THE WORLD A MISSIONARY FIELD. ROMAN CATHOLIC COUNTRIES; OR, THE ROMAN CATHOLIC POPULATION OF OUR WORLD, SCATTERED ABROAD EVERYWHERE, AS FUR- NISHING A MISSIONARY FIELD. A SERMON,' BY THE REV. NATHAN S. S. BEMAN, D. D. Pastor of the First Presbyterian Church, Troy, N. Y. Delivered at the Annual Meeting of the American and Foreign Christian Union, in the Thirteenth-street Presbyterian Church, (the Rev. Dr. Burebard’s,) in the city of New-York, on Sabbath evening, May the 8th, 1859. »■ ■ ■ . » »» ■ — “ I am debtor both to the Greeks and to the Barbarians ; both to the wise and the unwise. So as much as in me is, I am ready to preach the Go6pel to you that are at Rome also." — Romani, 1 : 14, 15. NEW-YORK : PUBLISHED AT THE DEPOSITORY OF THE SOCIETY, No. 156 Ghambers-street. 1859. D. Fan. haw. Printer, cor. Ann and Naesau-streets SERMON “ I am debtor both to the Greeks and to the Barbarians ; both to the wise and the unwise. So as much as in me is, lam ready to preach the Gospel to you that are at Rome also ." — Romans, 1 : 14, 15. It has often been said, in reference to Christian missions; “ The field is the world.” The thought here embodied, when connected with such an enterprise, is a sublime one ; and this presentation of it cannot fail to awaken a thrilling interest in the heart of any one who believes that Jesus Christ is to have “ the heathen for his inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for his possession.” There is something in the term world which fills the mind. It is not a province, a kingdom, an empire, a continent, but “ the great globe itself, yea, all which it inherits.” And then this vast field, covering the surface of the magnificent floating ball where we now stand and act, is to be brought under Christian culture. And the blessed transform- ation “will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the Lord.” Or, to change the symbol and present the world in another aspect, this field of moral conflict, where lawless and bitter passions now run wild and war upon man and upon God, shall be sweetly and fully subdued bv the powers of light and love — a conquest achieved without blood or carnage ; and that sub- jected world shall roll on its successive, millennial years, serving God and reflecting his glory, till the end shall come. In all this we have a picture of the moral sublime. We can see it. Faith and imagination may stand and gaze in mute devotion and love upon it, and wait, in the patience of hope, for its jubilant approach. The good time is coming. But in the presentation of this missionary field, the world, our conceptions have often been, if not erroneous, at least defective. What has the Church of Christ been looking at for these last fifty years, as her field of missionary effort ? I mean, the world to be cultivated or subdued ? It has been graphically presented to us in two great continents — the one furnishing the home, and the other the foreign, field. The Christian has often wept as ho has gazed upon each of these. Of the eleven hun- dred and fifty millions who people tliis vast field, the world, CATHOLIC COUNTRIES FURNISHING A MISSIONARY FIELD. 3 six hundred and seventy-six millions are pagans, “ having no hope, and without God in the world.” And can the blood- washed Church stand still, and look on and sec these millions perish ? It cannot be. Even' effort for their illumination, and their rescue from endless death, must receive the sympathy and support of every friend of Christ. And the home department, is that less important ? Can the Church of God forget her altar, her country, her kindred ? Look at this field as attached to our own laud. Our sons and daugh- ters are floating on with the tide of western emigration, and we must send the Gospel with them, or they will break away from the old home influences, and drift down the strong current of those evils which are incident to emigration and a settlement in a new country — and be lost ! These two departments have formed our missionary field ; and we have had our eye on these exclusively when we have said, “ The field is the world.” We have seen nothing else. There is an emphasis, however, in our oft-repeated maxim, “The field is the world,” which has not been generally felt. “ The field is the world.” I mean to say, “ The field is the w t orlu.” Here lies the emphasis — the world. Not a part of it, but the whole of it. And the spiritual world has three continents instead of the two which the Church has been exploring. The third, as a portion of the missionary field, is but just discovered by Christians. True, it has existed for centuries, but it has only now come up before the eye of faith, as our continent seemed to emerge from the depths of the ocean before the eyes of Columbus when he made his first western voyage across the Atlantic. I need not tell you that I refer to Roman Catholic counties as a field of missionary effort. This field is large and populous. It stands next to the heathen in point of numbers, and no portion of our lost world needs the Gospel more than the dwellers in this vale of death. Roman Catholic countries, or the Roman Catholic POPULATION OF OUR WORLD, SCATTERED ABROAD EVERY- WHERE, AS FURNISHING A MISSIONARY FIELD. This is my present subject. You will keep in mind — a missionary field. I. This people need the Gospel. Such a necessity must lie at the basis of every missionary enterprise. If a people have the Gospel in its purity and power, as many well-regulated Christian communities have; or if their physical and religious condition would receive damage rather than benefit from the Gospel, as infidels have often affirmed of the heathen ; or if it were a foregone conclusion 4 ROMAN CATHOLIC COUNTRIES, from the purpose of God or the nature and condition of man, that the Gospel has no power to effect any salutary changes, then Christian missions would he a thankless gratuity, if not a bald absurdity, uncalled for and injurious. They would bring in their train, not favors, but inflictions. Neither of these things can be affirmed of Roman Catholics, who fill so large a space in the population of our world. Romanists have not the Gospel. I make no apology for the utterance of this plain truth. But it must not rest on mere assertion. It need not. Proofs, unnumbered and accumulative, cluster all around us. All we need is an eye and an ear, and an ordinary understanding, and an honest heart, to perceive that the system administered in the Papal organization is not the Gospel taught by Jesus Christ and his Apostles, and em- bodied in the New Testament for man’s salvation. The two systems have few kindred elements. Open the volume I have named, and what do you find there ? An intelligent revelation of the Infinite mind to the finite. The object is salvation. Man is a sinner, and must be recovered or lost. Our world is a fallen world, and must be won back from its apostasy, and its affections be re-bound in allegiance to the throne of God, or swing off still farther from this central influence without any hope of a future return. I will not say that the Gospel reveals the fact that man is a sinner. That had been known for ages. The consciousness of every human being had revealed it. The page of universal history, sacred and profane, had confirmed that inward witness. The moral government of God had reiterated the sad talc in lightning flashes and in thunder tones. The Bible, all over its solemn pages, had written, as with a pen of flames, the story of man’s apostasy and his impending doom. The Gospel takes these facts for granted, and presents a remedy. “ God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” The scheme was the product of the love of God. It is executed by his co-equal Son. He is 'the only mediator between God and man. He has magnified the law, and made it honorable ; and in his blood is our only hope. Faith in his atoning sacri- fice can justify the sinner ; and nothing else can do it. The Gospel presents this salvation to guilty, dying man. It is urged upon him as an intelligent moral agent. As such he sinned, and as such he must be saved, if saved at all. He must embrace the offer of life personally — for himself — or he must perish. And this he does when he becomes a child of God and an heir of heaven, under the motives which the Bible presents and the Holy Spirit renders effectual. It is a rational admin- istration in the hands of God. Truth and grace are the grand agencies. There are no mummeries here — no legerdemain — no sacerdotal absolutions— no daily sacrifice of Christ— no hosts AS FURNISHING A MISSIONARY FIELD. 5 of male and female intercessors. Mind and thought are in it all. It is worthy of God and adapted to man. The Papal community, and especially in countries where they have things in their own way, have no such Gospel as this. Shreds and patches of it they may have, but this is all. In Protestant countries, where light shines in direct radiations from the Scriptures, and is then reflected in every direction by a thousand living lights — where thought grapples with thought, and mind is confronted by mind, a shrewu political policy, which the Jesuit instinct — however diversified the other cha- racteristics may be — never lacks, wears another face. It is almost religious — it is semi-evangelical. Its true features are masked, and that in public, rather than in private. The veil or covering can be thrown oft', and is, when the time has come for a true development. When John saw one of the apocalyptic beasts “coming up out of the earth,” he appeared, even as to his two horns, “like a lamb;” but when he opened his mouth, “he spake as a dragon.” The real and the apparent of Romanism are often very dissimilar to each other. Satan is sometimes an angel of light. The system administered in that politico-religious corporation may be characterized, in the language of Paul to the Galatians, as “another Gospel; which is not another.” It claims to be the Gospel, but it has so little affinity to the system revealed by Christ, that it should not be considered a Gospel in any sense whatever. It is a scheme, made, not to save men, but to govern them. And it has accomplished its mission. What has the Papal hierarchy, from his Holiness down to the most com- mon and uncultivated priest, done to preach the Gospel, and “ turn men from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God ?” Preaching is not their vocation. And if their mummeries can save souls, then miracles will never cease. If their auricular confessions — and penances — and ghostly absolutions — and the muttering of holy Latin — and the offering up of a man-created wafer-god — and purgatorial fires stolen from the altar of heathen poets — and the intercession of a multitude of saints, male and female, which no man can number — and fasts and feasts, and other holidays, which have usurped nearly half the time which God has appointed for honest labor — and the late investiture of Mary with powers all but supreme in matters of salvation — and the use of charms — and religious homage paid to images, and old bones, and holy garments, and other relics — and extreme unction — and prayers for the dead — and the purchase and release of souls out of purgatory — are God’s appointed symbols for setting forth his truth and the way of salvation, then the New Testament is a needless gratuity — a thankless obtrusion upon our world. It stands directly in the way of redemption. It obstructs man’s return to God. 6 ROMAN CATHOLIC COUNTRIES, Tliat this system is not the Gospel, may he seen from its fruits. But in order to bring the matter to a fair and honest test, we must take Romanism on its own ground ; we must look at it where it has held an undisputed scepter, and pursued an unob- structed career. This can easily be done. Either hemisphere can furnish the needed illustrations. Unroll, then, the map of Europe beneath your eye, and visit, in rapid thought, her various nations. You no sooner cross the line which separates a Protestant from a Papal country, and pass from the former into the latter, than you find yourself at least half-way on your journey towards Paganism. You are in a land of idols. Not only the churches, but the cities and the rural districts are filled with these abominations. Mary is the grand object of homage. Her images, large as life, are seen at the corners of the streets and in inclosures by the wayside. And it may be affirmed without figure and without coloring, than she is the great goddess of Romanism. “ Diana of the Ephesians ” was not held in higher veneration among her ancient devotees than she among the Papists. She is more frequently the object of prayer and praise than God himself. Indeed, in the conceptions of the ordinary Papal mind, neither the Father, nor the Son, nor the Holy Spirit, seems to have much to do with the salvation of man, only so far as each of the Persons of the Godhead may be inclined or compelled to act by the in- tervention of the holy Mother. She is the great motive power. But turning from the religious rites of the Roman Catholics, as they exist everywhere, and which are framed on any other model than that of the Gospel, let us examine some other tests, which to mast minds are more palpable and not less in point. What are the ordinary products of the Papal system, wherever it has had a field for a fair and full development ? As unlike the fruits of a pure Gospel as the tares in the parable are unlike the wheat. Papal countries have no Christian Sabbath. And this is the condition of their people everywhere. Certain religious rites and ordinances are performed on the first day of the week, but soon dispatched, and the remainder of that time which God challenges for himself and the interests of the soul, is given, without restraint, to amusements which are always secular, and often debasing and vicious. The infallible priesthood mingle in the revelries. In Mexico, and in Central and South America, sports of every name, scenic representations, gambling, bull- baiting, cock-fighting, dancing, drinking, and profligacy, fill up the day and evening, after a quick-said mass in the morning ; and the priest often lays aside all that is holy about him — his con- secrated garments — and issues forth from the altar with the im- plements or agents of gaming under his arm or his mantle, and soon distinguishes himself as the ringleader in every scarlet abomination. There is no fancy in this description. It AS FURNISHING A MISSIONARY FIELD. 7 is simple truth, only the half is not told you. 1 have indulged in no exaggeration ; I have iippnrted no decorations ; I have infused no artistic coloring. Look for a moment at other fruits of this system. As to in- dustry, neatness, and material prosperity, they have never been the growth of the Romish faith. The education of the masses has ever been frowned upon and resisted ; aud consequently a large proportion of her subjects can neither read nor write. It is so in Ireland and in Italy ; it is so among the millions of Roman Catholics in this country, with all its facilities for light and instruction ; and it is so in your own city. The fault is not in the genius or the native taste, or the distinctive charac- teristics of the people, but in the system itself, as enforoed, for purposes of their own, by a domineering priesthood. It is by this blighting influence that the Papal world liave not the Gospel ; and yet they deeply need it. If it is desirable that millions on millions of our race should be reclaimed from indolence, filthiness, and squalid beggary ; if it is a work of mercy to redeem man from ignorance and stolidity, and irradiate “ the human face divine ” with the bright beamings of intelligence ; if “ the light of the kuowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ ” is indispensable to the saving of the soul, then Roman Catholics . need the Gospel. II. This missionary field is a large one. We have seen its appalling wants. A spiritual blight has fallen upon it, and sterility and death meet us through all its borders. And this field is not crowded into a little obscure and un- explored corner of our world, but it spreads all around us, and stretches out in long perspective before us, and literally en- compasses the earth. We may form some just conceptions of its magnitude, if we look at a few facts in relation to the inhabit- ants of our globe. The last statistical tables assign to the heathen six hundred and seventy-six millions— considerably more than one half ef the human race now living. This is an immense, drearer cheerless waste to be reclaimed, cultured, beautified. The sight, as it now meets us, is almost appalling. The Church of Christ for ages, aud more especially for the last half-century, has shed bitter tears, and uttered deep and affecting groans, and lifted up to heaven many importunate prayers, in view of her responsibilities to this portion of our sin-stricken world ! I look on this field, dark as Egypt, and fearful as the shadow of death, and say : “ If I forget thee, let my right hand forget her cun- ning. If I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth. 1 ’ Protestant Christendom numbers about ninety millions. One half of these may be considered so well supplied with the Gospel aud the means of grace, as to be removed from the missionary held. We have, then, about forty-five millions, constituting the 8 ROMAN CATHOLIC COUNTRIES, various home missionary fields of Protestant countries. A por- tion of this territory, and a most precious one, is ours to culti- vate. The enlightened Christian, who loves his own hearthstone and domestic altar, his country and the kingdom of Christ, is embarked, of course, by a kind of spontaneity, by a deep moral necessity, in the work of home evangelization. But between these two fields — one lying on the margin of the dark ocean of death, with its six hundred and seventy-six mil- lions of souls on their rapid march to the final judgment, and the other under our own eye, and the eye of other Protestant nations, and ever making a strong appeal to every home affection — there is still a third missionary field, containing one hundred and seventy millions, nearly double the number of all nominal Protest- ants in Christendom, and a little less than four times as many as people the waste places and the missionary outskirts of anti- papal lands. And all these millions need the Gospel in the same sense that the pagans do — and for the same reasons. They have no Gospel ministry, with its intelligent and its meliorating influence. As a general fact, they have no Bible. The masses have never heard of such a book. They have nowhere in opera- tion — and they never can have, under their policy — a system of popular education which may reach and bless all — one whose purpose or aim shall be the universal diffusion of light and intel- ligence — one whose heart is fixed on the future and indefinite progress of the race under the auspices of Christ and his Gospel. One hundred and seventy millions of human beings, nearly six times as many as the whole population of our country, is an affecting spectacle ; and their unfitness to meet the opening scenes of eternity, must be felt by all Christians who have deeply studied the subject. I need not enumerate the territories of our globe where this corrupt form of Christianity has planted its institutions, and established its dogmas, and oppressed the in- habitants, and blighted the very soil on which they tread. They embrace some of the fairest, and, by nature, the most fertile por- tions of Europe ; and the same maybe said of the southern parts of our own continent. The geographical boundaries of the Papal empire are immense — I mean including those states and king- doms which are under the special control of this spiritual power. But even this view does not place the field of Christian effort which I am endeavoring to describe, fully, in all its length, and breadth, and importance, before you. The Romish element is ubiquitous. It pervades all lands. Both Protestant and hea- then countries feel its presence and its power. In this sense the Roman Catholic field spreads over most of the world, for her people are found in every part of it ; and they all need pure Gospel institutions. Here, then, is a territory large enough, and populous enough, and needy enough, to fill the eye, and move the heart, and fire the zeal of any Christian hero. “ The harvest truly is AS FURNISHING A MISSIONARY FIELD. 9 great ” — if it is indeed ever to be reaped — “ and the laborers are few.” III. This field is open and accessible. To settle this point is quite material in this discussion. Wo have made but little progress, and established nothing effectually as to our obligations, till this fact is clearly evinced. Any por- tion of our world may be spiritually destitute ; may grope in dark- ness deep as midnight ; may be the sure prey of every evil that can bullet poor fallen humanity; and yet, if the people are environed and hedged around by impassible barriers, Christian benevolence is not called to the rescue, for no work is pre- pared and nothing can be done. A generous heart may sit and weep, but the tongue is tied, the hands are chained. And the greater the numbers who are in this condition, the darker and sadder the picture which meets our vision. If the Homan Catholic population cannot be reached by the written word and a pure Gospel, then their deep spiritual ne- cessities. and their teeming millions, might be multiplied a hun- dred fold, and still no obligation would rest on the church of God to adopt measures for their relief. If their doom is sealed, it mat- ters not whether by their own voluntary act or the purpose of God — and this fact is fully established — then effort is out of the question. Many Protestants seem to have adopted this theory ; and many, too, who are aware both of their destitution and their numbers. It is often said, and not by the ignorant and the thoughtless : “ The true policy is, to let the Romanists alone, for you can do nothing for them.” If this be an established fact, it should be known, that Christian benevolence may be wisely directed, and tnat the evangelical energies of Christendom may not be expended on a romantic and utopian scheme, which must prove a failure. But if the above remark is a gratuitous assertion, without one principle of divine revelation or one well- authenticated fact for its support, then we should know it, for practical uses. Clear light is necessary to intelligent action. It is readily granted that there has been too much reason for the conclusion I have noticed above. Many and formidable banders have obstructed Christian action for the conversion of Romanists. But to give up such a work as hopeless, and certainly without many and well-directed attempts for its accomplishment, would involve consequences of a far more serious nature, and in more direct conflict with the great designs of God, than many suppose. There is a sort of infidelity in it. If our world is to be a converted world, it would seem to be improbable, upon the very face of it, that the entire Romish population — more than one-seventh part of the whole human race — should be entirely passed by in this purposed transform- ation. And the improbability of such an issue is increased, when we consider their material resources, their advances in civiliz- 10 ROMAN CATHOLIC COUNTRIES. atiou and the arts of life, and the amazing moral power they might and would exert upon tlft final triumphs of Christ on earth, and the ultimate destinies of men, if they were to desert the stand- ard of the great usurper, and wheel into the ranks of the Soil of God, and march under his banner to victory. Besides, we are to remember that all false religions are strongly fortified against the aggressions of truth. There is a subtilty in error, and especially when it falls in with the strong aurrent of human nature, which often baffles all ordinary assaults. There are bad spirits that go not out “ but by prayer and fasting.” Many systems of paganism have an inge- nuity, a philosophy, an originality of invention, a depth of con- trivance, a subtilty in their ulterior designs, which require all the well-trained powers of the Christian missionary to meet and assail with success. And so we might expect to find it in that scheme of religion which a profound thinker has pronounced “Satan’s masterpiece.” To erect a system of idolatry on the Bible, which shall fill thte very same niche in the heart of de- praved humanity which had been occupied by the old pagan gods, male and female, thus making conversion easy, and in many cases requiring little else than the exchange of one set of images for another, and in some instances the whole change consisting in the name and not the identity of the idol, has a sublimity of wickedness in it which is truly overwhelming to the mind ; and we may be assured that the genius which conceived the thought, and the vigilance which nursed it, and the versa- tility of powers — almost superhuman — which reared it up to manhood, and led it forward to perfection, would guard it with sleepless care “ as the apple of the eye.” And this is the his- toric record of the Roman heresy. But, speculation out of the question. We have facts before us to show that the Papal world is open to evangelical laborers. Not, perhaps, now in the same emphatic sense in which the same thing may be affirmed of most portions of the heathen world. And the reason may probably be found in facts which belong not to them but to us. How has it come to pass that the door of access to the heathen is wide open the world over ? A few years ago, since I have mingled with men on the active stage, no such thing was known. There was hardly a foot of pagan soil where the devoted missionary might plant the cross, and tell the tale of its agonies and its triumphs. These doors began to move on their old corroded hinges, just as soon as “ the sa- cramentalliost of God’s elect ” began their aggressive march upon an unconverted world. God’s finger touched the secret spring, and they opened to be closed no more. And the inquiry now is, not for harvest fields, but for reapers. It was not when Paul was at Jerusalem or Damascus, but nt Tuoas, on the borders of a narrow sheet of water, opposite to Philippi, that “ a man of Macedonia stood before him in a vision of the night,” and AS FfiRNISniNO A MISSIONARY F1EI.D. 11 prayed him, saying : “ Come over into Macedonia and help us.” He was out on his mission of life, and the door opened when he was near at hand to enter it. This is God’s method with his servants. Of what avail or significance are open doors, if there are no agents to enter in and occupy ? I might speak, not only of doors opened, but of fields occupied, and of sheaves, if not of harvests, gathered in. But this is no part of my object. France, in the midst of persecutions from the priesthood and Government officials, is gradually admitting the true light. The Spanish race on this continent, under the Papal system, have nearly accomplished their mission ; and their moral, religious, and industrial state is hopeless beyond resuscitation. The imbecilities of old age are upon their descend- ants here, and they can never be rejuvenated. Mexico, the inhabitants of the Isthmus, New-Grenada, and the States both on the Atlantic and the Pacific coasts, will, in a future day not far distant, deliver over their foreign commerce, their home business, and their rich internal resources, yet undeveloped, into the hands of others more industrious and enterprising. These will be Pro- testants, and probably of the Anglo-Saxon and the Anglo- American races. In some of these vast realms, and especially in New-Granada, “ The fields are already white unto the harvest.” Here the profligacy of the priesthood could be tolerated no longer, and the revolution placed them on a common footing with other men. All religions rest on the same basis. IV. This field has been greatly neglected. I have before intimated that the eye of faith has but just now opened upon it, as au arena of Christian effort and en- terprise. However strange this fact may appear, at its first dis- covery or announcement, it may be easily accounted for. Different motives have had their influence upon minds of different structures, and of various habits of thought and action. Many Protestants — men of evangelical sentiments, and some, no doubt, of real piety — look upon the Roman Catholic com- munion as in quite a favorable condition, as to spiritual state and prospects, just as we now find them. They are in deep error, it is true, but it may not be radical and fatal. Consid- ering their ignorance, and especially, their want of religious light, they may be as likely to find their way to heaven as other classes of religionists. And then they are sincere, and appar- ently devout, and quite sure that theirs is the only true church of God. Their condition is an apology for their sins; and while their teachers and lessons are all wrong, the great mass of the people may be quite correct and safe. I am truly sorry to attribute such a train of reasoning, or rather gratuitous assumption of doubtful points, to any Protest- ants in an enlightened age and country, but we meet with these things almost every day ; and to expose their fallacy is simply 12 ROMAN CATHOLIC COUNTRIES, an ordinary Christian duty. Too many among us have studied neither the genius nor the practical working of Romanism. One memorable prayer uttered by Jesus Christ would scatter these vain speculations to the winds. “ Sanctify them through thy truth ; thy word is truth.” Others make a different mistake, but the result is practically the same. Under its influence the energies of Christian benevo- lence are paralyzed. Papal countries and the Papal community are not to be converted. They are given up to “ strong delusion to believe a lie.” Prophecy is against us. They are excluded by the revealed purpose of God from the ordinary efforts of Christ- ian love for their recovery ; and submission to the divine will should enforce upon us silence and inaction. As this apology for the neglect of Roman Catholics in the missionary enterprises of our day, and of times past, professes to be based upon the Scriptures, it deserves a more critical examination. The position to which I refer is this. The Roman Catholics constitute a corrupt and repudiated church — not “ the bride, the Lamb’s wife,” but “ the mother of harlots and abomina- tions and she is to be destroyed, and not converted. This is no doubt true, so far as the system and its outward adminis- trations are concerned. The anti-Christian organization malting up the body and soul of the Papal church, will be swept away — it will be utterly exterminated, “root and branch.” Without such an event our world could never hail the millennial morning. But the people — the one hundred and seventy millions — are not all doomed. The fabric will crumble and perish. It is con- structed of bad materials — “ wood, hay, stubble.” It will disap- pear amid coming revolutions. There is a heaven-indited song — the tongue of prophecy has long since recited it from the throne — “Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen.” And the funeral wail shall be taken up by the kings of the earth “ who have been corrupted by her.” “Alas! alas! that great city Babylon, that mighty city ! for in one hour is thy judgment come.” A converted Pope would be something more than an ordinary miracle. A pious and godly cardinal would be an angel among bad spirits in a wicked place. The purpose of God in relation to the Papal power, at least as to the grand outlines, is predicted in the Scriptures. The “ Man of Sin shall be revealed, the son of perdition;” he that “ opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God;” he that, “as God, sitteth in the temple of God, showing him- self that he is God,” shall “be taken out of the way ;”• “ whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming.” But before this final catastrophe, involving the annihilation of this strange and mys- terious power, falsely called Christian, but truly anti-Christian or pagan, shall arrive, multitudes of her oppressed and deluded subjects shall feel the cheering influence of a pure Gospel, and AS FURNISHING A MISSIONARY FIELD. 13 experience its subduing and transforming erace, to an extent which shall be measured only by the abounding mercy of God. This theory of interpretation respecting the fall of Babylon and the rescue of a portion of her subjects, is strongly corroborated by the very prophecy which tells us of this coming judgment. Mercy is mingled in the bitter cup. The presentation of the apocalyptic vision is truly graphic. John saw an “angel come down from heaven, having great pow- er ; and the earth was lightened by his glory.” This angel was Christ. “ And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habita- tion of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird.” And to this announcement he adds : ‘‘And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.” This angel’s voice has been heard, and will continue to be heard, and the responses shall become more and more joyous, till the full harvest from this field shall be gathered in. I have said that the Homan Catholics have been greatly neglected. This missionary field has but just begun to attract the eye of the church. While the pagan nations have found a place in almost every prayer, and the home field has fixed the eye hardly less intensely of the patriot than of the Christian, the one hundred and seventy millions of Borne have hardly touched a chord of sympathy in the heart of the church. But the star of hope has arisen on a new portion of our dark world. A brighter day has actually dawned. There are men whose hearts God has touched ; and with small means, but with deter- mined purpose, they intend, God assisting, to do the people good. They have looked over all lands, and they have dropped a tear of commiseration on each ; and can now" exclaim with Paul : “ We are debtors both to the Greeks and to the barba- rians ; both to the wise and to the unwise. So as much as in us is, we are ready to preach the Gospel to you that are at Romo also.” It may be a field sometimes difficult of access, and hard of culture when reached, and requiring much patience and self-denial in maturing a harvest ; but the time has come to break up the fallow ground, and put in the seed-corn. We need not stop to “observe the wind” or “regard the clouds.” Such a course might forestall the wished-for event. We should never “ reap ” under such a policy. There are great crises in the doings of God, and in his moral government, which may be traced through the whole history of redemption. Some great thought fills the heart of the church, and, under its inspiration, the cause of God goes forth in some new direction, or with accelerated progress, and gains an influ- ence which it never loses. I could give examples in extenso, if ime would permit. Take a few only. When John the Bap- u ROMAN CATHOLIC COUNTRIES, tizer came and preached repentance, a deep impression was made upon the national mind. The absorbing thought was, Christ among you ! John was the herald-star of the opening day. God was in the great thought he kept before the mind ; anil wonders were accomplished ; and at the close of a long day of darkness — since the prophets fell asleep — the last sun of the old dispensation went down in glory on the world. God had revived his work. The day of Pentecost opened a fresh page in redemption. The apostles here learned a new lesson — that, under the admin- istration of the Spirit, the preaching of the Gospel could bring men, at once, and in large numbers, and in rapid succession, into the kingdom of God. Under this impression, they set about the work of converting the world in good earnest. But their world was Judea, and the outposts of the Hebrew tribes, scattered through the heathen nations. It required the splendid vision of Joppa to convince Peter that it was lawful to offer salvation to any one but a Jew. And yet Peter had in his hand a commission to “ preach the Gospel to every creature.” The other apostles at length, and rather reluctantly, adopted the convictions of Peter. Thus it is, that practical truth is unfolded only page by page. A half-century since, evangelical Christendom was profoundly 0 asleep over the dark nations of paganism. Ecclesiastics were urging their exclusive claims to the true apostolic succession ; but the apostolic commission was a dead letter in the hand and the heart of the church. A few little incidents — trifling in them- selves — turned the thoughts and prayers of good men in a new direction, till now there is no enterprise before the church or the world which is more sublime in purpose, or more magni- ficent in execution, than the design of converting six hundred and seventy-six millions of pagans to Christ. Or the home missionary scheme. I saw the infant in its cradle — its bright eyes wide open on the benignant heavens ; and now who does not admire the greatness of this youthful giant ? These were all new measures, in their day, but God was in them. And here I must speak of a younger-boni of providence in the brotherhood of Christian action. It is only within a few years that distinct and systematic efforts have been adopted for instructing and saving Roman Catholics ; and even then faintly and feebly. This had become an almost exploded thought since the days of the reformation. It had nearly died out in the heart of the church. We have great confidence that God is in this recent movement, and while we do not expect that our cause will be the favorite Joseph in the brotherhood of well- doing, yet it is our “ little Benjamin,” and we should rejoice to see “Benjamin’s mess” imparted to it from the gratuities of the church of God. AS FURNISHING A MISSIONARY FIELD. 15 V. The relations of this subject to the world’s conversion. In adopting a theory for the interpretation of the word or providences of God, we should not be satisfied — as system- makers often are — with seeing our way into it, but we should be able to see our way out of it. A successful retreat is next to a victory. What then is to become of Papal lands, and their people intrenched iu every land ? Certain it is that the reign of Christ — “Foretold by prophets, and by poets sung ” — cannot become triumphant among men, without a signal change iu the ecclesiastical dynasty of which Romo is the center. Leave out Papal countries and their adherents throughout all the world, and Christ is not the universal king. The illimitable scepter and the crown of all nations are not his. His conquest is not complete, his coronal does not shine with all its promised stars. Papal nations, among others, must be considered as in- cluded in the promises made to Christ. True it is, that our world can never he a converted world, while the one hundred and seventy millions of Papists are excluded from the fold of God. Is there to be no millenial jubilee in France, and Belgium, and Austria ? Is no ray of heavenly light to beam on Papal Swit- zerland, and Papal Germany, aud the once far-famed, but now degenerate Italian States ? Is there no hope for Mexico, and Cuba, and the Central aud South American empires ? Shall the Gospel be pronounced a failure, in respect to all these, ac- cording to the second advent theory, and shall they be utterly exterminated ? This is a cheap and easy method of converting men, aud well adapted to the taste of faithless and lazy Christ- ians. Or shall the} 7 be left to reform and Christianize them- selves ? Infallibility cannot change for the better. It is true that Rome has her changes, but they are always from bad to worse. The new dogma of the immaculate con- ception, to an intelligent mind, would appear too absurd to com- mand the assent even of the most ignorant and credulous of the Papal communion. But there is a policy, at once far-sighted and subtle, which underlies this movement, that is well under- stood by the Pope and other dignitaries of that church. It is designed, not to conciliate Protestants, but to fortify themselves against external encroachments — to make the great gulf between them and Bible Christians broader and deeper than heretofore — to establish a system of idolatry, in the form of woman-worship, which shall render their subjects unapproachable, if may be, by evangelical truth. Aud in reaching forward to this end, they have sanctioned their new-born dogma without a due regard to one of their old festivals — I mean the purification of the blessed Virgin — for how can that be purified which was “ immaculate” from the beginning ? But consistency is a jewel not much cov- 16 ROMAN CATHOLIC COUNTRIES, eted or sought after by Romish ecclesiastics — whether Pope or common priest. But my business now is with the relations of Roman Catholics — converted and unconverted — with the final triumphs of the Gospel among men. Or the relations of this cause with other aggressive movements upon the kingdom of darkness. These relations have not been duly appi-eciated. I will not exalt this agency above all others, or any other ; but merely say, that it seems to me to be a necessary coadjutor in giving the Gospel and its blessed institutions to the world. Look into the home field, and what antagonist stands more directly in the way of the devoted missionary than an intermeddling Romish priest ? And you may often repeat the description by superadding two epithets more — profane and intemperate ! “ We speak that we do know, and testify that we have seen.” The whole influence of such men is deleterious. Religion and morals wither in their grasp. The infidel is far lessinjurious to society. He is always the friend of popular education ; the Romish priest never ! The Mormon elder is not more to be dreaded. They both hate the volume of divine love which God has given us, with an intensity equally malignant. On the subject of marriage these ecclesias- tics hold antagonist theories ; but as in other cases, so it hap- pens in this — the extremes often meet. I mean in practice. If we would arm the home missionary with the largest power of doing good, we must attend to the Romish population on his field of labor. Trace the influence of this system, as it retards the progress of every Christian effort to do good in your own city. How is Christ to be welcomed to a triumphant throne here, and come and reign over these accumulating thousands here, unless some- thing is done for Roman Catholics ? As a specimen of many things which might be said, look at Papal influence on three great public interests only — education, temperance, and the Sab- bath. Who has not witnessed the bitter hatred of the Romish priesthood against our public schools ? If there is anything else that excites a more utter loathing in the bosom of a priest, it is the Bible. Of the forty-one thousand eight hundred and ninety- eight children between fiVe and fifteen — more than one-third of the whole number in this city — who can neither read nor write, a large proportion are the children of Roman Catholics. And the priesthood love to have it so. It is stated on the highest official authority, that of the nearly eight thousand places where intoxicating liquors are sold in this city, at least two-thirds — five thousand one hundred and eighty-six — carry on the traffic on the Sabbath ; and these are almost invariably kept by aliens or naturalized citizens ; and, I may add, they are generally the liege subjects of his holiness. And the foreign missionary is not less annoyed, nor less im- peded in his work, by the intervention of this semi-heathen AS FURNISHING A MISSIONARY FIELD. 17 power. It is an evil angel that is sure to cross his path, on continent or island, wherever the herald of truth begins to in- struct the benighted in the way of life. And the Papal emis- sary is sure to sympathize with idolaters, or any other corrupt form of religion, in opposing the doctrine of salvation by the blood and intercession of Christ alone. Among the more degrad- ed of pagans, conversion is a mere matter of outward form, without one heaven-born thought in it. Baptism is regeneration. In India, and especially among the lower castes, the old, dingy, ugly idol is displaced by the gilded crucifix, and the latter occupies the same place the former once did ; and in South America, the less than half-civilized Indians join with wild fanatical zeal in public processions on festal days ; and this is all they know of the Gospel. The Papacy is a persecuting power wherever it has an un- restrained opportunity. Foreign missions have often experienced this bitter characteristic. It is only just now that the mission of the English Baptists at Fernando Po has been broken up by the cringing power of Spain, ever ready to do the bidding of his holiness and the church. And the mission of the Presbyterian Board at Corisco is threatened with a like fate. In this same Catholic Spain, Protestants are not permitted to bury their dead except below tide-waters, that they may be devoured by dogs or washed away by the surges of the ocean. “Uttf.r extermina- tion” is Rome’s euphonious watchword. The British Govern- ment is the only power which has had the manliness to secure for their subjects a more befitting resting-place, when the turmoil of life is past. They have no President to elect once in four years. One thought on the power of converted Romanists to aid in the great work of subjecting the world to the reign of God among men. They form an efficient corps of missionaries, whose activities shall hereafter join with others in hastening the jubilee of an emancipated earth. There is a spirit in Papal lands, which, if subjected to Christ, will henceforth achieve wonders for lost humanity. In France the old Huguenot is not dead. His spirit still lives there in modem Protestants. The old Roman, too, survives in Italy, and walks the streets of the Eternal City, the chains of political tyrants, and the racks and dungeons of the Inquisition, to the contrary notwithstanding. And in the Green Isle of the ocean there is a tongue of eloquence, which, “like the pen of a ready writer,” shall record almost modem miracles achieved for God and his Church. Converted ecclesiastics may not always fulfill our expectations ; but when thoroughly and vitally protestantized, they make noble and efficient co-laborers. It is difficult, it is true, to eliminate the Jesuit from the anomalous and artificial structure which wears that name, but when this is done, and a heaven-created humanity alone is left, with the grace of God superadded, the renewed Jesuit may accomplish for the 18 ROMAN CATHOLIC COUNTRIES, ETC. Gospel what the old Jesuit did for Romanism when he explored our long chain of northern and western lakes, and our magnificent western and south-western rivers. Brethren, if you would sus- tain the cause of missions in the largest sense, and in the most efficient manner, and aid in the coming and the earthly corona- tion of the Son of God, then remember “ The American and Foreign Christian Union.” But I must close. When I look upon our world, in the process of redemption, I see a blessed trinity of agents, aiming at the same great end. The foreign misionary has fixed his eye upon the pagans, and with his heart on heaven he has gone about his work. Another laborer is cultivating the home vineyard in the same spirit. “ And last, not least,” there is another missionary, whom, like Paul, “as much as in him is,” you find now “ ready to preach the Gospel to them that are at Rome also.” “ Come, then, and added to thy many crowns, Receive yet one, the crown of all the earth, Thou who alone art worthy.” Men of God, brethren in the ministry, mark the emphatic thought — “the crown of all the earth.” Brethren and sisters in Christ Jesus, never forget that the diadem which is to adorn the Savior’s brow is “ the crown of all the earth.” Oh ! may he come and wear it amid the songs of angels and the shouts and hallelujahs of a joyous and happy world ! “ Amen. Even so come, Lord Jesus,” ADDENDA The American and Foreign Christian Union most heart- ily commends the statements and arguments of the sermon of Dr. Beman to all the friends of our Lord Jesus Christ. Like him we can say, as we have frequently said, that the field of missionary effort adopted by our Society is not only a most important one, but a field hitherto greatly neglected. Too many of the friends of the Lord Jesus Christ have regarded the work of converting and saving Romanists as hopeless. We are therefore induced to add a few facts in reference to our work and the success which has crowned the labors of our missionaries, in the fullest confidence that if we can show that we are doing a great and good work, we shall receive not only the sympathy but the co-operation of all those that love our Lord Jesus Christ. Our work is two- fold, embracing a Home as well as a Foreign Field. The Home Field comprises the United States and its Territories, having a Papal population of at least three millions, com- prising Mexicans, Indians, Spaniards, Portuguese, Italians, Frenchmen, Germans, Irishmen, Africans, and some others, scattered throughout the nation, apparently having no con- nection or bond of sympathy with each other, yet all sub- ject to the control of the great central power at Rome. The chief aim of the Board has been, with this popula- tion, to enlighten and secure the conversion of its individuals to Christ. They have sought this by missions, schools, personal conversations, distribution of Bibles, Testaments, tracts, and other scriptural means. The Missionaries employed are of native and foreign birth, of seven different nationalities, and of nine religious denominations, and sixty-three in number, in the Home Field. The Board have commenced to labor within the year at eight new stations, two of which are amoDg the Irish, four the Germans, one the French, and one the Italians. The number of different children collected and taught longer or shorter times in the schools, week-day, Sunday, and Industrial, as reported is 4,186, an advance of 1,240 on the number mentioned in the report of last year, besides many who have been sent into denominational schools, and of which po exact returns have been made. These, added 20 ADDENDA. to former numbers reported, •null make an aggregate of at least 14,250 children and youth which have been brought under evangelical training and influences by the American and Foreign Christian Union in the brief term of a few years. The number of teachers, male and female, reported as connected with the various schools is 375 — an advance of upwards of 70 upon the number reported before, and who, with the missionaries and laborers of every name, compose a force of 438 persons. The number of sermons, addresses, and personal visits to and with Romanists, in reference to their religious interests, so far as reported, (all have not been regis- tered and reported,) is 38,933. And the number of Ro- manists who have composed the various auditories, or been addressed, are computed to be not far from fifty thousand. The number of Papists intellectually convinced of the errors of Romanism, and its insufficiency as a system of religion, is large. The number who have ventured to confer with the Missionaries, and thus to avow their convictions, is 257 ; while 207 others, like Nicodemus, fearing the power of the priests, have come secretly to inquire of them the way of salvation ; and 154 others give good evidence of conversion to Christ. More than 600 individuals, therefore, by means of the labors performed during the year have been much benefited, and may be said to be nigh to the kingdom, if all arc not wholly within its sacred enclosures. There have been two interesting congregations collected within the year in Michigan, which now enjoy the labors of a Missionary of the Board — one at Royal Lock, and the other at Mount Clemens. Two congregations, gathered under the influences of the Board among the Germans — one in the city of New-York and the other in the city of Cincinnati, Ohio, having a joint membership of 279 individuals in communion, have within the year (one in July and the other in September last) as- sumed the support of their pastors respectively, and relieved the Board of their responsibility in that regard. The total number of converts to Christ from the ranks of the Papists thus far reported to the office is 1,404. There are others besides, whose numbers have not been reported. The amount of reading-matter distributed during the year is equivalent to about six and a half millions of octavo pages. ADDENDA. 21 H. FOREIGN FIELD. Here the Board operates principally through local Home Missionary Societies, believing the work can be done more effectually by missionaries who arc natives of the country, than by men who arc sent from, this country, and who are compelled to speak and preach in a foreign language. In the Western Hemisphere, the missions of the Board are in Canada, Hayti, Mexico, and Chili, in South America. The Canadian Society at Montreal, which the Board now aids, has 25 Missionaries, several important schools, and is gradually extending evangelical influences over the Canadian Papal mind. Chili. — Thirteen years since, we sent amissionary (Kev. Mr. Trumbull) to Valparaiso, South America, and now he has a self-sustaining church, and he and his people are prepared to do good service there. Hayti. — Six years ago we sent a missionary to Hayti ; now he has six stations and six native helpers, and reports between one and two hundred converts. Mexico is receiving benefit through the Female Sem- inary at Brownsville, opposite Matamoras, seventy-three Mexican girls having already been educated in that Institu- tion, with a view to be returned to their homes and to become teachers, or in some way useful to the cause of pure Christ- ianity in their respective spheres. Many Bibles, Testaments and tracts, through its agency, have also gone into that distracted land within three years past. EASTERN HEMISPHERE. In Ireland, some of the darkest places of Popery have been entered, and converted into the abodes of light, and joy, and salvation. Among other things, one of our mis- sionaries reported last year the conversion of twenty, another of fifty souls to Christ, while others reported other num- bers, and various matters of encouragement. The Bishop of Tuam says : — “ In the district of West Galway alone twenty congregations have been gathered, where before were only two churches, in which fewer persons were accustomed to assemble than now form the smallest of these more recent congregations ; and twenty-three substantial school-houses have been built.” It is computed that since the work of evangelization commenced in Ireland, not less than one hundred thousand souls have renounced Popery and embraced the Protestant religion. © 52 ADDENDA. Belgium. — Twenty-four years ago there was not in Bel- gium a single Protestant minister, now there are at least fifteen thousund Protestants, and eighteen congregations, com- posed exclusively of converts from Romanism. And yet these results, so glorious, have all grown out of the efforts made by our Society. The first Protestant pastor there said to one of our Secretaries, that “ had it not been for the aid and encouragement of your Society, the enterprise, to all human appearance, would have been a failure.” France. — In France, too, according to the means em- ployed, the work of evangelization is making most encourag- ing progress. In promoting it, our Society operates through the Central and Evangelical Societies at Paris and Lyons. The first of these Societies last year helped to sustain the Gospel at ninety different places. The second, though with fewer missionaries and more limited means, has distinguished itself in defending the cause of religious freedom, as well as in missionary labors. Of their work the Rev. Mr. Pres- sensesays: “It is prosperous in all our fields,” and “on every Sunday the word of God is listened to by numerous audiences, amidst populations that but for our agency would never have heard the glad tidings of salvation proclaimed.” And again, “ The conviction is strengthening among the people, that the religion taught and practiced by the Romish clergy is not the religion of the Gospel.” Said Dr. Monod : “ Laying aside the word Protestant, and talking about evan- gelical religion, we can reach the people with perfect ease.” This Society, it should be remembered, was a few years ago rescued from extinction by our Board, and quickened into life. Who can estimate the value of this ? Lyons. — The Committee at Lyons sustain seventeen minis- ters, evangelists, and teachers. The church comprises up- wards of six hundred members and twenty-five hundred hearers, in different places of worship, and they are constantly re- ceiving accessions to their adherents. These, a little while ago, were all in the darkness of Roman Catholicism, “ with- out God in the world.” Geneva. — The Evangelical Society at Geneva, in Switzerland, sustains twenty-five stations, chiefly in France and in the French territory of Algeria. A number of its laborers are sustained by remittances from our treasury, and our Geneva friends say, “ The work grows upon their hands, whether they would have it or not.” ADDENDA. 23 Piedmont. — The Waldensian Table , through which we operate in Piedmont, report encouraging progress in various things, and the conversion, last year, of more than twelve hundred persons from the errors of Pome to the truth of the Gospel. The chapel at Rome has been maintained as usual, and with useful results ; and the American Chapel at Paris, the great work of the Board in the Foreign Field for the last two years, was completed and dedicated on the 2d of May last, and is an instrumentality ot* great good to the cause of evangelical and pure Christianity. The Board have, within the year, extended aid to an important station at Poitou, in France, which previously they had not aided; and they have also commenced a service in Constantinople, among the more than 40,000 Romanists in that vicinity, which is a new and hopeful enterprise. The number of pastors, evangelists, Bible-readers, teach- ers, colporteurs, and other laborers connected with “ Mission- ary Societies ” or “ Committees of Evangelization ” on the Foreign Field with which the Board co-operates, (by granting subsidies designed to pay some part of their support, pub- lishing and distributing information, or otherwise promoting the cause,) together with those laborers in different parts of the same field who hold a more direct connection with the Board, is a little more than two hundred. Compared with the state of things in regard to religion thirty years ago in most of the countries where these mission- aries are now stationed and zealously at work, — where then there was scarcely an evangelical preacher or any to testify openly against the corruptions of Christianity and seek to bring men back to a pure Gospel, — the presence of such a band of laborers providentially raised up, and placed as they are, and given such varied and precious fruits as the reward of their toil, are in the highest degree gratifying. Why, then, abandon these people, or omit to labor and pray especially for tBfeir conversion and salvation ? Are not their souls as precious as the souls of others ? Without doubt they are. Are their numbers and influence of no account in our nation ? Far, far, very far from it ! There is nothing in the land that demands and receives the attention and char- ities of the Christian and patriot, that comprises interests more momentous than are involved in the matter of Roman Catholic evangelization. We would not unduly magnify this 24 ADDENDA. branch of Christian effort, but this is our deliberate judg- ment. Enlighten the Roman Catholic population — bring the Gospel in its purity and power to bear upon it — bring its members to Christ — and a greater work is not left to be done for our land. Evangelize tiie Papal parts of the EART n, and the most formidable obstacle to the universal tri- umph of the Oospel is taken out of the way , and a most effective agency secured to help on the world's redemption. Reader, let us close this little tract with the requests appended to our last Report : — 1. That you will read it carefully. 2. That you will pray for the success of our work. 3. That your faith and works go together, by sending a donation to the Treasury at your earliest convenience. OFFICERS OF TIIE ^rnerkan Jforcigix Cjjrkliait Slitkit. No. 156 Chambers-street. (Organized iu New-York, May 10, 1849.) President — Rev. Thomas De Witt, D. D. Secretaries — Rev. E. R. Fairchild, D. D., mul Rev. A. E. Campbell, D. D. Recording Secretary — John W. Cobson, M. D Treasurer — C. C. North. Esq. General Agent and Assistant Treasurer— Edward Vernon, Esq., 156 Chumbere st. Com muni cut ion s Which relate to Missions in the Homo or Foreign Field may be Rddressert to the Rev. E. R. Fairchild, D. D. ; and those which relate to Agencies and the Financial Department to the Rev. A. E. Campbell, D. D. tHi Remittances for tl»e Treasury, And orders for books and for the Magazine, should be sent to the Society’s Office, 156 Chambers-street, addressed to Edward Vernon, Esq, General Agent and As- sistant Treasurer.