brethren, is this work? What is it that the humble missionary undertakes to effect? He goes forth to produce, under the divine blessing, a moral renovation throughout the world; to repair the ruin of the fall; to shed a ray of heavenly light, where gloom and darkness are pervading immortal souls are the fruit which he reaps; wherever men exist, there is the sphere of his labours. Estimate, if you can, the value of the sou!; the value of one immortal undying soul; and then tell me what is that vast and mighty work, when compared with the small and insignificant number of labourers employed?

Again, the labourers are few, if we consider how glorious and honourable is that office which they have undertaken. What post is so distinguished, what post is so honourable, as that of the Christian missionary? What honour so great as that of being employed as an ambassador of heaven, as the herald of divine love, as the agent of the King of kings? Does the earthly ambassador consider that he is holding an office of distinction, when he goes forth to a distant land, and represents some powerful monarch at a foreign court; and shall not the office of ambassador of the King of kings be eagerly sought, as one of distinguished honour? When we consider that he is commissioned to proclaim, and in a world of rebels, the glorious tidings of mercy and reconciliation in Christ, surely this office has not the value in the eyes of men, which its merit deserves. So far from there being that throng of eager applicants which we might expect to find crowding into this post of honour; so far, I say, from this being the case, we have to lament that one of the strongest appeals which this Society is called upon to make, is for more labourers. Our noble Missionary College, standing in this parish, has, I believe, never since its commencement been any thing like fully and completely occupied by students. And why is this? Alas, there is an apathy, an indifference, an unconcern prevails. We will rather contribute our money than our personal services, in this great work. We send forth our sons, yea far off, to distant India; and we care not for unhealthy climes when earthly emolument is to be sought: we send them forth to amass their fortunes, and to contribute to the ends of earthly enterprise: are we equally anxious that they should go forth with the pearl of great price in their hands; not to gather in something of this world's talents, but to store up the wealth of heavenly riches, which no moth could corrupt, and no thief could steal ?

Then, how few are the labourers, when compared with the pressing wants of our own immediate sphere of missionary labours, connected with the Church Missionary Society. Leaving out of the question those vast tracks of the world where missionaries have never penetrated the immediate stations of our own society are far too scantily occupied. Take, for example, the vast region of Australasia, and the islands in the immense Pacific Ocean: I find that only six ordained missionaries are labouring in those widely extended, and most interesting regions. In the West Indies, where eight hundred thousand of our fellow-subjects have just been liberated from the shackles of slavery, one solitary missionary from this society is residing. On the western coast of Africa we have five; on the shores of the Mediterranean we have eight; at Ceylon we have eight; and throughout the immense Peninsula of India we have twenty four. Now what, I ask, is this? What proportion does this scanty band of labourers bear to the actual wants of these vast and desert regions?

Taking for granted that other kindred societies may be labouring in some of these parts with equal, or with even greater efficiency than our own, still the labourers are few. Unhealthy climes are impairing their strength, and rapidly thinning their numbers. We have continual information of one and another that have been cut off in the midst of their career, or of others whose feeble health, or exhausted frames, compel them to return to their native shores. Then the want of civilization, in many of these countries, much impedes the direct missionary duty. A thousand obstacles are presented; England is not half, my brethren, awake-not half alive to the spiritual wants, even of those quarters of the globe with which we are best acquainted.

But, lastly, we have to inquire, HOW ARE THESE WANTS TO BE SUPPLIED? Our Lord suggests the first grand remedy that we must adopt. "Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth labourers into his harvest." Prayer is the grand resource for promoting the spread of the Gospel. When our Lord was about to appoint his twelve Apostles to go forth to preach his word, he spent the whole previous night in prayer to God. It was when the Apostles were assembled for devotion, that the first descent of the Holy Ghost took place. The Apostles and early preachers of the Gospel, ever mingled their public ministrations with fervent reiterated prayer for success. We find St. Paul daily remembering, at the throne of grace, those churches among which he was labouring; or, even when he had only heard of their faith, and had not a personal knowledge of them. It is the same in every age; it is not merely your contributions of money, my brethren, however needful and absolutely indispensable those contributions are, for God works by means, and he only gives the blessing in the use of those means. "Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth"-thrust forth, as the word implies; to compel to go forth" labourers into his harvest." For if he give the word, great will be the company of the labourers. He is "the Lord of the harvest ;" the vast moral field belongs to him; it is his property; his vineyard: he has formed and planted it, and he has a right to reap the fruits thereof.

Press, then, to the throne of grace, to implore that he would look in mercy on his heritage, which is lying waste, vast tracts of Messiah's blessed kingdom are still unfruitful. The hearts of men, by nature, are unwilling to labour in this heavenly vineyard; rather will they stand idle in the market-place: they must be sought out; they must be searched for; they must be aroused and quickened, and thrust forth by Jehovah himself; their hearts must be warmed by Christ; their affection must be enkindled by his grace; a missionary spirit must be awakened. That backwardness to effort, which is so deeply seated in the human heart, must be removed; and a holy devotedness take the place of it. If prayer was more general, more perseveringly aroused, what mighty efforts might we not look for. God would open, as he says in Malachi, the windows of heaven, and pour us down a blessing, that there should not be room enough to receive it. What has not prayer already effected? It has opened and it has shut heaven; it has stopped the invasion of armies; it has raised the dead to life; it has sustained the prisoner in his fetters, and the martyr at his stake; it has secured and brought down the mercy of the God of heaven upon ruined man. Let, then, prayer be poured out for heathen lands.

But before I appeal to you to do this, I feel that a previous question must be first asked:-Do you pray for yourself? Do you feel the value of your own soul? Alas, many there are in a Christian land, surrounded by the light of the Gospel, possessing every religious privilege which can bless and enlighten a nation, and yet, who care not for God, neither is God in all their thoughts. Am I speaking to any such to-day? Am I addressing any, upon whom the light of truth is shining, and the gospel of salvation is shedding its beams around, and yet not one ray of that light has ever pierced the gloom of their own hearts? Suffer me, brethren, to plead with you, not so much on behalf of the poor heathen, as for your souls. My beloved brethren, death and eternity are hastening; soon will the shadows of evening fall; soon will these means of grace be over. No sound of mercy echoes through the abode of woe; no voice of warning is heard there; the gulf is closed, and hope is gone. Oh, then, begin; begin while hearing of the state of the poor heathen, to think and to pray for yourselves. If God by his grace touch your hearts; if he be pleased to awaken you to a sense of your danger, and of the value of the Gospel, oh how gladly, how joyfully will you contribute to send forth the word of life among the benighted regions of the earth. None will then leave this church, without having raised a prayer, and without having dropped their contributions, however small that offering may be, for the cause of the Christian missionary.

The Christian who values his own privileges must, he cannot help, feeling for those of others. Oh, let it not be said, that the benevolence of this parish is confined within its own comparatively narrow limits; let it not be said, that while our local charities are supported, and most important and most invaluable are those local charities to this parish, yet let it not be said that charity is confined to them; that we cannot look beyond our own limits, to the far distant lands of the heathen. God grant that a missionary spirit may be aroused in Islington; God grant that the appeals which have been this day made to your hearts in behalf of this Society, may awaken in your breast a feeling of sympathy and compassion for the heathen lands, which shall never be allayed while one benighted region of our globe continues unsupplied with the light of the Gospel. Let it be one of the fruits of the progress of religion, which I rejoice to think is going forward in this parish-I say, let it be one of the fruits of this, that Christian love, and Christian charity is produced among us. And not merely among the more wealthy and rich of the families here; why are the the servant, the domestic, to be debarred from throwing in the mite into the treasury of God? That mite will not be overlooked. He who declared that the poor widow, who cast in her two mites, had given more than all who had given of their abundance to the treasury of God, will receive and bless the offering of the poor.

poor,

Remember that God, my brethren, works by means and here is a vast harvest to be gathered. Will God gather it by a miracle, or will he reap it by an instantaneous effort of his hand? This is not the ordinary course of his dealings with men: God employs the instrumentality of men in reaping the fruits of the earth. And then, how are they to go forth if you send them not? "How," says the Apostle, "shall they preach, except they be sent?" Yes, beloved brethren; beautiful are the feet of those who carry good tidings of

good, who publish peace. May these spiritual watchmen be increased and multiplied among us. May they feel a warmer zeal unite their hearts. "For Zion's sake let them not hold their peace, and for Jerusalem's sake let them not rest, until the righteousness thereof go forth as brightness, and the salvation. thereof as a lamp which burneth."

THE INCOMPETENCY OF REASON, AND THE FITNESS OF

REVELATION.

REV. R. 8. CANDLISH, A.M.

ST. GEORGE'S CHURCH, EDINBURGH, SEPTEMBER 14, 1834*.

"Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you."-ACTs, xvii. 23.

THIS discourse of St. Paul is an admirable specimen of that sound discretion, in the exercise of which, without compromising principle—yea, rather for the very purpose of asserting and enforcing principle-he "became all things to all men." For it was not his doctrine that he accommodated to the views of his hearers: that he never changed or modified: the truth which he taught was always the same truth, for it was the truth as it is in Jesus. It was simply his manner of stating, and illustrating, and proving the truth, that he varied according to circumstances, to suit the different classes with which he had to deal, and the different degrees and states of knowledge with which he came in contact; that so the truth might have a favourable hearing. He became all things to all men, if by any means he might gain some.

men.

This is plainly necessary in every attempt to convince and persuade reasonable There must be some mutually acknowledged principle; we must take some common ground on which to build our argument; and that ground must differ in regard to different individuals and classes of individuals. Thus, in arguing with the Jews on the one hand, and the Gentiles on the other, concerning the truth and reasonableness of the Gospel, the Apostle did not adopt the same mode; he proceeded according to the different principles they were willing to acknowledge. In the case of the Jews, the common ground he had with them was, the Old Testament Scriptures. In the case of the Gentiles, the common ground was, what are called the articles of natural religion, whether the discoveries of reason or the traditional remains of original revelation. Yet still the Apostle always aimed at the same result, the bringing both Jews and Gentiles to the knowledge and the belief of the grace and the judgment of God in Christ. Here in particular, in the Areopagus of Athens, and addressing the chief men of that learned and polite city, he takes a tone of high moral dignity, well befitting the place and the audience: the place-that venerable hall of judgment where, in circumstances not altogether unlike his own, the wisest of men once pleaded the cause of a sounder faith against the bigotry of his more ignorant countrymen: the audience-the select and chosen among those whose profound wisdom, on all subjects of human thought, is still the admiration and the delight of the world. He met them on their own field, and fought them with their own

• For the benefit of the Gaelic Schools.