than those of the eagle of the North?" How many hearts a few months ago, were beating high for the liberties of Poland? Had they power, like Omnipotence, they would have hurled thunderbolts at the Emperor of Russia, and would have breathed a resistance over his host in arms, as destructive as that of the angel of the Lord in the camp of Assyria. But who is there, even to lament over six hundred millions of heathen, groaning under temporal and spiritual bondage pining and wasting under the power and tyranny of the prince of darkness, yet more relentless and unpitying than the tyrants of this world! These are our fellowmen, demanding our aid. Let then every lover of man and his happiness reach out his helping hand to carry to them the blessings of civilization and freedom.

2. The condition of the heathen has claims on the mere moralist. Those who place the welfare of mankind, both for this life and that which is to come, in mere outward morality cannot feel uninterested. We have already represented the gross immorality of those nations where the Bible has not gone, and that morality is not even known in name among many nations of the earth. Can the moralist behold their wretchedness and inhumanity with cold indifference? Can he think of infants and aged fathers and mothers being murdered, with impunity? Can he think what thousands of wretched mothers are so completely under the power of an unnatural superstition, as to give their infants, even from their bosoms, as sacrifices to dumb idols? Can he consider that multitudes can smile at the agonies of a mother on the funeral pile, and that altars smoke with human sacrifices to devils? Can he number the multitudes, that annually perish on their pilgrimage to the seat of the Great Idol of India, and from the rolling of his car leaves a track of human blood? Can he think of human beings used as bullocks for the slaughter and contemplate men, feeding on the flesh of their fellow-men? Can he think of all this and a thousand times more, and not pity and not aid in sending forth that Gospel, which inculcates the purest morality?

3. But it is to the true hearted Christian, that this cause makes its most powerful appeal. It may expect little of those, whose hearts are not warmed by the spirit of religion. Our religion is the product of missionary effort. We would not speak irreverently of our Blessed Saviour; yet we think we should not degrade Him, by calling Him with reference to His incarnation and visit to our world, a foreign missionary. He came all the way down from heaven to this lower world to open up the way to life and to publish salvation to man. The Apostles were all foreign missionaries. They preached Christ crucified to the heathen. We, therefore, by engaging in this cause, but imitate the Saviour, and the most illustrious Christians, that have gone before us.

The structure of the christian's soul is what also renders this subject congenial. The expanding principles of a benevolent reliAs once said a gion, render his heart as capacious as the world.

poor, but very pious man to friend, whom he had invited to his scanty dwelling, my house is small, but my soul is as large as the world; so it is with the Christian. Though his means may be limited, yet, with what he has, he seeks to do good to the world.

The genius of our religion renders the pleading of this cause powerful with the man of God. It pleads, by the mercy of God, which was so high, as to bring Christ from heaven to die for him; which stooped so low as to rescue him from the deep pit of hell; which extends so wide as to embrace the whole human family; which stretches so long as to endure to eternity, and pleads with him by the death and intercession of the Saviour; by that soft, melodious voice of mercy which once whispered peace to his ruined, guilty, soul; by that kindling fire of love, that animates his heart and cheers his spirits; by the prospects, which are opening before him; by the consolations of religion in the hour of dissolution; by the light that shall illumine the dark valley of death; by the immortal glory, in which his soul shall be enwrapped in heaven forever: by these and ten thousand other moving considerations, this cause pleads with the christian. And will it thus plead in vain? Shall it not wake up that liberality of feeling, and arouse that holy charity, which, while it affords the means, shall cause him to say to the Missionary: Fly to the land of heathenism and tell my wretched fellow-men of that blessed Jesus, who hath bought with blood my soul; of that religion, that fires now my heart; of that book of God, which sheds a lustre on the dark path of death, and promises that "a day shall dawn on the night of the grave.'

4. This subject appeals to the young. No where on earth has more care been taken in the education of the rising generation, than with us. We are highly exalted in privilege. We have been blessed with the kindest parents, who from infancy, have instilled into our minds principles of morality, and have led us up with the kindest hand in the narrow, but pleasant paths of virtue and religion. The sun of our existence rose auspiciously and it hath been increasing in brightness, ever since its rising. Life to us has its brightest charms and eternity its richest glories. Free and unshackeled in the enjoyment of every privilege, heart could desire, science expands our minds for permanent enjoyment and usefulness; and our holy religion safely guides us in the road to happiness here, and to eternal glory hereafter. And do not such privileges, and such enjoyments lay us under imperious obligations to do good to our fellow

men?

If habits of sympathy and liberality are to be formed in our char

acter, how necessary, that they should be commenced in early life. How little probability is there, that the man, who has passed the season of youth, without forming such habits, ever will form them. How exceedingly hard is it to wake up the spirit of man, when it has once become settled in indifference to such subjects. Therefore the success of the cause of Missions depends upon the young. The few aged and middle aged, that have had their hearts in this cause, and their hands open to advance it, are passing off the stage. The youth must not only rise up in sufficient numbers to fill their places, but to augment the feeble hands, who are to have immortal honour in this work. Let us come up then my fellow youth, and grasp with a firm hand the standard, as it falls from our father's hand, palsied by death, and bear it before the host of Zion to rally her sons to the warfare against the gods of paganism, and the powers of darkness.

But let us consider what multitudes of young immortals, possessed of minds which are capable of indefinite expansion, and with the aid of science and religion might shed a glory on the world, are shut up in moral, mental night; while clouds and darkness are setting down on their hopes and prospects forever. But oh, what might not the gospel do for these youth, if its light could burst on their minds! What prospects would it open before them. When therefore you think of the care and kindness of your parents, of the instructions of a father, of the love and prayers of a mother; when futurity is brightened, with new glories, oh, then, think of the thousands of heathen youth doomed to degradation and wretchedness, and let your heart pity, and let at least a portion of what is wasted in pleasure and amusement, be thrown into the treasury of the Lord, to bear the glad tidings of salvation to the destitute youth of other lands.

5. The cause of Missions has peculiar claims on the female portion of community. We are aware, it has become fashionable in public addresses to solicit the aid and influence of the fair sex in almost every matter, and frequently it amounts to nothing more than bare compliment. But there is something more than bare compliment in this appeal. This subject presents considerations, that must twine around the tender heart of woman and draw forth all its sympathies. We have reference to the cruel slavery and bondage, under which the women are subjected to the men in all heathen countries. They are the drudges of the men, and are used more as beasts of burden than as companions. Their condition is desperate, and wretched, beyond description. If man is thought to have a soul, woman is never conjectured to have any; she is considered inferior in every respect. How different is the lot of woman in christian lands! Fostered from infancy with distinguished indulgence, educated with the kindest care, she is man's best companion, and his most constant

friend. In one land, their condition is a hell, in the other a paradise. And is there any common link of sisterhood between them, any tie that binds them as daughters of one family? Is it the Bible alone, that gives woman her proper place in society? Is it religion that controls, that tames the rude, tyrant spirit of man, and teaches him to use her with affection and kindness! Surely then there ought to be a deep interest felt in this cause by the female part of Christendom, wielding as they do a tremendous force of influence. And we fondly hope the day is not far distant, when with angel eloquence, every daughter shall plead with a father or brother, every wife with her husband, every widow with her friends, and every orphan with its guardian, in behalf of the cause of Missions. Yea, pardon us, if we express yet another wish, that the time may soon come, when the immense sums, expended through fashion and vanity for outward adorning, shall be turned into means for supplying the wants of the Missionary. When rings and jewels shall be converted into Bibles to be carried to the enslaved and benighted daughters of heathenism; with instruction to the Missionary, Go and plead by that sacred word with that mother, who has been taught, that she has a right to kill her female child, because she is poor, not to commit the fell deed. Go to that mother, who walks by the side of the Ganges, having at her breast a tender infant devoted as a sacrifice to the scaly monsters of the flood, and plead with her, by all that is fearful and affecting in God's book, not to make the cruel sacrifice. Go to the funeral pile, and persuade that widow not to ascend it; tell the orphans not to light it up. Or fly to Africa. Bear some consolation to that distracted mother or wife, whose son or husband has been stolen away by accursed white men. Let the lamp of revelation shine on her dark soul. Point her to that land beyond the grave where tyrants and thieves can never enter. Go spread every where that religion, which teaches, that woman's soul is immortal; distribute these Bibles which tell her she was formed out of man's side not to be trampled upon as a slave, but made a companion, which declare there is neither bond nor free, male nor female, all are one, in Christ Jesus. We now will spend a few moments, in answering a few of the objections, that are so often made to Missionary operations and especially such as relate to foreign countries.

1. It may be well first to notice the old heart chilling objection, that may be brought forward by some in this case, for the nine hundred and ninetieth time," that "Charity begins at home."

'We are surrounded,' say you, with the afflicted and the poor, who demand of us sympathy and assistance and shall we turn away from the affecting entreaties of suffering poverty, from the wants of the orphan and the tears of the widows who are among us, and send the means of their relief to the heathen? We answer, by no means. Let

'

charity begin at home. Humanity, justice, mercy, everything that is good, urge you to deeds of charity toward those who are suffering around you. We remember the Gospel saith, 'If any man see his brother have need and shutteth up his bowels of compassion, how dwelleth the love of God in him? But the same gospel saith, in reference to another matter these things ought ye to do, and not to leave the other undone,' and we may apply it to this case. The wants of society around us ought to be met, and something ought also to be done to spread the gospel. We might show, that, as charity at home contemplates nothing more than the welfare of the body, but the cause of missions, the welfare of undying souls, there are reasons for a division of our bounty. But this we will not do. We will not take the bread from the starving poor around us, to send it to heathen. We ask, is not this Christian public possessed of sufficient wealth to supply all the wants of the suffering poor, and expend thousands on missions, without injuring themselves or families? But who are they, who are continually crying out, that charity begins at home, as if it must forever stop there? They are those persons, the record of whose home liberalities, is as meagre as poverty-stricken, as Pharaoh's lean kine. While, on the other hand, those who do most for the cause of missions, are those who do not forget the poor at home. The truth is, here are means adequate to both objects. 2d. Another objection is, we have heathen in our own country; we ought to convert them first to Christianity before we go to heathen lands'—It is true, that there are thousands of Indians in the north and west, to whom we owe much as a nation, and we rejoice, that much is doing for them, that glorious and unparalleled success hath crowned the efforts, which have of late been made to convert and Christianize them. But would it be obeying the injunctions of Christ, Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature,' should we confine all our efforts to them? Would it be following the order of the Apostles, who went out every where preaching Christ.' Had they staid in Judea, till there was not a heathen left, or a Jew unchristianized, the gospel would not have been preached to the Gentiles, till this day. The field,' says the Saviour, is the world.' The world is to be Christianized, and it matters not where we begin our attack first. But we must not confine our efforts to one point. Permit us to introduce the following illustration. In the southern and western states are large tracts of country called prairies, perfectly level, covered with the most luxuriant growth of grass. These, in the unsettled parts, are sometimes by the neighboring inhabitants set on fire and burnt over at certain seasons of the year, in order to destroy the dry grass, that it may spring up again, tender, for their herds to graze upon. Now if one hundred men were to fire one of these praires so as to burn it ov