THE MISSIONARY

HERALD.

Address by the Rev. S. H. Booth,

DELIVERED AT A VALEDICTORY MISSIONARY SERVICE AT BIRMINGHAM ON OCTOBER 3RD, 1876.

WE

E have now to say farewell to our brethren whom we have just resigned in prayer to our Father's gracious care. I was not permitted to hear the address on a like occasion last year,-many who were present spoke of it as one of the most impressive, as it was one of the last, acts of Dr. Brock's long and faithful ministry,-for the shadow of death seemed to be closing around me. Since then he has gone through that valley, and across the mysterious border-river, to stand before the Saviour, in His unveiled presence, and to be with Him for ever. I thought, though less worthy, that the same surprise of joy would have been mine also, but He whose will is best had otherwise ordained. In cheerful recognition of the law of service, that whether "living or dying" we are His, I am to-day before our Divine Master and you.

To every petition now offered at the throne of grace for you, our missionary brethren, we have added our deep-felt "Amen"; we have prayed, and we shall ever pray, that you may "be filled with all wisdom and spiritual understanding." "Grace be unto you, and peace from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ." The apostle's thanksgiving for the Corinthians we turn into prayer for you, "that in everything ye" may be "enriched by Him, in all utterance, and in all knowledge;" that "the testimony of Christ may be confirmed in you, so that ye come behind in no gift," and then, that "having finished 'your' course with joy, and the ministry 'you' have received of the Lord Jesus," you "may be found waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." The field to which you are going, brethren, has greatly changed, from our point of view, during the past eighty years. The prospect to a Christian missionary was then, apart from the promises of God, saddening to despair. Darkness covered the earth, and gross darkness the people. Nearly the whole coast-line of the world was barred as with steel against the Gospel. Now there is no land to which we could not send the bread of life if we had men to take it and the means of sending them. Our success is now our embarrassment.

The cry is heard everywhere, "Come over and help us." "The harvest is plenteous," the fields are white, the corn is ripe, but the "labourers are few." We are glad to know that you are going to join those who are already gathering in the golden grain; but such is the world's need, and our responsibility, we shall, as soon as you are gone, turn to the "Lord of the harvest" and beseech Him "to send forth more labourers into the harvest." Are there no others to say, "Send me"? For the dawn is breaking on the hills. "The night is far spent "-the night of earth's guilt and moaning; and "the day is at hand"-the day of God's love and truth. The sowing has been in tears, but the reaping is coming with joy. The Church waited for the Lord "more than they that watch for the morning "—when the heaven was as brass, and the earth as iron; but she has seen the cloud rise like a man's hand, and there is "the sound of abundance of rain." "The wilderness and the solitary place" are already "glad for them," and the desert will soon' rejoice and blossom as the rose." How Dr. Carey watched for the dawn in India! It was like the first ray of morning light--the lightning flash of an angel's spear-upon the mountain top, when Krishna Pàl put on Christ at Serampore. In those years of weary hope it must have seemed as if they were right who protested by the Divine decrees, against preaching the Gospel to the heathen. Would those mighty walls never fall? But, like the priests who bare the ark, those heralds of the Lord blew the silver trumpets of promise and of prayer until, with the surrender of that one Hindoo heart to Christ, the gates broke in. Many a stronghold of sin and darkness has since then been changed into a temple and palace for our King. We can hear the first notes, feeble it may be, but sweet and true, of that great wave of song-the song of a ransomed Church, which shall, by-and-by, be heard "of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues," "Worthy is the Lamb that was slain."

How has this been brought about? By men who, "full of faith, and of the Holy Ghost," and "mighty in the Scriptures," have preached Christ, and have lived for Christ, wherever they have been sent-many of them not counting their lives dear unto themselves. The names of not a few, rank as high in the literary as in the religious world, not because they sought such fame, but because, in the consecration of their great powers, they gave the Word of Life to those who, having no vision, were perishing. The centre of their work has been Christ-Christ crucified, Christ risen; Christ first, Christ last; Christ "all and in all," as "the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth." Are heathen altars crumbling into dust? It is because our brethren have pointed the worshippers there to Christ, and have shown them that there

is " no more conscience of sins" through faith in Him whose blood "cleanseth from all sin." Are there signs that the power of caste is breaking? It is because many who were enslaved by it have found there is a brotherhood in Jesus, in which there is no entangling "yoke of bondage." "Can an Ethiopian change his skin?" No; but his heart may be changed. Moral beauty may, by the grace of God, take the place of moral deformity, and such a man may stand forth "arrayed in fine linen, clean and white-the righteousness of saints," with a face bright with the love of Christ, and kindling with the intelligence and grace of a life spent in daily communion with the Father of all who believe. "Can a leopard change his spots?" No; but a heart as fierce and cruel as that beautiful but treacherous beast of prey may be softened by the Divine Spirit; for "Ethiopia shall stretch out her hands unto God," and "the leopard shall lie down with the kid, and a little child shall lead them." We have known many such, and we shall know many more when our Father has gathered all His children home. "Who are these, and whence came they?" "These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb." Such is the work, and such its results, on which our younger brethren will enter, and which our senior brethren have helped in accomplishing. If fidelity to the Saviour has brought about the changes we see, so full of promise; fidelity to the Saviour will certainly carry the Gospel to "the regions beyond." "Such kind goeth not forth but by prayer and fasting." You must drink deeply into the spirit of your Lord if you would do your Lord's work. If you would enter into the labours of those who have passed to their rest, you must follow them as far as they, while here, followed Christ. The ingathering of souls to the kingdom of our Lord is the outcome of wrestling with God by those who are sent to bring them to Jesus. Live near to Christ, and He will give you words to speak and wisdom to speak them, which you will find "mighty, through God, to the pulling down of strongholds." Get your own heart filled with the enthusiasm of the Cross, and then those who are ready to perish will flock to it at your entreaty. You have the Saviour as your message, and the Divine Spirit for your helper. No doubt discouragements will arise, not only from the nature of the work, but also from a sense of your own insufficiency. Your road will not always lie over the Delectable Mountains, but it will sometimes be through the Valley of Humiliation. The "Accuser of the Brethren" may meet you there, and he may ply you hard with his fiery darts. But you will meet your Lord there, too. Do you remember whom the prophet foretold would say, "I have laboured in vain"? Was

it not He who should also say, "I that speak in righteousness, mighty to save"? In the dark hours of the soul's midnight, when you pour out your heart in "cries and tears," He will come to you and say, "I have been here before you. I have trodden the winepress alone. Fear not, for I am with thee." Did He not say in the yet darker hour of His anguish, in the shadows of Gethsemane, with the forebodings upon His heart of the betrayal and of the cross, "If it be possible, let this cup pass from Me"? May He not therefore say to you when your faith is weak, "What! could ye not watch with Me one hour"? He sowed in tears the precious seed, as we must do; but not a sigh, not a prayer, not a pang of His was lost. So shall we "come again with rejoicing, bringing our sheaves." Will He leave you alone to cry in despair, "Who hath believed our report"? Surely we never dream that we can save sinners without Him? But He can save them, and if we go after them to save them, He will go with us. Old Adam was always too strong for young Melancthon, but he was never too strong for Christ. We cannot say, "Peace, be still," with any hope that the winds and waves of human passion and sin will obey us; but He can say it effectually through us. The blessedness of knowing the Saviour was a sealed book to us, until the Spirit sighed and said, "Ephatha! be opened," and He who touched our blind eyes can give sight to other blind eyes, too, if we bring them to Him. We cannot raise the dead-the "dead in trespasses and sins"; but He can help us to take away the stone, and then the dead will hear His voice and live.

And when, brethren, your hand is weary and your heart is faint, get you to Christ again. He is sometimes never nearer to us than when we think Him far away. Often in our half-doubt we turn our backs on Jerusalem and the risen Lord, and set out for Emmaus; but He is so pitiful, He forgives our unbelief for the sake of the love we bear Him, and He joins us on our way. Perhaps He may send you some sharp dispensation. If He should, there will be a kind message with it, "Come ye yourselves apart into a desert place, and rest awhile." From such Divine communings you will come back like giants refreshed, and the things which you have heard Him speak in solitude will be in your mouths afterwards, as fire to burn; or as the earthquake to shake; or, what is far better, as the still small voice to win others to the rest you yourselves have found. Never despise the chastening of the Lord. In crossing a wide, dreary waste, you may come upon some quiet pool nestling among the sedge, its clear water smiling in the light of heaven, and, mirror-like, reflecting the marsh flowers, which so tenderly hide the ruder margin lines; so has God always some surprise of love for us in the desolate way we sometimes take. The patient seeker finds some of nature's

choicest treasures, in form and colour, up to the snow line; so our Father makes the winter of our sorrow glow with sweet tokens of His unfailing grace. The palm-tree rears its waving plume beneath the scorching African sun, because its roots strike into the deep springs which lie far down beneath the sand; so the heart which draws its life from the hidden source of the Saviour's love grows heavenward and heavenly amidst the most embittered and burning wastes of trial. And the believer, if well-rooted into Christ, is like the palm-tree in this also, that the longer the life, though in the desert, the richer and more abundant the fruit. "We glory in tribulations also; knowing that tribulation worketh patience; and patience experience; and experience, hope."

And now, brethren, let me say farewell, though we shall never cease to remember you where remembrance is of most avail. Brother, Mr. Morgan, we cannot hope to see you again on earth, but we shall greet one another in the Father's house. May He who has given. you grace to serve Him so honourably for forty years in India, keep you faithful unto death, and then He will give you the crown of life! Brethren, Mr. Williams and Mr. Thomson, you carry back with you to India and to Africa our warm affection, the fruit of confidence in your high characters and your devoted labours. May the Master you serve still have you in His keeping, and long spare you until, in His own good time, He say to you, "Well done!" And our prayer for our sisters-who have so nobly shared your duties as fellow-helpers in "the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ;" who have made your homes bright with Christian virtues, and have, in the peace and order and comfort of those homes, shown to those around them what British Christianity has done to elevate and sanctify all domestic relations-is, that our dear Lord may ever be your chief guest. May He who made the home at Bethany bright with His presence ever dwell in yours, until, having, as He may see best, gathered your household one by one" to His Father's house, you find there not one left out! And you, brethren, who leave us for the first time, accept our most loving sympathy, and our heartfelt prayers for your welfare and success. Brother Mr. Jones, we glorify the grace of God in you which has prompted you to give up commercial prospects to preach Christ in China. May you become to our brother Mr. Richards, so long alone there, a true "fellow-soldier," and in the end, being able to say with the great apostle to the heathen, "I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith," receive with him from the righteous Judge, and with all who love His appearing, the crown of righteousness. Brother Mr. Summers-not the first of your name and family whose praise has been in the churches-you go to India, relinquishing all that high honours in Cambridge University