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cessation there was a wise object served, and it is this, that the whole body of the Christian community must unite before the end of missions can be accomplished. There must be a people to send, before a missionary can be sent. A tedious course of study is necessary before the work can be entered on with success; and expenditure must be incurred which nothing but the union of Christians at home can meet. In this way the whole body of the Christian community become personally interested. They all become fellow-workers in extending the Redeemer's kingdom. Every individual Christian feels laid upon him some missionary responsibility. Every Church is a centre of missionary exertions—it is the parent tree which sends shoots out in every direction, still retaining its connection with each. It is plain, however, that the conversion of the world will never be brought about by mere foreign agency. Native teachers must be reared to proclaim to their fellow-countrymen the glad tidings of salvation. Our missionaries have to spend a great part of their missionary career in acquiring the language of the natives, and acquainting themselves with their manners and customs. And after all, they can never become so familiar with their modes of feeling as to get into immediate contact with their hearts. When, along with this, we consider the fact, that in most fields of labour, European life is very insecure that in India the average of missionary life is only about eight years; it is plain that the effective period of a missionary's life must be very short indeed. The great work must then be accomplished by native

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agency. Native agents must be raised up, and this is the great aim of our missions in the East. Their design is to rear a body of native labourers who will go forth to their benighted countrymen, and with a native's tongue and a native's feelings, preach to them Christ crucified.

The question has been often discussed, how is the final conversion of the world to be effected? Will the ordinary means at present employed be sufficient? or does the period of Millennial glory presuppose an order of things altogether new. It has been objected by the advocates of a new dispensation, that there is no hope from the present rate of missionary success, that the world will be converted by ordinary means within the time that may reasonably be assigned by the widest interpretation of prophecy. It is, however, quite conceivable, that the latter day glory may be brought about, and that at no very distant period, by the extension of the means at present in use, without the supposition of any miraculous interference. will be a time before the system of educating native missionaries will tell, but when a sufficient body is raised up, we have reason to expect an amount of success which has never as yet attended our missionary labours. We have reason to expect too, that this success will go on in a rapidly increasing ratio. When the dammed-up waters of a lake overflow, and inundate the plain below, you do not measure the rate of inundation by the first issue of the waters. From the first moment an outlet is gained, the widening of the breach increases with prodigious rapidity. The

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slender stream that trickles down the embankment, swells every moment into an overwhelming deluge. The stream that now trickles from the great fountain of divine grace through the wide wastes of heathenism, is slender indeed, but is it not the harbinger of the swelling flood that will soon cover these wastes as the waters cover the sea? There is nothing improbable in the idea, that this flood of grace and glory may be brought about by the extension of the ordinary means which God is pleased to bless at the present day. We can conceive that Zion's King may ride gloriously in triumph to universal dominion on earth, without the supposition of a personal advent and reign. Surely his sceptre is as powerful at the right hand of the Majesty on high, as it would be were it swayed within the walls of the earthly Jerusalem.

In estimating the future progress of missionary labour, you must take into account the conversion of the Jews. The conversion and restoration of the Jews are clearly foretold in the word of prophecy, and it is plain from the whole course of providence, that God has not cast away his ancient people, that they are kept in reserve for some great conjuncture in the world's history. Although scattered to the four winds of heaven, they still retain their distinctive national character, and they all cherish the same longing to return to the land of their fathers. Wherever we find a Jew breathing the spirit of his nation, we are sure to find that Jerusalem is nearest his heart, and that were he to give expression to his feelings, it would be in the language of the captives

of old, as they hanged their harps upon the willows, and sat down to weep by the rivers of Babylon, "If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning; if I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth; if I prefer not Jerusalem beyond my chief joy." Here, then, is a principle of reunion which has been fondly cherished for eighteen centuries. It is at present latent and inoperative, but a sudden revolution of providence may at once call it into action. Place a magnet in the neighbourhood of minute particles of iron, and there may be no disturbance at first, but let them be shaken, and they at once range themselves around the attracting pole. Let the nations he shaken by the hand of God's providence, and the attractive power of Mount Zion will gather around her from afar her sons and daughters now sifted over the whole earth. They shall as one man return, and come into Mount Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads. The restoration of the Jews is interesting to us chiefly in connection with their conversion. We are assured by Scripture, that the receiving of them back to God's favour, shall be as life to the dead to the Gentile world. It may be difficult to say how the conversion of the Jews shall produce such a wondrous change upon the surrounding nations. Perhaps the very suddenness and universality of the conversion-the very fact of a nation being born in one day-may exert a vivifying influence on a torpid world-may act like an electric shock upon a palsied limb. We can, however, more readily

conceive of an effect, like that of life from the dead, being produced by the active agency of the Jews. Look upon them in the light of missionaries, and you can easily conceive the power they must wield for the evangelizing of the world. Jews are found in every nation and tribe on the face of the earth-they are familiar with every language spoken among men, and they combine with their own traits of national character, the characteristics of the people among whom they dwell. They consequently can furnish when converted, an unlimited supply of missionaries fitted to engage at once in missionary labours. "In those days it shall come to pass, that ten men shall take hold out of all languages of the nations, even shall take hold of the skirt of him that is a Jew, saying, we will go with you, for we have heard that God is with you."

IV. The Results.

It has been often said, shew us the fruits of your missions; shew us that they have effected any good end. But this taunt can now be abundantly answered. The results of missions have triumphantly proved that men have not toiled in vain. I refer more particularly to the fruits of missionary zeal in the South Seas. Here we behold men once accustomed to deeds of atrocity, at which humanity shudders, uniting to worship the true God with as much decorum as any congregation in our land. Their savage nature has been tamed. Their thirst for human blood has been rooted out. They now breathe benevolence instead of hatred and revenge.

The mother who would not

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