How to begin, how to accomplish best,
This end of being on earth, the mission high,

should be to every man his one great business here. For even as the Father sent Christ into the world, so has Christ sent every disciple of his into the world,

With holy trembling, holy fear,

His utmost counsel to fulfil.

Every believer, therefore, is one sent, that is, he is a missionary. He is sent on a mission. And to make this calling sure, and to endure to the end in every good word and work, is to take up his cross and follow Jesus.

The Church, therefore, is a mission, and every christian is a missionary. The object of this mission is the conversion of the world. The end to be secured is glory to God by the salvation of them that are lost. The means to be employed is the gospel. The principle is faith.

It is thus obvious that the field of this mission is "all the world," embracing "every creature;" and that there can be no Home and Foreign Missions. These terms are purely relative and conventional. The centre of the missionary field is in every country, every state, every neighborhood, and its circumference is that which is distant from it. What is a home mission in one place, and in one country, is foreign to every other; and what is more, it has a reference to, a bearing upon, and a connection with, every other. The Church is one. The mission of the Church is one. The mission of every believer is one. The end contemplated, prayed for, laboured for, by every christian, is the progress, the permanence, and the power of christianity, throughout the whole world. For this he is commissioned. This is the tenor of his "orders." Every dispatch from his Leader and Commander bears upon its face this impress, and looks to this result. Whether, therefore, the christian is male or female, young or old, a private member or an officer, a deacon, and elder, or a minister, a Sabbath-school teacher, a colporteur, an editor, an author, or a publisher, he is to live, and labour, and give, and pray, and do all to the glory of his divine Saviour, in the universal diffusion of the glorious gospel of the blessed Jesus. To live and labour for self, or family, or home, or church alone, is to turn renegade, to violate orders, to repudiate his commission, to circumscribe what is universal, to write corban on what is for the good of all, and to transform apparent obedience into resistance, and partial duty into disobedience and selfishness.

"Lord, I believe, help thou mine unbelief." And whatsoever I do, help me to do it as unto thee, and for that world of which thou art the Saviour. And may I rejoice that I am counted worthy to be a member of thy universal kingdom, thy Church

throughout the earth; to feel that all I do is done to it, and conducive to its interests; and that in all its glory and its shame, its conquests and defeats, its promises and prospects, I am a partaker.

Blest Spirit which with love imbued,

Not seeking recompense,

Turns to the Giver of all good
From things of sight and sense.

How great is thy reward in store,
To whom e'en now 'tis given,
Christ to receive in His own poor,
And make thy home a heaven.

FAITH, THE PRINCIPLE OF MISSIONS.

FUNDAMENTAL FACTS.

In a little volume, entitled "The Conversion of the World; or, How is the World to be Converted?" it was shown that the kingdom of Christ is destined to an absolute universality; that this universality is to be accomplished through the agency of man; that for this agency man is naturally and spiritually endowed; that the diffusion of the gospel-that is, the good news of salvation-is a solemn trust, with which, under all dispensations of the Church, men have been invested; that the holiness and happiness of believers have ever been dependent upon their fidelity to this trust; and that we are therefore impelled to self-denying energy and devotion in the cause of Christ, by whatever obligation and of love we owe to him as our Redeemer, and by all that we desire and hope for from him, for the increase of our faith and the consummation of our joys.

The whole theory, power, and prosecution of Missions, Home and Foreign, therefore, rest upon the great fundamental truth of the supreme Divinity, paramount authority, infinite wisdom, illimitable resources, and boundless sovereignty of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

Christ, as Head over all things, Lord of lords, and King of kings, has dominion over the nations, as truly and as fully as over the Church. The sovereignty of Christ over the kingdoms of the world is not less fully nor less clearly taught in Scripture, than his dominion over the Church; neither is it less essential, or less full of encouragement and assurance to his believing people. The decree, ratified with the oath of God, that to Christ the heathen shall be given as an inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth as his possession; that to him every knee shall bow, and every tongue confess, and that his kingdom shall rule over all, is thus rendered infallibly certain, not only because God has decreed it, but also because the government is upon his shoulders, to whom is given all power in heaven and on earth, and one jot or tittle of whose omnipotent will cannot fail.

Jesus shall reign where'er the sun
Does his successive journeys run;

His kingdom stretch from shore to shore,
Till moons shall wax and wane no more.

To him shall endless prayer be made,
And endless praises crown his head;
His name, like sweet perfume, shall rise
With every morning sacrifice.

People and realms of every tongue

His love shall praise with sweetest song;
And infant voices shall proclaim

Loud hallelujahs to his name.

FAITH, THE PRINCIPLE OF MISSIONS.

The PRINCIPLE of Missions, that is, of all christian enterprise, is therefore FAITH-faith in the authority, and wisdom, and power, and unchangeable purposes of God in Christ.

Faith, to her royal standard ever true,

Leading on high the bright and ordered line,
And raising with firm hand her Master's sign,
Around her throws a stole of heavenly blue,
The cross her sceptre, and her victory too.

As a scheme of universal philanthropy, and of self-denying. self-sacrificing expenditure, the gospel scheme for the conversion of the world, justifies itself only to God's children. It appeals not to the wisdom, or valour, or pitiful compassion of unsactified humanity. In its estimation it is folly. As it regards its object, its instrumentality, its motives, and its achievement, it is as high above the thoughts of impenitent and unbelieving men, as are the heavens above the earth. It can only be understood, so as to be fully appreciated, and heartily believed, and perseveringly sustained, where there is a spiritual discernment.

Faith guides us through the dark to Deity,

Whilst without light we witness what she shows:
God in his word, as well as works, we see,
And trace the course of empires to their close.

Faith is illimitable in its source and object. Its weakness is lost in infinite strength, its ignorance in boundless wisdom, its narrow sphere in omnipresence, its partial vision in omniscience, its evanescent life in eternity. It is almighty in the mightiness of God, invincible in his power, unerring in his foresight, indomitable in his resources, confident in his immutability, and happy in his happiness.

Lord, now thou art ascended high,
And from thy temple gone,
Let faith her eagle-wings supply,

And see thee on thy throne;

Her mystic touch still feel thee here,
And in each heart thine altar rear,

Till thou in glory shalt return,

And earth with heavenly love shall burn.

That the heathen will be converted, and the whole world. brought into subjection to Christ; that as a christian I am bound to labour for their salvation; that my feeble and limited coöperation can be of important help in the furtherance of such a glorious work; that in any event such labours of love shall receive a full recompense of reward;-this is just as truly a