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the wickedness of Christians, great as it is, can furnish no adequate idea. And if by some rare advantage of temper and situation, a comparatively innocent and holy man may here and there be met with, like "a firebrand plucked out of the burning," this is but a fresh encouragement to make known the ways of peace to the multitudes who are perishing, and to give to those few, who make so good use of their imperfect lights, the far greater help and comfort of the Gospel. Be sure, my friends, it is not a needless task which He, who knew all things, undertook when He came to give light to those that sate in darkness. It was no superfluous revelation to confirm which so many miracles were wrought, so many prophecies delivered, so pure and precious blood poured forth on the rocks of Calvary. It was no needless labour which Christ imposed on His apostles, to go and preach His gospel unto every creature, nor is that an idle or unmeaning prayer which we are taught to utter in the words " Thy kingdom come!" It remains to be seen whether our lips and our hearts go together.

If, indeed, the spiritual danger of the heathen were less great, if their spiritual advantages were greater than we have any reason to suppose them, yet, from a regard to their temporal wants, it would be our duty to desire and contend for the extension of Christianity. Wherever she goes, civilization

1 Amos iv. 11,

follows in her train; wherever she goes, the duties and the rights of mankind are practised and recognised; the fetters of the slave are lightened and removed; the female sex are restored to their natural situation and their kindly influence in society; and the profession of godliness is shown to be great riches, as contributing to the wisdom, the wealth, and the happiness of the nation which receives it. Let us compare our present condition with that of our forefathers while the Gospel was yet unknown to them! Let us recollect that the poorest man who now hears me is more warmly clad, more comfortably lodged, enjoys a mind better stored with ideas, and greater security of liberty, life, and property, than a king among the wild Americans or the ancient Britons; and we shall feel and understand the blessings of a religion, which has been the principal agent in a change so beneficial, a religion by which the ignorance of man is enlightened, and his manners rendered gentle, which, by protecting the fruits of industry, has encouraged every useful invention, and which, even amid the increasing luxury of the rich, has lessened the distance between them and the poor, by calling the attention of both to that aweful moment when all shall be equal in each other's eyes, as they are now in the eyes of their Maker!

But, if it is the duty of all Christians every where to co-operate in the furtherance of these glorious prospects, so there is no nation in the world on whom so strong an obligation of this kind is laid as on

the inhabitants of Great Britain. Our colonies, our commerce, our conquests, our discoveries, the empire which the Almighty has subjected to our sword, the purity of our national creed, the apostolic dignity of our national establishments, what are all these but so many calls to labour in the improvement of the heritage which we have received, so many talents entrusted to our charge, of which a strict account must be one day rendered? Shall we overlook our heavy debt of blood and tears to injured Africa? Shall we forget those innumerable isles of the southern ocean first visited by our sails, but which so long derived from us nothing but fresh wants, fresh diseases, fresh wickedness? Shall we forget the spiritual destitution of those sixty millions of our fellow men, yea, our fellow subjects, who in India still bow the head to vanities, and torment themselves, and burn their mothers, and butcher their infants, at the shrine of a mad and devilish superstition? Shall we forget, while every sea is traversed by our keels, and every wind brings home wealth into our harbours, that we have a treasure at home of which those from whom we draw our wealth are in the utmost need; a treasure, if used aright, more precious than rubies, but which, if wilfully and wantonly hid, must, like the Spartan fox, destroy and devour its possessor? Oh, when you are about to lie down this night, and begin, in the words which the Lord has taught you, to commend your bodies and souls to His protection, will you not blush, will you not trem

ble to think, while you say to God " Thy kingdom come!" that you have this day refused your contributions towards the extension of that kingdom? I know you will not refuse them! Or, is it still necessary to recommend to your support that peculiar instrument of doing good in whose behalf I now stand before you, and to vindicate the Church Missionary Society from the suspicion of party and sectarian motives? This, also, I will attempt, though in the great cause of the propagation of the Gospel it is wearisome to descend to disputes as to the fittest channel of a benevolence which can hardly be directed into a wrong one. There are

other bodies in our Church associated for the same good end; to them, if you prefer them, carry your alms, or let them share with us in your bounty. But see, I charge you before God, see that through some channel or other that bounty finds its way, lest you be found hereafter to have hindered us without helping them, and to have made your orthodox zeal a cloak for your backwardness in the cause of the Gospel! But for our own sake, for yours, for the sake of common sense and Christian charity, let me protest against that monstrous doctrine that, because there are other and elder societies in the Church for the propagation of the Gospel, it is, therefore, a mark of disaffection to the Church to establish and support a new one for the same excellent purpose. From what page of Scripture, what period of ecclesiastical history, what council, what father of the Church do the

supporters of such a doctrine derive their arguments or authority? When have such restrictions as they would forge been imposed even in those Churches which carry to the highest pitch their admiration of antiquity and precedent? Was Benedict accused or suspected of schism when he instituted a new monastic order instead of uniting himself to the elder fraternities under the rules of Antony or Pacomius? Was Francis of Assisi, was Dominic, was Ignatius Loyola, all of them the founders of new establishments, were these men told by the zealots of Rome that it became them to rest contented with those means of piety or exertion which had been bequeathed by the wisdom of our ancestors? Or why should I instance the wisdom and liberality of the children of worldly prudence in opposition to the errours of those whom I acknowledge and reverence as belonging to the children of light? Did, in our own Church, and in the days of our immediate fathers, the Society for Propagating the Gospel in Foreign Parts presume to tell her younger sister for Promoting Christian Knowledge that, in sending missionaries to India, she was thrusting an intrusive sickle into the harvest of another? There are very many motives besides a sectarian spirit which may lead men to institute and encourage new institutions rather than to throw the whole weight of their bounty into the old. While some prefer the wary caution of a self-elected corporation, others may, with at least a show of reason, and certainly with

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