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 immeasureable 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 kngdom, 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 development. 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 perfections 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 impracticable, or to be accomplished in other days and by other hands. 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 By the Rev. Dr. Williams of New-York,

churches, may we expect to be visited. How long will our revivals and annual jubilees of benevolence reman, 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 cotemporary fellow christians, are under. O, with what interest does Heaven look down upon this anniversary meeting. Methinks the holy angels, would fain appear amongst us, if that might be, to animate us in our work. Nor are the powers of darkness less interested in this occasion. In such circumstances were it not easier, to give up our self-indulgences, our possessions, our lives, than to entertain for one moment, the thought of standing still in this work? Were not those then alarming words, which were cited near the beginning of this discourse, as it were out of our own mouths: "This great and favored community has been virtually at a stand for a series of years in the work of Foreign Missions." Should we not tremble at this fact as portending danger, and announce it again and again with still deepening awe on our minds, and continue the announcement, until our breath fail us, or until the danger is seen, and if possible averted by a new onward movement. May it not be that we ourselves are not deeply enough impressed with the reality and fearfulness of the danger? May their not be a lurking presumption in our minds that the tree in this case will not be suffered to yield its fruits; that there will be some interference with the stated connexion and sequence of things; that the Divine purposes and the prophecies cannot otherwise be fulfilled; that the great providential preparations and arrangements of the times, will otherwise be without an end? Let us not be taken in this snare. If such a presumption would induce security in our minds, let us resist it, by recalling the dreadful facts of history, which show how unsafe is such a reliance, by remembering that the relation of cause and effect is surer than our pre-sentiments respecting the unfufilled counsels of God, or our interpretation of prophecy and signs; and by considering the temerity and guilt of so limiting the Holy One, as to make him incapable of accomplishing his purposes except by violating the order of nature and the laws of his government. The acceptable year of the Lord has, not seldom been also, the day of the vengeance of our God. If the time is at hand for giving Christianity the empire of the world, judgments may also be at hand, to do in the way of wrath and destruction, that which might have been done in the joyful and glorious w

of converting and saving grace, by the due prosecution of the work of propagating the Gospel.

VIII. The last reason which we shall urge for going on with this work as vigorously and expeditiously as possible, is, that this is demanded in order to meet contrary movements occasioned by the missionary proceedings of these times. The great adversary hath not been an indifferent observer of these proceedings. His plan of opposition has begun to reveal itself. It has had a four-fold developement. A philosophical atheism is displaying itself amongst us, in seductive and audacious forms. Rationalism, professing no unfriendly purpose against Christianity, while renouncing its divinity, its peculiar claims to inspiration, and its miracles, is laboring to undermine its deep foundations. Anti-protestantism has sprung up in a new and dishonorable shape, and in the midst of protestant churches and institutions, and by persons holding membership in them, is freely reproaching the great leaders and martyrs of the reformation as schismatics, and the reformation itself as a deplorable event; and though it avows no intention of enthroning over us the man of sin himself, is contending for the enormous delusions and heresies of his system, and making justification by faith, as held forth by Luther with such overwhelmning force against the empire of darkness, as the chief and first-born of errors, worse than heathenism itself. And finally, papal propagandism with its well-planned and well-sustained missions, is resolutely disputing the day with us, both at home and abroad, employing against us, its jesuitical calumnies and deceits, its lying wonders and miracles, its imposing pomp of ceremonies, its ample treasures wherever they can be availably applied, and ready and waiting should there be occasion and ability, to renew its deadly anathamas and persecutions. The powers of darkness were never more disturbed since the death of Christ; never more profoundly moved with hostile feelings and designs against the Lord and his Anointed. There are indications not a few, of the coming on of a spiritual conflict among men, such as the world has not hitherto seen; perhaps, as some confidently think, the battle of the great day of God Almighty. It is to christians the

* "Whether any heresy has ever infested the Church so hateful and unchristian, as this doctrine--the Lutheran doctrine of Justification-it is perhaps, not necessary to determine: none certainly, has ever prevailed so subtle and so extensively poisonous. It is not only that it denies some one essential doctrine of the gospel, (as e. g. inherent righteousness); this all heresies do it is not only that it corrupts ALL sound christian doctrine, nay, the principle of orthodoxy itself; though this also it certainly does; but its inroads extend farther than this; AS FAR AS ITS FORMAL STATEMENTS ARE CONCERNED, it poisons at the very root, not Christianity only, but natural religion. That obedience to the will of God, with whatever sacrifice of self, is the one thing needful; that sin is the one only danger to be dreaded, the only evil to be avoided; these great truths are the very foundation of natural religion: and inasmuch as this modern system denies these to be ESSENTIAL and NECESSARY truths, we must plainly express our conviction, that a religious heathen, were he REALLY to accept the doctrine which Lutheran LANGUAGE expresses, so far from making any advance, would sustain a heavy loss, in exchanging fundamental truth for fundamental error."-British Critic, for October, 1842, pp. 390, 391,

most momentous problem that ever claimed their attention, what should be their plan of action in these eventful times. The problem is not difficult of solution; the path of wisdom is plain. Two things are certain: First, that if we suffer ourselves to be hindered in our 'missionary work, by any means whatever, the enemy will obtain his purpose, his plan will succeed. He will not be much disconcerted, though we attack and put to rout one after another, or all at once, the hosts he hath arrayed against us at home, if he can but divert us from our foreign campaign. It was our entrance on that which originated his newly displayed wiles. His great trouble is that we have undertaken in the name of Christ to evangelize the world. His plan has for its main purpose, the putting an end to this work. All our domestic annoyances are intended to effect this result. Success here will pacify and content him. Even his defeats he will count for victories if they contribute in any way to oppose the missionary enterprise.-The second certainty is, that the most effectual way of overcoming the adversary within our domestic and neighborhood precincts, is vigorous and ceaseless and insatiable aggression on his great foreign dominions.Let us achieve large and brilliant victories there; let us go forth from conquering to conquer among the unevangelized nations of the earth; and we shall be full of life and strength and victory and peace within all our borders; and our home antagonists will be down-hearted and discouraged, and will soon give way before us, having enough to do unless they repent, to bear their own confusion; while we sing our psalms of praise at the spreading triumphs of the kingdom of Christ. The enemy's own example may be adverted to for our instruction. When he found himself so deplorably at fault at the reformation, in his papal kingdom, his scheme for raising up that kingdom again, and giving it honor in the eyes of men, was by the society of the Jesuits to give it enlargement among his heathen territories; a scheme wisely laid, most faithfully prosecuted, and crowned with astonishing success. It is lawful for us to learn from him. Long enough has the church been kept out of her just sovereignty over the world by suffering herself to be embroiled, through the artifice of Satan, in intestine controversies and border conflicts. Let her at last escape from this infatuation. If she must contend at home, let her do this, remembering that in so far as this contention shall interfere with the work of evangelization, it is, as to the main purpose for which she has earthly existence, the adversary's triumph, and her own defeat and overthrow. Gain what she may in particular victories, her gain is the loss of the world; her petty victories she takes in exchange for the empire of the universe. Let the conquest of the globe, then, be the object of her great ambition, her stedfast and eager pursuit. Especially let it be so now, since it was her recent undertaking of this which has placed her into her present circumstances of overwhelming interest. These strange manifestations, these surprising and astonishing movements against evangelical religion all the world over, these signs of an approaching crisis in the destiny of the human race, what