Christian Missions 3

III. Having thus directed your attention to past and present events which either have borne, or which still bear, a favorable influence upon the world's moral culture, I go on to state to you, my young friends, in what way you may give your assistance to this great work.

1. And, as taking precedence of everything else, I must, of course, mention personal and decided piety. You must imitate the Corinthian believers, of whom it is said, in reference to their exertions for the welfare of others, "That they first gave their own selves to the Lord." Let the first offering you lay upon the altar of the missionary cause be your own heart, renewed and sanctified by divine grace, and devoted to the love, fear, service, and enjoyment of God. Zeal, to be of the right kind, must be an emanation from piety, and not a substitute for it. Whatever you do for the salvation of others, should be the result of a deep concern for your own. Without personal religion, you can have neither right views of the cause you are laboring to support, nor deep impressions of its value, nor right motives for assisting it; your zeal will be fitful and fluctuating, and your aims low and misdirected.

In the absence of repentance towards God, and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, you will not, you cannot, be identified with the cause itself—you may touch it—but you do not embrace it; you may have a loose and exterior connection with it—but you have no vital relation to it, no real communion with it, no ultimate share in its glories and its triumphs. Without personal religion you will not grace its final procession to the skies, and enter with it into the heavenly city, the eternal abode of the redeemed; but be finally detached and dismissed from it forever, as individuals who gave not themselves, embarked not their hearts, identified not their interests with the kingdom of Christ, and who, whatever were their motives, had their reward for all the service they did, in the feelings of exhilaration which they experienced upon earth.

Let me entreat you to remember your Creator in the days of your youth. Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness for yourselves. Do not be guilty of the strange and ruinous inconsistency of laboring to send out to the heathen the knowledge of a God unknown to you, and a Savior unaccepted by yourselves. If, through your exertions, conjoined with those of others, any of those heathens are saved, think what a spectacle will be presented at the last day when they, the objects of your zealous exertion, shall be seen at the right hand of the Judge, crowned with glory and honor, and possessed of eternal life, while you, the instruments of their salvation, shall be seen at the left, clothed with shame and contempt, and cursed with the sentence of eternal death.

Do not, for your soul's sake, do not mistake zeal in the Missionary cause—for personal piety. Many then will have done God's wonderful works, for the cause of Christ, to whom He will say at the last day, "Depart from me, I never knew you." With a solicitude which I cannot express, and an energy which I would increase if I knew how, I beseech you to exhibit, in your own example, a deep concern about your own salvation, a decided belief in the Gospel of the grace of God, and a steady, spiritual, uniform regard to the claims of religion; for these alone can render you the consistent, judicious, effectual, and persevering friends of Christian missions.

2. If you would aid the moral culture of the world, you must maintain a deep conviction of the paramount importance of man's spiritual interests, and the indispensable necessity of the Gospel of Christ to promote them.

We hear from all quarters, in the present day, of the progress of mind, and of the "march of intellect;" and we rejoice in the belief, as we have already remarked, that knowledge is, indeed, most rapidly increasing—but we are also destined to hear the most false and groundless assertions of the sufficiency of knowledge to effect the renovation of the human character, and to produce the happiness of man. Depend upon it, there is now formed a vast Missionary Society upon the principles of Deism.

Its Bible is the book of nature; its expositions are education and science; its apostles are the schoolmaster and the lecturer; its patrons and supporters are the unconverted—but still liberal, and in their way philanthropic statesmen, scholars, and philosophers of the day, who profess little, and feel less, compassion for man's spiritual degradation and exposure to eternal misery. His relations to God and eternity are left out of sight, and he is viewed only in connection with the present scenes of his existence—his soul is treated as a rational principle—but not as an immortal one; the gloom of his mind is bewailed—but not the depravity of his heart; and his civilization—but not his salvation, is the object of hope, and the end of all the schemes concerted for his welfare. These reformers and philanthropists would conduct him along a path illuminated by science, and furnished with all the decencies and comforts of life, to the verge of immortality; and there leave him to his fate, to be lost, for anything they can do for him, amidst the shades of eternal night, which close the brightest day of mere science, and sink the unrenewed mind in the gloom of darkness that may be felt.

These are the men who advocate the dignity of man, and yet leave out of view and out of calculation his immortality; in the absence of which, man, at his best estate, is altogether vanity, life is a shadow, and universal history is but a dream or a tale. To enlighten the mind is all these men pretend to do; the rest, they say, with a sneer, they leave to the visionary enthusiasts, the evangelising saints, the proselyting fanatics, who are the supporters of missionary schemes. We accept the challenge; and taking up their abandoned protégée, where their stinted mercy has left him, in the dark valley of the shadow of death, guide him onward to the felicities and splendors of eternal day.

But, perhaps, they will tell us, that they intend and hope, by the diffusion of knowledge, to make the world moral. Then I demand of them to demonstrate to me the necessary connection between knowledge and virtue. It is true that it will strip off much of the filthy, ragged, and disgusting dress of extreme poverty, and clothe the laboring classes with a more decent exterior; that it will, in some degree, raise and refine the taste, by opening sources of intellectual gratification, and thus rendering them less dependent for enjoyment on the appetites of their animal nature; and that it will produce an ambition for elevation in life—but will it ascend to the seat of moral principle, and rectify that? Will it cure the spiritual taint of our nature, and expel the venom of sin from the heart? Yes, to say nothing of a spiritual taste—will it implant a moral one? Will knowledge alone subdue the fierceness of passion, control the urgency of appetite, and enable the soul, in the hour of assault, to vanquish the potency of temptation?

This is a fine theme for the philosopher to descant upon; and he may, by the magic wand of his eloquence, call up before the imagination of his enchanted audience the lovely vision of an alehouse forsaken and a lecture room crowded; of the cups and glasses of inebriety abandoned for the philosophical apparatus; of polluting publications resigned for mechanics' magazines; and of the drunkard and the debauchee charmed out of their vices by the affinities of chemistry, or moved away from their corruptions by a display of mechanical forces.

But, depend upon it—that it is but a vision. If knowledge alone be sufficient to render mankind moral, why is it that in the race which it has been lately running with crime, it is so distanced by the latter as to excite the serious alarm of the community, and the most anxious enquiry of the legislature? Are our best educated people in all respects the most virtuous? Do our grammar schools and universities display the richest harvests in the moral domain? Do the court and the upper walks of society always afford that more cool and healthful atmosphere into which virtue, when weakened and relaxed by the influence of lower situations, can most hopefully retire, to have its enervated frame braced and recruited? Are none but such as cannot read and write to be found at our horse-races, boxing matches, and theaters, and all the other demoralising scenes with which even this polished country abounds?

And then, to go back to past ages, do the facts of history bear out the statement that an increase of knowledge is sufficient of itself to promote the reign of morality? To these I appeal. Never, except at the time of the deluge, was the world more profligate than when he who came to reform it, reformed it by redeeming it; and the most polished part of it was the most polluted. Of what nations did the apostle give us that picture, so darkly colored, which he has prefixed as a frontispiece to his Epistle to the Romans? Not of the Goths or the Gauls. No—but of the people that reposed amidst the splendors of the age, upon the seven hills of the eternal city; and of those still more polished and philosophic men who had had their taste formed and their minds cultivated by the Acropolis of Athens, and its statues and temples, the eloquence of Demosthenes, the dialogues of the inspired Plato, and the logic of Aristotle. Let this be remembered; and the assertions of those who now contend for the omnipotence of 'unaided human knowledge and education' will be hushed forever.

But our object is principally with heathen nations; and how, we ask, is knowledge to gain an entrance among the inhabitants of uncivilised countries? There needs a power, which nothing but true religion can supply—to fix the vagrant attention, to induce habits of reflection, to resist the dominion of sense, and to silence the clamours of appetite. Among such people, knowledge can be introduced by nothing but true religion. Christianity must open the first schools and teach the first lessons—and much as we have heard, and have been pleased to hear, of the schoolmaster being abroad, we would also speak of another, and a still more important personage, one that to the character of a teacher of youth unites the still sublimer office of a preacher of the Gospel; the missionary is abroad, and he is everywhere making way for the schoolmaster. I would say to the advocates of that system which professes to educate men only for this world—if you would succeed in heathen lands, you must apply to the Christian missionary; if you send the Bible—the plough, and the loom, and the printing press will follow; and much as you may sometimes feel disposed to ridicule the missionary schemes of those whose view of human nature swells infinitely beyond the range of your low and narrow horizon, I must tell you, that although they can do your work without your aid, you can really do nothing without them.

You will not infer, young people, from anything I have advanced, that I am opposed to the education of the people and the diffusion of knowledge. Far from it—I would make instruction co-extensive with the existence of minds to receive it, and open to the poorest of the population all the sources of information that can be put within their reach. All I am contending for is, that education without religion, that knowledge, in the absence of Christianity, will not reform the morals. Build up the piety of mankind, and you will secure the well-being of mankind. Nor is it to be inferred from my observations that Christianity has anything to fear from the extension of education, or the spread of information. Altogether the contrary; it has everything to hope.

It is no spirit of mischief, doing the deeds of darkness under the cover of night; and, like the wild beast or the thief, skulking from the rising sun, to awaken again to its employment when the bat takes wing and the owl is abroad. Christianity commenced its career amidst the glories of the Roman age; started afresh in its course on the revival of education; has been aided in its course by the art of printing; and is now traveling in the greatness of its strength, amidst the lights and improvements of the nineteenth century. "Piety," as the learned Cudworth has beautifully observed, "is the queen of all inward endowments of the soul; and all pure natural knowledge, all virgin arts are her handmaids—which rise up and call her blessed. The noble and generous improvement of our understanding faculty, in the true contemplation of the wisdom, goodness, and power of God, in this great fabric of the universe, cannot easily be disparaged without a blemish cast upon the Maker of it."

Christianity loves knowledge, and often produces it where nothing else could. Like its Divine Author, when it broods over the moral chaos, it first says, Let there be 'light'—and light follows; and then it dwells and reigns, enshrined amidst the radiance which emanates from itself. That religion is friendly to mental improvement, and alone can, in many cases, promote it, is evident from the scenery which now is beginning to spread out around some of our missions. Let the traveler take his station on the morning of the sabbath, on an eminence overlooking some valley where the ministers of Christ have been engaged in the labors of moral cultivation; and as his eye and his mind repose upon the decent habitation, the springing corn, the budding garden; and, above all, upon the undisturbed quiet of the scene; and, as the sound of the chapel bell and the hum of schools come up to him from below, let him ask what good genius has been there, to make the wilderness and the solitary place to be glad, and the desert to revive and blossom as the rose.

And let him take the same station when the sabbath is past; and, as he hears the sound of the axe, the creak of the printing press, or the hymn of the farmer, and beholds the appearances of civilization spreading out before him, let him ask what benefactor has been there to convert this haunt of savages into the abode of instructed and comparatively industrious men; and he will find it is Christianity—and he shall be told, moreover, by the missionaries, the well-known fact, that never until Christianity had impressed their converts' hearts, did knowledge enter their minds; that they would neither labor nor learn—until they became interested in the facts, and moved by the inducements of the Gospel—and that it was the wonders of the Cross and the truths of eternity that fixed their vagrant attention; and that, until they felt something of the power of these, they could not be made to comprehend, or to put forth an effort to comprehend the letters of the alphabet.

This is the testimony of facts, which the history of the introduction of Christianity into the islands of the South Sea furnishes in abundance; and it unanswerably proves that the best and the only means of civilising men, is to evangelise them; that religion, so far from being an enemy to knowledge, is, in many cases, that which alone can commence its reign, and that every advocate for the spread of information should, to be consistent, be the zealous supporter of Christian missions.

3. If you would grow up friends to the cause of missions, and the moral culture of the world, maintain a steady attachment to the great fundamental truths of the gospel, and a deep conviction of their importance. These are the very bases on which our cause rests. The religion which we are sending to the heathen is not of that loose and general kind, which is independent of all the peculiarities that belong to Christianity, and constitute its identity. The divinity of Christ, the atoning sacrifice of his cross, justification by faith, and the regeneration and sanctification of the heart by the Holy Spirit—are the truths which, under the influence of the Spirit, will convert the world.

"And I," said Christ, "if I be lifted up, will draw all men unto myself." The cross is not merely the magnet that will draw the heathen to God and to his church—but it is that alone which will give coherence and continuance to our missionary efforts. The generation which ceases to believe these truths, or, believing them, ceases to attach much importance to them, will cause the holy fire of zeal to go out on the altar of the Lord. God have mercy on the poor heathen, for man will have none, when, instead of the song of Moses and the Lamb, nothing is heard from professing Christians but the chanting of "Pope's Universal Prayer!"

A spirit has appeared in Christendom, clad in the robes, wearing the smile, and assuming the name of an angel of light—she calls herself 'Tolerance', and her object is, with silver-tongued eloquence, to persuade the various divisions of the Christian world to give up their bigotry, to contend no more about doctrines—but to be content with those general principles of our religion which are independent of the peculiarities of sects. Be upon your guard against her seductive arts and dangerous fascinations. She is a lying spirit; her true name is -'Infidelity'—her ultimate aim is to produce indifference to truth, her ultimate object is destruction of truth. Had her persuasions been listened to in former times, there would have been no Christianity now in the world; no truth, no Bible, no martyrs, in short, no true religion.

Beware of this latitudinarianism; the world is full of it in this day—our daily journals, our periodical literature, our fashionable poetry, our popular novels, are all saturated with it. I call you, young people, to first principles, and to the importance of religious doctrine. The articles of the evangelical creed are the seed of the world's future interests. I am not frightened by the ridicule of scoffers; I am not deterred by the dread of enthusiasm, from expressing my conviction that the secret of the world's moral and intellectual renovation, the panacea for its evils, lies compressed in that one expression of the apostle Paul, "It is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptance, that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners;" and that the great lever which will raise the world from its degradation, is what Paul has stated as the mainspring of all his energies, "The love of Christ constrains us."

I beseech you, therefore, to "hold fast the form of sound words," to cleave to those doctrines, and cherish the deepest sense of their importance, which are embodied alike in the Assembly's Catechism, the Articles of the Church of England, and in the formularies of every reformed church in Christendom; doctrines to which martyrs set the seal of their blood; which, in every age and in every country, have received the testimony of divine approbation, in the holy, beatifying, and beneficent effects which they have produced; which are the essence of revealed truth, and without which not only will all missionary schemes be utterly abortive—but soon and forever cease.

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