Inter

dicteth

pendencies;

ancient thrones of darkness, and recovering the them from world from the perdition of sin and the night of natural de- the grave, he sent them forth, destitute of all visible sustenance, and of all human help, and forbade them to be beholden unto any. "Take nothing for your journey; neither staves nor scrip, neither bread, neither money, neither have two coats a-piece: Provide neither gold nor silver, nor brass, in your purses, nor scrip for your journey, neither have two coats, neither shoes, nor yet staves, and salute no man by the way." No means of any sort did he permit for procuring the necessaries of life, or purchasing the helps of their journey; no store of provisions, nor even a scrip for containing what might be offered them by the pity or piety of the people: No raiment nor vesture, with the change of which to comfort their weary and way-worn limbs, besides what was sufficient for nature's modesty and her present necessity. Without staff, without shoes, they fared on their way two by two; their sandalled feet exposed to dust and sultry heat; their bodies to every blast of heaven; their natural wants to man's precarious charity. The most defenceless bird that flies athwart the heavens, the weakest, most persecuted beast that cowers beneath the covert, or scuds along the plain, are better provided with visible help than were these Apostles of the Highest; for the birds of the air have nests to which to wing their flight at even-tide, and the beasts of the earth have holes wherein to screen

themselves from pursuit; but the founders of the spiritual and everlasting kingdom had not where to lay their head.

t

a

them off

Whom having thus divided from the re- and cutteth sources which human weakness hath in the store from the house and armoury of nature, he next divided help of man, from the resources which she hath in the power and patronage and friendship of men. They are to compose no speeches for the ears of prince or governor, but to speak as the Spirit of Truth gave them utterance; they are not to go from house to house making friends against the evil day, but to abide where they first halted, so long as they are welcome; they are not éven to salute a friend, acquaintance, or neighbour by the way. And if, in spite of these preventions, it should come to pass that the people they conferred with, well disposed to them for their word's sake, should take pity upon their unprovided estate, and offer them money to help them on their way; lo, they have no purse for containing it! if they should offer them provision to be their viaticum from town to town; lo, they have no scrip wherein to bestow it! They cannot possess, they cannot accumulate, they are cut off and separate from all fixed and moveable wealth which the world holdeth within its fair and ample bound. What will preserve life, they are to take upon the credit of their universal message, without feeling obligation, for the labourer is worthy of his meat, and they are wholly obliged to another cause. Inno earthly.

shape can they benefit from their labours under the sun; to no account can they turn the children of men, from whose liberality they can profit no further than to live. Like Jonah, commissioned with the burden of Nineveh, they are to gird up their loins and make speed; they are to hie from house to house, and hasten from town to town, inquiring after the spirits of immortal men ; to tell their tale and hurry onward as the heralds of the northern chiefs were wont to hasten from house to house, and from village to village, when rousing the mountain-clans to war.-And cause truly see I none, why they who hold the commission to make peace should not be as fleet as those who hold the commission to levy war, and the messenger of salvation fly with as hasty a wing as the messenger of death; why servants should not be found to do as much, and to do it as hastily, for the King of Heaven, as for the lordly chieftain of a mountain-clan, or the throned monarch of a mighty land.

and apprizeth them of

issues of the work;

Thus disfurnished of resources from Nature's the fearful storehouse, and hindered from ploughing with and bloody human help, do you ask if these first Missionaries of the Gospel had promises of welcome every. where, and went forth on a flourishing and popular cause? if the way was prepared for them in every city? and a hospitable home made ready for them in every house? Hear what their Lord saith to them at parting: "Go your ways, behold I send you as sheep. in the midst of wolves. Beware of men, for

they will deliver you up to the councils, and they will scourge you in their synagogues, and ye shall be brought before governors and kings for my sake, and the brother shall deliver up the brother, and the father the child, and the children shall rise up against the parents and cause them to be put to death, and ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake." Such was their heavy parting. No Missionary that ever went to the heathen, fared forth on his way with so gloomy a foreboding, so cheerless a farewell. Let no one object, in the face of these predictions too truly fulfilled: "But these are not men like us, open to every want; they are inspired miracle-working men who had nature under their control." Their miracles, which saved many, protected not themselves; their inspirations, which blessed many, could not bless themselves from every harm and sorrow which patient nature can endure. They are to be placed at the bar of civil law, to be hunted out with religious persecution; against them the tender affections of life are to rise in arms, and the soft and downy scenes of home are to bristle like the iron front of war; the tender hands which are wont to pluck the thorns of sorrow from our feet, are to guide the weapons of their death; of all men they are to be hated for his name's sake: they are to be hunted like the partridge on the mountains, and every refuge upon the earth is to be hidden from their sight. Go, said he, my chosen ones, go like the de

which

surd and

fenceless lamb into the paw of the ravenous wolf: the world thirsteth for your blood, and is in arms against your undefended lives. Nevertheless, go. You are without weapons of defence, no bribes are in your hands, nor soft words upon your tongues; and you go in the teeth of hatred, derision, and rage. Neverthe less, my children, go..

They are launched into a stormy sea, a sea of seemeth ab- storms and shipwreck is before them, and their ridiculous in frail bark is not fenced or fitted out for any storm, the faithless or furnished for any voyage. So the world. and impious would say, because so it seemeth in the eye of the world, which looketh but upon the.

the eye of

world;

こ

visible and temporal forms of things. It is madness, they would say, moon-struck madness, to think that of such should come any speed; it is not in the nature of things they should exist a week in any region of the earth, and in barbarous regions not a single day: no policy of insurance would do their risk at any premium: they are ship-wrecked, cast-away creatures, doomed to death, and destined to effect no good even if they should outlive their first outsetting. Men must have a livelihood before they can speak or act: they must have protection to cover them from the tyranny of power, and law to save them from the riots of the people: they must be well paid if you would have them work well, for if a man have no comforts his life is misérable. What! such mendicants as these convert the world! say the well-conditioned classes;