVhitefield, but to be longer in doing it. As
often, therefore, as you are tempted to destroy yourselves, see
that you do it not. But I will tell you what to do. Raise high
the signal of distress. Blow long and loud your trumpet to the
rescue. Let it echo fiom the Green Mountains to the Mississippi.
Let it reverberate through academy, and college, and seminary,
and church. Let it pierce these mothers' hearts; let it stir
the young blood in these children's veins; let it disturb the conscience of these sleeping Jonahs and careless Gallios; call louder
and louder, till the answer comes. Yea, in all your watching,
forget not the church at home. Keep fast hold of the cords ot
sympathy. Draw on the prayers and interest of your friends.
Help us rouse this young North-west. Hold on upon your fellow
students and their successors. Suffer not the missionary line —the
noblest of apostolic successi6ns-ever to die out in this your alma
mvater. We charge you in all your watching for souls abroad,
watch, also, for missionaries and the missionary spirit at home.
"Endure afflictions" or " hardness."  The day is indeed gone
by when the missionary was said to take his life in his hands, or
even when his departure was thought to be returnless. Fifty
years have wrought great changes. But the small number of
volunteers proves the work to be still distasteful to flesh and
blood. Life-long partings, exile from home and native land —
sweet words, young brethren, —loss of society, of culture, of
institutions, begin the long catalogue. Then comes the time
when you will stand tongue-tied in the face of error and sin, like




a motionless soldier before the bayonet charge.  There is the
long drudgery, the halting speech, perhaps the long, fruitless
toils, the bitter disappointment, the half-enlightened convert, and
the hypocrite. Families are to be reared in moral Saharas; your
comrades droop; the harvest whitens, and beckons, and perishes;
the churches are dull of hearing, and the young missionaries slow
in coming; a money panic sweeps across the mother-land; a
complication of troubles arises at your field of labor, which you
can neither cure, nor endure, nor escape. You will indeed reap
new joys; but such as these, and many more, will be your afflictions. Endure hardness as good soldiers of Christ. You have
served, the most of you, and endured well, as soldiers of your
country. One of you helped hold Missouri fast in the Union.
One marched to put down conspirators in Indiana. One has
been under fire at Memphis and at Corinth, and one of you left
his right arm at Vicksburg. Be as willing and as faithful soldiers
of the cross as of your country, and we ask no more. [Subdued
applause.]
"'Do the work of an Evangelist." That, brethren, is your
calling. You go to preach the Gospel of repentance and faith to
the lost. The anguish, and the search, and the joy of the old man
Chu have reached your ears from Tientsin; the call of the dying
Chapin has been borne to you from India; you have heard the
wail that came from Central Turkey, "begging and imploring"
for help.
And now you go to the teeming land where the civilization has
come down like a frozen mammoth from the ages past; to that
other land, where the first family of the great Aryan race found a
home and embalmed itself in a marvelous tongue; and to that
other region where Homer sung, and Alexander conquered, and
the younger Cyrus began his ill-fated march, where Abram left
his father, where Paul was born, and the disciples were first
called Christians, and the seven churches had their warnings.
But it is not your errand to explore the grotesque civilization of
China, to delve in the mine of Sanscrit learning, nor to follow the
track of Alexander, or Cyrus, or Abram, or Barnabas and Paul,
nor to muse by the ruins of Troy, the banks of the Cydnus, the
temple of Diana, or the mud-hovels of the old " Queen of the
East." You walk in the footsteps of Christ. You, go to pour in
the rich light and life of God's love. You go to found other
sevens of churches in Asia Minor, to call other men to be Chris



8
tians in Antioch. We do not expect you to shut your eyes and
steel your hearts to all the scenes and associations around you,
as Howard went through Europe and saw nothing but the inside;of its prisons. And yet, in the true meaning of the phrase, you
are to know nothing but Christ, and him crucified.
It may be your privilege to add to the mass of obligations
with which missions have made science their debtor. Do so if
you can.  But remember, these things are but the fragrance
which religion sheds forth from her vestments, as she walks on
her high errand of mercy. Get all the comfort you can, diffuse
all the incidental benefits you can, abroad and at home, but evermore do the work of an Evangelist.
And, finally, "make full proof of your ministry." It is the
ministry of reconciliation. It rests evermore on those great primal truths - a sin-hating God, a sin-loving world, an atoning
Saviour —the only name given under heaven, among men, whereby we must be saved. Remember, we charge you, except as
you preach an atoning Saviour, you have no errand to the heathen.
They know their sin. They feel God's anger, but they see no
hope. The world over, and time through, they have confessed it
in penance and sacrifice, in fear and despair.  You go to
point them to the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sin of the
world.
Remember, they are to be sanctified through the truth; and
in God's economy the regenerating Spirit follows in the track of
the word. Whatever may be our theories as to the possibility
that men who know not of Christ, may yet be saved for Christ's
sake, if they would but believe in a' loving God with a purifying
faith; never forget this tremendous and appalling fact, that
among the countless millions of our race, the annals of history
do not record a dozen cases of such a faith, such a love, and
such obedience, except where the word of God has been made
known.
Proclaim, then, God's word and not your own speculations.
Not merely the milk for babes, but in due time give them the
meat for men. Remember you are performing the solemn work
of laying the foundations for the far-distant future. Lay them
wisely and well. Build on the only foundation, Jesus Christ;
build with the gold, silver, and precious stones of divine truth,
broad, strong, and high.  And, brethren, press home that
truth with all its practical, personal power, in the church, in the




9
street, in the house, and by the way. With faith and prayer,
urge it home, and then feel, with the noble Judson, that your
prospects are "bright."  You can trust that truth with the same
composure amid the manifold oppositions abroad, as among the.
infinite scepticisms at home. The living Christ is an ever-living
power, and the ministry of Christ a resistless agency. Make but
full proof of that ministry, and the end is as sure as the throne
and the promise of God.
And now, brethren, go to your work. You are among our
jewels, but we lay you on Christ's altar. Would you were more.
Sadly but cheerfully we say these parting words. We shall miss
your pleasant faces and cheerful voices in our seminary halls.
We shall miss you from our festal days, our Alumni gatherings,
and convocations of the ministry. We shall miss the warm
grasp, and the ever kindly word and look. We shall miss your
young enthusiasm and your hearty cooperation in our plans of
good for this great North-west. But in Christ's name we bid you
go to your distant fields. Only, dear brethren, join hands with
us still across the continents; let us feel your warm heart-beat
through intervening oceans; from the antipodes let us hear your
welcome greeting, and we are content. From the banks of the
Ganges, the Yellow Sea, or the old Orontes, and from the shores
of Lake Michigan, the paths of duty all converge to the one
heavenly home; and there are Woods, and Spring, and Newell,
and Judson, with a glorious company and a goodly fellowship,
awaiting you and us. Therefore, my dear young brethren, go on
your way to the distant nations in the calm and holy confidence
of the Master's presence, and in all "the fullness of the blessing
of the Gospel of Christ."
PRESENTATION  OF  THE  MISSIONARIES  TO  THE
AMERICAN BOARD.
PROF. J. HAVEN, D.D., CHICAGO THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY.
As the young men who have now been ordained to the ministry of the Gospel, are destined to the special work:of Foreign
Missions, it seems-proper that, in addition to the usual services of
ordination, a few words should be spoken more especially consecrating them to that specific work; and so, at their request, in
the name, and in behalf of the seminary from which they go




10
forth, and of the churches of the North-west, therein represented,
I now present to you, sir, as the representative of the Board,
and through you to the cause of missions, these young men, our
pupils and our sons.
This Seminary, and the churches which it represents, could
give you, sir, no higher proof of their attachment to the American Board, and to the great cause of missions, than the gift which
they bring you to-night. For it is not their silver or their gold
which they now give you, but that which is dearer and more
precious than either — their own sons. And this they do not
from their abundance, but of their deep poverty. The value of
a gift depends somewhat on the resources of the giver; and
whatever, in other respects, may be the r.esources of the Christian
6hurches of the North-west, of men educated, and fitted for the
ministry, they have none to spare. Never was their poverty, in
this respect, and their pressing need, greater than now. From the
great chain of lakes, on whose border we stand to-night, to the
Rocky Mountains, and thence to the far Pacific, hands are outstretched, and voices upraised, saying, send us men -men who
shall show us the way of salvation, and break unto us the bread
of life. - Send us those whom you have been educating for the
work- those whom we sent to you to be thus instructed. We
look upon this field so vast and ready for the harvest, and then
upon the little band of Christian students who to-day go forth
from our seminary, and say what are these eighteen among so
many?  Were they multiplied an hundred fold, it would not be
enough. And yet from this little band we take out almost onethird the entire number, and set them apart to another destination. We say to our own destitute churches, you can not have
all these men. For across the distant ocean other hands are upraised, and other voices are crying out for the bread of life, and
in that cry, borne over the seas and mountains of a continent, we
recognize the voice of the Master. It comes in at the doors and
windows, through the halls of yonder Seminary, and we dare not
disregard it. And so to these outstretched Western hands,
empty and famishing, we turn and say, touch not the Lord's
anointed; touch not those whom the Lord has called to his
more distant vineyard; the Master hath need of them. And so,
in our poverty, and sad at heart, as we think of our own destitution, yet heartily and joyfully as we look over the field which is
the world, we give you these our pupils, our sons, our beloved
brethren in Christ, for the work of Foreign Missions.




11
If ever there was a generous gift, it is this of the churches of
the North-west to you to-night. But you have seen something of
these Western men, and you know that it is their way to give
generously, and to do with all their heart what they do at all.
As at the call of their country, they gave generously of their
noblest and their best to battle for the true and the right, so now
they give of their choicest -ones when demanded for Christ and
his cause. God's work must not be hindered whatever becomes
of us and our little affairs. And so here, 0 Lord, are we and
those whom thou hast given us.
And yet, sir, though we thus speak, I have no fear that we
shall be impoverished. These churches, many as they are, and
destitute as they are, can well afford to send not these five only,
but the whole eighteen if they would go. For is it not the Divine
economy that the more we give the more we have? Has it ever
been known in the history of missions, that the Christian Church
has grown poor by her generosity, and her devotion to the cause
of Christ? When the poor widow took from the last remaining
handful of meal to make a cake for the prophet, it was not
diminished, but mnltiiplied, by the taking. And so will it be, sir,
with these our treasures. We give but to receive again. In the
beautiful vision of Ezekiel, the water that flowed out firom beneath the temple, at the south of the altar, and flowed oh into the
desert and into the east country, rapidly widened and deepened
as it flowed, and wherever it went, every thing sprang into new
life and beauty. So will it be with this little stream that starts
forth from our altar to-night on its way to the desert and the
east country. It will widen and deepen as it runs. It will become a mighty river. These five young men are but the first fruits
- the earnest - the beginning of what this Western land of ours
is yet to do for the work of Foreign Missions. There are not
less than thirty students, in various stages of the course, in ourcolleges, who are already committed to this service. The stream
is only to the ankles as yet, but a little farther on it is a river that
no man can ford, and the desert through which it passes shall
burst into verdure, and blossom as the garden of the Lord.
And what shall I say of these young men whom I now present
to you. It was a singular Providence that sent to us from our
own New England, from our own Massachusetts, yonr mother
and mine, two of her sons, to receive their theological training,
wholly or in part, in this Western world, then to pass on to a




12
still more distant field of labor among the heathen.  We would
not hold them back, much as we value them. They are not ours,
but /His. Of these five, four have been in the service of their
country, and go from the field of material conflict to engage in
the sterner strife with a spiritual, but not less real or less dangerous foe. They know what suffering and peril are. That
empty sleeve testifies of courage and of patriotism. That arm
that bore aloft the flag of his country, and held it firm amid the
iron hail at the capture of Vicksburg, was left indeed upon the
field; but the arm that remains will hold aloft the standard of the
Cross on the plains of India, and never suffer it to be lowered or
dishonored.
But I must not speak further. It seems but a little time since
we welcomed these our young brethren to the Seminary as
students. In the few years that they have been with us, we have
come to know them and to love them. And now, as they go out
from us, they carry with them our sincere esteem, our high appreciation of their intellectual and moral worth, our affection,
and our prayers. We shall not forget them. They will not be
forgotten by the churches of the North-west. As the' mother of
Samuel brought the lad to the temple, so to God's altar we come
bringing these our sons to-night. We -give them to the God of
Samuel and of Jacob. We give them to Christ and His Church.
And as the mother of Samuel, in the long and solitary hours,
wrought for him with her own hands, the little garment, and
brought it to him, year by year, as she camle to the temple, so for
these whom we bring to-night to the altar, willing hands shall
toil, and earnest prayers go up, while they are far away among
the heathen.
WELCOME AND RIGHT HAND OF FELLOWSHIP.
REV. S. B. TREAT, SECRETARY AMERICAN BOARD.
It is with great satisfaction that I receive these " first-fruits"
of your Seminary as the representative of the Board; for them I
desire to express my cordial thanks. When, a few months ago,
our hearts were so heavily burdened, we little dreamed that the
day-spring would appear in the West. We knew that the " star
of empire " was passing by us; but we had not learned to say:
"Westward the star of missions takes its way."  During my




13
connection with the Missionary House (twenty-four years), nothing
has occurred in our home operations which has so cheered us as
this offering of yours. And not us only: word has gone forth to
other lands, " Wait a little longer; the West is coming to the
rescue."
But I must be allowed to tender my gratulations as well as
my thanks. It seems to me that your Seminary has ceased to be
a Western institution, and become a national institution, or rather
a world-institution. The setting apart of these young men is not
done in a corner. It will be talked about and prayed over by
four thousand churches. The patriarchs of the East will call to
mind the ordaining of thefirstfive - that event which sent s'uch
a quickened life through all our churches, and they will give you
their blessing. Mothers in Israel, who have scarcely heard of you
till now, will render thanks for "the grace of God bestowed
upon " you, and will invoke in your behalf the choicest benedictions.
I know the value of this offering. I know what it will be for
us. I know what it would -be for the West. I fully believe,
however, that your loss will prove to be your gain. By our
earthly arithmetic, five from eighteen leave thirteen. But by the
celestial arithmetic, subtraction becomes addition. In this instance, I am sure that five from eighteen will leave, not thirteen,
nor even eighteen, but many more. No. These young men are
not lost to the Uniited States, but saved rather.
And now, my dear young brethren, with feelings which I can not
describe, I turn to you. I am commissioned by the Prudential
Committee to tender you the right hand of fellowship. In their
name I welcome you to a self-denying but honored service. I
welcome you to a partnership with us, in the work of saving the
world. I welcome you to the goodly company of the servants of
Christ in heathen lands. I welcome you to the joy of beholding
Ellllmmanuel's colning glory, as it touches with silver radiance the
high places of paganism, and slowly descends to the deeper
shadows below. I welcome you to that peace, like a river, which
the Great Missionary always keeps in store for such as truly obey
his last command. I welcome you to the ineffable smile which,
in the final apocalypse, is sure to rest on those who cordially forsake all for Christ.
I have not come here, you perceive, to speak in the "'minor
mode." No. I regard you as called by- the grace of God to the




14
foremost place among the sons of men. I honor the pastorate.
To my apprehension there is in the home field no place like it.
But you go up still higher. You have entered the Pauline band.
With the great apostle you can say, " Unto me who am less than
the least of all saints, is this grace given that I should preach among
the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ." Would you prove
yourselves worthy of your office? Let these words become " as
frontlets between your eyes." Rather, let their spirit,'as it were
the sweetest perfume, pervade the inmost chambers of your
being.
In your meditations thereon, be sure to begin where Paul began.
4" Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace
given." Lay the foundation of your missionary life in the truest
humility. And when you can take your place beside the Apostle
in this respect, you will be ready for those other words, "the
unsearchable riches of Christ." You will not expect me to dwell
upon this theme. I frankly confess that I have not that knowledge
of it which I would fain possess. The more I know of the
unsearchable riches, the more unsearchable they appear. The
more I study them, the more they seem to transcend all study.
Here then we have two of the chief elements of missionary
success, I may say of ministerial success-the lowest views of
self, and the highest views of Christ. Charles Simeon revealed
unconsciously the secret of his great usefulness, when he said:
1" There are but two objects that for these forty years I have
desired to behold;-one is my own vileness; the other is the
glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ."
To what we welcome you, you have already heard. There are
some things to which we do not welcome you. We do not welcome
you to a tempting salary. What we receive ourselves, we give
to you-an economical support-nothing more.  We do not
welcome you to an untroubled and smoothly-flowing life. How
much of joy or sorrow may befall you, we must leave in the hands
of the Father. We do not welcome you to length of clays. We
would gladly do it, if we could; but the Angel of Death is obedient to another will than ours. We do not welcome you to great
visible success. If you live to three score years, or three score
and ten, you will see important changes, I doubt not; some,
perhaps, that you do not anticipate. That noble missionary who
has just gone up to his heavenly home (Dr. Goodell) sailed into
the Golden Horn in the early summer of 1831. He found himself




15
in a city fitted by its position to be the queen of the earth. But,
alas! what intense bigotry did he find! What bitter hatred of
the truth! A death penalty, sure to be enforced, hung above the
head of every Moslem. "Renounce Islam and die," was the
brief formula. He, and those who joined him, toiled on four and
twenty years, guiding inquirers to Christ, and gathering churches;
when, lo! that which they had not dared to hope for at first, came
to pass. That old death penalty was swept away! How? "War
did it," says one. "Diplomacy did it," says another. Butneither
could have done it-both together could not have done it, without
the MiTssionary. " The poor wise man saved the city."
At times you may grieve for your poor success, just as pastors
do at home. You may bewail, for instance, the shortcomings
of your converts. But when the' burden is heavy upon you, read
Paul's epistles. And remember, especially, that God seeth not
as man seeth. Ten years ago, it was the lamentation of missionaries in all parts of India, that their churches had so little of
Christian manliness. Just then, however, the Sepoy rebellion
burst upon the world. And when the storm had passed by, it was
found that these feeble, sickly children of theirs had met the shock
with a courage and firmness that became their wonder and delight.
No. We do not welcome you to assured success, but to just so
much as the Master shall be pleased to give you, commending his
own words to your prayerful study, " According to your faith be it
unto you." And there will be single scenes in your history, I doubt
not, which will amply repay you for all your toil; as when a missionary of ours stood by a dying Hindoo, and heard him say, feebly,
faintly, " Christ has taken all of mine, and given me all of his."
"Ah! what has he taken of yours?"  " Sin, Sir; death, Sir."
" What has he given you of his?" "Heaven, Sir; holiness, Sir."
But I must crave the privilege of saying a few words to these
pastors, and these Christian friends. These young men, as you
see, are going down to the dark, cold shadows of heathenism. As
Carey expressed it, they are going down into lthe well. Will you
hold on to the ropes? They are entering upon a life-campaign;
will you equip them, as you did those regiments which fought so
bravely for the stars and stripes, and afterward furnish food and
raiment? To put the matter in a definite shape, will you advance
your contributions twenty per cent.? I believe you will do it. I
do not see how you can help it. Rather, I think you will rejoice
in the opportunity.




16
But I have something more to say. For the last nine months I
have felt a weight upon my spirit almost too heavy to be borne.
I have asked myself, Oh how many times! "When is the world
to be given to Christ? He whose right it is, the Prince of the
Kings of the earth, when is He to be enthroned in all the world?"
I have no distrust of present methods. It was after that bloody
death, and under the opening heavens, that the command was
given, "Preach the gospel to every creature."  We are on the
right track, therefore; but how slow the train moves!  Four
thousand churches represented by one hundred and forty ordained
missionaries in all the heathen world!
The heathen world! Do we think what this is? Let us suppose
it to pass before us-say ten abreast-a living, slow-moving current. From morning to night, from night to morning, the ear is
burdened by its heavy, incessant tread. At the pace of one mile
an'hour, it would consume six years in passing by us, a long,
unresting funeral train! At first we are awe-struck and speechless.
Myriads upon myriads, millions upon millions; and all traveling,
like ourselves, to the judgment seat, and almost all ignorant of the
way of life!
Suppose, now, that we should resolve at once to enter, with our
whole hearts, upon the work of the world's reconstruction. How
appalling would the endeavor seem!
But hopeless as is the undertaking, on the human side, on the
divine side, it is perfectly feasible. See what marvels the Providence of God has wrought for missions. A little more than
twenty years ago, and China was shut against the Christian
world - locked, bolted, barred. But we have been told quite
recently, that it is now open in all its length and breadth.
With what skill and patience has He exalted the valleys and
made low the mountains and hills of Hindoostan. First, papal
France was to be excluded'from the land, as having no lot or inheritance there. Next the power of the native princes, idolatrous, oppressive and effete, was to be cast down; and then a
vast trading company, selfish as the love of pounds, shillings and
pence could mlake it, was to be led along by a hook in the nose,
till the set time should come for saying, " Pass on; yozur work is
done."  And now one of the noblest of Christian men holds the
vice regal sceptre over nearly two hundred millions of Hindoos.
And look at Madagascar. When the missionaries were expelled thirty years ago, they left a few disciples, without a minis



17
try, with no right to meet for worship, no right to read a book,
hated, hunted, in constant danger of a cruel death. But they
also left two injunctions, to wit: " Cleave to the Bible, and
cleave to one another;" and they did so. They came together,
in fear and trembling, and read the Scriptures. After a time it
was discovered that some had more skill than others in
explaining "the lively oracles;" and they were asked to take upon
themselves the ministry of the word. But there were no sacraments. How, for instance, should these persecuted ones comnemorate the death of Ch'ist? What else to do, they knew not,
and so they asked their teachers to perform this service. When,
therefore, Mr. Ellis went there in 1861, he found that a native
ministry had sprung up, in spite of all repressing influences,
having received its anointing, not from bishops, or presbyters, or
councils, but from the Holy Ghost; and the Lord has blessed
those servants of His, as also the missionaries who have gone
there since, so that the number of communicants is ten times
greater than it was in 1861.
What now is the world's chief need? A single word contains
the answer. FAITH. A believing'Church might see the speedy triumph of Christ, in all the earth. Know ye not, my brethren, that
God has placed the entire resources of his kingdom at our disposal?
Elisha was wroth with the King of Israel because he struck the
ground but thrice.  "Thou shouldst have smitten five or six
times," he said; " then hadst thou smitteni Syria till thou haast
consumed it. And tlat scene by the Mount of transfiguration!
" Master, I have brought unto thee my son, which hath a dumb
spirit."  And then having told his story of suffering and trial,
he said: "If thou canst do any thing, have compassion on us
and help us."  Jesus said unto him, " If thou canst believe, all
things are possible to him that believeth."
Were there time, I would gladly say a few words as to what
we should believe. But I will onily glance at two particulars:
First, We should believe that Christ is waiting to see of the
travail of his soul, and be satisfied. He that died for this very
end — he is waiting for the tardy movements of his Church.
Second, We should believe that there is soul-travail fbor us as
well asfor him. As by reason of his human nature, he can be
touched with a feeling of our infirmities, so we are to share his
sorrows and his joys. Remember how he wept over Jerusalem,
looking down fiom Olivet, and then think what it must be for




18
him to look down upon a world lying in wickedness, beholding
all the crimes which are committed, thoughts that can not bear
the light of the sun, and then glancing through all the ages of
the future, knowing perfectly what a lost spirit may become,
what a lost spirit must suffer.
It remains for me to give you the right hand of fellowship in
behalf of the council. In the name of these pastors and delegates, in the name of the Churches which have sent them hither,
as also of all the Churches of the North-west represented in some
sort by them, I give you this right hand. It is not a vain ceremony. I have learned that no men have so wide a place, in so
many hearts, as those who go to the heathen. In times of trial
call this scene to mind, and take comfort and courage therefrom.
A few years ago, a party of missionaries was about to leave
Persia for America. They were to travel under a hot sun, over
bridgeless rivers, along rough and precipitous ways, pitching
their tents in insecure places, till they should take a steamer
at Trebizond, and afterward to take a sailing vessel to Smyrna. A
Nestorian girl, just as they were setting forth, made a prayer, so
simple, so scriptural, and so appropriate to your circumstances,
that I will ask the congregation to join me in offering it for you,
only changing two or three words in the last sentence: "Dear
Father! let not the sun smite them by day, nor the moon by night.
Give thine angels charge concerning them, to bear them up in their
hands, that they dash not a foot against a stone. When they pass
through the deep rivers, let not the waters overflow them. Let the
Angel of the Lord encamp round about their moving tabernacle.
Spread a table for them in all the long wilderness. When they
come to the fire-ship, let not the flames kindle upon them. When
they come to the winged vessel, though the waves go up to
heaven and down to hell, keep them in the hollow of thy hand,
and bear them safely to the desired haven. Let not their dust
mingle with the dust of father or the dust of mother; but let it
mingle with the dust of their children, with them to hear the last
trump, with them to meet the Lord in the air, to be forever with
him, all safely home!"