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 THE DAY AT HAND. 
 
THE DAY AT HAND. 
 
 Jit Jpfortss 
 
 DELIVERED BEFORE THE SYNOD OF NEW YORK, 
 
 BY ITS APPOINTMENT, 
 
 IN THE SCOTCH CHURCH, NEW YORK, OCTOBER 23d, 1862, 
 
 BY THE 
 
 REV. J. EDSON ROCKWELL, D.D., 
 
 MINISTER OF THE CENTRAL PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, BROOKLYN, N Y. 
 
 yubUsfctS bj Btqutsi 
 
 NEW YORK: 
 
 MISSION HOUSE, 28 CENTRE STREET. 
 1862. 
 
^Printer anS iitmotapjr, 
 
A I) D R ESS. 
 
 Fathers and Brethren: 
 
 Standing as we do in the midst of commotions and agitations 
 that are stirring our souls to the very depths, and surrounded 
 as we are by the great sea of public and political strife whose 
 angry surges follow us even to the closet and the sanctuary, it 
 is a grateful work to turn our hearts and thoughts away from 
 the dreadful picture of carnage and strife to those holier scenes 
 of joy that await the Church of God, and to those wondrous 
 promises, hastening to their fulfilment, which assure us that 
 all these vast up-heavings are but the necessary preliminaries 
 to the coming of the Prince of Peace, and will eventuate in 
 the enlargement and stability and glory of the Church. 
 
 The promises of God to his people are designed for them 
 not alone when all is calm and peaceful, when the sea is smooth 
 and the winds are hushed ; but they meet them when the tem- 
 pest rages, when the ocean is convulsed, and the mountains 
 shake with the swelling thereof. They assure us that Christ 
 our King is walking upon the waters, that he rides upon the 
 whirlwind, and that his voice even the winds and the sea obey. 
 And they point us forward to the ultimate triumphs of his 
 Church, against which, no weapon shall prosper, nor even the 
 gates of hell prevail. "While then, as watchmen upon the 
 walls, we look out upon a dark night, and through thick mists, 
 and see the play of the lightnings, and hear the mutterings of 
 the tempest and the crash of the thunder, we may here and 
 
4 
 
 THE DAY AT HAXD. 
 
 there through the rifting clouds see the precursors of coming 
 day, and rejoice to know that its dawning is at hand. Hitherto, 
 for wise reasons, God has permitted sin to enter into the grand 
 experiment which has been going on in the great laboratory of 
 the moral world, that its influence and power may be fully 
 tested. But we have the assurance that eventually he will 
 change the ingredients, and show to the universe what Holiness 
 can do, when by his Grace, all shall know the Lord, and his 
 Church shall everywhere triumph, and infidelity, and super- 
 stition, and error, and oppression, and darkuess shall have fled 
 away before his coming, whose light is the gloiy of the upper 
 temple, and whose Kingdom shall stretch from sea to sea, and 
 from the river to the end of the earth. To this great event the 
 eyes of God’s people have been turned in every age. They have 
 been taught to pray “Thy Kingdom come,” and the wondrous 
 prophecies becoming more and more luminous in the lapse of 
 ages, and the developments of Divine Providence have encou- 
 raged them to hope for the dawnings of a day of glory upon 
 this long night of sin, when Christ shall reign over all the 
 earth, and this world, long groaning beneath its load of sin 
 and sorrow, shall rejoice in his supremacy. Daniel in his 
 glorious visions beheld that day, and heard the promise that 
 “the kingdom and dominion and greatness of the kingdom 
 under the whole Heaven shall be given to the people of the 
 saints of the Most High, whose kingdom is an everlasting 
 kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey him.” And 
 when our faith languishes and grows dim as it looks forth upon 
 the elements of evil and anarchy everywhere prevalent, and 
 beholds the nations’ still hostile to God, and sees the evil appa- 
 rently triumphing over the good, it is re-assured by God’s 
 own promise, “ I will overturn, overturn; overturn it, until he 
 shall come whose right it is.” Here, on these promises, we 
 may confidently rest and know that the Church is safe, that 
 God is on the throne, and that Christ in all his divine power 
 and is King as well as Prophet and Priest, and that 
 
 vL, 
 
TIIK DAY AT HAND. 
 
 5 
 
 lie is Head over all tilings to his Clmrcli which he has pur- 
 chased with his ldood. 
 
 Nor are we left to walk alone by faith, but here and there 
 the glimmerings of a blessed light appear like the precursors 
 of the dawn of day, and wondrous changes seem to re-echo the 
 words of the Apostle, “ the night is far spent, and the day is at 
 hand.” 
 
 Amid much that is dark, and surrounded by scenes of peril 
 and trial, we may yet look out upon the great field of Christian 
 labour, and feel that the signs of the times are giving promise 
 of good. In all the history of the past, the Church has never 
 had so much to encourage her. God’s people have never seen 
 so much to strengthen their faith, and to call forth their full 
 and united efforts for the extension of the Kingdom of Christ. 
 The Bible is now translated into every tongue, and is waiting 
 to be sent to every creature with all its precious messages of 
 mercy. More than forty-eight millions of copies of the holy 
 Scriptures have been published during the present century, 
 which are being circulated, not alone by all the varied agencies 
 iu Christian lands, but by more than sixteen hundred mission- 
 aries, and more than sixteen thousand native preachers and 
 teachers, who have been converted to God and educated for 
 his service from the midst of heathen degradation. Divine 
 Providence has in the most wonderful, and often in the most 
 unlooked-for manner, removed out of the way obstacles which 
 seemed to be insurmountable in the progress of Christian 
 missions, so that there is now free access to every part of the 
 heathen world. The silence of the remotest sea is now broken 
 by the plash of the steamer, the herald of civilization, and the 
 agent of Christian nations in bearing their influence to every 
 land and nation. Commerce and the intrepid zeal of science 
 have broken in upon African wilds and Asiatic solitudes, and 
 opened to the world vast regions, peopled with teeming mil- 
 lions which have been hitherto unvisited and unknown. The 
 walls of China are broken down, Japan is opening to the 
 
 t£ 
 
6 
 
 THE DAY AT HAND. 
 
 Gospel, Africa is already feeling the influence of commerce 
 in elevating her people, and is opening vast mines of wealth 
 hitherto unknown, which will attract to her shores not the 
 ships of the slave-trader, but merchant fleets, engaged in honor- 
 able and civilizing traffic, under whose influence that mighty 
 continent may regain her ancient prestige, when Carthage was 
 the empire of commerce, and Egypt the mother of science. 
 Mahomedan prejudices against Christian nations are fast giving 
 way before the influence of national intercommunion and the 
 fierce fanaticism with which the Turkish, and Persian, and 
 Moorish nations have met the advances of Christian kindness 
 and courtesy, is yielding before the advance of light and truth, 
 while amid the millions of the Papal world there is going on 
 a wondrous change which is rapidly opening their minds to 
 the blessings of civil and religious liberty. 
 
 And when we turn from these evident indications for good, 
 as found in the wonderful openings which God’s providence is 
 making for the advance of Christian missions, we find that 
 while the Church by no means comes up to the full measure 
 of its strength and duty, yet the last fifty years have witnessed 
 a most wonderful and gratifying progress in this direction. 
 
 Much as men who are disposed to look at the dark side may 
 declare that the world is only growing worse — who would be 
 willing to blot out what has been done, and return to the 
 position which the Church was in at the commencement of the 
 present century ? Who can trace the progress of modern mis- 
 sions from the hour when the little band of youths at Williams’ 
 College began to pray for the conversion of the world, and 
 consecrated themselves to the work of preaching the Gospel 
 to the Heathen until the present hour, and not feel that the 
 Lord hath done great things for his Church ? Long before 
 that time, indeed, had the seeds been planted, and were already 
 germinating and shooting upward and giving signs of a coining 
 harvest. 
 
 We may trace the great work back to the glorious revivals 
 
TIIE DAY AT HAND. 
 
 i 
 
 which crowned the last century, and which marked the beginning 
 of the present. From that time it was evident that the. spirit 
 of missions was awakening 1 throughout the Church. Early in 
 the history of our own beloved Zion we find the principle 
 taking deep hold of the minds of her ministers, that the work 
 of preaching the Gospel to the Heathen was the work of the 
 Church, and although in those days of small things it was 
 evident for a time that there must be a union of all evangelical 
 Christians for the furtherance of the cause — yet that great 
 principle was never lost sight of, and is now manifest, as we see 
 every great division of the Church assuming this work for 
 itself and identifying it with its most cherished movements 
 and operations. And as we go back to the early history of the 
 missionary work, and follow down these few and feeble streams 
 as they enlarge and multiply, and widen and deepen, until they 
 havt* become a mighty flood, bearing on its bosom the blessings 
 of the Gospel to almost every land, who shall either despise 
 the day of small things, or doubt that the Church has made 
 encouraging progress since it first entered in earnest upon the 
 fulfilment of Christ’s command, “Go preach my Gospel to 
 every creature !” 
 
 It is not alone upon the arrangements which are made to 
 send out Christian ministers and teachers to the heathen that 
 we are to look, when we would make an estimate of what is 
 now doing for the conversion of the world. This is but apart 
 of the vast system of agencies which God is using for the ac- 
 complishment of his purposes and the fulfilment of his gracious 
 promises. 
 
 His armory is full of weapons for the destruction of his 
 enemies. His providence has most ample resources for the 
 enlargement and upbuilding of his kingdom. We are not to 
 expect that the institutions of religion will be planted in any 
 nation simply by a few isolated missionaries. God did not so 
 build up his Church in Canaan, but sent there a whole colony 
 that had been fitted for their work amid the discipline of 
 
8 
 
 THE DAY AT IIAKD. 
 
 Egypt aud tlie wilderness. He did not so plant liis Church here, 
 but brought hither his people from the shores of the old world 
 where he had prepared them for their work by trials and perse- 
 cutions. And do we not see this same process going on, by 
 which our Pacific coast has been filled with churches and 
 Christian institutions, and Australia is becoming the home of 
 a vast Christian population, and parts of Africa are already 
 rising to the dignity of a free and enlightened country with 
 all the institutions of our holy religion diffusing their influence 
 far and wide. And it may be that the multitudes which God 
 has been bringing to our own shores are, in his time, to be sent 
 forth with all the institutions of the Gospel that they may 
 make some other lands, now sitting in darkness, the home of 
 the Church and the dwelling place of the Most High. 
 
 And then again, God is evidently intending to make the 
 great machinery of commercial enterprise tributary to the*up- 
 building of his kingdom. It cannot have escaped the student 
 of prophecy how, that many of the exceeding great and pre- 
 cious promises which refer to the latter day glory, connect 
 with it the sea and its inhabitants. As the Church is pointed 
 to her future greatness and glory, she sees the wealth of the 
 nations poured at her feet, and lending her their aid. 
 
 Put with the multitude of the camels of Midian and Epluih, 
 she beholds the abundance of the sea converted unto God, 
 while the ships of Tarshish come first to bring her sons from 
 far, her silver and her gold witli them. And as the provi- 
 dences of God are unrolling his plans, it is evident that he in- 
 tends to use the sailor as one of the foremost agencies in 
 extending his kingdom. More than three millions of men, 
 chiefly the representatives of Christian nations, are doing busi- 
 ness upon the great waters. With an increasing interest and 
 zeal the Church has been turning her attention to this once 
 neglected class of men, and the results of her labour are already 
 manifest. The voice of prayer and praise now ascends from 
 many a ship that spreads her sails to the ocean breeze, and 
 
THE DAY AT HAND. 
 
 9 
 
 thousands of men are going forth to distant lands upon the 
 peaceful errands of commerce, who are carrying with them all 
 the warm and generous impulses of the sailor, and the manly 
 and unselfish devotion of those whose hearts have felt the love 
 of Christ, and the power of his Spirit ; and their influence is 
 felt for good wherever they go. Some of the most encourag- 
 ing and hopeful aspects of the missionary work abroad, are 
 connected with the fact that so many pious sailors are now 
 representing Christian nations upon heathen shores. Those who 
 have studied most the indications of Providence, and who have 
 most thoroughly understood the character of the Christian 
 sailor, have most wondered that the Church lias been so slow 
 to enter upon the work of caring for those who go down to 
 the sea in ships ; and of using with them the means that under 
 God may be blessed to their conversion to Christ, The 
 amount of good already accomplished by the scattering of 
 Bibles and tracts among catholic and pagan nations through 
 the means of seafaring men, whose hearts are full of love to 
 Christ, can never be estimated until the records of time are 
 reviewed in the light of eternity. 
 
 And when looking over all the appliances which the Church 
 possesses for preaching the Gospel, we ask. What are the results 
 already accomplished \ We have no reason to faint or be dis- 
 couraged, or to doubt whether God intends to use his Church 
 as his agent for spreading over the earth the knowledge of the 
 truth as it is in Jesus. 
 
 The representatives of the. Church, and even of the Amer- 
 ican church alone, are found in almost every heathen nation, — 
 amid the coral islands of the Pacific— upon the shores of 
 Africa — on the mountains and plains of Asia, and the hills and 
 valleys of Palestine where prophets and apostles lived and 
 preached. In India and China and Turkey and the Isles of 
 Greece, the American missionary stands as the herald of salva- 
 tion, — preaching by the press or in the school, or by the way- 
 side, or in the chapel, or from house to house — the news of 
 
10 
 
 THE DAY AT HAND. 
 
 pardon by tbe Redeemer’s blood. Churches have been gath- 
 ered amid lands long shrouded in heathen darkness, and many 
 precious souls have been converted and saved by means of 
 those whom we have sent forth to preach the Gospel. Even 
 the catholic world is fast opening to the truth and the light. 
 A wonderful change is evidently going on in Italy. From their 
 mountain fastnesses where they have long hid themselves, the 
 Waldenses, (these ancient witnesses for the truth,) are coming 
 forth and planting their churches and their school of the pro- 
 phets almost under the shadow of Rome, — while in France the 
 truth is gaining ground, and the precious doctrines of the Gospel 
 are opening upon the minds and hearts even of men who have 
 ministered at the altars of the Papal Church. And with these 
 considerations, may we not look forth hopefully, and witli a 
 strengthening faith upon the great field in which we are called 
 to labour ? Surely never were the appliances for work so great, 
 never had the Church more encouragement to go forth and 
 thrust in the sickle and reap. Let us then seek to awaken our 
 hearts to the duty of a full consecration to the work of mis- 
 sions in all its varied departments, at home and abroad — in 
 the raising up and education of labourers and in sending them 
 forth to the field. Let us stand by the seashore and give the 
 sailor as he leaves his home some token of Christian love and 
 care. Let us meet the mighty tide of population that is pour- 
 ing in upon us from the old world, and supply the emigrant 
 with the means of religious instruction and education. Let us 
 send forth the colporteur with his messages of love, to visit 
 every neglected hamlet and desolate home, and leave them 
 some leaf from the tree of life. Let us send forth the embas- 
 sador for Christ to obey the last command of the Master, “go 
 preach my Gospel to every creature.” We cannot doubt the 
 result. The enemies of God may make war upon the lamb, 
 but the lamb shall overcome them. The Church will triumph. 
 The ark is safe. The final victory may even now be near at hand. 
 
 Everywhere we look we find the precursors of the day, 
 
TIIE DAY AT HAND. 
 
 11 
 
 and seem to hear the echo of God’s word, “The night is 
 far spent.” Let us then take courage even while surrounded 
 by trials. We are engaged in a work, the success of which 
 there is no possible doubt. We are labouring for a cause dear 
 to the heart of God himself — for the extension of the Church 
 to which he has said “ Thy walls are ever before me. I have 
 graven thee upon the palms of my hands. lie that toucheth you 
 toucheth the apple of mine eye.” Times of trial and darkness 
 have and may come, but they shall only serve in the end, to 
 manifest more fully the great love wherewith Christ has loved 
 his Church. The promises of God cannot fail, and they all point 
 us forward to the year of jubilee, and bid us labour and pray 
 for its coming. It will surely come. The hour is approaching 
 when there shall be heard the shout of the hosts of God’s 
 elect rising from the valleys, — ascending the hills — rolling on 
 in streams ever deepening, over mountains and plains, and 
 seas, sweeping round the world in one mighty and majestic 
 anthem, whose echoes shall be caught by angels and borne 
 heavenward, — “ We give thee thanks, O Lord God Almighty, 
 who art, and wast, and art to come, because thou hast taken 
 to thee thy great power and hast reigned.” 
 

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