Lord of the whole human race in benefiting mankind. And how can we best
accomplish this great end? A Christian nation should make it an object
of paramount importance to diffuse the light of that Gospel, in which it
has itself for ages rejoiced as the best gift, the holiest privilege, it
enjoys at the hands of God. Has then this Christian nation so acted?
Alas! there is one circumstance, which painfully occupies at this moment
the attention of the friends of Christianity, here and in India, which
may suffice to answer in the negative. Bishop after bishop has been
allowed to go forth, with the spirit of a martyr, and to meet a martyr’s
death in India, where the diocese is admitted by all to be so extensive,
that the strongest constitution must, from the effects of the climate,
sink under even an imperfect discharge of the overwhelming load of duty.
And yet repeated applications for the appointment of bishops to the
several presidencies, by which the cause of religion amongst the
Christian, and the spread of the Gospel amongst the Heathen population,
would be very greatly advanced, have been up to this time refused, it is
much to be feared, from an unwillingness to incur the expense of further
episcopal appointments. May Bishop Turner be the last, who, humanly
speaking, is to be thus sacrificed! For it would inflict a heavy load of
sin upon a Christian people to be not only lavish of life, of talents,
and of piety, but to prefer to the cause of God, who has so abundantly
blessed us, an economy, which, however wise and proper when rightly
practised, becomes miserable and wicked when allowed to operate to the
hinderance of the Gospel. An appeal is never made in vain to the good
feelings of the people of England, and the present is an occasion, on
which all who value not merely the cause of religion, but of humanity,
should make a declaration of their opinions; and come forward liberally
to the support of Societies whose object is so important and
praiseworthy, and whose means are so inadequate to several claims upon
them. The reports of the Societies for Promoting Christian Knowledge,
and for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, for the year
1831, cannot be too strongly recommended to the attention of the public.
The comparatively small support which the latter receives from annual
subscription must be mainly ascribed to the nature and extent of its
labours being so little known; for it is not the character of the English
people to allow a valuable Society to languish from want of funds. And
yet, during the past year, the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel
in Foreign Parts must have suspended in some places the great work it is
carrying on, if it had not allowed its expenditure to exceed greatly its
receipts. Such is the sad truth we learn from the report now before the
public, which pleads the cause of Christianity in distant lands, so
powerfully, and yet so meekly, that it cannot fail to awaken sympathy in
every religious breast, and call forth assistance from every liberal
hand. “According to its power, yea, and beyond its power,” it has opened
the hand of Christian bounty in answer to the numerous and pressing calls
that have been made upon it: and the consequence has been that the means
of meeting such calls have become every year more insufficient. Even on
the supposition (a supposition, however, which benevolence will not allow
to be entertained for a moment), that all new applications for its
assistance are to be disregarded, the Society will require an addition of
at least 10,000_l._ to its yearly income for the fulfilment of
engagements into which it has entered. Its deficiencies for many years
have been supplied by large reductions of its capital. The single fact
that it has been compelled to sell nearly 70,000_l._ stock must fill its
friends with serious uneasiness. For unless its funds are very largely
increased, it is manifest that they must soon be exhausted. But, surely,
so sad a result can never be allowed! There is too much benevolence in
the Christian public of this favoured nation, to permit the abandonment
of so great a work as that by which the light of the Gospel, in its
purity, is communicated to the benighted nations of the East. Who among
us will be wanting, in most earnest efforts, to save our brethren in the
colonies from so sad an injury as the loss of that religious instruction,
and those means of grace which are to be regarded as their birthright?
Who will allow the many excellent men who have left their native country
as missionaries, with the purest zeal, and the most earnest desire to
promote the spiritual welfare of their fellow-creatures, through
incessant toil in distant lands, to be deprived of the moderate but
necessary support, that has hitherto been afforded by this Society? Who
will allow the no less valuable persons, who have been diligently trained
in the colonies, almost from their cradles, to carry forward the same
Christian designs, as missionaries, and catechists, and school-masters,
to be now cast upon the world, and exposed to all the miseries of want?
“What shall be said, if it fail of attaining its full measure of good,
through the indifference of those whom God has not only ‘blessed with all
spiritual blessings in Christ,’ but to whom He has also largely afforded
the temporal means of imparting those blessings to others? What shall be
said if they, who by the abundant mercy of God are themselves supplied
with the bread of life, suffer their fellow-creatures, whose necessities
are plainly pointed out to them, to perish with hunger? Your committee
will not contemplate the possibility of such a deplorable case as this.
Grateful for the support which the Society has already received, and
through which it has been enabled to effect so much, they will not allow
themselves to doubt, but that Providence will now, and from time to time,
raise it up friends who will furnish it with more ample and effectual
means for the continuance and extension of its ‘labours of love.’”
Every friend of religion must earnestly pray that a hope so humbly and
devoutly expressed may be fulfilled, and that the Lord may bless and
prosper these Societies, in sowing the good seed of the word, in a field
of immense extent, and, in many parts, of the most unpromising
barrenness. For they embrace—to particularize only the most important
missions—the widely dispersed population of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick,
and the Canadas; the numerous islands of the West Indies; the great
Peninsula of India; and the various settlements in Australia. And it is
gratifying and highly satisfactory to be able to quote the impartial
testimony of a distinguished individual, the late Governor of Nova
Scotia, to their efficiency and value: “In countries in which I have
resided, and which I have visited—in remote and almost desert places, I
have witnessed the blessings and comforts of our holy religion,
dispensed, by your servants, to persons who otherwise might pass from the
cradle to the grave, without the blessings or benefits, the comforts or
the consolations of any appropriate holy office, to sanctify their
entrance into life, to receive them into the Christian family, to
solemnize those connexions, on the proper observance of which the moral
constitution of society essentially depends, and finally to perform the
last sad offices over departed humanity. In my own person—in my own
family—in visitations the most awful—in severe domestic affliction, I
have partaken of those blessings and consolations, administered by your
servants.” Let, therefore, the parliament and people of the United
Kingdom contribute liberally, not merely towards the continuance, but the
extension, of the important labours of a Society, whose only fault has
been,—if it be a fault,—that it has so shrunk from any appearance of
obtruding its wants, that it has not sufficiently made known its claims
upon the friends of religion; who must be at once desirous that our
countrymen in our distant dependencies should not be debarred from the
exercise of religious worship; and that the light of the Gospel may be
shed upon those, who, though living under the government of Great
Britain, are lying in darkness and the shadow of death. And if there be
any whose hearts expand not with that diffusive spirit of Christian
philanthropy, which ardently desires to promote the spiritual welfare of
the whole human race; let them at least be sensible to the religious
wants, and alive to the religious improvement of their countrymen, who
are established in some of the numerous colonies of this vast empire. In
this great commercial country, in which the spirit of enterprise or the
calls of duty lead so many forth often at an early age into distant
lands, there must be an immense number of influential persons, who have a
direct interest in this provision for the religious instruction of the
residents in our several dependencies. And oh! how consolatory must it
prove to the heart of a parent, or even of a friend, who sends forth a
youth to seek his fortune far from friends, kindred, and home, to know
that he will not be deprived of the public exercise of those religious
duties in which he has been early trained. Oh! how immeasurably would
the pain of separation, which may be for life—which may be for ever—be
increased, if there was a melancholy certainty, that at the most
dangerous period of life, when the passions are strong, the judgment
weak, and the principles often unsettled; and where the temptations to
sensual indulgences abound, and the restraints of parental authority are
removed; there was no religious monitor, no duly ordained pastor, to
instruct in health, to cheer in sorrow, to strengthen in sickness, and,
it may be, to support and console in death, those who are pursuing an
useful and honourable course far from their dearest earthly ties, far
from what is ever dear to the heart of all—their native land—the land of
their fathers.
In entering thus more at length on the subject of the Society for the
Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts than on any other Society, an
exception has been made in its favour, because it has never yet received
that encouragement and support to which its most important object and
valuable labours so well entitle it: but imperfect as the notice of other
Societies has been, it would be still more so if concluded without any
mention of the Church Missionary Society, and the British and Foreign
Bible Society. The first of these is formed with the design of
endeavouring to obey to the fullest extent the parting command of our
blessed Lord, “Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every
creature:” {219} it is not confined by any limits, but wherever the
opening presents itself, thither the indefatigable, zealous, and faithful
missionary is sent: and the Lord has greatly prospered their labours.
The latter, whether we regard its scope or its machinery, is a mighty and
wonderful engine, capable of producing immense benefit to the whole human
race: its scope is not merely the supply of the inhabitants of the
British dominions with the Scriptures, but their translation into every
language, their dissemination in every land; and its vast and complicated
machinery has been put into operation in every quarter of the globe. It
may suffice to state, that the grand, the beneficent, and most Christian
end, which these two Societies have in view, is to evangelize the world:
the one sends its missionary either instructed, or to be instructed, in
the language of the country where is to be his field in which he is to
sow the good seed of the word of life; and the other supplies the sower
with that seed of the word of life translated into the language of the
country. The difficulties they have to encounter are immense; and the
danger of the neglect of the legitimate object, or of perversion of the
power and means of these Societies, may be considerable; but still the
enterprise of Christian love is not to be abandoned, because it is
difficult; nor the means of Christian usefulness sacrificed, because they
are capable of abuse: rather let those who rejoice in the light of the
Gospel, and thank God every day of their lives for having the high
privilege of reading His Book, labour to provide missionaries so well
fitted for their office, as to afford reasonable hope that through Him,
on whose assistance and blessing they alone depend, they may surmount the
many and arduous difficulties which impede their progress: rather let
them exercise increased vigilance, and employ greater care and attention,
that if any error exist, it may be corrected, that if any abuse has crept
in, it may be reformed. Let these Societies be only faithful to their
trust—true to the one great object they are ever to keep in view, and
they may fully rely upon Him, whose kingdom they labour to advance, whose
word they seek to publish—to bless their work and ensure their success.
But let them remember that no unsound principles of expediency, no
unworthy means to excite popularity, or to gain support, must be had
recourse to; such would be to apply to their goodly edifices the
“untempered mortar,” which would end in their destruction: let them go
forth in the strength of the Lord, and in his strength only; let them
seek the extension of Christ’s kingdom, and of His kingdom only; and then
all who love the Lord’s Christ, honour His name, and seek to promote His
glory—if they can do no more, will at least say, we “bid you God speed.”
The increasing exertions which are making, in this country, for the
diffusion of vital religion amongst Christians, and for the spread of the
Gospel amongst the heathen, will form one of the brightest pages in its
history. And truly at this moment it presents almost the only subject on
which the Christian’s anxious eye can rest with unmixed satisfaction and
with joyful hope. The prospect around is in many parts dark and
discouraging, but in one direction is illumined by a bright and holy
light—“the sun of righteousness arising with healing in his wings,” upon
the “nations which sit in darkness and the shadow of death.” {221}
England appears to be selected by God for this great and glorious work.
As the Roman Empire was raised up and employed by the Great Governor of
the Universe for the first promulgation of the Gospel; and as the Greek
language was made the medium through which that Gospel was extensively
diffused: so we may hope that the British Empire, so greatly increased,
may be employed, and the English language, so widely spread, be made a
medium, for that final promulgation which is to take place, and the
result of which is to be thus complete—“the earth shall be full of the
knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.” {222} But however
this may be—for ill does it become short-sighted man to speculate on the
unfulfilled prophecies of Holy Writ—our line of duty is plain: we must
make the most strenuous exertions, trusting to be instruments in the
hands of the Almighty in the conversion of the heathen. The labour of
love, which springs from gratitude to God, which is directed by faith in
His promises and animated by hope of His blessing, will never be
fruitless: if it please not the Divine Providence to give it a prosperous
issue to those for whose benefit it was designed, it will return as a
blessing—“good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running
over”—into the bosoms of those, who planned, supported, and conducted it,
with a sole view to God’s glory and the salvation of men. This physical
pestilence has travelled from India to England: does it not in awful
terms reproach us, for having, as a nation, done so little to arrest and
heal the moral pestilence which rages throughout that great Peninsula?
Oh! let every means be used by the friends of religion to rouse a sinful
people to a due sense of what they owe to their home population, to their
colonies, and to the world at large. Whatever be the channel in which an
individual may wish the stream of his bounty to flow, he will find
Societies through which he will best accomplish the good he has in view.
Let, therefore, all be active, liberal, and zealous, in the cause of
religion: let all, according to the ability which God supplieth,
endeavour to promote the present and eternal welfare of all mankind!
“Charge them,” says St. Paul, “who are rich in this world, that they be
not high-minded, nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God,
who giveth us richly all things to enjoy: that they do good, that they be
rich in good works, ready to distribute, willing to communicate: laying
up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come,
that they may lay hold on eternal life.” {223}—“But this I say, he which
soweth sparingly, shall reap also sparingly: and he which soweth
bountifully, shall reap also bountifully. Every man according as he
purposeth in his heart, so let him give, not grudgingly or of necessity,
for God loveth a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace
abound towards you; that ye always having all-sufficiency in all things,
may abound to every good work.” {224a} “Let every one that nameth the
name of Christ depart from iniquity:” let all in their several vocations
endeavour to improve, to the spiritual advantage of themselves and
others, this Divine visitation; that thus its great object being
accomplished—for the language of God’s chastisements, whether national or
individual, is “be zealous and repent,”—we may humbly hope that our
gracious Lord God will be pleased to withdraw His heavy hand from His
humbled and contrite people; the duty of each of whom has been shown to
be, to effect, through the Divine blessing, a personal reformation; for
the sins of each individual form fractions of the immense integral of
national guilt, which has called down the Divine displeasure; to employ
their rank, influence, and a due proportion of their wealth, in labouring
to advance, by their personal exertions, and through the medium of
societies, a national reformation; and to diffuse throughout the world
the knowledge of the Saviour, that “the kingdoms of this world may become
the kingdoms of our Lord, and of His Christ.” {224b}
And how are they to be addressed who are the enemies of the Lord and of
His Christ—who trample under foot his cross, and, at present, stand
excluded from all benefit of the great atonement by “counting the blood
of the covenant an unholy thing”—how are they to be addressed who deny
the Lord who bought them, and secretly maintain, or openly espouse, the
doctrines of infidelity? In the language of friendly warning and
exhortation. Sometimes the Christian advocate has erred by employing a
tone of conscious superiority, of cold severity, or of keen satire: the
first offends, the second hardens, the third irritates the proud spirit
of unbelief: the voice of remonstrance is often listened to, when
authority commands in vain. Let, therefore, whatever has been said, in
these pages, be considered, not as intended in the least degree to wound
or insult the feelings of any one, but as written in the honest and
faithful discharge of Christian duty. And in the spirit of meekness and
charity let me entreat those, who reject Christianity, to pause, reflect,
and examine deeply into the grounds on which they have come to a decision
which involves their eternal destiny. Let me ask them whether they have
ever duly considered, first, _the possibility of Revelation being true_;
and, secondly, _the consequences of Revelation being true_. Surely a
creed, which numbers amongst its defenders laymen, who hold the highest
place in England’s proud annals of science and philosophy, is not lightly
to be rejected by ordinary minds: surely where Bacon, Milton, Boyle,
Locke, and Newton, have been believers, there is room to admit _the
possibility_ of the creed being true. When intellects of the most
powerful grasp, disciplined by the most arduous studies, and stored with
the richest fruits of human knowledge, have received with humility,
gratitude, reverence, and faith, the Bible, as the inspired Word of God,
some doubts may flash across the mind of the infidel, as to whether he
has arrived at a just conclusion, in refusing to believe that Bible. And
oh! if there do arise a doubt, let him now be entreated to re-examine
this most important subject, on which the interests of eternity depend;
to reconsider the grounds on which he denies a faith in which, during
eighteen hundred years, millions have lived and died.
There is, however, a second point of consideration, and that a very
important one, which ought not to be lost sight of, _the consequences of
Revelation being true_,—the unutterable anguish of hopeless, endless
despair and torment. Infidels often speak with much levity, and
sometimes with profaneness, of the awful punishments of a future world,
denounced in Scripture against impenitent guilt; but, if they searched
deeply into their own hearts, they would find not only that they were
less happy than they were before they shook off their belief in
Revelation; but some might discover, almost, the commencement of the
gnawing of the undying worm. In health, this may be scarcely perceived,
but when the hour approaches, which generally tears away the mask which
has concealed internal feelings long kept secret, the hideousness of
infidelity is fully seen. Some appear to have acted their part to the
last; thus Hume was said to have spent some of his latter hours in
reading “the Dialogues of the Dead,” of the Apostate Lucian; but what an
employment for one who professed to be a philosopher! At a time, when
the eyes are about to close for ever on all that the heart has held dear
in life, “drollery, in such circumstances, is neither more nor less than
Moody madness, laughing wild
Amidst severest woe.” {227}
But such cases are, generally, of rare, occurrence: as the sombre shades
of the evening of life gathered around Gibbon, this melancholy confession
escaped him,—the past is gone, the present is but for a moment, and the
prospect of the future is dark and doubtful. Paine, who had vauntingly
proclaimed, that, during an illness, expected by himself and those around
him to be fatal, he had rejoiced that he had published his Age of Reason,
when the hour of death really arrived, endured all the agonies of
remorse, evincing a horrible combination of awakened terror and
blasphemous despair. And that renowned champion of infidelity, Voltaire,
who was smitten, in his hour of pride and triumph, suffered in his last
hours such intolerable anguish and such overwhelming terror, that the
alarmed physician declared, that the furies of Orestes could not equal
the horrors of such a death-bed.
Should the consideration of the possibility and consequences of the truth
of Revelation, and of the certainty of the present wretchedness of
infidelity, awaken in some readers feelings of apprehension,—lest, whilst
in imagination they have been releasing themselves from the trammels of
superstition, they have in reality been fastening round their own necks
the heavy yoke of that hard task-master, the great enemy of the human
race; let them be entreated to institute now a strict enquiry as to the
unanswerableness of the objections against Revelation, on the strength of
which they have withheld their belief; and as to the certainty of those
conclusions of unassisted reason, on which they have been content to
build their opinions as to an hereafter, unmindful that,
“Dim as the borrowed beams of moon and stars
To lonely, weary, wandering travellers,
Is reason to the soul.”
Alas! it is melancholy to think how many reject Christianity without due
examination: but let the infidel be assured that, whether he is involved
in the mazy labyrinth of metaphysical subtleties, perplexed with the
false conclusions of materialism, startled by the apparent extent of
physical and moral evil, or offended, with the multitude of sceptics, at
mysteries, creeds, and articles; he will find answers to all his
objections and difficulties in the various treatises which have been
written on the evidences of Christianity. But let him not enter upon the
subject with a prejudiced mind, in the pride of human reason, or under
the influence of human passions. Is it likely that the Great Author of
light and life will vouchsafe to illuminate understandings, which
prejudice darkens, and pride renders presumptuous; or convert and
sanctify hearts, which sensuality debases and pollutes? They who
approach the Great Governor of the Universe to be instructed, in what
belongs to their everlasting peace, must come with humility, reverence,
and awe; they must strive to divest themselves of prepossession,
prejudice, and passion; and pray to be guided unto all truth: and if they
persevere in patient and dispassionate examination of the evidences of
Christianity, and in an humble and careful study of the Scriptures
themselves, accompanied with sincere and earnest prayers, in God’s good
time, the light of Divine grace will break upon their darkened
understandings; they will see how wonderfully the conflicting attributes
of justice and mercy have been reconciled in the Divine plan for the
restoration of a guilty world to the favour of its offended God; they
will be filled with devout admiration of that love of God, which passeth
all understanding, which has provided for the most heinous offenders a
means of escape from eternal condemnation; and they will thankfully and
joyfully embrace the offers of salvation through the Saviour, published
in the Gospel.