And if

i

education, and the time devoted to this purpose, cost them. you add to this, what would probably have been the result of devoting themselves to some other profession, you will doubtless admit, that they have not gained, but lost, (so far as the acquisition of money is concerned,) by becoming the ministers of the Lord Jesus Christ. Certain it is, that they ordinarily pay a higher tax for the support of public worship than any two or three of their parishioners; for they · give the interest of what their education cost them--the interest on fifteen hundred or two thousand dollars, and of what they might have earned during their eight or ten years of preparatory study. But all this is comparatively nothing. To be permitted to preach the unsearchable riches of Jesus Christ--to be the instrument of fitting men for usefulness here, and for glory hereafter, is a privilege of greater value than all the wealth of every earthly mine, and all the gems of every ocean cave. Thus much, however, seemed called for to relieve the Pulpit from the charge of receiving more benefits than it bestows. The gospel, my brethren, comes to men, not to beg, but to scatter blessings broadcast over every land. And it has demonstrated, by the multitude of its temporal blessings, that the money expended for the support of its institutions, is not only not wasted, but that it returns to the donors more than principal and interest.

2. Again. If the gospel is so indispensable to our highest temporal welfare, as the facts exhibited in this discourse warrant us to affirm, then the work of Home Missions is a work of self-preservation.

We have seen that vices and crimes will abound, and the light of civilization he extinguished, wherever the institutions of the gospel are abandoned, introducing pauperism and wretchedness, and false systems of religion; systems as expensive as they are false. The work of Home Missions, preventing all these evils, is, therefore, a work of self-preserving mercy. To take away the restraints of the gospel from our free institutions is to destroy their vitality--and to introduce corruption and licentiousness, and that pride which goeth before destruction. Let any man consult the history of nations with reference to the causes which led to the ruin of their prosperity, and he will see, that the first step in the process was, the removal of those restraints which keep the bad passions of the heart in sub

ordination to reason and conscience. Rome might have stood to this day, gathering strength and glory and greatness from age to age, if all her citizens had been constantly animated by the spirit of Washington and Wilberforce; but yielding her confidence to such men as Cataline--men of lust and blood--she soon sunk under the weight of her vices and crimes. Every friend of his country, therefore, who perceives the connection between the purity of the public morals, and the preservation of free institutions, will bid God speed to the work of Home Missions, having for their object the establishment and maintenance, in every part of our country, of that religion, which has proved itself to be the great conservator of public morals, and free institutions.

This work will appear the more indispensable to our safety, as a nation, when the statistics of our population are viewed in connection with the well known and well attested fact, that a strong moral influence, pervading all classes of society, is the mainspring of our prosperity.

The territory over which the United States extends its jurisdiction, is two thirds as large as all Europe, and is one twenty-fifth part of the entire globe. We are accustomed to call New England large; but if you divide the United States into twenty-five portions, each of these portions is larger than all New England. Or if you represent the United States by a line of one hundred inches, the share that will fall to New England is four inches. This broad land is doubtless destined to be filled with a dense population of immortal beings. It has been computed, after a careful estimate of the capabilities of America, that with the present degree of knowledge, and without any reliance upon future discoveries in agriculture and the arts, this whole continent will sustain at least two thousand millions of inhabitants in circumstances of comfort. It has been ascertained, also, that our population doubles in every twenty-five years, and in the valley of the Mississippi in eleven years. But for the sake of coming certainly within the bounds of truth, let it be supposed, that the number doubles only in thirty years. At this rate, the population of this country in one hundred and seventy years from this time will be one thousand millions-two hundred millions more than the present population of the globe. In fifty years, the number will be fifty mil

lions, speaking the English language. In fifty years more, (when some of our grand children will be alive,) there will be two hundred millions, and in seventy years more one thousand millions! And who is not concerned to know what will be their character? What laws can hold them in restraint ?—who can rule over them?—who will be safe to dwell among them ?--and with what feelings must we lie down in our graves, and leave our children's children to have their inheritance among them, if they be actuated only by the unhallowed propensities of depraved humanity! The character and condition of this amazing mass of human beings must, according to the established laws of the divine government, be more or less affected by the principles and conduct of the present generation. O, if there be any measure, which, if carried out, will save this vast population from the degredation of vice and crime, shall it not be adopted? And yet the institutions of the gospel, which it is the grand aim of Home Missions to establish in every waste place, will ensure, if cordially embraced, the safety of our country to the end of time; for righteousness exalteth a nation, and will render every institution, with which it is incorporated, as indistructible as itself!

Look too at the prospective physical and moral power of the Western States of this confederacy, and observe the bearings of the gospel of Jesus Christ on their temporal well being.

By the Western States, I mean those which are situated between the Alleghany and the Rocky Mountains, and are watered by the Mississippi and its tributaries. This territory contains five hundred and twenty-eight thousand square miles. It is only about sixty years since the first English settlements west of the Alleghany were made. Forty-five years ago, the entire white population of all those states amounted, by actual computation, to scarcely one hundred and fifty thousand. Now they contain about five millions. Of their capa

bility to sustain a population equal in density to that of Massachusetts, no doubt of course can be entertained. The number of persons to the square mile in Massachusetts, is seventy. By recurring to the number of square miles in the valley of the Mississippi, it will be seen, that with a population equal in density to what now exists in Massachusetts, this valley will sustain thirty-six millions nine hundred and sixty thousand inhabitants, giving it an effective military force

of four millions-an army superior to that which can be brought into the field by the Autocrat of all the Russias!

Consider, also, their moral power.

When it is remembered that the Western States, according to the lowest estimate that can be made, are capable of sustaining a population of forty millions, we feel that their moral power must be great for good or evil, in proportion as intelligence or ignorance, virtue or vice, prevail among the people. It is said that at their present rate of increase, they will have, in 1850, a majority of the representatives in Congress; and it is well known, that the character of the representative will correspond with that of his constituents. "If the people are industrious and virtuous, their representatives will be men of like spirit. But if ignorance, licentiousness, and a disregard of all religious obligation prevail in the community, then reckless demagogues, and loud disunionists, and abandoned profligates, will sit in the sacred halls of legislation, and ambition and self-aggrandizement and love of power will take the place of patriotism and public spirit, and an unshaken attachment to the best interests of the nation. such a state of society, the elective franchise, which is the peculiar glory of America, will become one of its deadliest scourges."

In

It should be remembered, also, that if the population of this country should become generally corrupt, they cannot be governed, like men of the same character in other countries. In Spain, for instance, the government is able, by a standing army, by racks, dungeons and spies, and by disarming the common people, to preserve some kind of public order. The people are prepared for this, having been transformed into beasts of burden by superstition, and the domination of the privileged orders. But should the people of the United States generally cast off all religious restraints, and become licentious in their morals, who does not see that, with the sole power of government in their own hands, they would be beyond all control, and that wickedness and violence would reign with tremendous and indomitable energy?

I ask now what remedy there is for this state of things-what means of preventing this frightful state of society, but the preaching of the gospel, with the Holy Ghost sent down from Heaven? Constitutions and statute-books are but a dead letter, before a corrupt pub

lic sentiment. Not a law of our land, however wise, however essential to the public weal, can be executed, unless the people wish to have it. And what can make them wish to have laws executed, which impose restraints upon their corrupt inclinations, but the power of the gospel? The reason, why the people of this country have been so easily governed under free institutions, in past time, is to be found in the fact, that the truth of God--the power of the world to come exerted, so extensively, its influence on their hearts. It is to be found in the history of Plymouth rock-in the principles of the Pilgrims, and in the institutions which they established to bless their posterity. And just in proportion as we recede from these influences, our constitutions and our laws become as ropes of sand, and the roaring of the cataract, as we approach it, admonishes us of our doom.

Can it be doubted, that the purest morality, and the most healthy public sentiment, found in this country, exist in connection with the ordinances of religion? or that, if every man had the spirit of Paul, and the heart of every woman were opened, like that of Lydia, to the impressions of divine truth; and every child, like young Timothy, were trained according to the principles of the Bible, our country would be in a vastly more prosperous condition in this world even, than if the people should generally ask, like Pharoah, "who is the Lord, that we should obey him?" Can there be a doubt on this Point in the mind of any sober man?

We say, then, that the work of Home Missions, having for its object the establishment of churches, and the ministry of the gospel, in every waste place throughout the land, is a work of self-preservation. Let an uncorrupted Christianity, with all its institutions and ordinances, with all its restraints and encouragements, go forth with the tide of population that is so fast overflowing the land, and however vast and extensive that tide may be, the light of education will be every where diffused, and social order will be preserved, and rights will be respected, and law will be obeyed, and the hands of government will be made strong, and the blessings of civil liberty will be enjoyed in all their richness, and will be transmitted inviolate to coming generations. But these results can be secured by nothing but the gospel; and the gospel unadulterated, and every where diffused, and ac