fa-Tru' 
 
 t V. 
 

 1 
 
THE CEXTURT OF FEEPAEATION, AND THE MEANS AND TIME OF FULFILLMENT. 
 
 A 
 
 S E R M 0 N 
 
 DELm:KED liEFORE THE 
 
 FOREIGN MISSIONARY SOCIETY 
 
 OP 
 
 NEW-YORK AYD BROOKLYN, 
 
 ATEIL 9th, ISW. 
 
 BY 
 
 REV. GEORGE B. CIIEEVER, D.D-, 
 
 PASTOB OF THE CmTECH OF THE PUETTANS. 
 
 yuhlis^th 6j! tfie Sotutg. 
 
 NEW-YORK : 
 
 ALMON MERWIN, 
 
 BIBLE HOUSE, ASTOR PLACE. 
 
 1 854. 
 
SERMON 
 
 PSALU 51 : 12 , 13 . IS. 11 : 9 . 
 
 " Restore unto mo tho joy of thy salvation, and uphold me with thy free Spirit : 
 then will I teach transgressors thy ways, and sinners shall bo converted unto theo.” 
 
 “ For the earth shall be filled with tho knowledge of tho Lord, as tho waters 
 cover the sea,” 
 
 Although these texts are three hundred years asun- 
 der, yet the connection between them is immediate, and 
 the truth is one. The knowledge of the Lord which is 
 to fill the earth, is that which is taught by the free 
 Spirit of God, that which causes an ’ experience of the 
 joy of God’s salvation, and that which issues in the 
 conversion of sinners unto God. Moreover, the Christ- 
 ian joy, the experience of salvation by the Spirit, is the 
 impulse and agency for communicating the knowledge 
 of the Lord, and carrying on the work of conversion, 
 all the world over. 
 
 And it is a fact, not withou,t great significance, that 
 the first marked development of the missionary enter- 
 prise in the word of God is in the book of deepest 
 personal Christian experience, the book of Psalms. All 
 that precedes is mainly historical and preparatory ; but 
 this book opens a new dispensation, and launches, at 
 the very beginning, upon a sea of thought and expecta- 
 tion in regard fb the coming kingdom of the Redeemer 
 
4 
 
 over all the world. And as to the foundation of things 
 in Christian experience, when that of the Psalmist is the 
 deepest, though out of the desolation of guilt and self- 
 despair, then and there the missionary intuition rises 
 the highest, as in the centre of the 51st Psalm: “Re- 
 store unto me the joy of thy salvation, and uphold me 
 with thy free Spirit ; then will I teach transgressors 
 thy ways, and sinners shall he converted unto thee.” 
 We take this as an example or description of the Icind 
 of religion to prevail. The text from Isaiah, and other 
 j)redictions from the prophets and the Psalms, indicate 
 with the same clearness the universality of the Re- 
 deemer’s kingdom. 
 
 Three hundred years after the voices of the Psalms, 
 the central prophecies of Isaiah break forth, and it is a 
 part of his vision of the cross, tliat “ the glory of the 
 Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it 
 together.” Three hundred years again pass away, and 
 besides the voice in Ilabakkuk, and the resplendent 
 night-visions of Daniel, with the Ancient of Days, and 
 the throne as of flery flame, and the A\dieels as of burn- 
 ing fire, and the Son of Man in tlie clouds of heaven, 
 and the everlasting dominion, and the kingdom of all 
 people,' nations, and languages, serving him, — another 
 miglity beacon rises, the last pro])hetic blaze of gloiy 
 in Malachi:' “Foi*, from the rising of tlie sun, even unto 
 the going down of the same, my name shall be great 
 among the Gentiles; and in every jdace incense shall 
 be offered unto my name, and a i)ure oftering; for my 
 name shall be great among the heathen, saith the Lord 
 of hosts.” 
 
 We propose now to consider, first, the nature of the 
 
5 
 
 piety wliicli is to prevail in the prevalence of the know- 
 ledge of the Lord, and consecpiently both tlie glory 
 and gradualism of the fulfillment of these predictions ; 
 and second, Ave shall examine some of the signs indicat- 
 ing the convergency of these predictions, for fulfill- 
 ment, into our own epoch in the world’s history, and 
 the consequent illustration of our responsibilities. 
 
 There is this characteristic belonging to the great 
 successive develojAinents of prophecy, at Avhich Ave have 
 glanced, that at every such era, out of the tide of ordi- 
 nary providences, injunctions, pre-intimations, and fore- 
 shadoAving events, certain vast, decisive, unquestionable 
 announcements and decrees arise like mountains of sheer 
 granite out of oceans of shifting sands, remaining in a 
 perpetual immutability, Avith letters as fixed and as 
 shining as the north star, and forming a position as 
 sublime and unmistakable, for the couq)arison and rec- 
 tification of all other positions and observations. We 
 have adverted to a feAV of these announcements. Thev 
 have but one meaning. The lights blazing from them, 
 as fixed beacons, are shot across great gulfs. They 
 Avere, Avhen first kindled, like signal rockets to the uni- 
 verse. Yet in respect to the then understanding of 
 their meaning on this earth, even the inspired souls out 
 of Avhich they Avere issued Avere almost as unseeing as 
 the material tubes, out of which the fire-Avork flame of 
 human ingenuity is shot into the sky. When the pro- 
 phet Isaiah Avrote, and the night-diviner Daniel, the 
 kingdom, and the Being, and the glory of Avhich they 
 Avrote, were yet to be revealed. And when Malachi 
 followed in a similar prediction, as precise as the 
 thunder-bolt, as clear as the lightning, the promised 
 
6 
 
 glory was almost entirely covered up in darkness, or at 
 least in secrecy and mystery, Altkougli revealed 
 partially, beforehand, by the instrumentality of the 
 prophets, it was not understood ; not even they them- 
 selves understood it, though amazed at it, and searching 
 diligently what, or what manner of time, the Spirit of 
 God which was in them did signify, when it testified 
 beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that 
 should follow. 
 
 But this revelation of God’s glory on the cross, so 
 stupendous, and by itself so utterly incomprehensible, 
 in the incarnation, sufferings, and death of the Son of 
 God, was to be further demonstrated and explained, in 
 its mysteries of beatific grandeur, by the existence of 
 the Church. The Holy Spirit was to be poured down, 
 and the hearts of sinful men Avere to be gathered to 
 Christ, and renewed, through the power of his cross, 
 that unto principalities and powers in the heavenly 
 world might be made known by the Church the immi- 
 fold Avisdom of God. It Avas a stupendous revelation, 
 indeed, Avhen Christ hung upon the cross ; but until 
 souls began to be gathered into his Church through his 
 blood, even the highest intelligences of the lieaA’enly 
 Avorld could not begin to understand its glory. For 
 this purpose, it is distinctly declared that God had 
 mercy on the first believers, and quickened them toge- 
 ther Avith Christ, even Avhen they Avere dead in sins, and 
 raised them up, and made them sit together in heavenly 
 places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come he 
 might shoAV the exceeding riches of his grace in his 
 kindness toAvard them through Christ Jesus. And 
 every company of believers that Avere added to the fimt 
 
1 
 
 company, were so many added pages in the book of this 
 revelation, so many new illuminating lights, attracting 
 all men to the cross, so many new reflections and 
 demonstrations of the glory of the cross. They were 
 so many new depths, new galleries opened up, in the 
 mines of the unsearchable riches of Christ; and when 
 by the passing of this re.demption from Jews to Gen- 
 tiles, the 'anivermlity of it, as well as the nature of it, 
 beoran to be fully demonstrated, this was a mystery, 
 which had been hid from ages and from generations, 
 but was then made manifest to God’s holy creatures, to 
 whom he would make known the riches of the glory of 
 this mystery among the Gentiles, even Christ in them^ 
 the hope of glory. 
 
 Perhaps there are other revelations going on in hea- 
 ven, perhaps in other worlds, about which we as yet 
 know nothing. The whole univei*se of God is moved, 
 irradiated, beatified by this mystery; and it may be in 
 ways as incomprehensible to us, in this dawn of our 
 knowledge, as the glory of Christ in the Church was 
 incomprehensible to those, who saw only through tj^jies 
 and prophecies a Saviour yet to be revealed. This 
 revelation of Christ upon the cross, and Christ in the 
 Church, is that to which Isaiah refers, when he says that 
 the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh 
 shall see it together. It was a revelation of such bound- 
 less glory, that, if it had stopped with the first church, 
 it had been enough to have filled all heaven with 
 praise, all the universe with a knowledge of God before 
 unimagined. 
 
 But it did not stop with the first church. The revela- 
 tion ran on from glory to glory, from generation to gene- 
 
8 
 
 ration, from heart to heart, from Jews to Gentiles, from 
 continent to continent. On some accounts the first mani- 
 festations of this glory were the brightest, the loveliest, 
 the most exciting : partly because they succeeded a long 
 night of darkness, of which the Jewish dispensation itself 
 did but break the j:)ower with a gradual morning twi- 
 light, prophetic of the perfect, day ; and partly because 
 God had^ resolved that they should shine especially to 
 the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ. They 
 were as the mountain-tops, that caught and refiected the 
 rising glory, long before it could flood the busy world, 
 and' Avhile the vales were yet sleeping in darkness. 
 Witnessed from Mount Righi, in Switzerland, the sun- 
 rise is a scene that presents to the sj)iritual imagination 
 a beautiful illustration of the light of God pouring from 
 truth to truth, from mind to mind, till it floods the 
 world with its brightness. But the great surpassing 
 glory of that view is the vast range of snow-covered 
 mountains receiving the rosy light upon their summits, 
 and blazing with it, as if they had all broken into pyra- 
 mids of flame, before you could see the sun above the 
 horizon, and while the eastern sky was but reddening 
 ill the morning. The sun was yet to rise, and riding in 
 the firmament, in the noon of his power, was to pervade 
 ivith the light of perfect day, the lakes, the vales, the 
 forests, the cities, the hamlets; but nothing in the em- 
 ])ire of light, nothing in the changes of nature, nothing 
 ill Alpine scenery could be so magnificent, so exciting 
 ill its loveliness, so transcendent in its glory, as the first 
 kindling of those mighty pyramids of ice and snow into 
 that blaze of light, into those flashing pinnacles of 
 flame, when the sun first fell upon them. So in some 
 
9 
 
 degree is it with the progress of the Gospel. Tlie first 
 Cliristians, and the earliest Christian churches, still 
 stand in the mind’s eye Avith that earliest, purest, love- 
 liest hash of the light of the cross upon them ; there 
 they still shine brightest to God’s glory, who first 
 trusted in Christ. We are beginning now to see the 
 liorht travellins: down into the vales ; earth’s caverns 
 are reached by it, and the spears of grass in misty mea- 
 dows begin to be as radiant as the tojDs of the snow- 
 shining mountains. But never perhaps can we see re- 
 peated such a scene of glory as that was, Avhen the 
 Sun of Bighteoiisness first rose upon our Avorld, and 
 kindled the blaze in those Judean churches. 
 
 xVnd yet, in diflereut parts of our Avorld, as Christ 
 Jesus rises upon them, as his love, his Spirit, pours into 
 darkened hearts, and gathers churches, Ave behold, and 
 shall continue to behold, similar manifestations of the 
 Divine glory. There are scenes even now transacting 
 in the East, so SAveet in their manifestation of the poAver 
 of Christ’s love, so full of the revelation of the glory of 
 God, so demonstrative of the power of the Gospel to 
 bless the world, that they are inferior in interest to no- 
 thing that has transpired in the progress of the Ke- 
 deemer’s kincjdom. 
 
 Some twenty years ago, about the year 1834, there 
 was born among the mountains of Koordistau, a boy, 
 who grew up to his thirteenth 3 ’ear in habits of rude- 
 ness, ignorance, and profaneness. His native mountain 
 home was in the \dllage of Gawar, among the Nestorians. 
 In his thirteenth year, he began for the first time to hear 
 of the glory of God, in the face of Jesus Christ, being 
 
10 
 
 brouslit under tlie instruction of the Missionaries, whose 
 seminary for the education of youth had not long before 
 been established in Ooroomiah. Two years had been 
 passed in this institution, when a very precious work of 
 Divine grace commenced among the pupils, and this 
 youth, in the year 1S49, became a sincere and enlight- 
 ened Christian, From that time he entered upon a 
 course of prayerfuluess and holy living, the brightness 
 and blessedness of which have seldom been exceeded 
 since the days of the primitive Christians. At the very 
 outset, it was a remarkable baptism of the Holy Spirit. 
 One of the missionaries, on a visit to Gawar in 1849, 
 passing the ruins of an old church, only the walls of 
 which were standing, overheard a lad engaged in 
 prayer, pouring out his soul with such humility and fer- 
 vor, that there could be no doubt of his being taught of 
 God : it was this converted herdsman of the mountains. 
 Fi’om that time forward, he was a bright and shining 
 light, lie made great attainments in prayer, Ilis gifts 
 and capabilities became remtti'kable, and during the 
 season of religious interest he Avould sometimes ]>ray for 
 nearly the whole night, borne upward with intense an- 
 gelic fervor. Three or four seasons a day Avere custom- 
 ary Avith him for solitary and secret communion AA'ith 
 God, and often he spent two hours in the exercise of 
 prayer. With all this, he aa'ias delightfully consistent in 
 the holiness of his life, in conscientious industry, dutiful- 
 ness, and cheerful, happy, untiring eftbrts for the good 
 of others. He aa-ouIiI, young as he Avas, assemble the 
 ])eople of his native village on the Sabbath for religious 
 services; and even upon the most careless hearts, the 
 
11 
 
 fervor, constancy, and affectionate earnestness of Ids 
 prayei’S and conversations made a deep impression. 
 Never had such a case been known; it was as if a 
 youthful serapli had taken a fliglit from heaven to ani- 
 mate a mortal body. Two years did this light shine, 
 and then it wjis to be removed to the world of celestial 
 glory. If its radiance had been beautiful on earth, its 
 departure was like the translation of Elijah in the cha- 
 riot of Israel, with the horsemen thereof The ])eoi)le 
 had never witnessed such a life ; its beauty of holiness 
 was crowned with a death so triumphant as had never 
 in that region been known. 
 
 He was laid upon his sick and dying bed from amidst 
 the labors of a heavenly revival of religion, in which 
 his soul had delighted ; and a death-bed so happy, and 
 so uninterruptedly illumined by the presence of the 
 Saviour, his missionary teacher declared he had never 
 before seen, either there or in his native land. In the 
 midst of the deepest self-abasement, in connection with 
 the clearest apprehension of the Lord Jesus Christ as 
 his righteousness and salvation, a succession of heavenly 
 realities and spiritual visions seemed unvailed before 
 him. He could almost behold the myriads of angels 
 suiTounding the Redeemer in heaven, and hear them 
 chanting halleluias to his praise. In the glow of his 
 emotions, he began to sing a hymir, that contained some 
 lines of exclamation in regard to those celestial inhabi- 
 tants. “'Would that I could rejoice with your joy!” 
 Then the vision changed, the unbelieving world came 
 up before him, and he cried out, “ O wretched sinners ! 
 "Wretched millions going down to hell! My heart 
 
12 
 
 bleeds for them ! How near is Jesus ? Will they not 
 look to him and be saved? One prayer of the peni- 
 tent thief would save them all !” He prayed earnestly 
 and aloud, and when entreated to cease for a season, he 
 exclaimed, “ How can I cease ? I must })ray. I can not 
 cease from it. If my mouth were shut, my heart would 
 still pray, and praise the Lord.” Again, after convers- 
 ing with One of the missionaries, he closed his eyes, and 
 offered one of the most touching prayers ever heard, 
 and quite impossible to be rej^eated. He began by ex- 
 pressing a desire to die and be with Christ ; but then 
 he checked himself, saying, “ Not my will but thine be 
 done.” He then proceeded, in a most humble and peni- 
 tent strain, to sj^eak of his own vileness and utter un- 
 worthiuess, and to adore the sovereign and unmerited 
 love of God in calling him to be an heir of his grace, 
 and in making him a partaker of the promises. His 
 humble confessions of sin, his stron<x confidence in the 
 efficacy of the great Atoning Sacrifice, even for him* sin- 
 ful as he was, his entire renunciation of all righteousness 
 of his own, and all dependence upon anything save the 
 grace of God in Christ Jesus, were deeply affecting. 
 He ceased praying, and Avhen he opened his eyes, seeing 
 his friends weeping around him, “ Why,” cried he, “ do 
 you weep ? If it is the Avill of God that I die, my heart 
 is burning to see Christ, and behold him in his glory. 
 My heart is burning, my heart is burning!” It Avas the 
 flame of a SaAuour’s loAm that burned so brightl}'’, and 
 here Avas a monument of grace justl}'' asserted to be iii- 
 ffnitely'more than all the treasure and self-denial c.x- 
 pended by the Church in the Avhole history of missions. 
 
 
13 
 
 Ills views of God, and of tlie glories of the eternal 
 world, seem wholly nnaccoiintahle, save on the supposi- 
 tion of a special illumination given to departing spirits. 
 Their originality and sublimity were marvellous in the 
 extreme. Tlie eternal throne, the pei'sons of the God- 
 head seated there, the solemn transactions of the final 
 day, the joys of heaven, the garments of celestial glory, 
 were successively passing before his mind, as things of 
 unmistakable reality. “Moses on the mount,” he re- 
 marked, “did not see God as I see him. But no mortal 
 has seen him as he is. Ilis glory is inexpressible. I can 
 not tell you any thing about it. Oh ! the ravishing 
 beauties of heaven, the shining garments of the blessed! 
 What is all earthly beauty compared with these !” Thus 
 his joy and exultation were overflowing. In the midst 
 of the severest pains, he would break forth in songs of 
 praise. He saw himself, as it were, surrounded by glo- 
 rified spirits, and he longed to mingle his halleluias with 
 theirs. He almost believed himself one of them. 
 
 Here again, as of old, God seems to have resolved 
 that they should be to the praise of his glory who first 
 trusted in Christ. The light of this young man’s life, 
 and the glory of his death, still shine. The effect of his 
 decease upon the spectators was truly overwhelming, 
 and the power of such a triumphant testimony to the 
 glory and blessedness of faith in Christ, the power of 
 such an exhibition of the transforming, transfiguring 
 glory of the Gospel, in a youth who, but a year or two 
 before his death, was a profane, ignorant, degraded boy 
 among the wilds of Koordistan, is invaluable, both, for the 
 encouragement of toiling missionaries, and the producing 
 
14 
 
 of conviction and faitli in the minds of the careless. It 
 is thus that at length the glory of the Lord shall be re- 
 vealed, and all flesh shall see it together. 
 
 And then again, how lovely such examples of jnety ! 
 So like the brightest manifestations of the grace of God 
 in the earliest Pentecostal effusions of the Spirit ! This 
 converted boy, this wild one in the mountains, so trans- 
 formed from all his rudeness, profaneness, ignorance, 
 and insensibility, into a glowing, winged messenger of 
 Christ, with but one absorbing thought and experience 
 in his heart, Christ’s love ; and one entrancing object 
 and effort in his life, Christ’s kingdom and glory ! It 
 is an example for the best and brightest Christians in 
 our land. “ My heart is burning to see Christ, and be- 
 hold him in his glory!” Oh ! this is just what we need, 
 to make us all powerful and happy, hearts burning, 
 hearts on fire with a Saviour’s love. And whereas some 
 may think, in the view of their own poor attainments, 
 as comj:)ared with such a manifestation of Divine grace, 
 that this is a gift of God’s sovereign grace, which such 
 poor, miserable, weak things as we dare hardly look for, 
 we would say, and especially to youthful disciples, that 
 it is just what we may all attain, if we will take the 
 same steps, undergo the same discipline, apply ourselves 
 with the same fervor. We would take you back to that 
 ruined mountain church in Gawar, and tell you to listen 
 to the earliest outpourings of the soul of that converted 
 boy in prayer, and ask you if you suppose that he would 
 ever have gained that blissful height and depth of 
 heavenly experience, had it not been for his earnestness 
 in prayer, those protracted and fervent seasons of wrest 
 
15 
 
 ling with God, set as heavenly fixtures in his daily 
 existence ? And are not the same means of grace and 
 glory at your command ? 
 
 And once more, we shall all meet this converted hoy 
 at the judgment. We shall meet him with thousands 
 like him, gathered from the wilds of heathenism, from 
 the mountains and the plains, from the hills and the 
 valleys, first-fruits of glory, as the vail is raised of the 
 dark coverincr once cast over the face of all nations. 
 
 O 
 
 We shall gaze upon him at the judgment. But oh ! 
 what multitudes will see him, who heard this gospel of 
 the grace of God all their days, before whose vision 
 Christ and his glory passed from their very infancy, 
 ■who yet, to the day of their death, neglected and re- 
 jected him, both the vision and the Being, both the truth 
 and the Saviour, nay, who passed through many a 
 revival of religion, in lands flooded with his light, 
 oppressed vdth his invitations and urgencies of mercy, 
 and yet died in their sins ! How •will such self-chosen, 
 self-condemned outcasts gaze upon such a sight as this 
 transfigured boy in heaven ? 
 
 Such is the kingdom of the Redeemer that is to 
 
 O 
 
 occupy the earth ; such is the nature of the piety that 
 is to prevail, when the kno-wledge of God prevails ; and 
 this is one little page illustrative of the nature of the 
 missionary enterprise. This is the joy of God’s salva- 
 tion, and the working of his free Spirit. 
 
 W e come now, in the second place, to the imiversality 
 of the Redeemer’s kingdom, in this kind of piety, and to 
 an examination of some of the signs indicating the con- 
 vergency of the 'great predictions of that universality. 
 
16 
 
 for more perfect fulfillment, into our o-wn epocli in the 
 world’s historj", and the consequent illustration of our 
 responsibilities. The grand text from Isaiah is as generic 
 and instructive as to the extent and manner, as the text 
 from David, in regard to the essence of the kingdom of 
 the Lord among men. Let ns consider it for a moment 
 as a guide, being justified by its position, and the repe- 
 tition of it in Habakkuk, in taking the greatest latitude 
 of meaning it will bear. 
 
 A very intellectual writer has said, in some one of his 
 compositions, and with great beauty of expression, that 
 analogies are aerial pontoons. It is a phrase of admira- 
 ble vividness and meaning.. By material objects, or, 
 rather, by suspension at one eni^froni such objects, they 
 are bridges to spiritual truths ; by things, they swing 
 the mind forward to thoughts and ideas, and sometimes 
 to discoveries high above the j)oint of starting. From 
 the world that now is, we pass over upon them to the 
 world that is to come ; and through faith they are the 
 substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things 
 not seen. The types and illustrations of the prophetic 
 Scriptures, even when wrought out of the simplest and 
 most obvious materials, possess these unfolding and ad- 
 vancing properties. Some of tliose passages, by Avhich 
 we rise to a knoAvledge of the times and extent of the 
 Bcdeemer’s kingdom are of such a nature ; 
 they are, literally, the highways of Divine Ilevelation, 
 to possessions of infinite glory. Tlie text from Isaiah 
 is illustrative by a figure, and i)ro])hetic in the illustra- 
 tion ; that the earth shall be full of the knowledge 
 of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea; it is the 
 
17 
 
 heart, the inliul, tlie life, the usages of maukiiul 
 upon the earth. The image here used is a very familiar 
 one, and it has become almost insufferably trite by 
 being the stereotyped expression of the thought and 
 prayer, unvaried in so many varieties of supplication, 
 for the advancement of the lledeemer’s kingdom, too 
 often repeated Avith a heart-deadening formalism, where 
 neither thought nor j)rayer Avere stirring beneath it. 
 An unreflecting application of the figure has caused its 
 vividness and its peculiarity of beauty and of power to 
 be almost lost sight of. It is an exceedingly glorious 
 prediction. Nothing can Avell go beyond the extent and 
 distinctness of it. Both the language and the imagery 
 employed point to a consummation of holiness and hap- 
 piness on our globe in the prevalence of the Gospel, such 
 as Ave ha\’e now but little conception of, — such, indeed, 
 as has required the brightest colors of inspiration itself 
 to paint. 
 
 If we watch the progress of the ocean tides from low 
 to high water, we shall find tAVO points illustrated by 
 this image in regard to the advancement of the 
 lledeemer’s kingdom ; first, its gradualism, and second, 
 its comprehensiveness and fullness. Standing by the 
 sea-shore, and watching the ebb and flow of the waves 
 rising and receding, we might be doubtful for a time 
 whether the tide were coming in or going out ; but a 
 little patience and waiting shall make us sure. And 
 again, we might be doubtful whether a certain rock at 
 a particular headland will be covered by the waters,, 
 whether the rising tide will flow over this or that shaB 
 low, or into this or that particular creek ; but when it 
 
 9 
 
18 
 
 comes in at the full, it is a perfect rush and revelry of 
 waters: all the appointed bounds are reached, every 
 nopk and indenture, on the coast and far inland, every 
 harbor and bay of the vast channel of the deep, is 
 visited and overflowed. Just so shall it be with the 
 appointed fullness of the knowledge of the Lord. 
 
 Both the gradual character of this consummation as 
 to its approach, and the vast extent as to its fulfillment, 
 are to be realized only at considerable intervals, and 
 from period to period. Reasoning merely from one 
 year to another, we might Idb mistaken or deluded ; we 
 might take a retrograde movement for a forward one, 
 or an advancing movement fora retreating one ; jnst as, 
 in standing on the beach, and watching the restless tide, 
 if you reasoned only from wave to wave, you might 
 suppose an advancing wave to be a retreating one, or a 
 retreating wave to be an advancing one. You must 
 have some commanding jiost of observation, and some 
 prominent fixtures of comjDarison, extensive and import- 
 ant enough to secure you against hasty inductions and 
 unfounded conclusions. Our historical fixtures and posts 
 of observation run ordinarily from century to century ; 
 and a century of causes and results, embracing the full 
 action of one generation on another, and of all the per- 
 manent causes of influence set at work in it, carried into 
 a third, affords material for a large and tolerably sure 
 induction. Even a half century to a good degree does 
 this. And at the close of such periods, those who have 
 lived in the midst of them seem like travelleis who have 
 climbed a lofty mountain, where they can command, in 
 one vast view, all that lays behind, and much that is 
 
10 
 
 before them. It cannot bnt be acknowledged that it ib 
 so with the half ceutiiiy, which the great bell of Time 
 has but just fully tolled off amidst the ages of a past 
 eternity. The last fifty years have constituted a period 
 marched and countermarched with more wonderful 
 events and discoveries, revolutions, overturnings, changes 
 both gradual and sudden, than almost any equal period 
 of settled government and society on our globe. 
 
 From century to century sometimes, and sometimes 
 from half century to half century, we are as on the 
 mountain-tops in reference to this advancing and infi- 
 nitely glorious work. The light from heaven falls on 
 broad regions at once. AVe almost hear songs as of 
 aerial watchmen ; we almost see the wings of angels 
 and archangels gleaming in the sun ; we almost follow 
 Heaven’s flying squadrons, and see the events of earth 
 unfoldin" in obedience to their marchinsrs and counter- 
 
 O O 
 
 marchings in divine array. But the earth does not con- 
 sist of mountain-tops alone, and were all the points and 
 spaces, where the glory of the Lord has been revealed, 
 concentrated into one province at this very day, it would 
 be so small, in comparison vdth. the extent of a world 
 yet lymg in wickedness, that we should be compelled 
 to see and to feel that as yet there is but a faint and 
 far-off beginning of the completion of that Divine pro- 
 phecy, that all flesh should see it together. The in- 
 stances of fulfillment are, like the prophecies themselves, 
 only glorious isolated beacons, from whence voices are 
 transmitted, and streams of light shoot across vast gulfs. 
 The time of Pentecostal glory itself was but short, and 
 the kingdom of the Kedeemer had no sooner begun to 
 
20 
 
 be established, when there commenced the great falling 
 away and corruption predicted in the New Testament, 
 the reign and kingdom of the Man of Sin and Son of 
 Perdition, who was to be revealed ; and that revelation, 
 that demonstration of the power of Satan in the great 
 Romish Mystery of Iniquity, went on increasing for 
 centuries, and held its dominion almost undisturbed 
 until the opening of the Reformation. Up to that time, 
 the demonstration upon earth was not that of the power 
 of truth, as it is in Jesus, to bless the earth, and save 
 mankind from guilt and misery, but the power of error, 
 the power of a corruption and hiding of the truth, and 
 of the substitution of men’s traditions and laws, instead 
 of God’s laws, to curse the world, and to plunge man- 
 kind deeper in sin and wretchedness than ever. 
 
 We may suppose, from what has taken place, that it 
 was necessary, before the triumph of the Gospel in our 
 fallen world, that there should be this demonstration 
 of the dreadfulness of a corruption and denial of the 
 Gospel ; so that even the kingdom of the Man of Sin is 
 but, on a mighty scale, a prejDaration for the kingdom of 
 the Redeemer. There is light in the depths of the gulfs, 
 as well as on the tops of the mountains. We need not 
 only to gaze steadily at the great pro})hetic beacons, but 
 to be submerged, as it Avere, to see Avhat is going on be- 
 low ; a ])rocess of Divine Providence in human develoj)- 
 ment just as necessary as that of Divine grace ; and 
 while Divine grace has been preparing or accomplisliing 
 great victories, God has all the Avliile, in the intervals, 
 permitted Satan to work out a demonstration quite as 
 essential, proving, by the remorseless sweep of his ex- 
 
21 
 
 periments, tliat tlie misery of tlie worl<l, under a human 
 and Satanic hierarchy in place of the Gospel, and under 
 every other expedient devised to answer for man’s 
 redemption, has gone on undiminished. 
 
 The dead bodies of criminals are sometimes given for 
 the purposes of dissection ; so God permits experiments 
 of e\nl to be tried to the full on self-willed and worth- 
 less communities ; they are good for dissection, if they 
 are good for nothing else, and they demonstrate Divine 
 truth, while fighting against it. It is thus that all the 
 various schemes of a proud and infidel philosophy are 
 permitted to be tried, and sometimes it seems as if God 
 appointed particular nations to such a practical demon- 
 stration, working out, by a sort of voluntary vicarious 
 perverseness and unbelief, the salvation of othei*s from 
 the same intellectual and moral blindness. Under these 
 various experiments, the utmost subtlety and ingenuity 
 of the human intellect have been brought to bear against 
 the system of Christianity, and a demonstration of its 
 impregnability has thus been wrought, such as only in- 
 fidels could work out ; the Canaanites and Jebusites of 
 Christianity, pressed into its service as hewers of wood, 
 and drawers of water, even in the exercise of their 
 uttermost malignity ; a thing that could not be, except 
 under the full light of Christianity, and yet during its 
 partial prevalence. It is only under its full light that 
 the intellect of infidels is disciplined to the utmost 
 ingenuity, and only under its partial prevalence, that 
 the ingenuity thus disciplined by it, can be directed 
 against it.- God gives his enemies the choice of weapons, 
 and lets them sharpen their swords on his own grind- 
 
22 
 
 stones, and figlit by bis own light, just to show how im- 
 potent is their malignity, how vain and futile the strug- 
 gles of infidelity against Divine truth. If men wdll 
 undertake such exj)eriments, if generation after genera- 
 tion of philosophic fools and madmen will thus employ 
 themselves, God knows how to use their folly and mad- 
 ness for his own glory. Habitually, he causes the wrath 
 of man to praise him, and restrains the remainder of 
 wi’ath. He uses this world as a vast laboratory for ex- 
 periments in morals, that by themselves would be too 
 costly ; but if a race of rebels will pursue them, God 
 can afibrd, and will bestow, ample time. The results of 
 the experiments are laid up for eternity. They are 
 globes of light, struck by the conflicts of sin itself out 
 of darkness. 
 
 The demonstration of the guilt and ruin of mankind 
 under any and all circumstances in which our race can 
 be placed, apart from the Gospel, and without the 
 grace of Christ, is a demonstration of the experience 
 now of six thousand years, during w'hich the Pendulum 
 of Divine Providence has carried our race through all 
 the zones of time and 02:>portunity, circumstance, influ- 
 ence, climate, education, forms of government, forms of 
 false religion, infidelity, and error, forms of social, po- 
 litical, economical, commercial, and scientific experiment; 
 and all have failed. As the Pendulum has swung our 
 globe, with its grand majestic motion, through ages of 
 such experiment on the part of its emj)lres and inhabit- 
 ants, from one extreme to another, it has become a 
 .settled, manifested fact, even if it were not known or 
 acknowledged before, that nowhere, under no possible 
 
23 
 
 condition of society, could a sinful world remain other- 
 wise than sinful, Avithout the cross of Christ, or otherwise 
 than miserable while remaining sinful. There is no 
 other name, nor thing, nor invention, nor experiment 
 under heaven, AA'hereby we can be sa\'ed, but only by 
 the sufferings, death, and Divine regenerating grace of 
 the Lord Jesus Christ. Every calm and leisurely, as 
 Avell as convulsive and despairing effort of an intelligent 
 but depraved humanity, for a redemption from its de- 
 praAuty, or e\’en a mitigation thereof, or a temporal 
 salvation from misery, and enjoyment of hajApiness in 
 sin, has failed, and will go on failing, though all the 
 scientific re-constructors of society from Cape Horn to 
 Kamschatka, and from Austral Asia to Siberia, were to 
 sit in conclave, and try their panaceas AAuth the widest 
 scope, and most uninterrupted appliance, from genera- 
 tion to generation. There is nothing that can perma- 
 nently bless the nations, or save mankind either from 
 temporal or eternal wretchedness, but the Gospel. If 
 this experiment has not been fully and fairly made, 
 God Avill still give time for it ; for if mankind are 
 resolved upon it, if men’s deadly unbelief in the 
 Gospel, and in their need of it, them desperate lost 
 condition without it, is resolved still to choose first, 
 instead of the Gospel, or before trying that, some other 
 yet unheard-of but hoped-for universal medicine for 
 human woe, either in poetry or philosophy, or neiv 
 elementary combinations of society, God can wait ; for 
 one day is wdth the Lord as a thousand years, and a 
 thousand years are as one day. But because of the 
 fulness and freedom and universality of these vain ex- 
 
24 
 
 periments from form to form, and epoch, to epoch, in 
 human civilization, we have reason to believe tliat man- 
 kind have nearly run them through, and that in this 
 respect, as in others, the fulness of time for the spread 
 and power of the Gospel has now come. The whole 
 world, like an individual case of disease and misery, 
 having spent all its living on its own physicians, nor 
 ever grown better, but rather Avorse, shall now, despair- 
 ing of a cure in any other way, have opportunity to 
 touch the hem of Christ’s garment, and so be made 
 whole. 
 
 One of the latest forms of experiment to bless and 
 save the world without the Gospel is that which in 
 England has assumed the shape, and is characterized 
 by the name, of SECULARisjr, meaning a complete divorce 
 of education from Christianity, and asserting that if the 
 State will but educate its children in a knowledge of 
 natural history and law, and of the relation of body 
 and mind to the world Ave noAV inhabit, Avithout any 
 reference to the world for Avhich Ave are destined, and 
 the God to Avhom we are accountable, the State will 
 thus secure its own perpetuity and happiness. The 
 monster of Sectarianism Avill be cast out, the j)assions 
 of men will be subdued, children will be taught to think 
 and feel and act like natural beings, and there will re- 
 sult from a universal education so serene and practical, 
 and free from theological odium, a happily-developed 
 nature, and a perfect reconstruction and regeneration of 
 the social edifice. An effective and thorough divorce 
 of common-school education from Christianity is to be 
 the effective, irresistible cure of all the evils of society ; 
 
25 
 
 the universality of education, and not its trutli and 
 goodness, beinsr conceived and asserted as the Saviour 
 of mankind. To this end, the Bible must be expelled 
 from the schools, the Lord’s Prayer itself rejected, with 
 the* ban of being “ritualistic and not educational, and 
 not for improvement either in sacred or secular learn- 
 ing,” and the fundamental truths of Christianity must 
 be exorcised, because they are offensive to some, and 
 might therefore prevent the blessing of that united and 
 universal education, which, if Jesus Christ and his re- 
 velation will but retire from the scene, shall without 
 difficulty regenerate the world. Into this scheme a 
 few even of the friends of religion have been strangely 
 drawn ; but in England and Scotland, the sophistry of 
 a man like Cobden can not prevail to give it sanction, 
 and no effort can commend it to the intuitive discern- 
 ment, good sense, piety, and previous educational habits 
 of the people. On the other hand, men like Chalmers, 
 Candlish, Guthrie, and Duff, have shown, with iiTesistible 
 power of logic and religion, its essentially infidel cha- 
 racter and tendency. And it is a good sign that the 
 British Parliament have disavowed this doctrine of 
 divorce, and framed a new educational bill for Scot- 
 land, with the freedom of the Bible and of religious 
 instruction as essential and perpetual fixtures in the . 
 system. The divorce between education and religion 
 is pronounced oppressive and inadmissible. 
 
 The powers of an earthly refinement and civilization 
 are dead powers ; they can but gild the sepulchres of 
 the soul ; their inventions are no better than food laid 
 in a coffin by the wild and pagan superstition, that 
 
26 
 
 tliinks to sustain tlie wandering spirit by animal ali- 
 ments in its dreary journey through, an untried world. 
 So the food of earthly sciences crumbles to the dust ; it 
 can neither enliven the soul, nor the soul vivify it, but 
 they die beside each other. 
 
 But now these disastrous, despairing, proud, and unbe- 
 lieving experiments, and these demonstrations of the 
 power and dominion of sin and Satan, we may hope, 
 are at a close ; for the folds of Christ’s garment begin 
 to sweep over the nations, and they may not only touch 
 the hem, but are beginning everywhere, and almost 
 simultaneously, to be taught and invited to him as their 
 only and Divine Physician. And all things seem to 
 converge upon this present time. Vast predictions, both 
 in the Old and New Testaments, that have long been 
 known as having their spaces of thousand years or more 
 to run through, before the beginning of their fulfillment 
 could be looked for, culminate in the bosom of this cen- 
 tury. Their determination, their point of consummation 
 and of glory, falls, so far as a general concurrence of the 
 wisest and best of the students of prophecy in this and 
 past ages of the Church can ascertain, by the comparison 
 of dates, and passages in God’s word, with history, 
 })rovidence, dates, and signs on earth, somewhere near 
 the period of time in which we ourselves are living. 
 This is a great point. 
 
 Connected with this is the time of awakening and of 
 organization among the churches of Christ for that 
 missionary work, without which the fulfillment of 
 prophecy would be impossible. This period has its com- 
 mencement within the limits of this present century. 
 
There were isolated awakenings here and there, and con- 
 ceptions and utterances of ^Missionary Societies, as of 
 men talking in their sleep before the dawn, or as the 
 Avatch-words of sentinels before the army rouses ; but 
 there was no plan, no organization of the Lord’s fol- 
 lowera for the execution of a plan, no awakening nor 
 union of the churches. The first missionary flame that 
 began to burn, after the Keformation, AA'as in the hearts 
 of our Pilgrim Fathers ; and the first missionary experi- 
 ment, after the Church of Christ had gained leisure 
 from her conflicts with the Man of Sin and Son of Per- 
 dition, to try one, was in this then heathen continent ; 
 and the first successful Christian mission then in all the 
 world, was that of the Apostle Elliot among the Indians. 
 The heavenly spirit and wonderful success of Elliot 
 awakened a missionary impulse in the soul of Baxter, 
 and in some of the churches of Europe, as early as 1680 ; 
 but it was not till more than a century after, not till 
 mankind were treading on the very verge of this nine- 
 teenth century, this century of prophecy and of mis- 
 sions, that any permanent Foreign Missionary organiza- 
 tion was accomplished. The whole excitement of 
 missionary zeal, activity of thought, and variety and 
 harmony of organization and of effort, marking this 
 present century so conspicuously, is concentrated, as to 
 the period of its commencement, into the space between 
 the formation of the Engbsh Baptist Foreign Missionary 
 Society, in 1792, and the establishment of the American 
 Board of Commissioners for Foreign ^Missions, in the 
 year 1810. Within a period of eighteen years, and 
 within ten years after the commencement of this j^resent 
 
28 
 
 century, all those grand Missionary Societies were 
 organized, .that within forty years have extended theii' 
 efforts, and, by God’s grace, been crowned with trium- 
 phant success, over almost the whole habitable world. 
 
 Now, this is a remarkable fact. You must combine 
 with it the consideration that, at that period, there were 
 neither Bible Societies, nor Tract Societies, nor Educa- 
 tion Societies, nor indeed, any of the mighty and effective 
 auxiliary institutions and organizations which God has 
 since brought into being and operation, in developing, 
 directing, and sustaining the energies of his Church in 
 the work to which he was arousing her. All these kin- 
 dred instrumentalities have been formed and put in 
 action almost at the same time. Such a phenomenon 
 has never before been witnessed in the history of the 
 w^rld. It is as if all the parts of a great building, all 
 the beams and rafters, had been prepared over night, 
 and then raised into one palace in the morning. It is a 
 vast frame-work and involution of machinery, the 
 separate pieces of which had not been dreamed of ; but 
 God has suddenly created and connected them, and now 
 some six millions of dollars are annually raised to sup- 
 port them, and keep them in operation, where fifty years 
 ago not one cent was so expended. 
 
 But, again, we are to consider that the period of these 
 organizations and instrumentalities is also remarkably 
 simultaneous with the pressure, variety, and directness 
 of God’s Providence, in preparing the world to be acted 
 upon by them. The time of breatliing the breath of 
 missionary zeal into the churches, and the time of creat- 
 ing organizations and instrumentalities, as organs and 
 
29 
 
 agents of tluit spirit, ami tlie time of Avide, vast, active 
 pre])aratioii of the world for such a movement, is one 
 and the same, all within the first half of this century. 
 God opens the field, creates the plough, puts it iuto the 
 hand that is to guide it, and gives a spirit for the Avork, 
 at one and the same moment. Steam-engines, steam- 
 boats, railroads, and telegraphs electiic, are inventions 
 consentaneous Avith the missionary zeal and organization 
 of God’s churches for the world’s evangelization. A 
 voice is heard from heaven — Go through, go through 
 the gates, prepare ye the way of the people ; ciist up, 
 cast up, the highway ; gather out the stones ; lift up a 
 standard for the people ! And lo ! the Avhole energies 
 of the world seem suddenly all turned into these A-arious 
 operations, as the elementary particles in a crystallizing 
 fluid dart toAvards the quick-attracting nucleus let down 
 into the centre. An array of inventions and discoveries 
 breaks upon the Avorld, bringing its most distant regions 
 into easy access and neighborhood, giving simultaneous- 
 ness and universality to new and poAverful imjAulses 
 of thought and feeling. Vast commercial routes are 
 created and travelled across deserts and oceans. Power- 
 ful magnets of attraction are uncovered, and set in active 
 influence, moAung whole nations. IMauy run to and fro 
 and knoAA'ledge is increased, and all the motives and 
 energies of an advanciug chdlization and rivalry among 
 the nations are hoisted as sails, and made to blow as 
 Avinds, for the advancement of God’s purposes. The 
 intrigues of political diplomacy, the efforts of ambition, 
 and the horrors and iniquities of war itself, are turned 
 by him directly to the forwarding of his own great 
 plans. 
 
30 
 
 But along with this preparation of the world, this 
 levelling of the mountains, and filling up of the valleys, 
 and this girdling of the world physically and morally 
 with trains of communication and of impulse, there is 
 also an unfolding of great gateways, an opening of 
 passes hitherto inaccessible, and a reduction of the world 
 from the position of a jealous, besieged city in a time 
 of war, to the openness of a highway in the time of 
 peace. All this has come about within this last half 
 century. At the opening of it, no man would have 
 dreamed of such changes. And when the fijrst five mis- 
 sionaries of the American Board, Kott, Hall, Rice, Jud- 
 son, and Newell, went out to India, they were like the 
 first dove sent out by Noah, and almost literally had to 
 be taken in again at the window. But God even then 
 was working before them and for them. He had per- 
 mitted the government of a large part of India to pass 
 into the hands of a Protestant and Christian nation, and 
 now through the bold, loud, determined knocking of his 
 own missionaries at that nation’s door, and at the heart 
 and conscience of the man at that time invested with 
 the authority of governor, the gates were opened, and 
 a free entrance gained for the establishment of the 
 Gospel. At first, it seemed as if the gates of hell would 
 conquer. The government of England itself had issued 
 peremptory orders to the governor at Bombay, to send 
 away the missionaries on the instant from that country 
 to England ; and nothing but their own Christian bold- 
 ness and faithfulness, under God, prevented this step 
 from being taken, this outrage, we ought rather to say, 
 from being committed. Tlie missionaries in question, 
 
31 
 
 Messrs. Gordon, Hall, and Samuel Nott, addressed an 
 .energetic and fervent remonstrance to tlie governor 
 liimself, as a man and a Christian, which for eloquence 
 and fiiithfulness could hardly be exceeded. A short 
 extract from this communication will show its tenor and 
 its spirit, and the bold and noble position for Christ 
 Jesus by them maintained ; 
 
 “ Your Excellency has been pleased to say that it is your duty to send 
 us to England, because you have received ^wsitive orders from the 
 supreme government to do so. But, right honorable sir, is not this 
 advancing a principle, which, if correct, would reprieve from the long-* 
 recorded decision of Heaven all the sanguinary persecutors who executed 
 the horrid decrees of Herod, Nero, and Trajan, who made themselves 
 drunk with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus, and who, as God has 
 declared, shall have blood to drink, for they are worthy ? These perse- 
 cutore destroyed the saints of the Most High ; they were positively 
 ordered to do so by superior authority ; but for doing so, have they not 
 been sentenced to eternal death ? But were they not perfectly innocent, 
 if your Excellency reasons correctly in saying that it is your duty to send 
 us away, because you are ordered to do so by superior authority ? The 
 persecutors of the saints might have reasoned in the same way, and said 
 that it was their duty to destroy the disciples of Jesus, because they 
 were ordered to do so by superior authority. Your Excellency knows 
 perfectly well that whenever human commands run counter to divine 
 commands, they cease to be obligatory ; and that no man can aid in the 
 execution or support of such counter commands, without aiming violence 
 at the authority of heaven. Can your Excellency, or any other man, 
 deny the truth of this ?” 
 
 Sucb was tbe noble missionary spirit and boldness of 
 these faithful servants of Jesus Christ. Their powerful 
 appeal to conscience and God’s word, as above all 
 human authority, was laid before the governor and 
 council, and as no man in those days could deny the 
 
32 
 
 truth of it, they were immediately informed that they 
 might remain in India. 
 
 A little later than this, the Island World of the Pa- 
 cific was opened to the missionaries, and prepared for 
 the entrance of the Gospel, by providences still more 
 remarkable, but of a piece -with the whole wonderful 
 dealings of God’s prorfdence and grace, in the regene- 
 ration and civilization of the Sandwich Islands. In like 
 manner, door after door has been opened, gate after gate 
 unlocked, gulf after gulf has been bridged, moat after 
 moat has been filled up, in various regions of the heathen 
 world, till there is not a kingdom or tribe on earth, ex- 
 cept perhaps the principality of Japan, and the region 
 of the temporal and spiritual despotism of the Pope, 
 but has been rendered perfectly accessible. And what 
 is still more, the principles of toleration and protection 
 have been recognized, as well as the right to preach 
 the Gospel, and freedom in attending it, and joining its 
 churches, in quarters and to an extent most unexpected ; 
 so that the nature of the true' liberty of the Gospel, so 
 difficult to learn, has apparently been understood, and 
 at any rate is defended, even by the Turks. 
 
 Now, all these things coming together, indicate a vast 
 plan, no less than the prophetic delineations demonstrate 
 it. And they indicate, moreover, all crowded as they 
 are into one half century, that the fulness of time has 
 come for the wide and rapid fulfillment of God’s pro- 
 mises. But we are not left to these indications alone, 
 for a basis of our calculations as to what God may be 
 about to accomplish. If we see a plan manifestly deve- 
 loped in the Divine providence, that is grand and glori- 
 
33 
 
 ous ; l)ut to see God manifestly and rapidly advancing 
 to its execution, that is more glorious still. And this we 
 do see ; for this century, though but half advanced, is al- 
 ready filled with the wonders of God’s grace as merci- 
 fully, as abundantly, as ^'isibly, as it is with the wonders 
 of his providence. If there were nothing but the creation 
 of a Christian Empire out of the abandoned and degraded 
 • Islands of the Pacific, nothing but that vast twenty 
 years’ event of God’s jwovidence and grace, the change 
 of a nation of the most besotted and brutalized savages 
 into absolutely and truly the most Christian nation on 
 the face of the globe ; for such, by actual gauge of indi- 
 vidual and national ])iety to God, the Sandwich Islands 
 liave become, there being by far a greater number of 
 personal experimental Christians in that nation, in com- 
 })arison with the population, than in any other country 
 in the world ; if that were all, that alone would make 
 this century as more extraordinary than any other since 
 the deaths of Paul and John. Never, since the days of 
 Pentecost, has there been so mighty, quick, complete, 
 and marvellous a transformation. 
 
 But now, taking the same Sandwich Islands, if yon 
 please, as a centre and starting-point, you may go all over 
 the world, and find approximations to just such changes, 
 just such glorious triumphs. You find that whereas ten 
 years before the beginning of this century, there was 
 not one missionary station on the face of this whole- 
 "lobe, save onlv those which our Pilgrim Fathers and 
 their children began among the Indians, and those of the 
 Moravians in Greenland, in South Africa, and some 
 other places, there are now more than a thousand Chi’ist- 
 3 
 
34 
 
 iaii churclies gathered on heathen ground, or, on an 
 average, more than twenty, yea nearer forty, for every 
 year since the commencement of the enterprises of the 
 American Board, and more than two thousand Christian 
 missionaries, or forty a year for every year since the 
 commencement of the century, beside great numbers of 
 native preacliers and helpers. And whereas there was 
 not one printing-press in existence in the whole heathen 
 world, there are now numbers of presses pouring forth 
 their publications in a vast variety of dialects. And 
 whereas there was not a single Bible Society, nor per- 
 haps more than four million copies of the Scriptures in 
 existence, some forty or fifty million copies have been 
 issued since the Bible Society was organized. And 
 whereas there was no such thing as a Christian school 
 in any heathen nation upon earth, there are now vast 
 numbers of such schools, and even the power of caste in 
 India is yielding to their influence. 
 
 Furthermore, the stations which God has selected ai-e 
 such, the citadels which he has occupied are so conspi- 
 cuous in importance and of so great command in con- 
 nection with vast ranges of country, and of neighboring 
 kingdoms, and he has at length thrown such a chain of 
 these posts around the globe, that we may justly con- 
 clude that a mighty conquest is intended ; the purpose 
 of a permanent possession is manifestly indicated. And 
 all these indications and convergencies of Divine ]'>rovi- 
 dcnce in regard to the great plan unfolded in prophecy, 
 are greatly strengthened and rendered more emphatic, 
 by what God has been doing in the same period, and 
 is still doing, in regard to seamen. The sea-prophecie.s 
 
35 
 
 are also meeting tlieir counterpart in ocean-providences, 
 preparations, and triumphs of grace. All that is now 
 done for seamen has been done suddenly; all the Sea- 
 men’s Friend Societies, all the Bethel ships and chapels, 
 all the missionary stations for seamen that stud the 
 coasts and harbors here and there, have been estaldished 
 and put in operation during about thirty years of this 
 lialf century. But the seamen and the ships are God’s 
 carriei*s, that fly as the clouds, and as doves to their 
 windows, to bring his sons from afar, their silver and 
 their gold with them. God is beginning to make mis- 
 sionaries of seamen, and floating churches out of fleets. 
 The activity, enterjirise, and power of commerce are 
 applied by Divine providence to facilitate the^ great 
 work of preparation for the world’s evangelization. If 
 commerce is brought of God to favor missions, the 
 benefits conferred by missions upon commerce are still 
 the greatest. When the Sandwich-Island mission was 
 first started, a wheelwright in Massachusetts was called 
 upon to contribute, and was told that his proportion 
 would be a dollar. This he paid, but with the feeling 
 that his dollar was thrown away. Three or four 
 years ago, this very man received an order from the 
 Sandwich Islands for twenty carts, at ninety dollars 
 a piece, or eighteen hundred dollars, an incidental result 
 of the vast temporal prosperity and progress which the 
 mission is accomplishing. East, W est, North, and South, 
 the commercial spirit of the world, and the under- 
 takings both of companies and individuals, are daily 
 interlocking kingdoms more and more, and bringing 
 them nearer, and giving more unimpeded scope to the 
 
36 
 
 play of religious trutli and moral influence. It is 
 probable that soon there will be railroads from the 
 Black, the Caspian, and the Mediterranean Seas to the 
 Persian Gulf, so that Europe will be bro^ht to the 
 doors of India, and the kingdoms of Persia, Turkey, 
 Arabia, and Hindustan will be wonderfully netted 
 together, and at the same time made a centre of influ- 
 euce greater than ever in the heart of the Eastern 
 Hemisphere. In the light of these considerations, we 
 are to view the remarkable fact of God making choice 
 of Hindustan, Persia, and Turkey, as the localities of such 
 clusters of missionary citadels as are to be found no- 
 where else in the world ; and also these regions are the 
 scenes of wonderful operations of Divine grace. On 
 the map we perceive Hindustan in the centre of Asia, 
 witli a population of 140 millions; and the missionary 
 stations or churches, one after another planted here 
 witliin some forty years, begin to be counted by hun- 
 dreds. On one side are the Turkish, Persian, and Ara- 
 bian empires, with some ten or twelve millions each, 
 and on the other the Chinese empire, with its 326 
 millions of idolators. On the north, Russia in Asia 
 comprehends some ten millions; and east and south, 
 Japan some fourteen millions; and the various clusters 
 of the Asian Island world some fifteen millions more. 
 Now liere, among all these vast fields of Mohammedans, 
 Hindoos, and Cliinese idolab>rs, more than thirty various 
 evangelical missionary societies are at work. 
 
 And what mind, some half-dozen years ago, could 
 possibly have anticipated tlie wondrous changes now 
 taking place in China? Tliat an insurgent movement 
 
37 
 
 should liave arisen in that populous bee-hive of hu- 
 manity, so based upon, or mingled with, the possession, 
 knowledge, and freedom of God’s word, that along with 
 its progress there should be four hundred men con- 
 stantly employed in printing and circulating that word, 
 the copies so prepared and circulated bearing on their 
 front the red stamp, “PniJcrED by Coji^iaxd of the 
 EstPEPvOu,” is a thing to make men pause, and ponder, 
 and admire, and feel as if a spiritual movement w'ere in 
 progress by the power of God’s w'ord, analogous to an 
 earthquake ; a movement that must be attended with 
 revolutioTis sudden and vast, so that, though in a mer- 
 ciful way, the description of the Messiah taking the 
 throne over the nations, will be literally fulfilled, — lie 
 shall break them in pieces like a potter’s vessel. 
 
 Then, again, what wonderful changes, and prepara- 
 tions for changes, in the empire of IMohammedanism ! 
 Twenty-five years ago, nothing was knowm in Turkey of 
 a true Protestant evangelical Christianity ; but at this 
 day, in more than fifty towns and villages, there are 
 Protestant evangelical assemblies for divine worship 
 every Sabbath; there are not less than sixty-five preach- 
 ers of a pure Gospel; and in Constantinople and its 
 suburbs, there are twenty-six Protestant gosj^el sermons 
 preached every Sabbath in dififerent languages. There 
 are nineteen evangelical clergymen steadily laboring, 
 where, no longer ago than 1830, there was not one; and 
 there are not less than fourteen Protestant Christian 
 schools established in the same city and population, 
 where in 1830 there was no such thing known. This ad- 
 vance is great ; the numerical array is something impos- 
 
38 
 
 ing ; but tbe real advance is greater by far than tbe mere 
 numbers indicate. And nowhere is tbe leaven more 
 surely leavening tbe lump. All tbe empire of Turkey 
 itself might as suddenly be found on the side of an 
 evangelical Gospel as tbe kingdom of tbe Sandwich 
 Islands, without tbe change being so remarkable. In 
 reference to tbe present imminent war, tbe counsels 
 and providence of God have been beforehand, even to 
 human observation, preventing tbe diplomacy and force 
 of nations. God has silently and gradually established 
 bis citadels, bis store-houses, bis points of possession and 
 of conquest, and there is reason to believe that he may 
 make this war more directly subserve tbe advancement 
 of bis kingdom, and tbe pulling dowm of tbe strong- 
 holds of Satan, than be has done any war since Ves- 
 pasian and Titus carried the Roman eagle against tbe 
 Jews. 
 
 We can not but remark the providence of God in the 
 sbai:)e and spirit of theology jissumed in New-England, 
 where tbe enterprise of the American Board first 
 started, and tbe theological training of mmisters and 
 missionaries there. In tbe early simplicity and godly 
 sincerity of that course in tlie word of God and pi’ayer, 
 may be found a cause for tbe palpable practical supe- 
 riority and success of tbe missionaries of tbe Amei’ican 
 Board, to such a degree tliat they can not be rivalled 
 by any others anj'^wbere sent forth in modern times to 
 establish tbe Gospel. Out of tbe New-Englaud school 
 of tlieology, tlie school of Edwards, not spoiled by ifiii- 
 losoi)by and vain speculation, but fresh fi’om tlie simjile, 
 prayerful study of tbe living Scriptures of God, have 
 
39 
 
 these men come ; rude and unpromislug to the seeming 
 of a worldly miiul, in origin and appearance, hut rich 
 and powerful with a native original theology hy the 
 spirit of God, and with hearts on fire ; these men, hy 
 whom God has created anew the Sandwich Islands, and 
 is now Christianizing the oriental world. It is a living 
 theology, a revival theology, from the simple word of 
 God that has done this, the theology of the fifty-first 
 Psalm. 
 
 Again : the providence of God is to he marked in the 
 manner in which he has guided our missionaries, and 
 those of some other Boards, in the wisdom of their i)lans 
 of educational discipline among the nations. Common 
 schools have heen established, with the Bihle and 
 religious instruction in them. The nation is saved, where 
 there are these permanent fixtures. In addition to the 
 striking remark made in a recent report of the schools 
 in the Sandwich Islands, that the success of those schools, 
 and their regenerating power upon the kingdom, is 
 mainly owing to the fact, that the simple word of God 
 was long, and of necessity, the only reading hook, let 
 us note, as an example of wisdom and success in almost 
 an antipodean part of the world, the latest report of the 
 Educational Missionary Seminary, at Aheih, in Syria. 
 After speaking of the happy influences of science, 
 thoroughly taught, upon the minds of the youth, the 
 missionaries say : 
 
 “ But our great aim has been to have them well grounded in the 
 Scriptures. And here also we pursue a systematic course. The first 
 school-hour of each day is devoted to the Bible. Beginning at Genesis, 
 our plan is to complete the whole in four years. AVe look carefully at 
 
40 
 
 chronology, biography, and history ; assign, as far as possible, their proper 
 times and places to the Prophets ; endeavor to ascertain the meaning of 
 the Jewish ritual, and show how this and the prophecies all point to the 
 great Deliverer. We pursue an equally thorough coui-se with the New 
 Testament. In a word, we aim t6 give as complete and systematic a 
 knowledge of the sacred volume, as a whole and in its parts, as we are 
 able. Nor in this department do we feel that we have labored in vain. 
 Apart even from the direct religious influence of this course, we are 
 decidedly of opinion that more, vastly more, has been done in this way 
 to awaken intellect, and foster a spirit of inquiry, and give expansion and 
 vigor to the mind, than by all our other studies combined. In this close 
 attention to the Bible we find, too, the surest means of eradicating from 
 the minds of our pupils their manifold superstitious opinions, and of 
 awakening within them the conviction that ecclesiastical authority, in 
 which they have been taught to repose an unlimited confidence, is a 
 baseless fabric.” 
 
 Now, it is true that all tliese various and mighty pro- 
 vidential preparations are nothing without a divine, all- 
 conquering Spirit working in and with them. But the 
 climax of all blessings, and the brightest of all indica- 
 tions, is the manifest presence of that Spirit, so that 
 every missionary station, or church, or band of laborers 
 with the Gospel is as leaven, hid in three measures of 
 meal, of no comparison indeed, as to quantity, as to size, 
 as to space occupied, with the hugeness of the material 
 to be penetrated and subdued ; but yet, of such omni- 
 potent, all-permeating power, that the whole may, if 
 God pleases, be speedily leavened. God seems to be 
 preparing for a great and effective outpouring of his 
 spirit, before which every thing of opposing power shall 
 at length give way. In a gi-eat river, during a long 
 winter, the ice becomes so deep and solid, that it seems 
 as if it never could be either melted or broken up. The 
 
41 
 
 winter and spring thaws pass, and the ordinary rains 
 fall, but still the ice seems as thick and immovable as 
 ever. But experienced judges will tell you that every 
 thaw and every rain has helped to rot and weaken it. 
 And now comes a great rain perhaps of two or three 
 days’ duration, and in one night the vast covering of 
 ice that but the day before seemed as if it could still 
 bear up a city, is burst up and broken "with the noise of 
 thunder, and between the rising and the setting sun, the 
 stream is free. Just so, God is all the while weakening 
 and rottinsr the fabrics and institutions of heathen 
 
 O 
 
 superstition, caste, and idolatry, the cold, solid crust of 
 Satanic habit and despotism ; and, at length, when the 
 great rain of his Spirit comes, these things may give 
 • way, and be broken up, and carried out to sea, wdth a 
 suddenness that shall seem a miracle, and yet by causes 
 that God had long been setting in motion, to produce 
 that mighty result. 
 
 Now, then, what are we to conclude as to the prospect 
 in the half century on which we are just entered, from 
 all that God has done in the half century through which 
 we are just passed? Judging only from the things 
 accomplished in the last fifty years, what may we not 
 suppose will be accomplished in the next fifty years ? 
 Certainly we have reason to believe that the fulness of 
 God’s time has come. And reasoning only as the human 
 mind may reason, in regard to probabilities, even leav- 
 ing out of view the spiritual element, there are some 
 great things of power set in motion that can not stop, 
 but will inevitably go forward, dragging other things 
 with them. And the horoscope of the future is glorious. 
 
42 
 
 reasoning from tlie past, and admitting even only tlie 
 same ratio of progress. The year 1900 will be a year 
 of glory and prosperity such as the world has never 
 seen, if a progress is continued in the arts and sciences, 
 in discovery and inventions, in morals and religion, 
 accordant only with that made between the year 1800 
 • and 1850. 
 
 But we cast ourselves wholly upon God ; we do not 
 rely upon such progress, except through his grace, and our 
 faitlifulness to him ; for the voice of the promise is good- 
 ness, if thou • continue in his goodness, otherwise thou 
 also shalt be cut off. We rely upon God’s grace; and 
 tliat given,^ we say that already God has made the world 
 so ripe and ready for the baptism of liis Spirit, tliat even 
 a pei'iod so near as the year 1900 may witness tlie* 
 world’s advancement into the brightness of the Mil- 
 lennial Day. And fifty more years, or the middle of the 
 next century, in all likelihood, will witness the entire 
 overthrow and downfall of the paj)al power, the 
 ]\Iohammedan power, and also the entire regeneration 
 of the Greek Church. The same period may witness 
 the subversion of idolatry and caste in India, and of 
 the idolatrous superstitions of China, and of the physi- 
 cal and spiritual demon despotisms of Africa. The 
 conflict between the native races in China may yet 
 bring a great part of the kingdom under the power of 
 a Protestant government ; and England, before step])ing 
 down from her position as the foremost country on the 
 earth, may yet have her responsibilities increased to the 
 temporary ruling of moi’e than half the inhabitants of 
 our globe. Meanwhile her vast Australian possessions 
 
43 
 
 will become a Cliristian Republic, and may perliaps be 
 filled, by tlie power of the magnet which the providence 
 of God has there set at work as in California, with an 
 intelligent and active population, more rapidly than ever 
 yet any portion even of our own country was won from 
 the Avilderness. In these movements of the world, and 
 in such a horoscope of the future, there is as much ex- 
 citement as there is encoui-agenient ; and while there are 
 gi’eat apparent dangers, all things are full of hope, if 
 the people of God do but give themselves in faith, love, 
 and prayer, to the great work before them. The lines 
 of prophecy are converging, and the trains of God’s 
 providence are growing nearer and more crowded, 
 dee])ening to a great centre, and indicating some mighty 
 consummation. God is coming to use nations like in- 
 dividuals, for the fulfillment of his plans ; indeed, he has 
 always done this, though never in so marked a manner 
 as in the changes of the modern world. 
 
 O 
 
 It is not amons: the least of the signs of the times 
 that in our day the very science of geography has been 
 permeated with a missionary significance, and that 
 God’s great plan has been traced between the con- 
 figuration of our globe, and the march of civilization 
 and of empii’e, developing the moral capabilities and 
 responsibilities of nations, and especially of our own. 
 In the great Avork of Arnold Guyot, we see the hand 
 of God, on the very map of the -world, with its physio- 
 logical history, as plainly marking out our missionary 
 destiny, as his providence is manifest in loading us with 
 responsibilities, and giving us the power to meet them. 
 If we imagine that God has given to our country its 
 
44 
 
 unparalleled advantages, and raised us to a lieiglit of 
 freedom and power unrivalled in the history of the 
 world, only that our merchants may become princes, 
 and treat us to Sabbath-breaking railroads, we are 
 terribly mistaken. God has given us this prosperity, 
 not for ourselves, but to be imparted to the Avorld. lie 
 has prepared us in this mighty Avay, on this gigantic 
 scale, not for our own commercial interests, but to do 
 good by us, to carry on his glorious plan of the Avorld’s 
 regeneration. 
 
 Now, there are just three things that are essential to 
 our active religious power over the nations, and our 
 continued missionary success; the Spirit, the Word, 
 and the Sabbath. The first is the life, the second the 
 medium, the third the fixture ; and of this sacred trinity 
 of influence, expression, and institution, by which this 
 world is bound to God, every one of these possessions 
 is equally essential. The Sabbath may be called our 
 galvanic battery, bearing in its^frame and arrangement 
 the Word and the Spirit, the Sj^irit through the Word. 
 Wherever the Sabbath goes down, or is neglected, or 
 over-ridden by the interests of this world, our ])ower, 
 the power of salvation, goes down with it. Tlie re- 
 generation of nations is the Avork of the Christian Sab- 
 bath, permanent, immutable. Tlie Sabbath is the only 
 heart of life and health continued. Our OAvn discijdine, 
 under God’s providence, included 150 years’ intense 
 action of this energetic, central, vivifying, permeating 
 life, before God made us a nation. And that Avhich, 
 more than any other causes, taught us the theory {ind 
 the practice of liberty, and gave us the heart and mind 
 
45 
 
 to sustain it, was tlie possession of the Christian Sah- 
 batli, in its primitive sacrediiess and purity and power. 
 
 There must be a deeper piety, not the spirit of expe- 
 diency, nor tlie compromise between God and mammon, 
 but the sj)irit of love and of power, and of a sound 
 mind. All our mighty Avorks of preparation, and 
 movements of success, thus fiir, instead of making it 
 possible for a less degree of faith and fervor to do the 
 work that remains, only increase our responsibilities, 
 and necessitate a still purer and deeper zeal. A A*ast 
 battery is ready, but the cups are innumerable ; if they 
 are all tilled, then the immense array Avill act; not 
 otherwise. The heart can give only Avhat it possesses. 
 If it be the letter, it may give the letter ; if the s])irit, 
 tlie spirit. If a church and a form be the object, a 
 church and a form may be accomplished; but the 
 water there, will rise no higlrer than the fountain here ; 
 and the establislmnent of a formal church would only 
 be the infliction of a Christian sore on the body of 
 heathenism. Yet this is a renewed and increasing 
 tendency of our age. “Are you not grieved,” said one 
 Christian friend to another, from whom a once beloA^ed 
 and venerated pastor had been removed to another 
 diocese, “are you not grieA'ed to lose so excellent a 
 minister ?” “ Oh ! the exchange is much better,” was 
 
 the answer ; “ Mr. A. did indeed love souls, and sought 
 to bring them to Christ, and made good Christians^ but 
 ]\Ir. B. makes good churchmen^ and we never felt the 
 importance of that till now.” A snare of the great ad- 
 versary and a tendency of the age, is here developed. 
 But if churchmanship be the beginning, it will be the 
 
46 
 
 end ; and neitlier at the beginning nor the end can tlie 
 soul know much of Ghrist and him crucified. A recent 
 English writer has argued that without an Establish- 
 ment it is impossible for the utmost energy of the 
 voluntary system ever to reach the masses. The his- 
 tory of the American Board in its wonderful successes 
 in the space of forty years, in comparison Avith the zeal 
 of an Establishment for more than three centuries, is 
 answer enough to such an assumption. Indeed, you 
 know the fixtures of an Establishment, and can gauge its 
 [)OAver; but the power of an impulsive deep piety, the 
 power of the spirit of God, you can not measure. The 
 argument is as untenable as an old accustomed higliway 
 route at a railroad crossing. Look out Avhen the bell 
 rings ! 
 
 TJien again, the piety of giving is yet to be developed, 
 to meet emergencies and demands on the present gigantic 
 scale of God’s providence. Christian merchants must 
 learn to live only for him, in their business of money- 
 making, as Avholly and faitlifully as they demand and 
 expect that the missionaries, Avlioni they are called to 
 support, should live only for God. Why should the 
 missionary in his steAvardship for Clirist be called and 
 expected to give his time, his life, his lal)ors, in preach- 
 ing the Gospel, satisfied Avith an adequate support in 
 and for his Avork, any more than the Christian merchant 
 Aw, in the same stcAvardship, but in a different Avay? 
 'fhe Christian merchant is as sacredly bound to ])nrsue 
 his business for Christ, gain Avealth for Christ, and give 
 it habitually to Christ, as the Christian missionary is 
 bound to lay his business, his life, upon the altar of 
 
47 
 
 Christ’s love. Nor can tlie missionary work go on, un- 
 til tliis share of the hurden and heat of the day is Lome 
 Ly our Christian merchants. Why the talents of tlie 
 Christian uynister should be considered as sacredly de- 
 voted to God, and not the wealth of the Christian 
 merchant, it passes any man’s ability to give a reason. 
 Did the I.ord Jesus ever give a dispensation to any one 
 class of his disciples to live unto themselves, to lay up 
 treasure for themselves, while another class were to do 
 the sacrifice and the self-denial for the easy and luxuri- 
 ous livers by proxy ? What a monstrous idea ! And 
 yet, does not something like this feeling prevail, or if 
 not the feeling, does not the habit and reality border 
 on such a practice ? 
 
 Now, if just even a tenth were devoted to God, if 
 that rule of benevolence were sacredly complied with 
 by our Christian merchants, God would have enough and 
 to spare for missionary purposes. But the rule of the 
 Gospel is just none other than this, as God hath 
 PROSPERED YOU. Now, when we hear of a Christian 
 merchant laying up perhaps a hundred thousand dollars 
 a year, and giving five or ten thousand, one can not help 
 asking. Is this according as God hath prospered him ? 
 Might he not, with perfect ease, have given seventy-five 
 thousand, without the slightest sacrifice, the least dimi- 
 nution of his comforts, his luxuries, and with an amaz- 
 ing addition to his piety, his growth in grace, his own 
 happiness.? And then, the usefulness of such a course ! 
 Oh ! when we think of the incomparable spiritual worth 
 of money at this day of the world’s advancing and pos- 
 
48 
 
 sibly immediate redemption, how much good can be 
 done with it, what rapid and mighty agencies for eternal 
 blessedness to millions set in motion and sustained by 
 it, then the profession of a true Christian merchant, 
 who labors to gain money for Christ, just as the mis- 
 sionary preaches for him, rises in dignity and glory, till 
 it seems hardly inferior even to the Gospel ministry ! 
 Truly, when our Christian merchants, with their com- 
 mercial enterprises and their capital, shall look as 
 directly to the advancement of the Redeemer’s king- 
 dom as our missionaries, it will be a development of 
 pious and benevolent energy as yet untried. And the 
 Spirit of God may speedily bring the Christian com- 
 munity even to that. 
 
 Spiritually, our capital is in the Word — the Word 
 by the Spirit and by j3rayer ; and we have to see to 
 that it be not locked up and unavailable. We 
 may hold its riches in the letter, and yet be bankrupt 
 in the spirit; this is one of our dangers, even in our 
 ])rogres3. We Avant quickening in the fire and power 
 of God’s word. We want it permeating the very bones 
 and marroAV of our being, as God’s word. We want it 
 in such overmastering and up-bearing power Avithin us, 
 that on the Avings of a “ thus saitli the TjorcV'' we can 
 dart as an eagle in the face of enemies, yea, as lightning 
 from the clouds. We need to strike SAvift and strong 
 blows Avitli the SAvord of the Spirit; but no man can 
 do this Avho has not learned from the Spirit, that the 
 Word is the Word of God, or Avhose sword-arm is 
 ])aralyzed by the chloroform of foreign critical skej)ti- 
 
49 
 
 cism, or who suffers his pliilology, pliilosophy, and 
 science to overlay and suffocate his faith and life. 
 
 Now, may God be merciful unto us, and bless us, and 
 cause his face to shine upon us ; that thy way may be 
 known upon earth, thy saving health among all nations. 
 Amen. 
 
 4 
 
TWENTY-SEVENTH ANNUAL REPORT 
 
 OF TnE 
 
 NEW-YORK AND BROOKLYN FOREIGN MISSIONARY ASSOCIATION. 
 
 Axotuee year in the history of this Society has passed, and we are called upon 
 to review its progress, and gird up the loins of our minds to meet the very solemn 
 responsibilities which the future will impose upon us. The Association, whose 
 twenty-seventh anniversary we to-night celebrate, holds a prominent and very 
 important place among kindred agencies in our country. Tire spirit, the enterprise, 
 the piety, tlie wealth, of the churches united in this Society, are unequalled in the 
 land. Xo other place of the same extent combines so many advantages for the 
 cultivation and continual increase of the missionary spirit, as the cities of New-Tork 
 and Brooklyn. This statement must commend itself to every one who is at all 
 acquainted with the number, the contiguity, and the Christian and ecclesiastical 
 fellowship of the churches here represented ; and it is needless to enlarge upon it. 
 As greatly as we surpass all other places in our advantages, so greatly should we 
 surpass them in the manifestation of that benevolence, which, under God, is the 
 strength and hope of the missionary cause. May each succeeding year prove to 
 the churches throughout the land, that we appreciate the peculiar position we 
 occupy ; and may they be encouraged, by our example, to emulate us in devotion 
 to him who is their and our common Lord and Master. 
 
 The Treasurer’s report, just read, shows the amount of contributions from the 
 churches during the year, which compares favorably with that of the preceding ; 
 and the usual monthly meetings of the Society have been as well attended and 
 sustained as ever before. Regret, however, has been expressed that the pastors of 
 the churches have not availed themselves more generally of the advantages which 
 these meetings afford, for giving increased interest to the concert of prayer on the 
 evening of the first Monday of each month. It is exceedingly desirable that each 
 church should be represented at this service, either by the pastor, or by some one 
 appointed for the purpose, who may thus secure the most recent intelligence from 
 the various missions. 
 
 The year has been one of unusual interest and promise, throughout the missionary 
 world. In China, India, and Eastern Asia, where the operations of the American 
 Board are veiy extensive, God has interposed marvellously in his providence. 
 
making the wrath of man to praise him, and filling the hearts of his people in 
 those lands with high hopes for the future. As it does not fall within the province 
 of this report to enter into details respecting particular missions, we know not 
 how better to enlist the hearts, and confirm the faith, of our churches in tliis 
 hallowed cause, than to present some of the encouragements which the word of 
 God affords to us, in the present solemn, and, to many minds, alarming posture of 
 the missionary enterprise. "We are not of those who look with disquietude upon 
 the dark and portentous cloud which now overhangs Europe and Asia. We 
 remember that the Lord reigneth, and we rejoice. We call to mind the fact, that 
 the Eedeemer of the world is its sovereign, and that he administers the affairs of 
 mankind with exclusive and direct reference to the advantage and glory of his 
 Church. We can not avoid the conviction, that the blessed purposes of divine 
 grace are ripening very fast. We believe that God’s providence, which extends 
 to the mightiest as truly and as efficiently as to the minutest objects and events, 
 is wholly and always subservient to the merciful plans of his love for Zion ; so that 
 “all things” work together for her good. Never before in the world’s history, 
 have the unfoldings of God’s scheme for his glory in our world, been so rapid, so 
 various, so wondrous, so manifestly adapted to promote the kingdom of Christ, as 
 during the present century. Every one who reflects at all on the subject, must 
 feel that God is about to do some great thing for his Church. 
 
 There is a diversity of views in regard to tho manner in wliich the kingdom of 
 Christ is to be extended and established in the world ; and there are those who 
 suppose that the Gospel will attain its end in a quiet and tranquil way, as tho 
 leaven penetrates and changes the meal in which it is hid. But, if we look into 
 history, wo shall discover other elements at work in securing this result. It is 
 true, that the Gospel accomplishes its proper, its legitimate object, in renewing and 
 sanctifying tho nature of man ; but such are Tho conditions and circumstances of 
 our world, that, in order to this, other elements of power must bo brought into 
 operation. 
 
 Tho Bible most explicitly teaches, that the kingdom of Clirist is to secure its 
 supremacy in tho world, not simply by tho prayers, efforts, and sacrifices of 
 Cliristians, in erecting churches and schools, and institutions of art and science — in 
 diffusing Bibles and tracts, and a sanctified literature ; not simply by tho divine 
 blessing upon a preached Gospel, but, also, by tho outpouring of a spirit of divine 
 wrath upon tho idolatrous, infidel, and apostate kingdoms of tho earth. The Church 
 has no carnal weapons, with which to attack her foes. She can overcome tho 
 powers of evil only by tho blood of tho Lamb, and tho word of her testimony, and by 
 not counting her life dear unto herself. Christ’s kingdom is not of this world, else 
 would his servants fight. But, while the Church is restricted to a spiritual warfare, 
 God is by no means confined to tho same. All tho forces of nature, all tho kings 
 and armies of tho earth, all tho social and material and political resources of tho 
 uatioms, are at his disposal; and by them, in one way or another, ho carries forward 
 and accomplishes his designs of mercy for tho Church, lie has tho wrongs of Zion 
 to avenge, upon tho nations who have oppressed her. lie has judgments to visit 
 
53 
 
 upon the rebellious people who have not submitted themselves to the sway of his 
 Son. The day of vengeance and recompense must come ; and by no means does 
 God so powerfully prepare his way for the establishment of his kingdom, as by his 
 desolating judgments upon the guilty nations. Most instructive are the teachings 
 of the Bible history and prophec)’’ on this point. The overthrow of the Babylonish 
 empire by Cyrus, who established the Persian on its ruins ; the overthrow of the 
 Persian by Alexander, who established the Grecian in its stead; and tlio overthrow 
 of the Grecian by the Roman, tlie mightiest of them all, — were ordained and 
 accomplislied by God, in order to the advent of Zion’s King, the Lord Jesus Christ, 
 into the world. These are the series of events that God speaks of by Haggai : 
 “Thus s;iith the Lord of hosts. Yet once, it is a little while, and I wUl shako the 
 heavens, and the earth, and the sea, and the dry land ; and I will sliako all nations, 
 and the desire of Ml nations shall come." To the same series of events does God 
 refer, when, in Ezekiel, he says: “I will overturn, and overturn, and overturn it.” 
 To these does Daniel refer, when he says of Christ’s kingdom, “ It shall break in 
 pieces and consume all these kingdoms.” “ Zion,” it has been well said,* “ hath 
 been the rise and downfall of all the powers of the world. It is her deliverance, or 
 her trial, that is intended in their raising ; and _hcr reeompensc and vengeance in 
 their ruin. God works not among the nations for their own sakes. 'When they 
 are sifted with a sieve they are but the chaflf ; Israel is tlie com for whose sake it 
 is done, whereof not the least grain shall fall to the ground. She is precious in 
 God’s sight, and honorable ; ho loves her ; therefore ho giveth men for her, and 
 people for her life.” The kingdom of Clu^t is the only one, of all the kingdoms of 
 the earth, that can not be shaken or removed. It is the kingdom “ which the God 
 of heaven hath set up, which shall never be destroyed;” a kingdom, which, 
 belonging “ to the saints of ^the Most High, shall never be left to other people ; 
 but it shall break in pieces and consume many kingdoms, and it shall stand for 
 ever.” So that all tlie revolutions of the nations serve only to settle more firmly 
 the foundations, and augment the strength and greatness, of the Church. Often 
 she seems pressed nearly to her overthrow ; but always, when the enemy cometh 
 in like a flood, the spirit of the Lord lifteth up a standard against him. The 
 Church is like Joseph, of whom his father said, “ The archers have sorely grieved 
 liim, and shot at him , and hated him ; but his bow abode in strength, and the arms 
 of his hands were made strong' by the hands of the mighty God of Jacob.” Every 
 instance of shaking among the nations is an advance made by the Church. Every 
 victory gained, on whatever battle-field, is a victory for the Church. Hers are the 
 spoils of war ; hers the monuments and trophies of royal triumpha AH the blood 
 that has been spOt, aU the treasure that has been expended, aU the nations and 
 empires that have been wasted, have been for the glory of Zion. How many 
 mighty kingdoms have passed away! Assyria, and Egypt, and Persia, Greece, 
 and Carthage, and Rome, have perished ; yet the Church remains. They perished 
 for this very end, — in the words of the Apostle Paul, — the removing of the things 
 that are shaken is in order that the things that can not be shaken, the kingdom 
 
 ♦ John Owen. 
 
54 
 
 tliat can not be moved, may remain. In olden times, Glod gave Egypt, and Bashan, 
 und Heslibon, and all the nations of Canaan, Ethiopia and Seba, Babylon and 
 Nineveh, for his Church ; and Zion is no less precious to him now. It would not 
 be strange if; in these days, he should give Turkey and Russia, Austria, Italy, India, 
 and Cliina, for her advancement and glory. The day of her triumph is hastening. 
 The overtumings and removals of tribes, nations, and empires; the battles and 
 sieges; the long wars and desolating invasions, during six thousand years, have 
 not been to no purpose. These are the groanings and travailing together in pain 
 of the whole earth, in order to the manifestation of the sons of God. 
 
 Moreover, the Bible teaches us, that as the day of Zion’s ascendency and glory 
 approaches, civil commotions will increase. God’s judgments in the earth wiU be 
 more and more abundant. He will turn, and overturn, and overturn, till He whose 
 right it is shall reign king over all. He will pour out the vials of his wTath upon 
 the nations. He will whet his glittering sword, and his hand take hold on 
 vengeance. He wiU raise up captains and armies, who will be his scourge, the 
 besom of destruction for the nations. The day of the Church’s glory is the day of 
 God’s recompense upon her enemies. The emancipation and triumph of the Church 
 is to be secured by the destruction, or by the conversion, of them that hated and 
 oppressed her. The princes of the world must submit themselves to the kingdom 
 of Christ, or be subdued under it. Now they oppose it ; the kings of the earth set 
 themselves, and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord, and against his 
 Anointed. And what a fore-shadowing of coming conflicts does that word of the 
 prophet give us ; “ The nation and kingdom that will not serve Zion shaU perish ; 
 yea, those nations shaU be utterly wasted I” And this: ‘‘Behold, the Lord wiU 
 come with fire, and with his chariots, like a whirlwind, to render his anger with 
 fury, and his rebuke with flames of fire. For by fire and by his sword will the 
 Lord plead with all flesh; and the slain of the Lord shall be many." And again: 
 
 ‘ I will shake the heavens and the earth,- and I wiU overturn the throne of 
 kingdoms, and I wOl destroy the strength of the kingdoms of the heathen, (Gen- 
 tiles;) and I will overthrow the chariots and those that ride in them, and the 
 horses and their riders shall come down, every one by the sword of his brother." 
 
 Such are some of the foretold antecedents of the millennial state of the kingdom 
 of Christ, to the consummation of wliich all the missionary operations of the present 
 day arc directed. Wherefore, let us not be troubled by the tumults of the people, 
 by wars and rumors of wars, by the overturnings of dynasties and tlironcs, of states 
 and empires. These are but the shaking of the nations by the Almighty, that the 
 kingdom of Chri.st m.ay bo established. This can not bo shaken ; this can not be 
 moved. And ohi what a kingdom I how stable, und glorious, and precious to God, 
 l>ow loved and honored must the Church be, when all the commotions, and 
 changes, and bloodshed, and proud histoiy- of nations, and their kings and con- 
 querors, all are the stepping-stones of the Church to universal empire ; for she shall 
 reign over all. The kingdom and the greatness of the kingdom, under the whole 
 heaven, shall bo given to the saints of the Most High. The decrees of God can 
 not be changed. He will pursue his own methods, and none shall let him. We 
 
55 
 
 will, therefore, indulge no vain expectations of peace among the nations. Men 
 talk of the progress of art and science, of civilization and refinement. They dis- 
 course about the development of humanity and of history. But other voices reach 
 us from the sacred oracle. The visions of prophecy reveal the overtumings and 
 l>reaking up of civil institutions and ecclesiastical powers ; the dashing in pieces of 
 the fabric of empires. And these things crowd the more distant scenes on tliat 
 divinely-painted canvas. There we see famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes 
 in divers places. The whole earth seems convulsed ; the sun is darkened, and the 
 moon gives not her light ; the stars fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens 
 are shaken. Upon the earth, distress of nations, with perplexity ; the sea and the 
 waves roaring. And as the dark clouds of that era roll away, the sign of the Son of 
 Man appears in heaven. Not until this time be fully come, will the Prince of 
 Peace take to liimself the sceptre of tho kings of the earth, and reign God over all, 
 blessed for over. Till then, nations must bo disquieted. France, Austria, Russia, 
 Italy, Turkey, and other kingdoms, must bo visited for their tremendous crimes 
 against the kingdom of Christ ; for if God has visited the sin and unbelief of his 
 own people so severely as their history in the by-gone centuries shows ho has done, 
 surely he will not fail to pass the wine-cup of his fury among the nations w'ho have 
 oppressed and enslaved them ; and they must drink it. If ho did such things in the 
 green tree, (his own Church,) what shall be done in the dry? Tho gates and bars 
 of every adverse kingdom must bo broken down ; tho deep foundations of idolatry 
 must be razed and destroyed; tho crushing superstitions of a false Christianity, 
 underlying and sust aini ng the thrones of so many kingdoms, must be demolished. 
 All rough places must bo made smooth, and crooked places be made straight, for 
 the spiritual, millennial advent of tho Saviour. 
 
 Have wo not a right to expect that, after tlie tempest of civil and political com- 
 motion is over-past ; • after tho dark and long-overhanging cloud of divine wrath 
 shall have discharged itself upon tho guilty nations, the Church of God will arifi 
 and shine, will put on her beautiful garments, and stand forth in her supernal 
 might and glory, clear as the sun, fair as the moon, and terrible as an army with 
 banners ; that repentant kings will be her nursing fathers, and their queens her 
 nursing mothers ; that nations will be bom to her in a day ; and so the world be 
 filled with the knowledge of the glory of God ? 
 
 THOMAS H. SKINNER, Jb., 
 
 CORRESPOXDIXO SECRETARY. 
 
56 
 
 THE FOREIGN MISSIONARY SOCIETY OP NEW-YORK AND BROOKLYN 
 
 In account current with their Treasurer, Almon Mekwin. 
 
 Dk 
 
 Entered in my account at sundry times with H. HUl, ) 
 Treasurer of the A.B.C.F.M., J 
 
 By Cash, from the following sources : 
 
 From Alien-street Presbyterian Church, 
 
 April 1, Brick “ “ 
 
 1853, Broadway Tabernacle, 
 
 ia Central Presbyterian Church, .... 
 
 March 31, Church of the Puritans, 
 
 1854. Eastern Congregational Church, . . 
 
 Eleventh Presbyterian 
 Fourteenth-st. “ 
 
 Fourth-avenue “ 
 
 Harlem “ 
 
 Houston-street “ 
 
 Mercer-street “ 
 
 Madison-square “ 
 
 Manhattan vUle “ 
 
 North “ 
 
 Presbyterian Church on University place, . 
 Seventh Presbyterian Church, 
 
 Si.xth-street “ 
 
 Spring-street “ 
 
 Thirtoenth-st. “ 
 
 West “ 
 
 West 23d-st. “ 
 
 Sundry donations in Now-York and Brooklyn,. 
 
 Bedford Congregational Church, Brookljm, . 
 Church of the Pilgrims, 
 
 Clinton-av. Congregational Church, 
 
 First Presbyterian 
 Fulton-av. Congregational 
 Plymouth “ 
 
 South Prcsbjd.crian 
 Second “ 
 
 South Congregational 
 Third Presbyterian 
 William.sburgh First Prosbyterinu Church,. 
 
 $5 
 
 110 
 
 O 
 
 1 CO O 
 
 $ 
 
 Cr. 
 
 $186 40 
 
 941 
 
 87 
 
 278 
 
 03 
 
 392 
 
 06 
 
 2174 
 
 73 
 
 52 
 
 94 
 
 170 
 
 08 
 
 1519 
 
 01 
 
 935 
 
 49 
 
 81 
 
 64 
 
 76 
 
 75 
 
 6404 
 
 93 
 
 1126 
 
 76 
 
 17 
 
 00 
 
 72 
 
 27 
 
 500 
 
 00 
 
 306 
 
 98 
 
 50 
 
 00 
 
 159 
 
 00 
 
 222 
 
 70 
 
 502 
 
 42 
 
 103 
 
 42 
 
 1298 
 
 38 
 
 19 
 
 59 
 
 2267 
 
 59 
 
 215 
 
 64 
 
 1322 
 
 99 
 
 66 
 
 25 
 
 445 
 
 00 
 
 1033 
 
 25 
 
 446 
 
 27 
 
 28 
 
 67 
 
 215 
 
 23 
 
 63 
 
 24 
 
 115 78 
 23,580 80 
 
 $23,696 58 
 
 17,572 86 
 
 6,123 72 
 
 E. & 0. E. 
 
 New-Youk, March 31, 1854. 
 E-vamined and found correct. 
 
 $23,696 58 
 
 A. Mekwin, Treasurer. 
 
 Walter S^Giuefith, 
 
 Lewis E. Jackson, J 
 
RECEIPTS OP THE SOCIETY. 
 
 Tub following statomont exhibits the receipts of tho Foreign Missionary Society 
 of Now-York and Brooklyn, from its organization in 1827 to April, 1850; 
 
 From 1827 to April, 1836, (nine years,) $86,931 28 
 
 For tho year ending April, 1837 19,068 72 
 
 “ “ 1838, 11,195 53 
 
 “ “ March, 1839, 12,433 07 
 
 » “ April, 1840 10,131 33 
 
 “ “ March, 1841 11,721 17 
 
 “ " April, 1842, 15,937 73 
 
 “ “ 1843, 10,432 42 
 
 “ “ “ 1844, 14,018 10 
 
 “ “ “ 1845, 11,974 88 
 
 “ " “ 1846, 10,425 10 
 
 “ “ March, 1847 9,867 59 , 
 
 “ “ “ 1848, 11,834 70 
 
 “ " April, 1849, 19,536 56 
 
 “ •• ^ 1850 14,217 58 
 
 Total in 23 yoHra, 
 
 $269,725 76 
 
 The following is a view of legacies paid into tho treasury of tho American Board 
 from New- York and Brooklyn since tho organization of this Auxiliary: 
 
 For the year ending March 31, 1834, 
 
 “ “ “ 1836, 
 
 “ “ “ 1838, 
 
 “ “ “ 1839, 
 
 “ “ “ 1840, 
 
 “ “ “ 1842, 
 
 “ “ “ 1843, 
 
 “ “ “ 1844, 
 
 ‘‘ “ “ 1846, 
 
 “ “ “ 1847, 
 
 “ “ “ 1848, 
 
 “ “ “ 1849, 
 
 ‘ 1850, 
 ‘ 1852, 
 ‘ 1853, 
 ‘ 1854, 
 
 from New-York, $964 60 
 
 “ “ 250 00 
 
 “ “ 1350 00 
 
 “ “ 2865 00 
 
 “ “ 5602 86 
 
 “ Brooklj-n, 133 78 
 
 “ “ 100 00 
 
 “ •= 100 00 
 
 “ New-York, 100 00 
 
 “ Brooklyn, 500 00 
 
 “ New-York, 3094 38 
 
 .. j “ $1265 00...) j 5 00 
 
 (Brooklyn, 100 00...) 
 
 “ New-York, 100 00 
 
 “ “ 20 00 
 
 “ 885 00 
 
 “ “ 3264 00 
 
58 
 
 RECEIPTS FOR THE YEARS 1351, 1852, 1853, 1854. 
 
 
 
 Year ending 
 
 Y' ar ending 
 
 Year ending 
 
 Year ending 
 
 
 
 April 13, 
 
 March 31, 
 
 March 31, 
 
 March 31, 
 
 
 
 1851. 
 
 
 1852. 
 
 
 1853. 
 
 
 1864. 
 
 AUen-street Presb. Church, N. T. 
 
 $161 17 
 
 $129 00 
 
 $137 
 
 07 
 
 $186 40 
 
 Bleecker-st., (4th Av.,) “ 
 
 U 
 
 896 
 
 22 
 
 875 
 
 06 
 
 781 
 
 00 
 
 935 49 
 
 Brick Presbyterian “ 
 
 ti 
 
 666 
 
 75 
 
 933 
 
 14 
 
 911 
 
 88 
 
 941 87 
 
 Broadway Tabernacle “ 
 
 il 
 
 265 
 
 45 
 
 258 
 
 01 
 
 284 
 
 24 
 
 278 03 
 
 Central Presbyterian “ 
 
 u 
 
 903 
 
 22 
 
 687 
 
 40 
 
 1,016 
 
 82 
 
 392 06 
 
 Ch. of the Puritans, (Cong.,) 
 
 (( 
 
 851 
 
 66 
 
 1,252 
 
 27 
 
 454 
 
 60 
 
 2,174 73 
 
 Eastern Congregational Ch., 
 
 u 
 
 17 
 
 67 
 
 19 
 
 09 
 
 31 
 
 57 
 
 52 94 
 
 Eleventh Presb)i;erian “ 
 
 u 
 
 78 
 
 36 
 
 88 
 
 85 
 
 109 
 
 34 
 
 ■ 170 08 
 
 Pourteonth-st. “ “ 
 
 (( 
 
 
 
 469 
 
 73 
 
 997 
 
 38 
 
 1,519 01 
 
 Harlem “ “ 
 
 
 31 
 
 00 
 
 76 
 
 60 
 
 53 
 
 47 
 
 81 64 
 
 Houston-strect “ “ 
 
 u 
 
 98 
 
 55 
 
 25 
 
 50 
 
 19 
 
 50 
 
 76 75 
 
 Mercer-street “ “ 
 
 (C 
 
 3,149 
 
 95 
 
 6,139 
 
 11 
 
 6,726 
 
 86 
 
 6,404 93 
 
 Madison-square “ “ 
 
 u 
 
 
 
 
 
 50 
 
 00 
 
 1,126 76 
 
 Manhattanville “ “ 
 
 n 
 
 
 
 
 
 6 
 
 44 
 
 17 00 
 
 North 
 
 (( 
 
 19 
 
 52 
 
 
 
 30 
 
 00 
 
 72 27 
 
 Presb. Ch. on University pi. 
 
 n 
 
 393 
 
 00 
 
 250 
 
 00 
 
 850 
 
 00 
 
 500 00 
 
 Seventh Presbyterian Ch., 
 
 u 
 
 287 
 
 18 
 
 203 
 
 77 
 
 190 
 
 53 
 
 306 98 
 
 Sixth-street “ “ 
 
 (( 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 50 00 
 
 Spring-street “ “ 
 
 n 
 
 198 
 
 27 
 
 81 
 
 76 
 
 123 
 
 17 
 
 159 00 
 
 Thirteenth-st “ “ 
 
 u 
 
 65 
 
 95 
 
 38 
 
 06 
 
 39 
 
 34 
 
 222 70 
 
 West 
 
 n 
 
 496 
 
 20 
 
 406 
 
 60 
 
 368 
 
 59 
 
 502 42 
 
 West 23d-st. 
 
 n 
 
 
 
 25 
 
 00 
 
 102 
 
 65 
 
 103 42 
 
 
 
 $8,570 
 
 12 
 
 $10,958 95 
 
 $13,289 45 
 
 $16,274 48 
 
 Bedford Cong. Church, Brooklyn. 
 
 12 
 
 44 
 
 11 
 
 39 
 
 15 
 
 10 
 
 19 59 
 
 Ch. of the Pilgrims, (Cong.,) 
 
 ll 
 
 1,655 
 
 73 
 
 2,065 
 
 23 
 
 2,420 
 
 21 
 
 2,267 59 
 
 Clinton-av. Cong. Church, 
 
 u 
 
 27 
 
 00 
 
 40 
 
 00 
 
 351 
 
 31 
 
 215 64 
 
 First Presbyterian “ 
 
 ll 
 
 751 45 
 
 830 5S 
 
 935 
 
 87 
 
 1,322 99 
 
 Fulton-avenuo Cong. “ 
 
 ll 
 
 
 
 45 
 
 00 
 
 60 
 
 00 
 
 66 25 
 
 Plymouth “ “ 
 
 ll 
 
 493 
 
 28 
 
 452 
 
 46 
 
 303 
 
 12 
 
 445 00 
 
 South Presbyterian “ 
 Second “ “ 
 
 ll 
 
 1,036 
 
 12 
 
 1,219 
 
 32 
 
 2,476 
 
 94 
 
 1,033 25 
 
 u 
 
 821 
 
 18 
 
 456 
 
 28 
 
 942 
 
 18 
 
 446 27 
 
 South Congregational “ 
 
 ll 
 
 
 
 
 
 16 
 
 62 
 
 28 67 
 
 Tlnrd Presbyterian “ 
 
 ll 
 
 100 
 
 00 
 
 138 
 
 63 
 
 111 
 
 70 
 
 215 23 
 
 First I’resb. Ch., Williamsburgh, 
 
 40 
 
 OOj 68 
 
 75 
 
 72 
 
 00 
 
 63 24 
 
 
 
 $1,937 
 
 2oj $5,327 
 
 64 
 
 $7,704 95 
 
 $6,123 72 
 
 Sundry donations in New-Tork ) 
 and Brooklyn, f 
 
 $2,845 
 
 1 
 
 5Gj $1,823 
 
 23 
 
 $1,917 
 
 11 
 
 $1,298 38 
 
 Total, 
 
 
 $16,352 
 
 88l$18,109 
 
 82 
 
 $22,911 
 
 61 
 
 $23,696 68 
 
 Kotc . — Of the $22,911.51 reported for tho year torminatjog- March 31, 1853, the 
 pum of $6850 \va.s a special contribution for tho debt of the Board in 1852. 
 
59 
 
 LIST OF OFFICERS 
 
 FOR THE YEAR 1854. 
 
 PRESIDENT. 
 
 DAVID HOADLEY 
 
 VICE-PRESIDENTS. 
 
 ANSON G. PHELPS, JOHN RANKIN, 
 
 CHARLES J. STEDMAN, OLIVER E. IVOOD. 
 
 CORRESPO.XDING SECRETARY. 
 
 Ret. AUGUSTUS A. WOOD 
 
 RECORDING SECRETARY'. 
 
 .YLMON MERWIN. 
 
 TREASURER. 
 ALMON MERWIN. 
 
 DIRECTORS. 
 
 Alleu-street Presbyterian Chtcrch, .... 
 
 Brick “ “ 
 
 Broadway Tabernacle “ .... 
 
 Centred Presbyterian “ .... 
 
 Church of the Puritans, .... 
 
 Eastern, Congregational Church, .... 
 
 Eleventh Presbyterian “ .... 
 
 Fourteenth-st. “ “ .... 
 
 Fourth-avenue “ “ 
 
 Harlem “ “ 
 
 Houston-street “ “ 
 
 Mercer-street “ “ .... 
 
 Madison-square “ “ .... 
 
 Manhattanville “ “ .... 
 
 North 
 
 Presbyterian, Church, University place 
 
 John P. Praxl, Joseph W. Lester. 
 A. L. Ely, C. H. Merry. 
 
 W. G. West, Israel Minor. 
 
 W. P. Cook, Samuel W. Stebbins. 
 Jas. C. Woodruff, H. 0. Pejneo. 
 Stephen Cutter, Lewis Chichester. 
 Alex. McNey, J. H. Bulen. 
 
 W. E. Dodge, J. F. Joy. 
 
 Alfred Post, Edward Chester. 
 
 E. Ejitchum, James Rikee, Jr. 
 
 S. Derrickson, David Stevens. 
 
 W. W. Chester, G. Manning Tract 
 
 F. Bull, A. 0. VanLennep. 
 
 R. C. Andrews. 
 
 0. H. Lee, James Reeve. 
 
 W. W. Stone, J. K. Myers. 
 
60 
 
 Sevenili Preabyierian Church, 
 Siocth-street [“ “ 
 
 Spring-slreei “ “ 
 
 TInrteenih-st. “ “ 
 
 West “ “ 
 
 West 2Zd-si. “ “ 
 
 Bedford Cong. Church, Brooklyn, 
 Olinton-av. “ " “ 
 
 Church of the Pilgrims, “ 
 
 Elm-place Cong. Church, “ 
 
 First Presh. “ “ 
 
 Plymouth Cong. “ “ 
 
 Second Presh. “ “ 
 
 Smih “ “ “ 
 
 Sosdh Cong. “ “ 
 
 Third Presh. “ “ 
 
 First Presh. Church, Williamsburgh, 
 
 First Presb. Church, Hoboken, 
 
 . Charles Merrill, H. B. Littell. 
 
 . Frakcis Duncan. 
 
 . Joseph S. Holt, "William Dkmerest 
 . John C. Hines, Dan. EInight. 
 
 . Lewis E. Jackson, Benj. Salter. 
 
 . Henry D. Crane, Gordon Burchard. 
 
 . D. 0. Caulkins, Edward T. Goodall. 
 . S. Davenport, James "W. Raynor 
 . Sidney S. Sanderson, D. Johnson. 
 
 . F. W. Burke, Alfred Smithers. 
 
 . Alfred Edwards, Henry Redfield. 
 . J. T. Howard, Arthur Nicholr 
 . Charles Clarke, Lucius Hopkins. 
 
 . "Walter S. Griffith, John M. Smith. 
 . S. W. Grant, Solomon Freeman. 
 
 . W. W. Hurlbut, J. C. Halsey, M. D. 
 
 . Joseph F. Tuttle, J. W. Buckley. 
 
 . A. W. Rose, Joseph Boynton. 
 
♦