DISSERTATION VI.

HOME MISSIONS.

"Ye see the distress we are in, how Jerusalem lieth waste, and the gates thereof are burned with fire; come, and let us build up the wall of Jerusalem, that we be no more a reproach. And they said, Let us rise up and build. So they strengthened their hands for this good work."

In the days of Artaxerxes, king of Persia, Jerusalem was in a defenceless and ruinous state. Hearing of its wretched condition, and possessing great affection for the place of his fathers' sepulchres, Nehemiah, a Jew, and the king's cupbearer, conceived the noble design of rebuilding the city. To this intent he first prayed to the God of heaven, believing that all success depends on his pleasure, and then sought the king's permission. Artaxerxes granted his request. Nehemiah, without delay, repaired to Jerusalem, and on the third night after his arrival, he arose, and taking some few men with him, went round the city, and viewed its walls broken down, and the gates thereof consumed with fire. After this he assembled the Jews, priests, nobles, rulers, and the rest of the people, and thus addressed them, "Ye see the distress we are in, how Jerusalem lieth waste, and the gates thereof are burned with fire; come and let us build up the wall of Jerusalem, that we be no more a reproach.

Then Nehemiah told them of the hand of his God, which was good upon him, and also the king's words that he had spoken unto him. And they said, Let us rise up and build. So they strengthened their hands for this good work." They immediately and resolutely engaged in this glorious enterprise, and in fifty-two days happily. accomplished it.

The preceding account may be accommodated to the spiritual Jerusalem of this land. There are most lamentable desolations in our Zion. In view of them every Christian's heart must be distressed. These desolations should be, and must be repaired. Christians should resolve and execute their resolutions, as did the Jews in the time of Nehemiah. They should say, "Let us rise up and build," and then strengthen their hands for this good work. So shall the desolations of Zion be repaired. In this dissertation it is intended,

I. To take a brief survey of the waste places of Zion in our country.

II. To shew that these waste places should be repaired. And,

III. To point out the methods, in which they may, and should be repaired.

I. It is intended to take a brief survey of the waste places of Zion in this country. In the remarks, that may be made, reference will be had only to the desolations within the bounds of the Congregational and Presbyterian denominations of Christians. By waste places is meant those towns, parishes, or districts of country, which lie in moral desolation, where no evangelical minister will be settled or supported, without foreign pecuniary aid.

Nehemiah, before he commenced rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem, took a particular survey of its ruins. The good people of this nation must become acquainted with its

spiritual desolations, before they will use their exertions to repair them. However painful the task, I will now attempt to delineate the moral wastes of our beloved country.

I begin with New England, where the Pilgrims first planted themselves. Under their pious care and culture, the wilderness became like Eden, and the desert like the garden of the Lord; joy and gladness, were found therein, thanksgiving and the voice of melody.' But, alas! in many towns where churches were once established, and temples reared to the living God, there is now a sad reverse. In some places the church has become extinct, and the house of God is in ruins. The Sabbath returns, but there is no temple worship. There is a famine of hearing the words of the Lord. The people are scattered upon the mountains as sheep having no shepherd. In others a church still exists, feeble, and disheartened, and perhaps amid prevailing heresies, and a surrounding atmosphere filled with death. They have a sanctuary for God, but it seldom resounds with his praises. Christians have hung their harps upon the willows, and weep in despondence, for no day-spring dawns upon them. Other places still retain the form of godliness. Religious instructions are not entirely exiled from them. The gospel and its ordinances are to a degree maintained. But great opposition to the cause of Christ exists among the enemies of truth in these places. Even the love of Christians waxes cold, and the ways of Zion mourn, because few come to her solemn feasts. In none of these places are the regular and constant ministrations of the gospel enjoyed. There is no stated priest to weep for them, between the porch and the altar, and to break to them the bread of life; no abiding shepherd to lead them into green pastures, and beside the still waters. Some of these socie

ties have been destitute of the appointed means of grace, for twenty or thirty years. Others have enjoyed a preached gospel till within a much shorter period. Others again have but just begun to faulter, or despairingly to surrender their dearest privileges and blessings. The ability and wants of these societies are various. Some need only to have the things strengthened, which remain that are ready to die. Fifty or a hundred dollars a year, in addition to what they can raise themselves, will now secure to such societies a permanent gospel ministry; and in process of time, by the blessing of Heaven, it may be hoped they will be able to exist, as flourishing societies, without foreign aid. Others are more broken and have less ability to maintain the word and ordinances of God. They therefore require a more liberal patronage. Others again have but little strength,, and make but little effort. A few only remain struggling for life, while the great mass around them are totally and criminally indifferent to the institutions of the gospel. A moral death seems to pervade nearly the whole. They are dry bones, very dry. While they have no kind monitor to warn them of danger, and to proclaim to them the merits of a Saviour's blood, no angel of mercy to support them in their distresses, to visit and console them when on a sick and dying bed, and to commend their departing spirits to God who gave them; but few among them ever sigh for such a minister of Christ. cieties is almost hopeless. Let a messenger of the them, and God may, as he has done in other places, breathe upou these dry bones and cause them to live.

The building up of such soStill they should not despair. Lord of hosts be sent among

He may

shed down the dew and rainj from heaven upon these

thirsty and barren parts of our Zion; the light of the Sun

of righteousness may break in upon them, and they revive and flourish these wastes may be built.

I will not here attempt to show how these desolations have taken place. Various have been the causes. Suffice it to know that such desolations do exist, and exist, too, in the very heart of the New England States. Of the 1050 Congregational churches and societies in these States, there are more than 300 unable of themselves to support the regular and constant ministrations of the word and ordinances of God. Upwards of 70 of these may be found in Maine, as many as 60 in New Hampshire, nearly 80 in Vermont, more than 70 in Massachusetts, 6 in Rhode Island, and from 40 to 50 in Connecticut. Such, I am compelled to say, are the desolations of Zion in New England, though a section of country more highly favored, in a religious point of view, than any other on the face of the globe. But the spiritual desolations of New England are small, compared with many other parts of our country. The Presbyterian denomination has in its connexion probably 800 feeble churches and societies, in which the gospel ministry will not be constantly maintained without pecuniary aid from abroad. The South and West are in a most appalling state. A famine, not of bread nor of water, but of the word of life, is sweeping a great portion of the inhabitants down to eternal death. The Great Valley of the Mississippi, (twenty-four hundred miles in length, and twelve hundred in breadth) may be said, in general terms, to be little better than one immense field of moral desolations. A contemplative view of this is enough to make heaven weep, if weeping could be there; enough to break any heart unless harder than adamant, and to rouse it into holy action, unless colder than the grave. But the subject is too painfully affecting to be pursued.