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or enthusiasm. It is a purpose of God, an object of the highest complacency to Infinite wisdom. Shall not those, who have been made to drink into one Spirit, show themselves, while professing to aim at such an object, to be of one accord, and one mind? Shall not forms, and modes, here be forgotten; and, so far as the attainment of this mighty end is concerned, all names be lost in that of Christian, and all diversities amalgamated by the piety and benevolence of the Gospel? Shall not those, who profess to be Christians, prove by their harmony in this divine undertaking, that they are indeed, the flock of Christ; that they belong to one fold; and that they are led by one Shepherd?

To enlist your hearts, and hands, my brethren, to engage your prayers, and labours, in this honorable enterprise, let me set before you the following motives. 1. The work, to which you are summoned, is the Work of God. p but

My brethren, it is the chief work of GOD, which has been announced to mankind. It is the end of this earthly creation.It is the end of this earthly Providence. It is the glorious end of Redemption. It is the subject of the first prophecy, ever delivered to man. It was repeated in the second. It was reiterated in the long train, which followed, in a thousand varieties of sublimity and rapture. The eye of the seer, extending a divinely enlightened vision down the vale of futurity, beheld, at an immense distance this glorious object, dimly ascending above the horizon. Remote as it was; and obscurely as it was seen; it warmed his mind with wonder and transport. The prophet Isaiah, sublime beyond any other writer, accustomed to thoughts, fresh from heaven, and speaking with a tongue, which emulates that of Angels, rises, whenever this subject is presented to his view,

above himself; and lifts his wing for a loftier flight towards the angelic world. And shall not we, to whom this dispensation is nigh, even at the doors, catch a portion of his fire, and glow with a share of his ecstasy? We profess to love GCD. Shall we not unite with all the heart, to further the divine purpose, for which he made the earth and the heavens? We profess, that we have believed in Christ. Shall we not advance with our utmost powers the exalted end of his labours, and sufferings? Here, He, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, is bringing many sons unto glory. Here the Redeemer is multiplying the trophies of his cross, and the many crowns of his final triumph. This is the great harvest of the world. He is now about to send his angels, to gather his elect from the four winds. Who would not unite himself with such labourers in such an employment?

2. The present is the proper time for this glori-, ous undertaking.

It is the proper time, as it is marked out by the Spirit of prophecy. Almost all judicious commentators have agreed, that the Millennium, in the full and perfect sense, will begin at a period, not far from the year 2000. Christ, referring mediately at least, to this great event, says, “Behold I come as a thief;" i. e. suddenly; and sooner than the world will expect. By this declaration we are taught, that the duration of the two last vials will be comparatively short; and that the dawn of the succeeding day will be earlier than mankind have been accustomed to believe. But, should we fasten upon the year 2000, as the period in which there shall be a complete accomplishment of the predictions concerning this wonderful event, how evidently is it necessary, that all the measures, by

which it is to be accomplished, should be now formed, and immediately begin to operate. Should we, should all Protestant nations, awake out of our long sleep; and shake ourselves as mighty men; should we bring every heart, and hand, to this vast work; should we pursue it with a firmness, which nothing can daunt, and an ardour, which nothing can extinguish; how uninterrupted, how rapid, how successful, must be our progress, in order to find its consummation at the date assigned? Think of the changes, which have been mentioned in this discourse: how numerous; how vast; how wonderful; how evidently indispensable. Think what it must be for so many mil lions of the human race to yield up their false systems of Religion: systems, gross and rank with corruption; hoary with the age of many centuries; bound to the soul with the chains of bigotry; and armed for their defence with the sword, the rack, and the faggot. Think what it must be for pride to bow; for the iron heart of avarice to dissolve; for ambition to feed no more upon blood; and for sensuality to wallow no longer in corruption. Think what it must be for private and public crimes to be no more, for falsehood and fraud, injustice and cruelty, to fly from the thrones of princes, and the habitations of men. How amazing must be the change, when the Romish cathedral, the mosque, and the pagoda, shall not have one stone left upon another, which shall not be thrown lowon: when the Popish, Mohammedan, Hindoo, and Chinesian, worlds shall be created anew; and the voice of angels exclaim concerning each, JEHOVAH bless thee, O habitation of justice, O mountain of holiness: when a pestilential Simoom shall no longer waft decay, and death over the moral wilds of Africa; and the soul throughout that vast continent be illumin

ed by the beams of the Sun of Righteousness, and quickened with life from Heaven: when Europe shall no longer convert her wide domains into a stall of slaughter; nor offer herself as a voluntary holocaust upon the altar of Moloch: and when the human wolves, which have so long prowled around the American deserts, shall assume the innocence, and meekness, of the lamb. What a transmutation must man have undergone, when there shall not be a tyrant nor a slave, not a jail nor a gibbet, not a dram-shop nor a brothel, not a lie nor a theft, from the rising of the sun to the going down of the same. How astonished must the earth be, how delighted the heavens, to behold the Sabbath dawn with serenity and peace upon Japan; and, moving slowly, and solemnly, round this great world, shed its evening lustre upon California; and see the earth one vast altar, and the sky one magnificent temple, of JEHOVAH; perfumed with incense, offered up by the immense congregation of man? Who does not discern, that the centuries, which will expire before the specified date, will be a stinted period for the accomplishment of such a work as this? Who will not rejoice, and take courage, when he hears it proclaimed from heaven concerning this very work, "I, JEHOVAH, will hasten it in its time."

The present is the proper time, also, because this work is actually begun; and begun upon an astonishing scale. How wonderful is it, that so many persons should have united in it; that such persons should have united in it; that they should have acted with so much Christian catholicism; that so many prejudices, which have hitherto been moles, and spots, on the divine aspect of Religion, should have disappeared; that contributions should have been so extensively, so liberally, so ardently, made; that prayers should have

mingled in one strain of supplication from a thousand lands; that the Bible should have traversed the globe with the flight of an Eagle; and that Missionaries should already have proclaimed the tidings of eternal life to the four corners of the earth? The streamlet has already become a river: the river will soon expand into an ocean. Should these efforts cease; should this spirit expire: how many generations of men may pass, before the same mighty advantages will return; before even the attempt may be renewed?

There is a crisis in all human affairs. If seized, it almost ensures success: if lost, every thing is lost with it. Sow in season; and you will reap a rich harvest. Sow out of season; and you will reap nothing. For the great purpose before us the present time is that crisis. Look at these men. GOD summoned them together. Look at their efforts. GOD inspired them. Look at their success. The blessing which created it, descended from GOD. The voice of his Providence, powerful and full of Majesty, calls to us, "Go for

ward."

Regard no difficulty, which has hindered, and no disappointment, which has perplexed, this Evangelical enterprise. Difficulties are merely trials of our faith, and love. They exist, only to be surmounted. What would have become of the children of Israel, had they stopped between Pi-hahiroth, and Baal-zephon?

3. The necessity of this work irresistibly demands every practicable effort.

"The whole world," says St. John, speaking of his own time, “lieth in wickedness: lieth, (for such is the indication of the original,) as a man slain lies weltering in his blood. How extensively is this strong picture a portraitof the world at the present moment? Cast your eyes abroad over this great globe; and mark

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