and the Gospel be thrust into its place? Is not God merciful? Let HIM then take care of the heathen.*

But whence are derived these conceptions of the moral character and condition of the heathen? Not from the Bible-they are there all recognised as depraved; all under condemnation for their depravity of heart, and abominable deeds; all condemned for their idolatry, as the consummation both of folly and guilt, the result not of filial affection for God, but of enmity against him, and of a reprobate mind, to which God has given them up, because they did not like to retain him in their knowledge.. The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against them, and they are represented as needing the Saviour, the Bible, the Sabbath, and the preaching of the Gospel, for the same purpose, and in the same degree that we need them. If the Gospel would be no blessing to them, it is none to us. If their superstitions are as salutary to them in their moral influence, as the Gospel would be; they would be as great a blessing to us, as the Gospel is.

Make the exchange then, ye who profess such charity and philanthropy towards the heathen. Give them your Bibles, and pastors, and Sabbaths, and receive their idols, and bramins, and religious rites. Demolish the temples of Jehovah; and roll through your streets the car of Juggernaut, "besmeared with blood of human sacrifice," and covered with emblems of pollution. Put out the Sun of Righteousness, and bring back the darkness visible. Kindle up the fires that shall consume annually, in a circumference of thirty miles, two hundred and seventy five widows on the dead bodies of their husbands, and leave behind thousands of children, doubly orphans. Welcome to your shores the religion, which shall teach your children, when you are sick, to lay you down by the cold river side to die; and when their mothers shall shrink from the glowing flame, with their own

"I would not lift a finger," said an infidel philosopher, "to convert to christianity the whole Chinese empire." This in him was consistent. But what shall be thought of those who profess to be christians, who will not lift a finger in the great effort now making to evangelize the world?"

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hands to thrust them in. Welcome to your hearts a religion, which shall teach you to entice your smiling children to the waves, and plunge them in, to attract by their cries the sympathy of strangers, or to perish and become the food of alligators. Welcome to your hearts a religion, which, if sin shall annoy, and the fear of punishment invade, will send you to drink of the waters that lave your shores, and wash in their flood, as your most effectual remedy. Fill your houses with Indian gods, of brass, and wood, and stone; and blow the trumpet of jubilee at your emancipation from the Gospel; and shout before your idols, "These be thy gods, O Israel !"

Oh, what superfluous benevolence has the Father manifested in giving his Son to die for those, whom the blood of bulls and of goats might have saved, as well as the blood of Jesus. What mere enthusiasm has actuated prophets and apostles, in their efforts to transmit to other ages a book so useless as the Bible, and institutions no better than the horrid rites of pagan worship. When Jesus gave to the inspired band their high commission, "Go ye out into all the earth, and preach the Gospel to every creature ;" why did they not perceive the mistaken zeal of their master, and announce, in anticipation of the discovery of later days, that the heathen are holy enough without the Bible and the foolishness of preaching, and save ages of toil, and rivers of blood. But the heathen are not holy. Read the first chapter of the Epistle to the Romans, and behold a portrait drawn by the pen of inspiration. "Filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness, full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, without understanding, covenant breakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful." This is the result of that heathen mythology, so "elegant ;" and these are those children of our common Father, so sincere in their efforts to please him, and so pure, as not to need to be washed in the blood of the Lamb. Read the

account of BUCHANAN, and you will perceive that the drawing is, still, to the life. No pollution is washed away, no stain of blood effaced, and no ray of light has fallen upon the canvass to alleviate the gloom. Read your Bible, and you will perceive that no change for the better is ever to be expected, but from the diffusion of the Bible, and the preaching of the Gospel.

My dear Brethren, the heathen are neither holy nor happy. They are depraved, and must be born again.— They are ignorant, and must be instructed.-They are profligate, and must be reclaimed.-They are debased by their superstitions, and must be raised. They are tortured by vain fears and useless penances, and must be relieved.--The stern hearted god of this world rules them with an excruciating despotism; and their groans, disregarded for ages, have at length reached the heavens; and the voice of the Almighty has come down from above, saying, "Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?" and you, brethren, have answered, "Here are we, send us." God has accepted your offer; and you are this day to be set apart, to carry the Bible and to preach the Gospel, to the heathen. It is a great, but it is also a glorious work; and you are not alone. God is with you-Jesus Christ is with you:-the Holy Spirit is with you the hearts of all the pious are with you :—our substance, we pledge for your support; and our prayers, day and night, for your protection, and comfort, and for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon the heathen, to whom you shall preach the Gospel.

May the prayer-hearing God bear you in safety across the deep; open before you in heathen lands an effectual door; make you the blessed instruments of raising, to the fellowship of angels and justified spirits, thousands, who otherwise had died in their sins, and been wretched and miserable forever; and, after a long life, bestow upon you in heaven "joy unspeakable and full of glory."

SERMON VI.

THE DESIGN, RIGHTS, AND DUTIES OF LOCAL CHURCHES.

1 Tim. iii. 14, 15.

These things write I unto thee, hoping to come unto thee shortly: But if I tarry long, that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.

IT has pleased God to carry into effect his purpose of redeeming men, by the instrumentality of a visible society organized exclusively for that end. This society, commencing its operations soon after the fall, and extending them through every intervening age, and destined to labor in the sacred. cause till the last day, has been denominated the Church of God. It is in the text called a house, as embodying in one family the children of God, and as the seat of their social labors, protection and enjoyment. By a change of figure, it is denominated the pillar and ground of the truth; to denote, doubtless, the actual efficacy of the church in upholding from age to age the cause of God.

The first form of the church appears to have been patriarchal, in adaptation to the most simple state of human society, as existing in tribes, originating in a common ancestor, and united by ties of blood and mutual interests and dangers.

In the church thus organized, the common ancestor was the priest, to instruct his descendants and uphold the divine worship. The life of the patriarch, extending in the first ages to nearly a thousand years, rendered a written revelation less important, and gave to his precepts and example, authority for the maintenance of truth and the instituted worship of God.

The next form of the visible church was one, which was accommodated to the exigencies of a nation. The progress of society from the pastoral to the agricultural and commercial state, amalgamated tribes and constituted nations. By these changes and the reduction of human life to an hundred and twenty years, the efficacy of patriarchal instruction and authority was destroyed; and families, having no common head, were scattered abroad, and soon exchanged the knowledge and worship of the true God, for the fictions. and impurities of idolatry.

To counteract this propensity of man to depart from God, and to provide a substitute for the patriarchal system, the Jewish church was organized-an extended association of families, each of which was made responsible to the community for its fidelity in upholding the instituted worship, and for the fidelity of each, the whole community is made responsible to God. To the church of God thus organized, was given a territory, to be held upon the condition of constancy in the maintenance of the true worship; and to aid the church in her work, a written revelation was committed to her care, and forms of worship were prescribed. When the temporary purpose of this dispensation was answered, in the preservation of religion until the desire of nations had come, and by the offering of himself, had made propitiation for sin; then, that he might give to his atonement a more extended operation in the salvation of man, the external form of the church was again changed, in accommodation to the exigencies of the world. This was done, by requiring in all nations, individuals possessing the requisite qualifications, to