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them in the ground. Not only have they been withdrawn from the service of God; but far too frequently have they been employed in the service of his enemies.

This is the kind of assistance which is most wanted at present in the missionary cause. It is not work that is wanting;-it is not wealth to carry on the work;-it is laborers.

It was not the hope of rendering any considerable pecuniary assistance to missions which induced some of our number to attempt the formation of this society; it was the desire of cultivating a missionary spirit among ourselves. We remembered, that from the Halls of Cambridge, there had gone forth the zealous and devoted Martyn; and that a sister university had sent forth a Brown and a Buchanan; and we were not without the hope, that even from this remote and hitherto lukewarm corner of our land, there might be found some to imitate their honorable, though despised, example.

This may serve to explain to you why we have already laid out so great a portion of our funds in procuring the lives and the writings of some of the most distinguished of our missionaries. And, we are sure, that there are few who can peruse the diary of a Brainerd, or a Martyn, without being animated with something of that devoted spirit which animated these illustrious servants of our God.

But we fear, lest it may be thought by some, that these remarks savor too much of selfishness; that we have held up as an incitement to exertion, the hope of glory, and the fear of condemnation.

Well do we know, that if the love of Christ

constrain us not, to live not unto ourselves, but to him that died for us,-then all other inducements will be utterly powerless. But in this. age of antinomian delusion, when religion has, among one class of our community, been transformed into a thing of definitions and cold speculation; and, when, among another, it has dwindled into a thing of mere feeling and poetic sentiment; we deem it right to bring forward those passages of the Bible which bear most directly upon our conduct.

For how often in those days of cold and heartless profession, do we meet with those who have the most perfect knowledge of all that is orthodox, and all that is Calvinistic; who can argue most ingeniously about all the dark and doubtful points of theology; whose heads have been stuffed with the dogmas and the disputations of a speculative divinity;-but whose hearts have never been reached by the melting declarations of the gospel.

These are willing to talk and debate about religion; and they are willing, perhaps, to speculate about the possibility or impossibility of their salvation to whom the glad tidings of the gospel never came. But, if, on the ground of the uncertainty of the question, you urge home upon them, the duty of sending instruction to the heathen; and, if you but mention Bible or Missionary Societies, immediately are they ready to silence your every argument by their usual cant charges of fanaticism and enthusiasm.

How often, on the other hand, do we meet with those whose religion is not indeed so cold, but altogether as lifeless;-with those who are loud in the praise of benevolence, and who are ever saving to the poor, Be ye warmed, and be

ye fed; whose tenderest emotions are excited by the recital of some tale of imaginary wo;-but who would think the lofty dreams of their sentimentalism degraded by being brought in contact with what they reckon the grossness of real life. And how lamentable is it to think, that, in this class of individuals, we can sometimes meet with those who can talk, and, who can write, the most pathetically about the misery and the degradation of the heathen; and who can yet demonstrate, by their own deeds, that the religion of the Bible has even less influence upon themselves than the mock morality of the Koran on the followers of Mahomet, or the fables of the Shaster on the deluded votary of Brama.

I have inserted this admirable Essay, not only for the important sentiments which it contains; but because, with another, which will afterwards come in, it illustrates more powerfully than any description of mine, the character and talents of the writer. His knowledge of the Scriptures, and the ease with which he reasons upon them, are extraordinary in a boy of his years. Human teaching could not have produced such excellence as is here displayed. The subject is a difficult, and, in some respects, an original one; yet he discusses it like a person familiar with it, and who had devoted to it, the leisure and the application of years.

It affords the most decisive proof that his zeal was not the sudden excitement of passion, or that temporary and often violent heat, which is put forth by a young convert: which is sometimes in the inverse ratio of the light which is possessed; and, therefore, as ephemeral in its duration as it is unproductive of solid benefit to the individual

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himself and to others. It is good to be zealously affected in a good thing. But it is always desirable that zeal should be according to knowledge; and that the flame should be clear as well as ardent. Such was the case of my young friend. His warmth arose from those doctrines which he so well understood, and the influence of which must ever be powerful on those who really believe them. The love of Christ to himself, brought along with it, the most devoted gratitude in return. perceiving that the manifestations of Christ's love, in devoting himself for the salvation of the world, are recorded, not only to be the foundation of our faith towards God, but to be the example and the excitement of the same principle in us, he felt called upon to give his talents and his life to the Is this fanaticism? Then was it fanaticism which led the Son of God to give his life a ransom for many. It was fanaticism which sent the apostles round the world on a mission of benevolence. It was fanaticism which influenced the confessors and martyrs of primitive times to sacrifice all things for their Master's sake, and "for the elect's sake, that they might obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory."

same cause.

It is far easier on Christian principles to defend the utmost degree of self-devotion in the work of disseminating the gospel, than it is to defend the sincerity of men who call themselves Christians, and yet remain cold, selfish, and worldly. For the highest ardor, for what may be even called the extravagance of zeal, it is easy to find not only an apology, but a justification in the principles and hopes of the gospel. But it is passing strange, that men should conceive themselves to be Chris

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tians, while they "live to themselves," and are equally regardless of what is due to consistency, to the honor of Christ, and to the claims of a perishing world. It is not necessary that every Christian should become a missionary to the heathen; but it is necessary that every Christian should consider himself the Lord's, and that he is as much bound to propagate the faith of Christ, as the primitive believers. No obligation lay on them which does not devolve on us; and it is only in as far as we adopt their maxims and imbibe their spirit that we can expect at last to share their reward.

There is reason to fear that the New Testament doctrine of future rewards and punishments is very imperfectly understood by many Christians. They use the terms, heaven, eternal life, the crown of glory, and other corresponding expressions, in a very vague and indefinite manner. Their hopes and expectations seem to be exceedingly low, and to produce a proportionately feeble influence on their minds and conduct. Christianity is not sufficiently their life; and, hence, they find it necessary to repair too much to other sources of enjoyment.

With them, the escape from future punishment, and the possession of heaven, considered as a state of entire freedom from suffering, is the ne plus ultra of hope. The idea of a scale of reward scarcely enters into their mind, much less that this scale will be regulated by the degree in which the character is in this world conformed to that of Christ. Hence the satisfaction with themselves which is felt even when much that is evil exist. Hence the indifference to eminent degrees of labor, self-denial, and

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