have been followed with important blessings to the church. How many pious, watchful mothers, like those of Doddridge, Newton, and Dwight, have been chiefly instrumental in forming the characters of their sons; and have reared them up to shine as stars of the first magnitude in the sphere of usefulness on earth, and in the firmament of heaven forever and ever ?

Have we not evidence then, my brethren, and evidence of the most satisfactory nature, that one person is capable of doing much good? How many individuals might be mentioned, who, with Paul, have actualby done much good?

2. We may learn what that is which each of us most needs, in order to our becoming extensively useful. It is not, in ordinary cases, more health, or more strength, or greater natural facilities for doing good. It is rather this a heart to do good. We need the spirit and the heart of Paul. We need his disinterestedness, his diligence, his prudence, his faithfulness. We need his unconquerable ardor, his burning zeal, his humble dependence, and untiring perseverance in the cause and service of his Lord. Did these several traits belong to us, to the degree in which they belonged to him; we should not need our natural capacities enlarged, or our stations in life materially altered, in order to our becoming extensively useful. With hearts to do good, either to the bodies or the souls of men-with strong desires to be useful, in promoting and extending the Redeemer's kingdom; opportunities of gratifying these desires would not long be wanting. And with the promised blessing of heaven on our side, we might expect every labor of benevolence, in which we engaged,

would be followed and crowned with desirable suc

cess.

3. We learn what that is which the Church and world most need at the present time. It is the fall ing mantle of Paul. It is not drones in the spiritu al hive who only desire to get a living from the Church-but laborers, coming forward in the vine yard, in the spirit and power of the great Apostle of the Gentiles.

This, my brethren, is what we most need in the Churches at home.-In seasons of prevailing stupidity and coldness, it is often asked, both by Ministers and people, "What shall be done? What can be done to bring about a more desirable state of things” ?— And, by way of answer, let it be asked again, What would Paul do, if he were present? Were he present in any of our Churches, where coldness and stupidity prevail—were he present, “pressed in spirit,” as he once was at Corinth-in the holy ardor of his soul, were he present; what would he do? And if, under such circumstances, we can satisfy ourselves what he would do; we may rest quite satisfied that it is incumbent on us to do the same.

And the spirit of Paul is needed, not only in the Churches at home, but in the Missions abroad, and in those vast fields of spiritual darkness which are still spread upon the earth.-Far be it from me so much as to insinuate that the present Missionaries to the heathen are not faithful men. I have the utmost confidence that, in the general, they are faithful men. They are men, I believe, who exhibit more of the spirit of the primitive Church, than perhaps any other class of Christians. Still, none of them will feel at all disparaged, in not being ranked with the Apostle Paul.-It is laborers such as Paul that the heathen

most need. And the nearer modern Missionaries can come up to his standard, and to the bright example which he has left; the greater, doubtless, will be their usefulness, and the more they will be honoredand approved of God.

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4. The subject to which we have been attending is fitted, my brethren, both to reprove and to excite If Paul was able to do so much good, it should be a humbling thought to us that we do so little. How shall we answer it at another day, that we have followed at so great a distance (if indeed we have followed at all) the examples of the primitive saints, and have made a few and feeble exertions, in promoting the cause of him whom we call our Saviour ?— May a sense of past negligence affect us deeply, and excite us to greater diligence and faithfulness in time to come. All of us, we may rest assured, have something to do. And we all have something to do, without going out of our proper sphere. There is something which our Saviour requires and expects we shall do for him, and for which he will hereafter call us to an account. It should then be our study to know definitely what this is, and our fixed purpose to do it, let it be what it may. No considerations of personal ease or indulgence should be permitted in any case to come between us, and what we feel to be our duty.

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DISCOURSE IV.

COMPARATIVE ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES

OF THE PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANS, AND CHRIS TIANS NOW, FOR SPREADING THE GOSPEL.

Rom. x. 18.

"But I say, Have they not heard? Yes, verily, their sound went into all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the world.”

THIS is one of the passages, in which the Apostle speaks of the extent to which the gospel had been preached and the religion of Christ promulgated, in his own times. There are several other passages in his writings of a similar import. The gospel hath "come to you," says he to the Colossians, "as it is in all the world; and it bringeth forth fruit, as it doth also in you." And again; "Be not moved away from the hope of the gospel which ye have heard, and which was preached to every creature which is under heaven; whereof I, Paul, am made a Minister."-Whatever construction or limitations may be put upon these passages, it will I think be admitted by every candid interpreter, that they denote a very rapid extension of the gospel, in the earliest period of the Christian Church. At the time when they were written, the Saviour had not been crucified and the new dispensation instituted, more than about thirty years; and yet, in this comparatively short space, his religion and kingdom had been so greatly extended through the labors of his

disciples and friends, that it could be said in truth, and in some authorized sense, that "their sound had gone into all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the world" and that his gospel had been "preached to every creature which is under heaven."

How shall we account, my brethren, for this rapid spread, or as it may almost be termed, this flight of the gospel in primitive times? And especially, in what manner can we account for it, considering the slow progress which the same gospel has made in most periods since; and the comparatively slow progress which it is making even now? Can it be accounted for on the ground that the primitive believers enjoyed superior advantages for spreading the gospel, compared with those which are enjoyed at present ?-To institute a comparison of these several advantages, and thereby furnish a satisfactory answer to this question, will be my principal endeavour in the ensuing discourse.

It is obvious, I think, that in some respects the Apostles had superior advantages for spreading the gospel.-In the first place, they were favored with the gift of tongues. As they passed from nation to nation and from place to place, publishing the gospel of the grace of God, they were not necessitated to suspend their public labors, till they had made themselves familiar with the various languages and dialects. By a supernatural influence, they were enabled to speak intelligibly in any language, as the Holy Spirit gave them utterance.-This gift of tongues was an advantage to them, not only as it saved the labor and delay of acquiring languages, but as it was fitted to excite attention and wonder, and to impress those who heard them with the truth and importance of what was delivered. Behold, are not

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