every effort that we make. "Concerning the work of my hands, command ye me, saith the Lord."

Then, lastly, my young friends, sure I am that if you take an intelligent, active, and prayerful interest in missionary proceedings, you will also take,

5. An increasing interest in them. God always multiplies opportunities of serving Him, to those who are active in His service. "To him that hath more shall be given." It is of course impossible to enumerate the various ways in which an increasing interest will manifest itself; but it may be, that God's providence in the arrangement of outward circumstances, and God's grace operating upon the hearts and minds of individuals, will so concur, that some young men may be induced to offer themselves as missionaries, in the spirit of him, who said, "Here am I, Lord, send me."

There is, indeed, a great necessity for this: the harvest truly is plenteous and the labourers are still comparatively few. From many parts of the earth we have for some time heard the cry of those that are perishing, "Come over, and help us." The conductors of our Missionary Societies are continually telling us with thankfulness, that the Lord is opening fresh doors of usefulness; and yet often adding, with grief and sorrow of heart, that they cannot enter these opened doors as they could wish, because they know not of men whom they might send forth as missionaries, and because too frequently they have not the means of sending them forth, even if they did know of them. Many stations are now vacant for which the Societies are seeking candidates. Would that this reproach were wiped off from our professedly christian country.

It may be, my young friends, that the providence and grace of God do not so manifestly concur in your cases, as to make it your duty to offer yourselves willingly to the Lord as His missionary heralds; but, at all events, it cannot be wrong for you to take the matter into serious consideration. I would especially recommend the consideration of it to such young men as are Sunday School Teachers. What a blessing to the church it would be, if every Sunday school could become a kind of " nursery of prophets;" and if at least one representative from each band of teachers were to proceed to "preach the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ."

among

But, although an increasing interest in missionary work may not in every case produce a personal dedication of ourselves as missionaries, it will, at least, produce more laborious and self-denying fellow-helpers in the work.

All may not be called to go forth as missionaries, but all will be endued with a missionary spirit-the spirit of love, the spirit of the Gospel, the spirit of CHRIST. All will be willing to practise self-denial, and to make sacrifices to enable them to help on the cause of truth and righteousness. All, in short, will lose their selfishness in the great predominant desire that CHRIST may be exalted, His kingdom extended, and His glory promoted.

A LECTURE

BY THE REV. E. AURIOL.

THE subject which I have been requested by your Committee to bring before you this evening, is the Missionary Zeal manifested by the Apostles and early Christians, considered as an example to ourselves. It is one which is not only full of interest, but likely, as it appears to me, to furnish us with many seasonable reflections at the present time. When we hear many speaking loudly of catholic antiquity, and the authority of the traditions of the early Church, it is well for us to look at what may be much more fitly regarded as authoritative-the principles and practice of men inspired by the Spirit of God, set apart by our Lord himself to be witnesses to His truth, and whose history has come down to us, not as the doubtful report of some uncertain tradition—not in the writings of fallible men—but recorded by the pen of one inspired by the Spirit of truth to write that history, for the instruction and edification of the Church in all ages. I would desire, therefore, principally to direct your attention to the account given us of the missionary zeal of the first Christians in the Acts of the Apostles, and to the inferences which may be drawn from the statements which we there meet with. In referring to other writers as confirming these accounts, I would remind you of the value of such authorities as testifying simply to matters of fact. To the sure word of God alone, as recorded in the Scriptures, can we yield implicit confidence; it is from thence that we are to derive our knowledge of those articles of faith which are to be surely received by us, and it is from thence alone that we are to gather up the treasures of a full, sufficient, and explicit revelation of all that is needful for the salvation of our souls.

I propose, First, to lay before you a brief statement of the extent of the missionary efforts made by the early Christians, in the time of the Apostles and their immediate successors.

Secondly, to draw your attention to the peculiar characteristics of this missionary zeal.

1st. At the very commencement of the Acts of the Apostles, we are furnished with the account of the first missionary effort to which the Church was called. From the beginning the character of the christian religion was essentially missionary. The last command of our Lord at His ascension had invested it for ever with this character; and the promise attached to that command is to give to faith the utmost encouragement for its observance, "Lo! I am with you always, even unto the end of the world." Our Saviour had left with His apostles an express injunction that they should begin their missionary work at Jerusalem, the place where He was crucified, among the very people who scorned and rejected Him, but who, nevertheless, were his own countrymen and kinsmen according to the flesh, to whom belonged special privileges, and on whom special promises had been bestowed. Accordingly it was while they remained together at Jerusalem, in obedience to the command of their gracious Master, that the promise of the Father, the gift of the Holy Ghost, was poured down upon them on the day of Pentecost. And what a glorious beginning have we here of the missionary work! The most signally blessed of all sermons that were ever preached, was on that day delivered by the Apostle Peter, and three thousand souls2 were converted to the faith of Jesus. O my dear friends, what a proof is thus early presented to us of what may be done, and of what can only be done, by the outpouring of the Holy Spirit! The work appears from that time to have gone on at Jerusalem.3 In the sixth chapter of Acts we read, "The word of God increased, and the number of the disciples multiplied in Jerusalem greatly."

The next great missionary effort is especially interesting, as affording a striking instance of the manner in which the Lord makes the wrath of man to praise Him, and overrules all

1 Matt. xxviii. 19, 20.

2 Acts ii. 41.

3 Acts ii. 47.

things in His providence: for the fulfilment of His purposes of mercy and grace in our fallen world. Those wicked men who heard Stephen preach, and looked with scorn upon his angel countenance beaming with the light of God's truth, were not content with stopping their ears when unable to resist the wisdom and Spirit by which he spake, but stoned him, calling upon his God; and then, unmoved by his dying prayer for his murderers, they cast him out of the city, thus signifying their determination to put a stop to the progress of the Gospel. But what followed? The disciples were scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, they travelled as far as Phenice, and Cyprus, and Antioch, and went every where preaching the Word. They all became witnesses for God. We are especially told here, that this work of testifying for Christ was not confined to the apostles, for they remained still at Jerusalem ; but all, not only ministers of the Gospel, but private Christians also, declared wherever they went what great things God had done for their souls. Special mention is made of the labours of Philip in Samaria, and of the signal blessing which attended those labours; we read also of his interesting interview with the Eunuch in the desert, who was converted to the faith, and went on his way rejoicing, a messenger of glad tidings to his native country, Ethiopia. And shortly afterwards we have this evidence of the spread of the knowledge of the truth into Syria, that there was a sufficient body of Christians at Damascus to make it worth while for the Chief Priest to send a special messenger to that city, to bring men and women, as many as he found there, to be put to death at Jerusalem. And all this happened within a very few years of our Saviour's

ascension into heaven.

3

But hitherto the preaching of the Gospel had been confined to the lost sheep of the house of Israel: the conversion of Cornelius and his household, and the blessings which accompanied that event, opened a wide and effectual door to the other nations of the earth; and from that period we may trace the progress of Divine truth, if we follow the inspired historian's account of the three journies of St. Paul, the

1 Acts viii. 1, 5; xi. 19.

2 Acts viii. 1.

3 Acts viii. 39.