eye/ HTHE MNMI> ^ fflissiONAi^Y Sermon BALTIMORE ANNUAL CONFERENCE ITS NINETY-EIGHTH SESSION, REV. JOHN F. GOUCHER, A . M . BALTIMORE : METHODIST EPISCOPAL BOOK DEPOSITORY, Rev. D. H. Carroll, Agent, No. 168 W. Baltimore St. 1882. PREACHED before the DURING BY Published by the Conference. HT'ME MNMI> CQissionai^y Sermon PREACHED BEFORE THE BALTIMORE ANNUAL CONFERENCE DURING ITS NINETY-EIGHTH SESSION, BY REV. JOHN F. GOUCHER, A. M. Published by the Conference. BALTIMORE : METHODIST EPISCOPAL BOOK DEPOSITORY, Rev. D. H. Carroll, Agent, No. 168 \V. Baltimore St. 1882. Baltimore, March 25, 1SS2. REV. JNO. F. GOUCHER, Dear Bro. : — I am instructed to forward you the following Resolu- tions. which were adopted by the Baltimore Annual Conference at its last session : Resolved, that we have listened with profound attention to the inter- esting and instructive discourse on “The victory that overcometh the world,” and that we request Brother Goucher to furnish a copy for publication, that it may be circulated through the bounds of our Church. Signed, JAMES H. BROWN, WM. B. EDWARDS. Resolved, that D. H. Carroll, the Agent of our Book Depository, be appointed to receive and publish the Missionary Sermon preached on last Monday by Jno. F. Goucher. Very truly your Brc., G. G. BAKER, Rec. Sec. REV. G. G. BAKER, Rec. Sec., &c. Dear Bro.: — Through some unaccountable delay I have just received your communication of the 25th ult., enclosing a copy of the Resolutions adopted by the Baltimore Annual Conference, requesting a copy of the Missionary Sermon I had the honor to preach before that body at its last session. Appreciating the request, I take pleasure in placing the manuscript at its disposal. As repeated inquiries have been made concerning a number of the facts stated, I have thought it well to cite some of the authorities to whom I acknowledge myself indebted for the statements made. Cordially and fraternally, JNO. F. GOUCHER. Str.vwbridge Parsonage, Baltimore-, 4, 17, 1882. “This is the Victory that overcome™ the World, even our Faith.” I. John v, 4. /A UR text formulates and emphasizes a great fact, viz. : that personal faith in Jesus Christ is the victorious prin- * ciple which overcometh the world. The Greek word vixr), translated “victory,” is used by me- tonymy for victorious principle. The expression “our faith” is explained in v. 5 — “He that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God” — i. e., has personal faith in Jesus Christ. This consists in the assent of the mind, the reliance of the heart and the loyalty of the will to Jesus Christ, the Saviour King, in His office and character. This, working by love, through obedience, unto harmony with the divine will, transforms the individual into a “partaker of the divine nature” and “laborer together with God.” By “world,” or xo'o>os, is meant the existing order of things. Whatever that may be, material or spiritual, or both combined, in its complexity and detail, personal faith in Jesus Christ is the victorious principle which overcometh it. A. That this must be so we might argue: 6 I. From the purpose of God as shown 1. In the creation of man, 2. In his redemption. II. From the commands of God to man, designating his work — 1. In its character. 2. In its requirements. Ill From the promises of God to man concerning— 1. His ability to do. 2. - His success in doing his life-work. But in this presence such argument would be superfluous. Let it suffice to say : Man was originally created in the image of God, king of the material and heir-presumptive of the spiritual domain. He violated the constitution under which he held his au- thority, and so forfeited his dominion and inheritance. In his natural condition, man antagonizes Qod and is out of harmony with His government. The existing order of things is out of harmony with man and antagonizes his authority. For the existing order of things to yield obedience to man in his antagonism to God would be to range itself in rebellion against God. Personal faith in Jesus Christ brings the soul into harmony with God. For the existing order of things to continue antagonizing man after he is in harmony with God would be to range itself against God, hence, personal faith in Jesus Christ is the victori- ous principle which overcometh the existing order of things. B. This is a fact abundantly illustrated by history. 7 I. Considered in its narrowest application, the conflict of the human soul with the conditions of its environment, the truth of our text is of perpetual demonstration. Time would fail simply to catalogue those “who through faith subdued king- doms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens, received their dead raised to life again, were tortured, not accepting deliver- ance, that they might obtain a better resurrection” and “were more than conquerors through Him that loved them.” “For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world,” and this is the victorious principle which overcometh the world, even our faith. II. Upon the broader battle-fields of the world, where nations enter the lists as antagonists, the truth of our text is equally manifest. i. The first great conflict was with the Jewish Church. It was short, determined, decisive. The whole prestige and authority of the Church and State were skillfully massed with deadliest purpose against isolated believers ; 1 and whether it was Stephen, Peter, Paul, or whoever it might be, it was one man against the Church. Yet this doctrine was fearlessly preached until the members of the Sanhedrim, in their impotent wrath and conscious guilt, cried: “Behold, you have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine, and intend to bring this man’s blood upon us.” “Beginning from Jerusalem” it passed to and beyond the farthest confines of Judea, and wherever Jews abode their syna- i Acts ix. i, 2; xxiii, 15. 8 gogues furnished the first congregations z and their proselytes the first converts to the faith .3 In the year 70, August 10, Jerusalem was destroyed'* and the Jews, as a nation and Church, were annihilated and scat- tered throughout all the earth ; but the victory which overcame the Jewish Church demonstrates the stability of its conquest, in that believers in Christ have developed into strong national lives, and to-day the oppressed and persecuted Jew seeks and finds his defense, safety and asylum among the followers of the crucified Nazarene. 2. The second great conflict was with the Roman Em- pire. It was, as Tertullian said, for “religious liberty,” s or the right to exercise a personal faith in Jesus Christ. This con- flict was nothing less than a revolution. A few of the com- mon people, singly, without a history or literature, except a few traditions concerning a supposed peasant who had died as a malefactor ; without a country ; without power, except the power of a personal, living faith in Jesus Christ; without organ- ization, except the unification of a common love and a com- mon hope, set themselves against the world, denied its great- ness, despised its wealth, defied its power. They demanded nothing less than that the conqueror upon a thousand battle-fields and proud empress of the world, 2 Acts xiii. 5, 14; xvii. 1, 2. 3 Acts xvii. 4; xviii. 8. Nicolas, Lydia, et al. 4 “Every feature of this siege attests it to be a judgment of God... Men appear to be led by a mysterious hand which urges them to commit acts not within their original intention. The great truths maintained by St. Paul received emphatic sanction from this terrible event.” — Pressense, Apostolic Era, p. 402. 5 Ad Scapulam, ch. 2. Oxf. Trans. 9 should abandon her altars, deny her faith, contradict her phi- losophy, despise her history, destroy her art and radically and completely reconstruct her national life. The contestants were radically and irreconcilably opposed to each other. 6 7 The su- premacy of both was not more illogical than the co-existence of both. The conflict was for life. The persecutions, so called, commenced under Nero, legalized by Trajan, and continued for 250 years, were the natural and logical result of the conditions existing. We need not dwell upon the details of a struggle the history of which is so familiar to you all. It illustrates “adequately and fully how this faith lives by death; conquers by what seems to man’s eyes failures; grows by repression; is strong in its weakness; rich in its poverty; glorious in its humilia- tion, because it is the power of God and the wisdom of God . ”7 On June 13th, A. D. 313, the edict of Milan 8 * was pub- lished in Nicomedia, and went into force throughout the Em- pire. Personal faith in Jesus Christ was the victorious principle which had overcome the existing order of things. Rome blazoned its symbol on her banners, taught its doctrines in her schools, published them in her edicts and filled her offices with its devotees. The reaction which found its embodiment and personification in the most subtle and bitter enemy Chris- tianity ever had among the emperors was of short duration, and heard its complete defeat voiced in Julian’s dying cry ;9 “Gali- lean, Thou hast conquered!” 10 6 Conflict of Christianity with Heathenism, Uhlhorn, pp. 231, seq. 7 The World’s Witness to Jesus Christ. Rt. Rev. J. Williams, D. D. Lecture II., p. 61. 8 Eusebius, Hist. Eccl., x. 5. 9 A. D. 363, June 26. 10 Theodoret, Hist. Eccl., Lib. iii., ch. 25. IO III. For the next twelve hundred years the history of the world is little else than the history of the Church, but the Church had became worldly, proud, sensual, and dead to all spirituality, 11 and in the early part of the 16th century the Roman Church ranged itself against personal faith in Jesus Christ , and the third great conflict began. Again it was the world against the individual, and the watchword of the individ- ual was “justification by faith.” This doctrine emphasized per- sonal accountability, and after the severest contest and most heroic endurance, it stands the advocate of equal rights, the champion of human liberty, the enemy of all oppression, the slayer of every tyrant. Republics are its children, the open Bible and public schools a part of its legacy. Again history is true to the statement of our text. We need- not recite the battles fought or catalogue the victories won by Luther, Zwingle, Calvin, Huss, and the glori- ous throng of martyrs. The faith for which' they contended has reconstructed the map of Europe, transformed its govern- ments, conquered the existing order of things, and is still con- tending successfully with the giant iniquity of the centuries. In the year 1500 Europe had a population of 100,000,000, of whom 80,000,000 or four-fifths were Roman Catholic ; the re- maining 20 , 000,000 were members of the Greek Church or Moham- medans. 12 In the year 1881 the population of Europe was 315,- 929 , 000/3 of whom 149,000,000 or less than one-half were Roman Catholic, and nearly one-fourth or 74,000,000 were Protestants ; that is, during the last three hundred and eighty years the population 11 History of the Reformation, D’Aubigne, Vol. I., Hook 2, ch. 6. 12 The exact number was 101,800,000. Progress of Nations, Seaman, p, 551. 13 Behm and Wagner. of Europe increased 215,929,000 or about two and one-half times ; the Roman Catholic population increased 69,000,000, only seven- eighths of one time, or about five-twelfths as fast as the entire population, while Protestantism started without a member and in the face of powerful and continued opposition gained 74,000,000, or nearly one and one-twelfth times as many as Roman Catholicism. In England, during the last eighty years, the Roman Cath- olics increased 28 per cent, and the Protestants 120 per cent., 14 or nearly five times as fast. France, the birth-place of continental liberty, is free and self-governing, with a better prospect than she has ever before enjoyed of retaining her dearly-won privileges. A system of concurrent endowments prevails, the beneficiaries under which are Catholics, Protestants, and Jews, *5 and all religions are equal in law. She has assumed the control of her schools, expelled the Jesuits, legalized civil marriage, and promises to rival in the glory of gospel successes the shame of the massa- cre of the Huguenots, and to celebrate the tercentenary of St. Bartholomew as a regenerated nation. In Germany, but 36 per cent, of the population are Roman Catholic. 16 In July, 1872, the Jesuits were expelled from the Empire, and since 1873 all aspirants to clerical office must 14 Denominational Statistics (1878), Robenstein. 15 In The Budget for 1879 these allowances were as follows: Roman Catholic prelates and clergy 41,508,295 francs. Roman Catholic churches and seminaries 10,205,400 “ Protestant clergy 1,416,000 “ Jewish rabbis 188,900 “ Protestant and Jewish places of worship 80,000 “ — The Statesman’s Year-Book for 1880. 16 Idem. 12 study theology at a State University, must pass a state exami- nation, and give satisfactory evidence of their loyalty to the government. 17 In all ecclesiastical causes the decision of the royal tribunal is final, and education is general and compul- • sory. Austria, since 1867, has a constitutional government and a system of direct popular elections. The State religion is Roman Catholic, but there is complete toleration for all dissenters from it, of whatever form of belief. She no longer recognizes mar- riage as a sacrament of the Church, but has legalized the civil contract. She has withdrawn from the Church the control of her schools; is loyal to the cause of free education, 18 obliging all children from 6 to 12 years of age to attend school, and allows freedom of the press — proceedings which the grieved pope condemned as “abominable.”- Spain is open to the preacher of a pure gospel and re- stricted liberty of worship is allowed. Bible - carts roll from Madrid in every direction, but cannot supply fast enough the increasing demand. The government has taken charge of the instruction of the people, ’9 legalized civil marriage, and even offered the persecuted Jew an asylum within her borders. Italy stands before the world a great and united nation in the full enjoyment of constitutional liberty. She has provided munificently for education ; 2 ° secured perfect religious freedom 17 The 19th Century, Mackenzie, pp. 450, 451. 18 The Statesman’s Year-Book, 1880. 19 Idem. 20 "Under the new Italian government, a great part of the property confiscated from the monastic establishments has been devoted to the cause of public education, for which, besides an annual credit of 15,000,000 lire or $3,000,000, is voted by the Parliament.” — Idem. 13 to the adherents of all creeds without exception ; taken from the pope his last vestige of temporal power ; laughs at his innocuous anathemas, mocks his superstitions and Protestant churches live, grow and have their being within the shadow of St. Peter’s. Once Rome could prevent progress ; now she but wearies herself with her senile curses. The evidences of victory are not less apparent in favored America. In the year 1765, the population of Canada and Eastern British America 21 was 86 per cent. Roman Catholic, and only 14 per cent. Protestant. In 1871, the Roman Catho- lic population had decreased to less than 43 per cent., and the Protestant population had increased to nearly 57 per cent. — that is, in about one hundred years, the Roman Catholics had lost nearly 43 per cent., and the Protestants had gained nearly 43 per cent, of the population. In Mexico, the change has been even more remarkable. The inquisition, with all its horrors, existed until within a quar- ter of a century, and less than a generation ago the Roman Catholic Church in that country was the richest ecclesiastical estab- lishment in the world. 22 The Bible was introduced by our soldiers during the war of 1847, and since that time the orders of friars, nuns, sisters of charity, and the Jesuits have all been disbanded and abolished, and the magnificent churches and convent buildings, formerly occupied by those orders, have been offered for sale by the general government. In 1874, all forms of worship 21 Problem of Religious Progress, Dorchester, p. 44. 22 Her landed property, mortgages, and rents were worth $150,000,- 000, besides untold millions invested in cathedrals, gold and silver vessels, etc. The annual income of the archbishop at one time was $130,000. — Idem., p. 409. H were made lawful, and to-day there is religious liberty so far as this can be controlled by the government. South America is being traversed in every direction by colporteurs, and Bible study has stimulated the people of that land to repeat to the Protestant Churches of the United States and of Europe the Macedonian cry: “Come over and help us!” In the United States in 1880, the population was 50,155,- 783; 23 of these 6,367 ,330 , 2 * or less than 13 per cent., were Roman Catholic, and 35, 230, 870, 23 or more than 69 per cent., were Protestants. During the ten years from 1870 to 1880, the entire population increased 11,597,412; the Protestant popu- lation increased 11,873,984, or 276,572 more than the aggre- gate gain of the nation ? 6 while the Roman Catholic popula- tion gained only 1,767,330. Going back to the beginning of our history and calcula- ting the original Roman Catholic stock, which entered this country, and their descendants, if all had 'remained true to Romanism, the aggregate would make a Roman Catholic pop- ulation of 26,000,000; but their “Year-Book” for 1881 gives the total Roman Catholic population as 6,367,330, which is 632,670 less than Catholic immigration during the past 30 years and their natural increase. 27 By their own acknowledg- 23 Amer. Almanac, 1882. 24 Roman Catholic Year-Book, 1881. 25 The number of communicants in the various Protestant denomi- nations, as compiled by Dr. Dorchester, is 10,065,963. This multiplied by 3 j 4 will give a close approximation to the Protestant population. — Problem of Religious Progress, pp. 542, 543. 26 “ In 1800 there was one evangelical communicant in 14.50 inhabi- tants in the whole country. In 1850, one in 6.57 inhabitants. In 1870, one in 5.78 inhabitants. In 1880, one in 5 inhabitants: three communicants in the same number of inhabitants where there was one in 1800.” — Dr. Dorchester. 27 Problem of Religious Progress. — Dorchester, pp. 437 et seq. 15 merit, “ this country is the biggest grave for Popery ever dug on earth." The editor of “The Celt,” lecturing in Ireland, advised his countrymen to “stay at home, because the Roman Catholic Church loses 60 per cent, of the children of Roman Catholic parents in the United States.” “The Tablet,” of New York City, said a short time since: “Few insurance companies, we venture to assert, would take the risk on the national life of a creed which puts Jive hun- dred daily into the grave for one it wins over to its communion, and yet this is what the Catholic Church is doing in these States while we write.” The church edifices of the Roman Catholic Church during 20 years, from 1850 to 1870, increased 2,584; those of the various bodies bearing the name of Methodist, 9,035 — or more than three and one-half times as fast. 28 The Roman Catholic priests during 30 years, from 1850 to 1880, increased 5,100; the ordained ministers of the Methodist bodies, 15,430 — or more than three times as fast. 2 ? An intelligent Roman Catholic layman in Boston, not many years ago, said: “We shall hold our ground for a while, but we understand that in the fight of a hundred years we shall be whipped.” The Lord grant it in less than a hundred years ! If we do our duty, it will be so. The Rock of Ages furnishes the fulcrum, and personal faith in Jesus Christ a grander lever 28 “ Those of the several bodies bearing the name Baptist increased 4 . 399 , while the total increase in Evangelical Protestant church edifices for the same time was 21,617, or 8 '/$ as many as the Roman Catholic.” — Idem. 29 ‘‘The ordained ministers of the various Presbyterian bodies in- creased 4,276; of the Baptist bodies 11,428, and of all evangelical denomi- nations 44,315.” — Idem. i6 than that of which Archimedes thought, by which the world is being moved to a higher, truer life. 4. The fourth great conflict may be said to have com- menced in the latter part of the 18th century, and is still raging. With this we have more than an historic interest. We are parties to and must be factors in it. It involves the same issues as the conflicts with the Roman Nation and the Roman Church; but the conception of its central idea is broader, deeper, and more sublime. Again it is personal faith in Jesus Christ against the world. In former conflicts the faith was more or less de- fensive. In this one it is aggressive both in spirit and method. The weapons of its warfare “are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds ; casting down imagi- nations and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.” It goes into all the world ; it has to do with every creature ; it brooks no opposition ; it leaves no intrenchment of sin or ignorance unattacked ; it despises no force, refuses no ally which will be loyal to it; its spirit is mis- sionary ; its authority is the command of God ; its watchword, Christ for all the world and all the world for Christ ; its unit factor, personal consecration; its inspiration, love; its destiny, complete victory — “For this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.” The Christianity of to-day is the em- bodiment of this victorious principle. In no previous age has the necessity of personal faith been so insisted upon. Never before was the personal element so prominent among the world’s forces, and never has Christendom given such varied demonstra- tion of the truth of our text as it does to-day. “All the original discoveries of science, all the original in- 17 ventions in art, are the work of Christian men. Infidels have made contributions thereto, but they have not reached the grand- eur of originality. It was the Christian Copernicus who gave us the true system of the stars, ” 3 ° and the Christian Newton who formulated the law of attraction of gravitation. “ It was the Christian Gutenberg who gave to the world the art of print- ing,” and the Missionary Dyer who substituted the metal type for the wooden block, and the first book printed by the metal as with the wooden types was the Bible. “ It was the Christian Watts who gave to commerce steam as a motor-power, and the Christian Morse who gave to the thought of the world the telegraph.” In 1877, at a reunion of naturalists at Cologne, a Berlin savant and professor said: “Paradoxical as the utterance may seem, modern science owes its origin to Christianity.” In the report of the French Commission on the Exposition of 1851 we find a manufacturer saying: “The Exposition has proved to all the world that industry really exists only in Christian countries.”^ 1 He meant, of course, the great industries, those which deal with the wonders of mechanism and the use of natural agents. Personal faith in Christ somehow rouses in man those forces which take on and then give out the impulses by which dominion is attained over the existing order of things. Water has been curbed in its wild fury and has become man’s restive but constrained servitor. It is harnessed to his freight-cars and passenger-coaches ; it is chained to his looms and mills; it is compelled to clear away the obstructions which in 30 Dr. Newman. 31 Cited by Naville, The Christ. i8 past centuries it had deposited in his harbors; it bears upon its restive back the argosies and navies of every nation. It has been trained in his cities to attend his pleasure, and but press the spigot, and it comes leaping forth, sparkling and joyous as when it first slipped from its rocky cradle in the distant hills. The air is understood in its capricious moods, and when the fierce Northeaster comes stealing down upon our coast, rushing to destroy the shipping, it finds the storm signal has heralded its approach, and the offing is cleared of vessels. It has been captured and confined in more narrow limits, and as compressed air it is sent beneath mountains to tunnel roads for commerce, beneath the water to clear obstructions from the path of navigation, and in the sand-blast it removes the stains of time or etches in enduring rock the fancies of man’s brain. Electricity , that fiery bird of the heavens, has been trained to speed along its narrow path, and as man’s swift-winged mes- senger it soars over mountains, darts into valleys, sweeps over plains or dives under the ocean, almost annihilating time and space — appropriate messenger of thought. It' has been taught to speak, and imitates the voice of man, repeats with startling distinctness the otherwise inaudible sounds of nature, and regis- ters the otherwise imperceptible conditions of heat in nature’s moods and stellar fires. The sunshine , so coy, so subtle, has been wooed to impart the secret process by which it tints the sea-shell, pencils the wild flower, colors the floating cloud, and makes the landscape glow in summer and sparkle in winter with such varying hues, and now she works contentedly in the artist’s studio, reproduc- ing these effects as he wills. Surely, where personal faith in Christ attains, man is subduing the earth as God commanded; i9 and in the palace of his power he is attended by water, his broad - shouldered porter ; electricity, his nimble-footed messen- ger ; air, his ready-handed miner ; sunshine, his versatile and accomplished artist ; and a long retinue of other servitors, over which the victorious principle of our text has restored to him the dominion. The aggressiveness of Christianity or of personal faith in Christ is particularly manifested in its missionary enterprise , and its influence on the moral education of nations is the great fact of modern times. It has not completed its victory among the nations, but there are many evidences that it is conquering and to conquer. At the commencement of this century there were but 7 missionary societies in existence. They had but 170 male agents, and of these about 100 were Moravians. All told, there were not more than 50,000 converted heathen under the care of Evangeli- cal Missions. 32 Since then, in Europe and America alone, there have been organized 63 strong societies, or an average of one for every 15 months, and these 70 societies employ 2,600 or- dained Europeans and Americans, and about 45,000 Christian workers are 33 toiling to extend the faith once delivered to the saints. There are, in addition to these, many independent so- cieties in the British Colonies — such as Sierra Leone, Cape Colony, Australia ; some in the East Indies ; and there are not a few native missionary societies — such as those of Madagascar, the Hawaiian Evangelical Society, the societies in Ponape, the Caroline Archipelago, et al. 34 32 Foreign Missions, Dr. Christlieb, pp. 13, 15, 33 Problem of Religious Progress, Dorchester, p. 487 et seq. 34 W. F. Bainbridge, in “ Around the World Tour of Christian Mis- 20 Denominations are drawing more closely together. The Evangelical Alliance, Young Men’s Christian Associations, Sun- day-School Assemblies, Inter-Seminary Missionary Conventions, and similar enterprises; the concentration of Christianity on par- ticular points of the line, such as dueling, the ordeal, torture, slavery, war, intemperance, polygamy, Sabbath observance, edu- cation, the condition of women and children, the relief of the helpless and afflicted, all show that Christian workers are mass- ing like divisions of a great army organized for united ad- vance. The time for denominational differentiation seems to be happily past, and Pan- Anglican and Pan- Presbyterian Councils, and Methodist Ecumenical Conferences reveal a spirit of con- centration which argues victory. Christianity possesses the strategic points of the earth from which to advance. England, the key to Europe and the mistress of the seas, was at one time missionary territory. For what grand purposes, through what severe conflicts, and by what wonderful providences has she developed, maintained, and purified her Protestantism ! Christian thought and Christian morals are more potent in shaping the policy of her government to-day than at any pre- vious time in her history. She is the oldest sister in the family of Protestant nations, and she does the oldest sister’s share. She contributes $3,500,000 of the $8,000,000 annually contributed for Foreign Mission work; that is, nearly three times as much as the Roman Catholic Propaganda raises in the world, 35 and one and one- half times as much as the Protestants of America contribute. sions,” gives a list of 194 Protestant Foreign Missionary Societies in active operation, p. 454 et seq. 35 ....The entire receipts of the Roman Catholic Association for 21 America seems destined to be the key to the world. Our relative position to Asia, on the one hand, and Europe, on the other, is like that of Palestine, where of old God placed His chosen people. Through this land the lines of travel and com- merce must ever flow. Here the great intellectual forces and social influences will find their battle-ground, as the nations of an- cient times met from all quarters to do battle upon the plains of Esdraelon. Our mission is from this center to radiate truth, ex- hibit liv ing illustrations ot virtue, and proclaim righteousness to all nations. How remarkably does our history reveal personal faith in Jesus Christ as the power securing every step in our national advancement! Queen Isabella, because of her personal faith in Jesus, gave the intrepid Columbus such patronage as led to the discovery of this land. It was settled, because of the loyalty of the Puritan’s conscience to the same Christ. The Alliance of the six Nations with the English against the French, secured largely by missionary effort, turned the scale of our country’s destiny from a French Catholic to an English Protestant civilization. Rev. Dr. Kirkland, by personal influence, held the Oneidas from joining the armies of Britain during the Revolutionary War, and largely aided in securing our independence. In 1843, Rev. Dr. Whitman, a missionary, by the most re- markable effort and endurance, saved Oregon and the whole val- ley of the Columbia River from being pre-occupied by English the propagation of the faith from all parts of the world were only $1,204,- 005 in 1S80. Of this amount Europe contributed $1,178,225. America gave less than $22,000, but received $130,435. 22 traders and French Jesuits, and being traded off for a cod- fishery. The Methodist itinerant, the frontier local preacher, and the class-leader in backwoods and savannahs have prosecuted and are prosecuting their work side by side with the pioneers and surveyors, and almost every village, hamlet, and cross- road is leavened with the doctrines of Christianity from the time of its location. Our very existence as a nation is a grand triumph of personal faith in Jesus Christ working out into indi- vidual equality and responsibility. “ Righteousness exalteth a nation.” The Island Kingdom of Japan, the England of Asia, is be- ing permeated with Christianity, and presents the most marvel- ous transformation recorded in history. She has broken away from the exclusiveness of 2300 years to liberalize her govern- ment, to educate her people, to disestablish the heathen religion, and to Christianize her civilization. This, too, not because of any pressure from without, 36 but voluntarily the Mikado and Daimios resigned their hereditary prerogatives, rose above their supersti- tions, disbanded their armies, adjusted their finance, crushed a gigantic rebellion, organized a comprehensive school system, adopted the Christian Sabbath, and appointed a transliterated Chinese version of the New Testament to be a text-book in their schools. Christian influences are organizing, and are welcomed by the government and the people, and the day of her redemp- tion is dawning. Another of the great strategic points occupied in our day is Madagascar. After her coronation in 1868, the queen was 36 The Mikado’s Empire. W. E. Griffiss. Book I., ch. 28. 23 baptized by a Christian teacher. Idols, instruments of incan- tation and of idol-worship were brought from temples and from huts, stacked in the public square and consumed as a burnt-offering, and Christianity proclaimed the religion of the island. There were, at that time, 21,000 professed Christians. In two years there were 231,000. The number reached 280,- 000, but, after much sifting, it was reduced to 233,000, of whom 70,125 are church-members. She has her native missionary societies and is doing noble work in preventing Mohammedanism from sweeping over the islands of the Ethiopian Archipelago. I may not speak particularly of Australia, the Fiji Islands, or the Hawaiian group, no longer fields for foreign mission work, but Christianized and pushing with vigor and success the mission cause through native agents. Nor of the 500 islands of the South and Indian Seas, whose cannibal inhabitants have received the gospel of peace and are manifesting the triumphs of personal faith in Jesus Christ. The more than 6,000 centers or principal stations where Christianity has intrenched herself in heathen lands and the more than 14,000 outposts of her ever- advancing frontier look like the occupancy of an army of subjuga- tion, which proposes to conquer and to hold the world for Christ. The Languages of the world have been mastered. This means a great deal. There is something painful in the story of the first workers among the Zulus, waiting and laboring for months to discover the key which should unlock the grammar. Words were known, but not the construction ; yet personal faith endured till victory was attained. In 1836, Dr. J. Perkins was the first to reduce the modern Syriac to writing. As he taught his first class to read the Lord’s Prayer, he could appreciate why Dr. Chalmers pro- 24 nounced the Indian boy in the woods learning to read, the sub- limest object in the world ; and when he laid the first printed proof of the Bible before his assistants, they exclaimed : “ It is time to give glory to God.” History proves that nothing so much elevates and settles a language as a good version of the Bible. One thousand years have elapsed since the Bible was translated into the Sclavonic, and our knowledge of Germanic, Sclavonic, Armenian, and, I may say, English , 37 begins, like that of many a dialect of to-day, through a version of the Bible. There is now scarcely a nation on the face of the earth where missionaries of the Cross have not been sent; scarcely a language, whether un- inflected, inflected, or agglutinated, which the missionaries have not used. Sixty or seventy languages which had no literature or alphabet have been reduced to writing by them, and the Bible, or parts of it, has been translated into and printed in 316 languages and dialects. 38 The miracle' of Pentecost but shadowed forth a part of the victory of personal faith in Jesus Christ, by which the sundering power of sin, as developed at Babel, should be counteracted and “all men of every nation un- der heaven should hear the gospel of Jesus, every man in his own tongue wherein he was born.” Day-schools and Sunday-schools have been organized by the thousands and ten thousands, and are instructing hundreds of thousands of all ages and both sexes. 37 English literature began with our English It ible. There was none before the time of Wickliffe, and Chaucer gives evidence of having read Wickliffe’s version of the Scriptures. — Missions and Science, Dr. Laurie, p. 228. 38 Annual Report, British and Foreign Bible Society, Berlin Branch, 1879, p. 67. 25 The Greek Testament in the ancient tongue is now, by order of the Greek government, read in its 1200 schools, which have 80,000 pupils, and directly or indirectly, the children of nearly the whole world, like Israel at Hezekiah’s Passover, are being “taught the good knowledge of the Lord.” A fund of experience has been acquired. Confidence has been developed. Famine, war, pestilence, bigotry, and persecu- tion have combined to destroy, but, as of old, they have only furnished the conditions under which the transcendent beauties and power of Christianity shone more resplendently. Thousands of ordained native preachers, together with un- ordained native helpers, evangelists, teachers, female assistants, colporteurs, Sunday-school teachers, etc., aggregating 75,000, have been raised up and are quietly witnessing to and teaching the overcoming power of faith in Jesus Christ. The solitary have been set in families, and thousands of native Christian homes reflect the domestic virtues and joys of Paradise regained. 1,650,000 converts have been secured in heathen lajids since 1800.59 These were not secured by thousands or in tribes, but through individual instruction and conviction, personal repent- ance toward God, and personal faith in Jesus Christ. These are all communicants. If you multiply the number by fk the result will represent the Christian population created equal to 5,775,000; more by three-quarters of a million than the number gained in the first 300 years of the Christian era.+° The Christian population of the world in 1800 was 200,000,- 39 Foreign Missions, Dr. Christlieb, p. 16. 40 Dr. Sharon Turner, in History of the Anglo-Saxons, gives the sta- tistics of the early periods: — 26 ooo; in 1880, 410, 900, 000, 41 i. e., the gain in the last 80 years is more than the gain of the 1800 years which preceded them with the gain of the first 400 years added to it. Christianity has a larger following than any other religion on earth, 42 and it is advancing with more rapid strides than ever before. 43 In 1878, there were more than 60,000 communicants added to the Christian Church through Protestant missions in heathen lands, and less than twenty persons gave more than $4,000,000 for the support of Christian missions. Christian missions have made a history which demonstrates the character and value of their work. Tribes have been kept from extinction; nations have been created and developed; the administration of law has been made 1st Century 10th Century 2d “ 2,000,000 Ilth “ 3 d “ I2th “ 4th “ 13th “ 5 th “ 14 th “ 6th “ 15 th 7th “ tilth 8th “ 17th “ Qth “ 1 8th . 70,000,000 . 80,000,000 . 75,000,000 . 80,000,000 . 100,000,000 .125,000,000 .155,000,000 . 200,000,000 Prof. A. J. Schem. The most recent estimate (1882) of adherents to various religions 41 42 gives — Buddhists 340,000,000 Mohammedans 201,000,000 Brahmins 175,000,000 Followers of Confucius 80,000,000 — A. R. Spofford, Librarian of Congress. 43 “ Nearly seven times the number of people are under the control of Christian nations as at the opening of the iGth Century, when Protest- antism arose. The increase in the 140 years since Wesleyanism arose in England has been five hundred millions, equal to more than one-third of the population of the globe.” Problem of Religious Progress, p. 59. 27 possible among subjects otherwise rebellious; treaties have been secured; commerce established; telegraphs erected; and railroads constructed in many a heathen land, but the head-light of a locomotive never shone among the rocky fastnesses of a single valley where the beacon-light of the Christian missionary had not preceded it. So manifest are these moral, social, and mate- rial results that the governments of the earth have entirely changed their relations to this work. In 1820, when Mr. J. Garrett arrived in Ceylon to establish a mission press, Sir Edward Barnes, Lieutenant-Governor, com- pelled him to leave, saying: “the British Government is abun- dantly able to Christianize its own heathen, and Americans had better be employed in converting the heathen at home.” 44 In 1852, the British Government in India paid $3,750,000 from the public Treasury to erect and repair idol temples, for new idols and idol worship. 4 ^ In 1873, the Secretary of State for India, in a report to Parliament, complimented the work of the missionaries in terms which sound strange in an official docu- ment. Every Christian government, in every treaty it makes, pro- vides for the protection of the Christian missionary. In 1871, Lord Lawrence said: “Notwithstanding all that England has done for the good of India, the missionaries have done more than all other agencies combined.” Lord Napier, Sir Bartle Frere, Balbi and Carl Rutter, Her- schel the astronomer and Colton the cartographer, Max Muller 44 History of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions. Tracy. 45 Report of Inter-Seminary Mission and Convention, 1880. Paper of C. M. Cady. 28 and Agassiz, Drs. Pickering and Peabody, Prof. J. P. Dana and Commodore Wilkes, among a multitude of others, have borne testimony to the good effects of missionary labors .'* 6 Wealthy Hindoos, Parsees, Mohammedans, the King of Siam, the Turkish Pasha, and innumerable others of like beliefs and unbeliefs, have given, and given liberally, to their support, from considerations of political economy. Christianity is the great moral force of the world. The Christian civilization controls, to a large extent, the diplomacy, the commerce, and, on moral and international questions at least, the administrations of all political governments of the age.-*? Christendom is peerless, and towards Christian nations, by a pou r er at once invisible and irresistible, are directed the at- tention and highest aspirations of all peoples. This organization, from these strategic points, with these appliances, and this prestige is advancing to meet — what? A demand for its message, a welcome for its labor, and a belief in its final victory. Human philosophy stands condemned for inefficiency by its failure to advance towards or construct success beyond a cer- tain point, and if Christianity did not keep her temples open, the highest outcome would still be an altar “to the unknown God.” Mohammedism is a political system whose expansion is by destruction and whose developement is a stagnation ; but it is 46. After his experience with them during his “Voyage of the Beagle." Darwin pronounced the Patagonians to he a race degraded below possibility of improvement. But thirty years later, learning of the changes wrought by English missionaries there, he frankly admitted his mistake, and became a contributor to the funds of the South American Missionary Society. 47. Dr. R. S. Maclay. 29 monotheistic and iconoclastic, though sensual, and it compels all its followers to read the Koran in the Arabic. The power ol Islam in Asia has been broken by England. F ranee, by its pro- jected railroad to the heart of Africa and consequent occupancy, must hasten its destruction there. It antagonizes heathenism wherever it exists and its 201,000,000 followers have become ac- cessible to the truth through the Arabic translation of the Bible. Its symbol has passed its second quadrature and is hastening towards obscuration in its own shadow, while the bright and Morning Star is climbing high in the Orient, never to be dimned except as it blends its beauty with the bright empyrean of the perfect day. Idolatry, like a modern Prometheus, is bound to the rock of history, and Christian science, art, literature, and commerce are tearing its very vitals. Buddhism, Taouism, Shintoism, Confucianism, and all the false systems that have clouded men’s minds and held their souls in bondage are giving way, while Christianity, with undimmed luster, is advancing “fair as the morn, clear as the sun, and terrible as an army with banners,” and she must advance from “conquering to conquer,” for “This is the victory that over- cometh the world, even our faith.” As we contemplate thus briefly the conquests of this living faith, let me ask each one to what extent does cooperation in the effort to realize and spread this faith justify you in rejoicing? Do you expect to receive the plaudit of the Master, “Well done, thou good and faithful servant, thou hast been faithful?” God cannot lie! If you have not been a good and faithful servant according to opportunity, He will neither call you so nor re- ward you as such. 3 ° Only laborers together with Him in the work can be joint heirs with Him in the victory, for personal faith in Jesus Christ is the victorious principle that overcometh the world.