the affecting narrative! Ah! how they labored, and denied themselves, and made sacrifices, and gave their substance sometimes to the last farthing for the cause of Christ. See them "counting all things but loss," and even cheerfully going to the stake, when the Saviour's honor required it. Read this narrative, professing Christians, and then say, whether those who feel reluctant to give the price even of a few luxurious dinners for promoting the Redeemer's kingdom, can seriously believe that they are actuated by the same spirit with those devoted disciples?

But how ought we to be still more deeply humbled and animated, when we call to mind what our blessed Saviour has done for us! I have sometimes heard professing Christians talk of doing and giving as much toward the spread of the glorious Gospel, "as they conveniently could." Surely this is wonderful language for the professed followers of a crucified Redeemer ! Did our blessed Master do no more for us than he "conveniently could!" Did He not give his life for our redemption? Did He not, in offering up himself a sacrifice, that we might not die, yield himself to sufferings unparalleled and indescribable? Shall not every one, then, who calls himself by the name of Christ, make the language of Paul, in all its force and tenderness his own? - "For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead; and that he died for all, that they which live, should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them and rose again."

Lift up your eyes, Christian brethren, on the unnumbered millions of our globe, sunk in ignorance, pollution and misery! Think of their condition a condition in which you must have been at this hour, had it not been for the wonderful grace of God. Contrast with that condition your own mercies and privileges, and then ask, whether you ought not to feel for those who are thus miserable, and try to help them? Christians! can you enjoy your Bibles, your Sabbaths, your sanctuaries, your sacramental tables, and all your precious privileges and hopes alone? Can you enjoy these hallowed scenes and heavenly gifts, and know their value, and yet slumber in ignoble indolence over the moral desolations of those who are perishing for lack of them? Can you calmly sit by, and see million after million of treasure cheerfully expended for amusement, luxury and sin, and only a few stinted

thousands devoted to the greatest, best work of enlightening and saving the world? O whither has the spirit of the Bible fled? May He who gave the Bible, and the promise before us, restore it in His time!

Let us then, with one accord, rouse ourselves, and endeavor to rouse others to new zeal, and larger enterprise in spreading the knowledge and glory of the Lord. Every heart, every tongue, and every hand that can be stirred up to engage in this great work, from infancy to old age, is needed. And remember that the more thoroughly any of the children of men can be excited and consecrated to this work, the richer the benefit they gain for themselves. Christian brother! Christian sister! whoever you are, in this large assembly! you have each, respectively, a duty to perform in reference to this mighty work. It is incumbent upon you to do all in your power for sending the light of life to the benighted and perishing. Nay, upon every human being, whether in the church or out of it, there lies an obligation to aid, as far as God gives the opportunity, in sending to "every creature" that gospel which is "the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth." We invite you all, my hearers, not merely to the duty, but to the precious privilege, of coöperating in this holy and blessed enterprise. And we can venture to assure you, that, if the day should ever come, in which your heart shall be thoroughly imbued with the spirit of missions, it will be the happiest period of your lives; as well as the pledge and the dawn of that wide-spread glory, which our text proclaims as certain and approaching. We can point you to no higher honor, no richer pleasure on this side of heaven, than that which is found in enlightened, zealous, active, absorbing zeal for spreading the holy, life-giving religion of Jesus Christ from the rising to the setting sun.

We are now celebrating the twenty-sixth anniversary of our Board; and, instead of being weary of our work, we can sincerely declare, that in looking back on our past course, our only regret is, that we have not labored with far more diligence and sanctified ardor in the cause of the world's conversion; that our plans have not been more enlarged; and that we have not prayed more and done more in this greatest of all causes in which Christians can engage. Yes, brethren, beloved of the Lord, we come to mingle our vows with yours, to proclaim with deeper conviction than ever, that we consider the cause of missions as the most precious cause in the world;

and to bind ourselves by new resolutions, that we will, by the help of God, with greater zeal than heretofore, "spend and be spent" in this most blessed service. What more worthy object can we seek, than contributing to fill the earth with the glory of the Lord? Brethren, pray for us, that we may be faithful to our sacred trust. Pray for yourselves, that you may not be found wanting in the payment of that mighty debt you owe to your Divine Master and to a perishing world. And let us all, more and more, aspire to the honor of being "workers together with God" in hastening the triumphs of Immanuel's universal reign. Come, Lord Jesus, come quickly; and let the whole earth be filled with thy glory! Amen! and Amen!

INCREASE OF FAITH NECESSARY TO THE

SUCCESS OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS.

BY

REV. WILLIAM R. WILLIAMS, D. D.

But having hope, when your faith is increased, that we shall be enlarged by you according to our rule abundantly, to preach the Gospel in the regions beyond you. 2 CORINTHIANS 10: 15, 16.

THE language of the Apostle evidently implies a gentle reprehension of the Corinthian church. The poverty and imbecility of their faith embarrassed him in his ardent aspirations after more extended usefulness. He was anxious to enter upon a new field, and to proclaim the Gospel throughout other and more destitute regions. But he must await in prayerful hope the increase of their faith, and at their hands expect an enlargement. This enlargement, might be, on their part, an advancement and confirmation in Christian doctrine, which should permit him to transfer the charge of these, his children in the faith, into the hands of less skilful pastors; or a rapid growth in Christian holiness, which should justify the Apostle in presenting them as his epistle, to be seen and read of all men, attesting alike the power of the Gospel, and the reality of his mission. Or he might desire the vindication of his own apostolical character, which had been cruelly assailed in their midst, and ask the transmission of his name, with its well-won honors, to the neighboring heathen. Or it had been, perhaps, his hope, from their liberality and wealth, to have received aid in his missionary journeyings; or he had anticipated from their position in a great commercial metropolis, assistance in their sending the Gospel to other havens and cities of the empire. Whether he expected from their increased and matured faith, any one, or the union of all these advantages, and whatever be the decision as to the mode in which enlargement was sought by him, one fact stands

forth on the face of these words, manifest and unquestionable. He was now fettered in his plans of benevolence, and it was from the Corinthian disciples that he expected his release. Either from their confirmation in the truths he preached, or in the holiness he enjoined and exemplified; or from their assertion of his just honors as an apostle; from the bestowment of their free alms, or the employment of their mercantile influence, he hoped to obtain the removal of the restraint from himself, and to secure for their pagan neighbors blessings untold and priceless. The fulfilment of his hope depended upon their progress to higher attainments in faith. There is involved, then, in these words of an inspired and most successful missionary, a principle which we would now endeavor to bring before you, that

The missionaries of the church require at her hands, for the extension and success of their efforts, an increase of faith. Looking to the divisions and scandals he had so sternly rebuked, and to the peculiar temptations of the infant church, which had been gathered amid the luxury, gayety, and profligacy of the licentious Corinth, we might have expected, from one versed as was Paul in the weakness of our nature, and in the wiles of its great adversary, that he would have chosen to specify, instead of the one evil of unbelief, other and numerous impediments to his success. And using the term here employed by him, as we too often do, to describe a knowledge merely speculative and theoretical, we should have supposed that in a community indoctrinated by the personal labors of an apostle, as well as in the churches of our own age and land, the deficiencies of Christians were to be sought, rather in their works of obedience, than in the amount of their faith. Yet such was not the fact then. Such is not the root of the evil now. It is in faith that we are wanting. The elder and parent grace is maimed and infirm, and the whole family and sisterhood of the Christian virtues languish at she decays, and can be reanimated only by her restoration. Having considered, therefore,

I. THE NATURE AND IMPORTANCE OF TRUE FAITH,

II. THE INTIMATE CONNEXION BETWEEN ITS HIGHER

DEGREES AND THE MISSIONARY EFFORTS OF THE CHURCH

will naturally follow and prepare us to examine,

III. THE DEFECTIVE FAITH OF OUR OWN CHURCHES, AS INTERPOSING A HINDRANCE TO THE TRIUMPHS OF THE GOSPEL OVER HEATHENISM.