a work is the suppression of the slave trade, or the abolition of slavery. Such is the work in which the American Colonization Society are engaged. Such are the contributions for the benefit of the Greeks. For though the suppression of the slave trade, and the abolition of slavery, and the colonization of Africa, and the resurrection of Grecian liberty have all an important bearing on the progress of Christianity, they are yet most immediately connected with the interests of this life; and the most direct though not the strongest appeal in behalf of these objects is made to the selfishness and to the natural sympathies which are common to all mankind. And here those who serve God and those who serve mammon can meet on common ground and transact their business, in some sense, on common principles. But when the scheme proposed is simply the propagation of the gospel, and when the object to be gained is the salvation of souls, what fellowship can you have with those who know not the power of the gospel, and regard not their own immortal destiny? What does he care for the extension of the gospel, to whom the gospel brings no joy, and in whom it awakens no purifying hope? or what cares he for the salvation of the heathen who will not secure the salvation of his own soul? If you at tempt to enlist such men, you must of course neglect to dwell, in your argument, on the grand object in comparison with which every other consideration dwindles into insignificance; and in all your public addresses, you must give a prominent place to those views of the subject which appeal to the mere natural sympathies of bumanity. Instead of talking about the wickedness of the heathen, you must tell of their wretchedness. Instead of painting, as Paul has done, the deformity of their characters, you must describe the miseries of their condition. And instead of proposing to raise them to the holiness and happiness of heaven,

you must say that they are to be elevated to the dignity and enjoyments of civilized life. Now it is very true that the heathen are miserable as well as wicked, and that by sending them the gospel they may be raised to the dignity of rational beings, as well as to the everlasting rewards of holiness. But the evil is that if in your appeal for aid you hold up most prominently to view these minor considerations, and these collateral objects, you bring down the enterprise from the high elevation of its Christian character. Then follow on a host of evil consequences, not the least of which is, that Christians, who should be governed by holier motives, learn to act, even in this cause, under the influence of merely human principles. Thus their faith waxes dim, and their love grows cold, and they seem in some sort to forget the obligations by which they are bound to him who bought them with his blood ;for in their conceptions the cause of Christ and the warfare which he and his followers are waging for the subjugation of this revoltedworld, are changed into "the cause of suffering humanity;" and the love that was kindled in heaven, and the faith that grasps in at once the eternity of the soul and the value of the price that was paid for its redemption, and laying hold on the promise of God, goes forth in vigorous activity, are laid asleep as it were, and we have remaining the kindlings of human compassion, and the graceful play of human sympathy, and the workings of man's ambitious philanthropy. There is nothing that can give such exercise to faith, and love, and obedience, as to engage with purely christian feelings, and under the power of purely christian motives, in the purely christian work of extending the gospel. Let Christians bring themselves under the dominion of these feelings, and learn to act from the impulse of these motives, let them strive to comprehend the scheme in the grandeur of its relation to eternity, till the grandeur of

the conception shall absorb all subordinate interests, and they will find that they will engage in the work without any peculiar danger to their hearts. At the least, they would in such a state of the Church, be relieved from the shame which Dr. Porter so justly as well as boldly charges upon them in the following paragraph.

"Nay, brethren, shall we blush on this occasion to acknowledge the whole truth? In organizing our charitable societies, male and female, in what instance does not the suggestion intrude itself upon us, that the multiplication of offices is indispensable to success? Certainly there is nothing in the gospel at variance with the innocent courtesies of life. So far as this expedient is adopted with a view to draw the attention of an individual to a good object, by attaching to him some personal agency in its promotion, there is nothing in it inconsistent with the simplicity and dignity of Christian principles. But how often is this measure, with others like it, nothing more in fact, and designed to be nothing more, than an undisgaised appeal to the vanity of the individual concerned. Yes, in this boasted nineteenth century, this age of overflowing benevolence,-this dawn of the Millennium, Christians must be flattered by votes of thanks, by a cautious respect to their pride and their opinions, and must be complimented with offices to secure their co-operation in the cause of their Redeemer. O Jesus, Master! give us thy spirit; that we may be worthy to be called thy disciples."— Porter's Sermon pp. 21, 22.

We continue our quotation; for the remarks which follow the paragraph just extracted are worthy to be repeated a thousand times, and they ought to ring in the ears, and to be written on the heart and to blaze before the conscience of many a christian.

"In connexion with this last topic, the disposition to identify ourselves with the great objects of benevolence, it is time for christians to perceive, that in the same way, these objects themselves are exposed to dangers, of very serious aspect.

From this source results the tendency of individuals to exalt in their regard, one part of a grand system at the expense of other parts. Our conceptions and capaoities of action, I know are limited by the very laws of our being. Nothing short of an infinite mind can embrace the interests of this moral universe that surrounds us. But though we must act in a contrac

ted sphere, we are not obliged to act on narrow and selfish principles. We are not obliged to estimate the absolute or comparative importance of a charitable society, by the relation we have sustained to it, and the services we have rendered in its behalf. The very fact that it is our society, may disqualify us to judge impartially in the case. Hence the coldness, shall I say,hostility (if so incongruous a term can be admitted here,) with which some good men regard important societies, in the management of whose concerns they have no individual agency. Hence their alter

nations of zeal and indifference towards the same object, at different times. Hence one becomes an exclusive advocate for this charity, and another for that. One perhaps would have all religious efforts concentrated in promoting missions to the heathen. Another prefers the same claims for domestic missions; another for Education societies;-another for Bible societies.

"Hence also, good men contract localities of feeling. The interest of their neighborhood, of their party, of their College, of their periodical publications, (or whatever happens to be the favorite object,) because it is theirs, is magnified into preeminent importance. Hence minor and temporary objects of benevolence, that concern only one village, or family, or individuals are exalted into a competition with the paramount interests of the Church. Hence public attention is distracted; and the little streams of charity, which ought to fall into a common current, and swell the tide of that mighty river, which is to make glad the city of God, become so many counter-currents, crossing each other's course in every direction." Pp. 22, 24

In a note he adds,

"The repeated journeys, which the author has been called to make, on account of his health, have given him opportunity to observe extensively, the influence of multiplied applications for charity towards small and distant objects. A few persons, for example, undertake to erect or repair a church, or to establish an acadamy. They possess no means of their own, but entertain no doubt that, in this period of liberality, sufficient aid can be obtained from the public. Aaagent is despatched to distant parts of the country, who presses his solicitation on strangers, perhaps with an untiring pertinacity, proportioned to his own want of intelligence, and delicacy of feeling. Now, if he succeeds to collect more than enough to defray the charges of his journey, it is done at the expense of confounding great with small objects of charity, or of alienating many minds from all such objects. The general principle applicable to such cases, doubtless is, that good objects of a local nature should seek help chiefly from

all its power, and how shall these scattered fragments of exertion be gathered up and united? We answer, what every mind must answer, that men of intelligence and influence, belonging to different communions, and to distant parts of the country, must maintain a close and confidential intercourse by correspondence, and so far as may be, by personal communications, striving continually, by their combined sagacity, to invent and apply every expedient for rousing the energies of the church. And this object being attained, their intercourse must be continued and extended, that they may ever be able wisely to direct, and powerfully to control the spirit which they have summoned. And why might not such a correspondence as this prepare the way for a closer and more formal union among christians of various denominations, and lead on to the formation of what might be called an "Amphictyonic Council" of institutions for the extension of Christianity, where "Christ-none but Christ" should be their motto, and where all invidious distinctions, and all unholy jealousies, should be forgotten while they consulted on the general interests of the church of God. Here every new project for doing good might be canvassed, and the appropriate field of labor might be assigned to each institution, and each denomination; and thus the decrees of this council, arrayed with no power but the authority of wisdom and love, might go forth to guide and animate the operations of benevolence. Thus unity of spirit begetting union of effort, and union of effort reacting to strengthen the unity of spirit that gave it birth, the churches would arise in their strength, and their strength would grow by exertion; and the religion which is pure and peaceable, full of good fruits, without partiality, and without bypocrisy, would be made to triumph in our country. The thought is not entirely visionary,VOL. VI.-No. 5.

35