and receive your sentence, “Depart, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels:" for "he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him."

the only way, the divinely appointed | lip must be sealed, and, in the silence of way, of a sinner's acceptable approach to despair, you must listen to your doom, God; but, ere I proceed to derive from the topic I have chosen an argument, an appeal, in behalf of the great object that now lies before us, may I be permitted may, in the faithful and conscientious discharge of the duty with which, as a preacher of the gospel, I am intrusted, can I do otherwise than pause, and put it to every man's conscience in this assembly, whether he has embraced the way thus consecrated for a guilty world, and, by faith in the atoning sacrifice of Christ, secured his own individual and personal acceptance in the sight of God?

But our deep and profound attention, my brethren, is now demanded by a world lying in wickedness; and we must address ourselves this day once more to THE GREAT ARGUMENT BY WHICH WE STRIVE TO EXCITE YOUR SYMPATHIES, YOUR CONTRIBUTIONS, AND YOUR PRAYERS, IN AID OF THE MISSIONARY CAUSE.

O how gladly would I retire from the service, the weight and the magnitude of which wellnigh overwhelms me, and listen to the more powerful pleadings of some able advocate from among the many devoted and honourable men by whom I see myself surrounded. But I am here at your bidding, I cast myself upon his aid whose cause I dare to plead; and, resting on the thousand promises adapted to an occasion like this, I spurn with boldness the dark suggestions of despondency and unbelief.

The time has gone by, my brethren, when any thing like novelty can reasonably be expected in a Missionary Sermon; and I rejoice exceedingly that it has. The novelty of the subject has been for ages the scandal of the Christian church; but that scandal has now, happily, been rolled away. Christians of every denomination have become familiar with the mighty subject.

My fathers and brethren in the ministry will, I know, justify me, and approve the course I take, when I say, I will not seek to move your sympathies in behalf of perishing millions in pagan lands, till I have first pressed the inquiry home upon yourselves on each one in this congregation, Dost thou believe on the Son of God? No matter what thy age, thy sex, thy rank, thy station, thy condition in society, Dost thou believe on the Son of God? Is the mediatorial work of Christ the exclusive ground on which you build for eternity? If it be not, you must perish; and your ruin will be the more tremendous by reason of the advantages you have enjoyed, the warnings and admonitions you have buried in oblivion, or the fair and specious profession you have made. Oh, it would have been better for you that you had never been born, or that you had been born in the rudest, wildest solitude of nature, where the name of Christ was never heard, where a Bible was never seen, where the foot of a Christian missionary never trod, where the light of a sabbath, a Christian sabbath, the troops have advanced far into the never dawned, than that you should hear goodly land, and they have taken possesof Christ to despise him, and to reject sion of many fair and promising regions him, and to trample on his blood:-for in the name of our Immanuel. And we, how can you escape? I shall press the my brethren, who stay at home and watch question, How can you escape? What for the issues, have only from time to mountain will cover you-what rock will time to recount to you the victories won crush you-what refuge will shelter you by their peaceful armies, to beat up for -what subterfuge will avail you? By fresh recruits, and levy new contributions what arguments will you triumph and on your willing benevolence and zeal. prevail? "How will you escape if It is for this that you hold your annual you neglect so great salvation?" Your festivals in this great metropolis, and we

It is no longer the matter of doubtful speculation, or of the divided opinions, that it once was. The army of the living God is enrolled-it has become a living mass of the Lord's detachments

in the distant provinces of the empire, and our brethren in every village, in every hamlet throughout the country;-that as the pious Jews in ancient times strengthened the bond-the bond that was more than filial affection-to Jerusalem, by their annual visits to the temple, so we may rekindle our liberal zeal, and renew to one another the solemn pledge of devotedness to this great cause; and year after year thus at the altar of God swear that we will not forsake it while there is a single human being upon the face of the earth who has not heard and welcomed the glad tidings of salvation.

The cause in which we are engaged, my brethren, is infinitely worthy of a devotion like this, inasmuch as that every other to which men have consecrated their energies in comparison with it-I say in comparison with it-I care not whether it be the cause of philanthropy, or the cause of philosophy, or the cause of patriotism-but every other in comparison with it dwindles in utter insignificance, or is not worthy of serious consideration at all: for what is the body to the soul?-and what are the interests of an empire, and the passing, perishable, fleeting concerns of time, to the enduring realities of eternity?

ways, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon." The chief excellency of the gospel, my brethren, is that it is precisely adapted to the condition and the necessity of man, under all the possible circumstances of his existence upon earth. The state of the case is simply this; every creature is in a condition to need the gospel, and the gospel is adapted to the condition of every creature. Every creature is guilty; the gospel announces pardon. Every creature is ignorant; the gospel sheds the light of divine illumination upon the darkened understanding. Every creature is wretched; the gospel directs him to the true source of felicity and joy. Every creature is polluted; the gospel unfolds a fountain open for sin and uncleanness. Every creature is diseased, and dying from the dreadful malady of sin; the gospel points to the true sovereign balm-announces the balm of Gilead and the physician of souls. Hence, he who has it in commission to preach the gospel may ever be at work, and wherever he meets a human being, with that human being he has to do. He has a message with him he has a story of redeemPonder, then, my brethren-ponder this ing love to tell him; and there is no day again the great object of missionary exception at all, constituted by man's enterprise. Contemplate it as an object so colour, or kindred, or clime-his rank, simple that a child may comprehend it-an or station, or condition in life. It adobject so sublime that the purest seraph that dresses alike the monk and the libertine burns before the eternal throne would deem-the widow in her cottage and the peait his highest honour to be intrusted with | sant in his barn-the criminal at the bar the great commission, and would fly with and the judge upon the tribunal-the the rapidity of lightning to execute it. It is simply to preach the gospel to every creature. And what is the gospel it preaches? I say its very name is glorious; and, wherever there is a tongue to proclaim it, it must awaken emotions of the liveliest gratitude and joy. It is Ponder, brethren, again, I beseech you news-good news-good news to man--since how glorious is the message good news to all-good news to men which I have to deliver to mankind—ponsunk in ignorance and sin-good news from God. It is a proclamation of pardon from the King of kings to his rebellious subjects-from God to the human race; and the first sentence of the proclamation is, "Let the wicked forsake his

philosopher in his studies and the poet in his reveries-the beggar on the dunghill and the monarch on the throne; and he that rejects it does it at his peril; its glad tidings must be welcomed, or the man must perish.

der the grounds of encouragement with which you are presented in the publication of the message to the world. They are so abundant that I scarcely know where to begin. In the first place, the preaching of the gospel is a divine institution. It is

cursed tree, the heaving of the solid ground, as in the throes of an untimely birth-the darkened heavens at high noon

not a human device; the language of the Saviour is most distinct and unequivocal: Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature." This is the rending of the rocks-the raising enough for us; we want no more than of the dead, proclaiming him to be the this. With this assurance we can meet Son of God. But it was only for a seathe sneer of contempt, the serpent of ma- son that he bowed to the empire of death, lignity, and the loud laughter of derision. and condescended to remain a captive in We know that the instrument is mean, the grave. He burst the bars of the and in itself altogether inadequate. We tomb; it was not possible that he could know that it is an earthly vessel, in be holden of them; and he rose to ascend which the heavenly treasure is contained. up on high. Amid the greetings and We wonder not that the wise and pru- shoutings of cherubic and seraphic attenddent of this world account it the foolish- ants, and the morning stars of light and ness of preaching. But if the instrument glorified spirits of the just made perfect, were even meaner than it is, and God he entered the celestial world, and took still condescended to employ it, he could his seat at the right hand of God, and make it mightier than all the influence grasping the sceptre of universal empire that may be exerted against it, and demon--his double right, by creation and by strate, in a way the most humbling to the pride of man and degrading to human glory, that the foolishness of God is wiser than man, and the weakness of God stronger than man.

his blood-he sways it over, and is overruling continually the affairs of this inferior world, that he may establish the security of his church, accomplish her destined trophies, and set up his throne in the hearts of the millions, the countless millions, he has ransomed in his blood.

The success, my brethren, which has already accompanied the preaching of the gospel, and the trophies which the cause of Christ has hitherto achieved, furnish another ground of confidence in connexion with the missionary enterprise. That there are difficulties we are quite ready to acknowledge; we are by no means anxious to conceal them, as it respects their number or their magnitude. We know something of the obstinacy and perverseness of the human heart-something of its deep

Ponder again the dignity and glory of Him in whose cause you are engaged, and by whose authority you act. It was in immediate connexion with this great commission that the Redeemer declared, "All power is given to me in heaven and in earth." And it was not a vain boast. Witness the credentials with which he was furnished, and the many proofs he had of the divinity both of his person and of his mission. Three times was it attested by a voice from heaven: once at his baptism, when the heavens opened, and the Spirit descended like a dove and rested upon him; once at his transfigura-rooted and bitter malignity against God— tion, when the displays of his godhead beamed so glorious through the veil of his humanity, that the disciples were enraptured, and wist not what to say; and once, when so terrible was the voice, that some said it thundered, and others that an angel spake. Do you want further proof? See him imparting the light of day to the sightless eyeball, giving tone and vigour to palsied limbs, ejecting demons from their distressed victims, stilling the furious tempests, and raising the dead; and even in the season of his deepest ignominy and extremest suffering, when he bled in agony upon the ac

something of its decided and desperate hostility to every thing that is pure and holy; we know something of the terrific forms which this bitter enmity assumes in pagan lands; something of the inveteracy of habit; something of the power of a system, whose institutions and whose principles are wrought in the very texture and frame-work of society; and we know how hopeless would be the effort to undermine and overthrow this state of things, so firmly settled, so deeply rooted, by the mere effort of human ingenuity, of human skill, or by an arm of flesh. While, however, the

her fetters, reared her gibbets, kindled her fires; and yet at the peril of imprisonment and death, at the risk of all that men are accustomed to hold dear-these devoted servants of the cross went forth: they scattered the seed of the kingdom; they nourished the seed they scattered with their blood; it was rendered, by an influence from heaven, prolific; and, growing a very great tree, it speedily filled the earth with its foliage and the luxuriousness of its fruit.

statesman and the philosopher pour con- salvation-were the meanest and the most tempt on our undertaking, and regard it despised among men; fishermen, taxas the extreme of fanaticism and folly, gatherers, tent-makers. Against them we occupy ground on which they never power lifted up her arm, and authority stood, and we have resources at our com- promulgated her edicts; bigotry mustered mand on which they never calculated. her hosts-intolerance pointed her enmity Is any thing too hard for the Lord?-persecution opened her dungeons, forged “Who art thou, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel thou shalt become a plain." Only admit that the cause is God's, and that the arm of Omnipotence is guaranteed on its behalf, and all our fears are given to the winds. He may indeed, for the trial of our faith, and the exercise of our patience, in the accomplishment of his purposes, seem to delay; but though it should ever be remembered that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day; though in a manner to humble our pride, and to convince us that in this great undertaking our confidence must be reposed exclusively in him, he may suffer us sometimes to endure disappointment, yet, as to the final issue, we can no more doubt than we can doubt the return of the seasons, or the rising of the morrow's sun. Men talk about the mighty fabric of eastern superstition, and about the power of prejudices, and about the fascinations of caste, as though these things were omnipotent, and to mere human strength they are; but mighty as is the fabric, though it be consummated and cemented by the veneration and practices of ages and generations, and though it be deeply rooted in all the natural appetites and passions of the human breast, yet, if God put his hand to the work, and employ his almighty power, "The strong shall be as tow, and the maker of it as a spark; and they shall both burn together, and none shall quench them." There is no species of opposition, my brethren, over which the gospel has not already triumphed, and over which it is not still destined to triumph. Can you conceive of difficulties more formidable than those which pressed around it in the first age of Christianity. All the rank, learning, power, influence, eloquence, wisdom, and philosophy of the world were overthrown by it, though its abettors, its supporters-the first heralds of VOL. I.-4

And hear, my brethren,-hear the pledge and promises of those triumphs which the gospel is yet destined to achieve, and which it must achieve, ere the predictions of ancient times are accomplished; that the knowledge of the Lord shall cover the earth as the waters cover the sea. Then, Juggernaut shall bow before the cross; then, the Shasters of the Brahmin, and the Koran of Mahomet, shall be torn in pieces, and their fragments scattered to the wind. Then, every pagan idol, every pagan altar, every Mahometan delusion, every popish superstition, shall be crushed beneath the wheels of the triumphant car. Then, the cities of Pekin and Canton shall send forth their teeming populations to bid the Saviour welcome. Myriads of voices in heaven shall respond to myriads on earth; and the anthem shall be heard like mighty thunder rolling the universe of God, "Hallelujah, hallelujah! the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth!" Visions of glory! Bright anticipations of the future! Shall they ever be realized? They shall, they must. God hath spoken it, and he cannot lie; and to the declaration he has set the seal of an oath; and, because he can swear by no greater, he has sworn by himself, saying, "Surely every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue confess that I am God."

Must I plead, and must I plead with you this great cause? Let your counteC

nances respond. Tell me, do you need ishness and solitude, and thus steal to

heaven alone. No; but he gave you this book in commission, in trust, that you might give it to others; and he sent you the gospel, that, having drank yourselves deep and refreshing draughts of the cup of life, you might hand it round to the perishing millions that are within your reach. And is there a man-nay, is there

will not designate him so-in this assembly, who will rise up and ask, “Who is my neighbour, and who is my brother?" Every man-every man, whether his skin is black or white-whether he speaks your language, or one you cannot

argument to convince you, and strong appeals to excite you? Are you not conscious of the miseries of millions of your species-millions sunk in all the degradation of paganism, wallowing in its pollution, and agonized by its tortures? Must I appeal to you on the principles of common humanity? If this be the bread of life that is to feed a starving world—a creature that calls himself a man, for I if this be the sovereign balm that is to heal and to sooth the moral maladies and wounds that infect our nature-if this be the only light that can conduct man through the darkness of this world to climes of felicity and bliss beyond the grave, can you have it, and the power to comprehend-whether he dwells here or impart it—and imparting it to others will by no means impoverish yourselves-I say, where is your claim to a spark of common humanity if you can withhold your hand, monopolize the precious boon, and let others perish in moral want? I appeal on the ground of common justice. I do not merely appeal to you on principles of benevolence, to move you by the multiplicities of their miseries, but I plead upon the ground of common justice. It is a debt you owe to the world. "I am a debtor, says the apostle, both to the Greeks and to the barbarians; both to the wise and to the unwise;" and you are as much a debtor as he could be. God gave you not this book that you might monopolize it, and the gospel, that you might press it to your bosom in your self

at the antipodes-I say, every man is your brother and your neighbour, and if you can reach him, and enlighten him, and save him, can you refuse to do it? If you do, God will plead against you— will take the injured brother's part; for the voice of his blood will cry to heaven against you from the ground.

Go, I beseech you, and be prompt and liberal in what you do this day. Time is rolling rapidly on; men are perishing every moment in ignorance; zealous missionaries need supplies, and the wants of a perishing world need to be satisfied; and we look to your benevolence and zeal that their cry may be answered, "Come over and help us!" I cease to plead : let the collection now be made. ARISE, O God, and plead thine own cause!