OF THE BAPTIST HOME MISSIONARY SOCIETY. THE following Sermon, by the late Rev. ANDREW FULLER, which has never yet appeared in print, has been kindly presented to the Committee by W. B. GURNEY, Esq. It was preached at Miles Lane Meeting House, on Tuesday, June 1, 1802, when the Society was designated the Baptist Itinerant Society. It is hoped that its perusal by the friends of the institution will be a means of deepening their conviction of the importance of home missionary operations. "Brethren, if any of you do err from the truth, and one convert him, let him know that he which converteth the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins."-James v. 19, 20. THE writer of this brief epistle accommodates what he has to offer very much to the circumstances of those whom he addresses. Some of them were exposed to persecution those he exhorts, in the eighth verse, to patience : "Be ye patient; stablish your hearts; for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh." Some of them were oppressed by affliction-those he directs to the throne of grace. "Is any among you afflicted? let him pray," a remedy which, I doubt not, he had often found by happy experience useful. Some of them were happy and cheerful-to them he says, " Is any merry? let him sing psalms;" let him express the feelings of his heart with songs of sacred joy. Amongst other cases, he supposes there would be some amongst them that would wander, that would deviate from the paths of truth and righteousness, and here he inculcates the duty should such a case arise. Let those that are spiritual restore them; at all events let them labour to restore them. "If any of you do err from the truth, and one convert him, let him know that he which converteth the sinner from the error of his ways shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins." The case which is here supposed is represented as the case of a sinner-a sinner that was in an erroneous way-a sinner that was in a way that led to death; and yet he was not a common sinner, for he is supposed to have been one of them. "Brethren, if any of you do err." He is supposed to have known something of the truth, he is supposed to have been a professor of the truth, and yet, after this, to have erred, to have turned aside; and if he should be restored, if he should be recovered to the saving of his soul, let him that is instrumental in recovering him know for his encouragement that in saving such an one he has saved a soul from death and hidden a multitude of sins. But though the sinner who is here described is not a common sinner, but rather one that has been in the path of profession, yet the language or the principle held up will apply to such persons, and to the use of means for their conversion and salvation; for it is true of every such man that he is in the way to death, and it is true that he who converteth him, who is instrumental of bringing him home to God, saves a soul from death and hides a multitude of sins. In this light, therefore, I shall apply this subject, and consider it as affording a stimulus to use all possible means for the conversion of those that are in the way to death. That we may enter into the subject more fully, it may be proper to notice, in the first place, the way of the sinner as here pointed out; secondly, that by which he is recovered from it-conversion; and, lastly, urge the subject as a stimulus to use all possible means for his conversion. Let us take a view, my brethren, in the first place of the way of an unconverted sinner. We may gather from this very brief description some very impressive views concerning him. There are two or three ideas that belong to it. According to one it is supposed to be an erroneous way, for the sinner when saved is said to be saved from the error of his way. Next it is supposed to be progressive in evil, for it is described as commencing in a small beginning, and ending, if not stopped, in a multitude of sins; and, lastly, it is held up as terminating in death, for he that saves such a soul saves a soul from death. Let us review these three ideas of the state of an unconverted soul. First, his way is distinguished by error it is an erroneous way; falsehood lies at the bottom, deceit and self-deception mark its every step; self-deception and fatal delusion mark it in all its progress. When I say it arises from error, I do not mean that it arises from a small mistake, but chosen error, or that kind of error which arises from the mind choosing darkness rather than light, because its deeds are evil. It is not an innocent mistake, but it is an error of the heart, and we may remark this, that all the devious paths of unrighteousness which are seen in the world, stand closely connected with some false system or other. Could you take a comprehensive view of the world, could you look over the heathen world, you would see an amazing mass of abomination, you would see every heathen country upon earth deluged with immorality of every kind, but you would also see that arm in arm with this system of immorality goes a system of lies, a system of falsehood; idolatry, and abominable superstition go hand in hand along with it, and the one is fostered by the other, so that the path of sin is the path of error. The same remarks would hold good were you to go into the Mohammedan parts of the world: There you would see sensuality, cruelty, uncleanness, and all iniquity in their grossest forms, and you would see all this connected with a system of falsehood. Travelling into popish countries, there you will see under the name of Christianity a system of superstition as foreign from the gospel as anything can well be, and you will see immorality keep pace with falsehood and a system of delusion. Nor need we travel abroad for proofs of these things, we need only look around us to see error in our own country, and we may see the abominations that pervade the land which have a close and inseparable connexion with a system of false doctrine. The great body of men, I might say, are practical heathens, are, in effect, infidels; and as are their principles, such are their practices. Another large part of the community are merely nominal Christians; they entertain loose and vague notions concerning God, concerning sin, concerning Christ as a Saviour; in fact, they hold a false system of religion under a few orthodox terms, and as are their principles such is their practice. You will generally find, if you observe them closely, that as men deviate from the pure system of the gospel of Jesus Christ into whatever system it be, as are their principles such will be their spirit and their practice. But supposing there are no doctrinal errors remarkably connected with an erroneous way, yet there is a sort of error of another kind— there is an error that may especially be called the error of the heart. The Psalmist remarks upon this in the 95th Psalm: "It is a people that do err in their heart." All doctrinal error partakes of the heart, and therefore is sinful in the sight of God, but there is some error that may be called more especially the error of the heart. What I now refer to are cases where persons act against their convictions in order to gratify their inclinations. They do not so much err in speculation as in their feelings; they will acknowledge it is wrong: "Yes, it is wrong; I own it is wrong, but however yet it seems necessary to my happiness; I must indulge it at least for a time, at least in a degree, or I cannot be happy; I am utterly miserable if I do not." This, my friends, is the error of the heart which operates against the dictates of conscience; this is all self-deception. Instead of your being rendered happy by opposing the dictates of your conscience, you are plunging yourselves into the paths of misery and death. But a second mark of the sinner's way is, it is supposed to be progressive in evil. Perhaps at its first beginning it was a very small matter, a very little affair, a trifling indulgence, that which many would have overlooked; but it went on from one thing to another, from small beginnings it kept gradually increasing, and it is supposed that if not stopped by converting grace it will issue in a multitude of sins. Oh, my dear friends, it is a terrible truth that sin is a prolific principle, that it is that which, where it obtains a prevalence in the heart, never ceases to go on, to increase more and more, and to bind the soul in its chains stronger and stronger. It breeds in the imagination the thoughts and the desires till it sets on fire the whole course of nature. Every sin that we indulge in makes yway for ten more in its place; every indulgence yielded to prepares the way for more, and more, and more. There cannot be a greater deception than that which the mind puts upon itself in these matters. The sinner is ready to say within himself, "Hitherto will I go in such and such an indulgence, and no further; thus far shall the temptation be permitted to come but no further." But it is in vain for you to set bounds to the claims of a temptation when once it is admitted and yielded to; it rises in its demands; it becomes then next to impossible to stem the torrent; it becomes progressive and increases in many ways. Particularly inclination strengthens by the commission of evil. Every sin we commit we feel our propensity so much the stronger | death, is the portion of the sinner. If God does not stop the progress of it by an interposition of divine grace, eternal death is certain. inclining us to repeat it. It is like the habit of drinking. A person who is addicted to drinking spirituous liquors, the more he indulges in the habit the more his inclination becomes strengthened; the more he indulges We pass on, in the second place, to remark the more he may indulge, and thus it is sin the method of recovery-how it is that sinners becomes progressive in its operation. One are to be recovered from the error of their ways, sin committed renders another necessary in and this it is intimated is by conversion. "Let order to hide it, or it may be in order to him know, that he which converteth the sindrown reflection on account of it. When ner from the error of his way shall save a once you have indulged in evil, you feel it soul from death." Conversion, my brethren, becomes necessary to add another sin, the is the changing of one thing into another. sin of prevarication, in order to disguise, in | Thus we use the term in common life. We order to keep up appearances to save your speak sometimes of converting a building from self from the censures of mankind. It was one purpose to another, of converting a garthus that David, when once he had stepped ment, or converting anything else-changing aside, found it necessary to prevaricate in a thing from one purpose to another, or order to deceive Uriah; it was thus that he changing a substance from one thing to found it necessary to proceed from one sin another, and the conversion of which the to another, till he was precipitated well nigh gospel speaks is the changing a person from into the gulph of perdition. Had not divine being an enemy, to become a friend of God. grace saved him by a kind of miraculous It is not every change that is gospel converinterposition, he must have gone. Such, my sion. There may be a change of opinion friends, is the path of the sinner. It is an where there is no gospel conversion. A man erroneous, a delusive path, founded in false may change his opinion from Judaism, and hood. It is a progressive path; so that he may profess to believe Christianity, and yet who sets one step in it thereby disables him- be unconverted. A man may throw off his self from receding, and becomes prompted to open idolatry, and take upon him the Chrisproceed faster and faster till plunged into tian name, but however this may pass for perdition. conversion amongst nominal Christians, it does not come up to the idea of the text. I am very well aware that the great body of nominal Christians in the present day consider conversion as a mere change of opinion, that is, they consider conversion as confined to a man who is a Jew becoming a professed Christian, or a Mahommedan becoming nominally a Christian, or a pagan calling himself a Christian. That is a mere change of opinion, and hence they suppose that there is no room nor any need for conversion with those who are born in what is called a Christian land. They have been baptized, as it is termed, in their infancy, and brought up in a Christian way. They suppose that here conversion is altogether superseded. But if the change that is here spoken of, and which indeed is every where else spoken of in the gospel, does not consist merely in a change of opinion, this must be a fatal mistake. My friends, it is not merely a change of opinion, but it is a change that involves love Lastly, it is a path whose end is death. This is implied by its being said "that he which converteth the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death." This does not mean corporeal death, though true it is that many a man by his own wicked courses has brought himself to an untimely end; true it is that diseases innumerable and untimely deaths are caused by sin. What numbers are seen in the world dying the victims of their wicked courses. But it is not from the death of the body that conversion saves us; it is from that death which is spoken of in this same epistle. It is from that kind of death which is described in the first chapter: "Every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin; and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death;" that is, the death which is here described, that which sin works when permitted to finish its operation without repentance. The operations of sin are like those of a spider with an insect, it winds its captivating web round every part of the body and every wing, till, by and bye, it takes its life. After having captivated the poor little insect in every part, and disarmed it of all resistance, it without any difficulty destroys its very life. And such, my friends, is the operation of sin. Let it but go on, and it will bind in its web every part, it will possess itself of every power and every passion, and it will subjugate the whole soul into captivity to itself, and then, when it has finished all its operations, death, eternal the love of God. It is a change from enmity to love, and without this it matters but little what we are called; and seeing that this is the nature of the change, conversion becomes no less necessary in those who are born in a Christian land, or of Christian parents, than it does in other men. They were not heathens to whom our Saviour spoke. They were not Jews in such a sense as to reject Christ's Messiahship, and yet he said, "I say unto you, except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye cannot enter the kingdom of heaven." Real conversion, you see, is equivalent to our be coming of the spirit of little children-meek, good or harm one to another. We draw and lowly, humble, weak in ourselves, dependent upon God. We see, then, that conversion is a change of heart, and not merely of opinion; a change of heart, and not merely a change of outward behaviour; for men may change in their outward behaviour without any change of heart; a man may be changed from a profligate to a sober man; he may be changed from a publican to a pharisee. Many a man is changed in this way when he begins to advance in life; to get old, then he begins to think it time to desist from some of his unlawful vices; but the truth is, the man's vices have left him instead of his leaving them; he becomes incapable of following them. Conversion is the leaving our sins, not our sins leaving us. Here then is the point; it is a change from enmity to love; this is the change we must aim, as Christian ministers and as Christian societies, to effect. Labour to convert a sinner from the error of his way; change the life by changing the heart. Our Saviour's doctrine always was directed to this issue; the preaching of Christ was different from that of all other reformers. You never find any philosopher that set about to inform mankind, point to the heart in the manner in which Christ taught. They pointed out a number of forms, prescribing rules and regulations for mankind, but the doctrine of Christ constantly aimed at the very heart, and if that be cured, the rest will follow. If the fountain be healed, the streams are at once healed. If the love of sin be cured, the practice of sin will be deserted. If Christ have the first and principal place in our hearts, his precepts will become our choice. This is that conversion which it behoves all Christian ministers to make the object of their pursuit after the example of their Lord and Saviour. I proceed, lastly, to urge the importance of a zealous perseverance in the use of all possible means for the conversion of sinners; and that, from the important considerations here suggested to us, "Let him know that he which converteth the sinner from the error of his way, shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins." Do not object that conversion is God's work; do not say that it is not yours. It is true enough that we cannot convert a single soul effectually, but we may instrumentally, and this is plainly implied in the language of the text. The Lord would not have held out this encouragement to us to labour in converting sinners from the error of their way, unless he designed to make use of us as instruments for this purpose, and we know that it is a fact that God has made use of us for the converting of one and another in thousands of instances. These things are so ordered in the divine plan, that men are certain to do either are drawn, one by another, either to heaven or to hell. "Iron sharpeneth iron, so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend." As the godly whets the desires and stimulates the pure affections of his fellow Christians, so doth the ungodly whet and stimulate the unholy affections and vile passions of his fellow sinners, and thus they are drawn and drawing one another towards heaven or towards hell every moment. Mankind move on, as it were, arm in arm in crowds, and are drawn downwards or upwards in innumerable companies. Hence the propriety of that language in the twenty-eighth psalm, "Draw me not away with the wicked and with the workers of iniquity." Oh how tremendous to be drawn away with the wicked, to be yoked in along with them, to be drawn down in their awful connection into the gulf of perdition. Now, as God has thus constituted human nature, that we shall generally influence one another either to good or to evil, there arises a stimulus to watch against evil company as a mariner would watch if he knew himself in danger of foundering upon rocks; as he would watch if he knew himself just ready to fall into a devouring vortex, so would you watch against the snares of temptation, the evils of seduction, if you had any regard to your neverdying souls; and so, on the other hand, would Christians be stimulated to draw their fellow sinners if it were possible to induce them to go along with them to eternal glory. We may use the same means for the conversion of men's souls, as we do in any other object of persuasion. It is as perfectly scriptural to say to your neighbour, your kindred, or your acquaintance, "Go with us, and we will do you good;" and it is as perfectly in point to urge and to persuade, as it was for Moses to adopt that course towards Hobab. God alone can render what we say effectual, but these are means which he has himself appointed; and let those who use the means know "that he which converteth the sinner from the error of his way, shall save a soul from death.” The many ways that may be employed of converting a sinner, afford abundant encouragement to the Christian. It is not confined to the addressing men in a studied address; if it were, we should have very little to say unless it were to ministers; or, if it were to others, it would be only urging upon them that they should encourage ministers and strengthen their hands; but there are many other ways by which a soul may be saved from death. There are ways in which godly females may be instrumental as well as those of the other sex. The apostle Paul speaks of some that were not won by the word, but who were won to Christ by the amiable conversation of their wives. A modest, meek, holy, chaste, affectionate behaviour in life, which is the effect of the gospel, will often find its way to the conscience of a sinner, and will sweetly and insensibly steal into his soul in a manner that the word perhaps could never do; while his prejudices would resist all arguments, while his vain reasoning would oppose the evidence of truth from the lips of the most eloquent and persuasive teacher, yet the silent eloquence of a holy life will steal insensibly into his conscience, and operate in spite of himself. Thus God often works in ways we little think of, and they afford us abundant encouragement to go on hoping to be the means of restoring the sinner from the error of his way. Think, my brethren, further, of the motives by which we are encouraged to labour for the conversion of sinners. The motives are, that every individual soul that you convert from sin to Christ, you save a soul from death. It would be a great matter if you could only save the life of a man; you would think it worth a large portion of your attention only to save the life of your neighbour, but what is the saving of a life to the saving of a soul? If you save a life to-day there may be something else by which it may be brought to its close to-morrow; but if you save a soul, you save it from eternal death; you are the means of bringing it into a state connected with everlasting life. Only think of the immortality of the soul; the soul that endures for ever. Think of what it is capable of enjoying or enduring. Thought is presently lost in the calculation; it bids defiance to all our thoughts to form any thing like an adequate idea of what an immortal mind is capable of enjoying or capable of enduring; and in proportion to each of these, such is the worth of its salvation-to save a soul from everlasting death. It is not a small object; it is an object for which the Son of God thought it worth while to become incarnate, and to live and to die on earth. It is an object far greater than the creation of the world; the creation of the world was effected by only. speaking a word, "God said, let there be light, and there was light;" God spake, and the heavens were spread abroad; God spake, and the earth was formed, and the different component parts of it were divided according to his sovereign pleasure; but when a soul was to be saved from death, or when a number of souls required to be saved from death, the Son of God must needs come into our world, assume our nature, and be made a sacrifice. Oh what a work was this! To be instrumental in accomplishing that for which the Son of God has laid the foundation, is an honour that is put upon us surpassing all conception. If God had employed us in making the sun, or in spreading abroad the heavens, that would have been a small honour in comparison with employing us as his instruments in doing that which is our work; that work for which all other works were made, and to which they are rendered subservient. To employ us in rescuing a soul from everlasting perdition, is a work at which an angel might envy us. When I say an angel might envy us, do not mistake me; they are incapable of envy; it is a work in which they rejoice, and when it is said that there is joy among the angels over one such repenting sinner, that conveys to us a vast idea of the importance of the work. Angels are beings of large and extensive minds; their minds far surpass the minds of any creatures amongst us; they would not therefore rejoice at a little thing, much less would the whole of the heavenly world as it were feel a thrill of happiness run through their bosoms at a small benefit, but the return of one sinner to God is pregnant with such consequences as throw, if I may so speak, a stream of gladness through the heavenly world. Oh, methinks, the thought of what happiness is thereby secured, of what misery is thereby prevented, of what glory to God shall thereby accrue, of what honour to the Saviour shall thereby arise, this fills all hearts with joy and gladOh what a thought, to save a soul from death! What are all our cares, our labours, our toils. We rise in a morning and we toil, and we are busy here and there, and what are the questions we are continually proposing to ourselves, "What shall we eat, and what shall we drink, and wherewithal shall we be clothed ?" Oh how mortifying, my dear friends; what little toys are all these things in comparison with that one great object of saving a soul from death. It is worthy of notice, too, that the apostle uses the term in the singular. If he had said, Let him know that he that converteth a thousand sinners, a million of sinners, from the error of their ways, has accomplished a great object, it might have been no matter of surprize; but when he refers to the case of a single soul being saved from everlasting death as a matter of greater importance than all the acquisitions of this present life, we can easily draw the inference; if the salvation of one soul from death be of so much importance, how much more the salvation of many. ness. Another motive that is held up to us is that in saving a sinner from the error of his way you hide a multitude of sins. That is, as I understand it, you prevent them; you stop the disease in its progress, and thereby prevent the consequences that would otherwise follow. How does God hide our sins? By stopping us in our progress. What should we have been, what would thousands of us have been ere now had not God stopped the progress, stopped the disease, and thereby hidden all the sins we contemplated? It has not appeared to the world what we should have been if God had left us to ourselves to take our course, and let sin have taken its course, and grown to its full. Oh what an awful figure we should have made |