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Hottentot of Southern Africa was sunk into such a state of intellectual debasement, that for a long period civilization must prepare them before Christianity can be communicated. Let Bethelsdorp answer, and the churches of peaceful, civilized Hottentots which have been formed there. Then our missionaries went to the savages of the Southern Sea, where the great circumnavigator fell, and it was considered as folly and fanaticism to make there such an attempt: and there Christianity has not only received the homage of these lands, but has actually moulded their civil institutions. Our missionaries went to India, and in the British Parliament legislators could rise and denounce these apostates from the anvil and the loom, who with their wild fanatical extravagance attempted to make converts from those whose national prejudices would defeat, and national usages would render altogether impracticable: and yet caste has been broken, Bramins have preached the Gospel, and died rejoicing in the faith of Christ. And even China, with her jealous policy, and almost impracticable language even China has proved not to be impregnable to the Gospel. And it was said by our physiologists and our anatomists, in the wisdom of their philosophy, that the very formation of the Negro skull indicated a physical impossibility to be elevated in Christian society. We point to the thousands and tens of thousands that are now in the West India Islands, receiving the word with joy, and who pant for instruction, for religious instruction, beyond what British benevolence has ever yet afforded. We look to India, and there see, not only the Bramin believing; but, even contrary to national usages, contrary to the prejudices of ages, even the Hindoo female receiving the blessings of education and of Christianity. The Hindoo wife has been saved from the burning pile, the Hindoo mother from the destruction of her offspring, and the Hindoo daughter from ignorance-by receiving the blessings of education.

But all that has been done we consider merely as preparatory; and we rejoice in it principally as only bearing testimony to this fact, that there is no power with which Christianity has come into contact, over which it cannot triumph, and which it cannot destroy. Look at every part of the world where Christianity has been faithfully, where the Gospel has been perseveringly preached; where it has come into contact with superstition and idolatry, and has had its triumphs. See the Hindoo, and the fierce Malay, and the active and artful Chinese, as well as the unintellectual Hottentot, the restless and independent savage of the American forest, and the pliant and docile Negro of the West Indies-all have found the Gospel to be "the power of God to salvation to them that believe." Every form of error and superstition has been giving way. The Pagan, the Mahometan, the Papist, renouncing their particularities, all sit down at the table of the Lord: and men of all colours, from the deeply-tinged Ethiopian black, to the fairest and ruddiest European, have been calling upon God, and bowing at the throne of grace, and hymning the praises of our great and glorious Redeemer. Every missionary station is an advanced post from which an attack can be made on the enemy: every school is a centre of light, from which the rays of truth may proceed. Every translation opens a fountain of living water to all the inhabitants of the nations that can read it. Look at the number of translations effected by our own indefatigable missionaries, and the number of Bibles that have been circulated, and the innumerable tracts that have been sent forth with some portion of

Christian truth; look at the liberty of instruction; look at the apparatus of means provided, and now in actual operation; compare them with what has been accomplished within the last forty or fifty years; and if they go on in the same ratio of progression, and if the blessing of heaven descend on us in answer to our prayers, what a mighty change will be produced upon the world in the course of another century! Are not these, Christian brethren, considering all these indications in connexion with the prophecy of God-is there not such a concurrence as should inspire every hope, and cheer us on to vigorous efforts, and impress our minds with the certain conviction, that we must now gird up ourselves for efficient labour, for the harvest is at hand?

Allow me, in the next place, briefly to suggest, THE SENTIMENTS AND CONDUCT WITH WHICH THIS STATE OF THINGS SHOUld be met BY THE CHURCH OF CHRIST. That it should be met by corresponding sentiments and conduct we all must admit. But what are the sentiments and the conduct with which they should be met?

In the first place, I would say, with attention. When God works, it becomes us to contemplate his works. Has he spread before us the wonders and mysteries of the universe, and given to us rational faculties, that we might be careless spectators? And why should we look with less interest on the ways of Divine Providence, than on the works of nature? He whose energy pervades the material universe, working all its changes, and producing all its phenomena, presides over the intellectual and moral world, directing and controlling all things for the advancement of his own glory, and the extension of the kingdom of Christ. With all the stupendous works of glory before our view, in nature, shall we allow our faculties to remain dormant, or turn our view from them? And when God is causing such wonders to pass before us in the revolutions and purposes of his providence, as are now passing in the world, does it become us as Christians, to behold them as careless spectators? Look on the world, look on the aspect of the world; not with the eye of the tradesman, calculating the probabilities of gaining or losing, prosperity or adversity in the things that perish with the using; but look on them as events which are approaching, with changes bearing upon the happiness of man and on the glory of God in an extraordinary degree. Look at what is now passing in the world, not with the eye of the politician, nor, with the fear of being thought too deep a legislator, pass by the observation of those great changes which are destined to bring about that crisis to which our thoughts are now directed. When God speaks, it is for us to hear; when God works, it is for us to attend.

It should also be met with thankfulness. "Blessed are our eyes for they see, and our ears for they hear," what would have filled the hearts of our forefathers with joy and with gratitude. If we could suppose some blessed spirit from the distant world, who had lived in the period when the northern barbarians swept over the whole of Europe, like the locusts coming out of the bottomless pit, and when every thing bright and beautiful was scorched by them, when the voice of the destroying angel was heard " Woe, woe, to the inhabitants of the earth," and all the glory of Christianity was obscured-if we could suppose some spirit now to visit this world from the mansions of glory, what would be his surprise and joy at the present condition of the ch the prospects opening before us! Or were we to look

commencement of the Reformation, at that point when the instant (in any of its valleys) it began to appear it was destroyed by those infernal crusades. Or if we consider the time of the last of the Stuarts in England, when the last spark of liberty was endeavoured to be extinguished in blood; and the pilgrim fathers hung their harps upon the willow in a foreign land; or if you go no further back than the period of the French Revolution, covering the heavens with pitchy darkness, and " the sea and the waves were roaring, and men's hearts failing them for fear"—and what is come to pass? If we look at these things, and compare them with the present, we shall find ourselves under the deepest obligations of thankfulness and gratitude to God. Then in the Church we had nothing but prophecy, now we have Providence as well as prophecy to comfort us. Then the cry was continually in the Church, "Watchman what of the night, watchman what of the night?" now we are enabled to answer, "The night is far spent, and the day is at hand." "Bless the Lord, O our souls, and all that is within us bless his holy name."

It should be met, Christian friends, by the most zealous efforts. There is a time to stand still and see the salvation of our God, and there is a time when we are called on to go forward. Every age of the Church has its appropriate test. Our fathers were put to the test of support and attachment to the Saviour's cause by the trials which attended them. They were called by their patience and fortitude in suffering to shew their attachment to the Saviour: you are called to a trial of another kind; to prove by your active and zealous efforts, your attachment to the Saviour's cause. Our test is of a more pleasant. but not of a less necessary character. And allow me to say, my Christian friends, that the man who will not make a sacrifice of time, and labour, and property, when opportunities for exertion are afforded to him, would suffer but little for conscience' sake in times of trial and distress. God does not call on you to take joyfully the spoiling of your goods, he did upon your fathers: he calls on you to give a portion of your substance for the advancement of his cause. He does not call on you to suffer yourselves; to be immured in dungeons in defence of the truth; but you have liberty, that you may employ your personal, active efforts in his cause. He does not call on you to go to the martyr's stake; but he does call on you to consecrate yourselves, and all that you have, to him, a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God. Ministers of the gospel, he calls on you at such a peculiar crisis as this, with all your soul and energy to call forth the Church, to awaken them to a sense of their duty, and to lead the van. You that have wealth, he calls on you, not to accumulate, but to distribute. This is a time when your wealth may be employed to the best possible advantage, when it may be turned to the best account. And after all that he has done for you, will you do but little for him?

Christians of every age, and every rank and sex, opportunities are offering to you let every one be at his post, and let the most zealous efforts carry forward the cause of Christ, by that instrumentality which God waits to bless. Finally, steady perseverance is demanded at the present crisis. Let not your zeal be the flash of excitement, but the glow of principle: let it not be the passing brilliance of the meteor, but like the sun that "shineth brighter and brighter unto the perfect day." Do not fall into the error of expecting too rapid results: and do not imagine on the other hand that all is retrograding when you see some of your plans fail, and some of your efforts not

successful. Be assured of this, the cause must succeed: the zeal of the Lord of hosts will carry it forward. Be it therefore your aim to be found each steadily and perseveringly pressing onward and onward in the great work, relaxing no effort after any failure, but only renewing our exertions: after any success only doubling our efforts: and then whatever portion of success we may achieve in this great and holy cause during our pilgrimage, may we be enabled at last, when we are called to quit this scene, to say, "I have fought a good fight:" and graciously and condescendingly may we hear the Savicar's voice responding Wel! done good and faithful servant, enter thon into the joy of thy Lo

CHRIST OUR ADVOCATE.

REV. JAMES WILLIAMS A.B.

ST. ANNE'S CHURCH, LIMEHOUSE, MAY 31 1895

If any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: And He is the propitiation for pur sins."-1 JOHN, ii. 1, 2.

WHEN the children of Israel were engaged in battle with Amalek they were strengthened and encouraged, amid the heat and severity of the conflict, by the sight of Moses, who stood or an adjacent mountain with hands uplifted in supplication to God for their success and victory. Christians, while traversing the wilderness of life, have to maintain an unceasing warfare with enemies numerous, powerful, and si tle. Whither, brethren, shall we look in the hour of assault and danger for aid and protection? Whither, but to those holy and everlasting hills to which our glorified Redeemer has ascended to plead our cause and make intercession for us? Were the prayers of Moses—a fallen, sinful creature like ourselves-accepted in behalf of the Israelites, and shall not the pleading of Jesus have power with God and prevail? Were they animated by a remembrance of his intercession, and shall a disciple of Christ faint and be weary, when an Almighty and Ever-living Saviour has left upon record that precious promise" I will pray the Father for you?" "Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather that is risen again-who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.' The look of faith, and the cry of prayer to Christ exalted to his heavenly throne, can never fail to inspire the heart with confidence in temptation's darkest

four.

But there are some seasons when the Christian finds it difficult, perhaps impossible, to exercise either faith or prayer: I mean when through infirmity he has fallen into sin. For then Satan instantly tempts the soul to despair: he represents this partial failure as an evidence that there is not, and never was, any true grace in the heart, but that the man has been all along deceiving himself: he will use his utmost efforts to keep the soul from returning to God, its rest, by whispering that it is all in vain, that our case is hopeless, that the immortal crown is forfeited for ever. "Thou shalt surely die," says the tempter. Now this is precisely the case supposed in the text: "If any man sin we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: and He Is the propitiation for our sins."

Let us consider, first, our danger; and secondly, our security.

We are every moment prone to transgression. It is admitted, indeed, that

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