who will barter away truth for money? No Achans-men, whose master-desire is to get a wedge of gold or a Babylonian garment. Alas! yes, and this blights all with its withering curse. There was a time when the Church of Christ was so pure that worldly men stood aloof from it in solemn awe. It is not so now. Believe me some sweeping system of discipline must come, before your efforts to evangelize your neighborhoods will be of much avail. The tares must be plucked from the wheat. The winnowing fan must be used, the Achans must be expelled from your tents.

This principle applies:

III. TO THE EFFORTS WHICH THE GENERAL CHURCH IS EMPLOYING ΤΟ PROMOTE CHRISTIANITY THROUGHOUT THE WORLD. I believe in the obligation of all Christians to bear the Gospel to the ends of the earth. "Go into all the world and preach" is a command that has never been repealed, and which is enforced by the whole spirit of the New Testament. As this is the great missionary month, let us dwell a little on the point.

First The Israelites were now engaged in a Divine enterprize; -so is the Christian Church in its endeavors to promote Christianity throughout the world. By repeated and unmistakable commands the Israelites were authorized and urged to exterminate the Canaanites, and to take possession of the promised land. Their mission would not be fulfilled until all the Aborigines were subdued to their power, the entire territory placed in their hands, and a system of worship organized amongst them, that should symbolize that more spiritual system under which it is our privilege to live.

But however repeatedly and explicitly enforced might be the duty of the Israelites, it was not more so than is the duty of the Christian Church to take possession of the heathen lands. The vast territories of Paganism are given to the disciples of Jesus; and their mission will not be accomplished until their principles triumph over the corruption of

thrones, over the iniquities of altars, over the hearts of rulers, and over the spirit of nations. I am not unconscious of the objections urged against missionary labors-I feel that there are around our doors vast territories of moral heathenism; although we have no carved, sculptured, or visible deities, we have false gods in the hearts of our people, and practical and spiritual polytheism prevails in England as truly as in Polynesian Islands, Afric's deserts, or on India's plains. All this I acknowledge and deeply lament. Still all this does not abrogate, does not weaken, the force of the command, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel." Until the Gospel is preached in every part of the globe, our work is not done. More than two-thirds of the population of the world have never heard the name of Jesus.

Secondly: Their enterprize was hindered by the existence of the self-seeking principle in their midst;—so is the enterprize of the Church in promoting Christianity throughout the world. In what did the turpitude of this act consist? It was not in the worth of the garment or the value of the gold, nor in the mere fact of the said articles being stolen from their lawful possessor; for their mission involved plunder: they were divinely authorized to take houses, cities, lands, and life, if necessary, from the natives. The essence of the sin is to be found in the spirit that dictated the act; and that spirit was self-seeking. This was the cursed thing, and this is the root of all evil. Covetousness and spiritual goodness are eternally incompatible. In the New Testament this avaricious element is classed with idolatry, and its subjects declared to be excluded from the kingdom of God.

In what way does self-seeking covetousness in the Christian Church hinder the spread of the Gospel?

(1) By preventing that agency which is indispensable for the purpose. Our religion is a religion of self-sacrifice. This was the spirit of its Founder; this was the inspiration of its apostles; this is its own pervading genius; this it demands as the necessary condition of discipleship. "If any man will come after me," &c. Where covetousness prevails this can

not be. Were every Church free from this, the language of each member would be, I am not my own,-"Lord, what wilt thou have me to do ?" I have talent, I want to devote that talent not to my own gratification, but to the working out of Thy will; I have property, I value it just in proportion as it enables me to spread Thy truth; I have influence, I wield it for this end. Who does not see that the power of a Church under this spirit of self-denial would be immense ? There is enough of property in the possession of those who call themselves Christians, to settle a missionary in every district of the world, to put a Bible into every man's hand, and to rear a Temple in every village and city of the globe. What is it that keeps it back? Covetousness. Members of Churches will sing in the great congregation-"Were the whole realm of nature mine," &c.,—and give scarce a tittle of their property to the conversion of the world. In the apostolic Church so heinous was the sin of covetousness, that Ananias and Sapphira were struck dead for keeping back only a small part of their possesssions. We exclude from our

Churches men that are known to be guilty of falsehood, dishonesty, or intemperance, and we do well; but we too often allow men to remain in our communion who from their thousands deal out reluctantly their sovereign to the cause of God; who, like Achan, care more about the Babylonian garment and the ingot of gold, than for the claims of Jesus or the dying souls of humanity. Before the Church can do much towards the conversion of the world it must expel this spirit,-a spirit which thwarts its plans, fetters its energies, and freezes its heart.

This self-seeking spirit hinders the spread of the gospel :(2) By prompting that agency which must necessarily neutralize its aim. Behold what forms the covetousness of Churches has assumed-forms which have not only concealed the spiritual glory from mankind, but have actually rendered

it odious and abhorrent.

Priestcraft is a form of covetousness. It is covetousness putting on the garb of Christian benevolence, uttering the most

benevolent sentiments, with a heart frozen with selfishness. The mummeries, the wealth, the corruption, of that body of men who have set themselves up as the consecrated servants of God—the successors of the apostles—have wonderfully retarded the progress of Christianity. The infidelity of France, from whose seeds have sprung whirlwinds of bloody revolutions, was produced by this. Voltaire, Diderot, D'Alembert, Mirabeau, did not dislike the spirit of Christianity so much as its disgusting reflection in the conduct of its priesthood. So long as Christianity is looked upon through this medium it will never make much way in the world.

Slavery is a form of covetousness. What is it but an insatiable lust of gain that has induced men to trade in their fellow men? Yet slavery has been sanctioned by Christians;—and is now by some Churches in the western world. So long as such gigantic evil is regarded as connected with Christianity, how can it advance! What chance of success have the American missionaries in their Christian enterprize amongst the sable sons of Africa, when they know that the Christian people from whom they come have three millions of their own race in bondage? Would not this fact be quite sufficient to bar with the iron door of prejudice the heart of Africa against American Christianity?

It is depressingly sad to hear Christian men defend the extermination of the black man by the white. The poor African is represented as if he had no right to live the life of a man. Negroes though they be, they can boast of a brighter ancestry than we can. Their fathers built the Pyramids, the wonder of all times; gave letters to Greece and Rome, and were once the great teachers of the world. Negroes though they be, they can measure souls with their masters ;-their intellect is as far-reaching, their imagination as daring in its flight, and they have an eloquence whose thunders can make their despots quail. Negroes though they be, they are made of the same blood, sustain the same moral relationships, are involved in the same spiritual ruin, and are candidates for the same eternity as ourselves. Negroes though

they be, modern history shows that they have hearts heaving with emotions, and souls struggling to be free-natures like ours that can be touched by the great ideas of right, Jesus, and immortality.

War is a form of covetousness. It is for the most part the expression, of an unrelaxing love of self-aggrandizement. Some of the most horrid wars that heathens have ever witnessed have been prosecuted by men wearing the Christian name. I have read the history of the Spaniards in the West India Islands, in Mexico, and Peru, soon after the discovery of the new world; I have read the history of the Portugese in Brazil and in India; I have read the history of the English in India, China, and Africa; and every chapter of these victories is a record of injustice, rapine, and cruelty. But the appalling fact to me is this-that the oceans of blood that have been shed, have all been in the name either of Papal or Protestant Christianity. When I think of this,-when I remember that the heathen world which we seek to convert, has been stained with the crimson gore of fathers and mothers slain with the swords of men calling themselves Christians,—that in almost every district of the populated globe the name Christian is associated with cruelty, I feel that war is indeed an Achan in the camp, which hinders our enterprize and nullifies our endeavors.

I remember a fact in connexion with the death of a native of Cuba, where the Spaniards, in the sacred name of the Cross, perpetrated the most diabolical deeds of plunder and bloodshed. He was visited by one of the Spanish missionaries, who endeavored to convert him to the faith, and promised him immediate admission into the joys of heaven, if he would embrace the Christian faith. "Are there any Spaniards," said the dying man, "in that region of bliss which you describe?" "Yes," replied the Monk, "but such only as are worthy and good." "The best of them," returned the indignant sufferer, "have neither worth nor goodness! I will not go to a place where I may meet with that accursed race." Poor