wi- $ <f? f vV) 
 
 QUESTION OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS 
 
 STATED AND DEFENDED. 
 
 A SERMON, 
 
 WITH PARTICULAR REFERENCE 
 
 TO THE 
 
 ftcrrot $fcror ration 
 
 IN THE WEST INDIAN COLONIES. 
 
 BY RICHARD WINTER HAMILTON, 
 
 MINISTER OF ALBION CHAPEL, LEEDS. 
 
 '* DESTRUCTION AND DEATH SAY, WE HAVE HEARD THE FAME THEREOF WITH 
 OUR EARS.” 
 
 4 * AND NOW, LORD, BEHOLD THEIR THREATENINGS ! AND GRANT UNTO THY 
 SERVANTS, THAT WITH ALL BOLDNESS THEY MAY SPEAK THY WORD.” 
 
 ** WOK UNTO YOU! FOR YB *SHUT UP THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN AGAINST MEN: 
 POR YE NEITHER GO IN YOURSELVES, NEITHER SUFFER YE THEM THAT 
 ARE ENTERING TO GO IN.” 
 
 LEEDS : 
 
 PRINTED BY EDWARD BAINES; 
 
 AND SOLD BY HAMILTON AND KERSHAW, PATERNOSTER-ROW; 
 HOULDSWORTH AND RIVINGTON, ST. PAUL’S CHURCH-YARD ; 
 WESTLEY, STATIONERS’-COURT ; TAYLOR AND HESSEY, BUT- 
 TERWORTII & SON, FLEET-STREET ; HURST, ROBINSON, AND 
 CO. CHEAPSIDE. ALSO, BY BAINES, HEATON, ROBINSON AND 
 HERNAMAN, LEEDS; WILSON, HULL; HOLDEN, HALIFAX; 
 TAYLOR, LIVERPOOL; WAUGH AND INNES, EDINBURGH. 
 
 1824 
 

 
 
 
 ' 
 
 
 
 
 .. 
 
 
 
TO THE ItEV. EDWARD PARSONS 
 
 THE FOLLOWING DISCOURSE 
 
 IS DEDICATED 
 
 AS A FEEBLE TESTIMONY OF ADMIRATION 
 
 TOR HIS UNSWERVING ADHERENCE TO THE PRINCIPLES OF CIVIL 
 AND RELIGIOUS LIBERT V, 
 
 FOR HIS UNRELAXINO DEVOTEDNESS TO THE CHARACTERISTIC 
 AND ESSENTIAL DOCTRINES OF CHRISTIANITY, 
 
 TOR HIS KINDNESS OF TEMPER AND DEMEANOUR WHICH BINDS 
 EACH FELLOW-MINISTER, HOWEVER UNEQUAL IN TALENTS 
 AND YEARS, TO HIM AS TO AN ELDER BROTHER,— 
 
 BY HIS GRATEFUL FRIEND, 
 
 THE AUTHOR. 
 
 Leeds, Sept. 20, 1824. 
 
ADVERTISEMENT. 
 
 The Author of this Discourse has not experienced so flattering a recep- 
 tion by the Public, as to have become indifferent to Criticism. When 
 yet a Minor, a Sermon was extorted from him, which he would fain hope 
 was forgotten by all, save himself. Written two hundred miles from the 
 Press— amidst the hurried intervals of the Religious Anniversaries held 
 in the Metropolis during the month of May — a certain portion of Manu- 
 script sent off by each Post— no Proof sheer seen by himself some of 
 the Copy lost which he was summoned at a moment’s warning to repro- 
 duce— the whole written without any Original Notes — hediscovered on his 
 return a farrago which no one could peruse with equal contempt and indig- 
 nation. It was “ a grievous fault, and grievously did he answer it.” 
 One consolation was left to him, — there was no impeachment of themanner 
 in which he conducted himself through the melancholy transaction which 
 gave rise to the Publication. He cannot, after the lapse of more than nine 
 years, refer to that conduct with any regret or shame. Though he is not 
 quite disposed to admit that all was legitimate criticism which was let 
 loose upon him, he is not too proud to confess that the flagrancy of the 
 offence destroyed any right of appeal. Perhaps some strokes might have 
 been spared, had they who dealt them seen the sunken heart which it was 
 not even in their power much more to depress. 
 
 The Tale of the present Sermon is this. The substance of it was 
 preached at two different places as many years ago. A few weeks since it 
 was delivered a ta third. From some considerations the Author was deter- 
 mined to think it out anew, and to transcribe it for publication. The pre- 
 sent Crisis in the History of Missions was the principal one. He was not 
 without solicitations, in any of those places, to print. But he does not name 
 them, since the present discourse contains much additonal matter, to which 
 it is probable some of his friends in all would refuse to subscribe. He takes 
 therefore the exclusive responsibility upon himself. — The tone it sustains 
 will not suit every school of politicians — He scarcely ventures to hope 
 that his style is improved. While he regrets its vices, he fears they are 
 incurable. He has been charged with a studied pedantry in composing; 
 he must assert that his composition is perfectly natural (perhaps so much 
 the worse,) to him. He has attempted other kinds, but alas ! has al- 
 ways reverted to his own. He is indeed rather shaken of late in attach- 
 ment to it, since it is no longer unique. He could mention some who 
 have not only invaded his patent, but he verily thinks ought to take out 
 an improved one. This dissatisfaction with his usual high-sounding 
 phrase and staring metaphor, may perhaps plead the Writer’s excuse in 
 presenting a Sermon so meagre and insipid as the ensuing one, to the 
 Public Accii’E, sed facims 1 
 
SERMON. 
 
 LUKE, 12th CHAP.: 40, 50 Veil 
 “ I AM come to sexd fire on the EARTH ; AXD 
 WHAT WILL I, IF IT BE ALREADY KIXDLED ? 
 BUT I HAVE A BAPTISM TO BE BAPTIZED WITH: 
 AXD HOW AM I STR AITEXED TILL IT BE ACCOM- 
 PLISHED !” 
 
 If every cause be fanatical which is hampered with any 
 difficulty, and exposed to any misconstruction, then most 
 fanatical is that of Christian missions. If every feeling 
 be extravagant which is attended by any pain, and fol- 
 lowed by any sacrifice, then most extravagant is that which 
 favours them. Assuming these to be the infallible crite- 
 rion and symptoms of a fanatical enterprise and an extra- 
 vagant emotion, we had better pause at once. It will be 
 folly to attempt a vindication. It will be madness to seek 
 a defence. Let our agents be recalled ; our directories 
 dissolved ; our treasuries closed. On these assumptions, 
 we have embarked in the wildest of all adventures, and 
 have thrown behind us the most obstinate of all enthusi- 
 asts. For who can dispassionately consider the nature, 
 who can steadily argue the question of Christian missions, 
 and not detect, at a glance, the many inconveniences 
 which entangle their prosecution, the numerous trials 
 which must be involved in their support ? W e cannot 
 expect unmixed good, nor unalloyed triumph. But is the 
 project, is the success of missions, of sufficient importance, 
 
 B 
 
2 
 
 of equal magnitude, to counterpoise all the evils which 
 may occur, to indemnify all the sufferings which may 
 be exacted P Will the result of the “ experiment of this 
 ministration ” compensate for all that can happen or must 
 be endured in the process ? Will the victory repay the 
 onset ? Will the spoils repair the disasters of the strug- 
 gle ? For we concede the plausibility of some benevolent 
 and even religious scruples which may be alleged against 
 our missionary scheme ; as well as that a perilous risk of 
 life, a vast consumption of property, a harrowing torture 
 of feeling, and exhausting labour of intellect, must be de- 
 manded, to carry this scheme into efficient operation. 
 We allow the moral dilemmas to which the very theory 
 of missions may be reduced, and the afflictive circum- 
 stances by which their career may be darkened and op- 
 posed. There is much to thwart our plans, and much to 
 depress our hearts. W e ask no concealment, we court no 
 subterfuge. Let the array of all possible objections, all 
 conceivable impediments, present itself, — and then, we 
 shall not be surprised if some insincere and heartless 
 allies, who have supported the undertaking only as a 
 fashion, and admired it only as a novelty, fall away. Let 
 “ it he made manifest that they tvere not all of us .” They 
 are alike unfit to encounter reverse, or to improve success. 
 They may be compared to the cowards on some battle- 
 field, who draw not all their fears from the hostile force, 
 but start at the flutter of their own banners when wreathed 
 with victory, and clangor of their own trumpets when 
 pealing with triumph. Let the lukewarm traitor, discon- 
 certed with every hindrance (and many there are) depart 
 with the adage of indolence, “ There is a lion in the 
 way.'" Let the avaricious churl, dismayed at every re- 
 quisition and levy (and many there must be) retire with 
 the mutter of penuriousness, “ To what purpose is this 
 waste ?” But such as are attached to this cause from 
 principle, led by the spirit of Him “ who zoill have all men 
 1 1 he saved , even hy coming to the knowledge of the truth f 
 
3 
 
 moulded on the example of Ilim who “ came to seek and to 
 save that which icas lost," — these will rouse with the ex- 
 igency of the occasion, and arm for the danger of the 
 crisis : these will woo the strife, and gird for the conflict. 
 They will not “ turn back in the day of battle" They per- 
 ceive that the missionary system is only formidable in pro- 
 portion to its grandeur. And their unhesitating conclu- 
 sion is, that were the embarrassments and sacrifices inci- 
 dental to it multiplied a thousand-fold, yet is the purpose 
 so lofty, the apparatus so transcendant, that it would be 
 right to persist and imperative to proceed. 
 
 Now in endeavouring candidly to state, and satis- 
 factorily to refute, these objections, we confess that 
 it must be granted to us that Christianity is true. 
 Our controversy is not with the infidel, — we debate 
 only with Christians. Nor do we give a complimentary 
 latitude to this appellation. Many loudly boast, and 
 strenuously claim it. Their signatures are never 
 
 wanting to declarations of disgust at all irreligious 
 freethinking. By some peculiar ceremony the char- 
 acter is imprinted on their brow. It is understood that 
 the name has descended to them as a franchise and 
 birthright. It cannot be doubted, when geographical re- 
 ference is made, and historic authority canvassed, that it is 
 merited by them. But it is with that numerous class of 
 professed disciples of the gospel, who appear honestly and 
 tenaciously convinced of its truth, that we join issue. 
 They have not been inured to these excitements. They 
 are not satisfied with the institutions to which these excite- 
 ments lend themselves. They are too servile to take the 
 erect attitude, to speak the independent tone. Insinua- 
 tion is their ordinary' medium, and though sometimes they 
 “ prate with malicious words," they indulge more fre- 
 quently cold and artful sarcasms. And with those who 
 admit that Christianity is true, we argue, there is no al- 
 ternative but to defend Christianity and Christian mis- 
 sions with the same apology, in the same manner, and at 
 the same time. Nor is there any middle course to hold ; 
 
4 
 
 but the same objections must be made to both, and what- 
 ever evils may be attributed to the present extension 
 of Christianity must be chargeable upon its original 
 
 ESTABLISHMENT. 
 
 Our attempts to propagate the Gospel have often 
 been successfully exculpated by an appeal to the fact of its 
 former propagation. The cavillers at these attempts have 
 never been able to rebut this simple but gravelling state- 
 ment, — that if we do wrong in evangelizing other coun- 
 tries, they must have done wrong who evangelized our own. 
 We have driven opponents into a circle from which they 
 cannot escape, by reminding them ; — “ Ye were Gentiles 
 carried away unto these dumb idols, even as ye were 
 led and by interrogating them, “ What ? came the word 
 of God out from you ? or came it unto you only ?” But 
 we propose to go higher in point of time, and to advance 
 more intrepidly in point of fact, contending that there can 
 be no opposition raised to missions but must equally and 
 even more strongly weigh against the advent of Christ, 
 and the setting up of his kingdom in our world. 
 
 This, then, is the position we take up in vindication 
 of our proceedings. The impassioned exclamations of the 
 Redeemer prefixed to this discourse, admirably agree to 
 our design. There is a good in iiis religion wor- 
 thy OF ANY HAZARD AND ANY EXPENSE. Tile CX- 
 clamations are conceived under this impression of the 
 case. We contemplate nothing but the evolu- 
 tion OF THAT GOOD BY THE PROPAGATION OF THAT 
 
 religion. Nor is this benevolence optional and gratu- 
 itous on our part, for if the religion be divine, we must 
 not only acknowledge it, as worthy of universal homage, 
 to be fit and decent to spread it universally ; but must 
 perceive that the obligation to do so is placed by its 
 authority among the most descriptive and solemn of the 
 duties we owe to its profession. Such is “ the height 
 of this great argument.” If any henceforth arraign our 
 proceedings on the ground of certain secular or moral 
 
o 
 
 difficulties which may attend them, we reply that Christ's 
 mission “ sent fire on the earth if any question how far 
 they are justifiable from the cost of labour, suffering, 
 and feeling, necessary to their ultimate success, we an- 
 swer that Christ’s bosom glowed with vehement desire, 
 with quenchless zeal, with panting haste to suffer agonies 
 and enter conflicts to which all that may possibly buffet 
 us can present no parallel and bear no resemblance, — 
 that he was “ straitened for the baptism with which he 
 was to be baptized r Missions, we avow, may “bring fire 
 on the earth,"" so did the incarnation of Christ, and “ what 
 would he but that it should kindle Missions will 
 assuredly task the spirit of exertion and self-devotement 
 to the utmost, but so did the ends of the Saviour’s work : 
 for the acquisition of those ends he was impetuous to 
 yield to the ineffable exertions and sacrifices demanded of 
 him, and as he approached the awful scene of “ sore amaze- 
 ment and heaviness, of sorrow unto death ,” of the Cup 
 and of the Cross, he “ set his face steadfastly' to it, and 
 was mysteriously constrained for the catastrophe ! That 
 cannot be fanatical in the disciple which is heroic in the 
 Master, nor extravagant in the servant which is mag- 
 nanimous in the Lord. 
 
 In arranging and illustrating the statements thus 
 propounded, we shall remark, that the mission of 
 Christ was undertaken for the most important 
 
 ENDS : THAT THESE ENDS COULD ALONE BE PROSE- 
 CUTED AT A MOST PAINFUL EXPENSE : THAT THE 
 
 IMPORTANCE OF THESE ENDS JUSTIFIED THE VAST 
 SACRIFICE NECESSARY FOR THEIR ACQUISITION. 
 
 I. The mission of Christ was undertaken for 
 
 THE MOST IMPORTANT ENDS. 
 
 There must have been some prospective benefit to 
 draw forth such breathings, and to awaken such desires, — 
 a prospective benefit which awaited the close of his 
 sojourn on earth, and had been made conditional on his 
 death. It was not impatience of suffering ; it was not 
 
6 
 
 regret that he had interposed, which imbued his mind 
 with those anxieties, and wrung from it those impor- 
 tunities. He longed to “ cease from his works ,” because 
 upon his death alone could he realize the conception of 
 his mind, and grasp the purpose of his heart. He 
 therefore anticipated the agony of the garden as one 
 looking for a spoil, and waited for the darkness which 
 came over the land when he was crucified, “ more than 
 they who wait for the morning .” It was not indifference., 
 then, which induced him to “ will the kindling cf the 
 fire? but because he knew that the accomplishment of 
 his designs would render any disadvantages, inevitable 
 to that accomplishment, comparatively trivial and par- 
 tial, — disadvantages signified by the fire. Nor was it 
 restlessness which “ straitened him for his baptism 
 but because he felt that the fulfilment of his purposes 
 would indemnify the intense and dying sufferings requi- 
 site to that fulfilment, — sufferings figured by the baptism. 
 Therefore did he gaze complacently on the kindling fire, 
 and hail most fervently, “ yea with desire did desire ” 
 the baptism of blood, from his distinct foreknowledge and 
 just appreciation of those great ends to which these were 
 either contingent or necessary. Let us produce some of 
 these ends. 
 
 1. To present an atonement to the Divine govern- 
 ment for the sin if man. This is strictly a moral act, 
 and first regards the government of Heaven in the 
 wrongs it has suffered, and the indignities it has received. 
 Now this its first, earliest, reference, not only coincides 
 with what is due to the supremacy of that government, 
 but also secures our well-being, which must ever be in pro- 
 portion to its vindication and establishment. Any 
 derogation from its holy majesty would be the exact 
 measure of diminution of our good. And this stamps 
 such glory upon the atonement, that it is not extraneous 
 to the great moral system, nor an appendage to it, but 
 a great legislative act itself : “ All things arc of God, 
 
7 
 
 who hath reconciled vs to himself by Jesus Christ." 
 “ For it he cam l him for whom are all things , and by 
 whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, 
 to make the captain of their salvation perfect through 
 sufferings." On tins principle the atonement cannot 
 be partial in its validity, nor restrictive in its objects, 
 because its character is determined by its moral relations, 
 and the divine government becomes its very index and 
 scale. — And it is not only a legislative act, but the most 
 signal and expressive one. Would we see the divine 
 character in all its lustre, we must henceforth see it in 
 the pardon of those who traduced it, — would we see the 
 divine government in all its stability, we must henceforth 
 see it in the forgiveness of those who trampled upon it. 
 “ To declare his righteousness fur the remission of sins." 
 The Almighty Ruler appears in this transaction not 
 only “ delighting in mercy," but “ glorious in holiness." 
 Most astonishing combination ! All the rays of his 
 glory shine with a mingled light ; all the exercises of 
 his administration blend in a common act. “ He is 
 just , and the justifier of him who believeth in Jesus." 
 This was an impossibility to all but infinite wisdom ; this 
 is a paradox to all but humble faith. Thus the brightest 
 display of the divine government is m an act, which, 
 taken alone, would imply a relaxation of all its prin- 
 ciples, a suspension of all its sanctions, and an eclipse 
 of all its glories ! — What an end was this ! To make 
 peace between God and man ! To bind heaven and 
 earth in amity ! Instead of casting down the glorious 
 high throne of the Everlasting King under the feet of 
 man, to capacitate man to draw nigh to its footstool here, 
 and to entitle him to sit down amidst its splendors here- 
 after, — a throne of grace accessible now, a throne of 
 glory inheritable for ever ! 
 
 “ While Jesus’ blood through earth and skies, 
 
 “ Mercy, free boundless mercy, cries !’’ 
 
8 
 
 Another intention contemplated by the Saviour, was, 
 2. To overthrow the rebellions power which haa 
 usurped the dominion of this world. Treason against 
 Heaven had originally been plotted by the angels who 
 “ kept not their first estate .” But hell could not imprison 
 it. And this “ new world” soon became the strong-hold 
 in which it most powerfully fastened itself, and the chief 
 theatre of its wide-wasting activity. As it rose from 
 nothing, the eye of the murderer gloated upon it. Here 
 he could wreak his cruelty. It was a “ hole for his 
 prey and a den for his ravin ." Here, too, he found 
 a field, after his flight from heaven, favourable for ral- 
 lying and annoyance. It seemed a suitable magazine for 
 storing the elements of his warfare. It presented a 
 vantage ground for planting the engines of his attack. 
 The extent and reality of this fatal influence are suffi- 
 ciently attested by the titles he was permitted to wear 
 even by inspired suffrage : Prince and God of this world. 
 But in “ the volume or rather at the top of the “book'" or 
 scroll, “ it was written, Lo I come." “ I zvill put enmity,"" 
 said the Word to the Old Serpent, “ between thee and 
 the zvoman, and between thy seed and her seed : it shall 
 bruise thy head, and thou slialt bruise his heel." Thus 
 from the beginning he met the foe. He caught him in 
 his own toils. He challenged him with his own weapons. 
 He marked him for destruction. And he stood on the 
 earth which the Tempter had only just seduced from its 
 allegiance ; and as “ he stood he measured the earth," 
 resolving to dethrone the rebel and suppress the revolt. 
 Four thousand years witnessed the preparation and mus- 
 ter for this struggle. And at last he appeared. “ Of 
 the people there was none zeith him." It was not a 
 combat to be shared. His single arm must win it. Nor 
 was it a combat whose grapple was for mortal eye, whose 
 shock was for mortal ear. He returned from it with his 
 trophies. “ He had stained all his raiment." “ His fury 
 upheld him." “ He had destroyed the works of the 
 
9 
 
 Devil,” and “ through death him who had the pour r oj 
 death , that is the Devil.” And we may chant as we 
 “ walk about” the Cross and “ go round about ” it : 
 “ He hath spoiled principalities and powers, and made a 
 shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it.” 
 
 It is impossible to overlook among these designs 
 
 3. The redemption of innumerable multitudes of 
 our race from the consequences of their apostacy. 
 
 Redemption may sometimes be used much in the same 
 sense as atonement, but its stricter meaning will not suffer 
 this use. As atonement associates itself with the idea of 
 government, it must have a general aspect, as redemp. 
 tion identifies itself with that of purchase, it must have 
 a particular one. Redemption is of persons, not of 
 blessings ; and may be considered that application of 
 the atonement which purchases us as the “ Church of 
 the Lord .” — It is difficult to conceive of this redemption 
 being left to uncertainty ; and yet if it rest with the 
 caprice of man, his self-determining volition, whether he 
 will accept it, it must be an utter chance, a very problem 
 whether any will accept it at all. If the Saviour had a 
 purpose in his death, that purpose must stand ; if he had 
 a purpose it must reasonably include the success of his 
 redemption and ensure it : and would he venture all 
 those sufferings upon an indeterminate stake, or a vague 
 conjecture P Should it be said that his fore-knowledge 
 precludes the supposed uncertainty, the difficulty recoils 
 with greater violence. The redemption of his people is on 
 on all sides admitted to be certain ; whence that certainty 
 originates can scarcely be answered with any variety by those 
 addicted to enquire “ Who maketh us to differ from 
 others ?” — As this “ purchased possession” constitutes 
 his bewakd, there can be no failure. “ He shall see his 
 seed.” But does this view render the number smaller 
 because it renders its completion certain? It may be 
 said that it is exclusive. And might not the mere fore- 
 knowledge of the redeemed be equally reproached as 
 
 c 
 
10 
 
 exclusive ? That a fixed number (and we can as cordially 
 believe that “ no man can number ” it on our creed as 
 on any other known one) shall be redeemed, appears to us 
 essential to the vindication of the Saviour’s purpose as 
 worthy of his mind, and to the adjustment of his reward 
 as honourable to his work. That this fixed number 
 bears unfavourably on the destinies of others, we have yet 
 to learn ; and how it can affect them, we have yet to 
 understand. “ There can be no more,” it will be said ; 
 “ there will be no less,” we rejoin. And though it may 
 seem an inference warranted by reason, we find no such 
 inference drawn by scripture. If it must be entertained, 
 let it be called a supplement we deem proper, a corollary 
 we suppose necessary. There is nothing similar to this 
 freezing alternative of exclusion in any sentiment or 
 feeling of the inspired page : “ All that the Father giveth 
 me shall come to me ; and him that comcth to me, I 
 will in no wise cast out." What an end is again pro- 
 posed in this redemption ! What is a soul ? What is 
 the multitude of these souls P What is their rescue 
 from sin, death, and hell ? “ None can by any means 
 
 redeem his brother, nor give to God a ransom for him ; 
 Jor the redemption of their soul is precious, and it 
 ceaseth for ever. 
 
 Another prospect unfolded itself to Immanuel : 
 
 4. The formal assumption and complete discharge 
 of his mediatorial characters. 
 
 These offices were purely mediatorial, and were held 
 in right not of Deity, but of Deity and Humanity in 
 one original and unparalleled person, sanctified, scaled, 
 and sent into the world. The offices were as peculiar 
 as the person, and as necessary also. They were most 
 glorious. One of the most distinguished of these is his 
 Priesthood. Some have asserted that he could not be 
 a priest until he died. At least until then he reminds 
 us more of a victim. If a priest in any acceptation he 
 was never seen engaged in his highest rites, or arrayed 
 
11 
 
 in his costliest vestments. An inspired writer has decided 
 “ if he were on earth , he should not he a priest ." But 
 now he ministers in the holiest of all. He is attired in his 
 most sacred habiliments, he appears with his own blood, he 
 stands with his censer, and conducts the awful mysteries of 
 “ the sanctuary, the true tabernacle, whichthe Lord pitched 
 and not man." And as “ he did not glorify himself to he 
 made a High Priest ," so his priesthood forms his bright- 
 est honour and dearest reward. — He is a Priest upon his 
 throne. His empire as King is founded in death. His 
 sword did not flesh itself in his foes, but clave his own 
 heart. His march to dominion was not cut through his 
 enemies, but he waded to it in his own blood. Earth was 
 at least as inappropriate for his royalty, as his priesthood. 
 It is too mean and narrow for him to maintain his state 
 and hold his court. — But here it may be enquired, what 
 benevolence do we applaud in the desire of offices, the 
 sphere of whose exercise is thus shewn to be in Glory ? 
 In these lofty aspirings there is nothing selfish and con- 
 tracted. Why did he long to assume his priesthood in 
 all its pomp and service ? That his altar may attract, 
 and his blood cleanse, and his intercession avail, and his 
 benediction revive, a world. Why did he burn to put 
 on the robe and diadem P That he might sway all things 
 for the security and happiness of his people ; that he 
 might “ deliver them from the hands of them who hated 
 them ;" that he might adjudge to them palaces of joy 
 and crowns of life. 
 
 The only remaining intention we shall select is 
 5. The effusion of his Spirit as essential to the pro- 
 motion of his cause, and accunndation of his church. 
 
 The importance of this Influence may be estimated 
 from the fact, that it supplies the absence of the Saviour. 
 His withdrawment from earth becomes a great act of 
 benevolence, as making way for this paramount visitation. 
 “ It is expedient for you that I go away." And if 
 any value attach to his cause, and to his church, doubly 
 
 c2 
 
 V. 
 
valuable is that holy and resistless power to which 
 they must ascribe their success, and look for their per- 
 petuity. Eager for the growth of his cause, his antici- 
 pations constantly lingered upon it, as the result of his 
 death. “ Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground 
 and die , it abideth alone ; but if it die it bringetli forth 
 good fruit .” “ And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, 
 
 •will draw all men unto me.” All power in heaven and 
 earth was for the first time wielded by him, to stamp 
 the Missionary Law with indelible authority. “ Go 
 ye into all the world and preach the gospel [to every 
 creature .” — There never can be a true religion without 
 3 church. He therefore prayed that all who believed 
 on his name, or should believe, might be one ; and he 
 promulgated too “ all things pertaining to the king- 
 dom of God.” As illustrative of the value which belongs 
 to the Church, consider that its existence is the reason 
 of creation : “ That I may plant the heavens and lay 
 
 the foundations of the earth, and say unto Zion, thou 
 art my people:” — that it is the purchase of Christ, “ The 
 church of the Lord which he hath purchased ivith his 
 own blood:” — that it is the school of angels, “ To the 
 intent that now unto the principalities and powers 
 in heavenly places might be known by the church the 
 manifold wisdom of God:” — that it is the nursery of 
 heaven, “ We are come to the general assembly and 
 church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven.” 
 With these ends we are zealously determined that 
 our Missions shall coincide. We support them only so 
 far as we conscientiously believe them to carry out these 
 ends. We endeavour to deduce the purposes of Christi- 
 anity, those purposes we know are as entwined as ever 
 with the heart of Him “ who teas and is to come,” and 
 we seek nothing foreign to them, nothing adverse to 
 them, nothing inferior to them. And “ these words shall 
 be in our heart , and we will teach them diligently unto 
 our children, and we will talk of them when we sit 
 
13 
 
 in our house and rehen zee zealk by the rvay. And zee 
 zeill bind them for a sign upon our hand, and they shall 
 be as frontlets between our eyes." 
 
 We would dislodge the crude and monstrous con- 
 ceptions of the Divine government, which invariably 
 obtain in the absence of Christianity, by the exhibition 
 of the Atonement. We do not attempt to purge and 
 elevate those conceptions by appeal to moral sense, by 
 declamation on eternal fitness, by enforcement of natural 
 religion, but “ fools for Christ's sake," we will assert and 
 magnify the “ kingdom zohich rulcth over all" by “ the 
 preaching of the cross." Thus only do we “ declare 
 his glory among the heathen," thus only do we “ say 
 among the heathen that the Lord reigneth." And they 
 learn from that very cross what purity and mercy, as 
 well as vengeance and power, they must ascribe to the 
 God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. His moral 
 loveliness and excellence break like a vision over their 
 mind. Their idols were known to them through every 
 medium of pollution and image of cruelty. Before those 
 shrines they might be seized with terror, but were never 
 pervaded with awe ; they might tremble, but could not 
 love. But God in Christ endears himself' to them as 
 Infinite Perfection. They not only “ taste that he is 
 gracious," but “ give thanks at the remembrance of his 
 holiness." “ The beauty of holiness" is now as attractive 
 to them as the smile of love. How strangely kind is this 
 message ! To announce the inexorableness of the Di- 
 vine government in a proclamation of amnesty to a rebel 
 world! To “ publish salvation" to that world, and at 
 the same time to “ say, Thy God reigneth, !" 
 
 We would expose the foul usurpation which has for 
 so long a period arrogantly held and fiercely tyrannised 
 over our nature. Could we see in image-worship only 
 the grim and hideous shapes which are sensibly presented 
 to the votary, perhaps “ our spirit" would not so indig- 
 nantly “ be stirred within" us. While we deplored the 
 
14 
 
 infatuation, we should rather be affeeted by pity than 
 disgust. We might even be betrayed into irony : “ Cry 
 aloud for he is a God ; for either he is talking, or he 
 is pursuing, or he is on a journey, or peradvcnturc he 
 sleepeth and must be awaked." But ours is a more 
 painful insight. “ The things which the Gentiles sacri- 
 fice, they sacrifice to devils and not to God." And we 
 find ourselves employed in a system of aggression on this 
 subtle, invisible, and malignant dominion of evil. We 
 discover ourselves engaged at all points with this dread 
 hostility. “ We wrestle against principalities, against 
 poivers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, 
 against spiritual wickedness in high places." To con- 
 fess such an enterprise is, we know, to bring down on 
 ourselves unsparing ridicule. And even we must often be 
 discouraged : the influence we oppose seeming necessarily 
 impassive and hopelessly ascendant. But we have “ re- 
 sisted the Devil and he has fed from us." We brandish 
 weapons he cannot withstand. We aim strokes he can- 
 not evade. He is “ overcome by the blood of the Lamb 
 and the word of our testimony." He is beaten from his 
 most secure and ancient defences already. “ He hath 
 great wrath because he Jcnoweth that he hath but a short 
 time." And while these assaults on the entrenchments 
 of “ Satan s seat" are regarded by many unreal and 
 visionary as the maniac’s raving and the drunkard's 
 dream, — the struggle proceeds, — we discern signs of con- 
 fusion and intimations of retreat among the enemy, — new 
 captives are hourly made ; fresh positions are hourly 
 carried ; irresolution shall issue in discomfiture — discom- 
 fiture in rout, — rout in flight : and we will “ return with 
 joy, saying, Lord, even the devils are subject urito us 
 through thy name !" 
 
 We would proclaim the redemption of souls. The 
 Missionary is the herald of universal deliverance. The 
 Hottentot starts forth from his burrow and becomes 
 human. The Negro, with the brand of slavery upon 
 
15 
 
 him, fools free. The Savage is reclaimed to civilization. 
 The Cannibal quits his horrible banquet. At the ap- 
 proach of the Missionary philanthropist, dungeons Hy 
 open whose bolts had slept in rust for ages : at the 
 approach of this liberator, chains rend asunder whose 
 links seemed inseparably rivetted : at the approach of 
 this pacificator, “ men learn r car no more." But the 
 diffusion of knowledge, the excitement of enquiry, the 
 introduction of liberal and peaceful arts, cannot content 
 us. The soal must engage our first and last commisera- 
 tion. This is our business. And can we hope to be 
 successful in saving a soul ? many souls ? What is 
 conceded to no angel who stands in glory, and to no saint 
 who is made perfect, is a trust imposed, and an honor 
 conferred, on ourselves. “ If any do err from the truth, 
 and one convert him, let him know that he which con- 
 verteth a sinner from the error of his way, shall save 
 a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins." 
 From this indescribable gratification, this inestimable 
 prize, Heaven is debarred. A child, a bed-ridden crip- 
 ple, a homeless fugitive, may achieve the conversion of 
 a sinner, the salvation of a soul,— an achievement over 
 which Gabriel shall rejoice, but to which Gabriel could 
 not be instrumental. Should the damned with most piercing 
 wail implore Abraham to “ have mercy" on them, not 
 in rescuing them, but only in assuaging their agonies, 
 and even he could not “pass the great gulf faced' : nor 
 can Lazarus, but now “ carried by angels" into the 
 Patriarch’s “ bosom " so much as “ dip the tip of his 
 finger in water and cool the tongue" of any who are 
 “ tormented in this fame." 
 
 We would exalt the Lord Jesus in all the me- 
 diatorial offices with which he is invested for the 
 salvation of man. And surely how welcome, “ how 
 beautiful the feet" of the messenger who declares to 
 Pagans the priesthood of Christ. For here our religion 
 finds perhaps the only idea in their superstitions with 
 
16 
 
 which it can coalesce. And even this idea, the one 
 exclusively congenial with its nature and favourable to 
 its acceptance, is so distorted that it forms almost as 
 great a disadvantage. It seems impossible to doubt 
 that this idea is a traditional and corrupt relic of the 
 first religious dispensation. In temples, it may be figured 
 with human skulls, and over altars besmeared and reeking 
 with human sacrifices, the Missionary affirms the one 
 Offering, the only Propitiation, The sacrificing knife drops 
 from the hand, — each eye turns from the mangled and 
 quivering limbs on which it had lately glared, — the 
 Demon-Moloch is scared from his recess, and to rapt 
 ears and leaping hearts is the proclamation made, which 
 was first heard at Bethabara, but whose “ sound is gone 
 into all the earth , and its words unto the ends of the 
 world “ Behold the Lamb of God which taketh 
 away the sins of the u'obld. t ’ — And then it will 
 be easy to set him forth as King. Their consciences 
 already healed, their hearts already won, they will be 
 “ made willing " to acknowledge and kiss his sceptre. 
 They will go forth and see his crown. They will 
 yield cheerful obedience to the law written in their 
 minds. The summons, “ Bow the knee," would have 
 been complied with, had there been no formal 
 investiture of royal prerogative. It is beneath the cross 
 “ that every knee bows, and every tongue cynjesses, 
 that Jesus is Lord ." 
 
 Wc would remember through all the steps of this 
 work, that the Holy Spirit alone can endue our agents 
 with power, and crown their labours with success. And 
 if ever we are betrayed into a slight of the Holy 
 Spirit, by imbibing a w'orldly temper, or evincing a 
 boastful ostentation, we must surely be reproved by 
 the fact, that Christ placed the whole stress and weight 
 of his cause on “his Spirit's might." How humble should 
 our dependence be on these operations. And we use 
 this term as more expressive of what the Spirit does. 
 Terms which associate with them notions of aid, 
 
17 
 
 influence, impression, though proper in themselves, do hot 
 go far enough. The power of the Spirit is directly 
 employed on the hearts of men. Until we are brought 
 to see the necessity not only of his impulse, but of his 
 agency, we shall be vexed by defeat, and consumed 
 by disappointment ; our magazine of instruments, a toyish 
 spectacle, our system of efforts, an elaborate vanity! 
 But when the Spirit is “ poured out on alljlcsh then 
 shall the cause of Christ reach its destined extent, and 
 fill its predicted sphere : then shall the church of Christ 
 comprehend all the divisions of earth, and all the 
 kindreds of man. 
 
 In this manner, at an immense remove, and with 
 an unequal step, indeed, we follow up the ends proposed 
 by the mission of Jesus Christ. This is our standard, 
 and though we constantly fail of it, we never volun- 
 tarily swerve from it. “ As he ” was, “ so are we in 
 this world." 
 
 II. These ends could alone be prosecuted 
 
 AT A MOST PAINFUL EXPENSE. 
 
 By “ sending fire on the earth” the Saviour ap- 
 pears to intend some evils, which would accompany the 
 propagation of his religion ; evils not chargeable upon 
 its constitution, but yet contingent on its progress. He 
 anticipated these, and forewarned his followers of them. 
 He knew that the revolution which was now commenc- 
 ing, must require some inconveniences and involve 
 some disadvantages. He therefore compared himself to 
 one who had already thrown the blazing torch, already 
 hurled the lighted brand, while he assimilates the effects 
 of his conduct to the fierce and rapid flame of a 
 conflagration. Another expense is signified as incurred 
 by these ends, an expense more dread and intolerable ; 
 but to the examination of the more accidental evils, as 
 first in order, we shall -at present address ourselves. 
 
 1. We cannot conceal the fact, that Christianity 
 may affect political systems. 
 
 D 
 
18 
 
 The disciples of Christ are not men given to 
 change, nor inclined to contention. Though upon 
 their profession of his name they do not forfeit any 
 immunity which citizenship supposes, nor abandon any 
 feeling which patriotism inspires, they are not to be drawn 
 aside by political cabal. If their “ kingdom were of 
 this zvorld, then would they fght for it? Whilst they 
 
 are sensitively alive to whatever enters into Social Com- 
 pact, and are inflexibly devoted to whatever bears upon 
 Religious Liberty, they stand aloof, if conscientious duty 
 will allow them, from the party wranglings of their day. 
 But the religion of Christ has, beyond all doubt, written 
 itself in the history of empires. He who “ rebuked kings 
 for the sake" of his ancient church, will never long endure 
 any state of things unfavourable to his people, or pre- 
 judicial to his cause. He “ will overturn, overturn , 
 overturn it, until he come whose right it is? Kings 
 and kingdoms are very little matters in comparison with 
 his glory, and nothing in opposition to it. No wonder 
 then, if in setting up Messiah’s throne, other thrones 
 should be cast down : no wonder then, if in marking out 
 Messiah’s kingdom, other boundaries should be swallowed 
 up. But it must be recollected that Christianity has 
 never been the direct author, though it may have proved 
 the actual occasion, of these national vicissitudes. It has 
 “ come preaching peace? It has been denied access. 
 In this, princes and nations have “ despised not man but 
 God? Their overthrow was the consequence ; but it was 
 the judicial consequence. “ The nation and kingdom 
 that will not seri'e thee shall perish ; yea those nations 
 shall be utterly wasted? Ponder the fate of Jerusalem . 
 “ It knew not the day of its visitation? Christianity did 
 not lay that city in heaps, but the Founder of Christianity 
 did for its sake. Who can paint that “ abomination of 
 desolation ?” "What ‘■‘■ fire was sent upon the earth But 
 none can doubt that the “ desolation ” swept away, and 
 the “fire" burnt down, some of the most formidable 
 
19 
 
 impediments which ever withstood the Gospel. And 
 after the triumphs Christianity has obtained over the 
 most colossal forms of power in the Old World, it need 
 not dread an encounter with the impotent desperadoes 
 of a swamp in the New. A bad civil system cannot be 
 propped by a determined exclusion of revealed truth. As 
 a moral crime no language can describe its guilt ; as a 
 political mistake no language can express its fatuity. 
 Christianity might disdain a theatre so contemptible, but 
 there is the Missionary to defend, and the Slave to redeem. 
 When we read of his efforts, who is recorded to “ blind 
 the minds of men lest the light of the glorious gospel of 
 Christ should shine unto them,' 1 ' we deem those efforts 
 characteristic. But when we learn that there are any of 
 human form who emulate them, we sicken at their frenzy. 
 They are tempting a catastrophe. They are heating 
 the elements of goaded and irritated feeling for the pur- 
 pose of an explosion. They are attracting to themselves 
 that “ fire " which the Saviour “ sent on the earth", and 
 which has long since consumed, as on their funeral piles, 
 the most powerful dynasties and empires which have 
 opposed his religion. 
 
 2. It is further admitted that Christianity must 
 produce a variety of innovations. 
 
 The face of the world, on the introduction of this 
 religion, presented a most singular appearance. Philoso- 
 phy was proudly triumphant : Idolatry was deeply 
 
 intrenched. The philosophy was of the most arrogant 
 pretensions ; the idolatry was of the most extraordinary 
 resources. To subvert their fabrics seemed hopeless as to 
 “ scatter the everlasting mountains, or bow down the 
 perpetual hills." They were frosted by the hoar of ages, 
 patronised by monarchs, extolled by orators, championed 
 by heroes. Every prepossession was in their favor, 
 every auxiliary was at their command. Eloquence, poetry, 
 art, — legislation, judicature, arms, were all their own. 
 They could arouse a world to their defence. The 
 
20 
 
 very massiveness of these systems steadied their balance, 
 and compacted their solidity.— Their overthrow was 
 proportionate. Great was the fall. Tremendous was the 
 concussion. Wide was the ruin. Christianity went forth 
 with the torch of extermination. It “kindled afire in 
 the houses of the gods .” It “ rendered its anger with 
 fury " against all that resisted it, and “ its rebuke with 
 fames of fire." It, by the very process of fire, trans- 
 formed all things into itself. The interested and bigoted 
 beheld the conversion with alarm. All was yielding to 
 to the flame. Nothing was proof against its intensity, 
 nothing sufficient to check its progress. And whilst the 
 disciples of Christ contemplated the flame as that of a 
 sacrifice, his enemies regarded it only as destructive, and 
 could discern in its inextinguishable violence, only 
 “ blood, fire, and pillars of smoke" 
 
 We may easily conceive of the inconvenience of such 
 an innovating principle. What excitement of new ideas ! 
 What disturbance of immemorial customs ! The mind 
 of some bewildered ! 'The craft of more in danger ! 
 “ No small stir about that way !" “ The world turned 
 
 upside down !” And they who considered innovation 
 an evil, and would never divert the currents of life 
 from their smooth-worn channels, must have witnessed 
 with perfect consternation the influence of Christianity, 
 — its irresistible career, and its uncompromising temper ! 
 
 Besides Christianity would submit to no incorpora- 
 tion with other systems of opinion, or intercommunity with 
 other rites of worship). It not only implied, but denounced, 
 that all other religions were either superseded or false. 
 It asserted itself to be the only true, the universally 
 obligatory, rule. It demanded unmixed and uncondi- 
 tional obedience. Idolatry and philosophy could not 
 extort from it one flattering title, nor one indulgent sti- 
 pulation. 
 
 And moreover the claims of property existed in 
 those days. There was some high-sounding phrase. 
 
21 
 
 no doubt, equal to our modern one of “ vested rights. “ 
 Christianity was a direct invasion of them. The Llamen 
 no longer received the gifts which the pilgrims were 
 wont to lavish at his feet: the Hierophant waited in 
 vain for spectators of the mysteries, and lost the fee of 
 initiation : the Philosopher harangued to deserted seats. 
 And yet Christianity never referred to the subject of 
 adjustment or compensation, — nor paid any respect to 
 the grey hairs acquired in these departments. And in- 
 deed Christianity looks very coldly on the claims of 
 property laid out in iniquity. Heathen temples were 
 property, but it left them to mould and dilapidation. 
 Shrines, vestments, fillets, censers, tripods were pro- 
 perty, but though it rendered them useless, it does not 
 appear that it ever accounted for them. The whole of 
 the ancient idolatry was a speculation on the faith of 
 mankind : it had its capital, its agents, its parties. 
 Christianity prostrated that public faith : failure must 
 have been, in a thousand instances, ruinous to them who 
 had reposed on it. But there was no hearing of their 
 claims ; there was no assessment of their damages. — 
 Should any, on the principle of equivalents, now ask a re- 
 paration for the losses of property, — we would enquire in 
 the first place, in what that property consists ? If we 
 are informed, in man of another complexion , at the very 
 threshliold of the negociation we stop. We can recog- 
 nise no such property. Human nature is not a subject 
 for traffic : bones and muscles belonging to man cannot 
 be bartered: man cannot have property in man. But 
 the property is not only of that description which 
 vitiates itself, — the tenure on which it is claimed is 
 still more illegitimate. If a chattel, it is a stolen one : 
 if a commodity, a plundered one. Let those arts, by 
 which the kidnapper betrayed the confiding barbarian, 
 relate their honest tale. Let those villages which the 
 man-hunter burnt, that, amidst the wild uproar of the 
 scene, he might hurry away the affrighted victim, speak 
 
their pitiful history. Why shall the robber be punished 
 for the abstraction of a coin, or a beast ; and a buc- 
 caneer be acknowledged among “ merchants who are 
 princes ,” as he profanes the deep with his living cargo 
 and conscious freight ? Why shall the one be consigned 
 unpitied to the hands of the executioner ; and the other 
 be endured to beard, with brawl and menace, 
 senates too tame to resent his ruffian audacity, and too 
 slow to confiscate his felon-spoil? 
 
 3. Very unnatural divisions in society have appa- 
 rently been fomented by Christianity. 
 
 When it is really understood and truly felt, it con- 
 stitutes the very balm of life. It strengthens all the 
 charities of society, and sweetens all the endearments of 
 home. There is no relation but it dignifies and cements. 
 “ It turns the heart of the fathers unto the children , 
 and the heart of the children to their fathers.'" By it 
 “ shall all the families of the earth be blessed ."" — But 
 yet in its course many of these ties are severed. The 
 converted child, once folded in the kindest embrace, now 
 finds his parents more cruel than the sea-monster, and 
 becomes “ a stranger with his brethren , and an alien to 
 his own mothers children."" The converted idolater will 
 soon be esteemed a prey, he will be driven away as an 
 outcast, and should he be a slave, — the driver will not 
 forget to reward his conversion with the lash, nor pro- 
 bably some one be wanting, on the slightest excuse, to 
 resent it with the rifle. This premonition was constantly 
 furnished by Christ. “ The brother shall deliver up 
 the brother to death, and the father the child: and the 
 children shall rise up against their parents, and cause 
 them to be put to death." “ Think not that / am come 
 to send peace on the earth : I came not to send peace , 
 but a sword. And a man's foes shall be they of his 
 men household. From henceforth there shall be fve in 
 one house divided, three against tzvo, and two against 
 three." It is not the fault of this religion that strife 
 
it kindled, but its Author foresaw that it wotdd provoke 
 the malignity of minds too grovelling to comprehend its 
 excellence or to admire its purity. Of all these feuds 
 and animosities it is, at most, the innocent occasion, and 
 the passive victim. If it send fire on earth, man ia 
 busy to feed and blow it “ As coals are to burning 
 coals, and wood to fire ; so is the contentious man to 
 kindle strife.''' 
 
 4. Christianity must be viewed* in connection with 
 those persecutions which it has experienced. 
 
 Persecution will always endeavour to disguise itself 
 under forms of piety, or enactments of law, or imposi- 
 tions of necessity. It is studious, most commonly, to 
 find against Christianity a charge of secular interference. 
 It puts questions to it about tribute-money and Caesar, 
 only to tempt it. But the secret of all persecution is 
 this : “ The carnal mind is enmity against God." 
 
 Nearly the same class of prejudices is held, nearly the 
 same method of hostilities is pursued, against the “ truth 
 in Jesus," in the most disconnected extremes of our 
 globe. The same doctrine every where calls forth the 
 6ame opposition. It is an afflictive thought, that in all 
 places in which the gospel has been preached, the hatred 
 of some to “ godliness" has become ungovernably fierce. 
 He, therefore, whose name, faith, and church were to 
 be the very lures and marks to this persecuting rage, 
 openly declared that “ he came to send fire on the 
 earth." He knew that “ the fire" thus kindled would 
 prove the ordeal to his followers, and would “ try every 
 man's work what sort it was." He announced it from 
 the first that none might “ think it strange concerning 
 the fiery trial." Impostors flatter their disciples, Christ 
 disabused his. Impostors have literally sent fire on 
 earth : ravaging countries with the firebrand of war. 
 Christ sent only that fire which preyed upon himself 
 and his followers. When his exasperated disciples said to 
 him respecting the Samaritans : “ Lord wilt thou that 
 
we command fire to come down from heaven and con- 
 sume them ? He turned and rebuked them, and said. 
 Ye know not what manner of spirit yc are of, for the 
 Son of Man is not come to destroy mens' lives , but to 
 save them '' 
 
 5. Christianity has drawn forth some acts, on the 
 part of its adversaries, which have more effectually 
 exposed the depravity of human nature than any other 
 occasion coidd have admitted. 
 
 Perhaps the most revolting forms and ebullitions in 
 which this depravity has appeared are to be found in the 
 disbelief of Christ, and in the rejection of his gospel. 
 If “ by the law is the knowledge," by the gospel is the 
 demonstration, “ of sin." If when “ the commandment 
 comes sin revives," when the salvation comes it rises 
 again. The doctrine of the cross can never be under- 
 stood with indifference. No man can comprehend it 
 and be neutral. It elicits our “ inner man," it defines 
 emotions which were vague, and bodies forth conceptions 
 which were immature. “ It is a sign which is spoken 
 against, that the thoughts of many hearts may be re- 
 vealed." We see, in every possible contact with it, all 
 the workings of the bosom. While it can attach to itself 
 the warmest affections, so that its advocates will “ glory 
 in nothing save in it it can stir the deep-seated 
 corruption of our nature with equal power where it finds 
 no congenial susceptibility. 1 1 has a point to "repel as 
 well as one to attract. “ It is a stumbling-block and 
 foolishness ." “ The offence of the cross cannot cease." 
 
 The manner in which the gospel refuses to acknowledge 
 man but on a common level of uniform apostacy, and to 
 treat with him but on a common platform of simple 
 mercy, — will ever provoke the haughty and contumacious 
 resistance of his heart. But who can say what this 
 depravity is ? a depravity which decries the “ wisdom 
 and power" as “ the foolishness and weakness of God:" 
 which finds in the gospel of purity a wider scope for 
 
25 
 
 sin, in the gospel of truth a stronger reason for unbelief, 
 in the gospel of reconciliation a bolder ground for rebel- 
 lion ? Until now the human depravity was not seen. 
 But now that the den of the monster is loosed, and 
 its lair disturbed, it begins to erect its head, and spit 
 its poison, — while bloated with unconscious rage and 
 strength, it rouses itself from its stupor and unfolds 
 itself from its coil. And though Christianity may appear 
 accessary to these exhibitions, it is a sufficient disclaimer, 
 that all these exhibitions are most implacably directed 
 against itself. The “fire Christ sends upon the earth ” 
 may discover more clearly, and stimulate more actively, 
 the evil in our nature, but this only answers to his pro- 
 phetic description : “ He is like a refiner s fire." 
 
 6. The religion of Jesus Christ has very frequently 
 been perverted to designs most estranged from its char- 
 acter, and abhorrent to its spirit. 
 
 The most successful antagonists of this religion are 
 they who plead its authority, and retain its name. The 
 Antichristian power grew insensibly out of it. “ That 
 Wickedf “ the man of sin," is revealed from his nativity. 
 Apostles were apprized of his birth. And what a 
 monstrous abuse of Christianity does this personification 
 identify. From exquisite beauty, what deformity ! from 
 chaste simplicity, what meretriciousness ! from sweet 
 tenderness, what ferocity ! from seraphic holiness, what 
 defilement ! from dove-like peace, what discord ! Even the 
 Arabian impostor would find a sanction in the name of 
 Christ, and artfully moulded the religion of the Islam, 
 and the style of the Koran, with some deference to him. 
 
 And to what more general abuses, has Christianity 
 been desecrated ! What hypocrisy has it served to fawn ! 
 What ambition to desolate ! What sensuality to riot ! 
 What avarice to grub ! What superstition to dote ! 
 What bigotry to hoodwink ! What despotism to 
 
 oppress ! On its stock what earthly scions have been 
 grafted, what infernal fruits have been plucked ! Hence 
 
 E 
 
26 
 
 all the tricks of priestly jugglers, hence all the plots of 
 wily statesmen, hence all the persecutions of blood-thirsty 
 monarchs ! The religion of Christ has ever been 
 pretext and screen ! In this additional manner the 
 Son of God “ sent jire on the earth ." He foresaw the 
 mischiefs which would arise from this system of outrageous 
 misappropriation ! Fire may be easily supplied and 
 directed ; easily borrowed and communicated. It 
 is a fitting emblem of such abuse. And at this flame 
 Christian persecution has lighted its faggot, Christian 
 idolatry its altar, and Christian war its brand ! 
 
 7. The augmentation of moral responsibility has 
 necessarily attended the establishment of Christianity. 
 
 If what the creation “ clearly reveals of the invisi- 
 ble things of God," together with “ the law written in the 
 heart," leave the heathen, “ without excuse ," — so glo- 
 rious a dispensation as the present one must convict those 
 who deny it of the darkest crime, and adjudge to them 
 the heaviest condemnation. Every hearer of the gospel from 
 the moment “ the kingdom of God comes nigh to him," 
 enters a far more critical probation, and must abide by a 
 far more fearful issue. “ The street savor of Christ" is 
 to them who perish, “ the savor of death unto death." 
 They must, if disobedient, await “ a sorer punishment .” 
 How solemnly and plainly did the Redeemer enforce that 
 moral predicament of all who hear the gospel ! “.This is 
 the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and 
 men loved darkness rather than light." “ For judg- 
 ment I am come into th is world. If ye were blind ye 
 should have no sin ; but now ye say, we see, therefore 
 your sin remaineth." “ If I had not conic and spoken 
 unto them, they had not had sin : but now they have no 
 cloke for their sin." “ He that rejectcth me, and reeeiv- 
 eth not my words, hath one thatjudgeth him: the word 
 that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last 
 day ." — We do not argue indeed that an increase of moral 
 accountability is ail evil. This increase, of itself, supposes 
 
27 
 
 a proportionate addition of good. As all talents are favors, 
 so they are not less favors because they are trusts. 
 Accountability is the condition of all great privileges and 
 high endowments, — but this is a law imjiressed on angelic, 
 as well as human, being. Were it an unkind rigour, the 
 most exalted creatures must have the most bitter causes of 
 complaint, llut so far as any created nature, capable of 
 moral obedience, is holy, so far will that nature rejoice in 
 these obligations. Yet, in the dispensation of the gospel, 
 many incur a most tremendous liability. The only conse- 
 quence of their more favored condition is, an aggravated 
 doom. They are “ exalted to heaven to be “ thrust 
 doxen to hell." The highest moral boon that God could 
 confer on them, proves an eventual infliction. They curse 
 the hour in which the gospel was conveyed to them, and 
 in which they thus came beneath its awful sanctions- 
 Their hell cannot be shared, nor conceived, by those to 
 whom the gospel was never preached, or for whom it was 
 never intended, — it is their “ owm place" Heathens who 
 never heard it, devils who were never proffered it, shall 
 see how indignant Mercy can avenge itself. They will 
 learn not only, from themselves, whatit is to “ perish without 
 laxv," what is “ the everlasting fire prepared for them " — 
 but how impossible it is for those to “ escape who 
 neglect so great salvation." As they survey the 
 fate of those who “ believed not and are damned ,” they 
 will be glad to shun the writhings of their woe, and the 
 paroxysms of their despair : “ they will stand afar ojf for 
 the fear of their torment ! " — It may be noticed that we 
 do not impose this view, of the unbeliever's responsibility, 
 as a signification which this emblem-fire, may bear. For 
 the maxim immediately precedes the reference to it by 
 Christ, and happily serves to elucidate it : “ unto whom- 
 soever much is given , of him shall be much required:- 
 and to xchom men have committed much, of him they will 
 ask the more. I am come to send fire on the earth 
 It was a proof of his greatness, that he could not appear 
 as Saviour without raising human responsibility to the 
 
28 
 
 highest pitch. This fire was a glory necessarily emitted 
 from him, — a coruscation of his bright perfection and 
 refulgent cause. We need not be surprised to find that, 
 in proportion to the transcendence of the gospel, is the 
 retribution on those who neglect it, or that “ a fiery 
 indignation devours its adversaries The Lord Jesus, 
 by this symbolic representation, mercifully warns the world 
 of that great day, “ when he shall he revealed from heaven y 
 in fiaming fire , taking vengeance on them that know not 
 God , and that obey not the gospel of' our Lord Jesus 
 Christ 
 
 These, we must admit, are disadvantages or evils, 
 when viewed detached from all explanatory and counter- 
 balancing circumstances. And they would, we do further 
 admit, in some instances, and most degrees, have 
 continued unknown but for the Christian revelation. 
 Yet have you perceived, by all the previous induc- 
 tion, that it is the blameless cause and innocent 
 occasion. If it cast “ fire on the earth," that fire 
 
 could kindle only from the train already laid, and the 
 fuel already collected, in the passions and the crimes of 
 men. 
 
 Now we confess that were these difficulties and dilem- 
 mas, for the first time, to arise in connection with our Mis- 
 sionary scheme; were they its unexpected and uncalculated 
 accompaniments ; it might be a question to be entertained 
 and deliberated, whether we ought to try such grave and 
 awful experiments. But what objections can be raised 
 to the propagation of Christianity, save the very ob- 
 jections which were avowed, the very objections the 
 responsibility of which was cheerfully undertaken, by its 
 Founder and at its Institution ? 
 
 — — Though our introduction of Christianity into 
 Pagan countries is regulated by the most scrupulous 
 abstinence from political intermeddling, (an abstinence 
 some may deem too nearly approaching a servile timidity,) 
 yet it is possible that this introduction may become 
 the signal of political disorganization. If the government 
 
29 
 
 be good, Christianity will most beneficially aid and hap- 
 pily facilitate it, — will prove its guardian angel and con- 
 servative principle. If the government be bad, this 
 religion will furnish it with all the instruments of amelio- 
 ration. But should the political authority become the 
 assailant, resisting the cause, and harassing the church 
 of Christ, — then it may certainly look forward to a speedy 
 subversion. “ The Breaker up" will make a way for 
 truth and holiness, amidst the wrecks of pomp and power 
 which lie strewn around. We are not revolutionists nor 
 incendiaries, but we believe that whatever political 
 change can purify the existing forms, or desseminate the 
 true principles, of “ Christ's gospel" must transpire; and 
 without ranking ourselves with fifth monarchists, we are 
 assured that “ the kingdom and dominion, and the 
 greatness of the kingdom under the ichole heaven shall 
 be given to the people of the saints of the Most High ;" 
 and that “ the kingdoms of this world shall become 
 the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ." Let 
 whatever national revolution may occur in connection 
 with our missions, — and we confidently ask whether they 
 can be more obnoxious to the charge than was original 
 Christianity ? 
 
 Innovate too shall our missions on the customs 
 
 and associations of those people among whom they are 
 founded. What ages have settled, and millions have 
 believed, must be disturbed. The common respect for 
 precedent and prescription will be shaken. The antiquity 
 of any evil instead of obtaining a toleration for it, will 
 be considered a satisfactory proof that “ the time past 
 may suffice for it." Those most excellent watch-words, 
 slow, temperate, gradual, will lose their spell-binding 
 influence. Even among a race of slaves, though each 
 one has a sooty complexion, a woolly hair, and above all 
 a depressed forehead, (sure indications of mere bestial 
 nature we ween,) we should not be very much surprised 
 to learn that some missionary has appeared, that he has 
 
30 
 
 addressed them as men, and exhorted them to become 
 christians, — that he has had the hardihood to allude to 
 the history of Israel, though somewhat of bondage 
 is mentioned in it ; that he has had the effrontery to 
 read to them “ that the Lord rested on the Seventh Day 
 and hallowed it that even in commenting on the duties 
 of masters and slaves, (and no doubt such interesting 
 relations will create as interesting duties), he forgot to 
 blink the by no means very unreasonable nor unmeaning 
 advice which one inspired suggested to a slave : “ if 
 thou mayest he made free use it rather Not that any 
 calamitous result could arise in listening to such a history 
 as that of Israel, unless from some palpable misconcep- 
 tion, — for “ the Egyptians made the children of Israel 
 to serve with rigour , and made their lives hitter with 
 hard bondage, and their cry came up unto God but 
 yon negro is called only to the labour which is accurately 
 measured with a regard to his health and convenience, 
 he is recommended to set about it under the most sooth- 
 ing persuasion, — lovely does his cottage rise, and charm- 
 ingly his garden flowers, — and withal our vassal-peasant, 
 were he properly informed, would envy a scene only in- 
 ferior to Paradise, and a task scarcely heavier than were 
 he put into it to dress and to keep it ! And what re- 
 pining can the story of the First Sabbath produce in the 
 negro, for though the “ Lord rested and was refreshed ,” 
 this happy creature has never known what it is ‘'for six 
 days to labour and therefore beneath a sun so mild, and 
 an atmosphere so salubrious, the day of rest would have 
 no distinctive character, and would return with no sensible 
 intimation ! And though a law permitted emancipation, 
 the negro would never avail himself of it, — for how could 
 lie tear himself from that true Benefactor, who kindly 
 snatched him from the shadow of his own tamarind-tree, 
 beneath which he had otherwise been fated to carol the 
 songs of his youth, and cat the fruits of his inherit- 
 ance ? — But should the missionary go so far as to remind 
 
31 
 
 the slave that he is human , though every white man will 
 see insurrection and massacre in the communication, 
 still perhaps the fanatic will feel that the same dangerous 
 headstrong opinion was advanced, in the commencement 
 of Christianity, by Paul amongst a population of Jour 
 hundred thousand slaves, kept down by thirty thousand 
 freemen,— “ God hath made of one blood all nations of 
 men for to dwell on all the face of the earth.'" Or 
 should the missionary go so far as to converse, or eat 
 with the slave, though thus he would exile himself from 
 all decent and respectable society, he might perhaps addi- 
 tionally solace himself by remembering, that Paul did not 
 only indulge in the temerity of public assertions, but even 
 associated with a vagabond and dishonest slave in private 
 life, — is not ashamed of the convert “ whom he has 
 begotten,"" — a phrase which expresses a paternal affection 
 for him, — -yearns over him with fond delight, and, in 
 strong idiom, calls “ him, his own bowels ," — officially 
 dispatches him to a church as “ a faithful and beloved 
 brother, who is one of them," — and in resigning him 
 to his master, it is not to the terrors of the whip, the 
 chain, the branding iron ; it is not with any recognition of 
 ownership ; it is not as slave : “ Not a servant, but 
 above a servant, a brother beloved." — The modern mis- 
 sionary may be wrong, but any censure must equally in- 
 culpate primitive Christianity. 
 
 Many painful distractions and jealousies may 
 
 be excited by transplanting among the heathen our holy 
 faith. The unconverted will withdraw from the proselyte 
 as infected ; not only the national caste, but the domes- 
 tic tie may be broken ; and alienations sullen or violent 
 may rend apart the sweetest cements and cordialities of 
 life. Controversy may embitter the social cup, and 
 violate the household hearth. But the argument only 
 requires that we at present exhibit this charge, as equally 
 conclusive against all that the Saviour taught, and the 
 apostles inculcated. 
 
32 
 
 ■ - ■ — Our progress cannot be unattended by perse- 
 cution. We are aware of the storm which we must bring 
 down upon ourselves. Our individual profession of 
 Christ is a condition we are under to martyrdom, in any 
 shape, and at any time, he may demand it. The pledges 
 of martyrdom are multiplied, by all the accessions we 
 gain to the company of those who believe. We at least 
 know that in ancient time Christianity found in every 
 place the rack and cross, prepared to try its disciples : 
 their bodies, mangled by lions, amused the amphitheatre, 
 or consuming with flames, illuminated the city. For the 
 sake of Christianity we only incur a danger now, which 
 it of old purposely encountered, and triumphantly over- 
 came. 
 
 It is probable that such displays of human 
 
 depravity may be brought to light by the tests of the 
 gospel, that the enemies of missions may have some 
 plausible sophism against them. After having “ com- 
 passed sea and land the only reward, in some instances, 
 may be such a determined hatred of our errand, that the 
 opponent is “ two-fold more the child of hell .” Had 
 not Guiana ever known a Christian mission, we should 
 have been spared the most disgusting scene of abandoned 
 outrage which has marked our own time. But had not 
 also the high message of Heaven been brought to Jeru- 
 salem, its inhabitants would not have “ hilled the Lord 
 Jesus ,” nor have “ forbidden ” his apostles “ to speak 
 to the Gentiles that they might he saved, to fill up their 
 sins alwayf nor would “ the wrath have come upon them 
 to the uttermost.'" 
 
 From the abuses to which Christianity is sub- 
 ject, many deem its propagation inexpedient. They 
 imagine that the doctrines of the gospel will be mis- 
 conceived by the ruder tribes of man. Their apprehen- 
 sion of the manner, in which these misconceptions will 
 operate, are most gloomy. But it is plain that the first 
 teachers of our religion felt themselves equal debtors to 
 
33 
 
 the Barbarian and Greek ; and included the Gmtulian 
 and Scythian in their range. And should some portentous 
 fable arise out of our missionary instructions, we know 
 that the Crescent of Mecca first gleamed with the borrowed 
 light of truth, and that the Hierarchy of Rome still 
 supports its monstrous encroachments by a perversion of 
 apostolic mission. Much of the prophetic part in the 
 New Testament is occupied with a veiled narrative of 
 these abuses, — but the knowledge of the future did not 
 divert the heralds of salvation from the duty of the pre- 
 sent, nor were they held back by the actual detection 
 of the evil, — though they perceived that “ the mystery 
 of iniquity did already work." 
 
 If the fear of redoubling human responsibility 
 
 had ever prevailed with the apostles, they had never 
 crossed the borders of their native land. And therefore 
 if this be the dilemma of our interference, we are drawn 
 into it by our emulation of their venerable model. 
 
 Such r cere the difficulties with which Christianity, at 
 its outset, had to contend : such, without any wish for 
 concealment or retractation, are missionary difficulties. 
 The Author and Finisher of our faith avowed them. 
 The Apostles in their writings proceed on their admis- 
 sion. The Fathers in their apologies plead for their 
 necessity. Christian missions must destroy the coward, 
 obsequious, accommodating, and supple temper, or that 
 temper must destroy them. Let us not quibble on 
 difference of times, variation of usages, or disparity of 
 instruments. Whatever the gospel was, it is : whatever was 
 the duty to spread it, continues unrepealed : whatever are 
 the difficulties which beset it, they are unmitigated. Let 
 our spirit stand erect in the encounter, and, in meeting 
 these difficulties, let us defy them. “ For God hath not 
 given us the spirit of fear ; but of power , and of a 
 sound mind." 
 
 The ends of the Saviour's mission have been traced 
 in connection with certain circumstances which some may 
 
 F 
 
34 
 
 esteem derogatory to it. But we must now advert to 
 his DREAD EXPENSE OF PERSONAL SUFFE ti INGS. They 
 are Compared to a baptism. In this, as well as other 
 instances, we must admire the wisdom of those who 
 retained this word in our translation. It was a sacred 
 and religious term as employed by the inspired writers, 
 and therefore it was not probable that any other language 
 could supply a Correlate, or afford a rendering. As the 
 word is sometimes used when it is impossible to conceive 
 that the thought of any particular ritual or practice was 
 present to the writer, — so we feel that any reference to 
 its controverted administration is to degrade those agonies, 
 which it is chosen to represent. Why does he describe 
 himself baptized by his death ? Because of the holy 
 selection and designation of the thing or person bap- 
 tized : and because thus Christ was by his death set 
 apart, consecrated, — capable of all mediatorial functions, 
 and qualified for all mediatorial ends. Aaron and his 
 sons were sanctified by an offering, — Christ by the offer- 
 ing up of himself. This view of his separation to office 
 by death is not peculiar to our text. “ The cutting off 
 of Messiah was the anointing of the Most Holy." 
 “ The Capta/in of our salvation was made perfect or 
 rather inaugurated, “ by sufferings" “ By the blood 
 of the covenant he was sanctified." “ By it he was 
 brought from the dead." His death was the awful cere- 
 mony of his instalment “ into an unchangeable priest- 
 hood and the dread badge of “ his consecration for 
 evermore." Since, therefore, a term is used descriptive 
 of the end and effect , rather than of the severity and 
 amount , of his sufferings, we may infer from this silence that 
 no language could depict them ; that whilst we may seize on 
 the character and indication they assume on their completion, 
 we must leave him to “ tread the wine-press alone," and “ his 
 ownselfto bear our sins in hisownbody on the tree." When 
 the genius of the text is considered, the preceding expla- 
 nation will not appear unwarranted. The Saviour's bosom 
 
labours with a vast idea, -“-he has not realised it, — 
 he is not qualified to enjoy it ; — he therefore welcomes 
 the Prerequisite , though it is that of death, — the 
 Baptism which shall devote him, though it is that 
 of blood. Of course in this expression his sufferings 
 are supposed, — for infinitely acute must those sufferings 
 have been, which baptized him to an undertaking so 
 infinitely glorious ! 
 
 The sufferings of Him, who had not “ r chore to 
 lap his head who “ was a worm and no man ;" 
 who gave “ his hack to the smiters, and his cheeks to 
 those t oho plucked off the hair ;" whose “ J'ace was 
 more marred than any man's ;" we shall not attempt 
 to draw. They have often been set forth with much 
 dramatic interest, and pictorial embellishment. But 
 why do these delineations produce such feeble, fugitive 
 emotions ? Why do they always present the appear- 
 ance of painful effort, and, from that appearance, always 
 prove unimpressive ? Because those passages of the 
 Incarnate History which can be painted, are not alone 
 sufficient to justify the dejection and consternation of 
 the Sufferer’s mind ; and those which alone can explain 
 and warrant that mental agony, are too unearthly for 
 earthly figures to pourtray, and too superhuman for 
 human troubles to resemble. In physical privations, 
 indignities, and torments, confessors and martyrs have 
 so nearly approached the Crucified One, that we are 
 at a loss in divining the inequality to be found in 
 their temperament of endurance. In respect of sensible, 
 external inflictions, they were “ able to drink of the 
 cup that he drank of and to be baptized with the 
 baptism that he was baptized with." As they went 
 to their deaths, with undaunted step, and unblanched 
 brow, they said, “ We are able." — It is not the jagged 
 nail, the cruel spear, the very cross that reaches to 
 the source of His deep-buried woes. And if we read 
 those “ scriptures which testify off him," as a simple 
 
36 
 
 narrative, without fixing on minute, but all-significanf 
 parts, we shall still be perplexed. We must mark 
 the abrupt expression, meditate the mysterious intima- 
 tion, listen to the suppressed groan. From what might 
 be regarded as casual or ordinary sounds, looks, actions,- 
 the Christian learns the real causes of the deep and 
 awful sorrows into which his Lord was plunged. “ I 
 came to give my life a ransom for many .” “ Now 
 is my soul troubled ; and what shall I say “ My sold 
 is exceeding sorrowful even unto death.' 1 ' 1 “ This is 
 your hour and the power of darkness “ The Prince 
 of this world cometh “ If it be possible, let this cup 
 pass from me Now we understand that there is a 
 distress independent of the external scene, a fountain 
 of sorrow, which is fed by no sensible channel, but 
 rises direct and immediate in his heart. Yet those 
 accents are answered by appropriate signs. He vents 
 “ strong cryings and tears; his sweat was truly great 
 drops of blood falling down to the ground .” We 
 
 comprehend a little of the Agony from such excla- 
 mations, and such actions. But when we follow him 
 to the hall of Judgment, this very peculiarity seems 
 lost: his spirit is so serenely placid, his bearing is 
 so meekly dignified. Another might have fainted 
 beneath the cross. Wo follow with the multitude, and 
 seek the long-withheld solution. We “ watch him 
 there y 
 
 “ There dwells about him still, 
 
 About his drooping head, and fainting limb, 
 
 A sense of power : as tho’ he chose to die. 
 
 Yet might have shaken off the load of death 
 Without an effort.” 
 
 Our perplexity is increased by the omens of earth 
 and sky. It is noon, no orb can intervene, but the 
 sun is darkened. Death threatens to 'seal those lips 
 in silence, which only can relate the Reason of all 
 those conflicts which have torn, and despondencies 
 which have saddened, his heart. “ And about the niu'h 
 
37 
 
 hour Jesus cried with a loud voice. My God, My 
 God, why hast thou forsaken me?” The secret 
 is confessed. Now we discover why his countenance 
 was so often clouded, and his heart wrung ; why he 
 was the Man of Sorrows, and Acquaintance of Grief. 
 And now too we feel it no longer strange that there 
 were sympathetic tokens in heaven, and that bitter 
 throes seized on the earth. Well might the sun be 
 eclipsed, the earth be convulsed, the temple-veil rent 
 down from the top to the bottom ! Well might the 
 rock shiver, the grave burst, the dead arise ! The 
 scene which darkly opened is brightly finished ! Tlie 
 suspense of its progress is explained and justified by 
 the grandeur of its catastrophe ! With the Virgin- 
 Mother, we have from the very birth of Christ, “ kept 
 all these things and pondered than in our heart." 
 But only when we have stood by the Cross of Jesus, 
 have we known the “ fellowship of his sufferings 
 and entered with penetrating insight ami sympa- 
 thy into the meaning and stress of his agonies ; have 
 we known somewhat of that interest which bound 
 “ Her who is blessed among women' to the spot, 
 and felt “a sword pierce through our own scml also!" 
 
 At this inestimable expense of suffering and death 
 did the Son of God determine on the prosecution of 
 his great designs. And therefore if we are satisfied 
 that our Missionary attempt is harmonized to these 
 designs, we can never be in doubt whether these are 
 deserving of all our toils and sacrifices, or whether we 
 ought to devote towards their fulfilment, all that we have 
 and all that we are. We should feel the very dedication of a 
 baptism to their support. In comparison of those toils and 
 sacrifices, which he endured, our toils are ease, our sacrifices 
 indulgence. He was set apart to accomplish his 
 purposes, we should be set apart to apply them. 
 If his cause merit not our most strenuous labors, 
 nor our most self-denying privations, — if we may 
 
38 
 
 consistently pronounce its demands upon us extrava- 
 gant, and lawfully resist its claims as burdensome, 
 — if w r e may be justified in opposing to its obligations, 
 the natural love of country, the powerful attraction 
 of kindred, the instinctive fondness of life, — if we may 
 love father and mother, houses and lands, brothers 
 and sisters more than the gospel, and plead their love as 
 our excuse for not proclaiming it, — then was Christ 
 straitened for a superfluous baptism, “ then is Christ 
 dead in vain." This was the expostulation of one 
 who, as a Missionary, had every prospect of ambition 
 to forego, and every dream of pleasure to relinquish, 
 who had a taste for refinement, and a heart for friend- 
 ship, as he dashed away each dissuasive of fear and 
 kindness, “ What mean ye to weep and to break my 
 heart ? for I am ready not to be bound only , but 
 also to die for the name of the Lord Jesus." In 
 this manner the earliest ministers of Christianity under- 
 stood their commission. They read it as an injunction 
 to “ abound in the work of the Lord" to “ hate 
 their life" to “ suffer the loss of all things," to “ lay 
 down their own necks." They felt themselves to be 
 fighting at the side of their Leader, and only coveted 
 to die as he died. The manner in which they express 
 their anticipation of what should befall them, is that 
 of a reversion and entail. “ As the sufferings of 
 
 Christ abound in us, so our consolation also aboundeth 
 by Christ." “ For we which live are alway delivered 
 unto death for Jesus'' sake." “ God hath set forth us 
 apostles as it z cere appointed to death." “ Who nozo 
 rejoice in our sufferings, and fill that up which is be- 
 hind of the afflictions of Christ in our fesh." “ For- 
 asmuch then as Christ hath suffered for us in the 
 flesh, arm yourselves likewise zoith the same mind." 
 And if we would imbibe the spirit of Apostolic 
 Christianity, if we would be “ baptized into the Re- 
 deemer's death," we must cherish the heroism of the 
 
martyr-spirit, — and then the dalliance of ease, the torpor 
 of sloth, the ambition of fame, the zest of pleasure, 
 the selfishness of instinct will be as tow in the fire, 
 and chaff to the whirlwind. It is from the formation 
 of the modern missionary character on this model, 
 that it seems quite unintelligible to the present age. 
 The present generation bow to the idols of a low, 
 sordid self-interest. The idea of an Apostle's character 
 is what they have no corresponding faculty to under- 
 stand. If they durst speak about it, their admiration 
 would be very chastised and tlicir eulogy very sub- 
 dued. The principle of the Saviour’s embassy is still more 
 enigmatic ; and, in their esteem, is gradually diminished 
 in importance, as it stands connected with pity for the 
 perishing souls of men. Apostles were therefore 
 ridiculed as “ beside themselves the Saviour escaped 
 not the charge of “ having a devil." Fool and ma- 
 niac will be some of the softer names the Missionary 
 can expect. Insulated as his character stands by its 
 disinterestedness, he cannot expect that a drivelling 
 calculator, a ledger-poring automaton, can know what he 
 means. The character is indeed an original one, or 
 if it forfeits its claim to originality, it is only to 
 acquire the claim of imitating “ the Lord from 
 heaven ." Call the man a fanatic who breaks from 
 weeping friends and imploring relations, who leaves the 
 luxury of his own land for the barbarism of another; 
 who abandons the enjoyments of life here to pour 
 it out in blood yonder, — who does this for the honor 
 of Christ, and from compassion to the souls of men, 
 and (we offer violence to our own feelings in embodying 
 the implication, and expressing the alternative) we know 
 not how you can exonerate the Saviour's character from the 
 reproach of misguided zeal, or rescue his death from the im- 
 putation of unnecessary prodigality ! But “If they have 
 
 CALLED THE MASTER OF THE HOUSE BEELZEBUB, HOW 
 MUCH MOKE SHALL THEY CALL THEM OF HIS HOUSEHOLD ?'* 
 
40 
 
 III. The importance ok these ends justified 
 
 THE VAST EXPENSE NECESSARY TO THEIR ACQUISITION. 
 
 That certain evils or disadvantages , when intrin- 
 sically considered, are contingent on the progress of 
 the gospel we have allowed ; but never would the Saviour 
 have “ sent fire on the earth," and even “ willed it to 
 kindle ,” had he not been persuaded that all which was 
 intended by the figure, would be absorbed in a glorious 
 and infinite superabundance of blessings. The Levitical 
 law decided that “ he that kindled the fire should surely 
 make restitution and we may easily believe that a law 
 equally just is in the heart of Him, who even “ restored 
 that which he took not away." Our previous divisions 
 of discourse have been occupied by statement and con- 
 cession, — our present task is that of vindication. 
 
 We have glanced at what may be the political hear- 
 ings of Christianity and its missions. 
 
 Man is necessarily a political creature; owing 
 public duties, and filling social relations. Nor can 
 it be presumed that this his particular character, will 
 be unaffected, when placed in contact with the most 
 powerful moral causes. But though Christianity is 
 too general in its • influence not to embrace him 
 in this view of his character, still its influence will be 
 revealed in those feelings which, though nobly indepen- 
 dent, are benignly pacific. The true believer in Christ 
 though he can, as Paul, boast his “ freeborn ” privilege, 
 and claim his right of “ appeal ,” in many cases remem- 
 bers that things lawful are not always expedient, and 
 feels that there ought to be great benefit to repay that 
 loss of peace, which these turmoils almost inevitably 
 occasion ; and, when conscience does not compel resist- 
 ance, “ submits for conscience sake." — Yet the religion 
 of the gospel, though it cares not for forms of policy or 
 affairs of state, has been the reason in the plans of Di- 
 vine Providence, for many desolations in the earth. — 
 Those powers which are systematically adverse to it arc 
 
41 
 
 those only which need entertain ground of fear. They 
 must fall if they do not repent. A timely reformation 
 is, however, in their power. The portending judgment 
 may be averted. “ Be wise now therefore , O ye kings : 
 he instructed, ye judges of the earth ."' — If the image 
 of Anti-Christian persecution proudly rear itself, there 
 is “ a stone cut out without hands" to smite it, first 
 “ upon its foet," and “ break them in pieces. And 
 then shall the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver , and 
 the gold be broken to pieces together, and become like 
 the chaff of the summer threshing-floors." But what 
 then ? “ The stone that smote the image becomes a 
 
 great mountain , and fills the whole earth." And this 
 figurative style is further simplified. “ In the days of 
 these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, 
 which shall never be destroyed : it shall break in pieces 
 and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for 
 ever ." — If “ the four great beasts come up from the sea, 
 diverse one from another," and “ a horn come up" in 
 the fourth, which “ makes war with the saints ,” soon 
 we observe that this very “ beast is slain, and its body 
 destroyed and given to the burning fame." But what 
 then ? There is given to “ one like the . Son of Man, 
 dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all people, na- 
 tions, and languages should serve him ." — If the “ Lord 
 of Hosts shake all nations ," it is that “ the desire of all 
 nations may come." If He, “ who speaketh from heaven, 
 shake not the earth only, but also heaven ," it is that we 
 may “ receive a kingdom which cannot be moved." We 
 perceive that when Christianity requires these civil com- 
 motions for its free course as well as actual safety, it is 
 itself proposed as a remedy all-sufficient to heal any evil, 
 or repair any disaster, its establishment may have incurred. 
 Nothing which promotes it can weigh more than the dust 
 of the balance against its promotion. — It is impossible to 
 think of certain Oriental powers without wishing their 
 annihilation. The consolidated strength of the Burman 
 
 G 
 
42 
 
 and Chinese powers could scarcely be disrupted without 
 great calamities sweeping those large portions of earth ; 
 but are their present tyranny and jealousy no calamities ? 
 And would not the entrance of our religion among hun- 
 dreds of millions atone for any mischief which through their 
 obstinacy might arise ? Would it not be permanent 
 good against temporary evil ? essential good against 
 accidental evil ? universal good against partial evil ? 
 Liberty is worth its struggle : Science, its effort : Art, 
 its price. And when their votaries witness the triumph, 
 though achieved with immense risk and cost, they hasten 
 to the spot of grand excitement, 
 
 “ Their own brows garlanded, 
 
 Amid the tremor of a realm aglow. 
 
 Amid a mighty nation jubilant.” 
 
 And is there nothing joyous in Christian Revolution ? 
 We have heard of revolutions which the oppressor has 
 created, and shall not easily forget those which infidelity 
 can boast. The process of Christian revolution is not 
 like these. Its “ light thickens” as that of day. Its 
 
 influence is bland, and its vicissitude grateful, as that 
 of spring. But if any political evil attend it , it is only 
 because there is political resistance to it . And what if a 
 dynasty, fall which shackled the laws of inquiry and the 
 rights of conscience, general as may be the wreck, if it 
 be replaced by one which recognizes them ? What if he 
 be tumbled from his throne “ who sitteth above all that 
 is culled god in the temple of God," general as may bo 
 the panic, if that temple, cleansed of its idolatries, throw 
 open its gates as “a house of prayer to all people ?” 
 What if kings, who “ have committed fornication" with 
 the church, be “ struck through in the day of wrath," 
 if that church be henceforth “ espoused as a chaste vir- 
 gin to Christ ?" — Unjustly shall we be interpreted, if 
 these remarks be otherwise applied than to this single 
 point, — that Christianity must be preferred in the coun- 
 sels of Deity to any other cause ; that it shall be 
 
I 
 
 43 
 
 maintained by Him in opposition to any posture of 
 things incompatible with it, and any class of persons 
 inimical to it : and that no reason can be esteemed by 
 Him as sufficient, however delicate, critical, or tre- 
 mendous, for interrupting the diffusion of its blessings 
 and delaying the ages of peace. — We own that no 
 revolution, which extirpated slavery , could appear to 
 us so horrible as slavery itself. And such revolution 
 we cannot suppose very remote, unless the public in- 
 dignation has its proper weight in immediate and 
 universal abolition of the system. “ And the nation to 
 
 which they shall be in bondage will I judge , said 
 
 God." — We own that no revolution, which overthrew 
 Popery , could appear to us so calamitous as Popery 
 itself. We see in it not only the antics of a splen- 
 did pantomime, as some affect to regard it ; nor even 
 only the debasement of the holiest truths ; but an 
 elaborate tyranny over the bodies, consciences, and souls 
 of men. Knowledge, freedom, religion, are interested 
 in its downfall. But it is not a fabric to crumble 
 
 gradually away. It will doubtless be shattered as by 
 
 an earthquake. “ Therefore shall her plagues come in 
 one day , and she shall be utterly burned with fire" 
 And when “ great Babylon comes in remembrance 
 before God," though loud may be the crash of her 
 ruin, and wide the ravage of her explosion, let us be 
 prepared to sing : “ Rejoice over her thou heaven, and 
 ye holy apostles and prophets : for God hath avenged 
 you on her." 
 
 We have not endeavoured to conceal that changes 
 of a very serious nature must be effectuated by the 
 progress of Christianity. 
 
 In antiquity, as such, there is no advantage, 
 and in innovation, simply considered, there is no evil. 
 But never did general improvement take place with- 
 out private inconvenience. This we ascertain to be 
 the case in every ameliorated form and condition 
 which the Social body assumes. How is any general 
 
44 
 
 alteration to be justified ? The less evil is merged 
 in the greater good. The individual injury is com- 
 pensated by the public benefit. In those countries 
 which were visited by the Gospel in olden time, 
 estrangements from established usages must have per. 
 petually recurred. And in those countries which are 
 still visited by it for the first time, there are practices 
 which must give way, — partialities which must be shocked, 
 — sympathies which must be revolted. But, in this 
 age of the world, we may demand, what rapine has 
 Christianity committed on the order and peace of society ? 
 — what sacrilege on human rights or laws ? Is a de- 
 parture from the regulated practice of all heathen 
 countries, respecting the treatment of prisoners and 
 captives;, an evil ? Is an abandonment of the established 
 experience concerning human sacrifices, an evil ? Is an 
 affront upon ancestral zvisdom, touching a fictitious 
 mythology, an evil ? When at the approach of Chris- 
 tianity has human nature retrograded or human virtue 
 declined ? Where are any of its deteriorating effects ? 
 We may trace its course as that of a majestic river, 
 which exhibits the proofs of importance in the cultivated 
 fields it laves, and the splendid cities it skirts. To it 
 we owe far more than we are willing to concede. It 
 has tamed savage, it has humanized imbruted, man- 
 By its aid civilization has pushed out its once -narrow 
 boundaries ; in its light knowledge has acquired its most 
 wealthy spoils. Manners have caught the softening 
 infection ; institutions have been pervaded by the plastic 
 energy ; all that the species can boast of worth, or the earth 
 display of excellence, must acknowledge the original. In- 
 stead therefore of equivocating, let us avow that Chris- 
 tianity must transform all things, must “ male all things 
 new In this tendency we should exult. It is not only 
 beautiful as any principle and law of nature, but as re- 
 sistless too. And we may be pardoned, if wc express 
 our bitter mortification that the alarms raised by 
 faction and selfishness should’ betray any disciple of 
 
Christ, into compliances anil admissions most unworthy 
 of him. And yet some of whom we might have expected 
 better things, have acquiesced in the lawfulness of 
 slavery. “ By what law ?" “ He that stealeth a man and 
 selleth him , or if he be found in his hand, shall 
 surely be put to death." “ Knowing this that the law 
 is made for menstealers And these persons have 
 assented to the lawfulness of war ! And is that too to 
 find its sanction in religion ? in the religion of Christ ? 
 Even he, “ than whom the least in the kingdom of 
 heaven is greater" in point of evangelical knowledge, 
 saw the incongruity ; and to the soldiers he returned 
 answer somewhat at variance with military duties, “ Do 
 violence to no man." — No, no ! The chains of slavery 
 must be riven ! the flames of war must be extinguished ! 
 Humanity devoutly sighs for the consummation, and 
 Christianity assures it. — Who can regret the change 
 already produced ? Who would check the mighty move- 
 ment of the present? Who would circumscribe the glori- 
 ous transitions of the future ? There is a moral innovation 
 in progress. It is the Saviour's empire pressing to- 
 wards its destined aggrandisement, and its destined 
 universality. The liberal and pacific intentions of that 
 empire are better understood. Its lieges are encouraged 
 by “ the signs of the times." Its adversaries are alert 
 with jealousy, and “ doubt whereunto this will grow.'' 
 The process, by the delay it hath suffered, has exhibited 
 a more unvarying consistency ; and by the resistance it 
 has met, has obtained an accelerated force. 
 
 “ Change wide and deep, and silently performed. 
 
 Ourselves shall witness : and as days roll on. 
 
 Earth’s universal frame shall feel the effect ; 
 
 Ee’n till the smallest habitable Rock, 
 
 Beaten by lonely billows, hear the songs 
 Of humanized society ; and bloom 
 With civil arts, and send their fragrance forth 
 A grateful tribute to all ruling Heaven.’’ 
 
4G 
 
 Our Lord Jesus foretold the occurrence of the 
 most unnatural feuds and discords , for which his 
 religion was to be made the pretext. 
 
 By his Spirit he “ takes out a people'' from 
 the nations of the world. The changes produced in 
 individuals are too marked to escape the notice of the 
 families and communities to which they belong. A new 
 character is superinduced. Against this the quiver of 
 hostility is emptied. Still it provokes the rage only of 
 those who are unable to comprehend and appreciate the 
 distinguished virtues with which it is invested. They are 
 reproved by its example. They are counteracted by its in- 
 fluence. “ They think it strange " that they who bear it 
 “ run not with them to the same excess, speaking evil of 
 them." These divisions originate in a love of evil, so deter- 
 mined as to “ take pleasure in them who do it." The offence 
 which the Christian convert brings with him, is that 
 he cannot participate. For though he has no “ fellowship 
 with the works of darkness," and in some manner is 
 “ separate from sinners ," he discovers no churlish re- 
 serve, nor censorious violence, nor dogged obstinacy, nor 
 moping sullenness. — The charge against Christianity, 
 on account of these quarrels, goes on a false presumption. 
 It supposes that, until its establishment, the whole earth 
 was at “ rest and ivas quiet." But what was the an- 
 tecedent state of the parties ? One who read "human 
 nature through all its characters thus deposes : “ We 
 ourselves were sometimes living in malice and envy, 
 hateful and hating one another." We are aware 
 that modern travellers have represented some of the 
 existing idolatrous nations, as most amiable and even 
 sentimental. But intercourse, obtained by residence, 
 has dissipated the romance. A group of isles was 
 discovered by our great Navigator in the Southern 
 ocean. Their natives were pictured as not only an 
 inoffensive but a virtuous race. The fact is at length 
 brought to light. They were addicted to all the 
 
chicane of theft, practised in every art of deception, 
 trained to the most lawless plunder, sunk into the most 
 excessive licentiousness, devoted to the most unsparing 
 bloodshed, — gluttonous even for the flesh of their 
 kind. But what they were falsely represented, 
 they have truly become. Christianity has realized the 
 fable. The dove, long scared from the abodes of 
 strife, returns with the olive-leaf, — now for the first time 
 seen above the surface of these waters. Even here the 
 old jealousy of Christian conversion was felt. The 
 “ praying people" were obnoxious. Rut their most 
 enraged opponents now unite in the worship of Jehovah. 
 And Peace and Love find among these clustering 
 isles, their most congenial atmosphere, and most sacred 
 retreats. — A Christian is “ a blessing in the midst of the 
 land." He may for a time be the occasion of contention, 
 the butt of persecution, the outcast of society. But he 
 shall soon become, not the principal instrument merely 
 of allaying the general animosity against religion, but 
 of disarming the particular rancor his own case has 
 excited. Himself an example of peace, returning 
 blessing for railing, and amenity for outrage, — though 
 now charged as the author, while he suffers as 
 the victim, of this strife, he shall at length be hailed 
 by his traducers as the first peacemaker, whose “ peace 
 rested on their houses," and whose kindness soothed 
 their various distractions. For as the Christian char- 
 acter multiplies itself, the most furious passions of 
 man subside, the most hideous forms of cruelty dis- 
 appear, — “ the sword is beat into the plough-share, 
 the spear into the pruning-hook “ the wolf dwells 
 with the lamb, and the leopard lies down with the 
 kid:" “ the sucking child plays on the hole of the 
 asp, and the weaned child puts its hand on the 
 cockatrice"' s den :" “ they neither hurt nor destroy :" 
 there is “ a league with the stones of the field, and 
 the beasts of the field are at peace with us." — But 
 
48 
 
 there is a more important relation of peace than that 
 which joins man to man. And did Christianity change 
 but one soul into the image of God, we unhesitatingly 
 avow our conviction that such a change were cheaply 
 produced at the expense of any possible innovation : and 
 did Christianity pacify God to one soul and reconcile 
 one soul to God, that such peace and reconciliation were 
 advantageously accommodated at the risk of any pos- 
 sible dissension. Though we imagine the apologies 
 we have furnished, in favor of extending Christianity, 
 from its favorable influence on human society and 
 human life, are substantive and incontrovertible, yet 
 here we rest the main defence, that the salvation of 
 the soul is so infinite a good, that every thing must 
 be infinitesimally mean and trivial, which can inter- 
 fere with it, or can be objected to it. 
 
 Persecution is an evil which has constantly haunted 
 Christianity. 
 
 Truly it seems unreasonable to deny its excellence 
 from the hostility which it endures. It cannot, therefore, 
 be equitably left to its persecutors for decision, whether it 
 be an equivalent for their persecutions. If it be deserving 
 of their hatred and opposition, the very cause which 
 provokes this conduct may have sufficient force to affect 
 some minds in its favour, and to win some hearts to its 
 support. And here the suffrages are easily collected. 
 For what is the estimate the victims themselves form ? 
 They are glad to bear the cross. They fear not what 
 man can do. “ They rejoice that they are counted worthy 
 to suffer shame for this name. They take joyfully the 
 spoiling of their goods. They die daily." For the con- 
 fiscation of property they are indemnified by the “ true 
 riches for the odium cast on their name they are re- 
 compensed by the assurance that it shall be “ confessed 
 by the Son before his Father and his angels for the 
 loss of friendly offices they arc repaid by that “ favour 
 which is better than life ,” those smiles on which all hca- 
 
49 
 
 ven hangs ! In maintaining this cause, they would give 
 their sinews to racks and their limbs to fetters. They do 
 not suppose that on this altar, life is too costly a sacrifice, 
 nor blood too rich a libation ! They sing as a hymn of 
 triumph, and not as a dirge or lament: “ For thy sake ice 
 are killed all the day long ; ice are accounted as sheep 
 for the slaughter.'" But while they do “ not resist 
 they suffer in heroic mood. Their valor is nobler 
 than battle-dint. The glow of victory kindles on their 
 countenance. They fall as conquerors. They are 
 surrounded by celestial auxiliaries. They observe 
 that there are more with them than against them, and 
 that “ greater is he that is in them, than he that is in 
 the world!" And what has our religion now to fear from 
 any assault ? All the malignity of earth was let loose on 
 the Redeemer when he filled the manger ; but it was 
 soon recorded : “ They are dead which sought the young 
 child's life!" His cause seemed necessarily lost when he 
 hung upon the cross, but that very cross became, not 
 only the observatory whence he descried, but the stand- 
 ard by which he claimed, a conquered world. His 
 church has withstood and survived the persecution of 
 ages. The names of martyrs flourish, while those of 
 their royal butchers are forgotten. The annals of apos- 
 tles exist, while the histories of their contemptuous ad- 
 versaries have perished. Christianity finds in the pil- 
 lars, which were inscribed with its overthrow, the monu- 
 ments of its perpetuity ; and on the tombs of those who 
 boasted that they had extirpated it, the tablets of its 
 fame. The powers which rose against it have only 
 spent themselves, in endeavouring to overwhelm it ; and 
 continue to this day, but shadows of their pristine 
 glory, and wrecks of their original strength, — gloomy, 
 but harmless, as the extinguished volcano ! 
 
 Many proofs and irritations of human depravity 
 will be laid open during the promulgation of the gospel. 
 
 The gospel, as a system of mercy , would seem pe- 
 lt 
 
50 
 
 euliarly adapted to melt away the hostile feelings of 
 man. But it is this very presentation of itself which 
 strengthens and aggravates those feelings. — It is just 
 possible to imagine a case, in which the hatred of a traitor 
 or rebel to his sovereign would be drawn forth, in a more 
 violent paroxysm, by the exhibition of that sovereign's 
 character as very merciful ; and the arrival of that sove- 
 reign’s pardon on condition of being henceforth acknow- 
 ledged and obeyed. There is a pride which cannot 
 brook kindness. There is a ferocity which cannot be 
 conciliated by mercy. But would the sovereign’s cha- 
 racter be accessary to that resentment, or his pardon to 
 that wild burst of passion, which nevertheless they pro- 
 voked ? But suppose there were numerous traitors and 
 rebels in the same dungeon. Some perhaps relent, while 
 others are exasperated. Some are saved, while others lie 
 in their now voluntary self-condemnation. A real good 
 is promoted, while all the evil, such a scene could mani- 
 fest, would have existed, though it might not have been 
 betrayed, independently of such interposition. This is 
 the true statement of our case. It is easily applied. — 
 No one attributes the gross and putrid exhalation to 
 the sun. The source is not in the splendor of the orb, 
 but in the noxiousness of the soil, or the stagnancy of the 
 lake. Christianity, not only in this manner, may raise 
 calumny and opposition, but, by its holiness, can come into 
 no proximity to sin, without by contrast making it appear 
 “ exceeding sinful .' 1 '' — And there is something wisely- 
 benevolent in this very provocation of depravity. It re- 
 sembles the physician, who encourages the eruption of the 
 disease, that he may divert it from fixing on the vitals ; or 
 who probes the wound in order to heal it. It brings to 
 light the enmity of the heart, that its most heinous guilt 
 may be confessed and forgiven, and its deepest-seated 
 power may be searched and subdued. 
 
 The religion of Christ has been scatidalously mis- 
 applied and prostituted. 
 
51 
 
 Nothing might appear, on the first view, so unlikely 
 or so unfit for abuse. It is a “ srvord bathed in heaven 
 and most destructive is its double edge to all who “ han- 
 dle it deceitfully." But it is unreasonable to allege its 
 possible or actual perversion as reasons against its spread, 
 because this susceptibility it shares in common with every 
 class of truths, and every form of blessings. Is grace 
 less holy, because some “ continue in sin that it 
 may abound ?" “ IJ' while we seek to be justified by 
 
 Christ , we ourselves also are found sinners, is there- 
 fore Christ the minister ef sin ?" Christianity, by an 
 appeal to its own character, can always clear itself of the 
 connivance. — Who would bid Nile retire to its chan- 
 nel, because its overflow nurtured the monsters, as well as 
 the harvests, of Egypt ? If all, that may be abused, ought 
 to be set aside, away with all the conveniences of life, 
 all the charms of society, all the powers of intellect, — 
 yea strike the sun from the firmament, for often has it 
 lent its beam to guide the sinner to his crime, and to 
 light the transgressor on his way. — It is our gratifica- 
 tion to know that the gospel, though the subject of 
 mischievous perversion, has always accomplished its own 
 ends, — is still answering its legitimate intentions, — and 
 shall never “ return void." 
 
 The increase of human accountability has been felt 
 by many, as a serious embarassment, in the extension of 
 our religion. 
 
 They know that God could not grant a revelation, 
 without man incurring a responsibility proportionate to 
 its worth and authority. This is a circumstance inciden- 
 tal, and even essential to all moral government. It is 
 so in Providence. The superior our blessings, our 
 wealth, rank, influence, connections, opportunities, — the 
 heavier must be our account. — Retribution may well then 
 take its most august judgment seat, now that “ God hath 
 spoken to us in these last days by his Son." Chorazin 
 and Bethsaida might have mouldered away in insignifi- 
 
52 
 
 cancc and obscurity but for those “ mighty works,” which 
 left their guilt more enormous, and their punishment more 
 intolerable, than those of Tyre and Sidon. Capernaum 
 would have transmitted no name, but for those “ mighty 
 works,” which stamped its name more infamous than that of 
 Sodom. But the inquiry how man may perish beneath 
 the dispensation of the gospel, is not worthy of attention ; 
 until we have disposed of the prior fact, that man must 
 perish without it. Christianity knows man simply in the 
 light of a sinner “ ready to perish.''' “ All art included 
 under sin." “ Every mouth is stopped, and all the world 
 is become guilty before God." What is our duty, then ? 
 To preach the gospel of salvation to man wherever he is 
 found. But what if he refuse it? He took not warning. The 
 sin lieth at his door. His blood is upon his own head. 
 Would you hesitate to propose a remedy to a patient, be- 
 cause it might be refused, and because his refusal would 
 preclude all commiseration for his fate? "Would you hesi- 
 tate to declare a pardon to a criminal, because it might 
 be rejected, and because his rejection would prove him 
 additionally deserving of his sentence ? The objection 
 would have considerable weight, were the moral state 
 of the heathen, preparatory to the arrival of Christianity, 
 secure. If that state of security actually exists, if the 
 heathen have really nothing to apprehend from the 
 eternal future, if they be truly the children of misfor- 
 tune, and not of guilt and wrath, — then our venture is 
 at least rash, and may be tremendously prejudicial ! — 
 We can only meet the enquiry into the moral condition of 
 the heathen, who have never heard the gospel, on the 
 principles of that gospel. What we can fancy, what 
 we may hope, do not here apply. — Now if there be any 
 truth in the gospel, it must be preached, and is ex- 
 clusively adapted, to man as lost. This is the character 
 supposed, the case presumed, wherever the gospel is 
 dispensed. If you can carry it to any region, or to 
 any people, which these representations of guilt and 
 
53 
 
 danger do not meet ; if you can find any tribes whom 
 you may not with truth describe as sinful, nor with 
 justice alarm as perishing, — then, conceive favourably of 
 their future state. But if, in all places, you must de- 
 nounce man as utterly guilty, and utterly undone, in 
 preaching the gospel to him, — we may feel sure that 
 the gospel has not rendered him all this, though it 
 has exposed him. All this it Jiiuls him, and all this 
 he is independently of it, and must have been though 
 a perfect stranger to it. How then can man be 
 eternally safe without the gospel, when the first cir- 
 cumstance the gospel takes for granted, is, that man is 
 in a state of perdition ? Are not then, it may be re- 
 plied, the heathen “ a law unto themselves ?” Yes : 
 its authority is clear, for “ the Invisible things of God 
 from the creation of the world are clearly seen, even 
 his eternal power and godhead, so that they are 
 without excuse.” Its obligation is admitted, for 
 they “ shew the work of the law written in their 
 hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their 
 thoughts the meanwhile accusing or else excusing one 
 another .” And it is affirmed by the Apostle, who allows 
 the existence of this Natural law, that the Gentile has bro- 
 ken it as much as the Jew had the Sinaic : “ so that there 
 is no difference .” It is not indeed probable that a law, 
 thus intuitive, would be more efficacious towards human 
 acceptance, than a law given by Jehovah as a peculiar 
 favor to a peculiar people, on the mount which burned 
 with fire. 
 
 There — where his finger scorched the tablet stone ; 
 
 There — where his shadow to the people shone ! 
 
 “ If there had been a law given which could have given 
 life, verily righteousness should have been by the law." 
 Conceding therefore that the heathen “ are a law to 
 themselves its violation renders their case perfectly 
 hopeless, for no law can provide for the pardon of its 
 transgressions. — “ But are they not included in some 
 
54 
 
 secret provision, and benefited by some secret applica- 
 tion, of the everlasting covenant ?” The answer which 
 occurs to us as most ready and decisive is, that if 
 secret, it is unbecoming to publish it ; that as secret any 
 such clause must be unknown. — “ But can we suppose 
 that they will perish ?” Can we suppose any thing else ? 
 If they deserve not that doom, the law must have been un- 
 just which denounced it. Could they escape it for the purity 
 and vision of heaven, they would be incapacitated ; being 
 enured to “ abominable idolatries, ” they could not pass 
 where nothing enters which “ worketh abomination — 
 “ Can we suppose that heathens will perish ?” Without 
 constituting our feeling as the test of truth and fact, 
 we meet the question by another. Would the world 
 have perished, had not “ God so loved it as to give 
 his only begotten Son ?” Can we suppose it ? We 
 must, or the record of his love is without significa- 
 tion. Nor does this record intimate that any shall 
 not perish but those who believe. — We proceed on the 
 certainty of their danger in all cases, when we send 
 the gospel to the heathen. Nor are we deterred by 
 the uncertainty , in some instances, of increasing that 
 danger. And if without the nakedness of dogma, or 
 the complacency of truism, we may sum up our con- 
 victions on this really delicate enquiry, — this short 
 proposition will be found to contain them : None, when 
 
 the gospel is brought to them, will perish for its re- 
 jection, who would have been saved had they never 
 heard it. 
 
 We perhaps are disposed, in an equal degree with 
 others, to wish the heathen safe. But there are prin- 
 ciples which we cannot warp, and facts we cannot over- 
 turn, in the way of that conclusion. We are obliged to 
 rank ourselves among the illiberal. And when we re- 
 call the fond, candid, and flattering sentiments, some 
 yet entertain of the heathen, wc must acknowledge the 
 harshness of the estimate we have formed. Oh they 
 
55 
 
 are of kindlier bosoms and softer natures than our- 
 selves ! Their creed is not so intolerant ! Their heart 
 is not so closed ! Their lips have borrowed Hybla’s 
 honey, and Heaven’s dew ! Error is innocent, and the 
 heathen are but in error ! Idolatry is doubtlessly accept- 
 ed, for adoration is the same, whether presented to 
 “ Jehovah, Jove or Lord !" What bigots must we be 
 to suppose that Christianity alone can save ! What 
 misanthropes do we betray ourselves in thinking that 
 idolaters shall not enter the kingdom of God ! But if 
 ever we are oppressed by the painful contrast between 
 our narrow and these expansive emotions, it is when 
 we ascertain to what bustle the former give rise, and into 
 what repose the latter settle. The low, contracted and 
 stone-hearted believers in hell-fire, are incessantly and 
 unweariedly employed to “ deliver men from going 
 down into the pit," to “ pull them out of the fire are 
 even alarming the innocents of the heathen world with 
 these dread sounds and gloomy threatenings ! "While 
 it is enviable to see the inverse influence of the 
 more benevolent and liberal sentiments : they are ac- 
 companied with no painful excitement, nor do they stir 
 up any dread apprehension : they w ho cherish them have 
 no debasing scenes to explore, and no martyred mis- 
 sionaries to vindicate : their eyes know not a tear, nor 
 their hands an effort : they live in the calm element of 
 musings and abstractions : and with self denial above all 
 comparison, and consistency above all fame, do nothing 
 for that world, which their kind hearts assure them can 
 need nothing ! 
 
 Whatever be the evils then arising out of the 
 constitution of Christianity, or attendant on its pro- 
 gress, we think that they are “ light and but for a 
 moment, and that they work out a far more exceeding 
 and eternal weight of glory" They are more appa- 
 
 rent than real, more contingent than fundamental, and 
 infinitely countervailed. And as figured by “ that 
 
5G 
 
 fire sent on the earth,"" so far from reflecting oil 
 the character and religion of Christ, they illustrate the 
 majesty of the one, and the stability of the other. 
 Did Christ in his advent, “ send jire on the earth ?" 
 It is the harbinger of the Eternal’s approach, and the 
 emblem of his progress : “ A fire devours hefiore him." 
 “ The Highest gave his voice, — coals of fire" And 
 does Christianity kindle it? It has thus lighted around 
 it an ever-glowing furnace, in which its own excellence 
 is constantly tried and proved, — and itself seen walking, 
 irradiated but unhurt, with one like the Son of God, 
 through the midst of the flames ! 
 
 We now approach the portion of the discussion 
 which respects the manner in which the Saviour accepts 
 the Realisation of his Mediatorial Designs as 
 an Indemnity for his Sufferings. Yet let it not 
 for a moment be supposed that the disadvantages we have 
 noticed, and attempted to prove outweighed, are worthy 
 of mention, much less of comparison, when placed in con- 
 nection with these Sufferings, when viewed in the light of 
 the Cross. In the first instance, the Saviour treats those 
 disadvantages as diminutive': “ I am come to send 
 
 fire on the earth." But when he alludes to these sufferings, 
 he cannot regard them so indifferently. He therefore 
 puts them into contrast and opposition: “But I 
 have a baptism to he baptized with." As to the 
 Fire, he heeds it not: “ What will I if it be 
 already kindled ?" But as to the Baptism, it engrosses 
 him : “ Hoxo am I straitened until it be accom- 
 
 plished !” These divisions of the vast Expense incurred 
 by the fulfilment of his intentions, are placed together, 
 not for the purposes of parallel, but that the one, which is 
 cognizable by our sense, included in our experience, 
 and frequently appalling to our timidity, — may make us 
 feel that the other which is out of the reach of all our 
 thought and calculation, is extreme, just as it is, im- 
 palpable ! — If then we be left to determine what can 
 
57 
 
 compensate for the sufferings of Immanuel, we should 
 be disposed to think that there is no equivalent in the 
 compass of all good, in the scope of universal existence, 
 or even in the right hand of the Supreme. His sor- 
 rows passed into the infinite, so must his reward. 
 There arc those who only sec in them indeed a mortal 
 struggle, meriting a high reward of virtue : “ a goodly 
 price, that he is prised at of them !” But we who 
 remember his personal dignity, and the relative value 
 it transfers to his sacrifice, know that worlds would be 
 as poor a return for what is strictly infinite in grief 
 and worth, as “ thirty pieces of silver Yet what we 
 might not presume could be awarded, or received, as 
 a satisfaction, has been confirmed ; and the salvation of 
 immortal souls is the recompense fixed. But we must 
 not estimate the value and amount of this recompense, 
 from the original importance of those souls. For had 
 they perished, how soon might the loss have been repaired, 
 how little could it have been felt ! But the soul is 
 now enhanced by that “ precious bloocT which was shed 
 for its salvation ; and that salvation is not to be judged 
 of from what itself comprehends, but as it offers occa- 
 sions for the enforcement and display of those great 
 moral rules and principles by which the universe is 
 governed. Therefore the oracle which foretold that 
 “ his soul should be made an offering Jbr sin,” also 
 announced; “ lie shall see of the travail of Ms soul 
 and shall be satisfied.” That satisfaction must per- 
 vade the vast capacity of his mind, must answer the 
 long suspense of his ambition, and must ascend the 
 infinite scale of his desert. This was “ the joy which 
 was set before him,” and in whose prospect “ he endured 
 the cross, despising the shame ” We ask not what 
 vesture can be too splendid for the form, the purple 
 mockery insulted, — what diadem too glorious for the brow, 
 the thorny coronal lacerated, — but what must be the de- 
 
 i 
 
58 
 
 light, most exquisite and boundless, which reconciles him 
 to all his endurances and conflicts : which prompts him 
 to bare his crucifixion- wounds as the scars of his noblest 
 triumph, and centres of his brightest glory ! 
 
 Now in anticipating his sufferings, overwhelming as 
 they were, he was straitened, or urged, not with dismal 
 apprehension of their severity, but with importunate 
 desire for their visitation. The term supposes that his 
 purposes strove in his bosom, wrought in his heart, as 
 though that bosom would rend, and that heart would 
 burst. “ He saw that there was no man , and won- 
 dered that there was no intercessor. He put on 
 righteousness as a breastplate, and a helmet of salva- 
 tion on his head, and was clad with zeal as a 
 cloke .” The magnanimity of his spirit could not bear 
 the limitations which were now opposed to its benevolent 
 activities. It struggled hard. It reached forth unto 
 those things which were before, and predestined the 
 prize. He saw around him the most affecting remem- 
 brancers and images of his death. He knew from the 
 beginning who it was who should betray him, but retained 
 Judas in the apostolic family. The glory of the Trans- 
 figuration was heightened in his esteem, because it was to 
 be succeeded by the decease he should accomplish. Th e 
 Temple derived its interest because its stones and its 
 buildings informed him that the temple of his body 
 should be destroyed. The Alabaster box full of ointment 
 was only fragrant because, in symbolic action, it indicated 
 his embalment for burial. The Passover, he desired to 
 eat with his disciples, was celebrated that his body and 
 blood, as broken and poured, might be sensibly shewn 
 forth. The Garden is entered as a spot convenient for 
 self-surrender into the hands of his betrayers and mur- 
 derers. He arranges and subordinates all dates and 
 events for this consummation. He opens his bosom for 
 the stroke. He stands collected, intent, unruffled, wait- 
 ing to fall. The baptismal consecration must be solem- 
 
59 
 
 nized by a bloody death ; but he is straitened by mys- 
 terious labours for its accomplishment ! 
 
 Here then we find an apology for our warmest zeal, 
 and firmest courage, in extending Christianity. We but 
 imbibe the spirit, and follow the footsteps, of our Divine 
 Exemplar. “ We have the mind of Christ." We can- 
 not be wrong until we exceed his estimation of the ends 
 meditated in his work, and outvie his ardour and dis- 
 interestedness in accomplishing them. We cannot be 
 wrong, until the gospel holds a higher rank in our judg- 
 ments than in his, and receives a more extensive sacri- 
 fice from us than was devoted to it by him. We can- 
 not be wrong, until “ straitened" with resolves more 
 unyielding, and emotions more agonizing, than any his 
 bosom knew. No wonder if the most lovely vision which 
 falls on our eye, the brightest picture which glows before 
 our imagination, be henceforth Ins final reign and tri- 
 umph. No wonder if this be the only cause for which 
 we are henceforth content to live; if a devotion to it 
 enter into every element of our tastes and predilections ; 
 if it become the fair, the beautiful, and good of our 
 being ; if a death won by any exertion in its favour 
 acquires the sweetness of an offering ; if with fervent 
 aspirations for its success our “ prayers are ended." 
 Such a temper of holy zeal would prove us only disciples 
 of Christ, who had leaned on his bosom until our hearts 
 had learnt to throb in unison with his own. — And come 
 there shall a period when the dishonoured character of 
 the Christian Missionary shall assert itself. It shall 
 lift itself up to its native rank. It shall associate itself 
 with that of martyrs and apostles. It shall prove itself 
 congenial to His whom the Father sent. Though now 
 dismembered from what would partially redeem it, it 
 shall gather to itself all these grand affinities, end move 
 among all these kindred associations. The men who 
 have borne it shall be remembered as the lights of their 
 age, and the benefactors of their species. Cotemporary 
 
60 
 
 judgments will he set aside, and an indignant posterity 
 shall demand how it was possible for any era to remain 
 so dark, and any people to prove so abject, as to construe 
 a motive, which breathes the genius of Christianity, into a 
 base fanaticism or an injudicious self-deception. It will 
 be curious to learn under what influence it was that 
 this bright beam from the Father of lights was mistaken 
 for a» earth-born passion, and that this purest emana- 
 tion from the breast of Infinite Love was confounded 
 with all that there is of weakness and depravity in our 
 nature, That posterity will be astonished that these 
 imputations should be heaped upon the missionary cha- 
 racter at the time, when the warmest professions are not 
 only common but even politically fashionable towards 
 Reformers, Confessors, and Apostles, themselves Mis- 
 sionaries in all but name. “ They? will it exclaim, 
 “ build the tombs of the prophets , and garnish the 
 sepulchres of the righteous , while they are zoitnesses 
 to themselves that they are the children of them zcho 
 hilled the prophets ; and are filling up the measure of 
 their fathers? “ They,” will it still go on to say, 
 “ extol the character of Christ, his fortitude of suffering, 
 his readiness to die, his straitening desire for the baptism 
 of blood, while they pour all their scorn, and spend all 
 their hate, on them who in the highest sense arc ( buried 
 •with Christ by baptism into death ? 1 
 
 And here, too, we learn that this inconquerablc temper, 
 this inexpressible ardor, is of first importance in every de- 
 partment of Missions. A spirit of levity must not trifle with 
 this fire, for it would be “ the madman casting firebrands 
 in sport.' 1 '' Nor may it urge itself forward to initiation, by 
 persecution and martyrdom, into an office, which with 
 whatever disparity, is a counterpart of that to which the 
 Saviour was baptized. Nothing half-hearted should be 
 betrayed in our institutions at home, or our efforts 
 abroad. Impassioned seriousness is the Missionary 
 temper. And oh ye, who emulate this enterprise, drink 
 
61 
 
 in the inspiration. Of this spirit your measure and 
 portion cannot be too overflowing. Remember how 
 Christ was straitened, and be ye straitened too. Feel 
 your message as “ the burden of' the Lord." ** Tra- 
 vail in birth untd Christ be formed in" the heathen : 
 “ Be this zcord in your heart , as Jire shut up in your 
 bones, so that you are weary with forbearing and can- 
 not stay “ Resist unto blood, striving against sin." 
 And should any command you not to speak any more in 
 the name of Jesus, at once rejoin : “ We cannot but 
 speak the things which we have seen and heard." 
 “ Necessity is laid upon us, yea woe is unto us if toe 
 preach not the gospel." “ The lion hath roared, 
 who will not far f the Lord God hath spoken, 
 who am but prophesy ?" This inextinguishable 
 fervor, this unquailing heroism, become the service 
 you have entered. Ye are the men to endure hard- 
 ness, to stop the mouths of lions, to quench the 
 violence of fire : ye are the men to thresh mountains, to 
 suffer unto blood, to stand in jeopardy every hour. Ye 
 are “ spirits finely touched and to fine issues.” Ye are 
 “ a band of men whose hearts God hath touched." No 
 reptile policy, no craven mood, no vacillating compromise, 
 must be allowed for a moment to degrade your cause. 
 Think not of man, but “ let this mind be in you 
 which was also in Christ Jesus." Measure not your- 
 selves by yourselves, but only by Him who is “ the 
 messenger of the covenant ," and “ a leader and com- 
 mander to the people." Does parental kindness make 
 you waver ? “ He was in the bosom of the Father." 
 
 Does the loss of reputation deter you ? “ He made 
 
 himself of no reputation." Does poverty daunt you? 
 “ For your sakes he became poor." Disobey not the 
 heavenly vision. Confer not with flesh and blood. Let 
 your aims be great, and your hearts enlarged. Take 
 Christ the Lord for your model and guide. Spurn the 
 opinions which a low sordid avarice advances, and the 
 dissuasions a mean ignoble self-indulgence suggests. 
 
62 
 
 Fly high, ye eagles, though many of the owl-eyed cannot 
 sustain the blaze ye seek, nor many of the timorous 
 stretch the proud vans on which ye sail. Rush forward? 
 ye warriors, though the recreants shrink, and the cowards 
 fly. Ye have already revived the holy memories of 
 Christian antiquity. Ye have gone forth in the power 
 and spirit of those who, with a world against them, sub- 
 dued a world. Glorious is the passion lighted in your 
 bosom ! Glorious is the career opened for your ambi- 
 tion ! Glorious is the monument destined for your fall ! 
 
 Whilst men are to be found emulous of this enterprise, 
 it may surely be assumed that we shall protect them 
 from a systematic detraction. Perils, before them, are 
 enough to occupy their attention, without scandals be- 
 hind them to divert it. And if any character deserve 
 our jealous care and vindication, as most precious and 
 original, it is theirs. We should watch it as a vestal 
 flame. It might indeed have been expected, that it would 
 be allowed at least the safeguard of a neutrality,— that 
 if not favoured, it would not have been assailed. It 
 might have been supposed, that it would be respected as 
 the persons of the ancients heralds who passed unmolested 
 through embattling hosts. But it has been our misfor- 
 tune to know that a year has not elapsed, since one who 
 wore this “ highest style” of man, Christian, and 
 minister, — has been torn from his dwelling, plunged 
 into a prison, and sentenced to a gibbet ! Never did 
 tribunal so ruffian pretend to the name of Justice 
 never did vengeance so cowardly pretend to the sanction 
 of Retribution ! 
 
 In this charge there is a prostration of all just and 
 correct sentiment and feeling. The Missionary would 
 not alter the Decalogue ! The Missionary supposed that 
 slaves were of the Human kind ! There is nothing to 
 redeem this monstrous wrong. There is no semblance 
 of equity. There is no trait of generosity. All is low 
 oppression, boisterous rancour, and vampyre cruelty ! 
 
 In this charge there is a beggary of intellect, as well 
 
63 
 
 as an absence of all noble and generous sentiment. We 
 might have expected that an outrage, so long and cau- 
 tiously contrived, would bear some indications of an in- 
 tellectual character : that Christendom would be startled 
 with an unheard of accusation; that ingenuity would have 
 been racked for some mischievous invention. But it has 
 proved the re-echo of an echo, the shadow of a shade, 
 the residuum of a dreg. It is too stale an imposition 
 to deceive, it is too spent an arrow to wound ! 
 
 And now that the evidence has been sifted, the 
 authority of the tribunal canvassed, the entire history of 
 the proceedings scrutinised, who deems this viost pru- 
 dently zealous Missionary guilty ? Perhaps some under- 
 ling of office may be found in honourable alliance with 
 his executioners ; and some vulgar writer for mobs may 
 throw a part of his venomous secretions on his, grave. 
 But who would seek the one as an advocate ; or the other 
 as an encomiast ? — The Society which employed the 
 excellent Smith was not ashamed of his chain, — con- 
 fident that not for political cabal and civil intrigue, 
 not “ as a mover of sedition ," not even as “ a ring- 
 leader of sect," but for the gospel, simply and exclu- 
 sively, was he “ an ambassador in bonds " He was 
 “ the prisoner of the Lord." And are we, after an ex- 
 perience of the hostility harboured by the world, for 
 eighteen hundred years, against all who are M of this 
 way," and u speak in this name," are we now to crouch 
 with fear, and cower into despair ? Time was when the 
 clank of fetters was sweet music to the church. They 
 who “ obtained a good report had their bonds and 
 imprisonments :" and apostles suffered “ as evil doers 
 even unto bonds" And are we surprised if in every city 
 bonds and afflictions abide the Missionary P Or are we 
 so degenerate from the heroism of ancient days, as to 
 revolt at such a spectacle, or tremble at such a sound ? 
 Those manacles are prouder distinctions than the gar- 
 lands of the victor, or the insignia of kings. — Is such a 
 
64 
 
 man to be pitied ? Who fell, leading on the soldiers of 
 the cross to victory ? Who sunk, the proto-martyr of the 
 Missionary cause ? 
 
 “ The oppressor held 
 
 His body bound, but knew not what a range 
 His spirit took unconscious of a chain ; 
 
 And that to bind him is a vain attempt 
 Whom God delights in, and in whom he dwells.” 
 
 It was easy to bear down a defenceless man. Impunity 
 might be presumed. An ocean rolled between him and 
 any wbo would sympathize with his tale. The dungeon 
 was deep where they bound him, and who would care for 
 the captive ? The grave was unmarked where they 
 huddled him, and who whould care for the dead? Yet, 
 though he is unloosed from those chains, their rattle 
 may still disturb the quiet, their rust gnaw the souls, of 
 the White' Conspirators against Christianity and Liberty, 
 — their Maker-God and their Brother-Man. But he is at 
 peace. He had a Trial, but it was one of “ cruel 
 mocking# ," — he had a Verdict, but its “ tender mercies 
 were cruel ,” — he had an Escape, but only because 
 
 “ Nor stony tower, nor walls of beaten brass. 
 
 Nor airless dungeon, nor strong links of iron, 
 
 Can be retentive to the strength of spirit.” 
 
 And there is something awfully impressive in the fact of 
 such release. It reminds of their departure, f‘ who 
 zvere not " It conveys the thought of a direct agency 
 of superior power in it. The gloomy array of captivity 
 and bondage contrasts itself with the liberation. All is 
 secure against rescue or flight. The wards ring with no 
 step. The cells echo to no alarm. A long-drawn sigh 
 only, disturbs the sullen silence. No bolt creaks in its 
 socket, no gate groans on its hinge. “ The keepers 
 before the door kept the prison .' 1 ' 1 But in a moment 
 
 “ a light shined in his prison," “ the angel of the 
 Lord came upon him " “ his chains fell off from his 
 hands " “ he went out and followed" the angel who 
 
65 
 
 did not “ forthwith depart from him," but disenthralled 
 the languishing captive for ever ! He hears no more the 
 voice of the oppressor, nor the shriek of the victim : but 
 awaits a reunion with those poor slaves whom he taught 
 so effectually that their tyrants yet live ; and whose tears 
 shall flow at the recollection of wrongs, which their 
 only Friend endured. 
 
 “ Now truth perform thine office : waft aside 
 The curtain drawn by Prejudice and Pride, 
 
 Reveal (the man is dead) to wond’ring eyes 
 This more than monster in his proper guise. 
 
 He lov’d the World that hated him : the tear 
 That dropp’d upon his Journal was sincere : 
 
 Assail’d by scandal and the tongue of strife. 
 
 His only answer was a blameless life ; 
 
 And he that forg’d, and he that threw the dart. 
 
 Had each a brother’s interest in his heart. 
 
 Blush Calumny ! and write upon his tomb 
 If honest Eulogy can spare the room. 
 
 Thy deep repentance of thy thousand lies, 
 
 Which, aimed at him, have pierc’d th’ offended skies ! 
 
 His martyrdom will have the accustomed influence. 
 It will be of local benefit. Persecution will be para- 
 lysed from having over-strained itself. — The reaction 
 of the public excitement will be favourable. — A higher 
 order of Missionary character will be introduced. — A 
 greater publicity will attach itself to the conduct of 
 Missionary constituents and agents, and likewise to that 
 of their adversaries. — Infidelity must perceive that the 
 martyr spirit is not extinct. — A jailor who has heard 
 him pray and sing praises at midnight, may believe 
 with all his house. — A judge of that Mars-hill (at least 
 it deserves the name,) may cleave unto him. And 
 “ many brethren in the Lord, waxing confident by 
 his bonds, shall be much more bold to speak the word 
 without fear" — This example already beams before the 
 church, and is exciting the most intense emulation. 
 There are those who are impatient to join the ranks 
 which this noble ambition collects and fires, who are 
 
 K 
 
66 
 
 eager to “ be baptized for the dead ." — When Robert 
 the Bruce felt the agonies of death upon him, he called 
 Douglas, the flower of chivalry, to his side. Remind- 
 ing him of their past exploits, when together they had 
 shared the dangers of the field, he conjured him after 
 his decease, to bear his heart in a casket to the Holy 
 Sepulchre. Diverted from the course he should have 
 taken, Douglas hurried to the court of Spain, willing 
 alike to encounter the Moresco as the Saracenic foe. Expo- 
 sing himself to too great a chance, the Paynim enemy 
 surrounded him. Tearing from his bosom the sacred 
 deposit, he threw it before him as a prize which his 
 followers would never suffer to fall into hostile hands. 
 And as he flung it forth, he cried “ Now pass thou 
 onward as thou wert wont, brave heart : Douglas will 
 follow thee or die !” And there is a heart which no 
 longer beats, — and though we bear it in no jewelled and 
 enamelled vase, to us it is a pledge we will not for- 
 feit, a trust we will not desert. 
 
 “ Thy name, our charging hosts along. 
 
 Shall be our battle-word : 
 
 Thy fall, the theme of choral song 
 From virgin voices pour’d : 
 
 To weep would do thy glory wrong, — 
 
 Thou shalt not he deplored.” 
 
 A prophet came out of Judah to denounce the idolatry 
 of Bethel, and to predict, as the instrument of its subver- 
 sion, the birth of Josiah. More than three hundred years 
 had elapsed, ere the altar of Bethel was destroyed, or 
 Josiah mounted the throne. The words of the prophet 
 were almost forgotten. But whilst this excellent prince 
 was carrying his intentions against idolatry into effect, 
 he saw “ the title ” which marked et the sepulchre of the 
 man of God." He whom Jeroboam had attempted to 
 seize when he prophesied against the altar, is on the 
 expiration of three centuries honored and attested, — 
 his epitaph is read, and his dust protected, by Josiah. 
 
07 
 
 Our Missionary lias no title: and no sepulchre. But 
 we believe the time will not be measured by centuries 
 which shall discover honors paid to those remains which 
 now have no memorial, and receive no pilgrimage : what 
 he proclaimed shall be quoted, and what he did shall 
 be revered, whilst the bones which repose in costly 
 sepulchres are exhumed, and the inscriptions of those 
 sepulchres arc obliterated. 
 
 There are some who never hear an accusation with- 
 out taking it for granted that it is true. Their respect 
 for what has the sanction of authority, is unbounded. 
 They cannot bring themselves to think that “ the 
 Powers that be" can do wrong. It is not so much a 
 question with them, whether these Powers be consti- 
 tutional or unconstitutional, legal or illegal, as whether 
 “ they be" If any circumstance transpires in the pro- 
 gress of Christianity which implicates these, they at once 
 decide that they arc right. The basest suspicion is 
 deemed by them political vigilance, and the most bar- 
 barous outrage is justified by them as political decision. 
 Now this is not the stirring and magnanimous spirit 
 of the best ages of Christianity. It was not this which 
 bore up the first Christians amidst the charges of 
 sacrilege. It was not this which nerved the souls of 
 the earliest' Reformers, under the crimination of se- 
 dition. Had this spirit prevailed, how would martyrs 
 have pleaded with kings when cited before them, or have 
 expostulated with them, from the arena where they 
 were thrown to the lions ? Had this spirit prevailed 
 how would confessors have stood before Diets and 
 Councils of princes and prelates? Until a spirit 
 more healthy and daring swell our bosoms, we are not 
 only unworthy successors of our sires ; but totally unfit 
 to improve the facilities, and wield the rescources, which 
 the present church possesses in unexampled profusion. 
 Timid measures and dainty feelings must be sacrificed ! 
 We must assume the port of those who would, who 
 
68 
 
 could not stoop. We must be prepared for all calamities, 
 reverses, dangers. We must in nothing be terrified by 
 adversaries. And when, as in a recent case, a Mis- 
 sionary is cast into prison, let it be rather a wonder 
 with us that such a circumstance has not occured more 
 early and more frequently, considering how closely a Mis- 
 sionary follows Him “ who was taken from prison and 
 from judgement .' 1 ' 1 And when we interfere for the 
 victim, let no blustering assertion, no crooked policy, 
 no general panic leave us irresolute ; for surely we may 
 make common cause with the Missionary whom the 
 Saviour identifies with himself, and feel the anticipated 
 rapture of the recognition with which he will accept 
 our services as personally directed : “ I was in prison 
 and ye came unto me .” 
 
 In this spirit of unshrinking courage and unabating 
 ardor, let us proceed. We carry the commission of 
 Him who “ came to send fire on the earth .''' 1 We 
 may blow the flame. We may spread the conflagra- 
 tion. “ What will we if it he already kindled?'''' All 
 must yield to the gospel of Christ, or be consumed by 
 its progress. Nothing is too little to escape its pre- 
 sence, or too vast to resist its force. This fire will alike 
 prey on the worthless stubble of the field, and devour 
 the lofty cedar of the forest. — We wear the badge of 
 Him who “ had a baptism to he baptized with," 
 and votivcly dedicated himself to the consummation of 
 his Mediatory work with his own blood. He has not 
 forsaken his pledge, which “ he was straitened " by 
 earnest and mighty longings to assume. Hut if we re- 
 fuse labor, sacrifice, privation, reproach, and even death ? 
 for “ his sake and the gospel's," We virtually re- 
 nounce the Christian profession: whilst he ratifies 
 his Baptism, we are Apostates from our oivn. 
 
 finis.