the laborers. It involves the least complication in means and measures. It is the only course that has the absolute promise of the presence of Christ, or that may certainly look for the aid of the Holy Spirit. It keeps Christ constantly before the missionary's own soul, as an object of intensest interest and desire, with a vast sanctifying, sustaining, animating influence on his own mind and preaching. It furnishes him with a power transcending all that human wisdom ever contrived, for rousing and elevating the soul of man and drawing it heavenward-the idea of LOVE, infinite and infinitely disinterested, personified in the Lord Jesus, and suffering to the death to save rebellious and ruined man! And if the doctrine comes glowing from our own experience, we shall not fail to get the attention of the heathen, and our success among them will far exceed what we might expect among gospelhardened sinners here at home. I might dwell long on the history of missions, ancient and modern, in the most satisfactory illustration of this point, did the time permit; but it is not necessary. Let me add, that there is no way so direct and effectual as this, to remove the social disorders and evils that afflict the heathen world; indeed, there is no other way. Every specific evil and sin does not need and cannot have a separate remedy, for they are all streams from one fountain, having a common origin in a depraved and rebellious heart. Urge home, then, the divinely-appointed remedy for a wicked heart; purify the fountain; let love to God and man fill the soul; and soon its influence will appear in every department and relation of life. If reforms in religion and morals are not laid deep in the heart, they will be deceptive, and at all events transient. The evil spirit will return in some form, and with seven-fold power. New England owes her strong repugnance to slavery, and her universal rejection of that monstrous evil, to the highly evangelical nature of her preaching. And were the whole southern section of our own land, or even a considerable portion of it, favored with such highly evangelical preaching, slavery could not there long exist. But in heathen lands especially, an effective public sentiment against sin, in any of its outward forms, can be created no where, except in the church; and it can be there created only by preaching Christ in his offices and works of love and mercy, with the aid of the ordinances he has given for the benefit of his disciples, especially the sacrament of his supper. Thus at length, even in barbarous heathen lands, the force of piety in the hearts of the individual members of the church will be raised above that of ignorance, prejudice, the power of custom and usage, the blinding influence of self-interest falsely apprehended, and the_ridicule and frowns of an ungodly and perverse world. Indeed, if we would make any thing of converts in pagan lands, we must bring them to the ordinances of the gospel, and into the church, as soon as they give satisfactory evidence of regeneration; for they are too child-like, too weak, too ignorant to be left exposed to the dangers that exist out of the fold, even until they shall have learned all fundamental truths. And besides, the school of Christ for young converts from heathenism, stands within the fold, and there, certainly, the compassionate Saviour would have them all gathered, and carried in the arms, and cherished " even as a nurse cherisheth her children." Finally; This method of conducting missions is the only one, that will unite in this work the energies of the churches at home. Well understood, this will unite the energies of the churches -so far as Christians can be induced to prosecute missions for the purpose of reconciling men to God. Making this the grand aim of missions, and pressing the love of Christ home upon the hearts and consciences of men, as the grand means of effecting this, will certainly commend itself to the understandings and feelings of all intelligent Christians. Not only will a large number of good and faithful missionaries be obtained, but they will be supported, and prayed for, and made the objects of daily interest and concern. And how delightful it is to think, that the Head of the church has been pleased to make the object and work of missions so entirely simple, so spiritual, and so beyond the possibility of exception, that evangelical Christians of every nation and name can unite in its promotion. But if we change the form of the work, and extend the range of its objects of direct pursuit, and of course multiply the measures and influences by which it is to be advanced, we then open the door for honest and invincible diversities of opinion among the best of men, and render it impossible that there should be united effort, on a scale at all commensurate with the work, and for a long period. The church militant becomes divided and weak, and is easily paralyzed and thwarted in its movements by the combined and united legions of the Prince of darkness. It would seem, therefore, that missions to the heathen must have a highly spiritual nature and developement, or prove utterly impracticable and abortive. Such, it is believed, are the convictions of all who have had much experience in such enterprises. Unless missions have this nature and developement in a very high degree, they will not commend themselves strongly to the consciences and respect of mankind; they will neither command the requisite number of laborers, nor keep them cheerfully in the field; they will prove inadequate to the subjugation of the heathen world to God; nor will they unite in this great enterprize the energies and prayers of the churches. In a word, they will not continue long to exist, unless Christ the Lamb of God be in them, reconciling the world unto himself, and causing his servants to make the salvation of the souls of men their all-commanding end and aim. Men may resolve that it shall be otherwise; but their purposes, however decided, will be in vain against the unalterable laws, which God has given the work of missions to the heathen. BELOVED BROTHER,- In the system of missions, with which you are soon to be connected, the aim has been, and is more and more, as experience is acquired, to prosecute the work on the principles advocated in this discourse. So far as your own influence is concerned, see that the system be rendered still more spiritual in its temper, objects, and measures. See, too, that your own renunciation of the world is entire before you enter upon your self-denying work, and that it be your determination to know nothing among the heathen but Christ and him crucified. Only by looking constantly unto Jesus, will you be able to run with patience the race set before you. As an ambassador of Christ, sent to plead with men in his stead to be reconciled to God, see that you are true to your vocation, and faithful to your trust, and that you never descend from the elevated ground you occupy. Whatever oscillations in public sentiment there may be from time to time in the Christian mind at home, you need not fear, if your character, preaching, and influence are formed on the New Testament, that you will be forgotten in the contributions and prayers of God's people. At all events, be faithful unto death, and whatever be your lot here below, the result in eternity will be more blessed to you, than it is possible for your mind now to conceive, or your heart to desire. FATHERS AND BRETHREN,- Let it be our prayer, that God will be pleased to strengthen our own faith in the realities of the unseen world. Then shall we be better able to pray as we ought for our missionary brethren, that they may be intent on their single but great object of winning souls to Christ, and be so imbued with the spirit of Christ, that his image shall be fully stamped on all their converts. Let us urge upon our brethren among the heathen the imperative duty of making full proof of their ministry as missionaries, rather than as pastors; and let us lay upon them " no greater burden," than the "necessary things" appertaining to their high and peculiar vocation. We must indeed hold them to the principle, that they shall treat those only as loyal subjects of our infinite Sovereign, who give evidence of hearty submission and reconciliation; but we will leave it to their better-informed judgments to determine, in the remote, vast, and varied, and to us almost unknown fields of their labors, - what is and what ought to be satisfactory evidence of actual reconciliation. Then will our brethren rejoice in having a simple, well-sustained, and glorious enterprise before them, and also "for the consolation" of the liberty conceded to them by the "elders" and the "whole church." In this good old way, marked with the footsteps of the apostles, there is hope for the world, for the whole world, that it may be reconciled to God. And when the principles of love and obedience are once restored to men, and men are at peace with God, and united to Him, then will they be at peace with one another. Then wars will cease, and all oppression. Then the crooked in human affairs shall be made straight and the rough places plain, the valleys shall be exalted and the mountains and hills made low, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh see it together. "In one sweet symphony of praise, And Infidelity, ashamed, Sink in the abyss of endless night. "Soon Afric's long-enslaved sons Shall join with Europe's polished race, "From east to west, from north to south, Shall meet a brother and a friend." JESUS THE GREAT MISSIONARY. BY REV. EDWARD N. KIRK. For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost. -LUKE 19: 10. THE meaning of that word-lost, is the separating-point from which diverge the most important sentiments, that divide the nominally Christian world. It affects essentially all our religious opinions, character, and career. If one sees in it but a flourish of rhetoric, or an oriental exaggeration; then his conscience slumbers; then his sympathies feel no deep appeal from man's condition and prospects; and then his heart lies chilled beneath the cold moon-beams of the gospel. For, to him that gospel opens on the one hand, no thrilling scene of spirits fallen, defiled, benighted and accursed; and on the other, no enrapturing display of love, of condescension lower than angels had dared anticipate, of mercy's immeasurable sacrifice made despite of base ingratitude and of parricidal rebellion. To him the gospel is a description of goodness similar to, but no greater than that displayed in the ordinary gifts of Providence. Such is the theory and such are the fruits of the skeptical and semiskeptical philosophy. Wherever it is accepted, the distinction between man's native powers and sensibilities and his actual character as a subject of God's government, is lost sight of; human nature is admired almost to adoration; repentance, as that deep emotion which breaks the heart and bruises the spirit, is despised. Thus, whatever other "sacrifices" are offered to God, among them is not found a "broken heart and a bruised spirit." Thus it acts on the personal piety of the individual, and thus it affects his influence on others. In himself he finds more to admire than to con L |