will of God. And say not, Oh ye rebellious priests and people of Israel, "Thy will be done," and then fancy ye have done your duty. It is his will that Christian Churches use the means. "Go and disciple all nations; go and proclaim the Gospel to every creature." But, says the objector and caviller, would you have us all go and leave our own country and our own homes, and we pastors go and leave our flocks? No, my brethren, I require no such thing, Heaven requires it not. England's king has many affairs in foreign lands, commercial, and political, and martial; and it would be England's disgrace, if she could find no able and enlightened men and veteran servants to engage in these important missions. And Zion's King has important affairs in all lands; embassies of pardoning mercy to the guilty, of peace to the bitterest enemies; of salvation to perishing sinners, of conflict with the powers of darkness, where Satan and idols are enthroned; and it is the disgrace of our Zion that she sends not some of the ablest, and wisest, and holiest of her servants.

What our Saviour taught, and did, and suffered on earth, was for the benefit of all nations. And it is his revealed will that the glad tidings of salvation should be proclaimed to all nations.

Therefore every disciple, whether private Christian or Minister of the word, at home or abroad, should regard the Lord's will as the rule of his thinking and acting on this subject. He should have solemn soul-communings with the Divine Being on this part of duty; and answer conscientiously to Him, taking that deep interest in the affairs of the kingdom, and making those personal and domestic sacrifices for its welfare, which true unfeigned loyalty to Zion's King demands.

It is incumbent on those who exhort the congregations of God's people, to urge the general duty, leaving the particular application to each individual's conscience in the sight of God. No one has a right to interfere with or judge another man's conscience. As for example, beneficence is a duty binding on every Christian; but no one can prescribe to another how much time, or how much

position, that by enlightening other nations in the knowledge of the will of God, we shall make their condemnation the greater. But it is our duty to communicate to our fellow-residents in this transitory world, whatever we know of our Lord's will, and it is their duty to receive it; and instead of serving them, by keeping them in ignorance, as the supposition presumptuously and impiously supposes, we shall only, by so doing, involve ourselves in the guilt of disobedience, disloyalty, and inhumanity; for our Lord's will is full of mercy and of kindness to all his creatures. To seek to know his will, and yield entire obedience to the whole of it, is our most reasonable service, and the only way to be happy.

3. A third inference that we draw is, that during our sojourn on earth, contentment with the allotments of our gracious Lord is incumbent on us. A proper sense of his goodness and his wisdom, viewed in connexion with our own sinfulness and ignorance, will invariably lead to a spirit of contentment; not only when our concerns are prosperous, but likewise in adversity.

4. And again, in the fourth place, allied to this contentment is resignation; when our afflictions are more than we think conducive to our good. There are beautiful examples of this becoming temper of mind recorded in Holy Writ. You remember the exclamation of one who was greatly afflicted, "It is the Lord, (said he,) let him do what seemeth him good." And another, whilst greatly distressed, cried, "Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him." Oh how suitable and exalted were their conceptions of the goodness and the wisdom of God. These experienced holy men resigned to God, with devout confidence, their case and their cause during the few and evil days of their earthly pilgrimage. Oh how unbecoming are the murmurings of discontent, and the aspirings of a never-satisfied ambition to be rich, or to be distinguished among men. Happy they, who from holding intercourse with Heaven, are contented in obscurity and poverty, and resigned in the midst of an afflicted sojourn on earth! But when we reflect how the great Lord of all has provided

Y

work upon your gratitude. And know ye not that ye are not your own? God requires your services on earth, this is your reasonable service, your duty.

And what is your life? It is but for a moment! And what are ye on earth? Strangers and pilgrims! And what is before you? Death and judgment and an awful eternity; bliss everlasting, or, oh terrible reverse! expulsion from the gates of Paradise, and an eternal dwelling in darkness with demons and hypocrites.

Oh let fear and hope, and gratitude and duty, and common-sense, all conspire to induce, in families and in churches, a ceaseless spirit of devotedness and personal sacrifice for the promotion of Zion's kingdom on earth, as it is in heaven.

Ye fathers and mothers, and sons and daughters, love King Jesus; give him your hearts! cheerfully obey him! in your families sing his praises, devote to him your dearest relatives, your fortunes, and your lives.

If there be any truth in the Bible, if our Christianity be not all selfishness and hypocrisy, this devotedness were a chivalry at once rational and glorious. Away with those shameful complainings, which insinuate that too much is done for the King's cause. Away with those unbelieving anxieties, which belie the divine promises, and which virtually deny that those who honour God he will honour; and which assert that the seed of them who serve Him may be neglected by Providence.

O spirit of God, that convincest of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment, convince the families and the churches of this land of their past neglect; and breathe into their souls a spirit of holy zeal and entire devotion to the Saviour's cause among men!

not only to food and clothing, and medicine for the sick; but also to education, to moral culture, and to religious instruction. There is a class of secularized and materialized professors of Christianity, who will admit the duty of doing good to men's bodies, but would neglect their minds. And there are professed philanthropists, who would teach to the young, physical science, and carry to other nations civilization; that is, they would teach them to weigh and to measure, and to mould pieces of wood, or of stone, or of metal; and to analyze or to compound the various material elements of our earthly residence; and to build comfortable houses, and plant elegant gardens, in this land of our temporary sojourn; but concerning the great Lord and Sovereign of this our abode for a season; of his will and pleasure concerning us; of our obligations and duty to him; of the everlasting dwelling to which we must soon remove; and of the necessary preparation for it, they would teach nothing. They would cast into the shade, or exclude altogether, these greatest and most important parts of human affairs; or, with hypocritical expressions of piety, would profess to leave these matters to the miraculous interference of the great Lord himself. But if they leave the greater concernments of man to the miraculous interference of Providence, why not act on their own principle in the less affairs of human beings? Cannot He (to adopt their mode of reasoning) who miraculously interferes for the spiritual and immortal interests of men, also miraculously interfere for their bodily and temporal interests? Why then plough or sow, or spin or weave, or establish literary schools or mechanics' institutions, or scientific colleges? Leave each individual to himself; no doubt Providence will take care of him. If the reasoning be conclusive in the one case, I see not why it should be inconclusive in the other. But in the latter case, you perceive it is absurd; and not less absurd is it in the former. The truth, I fear, really is, that it is only a pretext, made by a mind that is disaffected to the great Lord himself, or doubts his existence, or hates his moral

government, and would have men live as atheists in the world.

O ye Christians-ye loyal subjects of Zion's King-ye true worshippers of the God of the Bible; who is the great Lord of our present, and of our eternal residenceand who declared it to be his will, that Christ's gospel should be proclaimed and taught to every creature—be it your study to co-operate in this divinely benevolent work! And among other motives, the

Second division of our discourse, which is, that

II. Man's sojourn on earth shall inevitably terminatė, furnishes not the least. Man is here a stranger, a sojourner, a guest, a traveller, a pilgrim. The Christian pilgrim is going indeed to a holy-place, but not on earth. Here he abides not. This description of the life of man implies another state of existence; the belief of which, as you are well aware, is not peculiar to Christianity, or to revealed religion. The belief of a separate state of existence, different from our earthly one, is found not only among the Mohammedans, who may have derived it from the Christian religion; but it is also found among the savage tribes of America, and the old civilized nations of Asia. There are, however, in different countries, individuals and sects who deny it. There is nothing about it in the books left to the eastern world by the Chinese moralist Confucius; and many of his followers deny it. But, on the other hand, a great majority of the Chinese not only believe that we human beings shall exist after our bodies die, but also that we existed in another state before we were born into this world; and on their supposition we are, in a very striking manner, only "strangers and sojourners," on earth. There is, perhaps, no absurdity in this notion; but we can only say, it wants evidence, and God's inspired servants, who wrote our Holy Scriptures, have not taught it in the Bible. We therefore reject it, as we do every other theory or supposition, which, however plausible, has no proof. But the glimmerings and antici