doos, not only of dead things of earth, and wood, and stone-but of living things also, of vile and contemptible things, as jackals and apes, and even of deadly snakes! - and this worship abounding, too, in ceremonies not to be named before a Christian Assembly! Or where, to omit numerous minor instances of human shame and torment, where among Samaritans was to be found the murder of Infants by the very Mothers who bare them, and that of aged Parents in sickness by the hands of their own Children with sacred mud and water?where, the burning of Widows, or the trampling of them to death in living graves?-where, the yearly crushings of the Cars of Juggernaut ? Are we Men-are we Christians-have we any thing of the mind of our Divine Master - if we rejoice not greatly before God, to hear that a people, the victims of such delusions, receive the Missionaries of the Gospel, and give them their Children to be instructed? Yet are they even our fellow-subjects; a people from whose land our own country is enriched; who toil for us in the sweat of their brow, and fight our battles; who tend us in all the offices of domestic life, and nourish at their breasts the children of many of your own Sons and Daughters. Should not our sympathies abound toward such a people? Should we not exult in the feeblest hope of their moral recovery-enlarge gladly our contributions and press forward with an ever-increasing zeal in the prosecution of our labours for their full redemption? 3. I observe, then, lastly, from our text, THE SPIRIT WHICH MUST ACTUATE US, IN ORDER TO OUR OWN COMFORT IN OUR MISSIONS, AND TO A JUST ЕХРЕСТАTION OF THE DIVINE BLESSING ON OUR LA BOURS. That mind must be in us, which was also in Christ Jesus. It must be to the friends, the conductors, and the agents of the Society-it must be to us all, our meat, as it was HIS, to do the will of Him who sends us, and to finish His work. These terms need not any laboured explication: they are intelligible enough to all, and commend themselves readily to our consciences. Fixing our hearts and minds upon the Lord God himself, they denote the importance which we attach to any work, the affectionate interest which we take in it, and our most entire devotion to it, for His Name's sake. Disclaiming all self-seeking and self-exalting, they express, at the same time, a determined and patient continuance in well-doing, the most perfect acquiescence in the dispensations of Divine Providence and Grace in our own day, and an entire reference of the event and the whole glory to Him. Such was the mind of the Redeemer. Rare, indeed, to Him was the joy of the conversion of sinners in the course of his own ministry: and were ever sorrows like His!-yet was it his meat and drink to fulfil all the work assigned him. It was sufficient for him that his Heavenly Father had sent him-that He ordereth all things, and that the issues of all things are with him, Such were the minds of the Apostles, as, at his command, they went forth into all the world, preaching the Gospel to every creature. Knowing whom they had believed, and knowing also that everywhere afflictions and bonds and imprisonments and death awaited them, they went on their way-through evil report and good report; as deceivers, and yet true; as unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and behold they lived; as sorrowful, yet alway rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing all things; always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in their body. (2 Cor. iv. 10. vi. 8-10.) And the Lord was with them; and added to the Church daily, through their word, such as should be saved. Such were the minds, also, of those holy men, who of old jeoparded their lives for our sakes, in bringing to our shores the Gospel wherein we stand. Such, we trust, are the minds of the faithful men who have gone forth from us, and occupy our distant Missions; and such must be the minds of us all, if we would receive the blessing from the Lord. The most honourable of works-the work of Missions-is also the most arduous. It is that work against which, if we believe the Scriptures, we must expect the powers of earth and hell to combine. It has to encounter the malignity, the inveteracy, the crafts and assaults of that Wicked One, and of wicked men. At home, abroad, everywhere, in all parts of our work, trials of faith and patience, of hope and charity, await, and must await, all who engage herein: nor will any thing avail us against these adversaries, unless we arm ourselves with that one mind, and make it our meat and drink to do the will and finish the work of Him that sends us. Have we then so done? Have we all brought to this work the mind and spirit of our Blessed Master? Have we entered into it, and are we pursuing it, in the simplicity of faith, with that earnestness and zeal, which the words before us express, and which its own incalculable importance and the Divine commands and encouragements require?Whatever we have done in this respect, whatever we have devised to do, yet is there not cause to stir you all up, and to exhort you, Brethren, to cultivate this spirit and abound in your work more and more ? What, indeed, can we suppose that we have yet done? Think, Brethren, of those deep and awful views of our fallen race, which so affected the Son of God, even in the glory of the Highest: think of his incarnation-of the travail of his soul for usof those very conflicts, as it were, of Divine Love, in the mission, the labours, the death of the Redeemer: think, then, that to us He has left it to carry on his work, and to make known his salvation unto the ends of the earth; and consider the hundreds of millions of our fellow-creatures yet lying in darkness and in the shadow of death of the hundreds of millions whom the Name of Jesus has never reached; and then say, What have we done, even the most diligent among us-what have we done in the exertions of all our Societies in any degree worthy of that which becomes us as Christians! How many are there, who content themselves with very slight impressions of that sacred duty to promote the Kingdom of Christ, which is incumbent on all who name his Name!-who may manifest some zeal on occasions like this on which we are assembled, but who soon relax and grow cold! How many are there, who have never yet rendered to this great work any stated or steady aid! Arouse yourselves, Brethren, and fulfil the work, which your Lord expects from you, as ye are his Disciples! Acquaint yourselves more perfectly with the great principles of the Missionary Cause, and commend it to others. Count it your happiness, if, by pecuniary contributions, you may, as you do, essentially promote its interests. Remember how the Son of God even made his soul an offering for sin for you; and render, at length, to your Heathen Brethren, according to your ability, as the Lord himself has done for you. Especially increase, Brethren, your prayers for us: and pray earnestly to the Lord of the Harvest, that he would send forth Labourers into the harvest. Oh pray WITHOUT RESERVE! Be willing, as ye pray, that it may be your ownselves, or any members of your own families, who shall be called forth to the toil. Yes, Brethren, we must press and exhort you to pray the Lord, in the strong language of the Original, to “ THRUST OUT" Labourers into the harvest; for, alas! painful, most painful, are the hindrances, which, from some cause, prevent our obtaining the Missionaries whom we need. What are these hindrances, and whence do they arise? Can it be that the friends of Missions have not yet learnt the Missionary Prayer, which the Lord himself dictated?-or that they use it with a secret reserve, that, send whom he may, he will excuse them and their families! Forgive me, Brethren, such an intimation. Yet what shall we say? Forgive me also, ye beloved Brethren in the Ministry, if even from this place I observe, how few have yet gone forth from our own body under this Society to Africa and the East! Should this be |