Christian Missions 4

4. Bring to the cause, a mind well enlightened and well informed on all the subjects connected with it. Let not your zeal be the effect of mere external impulse—but of deep and enlightened conviction; not a passion—but a principle; not the constraint of example—but the result of knowledge and of conscience. Be not satisfied to join the armies of the Lord, and to move with the mass, without knowing clearly the object of conflict, studying the plan of the campaign, and being acquainted with the facilities and difficulties of the grand attack. Study the evidences of Christianity, that you may go forward with the certainty of those who know that they are spreading truth and not fables.

Study the genius of Christianity, that you may perceive the adaptation to the whole human race—of its doctrines, duties, and institutes. Study the pages of ecclesiastical history, that you may see in what way the kingdom of Christ has been extended in former ages. Study those parts of inspired prediction which foreshadow the coming glories of the kingdom of our God and of his Christ; look down the vista there opened into futurity, and anticipate the coming age when the knowledge of the Lord will cover the face of the earth. Study the dispensations of Providence, and see their bearing on the moral interests of the globe. Take a deep interest in the passing events of your time, observe with a fixed and devoted attention, the shifting scenes, the varied characters, the gradual disclosures—of the sublime scheme going on in our world.

I advise you not to be mere politicians; no—but more than politicians. I would have you keep your eye on that object, to which the statesman rarely looks—but to the accomplishment of which God bends all the events of time, the rise and fall of empires, the elevation and depression of monarchs, the march of armies, the progress of science, the multiplication of inventions, and the spread of commerce.

I want you to stand where the enrapt prophet stood, when he saw the convulsions of the earth, and the desire of all nations rising in glory above the dark confusion of the scene—to illumine, to tranquilize, to bless the world. I wish you to have your imaginations filled with visions of millennial splendor, and that deep and powerful interest in passing events, which shall connect them with the ultimate universal diffusion of truth, holiness, and happiness. And here let me recommend to you the perusal of a book, which it is almost a point of conscience with me to notice in every public service—I mean "Douglas on the Advancement of Society in Knowledge and Religion." It is a proof that there is not all the public spirit among us which there seems to be, and that this age is not yet ripe for such a production, that it has not gone with rapidity from edition to edition.

That it contains somewhat of yet impracticable theory, I admit; but who does not delight to see such a mind theorising and speculating on the best means of cultivating the moral world, instead of imitating those who exhaust the energies of their genius and fancy, to raise and emblason bubbles only to afford amusement for the idle and curious? Enthusiastic it is; but with an enthusiasm kindled by a holy fire, in a mind ardent for the world's best interests, and its coruscations, if they serve no other purpose, afford a light for more sober minds to work by. It is a book which has done me good, and which I am anxious should do others good; for it is a seed-bed of benevolent schemes, whence we may all take some fresh seeds to plant in our hearts and our churches. They may call it, if they will, a romance of benevolence; yet the utmost mischief it can do, is to fill the imagination with visions of spiritual glory, which the most sober mind must wish to be real, and the optimistic will labor to make so.

5. Let all your exertions in the cause of missions not only proceed from pure religious principles—but be themselves characterized by the seriousness and spirituality of devotion. The man that sets his hand to the cause of true religion touches the most sacred thing in all the universe; and if he touches it with unholy levity, is guilty of a sin scarcely less than that which brought the punishment of death upon Uzzah, when in a moment of thoughtlessness he laid thoughtless hands upon the ark of God. I cannot help thinking that the zeal of the present age does not bear so much of the impress of piety as it should do—it is far too secular, too bustling, too noisy; it is the flight, not of the angel of the Lord through the midst of heaven, bearing the everlasting Gospel, whose career is too lofty for the vapors and the dust of earth to settle on the plumage of his cherubic wings, no—but of a spirit of feebler power, which is only just rising from our humble level, and the first motions of whose wings raise upon itself something of the defilement of the earth. Our zeal must take a loftier flight; it must rise nearer to God its fountain, and hold its course in the bright regions of pure devotion, and the uninterrupted beams of the Sun of righteousness.

I see, and I lament, much that is wrong. When I see missionary affairs taken up as a sort of religious entertainment, as a substitute for those amusements which our Christian principles forbid us to resort to; when I see people hastening to missionary meetings with as much frivolity as others enter the ball-room or the theater; when I see the missionary cause converted into an arena where rival congregations contend for the envied palm of superior liberality; when I hear exertion and munificence called forth by appeals to some of the unholiest passions of human nature; when I see names blazoned, and achievements trumpeted forth, with more than pharisaic pomp and ostentation; when I see toy-shops set up, sailing parties formed, and I know not what other kind of means resorted to for getting money; when I find, in some cases, the delicacy of female modesty impaired, and the simplicity of youthful ardor corrupted; when I hear it said that money, money, money, is the life-blood of the missionary cause, as if Plutus, the blind and lame God of wealth, were the patron, protector, and support of missions, rather than the Lord the Spirit; I cannot but believe there is much yet to be done at home; I cannot but think that there is much to be put away from the church, before the church will become the means of converting the world.

Call me a reformer, if you like. I am insensible to the sarcasm, and only wish I deserved the honorable appellation. I love the cause of missions, as He can testify who alone is witness to those intense desires which are daily and nightly poured forth by me before the Throne of Grace for the coming down of the Spirit. Yes, I love the cause; and love, you know, is jealous—and jealous am I over it; with a godly jealousy I watch the holy fire upon the altar of the church, with a solicitude proportioned to the delight which I take in it as a source of illumination to a benighted world; and to the crowd that are rushing into the temple with unhallowed fuel, I raise an indignant though feeble voice, and say, "Away, away, you profane!"

6. I mention the importance of a spirit of fervent prayer. Man is a strange and wayward being—he will either do nothing, or attempt to do everything; and, when roused from selfish indolence into activity, immediately rushes into proud self-sufficiency. We are not at all likely to do too much, for this is impossible; but to depend too much upon what we do. Our public institutions have assumed a very imposing magnitude and grandeur—we have caressed them, delighted in them, almost deified them, until they have risen into the place and received the homage of that image of jealousy which appeared to the people in the temple of the Lord. The priests who have performed their ritual, and chanted their praises, have called them the glory of the age, the hope of posterity, the morning stars of the Millennium. At length, Jehovah has testified his displeasure; has rebuked our idolatrous regard of our means, by allowing, in some institutions, schisms, difficulties, and controversies to arise, which seemed at one time to indicate that the glory of the Lord had commenced its departure from the mercy-seat, was already on the threshold, and there waited to see if the spirit of prayer would prevent its departure, and procure its return to its dwelling-place.

We are not yet stripped of self-dependence; we are trusting in the feebleness of our means; we are yet going forth in our own strength, and not in the strength of the Lord; we do not yet possess the simplicity and the confidence of faith. We have not enough (to use the expression of the venerable father of the minister of this place), of closet missionaries. We have preached sermons to prove the necessity of Divine influence for the conversion of the world; we have passed resolutions, declaring that we are convinced of the fact, and pledging ourselves to a more entire dependence on God; but do we act upon these resolutions?

Are the public devotions of ministers, and the prayers of the brethren for the effusion of the Spirit at our social meetings, characterized by an inward desire for the conversion of the world? Does the church visibly appear in the attitude of dependence? Is there an evident looking up into heaven, as if a Divine visitant were expected thence? Are we preparing to give him room in our hearts, houses, churches? I do not mean the visible personal glory of Christ—that I expect not; for I consider that the personal appearance of Christ has been, and will be no more, until he comes in power and glory, to judge the world in righteousness.

We are now under the economy of faith, and the dispensation of the Spirit; and it is the Holy Spirit, the sanctifier and comforter, that I am looking for. Would to God that I could see the harbinger of his approach, the spirit of universal prayer! If you would ascertain how much there is of this, look at your monthly missionary prayer meetings; are these crowded like the present meeting, like the meetings that will be held this week? I will not conceal that I have sometimes many trembling apprehensions respecting our cause, for I am afraid that nothing will lead us to trust in God but troubles and difficulties. Young people, I feel anxious that you should come to the cause in the tone of dependence and prayer, with a deep conviction of the importance of means—but a no less deep conviction of the absolute necessity of the Spirit's influence. Neither means nor prayer alone will lead to the conversion of the world—but the union of both will.

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