Or do I appeal to you as Britons, that I may accuse you of having chained down the high and aspiring spirit of the native of Hindostan, and long refused to guide it to, and emancipate it upon, eternity: of having despoiled him of his possessions in this world, and, through a timid and diabolical policy, long and obstinately refused to bestow upon him those of another? Is it to remind you that the Indian, whether of the east or west, claims your sympathies as a fellow subject? Is it to remind you that the ocean is your empire; that in war or in peace, your flag of victory, or your flag of commerce, floats throughout the habitable globe; and that your dominion, as if vicegerents of the Omnipotent, is from the flood unto the world's end? No, it is not thus to upbraid you with injuries or neglects that I appeal to you as Britons but I would appeal to those generous and expansive feelings of true patriotism, which, I believe, if chastened, and directed to their proper object, may be sanctified.

I would rather then remind you of the lofty eminence in the religious world, upon which your country and your church stand: the one, the cradle of the Reformation; the other, its most favoured offspring and legitimate heir: the one, the bulwark of Gospel liberty; the other, the secure depository of the faith once delivered unto the saints. I would remind you that your country is the acknowledged parent and patron on earth of Bible and Missionary institutions, of whatever language, and tongue, and nation; that your church is the sun and centre to which all reformed churches converge. Round her they all revolve, by a voluntary and tacit, but practical, acknowledgment of her moral weight, her providential supremacy, and her central influence: and from her, the most liberally diffusive, the warmest, the brightest, and the most extensively illuminating rays of missionary zeal, of gospel light, and of spiritual fervour, emanate.

I would then remind you, that at the close of the last century, when despotism paralysed or anarchy convulsed Europe; when the heathen lay steeped in the undisturbed stupor of moral death, and no man cared for their souls; when your country, with one arm, stayed the despot in his wild career to universal sovereignty, with the other, repelled the invader from her shores; and anxiously watched, at home, the smothered embers of irreligion and political discontent, ready to burst again into the flame of civil war: while thus without were fightings, and within were fears; that it was under these anxious and critical circumstances that your country fostered in her distracted bosom those embryo principles of regenerating grace, which have rekindled, throughout reformed Christian lands, the faded fires of Christian benevolence ; and which, through God's blessing, have proved by their reacting efficacy, not only "a light to lighten the Gentiles,' but "the glory of his people Israel."

In thus stimulating an intense desire to maintain to your country, by increased exertions for the diffusion of Gospel light, that high eminence on which she stands among the nations, I would not willingly pass on without adverting to a fact connected with the admitted supremacy of our religious societies, and strongly illustrative of the reacting influence of a diffusive charity. It is a fact which proves the moral efficacy of the religious institutions of the present day, not only upon the sphere on which they are designed to act, but also upon the centre in which they originate. And it indicates a principle, whose full development would realise those millennial times of harmony and

love, when men shall levy war no more; but when, actively employed and universally interested in the peaceful and happy occupations of an inoffensive, undisturbed, and fearless repose, they shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning-hooks.

The fact to which I allude, and which some religious publications record, is this:-During the last war, while nation was rising against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; while Europe was mingled beneath opposing banners upon the field of Waterloo; amidst this strife of nations, there existed a little flock, scattered throughout all, but brought together in spirit, and mutually reconciled by Christian love, and closely united by a sympathy of interests, affections, and pursuits. Beneath the banner of the cross this little band marched together, as the subjects of a common sovereign, or rather as the children of a common parent, to a true and legitimate, because a spiritual, crusade against the prince of the powers of this world, and his embattled hosts. Their secretaries, in the rival capitals of divided Europe, in London and Paris, while the balance yet pended, while the die was yet being cast, and the stake a world, freely corresponded, unrestrained by any carnal prejudices. The liberal spirit and pure bosom of charity was, in them, unconstrained and unpolluted by the foul contact of any earthly nationalities, for their common citizenship was in heaven. Amid the din of arms, the horrors of defeat, or the shouts of victory, they joined in the chorus of the heavenly host, and calmly consulted how they might best promote "glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will towards men."

In appealing to you as Christians, I assume that you are supporters of the missionary cause; and I do not ask your continued, or even increased, pecuniary contributions alone, but also your cordial wishes and exertions ; and with all, and above all, your devout and fervent prayers. I ask you to pour your tributary stream into the tide of general feeling; to add yours to the breath of general prayer, which wafts the missionary and his Bible from the comforts of home, and from the enjoyments of civilized and social life, to lands of darkness and cruel habitations. There, a voluntary exile, he plants the standard of the cross. There he cultivates the barren soil around him; and, like an oasis in this moral desert, refreshes the aching sight, and cheers the fainting and desponding heart of the weary Christian traveller, as he moves, whether in person or meditation, through this widely extended, barren, and inhospitable waste, amidst the desolating tempests of savage ferocity, the gloomy clouds of Mahommedan imposture, or the utter darkness of Pagan idolatry.

I call upon you, as Christians, to remember the privileges which you enjoy, and to secure by imparting them. "There is that scattereth, yet increaseth. There is that withholdeth more than is meet, and it tendeth to poverty." In spiritual as in temporal things, "he that giveth to the poor lendeth unto the Lord; and look, what he layeth out it shall be paid unto him again." Your Bibles, your sabbaths, your ministers, your ordinances, all these "freely you have received, freely give."

Nor, in appealing to you as Christians, would I invite you to reflect merely upon the obligations which enforce this duty, but also upon the privileges which it confers; for these should irresistibly attract you to it. It was the first murderer who said, "Am I my brother's keeper?" It was the model of perfection who furnished the brightest

example of missionary love. Now, you are called to imitate God's fairest and most glorious attribute; to catch those Divine impulses of missionary zeal which animated the Father's bosom, and which even the pen of inspiration could not adequately depict, or rather language adequately express, when "God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son;" that He " sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins." Imbibe this missionary spirit from the pure fountain of life and love; then reflect, with gratitude, upon the miracles of moral regeneration which missionary zeal has already performed, and contemplate, with believing and joyful hope, the wide field which providence has thrown open to your exertions: " Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest. And he that reapeth receiveth wages, and gathereth fruit unto life eternal: that both he that soweth and he that reapeth may rejoice together."

Cast an anticipating glance into the West. There, amid its burning glories, see some other Brainerd, whom your contributions and prayers have committed to his work. See him at the close of a short but brilliant day, sitting amid the purer and brighter flames of Christian love which his presence and piety have enkindled among its savage tribes. See him as he pours out, together, his life blood and the inmost desires and feelings of his soul, in affectionate and successful intreaties to those perishing wanderers to compassionate their own immortal souls; beseeching them, while there is yet time, to seek an interest in the covenanted blessings of that Man, whom prophecy sets forth "as an hiding place from the wind, and a covert from the tempest; as rivers of water in a dry place, as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land:" imploring them to seek, by faith in Christ crucified, a refuge from the coming storm of Divine wrath, a secure retreat and shelter in the coming night of death.

Or turn to the East, and mark some other Martyn suddenly emerging from its horizon in the full blaze of meridian lustre. At the call of love to God and man " he comes forth as a bridegroom out of his chamber, and rejoices as a giant to run his course." Fearlessly he enters upon his comet race, swift and brilliant; alarming, enlightening, refreshing the nations. Like another angel of the Lord, he calls, as from heaven, to Hagar's famished children, perishing amid the stunted shrubs of their sandy or rocky deserts, and displays to their unsealed eyes that well of living water, of which whoso drinketh" shall never thirst."

Or trace him as he moves onward, through toils, and difficulties, and sundry kinds of death, until, at length, he stands in the metropolis of the false prophet, in the very citadel of Mahommedan power. There, amid the congregated and astounded satellites of the impostor-alone, unfriended, unprotected-hear how boldly he proclaims Christ crucified God over all, blessed for evermore! Behold how gloriously he elevates, above yon pale and waning crescent, the Sun of Righteousness, and the loved standard of the cross!

Unite your prayers and your contributions to send such missionaries among the perishing heathen; and when, in times now hidden in the dark womb of futurity, amid the comforts of home and all the sanctified enjoyments of your domestic scene, you take up some missionary report; and when, in it, you trace through the hostile tribes and burning sands of interior Africa, or amid the snowy wastes of

polar America, the self-denying path of some faithful servant of God, called, perhaps, in early life to rest from his labours: and when the pure glow of elevated and softened feeling enkindles and melts your soul into sympathy with his sufferings and his love, you will thank God that if the glorious privilege were not granted you, like him to do, and like him to suffer, for Christ's sake, yet at least it was permitted you, at humble distance, to co operate with him in his work of faith and labour of love. You will experience a holy pleasure in the thought that your patronage and contributions enabled him to enter upon his course; and that, in it, your prayers supported and prospered him. You will thank God that it was graciously permitted you to send such a ministering spirit to minister unto them that should be heirs of salvation. How full of joy will be the reflection, that by him, as your messenger, as well as the ambassador of Christ, you have invited many from the east and from the west, from the north and from the south, to sit down in the kingdom of God! How will your heart throb and glow with a holy rapture at the thought that this was your delegated missionary, sent by you, as a fellow-worker with God, to seek and to save the lost sheep of the house of Israel!

J. M. H.

ON THE UNITY OF DESIGN IN GOD'S PROVIDENTIAL

GOVERNMENT.

To the Editor of the Christian Observer.

(Continued from p. 414.)

HAVING traced in a former paper the chain of Divine Providence down to the period of Messiah's advent, I propose to shew that the same unbroken unity of design has been, and will continue to be, visible in the progress of events to the consummation of all things.

In the fulness of time, when the Restorer of the forfeited privileges of sinful man was about to appear; when, in consequence of the prophecies, the expectation of the promised Christ was almost general among the Jewish people, the birth of his harbinger, John the Baptist, who was to come in the spirit and power of Elias, to prepare his way before him, was foretold by an angel to Zacharias in the Temple; as was, some months after, the miraculous birth of Jesus to his mother and to Joseph. John preached in the wilderness of Judea, baptizing and warning all men to repent, because (said he) "the kingdom," or the reign of Heaven is at hand." John began thus his ministry by announcing that God had not relinquished his design, manifested from the beginning, to reign over the inhabitants of this globe.

At the appointed time, the birth of the Divine Saviour was announced to some shepherds keeping watch over their flocks in the night, by an angel of the Lord, during whose presence they were surrounded by the glory of the Lord. Alarmed at the glorious though awful apparition, the Divine messenger calmed their fears by declaring that he was come to bring good tidings of great joy to all people: that "unto them was born that day, in the city of David, a Saviour, who was Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you: ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. And suddenly they were joined by a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth

peace, good will towards men." The shepherds, when the angels were gone from them into heaven, determined to go even to Bethlehem; where they came with haste, and "found Mary and Joseph, and the babe lying in a manger," as the Angel had told them; and they returned glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen.

:

The birth of the promised and long expected King of the Jews was made known to Herod by the arrival at Jerusalem of some wise men from the East, who inquired, "Where is he that is born King of the Jews for we have seen his star in the East, and are come to worship him." At hearing this, Herod was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him but incapable of acknowledging and submitting to the Divine King, and of preparing himself and his people to receive him; being informed by the chief priests and scribes, where, according to the prophets, he was to be born, Herod hesitated not to employ the most atrocious means of freeing himself from his alarms, by ordering the massacre of all the infants under a certain age at Bethlehem, and in all the coasts thereof, in the impious hope of destroying the Holy Child, the report of whose birth had shaken his soul with terror and dismay. Vainly, however, do the adversaries of the kingdom of God revolt in vain do the rulers of the earth take counsel together against the Lord and against his anointed. The Eastern strangers, warned by the Almighty not to return to Herod, went to their own country by another way. And the Angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, commanding him to flee with the young child and his mother into Egypt, and to remain there till further orders, because Herod would seek the young child to destroy it. Thus was fulfilled the prophetic word: "I have called my son out of Egypt." After the death of Herod, Joseph, by the order of God, came with the young child and his mother into the land of Israel; but fearing Archelaus, who ruled in Judea, they went by Divine direction into Galilee, and dwelt in a city called Nazareth: and thus was fulfilled what was said by the Prophet: "He shall be called a Nazarene." At Nazareth he abode till John, by his preaching, invited the Jews to prepare for the appearance of the Messiah, by proclaiming that the reign of Heaven was at hand, and that One mightier than he was coming after him, who should baptize with the Holy Spirit and with fire. After John had baptized some time, Jesus came from Galilee to Jordan to be baptized by him ; and coming up out of the water, "the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon him. And, lo! a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." After having passed forty days in the wilderness, victorious over every temptation, our Saviour entered upon his public ministry, "preaching the Gospel of the kingdom of God;" saying, "The time is fulfilled, and the reign of God is at hand : : repent ye, and believe the Gospel :" the good tidings that the time is come wherein God will no longer "wink at those times of ignorance" in which the nations were, by a just judgment of God, and for the wisest and most merciful purposes, left to walk in their own ways, but will resume the reins of government, and will again be their God, and govern them by his Christ, by whom He will judge the world in righteousness, and by whom he hath opened the kingdom of Heaven to all believers. And to the establishment of that kingdom, all the discourses of our Saviour, all his miracles, all his conversation,