drafts upon effort, than for spreading the Gospel. A spirit which would, sometimes, coin the heart to facilitate the purposes of gain, rather than melt it in prayers and sympathy for the far-off stranger. If such an one is a christian, he has forgotten the impulses of his first love. If his affection for Christ remains, it has disinherited the spirit of missions, and, instead of a charity with her heart beating, and her hands open, he has substituted a charity sepulchred in the abstract. A charity which begins at home, and keeps so closely there, as never to appear abroad on errands of mercy. The influence of such a piety no more proves that a love of missions is not a native element of christian character, than the dislikes of the intemperate man, to pure water, prove it not to be a natural beverage for the race.

We cannot judge what the native fruits of the renewed spirit are, from a christian who has lopped away some of the main branches, and suffered a carnal policy to

ingraft others in their place. We must take a character on which no such mutilations have been allowed. With all such, we shall find the spirit of missions one and inseparable from the spirit of piety.

Again; it is a fact worthy of notice, that a genuine revival of religion always revives the interest in missions. Such a revival brings into vigorous life, those graces of the heart which had ceased to be active; while it puts to silence the unsanctified elements, which had been rising to take the ascendancy. The fact, therefore, that the missionary spirit always returns with a revival of the active principles of piety, the fact that it always increases, as consistent piety deepens, is evidence that it is a natural product of the Gospel, and can never be absent from the heart of the christian,

graces are all there.

when its

CHAPTER II.

THE UNION OF CHRISTIANS WITH THEIR LORD.

THE relation, which the disciples of Christ hold to their master, is a topic on which our Lord often dwelt with peculiar interest. In his most ordinary modes of announcing and illustrating this relation, he employed terms decidedly expressive of endearment. But, dismissing even these, as too distant and forbidding, he selects others, which assure the subjects of them, that their dearest interests have a dwelling in his compassionate heart. Henceforth, says he, I call you not servants. The servant is not primarily cared for, by the master. He is not admitted to the familiarity of knowing what his lord doeth. But I have called you friends. For all things that

I have heard of my Father, I have made known to you. The alliance, proffered in this term, showed his infinite condescension, in stooping to be the minister of light to our darkened understandings; the illustrious donor to our meager stock of spiritual knowledge. And yet, this condescension does not, necessarily, diminish the distance between his character and ours. But there are other expressions which show how his condescension lifts us up, and gives the disciple an inherent and dignified affinity to his master. I, says he, am the vine; ye are the branches. This not only brings the disciple near, but, in some sense, makes him a part, one and the same with his Lord. Abide in me and I in you. What relation short of personal identity could be more intimate than this? A branch which is in the vine, is so connected with it, as to receive a free circulation of its sap. The juices of the branch are the juices of the vine, the same essentially being common to both. This union to

Christ makes us so intimately connected with him, that his spirit and temper are our spirit and temper, in like manner, as the characteristics of the vine are the characteristics of the branches. Not that christians are, actually an integral part of Christ; nor that Christ is any such part of the christian. The branch is not the vine, nor does it perform the same office to the whole. Each has its own and separate functions; and yet both are parts of the same whole, and have strongly marked affinities. This relation is more clearly illustrated by another figure which has received inspired sanction. Christ and his followers compose the head and members of the same system. Now, says the apostle, ye are members of the body of Christ, and each one members in particular.

But the scriptures express the relation in still other points of view, which serve to cement and confirm the union, implied in the passage already quoted.

The apostle, speaking of christians