limited plans and enterprises of christian philanthropy; and above all, the vast increase of the spirit of prayer, have conduced to the wide-spread impression among the more spiritual part of the church, that the future march of Christianity to universal empire will be more like an already victorious army hastening to the spoil, than, as it hath heretofore been, like one slowly, laboriously, and painfully making its way over alpine heights, to the field where the decisive battle remains to be fought and won.

It is freely admitted that we see not in operation any sufficient causes for the production of the great result. But our reliance is not limited to natural or visible agencies. The work of evangelism is a work of faith. We look for sudden and surprising interventions of the divine power, to render favorable influences effectual, and to overrule unfavorable ones. We do this under warrant both of Scripture and the analogy of the past. And we do it with the more confidence, when we consider the influence of prayer on the mind of God. That influence hath been accumulating, day and night, through all the ages of the past; but in our times, as it hath been very eloquently said, "a chain of prayer beginning in the farthest east, is carried round with the sun to the farthest west, in the islands of the Pacific, through all the hours of time." When we remember this, are we presumptuous in the hope, that, as the patience of God bears long with the wicked until they have perfectly filled their measure of iniquity, and then

gives free place to the full visitations of his reluctant wrath; so, after God hath kept his elect crying to him incessantly from the beginning, and hath in our day so mightily augmented their number and their importunity, he will at length vouchsafe, as in a moment of time, such unparalleled and immeasurable effusions of his Spirit, as will make the remaining course of the gospel almost like the lightning, which lighteneth out of one part under heaven and shineth unto the other part under heaven.

But let it be observed, that we are pressing this high hope as a motive to missionary zeal. If God is about to work swiftly and mightily for the peaceful extension of his kingdom, his people will be set to working for this purpose, also swiftly and mightily. It is only in and through their agency that God exerteth his own. If he stretch forth his hand as in the beginning, the church will be quickened, and moved, and engaged, as she was at first. She will again feel, as it has well been said, the presence of her invisible King and eternal Lord; the souls of Christians will again overflow with the plenitude of spiritual and heavenly life; and they will again cease to value earthly existence, and be willing to sacrifice it in the struggle against the powers of darkness. For, as the church is the body of Christ, the fulness of Him that filleth all in all, when she makes no revelation of saving power, none will be made. We are looking therefore for a change in the church, of which the anticipated change in the

state of mankind shall be but the just result and full developement. Indeed the latter change will be nothing other than the former, extended, by the process of assimilation, even as the leaven, by the same process, leaveneth the mass in which it hath been hidden. So that, as Paul told his shipwrecked fellow voyagers, to whom he had promised safety in the name of the Lord, that unless the shipmen abode in the ship, they could not be saved, may it be said to the church, with all the pledges and promises of the world's conversion before her, that the world will not be converted, unless she stir up herself to the requisite and appropriate exertions for its recovery. And further, as Christ said concerning Judas, "The Son of Man goeth as it is written of him, but woe to that man by whom he is betrayed," may we not say to the Christians of this generation, that, although the world will be evangelized according to the sure word of God, yet woe unto them, if, with all their advantages and encouragements for going forward in the work of missions, they falter in that work ere its end is fully reached.

VII. A seventh reason for advancement therefore exists in the fact, that there is no guaranty against the consequences of our halting. No prophecies, no signs, no facilities and preparations, no vivid anticipations of the latter glory as about to break forth like the lightning's flash, can shut the door against these consequences. The eternal principles of the divine government, the perfec

tions of the divine nature, require that door to remain open. Close it, and the penalty of the highest disobedience, the displays of God's punitive displeasure against aggravated sin, and of course the divine benevolence will disappear for no evil can be compared to the relaxation of the bonds of the divine empire. Let us then glance at the consequences of not advancing. We shall not remain long at a stand, when we have once decided against progress. Well did our report of last year declare that it is the law of Heaven, that in the christian race we should press onward, never content with present attainments, present doings, present sacrifices. There is the certainty of decline, in ceasing to be aggressive and onward. That halt is virtually a backward step, and it may prove to be an irrecoverable fall. It shews inherent instability and weakness, and it inspires distrust and discouragement. It has been justly and very seasonably remarked,* that the souls of men are not likely to be stirred to support adequately a work, even in its present state, unless it give signs of continued advancement. If we come to a stand, it will not be long before the churches will begin to abate their interest, their prayers, their confidence, their support. The results hasten-one after another our missionary operations come to an end, our schools are dispersed, our missionaries recalled, our stations abandoned, and at length our holy enterprise given over as

* By the Rev. Dr. Williams, of New York.

impracticable, or to be accomplished in other days and by other hauds. And then how much better had it been for the cause of evangelization, if the idea of modern missions had never been conceived. At what immense disadvantages will the Christians of a future day enter on the work. And how will Antichrist, whom our successes have enlisted in active opposition, glory over us and the cause, while occupying our deserted positions, and either numbering our churches as his own, or persecuting them to death, or scattering them again among the heathen. And by what strange and terrible judgments upon our domestic churches. may we expect to be visited? How long will our revivals and annual jubilees of benevolence remain, when the spirit of missions has departed? What else were to be anticipated, but that a general and unparalleled blight would overspread the fair heritage of God, and that all forms of error and corruption would infest it, until it became a scene of utter desolation? And with such appalling degeneracy in the church, what would be the state of civil society? Unless the loudest admonitions both of Scripture and of history be as empty noise, there will be commotions, revolutions, tribulations; signs in the sun, in the moon, and in the stars; and upon earth distress of nations with perplexity; the sea and waves roaring; men's hearts failing them for fear and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth. Fathers and brethren, it is truly an awful responsibility which we and our contemporary fellow Christians