The beginning of the nineteenth century marks an epoch of revival in
the Protestant Church. It would be going beyond the limits prescribed
by our subject to consider the causes of that remarkable reaction into
indifference of life, or of positive error in doctrine, which followed
more or less rapidly the stirring period of the Reformation. Such
tides, indeed, in the affairs of men,--now rushing with irresistible
waves to the utmost limit of the land; then receding and leaving
behind but a few pools to mark where the waters once had been; and
again, after a longer or a shorter interval, advancing with a deep
flood over the old ground,--are among the most striking phenomena in
history.
The last century witnessed the Protestant Church at its lowest ebb. We
thankfully acknowledge that God did not leave Himself without holy men
as living witnesses in every branch of that Church. And we record,
with deepest gratitude, how, more than in any other country, He
preserved in our own country both individual and congregational
life, with orthodox standards of faith. Still, taken as a whole, the
Protestant Church was in a dead state throughout the world; while,
during the same period, infidelity was never more rampant, and never
more allied with philosophy, politics, science, and literature. It was
the age of the acute Hume and learned Gibbon; of the ribald Paine, and
of the master of Europe, Voltaire; with a host of _literati_ who were
beginning to make merry, in the hope that God's prophets were at last
to be destroyed from the earth. Rationalism triumphed in all the
Continental Churches. Puritanism in England became deeply tainted with
Unitarianism. The descendants of the Pilgrim Fathers had, to a large
extent, embraced the same creed in America. The Established Churches
in England and Scotland, though preserving their Confessions, and
having very many living men in the ministry, suffered, nevertheless,
from that wintry cold which had frozen the waves of the great
Reformation sea, and which was adding chill to chill. The French
Revolution marked the darkest hour of this time; yet it was the
hour which preceded the dawn. It was the culminating point of the
infidelity of kings, priests, and people; the visible expression
and embodiment of the mind of France, long tutored by falsehood and
impiety; the letting loose of Satan on earth, that all might see and
wonder at the Beast! That Revolution inscribed lessons in letters
of blood for the Church and for the nations of the world to learn.
Christians accordingly clung nearer to their Saviour amidst the
dreadful storm which shook and destroyed every other resting-place,
and were drawn to the throne of mercy and grace, thereby becoming
stronger in faith and more zealous in life. The indifferent were
roused to earnest thought by the solemn events which were taking
place around them. Speculative infidels even, became alarmed at the
practical results of their theories. Mere worldly politicians trembled
at the spectacle of unprincipled millions wielding power that affected
the destinies of Europe, and recognised the necessity of religion to
save the State at least, if not to save the soul. Men of property,
from the owner of a few acres to the merchant prince, and from no
higher motive than the love of their possessions, acknowledged that
religion was the best guarantee for their preservation. In countless
ways did this upheaving of society operate in the same direction with
those deeper forces which were beginning to stir the Churches of
Britain, and to quicken them into new life.
The history of Europe during the first part of the present century,
is a history written in blood. It is one of war in all its desolating
horrors, and also in all its glorious achievements and victories in
the cause of European liberty and national independence. Never was
war so universal. It raged in every part of the earth. For years, the
Peninsula was a great battlefield. Belgium and the plains of Germany
were saturated with blood. Allied hosts conquered France. Armies
crossed the Alps and ravaged Italy, and were buried beneath the snows
of Russia. The contest was waged from the Baltic to the Bosphorus. The
old battle-fields of Greece, Egypt, Palestine, Asia Minor, Persia, and
the Crimea, were again disturbed. War swept the peninsula of India to
the confines of Cashmere. It penetrated beyond the walls of China, and
visited the islands of the Eastern Archipelago; touched the coasts of
Arabia, and swept round Africa, from the Cape to Algiers. It marched
through the length and breadth of the great Western Continent, from
the St Lawrence to the Mississippi, and from Central to Southern
America. Every kingdom experienced its horrors _but our own_; every
capital was entered by the enemy _but our own!_ During all this
terrible period, our Sabbath services were never broken by the cry of
battle. The dreadful hurricane raged without, but never for a single
hour disturbed the peace of our beloved island-home. No revolution
from within destroyed our institutions, and no power from without
prevented us from improving them. The builders of our spiritual
temples did not require to hold the sword. Our victories, with their
days of national thanksgiving, and our anxieties, with their days of
national fasting, tended to deepen a sense of religion in every heart.
Men of God, in rapid succession, rose in all the Churches. A pious
laity began to take the lead in advancing the cause of evangelism. In
Parliament there was one man, who, by the purity of his private
life, the noble consistency, uncompromising honesty, and unwearied
philanthropy of his public career, along with his faithful published
testimony for the truth as it is in Christ, did more, directly
and indirectly, than any other of his day for the revival of true
religion, especially among the influential classes of our land: that
man was William Wilberforce.
But without dwelling upon the fact of the great revival which has
occurred in the Protestant Church during the present century, let
us notice one of its more prominent results. We mean the increased
activity manifested by all its branches in advancing the Redeemer's
kingdom.
At the commencement of this century, the whole Protestant missionary
staff throughout the world amounted to ten societies only. Of these,
however, two only had really entered the mission-field with any degree
of vigour--viz., the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in
Foreign Parts; and, above all, the Society of the Moravian Brethren.
The Wesleyan, Baptist, London, and Church Missionary Societies, though
nominally in existence, had hardly commenced their operations. There
were, besides the above, two small societies on the Continent; two in
Scotland; and not one in all America! How stands the case now? The
Protestant Church, instead of ten, has fifty-one societies; the great
majority of which have each more labourers, and a greater income, than
all the societies together of the Protestant Church previous to 1800!
If the last sixty years be divided into three equal periods, nine
societies belong to the first, fifteen to the second, and twenty-four
to the third.
The following facts, collected from statistics of the great missionary
societies up to 1861, will afford--as far as mere dry figures can
do--a general idea of the present strength of the mission army of the
Protestant Church, with some of its results:--
There are now 22 missionary societies in Great Britain, 14 in North
America, and 15 on the Continent of Europe; in all, 51. These employ,
in round numbers, 12,000 agents, including ordained missionaries,
(probably 2000,) teachers, catechists, &c.; occupy 1200 stations; have
335,000 communicants from heathendom; 252,000 scholars; 460 students
training for the ministry; and are supported by an income of £860,000
per annum.
The greatest results have been attained by England. Connected with her
great societies, there are nearly 7000 agents, 630 stations, 210,000
communicants, 208,000 scholars, with an annual income of £510,000.[A]
[Footnote A: One or two facts in connexion with missionary effort may
interest our readers:--
Mr Müller of Bristol supports, in connexion with his famous Orphanage,
22 foreign and 80 home missionaries.
The Moravian Missionary Society has sent, since 1732, 2000
missionaries, of whom 643 have died in mission service; 9 on mission
journeys; 13 on the voyage out or home; 22 by shipwreck; and 12 were
murdered.
Gossner of Berlin alone originated and conducted a mission which has
sent out 141 missionaries. Pastor Harms of Hermannsburg has also,
by his own efforts, built a mission ship, and has sent out 150
missionaries, of whom 100 are colonists, and proposes to send 24 every
two years.
Ten years ago there was little or no fruit among the _Kohls_ of India.
There are now 30,000 receiving Christ.
In India there are 500 missionaries; in Tinnevelly, above 70,000
Christians.
The American Board alone has sent out in fifty years 900 missionaries
(500 being native) and 400 teachers; 55,000 have been received into
church--membership, and 175,000 children passed through their schools.
America contributes £180,000 to foreign missions, and 2000 agents.
The Presbyterian Churches of the world have come late into the field,
but they contribute about 900 agents, and 230 ordained missionaries,
with an income of about £110,000.
One of the oldest Protestant missionary societies in existence (though
now confined to home operations) is the Society in connexion with the
Church of Scotland "for Promoting Christian Knowledge." It supported
Brainerd and the Elliots more than a century ago.]
But in order to enable our readers still more clearly to realise the
advance which the Church has made during the last half century, let
us consider the progress of one of those societies, and take as an
illustration the Church Missionary Society. It was founded a few
months before 1800. Its income in 1802 was £356. It now amounts to
£104,273. In 1804, it had one station abroad, two ordained European
missionaries, but no native assistants. It has now 148 stations,
258 ordained clergymen, (many of whom have studied in the English
Universities,) a large staff of native clergy, with 2034 other agents,
most of whom are natives. In 1810, it had 35 male and 13 female
scholars in its schools; it has now 31,000 scholars. In 1816, the good
Mr Bickersteth had the privilege of receiving its first converts,
amounting to six only, into the communion of the Church. Its
communicants now number about 21,000.
* * * * *
Let us, however, examine the missionary labours of the Protestant
Church during this century from another point of view. Take the map of
the world, look over its continents and islands, and contrast their
condition, as to the means of grace, in 1800 and 1862.
In 1800; the only missions east of the Cape of Good Hope were in
India. These were confined to the Baptist Mission, protected in the
Danish settlement of Serampore; and the missions in Tanjore, in
Southern India. The former was begun by Carey and Thomas, (in 1793,)
who were joined by a few brethren in 1799. The first convert they made
was in 1800. The latter mission had existed since 1705, and numbered
about nine labourers at the commencement of the century.[A]
[Footnote A: The first Protestant missionary who visited India was
Ziegenbalg, who was sent out by the Halle-Danish Missionary Society in
1705, to Tranquebar. He was joined by Plutschow in 1719. The mission
was then adopted by the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel.
Grundler followed in 1720, and Schultze in 1727. The mission, in 1736,
had four stations, one being in Madras; 24 native assistants; and 3517
baptized members! The great Schwartz laboured in, and extended the
mission from 1749 till 1798. According to Dr Carey, 40,000 had been
converted to Christianity during the last century through this
mission. Dr Claudius Buchanan reckons the number as high as 80,000!]
Of the East India Company's chaplains, Claudius Buchanan alone had
the courage to advocate in India the missionary cause; and his sermon
preached upon the subject in 1800, in Calcutta, was then generally
deemed a bold and daring step. Hindustan was closed by the East India
Company against the missionaries of the Christian Church. China, too,
seemed hermetically sealed against the gospel. The Jesuit mission had
failed. Christianity was proscribed by an imperial edict. Protestant
missions had not commenced. The language of the nation, like its
walls, seemed to forbid all access to the missionary. In Africa
there were but few missionaries, and these had lately arrived at the
Cape.[A] In the black midnight which brooded over that miserable land,
the cry of tortured slaves alone was heard. New Zealand, Australia,
and the scattered islands of the Southern Seas had not yet been
visited by one herald of the gospel. A solitary beacon gleaming on the
ocean from the missionary ship _Duff_ had indeed been seen, but not
yet welcomed by the savages of Tahiti. The mission was abandoned in
1809, and not a convert left behind! No Protestant missionary had
preached to those Indian tribes beyond the Colonies, who wandered over
the interminable plains which stretch from Behring's Straits to Cape
Horn. Mohammedan States were all shut up against the gospel; and to
forsake the Crescent for the Cross, was to die. In this thick darkness
which covered heathendom, the only light to be seen--except in
India--was in the far north, shed by the self-denying Moravians,--a
light which streamed like a beautiful aurora over the wintry snow and
ice-bound coasts of Greenland. To this gloomy picture we must add the
indifference of the Protestant Church to God's ancient people. No
society then existed for their conversion; and of them it might indeed
be said, "This is Israel, whom no man seeketh after!"
[Footnote A: The first missionary to South Africa was George Schmidt,
sent by the Moravian Brethren in 1736. He laboured alone with some
success till 1743, when he was compelled by the Dutch East India
Company to return to Europe. The mission was resumed in 1792, when
three additional missionaries sailed for the Cape. A few others joined
them in 1798. At the beginning of the century, the converts amounted
to 304. The illustrious Dr Vanderkemp, along with three other
missionaries, were sent to South Africa by the London Missionary
Society in 1799. The only attempts made to Christianise Western Africa
previous to 1800 were by the Moravians in Guinea, in 1737; but all the
missionaries, eleven in number, dying, the attempt was abandoned; and
by the Scottish Missionary Society, in 1797, who sent thither six
missionaries. One (Greig) was murdered, another (Brunton) returned,
and went to Tartary; the rest, we believe, went to oilier spheres
of labour. The Church Missionary Society entered upon this field in
1801.]
How changed is the aspect of the world now! There is hardly a
spot upon earth (if we except those enslaved by Popery) where the
Protestant missionary may not preach the gospel without the fear of
persecution. The door of the world has been thrown open, and the
world's Lord and Master commands and invites His servants to enter,
and, in His name, to take possession of the nations. Since 1812,
India, chiefly through the exertions of Mr Wilberforce,[A] has been
made accessible to the missionaries of every Church. Christian schools
and chapels have been multiplied; colleges have been instituted;
thousands have been converted to Christ; and tens of thousands
instructed in Christianity. The cruelties of heathenism have been
immensely lessened; infanticide prohibited; Sutteeism abolished; all
Government support withdrawn from idolatry; and the Hindu law of
inheritance has been altered to protect the native converts; while a
new era seems to be heralded by the fact that a native Christian rajah
has himself established a mission among his people.
[Footnote A: In 1812, we find from Mr Wilberforce's _Life_ (vol. iv.,
p. 10) how he was "busily engaged in reading, thinking, consulting,
and persuading," on the renewal of the East India Company's charter.
He was fully alive to the importance of the crisis with reference
to the interests of Christianity. He thus writes to his friend Mr
Butterworth:--"I have been long looking forward to the period of the
renewal of the East India Company's charter as to a great era, when I
hoped that it would please God to enable the friends of Christianity
to be the instruments of wiping away what I have long thought, next
to the slave-trade, the foulest blot on the moral character of our
countrymen--the suffering our fellow-subjects (nay, they even stand
toward us in the closer relation of our tenants) in the East Indies to
remain, without any effort on our part to enlighten and inform
them, under the grossest, the darkest, and most depraving system
of idolatrous superstition that almost ever existed on earth." The
deepest anxiety was felt by all Christians for the issue of the
debate. "I heard afterwards," he writes, "that many good men were
praying for us all night." These prayers and efforts were crowned with
success; and Mr Wilberforce, when communicating the joyful news to his
wife, writes--"Blessed be God! we carried our question triumphantly,
about three, or later, this morning!"]
All the islands in the Eastern Archipelago are now accessible to the
missionary; most of them have been visited. Ceylon has flourishing
congregations and schools; Madagascar has had her martyrs, and has
still her indomitable confessors.
China, with its teeming millions, has also been opened to the gospel.
The way had been marvellously prepared by Dr Morrison, who as early as
1807 had commenced the study of the language which he lived to master.
Accordingly, when the conquests of Britain had obtained admission for,
and secured protection to the missionaries as well as to the merchants
of all nations, the previous indefatigable labours of Morrison had
provided, for the immediate use of the Church of Christ, a dictionary
of the language, and a translation of the Word of God. The Christian
religion is tolerated by law since 1844, and may be professed freely
by the natives. The gospel is now advancing in that thickly-peopled
land of patience and industry, and native preachers are already
proclaiming to their countrymen the tidings of salvation.
Africa has witnessed changes still more wonderful. The abolition
of the British slave-trade in 1807, and of slavery in the British
dominions in 1834, has removed immense barriers in the way of the
gospel. The whole coasts of Africa are being girdled with the light of
truth. It has penetrated throughout the south, where the French[A] and
German Protestant Churches labour side by side with those of Britain
to civilise the degraded Bushman, the low Hottentot, and warlike
Kaffir. The chapel in Sierra Leone, built from the planks of condemned
slavers, and containing 1000 worshippers, is a type of the blessings
brought through Christianity to injured Africa.
[Footnote A: The missions of the French Protestant Church are situated
inland from Port Natal, and along the river Caledon from its junction
with the Orange River. It has gathered upwards of 2000 Bechuanas into
regular church-fellowship.]
Abyssinia has also been visited with every prospect of success.
And how glorious has been the triumph of the gospel throughout the
whole Pacific! In 1837, Williams was able to address royalty in these
noble words--"It must impart joy to every benevolent mind to know,
that by the efforts of British Christians upwards of _three hundred
thousand_ of deplorably ignorant and savage barbarians, inhabiting the
beautiful islands of the Pacific, have been delivered from a dark,
debasing, and sanguinary idolatry, and are now enjoying the civilising
influence, the domestic happiness, and the spiritual blessings which
Christianity imparts. In the island of Raratonga, which I _discovered_
in 1823, there are upwards of 3000 children under Christian
instruction daily; not a vestige of idolatry remains;[A] their
language has been reduced to a system, and the Scriptures, with other
books, have been translated. But this is only one of nearly a hundred
islands to which similar blessings have been conveyed." Tens of
thousands of souls more have been added to this number since these
words were written! In no part of heathendom has the gospel produced,
in so short a time, such wonderful fruit as in Polynesia. The labours
and sacrifices of the converted natives are more striking than in any
other missions. Many islands have been converted solely by means of a
native agency, and are superintended by native preachers only. Let us
take the Sandwich Islands as illustrating what has been accomplished
_for_ the natives, and _by_ them. The American Mission was commenced
in 1824. These islands have been converted long ago to Christianity,
so that not a vestige of idolatry remains, and not only do they
support their own clergy and schools, but have their own Bible and
Foreign Missionary Society. They raise for these objects about £4000
per annum, and support six missionaries to the heathen islands around
them. The communicants in the islands amount to upwards of 25,000, and
the children who attend the common schools to a still greater number.
[Footnote A: The first idol which, a catechist from Raratonga, who
visited London in 1848, ever beheld, was in the Museum of the London
Missionary Society.]
If we turn our eye to the great Western Continent, we see the gospel
preached to its wandering Indian tribes; while the condition of Mexico
and of California affords every prospect of the rapid extension of
truth through kingdoms long benighted.
Mohammedan countries have also been opened to the missionary. Through
the influence of Lord Aberdeen and Sir Stratford Canning, the Sultan
was induced in 1844 to give religious toleration to his subjects; so
that now, for the first time, a Mussulman may change his faith without
incurring punishment. Several societies labour in Algiers, Egypt,
Palestine, Asia Minor, Greece, and Constantinople. The Euphrates is
being dried up. The Mohammedan power is tottering, and ready to fall!
When it dies and is buried, who will wear mourning at its funeral?
And how strange is the meeting between the distant East and West,
the distant past and near present, visible in the fact, that it is
missionaries from America who now unveil to the dwellers in the land
of the Chaldees, and to the wanderers among the mountains which shadow
the birth-place of the human race, that blessed faith and hope which
dwelt in Abram, as he journeyed at the dawn of history from that old
land, and which has returned thither again in Christian men embued
with Abram's faith, after having accompanied civilisation around the
globe? God's blessing has signally attended the American mission among
the Nestorians. The revival of religion in their schools and churches
has been great and glorious.
May we not exclaim, What hath God wrought! Yet how can any statistics
carry to our hearts a sense of what has been done for immortal souls
by the gospel during this eventful period? What homes have been made
happy by it; what families united in the bonds of love; what sick-beds
soothed; what dying beds cheered; what minds illumined, and what
hearts filled with joy unspeakable, and full of glory!
* * * * *
In close connexion with mission work, we may state the progress made
during the present century in leavening the world with the Word of
God. Previous to the formation of the British and Foreign Bible
Society in 1804, there was not one society in existence whose sole
object was the distribution of the Bible in all lands. There are now
upwards of 50 principal, and 9000 auxiliary Bible societies. In 1804,
the Bible was accessible to only 200 millions of men. Now it exists in
tongues spoken by 600 millions. The London Bible Society alone sends
forth annually upwards of 1,787,000 copies. During the last sixty
years it has issued 39,315,226 Bibles, in 163 different languages, and
in 143 translations never before printed. Its receipts for 1862 amount
to £168,443.[A]
[Footnote A: The American Bible Society circulates upwards of 600,000
copies of the Word of God annually, at home and abroad. Besides
assisting in publishing translations issued by other societies, it has
been at the sole expense of publishing the Armeno-Turkish, and Modern
Syriac New Testament; the entire Bible for the Burmese, and also for
the Sandwich Islands; the Ojibbeway New Testament; the Gospels, or
some portion of the Bible, into the languages of the Sioux, Mohawks,
Seneca, and Cherokee Indians.]
It surely cannot fail to fill the heart of every Christian with
deepest thankfulness, to contemplate these glorious achievements. The
Church, like the angel seen in prophetic vision, has been flying with
the everlasting gospel to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and
people. It has given the Bible to the inhabitants of the old lands of
Egypt, Ethiopia, Arabia, Palestine, Asia Minor, and Persia; to the
indomitable Circassian; to the mountaineers of Affghanistan; to tribes
of India speaking thirty-two different languages or dialects; to the
inhabitants of Burmah, Assam, and Siam; to the islanders of Madagascar
and Ceylon; to the Malays and Javanese of the Eastern seas; to the
millions of China, and the wandering Kalmuck beyond her great wall;
to the brave New Zealander; to the teeming inhabitants of the island
groups which are scattered over the Southern Pacific; to the
African races, from the Cape to Sierra Leone; to the Esquimaux and
Greenlander, within the Arctic circle; and to the Indian tribes of
North America. All are now furnished with a translation of that
wonderful volume, which, with the light of the universal living Spirit
of God, at once reveals to man, in every age and clime, his lost and
miserable condition, and tells him of a remedy that is adapted to meet
every want of his being--to redeem him, by a moral power it alone can
afford, from all sin and misery, and to bring him into the glorious
fellowship of the holiness, the blessedness, and joy of Jesus Christ,
and all the family of God in earth and heaven![A]
[Footnote A: The following facts regarding tract societies may be here
stated:--The Religious Tract Society of London was formed in 1799.
During the first year of its operations, ending in May 1800, it had
issued 200,000 tracts. What is its present working power? Its annual
income from sales and benevolent contributions (£12,500) is £95,000.
Its annual distribution of tracts, including handbills, from the
London Depository is--in English, 20,870,074, and in foreign
languages, 537,729, making an annual total of 21,407,803. It publishes
tracts in 117 different languages. Taking into account the number of
affiliated societies, the total probable _annual_ distribution of
tracts, British and foreign, in connexion with the London Tract
Society, amounts to 28,500,000. Several religious bodies in the United
States maintain Tract or "Publication" Societies. But the "American
Tract Society" (founded 1825) is the largest and most influential in
the United States, and has a catholic constitution similar to our
own Tract Society. It is supported by more than 700 auxiliary
societies--those in Boston, Philadelphia, and New York being large
and efficient. We may add that its circulation is not confined to the
United States, but extends to Mexico, Central and South America, and
to those districts in the East and Asia Minor where the American
missionaries are labouring. It has issued upwards of 200,000,000 of
publications since its commencement.]
And now let us ask, What shall be the history of the Church during the
rest of this century? Without attempting with a vain or profane hand
to uncover what God has concealed, it is surely a comfort to be able
to take our stand on the immovable rock of His promises to Christ, and
to rejoice in the assurance, that, sooner or later, His name must be
glorious in all the earth!
But when? Is it too much to assert, that before the end of the present
century, the gospel shall have been preached to all nations, the Bible
translated into all tongues, and the last visible idol on earth cast
down amidst the triumphant songs of the Church of Christ? We
might expect this blessing judging only from the past, and the
constantly-increasing ratio with which society advances. Yet, as
revolutions in the physical world anticipate in a single night the
slow progress of ordinary causes, so, for aught we know, may God, by
some evolution of His providence, make one year do the work of many.
But while we do anticipate the most glorious results ever attained
by the human race during this century, we anticipate, also, from the
signs of the time, a desperate conflict of opposing _systems_, both of
truth and error. It is not a little remarkable, that never before was
there such a life and strength in every system as at this moment.
Protestantism, Popery, Infidelity, and even Judaism,[A] were never so
alive; _and never were alive together_ before. Does this not look like
a coming struggle?[B] But what may _appear_ suddenly and unexpectedly,
may nevertheless be the necessary results of long preparation; like
the water or the gas, which suddenly enter a thousand city houses to
refresh and illuminate them, but which are the results of years of
labour in digging trenches, laying pipes, and erecting reservoirs,
during all which time no streams of water or of gas were ever present
to the senses.
[Footnote A: It is only within twenty-five years that _preaching_ has
become common in all their synagogues, while, during the same period,
ten periodicals have been started by the Jews, in different parts of
the world, in defence of Judaism, in some form or other.]
[Footnote B: In a conversation which we had with Neander in 1848,
(immediately before the continental revolutions,) he said, "I believe
we are entering a period of unprecedented warfare, which will issue in
the increased glory and purity of the Church. The light and darkness
will every year be more and more separated; the one becoming more
bright the other more densely dark."]
But we know from the testimony of God's Word, strengthened by the
experience of past ages, how certain victory is in the end, however
long and apparently doubtful the campaign may be between His kingdom
and every form of evil. The day has been when "the Church" was "in the
wilderness," and when within that Church four men only held fast their
confidence in God, believed His word, and exhorted that Church to take
possession of the land of promise, saying, "Rebel not ye against
the Lord, neither fear ye the people of the land: their defence is
departed from them, and the Lord is with us: fear them not." And how
was that missionary sermon received? "All the congregation bade stone
them with stones!" And had they done so, the world's only true lights
were extinguished and lost in universal unbelief and heathenism. It
was in such desperate circumstances as these that the Lord himself
came to the rescue of the world, and it was then these marvellous
words of promise were littered, "As truly as I live my glory will fill
the earth!" The day has been, too, when "the Church" met in an upper
room with shut doors, for fear of the Jews; but it was even then that
its Lord said, "All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth: go
ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the
Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: and, lo, I am with you
alway, even to the end of the world." Never more can the glory of God
appear to the eyes of the weakest faith to be so dim, or the cause of
Christ to be so hopeless, as it hath been in those days of old! The
glory of God _is_ filling the earth, and the gospel is being preached
to all nations. Mere rays of light, which we see breaking over the
mountain tops in heathen lands, are beautiful in themselves; but far
more beautiful to the eye of faith are the first beams of that sun
which is yet to stream into every valley now lying in darkness, and
steep in its glory all the habitations of men. Those notes of joy and
thanksgiving, too, are beautiful which ascend from many a heart in
"Kedar's wilderness afar;" but they are still more beautiful to the
ear of faith as echoes from the Rock of ages, and the prophetic song
uttered by "great voices in heaven," saying, "The kingdoms of this
world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ, and He
shall reign for ever and ever!"