had hardly any opportunity of getting these made among the heathen. We have translations of the Scriptures in languages spoken by three-fourths of the heathen. This department of Christian usefulness is fully open to the church. All that is required is money, in order to fill the world with Bibles. Once more, our fathers did not see our little island the ruler of dominions on which the sun never sets. All their dreams of ambition could not have reached the reality that now exists—in the direct power that we exercise over more than a hundred millions of heathen. Our commercial enterprize is also greater than it was in the days of our fathers. Our vessels navigate every sea. Our merchants are princes in the earth, and hold intercourse with every land. Surely our duty to evangelize the world is more imperative than the duty of our fathers. There is another circumstance that plainly marks the providence of God. When we speak of the church of Christ, we almost naturally think of the Christians of America, and of Britain. We do so, because we cannot but think that the great mass of believers in Christ are to be found in those two lands. Oh, what hope would there be for our world, if these two nations should cease to be! Now mark the providence of God. These nations are essentially one-the same origin, the same faith, the same language, the same enterprize, and the same desire among the churches of both countries to convert the world. The mighty work then rests on the very two nations that are one in all which pertains to the extension of the Redeemer's kingdom. Surely this marks the finger of God, and fixes the awful responsibility on these nations, as with the very seal of Heaven itself. We must be blind indeed, not to see God's design. We must be deaf indeed, not to hear the voice of our Lord and Master, saying in emphatic language"Enter in and possess the land." And may it not be said with truth, that we are the persons called on to evangelize the heathen, and do it now, instead of leaving any part of the work to be done by our children. The existing population of the globe is committed to the care of the church now. We have little hope of the adults, and if we allow their children to rise up without Christian instruction, in the days of our children they will be adults, and as much beyond the influence of truth as their fathers are at this moment. Our neglect then will destroy two generations. To save one and that just rising into life demand the united energies and power of the church of Christ. Again, we have seen that God has committed to us the moral destinies of the world by his own providential arrangements. We cannot tell, that these will be in existence in the day of our descendants. Nay we may be almost sure if we neglect our advantages, if we overlook the evident design of God in giving to us such mighty power over the nations, that God will take them from us, and give them to some other nation that will improve them better. And finally, on this part of the subject; the heathen world is waiting for the gospel at our hands. It may not be so in the days of our children. On us, then, the duty devolves-it is present, and must not be considered future. The command of Christ is now binding; souls are now perishing; the young are now rising up, and getting beyond instruction. Our children will have another youthful generation to instruct. Are we prepared to execute the work? How has the church acted in past days? How is it acting now? We will, III. Show why this moral power of the church has not been exerted, and the consequences of unfaithfulness. There are some who would account for the present destitution of the heathen by referring it all to the Divine sovereignty. This is dangerous ground, and would exonerate God's people from all blame. We fully admit that if it had been the will of God, he could have furnished every human being with the knowledge of himself; and he could, if he pleased, have made his people the instruments of conveying this knowledge. But in coming to a correct judgment in this matter, I apprehend we are not to look at the Divine purposes, which can be no guide to us, but rather to ascertain the Divine command, and see what the path of duty would lead us to perform. The secret intentions of God can never furnish an excuse for plainly neglecting the sacred injunction, Go and preach the gospel to every creature.' Our duty and responsibility remain the same, whatever may be the designs of Infinite Wisdom. To neglect an obvious duty, is to be guilty of a great offence against the authority of God. This duty has been neglected by different generations of Christians, and therefore great guilt has been contracted. This criminality however, becomes aggravated by the fact, that it was the sovereign will of God, that all nations should be made acquainted with the salvation of his Son. It is then an act of opposition to his will, instead of being in accordance with it, when Christians as far as their numbers, wealth, and energies could enable them, have not directed these on the darkness and wretchedness of the heathen world. In former days the shadow of an excuse might exist on account of the churches' ignorance of the real condition of the heathen, and the barriers in the way of sending the gospel to them. No excuse of this kind can now exist. That difficulties are to be surmounted, we have already seen: but numerous, varied and mighty as these are among the heathen themselves, they are not so discouraging or appalling as those which are furnished by the church itself. The same obstacles which now exist in pagan lands, existed in the days of the apostles, and they were overcome, and the same means and the same blessing can overcome them now. But there are difficulties in the church now, which did not exist in that age of spiritual life and of hallowed consecration. It is to these we must chiefly attribute the inefficiency of the church of Christ. It is because of these that so few inroads are made on the empire of darkness. 1. There are the divisions in the Christian church. I do not refer to denominational distinctions-these may probably exist, though in a modified form, even to the end of time-but to the disunion among true believers; not to the absence of uniformity in outward observances, which is comparatively of little consequence, but to the absence of unity of spirit. This state of things has been produced by a departure from the laws of Jesus Christ; by recognizing authorities in his church which he repudiates; by surrounding his religion with the meretricious adornings of human inventions, and by demanding a regard and respect for these, equal to what is paid to Divine institutions. One main reason why Christians are opposed to each other, is, that some defend what is human, the mere creature of man's policy and ambition, with as much tenacity and boldness as Divine truth itself. They elevate the creation of man's fancied wisdom to as great a height as the essential doctrines of Christianity themselves. They attach as much importance to the principles of expediency as to the great and unchanging principles of Revelation. Thus, when others seek to give Christ the honor due to his name and office as the King in Zion, as the only Head of the church;— when there is a desire to separate what is vile and injurious to the interests of religion from that which is valuable, and essential to the happiness of menhuman passions are excited, the common enemy is forgotten, in the open and fierce attacks made on those who hold the same great and all important doctrines. The talents, the energies, and the piety of multitudes are thus wasted in the defence of those things, which are beneath the notice of Christian men, desiring the Divine glory, and the absence of which would be the greater blessing to themselves. And on the other side feelings are produced which are unfavorable to Christian unity, which prevent a combined, bold and simultaneous attack on the empire of darkness. Christians are jealous of each other. They narrow their views, and look at their own little circles, instead of looking abroad on the wide field of the world. They care too much for denominational accession, and |