Through Him they look up to His Father, and to their Father, who is in heaven.

Here, then, we find a powerful motive of action. Sirs, ye are brethren! Brotherly love will not rest satisfied without striving to add new members to the household and family of Christ's church. It concerts aggressive measures against the powers of darkness. It devises the means of raising new trophies to the glory of the Redeemer. It is not blind to the sad truth, that, even in a nominally Christian land, they are not all Israel who are of Israel. It knows that, even there, many are to be found who are not yet members of one body in Christ. Even there, are objects enough to awaken every feeling of that charity which seeketh not her own, and to call forth in their behalf all the resources at our command. Even there, a war is to be maintained against the united influence of ignorance and sin; the channels of divine truth are to be cleansed and purified, prepossessions to be removed, waning affections to be revived, slumbering energies to be roused into action, pride to be abased, profanity to be reclaimed, error to be rectified, dulness to be quickened; in a word, Satan to be put down, and God exalted in his stead.

These, however, are the ordinary duties which devolve on the members of every Christian state, without exception. If any man provide not for his own, he.... is worse than an infidel. But there are countries so circumstanced by position or power or knowledge, as to be

required to look beyond their own individual household of faith, and to do good to all men. They are to create a brotherhood in the bonds of the Gospel out of those who, though now aliens and separated from the family of God, through the knowledge of Christ may yet be admitted within its pale. On our own nation, for instance, this obligation presses, I scruple not to say it, with a weight which has not yet been felt in due degree. We owe a debt, of which we are reminded with a cogency that neither indifference, nor lukewarmness, nor selfishness can weaken, by the nature of the land itself which has been given us for a dwelling, and by the maritime genius of its people. The very purposes of Providence would seem to be frustrated, if we failed to become a missionary nation. The standard of the cross, through God's mercies, has been long planted on our shores. Is it not fitting that our hands should be lent to the task of rearing it in those spiritual deserts which are not yet the kingdoms of God and of his Christ? The doctrines of Christianity, by the divine favour, have been preserved in our Protestant church, free, as we believe, from material error, and as pure and powerful for the salvation of souls as in the days of their original revelation to man. Is it not fitting, that, when many run to and fro on the spur of secular enterprise, or in thirst of gain, the knowledge of the Gospel should be increased? and that they who occupy their business in great waters should carry with them some messenger of peace, commissioned to declare the gracious promise, that whosoever shall call upon the Name of the

Lord shall be saved? Are they not, beyond all others, invited to obey the divine command, which, eighteen centuries ago, first gave authority and sanction for missionary labours-Go... teach all nations?

Truly may it be said, that there can be no more certain symptom of a low state of religious feeling than apathy on this subject. Where men think strongly, they act with energy. Where they are deeply impressed with the importance of an object, they are zealously affected in promoting it. The very Pharisees would compass sea and land to make one proselyte. Should evangelists in the Christian cause limit the sphere of their ministrations, and be slow to preach the Gospel in the regions beyond them, where men yet offer their sons and their daughters unto devils? The Jew Paul confessed himself debtor both to the Greeks and to the Barbarians; though, as an Israelite of the seed of Abraham, and tribe of Benjamin, his heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel was, that they might be saved. He thought it not much that he was in journeyings often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by his own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren; in weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness. He was ready to spend and be spent in his Master's service. See him at Lystra, rending his clothes, and running in among the people, and periling his life in his jealousy for God's honour!

See him at Miletus, stedfastly purposing to go unto Jerusalem, unmoved by the knowledge of the bonds and afflictions which awaited him in every city! See him at Athens, the nursing-mother of idolatry, the very centre of superstitious vanities! As he stood on Areopagus, and looked round on the city of orators and poets, and marked the groves and porches of her philosophers, the concourse of nations thronging to her crowded forum, the monuments of literature and science arising on every side in all the purest forms of art, unmatched as yet by the rivalry of succeeding ages, there would be much in the scene before him to rivet his attention, much to invite research, much to provoke comparison and contrast. As a citizen of no mean city, glorying in the name of Roman, and in the un-purchased freedom of his birthright, he would not view without interest the citadel of that famous people, whose restless activity had long struggled for the dominion of the world, and had coped successfully with the mightiest nations which those times had known.— Such, doubtless, would have been the reflections of Saul, ere his journey to Damascus. Very different, however, were the thoughts which engrossed the soul of the converted Apostle of the Gentiles! His spirit was stirred within him, when he saw the city wholly given to idolatry. He waits no longer for Silas and Timotheus he longs to turn the inhabitants of a place, where there were almost as many gods as men, from the service of idols, and of Satan in them, to the service of the true and living God in Christ. He disputes in the synagogue with the Jews and with

the devout persons, and in the market, daily, with them that met with him. He straightway preaches unto them Jesus and the resurrection.

How happens it, then, that what so stirred the Apostle's spirit, falls with so much deadness on the hearts of the Christian world in general? It cannot, I think, be doubted, whether apathy towards the eternal interests of others must not be considered, in some sort, as indicative of a want of serious feeling respecting the futurity which awaits ourselves. It is no token for good when the sympathies of the heart are checked, or the hand is closed, by the cold and calculating inquiry, Am I my brother's keeper? He who has himself drunk of the well of life, longs to roll away the stone from the top of the well, that others may taste of the same living water. He who has felt his own personal helplessness and inability, and knows by experience that the natural man receiveth not the things that are of God, is touched with a sense of deep compassion for that evil heart of unbelief which is yet dead in trespasses and sin. He who has bowed in deep humility at the foot of the cross, and there has touched, as it were, the extremest hem of Christ's garment, cannot refrain from speaking out of the abundance of his heart. He will tell unceasingly of the Fountain opened for sin and uncleanness; and point to the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world, and rest neither day nor night till the numbers of those are multiplied who join with him in ascribing to the Redeemer power and riches and