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 / 
 
 THE JOINT WOKK 
 
 OF THE 
 
 SOCIETY FOE THE PEOPAGATION OF THE GOSPEL 
 IN FOEEIGN PAETS, 
 
 AND THE 
 
 CHUECH MISSIONAET SOCIETY. 
 
 A SERMON, 
 
 PREACHED IN THE PARISH CHURCH OF BISHOP'S HATFIELD, 
 
 ON FRIDAY, OCTOBER 26, 1855. 
 
 BY THE REV. 
 
 THOMAS LEGH CLAUGIITON, M.A. 
 
 VICAR OF KIDDERMINSTER, 
 AND HONORARY CANON OF WORCESTER. 
 
 PRINTED BY REQUEST. 
 
 LONDON: 
 ElVINGTONS, WATEELOO PLACE. 
 
 I8o5. 
 Price Sixpence.
 
 SERMON, 
 
 Acts xvi. 9. 
 
 " And a vision appeared to Paul in the night ; There stood a 
 man of Macedonia, and prayed him, saying. Come over into 
 Macedonia, and help us." 
 
 By such means did God enliochten the minds of 
 His servants who were commissioned to preach the 
 everlasting Gospel to all nations, when, though 
 His will was clearly revealed that all nations should 
 be brought to the obedience of the faith, the way 
 was yet dark and slippery; and in every city bonds 
 and afflictions awaited the messenjrers of the Most 
 High God, as they made known the way of salva- 
 tion. Paul, burning with zeal to preach the faith 
 which once he destroyed, yet could not know to 
 which of the dark places of the earth he should 
 direct his steps. There was nothing in the out- 
 
 A 2
 
 ward aspect of affairs to tell him in which of the 
 thousand cities of the Gentiles God had much 
 people. At the moment when the words of the 
 text bring him before us he was in Mysia, doubting 
 w^hether he should go into the Greek cities of Asia, 
 — debased with luxury, and deep sunk in idolatrous 
 practices, — or into Bithynia, where a ruder form of 
 superstition offered, it may be, less hindrance to 
 the truth. But both these projects were checked 
 by some sensible manifestation of the will of God. 
 He was " forbidden of the Holy Ghost to preach 
 the word in Asia ; when he assayed to go into 
 Bithynia, the Spirit suffered him not." He made, 
 therefore, for the sea coast, straight forward. And 
 at the first seaport town he came to, Troas, 
 when he was still uncertain of his course, the 
 event referred to in the text took place. A vision 
 appeared to Paul in the night. There stood a man 
 of Macedonia, one dressed in the garb of that 
 country, and prayed him, saying, " Come over into 
 Macedonia, and help us." From this vision he 
 assuredly gathered that the Lord had called him to 
 preach the Gospel there; and set sail with all his 
 company. 
 
 Events not wholly dissimilar have at various 
 times marked the progress of the Gospel. But on 
 the whole we are left in these latter days to be 
 guided by the ordinary rules of wisdom and dis- 
 cretion in carrying on this, as all other purposes of 
 Divine goodness in the world. We are left to 

 
 recognize different states of mind, different degrees 
 of capability for receiving Divine truth, among the 
 nations of the earth; — different degrees of respon- 
 sibility resting upon ourselves to make it known 
 here or there, as the case of ignorance and dark- 
 ness is brought near to us, and the calamitous con- 
 dition of human nature, left to itself, is laid bare to 
 our view. 
 
 You are all doubtless aware that the religious mind 
 of our own nation, exercised on these subjects, has 
 struck out for itself two distinct fields of missionary 
 labour. One field is, that vast number of heathen 
 who dwell in countries subject to our own sovereign, 
 on the ground that it is our duty, as having tem- 
 poral sw^ay over them, to endeavour to bring them 
 into the way of salvation. Neither are we to reckon 
 in this field the heathen only, but also multitudes 
 of our own countrymen, who have gone over volun- 
 tarily, or have been sent over under constraint, to 
 dwell in those regions, for whom, till quite of late 
 years, no adequate spiritual provision was made. 
 This field of missionary labour is occupied by the 
 Society for the Propagation of the Gospel. The 
 other great field of missionary labour is, in fact, 
 the world at large — wheresoever a missionary can 
 find rest for the sole of his foot, but especially East 
 and West Africa and India. And this object is 
 annually pleaded for in almost every town of this 
 kingdom by the Church Missionary Society. 
 
 Now he who would speak of either of these fields
 
 of labour as most important, to the prejudice of the 
 other, would, as it seems to me, hinder as much as 
 he would advance the cause of Jesus Christ. He 
 who would disparage either society to extol the other 
 is not wise. As the dominions of our sovereign 
 are now world-wide, both have, in fact, a world- 
 wide sphere ; both would do tenfold what they are 
 doino; if their means would allow. 
 
 What are their means ? The one — the Church 
 IMissionary Society — ^being the more popular, so to 
 speak, of the two, gathers from the pious laity and 
 clergy of England more than 100,000/.; the other 
 more than 60,000/. A large sum ! ! ! Men said a 
 single ship that was wrecked last year, with provi- 
 sions of war on board, cost the country twice as 
 much as both these Societies gather in a year for 
 souls, precious souls : yet for that ship and her 
 lading that was lost the country has ordered twenty, 
 fifty times as much to be provided straightway. But 
 these two Societies have no such increase, scarce 
 any increase, rather a decrease. Consider what 
 they have in hand ! It is a sad cry which comes 
 from the idol temples of those nations which still 
 lie in darkness and death's awful shadow : and it is 
 a blessed thinof when God strenofthens the arm of a 
 poor missionary to cause one of those idols to be 
 abolished, and the bloody rites and filthy abomina- 
 tions of that worship to cease. And the records of 
 the Church IMissionary Society vn\\ tell you that not 
 in one, but in a hundred instances, it has been so done.
 
 But the case of our convict settlers is to my 
 mind more piteous and touching than even this. 
 To think that, when we had purged the land of 
 them for our own peace and safety's sake, and sent 
 them, either for a long term of years or for life, to a 
 distant shore, we at one time wholly neglected their 
 spiritual condition, till there came a voice from over 
 the sea to tell us that in one of our penal settle- 
 ments a state of moral debasement had grown up, 
 which came up to St. Paul's description of moral 
 debasement before Christ was preached to the Gen- 
 tiles! To think that we suffered this; we, who 
 boast ourselves in the grace and favour of God, had 
 allowed devilry to triumph among our own sons ! 
 
 How can we be sufficiently thankful that, so soon 
 as this horror of great wickedness became known, 
 we had, in the Society for the Propagation of the 
 Gospel, an instrumentality provided, whereby 
 straightway to combat Satan in his stronghold, and 
 to cast out those unclean spirits who had entered in 
 and taken possession ? And who that has any just 
 sense of the mercies which God hath showered upon 
 this favoured land, would withhold his hand from 
 the support of an institution which then laboured, 
 and shall hereafter labour, if like necessity should 
 arise, to take away that reproach from our nation ? 
 
 Much has been said concerning the withdrawal of 
 the authorized appeal in the Queen's name to the 
 parishes of England in behalf of this Society ; but 
 after all, brethren, what can the effect of this with-
 
 drawal be but to stir us up to greater efforts, more 
 self-denial, more careful investigation of the wants 
 we are bound to supply ? — that as the sister Society, 
 which stretches forth her arms to the remotest 
 heathen, appeals to the hearts of the people every 
 where and at all times for their free-will offerings, 
 so should this Society cast herself with confidence 
 upon the faith and love of Christ's people? 
 
 Does not the cry of our convict settlers — whom 
 ignorance in a great measure and the want of a 
 more tender care made criminals — seem to reach 
 us even now from the utmost parts of the earth, 
 whither we have sent them ? " Come over into Aus- 
 tralia, and help us." JJo they not justly reproach 
 us, — " We never hear sweet Sabbath chimes ; we 
 never have the pleasant Gospel tidings dropping 
 into our ears like balm, children of affliction though 
 we be; we never see the Lord's table spread, nor 
 are exhorted by watchful pastors to put away our 
 sins, and draw near in faith unto that feast of good 
 things which Christ ordained for sinners. We sink 
 into the gi-ave unheeded save by our taskmasters : 
 no wife, no child, no brother, no sister, to moisten 
 our parched lips — to soothe our dying pains. But 
 this we could bear — this we have deserved — this is 
 the just reward of our deeds. But surely we never 
 merited at the hands of our fellow-countrymen to be 
 left in these far-o^P wilds and desolate heritages 
 without some one accredited minister of Christ's 
 Holy Gospel to stand by us as we enter in the dark
 
 9 
 
 valley of the shadow of death — dark to all, but 
 doubly dark to us — to stand by us, proclaiming peace 
 — peace to them that are far off, and to them that 
 are nigh — peace with God through Jesus Christ ? " 
 
 Such a cry for help I think it needs no stretch 
 of fancy to imagine from those who were sent from 
 these shores in many degrees of hardness in guilt, 
 yet few so hardened but that a word in season — the 
 Gospel message faithfully delivered to them when 
 they reached the far-off land where their remain- 
 ing days on earth are to be spent — might have 
 awakened better feelings, have revived the recol- 
 lections of earlier and better days — of a father's 
 disregarded warnings, a mother's unavailing tears. 
 
 Or consider the case of those multitudes who go 
 forth year by year as emigrants from these shores ; 
 who, by reason that the land is too strait for us and 
 them, separate from us as Lot did from Abraham, 
 for the sake of what is needful for the body, yet are 
 still bone of our bone, flesh of our flesh, though 
 between us are the billows of the mighty deep and 
 the stedfast barriers of the everlasting hills. Other 
 lands as rich, as fertile, as beautiful as ours they 
 may find and inhabit; brighter suns may shine 
 upon them; but there is something lacking still. 
 There is an evidence, in most letters I have seen, 
 even from those who are said to be doing well in a 
 new home and among new associations, of a want 
 which, though not always expressed in those words, 
 seems to be connected with the yearnings of the
 
 10 
 
 heart for some help and stay, which neither sunny 
 skies nor abundance of mere bodily livelihood can 
 supply. Oh, my brethren, if you knew what it was 
 to live as some do live, where for all the months in 
 the year, and sometimes for two or three years 
 together, no minister of the Gospel ever lifts up his 
 voice in the wilderness, where the few families that 
 dwell within reach of one another never meet to 
 receive the Lord's Supper for years, where the 
 sacrament of baptism waits to be administered to 
 children, till, perchance, some servant of God 
 passes that way ! And then how gladly do the 
 people flock around him, and receive his ministra- 
 tions! Oh, how joyfully! Inclemency of weather, 
 length of journey, impassable roads, do not hinder 
 them. Let us take care lest our very comforts, and 
 the manifold appliances of life, and the abundance 
 of the ministrations we enjoy, do not prove a mill- 
 stone hanofed about our necks to drao^ us down into 
 the depth! If you knew what are the privations, 
 the spiritual privations, of many a lone family in 
 foreign parts, you would then understand what is 
 meant by abundance in regard of these things. 
 We know not the value of spiritual privileges, 
 because we never felt the bitterness of being left 
 without them. We never knew what it was to 
 pine for an answer to that question, " What must I 
 do to be saved ? " We never knew what it was to 
 ask, in the agony of an almost despairing spirit, 
 " Who shall bring down Christ from above, or who
 
 a 
 
 shall bring up Christ from the dead to save us ? " 
 For the word is very nigh unto us, even in our 
 mouth and in our heart, even the word of faith 
 which we preach. Doth any man among us long 
 for a word of comfort in his sickness ? Straightway 
 the minister is at hand. Does he long for instruc- 
 tion in the true and saving way ? There is one 
 dwelling near who hath no greater joy than to give 
 such instruction to a willing hearer. Is a child 
 born to any ? The laver of baptism stands ready, 
 where it is received into the number of the children 
 of God, and heirs of eternal life. Doth a soul long 
 for closer and more intimate communion with God ? 
 Not a month passes but the blessed invitation is 
 heard, " Draw near with faith, and take this holy 
 sacrament to your comfort." Is not this abundance ? 
 Are not these unspeakable privileges ? Then let us 
 who have them endeavour to supply the need of 
 those who have them not. 
 
 I have scarce spoken of those vast tribes of the 
 heathen, shut out as yet from all knowledge of 
 purifying and saving truth, whose conversion still 
 lingereth, and our eiforts to reclaim them are 
 rather a desultory and irregular warfare than a 
 war of conquest and subversion, so hardly is each 
 post won, and oftentimes lost almost as soon as won. 
 
 These are the needs that call us to exertion; 
 this is the work that is to be done in the world; 
 and the main instruments for doing it, as far as 
 concerns us, are those two Societies in whose joint
 
 12 
 
 behalf we are gathered together here this day : and 
 I plead with double joy, and double zeal, because it 
 is in their joint behalf. Though I may have, as 
 probably every one here has, a stronger leaning 
 towards the one or the other, yet I am deeply con- 
 vinced that, until they work hand in hand, and side 
 by side, at home, — as it is said that those whom they 
 send forth are found doing continually abroad, — 
 much of the good they both would desire to eflPect 
 is lost and frittered away. Suffer me to point out 
 one obvious effect of their antagonism. It causes 
 at once their good to be evil-spoken of. It affords 
 a handle, a just handle, to the gainsay ers, to speak 
 reproachfully. It estranges from us many who, 
 if they saw us united in this noble effort, would be 
 constrained to come in and help us. Remember 
 there is one who quickens the perception of weak 
 or world-loving men to see defects in holy things, 
 and to make those defects their excuse for standing 
 apart from the work. And it is not what we lose 
 by their standing apart, but what they lose, that is 
 to be much thought of. We all know the benefit 
 to the individual of an interest, however slight at 
 first, in missions and such holy works. We have 
 all seen men become serious, earnest, thoughtful, 
 active, and energetic for good ; and at length more 
 deeply impressed with all religious truth, through 
 their being brought in contact continually with 
 those whom God hath raised up in the world to be 
 the effectual and earnest promoters of these things.
 
 13 
 
 Now the first impulse never comes to many ; they 
 are turned away at the very beginning : when the 
 Lord was just about to open their hearts that they 
 should attend to the things spoken by such men, 
 he who is ever on the watch to frustrate good sug- 
 gested to them secretly that very objection which we 
 are told turned aside a learned heathen from the 
 truth: "Have nothing to do with these men, 
 they are not agreed among themselves ; the promo- 
 ters of one of these Societies are rancorous (so they 
 speak) against the others. It will be time for you 
 to join yourself to their company when they are 
 at one among themselves." Have you never been 
 struck, brethren, at the wonderful shrewdness of 
 men to take advantage of these weaknesses of ours ? 
 Have you never been able to trace up to some such 
 cause the coldness of support we receive from some, 
 who are far from being indisposed to religious ser- 
 vice where their convictions are established, and 
 their feelings interested ? If you desire a proof of 
 this, which no man can gainsay, consider only how 
 the disputes about matters, which are truly second- 
 ary and of least importance in our great Educa- 
 tional Societies, have thwarted the whole work, 
 soured the whole nation, as I may say, and been an 
 effectual engine in the hand of the adversary to 
 throw back by some years, God grant it be not by 
 a decade or decades of years ! that day which one of 
 our kings desired to sec, when every cottager in 
 his dominions should be able to read his Bible.
 
 14 
 
 Therefore, dear brethren, I have ahvays felt, that 
 so long as the jealousy or rivalry between these two 
 great Missionary Societies has been at such a pitch, 
 that a zealous promoter of the one should openly 
 say in a large assembly, — '" We are not for joint 
 meetings, joint collections : it damps the zeal of 
 our supporters, that what they are ready and ^viU- 
 ing to o'ive should be divided with another mission- 
 ary society, however good and excellent the work of 
 that society may be," — when I heard these words, 
 I felt that neither yet were we children in malice, 
 nor men in understanding, as St. Paul bade us to 
 be; that there was a narrow-mindedness in this, as 
 well as a want of right and open-heartedness ; till 
 which was overcome we should have to be content 
 with small measures of success in the Gospel, and 
 pitiful accessions to oiu* resources, and that which 
 I can but consider to be a mark of some gi-eat defect 
 in our state, large and frequent testamentary lega- 
 cies, as compared with gifts and sacrifices made in 
 the lifetime of the giver, to the greatest cause on 
 the face of the earth, — the preaching of the Gospel 
 to all nations. 
 
 I hope if any of you are otherwise minded, you 
 ■will suffer these considerations to weigh with you 
 for your brethren and companions' sake. I hope 
 in this place you will not decline this fi'esh call 
 upon you, as faithful and attached members of the 
 Church of England, to help her devoted bishops, 
 priests, and deacons contending with untold difficul-
 
 15 
 
 ties, in India, in Africa, in Canada, in Australia, and 
 the islands of the sea, — I hope without diminishing 
 aught of what you have given to that Society in 
 whose operations you have now for many years, as 
 I judge by your gifts, taken a warm and affec- 
 tionate interest. [Truly, brethren, our efforts in 
 behalf of missions at best do not admit of diminu- 
 tion. If the laity of England took up the cause, as I 
 think they might be induced to take it up, if certain 
 hindrances were removed out of their way, it would 
 soon be seen of how much increase they were ca- 
 pable.] I hope, therefore, that without diminish- 
 ing by one single penny your gifts to that Society 
 which is to you as an old and familiar friend, you 
 will allow the claims of another — ^remembering that 
 the ministers and messengers accredited by the one 
 do often and fervently fulfil the part of fellow- 
 helpers to their brethren sent by the other, when 
 they chance to labour in the same region. Let 
 the thoughts of what is being thus done in New 
 Zealand and Tinnevelly inspire you with a con- 
 fident hope of God's blessing upon united efforts 
 and consent in prayer. Bear in mind how strongly 
 prophets and apostles ever warned God's people 
 against division in every time and place — how 
 this has been the bane of all good works, from 
 the days when it so interrupted and hindered St. 
 Paul's work at Corinth even to the present — when, 
 because of it, both this work in which we are now 
 engaged, and that to which I referred just now, the
 
 IG 
 
 education of the people, and another work, the 
 necessity for which becomes more apparent day by 
 day, the restoration of a godly discipline — when, I 
 say, all these great works do languish, and every 
 honest effort to forward them is thwarted, because 
 of divisions, because we are so seldom truly and 
 indeed " with one accord in one place," as the first 
 believers were ; always some bitter root springing up 
 and troubling us — always some or other event 
 occurring to remind us that we are as Israel was 
 when Osee testified against her, " Their heart is 
 divided : now shall they be found faulty." Oh ! let 
 it be so no more, brethren ; especially let it not be 
 so in the work in which we are engaged to-day. May 
 the spirit of love and unity prevail amongst us! 
 May no word be uttered, no sentiment conceived, 
 which shall injure the great cause we all have at 
 heart, which is to spread the knowledge of our cru- 
 cified and risen Lord to the farthest corners of the 
 earth ! 
 
 THE END. 
 
 GILBERT AND RIVINGTON, PRINTERS, ST. JOHN S SaUARE, LONDON.
 
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