Even where the efforts seem to indicate failure, the word of God returns not void. How hopeless appeared at first the missionary efforts in the Sandwich Islands! Yet when God's arm was fully trusted, it might almost be said that a nation was born in a day. Even the very discouragements and failures that frown upon the enterprise, only nerve for exertion; and like the fabled Antæus, the adventurous friends of the cause of missions rise strengthened and refreshed from their apparently untoward prostration. Their falls have bid them raise their cry to Heaven, and God has appeared in their behalf. And, although precious lives have been sacrificed, those who have fallen, neither lived nor died in vain. They led the way for others; and their labors prepared the way for the greater efficiency of their successors' labors. And even, though the mysterious despensations of Providence struck our hearts, in the very commencement of that enterprise, with reference to which we are assembled to night, yet we see no reason to despond. A voice comes from the early tomb of the lamented Barr, whose youthful heroism but one short year ago enlisted our sympathies, as he plead for benighted Africa;* and bids the Church to occupy the field, on the limits of which he was not permitted to enter. And from another youthful soldier of the cross, the missionary of a sister branch of the Church, who fell so soon upon that field, we hear a voice that comes like a commandment from the world of spirits. Being dead they speak, and in obedience to their voice, the young heralds of salvation, in greater numbers, are preparing to act in the spirit of that cheering cry, which, as if in presentiment of his own early decease, was uttered by the departing Cox, before he left these shores, and sweeps in echo from his grave across the Atlantic, to admonish and impel to ceaseless and uncomputed effort, “LET THOUSANDS PERISH, BEFORE AFRICA BE GIVEN UP!!"

And this is the feeling which is to gather strength; and pour its accumulating influence upon the dark places of the earth. It is the purpose of God that His word shall go forth, and all flesh shall see His salvation. By the power of the truth, through the agency of men, shall be accomplished "Scenes surpassing fable, and yet true;" a purpose,

'which who can see,

Though but in distant prospect, and not feel

His soul refreshed with foretaste of the joy ?"

The contemplation of the latter-day glory, seen through the dim vista of rolling centuries, and thousands of years to come, filled the bosom of the prophet with enraptured bliss, and bade him call upon the Church to sympathize in his joy, and behold the blest vision of her coming triumph; arise shine for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee. And when the vision of accomplished mercy seems already to arise, in near

* Mr. Barr preached for the author, on behalf of the African mission, on the last afternoon, (Sabbath,) that he spent in New York. On that day at the table, while speaking of the trials which he expected, I quired whether he were nfarried, or intended to marry, previous to his contemplated «mbarkation, and referred to the importance of a missionary, particularly, having a wite. "What you say is true," he replied; "but dear as would be the solace of a companion, in my toils and privations, I cannot think of exposing a female to encounter the dangers and hardships that I expect; I had rather endure them alone; being unmarried I can care more for the things of the Lord; and if I fall, I shall leave no desolate widow, in that unknown heathen country!" The remark illustrated his singleness of heart, and the martyr spirit which he would have carried to his work.

prospect, and to fill the whole aspect of the future, may we not be animated to labor for its consummation? being steadfast unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord; forasmuch ye know your labor is not in vain in the Lord. May we not respond to the call, which bids us look for the day, and hasten its approach, and rejoice in its anticipation? Behold the exalted destiny of the Church of God!

“Rise, crowned with light, Imperial Salem, rise!
Exalt thy towering head, and lift thine eyes!
See a long race thy spacious courts adorn!
See future sons and daughters, yet unborn,
In crowding ranks on every side arise,
Demanding life, impatient for the skies!
See barbarous nations at thy gates attend,
Walk in thy light, and in thy temple bend;
See thy bright altars throng'd with prostrate kings
And heap'd with products of Sabean springs;

See Heaven its sparkling portals wide display,
And break upon thee in a flood of day.

One tide of glory, one unclouded blaze

O'erflows thy courts; the light himself shall shine
Reveal'd, and God's eternal day be thine!

The seas shall waste, the skies in smoke decay,
Rocks fall to dust, and mountains melt away;

But FIX'D HIS WORD, His saving power remains;—
Thy realm forever lasts, thy own Messiah reigns !"

5. The vanity of infidel boasts and predictions.

Their hatred and scorn are directed against the truth and gospel of God. Persecution has sought to destroy Christianity. But all the efforts of Pagan and Popish superstition and bigotry; and of Atheistic infidelity; have not only failed; but redounded to her honor, and illustrated the strength of her impreg nable and everlasting foundations. Voltaire introduced the awful watchword of his party against the cause of Jesus, “Crush the Wretch !” and the wickedness and cruelty of his compeers led to the denouncement of Christianity by the whole nation, and ultimately brought on that deluge of blood, which infatuated France poured out in the madness of her Atheism. He hoped and boasted; and the nation afterwards vainly hoped that Christianity had received a blow which could not be survived; and that not many years would show the ruin of the gospel. But low in the dust lie the heads of the dishonored prophets; their predictions have failed; and truth has triumphed over the empty opposition, and unbaptized imaginations of mad and impious philosophy! And thus must it be ever. No weapon that is formed against the cause of God can prosper. To those who resist the gospel, it opposes an influence which hardens its perverters, and renders them ripe for ruin; for it arrays against them the mighty omnipotence of God. Why do the heathent rage, and the people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against His anointed, saying, Let us break their bands in sunder, and cast away their cords fromʼus. He that sitteth in the Heavens shall laugh; the Lord shall have them in derision. Then shall He speak unto them in His wrath, and vex them in His sore displeasure. He shall break them with a rod of iron, and dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel.

While the memory of the wicked shall rot; and they that, in opposition to God, and in the ways of worldly enterprise, have sought an imperishable name, and the honor that cometh from men, shall be disappointed; and many be remembered in infamous notoriety; the gospel holds out to its disciples and ministers the meed of unfading renown They, and they only, that be wise; shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that have turned many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever. The names that history has preserved in the annals of the earth, and sought to render immortal, shall be forgotten. But, the names that are written in the Lamb's book of life, the children of God, who have conquered and are clothed in white, and have palms of victory in their hands, and possess thrones and crowns of immortal joy in the City of the Great King, their titles and achievements shall be recorded in sublimest blazonry in the high registers of Heaven; made glor ious in the history of the world's redemption by the Son of God; that theme of angelic study, and admiration forever of the intelligent universe.

6. How full of personal responsibility and interest to every one of my hearers, is the present moment.

Every gospel sermon has its purpose; and it is the duty of men to fall in with that purpose in its great and benevolent contemplations. It is fitted to convert and sanctify you; and to lead you to assist in the accomplishment of its design in the conversion of the world. It commands you to REPENT.

Recollect, I pray you, the awful influence of a perverted gospel; and that you hear that gospel always for eternity. Whenever you come under its sound, you are under the action of an influence that is forming your charac ter for eternity. Every word bears upon eternity. It is constantly operat ing to save or to damn. Despise not then its message. It benevolently of fers salvation; and as you receive or reject it, you are in the hands of a wise and powerful God, whose designs are every moment affecting you, and who is arranging His providence so as to meet your constant circumstances, and thereby making all His truth the means of your safety or the pledge of your ruin.

His purpose and command are kind. They leave you free; and no decree of God can diminish aught of your responsibility. His word and its inten. tion urge you to repent. The truth of this text will meet you, in all its dreadful glory, at the bar of God, and seal your happiness or secure your miserable doom. God's omnipotence will effect all His designs. And He designs to take vengeance on them that know not God, and obey not the gospel of His Son.

Abuse not His Sovereignty: be not unmoved under the representation of His purpose. That purpose and sovereignty involve your responsibility, and require you to act; impel you to act. And without that action in accordance with the pressing claims of the gospel, you die. You do not any where rest Sin inaction. Seed time and harvest are pledged forever; yet does not the husbandman yield himself to careless sloth. The pledge is his argument and encouragement to plough and to sow. So are God's purpose and your dependence, the reason why you should Repent and turn unto God and do works meet for repentance. What a man soweth that shall he also reap. If you sow to the flesh you shall of the flesh reap corruption, disease and death. If to the Spirit you shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. God

sends His messages to invite your confidence in Him, and because He has a purpose in His gospel, He bids and encourages you to repose in Him. His purpose, if you are wise, is the argument of your salvation. For the encouragement of sinners He has used the words of my text; to move them to come to Him, and see how true is His promise, how safe and secure the salvation of them that believe.

Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; and let him return unto the Lord and He will have mercy upon him, and to our God, and He will abundantly pardon. For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways, my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. For as the rain cometh down and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater; So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth; it shall not return unto me void; but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.