pounds to this object, and not feel it."

"Suppose, my

Christian brother," said another, "you give twenty, and feel it. Your Saviour felt what he did for you." "This remark," added one of the congregation who heard it, "thrilled through my whole soul, and made me do more than empty my purse-I borrowed from a friend. The idea of feeling what I gave was delightful."

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Nor let us delay to enter upon the work. Let us begin while we have the power in our hand, and the means of doing it are at our command. "Withhold not good from him to whom it is due, while it is in the power of thy hand to do it." Say not unto thy neighbour, go, and come again to-morrow, and I will give, when thou hast it by thee." The debt of gratitude to God is a debt that must, in part at least, be paid in property contributions, and in discharging it we are no more meritorious than in cancelling any other claims. Why put off God's poor and suffering ones till to-morrow, when they may be beyond the reach of our benefactors? or when we may otherwise have lost the power of administering to their good? The idea of paying our obligations in bequests at our death, is one of the greatest frauds ever practised upon the conscience. To indulge our avarice as long as our condition renders it possible, on the plea of giving what we can no longer hold, as if this were cancelling the debt of charity, is making benevolence administer to selfishness.

It is "fearing the Lord and serving our own gods." Of this we may be assured that gifts so bestowed will perish with us.

(3) There must be PERSONAL EXERTION.

An increased spirit of prayer and more enlarged benevolence do not comprehend all that is necessary to secure the more rapid advancement of Messiah's kingdom. There must be personal exertion for the

securing of this great object. Prayer, Union, Liberality, Energy.

While you unite in a spirit of supplication, and contribute a portion of your worldly substance, let your efforts be answerable to the largeness of your requests. To be a good steward of the manifold grace of God, you are required to impart to the ignorant and depraved, spiritual knowledge; or your light shines in vain, and may be speedily extinguished. The Lord will go forth conquering and to conquer; and the question is, shall we swell his army by actually engaging in his service, or shall we appear in the train and engage in the interests of his foes? "He who is not for Me, says Christ, is against Me." There is no neutrality when Satan defies the God of heaven. To stand by, is to aid the rebels; to neglect souls, is to destroy them.

It can scarcely be too frequently repeated that the great want of the age is a working church. Every church must become essentially missionary in its character before any such inroad will be made on the empire of darkness, as will justify the hope of the speedy accomplishment of God's purposes of mercy to the world at large.

Every real Christian should feel it his duty to interest himself personally on behalf of his perishing fellowcreatures. And to secure this, the actual state of the heathen world and the success of missionary labour, as recorded in the periodicals of missionary societies, should be their unceasing study.

Not only should they be acquainted with every part of the world where mission stations have been established, but also with every region where they are needed. Not only should they be acquainted with the name of every missionary, but with the sphere in which he labours.

In addition to the interest this enlarged knowledge would create in the progress of the cause, it would -serve as a powerful stimulus to prayer, and thus secure increased communications of the spirit. It is no less lamentable than it is astonishing, to see the ignorance that prevails on these subjects, and consequently the want of interest felt respecting them, even among Christians, some of whom are officers of churches and ministers. Thousands of the members of our churches scarcely ever see a missionary magazine, or any other vehicle of missionary intelligence, from year to year. They profess, as members of Christ's Church, to bear a part of the responsibility of the world's conversion, and yet, so far from doing anything themselves, they do not even know what others are doing in the promotion of this great enterprise.

Members of the visible church, and voluntarily without the means of information as to what is going on in that church! Followers of their Master, and taught by Him to pray daily "Thy kingdom come," and yet not knowing, or caring to know, what progress that kingdom is making in the world!

With what intensity do men watch the operations of war, and how rapidly and widely is the news of a naval battle, or a military achievement, diffused. And ought Christians to be less concerned about the triumphs of the "Prince of Peace;" about victories which boast not of the number of the slain, but of the saved?

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Christian parents! these things should be told to your children. 'Speak of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou riseth up.' They should constitute a part of your children's education— should be the subject of your conversation at your social

meetings should be communicated from mind to mind throughout the land. The young of both sexes especially should assist in enlightening the public mind by a wide and systematic diffusion of the different organs of missionary intelligence, as also by lectures and addresses.

It is feared that much valuable pecuniary aid is lost to missions, because individuals in sufficient numbers, and with sufficient perseverance do not offer themselves as collectors. Christians ought to feel so deeply interested in the cause, as to render this item of instrumentality unnecessary; each one placing his own weekly gift unsolicited upon the altar; but until by the more general diffusion of knowledge on the subject, the obligation is more generally and powerfully felt; and until the people are taught to give from principle, the necessity will exist for efforts to stimulate generosity, and to facilitate the collection of gifts. Let every church, therefore, furnish an energetic and well-disciplined phalanx, encouraged and supported by its minister, dividing towns and their neighbourhood into districts-leaving no house unvisited or unsupplied with information, no individual, no family, no single member of a family, unsolicited for his subscription.

And while the head, and hands, and tongue, are thus busy, let not the heart be idle. When the walls of Jerusalem proceeded rapidly, it was because the people "had a mind to the work." We must sow if we would reap, and this life is the seed-time; in the next we shall reap the fruit of our labours. Would we wish, like the slothful man, to reap the harvest without sowing? would we serve God at little cost? would we expect much and sacrifice little? No; "the sluggard desireth and hath nothing."

This is the age of lightning and steam power. Sleepers in Zion must awake up, or they will be left behind.

"In the name of God advancing,

Sow thy seed by morning light,
Cheerily the furrows turning,

Labour on with all thy might.
Look not on the far-off future,

Do the work which nearest lies;
Sow thou must before thou reapest,
Rest at last is labour's prize.

Standing still is dangerous ever,

Toil is meant for Christians now;
Let there be, when evening cometh,
Honest sweat upon thy brow.
And the Master shall come smiling,
When work stops at set of sun,
Saying, as He pays thy wages,

'Good and faithful man, well done.'"

(4) There must be SELF-CONSECRATION TO THE WORK. The best and most eminent men have ever been those who have consecrated all their powers, and all their exertions, to the attainment of the objects they have had in view. A disregard to private views, a noble disinterestedness of purpose, a sacrifice of personal comfort, and not seldom, a temporary surrender of personal reputation, have distinguished the career of those who have been eminently useful to their fellow-men. And if these observations apply with any propriety to the common spheres of human action, far more do they apply to the momentous affairs of religion. If in the one cause sacrifices are to be made; much more in the other must there be witnessed self-denying effort, and patient, persevering, continual toil. It is not enough for the Christian at the present day that he have a general desire of doing right—that he have a knowledge of Scriptural principles —that he have a sense of moral obligation—or that he give his cordial assent to all the doctrines of the Christian religion. Would he maintain a consistent Christian