PAM. 
 
 8EKM. 
 
 REV. DR. STORRS’S DISCOURSE 
 
 BEFORE THE 
 
 PALESTINE MISSIONARY SOCIETY, 
 
 JUNE 17, 1840. 
 
i<Clje Conberjeiton of tlje IDorlb 
 
 A ’ 
 
 DISCOURSE, 
 
 DELIVERED AT THE AXJUVERSART OF THE 
 
 PALESTINE 
 
 MISSIONARY SOCIETY, 
 
 
 AT 
 
 ABINGTON, SOUTH PARISH 
 
 June 17 , 1810. 
 
 BY RICHARD S. STORRS, D. D. 
 
 PASTOR OF THE FIRST CHURCH, BRAINTREE. 
 
 BOSTON: 
 
 PRINTED BY PERKINS & MARVIN 
 1 8 4 0 . 
 
#* 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
DISCOURSE. 
 
 Psalm XXII. 27. 
 
 ALL THE ENDS OF THE WORLD SHALL REMEMBER AND TURN UNTO THE LORD; 
 
 AND ALL THE KINDREDS OF THE NATIONS SHALL WORSHIP 
 BEFORE THEE. 
 
 We are assembled, Brethren, in obedience to the call 
 of duty, and of Heaven: — not to inquire, “Who will 
 show us any good,” but “ Lord ! what wilt thou have us 
 to do ? ” — not to propose some novel object of united 
 effort, but to pursue an object proposed in the councils 
 of eternity ; not to devise new measures for the attain- 
 ment of noble ends, but to follow out measures sanctioned 
 by philosophy, tested by experience, and approved by 
 Heaven. 
 
 And, an object of superior grandeur comes not within 
 the range of human, nor even angelic vision. It is justly 
 remarked by one, that “ in the whole compass of human 
 benevolence, there is nothing so grand, so noble, so Chris- 
 tian, so truly godlike, as the work of evangelizing the 
 world.” The commission given by the ascending Re- 
 deemer to his disciples, verifies the remark. The occu- 
 pation of angels, as ministering spirits to the heirs of 
 salvation, and their joys over every repenting sinner, 
 confirm it. All other enterprises take hold on time, while 
 this grasps eternity. Earthly kingdoms rise, only that 
 they may fall again. Wealth accumulates, and honors 
 multiply, only to vanish like the dew of the morning. 
 Wisdom and learning, courage and virtue, patriotism and 
 
4 
 
 philanthropy may brilliantly illumine for a season the 
 limited expanse contemplated by the eye of sense, but 
 soon, they go out in obscure darkness. Yet there is a 
 kingdom that shall never perish — a wealth that shall 
 never take wing — and a glory that shall never fade. 
 And, to spread the benign influences of this kingdom 
 over the world, and make all men partakers of enduring 
 riches and unfading honors, is the object of our enterprise. 
 
 The world shall be converted to God. This is the 
 grand event predicted in the text. 
 
 Permit me then to direct your attention, 
 
 I. To the certainty of the event. 
 
 1 1 . To the means of its accomplishment ; and 
 
 III. To some motives for persevering effort. 
 
 I. The certainty of the event. 
 
 On this point, there is a manifest incredulity abroad. 
 Nor is that incredulity confined to unbelievers in God’s 
 testimony. It pervades but too evidently the bosom of 
 the church. Were it firmly believed , that “ all the ends 
 of the world shall remember and turn unto the Lord,” 
 and that “ all the kindreds of the nations shall worship 
 before him,” it is not possible that the slumbers of Chris- 
 tendom should continue another day. Man acts, in all 
 his generations, according to his faith. 
 
 “ It is impossible to convert a Hindoo to the Christian 
 faith,” said an American military officer, on his return 
 from several years’ residence in India — “it is impossible /” 
 and, were the sentiment confined to the bosoms of military 
 men, as yet unlearned in the school of Christ, it would 
 not surprise us, because we know, that things impossible 
 with men , are possible with God. But unhappily, it is 
 not so confined. 
 
 And when we reflect on the past and present condition 
 of the world, apart from the testimony of God respecting 
 
its future character, and mark, how darkness has pre- 
 dominated over light, and evil over good, amid the chaotic 
 confusion of human principles and passions; — how fraud 
 and treachery, violence and blood, have triumphed over 
 order and regard to human happiness, from the days of 
 Cain downward; — how natural and instinctive atfections 
 have given way to brutal lust and cruelty, regardless of 
 every social and moral tie that binds the husband to the 
 wife, the parent to the child, the brother to the sister, and 
 the neighbor to his friend; — how vice luxuriates, and 
 crime exults in the impunity enjoyed under the broad 
 shield of universal corruption, where 
 
 “ Crime no more 
 
 Is criminal ; and guilt is more than guiltless ; ” 
 
 how utterly the authority of Jehovah is discarded, not- 
 withstanding the law written on every human heart, and 
 woven into the very texture of the soul; — how readily, 
 when, loosed from his moorings amid the revelations of 
 God, man beholds and adores an incarnation of the Deity, 
 in the sun and all the shining hosts of heaven, and even 
 in the stream that slakes his thirst, in the vegetable that 
 satisfies his hunger, in the animal that aids his labor, in 
 the leaf that trembles in the breeze, and the vermin that 
 infest his habitation; — how he yields his faith to the 
 vain dreamings of the Shasters, or the idle vaticinations 
 of lying prophets, and, darting his eye along the dark 
 vista of futurity, without catching one ray of heavenly 
 light, throws himself for salvation into the arms of men 
 impotent and mendacious as himself; — I say, when we 
 mark such facts in the history of man from the beginning, 
 and of nations now occupying more than three quarters 
 of the globe, we cannot wonder at the incredulity of men, 
 who have not felt in their own souls the working of 
 “ that exceeding greatness of power that wrought in 
 Christ and raised him from the dead.” And, when we 
 
6 
 
 take the testimony of the Holy Spirit, and of experience 
 too, to the fact that “ man’s heart is evil, only evil and 
 that continually,” we cannot wonder , though we must 
 lament, that Christians themselves, through remaining 
 blindness of mind and hardness of heart, yield in some 
 measure to the same incredulity. 
 
 But, the testimony of God is full and decisive. “ The 
 kingdom, and the dominion, and the greatness of the 
 kingdom under the whole heaven, shall be given to the 
 people of the saints of the Most High.” “All kings 
 shall fall down before Him,” i. e. Christ, “and all nations 
 shall serve him.” “ The fulness of the Gentiles shall 
 come in, and all Israel shall be saved.” “ The world 
 shall be full of the knowledge of the glory of the Lord.” 
 
 Promises like these are found on almost every page 
 of the Bible. Nor are they of doubtful interpretation. 
 Prominent and clear in their annunciation, their fulfilment 
 is as certain, as the continued reign of Jehovah. Pure 
 Christianity shall yet be universally diffused over the 
 nations. Ploliness shall be honored. Knowledge shall 
 increase. Love shall succeed to hatred. Peace shall 
 extend her olive branch over the world. Kings shall 
 become nursing fathers, and queens nursing mothers to 
 the church. Beasts of prey shall lose their savageness, 
 and the wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard 
 shall lie down with the kid ; the sucking child shall play 
 on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his 
 hand on the cockatrice den, nor shall they hurt or destroy 
 in all the holy mountain. 
 
 Even now, the forerunners of that glorious day are 
 upon us. We perceive them in the progressive improve- 
 ments of the arts and sciences — in the extending facilities 
 of intercommunication between all portions of the earth 
 — in the advancing enlightenment of the mass of human 
 mind, and in the awakened spirit of enterprise, that aims 
 directly at the eradication of corrupt principles in civil 
 
7 
 
 governments, the overthrow of pernicious superstitions, 
 and the reformation of society from customs and practices, 
 which entail on whole nations wretchedness and wo. All 
 the passing events of Divine Providence look with steady 
 eye to that point in the world’s history, when, from the 
 least to the greatest, all men shall know the Lord. 
 
 II. The means of its accomplishment. 
 
 The processes of Nature in the production of her fruits 
 and the unfolding of her beauties, are not more fixed than 
 those, determined by God’s wisdom, for the conversion of 
 the world ; and they are far less plain, and far more beyond 
 man’s reach. 
 
 1. The gospel must be preached to all nations. 
 
 As hymning angels once hovered over the plains of 
 Bethlehem, swelling the note of “ Glory to God in the 
 highest,” so must ambassadors for God traverse the length 
 and breadth of the wide fields of paganism, proclaiming, 
 “ Peace on earth and good will to men,” till the echo 
 bounding from every hill, shall carry joy and gladness 
 through every land. The wondrous plan of salvation 
 must be unfolded in its origin and object, in its grand 
 principles and minuter details ; and the authority that 
 urges its acceptance must be pressed on the conscience, 
 with all the tenderness of the holiest affection, and the 
 earnestness of the deepest solicitude. 
 
 Is not the Gospel the power of God and the wisdom of 
 God unto salvation ? And, is it not by the foolishness of 
 preaching that men are made to believe — whether it find 
 them sitting within the gates of Zion, or at the threshold 
 of an idol’s temple ? But, the Gospel includes the whole 
 revelation of God's mind, in regard to the redemption of 
 the world ; nor can it be preached effectively, while any 
 part of the revealed counsel of God is held back. The 
 existence and attributes of Jehovah — his absolute sove- 
 reignty over all his creatures — the just claims and un- 
 
8 
 
 mitigated penalties of his violated law, and man’s entire 
 ruin and helplessness, are the preliminary doctrines, to be 
 settled in every human mind, by one instrumentality or 
 another, before the preacher can expatiate with success 
 on the unsearchable riches of grace, and the unparalleled 
 love, of the world’s Redeemer. “ Christ and him cruci- 
 fied,” is indeed that luminous truth, hung out from 
 heaven, which melts the iceberg, and dissolves the ad- 
 amant of man’s heart ; but then, it must be exhibited in 
 all the amplitude and directness of its bearings on the 
 government of God, and the character of man, ere it will 
 prove efficient in bringing back the soul to purity and 
 love. It is not itself the arch that spans the abyss be- 
 tween earth and heaven, but the keystone of that arch. 
 The fact, that Christ has died for sinners, ratifies the 
 treaty of reconciliation into which Heaven has entered 
 with guilty man, and even forms the basis of that treaty ; 
 but man’s acceptance of the terms depends on his knowl- 
 edge of the existing relations he bears to God, as a rebel, 
 and his desert of the punishment threatened him by the 
 law. Till by the law, he has the knowledge of sin, 
 in vain is he pointed to the agony of the garden, and the 
 passion of the cross, for motives to repentance. 
 
 2. The Bible must be placed in the hands of all men. 
 It is heaven’s statute book. It bears upon it the indelible 
 imprint of its divine origin. The truths it reveals, the 
 duties it enjoins, the spirit it breathes, the rewards it 
 proposes, and the punishments it threatens, all serve to 
 elucidate its design, and establish its claims. It is the 
 grand arbiter in the controversy between God and man — 
 or, the ultimate tribunal to which every question of faith 
 and practice must be referred. “ To the law and the 
 testimony,” saith reason, and Gon. 
 
 But that the Bible may be placed in the hands of all 
 men, it must be translated into their various languages. 
 It speaks not to the heart , in an unknown tongue. It 
 
9 
 
 conveys life and salvation, only to those who understand 
 its annunciations; and they are understood only by those 
 to whom their language is familiar. The Christian fathers 
 of the second century, so justly appreciated this fact, that 
 they put the Bible into the language of the Roman 
 empire ; and soon afterwards it passed into the widely 
 spoken Syriac, Ethiopic and Egyptian languages, and 
 was relied upon, by the early Christians, as indispensable 
 to the success of other instrumentalities in the conversion 
 of the world. The neglect of the Bible, and inattention 
 to its wide diffusion in the vernacular tongues of the 
 nations, introduced those days of darkness, wherein the 
 Man of sin arose. Ignorance, superstition, and licentious- 
 ness then triumphed within the walls of Zion. He, 
 whose “coming was after the working of Satan,” so 
 effectually wrested the Scriptures from the hands of men, 
 that as late as the sixteenth century, the celebrated 
 Xavier, could find but a fragment of the New Testament 
 to carry with him on his mission to India ; and that he 
 took, rather to try the experiment, whether “ it might be 
 of use in his missionary labors,” than in the expectation 
 that it would prove the wisdom of God and the power of 
 God, unto salvation. 
 
 No longer is the value of the Bible on missionary 
 ground, problematical. In relation to the sacred books 
 of the heathen world, it is like the rod of Aaron among 
 the rods of the magicians of Egypt. In relation to the 
 idolatries of Paganism, it is like the sharp sword, with 
 two edges, coming out of the mouth of the Son of man ; 
 and over the wide regions of moral desolation, it pours 
 the water of life, clear as crystal, like that proceeding 
 from the throne of God. And the fact, that this holy 
 book now declares the wonderful works of the Lord in 
 two hundred languages, and goes forth at the head of the 
 armies of God, to the peaceful conquest of the nations, is 
 among the most cheering signs of the times. “ The 
 2 
 
10 
 
 victories of the cross in Corinth and Rome, in Ephesus 
 and Athens, are all to be repeated ; ” and the histories of 
 Moses, the prophecies of Isaiah, the songs of David, the 
 epistles of Paul, and the authoritative words of Christ, 
 “are to be read and listened to, in Ava and Pekin, in 
 Ispahan and Timbuctoo, with all the spirit-stirring effect 
 of their original delivery.” 
 
 3. Education must be diffused. Otherwise, the Bible 
 remains a sealed book forever, to successive hundreds of 
 millions, and the words of the living preacher fall like 
 water on the ground. 
 
 The inertness of the heathen mind, — owing to the 
 absence of early culture and vigorous discipline, and the 
 debasement occasioned by familiarity with idolatrous rites 
 and ceremonies, and the indulgence of unbridled lusts, — 
 forms the most powerful of obstacles to missionary success. 
 Enveloped in thickest ignorance, truth cannot reach it. 
 Enervated by the most grovelling sensuality, motive 
 cannot rouse it. And walled around by immemorial 
 customs and inveterate prejudices, it bids defiance to 
 argument. Till this ignorance is dispelled, and this 
 imbecility removed, and this wall of prejudice, firmer 
 than the walls of ancient Babylon, be broken down, never 
 can the gospel have free course, run, and be glorified. 
 
 And how is this to be accomplished, except by the 
 same instrumentalities that have been found successful 
 in Christian lands? Our pilgrim fathers were not more 
 holy men, than wise. No sooner had they reared the 
 sanctuary, than they laid the foundations of the school- 
 house and the college. They obeyed the dictates of 
 prudence. Posterity approve their doings. And yet, we 
 hear it sometimes objected, that schools on heathen ground 
 belong not to the province of the missionary — and that 
 funds are misapplied, when appropriated to their support. 
 Mistaken apprehension ! It is enough to say, that as 
 auxiliaries to missionary success, they are indispensable. 
 
11 
 
 Scarcely an axiom in mathematics is more unquestionable. 
 When the emperor Julian, the wily apostate from the 
 Christian faith, in his zeal for the extirpation of Chris- 
 tianity, looked about him for means to etfect his object, 
 his eye first caught the Christian schools, and he shut 
 them up : dooming the church to ignorance and barbarism, 
 he well knew that her energies would be crippled, and 
 her destruction sealed. But when the intrepid Colom- 
 banus, in the sixth century, sought the conversion of 
 Scotland and Ireland, not content with preaching the 
 gospel, he established a mission seminary at Icolmkill, 
 and for thirty years gave it his personal superintendence ; 
 and by putting into operation subordinate schools in con- 
 nection with it, he subdued the prejudices and won the 
 affections of the mass of the people, and laid the founda- 
 tions of that learning and piety which have distinguished 
 the northern portion of the British isles, down to the 
 present day. And, whence comes it that the rising 
 generation of India are losing their confidence in the 
 religious systems of their fathers — that enthusiasm for the 
 national faith is dying away — that the ancient veneration 
 for the Bramins is lost, and the distinctive badge of their 
 sacred office thrown derisively over the shoulders of sea- 
 poys and market men, mechanics and doorkeepers ? — not 
 that they have yet become truly converted to God, but 
 that the silent influence of missionary and governmental 
 schools, has unsettled the foundations of their faith, leaving 
 them open to holier influences, whenever the Spirit shall 
 be poured out from on high, as upon the Islands of the 
 Southern Pacific. 
 
 But , where there are schools and colleges, hooks must 
 be provided — the press must be established, and leaves 
 for the healing of the nations scattered abroad, in un- 
 stinted measure. Education must become universal ; an 
 unlimited demand for intellectual aliment must be created ; 
 a demand that can now be met, by the wonderful facility 
 
12 
 
 with which the press multiplies copies of the richest pro- 
 ductions of the human mind. 
 
 Throughout the Pagan world, the true principles of 
 science are unknown. Boodhism, prevailing more ex- 
 tensively than any other form of religion, recognizes no 
 permanent God, and proposes annihilation as the highest 
 happiness of man. Other kindred systems of natural 
 theology are equally dark and cheerless, nor less replete 
 with the absurdities ever found amid the fabrications of 
 boasted reason. Nor is the cosmogony of Paganism, less 
 absurd than its theology. Of the true theory of the earth 
 or the heavens, its devotee knows nothing ; while he 
 adopts the wildest fancies, and holds them with unyield- 
 ing grasp, as if they were the pillars of heaven. And 
 of the intellectual and moral powers of man — of his 
 duties to himself and others — of the doctrines of political 
 science — of the theory of governments, and of inter- 
 national law, the Pagan is every where ignorant. In 
 each of the three grand divisions of science — natural 
 theology, natural philosophy, and the philosophy of man — 
 the human mind, untaught by Christianity, is but in 
 embryo — it knows nothing. Yet false principles of 
 science, interwoven as they are with idolatry, are no 
 sooner abandoned, than idolatry itself falls to the ground. 
 “ If the Hindoo, e. g. admit our chronology, history, or 
 geography, he can no longer believe the chronological 
 and other doctrines of the Poorans ; and if he believe 
 these books to be false in so many points, he can scarcely 
 believe them to be true in matters of religious belief.” 
 Hence, the tendency of true science to the overthrow of 
 idolatry ; though powerless in itself, as Samson’s jaw bone 
 of the ass, in the hand of the infant ; yet wielded by the 
 Christian missionary, under the direction of the Holy Spirit, 
 it whelms in a common ruin, the strong foundations and 
 towering superstructures of Paganism, and sweeps away 
 the superstitions of the world, as the whirlwind scatters the 
 
13 
 
 seared leaves of autumn. But, can the true principles of 
 science be established, where schools and higher semi- 
 naries, and the press are unknown ? 
 
 The Pagan world has its literature. And though you 
 scarcely find it amid the scattered aborigines of our own 
 country, or the swarming myriads of the Pacific, or the 
 swarthy millions of the African Continent ; yet China, 
 Hindoostan, Burmah, and the Islands of the Indian 
 Archipelago, boast of a literature, scarcely less extensive 
 and polished than our own. Law, Medicine, History, 
 Poetry, Painting, and Music, all have their votaries, and 
 their authors. Pompous fictions and legendary tales, 
 almost as frivolous and contemptible as those of Fielding 
 and Bulwer, fill up the alcoves of the “learned” and 
 the great, and even find their way into the thatched and 
 mud-walled cabin. It is a literature, corrupt at its foun- 
 tains, and impure in all its streams ; and if it shall ever 
 be purged of its monstrous creations of fancy, of its 
 polluting exhibitions of sensuality, of its repulsive pro- 
 faneness, aud its abounding incentives to profligacy and 
 crime, it must be by the strong hand of Christian edu- 
 cation. “ Give me the making of a nation’s ballads,” 
 said one, “ and he who will, may make its laws ; ” but 
 with still greater emphasis may one say, “ Give me the 
 control of a nation’s literature , and he who will may 
 fashion its religious creed.” A false and corrupting 
 literature, can only be supplanted by the literary products 
 of schools and colleges, under the instruction of those, 
 who feel their responsibilities to the Saviour of the world. 
 
 But on this point I forbear j and proceed as proposed 
 
 III. To suggest some motives to persevering effort in 
 this cause. 
 
 And where, dear brethren, shall I begin, on a topic like 
 this ? Shall I appeal to the authority of Heaven, which 
 binds us to preach the gospel to every creature ? — Or, to 
 
14 
 
 the example of Jesus, in his mission from the throne of 
 God, his life of active beneficence, and his death of agony ? 
 Or, to the pleasures inseparable from conscious devoted- 
 ness to the immortal welfare of the world? Or, to that 
 crown of surpassing splendor which shall reward the 
 labors of those that turn many to righteousness? Motives 
 all, of infinite weight and grandeur! 
 
 Instead of expatiating on these, however, let it suffice 
 to allude to them, as already familiar to your meditations, 
 and as incidentally corroborating the argument I would 
 deduce, first, from the actual state of the pagan world ; 
 and secondly, from the history of God’s dispensations 
 toward it, in past and passing times. And even Avith 
 these limitations, it will be impossible to do more, than 
 refresh your minds with hints both few and brief, gathered 
 up from the broad field before us. 
 
 Reference has already been made, to the miseries every 
 where crowding the soil of Paganism. No pen can de- 
 scribe them ; no heart, in Christendom, can fully conceive 
 of them. Yet, their sources are not hidden ; and the 
 proximate causes of their overflow, come within the sphere 
 of our observation. 
 
 Is it not enough, to know that the fundamental re- 
 lation of human society, is not recognized, on Pagan 
 ground, as the ordinance of Heaven — that it is formed 
 without love, continued without fidelity, and terminated 
 without regret ? The husband is the tyrant, and the 
 wife the slave ; the parent is the monster, and the child 
 the victim of unbridled passions. Neglect and hatred, 
 jealousy and revenge, perfidiousness and cruelty, form, 
 not the exception, but the rule, that regulates the duties 
 of this, and every subordinate relationship. Where polyg- 
 amy prevails, as in every heathen land — where the son 
 dispossesses the father of his inheritance, as soon as he 
 has muscular strength to do it — where the Avidowed Avife 
 is stripped of every thing by the rapacity of her husband’s 
 
15 
 
 relatives, or compelled to burn on the funeral pile of her 
 deceased lord, or constrained to strangle her own offspring 
 — where the tender mercies of men are cruelty, and the 
 life of a man and a dog are estimated alike — where the 
 sick are cast forth to die without pity, and the un- 
 fortunate to weep without sympathy, and the aged to 
 languish on the burning sands, and the dead to be 
 devoured by the beasts of the desert or the birds of 
 heaven — where licentiousness is so universal as to know 
 no shame, and theft and dishonesty rank among the 
 virtues — where the conviction of a lie puts no man out 
 of countenance, and the perpetration of murder blanches 
 no man’s cheek — where God is not known, nor glorified 
 as God, but man is vain in all his imaginations, while 
 wrath is revealed from heaven against all his ungodliness 
 and unrighteousness, — is there not, by the necessary 
 operation of the changeless laws of God’s moral govern- 
 ment, an amount of wretchedness that defies all com- 
 putation ? 
 
 And then, on the gloom of this thick darkness, not a 
 ray of light is reflected from the future; no solace is 
 found in the anticipation of glory, honor, and immortality, 
 beyond the grave. Hope doubtless lives in Pagan bosoms; 
 but what is its object ? what evidence sustains it ? what is 
 the value of the relief it yields to an enthralled and guilty 
 conscience ? Tell me not of the Elysium of the Ameri- 
 can Indian, or the Polynesian Islander, or the Hindoo 
 devotee, or the Mohammedan misbeliever ; sloth, and 
 sensuality, and the unlimited indulgence of every base 
 passion, amid green fields and sunny bowers, festive com- 
 panions, beauteous slaves, and spacious halls, decorated 
 with the scalps of enemies, and cups streaming with the 
 warm blood of slaughtered heroes — this, this is the 
 heaven of the Pagan. Here indeed hope may fasten, 
 but wherein differs it from the vain chimeras that tantalize 
 every pagan mind, from the first dawnings of its infancy, 
 
16 
 
 till at the mouth of the grave, the darkness of eternity 
 settles upon it forever. The evidence sustaining it, is 
 drawn from fancy, tradition, and lust, cruel and insatiate. 
 The relief it yields, is not more visionary, than ill adapted 
 to the exigences of an immortal spirit, on the wing for 
 eternity ! 
 
 Now we affirm that the character of the Pagan may be 
 elevated. Aside of the moral pollution that stains it, its 
 depression is not elementary but incidental. Apart from 
 the influence of superstition, the natural instincts and 
 social virtues, are nowhere found in higher perfection. 
 Where, on earth, is mind more ready in its perceptions, 
 more brilliant in its imaginings, more bold in its grasp 
 of thought, or more vigorous in its recollections, than 
 among those who know not God ? The eloquence of 
 the savage, is unsurpassed in its essential characteristics, 
 by the eloquence of Athens or Rome, of the British or 
 American capitols. His wisdom in counsel, and his 
 energy in conflict are unrivalled. It is not in intellect, 
 but in the education of intellect — not in the weakness 
 of his social affections, but in their defective discipline, 
 that his inferiority appears, and his degradation is marked. 
 
 I say then, he is capable of elevation to an eminence 
 as exalted as that of the most favored sons of Christen- 
 dom. Nothing in his nature, but every thing in his 
 circumstances dooms him to grovel, where the child of 
 Christian education soars on a wing that never tires. 
 Christianity only can give him this elevation. The 
 missionary, the Bible, the school and the press, are the 
 instruments this mighty agent employs to dispel the 
 darkness that enshrouds equally his intellectual and moral 
 powers. A few years’ hallowed toil destroys the idols, 
 and breaks down the maraes of a whole group of savage 
 islands, and rears the spacious temple, where thousands 
 bend the knee, at Jehovah’s name ; it finds these thou- 
 sands without a written language, and leaves them reading 
 
17 
 
 the wonderful works of God in their own tongue ; it 
 finds them devoid of natural affection, and leaves them 
 cherishing their children with parental assiduity ; it finds 
 them delighting in war, and thirsting for blood, and- leaves 
 them disciples of peace, enjoying a happiness to which 
 their ancestors were strangers ; the curtained darkness of 
 the grave rises, and lets in the light of heaven on the 
 sightless eye-ball of the warrior of Raiatea ; and a voice, 
 as of ten thousand celestial harpers, breaks on his ear, 
 while the blood of Jesus falls on “ the mountain of his 
 sins,” melting them all away, and giving him the joyous 
 anticipation of the sentence yet to be heard, “ Come thou 
 blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for 
 thee, from before the foundation of the world.” 
 
 Secondly, we are to notice the history of God’s dis- 
 pensations toward the cause in past and passing times. 
 When God works, who shall let it ! 
 
 The signal triumphs that marked the first introduction 
 of the Gospel to our world, eighteen hundred years ago, 
 are matters of inspired record, too familiar to require more 
 than the general remark, that whatever impetus was then 
 given to its progress, by miraculous interpositions, and the 
 gift of tongues, it was not more powerful than that given 
 in later periods, by translations of the Scriptures, and 
 other means already alluded to. 
 
 The Apostles had scarcely finished their course, when 
 others arose in their spirit and power, whose labors spread 
 the doctrines of the cross far and wide, and multiplied 
 converts, whose lives illustrated the divine origin and 
 benign influences of those doctrines. Two centuries 
 passed not away, before whole nations had embraced the 
 faith, and the sacraments of Christ were diffused over 
 the world ; and it was no figure of rhetoric, but a declara- 
 tion of sober truth, made by Arnobius, “ that orators, 
 rhetoricians, lawyers, physicians, and philosophers now 
 love our religion, despising that in which they once 
 3 
 
18 
 
 trusted ; that servants endure cruelty from their masters, 
 wives submit to be separated from their husbands, and 
 children to be disinherited by their parents, rather than 
 abandon the Christian religion.” 
 
 In the two following centuries the “ True Light ” 
 shone with increasing splendor ; not indeed without the 
 occasional intervention of clouds dark and portentous ; 
 but, if commotions prevailed in those portions of Asia 
 and Africa where the first churches were planted, truth 
 advanced in France and Germany; and Christian captives, 
 taken in war, became missionaries in the lands of their 
 captivity. And if, while Constantine increased the ex- 
 ternal splendor of the church by his munificent patronage 
 of bishops, and his elevation of Christians only to official 
 station, errors arose and vices abounded, and the spirit of 
 piety here and there declined, yet valiant witnesses for the 
 truth were raised up; and among the Abyssinians, the Per- 
 sians and Saracens, the triumphs of the Cross were not few. 
 
 For centuries afterwards, folds of thick darkness en- 
 veloped the church. Though the spirit of the Apostles 
 lived and wrought, obediently to the commission of the 
 ascending Saviour, it was on a limited scale. Patrick 
 reared the cross in Ireland, and immortalized his name. 
 Britain abandoned her idolatries, and sent forth her 
 Willebrod and his companions to plant the gospel anew 
 in Batavia and Denmark, in Germany and France. At 
 the same period, missions were established in China; and 
 the tree of life, then planted under the shadow of imperial 
 favor, though since stript of its foliage, and uptorn by 
 the winds of the Desert, still remains, to be reared again, 
 and nurtured by the care of husbandmen already oc- 
 cupying that portion of the Lord's vineyard. The names 
 of Winfred, and Liefewyn, and Villchad, are still held 
 in sweet remembrance, as British heralds of the cross, to 
 thousands of Saxons and Friezlanders in the eighth 
 century. And, during the same period, the Nestorians 
 
successfully assailed the superstitions of the Scythians, 
 and extended the influence of the gospel to the most 
 distant countries. Jutland and Sweden, Bulgaria and 
 Moravia, also received the knowledge of letters, and of 
 Jesus’ love, through the instrumentality of French and 
 British missionaries. 
 
 Even during that period, which has been styled “ an 
 iron age, barren of all goodness — a leaden age, abounding 
 in all wickedness, and a dark age, as destitute of men 
 of learning ” and independent thought, the spirit of 
 missions never slept. Poland then first professed sub- 
 jection to the cross ; Hungary too received the truth, 
 and exhibited the spectacle of a monarch descending 
 from his throne, to accompany the missionaries through 
 his dominions, and add his own pathetic and earnest 
 exhortations to theirs. But, I may not detain you here. 
 
 Reaching the era of the crusades, we pause — not to 
 admire the wonders of missionary achievement — but to 
 behold the powers of Christendom banded against the 
 powers of Mohammedanism — to behold princes and 
 peasants, lords and bishops mingling together in all the 
 pomp and pageantry of war, and concentrating their sym- 
 pathies and passions on the one splendid object of hope, 
 the concpiest of the land trodden by the kings and 
 prophets of past ages, celebrated by the lyre of David, 
 and consecrated by the oracles of God. Even this mad 
 project of freeing the “ holy sepulchre ” from Moham- 
 medan control, though originating in superstition, and 
 urged on by the suggestions of avarice and ambition, and 
 consummated by the foulest treachery and crime, yet 
 derives special interest from its connection with the grand 
 event that two centuries afterwards liberated Europe from 
 its debasing subjection to the Pontiff of Rome, illustrating 
 the glorious truth, that God causeth the wrath of man to 
 praise him , and restrains the remainder of wrath. The 
 instrumentalities that brought about the Reformation, 
 
20 
 
 under Luther and the Elector of Saxony, were prepared 
 amid those fearful conflicts. It was there, that the ignoble 
 slumbers of ages were broken up, and the mass of mind 
 began once more to think, to reason, and decide questions 
 of faith and duty, on its own responsibilities. And, it 
 was in the interim between the Crusades and the Refor- 
 mation, that the Waldenses struggled hard to maintain 
 the truth among the vallies of Piedmont ; and that 
 Wickliffe in England, and Huss in Bohemia, and a few 
 kindred spirits elsewhere, bore their testimony for God, 
 and fainted not, amid persecutions and deaths. New 
 missions were established, and old ones were revived, 
 down to the very day when the monk of Erfurth burst 
 his confinement, and summoned the armies of the faithful 
 to the fearful conflict with “the Man of sin.” 
 
 In the sixteenth century, Geneva sent her missionaries 
 into South America; Gustavus Yasa gave the gospel to 
 Lapland ; and Holland established her missions in Ceylon. 
 How far the spirit of Apostolic days prompted these 
 movements, is known only to God ; but that the knowl- 
 edge of Christ was extended, and souls saved, we have no 
 room to doubt. 
 
 In the missionary operations of the following century, 
 the aborigines of our own country largely shared, through 
 the self-denials of the Eliots, the Mayhews and the 
 Bournes. And but little more than a century has passed, 
 since Ziegenbalg, and Plutscho, and Gericke, struck up 
 a light in India, under the auspices of Denmark, which 
 shall burn brighter and brighter, till the whole of that 
 dark land shall be flooded with its beams. And to the 
 labors of Swartz on the same ground, of Egcde in Green- 
 land, and of the Moravians in South Africa and other 
 inhospitable climes, scarcely an allusion need be made. 
 
 But it is believed — and let the glory be given to Him 
 to whom it is due — that never since apostolic days, mis- 
 sions have been conducted, at once on a scale so broad, in 
 
21 
 
 a spirit so pure, and with prospects so cheering, as within 
 the last fifty years. Emphatically is the present, “ the 
 Age of Missions.” Some zeal for God, and for the exten- 
 sion of pure religion doubtless there was, in the bye gone 
 ages of darkness and of religious chivalry ; but too often, 
 civil rulers engaged in the enterprise for the extension of 
 their dominions and the increase of their revenues ; and 
 ambitious ecclesiastics encouraged it, for the acquisition of 
 enlarged influence and more abundant wealth ; nor was it 
 always, that missionaries themselves were actuated by the 
 disinterested spirit of a Xavier or a Vanderkemp, deeming 
 themselves amply recompensed for all their privations and 
 dangers, by the conversion of a single soul. Still, the 
 knowledge of salvation increased even then ; mind ex- 
 panded, and found new sources of occupation and delight ; 
 the relations of man to God and his fellow man were 
 investigated and better comprehended ; the chains of intel- 
 lectual and moral servitude were weakened ; the dignity 
 and elevation of the race steadily advanced ; and the 
 gross errors and vices of successive generations gradually 
 retired from the light of day, and made room for the later 
 reforms in doctrine and manners, which are now blessing 
 the world. But, in the passing age, a spirit is abroad, 
 which unites the Christian world, without distinction of 
 sect, in concerts of prayer, and combines the energies of 
 the rich and the poor, the learned and the unlearned, the 
 great and the small, directing them to the single object, 
 of flooding the world’s entire population, with streams of 
 light and love, drawn from that ocean of glory in which 
 Jehovah dwells. 
 
 “ Onward, onward,” is the language of God’s dis- 
 pensations toward Zion from the beginning. Whatever 
 darkness may have embosomed her, whatever adversities 
 may have befallen her, whatever follies may have marked 
 her course, and whatever may have been the temporary 
 triumphs of her enemies — still the Lord has not forsaken 
 
22 
 
 her, nor “removed from her the covenant of his peace,” 
 but laid her stones with fair colors, and her foundations 
 with sapphires, and assured her that all her children shall 
 be taught of the Lord. 
 
 How cheering are present prospects ! The sun performs 
 not a revolution, without looking down on missionary 
 stations newly occupied ; on enlarging hosts of mission- 
 aries ; on expanding school establishments ; and on multi- 
 plying pentecostai seasons, which cause the shout of 
 hallowed triumph to echo from all sides of the wide 
 field, and rise in one swelling anthem of praise, to the 
 throne of heaven ! Zion’s resources are augmenting ; 
 faith gathers strength ; new fountains of beneficence are 
 constantly opening, and streams of Christian love are 
 flowing in increasing volume, down the widening chan- 
 nels, destined to convey their life-giving influence over 
 the whole tract of the world’s drear waste ! Soon, shall 
 the names of Boodh and Bramah, of Vishnoo and Siva, 
 live only on the historic page, with the names of Jupiter 
 and Apollo, of Mars and Venus — to be remembered, and 
 abhorred ; and with them, shall the millions of inferior 
 gods, adored throughout the heathen world, sink into 
 oblivious darkness ; and even now, is this scarcely so 
 much a matter of prophecy as of history ; for, already 
 has it been verified among the isles of Oceanica, the 
 cities of India, the wilds of America, the tangled forests 
 or the arid plains of Africa, where men are casting their 
 idols of silver and gold, of clay and of stone, to the moles 
 and the bats. 
 
 What fact is more clear, than that the twilight of 
 millennial glory dawns ! The isles of the sea wait for 
 the law of the Lord. The superstitions of whole con- 
 tinents are shaken, and the deep laid foundations of 
 idolatry are giving way. The Jew anticipates an early 
 return to the land of his fathers ; the Mohammedan for- 
 bodes some stupendous moral revolution ; and the Pagan 
 
23 
 
 stands aghast at the prospective downfall of his gods. 
 Facilities of intercourse among the nations multiply, 
 mutual prejudices vanish, extending commercial relations 
 brighten the chain of friendship between distant tribes, 
 and men every where learn at length, that philanthropy 
 consists with patriotism, and that all have one Father, 
 and of course, are brethren. May we not then, look with 
 confidence to the early and full introduction of that day 
 of wonders, of which the prophets spoke ? 
 
 It comes. “ It hasteth greatly.” Already is the horizon 
 tinged with the bright rays of that Luminary, that will 
 soon fling abroad his beams over all the darkness of the ' 
 moral world. Light streams up; not like the flickering 
 aurora, to span the heavens, create amazement, and vanish 
 away ; but like the sun, revealing a morning without 
 clouds, and diffusing gladness through all human habita- 
 tions. The gloom that has shrouded the face of the 
 moral universe so long, recedes, and shall never return ; 
 and songs of devout gratulation, bursting from ten thou- 
 sand thousand human tongues, shall meet and mingle soon 
 in sublime symphony with the music of angelic choirs, 
 celebrating the world’s emancipation, and the universal 
 empire of the Prince of peace. 
 
 And here I might close ; but allow me in conclusion, to 
 suggest a single reflection. 
 
 Our own country has much to do, in accomplishment 
 of these great designs of Jehovah. This is obvious, from 
 a single glance at other parts of Christendom. On the 
 moral and religious condition of Europe even, no en- 
 lightened eye can look without painful emotion. It con- 
 tains within itself, a wider field of missionary enterprise 
 than can be fully occupied by any possible concentration 
 of its own energies, in existing circumstances. All indeed 
 is not darkness ; but the few and scattered rays of divine 
 light, passing through the dense atmosphere of papal 
 
24 
 
 superstition, German neology, or French infidelity, are too 
 much refracted and discolored, to leave the pathway to 
 heaven clear. Nor is all, death ; but an incubus oppresses 
 the church, attended with all the signs of death, except 
 now and then a convulsive throe, or a spasmodic struggle. 
 Nor is all despair ; for occasionally a voice is heard faintly 
 issuing from among the sepulchres of ancient faith and 
 love — “Come over, and help us.” But, happy will be 
 the day, when France and Spain, Germany and Russia, 
 and their kindred states, shall be sufficiently freed from 
 the vices of political and ecclesiastical domination, to 
 exert their undivided energies, for deliverance from the 
 bondage of hierarchies, scarcely less opposed to the simple 
 truth of Jesus, than the most corrupt pagan priesthood. 
 
 To these remarks, the venerated land of our fathers, is 
 the only important exception. Great Britain has not only 
 ample resources and unsurpassed facilities for the diffusion 
 of the Gospel, but she has a wakeful conscience, an open 
 hand, and a large heart. In modern missions she stands 
 foremost. And we delight to honor her elevated rank 
 among the almoners of God’s best blessings to a dying 
 world, while we trace her footsteps, as she goes forth 
 from her lovely isles, to gather in her arms the outcasts 
 of Israel, and the forsaken children of Paganism, and 
 bring them home to the banquet of a Saviour’s love. 
 
 But, why should she bear the burden and heat of the 
 day alone — and receive all the rewards of accomplishing 
 God’s purposes of mercy ? Shall not our own country 
 take hold on the enterprise with a strong hand, and 
 advance with firm step in the work of the world’s re- 
 generation, and share the honors and rewards of fellowship 
 in the labors of Christ ? 
 
 God hath given us an inheritance, that leaves no room 
 for envy, and no ground for complaint ; a land of unsur- 
 passed loveliness, and unbounded fertility ; yielding every 
 variety of production, and amply rewarding the spirit of 
 
25 
 
 toilsome enterprise. And, in the happy structure of our 
 government, in the equity of our laws, in the guarantees 
 of our civil liberties, in the purity of our institutions, and 
 in the unfettered enjoyment of every object of rational 
 desire, it may be truly said, “ He hath not dealt so with 
 any people.” Nowhere is the acquisition of wealth so 
 easy, nor its distribution so equal, nor so large a portion 
 of it in the hands of Zion’s friends. Nowhere does 
 religion flourish in greater purity. Nowhere is an equal 
 proportion of the mass of mind pervaded by the direct or 
 indirect influences of the Bible, and so intelligently in- 
 structed in all the essential principles of individual and 
 social happiness. And, beside all this, a missionary spirit 
 forms one of the primary elements of our national char- 
 acter. It was not more to escape ecclesiastical usurpation, 
 than to evangelize this vast Continent, that our fathers 
 first planted here the ensign of the Lord of hosts ; nor 
 did they lose sight of their object, till hundreds and thou- 
 sands of the red men of the forest abandoned the war 
 dance for the worship of the sanctuary, and burying the 
 tomahawk, joined their voices in the harmonies of the 
 church triumphant. 
 
 Were it permitted us to speak of the yet undeveloped 
 destinies of our country, no language could express our 
 anticipations more fully than that of a distinguished son 
 of England. “Christianity,” says he, “is likely to derive 
 its widest extension from those transatlantic States, which 
 are borne forward to an unparalleled greatness in spite of 
 themselves ; which need no guaranty for their prosperity, 
 but the stability of the present order of nature ; for whom 
 the ploughshare does the work of the sword, and whose 
 firmest ally is Time.” Brethren, there is no other nation 
 under heaven, that ought to bear, or is destined to bear, 
 so distinguished a part as our own, in the advancing 
 moral revolution of the world. And the incipient efforts 
 of the infant giant, cradled in the wilderness of this 
 4 
 
26 
 
 mighty Continent, and soothed by the lullaby of the 
 •winds and the waves of two vast oceans — fed too by 
 the hand of the angel of the Lord, and roused by the 
 death-cry of six hundred millions of immortals, give sure 
 presage of a manhood, nerved to grasp the sword of the 
 Spirit, and wield it to the discomfiture of the armies of 
 the aliens, and the final triumph of a ransomed world. 
 
 If such be the future destinies of our country, and such 
 the influences going forth from her through successive 
 generations, it becomes us with humility to bow before 
 the throne, and with earnestness to watch the develop- 
 ments of Providence, and with holy ardor to improve 
 every advantage, to magnify the office assigned us among 
 heaven’s instrumentalities, for the world’s conversion. 
 
 Nineteen years, dear brethren, have we been associated 
 for purposes of mutual encouragement and assistance in 
 the prosecution of this glorious work. With heaven’s 
 blessing, we have accomplished something. Through the 
 agency of that beloved brother, whose praise is in all the 
 churches, and whose support we have so long assumed, 
 we have placed the offers of the great salvation before the 
 Jew and the Gentile, the nominal Christian and the 
 Mohammedan, year after year, in every variety of form, 
 and in all the tenderness of hallowed love. Great results, 
 we have not yet seen. But, 
 
 “ Tho’ seed lie buried long in dust, 
 It shan’t deceive our hope.” 
 
 The harvest will yet be reapt. And they that sow, and 
 they that reap, shall yet rejoice together, in presence of 
 the Lord of the harvest. “All is yet dark with us,” 
 says our faithful missionary, in a letter just received, “ in 
 regard to political, as well as religious affairs. No star is 
 yet seen in the East, guiding the poor benighted people 
 to adore the incarnate Son of God. We trust however, 
 
27 
 
 that the night is far gone, that the day will dawn, and 
 the shadows dee away. When shall it once be ? What 
 a blessed day will that be, when the sun shall no longer 
 shine on a sinful, but on a renovated world ! Such a day 
 is doubtless coming. Let us look at it, as Abraham did 
 on the coming day of Christ, and be glad.” 
 
 Yes ! look at it we will, in joyous expectation of its 
 early arrival, and in the assured confidence, that it will 
 come, and will not tarry. 
 
 But, brethren, have we not more to do than we have 
 yet done ? Have we offered prayer enough ? Have our 
 prayers been humble and fervent enough ? Have we 
 sufficiently studied our duty, in the light of God's word 
 and providence ? Have we duly contemplated the actual 
 and prospective condition of the millions who are living 
 in the world, without God and without hope ? Have we 
 weighed well our own responsibilities to God, to Zion, 
 and a dying world ? And, in regard to pecuniary con- 
 tributions, have we inquired, “ Lord, what will thou have 
 us to do ? ” Have we, like the poor widow, done what 
 we could ? Have we met increasing claims, with in- 
 creasing donations ? Have we denied ourselves, and 
 labored hard to acquire the means of making glad the 
 heart of the missionary, and extending his influence ? 
 And, how much have we done to stir up the hearts of 
 others, by example and exhortation — to silence the ob- 
 jections of covetousness, and the cavils of unbelief ? It 
 is surely wise to inquire concerning this — for the time is 
 at hand, when such inquiries must be met and answered 
 at the bar of God ! 
 
 Nothing is more clear, than that there is deficiency 
 somewhere. A wide and effectual door is open, for the 
 entrance of that Word that giveth light, into vast and 
 hitherto unexplored regions of moral darkness ; God has 
 raised up and qualified men to go forth and publish that 
 Word ; they stand up in our midst, and say, “ Here we 
 
28 
 
 are, send us ! ” Still, they are not sent. The means 
 of sustaining them are not furnished — the silver and 
 the gold, though they are the Lord’s, are held back ; 
 and, while they tarry behind, the breath of the Lord, 
 like a stream of brimstone, is kindling a flame in Burmah 
 and China, in Turkey and Persia, that threatens the 
 endless destruction of millions without number. Where 
 is that deficiency ? Brethren ! must we go from home to 
 find it ? Shall we charge it on this man or on that — on 
 one community or another ? Is it not with ourselves ? 
 
 But — we sustain one missionary ! Yes, and a second 
 — and the portion of a third ! Thank God for inclining 
 us to this. But is this the sum total of our duty to a 
 cause of such magnitude ? Of the $300,000 required by 
 the plans of the American Board of Commissioners for 
 Foreign Missions, is a thousand dollars, “ more or less,” 
 a fair proportion for the twenty churches of the Palestine 
 Association ? “I trow not.” 
 
 But I may not press this point, much as it is in my 
 heart to do it. It shall be left to your own decision, 
 in view of that day when all nations shall be gathered 
 before the Son of man, and he shall say, “Come ye 
 blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for 
 you from the foundation of the world : for I was an 
 hungered and ye gave me meat ; I was thirsty and ye 
 gave me drink ; I was a stranger and ye took me in.” 
 “ Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of 
 these, ye have done it unto me.” With that tremendous 
 scene in your eye, you surely will not hold back from 
 any work of faith, or labor of love, to which the Spirit 
 of the Lord calls you. 
 
 If “ no star be seen in the East,” yet its harbingers 
 are there. The Bible is there ; the Tract and the Sabbath 
 school are there ; and the missionary is there, to direct 
 the eyes of wondering thousands to the babe of Bethlehem, 
 whenever the token of his appearing to redeem and to 
 
29 
 
 rule, shall burst through the dense clouds of superstition 
 and delusion, that have for ages on ages settled along 
 the line of the eastern horizon. 
 
 Be not discouraged then. The anchor of your hope, 
 thrown out amid all the promises and oaths of the living 
 God, shall hold you fast. Fail, it cannot. Heaven and 
 earth shall sooner pass away. From the world’s birth- 
 day to its doom, a more interesting period occurs not, 
 than the present. Though all the elements of civil society 
 are in agitation, and the moral world is convulsed to its 
 centre — though error never more multiplied its forms, 
 nor more vigorously wielded its weapons, nor more boldly 
 opened its mouth against the heavens ; yet Paganism was 
 never so accessible, Mohammedanism never so quailed 
 before advancing light, and Romanism itself, that master- 
 piece of infernal mechanism, never so waned to its down- 
 fall. “ The Lord has given the word, and great is the 
 company of them that publish it,” and of them also that 
 tremble before it. 
 
 Gird on your armor then, dear brethren, and arise with 
 renovated courage and resolution, to maintain the conflict 
 in which you are engaged, with principalities and powers. 
 The laurels of victory shall be yours ; and you shall here- 
 after sit down in the presence of Jesus, and join the 
 myriads in heaven, redeemed by your instrumentality, in 
 their everlasting song, “ Worthy is the Lamb that was 
 slain ! ” And then, although 
 
 “ The glittering stars shall cease to burn. 
 
 The sun forsake his golden urn ; 
 
 This earth, these heavens be swept away, 
 
 The splendid pageant of a day ; 
 
 Yet will the Eternal wake to birth 
 More radiant heavens, a fairer earth, 
 
 Whose lustre shall admit no shade, 
 
 Where lasting bloom shall never fade.” 
 
ANNUAL MEETING. 
 
 The Palestine Missionary Society held its Twentieth Anni- 
 versary in the Second Parish in Abington, June 17, 1840. Deacon 
 Morton Eddy presided. Rev. R. S. Storrs, D. D. preached on 
 Ps. xxii. 27. A letter from Rev. Daniel Temple to the Society 
 was read by the Secretary. The Treasurer’s report and the Auditor’s 
 certificate were read and accepted. Addresses were made by Henry 
 Hill, Esq., Treasurer of the American Board of Commissioners for 
 Foreign Missions, and Rev. Messrs. Huntington and Hitchcock; 
 and a collection was taken in aid of the Society’s funds. Rev. Mr. 
 Ward was chosen to preach the next annual sermon, and Hanover 
 was designated as the place of meeting. Thanks were voted to 
 Rev. Dr. Storrs for his able and appropriate sermon — to II. Hill, 
 Esq. for his attendance and assistance — to Rev. Daniel Thomas 
 and his Society for their Christian hospitality — and to the choir 
 of singers for their acceptable services on the occasion. 
 
 The following officers were chosen for the current year : 
 
 Vice Presidents. 
 
 Rev. DANIEL THOMAS, President. 
 
 Dea. MORTON EDDY, 
 
 Mr. JOSIAII KINGMAN, 
 
 Rev. JONAS PERKINS, Secretai-y. 
 EBENEZER ALDEN, M. D., Treasurer. 
 SILAS PAINE, Esq., Auditor. 
 
LETTER FROM MR. TEMPLE. 
 
 Smyrna, Jan. 25, 1840. 
 
 To the Palestine Missionary Society : 
 
 Beloved Brethren and Friends, — It is a long time, too 
 long indeed, since I have had the pleasure of writing to you or 
 of receiving any communication from you. These many years of 
 separation, however, I feel assured, have not diminished the af- 
 fectionate mutual interest which we feel for each other, nor have 
 they, as I trust, abated our love to the sacred cause which is so dear 
 to us all. 
 
 The times that have gone over us, since I last wrote you, have 
 made great and wonderful changes in the affairs of this world, and 
 great changes in many of our families. Many of those who were 
 with you at the formation of this Society, are now gone to the rest 
 that remains for the people of God, the rest that is glorious. They 
 are blessed, indeed, and their works will doubtless follow them. In 
 these parts of the world, since I came here, eighteen years ago, the 
 most surprising changes have taken place. The high and lofty One, 
 the great Ruler of the world, seems to have arisen up from his throne 
 in the heavens, and lifted up his awful and majestic voice, and 
 stretched out his mighty arm, to shake the heavens, the earth, the 
 sea, and the dry land ; and this mighty shaking seems plainly to 
 signify the removing of those things that are shaken as of things 
 that are made, that those things which cannot be shaken may 
 remain. The Lord has stretched forth his arm, and who shall turn 
 it back ? he has begun his great work, and he will neither be faint 
 nor weary, nor will he fail till it be accomplished in his own good 
 time. His counsel w 7 ill stand. 
 
 The events of the last year in this empire have rendered it 
 memorable beyond any of the years that have gone before it. Its 
 sovereign has been laid in the dust, its army has been almost 
 annihilated, and its fleet betrayed into the hands of the enemy. 
 This empire, once so mighty, that made the earth tremble and shook 
 
32 
 
 kingdoms, that made the world as a wilderness, and destroyed cities, 
 and opened not the house of its prisoners, is now become weak and 
 powerless. It feels, and its rulers feel and acknowledge its im- 
 potence. So deeply do its rulers feel this, that they have recently 
 framed and published throughout the empire, in the most solemn 
 and imposing manner, the basis of an entirely new code of laws, 
 perfectly at variance with all the most ancient and established usages. 
 They have placed all the subjects of the empire on an equal footing, 
 thus abolishing the ancient and odious distinction between the Jew, 
 the Christian, and the Turk or Mussulman, a distinction enforced by 
 the Koran as one of its most prominent features, and they have 
 pledged themselves not to stop at the beginning, but to move on in 
 the path of reform. They are urged to this by the force of circum- 
 stances, which it seems impossible for them either to control or to 
 resist. The feeling seems to prevail among the people to a great 
 extent, that the end of Islamism is near at hand, that its glory is 
 gone forever. It is now the 1255th year of the Mohammedan era, 
 according to their reckoning. The most able interpreters of prophecy 
 teach us to expect the utter overthrow of the false prophet’s im- 
 posture at the end of 12G0 years. It is not for us, however, to know 
 the times and seasons which the Father has put in his own power; 
 but it seems impossible that any devout Christian can mark these 
 signs of the times without feeling that the time of the end is rapidly 
 drawing nigh, the end of the Mohammedan abomination, which has 
 made such desolations in the earth. We cannot but hail all these 
 striking movements as so many encouraging indications that the 
 way of the Lord is being prepared, that the gospel will at a future, 
 and we trust not a distant day, have free course and be glorified in 
 Turkey and throughout the East, as it is, and even more than it now 
 is, among you. 
 
 Comparing the state of all these countries with what it was 
 twenty years ago, the schools that have been opened, the many 
 thousands of Bibles and the many millions of pages of excellent 
 Christian books printed and circulated and read in various languages, 
 the Christian sermons that have been delivered, the religious con- 
 versations had with the young and the old — we cannot but be 
 encouraged by observing how great is the change. Then almost 
 no valuable elementary or religious books could be found, for there 
 were none; but now they are within the reach of every one who 
 chooses to possess them. It is true that of late violent opposition 
 has been made to our feeble efforts for the spiritual welfare of the 
 people by the ecclesiastical rulers of the Greek and Armenian 
 churches; but this is, as we couceive, an omen for good, indicating 
 
33 
 
 that the progress of the truth among their people threatens the 
 subversion of that ecclesiastical power which the rulers have so 
 long abused. The glorious light of divine truth is breaking in on 
 all sides, and they cannot shut it out. They have tried various 
 methods, but all have proved vain. As the power of the civil rulers 
 of this empire is almost gone, so the influence of the spiritual rulers 
 is fast vanishing away. Still, however, the public mind is very far 
 from being enlightened; the people are still in great darkness ; the 
 real import of the gospel is little understood, and the power of pure 
 and undefiled religion is almost unfelt. But there is the beginning 
 of a better state of things, which gives us cause to thank God and 
 take courage. 
 
 The general expectation among the children of Israel is, that 
 Messiah will come this year. The Greeks too anticipate great 
 events this year. But while they, both the one and the other, are 
 imagining a vain thing, let us have faith in God, who has declared 
 that as he lives the whole earth shall be filled with his glory. Let 
 us be numbered among those who have borne and had patience, and 
 for Christ’s sake have labored and not fainted. Let us see to it that 
 He find no cause to say to us, I have somewhat against you because 
 ye have left your first love. We must be like the husbandman who 
 waits for the precious fruit of the earth and has long patience for it 
 till he receive the early and the latter rain. Let us not be weary in 
 well doing, for in due season we shall reap if we faint not. It is 
 our privilege to sow, and if it be not the will of God that we should 
 live to reap, this privilege will doubtless be given to others, and so 
 the sowers and the reapers will rejoice together. Let us see to it 
 that all our works be done heartily as to the Lord, that the love of 
 Christ constrain us in all we do. Then God will glorify his holy 
 name by us and in us again and again, and at the end we shall 
 receive a full and glorious reward in his dear Son. 
 
 I remain, dear brethren and friends, most truly yours, 
 
 D. TEMPLE. 
 
 5 
 
34 
 
 TREASURER’S REPORT. 
 
 Receipts from June , 1839, to June 17, 1840. 
 
 Abington, First Parish, Gent. $60 29 ; do. $95 37 ; La. $51, . $146 66 
 
 “ South Parish, Gent $48 90 ; La. $30 36 ; Mon. Con. $9, 88 26 
 
 “ East Parish, Gent $17 81 ; La. $16 50; La. Sewing Cir- 
 cle, $10, .44 31 
 
 Braintree, First Parish, La. $70; Mon. Con. $31 ; Friend in Nor- 
 folk Co. $50, 171 00 
 
 “ South Parish, Collection, Gent, and La. $40 04; Mon. 
 
 Con. $25 23, . . . . . . . 65 27 
 
 Bridgewater, Rev. K. Gay's Soc., Collection, Gent, and La. $10; 
 
 Mon. Con. $i3 50 ; do. $11, . . . . . 34 50 
 
 East and West Bridgewater, Kvang. Soc., Gent, and La. $95 44; 
 
 Mon. Con. $42; do. $16 50, ..... 153 94 
 
 Hanover, Gent $6; La. $6; Mon. Con. $25, . . . . 37 00 
 
 Hanson, Mon. Con. $25; do. $19 36; Individ. $1, . . . 45 36 
 
 North Bridgewater, First Parish, Gent. $27; do. $120 20; La. 
 
 $51 75; do. $30 28; Mon. Con. $12, . 21123 
 
 “ South Parish, Gent. $13 76 ; La. $17 62; La. Benevolent 
 
 Soc., $11; Mon. Con. $15 23, 57 61 
 
 North Middleboro' , Collection, Gent and La., . . . . 23 00 
 
 Quincy, Evangelical Soc., Gent and La., . . . . . 13 54 
 
 Randolph, First Parish, Gent. pt. $36 75; La $31 12; Mon. Con. 
 
 $59 47; La. Benevolent. Society, $10, . . . 137 34 
 
 “ East. Parish, Gent. $54 12 ; La. $37 96 ; Mon. Con. 
 
 $35 58 127 66 
 
 Weymouth, North Parish, Collection, Gent, and La. $83; do. $72 
 
 16; Mon. Con. $12 69, ...... 167 85 
 
 “ South Parish, Individ. $5; Female Praying Soc., $15; 
 
 Female Charitable Soc. $16 70; La $28 30; Mon. 
 
 Con $28 ; do. $20, . _ 113 00 
 
 Weymouth and Braintree Union Society, Mon. Con. $36 26; La. 
 
 $19; Gent, and La. $68 29 ; Neighborhood Mon. Con. 
 
 $40 31 ; do. and Collection, $45 21 , .... 209 07 
 
 $1,876 60 
 
 EBENEZER ALDEN, Treasurer. 
 Note. — The wliolo amount collected since tho formation of the Society, is §22,950 65. 
 
 Having examined the accounts of the Treasurer of the Palestine Mission- 
 ary Society, I find them rightly cast and properly vouched. 
 
 SILAS PAINE, Aoditor. 
 
 June 17, 1840. 
 
35 
 
 LIFE MEMBERS. 
 
 Rev. Lucius Alden. 
 
 Mrs. Clarissa Alden. 
 
 Mr. Henry Alden. 
 
 Mrs. Charlotte Alden. 
 
 Miss Cinda Bass. 
 
 Rev. David Brigham. 
 
 Mrs. Elizabeth Brigham. 
 
 Miss Molly Barstotv. 
 
 *Rev. Josiah Bent. 
 
 Mrs. Paulina Bent. 
 
 Mrs. Abigail Brown. 
 
 Mrs. Huldah Bales. 
 
 Mrs. Betsey Burrell. 
 
 Mrs. Jonathan Baxter. 
 
 Dea. Edward Cobb. 
 
 Mrs. Mary Codmnn. 
 
 Mrs. Abigail Cushing. 
 
 Rev. Philip Colby. 
 
 Mrs. Eliza Colby. 
 
 Mrs. Mary Crafts. 
 
 Miss Rachel Cushing. 
 
 Rev. Paul Couch. 
 
 Mrs. Hariiel T. Couch. 
 
 Rev. \V. M. Cornell. 
 
 Mrs. Betsey Dyer. 
 
 Miss Balhsheba Dawes. 
 
 Rev. A. G. Duncan. 
 
 Rev. Elijah Dexter. 
 
 ♦Mr. Jacob Fullerton. 
 
 M iss Mercy Ford. 
 
 Mrs. Jane Gurney. 
 
 Mr. Ephraim \V. Gurney. 
 
 Mr. Jacob llearsey. 
 
 Rev. F. P. Howland. 
 
 Mrs. Deborah Howland. 
 
 Mrs. Harriet Howe. 
 
 ♦Mrs. Mary Hallam Huntington. 
 ♦Mrs. Alma Huntington. 
 
 Rev. Calvin Hitchcock. 
 
 Mrs. Elizabeth Hitchcock. 
 Mrs. Mr hetable Hunt. 
 Mrs. Elizabeth Hayward. 
 Miss Tiizali Howard. 
 Rev. Paul Jewett. 
 
 Mrs. Grace Jewett. 
 
 Mrs. Hannah King. 
 
 Mrs. Lydia Keith. 
 
 "Gen. Shepherd Leach. 
 Mis. Pliehe Leach. 
 
 Mr. Cyrus Lathrop. 
 
 Mrs. Abigail W. Lathrop. 
 Miss Mary Little. 
 
 Mr. Ebenezer Leach. 
 
 Mrs. Ebenezer Leach. 
 •Eliphalel Loud, Esq. 
 
 Mr. James Littlefield. 
 
 Rev. Wales Lewis. 
 
 Mrs. Ann Merrill. 
 
 Mr. Jonathan Newcomb. 
 Mrs. Sarah Noyes. 
 
 Miss Abigail Neal. 
 
 Mrs. Mary Noyes. 
 
 Mrs. Hannah Noyes. 
 
 Mrs. Rebecca Nash. 
 
 $Iiss Hannah \V. Noyes. 
 Mr. John L. Noyes. 
 
 Mr. Eliab M Noyes. 
 
 ♦.Mrs. Mary Niles. 
 
 Miss Clarissa Niles. 
 
 Mr. Josiah E. Noyes. 
 Moses Noyes, Esq. 
 
 Sirs. Olive Nash. 
 
 Mrs. Hannah E. Nash. 
 Miss Clarissa Alden Nash. 
 Miss Olive P. Noyes. 
 
 M : sS Anna E. Novi s. 
 
 Miss Mehetable W. Nash. 
 Miss Susan P. Noyes. 
 
36 
 
 Mrs. Thankful Pralt. 
 
 Mrs. Rhoda Perkins. 
 
 Rev. Phillips. 
 
 Mrs. Phillips. 
 
 Dea. Isaac Reed. 
 
 Mrs. Nancy Reed. 
 
 Mrs. Olive Reed. 
 
 Mrs. Mary Reed. 
 
 Rev. Richard S. Storrs. 
 # Mrs. Harriet Slorrs. 
 
 Rev. Luther Sheldon. 
 
 Mrs. Sarah Sheldon. 
 
 Mrs. Joanna Strong. 
 
 Rev. Ethan Smith. 
 
 Mrs. Haihsheba Smith. 
 Miss Julietta Sylvester. 
 Rev. Samuel Spring. 
 
 Mrs. Maria Spring. 
 
 Mrs. Abigail Smith. 
 
 Rev. Luke A. Spofford. 
 Mrs. Mary H. Shedd. 
 Rev. Ilaalis Sanford. 
 
 Mrs. Baalis Sanford. 
 
 Mrs. Ann Slorrs. 
 
 Ilev. Daniel Thomas. 
 Miss Mehetahle Torrey. 
 Rev. Daniel Temple. 
 *Mrs. Daniel Temple. 
 ♦William Torrey, Esq. 
 
 Mrs. Elizabeth Torrey. 
 Rev. Tyler Thatcher. 
 Rev. William Tyler. 
 
 Mrs. Martha Ely Temple. 
 
 Mrs. Nancy W. N. Tyler. 
 Mrs. i’hebe Veazie. 
 
 Mrs. Mary Wales. 
 
 Dea. Eleazer Whitman. 
 ♦Miss Charily Whitmarsh. 
 Mrs. Susanna Whitman. 
 *Mr. Nathaniel Wales. 
 
 Mr. Daniel Whitman. 
 
 Mrs. Mary Whitman. 
 
 Miss Abigail Whitman. 
 
 Mrs. Abigail Whitman. 
 
 Mrs. Rachel Whitman. 
 
 Rev. M. G. Wheeler. 
 
 Mrs. Elizabeth M. Wheeler. 
 Mr. Eleazer Whitman, Jr. 
 Rev. C. J. Warren. 
 
 Mrs. C. W. Warren. 
 
 Rev. James W. Ward. 
 
 Rev. Moses Welsh. 
 
 Mrs. Mary Whilmarsh. 
 
 Hon. Jared Whitman. 
 
 Mrs. Hella L. Ward. 
 
 M iss Harriet Whitman. 
 
 Miss Abby Whitman. 
 
 Miss Susan Ann W'hitman. 
 Miss Hannah P. Whitman. 
 Mrs. Jennet Whitman. 
 
 Miss Mary J. Whitman. 
 
 Mr. Eleazer Whitman, 3d. 
 Mr. Asa T. Whitman. 
 
 Mr. Moses N. \\ hitman. 
 Miss Grinda 11. Whitman.