there are many men who are much influenced by it. We are aware it is not ignorance, but cowardice and shame that keep many from attending where the Gospel is preached, and from joining with those who have the prize of the high calling in view. Why did not the Pharisees believe, when they saw the blind restored to sight, and the dead raised? They feared the people lest they should be put out of the synagogue, for they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God. Did Felix deem Paul worthy of imprisonment? He did not; but "willing to show the Jews a favour, he left Paul bound." Did Herod deem Peter deserving of death? He did not: but having slain John with the sword, he proceeded further to take Peter also. Did Pilate believe our Saviour to be guilty? He washed his hands, and said; "I am pure from the blood of this just person." Why then did he deliver "him to be crucified?", To gain popularity with the multitude. The Apostle tells us, "When they knew God they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful." He tell us that "they held the truth in unrighteousness." For you find, with all the knowledge they possessed, they conformed to the common superstition and idolatry. The divine Socrates, as he is called, when dying, ordered a cock to be sacrificed to Esculapius. They held the truth in unrighteousness," the Apostle says. And this is the case with numbers: they know what is right, but they hold the truth in unrighteousness: they have a thousand convictions that correspond with the Scripture, but they hold them in unrighteousness. And hence with regard to some of you, you know that your first question is not, Is such a thing true? Is such a thing right? But, What will people say of me? Hence the most flimsy objections are enough to satisfy your minds. Am I to condemn all my fellow creatures, and give out that I am better than every body else? Hence the admonition, "Follow not the multitude to do evil."

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Now, with regard to these impressions, let us advert to several things. First, the world knoweth us not, it is true; and it is better it should be so. For, if we are redeemed, if we are spiritual, we need not lament their distance: the more remote they are, the more safe shall we be from their influence. It is not easy to mingle with the heathen, and not learn their worship. Even Joseph, when in Egypt, learned to swear "by the life of Pharoah." Secondly, the world knoweth us not, and there is nothing peculiar in this. Moses endured scorn and reproach rather than run into sin. David was ridiculed for reposing his all in God. Isaiah was sawn in sunder for his fidelity. The Apostles were considered the scum and the off-scouring of the earth, and not one died a natural death but John, and he in his old age was banished, and worked as a slave in the isle of Patmos. And when Paul was apprehended for Christ Jesus' sake, the Saviour says, How many things he is to suffer for my name's sake. And shall we refuse to drink the cup that they drank of, and be baptized with the baptism which they were baptized with? What are your trials compared with those that have been endured by the many that have gone before? You are ready to excuse and to extenuate your conduct: you are ready to say that your trials are too strong for resistance. What are the difficulties that infest your course? If you follow such a course, you say, Into what a state will you be reduced? Into what lion's den will you be thrown? If you follow this course, will you be deprived of your liberty? No. Wiil vou be deprived of your substance? No. Will you be deprived of your bread? Nothing like this: but we find this would be your language (you would be

ashamed to speak out, therefore I speak for you,) I must rise a little earlier in the morning. I must give alms-oh, dreadful—I shall have less to hoard up. If I refuse to sell on the Sabbath I shall be deprived of a little of my profits. If I abide by such convictions, I may lose the smile of friends, and incur the frowns of enemies, or draw the laugh of such a fool. These are your perils and jeopardies these are our persecutions and our martyrdoms in the present day; these are the tribulations because of the world.

Thirdly, the world knows us not, but it knew Him not; for had they known him, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. "He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not," "he had not where to lay his head." When will his poor followers remember that his name was cast out? When will they remember that the servant is not above his master, nor the disciple above his Lord? "If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you." And is not this enough? Can you refuse to suffer in such company? Can you refuse to suffer for the sake of one who has done so much for your soul-one who has said, that even in this life ye shall obtain more, and in that which is to come, life everlasting? We think sometimes, if professors of Christianity were free from inconsistency, the world would admire and dread them. But then comes the difficulty: we meet with none such. There was a person in the world for three and thirty years, free from every inconsistency, free from every impropriety: he was wisdom itself, he was prudence itself, he was amiableness itself, he was loveliness itself; and yet they were not satisfied till they had imbrued their hands in his blood.

Fourthly, the world knows us not, but it shall know us. The present is only the beginning of your happiness; you are husbandmen, and the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruits of the ground. You are heirs, and “the heir, as long as he is a child, differeth not from a servant, though he be lord of all :" he must wait till he comes of age. Your day, Christians, is coming-the day of the manifestation of the sons of God. Then every cloud will be dispersed, and the righteous shall shine forth as stars in the firmament of heaven. "Then shall he return and discern between the righteous and the wicked; between him that serveth God and him that serveth him not." "Wisdom will be justified in all her children;" "for I will bring them to thy feet, and they shall know that I have loved them." And then they shall be made to exclaim, "Fools accounted their life madness, and their end to be without honour; but they are numbered among the children of God, and their lot is among the saints." But is not this anticipated by the world now? In their dying hours they begin to see things as they are. And, says Mrs. Savage, the daughter of Philip Henry, "I have always observed this, that the people of the world never speak well of it at parting." They have known too much of it to commend it when dying. There are moments when they begin to see things properly: they see that they are chained, that they are goaded on: then they wonder at their own folly; they are ready to say, “All men are liars." They will know then the meaning of the passage "their rock is not as our rock, our enemies themselves being judges." Even now they are compelled to pay homage to Christian excellence. Could you distinguish between their words and sentiments, when delusion and imagination give place to the remonstrances of reason, how often would you hear them say, "How goodly are thy tents, O Jacob, and thy tabernacles, O Asrael. Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my last end be like his."

Ministers often mistake when they express the language of the people of the world, when they represent them saying, My happiness is all over now. They will utter nothing like this: they will not say, My happiness is now over; but they will say, I never was happy. They will not say, I am now miserable, but, I always was miserable; they feel they were miserable in time only to be more miserable in eternity.

Fifthly, the world knoweth us not, but God does, on whose frowns or smiles depend our misery or our happiness. It is a light thing to be judged of man's judgment: he that judgeth us is the Lord: in his favour is life, his lovingkindness is better than life. He puts joy into our hearts more than when their oil and wine increase. Let them curse but bless thou.

Our subject is a commendation of Christianity. The Christian course is not darkness, but light: it will bear examination. The evidences of their religion are not arguments but facts. Prophecies are not messages like the heathen oracles; they were delivered ages before their accomplishment, and some of them are accomplishing now. Their miracles are not alone to be wondered at, or denied; they were performed in public before the face even of enemies. Their promises are as real as they are valuable, and they are able to give a reason for the hope that is in them. The world is like Jael standing at the door of the tent in the evening, spreading the mantle, and bringing out butter in a lordly dish, but hiding the hammer and the nail till she had smote the nail fast into the temples of Sisera. But it is not thus with Christianity as to the dangers or sacrifices which it may require: instead of concealing these, it tells us from the beginning we shall have tribulation; that if any man believe in Christ he shall suffer persecution. The Saviour calls on us to count the cost, and calculate the labour of the journey, and see whether you have resources to bear the expenses of the one, and undergo the fatigues of the other. Christianity does not encourage its converts by flattery: it does not comfort its sufferers by denying their trials; it allows them to feel them, and it allows them to feel them deeply; but it does enough to animate them under all. It can enable the Christian to dispense with the world, and the things of the world, the world that is every thing to others. As to carual men, when they are deprived of their outward possessions, they say with Micah, "You have taken away my gods, and what have I more." But the Christian having nothing possesseth all things. The Christian must be a very resourceful man, a man of unbounded resources, of infinite resources. His mouth is filled with marrow and fatness. He cau dispense with plenty, and say, "Though the fig-tree does not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines, yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation." He can dispense with liberty, and say, having the presence of God he desireth not the presence of the world. He can dispense with health, and say, God maketh his bed in his sickness. He can dispense with liberty, and say, "Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil." He can dispense with the whole universe, and when the heavens pass away with a great noise, and the elements melt with fervent heat, standing upon the ashes he can exclaim, here are new heavens and a new earth for me, wherein dwelleth righteousness.

THE ABUNDANCE OF THE HARVEST, AND THE SCARCITY

OF THE LABOURERS.

REV. R. KNILL.

TOTTENHAM COURT ROAD CHAPEL, MAY 18, 1834 *.

"The harvest truly is plenteous, but the labourers are few; pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth labourers into his harvest."-MATTHEW, ix. 37, 38.

It is computed that fifty people die every minute, upon an average, throughout the year. Since we entered this sacred place many of our fellow creatures have entered into eternity. Let us suppose that one of these was a converted. heathen, that for many years of the latter part of his life he walked with God, that he enjoyed the blessedness of a pardoned sinner, that he died in the faith, and that an abundant entrance was ministered unto him into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ: he has now entered on the bliss of heaven, he has joined the songs of the redeemed, he is become a companion of the glorified; and amidst the shouts of the innumerable multitudes that surround the throne, we hear a fresh burst of joy when he exclaims, "I was born a heathen, I lived many years a heathen, and I should have died a heathen, but a servant of Jesus Christ came to the land of my fathers; he preached the Gospel, I heard, I believed; and now I am for ever with the Lord." Oh, my brethren, have you been instrumental in sending that sinner the Gospel? Let the thought animate us to send it to every creature; for this is the design of all missionary efforts, to make sinners happy in this world, and happy for ever and ever.

But we follow another of these departed spirits. That man was born a heathen, he lived a heathen, he died a heathen; and in hell he lifted up his eyes, being in torments. He has now entered upon the miseries of the bottomless pit; he is become the companion of the devil and his angels, while the worm begins to prey upon him that can never die, and that flame begins to kindle apon him that never can be quenched. We hear his cry, "No man cared for my soul; no missionary of Jesus Christ came to the land of my fathers to point out to me my danger, and show me the way of salvation: now I am lost-lost for ever."

My dear friends, let the thought sink down into our hearts, and let it rouse us to warn guilty men to flee from the wrath to come. Let it animate us to search out perishing multitudes, lest their blood be required at our hands. Let it animate us with the delightful thought, that Jesus will accompany the effort when we endeavour to send the Gospel to every creature.

The London Missionary Society has been established almost forty years; ** Anniversary Sermon for the London Missionary Society.

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and there is nothing which it has set its hand unto but God has smiled upon. This evening I stand here as the feeble advocate of a missionary society; I stand here as the feeble advocate of hundreds of millions of perishing heathens; and I address you in the language of your Saviour, "The harvest truly is plenteous, but the labourers are few; pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth labourers into his harvest."

The first thing that we are to attend to in this text is, the harvest, which is plenteous; the second is, the labourers, who are few; and the third is, the Saviour's plan for increasing their number. Lift up your hearts, my dear friends, to God, and entreat assistance and blessing for the feeble and guilty creature who is addressing you.

Let us first look at THE HARVEST. It is too vast to be taken within the verge of one short sermon. China, India, Birmah, and Japan; Africa; the West Indies; South America; Russian Tartary, Persia, and the islands of the South Sea: all this is too vast for our consideration at the present opportunity; I have seen enough of these countries with my own eyes to occupy more than all the missionaries of Jesus Christ that are now on the face of the globe. I shall confine myself to two particulars.

First let us look at Africa. Africa was one of the earliest scenes of missionary enterprise, as far as our society is concerned: here Vanderkemp and his colleagues laboured, who have been followed by numerous others; and in many places the wilderness begins to blossom, and the desert assumes the appearance of the garden of the Lord. What should we say, were we travelling in Africa, and stopped on a Sunday evening at one of the missionary stations in Caffraria, and there saw the missionary writing thus in his journal: "Yesterday, "From seventeen waggons arrived at this station." Whence came they? various places at a distance, over the burning sand." With what were they laden? "With men, and women, and children." Why came they hither on the Saturday? That they might be in time for the service of God on the Sabbath" and this morning there were three hundred Caffres at the prayermeeting at seven o'clock." Brethren, in all this glorious land, where Bibles and Missionary efforts are carried on as they are nowhere else, where is there a prayer-meeting at seven o'clock on a Sabbath morning, and three hundred persons attend? It was so in Caffraria, amidst the deserts of Africa, where your missionaries have been ploughing up the fallow ground, and sowing the seed of the Gospel; and now the harvest is ripe.

A letter has been received by the Society, which states that Dr. Philip, in one of his late journies, met a whole tribe of the inhabitants of Africa coming to meet him. Why were they coming? They said to him, "We must have a missionary, and we will make him a chief:" but there was no missionary to be had. After that he met a chief with a thousand head of cattle. Why had he brought them? That he might buy a missionary; for he would not go back without one: of course the thousand cattle were to be sold in order to purchase the man of God: but there was none. So in every place where our missionaries have been labouring, and where the Moravian, or the Wesleyan missionaries have been labouring, the dew of heaven has descended on the seed; and great and blessed are the resuïts Notice in the second place, India. I lived about three years in India, on the