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SERMON V.

THE MISSIONARY'S WARRANT.

BY THE

REV. WILLIAM LEITCH, A. M.,

MINISTER OF MONIMAIL.

MARK XVI. 15.

"Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature."

Missionary enterprise is a subject dear to every Christian's heart, and one whose dignity cannot be valued too highly. There is no subject so full of romantic interest-none that abounds in incidents of a character so varied and thrilling. If enterprise is to be measured by individual daring, and the dignity of the aim in view, then there is none on earth to be compared with that of the missionary, and it ought never

to be forgotten, that it is the aim that dignifies the enterprise. We are, however, too apt to be dazzled by the glitter of the moment, and to measure an action, not by its intended result, but by the ostentatious grandeur with which it is surrounded. If we would learn to appreciate the sublime in character, we must learn to view all human achievements stripped of their external trappings. There is, my friends, a sublimity in character as well as in external nature. There are men before whose portraitures we are thrilled with feelings more profound than all that is vast in the material world can produce. You have gazed on the wide ocean, and the lofty mountain; you have turned your eyes upwards at midnight towards the innumerable suns spangling the expanse of heaven, and you have felt the sublime. But a feeling still more profound is produced by the sublime in character. And where shall we go for this species of sublimity? Shall we seek it in the triumphs of the statesman, or the more brilliant exploits of the soldier? No; there may be much here that is grand in action, but little of what is sublime in character. We must look rather upon a Howard stooping into the dank cell of the prisoner, or a Wilberforce knocking off the fetters of the slave. These are names which will stir the feeling of the sublime within man's heart, while the word philanthropy is understood. And why is it that these names will ever be associated with the sublime in character? They had no dazzling genius-no supereminent rank -but they had hearts that swelled with sympathies wide as the world itself-sympathies which were not

restrained by nation, or colour, or clime-sympathies which comprehended alike the furred Siberian, and the naked African. They lived for their species. They felt they had a work to do, and in doing it they spared neither time, nor energy, nor fortune. All men acknowledge the sublimity of such characters, and yet their aim was merely to get a comfortable cell for the prisoner, and rescue the African from the lash of the slave-driver. Their immediate object was to promote the comfort of men's bodies, not the well-being of their immortal souls, and yet with this inferior aim they reached the sublime in character. And shall we deny sublimity to the character of the man whose sympathies comprehend men's souls as well as their bodies— who looks upon man as born not for time but eternity, and who would provide for him not a comfortable lodging by the way, but a bright home in the eternal world? I say, is it right to deny sublimity to the character of the man who has such an aim in view, and who, in order to accomplish it, denies himself to the comforts and refinements of civilized life, and casts his lot with brutalized savages-who in the hope of converting the painted Indian into a believer, adorned with the graces of our holy faith, will steel his heart against the war-whoop and the scalping-knife-the scorching desert and the hunger-belt? But is it the case, that the dignity of such enterprise is universally recognised? Ah! it is to be feared that there is but little sympathy, even in the bosom of the Christian Church, with this species of moral greatness. The missionary is allowed to spend his days under a

burning sun, and in the midst of blood-thirsty tribes, with but a feeble sympathy to cheer him, and with the consciousness too, that the little that is given him for his support is often given with a grudge. A nation's sympathy follows the man who with chivalrous daring, penetrates into a far distant and dangerous land to rescue those over whose fate a cloud of mystery hangs, but how little sympathy is generally felt for him who goes forth to heathen countries to seek and to save that which is lost-the immortal soul. It is with the object of exciting a deeper sympathy, and calling forth heartier exertions in the cause of missions, that I would now present to you a few of the aspects in which the subject may be viewed. The following are the points to which I would briefly direct your attention the duty-the field-the means, and the results.

I. The duty.

In regard to the duty of engaging in missionary enterprise, we have the express command of our Lord himself, "Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature." It is not a duty to be inferred merely from the spirit of Christianity. It is a great duty specially enjoined by the Author of our faith. "Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature," was the command to the first heralds of the cross, and the command is still issued to us with all its primitive authority. It is issued to us as a Church, and as individuals. bound as a Church to take up this holy cause.

We are

It is

true that the most important sphere of any particular Church is its own local territory, but it is also bound to maintain a diffusive character. How strongly was this exemplified in the Primitive Church. The disciples did not confine their exertions to their own native land. They did not limit their enterprise to the boundaries of Judea. Fired with the glorious truths with which they were commissioned, they penetrated into every known region of the world. No barrier, however formidable, opposed their progress. They crossed mountains, and deserts, and seas, in their ardour to obey their Master's command,—“ Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature." They sought the cities of the learned, and the huts of the barbarian. They encountered alike the refined torture of Rome, and the rude assaults of the savage. While the bodies of some blazed as torches to gratify the taste of an imperial monster, the bones of others whitened in the desert. You see, then, that the Church in primitive times, was essentially of a diffusive missionary character. This character, however, was soon lost; corruptions crept in, and the momentous responsibilities of a Christian Church were soon forgotten. Missionary enterprise was suspended. Whatever of pure Christianity was left upon the earth, assumed a concentrated rather than a diffusive form. It appeared as slender streaks on the map of the world -in the form of rivers-deep it may be, but narrow. It spread not as a sheet of water over the thirsty land-it covered not the earth as the waters cover the sea. It has been only in comparatively recent

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