SERMON XVIII.

FOR THE SOCIETY FOR PROPAGATING THE

GOSPEL IN FOREIGN PARTS.

HOW TO PROPAGATE THE GOSPEL ABROAD.

MARK 16. 15.

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

Do these words of our blessed Lord belong to us? Do they apply to any duty which we have now to do? They do. For upon the death of the apostles, to whom they were originally addressed, they have been left, as far as they were then unfulfilled, binding on all Christians for ever. And how are we now fulfilling these words? How are we now discharging this duty? What are we really doing, as disciples of the Lord Jesus, towards

Little,

making others his disciples also? we fear must be the true answer, Little, or perhaps Nothing. This is the only answer which could be given with truth by very many to whom these questions could very properly be put. We do little, we think little, or rather nothing, about the matter. We dwell in a land highly favoured with the knowledge of the truth. We prize highly our Christian privileges, or at least we boast loudly of their value. We express pity, and sometimes also scorn, for those who worship idols instead of God, and who know nothing of the redemption which is in Christ. We are told of their gross and sensual lives, of their cruelty, their dishonesty, their severity of revenge. We know of their death, how little it has of hope, how little it has of ground for hopefulness. And this we know of many millions of mankind, beings made of the same stock and family as ourselves, redeemed by the same Saviour's blood, and waiting only for our zeal and piety, to learn how they might through Him have life. And yet

how seldom do we lay to heart their pitiable case! How seldom do we think at all about the conversion of the heathen!

But instead of answering for you, let me ask, and answer ye unto yourselves: when did you last think seriously on this most weighty subject? When do you suppose it likely that you should next have thought of it, had it not been now pressed on your attention? And how think you of it now? Do you picture up the countless families, which are born, grow up, and die, with little more of faith, and hope, and charity, than the beasts which perish? Do you conceive of generation after generation, dropping into the grave, with no more precaution taken to escape the wrath to come, than if they were sure to perish as the beasts do? And whilst And whilst you contemplate the misery thus entailed on those, who might enjoy the same grounds of happiness as yourselves, do you consider also what you might best do, towards giving them the knowledge of saving truth? Or are you apt to look upon their fearful condition, as a thing which you are sorry

for, but cannot help; as an evil which it is no concern of yours to heal, and which no pains of yours could hinder?

This latter is the view often taken of the subject, in a country, which possesses, above all others, both the knowledge of the truth, and the means of diffusing it throughout the world. But how then may we expect that it will ever be spread abroad? Do we wait for some signal interference of the Almighty? And call we this trust in his providence, to do nothing, because He does not every thing? Or ought we not to fear, lest whilst we linger in the work, the glory of enlarging the kingdom of God should be taken from our reluctant hands, and given to a people, more apt to value it? Shall we not rather be thankful, that the exhortation of the text, first spoken by our Lord to his apostles, belongs to us, and to our children after us, as long as any part of the world is unenlightened with the truth, as long as there is in it any creature, any one of all the souls that God has made, which knows not the redemption God has

wrought? Would we be counted for his faithful servants? Would we stand high in the favour of our gracious Lord? Let us remember it is not enough for ourselves to believe and love, we must extend to others true faith and earnest affection. For it is not whosoever shall merely do God's commandments, but "whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven." (Matt. 5. 19.) And thus it is also signified in the prophecy of Daniel; that they who turn many to righteousness shall shine, in the world which is to come," as the stars for ever and ever."

(Dan 12. 3.) And St. James also at the conclusion of

his Epistle tells us, "that he which converteth the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins." (James 5. 20.)

What an honour, for sinful man, that he may help to hide the sins of a fellow creature! What a joy, to be an instrument in the hands of God, for saving a soul from death! What a delightful