as regards convicts, six thousand persons are year by year carried forth with no spiritual provision for their souls-and so we leave them, "gathering them together upon heaps," one mass of moral putrefaction, until "the land," whereon we cram them, "stink” and become an abomination. We spare them the scaffold, to murder their souls. We let them loose from prison, to shut them out from GOD's Church. And so the convict may exclaim, with too great truth, "My punishment is greater than I can bear;"" might be not, too often, add, greater than is just? And the emigrant with real cause may ask, "Because there were no graves in England hast thou sent us away to die in the wilderness? wherefore hast thou dealt thus with us, to carry us forth out of England ?" The Psalmist, under the Jewish dispensation, could say, after so long a time, of the fellow-members of his Church, "they went through the water on foot, there did we rejoice thereof;" while we, under the Christian dispensation, send across seas those baptized 1 Exod. viii. 14. 2 Gen. iv. 13. 4 Ps. lxvi. 5. into the same Communion of saints with ourselves, and have no more to say of them. They are nought to us, nor we to them. We point out to them wells in the distance; and when they come to them, and "cannot drink of the waters, because they are bitter," they shall search in vain for that "Tree to cast into the waters, and make them sweet "" -the Tree which was planted on Calvary. "And truly" if they are "mindful of that country from whence they came out, they may have" no "opportunity to return." And they have not been taught to "desire a better country, that is a Heavenly. 992 At present, through the British colonies and dependencies, the population of which is computed at 143 millions, but one clergyman is supplied to every 100,000 souls; that is, we will say, one single clergyman to superintend 20 parishes containing the same population as this our own. I say one single clergyman to superintend 20 parishes of the same population as this our own-but not as our own, where "house is joined to house, and field laid to field," but where the popu2 Heb. xi. 15, 16. 1 Exod. xv. 25. 3 Isaiah v. 8. lation is like "the cattle on a thousand hills,"1 scattered too," as sheep having no shepherd."2 The numbers of emigrants, from year to year, in all human probability will increase rapidly. And the last year's income of the Society has, from the great demands made upon it, as from other causes, decreased by more than £1000. If these facts be not strong, my arguments would, indeed, be weak. The facts are strong; either be bold to deny them, or act, on this occasion, according to them. Will Once more, then, to apply the words of my text. Will ye, who have come running to CHRIST, hastening to this the LORD's House, on this the LORD's Day, "will ye also go away" sad and grieved, when He tells you what you must do to inherit eternal life? Will you dream of "treasure in Heaven,' while "setting your affection on things on the earth?"" Will you think to retain Heaven, and to retain your possessions too? Nay, and be sure that not only “the great possessions" of the rich, but the mite of the 1 Psalm 1. 10. 3 Col. iii. 2. 2 S. Matt. ix. 36. poor, if squandered on self, will, both alike, prove too bulky and burdensome to pass through that needle's eye, the door of the kingdom of GOD. It will be well for us, "in that Day," if anything be accepted at our hands by the Giver of all things; well for us, if we be not found castaways of HIM, WHO "hath purchased us with His own Blood." 1 Acts xx. 28. |