Billeder på siden
PDF
ePub

Lord repeated the same solemn words upon another remarkable occasion: "After these things the Lord appointed other seventy also, and sent them two and two before his face into every city and place whither he himself would come. THEREFORE he said unto them, The harvest truly is great," &c. If seventy laborers, in addition to the twelve previously appointed, were not too many for the towns and villages where Christ exercised his personal ministry, what number should be sent out in obedience to his command to "go into all the world?"

When the magnitude of the work is pressed upon our notice, and we are told of the SIX HUNDRED MILLIONS of heathen to whom the Gospel is to be preached, we find it sufficiently difficult to grasp the idea of that multitude.* But this numerical statement does not convey the full notion of the amazing subject.

I observe, then, that we are not to conceive of this vast multitude as collected upon the stage of the world, and standing still, waiting till we are able or disposed to make known to them the way of salvation. They are not standing still; they are moving along the stage; and as thousands of them enter every hour on one side of it, as many disappear on the other side; so that the number perpetually fluctuating is still kept up: but twenty millions of them pass away every year-pass away, and are beyond our reach for ever!

Were the number of men here mentioned collected together, and placed as close to each other as they could conveniently stand and move, they would form a mass of living beings a mile in breadth, and upwards of a hundred miles in length! Think of this assemblage of heathen on the march to eternity!

When such a representation as this is made, there are some who remind us that God can work "by many or by few," and that he may be pleased to put honor upon the feeble and despised labors of a comparatively small number, to effect that which all Christendom combined could not accomplish without his effectual blessing. I have replied to this in another place, but I introduce it here for the purpose of remarking, that these same objectors to the employing of many laborers among the heathen, on the ground that God's work can be carried on without the help of hunian agency as well as with it, are the very persons who, at another time, question the duty of pious ministers, divinity students, and other Christians of talent and approved character leaving their native country, on the ground that the cause of religion at home would suffer from the want of their services! I pray you admire this consistency-a few scattered laborers occupying a field altogether disproportionate to their physical and moral strength must remain without farther assistance, that there may be room left for the display of God's sovereignty in effecting his purposes of mercy without corresponding human means; but at home, where human means are abundant, no deduction must be made from them, lest God could not dispense with their aid! To solve the mystery of sentiments so contradictory being held by the same individual, we have only to remark, that in the one case the welfare of others only is at stake; in the other case his own. The selfishness of human nature explains many a moral enigma: it gives edge to arguments or blunts them ad libitum; and "makes the worse seem the better reason."

When I look at the moral mass of the world, my

eye is attracted by the light that shines in a little spot called Great Britain. There I observe the

means of Christian instruction comparatively abundant; I see its ten thousand churches, and tens of thousands of schools, and tens of thousands of Christian ministers and teachers, and thousands more preparing for the work and eager for employment within the precincts of the beloved island. I then turn my eye to other countries of Europe, and see some of them approximating to Britain in privilege and not far behind in practice; but other regions I see bedimmed with Roman Catholic superstition. I next take a wider range of observation, and see skirting the western shores of the Atlantic "a goodly land," which already vies with the foremost of the civilized states of the old world in all that is good and promising; and she too is blessed with a numerous body of Christian teachers, and her schools and colleges are yearly sending out more laborers to the American vineyard. But I cannot be detained longer by the contemplation of these brighter scenes, and here and there a spot of light and moral fertility. I turn to the black and dreary shades of all the chief portions of the rest of the globe, and see that "darkness covers the earth, and gross darkness the people." And seeing this I cannot question the propriety of inviting others to consider it; but if they should be unwilling to do so, what must be done? would it be wrong "to use sharpness?" I have no desire for such an office, nor must any thing I have said be construed as if I had usurped it; I leave it to those who can fill it with a better grace. I am, &c.

20*

LETTER XVIII.

REMARKS ON A SENTIMENT OF DOCTOR
BUCHANAN.

My dear Friend,

MISSIONS to the heathen are either deserving of more general and decided support from all classes of the Christian community, both in the way of furnishing men and money, than they have hitherto obtained-or they are not. If they are not deserving of greatly enlarged encouragement, the subject, as treated in these letters, has been unduly magnified. Enthusiasm has exaggerated the proportions of that part of the spiritual temple not yet built, and truth refuses to sanction the misrepresentation.

But if Christian missions are deserving of so much more liberal support and universal countenance, how is it that they have not received it ?

Among other causes, I am sorry to particularize one which has been pressed upon my notice by the perusal of the sermon of the late Dr. Buchanan, preached before the Church (of England) Missionary Society, in 1810. When I allude to this author also, as I have done to several others in the course of this correspondence, for the purpose of reprehending sentiments expressed by them, perhaps you may think I have become a very captious reader and judge of what other men write. But I shall not be deterred by the fear of any such imputation, from plainly showing you my opinion; and especially when I see cause to differ from

writers who are highly and justly respected, and whose names carry with them an authority sufficient to give weight and currency to every sentiment they choose to publish. I could have descanted with more ease, and with far greater pleasure, upon the excellencies to be found in the authors Í have referred to; but what is good, speaks for itself; what I would therefore attempt is, to prevent the bad which I conceive to be mixed with it, from passing unsuspected because found in connection with much that is unexceptionable.

What I refer to at present, as one cause of the small measure of attention and respect paid to the subject of missions, especially by Christians of superior rank, wealth, and learning, is the idea that it is an undertaking to be carried on chiefly by persons in the lower walks of life; and that men of that class are the most proper to be employed as missionaries. Hence there is a character of meanness and vulgarity thrown over the whole affair; and a man of superior station, or of a high character for learning, is taught to feel himself degraded by any immediate contact with missionary societies or their agents. I know that many most distinguished characters, both at home and abroad, have shown themselves to be above this prejudice, (for a most absurd prejudice assuredly it is,) but I confess myself somewhat surprised to find Dr. Buchanan abetting this false sentiment, or at least compromising the truth, in such a passage as the following-"If you look around, you may observe that few of the rich or learned of any society of Christians, however small, and however zealous to diffuse Christianity, are disposed to go forth as missionaries; and it is true, that if the rich and learned did go, they could not assimilate with the

« ForrigeFortsæt »