not designed? Awake, and generously expand your desires, to encircle this benevolent and holy kingdom. God who has set you an example of exclusive regard to this object, demands it of you. Christ, who purchased the Church with his blood, demands it of you. The holy angels, who incessantly minister to the Church, demand it of you. The illustrious army of patriarchs, prophets, apostles, and martyrs, by their services and suffering for the Church, demand it of you. How then can you meet the eyes of this awful company of spectators, who watch you from every window of heaven, unless you rouse every sleeping faculty, and with your collected powers join to advance the kingdom of the Redeemer.

My brethren, there is much for you to do. Though the world was made for Christ, though all the nations of it are intended to swell his triumph, yet, at this very moment, five parts out of six of that race for whom he shed his sacred blood, are perishing in ignorance of his Gospel, chained in miserable and degrading servitude to Satan, many of them are also suffering all the hardships of a barbarous state, without domestic or civil order, wallowing in the sinks of vice, and besmearing the altars of devils with human blood. Touched with affection for Him who pitied us that we might pity others--for him who, though he was rich, yet for our sakes became poor, that we through his poverty might be rich-can we forbear to cherish the pious wish that he may enjoy the reward of his dying love? Do not our hearts throb with desire to be instrumental in giving him the heathen for his inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for his possession?

"Be

Distinguished will be the glory of that generation who shall be selected to bear a conspicuous part in this blessed work. If those who are now alive on the earth decline this honor, it will certainly be seized by a more generous and holy posterity. To the present generation, however, it seems fairly tendered by the existing indications of divine providence. Great events appear to be struggling in their birth. In the eager attitude of hope, many are looking for the dawn of a better day, and even believe that they alreardy see the light purpling the east. The Christian world, after long contenting itself with prayers for the heathen, and with saying, ye warmed and filled," is awaking to more charitable views. warmed with apostolic zeal, have abandoned the comforts of civilized life, and are gone to the ends of the earth, to bear to benighted nations the first tidings of a precious Saviour. Numerous societies have risen into existence on both sides of the Atlantic, under whose patronage missionaries are now employed from India to the American wilderness, from Greenland to the southern ocean. Some of the first fruits of their labors, I hope, are already gathered into the heavenly garner. While our brethren are thus summoning us from the four quarters of the earth, to come up to the help of

Men

the Lord, let us not incur the curse of Meroz; let us quickly put our hands to the work lest it be done without us. "If we altogether hold our peace at this time, then shall there enlargement arise from another place; but we and our father's house may be destroyed." (Esth. iv. 14.) But why should I thus speak? You, my brethren, have already felt the heavenly impulse; you have given to the Lord; and the affecting accounts of your missionaries show that you have received, thus early, the blessing of some who were ready to perish.

We are

Had not

Let us still pursue the glorious design, and rise above every objection which a cold, calculating spirit may cast in our way. We are bound to persevere by the express command to go forth into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature. bound by mercies which we ourselves have received. benevolent men devoted their property and lives to bring the Gospel to our fathers, we might, this evening have been assembled, not in this temple of God, but to sacrifice our children on the altar of devils. Methinks I hear those generous spirits crying from the verge of heaven: "Freely ye have received, freely give."

Let me never fall into the hands of the man who, while he refuses to aid the missionary efforts of his brethren, coolly says that he submits the fate of the heathen to God. Do you call this submission? Put it to the test: does it preserve you equally composed by the bed of your dying child? While the pressure of private affliction can torture your soul, call not the apathy with which you view nations sinking into hopeless ruin-call it not submission, nor bring the government of God to sanction a temper as cruel as it is common. Will the government of God convert the heathen without the means of grace? What nation was ever so converted? It is contrary to the established method of divine grace. How shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? No, my brethren, missionaries must go among them; and they must be supported. They can not support themselves; they can not derive support from the heathen; nor can they expect to be fed by Who then shall sustain the expense if not the Christian world? And what portion of the Christian world rather than the American churches? And what district of these churches rather than that in which we are assembled? And what individuals rather than ourselves? Heaven has given us the means; we are living in prosperity, on the very lands from which the wretched pagans have been ejected; from the recesses of whose wilderness a moving ery is heard: "When it is well with you, think of poor Indians." This is not ideal; we have received such messages written with their

ravens.

tears.

No, we will not shift this honorable burden upon others. We

would sooner contend for it as a privilege. But we need not contend; it is ample enough to satisfy the desires of all. The expense of Christianizing only the savages on our borders will be great; but to extend effectual aid to all the benighted tribes on the American continent, to the numerous islands, to the vast regions of Asia and Africa, would demand the resources of Christendom. Every man is under bonds to God to bear his full proportion of this expense. For whom but for the Redeemer was your wealth created? Thus saith the Lord: "Your silver and your gold is mine." The flocks of Kedar, and the gold of Sheba, were created to bring tribute to his Church. Should we sordidly close our hands against him, he can, with infinite ease, extort a hundredfold, by sending a blast into our fields, a disease into our families, or a fire into our dwellings. It is a maxim that admits of general application: "Whosoever will save his life, shall lose it; but whosoever will lose his life for Christ's sake, the same shall save it." "The liberal soul shall be made fat, and he that watereth shall be watered also himself. He that hath pity upon the poor lendeth to the Lord, and that which he hath given will he pay him again.” By one shower of rain, by one restraint upon the winds that would sink your ship, by one breeze sent to fan from your door the pestilential vapor, he can repay you. And he can bestow the blessings of eternity on you and your children. The best security for remuneration is offered. He tenders you his blessing to reward your charity. And now are you Christians? The trial The everlasting fates of men turn upon the existence of a temper to prefer the blessing of God to mammon. "To the merciful he will show himself merciful;" but "whoso stoppeth his ears at the cry of the poor, he also shall cry himself, but shall not be heard."

is to be made.

"I have nothing to spare," is the plea of sordid reluctance. But a far different sentiment will be formed amidst the scenes of the

last day. Men now persuade themselves that they have nothing to spare till they can support a certain style of luxury, and have provided for the establishment of children. But in the awful hour when you, and I, and all the pagan nations, shall be called from our graves to stand before the bar of Christ, what comparison will these objects bear to the salvation of a single soul? Eternal mercy! let not the blood of the heathen millions, in that hour, be found in our skirts! Standing, as I now do, in sight of a dissolving universe, beholding the dead arise, the world in flames, the heavens fleeing away, all nations convulsed with terror or wrapt in the vision of the Lamb-I pronounce the conversion of a single pagan of more value than all the wealth that ever omnipotence produced. On such an awful subject it becomes me to speak with caution; but I solemnly aver, that were there but one heathen in the world, and he in the remotest corner of Asia, if no greater duty confined us at home, it would be worth the pains for all the people in America

to embark together to carry the Gospel to him. Place your soul in his soul's stead. Or rather consent for a moment to change condition with the savages on our borders. Were you posting on to the judgment of the great day, in the darkness and pollution of pagan idolatry, and were they living in wealth in this very district of the Church, how hard would it seem for your neighbours to neglect your misery! When you should open your eyes in the eternal world, and discover the ruin in which they had suffered you to remain, how would you reproach them that they did not even sell their possessions, if no other means were sufficient, to send the Gospel to you. My flesh trembles at the prospect! But they shall not reproach us. It shall be known in heaven that we could pity our brethren. We will send them all the relief in our power, and will enjoy the luxury of reflecting what happiness we may entail on generations yet unborn, if we can only effect the conversion of a single tribe.

All that remains for me to add is a fervent prayer that He who is viewing from heaven, the events of this evening, may incline your hearts to the noblest charity, and may reward it with everlasting blessings on you and your children.

SERMON XV.

BY A NEW-YORK CLERGYMAN

CHRISTIAN

ASSURANCE.

"For I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day."-2 TIMOTHY i. 12.

THE keeping of the soul is of infinite importance, and mainly on two accounts: First, because of the immense value of the soul, and second, because of the imminent danger to which it is exposed. The apostle Paul fully aware of the value of his soul and the danger to which it was exposed, and conscious of his own inability to keep it, had intrusted it, with all its interests, for time and eternity, to the guardianship of the Lord Jesus Christ; and such was his knowledge of the Lord Jesus, that he felt, pursuaded the sacred deposit was in his hands safe "I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day." This is the language of strong assurance. Paul had been led by the Spirit of God to see that he needed a protector, and that Christ was just the protector which his necessities required; and having in the exercise of faith given himself up to the keeping of Christ, he had no fear in regard to the future.

Brethren, we have a right to make our own the confident exultant language of the text. If we have committed our immortal interests to the guardianship of the great Mediator, we are perfectly safe, and with Paul may exclaim: "I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day."

We will better understand and appreciate the meaning of the text, if I make two preliminary remarks by way of explanation.

1. Though Christ will keep the soul committed to him, yet he will not keep it as a senseless, inanimate thing is kept, as a rock or a tree, but as a soul-as a rational, immortal, accountable being. He will not keep it as a watch placed upon a shelf, taken down at stated times, wound up, and then replaced, but as a spirit, and in a manner consonant with its own nature. He will keep it by making us do our part, as well as he doing his. We must make a diligent use of the means of grace, we must watch and pray, we must guard against temptation and resist sin, we must strive after holiness, we must put forth strenuous effort to make our calling and election sure. Even Paul, who uttered the text's strong lan