and be saved,”-it be not superlatively necessary, that an antidote should be provided against the effects of the venom, by the extensive distribution, as well of the blessed Bible itself, as of other publications, which are calculated to "strengthen the weak hands, and to confirm the feeble knees?"— What! brethren,-shall the enemies of Jesus disseminate their lying blasphemies; and shall not the friends of Jesus be active in publishing his Eternal Truth? Shall these " uncircumcised Philistines defy the armies of the living God;" and shall no champion be forthcoming from the tents of the Church, to put to flight the hosts of "the aliens?" and shall neither "sword nor spear be found amongst forty thousand in Israel?" Brethren, such are the glorious objects which these Societies have in view, and in furtherance of which your brethren in the world, and the Church of which you are members,—yea, and your Master who is in heaven, -ask for your co-operation. Methinks I shall not be deceived in the confident hope which I entertain that your heart will answer to them, "yea, and they shall never ask in vain!"

The labours of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts extend, as I before remarked, to all countries which are subject to the British Crown. The proposed sphere of their usefulness, therefore, would, if funds commensurate with their necessities were supplied, be very large.

It

But there are tens of thousands within the prescribed districts to whom, by reason of their limited means, the efforts of this Society cannot reach. is for these, our fellow men, our fellow subjects, our fellow heirs of immortality, that I ask your assistance ;-it is for these, included under the same original curse with ourselves, but not sharing with us a knowledge of the blessed method by which that curse has been obliterated,-either wholly ignorant of the salvation of Jesus, or but partially and inadequately supplied with spiritual instruction, --it is for these, brethren, that I would awaken your sympathies. Think, I pray you, that you see them, like the man of Macedonia in Paul's vision, stretching out their arms, and beseeching you "to come over and help them;"-think, that you can be instrumental this day in rescuing the idolater from his darkness;-that, when he comes to be acquainted with the blessed truths of the Gospel, instead of believing that death is an eternal sleep, he will be taught to look up to the Saviour, and to trust in his power, and to repose on his mercy, and to know that he is seated on the right hand of the Father in glory, and is preparing a place for his servants, that where he is, "there they may be also," that he will learn to carry his views beyond the grave to those blessed regions, which "have no need of the sun, neither of the moon, for the Lord God Almighty doth lighten them, and the

12

Lamb is the light thereof;"—that he will learn to seek in earnest prayer for the sanctification of the Spirit, and that he will labour diligently that he may not receive it in vain ;-and that " a pure language" will be poured from his lips to the Lord, instead of the words of abomination in which he used heretofore to address his idols. But it is not for these only that our assistance is required. There are others, whose ignorance may not indeed be so deep, but who, from their lack of religious instruction, are in danger of relapsing into, at least, partial heathenism;-those who are more specially connected with us,-" our bone and our flesh;"-the emigrants, and the descendants of the emigrants from this country, who are settled in the colonies. Shall they, I pray you, brethren, who have once "tasted of the heavenly gift," who have known the preciousness of Jesus, and have loved his salvation, shall they fall away? shall they practically become "without God in the world?” and, in the unborn generations, shall their children, and their grandchildren, untutored in the ways of the Lord, and having lost the best inheritance which their parents could bequeath, bow down, after the manner of the godless nations who dwell around them, to the trunks of their forests, and to the blocks of their quarries ?—I am pleading the cause of these our brethren before you, who have from your infancy known and loved the Gospel of Jesus;-before

you, who enjoy the advantage of our Evangelical Church, and the comfort of her sacraments; before you, who are reaping in peace the glorious advantages which the martyrs of old purchased for God's people by their groans of agony, when they pined in the dungeon, or bled upon the scaffold, or blazed at the stake;-and I feel assured in the Lord, that ye will not be lukewarm in the desire to impart these advantages to those benighted ones who possess them not. Do ye remember the promise that "whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved?" I pray you, "how shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach except they be sent ?" It is to you brethren that I appeal this day,-I beseech you, by the bestowal of your carnal things, to enable this Society to send forth preachers.

We are all most familiar with the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, as facilitating at home the distribution of the Holy Scriptures, and of such other books as are auxiliaries with them in making known the ways of the Lord. This, though its principal, is not its only sphere of usefulness;-but there are few amongst you, who cannot bear testimony to the beneficial result of its "labour of love," considered only in regard to what has been accomplished by it within Great Britain. Is it

nothing, that, in our villages, the cottager may possess that heavenly volume which he may read, to his soul's health and comfort, when he "sitteth in the house, and when he walketh by the way, and when he lieth down, and when he riseth up?"-Is it nothing, that the children of the peasantry, in our schools, should be supplied with the books necessary for their spiritual instruction ?-is it nothing that, in our towns, the humble mechanic, instead of defiling his tongue with the profanations which he may have heard at the tavern, or at the theatre, should be taught to learn and to love the "pure language" of the Gospel, and should delight to devote his evenings, in the society of the wife of his bosom, to high and holy exercises? Is it nothing, say, brethren, that all these should be encouraged, through the promises of Jesus, to wean their affections from this world of sorrow and of sin, and to look forward with faith to "a better country, even to an heavenly?"

I

And, if I could suppose that any of you could be insensible to these eternal blessings which this Society diffuses, and should look for a temporal reward to your bounty,-even here we lack not persuasions to excite you to well-doing in this behalf. For from whence arise, I pray you, evil deeds amongst you? From whence arise thefts, and tumults, which affect the security of your property? Arise they not even from ignorance of the Gospel? Is not one man rebellious, because he knows not,