when, through the abundant out-pouring of the Spirit, arm shall be linked to arm, and heart to heart, and prayer to prayer-when to love Jesus Christ, and to anticipate Heaven, and to save immortal souls-when these shall be the grand terms of Christian Communion, Oh then what a firm and awful phalanx shall go forth from the Christian Church against the powers of Darkness and the Enemies of Man! Much has, of late, been accomplished toward this desirable end: but much, very much, remains yet to be accomplished. My Brethren! let it be the subject of our daily prayers, and the example of our daily practice. Let the Missionaries of each Christian Society drink deeply, at home, of this great principle; and then enter on their hallowed work abroad, with an incessant regard to its prevalence and its growth. Let their mutual trials and their mutual joystheir mutual anxieties and their mutual successes embracing always the same objects, endear them each to the other, and fasten the feelings of Brotherhood on their hearts. So shall the various converts, from the East and from the West, whom Divine Mercy shall, by their instrumentality, gather into the fold of Christ, be all baptized into the self-same Spirit, and become possessors of a Charity wide as the world and fruitful as the dews of heaven! 5. Lastly, my Brethren, let us CULTIVATE A MORE TENDER COMPASSION FOR THE MISERIES OF THE HEATHEN. The man who lives among idolaters, and who actually beholds their degradation and their sorrow, has sometimes, if his own heart hath received mercy from God, become conscious of a sympathy, deep, and piercing, and effective. Such a sympathy dwelt in the bosom of a Swartz, a Brainerd, a Buchanan, and, though last in time yet not last in zeal, a Martyn! These men, the love of immortal souls linked fast to human welfare. Their Spirits were, indeed, stirred within them; and much had the cause of Charity to mourn, when these men went down to the grave! Long shall their memory live, and widely shall their Example stimulate those, who, through the Grace of God, in after time shall follow in their hallowed steps. But, dwelling far from the scenes of Idolatry, encompassed by European Comforts, blessed with the cheering Ordinances of Christianity, and rejoicing in the tender and enlightened charities of Christian Friendship-it is, alas! very possible for us, my Brethren, to overlook, in a great measure, the terrible spectacle of a world APOSTATIZED FROM GOD! It is possible, even under all the admonitions and signs of the present times, and amidst the very labours of our daily benevolence, to rest contented with a very lukewarm interest in favour of the Heathen. Oh, then, let us solemnly and deliberately cultivate a spirit of tenderness and compassion towards them. Let their actual situation often rest on our remembrance, and have a place in our prayers. - Degraded, benighted, ruined - still are they our fellow-men; capable of recovery, and destined with ourselves either to death or to life! Yes, my Brethren in the words of a feeling Advocate in this righteous Cause,* "under the starless sky of their unbroken night, lie buried the elements of all that is great and exalted in our common nature-the materials, whence the Divine Illuminator can elicit sparks of heavenly fire-the instruments, which He can harmonize to the touch of holy Love--the Souls which He can form anew into heirs of God and Immortality? Oh, when once His Holy Spirit shall begin to move upon the face of those dark chaotic waters, how shall order spring out of confusion, and rays of light and glory return to us from the Regions of Darkness and the Shadow of Death!" * See Sermon before the Edinburgh Missionary Society by the Rev. Henry Grey. 4 Toward this great and promised Era, let us lend, my Brethren, our wishes and our toils. This Future Day lives before the view of Christ, and, ere long, his faithful and eternal love will realize it, in all its brightness, before our enraptured sight! The reward of his astonishing mediation, the disclosure of his transcendent glory, shall be accomplished in the restoration of Israel, and in the salvation of mankind. Then will the Mystery of Mercy be fully unfolded. Then will Grace reign through Righteousness unto Eternal Life. Then will the victory over Death and Hell be achieved, and then Desolation of Time be forgotten in the gladness of Eternity! "Come then, and, added to thy many Crowns, "Due to thy last and most effectual work, ་་ Thy Word fulfilled, the Conquest of a World!" d |