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 THE CHURCH 
 
 AWAKENED TO 
 
 HER DUTY AND HER DANGER: 
 
 A SERMON PREACHED FOR THE 
 
 inuirii of foreign 
 
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 Ulli 
 
 
 OF 
 
 THE PRESBYTERIAN CIIURCII, 
 
 ON SABBATH EVENING, MAY 1, 1853, IN THE CHl'RCH ON FIFTH AVENUE AND NINETEENTH 
 STREET, NEW YORK ; AND ALSO IN THE CENTRAL CHl'RCH, PHILADELPHIA. 
 
 ON SABBATH EVENING, SLAY 22, 1S53. 
 
 BY THE REV. THOMAS SMYTH, D.D., 
 
 PASTOR OF THE SECOND PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, 
 
 CHARLESTON, S. C. 
 
 NEW YORK: 
 
 MISSION HOUSE, 23 CENTRE STREET. 
 
 MDCCCLIII. 
 
EDWARD 0. JENKINS, PRINTER, 
 
 114 Nassau Street. 
 
SERMON 
 
 “For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved,” &c. — R om. x. 13-15. 
 
 On the subject of Foreign Missions — that is, the sending and 
 supporting preachers of the Gospel in all the world, according to 
 the command of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ — it is impos- 
 sible to say anything new. Novelty can no longer attract the 
 eager attention of an awakened curiosity. The terra incognita 
 of heathendom has been explored. The era of peril and adven- 
 ture has, to a great extent, passed away. The teeming multitudes 
 of pagans, once so partially known to us, have now swelled into 
 six hundred and fifty millions, rushing, like the foaming waters 
 of Niagara, over the precipice of death, into the fearful gulf of a 
 dark and dreadful eternity. By the vivid light thrown upon them 
 we have been enabled as it were to look out from our calm and 
 quiet home upon each particular man and woman in that vast 
 torrent — to see them, in their various forms of misery, rolling on 
 from crag to crag in those fearful rapids — and to hear them, amid 
 their diversities of vernacular tongues, all sinking with one and 
 the same articulate language of despair. Nay, so full and accu- 
 rate have been the observations made, that we can tell the num- 
 ber who every day and hour, and even moment, are thus passing 
 beyond the reach of human help or hope. 
 
 Now, it is a principle of our nature that thoughts and impres- 
 sions lose their power to influence and control us the more fre- 
 quently they pass through our minds. Thus, constant exposure 
 to danger lessens fear, and the frequent observation of misery and 
 death deadens our sense of pity and alarm. And thus, also, it is 
 that the spectacle of millions of human beings sitting “in the 
 
4 
 
 region and shadow of death,*’ “ without God and without hope 
 in the world,” having lost its novelty, ceases to attract attention 
 or to enkindle sympathy. 
 
 Our nature, however, cannot be totally destroyed. Even when 
 “ seared as with a hot iron,” the essential principles of our moral 
 constitution cannot be altogether paralyzed. Truth, which is in 
 its own nature solemn and convincing, cannot but lead to an ap- 
 preciation correspondent to its magnitude and importance. Let 
 that truth — as, for instance, the certainty of death — be one in 
 which our own interests are vitally at stake — one which brings 
 with it a conviction of duty, a sense of accountability to God, 
 and which thus involves our everlasting destiny, and let it be 
 brought home by some present and affecting demonstration of its 
 approach to ourselves or to those dear to us, and in spite of all our 
 general indifference and unconcern, we are overwhelmed with 
 absorbing emotions of sorrow and distress, hope and fear. And 
 when any man, however impenitent and hardened, allows him- 
 self, or is, by the preaching of the Gospel, made to look forward 
 to that judgment which is after death, and to realize that every 
 man must render an account of himself unto God,” he 
 cannot but be filled with a “ certain fearful looking for of judg- 
 ment and of fiery indignation.” 
 
 From such truths the mind may be averted through unbelief ; 
 but, come when they will, and by what means they may, before 
 the contemplation of the mind, they must arouse its deepest con- 
 sideration and its most anxious concern. The appeal is made 
 not only to our understanding, but also to our conscience. By 
 the former we arc convinced and convicted ; by the latter we 
 are condemned, sentenced, and held amenable to a righteous 
 retribution. Oh, yes, conscience is the mightiest principle in 
 our nature ! There is no other such terrible word as remorse, and 
 no other such miserable object in the universe as a self-tormented 
 soul, lashed by the furies of its own inexorable self-condemnings. 
 
 Now, conscience is immortal and indestructible. It never dies. 
 It sleeps, indeed, in fitful slumbers; but it is only that, when 
 aroused by the midnight cry of danger, it may awake as a strong 
 man armed and made fierce with impetuous passion. The 
 power of truth, involving duty, to affect the mind at every 
 believing contemplation of it, is still greater when the authority 
 
5 
 
 which enforces it is indubitable — when the rule which prescribes 
 it is plain — and when the eye of the lawgiver is witness to our 
 conduct. And when to this necessity for obedience there is added 
 the evidence of success consequent upon our efforts, the assurance 
 of giving satisfaction, and of obtaining the recompense of reward, 
 then, as in the case of the diligent scholar, the industrious 
 husbandman, and of man in every other calling of life, truth be- 
 comes mighty, and prevails over all the natural tendency of our 
 hearts to lose the impression of familiar and well-known truth. 
 
 And here, as everywhere, wo see the goodness of our all-wise 
 Creator, in that those active habits which mould the character, 
 give principle to duty, power to effort, and perseverance and suc- 
 cess to enterprise, may be gradually formed and strengthened, 
 even while the thoughts and feelings first inducing us to act be- 
 come weak and powerless. By acting in conformity with such 
 motives, when awakened within us by some stirring appeal, our 
 habits of active and willing discharge of duty will strengthen 
 even while the incitements to it are less and less sensibly felt. 
 The mere temporary pity for others, or alarm for our own neglect, 
 will thus become a principle, “ wrought somehow into the tem- 
 per and character,” and made constantly effective in influencing 
 our nature. 
 
 In this way the noblest traits of humanity are developed and 
 made characteristic. The child of fear becomes bold and in- 
 trepid. The indolent becomes industrious, the selfish disinter- 
 ested, the churl liberal, while the man who can meet death with- 
 out fear in the discharge of duty, lives in the most watchful pre- 
 paration for his latter end. And thus also is it that the man who 
 under the excitement of compassion for the perishing, whether at 
 home or abroad, is led habitually to do what in him lies for their 
 relief, while his heart is less and less sensibly affected by the 
 contemplation of their misery; nevertheless, “ benevolence, con- 
 sidered not as a passion but as a principle ,” will strengthen, so 
 that whilst he feels and pities less, he prays and gives and does 
 good all the more.* God has thus secured for duty the 
 power, protection, and ever sustaining life of principle. He 
 has not left it to the mere fitful and evanescent excite- 
 ment of sympathy and compassion — a feeling which requires 
 
 See Butler’s Analogy, Part I., Chap. Y. 
 
6 
 
 direction and control — which is fluctuating and uncertain — 
 which is misled by fancy — disgusted by sober realities — 
 wearied by disappointment — extinguished by ingratitude — 
 and which by its own temporary impulse soon dies away. 
 Principle, however, is based on consideration, truth and duty, 
 and is therefore as constant and potent as the truth on which it 
 is founded, the authority to which it defers, and the obligation 
 by which it is impelled. 
 
 We are thus led to perceive also the wisdom and goodness of 
 G-od, in so constituting our nature, that while easily aroused to 
 duty by the impulse of natural affection, that duty may become 
 delight by the very habit of discharging it ; and, still further, in 
 that, in order to keep our minds and hearts continually alive to a 
 sense of our obligations, He has instituted the ministry of the 
 Gospel. It is in God’s stead we preach, beseech and persuade 
 men. It is in His name and by His authority we commend 
 truth and duty to every man’s conscience in the sight of God. It 
 is God’s word which is put into our hands as a hammer to 
 break into pieces every flinty rock, — as a fire to melt the most 
 hard and obdurate, — as the rain that cometh down on the mown 
 grass to refresh and fertilize the thirsty soul — and as the still 
 small voice to the ear of anxious love solicitous to hear, or to him 
 that goeth softly because of his inward sorrow. 
 
 Thus it is that God givcth us line upon line and precept upon 
 precept, here a little and there a little — holding forth to us the 
 glass of duty — writing conviction upon our hearts, — deepening 
 impressions when they have become faint or obliterated, — alarm- 
 ing the careless — arousing the slumbering — and stimulating to 
 continued and unceasing efforts the diligent and devoted. By 
 precept; by promises; by encouragement ; by warning; by hope 
 and fear ; by the assurance of success and deliverance from all 
 difficulties; by the wisdom drawn from past failures ; and bold- 
 ness derived from past victories ; we are kept steadfast, immova- 
 ble, and always abounding in the work of the Lord. 
 
 It is on these grounds, my brethren, we base the importance of 
 such discourses as the present, and on which we have hope in ad- 
 dressing you on this occasion. 
 
 The truth about which we now preach is the glorious Gospel of 
 the blessed God ; that truth which makes known the only way 
 
7 
 
 in which guilty man can bo recovered from his apostasy, replaced 
 in the favor of God, and secured in what is most precious to im- 
 mortal creatures, — a complete and never-ending ielicity. 
 
 This Gospel is a talent with which we are put in trust. “ Unto 
 us is committed the oracles of God the promises and provisions 
 of salvation ; the balm of souls all o’er diseased ; the only anti- 
 dote to the sting of death ; and the only source of everlasting 
 life. 
 
 As such, the Gospel is the gift of God and the manifestation of 
 the inconceivable love of God to all mankind. By the everlast- 
 ing purpose and decree of God, the heathen are given to Christ 
 and the uttermost parts of the earth for His possession. The 
 provisions of the covenant of grace are for all the apostate race 
 of Adam. The propitiation made by Christ is “for the sins of 
 the whole world.” The promises of God, from the beginning, 
 have included the whole family of man. Prophecy foretells the 
 universal ofTer and triumph of the Gospel. Christ is “ the Sav- 
 iour of all men.” The Holy Spirit is given to “convince the 
 world.” God now commandeth all men every where to believe 
 the Gospel. This Gospel is to be preached to every creature in all 
 the world. And it is the power of God to the salvation of every 
 one that believeth, whether Jew or Gentile. 
 
 The universal diffusion and triumph of the Gospel is therefore 
 a fixed fact. Heaven and earth may pass away, but one jot or 
 tittle of all that God has said concerning it shall not pass away 
 until all be fulfilled. Prayer to God that “ his way may be 
 known upon earth and his saving health among all nations” was 
 a part of the constant prayers of God’s Church under the former 
 economy, and is made equally necessary now, both by the peti- 
 tions embodied in the Lord’s Prayer, and by the injunction given 
 by Christ to “ pray the Lord of the harvest that He would send 
 forth more laborers into the harvest.” 
 
 The Church, composed of every believing soul, is constituted 
 the pillar and ground of the truth, to preserve, perpetuate and 
 propagate it. She is the “ Angel” or messenger of Christ, “ hav- 
 ing the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the 
 earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and peo- 
 ple.” 
 
 The promise given by Christ to the Church of his abiding pre- 
 
8 
 
 sence and blessing, is made to depend upon her obedience to this 
 divine commission. “ Behold,” therefore, says our Saviour on 
 another occasion, “ I send the promise of my Father upon you : 
 but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem until ye be endued with 
 power from on high.” “But ye shall receive power, after 
 that the Holy Ghost is come upon you, and ye shall be witnesses 
 untome both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, 
 and unto the uttermost parts of the earth.” 
 
 The Church is therefore the trustee of the Gospel. To her as a 
 Steward are committed the oracles and ,the ordinances of God, 
 for the benefit of the world. No angel appears, as once to the 
 Virgin Mary, to make known the Savior. No star is seen to guide 
 the wise men of the East to the manger of Bethlehem. All is 
 concentrated in the Church. To her alone the privilege is grant- 
 ed. On her alone the responsibility rests to preach among the 
 Gentiles, as well as Jews, “the unsearchable riches of Christ.” 
 
 We arc therefore “debtors.” “We are debtors both to the 
 Greeks, and to the Barbarians; both to the wise, and to the un- 
 wise.” We owe to every unevangelized human being that Gos- 
 pel, which is “the true riches, the pearl of great price.” Jt is 
 only given to us in trust. Neither we, nor it, are our own. 
 
 Woe therefore is unto that Church and unto that member of 
 the Church, who does not, directly or indirectly, by prayer, by in- 
 fluence, by liberal help, by co-operation, by advice, by conse- 
 crating his children, and bringing them up for God, — woe unto 
 him who does not, as he has opportunity and ability, “ preach the 
 Gospel to every creature.” Yes, Christian, you are a light, but if 
 that light is hid under a bushel and not set on high, so as to give 
 light to all, what is it good for? Yes, Christian, you are as leav- 
 en, but if that leaven isconfmed to your own heart, to your own 
 family, to your own church, to your own country, instead of 
 leavening the whole mass of humanity, what is it good for ? Yes, 
 Christ ian, you are salt, but if the salt has lost the power to savor, 
 purify and preserve, what is it good for? Ah! says Christ, that 
 professing Christian who liveth unto himself — who seeks his own 
 things and not the things that are Christ’s, is none of His. 
 
 The command of Christ is the command of a living, loving, 
 divine, and all-powerful Redeemer. It is as extensive as the 
 earth, as enduring as time, and as comprehensive as the pro- 
 
9 
 
 mise of the love and presence of Christ, and of his Spirit, with 
 which it is accompanied. It is as much in force at this moment, 
 as when it was first delivered; and it will come home to every 
 believing heart as fresh and powerful as when it first proceeded 
 from the Saviour’s lips. 
 
 But to this commission the divine head of the Church added 
 another most solemn and authoritative command. For when 
 after his resurrection he appeared personally to the Apostle Paul, 
 his words to him, and through him to the Church, were these : 
 “ I send thee” unto the Gentiles, “ to open their eyes and to turn 
 them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto 
 God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance 
 among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me.” 
 
 Acting upon the divine commission thus emphatically renewed, 
 the triumphs of the Gospel were soon extended to the utmost 
 limits of the Roman empire, and even into countries which 
 Rome's victorious legions had never seen. So long as the Church 
 remained evangelical in doctrine, she continued evangelistic in 
 effort. The simplicity of Gospel truth secured a missionary 
 spirit, and this the missionary benediction, so that even the perse- 
 cutions raised by the enemies of the truth were made to work 
 together for the propagation of the truth. 
 
 But after a time the elements of Gentile philosophy, and the 
 idolatrous customs of the heathen nations who partially em- 
 braced Christianity, were combined with the Gospel, and thus a 
 spurious system of doctrine and practice was soon produced ; so 
 that, instead of subduing heathenism, the Church to a large ex- 
 tent was subdued by it. The true simplicity of the Gospel was 
 forsaken. The ark of God was therefore no longer with the armies 
 of Israel. Paganized Christianity in the West and Ea.-f led to the 
 abandonment of Gospel truth — this, to the loss of the • ! ssionary 
 spirit — and this, to the forfeiture of the missionary promise and 
 blessing. The purity and strength of the Church were lost together. 
 Subverting the Gospel by human corruptions, Popery destroyed 
 the vitality of the Church, and made it an easy prey to the arms 
 of the Moslem. 
 
 It is not unusual to hear the progress of the Gospel spoken of, 
 as a process that has been steadily, though slowly, advancing 
 from the apostolic age to the present time. This, however, is a 
 
10 
 
 great mistake. The Church has sometimes fallen so far back in 
 one age, that ages have been required to enable her to regain her 
 former position. It would be most painfully interesting to recall the 
 thousands of Churches that once flourished in Northern Africa, along 
 the southern shores of the Mediterranean, in Egypt, and the coun. 
 tries round it ; in Asia Minor, Syria, Mesopotamia, and Persia, to 
 the very banks of the Indus — in Central Asia, from the shores of 
 the Caspian to the borders of China ; yea, and within it — in India, 
 in Bactria. in Armenia, and in Arabia — so that there can be little 
 doubt that about the time when Mohammedanism first appeared 
 in the East, the number of nominal Christians was greater in 
 proportion to the whole population of the then known world than 
 it. was at the commencement of the nineteenth century. 
 
 The Reformation was scarcely sufficient to arrest the retrograde 
 movement that had been commenced centuries before, nor have 
 all the efforts of modern missions, and the colonization of this 
 new world, fully compensated for the ground previously lost. 
 
 By her original constitution the Church was formed for con- 
 quest, and, like every other army when she becomes inactive, she 
 must become demoralized. Active operations for extending her 
 dominion, instead of impairing her internal energies, are the only 
 means of increasing her efficiency. A pure church, properly 
 accomplishing all local objects, and yet destitute of a missionary 
 spirit that is of an active, zealous and diffusive character, is a 
 contradiction. No such church ever long existed, and from the 
 very nature of things, cannot possibly exist. Internal spirituality, 
 living piety, and sound doctrine, cannot coexist in churches, or 
 individuals, with the absence of a missionary spirit. The form 
 of godliness may be manifested, but the power is wanting. The 
 external lineaments of faith may be assumed, but withdraw the 
 mask and you behold only a dead corpse. 
 
 You see your calling, therefore, brethren. Every Christian is 
 a soldier enlisted by his own voluntary consecration, with a 
 solemn oath, under the banners of the great Captain of salva- 
 tion, — the leader and commander of his people, — to fight man- 
 fully and valiantly for the cause of truth and righteous- 
 ness. 
 
 The hosts of the mighty are still encamped against the Lord, 
 
11 
 
 and His anointed. Popery still numbers her millions. Moham- 
 medanism counts her millions, and Paganism her six hundred 
 and fifty millions. Infidelity also, and a “ world lying in wick- 
 edness” in the very midst of Christendom, number their millions. 
 The world is not yet converted. It is far, very far from being 
 converted. 
 
 Why, then, is this the case ? Who is to blame ? This melan- 
 choly state of things does not, we have seen, arise from any 
 limitation of the Gospel in the love or purposes of God — in the 
 provision of his covenant — in the gift or propitiation of his Son — 
 in the office and agency of the Holy Ghost — or in the commission 
 of his Church. These all conspire to impress upon every member 
 of the Church the certainty of the ultimate and universal triumph 
 of the Gospel through the agency of man, accompanied by the 
 omnipotent power of the Holy Ghost. That there is great and 
 inexcusable guilt resting upon the Church, and proportionably 
 upon every individual member of the Church, cannot therefore be 
 denied. The obligation and the disobedience are both equally 
 plain and indisputable. 
 
 Has man, then, in his weakness, defeated the purposes of God, 
 who is able to do “ whatsoever it pleaseth him among the armies 
 of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth?” “God 
 forbid.” 
 
 Take an illustration from a kindred subject. All power in 
 heaven and on earth was at the disposal of Christ, when, as man, 
 he was “ by wicked hands crucified and slain.” For the glory 
 of God’s grace that Redeemer’s advent, promised from the be- 
 ginning of the world, was withheld until “ the fulness of time 
 came.” And when Christ had come, and “ his own,” to whom he 
 came, in inexcusable guilt nailed him to the accursed tree, 
 they at one and the same time filled up the measure of 
 their own iniquity, and fulfilled the predestined, though to 
 them unknown, purpose of God. Here, then, we find the 
 promised coming of the Saviour, though made immutably 
 certain, long hindered and delayed by man’s wilful depravity, 
 and the Saviour himself, by the wickedness of an unbelieving 
 Church, actually put to death in the fiesh. And here we 
 see also how God made even the perversity and wicked- 
 
12 
 
 ness of man to work together for the ultimate accomplishment of 
 His gracious promise. 
 
 In like manner, the universal triumph of the Gospel has been 
 foretold in prophecy, and made certain by promise, provision and 
 command, from the very beginning. But the Devil, who is called 
 the god of this world, in alliance with the evil heart of unbeliev- 
 ing and unholy men, has, by every possible device and cunning 
 craftiness, withstood the progress of the Gospel. 
 
 In unison with him, and under his direction, all the power of 
 worldly influence, political ambition, selfish patriotism, covetous- 
 ness, penurious bigotry, and open skepticism and infidelity, have 
 leagued their powers, by argument, by wit, by raillery, and by 
 public opinion, to accomplish the same end. 
 
 Even a more formidable obstacle to the inward power and ex- 
 ternal progress of the Gospel has been found in that amalgamation 
 of heathen philosophy and superstition with some portions of 
 Gospel truth, which constitutes the system of Popery. We are 
 informed, on divine authority, that as early as the days of the 
 Apostles, “ the mystery of iniquity” had begun to work — that, 
 ere very long, “ that wicked should be fully revealed,” and that 
 from the time of his full development “ the man of sin and son 
 of perdition” would, with the co-operation of civil powers, 
 “exalt himself above all that is called God,” during the space of 
 twelve hundred years. During all this time, whenever and 
 wherever the Romish Church has had power, the pure Gospel and 
 the missionary spirit have been the objects of exterminating 
 persecution. 
 
 Even within the bosom of those Churches of Christ which sub- 
 stantially hold the pure Gospel, there has been much indifference 
 and neglect of the missionary spirit, and, consequently, but a 
 partial bestowment of the missionary benediction upon them and 
 their labors. Rivalries, contentions for denominational pre- 
 eminence, sectarian jealousy, partial views of the truth, unbelief 
 and want of confidence in the divine authority, commission, and 
 promise of the Church, and, therefore, in the order of the divine 
 blessing, a greater reliance upon human wisdom and human sys- 
 tems than upon the simplicity of Bible truth and Scriptural policy, 
 together with a misapprehension of the true nature of the Chris- 
 
13 
 
 tian character and of the real obligations under which the dis- 
 ciple of Jesus is brought — these causes, terminating as they do 
 in that supreme love of the world which gives to it and not to 
 Christ the mastery over the time, talents, property, purposes, and 
 habits, even of professing Christians — these are the sources of 
 that lukewarmness and positive opposition which have been, and 
 still are, manifested within the Church itself, to the dissemination 
 of the Gospel. 
 
 A sound and orthodox creed, a blameless conduct, membership 
 in some Church, and a measure of support to its institutions and 
 charities, have come to be regarded as the elements of a perfect 
 Christian character. It seems to be almost forgotten, or at least 
 not practically remembered, that the greater number of sins are 
 sins of omission — that these may prove a want of true piety just 
 as certainly as sins of commission — that they are just as much 
 the subject of penitential confession and prayer — that the negli- 
 gent, though professedly obedient son, the unprofitable servant, 
 the lazy, selfish holder of his Lord’s talent, the unfruitful, though 
 leaf-bearing tree — they that take their ease in Zion — they who 
 mind their own things and live unto themselves — it is forgotten, 
 we say, that they, in short, who have omitted to do what they 
 should have done for Christ and His cause, are the very persons 
 against whom even now the curse is uttered; “because they 
 come not up to the help of the Lord, to the help of the Lord 
 against the mighty,” and against whom, at the day of judgment, 
 the awful sentence will be pronounced, “ Inasmuch as ye did it 
 not unto one of the least of these, ye did it not unto me.” 
 
 Christian faith rests on Christ. Christian life is derived from 
 union to Christ. This union to Christ is the ground of the be- 
 liever’s justification, sanctification, and redemption. Christ and 
 his people are one. His sufferings and theirs, His cause and 
 theirs, His glory and theirs, are one. And as Christ became 
 united to the whole human rac^ as the head and representative 
 of his people in the covenant of grace, it follows that every be- 
 liever is not only under obligation to consider the glory, the honor, 
 the cause of Christ as his, but, from the very nature of Christian 
 life, love, and experience, he cannot but judge that if Christ died 
 for all, then all died in him ; and that they who live by his life 
 should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him who died 
 
14 
 
 for them and rose again. And as all that is precious in the Gos- 
 pel, in the writings of the Apostles, in the promises, in the means 
 of grace, and in the hopes of glory, are among the gifts bestowed 
 by Christ in the fulfilment of his ascending promise, it is still 
 more clearly evident that no man has any warrant to hope in 
 Christ, or any evidence of his life being hid with Christ in God, 
 except as he is found obedient to the great end and purpose for 
 which Christ has instituted the Church, and calls out of the world 
 every believing member of the Church. 
 
 No refuge of lies, therefore, can be more certain to betray the 
 hopes of its vain, deluded victims than the too prevalent idea that 
 Christian character and duty are confined to those things which 
 concern our own immediate interests as Christians, churches, or 
 denominations. This would at once transform the Christian 
 spirit, which is love, charity, and devotion to God, in gratitude 
 for a soul redeemed, regenerated, and united to Christ, into spiri- 
 tual selfishness. “ But he that keepeth my commandments he 
 it is that loveth me,” and “ faith without works is dead.” 
 
 These, then, are the causes which have led to the partial pro- 
 gress and power of the Gospel, both at home and abroad. For it 
 was just as much a part of the divine purpose and promise that 
 the triumphs of the Gospel should be achieved, through causes 
 purely moral, and for the operation of which human beings arc 
 accountable, as that it should finally and assuredly take place. 
 
 These causes of the partial progress of the Gospel, it is also 
 plain, arise from the guilt of God’s creatures, voluntarily incurred, 
 in opposition to his plain commands, to the original design of the 
 Gospel and to the purposes of divine mercy. They are, in every 
 case, the native activity of human corruption — the effects of the 
 free agency of wicked men, or of the remaining wickedness of 
 good men, stimulated by their depraved passions, and deceived 
 by the blinding influence of the god of this world. 
 
 All this evil God has permitted to exist and to continue, just as 
 he permitted the “ filling up the measure of their iniquity” by 
 the ancient nations, and the crucifixion of our Lord. He even 
 foretold the existence and continuance of these causes of the slow 
 progress in the Gospel — the consequent waxing cold of the love 
 of his true disciples — the prevalence of error — and tho partial 
 triumph and overthrow of tho Gospel, “ until the time appointed 
 
15 
 
 by the Father should come.” God’s promise has not therefore 
 failed, nor is the Lord “slack concerning his promise.” The 
 same sovereign wisdom has been at work on God’s part during 
 all this time, in which scoffers ask with unbelieving profanity 
 “ where is the promise of his coming,” as during the period 
 before the coming of the Saviour. God iias not forgotten either 
 his promise or his purpose. They are as infallible as His own 
 nature, as immutable as His own throne, and as certain as His 
 own omnipotence. 
 
 The guilt of the heathen — of the world — of Satan — of the 
 man of sin — and of an unfaithful and unbelieving^Church, God 
 has permitted, and will surely punish, as he has in part done. 
 And all these hindrances to the progress of the Gospel, as in the 
 preparation for the introduction of the Gospel, God will make to 
 work together for the greater glory of His own great name, when 
 the fulness of time has come, and the Church shall “ arise and 
 shine, the glory of the Lord being arisen upon her.” God’s 
 purposes can only be a rule for our conduct so far as He has been 
 pleased to reveal them as directions for our conduct. In this 
 case, they constitute a warrant and an encouragement. But where 
 God’s purpose is only revealed prophetically, so as to exhibit a 
 fixed and certain result, without disclosing to us the definite 
 period when it shall be realized, and the special means by which 
 it shall be brought about, then, the command of God, and not 
 His ultimate purpose , is the rule of our present duty. God may 
 have many purposes to accomplish before fulfilling that to which 
 these all conspire, as in the case before us. The rule of our con- 
 duct and that of the divine procedure, are essentially different. 
 
 The Gospel is, therefore, universally to triumph, and that 
 through the instrumentality of the Church. In this faith and 
 hope, the Church is to labor and pray — to spend and be spent. 
 In so doing, and only in so doing, she preserves, perpetuates, and 
 enlarges herself — secures her purity and power, and the promised 
 blessing — and escapes the righteous judgment of God. Such 
 obedience will be always acceptable, and always effectual to 
 great and glorious results. But how far they will advance the 
 ultimate triumph of Christ’s kingdom, and the final overthrow 
 of Satan’s power, must be left to God’s infinite wisdom in con- 
 summating His own divine plan. The nature of our duty is plain 
 
16 
 
 and positive. The time of our duty is always present. The 
 measure of our obedience is the utmost that our ability and 
 opportunity will allow. The success and the recompense of our 
 self-sacrifice will always be proportionate ; and when God with- 
 holds the former, He will multiply the latter. Everything, 
 however, seems to show that the night of toilsome expectation is 
 drawing to a close, and that the dawn of the promised day is 
 breaking upon the marshalled forces of Satan and of Christ. 
 Did time permit, it were easy to show that many things in the 
 condition of heathen and of anti-Christian lands, betoken the 
 working of superhuman agency in preparing the way, and over- 
 ruling every event for the subjugation of all Christ’s enemies — 
 the display of His power in consuming them by the spirit of His 
 mouth, and the brightness of His coming — and in communicating 
 the blessing of salvation to the whole race of Adam. 
 
 Let us then again fix your attention upon the object of the 
 Foreign Missionary work. As it regards God in Christ, the 
 object of Foreign Missions is the discharge of our duty by 
 preaching the Gospel to every creature in all the world — by dis- 
 cipling them and instructing them in all things whatsoever 
 Christ has commanded — by the manifestation of an implicit and 
 filial obedience to His commands — by our prayerful zeal and 
 devotion to His cause and glory as our own — and by contributing, 
 as far as it may please Him to make use of our services and 
 sacrifices, to the consummation of the promised glory of the 
 Church, and the universal establishment of the kingdom of 
 Christ. 
 
 As it regards mankind, the object of Foreign Missions is to 
 proclaim to them the knowledge of the only true God — Father, 
 Son, and Holy Ghost — and of Jesus Christ, the only name under 
 heaven by which they can be saved. 
 
 There are, we have said, about 756,000,000 of human beings 
 beyond the Christian pale, and to a great extent, beyond the 
 possible knowledge of salvation. 
 
 These arc every one of them our fellow-beings, our neighbors, 
 whom we are bound to love even as ourselves ; our brethren, of 
 whose spiritual interest we are keepers ; our creditors, to whom 
 we are debtors, having been put in trust with the Gospel for 
 them. 
 
17 
 
 They arc our fellow-sufferers. Besides all the sorrows and 
 afflictions common to our apostate and accursed humanity, they 
 are subjected to sufferings peculiar to themselves. They are 
 sunk in temporal wretchedness — the victims of rapine, violence, 
 and murder, afflicted, afflicting, and destroying one another. 
 Their spirit is that of fear. Their anticipations arc those of 
 terror, and they live in habitations of horrid cruelty. All this, 
 and moro than this, they live to endure, without anything to 
 alleviate their distresses, sweeten the bitter draught, soften their 
 hard and thorny couch, calm their fears, or draw out the sting of 
 death. 
 
 These millions are our fellow-sinners. With us they sinned. 
 With us they are condemned. So that G-od hath concluded all 
 under sin, and the whole world is guilty before Him. Of this 
 sin they are conscious. The writings of the heathen are full of 
 the confessions of sin, and the conscience of every pagan both 
 accuses and condemns him as guilty of sin, and deserving of, 
 and exposed to, punishment. Hence the secret dread of divine 
 vengeance. Hence the various methods by which they attempt 
 to propitiate the Deity. 
 
 The language of the heathen poet, Anacreon, in bemoaning 
 his own approaching death, is not too strong as a general expres- 
 sion of heathen gloom : — 
 
 ** Henceforth unhappy 1 doomed to know 
 Tormenting fears of future woe ! 
 
 Oh, how my soul with horror shrinks 
 Whene’er my startled fancy thinks 
 Of Pluto’s dark and dreary cave, 
 
 The chill, the cheerless, gaping gravel” 
 
 The heathen, however, are not merely sinners. Their sins are 
 of the deepest dye. The Word of God everywhere reprobates 
 idolatry as “ the abominable thing which God hates.” It is 
 apostasy from God. It is rebellion against God. It is the abjura- 
 tion of allegiance to God. It is the dethronement of the only living 
 and true God, and the setting up of an impious rival. It destroys 
 the soul of all duty, which is obedience to the divine command. 
 It is based upon aversion to God, and dislike to the purity and 
 spirituality of his character. It dishonors God by all its foul 
 representations, its silly images, its contemptible ceremonies, and 
 2 
 
18 
 
 its impious claims. Idolatry also ruins man as a rational and 
 moral agent — the accountable subject of God. It prohibits rea- 
 son, entangles intellect, pollutes the heart, silences or perverts 
 conscience, taints every apparent virtue, stimulates the passions, 
 deadens sensibility, excludes light, consecrates vice, deifies sin, 
 exalts some fellow-men into the tyranny of fictitious godhead, and 
 tramples upon others as the dust and filth of the earth. Idolatry, 
 therefore, is condemned, both in the first and second command- 
 ments — in the Old and New Testament — and it has been followed 
 by the most signal and fearful inflictions of divine wrath.* 
 
 Nor does this criminality attach to idolatry merely in its ori- 
 ginal form. The present generation of the heathen are without 
 excuse. They voluntarily approve and adopt the iniquity of 
 their fathers. They are willingly ignorant. Their own sacred 
 books — their knowledge of right and wrong — their laws and 
 penalties — their mutual judgments of each other’s character and 
 conduct — their self-accusings for wrong done and for good un- 
 done — their sense of sin — their voluntary sacrifices, fasts and 
 penances — their dread of God, of death, and of future misery — 
 these are awful proofs that the heathen are wilfully sinners, 
 without excuse, and self-condemned. 
 
 God, then, is not unrighteous in having left them to their self- 
 chosen iniquities, in denouncing wrath against them, and in 
 taking vengeance upon them. They are sinners judged by their 
 own knowledge of duty, and their own voluntary admission of 
 evil. They are guilty before God. They have “ no hope, and are 
 without God in the world.” They are lost. They are “ con- 
 demned already,” and the angel of destruction stands ready to 
 “ pour out the fury of God upon the heathen.” 
 
 Now the Gospel, as we have seen, is the proclamation of a 
 deliverance from nothing less than an eternity of misery ; the pos- 
 session of nothing less than an eternity of bliss ; and of this sal- 
 vation the Apostle in our text teaches that all men, Jew and Gen- 
 tile, have equal need, and that of it all should have an equal offer. 
 
 * Jiulg. ii. 11, 12, 13, 14. Judg. iii. 7, 8 ; x. 6, 7, 13, 14. II. Kings xvii. 7, 8-18. 
 Ps. cvi. 28-29. Ex. xxxii. 26, 27, 28. The fate of Solomon, I. Kings xxi. 1, 9, 11, 33 — 
 nf Jeroboam, I. Kings xxii. 28 and 14 : 2-17 — of Baaslta, I. Kings xxvi. 3-12 — of 
 Altai). I. Kings xxvi. 30 and 21 : 21 and 22 : 34, 38 — and II. Kings xx. 11 — of Ahaziali. 
 II. Kings i. 1,2, 3, 4, 17 — of Jehoram, II. Citron, xxi. 11, 14, 19 — of Manasseh, II. Kings 
 xxi. 3, 4, 5, G ; II. Citron, xxxiii. 2-15— of Amaziah, II. Citron, xxv. 14-20, 23, & c. 
 
19 
 
 For when this salvation is not presented, no salvation can be had, 
 since, as the Apostle argues, faith is the condition of acceptance, 
 and “ faith coincth by hearing.” It may be said that God can 
 and may save the heathen without the Gospel. This, however, 
 is an assertion which only bold impiety can make, and which only 
 God himself could answer. Our business, most assuredly, is not 
 with what God can do, but, with what he has done, with what 
 he has said he will do, and with what God requires ns to do. 
 
 This much we do know. The heathen in the Apostles’ days 
 stood in no greater need of the Gospel than they do in our own 
 day. If, then, they were declared to be perishing without the 
 Gospel, and if, by positive divine command, that Gospel was sent 
 to them, then, in God’s judgment, they could not be saved with- 
 out it. Tho permanency of God’s command proves also, that 
 according to God’s plan of administration, the heathen can at no 
 time be saved without the Gospel ; and so it was understood by 
 the Apostles, by tho apostolic and primitive churches, by every 
 pure body of Christ’s people from that period until the Reforma- 
 tion, and by every one of the reformed churches, Anglican, Lu- 
 theran, and Evangelical, who have embodied this truth as a fun- 
 damental doctrine in their confessions.* 
 
 That the heathen may be saved without the Gospel is, there- 
 fore, a deistical, infidel tenet. For, if the heathen in America or 
 in Africa do not need the Gospel in order to salvation, neither do 
 any heathen need it. But, if the heathen do not need the Gospel 
 in order to salvation noiv, they did not need it at any other period 
 of the world, and the Gospel is not necessary to the salvation of 
 any man. It is a lie. 
 
 But supposing God could save the heathen without the Gospel 
 — the sending of the Gospel to the heathen is made the test of 
 our obedience, and the ground either of our approval and 
 blessing, or of our condemnation and guilt. Even, therefore, on 
 this supposition, prudence and a regard to our own present and 
 everlasting good, should actuate every man, whether believer or 
 unbeliever, to avoid the awful responsibility of seeming to be 
 wiser than God, and of actually being disobedient to the require- 
 ments of God. And especially inexcusable will the unbeliever 
 be found, when the sympathies of our common nature impel us 
 
 See Note at the end. 
 
20 
 
 to feel for the temporal condition ancl misery of the heathen ; and 
 reason must redden at the sight of a human being, dead to all 
 the interests of the great family of immortals, to which he be- 
 longs. Even a heathen poet could call forth rapturous applause 
 from a heathen audience by the declaration in words, 
 
 “ Homo sum et nil lmmani a me alienum put-o.” 
 
 “I am a man, and I regard nothing pertaining to the happiness of 
 man as foreign to me.” 
 
 This condition of the heathen, however, as lost, guilty and con- 
 demned, is not, let it be remembered, the consequence of the Gos- 
 pel, nor of their want of the Gospel. To be in this condition is 
 not peculiar to the heathen. The Scriptures teach us that since 
 the fall of Adam, all human beings, whether born in a heathen 
 or a Christian country, are sinners, and equally in a perishing 
 state. The only natural difference between man born in a Chris- 
 tian and man born in a heathen country is, that the one class 
 having the Gospel, are in possession of the means which God has 
 graciously provided for the salvation of lost and guilty men ; 
 while the heathen, being without the Gospel, have not the means 
 of salvation, and are therefore “ perishing for lack of know- 
 ledge.” 
 
 But for this condition of the heathen, who is to blame ? Most 
 assuredly, as we have seen, it is not God, who “so loved the 
 world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever be- 
 lievethon Him, should be saved.” Most assuredly not God, who 
 has commanded His Church and people to go into all the world 
 and preach the Gospel to every creature, promising to be with 
 them always even unto the end of the world. And this promise 
 God has always and in every case fulfilled, so that had the Church 
 continued until now to obey this command, as actively and as 
 firmly as she did in the two first centuries, there would not at 
 this time have been a single nation sitting in the region and 
 shadow of death. As well, therefore, might God be charged 
 with the destruction of His creatures, and with unmerciful auste- 
 rity, because he does not depart from the economy of nature, in 
 order to preserve men from dying when the remedy appointed 
 by Him has been criminally neglected or withheld, as when he 
 does not depart from the order established by Him, as the God of 
 
21 
 
 grace, in order to save the heathen without the Gospel, when that 
 Gospel has been sinfully neglected and withheld by those who 
 were put in trust with it, and by many of the heathen them- 
 selves. 
 
 On the Church of Christ, — on the ministers, — on the elders, 
 deacons, and members of our churches, — on every Christian in- 
 dividually, — lies tho dishonor, the disgrace, and the guilt of 
 abandoning the heathen to their fate. What more could God 
 have done than he has done ? To us — to us — and not to God, is 
 imputable that compromise of human safety, that dereliction of 
 the duty which we owe to ourselves, to the heathen, and to God, 
 whose culpability no language is too strong to express and to 
 condemn. 
 
 God by His Word depicts the heathen as perishing in their sins. 
 God calls with authoritative, beseeching, earnestness — hasten — 
 go — send the Gospel to these heathen nations — to all of them, 
 overlooking none — seeing that they are dying, “ and he alone that 
 believeth shall be saved, while he that believeth not shall be 
 damned.” 
 
 The Gospel is the only cure for moral maladies, the only spe- 
 cific against eternal death. Enjoying, then, as we do, this spi- 
 ritual panacea — participating, as we are permitted to do, in its 
 life-giving power — and impressively charged, as we are, to convey 
 it to dying millions — how great is our inhumanity and cruelty to 
 them, and how gross our ingratitude, dishonesty and disobedience 
 towards God, in withholding this “ unspeakable gift !” 
 
 To the ear of Christian humanity, the cry for help comes to 
 us on the wings of every wind. It may be heard in the sighing 
 of the solitary forest — in the night-wind’s melancholy moan — in 
 the murmuring of delirious grief, carried by every sea to every 
 shore. It is the cry of our fellow-mortals, sinking under the 
 weight of human sorrows, tormented by inward pain, distracted 
 by fear, without hope in this world, and who have nothing for 
 the world to come but “ a fearful looking for of judgment and 
 fiery indignation.” 
 
 There is, blessed be God, both help and hope ; “for,” says God 
 in our text, “ whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord 
 shall be saved.” But how shall they call on him in whom they 
 have not believed ? and how shall they believe in him of whom 
 
22 
 
 they have not heard ? and how shall they hear without a preacher ? 
 and how shall they preach except they be sent ? 
 
 The effect, it will be observed, is here attributed by the apos- 
 tle altogether to the instrumentality of man, and that, too, in an 
 age of miracles. How plain, then, is it, that while all the power 
 comes from God alone, that, nevertheless, he imparts that power 
 only in and through the appointed means. And how true, there- 
 fore, is it that the piety which would excuse itself from a dili- 
 gent, self-denying and liberal employment of those means, under 
 the pretext that God alone can convert the heathen, is a piety 
 “of our own forging,” and in utter contrariety to the piety of 
 God, of the Bible, and of Paul. 
 
 My brethren, my brethren, oh ! let us remember that the 
 knowledge of our duty, and the excitement of our affections to 
 discharge that duty more perseveringly and perfectly than we 
 have done, can lead to the formation of a principle of duty and 
 of active habits of duty, no otherwise than by inducing us to a 
 course of prompt, prayerful, self-denying, liberal and laborious 
 effort. 
 
 Forget not, then, my brethren, that you are responsible for not 
 feeling and for not acting when the objects proper to awaken 
 feeling, and the motives to a correspondent course of action are 
 present. Heecllessness , impenitence , unbelief , ungodliness , diso- 
 bedience, insensibility, inhumanity, are sins of just as deep a dye 
 as positive iniquity. If you withdraw attention from the truth, 
 consideration from the heathen, and a reverential obedience from 
 Christ’s commands, and thus keep that door of the heart shut 
 through which “ suffering from without finds its way to sympa- 
 thy within,” and authority compels obedience, you will be held 
 accountable for all that unfaithfulness and imbecility which are 
 the result of your own voluntary and guilty indifference. 
 
 And that God may thus work in each one of us to will and to do 
 according to his good pleasure towards the heathen, let it be our 
 present, fervent and continued prayer : “ God be merciful unto 
 us and bless us, and cause his face to shine upon us, that his 
 way may be known upon the earth . his saving health among all 
 nations .” 
 
NOTE, 
 
 Confession of Faith of the Church of Scotland. 
 
 Chap. I., sec. 1. “ Although the light of nature, and the 
 
 works of Creation and Frovidence, do so far manifest the good- 
 ness, wisdom, and power of God, as to leave men incxcuseable, 
 yet they are not sufficient to give that knowledge of God. and of 
 His will, which is necessary unto Salvation.” 
 
 Chap. X., concluding part of sect. 4. “ They who never 
 
 truly come to Christ cannot be saved ; much less can men, not 
 professing the Christian Religion, be saved in any other way 
 whatsoever, be they ever so diligent to frame their lives according 
 to the light of nature, and the law of that religion they do pro- 
 fess ; and to assert and maintain that they may, is very perni- 
 cious, and to be detested.” 
 
 Larger Catechism authorized by the Church of Scotland. 
 
 Quest. 60. “ Can they who never heard the Gospel, and so 
 
 know not Jesus Christ, nor believe in him, be saved by their liv- 
 ing according to the light of nature?” 
 
 Ans. “ They who having never heard the Gospel, know not 
 Jesus Christ, and believe not in him, cannot be saved, be they 
 ever so diligent to frame their lives according to the light of 
 nature, or the laws of that religion they profess ; there being no 
 Salvation in any other but in Christ alone.” 
 
 Thirty-nine Articles of the Church of England. 
 
 Article XVIII. The title of which is, “ Of obtaining Eternal 
 Salvation only by the Name of Christ.” 
 
 “ They also are to be had accursed, that presume to say that 
 every man shall be saved by the law or sect which he professeth, 
 so that he be diligent to frame his life according to that law, and 
 
24 
 
 the light of nature ; for Holy Scripture doth set out unto us only 
 the name of Jesus Christ, whereby men must be saved.” 
 
 The Bohemian Confession of Faith, presented to the King of 
 the Homans and Bohemia, &c. Anno 1535. Art. VIII. De 
 Ecclesia sancta. 
 
 See Helvetian Confession of Faith, Chap. XVII. and XVIII. 
 
 See Confession of Faith of the French Protestant Churches. 
 Art. XXV. and XXVII. 
 
 See Belgic Confession of Faith, Art. XXXII. and XXVIII. 
 
 See Augsburg Confession of Faith, Art. V. 
 
 See Saxon Confession of Faith, presented to the Council of 
 Trent. Anno 1551. Art. De Ecclesia. 
 
 See Confession of Faith agreed upon by the Ministers of New 
 England. Anno 1680. 
 
 Also, Confession of Geneva, of Poland, of the Walloon and 
 Palatine Churches. 
 
 The sentiments of these Churches upon the subject under 
 consideration, will be found to be in unison with those contained 
 in the quotations which have been made from the Confession of 
 Faith of the Church of Scotland, and the Thirty-nine Articles of 
 the Church of England. 
 
 s