exertion, which may be most proportioned and adequate to the range and amount of the duty required. Certain it is, that nothing less was now before the view of the Messiah, and certain it is, that nothing less can legitimately be before the view of the friends and servants of the Messiah, than the many nations which form the commonwealth of mankind, and the entire population which swarms upon the surface of the world.

In this statement by the Redeemer, there is a very emphatic description of the circumstances in which the world was when he lived, and of the spiritual aspect which it then presented. “The fields are white already to harvest:" the field of the world was ready for the accomplishment of the work to which mercy had given the errand, presenting an exactly appropriate period for effecting an in-gathering of immortal souls to God. There are several respects in which the state of the world may be viewed and illustrated; and to these we shall direct you.

It was the time which had been appointed in the predetermination of the divine counsels, for introducing the economy of grace. That period upon which the gracious purposes of his will reposed, and which he had taught his inspired prophets of preceding ages to anticipate and foretell, had arrived. The precise number of and geyears nerations had passed away, which had been allotted for the existence of other systems, and

which had acted as times of preparation for the effective disclosure and firm establishment of evangelic truth. The birth and commencing ministry of the Son of God are therefore mentioned as being" in the fulness of time"-"When the fulness of time had come, God sent forth his Son ;" and in immediate connexion with the good pleasure and purpose of the Eternal, the gospel is called "The dispensation of the fulness of times." When the Saviour spoke, it was the hour to which all events tended, and for which they were formed; the hour which heaven had ordained for restoring the fallen fortunes of mankind; the hour in which had been made to depend, in necessary and exclusive suspension, alike the events of time and the destinies of eternity.

Yet not only were" the fields white"-not only had the proper period of labour arrived, because the appointments of God were then to be brought into full operation, but because of the spiritual necessities which then actually pressed upon the circumstances of man. No time could

have been more apt for the labour of redemption, on this account, than that in which the words were uttered. Jews and Gentiles were alike at the furthest limit, at the last boundary to which want could possibly impel. They were "at the pillars of Hercules"—and there seemed nothing before them but the wild and stormy ocean of despair. The law of Moses was no

longer that majestic system which it was, when announced amidst the thunders of Sinai, or when established by the munificent piety of Solomon. It had been corrupted amidst the corruption and increasing degeneracy of ages; and now to the mass of the people there was nothing but the shell of external ceremony and form :-the substance had mouldered ; the glory had departed; the inspiration had fled. The Samaritans, in whose country the Redeemer was, when he made the statement before us, were in the same abyss with the tribes from whom they had separated-perhaps still more lost; for they rejected entirely all the light that could be gained from the extant records of prophecy, renouncing them systematically as unauthenticated and false. And as for the idolaters of the Gentiles,-need it be said how they had departed from the prime principles of truth ; how they had changed the glory of the incorruptible God into the images of men orof brutes; how they had dethroned the sole Proprietor and Ruler of nature, and in his stead lifted up the personifications of their own lusts and passions; how the efforts of their proud and aspiring philosophy, decorated and ennobled as it was by the splendours of classic learning and art, had but involved them in more perplexing intricacies of error, and blacker enormities of crime; how they were given up to the vilest affections, and practised boldly and constantly in the face of day, the sins which might have opened the gates of vengeance, launched the thunderbolt of the Eternal, and once more

invoked the consuming fire from heaven? It is a false and pernicious estimate, which aims to hide the excess of guilt in which ancient heathenism was dyed, and which, deceived by the fair names and poetic associations of classic renown, can view it with admiration, and make it the subject of delighted panegyric. That very "Augustan age"-a phrase by some regarded as comprehending whatever is fair and noble in the state of human society-when, in the Western idolatry, there was the most captivating union of majesty and of taste, of science and of power, and when a halo of surpassing glory seemed to enshrine its temples, its altars, and its worship, was also the very age, when real want and real necessity held their most potent sway of their most pining famine over our benighted and miserable race. It was then, that in this respect "the fields were white to harvest ;" and it was then that, in highest and most exact propriety, HE came forth, who should be "a light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of his people Israel."

A further illustration of the scope of the expression we are now considering, is to be derived from the fact of that expectation of deliverance, which at the time of the Saviour's advent was entertained in no partial manner. It is certain that much excitement was then existing, as to the arrival of some approaching beneficial change in human circumstances. Among the Jews themselves, that excitement appears to have

been very powerful, although at the same time their imaginations were, in general, grossly worldly and impure. Simeon was among "the devout men, who were waiting for the consolation of Israel,” and was prepared to hail the infant Redeemer in his dying song, as " the salvation which God had prepared before the face of all people."* When John the Baptist preached, "the people were in expectation, and all men mused in their hearts whether he were the Christ or not." And on another occasion, when Jesus came near Jerusalem, the same feeling was active: "they thought that the kingdom of God should immediately appear." The people of Samaria, as appears from the context, and in reference to whom primarily this address was pronounced, were evidently cherishing a similar hope." The woman saith unto him, I know that Messias cometh, which is called Christ : when he is come, he will tell us all things.""Come, see a man, which told me all things that ever I did: is not this the Christ?"-" The people of the city said unto the woman, Now we believe, not because of thy saying, for we have heard him ourselves, and know that this is indeed the Christ, the Saviour of the world." How that hope was inspired,-whether from the reports of those with whom they might deal in national transactions, or whether from ancient prophecy contained in the Pentateuch, or handed down traditionally along with it,—it is not

* Luke ii. 30, 31.

Luke iii. 15.

Luke xix. 11.