SERMION FOR THE CRtISIS.
DELIVERED BEFORE THE
— ISSIONARY SOCIETY
OF THE
~t~toit A~ta  Xattg
OF THE M. E. CHURCH,
AT SAGINAW CITY, SEPTEMBER 6, 1867.
BY
REV  -. J.S. sm_ART.
:X
DETR O IT:
PUBLISHED BY J. M. ARNOLD & CO.
Wm. Graham's Steam Presea.
1867.
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PREFACE.
The following discourse was written for my own congregation in Ypsilanti, Michigan, without any thought of publication. Being appointed to deliver the Annual Missionary
Sermon before the Detroit Conference, I repeated it there, and
the audience demanded it for publication. This demand,
which I could not resist, is my apology for allowing it to be
printed. Could I print the heart-throbs which accompanied its
composition and delivery, and beget in others the deep solicitude I have felt for the conversion of the world, its publication would afford me the highest pleasure. But what I have
felt in view of the decline in our missionary efforts, in this
Conference, cannot be printed.
I am positive that very much more good can be done by
the delivery of such a sermon as this, than any ordinary
reader would derive from a printed copy. If, therefore, any
of my brethren desire me to preach upon the subject in their
pulpits during the current year, I will do so as far as practicable.
I feel that the present is an emergency which calls for
special effort in behalf of our missionary work, and this conviction induces me to make this tender of my services.   We
have certainly come to a CRISIS in our missionary affairs. We
cannot go back; we must go forward, or betray the cause of
Christ.
J. S. S..
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SERMON.
"I am  debtor both to the Greeks, and to the Barbarians; both to t*
wise, and to the unwise.
So, as much as in me is, I am ready to preach the Goslpel to you that
are at Rome also."-ROMANS.-1. 14-15.
The worst man in the world is he that hath no place in
his heart for any being but himself, and the best men are they
who have room in their hearts for all mankind. Such a man
was Paul.  He sympathized with humanity, with the race,
with man as man.
What interest have I, says my neighbor, in the people
who live on the other side of the globe? I answer, I do not
know; not much'I fear, or you would not ask the question.
But I ask in return: What interest have you in your next
door neighbor?   Suppose he is starving, what do you care?
Suppose his house is on fire, why should you put it out?  It
is his business, why should you meddle with it? Suppose
you see him overboard, why not let him drown? What interest have you in saving his life? But if he dies his wife
and children will suffer.  What of it?  What  have you to
do with his wife and children? Should I meet a man who
would ask such questions as these in earnest, I do not think 1
should stop to reason with him. I should look upon him as
altogether out of my reach.
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SERMON FOR THE CRISIS.
Every man, unless he is insane, or totally depraved, feels
that, somehow, he is under obligation to rescue his neighbor
from danger. He may not be able to explain precisely the
ground of the obligation, but he cannot well get rid of the
conviction that his neighbor has claims upon him. Were
lie conscious of the ability to rescue him from danger, and
should he die through his neglect, he would scarcely be able
to avoid a sense of guilt. He might say, I did not kill
him, I did not expose him to danger. Was it not his business to take care of himself, and keep out of danger? But
the fact that he could have saved him, and did not, would
bring remorse with it; and all the world would agree with
his conscience and condemn him. Indeed, if you knew that
you could save your neighbor's life, and refused to do it, the
verdict of mankind would be that you were guilty of his
death. You owe it to humanity to relieve distress and save
life wherever you can. It is precisely in this sense that St.
Paul says "he is debtor to the Greeks, and to the Barbarians;
to the wise, and to the unwise."  He  felt that all men had
claims upon him, which, to the utmost of his ability, he must
satisfy or be guilty of their death. Space, distance, cannot
modify moral obligation. If we can do it;, we are under just
as much obligation to save a man on the other side of the
globe as on this side, and shall incur just as much guilt for
refusing to do so. I have a neighbor who lives within a
stone's throw of my own house. His life is threatened. I can
save him by stepping to his door, and giving him warning.
Of course I am bound to do so. But suppose the same man
is in England, and I know that certain parties have taken
passage thither on purpose to murder him. I can save him
by sending a message upon the Atlantic cable. Am I not under just as much obligation to do it? This obligation to do
good to our fellowmen is not a question of distance at all, but
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SERMON FOR THE CRISIS.
of opportunity.   "A8 we have therefore opportunity; let us do
good unto all men." The Spirit of Christ annihilates space,
and inculcates every where the brotherhood of man. I grant
that it is more difficult to feel an interest in one you have
not seen than in one you have seen. But is it not more manly
and noble also? Is it not a glorious thing to be able to see
the invisible, and to have a heart as wide as the world; to
stand right here, and by our contributions, make the world
feel our influence? We ought to accustom ourselves to think
of this world, not as a boundless unexplored waste, with no
intercourse or sympathy between its different sections, but as
it is, a neighborhood, a family united by ten thousand ties of
sympathy and interest.  John Wesley could say, "My parish
is the world." And the world was a great deal larger then
than it is now. Steam navigation and the electric telegraph
have brought its ends together.   Hundreds of years before,
one greater than Wesley, when looking out upon the harvest
of souls which he came to gather, said, "The field i8 the world."
The history of mankind has proved that a heart large
enough to take in the world cannot beat without shaking the
world. This is what we need to-day, the old world-shaking
power of Wesley, and Paul, and Christ. Mankind must be
redeemed by world-wide hearts. Anything less will not contain the Great Commission which says, " Go ye into all the
world, and preaeh the Gospel to every creature."  A My country
is the world, mankind are my fellow citizens," is the motto of
every true Christian. No man ever grasped that idea with
passionate earnestness, who did not move the world. This is
the great central idea of Christianity, this is its ruling passion, its all-controlling motive and inspiration, the conquest of
the world, in the name of Christ. The more this thought
kindles our enthusiasm, the more it permeates all our other
thoughts, the more it takes possession of our hearts, the more
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SERMON FOR THE CRISIS.
it enters into all the purposes of our lives, the more it burns
and glows within us, the more it drives all the machinery of
our being, the more are we in sympathy with Christ. We
should be pressed with this thought as with a debt which must
be discharged. We should feel it as a burden on our souls,
and never should allow ourselves to be happy, except when
acting under its inspiration,-the World, THE  WORLD  FOR
CHRIST!
We must somehow learn to enter into the circumstances
of our fellow men, and feel their wants and woes as though
they were our own. We make our missionary contributions
as though it were a very indifferent, and common-place affair.
We are not enough alive to the tremendous importance of
the sublime work in which we are engaged. The greatness
of the work ought to exalt our thoughts, and kindle them
into a holy and irrepressible activity. We are contributing
to the conquest of the whole world; it is for the conversion
of twelve hundred millions of souls, multiplied by countless
generations yet to come. Christ hath died for them all. It
is the body and the blood of the Son of God which we send
to the healing of the nations. Who can estimate the value
of twelve hundred million souls? We have sometimes felt
something of the value of a single soul.      With  Paul, we
have travailed in birth for souls. We have felt that we could
sacrifice the last dollar we had on earth to save them. We
have felt that this was but the least possible expression of our
love for them, that we could die,.that we could, with Paul, be
"accursed from Christ for our brethren, our kinsmen according
to theflesh." In this agony for souls, we have in our measure,
entered into Christ's agony. But we feel that we shall never
be truly Christ-like, until we can extend this sympathy to the
whole world. We want to feel for the whole world, as John
Knox did for Scotland, when he prayed, "Give me Scotland
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SERMON FOR THE CRISIS.
or I die." We want to feel as Moses did for Israel,'when he
cried, "Oh, this people have sinned a great sin.  *  *  -*  Yet
now, if Thou wilt, forgive their sin, and i not, blot me, I pray
Thee, out of Thy book which Thou hast written."
The more perfectly we become one with the race, the more
we become like Christ. If we would be Christ-like, we must,
with Him, bear the woes of the world upon our hearts. We
must feel that oufir destiny is bound up with the destiny of the
world. We must be willing to sacrifice, and to suffer, even
unto death, to save men. Is not this the Spirit of Christ?
Are we not to be partakers of Christ's sufferings, as well as
co-workers with him, in the salvation of the world? The intimate union between Christ and his church is not, I fear,
generally appreciated. The church is the body of Christ,
and cannot but be moved by the tremendous heart-throes of
sympathy heaving in the unfathomable profound of the Saviour's love. We must, in a manner, enter into his vicarious
sacrifice, or we cannot be members of his body. By virtue
of our union with Christ, we are partakers of the divine nature, filled with the divine love. Christian hearts are the
media through which Christ now manifests his love to the
world.  "Let this mind be in you which also was in Christ Tesus,
who being in the formn of God, took upon him  the form of a servant, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross."
What does this mean, but that we should be willing, not only
to give of our substance, but to die for the world?
When we are commanded to take up our cross and follow
Christ, more is meant than a mere performance of a few easy
duties. This command calls us to be partakers of Christ's
spirit of sacrifice and suffering love, to a real fellowship in
His sufferings for the salvation of the race. If a man would
sa        v    e     others, himself he cannot save.  " Except a corn of wheat
fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone." Just in propor
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SERMON FOR THE CRISIS.
tion as a man becomes dead to everything else; lie becomes
alive to Christ, and a living force in his kingdom. " If it die
it brinyeth forth much fruit." "Hereby perceive we the love of
God, because Ite laid down His lie for us, and wu,e ought to lay
down our lives for the brethren." That is, the measure of
Christ's love for the world, should be the measure of our
love to our fellow men.   "If God so loved us, we ought also to
love one another." No man, perhaps, ever felt this fellowship
with Christ's sacrifice and suffering love more truly than did
Paul.   "Always bearing about," he says,  "in the body  the
dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made
mangest in our body.   For we which live are always delivered
unto death for Jesus' sake, that the lfe also of Jesus might be
made manifest in our mortal flesh." He even intimates that the
sufferings of Christ are not complete without the added sufferings of His disciples.   " Who now rejoice in my sufferings
for you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of
Christ in myflesh, for  iis body's sake, which is the church."
Does not this imply that there is a sense in which we may
even be partakers of His vicarious sacrifice?   However this
maybe, it certainly shows that the same spirit which animated Christ, should animate us.
If we are thoroughly baptized into the spirit of Christ,
the wretched condition of the mass of mankind will never
be out of our minds; it will meet us everywhere. Whenever
we read the Bible, we shall remember the millions who never
saw it. Whenever we kneel to pray, we shall not forget the
millions more that bow down to wood and stone. Whenever
we partake of the broken body and shed blood of Jesus, we
shall think of the millions who have never heard that precious name, and have received no invitation to this sacred
feast. Whenever we hear the Gospel, we shall feel like sending it to earth's remotest bounds.   When the knell of death
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SERAION FOR THE CRISIS.
salutes our ears, we shall be reminded that thousands'of those
who know not Christ are every moment dropping into hell.
And we shall have such a sense of the value of these souls as
language can never express. I am aware that there are those
in the church who will not be able to appreciate what I am
now saying. They have never caught the true missionary
fire. The conversion of mankind they consider a great work,
and very desirable, but it has never become the all-controlling,
master passion of their souls. They have endeavored sometimes to compute the value of souls, and see easily enough,
that one soul must be worth more than all earthly treasure;
but they have never had any such ineffable sense or feeling
of its value as I suggest. A true estimate of the value of
a human soul is never attained through the ear, or the eye,
or any other of the senses, not even through the understanding. It cannot be computed. It defies all mathematical calculation. We have no values like it. It is easy to say that
it is a greater work to convert a soul than to conquer an empire, and it is all true; but this gives us no idea of the value
of a soul. W e may say that all the material universe, though
made up of gold and diamonds, weighed against one soul,
would be but as the dust in the balance, and this is doubtless
also true; but what sense does this give you of the value of
a soul? We sometimes say that the blood of Christ is the
price of the soul?  But the material blood is nothing.   It
has no value. The value is in that divine agony of love,
which gives all efficacy to the blood. We might weigh and
measure the blood; but who can measure the agony of the
Son of God? Till we can, how shall we estimate the value
of the human soul? Souls and material things cannot be
compared. As Dr. Whedon would say, they are incommensurable. You might as well compare eternity with a steam
engine, or a twenty-four gun ship. They are not alike.
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SER1MON  FOR TIlE CRISIS.
They have no points of comparison. Precisely so with all
material values and the value of the soul. There are no
points of comparison between a soul and a dollar. The value
of a soul cannot, therefore, be taught, or communicated from
one man to another. It can only be felt. It must be communicated directly to the heart by the Spirit of God.
" Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into
the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them
that love him. Beat God hath revealed them unto us by His Spirit;
for the Spirit searcheth all things; yea, the deep things of God.
For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of
man which is in him; even so the things of God knoweth no man,
but the Spirit of God.   Now, we have received not the spirit of
the world, but the Spirit which is of God, that we  might know
the things that are freely gven to us of God.   Which things also
we speak not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which
the Holy Ghost teacheth, comparing spiritual things with spirittal.   But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit
of God, for they are foolishness unto hintm; neither can he know
them, because they are spiritually discerned. But he that is spiritualjudgeth all thinygs."
"The things which God hath prepared for them that
love Him," which "eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither
have entered into the heart of (the natural) man," give all
the value to the soul. If this be so, then are we clearly
taught in this passage that the value of the soul is revealed
directly by the Spirit, taught by the Holy Ghost, "spiritually
discerned." This is the same Spirit, which, when a man is
converted, cries out within him, "0  my wife, my children,
my father, my mother, and all my dear friends, and all the
world, 0 that they might all come to Christ!"  Every soul
that is born of God, is born into the missionary spirit. It is
sometimes quenched very quickly, but all have it at first.
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SEIRO-N iFOIl'rill', CRISIS.
Nothing should be cherished more earnestly, for it is a divine
fire, the life of the soul, the noblest gift of God. This is the
same spirit which makes  a man feel "Foe I     ucnto vie if I
preach not the gospet."  Every minister who is truly called of
God, is called in the missionary spirit. This is the same spirit
that, when the weight of the world is on the soul, "m aketh
intercession for us withgr-oaninys which cannot be iuttered."  If you
would have this spirit, get near to Christ and you will catch
it. Get the baptism of the Holy Ghost, and you will know
what it is to feel the value of souls.   We  contribute for
missions upon precisely the same principle that we would save
a man from drowning, or rescue him from his burning house,
or warn him of threatened danger, or feed him when starving.
Millions are starving, threatened, burning, drowning in perdition, and our Master commands," Go!" "Fly to the rescue
and save them! " Thousands of godly mnen start up to obey
the command.   Shall we sustain them?  Shall  we defray
their expenses? Shall we join with the Master, and say
" Go I"?  How loudly shall we say it?  What shall we give
this year towards the conversion of the world? The amount
of our donations should be graduated somewhat by the magnitude of the work we have to do. Great enterprises require
a great outlay of means.  If the world is ever converted, it
will be through greater sacrifices, and a larger liberality than
we have yet seen. This work cannot be overdone. It is a
field upon which we can put forth our full strength. If every
mnember of the Christian church should give to the very utmost of his ability, and men full of faith and the Holy Ghost
could be found to go, it would take many years to preach the
gospel to every creature. Is it not a blessed thought, that
here is a field in which our benevolence can have full scope,
in which we never can do too much, in which every dollar we
can spare can be put directly into the hands of Jesus? How
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SER-,MON  FOIL TIE CRISIS.
the soul revels in a boundless ocean of benevolent effort!
I ask again, how much are we willing to give to Christ this
year to send the gospel into all the world, and to every creature? The Methodist church calls for an average of one
dollar per member, which in the aggregate amounts to
$1,030,978. No person who is not an absolute pauper,
ought to pay less than a dollar, while multitudes ought to pay
fives, and tens, and twenty-fives, and fifties, and hundreds, and
some even thousands every year. If the world is really to be
converted, we must begin to lay hold of the business in earnest. It is the great business of the church, and the sooner
every member feels it so, the better for the world.  As a denomination, our work is but just begun. Methodism in this
country is but a hundred years old, and our missionary society
less than fifty. How much missionary money do you suppose
was paid in the Ohio Conference, embracing at that time the
whole of the States of Ohio and Michigan, as well as parts
of Kentucky, Virginia, and Indiana in 1820? Bishop Morris, to whom the money was committed by vote of the Conference, for the purpose of sending it forward to the Parent
Society, informs us that the entire aggregate of all the collections amounted to nineteen dollars and a fraction over! Last
year (1865-6) Ohio and Michigan alone gave $78,562.
The entire amount contributed by the whole church in the
same year, (1820)) was $823.  The amount contributed last
year, (1865-6) was $671,090. A very respectable advance
certainly, though I think you will all agree with me, that it is
far less than it ought to be, when you consider that this
amounts to an average of only seventy-seven cents per member. But this standard has been raised by slow degrees. In
1820 we gave an average of three mills per member; in
1825, one cent, one mill; in 1830, two cents, seven mills; in
1835, four cents, six mills; in 1840, eighteen cents, seven mills;
o
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SERfMON FOR TIIE CRPISIS.
in 1845, eight cents, seven mills; in 1850, fifteen cents, six
mills; in 1855, twenty-five cents, five mills; in 1860, twentyfive cents; in 1865, seventy-eight cents, one mill, the highest
average yet attained. It is humiliating to know that our own
Conference has never reached a higher standard than sixty-two
cents per member, and still more humiliating that last year
(1865-6) we should fall down to fifty-six cents per member.
Are we so much poorer than our sister Conferences as to make
this necessary?  Will missions supported at such a rate ever
convert the world? We must nearly double our collections this
year, to do our share in meeting our current missionary  appropriations. Last year (1865-6) we raised less than nine
thousand dollars, this year the work demands fifteen thousand.*
If our people understood the magnitude, and grandeur,
and infinite importance of this work, who can believe that
they would hesitate to furnish the funds required? We are
abundantly able. Let us run over our field, and see if, in
Christian consistency, we can afford to do less. The church
is asked to sustain ten missionaries among the Indians, at an
expense of $4,600.  Is this too much?   We  are enjoying
their hunting grounds, and as the wave of civilization rolls
on, they must be submerged. Can we do less as they go
down, than to point them to the Saviour, and through him to
fairer hunting grounds on high? Our Indian wars, we are
told, are costing us now a million of dollars a week. Every
Indian we kill and send to perdition, costs us hundreds of
thousands of dollars. Would it not be better to send less
gun powder and whisky, and more missionaries among them?
One hundredth part of the outlay of means, with correspond
* NOTE.-We are pained to learn from the report of the treasurer of our Conference Missionary Society, made since the above was written, that we have raised
during the year just closed, only about one-half the amount apportioned to us.
Shall this be so in the year to come?
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SEIRMION FOR TILE  CRITSIS.
ing missionary efforts, would save all this effusion of blood,
and instead of thrusting them in all their savageness down to
hell, would raise multitudes of holy spirits to the skies.  Has
Christianity nothing for savages but the sword?  If the nation pays a million dollars a week to kill these children of
the forest, is it too much for a great church like ours to pay
$4,600 a year to save them? 0 that the sword of the Spirit
were the sword of the nation, how much  less of blood and
treasure would our warfare cost, and how much more certain
and glorious our triumph!
Next we turn to Africa; ravaged, plundered, degraded
Africa, once the great luminary of the ancient world, now,
in every sense, the darkest and most wretched quarter of the
globe. But if I read the signs of the times aright, the star
of Africa is again in the asendant, that darkest hour which
precedes the day is past, and the Sun of Righteousness is about
to arise upon that benighted land with healing in his wings.
That the Christian religion, and especially that formn of it
called Methodism, is adapted to the African mind, has been
sufficiently demonstrated in this country.   No  race ever
proved more susceptible to its holy influences.   Our missionary work in Africa began in the right spirit to succeed.
When Melville B. Cox, our first missionary to Africa, was
warned that if he went to that country, he soon must die, he
replied, "I know I cannot live long in Africa, but I hope to
live long enough to get there, and if God please that my
bones shall lie in an African grave, I shall have established
such a bond between Africa and the church at home, as shall
not be broken until Africa is redeemed." Thus he went, and
laid down his life for that country, and dying, said, "Let a
thousand fall, but let not Africa be given up."  Shall not we
respond to his sainted spirit? It shall not be given up. The
church will not give it up. God will not give it up. Africa
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S,ERIMON FOPR  T'It CRISIS. 
shall be redeemed.  HIad we the spirit of this Christian hero,
how much should we be willing to contribute towards the re  demption of Africa to-day? The church confines her opera tions to Liberia, and is asked for only $15,400 to sustain
twenty-eight missionaries.    Ought  we not to  do  more?
Ought we not to expend hundreds of thousands in evangeli zing the natives of that land? Men adapted to that work
are being educated in this country to-day by the thousand.
Let us pray the Lord of the harvest to send forth laborers into
His harvest, and that the mantle of Melville B. Cox may
fall upon the sons of Africa, that they may return by multi tudes to proclaim the unsearchable riches of Christ in their
fatherland.   We want money for Africa, but we  want the
self-sacrificing zeal of the first martyr to this mission more.
Let us turn from Africa to Asia, the cradle of the world.
How much shall we give for the conversion of China? This
mission never was so prosperous as now. The work here has
thus far been chiefly a work of preparation. We had the
language to acquire, a Christian literature to create, chapels
and parsonages to erect, native helpers to secure, and a
church to organize. But now we have gained a foothold in
this vast empire; we have but to prosecute our labors with
becoming vigor to achieve the most sublime results. We
have now five missionaries, seven assistant female missionaries,
and thirty-six native helpers; in all forty-eight missionaries
in this field. Two more missionary families are on their way
to reinforce them. There have been issued from our press in
China during the past year, almost ten  million of pages,
(9,937,000) including the entire New Testament, and the
book of Proverbs, with tracts and other matter indispensable
to the prosecution of our work. To carry forward this work
the church is asked for $20,344. This is the outlay we propose to make this year towards the conversion of the most
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SERMON FOR THE CRISIS.
populous empire on the globe, an empire in whichli ten thousand missionaries might be employed to advantage. Is it
too much? Is it enough? Let your contributions for China
answer.
And then we turn to India. This is, at present, the most
prosperous and promising of all our foreign missions. The
people are every where accessible, throng by multitudes to
our missionaries, and hear with eagerness; many are being
converted, and native preachers and helpers are being rapidly
raised up. As a church, we have become responsible for ten
millions of people in the part of India we occupy, pledging
ourselves to cultivate this field, with the understanding that
it is to be left to us by other denominations. Here we have
founded a Christian College, and have a regularly organized
Methodist Conference, with (including one hundred and thirtyfive school teachers, and forty-four native preachers and exhorters) a force of two hundred and fourteen missionaries.
No portion of our work is crying more loudly for reinforcements from home.   Rev. E. W. Parker, P. E., of Moradabad
District, closes his report by saying, "Remember  that our
mission stations are, on an average, fifty miles apart, and that
each station represents a population of five hundred thousand
souls, and yet most of these stations have but one missionary
each.  What we ask and plead for now is, that our church
may send us men enough to supply all our large stations with
two missionaries each. Is it too much to ask that we may
have two men for five hundred thousand souls? Let the
church send forth her men and means, accompanied by her
earnest prayers, and ere another century shall pass away, the
Methodist church, will have accomplished in India, a work
such as has been done in America during the century past."
Should the church do her duty, this will be considered a very
tame prophecy in fifty years from to-day. For this vast work
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SERMON  FOR TIIE CRISIS.
there is demanded this year, $46,924, not a half a cent a
soul fa)r all these starving millions we are pledged to feed.
Iu view of the great Sacrifice of Christ we ask, is this
ciioug?  You may ask if these missions do anything towards
supporting themselves.  O yes; India contributed twenty-two
thousand dollars towards the expenses of the mission last
year, nearly half as much as the appropriation in 1867. It
is said that God helps those that help themselves. Let us do
likewise. And now we turn to Europe.
In Europe our missions are in Bulgaria, (Turkey) Germany and Scandinavia. To sustain our work in Bulgaria,
where we have three missionaries, the church asks for $4,112.
Facilities for the enlargement of this work are increasing
every day, and three more missionaries are called for, but
cannot be sent at present for the want of funds.
In Germany we have a regularly organized Conference,
with fifty-eight missionaries, a Theological Seminary, and a
Publishing House. The amount asked for all the purposes
of this great and prosperous mission is $34,884. The church
is indebted to no part of the modern world more than to Germany. It is probably, to-day exerting more influence upon
the religious thought of mankind than any other nation.   A
denomination expecting to exert anything like a general influence in the grand movement to convert the world, which is
now being inaugurated, must take Germany in its programme,
as one base of operations of vastttrategetical importance.
German thought rectified, and fired by the Holy Ghost, is a
magazine of power, such as can be found nowhere else in this
world. Of this we are availing ourselves in the most effectual way through our mission in Germany. The day is not
far distant, when our Nasts, and Warrens, and Hursts will
be the great lights in our denominational horizon. German
thought filtered through sanctified Anglo-American mind will
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2SElR3lON  FO'1k TIIE  CIRISIS.
make the richest and purest theological literature in the world.
I look for great treasures in our denominational literature
from this source. Not only is this the land of Luther, and
the Reformation, but we must not forget that Wesley himself
received his best instruction in the great practical truths of
our religion, justification by faith, the witness of the Spirit,
and entire satisfaction, from the same country, nor that the
founders of our church, MIrs. Heck and Phillip Embury, were
Germans. We are but paying a debt we owe, in endeavoring
to rekindle ill Germany the old fire from heaven, which has
been smothered by the dull formality, and often undisguised
infidelity of a State religion.  3Iethodism is to do precisely
the same work for Germany which it has done for England
and the United States, not only gather a powerful membership into its own fold, but quicken and vitalize the older
churches.
In Scandinavia we have twenty-one missionaries supported
by an appropriation of $15,545. This mission has been
blessed with considerable success, and in Copenhagen we have
one of the finest Methodist churches in the world. But two
thirds of the converts of this mission come to America. The
master builder of our church in Copenhagen, laid the foundation of Heck Hall, and his son is studying for the ministry
in the Northwestern University. Mlany of the Scandinavian
workmen were converted during the building of this memorial
edifice.  It was my happinness to meet with them in the
chapel of the University, and to witness great demonstrations
of spiritual power among them.   The reflex influence of our
German and Scandinavian work in Europe upon the same work
in this country, is very great.   Our missionaries act undesignedly, and in spite of themselves, as a sort of colonization
agents, and send their converts to build up American churches,
instead of keeping them to strengthen their own. But the
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SERMON FOR THlE CRISIS.
gain to the kingdom of Christ is the same, and we seed all
the good foreign elements we can have in this country to
counteract the influence of the bad. How much shall we
give for our missions in Europe, for Bulgaria, Germany and
Scandinavia?
From Europe we turn to South America. Here we have
nine missionaries. We have been compelled to make an appropriation for church building at Buenos Ayres this year,
which materially increases the amount expended in this field.
For years our work in this mission remained almost stationary,
but latterly, new doors are opening before us in almost every
direction. Were we able to move promptly and strongly, we
might, without doubt, in a very short time, greatly advance
the interests of Christ's kingdom, especially in the Argentine Republic.  We ought to expend, if we could command
the money, $150,000 per year for some years to come, to establish schools and churches, and maintain missionaries in this
Southern half of our continent.  This year the church is
asked for 843,650.  Will any one who knows anything of
the extent and character of South America say that this is
enough? It should be remembered that we have no Church
Extension Society for our foreign field, and that the foregoing
appropriations are designed to aid in the building of churches
and parsonages, as well as to pay the salaries of the missionaries. When this is taken into account, it will be seen that
our foreign missions are conducted upon the most rigid principles of economy.  This closes the list of our foreign missions,
not one of which do we work up to one-tenth of our attainable power. Who can doubt, if we felt the value of souls as
we ought, and were making the propagation of Christ's kingdom the great work of our lives, but we could, as a church,
give an average of ten dollars each per year, to convert the
world?  Do we not lay more than that year by year unneces
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SERMON FOR TIIE CRISIS.
sarily upon the altar of fashion and pride?  Do  we not
expend more than that in useless, not to say sinful, luxuries?
It was many years ago, when we were not as strong as we
are now, that Dr. Olin said, " Our proportionable share of
the work of converting the world, gives us a hundred million
of immortal men to our watch-care and tender mercies."
To-day then, more than a hundred million starving men have
a right to look to us for the bread of life. More than a hundred million souls, for whom Christ died, are dependent upon
us for a knowledge of the way of salvation. They are our
charge. Their blood will be required at our hands. Shall
they perish without the offer of salvation through our neglect?
Millions of them must, unless the zeal and the liberality of the
church can be increased. If there is any truth in the Bible,
all idolaters are excluded from the kingdom of heaven, the
nations that forget God, the great muass of the heathen, are
turned into hell.  The church holds the keys of the kingdom
of heaven, and will not open to them.  There is not the least
doubt but millions of souls go down to hell every year
through the criminal parsimony, and indifference of the
church. We try to get rid of this tremendous responsibility,
and comfort ourselves in our indifference and illiberality by
such passages as these: " In every nation he that fear-eth God,
and worketh righteousness, is accepted with Zinm."
"When the Gentiles, whieh Ahave not the law, do by natiure
the things contaibed in the la?v, these having not the law, are a law
tOnto themnselves." But the most these passages teachl, is that
the salvation of a heathen is not absolutely impossible.  There
may be here and there a Socrates, who in spite of adverse
circumstances will be saved. So a saint may grow up in a
brothel, but for one such instance, you will find a thousand in
Christian families. So you will find a thousand saved under
a Christian civilization, where you will find one in heathen
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SER-[O-N  FOR  TIlE CRISIS.
dom.  The truth remains the same, that millions- go down
to perdition for the want of the bread of life which we withhold. Could the whole church be brought to feel this overwhelming truth, there would be no rest until the gospel
should be preached in all the world and to every creature,
but not every man can bear all the world upon his heart at once.
The field of vision is too wide for many near-sighted mortals.
They cannot comprehend it. It requires a degree of intelligence, as well as piety, to which every man has not attained.
We have to grow to this by degrees as we do to anything
else.  But we now come to a field which no man can fail to
comprehend. I refer to what are called our Domestic Missions. 1st. To foreign populations in the United States,
Welsh, German, Scandinavian, and Chinese, for which the
church is asked to contribute $64,350. 2d. To our English
speaking people on our frontiers, in the heathen districts of
our great cities, and in the South, for which there are appropriated $575,354, Thus, $639,704 are appropriated to our
domestic work. This seems like a large sum, and so it is;
but in all soberness, I am compelled to say, from what I know
of the work, that it is not one-half as much as we need.
Every department of this work is of the utmost importance
to us, not only as a church, but as a nation. Godless, infidel, and even idolatrous foreigners are pouring into this country by the hundred thousand. They threaten not only our
faith, but our noblest institutions, and our most righteous
laws. We must Christianize them, or they will demoralize,
infidelize and heathenize us. I have said that the reflex influence of our missionary work in Germany and Scandinavia
is very great upon the same class of work tin this country,
and I may add, vice versa, the influence of the German and
Scandinavian work in this country is still greater upon the
fatherland of these peoples. Thousands of letters are written
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SER3[ON  FeOl Tlll, CRISIS.
home every year by those who have found both liberty and
religion in tais happy land. Each one of these letters is read
by at least a half a score of persons.   Sanctified by friendship and kinship, and a thousand fond recollections of former days, who can tell the effect of these messages of love,
upon the hearts of the dear ones at home? Every such letter
is as goad as a sermon, and worth a score of religious tracts.
These pleasant echoes from a far-off land go before our missionaries, and prepare thousands of hearts for the " good seed."
This greatly enhances the importance of the work among our
foreign population.
Then the importance of our work in the Territories, in
the newer portions of the Western States, and in the heathen
districts of our great cities cannot be over-estimated.   The
gospel alone can rescue our new territories from anarchy,
mob law and barbarism. We must follow the early settlers,
and lay the foundation of a Christian civilization among
them. There are no missionaries more self-sacrificing and laborious, than the men who do this work. There are none
whose labors yield a more fruitful harvest.   No other class of
missionaries are as a rule, so poorly supported. When representatives of other denominations, do venture to stand by our
side at the front, they are always better supported than we
are. If any one supposes the heroic days of Methodism are
over, let him ask the bishop to send him to one of the very
best of these frontier appointments.   If that does not satisfy
him, let him ask to be transferred to the Southern States, and
districts covering whole States, circuits two hundred miles
long, insults, threats suggestive of pistol shots and halters,
coarse fare, and abundance of hard work, will probably be
sFatisfactory.
This brings me to speak of the vast importance of our
Southern work.
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SERMON FOR TIIE CRISIS.
The four million slaves that have just been born to freedom and clothed with all the rights of citizenship have sometimes been called the wards of the nation.  If they are the
wards of the nation, they certainly ought to be the children
of the church. Like children, they need education and discipline to prepare them for their new duties and responsibilities.  There are no other four million human,beings on earth
who are so ignorant, and who at the-sameQ,time are so eager
to learn. There are none who more readily embrace the
Christian religion. They are the heathen at our doors, the
man' fallen among thieves, the Lazarus at our gate, with,
hitherto, not even the dogs for their friends.  They know
our agency in their emancipation, and havel-thatconfidence
in us which makes the gospel a welcome message at our hands.
Our success among them has thus far been very great. The
re-construction of the rebel states upon an anti-slavery basis
will give us great influence with the governing class of southern society, for our record will bear the test of time, and the
longer it stands the brighter it willjgrow,'whil.ethat of the
pro-slavery and disloyal churches will become more and more
infamous as the spirit of the age flows in upon the South, and
the principles of freedom and justice prevail.
At the last session of the Mission Committee some doubt
was expressed as to whether the Government would protect
us in our rights in this field. But that question has happily
been settled by a patriotic Congress, and henceforth the
Southern States are free to us. We are becoming so thoroughly entrenched there that it will soon be impossible for
any power to dislodge us without driving the nation to arms
again. Should an attempt be made to drive us out, half a
million bristling bayonets would rise as by magic to defend
us. M3ethodism is henceforth to be a power in this Government.  No element entering into the re-construction of the
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SERMON FOR THE CRISIS.
nation is of more importance than the influence of our missions in the South. God helping us, we will forge bands of
union for this nation, which all the powers of darkness can
never burst asunder. Three years ago we had scarcely a foothold in all the South.
Now in Mississippi and Louisiana we have a Conference
with some thirty ministers, eight thousand members, $100,.
000 in Church property, a Theological Seminary and a weekly
church paper in New Orleans. In Texas, also, we have a
Conference with more than twenty preachers, and some two
thousand members. In South Carolina, likewise, we have a
Conference with more than twenty ministers, and a membership of six thousand, with a weekly religious paper and a
Biblical Institute at Charleston. Also in Virginia and North
Carolina we have a Conference with some sixteen preachers,
the number of membership I do not know. We have two
Conferences in Tennessee-the HIolston and the Tennessee.
The Holston Conference, situated in East Tennessee, comprises
about twenty thousand members, one hundred and thirty
seven local preachers, and fifty-one traveling ministers. The
Tennessee Conference, situated in the western part of the State,
comprises some thirty-five traveling ministers, forty-nine local
preachers, and three thousand members. In West Georgia
and Alabama, as the result of seventeen months' effort ending
July 1st, 1867, we have eighty-eight traveling and one hundred and twenty-five local preachers, eighty-three church
buildings, one hundred and fifty-six Sunday schools,  with
five hundred and fifty-nine officers and teachers, and seven
thousand scholars. During seventeen months eleven thousand
and forty-two persons in that.field have united with the
M. E. Church. This field is about to be organized into two
Conferences. The Missouri, Arkansas and Kentucky Conferences have been greatly prospered since the war.
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SERMON FOR THE CRISIS.
Who doubts that a million of dollars in Methodist mis sion churches and schools, could be expended to advantage
in the South the coming year? No better investment could
be made for the church or the nation, than thus to appro priate a million of dollars annually for ten years to come.
Patriotism, benevolence and Piety, all plead with one voice
for the prosecution of this work. If we would establish a
common civilization, and perpetuate the peace and unity of
the nation, if we would help not only those that need help,
but those who, in this country, need it most, and save the
souls of the perishing, where they are most ready to come to
Christ, let us in the name of God and liberty, to the utmost
of our ability, push our missions in the South. Thus our
line of battle extends to every quarter of the globe, and we
must fight it out upon this line, if it takes us to the day of
judgment. Hitherto we have only sent out skirmishers, to
feel of the enemy, and ascertain his position. Shall we call
them in, or will the main army move forward to sustain
them? Methinks I see the Captain of our salvation waving
his sceptre over this grand army; and flinging the bloodstained banner of the cross to the breeze, he cries, FORWARD!
MARCII!
Let the command go down through all the ranks of the
great army of God, and with firm and steady tread, keeping
step to the music of the gospel, let us make our charge upon
Paganism among our Indians, upon Fetichism in Africa, upon
the Boodhism and Brahmanism of China and India, upon
the Mohammedism of Turkey, upon the formalism and infidelity of Germany and Scandinavia, upon the Romanism of
South America, and upon the kingdom of Satan generally, in
our Southern States, and in our midst. Let us charge unitedly, promptly, generously, heroically, and for the love of
Christ. -What do you say brethren? Shall we fail for the
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SERMON FOR THIE CRISIS.
want of supplies? What are you willing to do for the conquest of the world, in the name of Christ? Let your Missionary offerings answer. When the battle is over, and the
victory is won, we shall all pass in review before Him that
cometh in the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory.
Mlay our deeds be such as we shall rejoice to have rehearsed
before an assembled universe!-AMEN.
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