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MISSIONS

THE PRINCIPLE

OF

MISSIONS.

By THOMAS SMYTH, D. D.

PHILADELPHIA: PRESBYTERIAN BOARD OF PUBLICATION.

No. 821 CHESTNUT STREET.

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1857,

BY JAMES DUNLAP,

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the Eastern District

of Pennsylvania.

UNIV. OF CALIFORNIA

PREFACE.

The following argument and appeal may be considered as a sequel to "The Conversion of the World; or, How are the Heathen to be Converted?" published by the Board. In that, the purpose of God and the agency of man were exhibited. The union of Christ and his people is the divine instrumentality for the conversion of the world-an agency by which God is glorified, and man exalted. God in Christ, as represented in sinful, guilty, and perishing sinners, gives "to every creature in all the world," a divine, an irresistible claim upon the sympathy, the love, and the labours of every faithful, loving, and obedient heart. And every zealous and self-denying believer, representing Christ, and faithfully exemplying his covenant and promise, is consecrated by an unction from on high, which at once makes him a king and a priest unto God, a co-worker, and an ambassador of the Prince of Peace. For in his hand

Is put the writ of manumission, signed
By God's own signature; to drive away
From earth the dark infernal legionry
Of superstition, ignorance, and hell;
High on the pagan hills, where Satan sat,
Encamped, and o'er the subject kingdoms throws
Perpetual night, to plant Immanuel's cross,

The ensign of the gospel, blazing round
Immortal truth; and, in the wilderness

Of human waste, to sow eternal life;

And from the rock, where Sin, with horrid yell,
Devours its victims unredeemed, to raise

The melody of grateful hearts to heaven.

Such and so great, such and no less than this, is every christian.

What then is the principle by which, in this holy and heavenly task, the christian is sustained? That principle is faith; and the delineation of this truth is the one object of the present treatise.

The term "missions" is of Latin, and not of scriptural origin. It is therefore delusive, by leading many to imagine that the enterprise it expresses is of human, and not of divine appointment. The word, however, is only a brief translation of scriptural terms which indicate the chief end and work of the Church and of every believer. These are both "sent" into the world, prepared and delegated by God to propagate the gospel, and to evangelize the world.

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