sake of temporal support, or the acquisition of a fortune, endure an exile of twenty or thirty years, and all the discomforts of a foreign land, and of insalubrious climates; and most of these young persons go from the families of the comparatively opulent in this country. The love of self enables them to do all this: but how disproportioned are those whom the love of Christ their Saviour carries forth and keeps there. No! of the churches, our text reversed is yet true.-Every man looks on his own things, and none, or next to none, regards the things of others.

It may be said to the preacher, and what would you have us do? are not great exertions made by British Christians to instruct their own people at home; and to send Christian instruction to other nations? Are not books and teachers; the Bible and tracts, and missionaries, preachers, and catechists sent forth in every direction, and what more can the Christians do? Are not the national churches of Scotland, England, and Ireland supported at a large expense? and are not the unendowed congregational churches, though unsupported by the state, active and zealous even to excess? How can you say that we care not for the spiritual wants of others? Is there not a British and Foreign Bible Society, and British and Foreign School Society, and Sunday Schools without number?-and the liberality and generosity of the Christian public supports them all.

In answer to this interrogatory remonstrance, I say that, without pretending to exactness, I suppose nine-tenths of all this exertion is for the Christians themselves, and not for others: and when I speak of the Christian churches, I include with the people, the ministers of religion, some of whom are opulent and not industrious; and must bear the censure which applies also to laymen, who seek only great things for themselves, and care not for the wants of others. Our text justifies all the activity, and zeal, and anxiety to do good, of the most intensely zealous, at the same time that it condemns the indifferent and selfishly careless professor of Christianity. And although the efforts of British Christians, when all stated together

in the same paragraph, may appear considerable, and to some persons prodigiously great, and even excessive; they are-when measured by the obligation arising from the divine command; and from the example of our crucified Redeemer; and by the crying necessities of others; and the capability of many Christians to do a hundred times more than they do-these efforts must still be denominated feeble and deficient. There are some pious persons think they do well to check the zeal of this nation to relieve the spiritual wants of other nations; and there are some ministers who seem to say to the churches-"Look every man to his own things, and don't look at, nor trouble yourselves with the affairs of others:" and after giving such advice, they go and pray that the Saviour's kingdom may come! nor do they seem to perceive, nor will they admit, that such advice and such prayers are inconsistent. There is a grossly antichristian idea still has place in the breasts of Christians, viz. that the rest of the nations are not related to us-that we do not, as matter of right, owe them any regard that we may innocently neglect them: aye, that it is wrong to pay much attention to them; that we must almost entirely mind ourselves. Alas! ye Christians -was this the mind that was in Christ Jesus, when he passed by and saw us in a perishing condition? and is it thus we regard the nations whom our Father created, and for whom the Saviour died? Do we maintain the infidel opinion, that we are a superior race; and that God did not make of one blood all nations of men, and thus contradict and blaspheme the Bible! Do we still hold the silly opinion that geographical limits, a river, a mountain, or an imaginary line, destroys the brotherhood of the family of man? Do we purpose to set up those partition walls, which our Saviour broke down; and assume the Jewish pride, and arrogate to ourselves the special favour of of heaven, and by the assumption, nurse that pride, instead of remarking God's goodness and our own ingratitude, and misuse of privileges, and unfaithfulness in our stewardship? What is all that the spiritual Christians do, compared with what the carnal votaries of pleasure do? with what the

lovers of war do? but (which infinitely surpasses every other consideration) what is it that Christians do for others, compared with what Jesus Christ has done for them!

Many do not like to look at the things of others, lest an acquaintance with the real state others should compel the lookers-on to assist. Not so the ancient patriarch Job. The cause of distress which he knew not, he searched out that he might relieve it. And there are some pious people justify their apathy concerning the inhabitants of the eastern limit of Asia, by saying they perceive no opening; they see no movement. As if the dry bones were to move before they were breathed upon; as if the door were to be opened before any herald of salvation knocked at it; as if our Saviour's redeeming work, and infinitely agonizing labours for us, were subsequent to some movement towards him. By a strange perversion of what is right, men exercise their ingenuity to find out reasons, not always very specious, why they should not do their duty and care for others; rather than why they should do it and comply with the precept. In the church, as well as in the world, many of the precepts of the Bible seem to be considered a dead letter. The bitter-spirited disturbers of the peace of churches, never think that the Saviour's command, to be meek and lowly, is at all binding on them. The lovers of money forget that covetousness is idolatry; and those who could, with heaven's aid, materially assist in the propagation of the Gospel in foreign parts, seem to think that the Saviour's promise-"There is no man that hath forsaken father and mother, or brothers or sisters, or wife or children, or houses or lands, for my sake and the Gospel's, but shall receive manifold more in this life, and in the world to come life everlasting"-means, that no man shall forsake either the one or the other of these ties and good things for the Gospel's sake.

You perceive that my mind and discourse falls much into the duty of Christians to look to the things of other nations and tribes of men; but I by no means intend that we must neglect those that are near, and care only for those that are remote; though I do maintain, agreeably to the

example of Paul and Barnabas, that, when men reject the Gospel, it is right to turn away from them, and address it to others. It will not be fair either to charge me with magnifying that in which I myself happen to be engaged, as every one likes to do. My view of the matter is this, and I think it will prove what I have now asserted. I hold that the whole world is guilty before God-that there is none righteous-no, not one. I maintain that every inhabitant of Britian needs salvation as much as a West-Indian slave, or a Hindoo, or a Chinese; that the hearts of Englishmen are as much at enmity against God, previously to that change which we call conversion, as the hearts of any pagan idolater whatever. It is not here that the difference between evangelized and unevangelized lands really lies: but the difference consists in the quantum of means enjoyed in one region and in the other.

Since Augustine, the first archbishop of Canterbury, obtained a footing in this then pagan land, to what a degree have the means of Christian knowledge increased! It is not possible for your preacher to describe the difference of means enjoyed by this country, and that land from which he has returned for a season. It has taken at least ten centuries to bring you to the state of Gospel privilege in which you are this day; and it is not easy for you to look back and realize the pagan state of the Saxon heptarchy. But I have actually experienced a similar state of moral and religious degradation in yonder eastern hemisphere. The people there are not, in a physical point of view, worse off than you. Their climate is not to them generally insalubrious; they have food and raiment, and sunshine and shower, which contribute to the gladness of the animal spirits-but the Christian church protestant has not, till yesterday, taken any pains to convey to them the glad tidings of salvation. The heathen know, by history and experience, the unsubstantial and unsatisfying nature of all sublunary pursuits; of pleasure, of ambition, of riches, of honours-they feel that they are sinners against conscience which accuses them, but still Satan keeps them in a dark prison; and Christians take little pains to send

them the light of Gospel liberty-they remain in darkness, and in bondage; hugging their chains; observing rites which cannot profit; cherishing hopes which must prove fallacious; and dreading evils from every source but the real one-sin against God. There are yonder, who can read Chinese, people equal in number to a fourth of the whole population of the world; and there are not there more than four efficient ministers of the reformed religion, for nearly three hundred millions of human beings. The United Kingdom of Great Britain would be better circumstanced than those regions, as to the attainment of Christian knowledge, were all religious books in the land consumed by fire; the churches and chapels demolished; the colleges and academies overthrown; and the ministers of religion annihilated: for after all this havoc and destruction, there would be, I believe, hundreds of thousands of spiritual Christians possessed of divine knowledge; and willing and able to preserve this knowledge, and to re-edify an apparently ruined Christianity in this land. Whilst yonder Satan sits enthroned, and receives the mistaken homage of millions, under the appearance of an endless variety of demon gods, heroes, and virgins, and saints, and spirits of rivers, and mountains, and hills; and the manes of parents and ancestors. And yonder, lying miracles, and false prophets; and cunning diviners, and astrologers; and ignorant, or self-deceived, or hypocritical priests; and monks, and nuns, and masses of pagan origin; and a delusive mummery of unintelligible words, every where abound. And in some cases, where the minds of the educated and thinking men revolt at these vulgar deceits of the devil, and misguided men and women, they rush from the extreme of a gross superstition to atheism and annihilation, and live with no better pursuits, and die with no higher hopes, tham the beasts that perish.

Now I know very well that there are some, I fear many, in our own land not better than these; but I likewise know that the means of being better informed, and better circumstanced, are almost universally in the power of every individual in these islands--but they will not come to Christ. However, I still give my vote for the employment