No. 298.]

FENELON'S MISSIONARY SERMON. (Concluded from p. 519.) THIS, my brethren, is what God has done in our own times, to put to silence profane and impious men., Who but Jesus Christ, the Son of the living God, could have ventured to promise that after his death all nations should come to him, and believe in his name? Nearly seventeen centuries have elapsed since his death, and his word is yet living and fruitful in the very extremities of the earth. By the accomplishment of a promise of such unspeakable extent, Jesus Christ proves that he retains the hearts of all men, and of all na tions in his hands.

By this we still point out the true church to our erring brethren, as St. Augustin pointed it out to the sectarians of his time. How delightful, how consolatory is it, my brethren, to speak the same language, and to give precisely the same proofs of being the true church, which this father gave thirteen hundred years ago! It is that city set upon a hill which is seen afar off by all the nations of the earth; it is that kingdom of Jesus Christ which takes possession of all nations. It is this widely scattered society which has alone the glory of preaching Jesus Christ to the idolatrous nations; it is this church, which must not only be ever visible, but most visible and brilliant for the greatest and most conspicuous of all living authorities among Christians, must necessarily, and without discussion, conduct the simple to truth, otherwise CHRIST. OBSERV. No, 298.

Divine Providence would be wanting to itself; it would render religion inaccessible to the simple; it would cast the ignorant into the abyss of philosophical doubts and discussions; it would only have given the text of the sacred Scriptures, clearly susceptible of many dif ferent interpretations, to nourish pride and schism. What would have become of those teachable men, who, diffident of themselves, would have been terrified at the idea of preferring their own individual opinion to that of the assembly, the most worthy of belief which has ever existed upon earth? What would have become of those humble minded men, who would justly fear that they should deceive themselves, rather than that they. should be deceived by the church?

It is for this reason that, in addition to the uninterrupted succession of pastors, naturally calculated to perpetuate truth throughout all ages, God has conferred this extensive and singular fruit-. fulness upon the true church, to distinguish her from all those detached societies which languish, being obscure, barren, and confined to a corner. How can these new sects venture to assert that idolatry reigned universally before their reform? Every nation having been given by God the Father, to his Son Jesus Christ, has he lost his inheritance? What arm more powerful than his own, has deprived him of it? Was this light extinguished throughout the earth? Possibly, my brethren, you imagine that it is I myself who now speak; no! it is St. Augustin 4 E

who thus speaks to the Donatists, to the Manicheans, and merely by changing their names to the Protestants of our days.

This spread of the church, this fecundity of our holy mother in every part of the world, that Apostolic zeal so conspicuous only in our pastors, and which those of the new sects have not attempted to imitate, embarrass the most celebrated defenders of schism. I have read this in their latest works: they have not been able to conceal it. I have seen even the most upright and sensible men on their side, own that this glory, notwith standing all the subtleties with which they endeavour to darken it, pierces them to the heart, and draws them to us*.

What then is that great work which consoles the church, which increases her, which repairs her losses, which so gloriously accomplishes the promises, which exhibits God to man, which shews Jesus Christ as still living and reigning in the heart by faith, according to his word, even in the midst of his enemies; which diffuses his church over the whole earth, in order that all people may listen to it; which gives it this brilliant sign, by which every eye may see it, and by which the ignorant are convinced without discussion, that the truth of doctrine belongs to it? How magnificent is this work! But where are labourers capable of undertaking it? Where are hands fitted to gather in the rich harvest with which the fields of the East are already whitened? Never indeed has France herself had more pressing need of them, than at present? Pastors, unite your counsels and your strength to uproot the mighty tree, whose proud branches raised themselves to

Happily, by the blessing of God, this reproach has begun to be wiped away from the Protestant churches; yet, alas! how inadequate are all our efforts, either to our obligations or to the spiritual wants of a perishing world!

heaven, and whose strongest roots are already shaken. Do not leave any hidden sparks of that fire of heresy, which is nearly extinguished; strengthen your discipline; hasten to remove scandal and abuses by the vigour of your canons; make your children taste the holy pleasures of sacred literature; form men who shall support the honour of the Gospel, and whose lips shall keep knowledge. O mother, feed thy children, both with learning and charity. By your aid may the light of truth shine upon the earth. Prove that it was not in vain that Jesus Christ pronounced this oracle for all ages without restriction: "he who heareth you, heareth me." But let not the necessities of those at home, make you forget those who are abroad. Church of France, lose not your crown! with one hand sustain your own children, and extend the other to those babes in Jesus Christ who address to you their feeble cries, and expect that you should have the feelings of a mother for them*.

O you, who have said unto God, Thou art my portion and my inheritance, ministers of the Lord, who are also his inheritance and his portion, tread under your feet the ties of nature. Say to your relatives, I know ye not. Acquaint yourselves with God alone; listen to him alone. May they who have already devoted themselves here to a field of appointed labour, persevere; for talents are various, and it is enough that each follows the bent of his own; but let all at least devote their prayers to the infant cause of the Gospel among the heathen. May every one who is free to choose, say to himself; Woe unto me if I preach not the Gospel! Alas! it is probable that the whole of the nations of the East have not as many ministers, as one single parish in one of our towns. Paris, thou enrichest thyself

How forcibly does this double exhortation apply to the truly apostolical Church of England!

with the poverty of other nations; or rather, by fatal enchantment, thou losest for thyself what thou takest from others: thou deprivest the field of the Lord of its culture; briars and thorns cover it; thou deprivest the labourers of the reward due to their labour. Oh! that I could now exclaim, like Moses at the gates of the camp of Israel, If any one is on the Lord's side, let him follow me! God is my witness, that God before whom I speak, in whose presence I daily minister, that God who searches the heart, and tries the reins;-yes, Lord thou knowest that, while I admire the work, I feel neither strength nor courage to devote myself to it. Happy they to whom it is given to do so! Happy even I, if, notwithstanding my weakness and unworthiness, my words could kindle in the heart of some holy priest that celestial flame with which a sinner like me is not worthy to burn.

By means of these men, laden with the riches of the Gospel, religion advances, and the number of believers is daily increasing; the church flourishes again, and its perfect and original beauty is renewed in heathen lands. Men run to embrace the feet of a priest as he passes along: they carefully gather up the smallest fragments of the word of God which fall from his lips. The Lord's day is looked forward to with impatience during the whole week; and on it all the brethren in a state of holy rest give reciprocally the kiss of peace, having but one heart and one mind. Men sigh for the solemn assemblies, for the hymns of praise, for the sacred feast of the Lamb. We seem again to see the labours, journeys, and dangers of the Apostles, with all the zeal of the infant churches. Happy are those churches which the fire of persecution tries, in order to purify. Happy those churches whose glory we cannot look upon without envy. We see catechumens, who, to make

their robes white, are anxious to be baptised not only with the salutary waters of baptism, but with the flames of the Holy Spirit, and the blood of the Lamb; catechumens who expect martyrdom with baptism. When shall we possess such Christians, whose delight it will be to be fed with the words of life, to anticipate the joys of futurity, and to converse of their future hopes. Yes, what we consider excessive, impracticable, what we can hardly believe to have been possible in the first ages of the Christian church, is the actual practice in these churches. There, to be a Christian, and not to belong to this world, are the same thing. There, we should not dare to shew to these ardent believers, our lukewarm European Christians, lest so contageous an example should teach them to love life, and to open their hearts to the poisoned joys of the present world. The Gospel, in its simplicity, still makes its proper impression upon them. It renders the poor happy; it causes the afflicted to find joy in grief, and the rich to fear lest they should have their consolation in this life; any medium between the world and Jesus Christ, is there unknown; they know nothing but to pray, to annihilate self, to suffer, and to hope. O lovely simplicity! O pure faith! O unmixed joy of the children of God! O heavenly beauty of former times which God restores to the earth, and of which there only remains to us a melancholy and humbling recollection. Alas! woe be to us, on account of our sins! the glory hath departed from us; it flies beyond the seas; a new people carries it away from us. This, my brethren, ought to make us tremble.

Second Part.

If God, who is so terrible in his judgments towards the children of men, has not spared the natural branches of the olive tree, how dare we flatter ourselves, my brethren,

that we, who are wild, dead, and unfruitful branches, shall be spared? God strikes without pity his ancient people; that nation the heir of the promises; that blessed seed of Abraham, whose God he has declared himself for ever: he punishes it, he casts it from him, he scatters it as dust before the wind, the children of Israel are no longer his people, and God is no longer their God; and this people are now only profitable to shew to every other nation under heaven, the curse and divine vengeance which distil upon it drop by drop, and which will hang over it unto the time of the end.

How is it that the Jewish nation has fallen from the faith of its fathers, and from the consolation of Israel? Because, my brethren, it became hardened, while surrounded by the means of grace; it resisted the Holy Spirit; it did not acknowledge Him who was sent from God. Full of the love of the world, it rejected a redemption which, far from flattering its pride and passions, was to deliver it from them. It is this which has closed the hearts of this people to the truth; it is this which has extinguished faith among them; this is the reason that when light shone in the darkness, the darkness comprehended it not. But has the reprobation of this nation rendered void the promises of God? God forbid! The arm of the Almighty delights in shewing that he is jealous of owing his success to aught but himself. He rejects his own people, to call those who belong not to him. The people who were not a people; that is to say, scattered nations who had never formed a body either civil or religious; those nations who lived in the grossest idolatry, are assembled and suddenly become a people dearly beloved. In the mean time, the Jews, deprived of the heavenly knowledge which had hitherto been hereditary among them, enrich all nations with their spoils. Thus God bestows the gift of faith ac

cording to his pleasure; according to the profound mystery of his will. Must not that which caused the reprobation of the Jews (let us judge ourselves, my brethren, that we be not judged of the Lord) also cause ours? Was that nation which God has struck with his thunderbolts, more attached to this world than we are; more deeply sunk in sensuality, more intoxicated with worldly passions, more blinded by presumption, more full of itself, more destitute of the love of God? No, no, my brethren; its iniquities had not equalled ours. The crime of crucifying afresh Jesus Christ; Jesus Christ known, and tasted; Jesus Christ reigning among us; the crime of trampling under our feet the only victim of propitiation, and the blood of the covenant; is not this a sin of greater enormity, and more unpardonable than that of shedding that blood without knowing him, as did the Jews? Is that nation the only one upon whom the vengeance of the Almighty has fallen? Let us proceed to the still more awful examples under the new dispensation. My brethren, cast your eyes, bathed in tears, upon those vast regions whence the Christian religion rose like the sun over our heads. Where are the once famous churches of Alexandria, of Antioch, of Jerusalem, of Constantinople, which had innumerable others under them? It was in these, that, during many ages, assembled counsels crushed the most dangerous errors, and pronounced those decrees which will endure for ever. In them holy discipline majestically reigned; a model after which we sigh in vain. That land was watered with the blood of the martyrs; it exhaled the sacred perfume of perpetual virginity; the deserts themselves flourished with their holy recluses : but desolation covers those mountains, flowing with milk and honey, where the flocks of Israel pastured without fear. There we now find