ment for neglecting to send the Gospel to the heathen, is pleading one sin as an apology for another.

"Heathen enough at home!"-Many are no doubt included who have heard the Gospel times without number; whose cities, and villages, and neighbourhoods, contain numerous churches; who turn away in disgust from the house of God, contemn its ministers, ridicule its solemnities, and array themselves in open hostility against their Maker. And is the world to be kept in ignorance, because there are those at home who "hate instruction and despise reproof?"

But admitting there is force in this plea, what does it prove? Does it not mean that there are souls at home in as deplorable a condition as the very heathen? Now how many are there of this description?

Will the number bear any proportion to those who are at least equally miserable in other lands? If then a few at home, in no worse condition than millions in pagan countries, are sufficient to call forth so much sympathy, and enlist so much energy, what compassion ought not those millions to awaken!

The next speaker represented a class of respectable and wealthy professors of religion, none of whom attended the anniversaries of bene volent societies, or contributed more than a pittance toward their funds, or were ever present at the concert of prayer for the extension of the Saviour's kingdom.

There is one reason, said he, which myself and many others consider quite sufficient to satisfy any candid mind, respecting the limitation of the Gospel to Christian countries. We do not regard this restriction as at all connected with human obligation, and consequently we cannot look upon it as the result of criminal negligence. We assume far higher and more tenable grounds. We believe it to be the effect of Divine purpose the fruit of that all-pervading agency, which reigns in the kingdom of providence, and controls the volitions of men. Who does not see the hand of Deity in those arrangements by which the Gospel is carried to some countries and not to others? Who does not recognise the same overruling power in confining it so long to those countries? Has the all-wise God no purposes in reference to nations and individuals! or is there no ability with the Almighty to accomplish his decretive will? Could he not speak, and by a word summon into being all the instrumentality his plans may require? Has he not ever created and adapted agents to the grand purposes of his mercy and his justice! Where men have refused to be the voluntary messengers of his love, he has driven them by the scourge of persecution. Where the Gospel has been abused, he has quenched its light, or removed its candlestick.

How signal have been all his interpositions in the kingdom of his Son! What so near his heart as the interests of that kingdom? And

think you, that he will suffer the grand scheme of redemption, to the advancement of which all the intelligent and material agents of the universe are subordinated, to be defeated, merely because men refuse to do their duty? Can he not of stones raise up children unto Abraham? As long as all hearts are in his hands, and he can turn them whithersoever he will, so long does it appear presumption to attach such importance, or rather independence, to mere second

causes.

When the Gospel is to be preached in a place, it will be preached. We need not take God's work out of his hands, nor trouble ourselves about the supposed defeat of its execution. We cannot hasten his plans. As well attempt to remove continents or drain oceans! Nay, as well attempt to shake the pillars of the eternal throne. "I will make waste mountains and hills, saith Jehovah, and dry up all their herbs, and I will make the rivers islands, and I will dry up the pools: and I will bring the blind by a way that they knew not; I will lead them in paths that they have not known; I will make darkness light before them, and crooked things straight." "Yea, before the day was, I am He, and there is none that can deliver out of my hand: I will work, and who shall let it?"

I cannot close without expressing my surprise at the misguided judgment and intemperate zeal, which many Christians exhibit on this subject. I would certify those who busy themselves about these matters, that they are too high for them; and especially would I admonish young men, in their rage for foreign missions, to reconsider their opinions, "lest haply they be found to fight against God." A converted Mahometan, whose look and manner indicated some degree of impatience during the last speech, now arose.

It has been a difficult matter, said he, while attending to the remarks which have just been made, to keep in mind that I was not in a Moslem assembly, and listening again to the stupifying strains of Islamic fatalism. I did not suppose that any one who searched and comprehended the Scriptures, ever employed such anti-Christian and dangerous sophistry. What! charge upon God the sins of his rebellious creatures-their most palpable contempt of his righteous law! Are "his ways then unequal, and our ways equal?" Or is there no guilt, as has been averred, in the habitual neglect of one of the most important laws of Christ's kingdom. I would inquire whether there has not been time and opportunity and means to give the Gospel a wider If so, I would ask whether Christians have not been commanded in unequivocal terms to perform this work of benevolence and mercy? And if this be admitted, I would request to be shown how the charge of unnecessary indolence, and aggravated guilt, can be averted? Do not the time and opportunity and means, to obey a com

circulation?

mand, render its neglect criminal? Is it possible to escape this conclusion? Can it be evaded by any plea of human inability, which does not sanction Antinomianism, and convert sin into holiness? I speak not of the wilful destruction of previous power. Even this can never cancel obligation. I speak of the neglect of present ability-of a refusal to attempt what we are capacitated to accomplish. How did that brother know, that the same decretal or providential preventive would not keep him from attending this meeting? Was he directed hither by an intimation from heaven? And is every plan he devises, and every act he performs, a matter of immediate revelation? Or are his principles only remembered and carried out, where difficult commands have been enjoined, and serious sacrifices required, and awful consequences involved? My own deluded sect often speak the same language; but it invariably proves their want of interest in the object to be secured;where their ambition is aroused, or their zeal inflamed, or their cupidity awakened, they lay aside their folly, and reason and act like men. It is true every thing is referred to unalterable destiny; but now they very wisely submit to experiment, what before they listlessly abandoned to the will of Heaven. They will fight like determined heroes-defying danger and death. Neither the powers of earth, nor the elements of heaven can appal them in their career. And then when their utmost energies fail, and victory sits perched on the standard of the foe, they will coolly seek consolation in the immutable decrees of Allah. This is their philosophy when they act, whatever may be their folly when they

reason.

This brother, on the contrary, acts on the supposition that he knows these inscrutable decrees, and "that the time is not come the time that the Lord's house should be built." Talk of presumption-what presumption can equal this? for "who hath known the mind of the Lord, or being his counsellor hath taught him?"

It is well to look at the practical bearing of this argument. The command of God, and the opportunity to perform it, are not sufficient, it would seem, to create obligation, or enforce obedience. Something farther is necessary, and for this we must wait; but what events are we to expect-how long must we wait? Have not many centuries of gloom and wretchedness to the heathen world, proved that God does not preach the Gospel himself, and that it will never be preached by those who defer their exertions in expectation of some further intimation of his will. The truth is, his providence by no means always precedes his servants in their "work of faith and labour of love.". So far from this, the most discouraging obstacles have often been removed by persevering zeal and diligence. Even the great apostle of the Gentiles was thrice shipwrecked, and hundreds of times opposed, in executing his undoubted commission.

But though an explicit command ought to forbid the waiting for any farther revelation, yet the Lord condescends to adapt his dealings to human weakness in all its forms. He has taken away even this fancied objection to missionary effort. His providence now unites with his word in inviting and urging the church to the evangelization of the heathen world.

From many places we hear the very voices of the heathen lifted up in imploring supplication for help. In South Africa so long have these anxious expectants been waiting for promised assistance, and so frequently have they been disappointed, that they have even impeached the veracity of the missionaries. Among some of the distant tribes of aborigines in America, the same earnest desire to be taught the revealed religion of the Great Spirit has been strikingly exhibited. They have undertaken months' journeys for the book of God. "Give us a teacher," has been a common request in the islands of the South Seas. India, with her one hundred and fifty millions of souls, stretches out her hands in earnest entreaty for aid. The vast kingdoms and islands beyond the Ganges are ready for the reception of numbers of missionaries. The whole world appears to be opening for the introduction of Christianity, and nothing is wanting but instruments, and the promised benediction of God upon them, to change every wilderness into an Eden, and every desert into the garden of the Lord.

What signs of God's "set time to favour Zion" are we to expect, if these prove insufficient? Could any other expression of his will be so signal and satisfactory? Paul was invited to Macedonia, and he went. To what country is not the church now invited?

Oh, that the brother who has spoken, and the large class he represents, would seek more extensive and accurate information respecting the present condition of the nations! I am certain that from their own premises they would become the warmest advocates of immediate action.

They would find the places which the providence of God has already prepared for the reception of the Gospel, sufficiently numerous to tax all their energies, while they would probably never be able in the future, to satisfy half the demands which perishing multitudes, accessible to their efforts, shall urge upon them.

A minister who in early life had resolved on becoming a missionary, and after conversing much on the duty of personal consecration to the instruction of the heathen, had abandoned his purpose, was the next speaker.

There is one point, said he, which many missionaries take frequent occasion to introduce in their public addresses, and which, I do not doubt, injures the cause they aim at promoting. I refer to the destiny of the heathen. They speak as confidently against the salvation of those

who have never heard the Gospel, as if "the gates of death had been opened unto them."

Now, to be dogmatical on any point is repulsive; but to decide positively, and pronounce oracularly, where the eternal interests of mil lions are involved, and especially where the opposite opinion is so common, is shocking beyond expression. For my own part, I incline to the charitable view of this subject. I dare not question that many even of the adult heathen will be saved. I confess I once thought differently; but now I can scarcely see how it was possible for me to have believed that an infinitely just and holy Being would condemn his creatures for involuntary and hence necessary ignorance.

How is it credible, that a God of so much compassion and mercy would consign to eternal misery those whom he placed in such circumstances on earth, as forbad their obtaining his Divine acceptance? The Bible disclaims such a reflection upon the character and administration of the universal Governor. It explicitly declares, that those who have not the written law are not required to ascertain its precepts, or to fulfil its injunctions. They are under another dispensation. However dim the light they have, by that light and that alone they are to be judged. If they follow its guidance, they shall receive the approbation and final plaudit of their judge. What else can be implied in those parts of Scripture, which declare that "if the Gentiles who have not the law, (the written law,) do by nature the things contained in the law, these having not the law are a law unto themselves;" and "in every nation, he that feareth God and worketh righteousness, is accepted of him."

And even admitting that the heathen do not act in all respects according to their knowledge, are they to be condemned for those slight deviations of conduct which it is scarcely in our nature to avoid? Would not repentance, as in the case of pagan Nineveh, avert the threatened punishment; or will not the remedial economy avail to their pardon as well as to ours? The fact that they have no knowledge of a Saviour, only places them in the condition of infants and idiots; and who would exclude these from heaven, though they have no personal agency in getting there?

But it is at least possible that the heathen have some general idea of the plan of reconciliation revealed in the Gospel. What other interpre tation can be given to the sacrifices which are so common among pagan nations? And although their views of the true religion are exceedingly limited, and mixed up with a great deal of error, are we on that account to deny that the Spirit's agency can extend to them?

We know that this gracious Being does communicate his influences where there is very great ignorance even respecting the atonement of Christ. Witness the case of the disciples. How partial and absurd were their views of the spiritual objects for which their Lord came into