stances, be justified in quitting his post while he could retain it and perform its duties. His constituents would justly consider him as betraying an impatient and presumptuous spirit, were he hastily to leave the service of his Master because he did not succeed in accomplishing the work undertaken so speedily, or to so great an extent as he wished and expected. Perhaps, however, it would be allowed to such a laborer to feel keenly in such a situation, to be filled with deep concern, dwelling in the midst of a gainsaying people, mad upon their idols, and after all his efforts remaining impenitent, unaffected, hostile to the Gospel, or caring nothing about the matter. But if so, has not the laborer, in the circumstances supposed, a peculiar claim upon the Christian sympathy and prayers of his brethren at home? And as they would have him to continue to labor and not faint, should not they continue to encourage him, strengthen his hands and cheer his heart, by the assurance of their interest in his welfare and prosperity, by their kind words and good offices?

It is granted that the want of success may sometimes be traced to the missionary himself. He may be chargeable with some fatal error in judgment or practice, which may provoke God to withhold his blessing. But ought it not to be likewise considered that the Christian societies, under whose sanction the missionary acts, may come in for a share of such guilt? Is it not possible that the want of faith, prayer, zeal in the professed friends of the missionary cause at home, may be one cause of the small success of their missionaries abroad?

If lukewarmness is emphatically displeasing to

God, and calls forth the severest expressions of his abhorrence, if he threatens utterly to reject the Laodicean and his heartless service, is there no room for inquiry, whether God may not find this character adhering to many who rank themselves with the promoters of the grand design of "preaching the Gospel to every creature?" May not the many at home who constitute the body of a missionary society, if they are neither "cold nor hot" in this cause, have the effect upon the labors of their agents abroad, which a paralysis of a vital organ has upon the limbs ?

But I have wandered from the thing I intended to say, which was this-that Christians at home of a right spirit will be equally disposed to sympathize with missionaries in the failure of their attempts, as to rejoice with them in their success; and although the latter is of course the more pleasant duty, the former will be no less recognized to be a duty.

In short, I repeat that it is not the success of their efforts, but the express command of God that must be regarded as the great and unchangeable stimulus to exertion; and the use to be made of success is to "thank God and take courage," while the use to be made of partial defeat is to learn from it to pursue with more devoted zeal, humility, and prayer, the solemn and arduous work, "praying with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints." Especially, let the friends of missionaries pray more fervently for them, "that utterance may be given unto them, that they may open their mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the Gospel."

I feel it difficult in handling such a subject as

this to keep clear of one error, while endeavoring to expose its opposite. To prevent misconception, therefore, I will merely state before I conclude, that to represent it as wrong to make the measure of our success the rule of our duty, does not imply either argumentatively, or in real experience, that we are to be indifferent as to the result of our labors. On the contrary, the man who utterly disclaims the idea of the visible happy effects of his exertions being made his reason for continuing to exert himself, may, whether successful or not, have the most earnest, longing desires for a blessing upon his engagements. Nay, unless he feel deeply concerned about the issue of all his pains, and toils, and watching, and prayers for the conversion of souls, I cannot conceive how he can be earnestly engaged in the matter. If his heart be thus set upon the success of his work, the want of it will but prove the greater trial of his faith and patience; but these will be strengthened by the trial. "He never had the right ends of a preacher in view who is indifferent whether he obtains them or not, who is not grieved when he misses them, and rejoiced when he can see the desired issue."

In a word, we must "walk by faith, not by sight," and with the eleventh chapter of Hebrews in your eye, I leave you to judge whether faith be not a principle that can animate an obedience more devoted, universal, and persevering, than can even spring from the sight of the eyes, or the hearing of the ears.

I am, &c.

LETTER XVI.

DEFECTS IN THE MODE OF ADVOCATING THE CAUSE OF MISSIONS.

My dear Friend,

I HAVE just turned over some volumes of missionary sermons for the purpose of ascertaining what are the principal things generally insisted on, in order to stimulate Christians to exertion in the cause. It is truly refreshing to the spirit to contemplate so many just, striking, and able exhibitions of Christian truth as these productions contain to mark the catholic spirit they uniformly breathe the expanded Christian charity that glows in them for the salvation of the whole family of man. But I confess it has been with disappointment and grief I have noticed a certain defect in many of them. With all the prominence given to many arguments, and the ingenuity displayed in selecting and applying them, there is one argument in not a few discourses not even once alluded to, and scarcely in any treated as it ought. I mean the command of Christ to preach the Gospel universally, and the consequent duty of obedience.

Do not mistake me-I do not find fault with the arguments used in the compositions referred to. Many of them are most forcible and weighty and appropriate; but it appears to me that the matter of DUTY, as resulting from that command, has not been pressed so strongly or so frequently as it ought.

A preacher may be regulated by a regard to the taste of his audience in the selection and treatment

of a particular topic of discussion for a missionary sermon. He may be naturally led from the nature of his subject to insist on some special motive, encouragement, direction or warning, bearing upon the work of the evangelization of heathen and Mohammedan nations. And this may preclude the possibility of his making the obligation to labor founded upon the command of Christ, a part of his plan: but I conceive that this argument, like the fundamental doctrines of the Gospel in an ordinary sermon, should be implied in the whole frame of the discourse, and although not formally enlarged upon, sufficiently intimated to be perceived in its true importance.

It is not less undeniable than humiliating, that many professed Christians are more effectually wrought upon by a rhetorical appeal to their passions, than by a sober truth accompanied with its evidence, submitted to their judgment, or a solemn duty charged home upon their conscience. And it must be confessed that preachers, knowing the character of a great proportion of the people whom they address, seem to act wisely in making use of that method which is able to produce the greatest effect. It is trite to observe that man is a being possessed of passions as well as reason. But the legitimate way of dealing with him, is to address the former through the medium of the latterfirst to inform the judgment, and then call in the affections to aid and invigorate the conclusions of

reason.

I see no cause why the first place ought not to be given to that which, in the judgment of the truly enlightened and judicious, is first in importance; and this I conceive would be paying a better compliment even to the less enlightened, than the