derived from this source. A missionary, if he possess the spirit of his office, is necessitated to live near to God, and often experiences joys that a stranger intermeddleth not with. There is no affliction he can endure-no peril to which he can be exposed-no temptation by which he can be assailed, under which he may not have recourse to the faithfulness of Him who hath promised to be present with his people. Though dynasties change, revolutions agitate the nations, men's hearts fail through fear-though the everlasting hills be bowed, and the mountains removed, this refuge is secure.

The second encouragement is from The grateful import of the message. There is a pleasure in being the bearer of good tidings. The angels felt this, when they greeted the shepherds with the announcement of Messiah's birth. No one possessing the common sympathies of humanity, to say nothing of the genius of the gospel, would choose to denounce the judgments of heaven; but often the prophets were commissioned to bear the wine-cup of Jehovah's wrath

"Tidings of judgment dire."

Jonah was to proclaim the destruction of Nineveh, that great city ;Isaiah to declare the final perdition of those to whom he was sent. Not such the errand of the Christian missionary, he bears the cup of mercy filled from the river of the water of life; he publishes peace, and the great theme of his ministration is, "That God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself; not imputing their trespasses unto them." There is a pleasure in proclaiming mercy. To meet a heathen whose faculties are in full vigour, whose conscience is awakened, whose mind though dark is anxious,-to tell such an one that Jesus is able to save to the uttermost that his Father in heaven will greet his return with all a fathers' love, enrich him with all a father's benediction, and furnish an everlasting home in a father's bosom :-to mark his emotions of surprise and joy, and offer up the prayer that the word may prove the word of life, and afterwards to hear such an one inquiring the way to Zion, his face, his heart turned thitherward, does impart a present reward and a sacred encouragement.

The measure of success also, though not the rule of duty, is cheering, and demonstrates that it is no enterprise of doubtful issue in which the church is now engaged, and it has borne a remarkable relation to the faithfulness of Christians. The influence of success every missionary has learned how to appreciate. But should none appear, and the faithful labourer toil and die without beholding success, another day shall declare it,-eternity testify its reality,and the homage to the Saviour exhibit its magnitude and worth!

Encouragement and appeals arise from the spirit of the times and the aspect of the world. We have seen the waning crescent sink,

we believe for ever, from the horizon of Greece; and a nation, bound to the civilized world by a thousand sympathies, rise exulting in its new-born liberty. We watch with solicitude the subsiding elements of the storm that has broken, and hurled in fragments from the shores of France, the power that sought to violate its freedom and to manacle its thought. And we look now on a spot, where liberty, cloven down in battle, was interred, and despotism raising its throne on the spot, declared that the very name of her abode should no longer find a place on the earth :-but in Poland, we have seen the genius of liberty-which may be fettered, but can never be destroyed-heaving the soil beneath which it was buried, overturning the throne erected on its grave, rising in its dignity and strength, and resuming its place among the nations of the earth! And whatever be the result, while we watch each new developement of its destiny, we thrill with all that patriotism and love of liberty which finds a home in every British heart. Europe looks on with interest; these events shall form the brightest page in the nation's history; and the highest dignity that man can give to man, shall reward those who are engaged. But another struggle, on a wider scale and more important bearing, has commenced, in which we must be parties.-The powers of light and darkness are in conflict, all heaven, all hell, are spectators; and the harps of eternity shall celebrate the praises, not of man, but of Him who is now going forth in the greatness of his might from conquering unto conquering! Pause a moment on the mount of vision, to whose summit this hallowed season leads the church! Survey the dark realms of idolatry, which day after day have been presented before you, in all their length, and breadth, and wretchedness! View the millions enslaved, but impatient of their chains; driven by the prince of this world to that region where hope never comes! View the empire invaded, the powers of darkness roused to rivet more firmly the fetters of their victims, and repel all interference for their freedom! How appalling the dark columns that, guarded by their captors, move onward to their prison! How vast the numbers of the foe! they cover the plain like grasshoppers: infuriate with malignant rage, their infernal weapons are bared and brandished to oppose the slightest lodgment in their border, and to urge on, and to intimidate their slaves! Assailing an array so formidable, see here and there a single soldier of the cross, or at most, two or three together, along the lengthened line; not man to man, scarcely one to a million; and instead of wondering, as some pretend to do, that they have not delivered the captives and taken possession of the country, wonder that they have not been trodden down and destroyed. Amidst the Pagan yell and

din of battle, listen to the christian soldiers' cry. They ask no quarter, they sound no retreat,-their Leader is with them,—they are strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might,—and while they glory in his presence, their shout to each other is, "Onward, onward;" and as they turn towards us, their cry is, "Come over and help us ;" and that cry is enforced by the look and the sigh of those groaning to be free. And are we asked while contemplating such a scene, Where are the armies of the Most High-the sacramental host of God's elect? Brethren, what must be our reply? Must we say,-under their own vine, and their own fig-tree, and perhaps many of them "at ease in Zion?" And are we asked, where are the leaders and the youth of those armies? and must we still say, that, though they have a commission embracing this service, a celestial armour, weapons of ethereal temper, and know well how to use them, the greater part are on duty in the camp; and a few of the youth of these armies are all who have gone forth to the high places of the field? How shall the captive be delivered, or the prey taken from the mighty? Brethren, ought this so to be? - so to remain? If it be asked, should the camp be deserted? I answer, No; but the main body of the army should not be always there, and only a few sent to the field. What are thirty or forty missionaries for India, where eighty millions are our fellow-subjects, and one hundred and twenty millions subject to our influence ? What are eighty or ninety missionaries for the world? Yet these are all that the churches in Britain, fifteen hundred, or two thousand in number, connected with this Institution, have furnished to evangelize mankind.

This subject demands immediate self-inquiry. Let every church member who might have engaged personally in this work, but has not, consider himself as holding a trust which yet remains to be discharged. Especially let those whom God has blessed with riches, appropriate a portion of their property to the maintenance of a missionary, if not perpetually, at least for fifty years, the period during which in their generation they might thus have served the Lord.

Fathers and mothers, members of Christian churches,-next to those of the love of God, let the first ideas your lovely children imbibe be-missionary ideas. Tell them of the cruelties heathen parents practise towards their infants; and when, at the morning hour, and in the twilight of the evening, they clasp a mother's knee, and learn to lisp the first accents of prayer, teach them to pray for the children whose parents know not God. And if God bless your efforts and hear your prayers for their conversion, teach them to regard the conversion of the world as the noblest object to which their days can be devoted. Think not of the pain of parting with them, think

of the everlasting happiness that may result, of the love of Christ, and of the love of God, who gave his only, his beloved Son for us.

Let our Churches honour their principles, and their ancestors, the men who, rather than sacrifice principle, left their homes, pursued their way across the then comparatively untraversed deep,— sought an asylum in the dreary wilderness of America,-reared their forest sanctuary, and, in the strength of principle, laid the foundation of that State which is now taking its firm stand by your side among the nations of the earth. We are, and we ever must be, one with America, in a manner in which we can be with no other nation; and the missionary enterprise will multiply and strengthen the bonds of our union. Already the descendants of the pilgrims, and the sons of those churches that sustained the storm at home, imbibing the spirit of their fathers-partakers of one faith, replenished from the same fountain of love-have kindled their torch at the same lamp of Divine truth, and tracing their way in lines of light across the moral darkness of the world, announce to the nations the day-spring from on high. These churches have not been the first in the work; it will not be accomplished by them alone; but God appears to have designed prominently to employ the churches of Britain and America in the first stages of that diffusion of the gospel which shall terminate in the universal reign of Messiah. We feel the influence of the exertions of our brethren in America,—they are susceptible of a corresponding impulse from others; let that impulse be proportioned to our station and our means.

This cause, also, appeals to those who direct the movements of that institution whose annual festival we now celebrate. There are many whose day, for foreign service, is past, and whose wisdom, matured by years, is best employed at the Board of Direction. But there are others, young, or in the prime of life. Let them inquire whether, in dependence on the presence of the Redeemer, it be not their duty to go forth, for five, seven, or ten years, not only to visit, but to take up their abode with the missionaries, and to combine their energies in the culture of the missionary field. Their arrival will be cordially welcomed, their presence will aid and cheer their brethren, and, on their return, their information and experience will be of the highest value in the direction of the operations of the Society. There are those who, unable to go themselves, have, in the spirit of that work on which they deliberate, given up their children; and though they have served the cause faithfully, and efficiently, by their contributions and their counsel, they have thus given a demonstration of their sincerity, which all understand and acknowledge, and which has not been without its effect on the church. Whatever they feel, they will never regret it;

and the nearer they approach to eternity, and the more they realize the blessedness of the gospel, the more grateful they will feel that, while their labours draw to a close, their children are already engaged in some of the most important departments of the work. And there are many others, ministers and laymen, who would feel grateful to behold their offspring thus engaged. May the Lord pour out the spirit of the fathers upon the children, and make them a seed to serve him. Ministers of Jesus Christ, I feel that it would better become me to take my seat at the feet of some Gamaliel, than to address myself to you; but I feel that I should but in part discharge my solemn trust this day, were I not respectfully, but earnestly, to invite your attention to this subject. Nurtured by your care, sustained by your influence and your prayers, and strengthened by your efforts, this sacred cause has attained the stature, and the energy, it now unfolds, and on you devolves the sacred trust of leading it onward, in its career of conflict and of triumph. The churches will respond to your call, and move at your bidding, but cannot be expected to go before you. On you devolves the solemn responsibility, which he, who walks amidst the golden candlesticks, has given, to arouse and direct the energies which Christendom shall yet put forth in the cause of Him who hath purchased his church with his blood. On you, the eyes of the world, the eyes of those now in the field, the eyes of the church, the eyes of omniscient purity, especially rest. Your growing attachment to this cause bespeaks the influence it has secured in your hearts, and warrants, under God, the highest anticipations.

But allow the inquiry to be proposed: are there none in the christian ministry at home, who could do more than all they have hitherto done, by going forth in person to the work, at least for a number of years ? Is it probable that, among the great number of ministers, especially of young ministers, connected with this institution, many of whom have not yet entered upon the regular duties of the pastoral office, who have all one commission to preach the gospel to every creature, it should be the duty of so many hundreds to confine themselves to one nation; and the duty of only eighty or ninety to go unto all the other nations of the earth? Does not the fact of so few seeing it their duty to go forth, deprive every christian minister of one very powerful means of advocacy, when pressing the claims of this cause upon the churches? Can it be doubted, that the practical demonstration given by the two thousand, (including some of the brightest lights that ever shone in the English church), who, in one day, left their pulpits, when the act of uniformity passed, produced an effect upon the church as salutary as it was powerful? Who does not perceive that this triumph of principle, in the arrangements of Divine Providence, prepared the