king, to face his enemies! I leave you to apply this parable.

It is a glory peculiar to the Christian system, that its motives to obedience are as powerful as its precepts and doctrines are pure and heavenly; and so it is possessed of the grand desideratum, the want of which left the boasted ethics of heathen an

tiquity essentially defective. Their ethical systems, like their celebrated statues, were astonishing monuments of human genius; but they were lifeless. But how is this peculiar character of Christianity illustrated by its professors? Does their conduct demonstrate that they are governed by a religion of motives? Is their performance of the most difficult and self-denying duties it prescribes, but the means of showing the power it exercises over them? or at any rate, are there so many examples of this, that it is no breach of charity to account for the rare cases of neglect of duty, by ranking the few who are guilty of such neglect among mere hypocritical pretenders to the Christian name?

The admission of duty not followed up by corresponding practice necessarily proves one of two things: either that Christianity is deficient in motives, or that the omission of acknowledged duty betrays a radical defect of principle. The question, then with regard to those who profess Christianity and yield no practical obedience to some one important duty, is reduced to this alternative. The influence of Christianity over its disciples is as powerless as the systems of Aristotle or Epicurus were over theirs; or, the professor of Christianity who neglects, or deceitfully compromises the duties it prescribes, is a hypocrite.

It is easy to see how these remarks bear upon the duty of Christians to propagate the Gospel. I cannot conceive of a more triumphant proof of the divinity of the Christian religion than would be furnished by its disciples being universally animated with a zeal to extend the knowledge of it through the whole world-not such a partial inefficient zeal as draws a paltry annual contribution to a missionary society-but such a zeal as would lay the whole moral and mental energies of the Christian world as a consecrated offering on the altar of God. Some Christians do all they can; and when all Christians shall act as some already do, it will be a happy omen for Christianity and for the world. When Christians, instead of reply ing to the endless quibbles of skeptics and heretics, shall rise up and bend their whole efforts to make the pagan world Christian, they will effectually and for ever silence the infidel, and prove the righteousness of the cause of God and truth.

It is one of the strangest things in the world to hear men talk of the mysteriousness of the ways of God in suffering so great a portion of the world, and for so many ages, to remain destitute of the light of revelation. Is it not more mysterious that God has refrained from pouring out the fierceness of his indignation upon the guilty possessors of that revelation? who, shutting up their bowels of compassion from their perishing brethren, have falsified their own profession of loving God by living in the habitual neglect of the Saviour's command, "Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature." Had no such command been given to publish the remedy of God's providing for the universal disease of sin with all its present and future misery, men would have been less inex

cusable; but the command vindicates the character of God, and throws all the guilt of keeping back the sovereign remedy for a perishing world upon those who were solemnly charged with the duty of dispensing it, and the blood of all that have perished through their neglect will be required at their hands! Let none think that the system of means at present used is at all commensurate with the length and breadth of the undertaking, nor is there yet room for any to conclude that the over zeal of others will make up for the deficiency of theirs. In efforts to convert the world there can be no works of supererogation. The men of this generation are not like children sitting in the marketplace and saying, "We have piped unto you and ye have not danced." They expect to see them dance without being piped to;-they wonder why the world has not been converted long ere now ;but what is the cause? The Gospel has not been preached to it. Speak not of the decrees of God. Whatever be thought of them they can never furnish an excuse for disobeying the command of God. It has been said that the effectual enlightening of the world with the beams of divine truth must be as independent of human effort as the rising of the sun. And that is a truth in its own connection never to be forgotten, for it is God's part of the work; but man has his part assigned him to perform likewise-namely, to call upon the nations to awake and behold the light-saying, "Arisebe enlightened, for thy light is come and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee."

I have elsewhere argued that we may safely leave God to vindicate his own prerogative to convert the nations to himself. He will not give his glory to another, nor share it with even his most

eminent servants; and they have no reason to fear (the very idea is presumptuous) that their efforts will render the power of God less manifest. There was trial made for four thousand years of what the wisdom of the world could do to improve human nature. Philosophy and civilization, and all the resources of human genius were expended without effect; they utterly failed in turning man from sin to righteousness, but the "foolishness of God" accomplished it. The preaching of the cross, derided by the Greek, and stumbled at by the Jew, was the power of God to salvation. But God still retains in his own hands the prerogative of making this doctrine effectual to the salvation of them that hear it; and only eternity perhaps will fully explain why generations of missionaries were suffered to labor almost without success-why societies and churches brought all their energies to bear year after year upon the work of evangelizing the world without accomplishing the object, except to a very limited extent. But one reason of this-if we may without presumption suppose it-may be, that when the Spirit is at length poured out as floods upon the dry ground, and nations are born in a day, all the world may see in that glorious advancement of the kingdom of Christ a grand illustration of the principle, that it is "not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God, who showeth mercy."

I am yours, &c.

ON MINISTERIAL

LETTER XI.

FAITHFULNESS TO CANDIDATES

FOR MISSIONARY SERVICE.

My dear Friend,

A YOUNG man, whose mind is turning toward the ministry must think himself happy if he enjoys the privilege of having recourse for consultation and advice to a judicious friend; and tutors, ministers, and intelligent private Christians ought to consider the influence they may possess over any young person of this description as a valuable talent. It gives them opportunities of usefulness which ought to be most anxiously improved; for the amount of good they may do in this way, may extend far beyond the immediate advantage which the young friend or pupil may derive from their attentions. I can scarcely conceive of any circumstances in which the Christian solicitude of a minister or tutor is likely to meet with a richer reward than when it is employed in directing, encouraging, and watching over one who is aspiring to the ministry of the Gospel, whether in a heathen or Christian country. When a judicious Christian friend takes such a young man aside, and enters with him into close, affectionate and instructive conversation, incalculable is the good that may result to the individual from the views and impressions of his future work which he may thus acquire. I believe it is the complaint, in most cases, even of the most serious young men, that their minds are too little affected with the awfulness and responsibility of the vocation they have in prospect,