PAM. SEAM. <_ 1/1 . fl REV. MBr HARDING'S SERMON BEFORE THE PALESTINE MISSIONARY SOCIETY PREACHED AT ABINGTON, MASS., JUNE 16, 185^. A SERMON DELIVERED BEFORE Ctjt Palestine J&iBsiottanj lorirtij, AT THEIR THIRTY-SECOND ANNUAL MEETING, AT ABINGTON, MASS., JUNE 1C, 1 852. BV WILLARD M. HARDING, Pastor of the Union Congregational Church in Weymouth. BOSTON: WM. BENSE, PRINTER, 130 WASHINGTON ST. 1852. S E R MON. MATTHEW xxvi : 8. TO WHAT PURPOSE IS THIS WASTE ? This inquiry was occasioned by an interesting and in- structive incident in the Saviour’s life. Being at the house of a friend in Bethany, Mary, the sister of Lazarus, came with an alabaster box of very precious ointment, and poured it on his head as he sat at table. “ When his disci- ples saw it they had indignation, saying, To what'purpose is this waste ? For this ointment might have been sold for much and given to the poor. ” This occurrence is recorded by three of the Evangelists, but from John alone we learn the name of the individual * who raised the ob- jection to Mary’s costly offering. It ivas costly. She was not guilty of bestowing what cost her nothing. This fact gives importance to the incident, and should not be overlooked'. The ointment was rare, difficult to be ob- tained, and was valued at three hundred pence. f The mind of the objector fixed only on the expense. Iiis cold and covetous heart — whose god was gold, and whose baseness was afterwards seen in the betrayal of his Master for thirty pieces of silver — was a stranger to that pure and generous love which, in Mary, prompted * Compare Matt. 26 : 6 — 13 ; Mark 14 : 3 — 9, and John 12 : 1 — 8. 1 340. 4 an offering so costly. But the Saviour viewed this ex- pression in altogether a different light, and he spoke of it in terms of the highest commendation. He looked be- yond the expense ; he saw, and appreciated, and honored the end for which the expenditure was made. He saw that this profusion in Mary was simply the expressive ex- hibition of her devoted attachment to her Lord, and of her ardent gratitude toward the benefactor by whose hand she had received a brother restored to life from the dark- ness and decay of the tomb, and at whose feet she had sat and learned the lessons of holy wisdom. He there- fore rebuked those narrow views which, overlooking the design of the offering and fixing only upon the expense, con- demned it as extravagant ; and, giving it the seal of his own most decided approbation, he declared that it should be proclaimed world- wide, live through all time, and be- come an everlasting memorial to her praise. This murmuring inquiry, “ To what purpose is this waste ? ” is sometimes uttered, and perhaps oftener felt, in respect to that great enterprise whose interests, in one subordinate branch, we have met this day to promote. It is even questioned by some whether the funds contributed ever reach farther than the support of “Missionary Rooms,” agents and secretaries ; and by others, whether the results secured on heathen ground are, after all, suf- ficient to warrant the expenditure of life and treasure which the missionary cause demands. They refer us to the thousands already expended, and to the valuable lives sacrificed in this work, and exclaim, “ To what purpose is this waste ? ” Wealth is, indeed, expended, and life is sacrificed in carrying forward the work of missions. Many who might have been useful and honored in their native land, have 5 tnken their lives, as it were, in their hands and gone forth from the abodes of friendship and affection to bear the unsearchable riches of Christ to the lost children of men. They have left the comforts and refinements of home to meet the perils of a foreign clime and tread a heathen soil ; to dwell amid barbarism and superstition, and strive to elevate the brutish to the dignity of man- hood and to the fellowship of angels. Many of these have, indeed, fallen at the entrance of the vineyard, or after only a brief career and in the midst of life. The loss of these men is great ; but is such a sacrifice never to be made ? Is there no end whose attainment will warrant an offering so costly ? Is not the affirmative to this inquiry written in the history of all nations and ages ? Is it not given in the blood and treasure expended in the cause of civil liberty ? Are not the records of the past replete with evidence that mankind have judged some ends worthy of any sacrifice within their power ? Yes, “ life, fortune, and sacred honor,” have been pledged for such ends, and generations have risen to honor the pledge ; and no murmuring tongue has ven- tured to whisper the inquiry, “ To what purpose is this waste ? ” With far less reason can this objection be raised in reference to any expenditures and sacrifices made in the cause of missions. To illustrate this, is the design of the present discourse. A more formal and defi- nite statement of the subject may be thus given, — The results of missionary efforts are an ample remune- ration for all the expenditure and sacrifice which they de- mand. In enumerating the results of missions, and estimating their value, many have confined their attention to those which have been secured within the last half century. 6 Tliey speak of what they term the “ Missionary Age,” as though it began in the clays of Cary in England, and of Mills in America ; and draw their arguments in favor of the cause from the fruits gathered since that period. These fruits are, indeed, abundant, and far more than compensate for all they have cost. Within the period named, it may justly be said that a new impulse has been given to the cause of missions, and its progress has been far greater than during any previous period of equal length. But to dwell so exclusively upon that period as some have done, has a tendency to produce the impres- sion that the missionary enterprise is a modern invention, distinct from Christianity itself, and employed to drain the resources of the church and waste her energies in some far off region. But, if it does not produce such an impression, it is, nevertheless, a view of missions far too limited and specific. The cause of missions is identical with the cause of Christianity. The terms are synonymous. The birth of the one was the birth of the other ; the progress of the one has been the progress of the other ; the claims of the one are the claims of the other ; the results of the one, temporal and spiritual, are the results of the other. Heaven was the birth-place of missions, and the Son of God was the first sent forth as a foreign missionary. lie made Judea the first specific field of missionary operations ; and having trained a company of “native helpers,” he sent them forth “to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” The twelve “ departed and went through the towns preaching the Gospel and healing everywhere.” Subsequently he “ appointed seventy others and sent them two and two before his face into every city and place whither he himself would come.” Teaching his disciples, at his ascension, that repentance t and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, “ beginning at Jerusalem,” he made that city the central and radiating point of future missions. Immediately after this, the apostles prepared to carry into execution his last command, and began their mission- ary labors. Beyond Judea all was heathen ground. Idol- atrous worship everywhere prevailed. The gloom of a moral night rested upon the nations, in which they were groping their way to a deeper and more dreadful dark- ness in the future. Such was the state of the world when that first band of missionaries moved forth from Jerusalem to break the silence of the great sepulcher of moral death in which earth’s entire population lay entombed, and call upon the “ dead in trespasses and sins ” to arise. To accompany these laborers in all their travels amid “ perils by sea and land,” and recount the various suc- cesses which crowned their efforts, would be impossible on the present occasion. The inspired record of their “Ads” that “ Missionary Herald ” of the primitive churches, is familiar to us all, and affords whatever the Holy Spirit deemed important to be transmitted, in that form, for our instruction and example. Suffice it to say, that within their own lifetime they were permitted to see the Gospel introduced into the regions, and churches es- tablished and flourishing in the principal cities, around Judea. Making his way westward beyond the general circumference of their missionary field, Paul, more es- pecially “ the apostle to the Gentiles,” entered Italy and preached for the space of two years in the imperial city, Rome, and numbered among his converts some of Caesar’s household. He seems to have purposed * a mission still farther westward, into Spain, but we have no reliable * Rom. 15: 24, 28. 8 testimony that he ever carried that purpose into execu- tion. These laborers went forth, “ as it were, appointed unto death, being made a spectacle unto the world, and to angels, and to men ; suffering hunger, thirst, bonds, im- prisonment, mockirgs, scourgings, stoning, and were counted as the filth of the earth, and the offscouring of all things.” Yet never was the murmuring inquiry heard among them, “ To what purpose is this waste ” — of ease, energy, and life ? With the spirit of her who, at so cost- ly a price, annointed her Lord “ for his burial ; ” with “ the love of Christ constraining them,” they counted not their life dear unto them, so that they might finish their course with joy, and the ministry which they had received of the Lord Jesus to testify the Gospel of the grace of God. Wherever they went, they were not only instru- mental of introducing the Gospel and gathering assem- blies of hearers, but of effecting a change in the character of the people. Whatever may have been the particular and more prominent form of iniquity, which had arisen from the general stratum of depravity and characterized a place, they found the Gospel adequate to its overthrow. Among other places, for example, they entered Corinth. This city, “ totius Grcecce lumen ct dccus,” (of all Greece the light and ornament,) because then the seat of all that was erudite in science, elegant in literature, beautiful and grand in architecture, and polished in art, was filled with philosophers, rhetoricians, and artists of every kind. It was distinguished for its schools of science and literature ; and to receive instruction in these, persons resorted thither from all quarters. But the luster derived from the circumstances named, was tarnished by the corrupt and lascivious character of its inhabitants. In this respect, 0 also, it is said to have surpassed any other city of Greece. Here was the temple of Venus, whose priestesses, num- bering more than a thousand, were harlots, and the very scenes of worship were the scenes of debauchery the most gross and public. To this sin, Paul, in his first epistle to the Corinthians, makes especial and prominent refer- ence, and bids them “ flee fornication.” When enume- rating the different classes of the unrighteous who can have no inheritance in the kingdom of Heaven, he adds, “ and such were some of you.” Some, therefore, were reclaimed from this species of sin by the power of the Gospel ; and among the recorded results of the mission to this city we read, “ and many of the Corinthians hear- ing, believed, and were baptized.” Afterwards the Gospel was introduced into Ephesus, a city famed for its commerce and wealth, and for being the metropolis of the lesser, or peninsular Asia. The Ephesians, like the people of Corinth, were dissolute and guilty of practices in secret, of which, said Paul, “ it is a shame even to speak.” Their city, moreover, was re- garded as the very throne of idolatry ; for the worship of idols was performed in no part of the world with greater splendor than at Ephesus. There stood the spacious and magnificent temple of “ the great goddess Diana,” in whose erection the nations of all Asia Minor were em- ployed two hundred and twenty years. In this temple, far exceeding in magnitude and splendor any ever erected for the worship of the true God, an image of the goddess Diana was worshipped with the most pompous rites by a multitude of priests and a vast concourse of votaries from every quarter, who, to gain the favor of Diana, came to offer sacrifice at her shrine. But even into this strong- hold of idolatry, the Gospel made its triumphant entrance 10 and drew away its worshippers. Its success was indi- cated, in part, by the outcry of those who made the sil- ver shrines for Diana — “ Our craft is in danger ! ” This city, moreover, was noted for its arts of magic and divination. But the preaching and the miracles of the apostles Avere such that “ fear came on them all, and the name of the Lord Jesus Avas magnified.” For “ God wrought special miracles by the hands of Paul,” thus showing Iioav Avisely he adapts means to the particular end to be gained, and arms the Gospel with a power to destroy every form of human depravity which is devel- oped at different times and in different places. Many, therefore, ay ho had practised magical arts were converted ; and, to prove their sincerity, brought out the books Avhich contained the secrets of their art and burned them in pub- lic, though valued at fifty pieces of silver.* In fine, as the result of missionary efforts in that city, it is writ- ten, “ So mightily greAv the Avord of God and prevailed.” Thus might Ave folloAV those primitive missionaries from place to place, and, in the moral changes wrought, find an ample reply and a fitting rebuke, to the querulous in- quiry, “ To Avhat purpose ” did they expend tlieiv ener- gies and life in labors and sufferings ? This Avork which the Saviour began, which, the apostles spent their lives in prosecuting, successive missionaries have carried on from age to age and nation to nation. The same moral changes which marked its progress under the labors of the apostles, attended its course among the nations of Western Europe. To form any just apprecia- tion of the changes produced among those nations by the introduction of the Gospel, Ave need to glance, at least, at their previous state and character. History informs us * $8,500, or, as some think, $25,000. 11 that they were in the condition of savages, in no respect superior to the Indians of this country when the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth, or to the Hottentots and Sandwich Islanders when first visited by our missionaries. The Gauls, the ancestors of the now refined and polished peo- ple of France, lived in wandering tribes, without agricul- ture, in temporary huts, and clothed in a single garment like the “ Indian blanket” about the shoulders. “Their tall stature, savage features and matted yellow hair, ren- dered their aspect terrible, and their frightful devasta- tions wherever they went, made them the terror of the western world.” Their religion was replete with the most horrid superstitions and with the sacrifices of human victims. They put to death their captives, burned them in honor of their gods, carried about with them the skulls of the slain as trophies, and often used them as drinking vessels. Their neighbors in the British isles are described as still more savage and degraded. These, our own an- cestors, in Britain, like the aborigines of this country, added to their native wildness by painting their bodies with various colors. The inhabitants of Ireland not only painted, but tattooed themselves, and among them human flesh was esteemed a delicacy. The ancient Britons sometimes performed the rites of their horrid superstition in dense and gloomy forests, offering in a single sacrifice hundreds of human victims, frequently selected from the choicest of their youth. Missionaries probably visited Britain, if not in the apos- tles’ days,* as early as the first or second century, but the very limited progress of the Gospel in that island for * Speaking of the labors of tlie apostles, Eusebius says , — Trans oceanum evasisse, ad eas insulas qua: Brittanicce vocantur. Theodoset affirms the same. 12 several succeeding centuries, seems to be indicated by the fact that as late as the sixth century, “ Gregory the Great, walking one day in the market-place at Rome, observed some remarkably fine youths who were bound with cords and exposed to be sold as slaves. Struck with their appearance, he stopped and asked whence they came ; and on being told they were natives of Britain, he inquired whether the inhabitants of that island were pagans or Christians. Hearing that they were pagans, he heaved a deep sigh, and exclaimed, ‘ Alas ! does the prince of darkness possess such countenances, and are forms so beautiful, destitute of divine grace ? What,’ said he, c is the name of the nation ? ’ It was answered, ‘Angli,’ or England. ‘In truth,’ said he, ‘ they have angelic faces ; it is a pity they should not live hereafter with angels ! From what part of the island do they come ? ’ ‘ From Deira, or Northumberland.’ ‘ Then let them be delivered De ira, — (from the wrath of God,) and called to the mercy of Christ. What is the name of their king ? ’ * Ella' ‘ Then,’ said he, (continuing to play on the name,) ‘ let us teach them to sing Allelujah.’ ” Bearing in mind now the state of those natiops, as above described, cast the eye along down the track of time, and behold the missionaries at their work. The nomadic hordes are arrested in their wanderings by a new and wonderful influence, and gather themselves into com- pact and well-ordered communities. The thick gloom of the ancient forests gives place to the cheerfulness and beauty of cultivated and fruitful fields, to quiet cottages, fair villages, populous cities, the crowded mart, and the busy hum of art and trade. The pagan mind, catching the light of civilization and learning from the lips of Christian teachers, exchanges the bondage of its super- 13 stitions for the blessed freedom of the Son of God. Schools, churches, and all the institutions of religion and science spring into being and send far and wide their influence. Where once the Druid priests and priestesses held their obscene and noisy festivals and shed the blood of animal and human victims, arc heard the voice of Christian wor- ship and the songs of Christian praise. In all those scenes of beauty and gladness, and in all those accents of thanksgiving, may it be seen to what purpose that band of missionaries, beginning at Jerusalem, and reproduced iu “ regular, succession ” among each newly converted people, had toiled their way at length to, what was then regarded, “ the ends of the earth.” For the transforma- tion which those nations have undergone, can be ascribed to nothing but the Gospel of the grace of God. Litera- ture and science never would have produced such a change. They had the field all to themselves, and flour- ished for ages before the Gospel entered to contend for the victory. But never, in any place, under their influ- ence alone, as under that of the Gospel, were the idols of the heathen dashed to the earth, their altars scattered to the winds, and their temples deserted and demolished, and the degraded victims of their impure and cruel super- stitions enlightened, purified, and elevated to an alliance with the worshippers of heaven. They may have divested idolatry of some of its more savage features and thrown around its native deformity the drapery of taste and ele- gance ; but it was idolatry still, and, in the eyes of heaven, an abomination. Indeed, they multiplied rather than diminished the number of idols, and strengthened rather than weakened their dominion over men. How was it at Corinth and at Athens, those ancient seats and centers of art and taste, of learning and eloquence ? 14 What were Paul’s feelings while awaiting in the latter city the arrival of his two missionary companions, Tim- othy and Silas ? His spirit was stirred within him when he saw the city wholly given to idolatry.* “ Hot a spot,” it is said, “but had its altar; every grove was conse- crated to its peculiar nymphs or genii, — to its dryads and its fauns ; every stream and fountain had the com- memorative marble for its own bright naiad ; — the very winds had their immortal tower, with its still vivid tab- lets, personifying and enlivening the mysterious powers of the air. Along the plain shone the splendid colon- nades of the mighty temples of Jupiter and the Olym- pian gods ; here and there, on the lower hills, stood the stately ranges that enclosed the shrines of Erectheus and Theseus, the deified kings of old, and of the later foreign Caesars ; and above all, on the high Acropolis, the noble Parthenon rose over the glorious city, proclaiming to the eye of the distant traveller the honors of the virgin god- dess of wisdom, of taste, and philosophic virtue, whose name crowned the city, of which she was, throughout all the reign of Polytheism, the guardian deity.” It was not for the want of literature and science, and schools of wisdom and renown, that an apostle could say, “ The whole world lieth in wickedness,” and that idola- try so long held supremacy over the nations. Human wisdom had, for centuries before the apostles lived, ex- erted and exhausted its power to reform. Historians had recited their annals at the public games, philosophers had uttered many lessons of wisdom, and solved the most dif- ficult problems in science ; orators, never more than equalled since, had thrilled crowded assemblies at Athens * Acts 17 : 16. 15 and Rome ; and poets of noblest name had sung to de- lighted auditors in cottages and courts. % These men were some of the most gifted of their race, and their names and works yet live among the choice treasures and the proud monuments of man. They did all that the wisdom of this world could do ; and in this respect they did much ; but their moral impression upon the world was slight. Their instructions, in this particu- lar, were but the faintest glimmerings of the truth ; and, lacking the adequate authority and sanctions, their ex- hortations were powerless and their maxims inefficient ; and the moral darkness which enveloped society remained almost unbroken. They reached the summit of excellence in letters, in art and science, but there remained unsolved the great moral problem, — how shall man become pure ? There Avere given as data, godlike powers of intellect, and moral powers the best conceivable in kind ; but their practical result in every man’s life, always disappointed the inquirer ; and one of the Avisest of the ancient phi- losophers, speaking on the reformation of morals, said that he “ despaired of finding a sufficient expedient for that purpose.” Here the wisdom of those ancient sages availed nothing. It might square the circle, it might discover the stone whose touch would transform all to gold, but the great inquiry, — 4 how shall man be elevated in moral purity — how shall he reach the summit of moral excellence ? ’ — this it could not answer. Yet that period of letters and of sages was not without its purpose in the divine arrangements. It may have been intended to teach, among other things, the necessity of a more than human power to solve that great question of which we have spoken ; and to stand as an ever- dur- ing eA'idence that the great means of imparting moral 16 instruction, purity, and happiness to man, is the “ glo- rious Gospel of the blessed God,” proclaimed by his mes- sengers, and rendered, by his own accompanying power,' efficient and successful. “ For it is written, I will des- troy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent.” In the very face, there- fore, of that collected wisdom which the apostle found at Corinth, he uttered the inquiry, “ Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world ? For it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.” Whatever, therefore, of moral life, whatever of spiritual excellence, the history of the world presents, is to be placed among the results of missions.* * The question has been gravely raised, “ Which has conferred the great- er benefits on the world, Education or Christianity?” A mere glance at the history of the two, and at the state of those places where the former has flourished without a knowledge of the latter, ought to be sufficient to set- tle the question. By education, it is presumed, is meant general literature and science. But the design of this note is not to add anything to the fore- going remarks in reference to the above inquiry, except the citation of a few expressions uttered by men who knew by experience what “ education ” could do, or rather could not do, without Christianity. In regard to that most important of all “ benefits” which can be conferred on the world, viz., a knowledge of the kind of worship which man is to render to his Maker, the wisdom of the ancient sages, if we are to believe their own declarations, afforded but a faint light. Yet it was enough to render them “ without ex- cuse.”! “ We know not what worship to pay to the Deity,” said Plato. In the dialogues between Socrates and Alcibiades, on the duty of religious worship, he says, “ To me it appears best to be quiet ; it is necessary to wait till you learn how you ought to behave towards the gods, and towards men. We need a law-giver from heaven to instruct us.” “ When,” exclaims Alci- biades, “ when, () Socrates, shall that be, and who will instruct me, for most willingly would I see this man, who he is?” “ He is one,” replies Socrates, “ who cares for you ; but as Homer represents Minerva as taking away darkness from the eyes of Diomedes, that he might distinguish a god from a man , so it, is necessary that lie should take away the darkness from your mind ; and then bring near those things by which you shall know good and evil.” “ Let him take away,” rejoins Alcibiades, “if he will, the dark- t Rom. 1 : 19—32. 17 The missionary enterprise was not to cease its labors and find a home in the repose of those scenes of natural and moral beauty which it had called forth in the once dark and pagan laud of our fathers. God has willed that his people shall enter voluntarily, or be driven into the missionary field. As the first gathered church in Jerusalem was driven into that field by the storms of persecution, and, “being scattered abroad, went every- where preaching the word,” so the Puritans, in a similar manner, were compelled to cross the ocean and enter as ness, or any other thing for I am prepared to decline none of those things which are commended by him, whoever this man is, if I shall be made bet- ter.” This passage is worthy of particular attention as a proof of the necessity of something which education could not “ confer on the world.” In some pas- sages of their writings those ancient heathen sages seem to exhibit high con- ceptions of God. They have also given some moral precepts ; and yet they came far short of any just conception of Christian morality. They taught that revenge w r as lawful. Theft, adultery, cruelty, &c., they countenanced both by precept and example. Zeno maintained, “ that all crimes are equal, and that a person who has offended or injured us should never be forgiven.” The Cynics held, “ that there was nothing shameful in committing acts of lewdness in public.” Aristippus taught, “ that as pleasure was the sum- mum bonum, a man might practice theft, sacrilege, or adultery, as he had op- portunity.” Even Plato despaired of any improvemept in the state of morals by any means within his reach. In his apology for Socrates, speak- ing on that subject he said, “ You may pass the remainder of your days in sleep ; or despair of finding out a sufficient expedient for this purpose, if God in his Providence do not send you some other instruction.” Not one of those men was a good man, in the Christian sense of that term. Proof of this is abundant in their own writings which, if any one doubts the above assertion, let him read for his own satisfaction. That they were better than some — than many, men at the present day — that they were better than some who bear the Christian name — is admitted. It is only when seen in the distance and through a reverted telescope, and with the natural re- verence for antiquity, that those ancient sages appear to such advantage and excite so much admiration in many minds who can see beauties and benefits for the world in “ Education ” but none in Christianity. Education is important, necessary, but not sufficient. 3 18 missionaries upon these shores. Whatever may have been, in their minds, the immediate cause that brought them here, the more remote and the primary cause, we believe, was that purpose of God that “ all the ends of the earth shall see his salvation.” They found a land dark as once had been their own. Need we detail the succes- sive steps by which this spot, where once roamed the wild beast and the still wilder and more to be dreaded savage, has become our own loved and Christian home ? Need we attempt the proof that by the Gospel, beyond any and all other causes combined, and by the Gospel as proclaimed by missionaries, this change has been ef- fected ? In accordance with the laws which had governed the progress of missions in all preceding ages, our own coun- try, after being itself blessed with Christian institutions, was to become, in its turn, missionary and aid in the on- ward movement of the great enterprise. More than a hundred years ago, therefore, Brainard entered upon his work among the Indians of what was then the dark “ West.” At length, also, began the missionary labors of American Christians in foreign regions and the 'islands of the Pacific. The same horrible features of Paganism which had been found in all other places, appeared in those islands of the sea. Similar results, too, as else- where, crowned the efforts of missionaries. The same instrumentality which had drawn away the worshippers of Venus and Diana at Corinth and Ephesus, — which, from the superstition and barbarism of Gaul, of Britain, of America, had raised up an intelligent, refined, and Christian people, has, within our own memory, produced a like result in the Sandwich Islands ; and that infant nation, among the evangelized, stands a witness of God’s 10 truth in prediction and promise, literally almost, in longi- tude, at the ends of the earth from the starting-place of missions. Thus, following the apparent course of the natural sun, the light of the “ Sun of Righteousness,” rising at Jeru- salem in the east, and, shedding its blessings from nation to nation, has steadily advanced onward to the utmost west. Since its first departure on its sublime mission, those scenes of original apostolic labor, brightened by its first rays, lost the faintest traces of that labor, and for ages slumbered in a night that showed no glimmering of the day which once beamed upon them with such splen- dor. But already has that light reappeared in the east to cheer with a new day the hallowed place of its birth ; and it is a striking and interesting fact, that just as its dawn broke upon “the uttermost part of the earth” — the snow-capped Mound Kcah — and Bingham and Thurs- ton and their companions landed at Hawaii , its recurring beams appeared on Mt. Olivet , and Parsons and Fisk en- tered Jerusalem, bearing back, to the then sadly changed and heathen city, with its minaret and mosque, the very message with which, eighteen hundred years before, the apostles had set forth on their mission. Successes like those which attended missionary efforts in the earlier periods, have continued to attend them, wherever employed, down to the present hour. In all those places named in this discourse, and in numerous others, and through all those revolving centuries, vast ex- penditures of wealth, energy, and life, have been re- quired, but will any affirm that the results have not been an ample remuneration ? Will any utter, still, the com- plaining inquiry, “ To what purpose is this waste ? ” — when, in the experience of the past, they contemplate the 20 results already secured, and by the eye of faith, those divinely promised in the future, and pictured by the prophet’s and apostle’s pen in scenes of earthly peace and loveliness, and heaven’s ransomed and rejoicing multi- tude? But this full reality is not reached ; “ the end is not yet ; ” the day of labor and sacrifice is not over ; “ the great multitude ” is not all gathered in, and we are to gird for the toil and the conflict. For these we assemble , to-day. Let us dwell yet a moment, then, on two or three topics suggested by our subject. 1. Those who oppose or neglect the cause of missions, prove themselves ignorant , or regardless, of their own in- debtedness to this very cause. Suppose you contribute of your property, perform la- bor, exercise self-denial, to Christianize some dark por- tion of the earth. In process of time, civil and religious institutions rise and flourish, and a pagan tribe is trans- formed into a Christian people. For a time that people cherish a just sense of their obligation to your kindness. At length, however, among distant generations are found those who have never informed themselves and 'conse- quently knoAv nothing, or, if informed, are regardless, of what you have done to place them amid their blessings ; and, when solicited to aid in sending the Gospel to others, they refuse and neglect the object proposed, and even complain because others do something for its advance- ment. How would you regard such conduct ? Would you not say that they must be grossly ignorant, or crim- inally regardless, of their obligation to that cause in which you had labored, and which had raised their ancestors from heathen darkness and degradation, and given them a name among civilized and Christian nations ? You did 21 not expect they would make to you a return for what you had done, but you had a right to expect that, when able, they would be willing to do something for other and darker regions. Yet by their refusal and neglect, they would be doing no worse than those among us who oppose or neglect the cause of missions. For, as we have seen, we have only to trace back our history for a few generations to find our own ancestors, in the British islands, as gross heathen as the world ever saw. We have also seen that to the work of missions we are indebted for all that makes ours a superior — a happier, condition. 2. The obligation to prosecute the work of missions rests not upon the Church alone. Common blessings, received or provided, create a com- mon obligation. This none will question. How then will the principle involved in this admission, apply to the present topic ? On whom does it place the obligation to sustain and extend the cause of missions ? Has not that cause conferred temporal blessings upon us all ? Has not God made provision, present and future, for all ? Did not Christ die for all ? What if you do not choose to avail yourself of his great salvation ; that does not free you from obligation to our common Saviour. What ! the fact that you have not obeyed the command to avail your- self of the Gospel for the future, as well as the present, absolve you from the obligation to sustain at home, and send abroad that Gospel ! The neglect of one duty to be admitted as a valid excuse for the neglect of another ! Say you there is a difference between the Church and others in respect to this obligation. Wherein ? Do you say the Christian is bound by covenant obligation to sus- tain and extend the institutions of religion ? True, the Christian is bound to fulfil his covenant promise ; but he 22 was bound to sustain and extend the Gospel prior to that promise. Every man is bound to make the promise and to fulfil it when made. If, then, the Christian, by his promise, has fulfilled one obligation, a double obligation rests on all others. Let every non-professor bear this in mind. The principle here involved may be illustrated thus ; — A father has two sons. Both are equally indebted to him. The same blessings for the present and the future are provided and offered by the father. They can share alike if they choose. Whether, therefore, they promise or not, are they not equally bound to obey the father’s command ? Suppose one promises to obey, does that absolve the other from obligation, both to promise and obey ? By no means. But “ have we not all one Father ? Hath not one God created us ? Has he not provided equal blessings for us in the present and the future ? Is he not hourly saying, “ Whosoever will, let him come and take of the water of life freely ? ” So far as the point now under consideration is concerned, the distinction between the Church and others is not to be regarded, any more than in the payment of a school or a highway tax. You may never send children to the pub- lic school, nor travel on the highway, but you are Held, morally and legally, for their support, because they are a public benefit. But greater,- infinitely greater, is the public benefit of the Gospel, as the moral changes which it has wrought in human society abundantly testify ; and to that Gospel, neglector of its provisions, negleetor of God’s house, you are this hour indebted for all that gives security to your property and that renders your condition superior to that of the savage. Two individuals, there- fore, possessing equal means, are bound to contribute 23 equally for the support and extension of the Gospel, though one may be a professor of religion, and the other a non-professor and a worldling. The Christian has, in- deed, the highest motives for engaging in this work — motives drawn from the common salvation, not only pro- vided and offered, but possessed and enjoyed ; but every man, because he might possess and enjoy the same salva- tion, — every man , who esteems civilization better than barbarism, his own creed better than gross heathenism, has a duty here which he is imperiously called upon to perform, — a duty which he cannot neglect without adding to his other sins, the open and hourly violation of the command, “ Love thy neighbor as thyself.” Finally, The encouragements to labor in the work of missions are abundant. These may be drawn from all the past history of mis- sions. As not a century since the apostles began at Je- rusalem, — not even excepting the tenth, that compara- tively “ iron age,” — has passed without efforts for pro- moting the cause of missions, so not a century has de- parted without witnessing the cheering results of those ef- forts. Some of those results have been enumerated in the present discourse, and they have been found to correspond with the efforts employed. When the church “ sowed sparingly, or bountifully,” she reaped in like measure. “ When she watered she was herself watered.” This has been among the choicest fruits of her labor. But encouragements are to be drawn from faith in the divine promises. “We walk by faith.” Lift, then, faith’s telescope, God’s Word, and look far yonder ! See you those ages of Zion’s glory, given in Isaiah’s pro- phetic roll ? See you beyond those millenial scenes, that city whose “ foundations are garnished with all manner 24 of precious stones ; ” whose wall, “ great and high, is jasper ; ” whose “ twelve gates are pearls ; ” whose “ streets are pure glold, as it were transparent glass ; ” whose “ length, and breadth, and height are equal ; ” where stars and suns fade away ; and w r hose “ light is the glory of God and of the Lamb ? ” See you, the na- tions of them that are saved, “ walking in that light 1 ” See you, Israel’s sealed tribes, “ a hundred and forty and four thousand,” and that great multitude which no man can number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and languages, with palms in their hands, and clothed in robes, washed and made w 7 hite in the blood of the Lamb ? Hear you their anthems of praise, — “ Salvation to our God who sitteth on the throne and to the Lamb ! ” See you there, to what purpose the Son of God came on his mission ; to what purpose apostles and others, in long succession, have toiled, and suffered and died, to prose- cute and complete that mission ? See you there the re- muneration, glorious, everlasting, which shall crown the work of missions ? Then, “ Rouse to this work of high and hoi}’ love, And thou an angel’s happiness shalt know, — Shalt bless the earth while in the world above ; The good began by thee shall onward flow In many a branching stream and wider grow ; The seed that in these few and fleeting hours, Thy hands unsparing and unwearied sow, Shall deck thy grave with amaranthine flowers, And yield thee fruit divine in heaven’s immortal bowers.” ^3 m