heart, and ascend from every redeemed tongue! The believer's very silence, as well as his voice, should praise him; and when his tongue is not heard, his life should be more than eloquent, and declare by the most convincing argument, the glories of the great Immanuel. Let Christians, as prisoners of hope, fly to their strong hold. Blessed be God, there is a covert from the storm; and though his wrath is shaking and will shake our guilty globe, his people are safe in that covert. Let us then say from the heart, Come, Lord Jesus!-come quickly, let what will become of our worthless names. Whether we

meet in this world or not, I trust and hope that, through the sovereign, unmerited love of our glorious head, we shall meet each other, washed in his blood, and clothed in his righteousness, in that place of rest prepared for his people, where it is blessedness enough to know that we shall be like him."

No reader of this letter, I presume, will wish me to apologize for the length of this extract, which brings to view two such laymen, of the last generation, amid the severe pressure of official engagements, corresponding about a revival. Venerable Christian friends! they have met in their eternal rest above, and know, by actual fruition, the blessedness of being like Christ. I hope that I may add, without offence to any one, that the value of such papers, as permanent statistics of the church, to be read by survivors, is very different from that of ephemeral letters, written by young men and women, purporting to be accounts of revivals, and too often published, by Christion Editors, under the head of religious intelligence.

All that now remains, Gentlemen, to complete the plan which I proposed to adopt in these letters, is to make some general remarks, in view of the facts which have been stated. This I shall do, with leave of Providence, at a convenient opportunity. In the mean time I remain very affectionately

yours,

Charleston, (S. C.) December, 1832.

E. PORTER.

APPEAL IN BEHALF OF THE HEATHEN.

Among the many reasons why we should be more actively engaged in promoting the great cause of human redemption, the writer of this paper would present the following: in doing

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which he addresses himself particularly to professing Christians. The heathen need the Gospel. This, by those who have any acquaintance with facts, and any faith in the Bible, will not be denied. They need the Gospel to enlighten, comfort, and save them. Without it, they are every where deplorably ignorant. They grope in a midnight of moral and intellectual darkness. They know little or nothing of God, their duty, or their destiny. True, his eternal power and Godhead are known by his works. But the heathen, debased by sin and clouded in mind, see them not. Nor do they know any thing distinctly of the everlasting future. To them, it is all a blank, dreary waste. The grave is a place of impenetrable darkness. Not the feeblest ray of hope relieves its horrid gloom. They lay their friends into it, they sink into it themselves, without the smallest idea of "the resurrection and the life." Being in such circumstances, and yet possessed of immortal minds, they are intensely wretched. They are wretched, even in this life. Vice corrupts and defiles them. Passion rages, and destroys their souls. Their love is hatred. Friend murders friend. They worship their gods with the groans of selfinflicted turture, and the effusions of human blood.

But temporal misery is not all. The heathen are exposed to eternal misery. This is the chief consideration. Dying as they are, they perish forever. We do not say it is impossible, in every instance, for a pagan to be saved. If saved, however, it must be through Christ. The pagan must be born again, and lead, according to the light possessed, a life of purity, and of obedience to the will of God. And what is the character and conduct of unevangelized nations? What has it always been? Read the first chapter of Romans; read the authentic accounts which are almost daily spread before the Christian community. All bear the same testimony. It is full and decisive. The heathen are unholy. They are immersed in the depths of moral pollution. They are without God and without hope in the world. They outrage the voice of conscience, and the light and law of nature. What is the inference? That they are admitted to heaven? Nothing shall ever enter there that defileth. The inference is, that with this character they go down to the world of woe. Many, I am sensible, recoil from this conclusion, and say it cannot be. They pretend to a great deal of sympathy and good will for the heathen, not doubting that the same Being who is the author of their existence, will take care of them and make them happy. Professions of this sort may, at first sight, appear kind and benevolent, but they are, in truth, far otherwise. Such views freeze up the current

of charity; and those who entertain them, care not for the heathen, after all; but leave them to go on in darkness, and perish in their sins. And what is the fact, as decisively attested by observation and conspicuously recorded in the book of God? It is, that the heathen are vicious, and on the brink of perdition. If we have any bowels of compassion, let us steadily look at this truth, in all its appalling dimensions, until we are moved to mighty effort in behalf of a sinking world. Let the case be contemplated as it is, not with a treacherous, sentimental kindness, but with the eye and the heart of a living, operative faith.

2. Those who have the Gospel, are under obligation to send it to those who have it not. This is a very important position, and the truth of it is not sufficiently felt. Some are apt to think, that it is enough if they take care of themselves. "Charity begins at home." If they do any thing for those abroad, it is a gratuity for which they deserve praise; and if they fail to do any thing for the destitute and perishing, it is very well; they incur no blame. Now this is not the true state of the case. The Lord Jesus Christ did not leave the matter in this way. He had too much compassion for the heathen, to do this. He knew, if left to the mere impulse of a gratuitous benevolence, the work of saving a lost world, would never be done. He, therefore, bound his people, by the strong cords of obligation, and imposed the pressing demands of absolute and imperative duty.

In the first place, there is the obligation of the Saviour's example. We are bound to follow him. The maxim which he acted upon was not, to leave others to take care of themselves, but to care for them. Accordingly, he did care for the world. In the depths of its apostacy, he undertook the work and the office of becoming its Redeemer. He devoted himself to its salvation. He died to redeem it. Christians cannot, indeed, do the same, in all respects, which Christ did. But there are points, on which they can imitate him; and what, as our pattern, he has done, imposes on us the most reasonable and weighty obligation to follow him in his spirit of self-denial and self-sacrifice. It is an obligation which every heart that loves Christ will delight to acknowledge and discharge.

Our Lord, having completed his work of labor and suffering, issued for the obedience of his followers the sublime injunction, "Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature." Here we have, in the second place, the obligation of a command, reasonable and gracious-a command uttered as one of the last things of the departing Saviour, to be regarded

in all future time, as comprehending and enforcing the enterprize dearest to his heart. How is it possible, then, to avoid the obligation of this most prominent injunction of our Lord? It is the great statute of his kingdom of benevolence. It is only stating, in another and more practical shape, the fundamental requisition,Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and thy neighbor as thyself.' In my view, a mighty emphasis rests upon the injunction before us, and it is very unsafe to disregard it. There is a law requiring repentance. The man who lives in perpetual, and final disobedience of that law, perishes. Yet his disobedience affects primarily and chiefly himself. But the person, who disregards the law requiring him to diffuse the Gospel, may occasion the eternal perdition of a great number of his fellow-men. And is. he innocent? Can he with impunity violate his obligations in this momentous respect? He is exceedingly guilty, and if saved at all, it will be as by fire.

There are many precepts of Christ, which impose the obligation to spread the light and blessings of salvation. One reads thus: "Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them." Suppose the case were reversed, that we were buried in the darkness and miseries of paganism, while those now in that condition were enjoying, as we are, the glori ous light of the Sun of Righteousness. Suppose we had just light enough to reveal the wretchedness of our ruin, and the worth of a redeeming Gospel. What should we desire our more favored fellow-men to do for us? Should we not desire, with the utmost intensity of emotion, that they would speedily extend to us the light of salvation? Should we not conclude that they ought to do it? Nay, if they refused to make the efforts and sacrifices, which they might make, if content to go to heaven themselves, they could look coldly on, and see us sink to the second death, without moving a finger to rescue us, what should we think of them? Now, just what we, in these circumstances, should desire them to do for us, we are bound, in our circumstances, to do for them. We have the Gospel, and they have it not. We most grossly violate our obligations, therefore, if we do not strive to extend it speedily to the destitute and perishing.

3. The Church is abundantly able to send the Gospel to the heathen. God never imposes an obligation, where there is a manifest deficiency of ability or of means to meet it. And how is the fact in the case before us? The ability is even excessive. Our strength and resources are abundant. Consider what the church did at the outset,-when she was small, feeble VOL. VI.-NO. III.

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and poor-when circumstances were unfavorable-when superstitions were deep, powerful, and apparently impregnable. The little band of despised disciples went to work in the name of their Master, and nobly persevered. They devoted every thing earthly to the enterprize of saving a world sunk in the perdition of sin; and what was the result? In a few years the doctrine of Christ was proclaimed throughout the greater part of the then known world. It pervaded the Roman empire. It dissipated the darkness of idolatry. It carried light and joy to millions who were without God and without hope.

But a question here arises of high practical importance. If the early Christians, with all their peculiar disadvantages, accomplished so much, what might not be achieved at the present day, if the church would only bring, with united and unreserved devotedness, her strength and resources to the blessed work. Instead of hundreds, she numbers millions in her communion. Talents, wealth, and influence are embraced within her pale. Nothing is wanting but the right spirit-the true missionary spirit. The sun of the present century need not set, before the Sun of Righteousness shall have arisen to meridian height, and poured his healing beams upon every desolate tract of the apostacy. Only let the church do what she can-what she easily can-let her consecrate her vast energies to Christ, and concentrate and press them upon this grand achievement of mercy, and some now living may live to see the complete introduction of millennial glory. At least, some of our children may join in that chorus of praise, which will be commensurate with all the dwellings of man.

4. To be convinced that this is not idle, unmeaning rhapsody, and as a further reason in favor of effort, consider the strong probabilities and encouragements in the case, pointing to this result. The chief encouragement is the promise and oath of God. As truly as I live, says Jehovah, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord. And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills, and all nations shall flow unto it. On such annunciations of prophetic truth, (and the Bible is full of them) we may delightfully rest; encouraged by them, we may devotedly work; confident that we are doing the will of the Lord, and that our labor shall not be in vain in the Lord. Though every other cause should fail, this never can. Other kingdoms and nations may be shattered, and annihilated; but the kingdom of Christ, this kingdom of love and holiness, will stand, and grow stronger and spread wide, until it embraces in