crc'crj 
 
 13 
 
 c3wt 
 
 
 THE TWO GREAT INSTRUMENTS 
 
 APPOINTED FOB THE 
 
 PROPAGATION OF THE GOSPEL ; 
 
 AND THE DUTY OF THE CHRISTIAN PUBLIC TO KEEP THEM 
 BOTH IN YIOOBOUS OPERATION : 
 
 A 
 
 SERMON 
 
 PREACHED BEFORE 
 
 THE DUNDEE MISSIONARY SOCIETY, 
 
 On Monday, October 26, 1812. 
 
 
 BY THE 
 
 Rev. THOMAS CHALMERS, Kilmany. 
 
 THIRD EDITION. 
 
 EDINBURGH : 
 
 Printed by A. Balfour, Merchant Court, 
 
 FOR WILLIAM WHYTE, 12 . SOUTH ST ANDREW STREET i 
 
 AND SOLD BY 
 
 It. OGLE & CO. AND T. HAMILTON, LONDON. 
 
 1814. 
 

 - 
 
 
 / r-.jrjov Yj* **• pjff* '1 • 1 4 # ? * • 
 
 i.ufeA \?4i ; * r 'J 
 
 '% ' ^4 • I , , .' f »■* 
 
 .1 .» or» , 
 
 '(it f'ftt*. ' ’ * •>%* * ‘ *• 
 
 ' , 
 
 
 
SERMON, &c. 
 
 Rom. x. 17. 
 
 “ Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God 
 
 In' the prosecution of the following discourse, I sliall first 
 lay before you, in a few words, the general lesson which 
 the text furnishes ; and, in the second place, I shall appl 
 it to explain the objects of that Society, whose claims to the 
 generosity of the public I am appointed to advocate. 
 
 First, As all is suspended upon God, and as he reigns 
 with as supreme a dominion in the heart of man as in the 
 world around us, there is no doubt that every affection of 
 this heart — the remorse which imbitters it, the terror which 
 appals it, the faith which restores it, the love which in- 
 flames it, — there can be no doubt, I say, that all is the work 
 of God. However great the diversity of operations, it is he that 
 worketh all in all ; and the apostle Paid expressly ascribes 
 the faith of a human soul to the operation of his hand, when 
 he prays, in behalf of the Thessalonians, that God would 
 fulfil in them all the good pleasure of his goodness, and the 
 work of faith with power. 
 
 But, on the other hand, it is evident, that throughout the 
 wide extent of nature and of Providence, though it be God 
 alone that worketh, yet he worketh by instruments ; and 
 that, without any wish to question or to impair his sove- 
 reignty, it is an established habit of language, to ascribe 
 that to the instrument which is solely and exclusively due 
 to the Omnipotent himself. We say that it is rain which 
 
4 > 
 
 makes the grass to grow. It is God, in fact, who makes 
 the grass to grow ; and he does it by the instrumentality 
 of rain. Yet we do not say that there is any impiety in 
 this mode of expression ; nor does it imply that we, in 
 thought, transfer that to the instrument, which is due only 
 to him in whose hand the instrument is ; it is a mere habit 
 of language, and the apostle himself has fallen into the use 
 of it. None were more impressed than he, with the pious 
 sentiment, that all depends upon God, and cometh from 
 God ; yet he does not overlook the instrumentality of a 
 preacher, and tells the Romans, in the words of my text, 
 that “ faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word 
 of God.” 
 
 If, in that exti'aordinary age, when the Author of nature 
 broke in upon the constancy of its operations, and asserted 
 by miracles, his own mighty power to subdue and to con- 
 troul it — if, in such an age, one of his own inspired mes- 
 sengers does not overlook the use and agency of instru- 
 ments, surely it would ill become us to overlook them. It 
 is right that we should carry about with us, at all times, and 
 in all places, a sentiment of piety ; but it must not be piety 
 of our own forging, — it must be the prescribed piety of re- 
 velation ; we have no right to sit in indolence, and wait for 
 the immediate agency of Heaven, if God has told us, that 
 it is by the co-operation of human beings that the end 
 is to be accomplished, and if he orders that co operation, 
 we are not merely to acquiesce in the sentiment that it is 
 God who does the thing, but we must acquiesce in his man- 
 ner of doing it; and if that be by instruments, nothing re- 
 mains for us but submissively to concur, and obediently to 
 go along with it. 
 
 Now, let it be observed, that the operation of the two 
 instruments laid before us in the text, is somewhat differ- 
 ent at present from what it was in the days of the apostles. 
 Those were the days of inspiration ; and the faith which 
 was so widely diffused through the world in the first ages 
 of Christianity, came by the hearing of inspired teachers. 
 
The two 8teps of the process were just what we find them 
 described in the passage before us : Faith came by hear- 
 ing, — it came by the hearing of the apostles ; and hearing 
 came by the word of God, — for, in the great matters of sal- 
 vation, the apostles spake only as God put the word into 
 their mouth, and as the spirit of God gave them utterance. 
 
 But, whatever is capable of being spoken, is capable of 
 being written also ; and it was not long before the teach- 
 ers of Christianity committed to writing the doctrine of 
 salvation. It went over the world, and it has come down 
 to posterity, in the form of gospels and epistles. The col- 
 lection of these documents is still called the Word of God : 
 it is, in fact, that word come down to us by the instrumen- 
 tality of written language. If you read it with the impres- 
 sion on your mind that it is the genuine production of in- 
 spired men, you are in circumstances likely enough for re- 
 ceiving faith. Now, however, there is a change in one of 
 the instruments : it makes all the difference betwixt the 
 messenger delivering the message in person, and sending 
 you the substance of it in a written communication. In 
 each of the ways, faith may result, and faith has resulted 
 from it : there have been many thousand examples of the 
 efficacy of the latter process as well as of the former ; in 
 which case, we may sayjhat faith came by reading, and 
 reading by the word of God. 
 
 We are not to suppose, however, when reading was sub- 
 stituted in the place of hearing, that hearing was entirely 
 laid aside. It is true that you can no longer hear the im- 
 mediate messengers of Heaven ; but you can hear the de- 
 scendants of those messengers : you can no longer hear men 
 who have the benefit of inspiration ; but you can hear men 
 whose office it is to give their study to the written documents, 
 which the inspiration of a former age has left behind it. We 
 know that you have access to these documents yourselves ; and 
 may light and learning grow and multiply among you ! — we 
 know, that, upon the solitary reading of the word. Heaven 
 often sends its most precious influences ; but we know 
 
6 
 
 that Heaven also gives a salutary and a saving influence to 
 the living energy of a human voice — that the man who 
 speaketh from the heart speaketh to it — that the tones of 
 earnestness, and sincerity, and feeling, carry an emphasis 
 and an infection along with them — that there is an impres- 
 sion in the power of example — that there is an authority in 
 superior learning — that there is a charm in fervent piety 
 — that there is a usefulness in the wisdom which can ap- 
 ply scripture to the varieties of individual experience — that 
 there is a force and urgency in pathetic exhortation — that 
 there is a constraining influence in the watchful anxiety of 
 him who entreats you to mind the things which belong to 
 your peace. These are undoubted facts, and the minister 
 who can combine all these in his own person, and bring 
 them to bear upon the minds of his people, may, under the 
 blessing of God, convert the hearing of the word into an 
 instrument of mighty operation even in these latter days, 
 and may exemplify my text upon many of those who are 
 sitting and listening around him. Faith may be wrought 
 in them with power ; and when asked to explain the process 
 by which they arrived at it, they truly say, that their faith 
 came by hearing, and their hearing by the word of God. 
 
 In no age of the church, indeed, does it appear, that the 
 one instrument ever superseded the other ; or that, upon 
 the mere existence of the written 'word among the people, 
 the hearing of that word was ever dispensed with as a su- 
 perfluous exercise. When Ezra received the written law, 
 there is no doubt that copies of it would spread and multi- 
 ply in the country ; yet this was not enough in the eye of 
 that great Jewish reformer : He himself opened the book 
 in the sight of the people, and they stood up : He had 
 priests and Levites along with him ; and we are told in 
 Nehemiah, that they not only “ read in the book in the law 
 of God distinctly, but they gave the sense, and caused the 
 people to understand the reading.” And we have reason 
 to believe, that this reading and expounding of the law was 
 not acted upon on one solitary occasion, but that, from the 
 
7 
 
 days of Ezra it formed a permanent institution among the 
 Jews. We meet with traces of its existence in the New 
 Testament. In the Acts of the Apostles, we have some in- 
 formation respecting the service of the synagogue. When 
 Paul and his companions came to Antioch, in Pisidia, they 
 went into the synagogue, on the Sabbath-day, and sat 
 down ; and after the reading of the law and the prophets 
 — a circumstance introduced without any explanation, as if 
 it had been a mere matter of course, and a customary exer- 
 cise among them — after this reading of the law and the pro- 
 phets, the rulers of the synagogue sent unto them, saying, 
 “ Men and brethren, if ye have any word of exhortation unto 
 the people, say on.” But, in the Gospel by Luke, we have 
 a piece of history still more decisive ; when our Saviour 
 himself not only sanctions by his presence, but gives the 
 high authority of his example, to the reading and exposition 
 of the word : He stood up, and read a passage out of their 
 scriptures, and expounded the passage to them. It is not 
 likely that there was any violation of the established order 
 of the synagogue in this proceeding of our Saviour’s. It 
 was not his practice to fly in the face of any existing insti- 
 tution ; and, from this passage we collect not merely the 
 high sanction of his example to the practice of reading and 
 expounding, but we also collect, that it was a practice in 
 established operation among the Jews. And it has descend- 
 ed, without inteiTuption, through all the successive ages of 
 Christian worship. The inspired teachers of Christianity 
 deemed it necessary to leave something more than the writ- 
 ten volume of inspiration behind them ; they left teachers 
 and overseers : and, to this very day, the readings, and the 
 explanations, and the sermons of Christian pastors, are su- 
 peradded to the silent and solitary reading of Christian 
 people ; and both are found to be instruments of mighty 
 operation, for the perfecting of the saints, and for the edify- 
 ing of the body of Christ. 
 
 Neither instrument is to be dispensed with. If you 
 have hearing without reading, you lay the church open to 
 
8 
 
 all the corruptions of Popery. You have priests, bat you 
 have no Bibles ; you have a minister, but you have no word 
 of God to confront him ; you take your lesson from the 
 wisdom of man, and throw away from you all the light and 
 benefit of revelation ; the faith of the people lies at the 
 mercy of every capricious element in the human character ; 
 it fluctuates with the taste and the understanding of the mi- 
 nister : the precious interest of your souls is committed to 
 the passions and the prejudices of a fellow mortal— that inte- 
 rest for which God himself has made so noble a provision — 
 for which he sent his Eternal Son into the world, and con- 
 ferred miracles and revelations on his followers. By pin- 
 ning your creed to your minister, you put the whole of this 
 provision away from you ; you change a heavenly instruc- 
 tor for an earthly ; you turn from the offered guidance of 
 the Almighty, and resign the keeping of your conscience 
 to one who, in as far as he wanders from the word of God, 
 is as blind and ignorant and helpless as yourself. No, my 
 brethren ! keep fast by your Bible : try if you can to outstrip 
 us in the wisdom of the word of Christ ; and bring the sa- 
 lutary controul of a zealous, and enlightened, and reading 
 population, to bear upon the priesthood. Let not your 
 faith come by hearing alone ; but let your hearing be tried 
 by the word of God : let it not be said, that what you be- 
 lieve is what you have heard ; and that what you have heard 
 is what prejudice, or fancy, or habit, or unauthorised spe- 
 culation, may have suggested to -your minister : Let it be 
 said that what you believe is what you have heard — not be- 
 cause what you have heard cometh from him, and is sup- 
 ported by his authority ; but because you know it to be the 
 doctrine of the Bible, and you are satisfied that he has acted 
 the part of a faithful interpreter, — not because you have 
 tried the word by the hearing ; but because you have tried 
 the hearing by the word, — not because you have brought 
 revelation under the tribunal of your minister ; but because 
 you have brought your minister under the tribunal of reve- 
 lation. In the mighty concern of your faith, we give you 
 
9 
 
 every encouragement to bring your own reading and your 
 own discernment into action. Have the Bible, that high 
 and ultimate standard of appeal, perpetually in your eye : 
 cultivate a growing acquaintance with this standard ; it will 
 keep all right and steady, and save you from being agitated 
 by the ever-varying winds of human doctrine and human 
 speculation ; your faith w'ill come by heaving, but your 
 hearing by the word of God. 
 
 But. I again repeat it, neither instrument is to be dis- 
 pensed with. If you have reading without hearing, you 
 throw away the benefit of a public ministry; an institution 
 sanctioned by the Bible, and transmitted to us through all 
 the successive ages of the church, from the very time of the 
 Apostles. Let every man, if possible, be as enlightened 
 as his minister ; and let us make perpetual approaches to 
 that state of things when u they shall teach no more even' 
 man his brother, and every man his neighbour, saying, 
 ‘ Know the Lord ; for they shall all know me, from the 
 least of them even to the greatest.” It is our delight and 
 our confidence that scriptural knowledge is every day ex- 
 tending among you ; but we cannot shut our eyes to the 
 obvious fact, that the degree of illumination foretold by the 
 prophet is not yet arrived, — that though the majority be 
 thinning every year, yet the unenlightened are still the ma- 
 jority, — that priests have still to do what they did in the 
 days of Ezra ; they have not merely to read in the book 
 of the law distinctly, but they have to give the sense, 
 and cause you to understand the reading, — that though 
 after the era of universal light, some may think that the 
 institution of a public ministry might be dispensed with, 
 yet as the era has not yet arrived, but we are only on the 
 road to it, the institution itself is one of the most powerful 
 expedients for hastening its accomplishment. But what is 
 more, I would not rashly give up the hearing of. the word 
 even after the light of perfect knowledge has dawned in all 
 its brilliancy upon the world. “ Wherefore, I will not be 
 negligent," says the apostle Peter, “ to put you always in 
 
10 
 
 remembrance of these things, though you know them and 
 be established in the present truth.” Though you have no 
 knowledge to receive, you have memories to be refreshed : 
 minds which, however pure, need to be stirred up by way 
 of remembrance. It is true, you have the Bible within 
 your reach ; but every man knows how different in point 
 of certainty is the doing of a thing which may be done at 
 any time, and the doing of a thing which habit and duty 
 have accustomed you to repeat at stated intervals. You 
 may not be disposed at all times to bring your minds into 
 contact with your Bibles ; but upon a simple and mechani- 
 cal act of obedience to the Sabbath-bell, a population is as- 
 sembled, and a minister is in his place, whose office it is to 
 bring the Bible into contact with your minds. I do not 
 speak of his ministrations from house to house ; I speak 
 of his ministrations from the pulpit, whence it is often 
 the high prerogative of a single man to make the word of 
 God bear with energy and effect upon the consciences of 
 hundreds. And he can do more than this ; he can spread 
 around him the infection of his own piety ; he can kindle 
 the fine ardours of sentiment and sincerity among his hear- 
 ers ; he can pour out all his tenderness and all his anxiety 
 upon them ; by the power and urgency of a living voice, 
 he can touch the hearts of his people ; and, with the blessing 
 of God upon his endeavours, he can pull down the indo- 
 lence, and the security, and the strong holds of corruption 
 within them. The worth of the man can give a mighty 
 energy to the words of the minister; and, what with the ex- 
 ample of one, and the stirring eloquence of another, I hold an 
 active, a pure, and a zealous ministry, spread over the face 
 of the country, and labouring in its districts and parishes, 
 to be one great palladium of Christianity in the land. 
 
 This brings me, in the Second place, to the object of that 
 Society, whose claims upon the generosity of the public 1 
 am appointed to lay before you. 
 
 But pardon me, if I put a case to you, taken from ordinary 
 life, for the sake of familiar and convincing illustration. 
 
11 
 
 Let me suppose, that upon any one individual among 
 you there has devolved the entire maintenance of a help- 
 less orphan, and that you lie under a solemn obligation to 
 acquit yourself to the full of this benevolent undertaking. 
 Y r ou know that the term “ maintenance” embraces in it 
 many particulars ; but, for the present, I shall confine my 
 attention to two, — the food to eat, and the raiment to put 
 on. Both must be provided for the object of your charity ; 
 and for this purpose, you must look forward to the pay- 
 ment of separate accounts ; and the thing which you are 
 bound to do cannot be accomplished without satisfying the 
 demands of two or more tradesmen. Y ou may feed the 
 child, — but withhold from it raiment, and you leave it to 
 perish in the inclemency of the weather ; you may clothe 
 the child,’ but withhold from it food, and it dies in the ago- 
 nies of hunger. You have done something, it is true ; and 
 that something was very essential : but you have also omit- 
 ted something; and that something was equally essential, 
 so much so, indeed, that, by virtue of the omission, the 
 unhappy orphan has perished ; and upon you lies the guilt 
 and the cruelty of having abandoned it. I speak in these 
 strong terms, because I am supposing that the individual is 
 both bound and able to accomplish the entire maintenance 
 of the child. Y T et when called to account for the barbarity 
 of his conduct, I can conceive an explanation by which he 
 might attempt to palliate his negligence. “ It is true, I 
 was quite equal to the task ; but then I was so teased by 
 the number of separate accounts and separate applications ! 
 Had one tradesman undertaken to provide all the articles 
 of maintenance, my patience would not have been ex- 
 hausted : I had not one, but several, to satisfy; and I fairly 
 confess, that I got tired and disgusted at the number of 
 them.” The answer to this is quite obvious. It is found, 
 that if one man devotes an undivided attention to one kind 
 of work, he carries it to far greater perfection than if his 
 attention w r ere distracted among several. It is this prin- 
 ciple which has given rise to the division of employment in 
 
12 
 
 society ; each individual betakes himself to his own tfrade 
 and his own manufacture ; the accommodations of life are 
 poured in far greater abundance upon the country ; and 
 each article is both better done, and furnished far more 
 cheaply, than if one individual had undertaken to prepare 
 every thing which enters into the maintenance of a human 
 being. 
 
 When our Saviour left the earth, he left a task behind 
 him, to his disciples — “ Go ye therefore, and teach all na- 
 tions.” A great part of the task has devolved upon us ; 
 for it is not yet accomplished ; there are nations who never 
 heard of the name of Jesus ; and the cause of sending light 
 and Christianity amongst them is left an orphan upon the 
 world. There are thousands, even in this professing coun- 
 try, who would spurn at the orphan, and pour upon it the 
 cruelty of their derision. But there are others who feel an 
 emphasis in the last words of their Saviour, and have taken 
 into their protection the cause which he has bequeathed to 
 us. On the benevolence of a Christian public, the mainte- 
 nance of that cause is devolved ; it is their part not to leave 
 it to perish amongst the garbled and unfinished operations 
 of a cold, timid, and hesitating selfishness. The propaga- 
 tion of the gospel is a task which your Saviour has consign- 
 ed to you. It is a cause the maintenance of which consists 
 of various particulars ; but I confine myself to two — you 
 must put the mighty instruments of my text into operation ; 
 and you must keep them a-going till your object be accom- 
 plished. That object is the salvation of the Heathen. 
 There is only one name given under heaven whereby men 
 can be saved. There is only one way hi which salvation 
 can be brought about, and it is this — " The gospel is the 
 power of God unto salvation, to every one that believeth." 
 My text tells you that “ faith coineth by hearing, and hear- 
 ing by the word of God.” Send Bibles among them : but 
 there are many countries, where, without missionaries, a 
 Bible is a sealed book, and a packet of Bibles a mere spec- 
 tacle for savages to stare at. Without a human agent in 
 
13 
 
 the business, you keep back one of the instruments entire- 
 ly, — you keep back the hearing of the word ; and what is 
 more, without a human agent, you leave the other instru- 
 ment unfinished, — you may give the Bible, but you keep 
 back the capacity of reading it. Both must be done ; and 
 if you withhold human agents, you starve and you stifle 
 the cause which it is your duty to support and to stand by 
 through all its necessities. 
 
 To make the case before us correspond in all its points 
 to the imaginary one which I have already brought forward, 
 the first question I have to answer, is, Whether there be 
 ability in the public to discharge the various claims which 
 are made upon its benevolence ? My reply is a very short 
 one. Much has been already done in the way of turning 
 men from darkness to the light and the knowledge of Chris- 
 tianity ; and what we aim at is, that this rate of activity be 
 not only kept up, but extended. Now, to estimate whe- 
 ther there be a fund in the country for future operations, 
 let us calculate the actual expen ces of the past. I do not 
 confine myself to the expences of the Missionary Society; 
 I add to them the expence3 of the Bible Society, and all 
 the others which exist in the country for religious purposes : 
 I am fairly within limits, when I say that tile joint expence 
 of the whole does not exceed a hundred thousand pounds in 
 the year.* Before you stand appalled at the magnitude of 
 the sum, divide it among the British population ; and you 
 will find, that what has been already done for the extension 
 of Gospel light among the nations of the world, amounts to 
 a penny a month for each householder, or twopence a year 
 for each individual within the limits of the empire. This 
 plain statement sets the question of ability at rest ; and any 
 objection on the score of extravagance in our demands upon 
 the public will not bear a hearing. 
 
 The next question we have to answ T er, is. Why are we 
 teased, then, with so many separate applications ? Could 
 
 * It is now considerably beyond this. 
 
14 . 
 
 not one society embrace all the various objects connected 
 with religion ; and could not all the various demands be re- 
 duced to the simplicity of one yearly subscription ? — One 
 society might embrace all the objects connected with reli- 
 gion ; but, on the principle of the division of employment, 
 separate societies, each devoting itself to one of these ob- 
 jects, are productive of greater good : they do more busi- 
 ness, upon cheaper terms. Instead of one society, over- 
 powered with the extent, and embarrassed with the multi- 
 plicity of its concerns, we have many, each cultivating one 
 department, and giving the labours of its committee to one 
 assigned object. It is just another example of the separa- 
 tion of employments. The Societies of England have na- 
 turally formed themselves into that arrangement which 
 they find to be most useful and efficient : and when I see 
 one with its printing utensils, multiplying copies of the 
 Word of God, — another, with its Missionary College train- 
 ing adventurous spirits for all the climes and countries of 
 the world, — another, with its Jewish Chapel, for fighting 
 the battles of the faith with its oldest and most inveterate 
 enemies, — another, with its apparatus of schools and teach- 
 ers, for carrying the Lancasterian method among the unlet- 
 tered population of all countries, — another, singling out 
 Africa as the sole object of its exertions ; and by the intro- 
 duction of knowledge and the arts, contriving some repara- 
 tion for the wrongs of that deeply-injured continent ; — in 
 all these I see a refreshing spectacle, a warm spirit of reli- 
 gious benevolence animating them all ; but each, by beta- 
 king itself to its own object, and assiduously culturing its 
 own vineyard, rendering the work and the labour of love 
 far more productive than any single society with the wealth 
 of all at its command could possibly have accomplished. 
 
 The propagation of the gospel is a cause, the maintenance 
 of which consists of various particulars ; but I restrict your 
 attention to two, — the providing of Bibles, and the provi- 
 ding of human agents. The former is the word of God, one 
 of the instruments of my text. The latter, by teaching them 
 
15 
 
 to read, teaches unlettered people to use that instrument ; 
 and to the latter belongs the exclusive office of bringing 
 the other instrument to bear upon them — the instrument 
 of hearing. The Society whose office it is to provide the 
 former instrument, is well known by the name of the Bible 
 Society : The Society whose office it is to provide the latter 
 instrument, is also well known by the name of the Mission- 
 ary Society. It is the duty of a Christian public to keep 
 both instruments in vigorous operation. Each of these So- 
 cieties has mighty claims upon you : I will not venture to 
 pronounce a comparison between them ; but if the question 
 were put to me, shall any part of the funds of the one So- 
 ciety be transferred to the other ? I would not hesitate to 
 reply. Not one farthing. You are not to provide food for 
 the orphan at the expence of its raiment ; nor are you to 
 provide raiment for it at the expence of its food : you are to 
 provide both, at the expence of those upon whom its main- 
 tenance has devolved ; you are to interest the public in both 
 objects ; you are to state, and you state truly, that nei- 
 ther of them is yet sufficiently provided for, — that every 
 shilling of addition to the funds of either Society, is an ad- 
 dition of good to the Christian cause, — that though as much 
 has been done as to justify the most splendid anticipations, 
 yet much more remains to be done, in both departments, 
 before these anticipations can be carried into effect. Each 
 Society should send its advocates over the country ; and 
 if one of them were at this moment sounding the merits of 
 the Bible Society in another church and to another people. 
 I would not view him as a rival, but hail him as a brother 
 and as a friend ; and when told of the success of his efforts, 
 and the magnitude of his collection, I would bless God and 
 rejoice along with him. 
 
 They are sister societies. I have not time to detail the 
 operations of either ; for these I refer you to their Reports, 
 which are published every year, and are accessible to all of 
 you : but, to satisfy you, I shall select a few particulars, 
 from a source which you will deem pure and unexception- 
 
16 
 
 able : I shall give the testimony of one Society to the use- 
 fulness of another ; and from the Reports of the Bible So- 
 ciety, I shall present you with arguments why, whatever ex- 
 tent and efficiency be given to the one, the other is not to 
 be abandoned. 
 
 The very second in the list of donations by the Bible So- 
 ciety, is “To the Mohawk nations, two thousand copies of 
 the Gospel of St John.” But who prepared the Indians of 
 Upper Canada for such a present ? — They were Missiona- 
 ries. There are Missionaries now labouring amongst them 
 employed by our Society ; and had it not been for the pre- 
 vious exertions of human agents, this field of usefulness 
 would have been withheld from the Bible Society altoge- 
 ther. 
 
 Another donation is, “ To India, to be applied to the 
 translation of the Scriptures into the Oriental languages, 
 one thousand pounds this has been swelled by farther do- 
 nations to a very princely sum. It is in aid of the noble 
 undertaking of translating the Scriptures into the fifteen 
 languages of India. But who set it agoing ? — A Mission- 
 ary Society.* Who showed that it was practicable ? — The 
 human agents sent out by that society. Who are accom- 
 plished for presiding over the different translations ? — The 
 same human agents, who have lived for years among the 
 natives, and have braved resistance and death in the noble 
 enterprize. Who formed a Christian population eager to 
 receive these versions the moment they have issued from 
 the press, and who have already absorbed whole editions of 
 the New Testament? — The same answer, — Missionaries. 
 Our own Society can lay claim to part of this population : 
 they have formed native schools, and have added to the 
 number of native Christians. 
 
 The next two donations I offer to your attention are, first, 
 “ For circulation in the West India Islands and the Spanish 
 Main, one hundred Bibles and nine hunched Testaments in 
 
 The translators in India were sent out by the Baptist Society. 
 
17 
 
 various languages second, “ To negro congregations of 
 Christians in Antigua, &c. five hundred Bibles and one 
 thousand Testaments.” Why is there any usefulness in 
 this donation ? — Because Missionaries have gone before it. 
 Do these conies really circulate ? Yes, they do, among the 
 negroes whom those intrepid men have christianized under 
 the scowl of jealousy, — whom they have taught to look up 
 to the Saviour as their friend, and to heaven as their asy- 
 lum, — and who, for the home they have been so cruelly 
 tom from/ have held out rest to their oppressed but belie- 
 ving spirits in the mansions which Christ has gone to pre- 
 pare for them. 
 
 The next example shall comprise several donations. 
 “ First, To the Hottentot Christians at Bavian’s kloof and 
 Grune kloof, in South Africa, so many Bibles and Testa- 
 ments ; second, To the Rev. Dr Van der Kemp, at Bethels- 
 dorp. South Africa, for the Christian Hottentots, &c. fifty 
 Dutch Testaments and twelve Dutch Bibles ; third, To 
 the Rev. Mr Anderson, Orange River, South Africa, fifty 
 Dutch Testaments and twelve Dutch Bibles ; fourth. To 
 the Rev. Mr Albrecht, in the Namacqua country, South 
 Africa, fifty Dutch Testaments and twelve Dutch Bibles ; 
 fifth, To the Rev. Mr Kicherer, Graafl' Reinet, South Afri- 
 ca, one hundred Dutch Testaments and twelve Dutch Bi- 
 bles.” Now, w hat names and what countries are these ? — 
 They are the very countries which the Missionary Society 
 is now cultivating, and the names of the very labourers sent 
 out and maintained by them. The Bibles and Testaments 
 are sent out in behalf of the many hundreds whom our So- 
 ciety had previously reclaimed from Heathenism : The one 
 Society is enabled to scatter the good seed in such profu- 
 sion, because the other Society had prepared the ground for 
 receiving it. Nor are the labours of these illustrious men 
 confined to the business of christianizing ; they are at this 
 moment giving the arts, and industry, and civilization, to 
 the natives : they are raising a beautiful spectacle to the 
 moral eye amid the wilderness around them ; — they are gi- 
 
 B 
 
18 
 
 ving piety, and virtue, and intelligence, to the prowling sa- 
 vages of Africa : and extending among the wildest of Na- 
 ture’s children the comforts and the decencies of humani- 
 zed life. O, ye orators and philosophers, who make the 
 civilization of the species your dream ! look to Christian 
 Missionaries, if you want to see the men who will realize 
 it : you may deck the theme with the praises of your un- 
 substantial eloquence ; but these are the men who are to 
 accomplish the business ! They are now risking every earth- 
 ly comfort of existence in the cause ; while you sit in silken 
 security, and pour upon their holy undertaking the cruelty 
 of your scorn. 
 
 But I must draw to a close ; and shall only offer one do- 
 nation more to your notice, as an evidence of the close al- 
 liance in point of effect betwixt the Bible and Missionary 
 Societies — those two great fellow-labourers in the vineyard 
 of Christian benevolence. “ For the Esquimaux Indians, 
 one thousand copies of St Matthew’s Gospel, in their ver- 
 nacular tongues.” Who gave these Indians a written lan- 
 guage? Who translated a gospel into their vernacular 
 tongue? By what unaccountable process has it been brought 
 about, that we now meet with readers and Christians 
 among these furred barbarians of the North ? The answer 
 is the same. All done by the exertions of Missionaries ; and 
 had it not been for them, the Bible Society would no more 
 have thought at present of a translation into the language 
 of Labrador, than they would have thought of a translation 
 into any of the languages of unexplored Africa. 
 
 The two Societies go hand in hand. The one plows while 
 the other sows : And let no opposition be instituted betwixt 
 their claims on the generosity of the public. Let the ad- 
 vocates of each strain to the uttermost. The statement I 
 have already given, proves that there is a vast quantity of 
 unbroken ground in the country for subscriptions to both ; 
 and how, by the accumulation oflittles which no individu- 
 al will ever feel or regret, a vast sum is still in reserve for 
 the operations of these Christian philanthropists. They are 
 
19 
 
 at tiiis moment shedding a glory over the land, far beyond 
 what the tumults or the triumphs of victory can bestow : 
 Their deeds are peaceful, but they are illustrious ; and they 
 are accomplishing a grander and a more decisive step in the 
 history of the species, than even he, who, in the mighty ca- 
 reer of a sweeping and successful ambition, has scattered 
 its old establishments into nothing. I have only to look 
 forward a few years, and I see him in his sepulchre ; and a 
 lew years more, and all the dynasties he has formed give 
 way to some new change in the vain and restless politics of 
 the world. But the men with whom 1 contrast him have a 
 more unperishable object in contemplation : I see the su- 
 blime character of eternity stamped upon their proceed- 
 ings ! The frailties of earthly politics do not attach to them ; 
 for they are the instruments of God, — they are earn ing on 
 the high administration of Heaven, — they are hastening the 
 fulfilment of prophecies uttered in a far distant antiquity: 
 “ Many are going to and fro, and knowledge is increased 
 “ For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your 
 ways my ways, saith the Lord ; for as the heavens are high- 
 er than die earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, 
 and my thoughts than your thoughts. For as the rain com- 
 eth down and the snow from heaven, and retumeth not 
 thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth 
 and bud, that it may give seed to the sower and bread to 
 the eater, — so shall my word be that goeth forth out of my 
 mouth : It shall not return unto me void ; but it shall accom- 
 plish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing 
 whereto I sent it.” 
 
 I stand here as the advocate for the Missionary Society 
 —■for the men who are now going to and fro and increasing 
 knowledge, and are preparing ground in so many different 
 quarters of the world for the good seed of the word of God. 
 I have already urged upon you the plea of their usefulness ; 
 I have now to urge upon you the plea of their necessities. 
 They have exerted themselves not only according to then- 
 power, but beyond their power : They are in debt to their 
 
 
20 
 
 Treasurer. Their embarrassments are their glory ; and it 
 is your part to save them from these embarrassments, lest 
 they should become your disgrace. It is not for me to sit 
 in judgment upon the circumstances of any individual 
 amongst, you. Are you poor ? — I ask you to give no more 
 than you can spare ; nor will I keep back from you what 
 the Bible says, “ That he who provideth not for his own, and 
 especially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith, 
 and is worse than an infidel.’’ But the same Bible gives ex- 
 amples of the exercise of charity and alms-giving among the 
 poor : The widow who threw her mite into the treasury was 
 very poor: The members of the church in Corinth were in ge- 
 neral poor ; — at least we are told that there were not many 
 mighty, and not many noble, not many rich, among them • 
 and yet this does not restrain the Apostle from soliciting, nor 
 does it restrain them from contributing to the necessities of 
 the poor saints which were in J er usalem . Throw the little you 
 can spare into the treasury of Christian beneficence : It may 
 be small ; but if you give with cheerfulness, it will be counted 
 more than many splendid donations. And as we are among 
 scriptural examples and scriptural authorities, let us offer to 
 your notice another advice of the Apostle : “ Once a week, 
 let every one of you lay by him in store as God hath pros- 
 pered him.” This brings down the practice of charity to 
 the level of the poor and labouring classes of society. Let 
 me suppose that God enables you to lay by a single penny 
 a week to the cause I am pleading for, — a small offering you 
 will allow ; but mark the power and the productiveness of 
 littles : If eacli householder of this town were to come for- 
 ward with his penny a week, it would raise for the Mis- 
 sionary Society upwards of a thousand pounds a year. I 
 I know that, in point of fact, they will not all come forward, — 
 that a few are really not able, and that more are not willing. 
 Let me suppose, then, the trumpet sounded,by which all the 
 destitute, all the faint-hearted, all the mockers at piety, are 
 warned away from the cause, and that the number is redu- 
 ced to one out of ten : There is nothing very sanguine. 
 
 
21 
 
 surely, in the calculation, that one-tenth would stand by 
 this glorious cause, — a small proportion, no doubt ; but if 
 carried in the same proportion over the face of the country, 
 it would produce for our Society an annual sixty thousand 
 pounds, — a sum exceeding by six times any yearly income 
 which they have yet realized. I wish to exalt the poor to 
 the consequence which belongs to them : There is a weight 
 and an influence in numbers, and they have it. The indivi- 
 dual offering may be small, but the produce of these week- 
 ly associations woidd give a mighty energy to the benevo- 
 lent enterprises that are now afloat in the country. You 
 have it in your power to form such an association ; you can 
 hold forth the example of a vigorous and well-conducted 
 system ; you can lead the way ; you can spread abroad the 
 statement of your success : Be assured that others would 
 soon follow ; and the combined efforts of our poor men and 
 our labourers, woidd do more for the cause of the gospel 
 than all the splendid offerings which the rich have yet 
 thrown into the treasury. 
 
 Let me now turn to the rich, and entreat from them a li- 
 lierality, and an aid worthy of the situation in which Provi- 
 dence has placed them. They have already signalized them- 
 selves ; and one of the most animating signs of our day, is 
 the opening and extending sympathy of the great for the 
 spiritual necessities of their brethren. I call upon them to 
 open their hearts, and pour out the flood of thc> benevo- 
 lence on this purest and worthiest of causes, — a cause, on 
 which the civilization of the globe, and the eternity of mil- 
 lions, is suspended. I hope better things of you, my weal- 
 thier hearers, than that you will do any thing but spurn at 
 the paltry calculations which prey upon the fancies of the 
 unfeeling and the sordid. “ I give so much already ! — I 
 am so beset with applications ! — I give to the Bible So- 
 ciety; I give to the charitable institutions of the town; I 
 give to the vagrant who stands at my door; I give to 
 the subscription-paper that is unfolded in my parlour ; I 
 am assailed with beggary in all its forms ; and, from the 
 
22 
 
 clamorous beggary of the streets to the no less clamorous 
 beggary of the pulpit, there is an extorting process going on, 
 which, I have reason to fear, will in the end impoverish and 
 exhaust me !" Pardon me, my brethren ; I am in posses- 
 sion of no ground whatever for imputing this pathetic lamen- 
 tation to you ; nor do I know that I am now personifying a 
 single individual amongst you : I am merely bringing for- 
 ward a specimen of that kind of eloquence, which is some- 
 times uttered upon an occasion like the present; and I do 
 it for the purpose of bringing forward the effectual refuta- 
 tion of which it admits. We do not ask any to impoverish 
 or exhaust themselves. We assail the rich with no more 
 urgency than the poor ; for we say to both alike — Give on- 
 ly what you can spare. We hold the question of almsgiv- 
 ing to depend not on what has been already given, but on 
 what superfluity of wealth you are still in possession of. 
 We know, that to this question very different answers will 
 be given, according to the principles and views and temper 
 of the individual to whom it is applied ; nor are we eager 
 to pursue the question into all its applications. We do not 
 want the offerings of an extorted charity ; we barely state 
 the merits of the case, and leave the impression with your 
 own hearts, my friends and fellow Christians. But when I 
 take a view of society, and see the profusion and the splen- 
 dour that surround me, — when I see magnificence in every 
 room thabJ enter, and luxury on every table that is set 
 before me, — when I see the many thousand articles where 
 retrenchment is possible, and any one of which would 
 purchase for its owner the credit of unexampled libera- 
 lity, — when I see the sons and the daughters of fortune 
 swimming down the full tide of enjoyment ; and am told, 
 that out of all this extravagance there is not a fragment 
 to spare for sending the light of Christianity into the 
 negro’s hut, or pouring it abroad over the wide and dreary 
 wilderness of Paganism ; — surely, surely, you will agree 
 with me in thinking, that we have now sunk down into the 
 age of frivolity and of little men. Think of this, my bre- 
 
23 
 
 thren, — that upon what a single individual has withheld 
 out of that which he ought to have given, the sublime march 
 of a human soul from time to eternity may have been ar- 
 rested ! Seize upon this conception in all its magnitude ; 
 and tell me, if, when put by the side of the sordid plea and 
 the proud or angry refusal, all the gaieties of wealth, and 
 all its painted insignificance, do not wither into nothing. 
 
 But I must come to a conclusion. There are hearts which 
 will resist every power of urgency that is brought to bear 
 upon them ; but there are others which do not require it, — 
 those hearts which feel the influence of the gospel, and have 
 the experience of its comforts. Those to whom Christ is 
 precious, will long that others should taste of that precious- 
 ness. Those who have buried all their anxieties and all 
 their terrors in the sufficiency of the atonement, will long 
 that the knowledge of a remedy so effectual should be car- 
 ried round the globe, and put within the reach of the my- 
 riads who live in guilt, and who die in darkness. Those 
 who know that the only refuge of man is under the cover- 
 ing of the one Mediator, will long to stretch forth the cur- 
 tains of so secure a habitation — to lengthen the cords, and 
 to strengthen the stakes — to break forth on the right hand 
 and on the left, and to extend a covering so ample over the 
 sinners of all latitudes, and of all countries. In a word, those 
 who love the honour of the Saviour, will long that his king- 
 dom be extended, till all the nations of the earth be brought 
 under his one grand and universal monarchy — till the powers 
 of darkness shall be extinguished — till the mighty Spirit 
 which Christ purchased by his obedience shall subdue every 
 heart, shall root out the existence of sin, shall restore the 
 degeneracy of our fallen nature, shall put an end to the rest- 
 less variations of human folly and human injustice, and 
 shall establish one wide empire of righteousness over a vir- 
 tuous and a happy world. 
 
 Edinburgh : 
 Printed by A. Balfour. 
 
 THE END. 
 
Published by the same Author , and Sold by 
 W. WHYTE, 
 
 T he Evidence and Authority of the Christian Revelation, 
 boards - - - - • £ 0 7 G 
 
 A Sermon preached before the Society for the Relief of the 
 
 Destitute Sick - - - - - 0 16 
 
 The Influence of Bible Societies on the Temporal Necessi- 
 ties of the Poor, 8vo. - - - - 0 1 0 
 
 Ditto, 12mo. - - - - -009 
 
 Scripture References, designed for the use of Parents, 
 
 Teachers, and Private Christians - - - 0 0 6 
 
 Adam’s Private Thoughts, boards - - • ! 
 
 Bishop Butler’s Sermons, 8vo. boards ... 
 
 Analogy, 8vo. boards - 
 
 _ Works, 2 vols. boards ... 
 
 Christian Economy, boards - .... 
 
 Doddridge’s Rise and Progress of Religion 
 
 — fine 
 
 Sermons to Young Persons - 
 
 on the Power and Grace of Christ 
 
 Earle on the Lord’s Supper - 
 
 Fenelon’s Pious Reflections, boards . - - 
 
 Fraser on Sanctification, boards 
 
 Newton’s Cardiphonia, 2 vols. boards 
 
 Nelson’s Great Duty .... 
 
 Walker’s Christian, boards .... 
 
 Bishop Wilson on the Lord’s Supper 
 
 Sacra Privata v 
 
 Faith and Duty of a Christian abridged from Gastrel, 3d. 
 Watt’s first set of Catechisms, 2d. or Is. 6d. per dozen. 
 second set of ditto. 4d. or Ss. per dozen. 
 
 0 3 0 
 0 9 0 
 0 9 0 
 0 18 0 
 0 1 0 
 0 3 0 
 0 4 0 
 0 2 0 
 0 2 0 
 0 16 
 0 1 0 
 0 5 0 
 0 7 0 
 0 2 6 
 0 3 6 
 0 2 6 
 0 3 6 
 
 Hymns, l^d. 
 
 Well Spent Day, by Doddridge, Id. 
 
 Parental Duties, Id. 
 
 Serious Thoughts on Eternity, £d. 
 
 End of Time, by Dr Watts, Id. 
 
 Letter on Affliction, with marks when it is Sanctified, Id- 
 On Self Examination, Id. 
 
 Sin no Trifle, ^d.