savour unto God, and a source of renovated life and vigour to their own souls.

4. A fourth token for good is descried in the growing devotion of gospel ministers to the sacred scriptures in the original tongues. Within twenty years, I suppose that the Hebrew scriptures, and Hebrew scholars, have increased in this country fifty fold, if not a hundred fold. And many preachers of the gospel, even in their youth, are growing able expositors of the word of God; they delight in the work, and their flocks delight to follow them into the green pastures of God's most holy law. Nor can they rest satisfied, that the mature and aged only should be fed with the heavenly food, they are teaching the young to study religion in the Bible. If such men will stand by one another, if they will cheer and encourage one another and persevere in their work, we shall not long hence know what pure and undefiled christianity is.

5. I need not stop to descant on the general movement which is making in society, to diffuse education universally, and particularly among those whose situation in life renders them at once incapable of paying for their instruction, and insensible to its value. A ́most horrible opinion has been held, and even propagated as doctrine, and that too by ministers of the gospel, and by those who have occupied the responsible situation of legislators, that learning is not only unnecessary, but positively injurious to the poor; that it diverts their attention from their proper duties, renders them dissatisfied with their condition, and prepares them for insurrection against the order, peace and happiness of society. The cock-pit, the race-course, the pugilistic ring, the bull-bait, the May-pole, and such scenes

of ferocity and debauchery, have been supposed to constitute the appropriate relaxation of the poor; where they may, among their kindred brutes of princes and nobles, elevated as much above the necessity of sense and virtue, as the poor are supposed to be reduced below the possibility of their attainment, forget for a time, themselves, and their God, and their responsibility. What a philosophic age this is! Cast your eyes, I beseech you, across the Atlantic; do not suffer them to rest on this delightful land, lest you should find, that a part of our population are condemned to ignorance as the only security of their virtue. It is indeed written, Thou shalt not insult the ruler of thy people; but it is also written, Woe unto him that calleth evil good, and good evil! Judging of human affairs with the unsophisticated feeling of humanity; cherishing the opinion, that we ought never to do evil, that good may ensue; nor to calculate upon the occurrence of contingent evils, so as to paralyse us in the discharge of present duties, we cannot but rejoice at every attempt to promote intellectual culture among the lower ranks of society; and our joy is much augmented when we find that the chosen instrument of cultivation is God's Bible; a book which, while it cultivates the intellect, regenerates and regulates the moral man; and, by fixing the hopes and anxieties of the heart on a future state of consummate happiness, or inexpressible woe, causes the inequalities of condition, the pleasures and pains, the honours and dishonours of this life, to shrink into nothing. Those who are employed in teaching the poor to read the holy scriptures, and in inculcating upon them the elemental principles of piety, virtue, and self-govern

ment, stand high in the ranks of useful citizens; they are, in their way, whether male or female, actually preaching the gospel, and stand higher in the estimation of the wise and judicious, and, perhaps, in the eyes of God himself, than those who strut and dictate in the upper seminaries of instruction.

Having thus noticed the extraordinary movements of divine providence, in diffusing translations of the holy scriptures over all the heathen nations, distributing them to the poor in christian lands, and creating an inextinguishable thirst for these pure streams of the waters of life, among the ministers of the gospel; having mentioned these circumstances as sure indications, that the Redeemer is about to take to him his great power, and assume the reign over all the kingdoms of this world; there is a question which I may mention-where are the ministers of the gospel to come from, who are to preach Christ crucified to all the nations of the earth? It is, indeed, enough for us to know, that, when the time comes, the Son of God will easily furnish himself with instruments. But, inasmuch as his government is not carried on by desultory and unconnected miracles, but by a chain of causes and effects, succeeding by regular laws, and furnishing his servants with the means of rational calculation; I judge it not irreverent to form a probable conjecture, respecting the source from which he will supply the heathen with preachers.

I conceive then, that when the stone becomes a great mountain and fills the whole earth; when the beast which ascendeth out of the bottomless pit, shall have made war upon the witnesses and slain them; when the public profession of christianity shall have been

put down in Europe; then the christians of that country, and especially the christian ministers, will be driven away among the heathen to seek an asylum. from persecution, and to repay the hospitality of those who receive them into their houses, with the precious knowledge of eternal life through Jesus Christ. Such has ever been the economy of the Redeemer's kingdom; thus, when Daniel was carried away captive to Babylon, his master made him the instrument to convert Nebuchadnezzar, and Cyrus the great, and if my memory serves me, Darius; thus also, when the disciples were persecuted in Jerusalem, they carried the gospel through all the land of Judea; and when they were banished from Judea, they scattered themselves, or rather God scattered them, among the heathen. Wherever they went, they carried the gospel with them, and God blessed their labours, till the wilderness blossomed

as a rose.

I have no shadow of doubt that the sons of the European church, when they shall be persecuted and banished from their native land by the atheistical tyranny which shall arise, are the very men who are to proclaim salvation to the ends of the earth. Indeed I cannot conceive where else, than in Europe, the Lord Jesus should find instruments for this work, unless he were to create them on purpose, which we have no reason to suppose he will do; nor can I imagine any other means, which could induce them to leave their country, in sufficient numbers, for the accomplishment of so stupendous an enterprise, except such a severe and general persecution as will neither suffer them to worship God, nor to live, in the land of their nativity.

I must say that the instruments seem to me to be so admirably adapted to the work, that I cannot help believing that their master has long been engaged, and is engaged at the present time, in purposely training and disciplining them for this specific labour. I allude to the present state of European literature, particularly in respect to the department of languages: I will not say, that the study of languages is outstriping the progress of other parts of human knowledge; but it is certainly cultivated with unparalleled ardour, and to an unbounded extent. The time was when Europe winked at any atrocity in the men who could read and write, and thought it more for the public interest to pardon their crimes, than to lose the use of their talents. A little smattering of Latin once constituted a great scholar; but if he added to that the lowest elementary knowledge of Greek, he was esteemed a prodigy. At present a prime European scholar understands not only Latin and Greek, but frequently all the modern languages in Europe; and not satisfied with this measure of acquisition, turns his eyes towards the East in quest of fresh literary treasure. Hebrew, Arabic, Persic, and the languages of India and China, have their respective devotees among the learned men of Europe. Scholars think nothing of the trouble of acquiring a new language, which shall open up to them a few prime writers on a favourite theme. The Lord Jesus has conferred upon Europe the gift of tongues; not by miracle it is true, but by the no less efficacious, though slower means, of studious industry. It is apparent that if christianity should be publickly suppressed in Europe, and the learned men of whom I have been speaking scat