OR

CHRISTIANS;

CHRIST'S REPRESENTATIVES AND AGENTS

FOR THE

CONVERSION OF THE WORLD.

BY THOMAS SMYTH, D. D.

PUBLISHED BY REQUEST OF THE SYNOD OF SOUTH CAROLINA.

PHILADELPHIA:
PRESBYTERIAN BOARD OF PUBLICATION.

No. 265 Chestnut Street.

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1856,

BY JAMES DUNLAP,

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross and follow me.

As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world.

For none of us liveth unto himself, and no man dieth unto himself.

And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye, therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you; and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.

The REV. C. SIMEON thus wrote:-"Religion in its rise interests us almost exclusively about ourselves; in its progress it engages us about the welfare of our fellow-creatures; in its more advanced stages, it animates us to consult on all things, and to exalt to the utmost of our power the power of God."

"The believer in Jesus Christ is the universal benefactor; and it is by such free giving of his free receivings, that he not only enriches the world, but that he obtains grace for grace. and augments the strength, the beauty, and the happiness of his own soul. By such scattering he increases."-DR. JAMES HAMILTON.

"If any man doubts whether, as a christian, he is bound by the terms of his discipleship, to aid by prayer, self-denying sacrifice, and personal exertion, in preaching the gospel to every creature, let him, as the Duke of WellingTON once appropriately and graphically said, 'look to his commission, and there find his marching orders.'

""Take my yoke upon you, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light.' Truth, Lord! a light burden, indeed, which supports him who bears it. I have looked abroad through nature, to see if I could find anything that could bear some analogy to this; but I cannot find it, unless it be the wings of a bird, which, while borne of the creature, bear him aloft. In truth, to bear the Lord's burden is to be permitted to cast it, together with ourselves, into the arms of Omnipotence and Grace.-BERNARD OF CLAIRVAUX.

LUTHER Says:-"The command of love is a short command, and a long command, a simple command and a multitudinous command, no command and every command; for the command of love destroys all commands, and yet establishes all."

"It has been an intense and a growing conviction in the minds of some of us, that there is not at this moment one single Church in Christendom, as a whole, in any way adequately alive to the reality, the true nature, and transcendant grandeur of God's greatest work on earth, even that of the evangelization of the world."-DR. DUFF.

PREFACE.

The author's design in this argument is to bring the subject of liberality and devotion to the cause of Foregn Missions not only to the consideration of the understanding, so as to awaken conviction, but into the more intimate presence of the affections of the heart, so as to make it feel that this is a work that comes home to every man's business and bosom. He would appeal, therefore, not merely to faith, but also to hope; not merely to a sense of obligation, but also to that of interest and self-love. He would show that the conversion of the world is not only a work that shall be, and that ought to be, accomplished, but that it is one in whose accomplishment every individual christian and church has both a partnership and a proprietorship; both a labour to perform and remuneration to secure. He would thus impart to his readers not only conviction of a trust, but a willingness to recognize, and power to fulfill it. He would enkindle not only a greater readiness and desire towards this "good work," but love itself. And by showing the relation in which activity in this mission of the Church stand to immortality, to union and fellowship with Christ, and to spirituality, and hope, and joy, he would desire to make that a labour of love and a life of pleasantness and peace, which, in the light of obligation merely, might wear to some the aspect of hopelessness, self-denial, and unrequiting, if not useless toil.

May He who has graciously declared, that he is glorified when his disciples bear much fruit, and that they prove their love to him by their obedience to his commandments, accompany this appeal with his Spirit, and cause his Church and people to arise and shine, the glory of the Lord having risen upon them.

4-VOL. VII.