THE MISSIONARY WORK.

THE subject of my lecture is the missionary work, and in prosecuting an inquiry into its true nature and its claims on young men, I have been requested to consider these points with reference to the Heathen abroad, to our Colonial fellow-countrymen, and to the godless families of our home population. My aim will be to place myself in the position of young men, such as those who are members of the Christian Association, in this city, and thus to set before them in all fidelity, their duties and responsibilities in this matter.

The Committee of the Association, under whose auspices we meet, have wisely judged in placing the subject of home and foreign missions amongst others which bear exclusively upon the young man's personal improvement,-political, moral and religious. It were an error for him to suppose, that, having qualified himself for his occupation in life, having formed his habits of business after the best models, having resolved to set God always before him, having determined, moreover, that if interest and duty seem to clash, he will remember his self-dedication, and prefer godliness to gain, he has then done all. We trust that in exercising any such self-discipline and moral culture, or in forming any such resolves, he has remembered, that it is not in man to direct his steps, and that our utmost strength is weakness. And further, we admit that his own state in the sight of God, demands his first consideration.

The error were fatal which should conclude that

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any services of the moral creature could be pleasing to God, before his person had been accepted. But, with this proviso, it is needful to urge upon the young man that he lives not for himself alone, that he belongs to an alienated race, and that he has a debt to discharge to every member of that race whom he can influence for good. With the Lord's people he will delight to take sweet counsel, if he be of that regenerated number; but towards others, poor Christless souls, perishing in their sins, his sympathies will be drawn out; and for God's glory and their salvation he will desire to see them won to Christianity. On the one hand, he will receive as God's message to himself, the charge, "When thou art converted strengthen thy brethren:" on the other hand, having uttered the prayer for himself, "Uphold me with thy free Spirit," he will, in reliance on that Holy Spirit, avow, "Then will I teach transgressors thy ways, and sinners shall be converted unto thee."

I. Now let it be pondered, that the cause of missions occupied the Redeemer's dying thoughts: and the command to constitute and carry them forward over the whole habitable globe was His last solemn injunction to the Church, ere He ascended up on high. In the consecutive verses of the xxii Psalm, until the close of the 21st verse, our Lord breathed forth the deepest plaints of his soul while nature was shrouded in darkness, and He was forsaken of His Father: and when the light of day returned, and the beams of His Father's countenance again gladdened His spirit, one joyful prospect upon which He expatiated was that predicted in the 27th and 28th verses. "All the ends of the world shall remember and turn unto the Lord; and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before thee. For the kingdom is the Lord's; and He is the governor among the nations." With what solemn interest

does this invest the missionary work! When the Redeemer saw of the travail of His soul and was satisfied, He saw also that through missionary enterprise and operations, multitudes of the souls given unto Him would be turned from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God. If young men desire to live in the spirit of that glorious and joyful exclamation of the Surety, they will see that they may not, must not, be satisfied with the personal enjoyment of their own privileges. "The manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal." Whatsoever gifts or graces in any man, show forth the work of the Spirit, all these have been communicated, not merely or chiefly for his own sake and use, but "to profit" those for whom Christ died. We learn His will from his appropriation (just before He said, "It is finished"), of the glowing language of the Psalmist; and knowing His will, the spiritually minded young man will recognize the obligatior. devolving upon him, of caring for unjustified souls: hi、 heart's desire and prayer for such will be their salvation; and then that the good news of a Saviour may be published in their ears, he knows that an evangelical organization is necessary, and such being found, he associates himself with it.

It would greatly tend to the prosperity of Zion, if our younger brethren would more seriously and devotedly consider the amazing force and reach of that injunction which constitutes the very charter of the Church-" 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; teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you and lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen." It is a fundamental article of all

protestant Churches, that Christ is the sole and sovereign Head of the whole body of believers. Observe then, that He had announced His own evangelistic functions during the time of His personal ministry (Luke iv., 18), and afterwards, when His bodily presence was to be withdrawn, His disciples were constituted His representatives; all His evangelistic functions were delegated to them; and His spiritual presence was assured to them and their successors till His second advent. What can be plainer than the work prescribed, to preach the Gospel, and to make disciples? What more cogent than the authority on which the commission rests, viz:-the Divine Delegator's universal power in His mediatorial Kingdom-a Kingdom co-extensive, and equal in glory, with His essential kingdom? And surely the field of operations is no less definitely marked out. There can be no room for doubt upon that point. "All nations" are to be visited by the emissaries of the Gospel. Another Evangelist (Mark xvi. 15), thus records the commission, "Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature."

Now we earnestly desire that young men, whatever their present avocations or future prospects be, would consider, that their possession of the lively oracles of God, their incorporation into His royal Son's Church, all the spiritual blessings in Christ Jesus which they enjoy, their calling, their mercies, their gifts and graces, cannot, in the face of the Redeemer's dying anticipation, and His farewell injunction, be regarded and cherished as terminating in themselves. The expansiveness of the common Christianity is comprehended in the Saviour's words. They are unlimited, both as regards successive generations of mankind, and local extent in each generation. Missions constitute, under the Charter of the Church, the highest of all obligations: