But if a better mode of conducting Missions among the Heathen can be shewn from actual experiment; if to send a few men of uncommon literature to become companions of enlightened Mohammedans and Pagans, to impart a knowledge of the history and philosophy received in the Christian world; or if an attempt to introduce only the light of science and the blessings of civilization will bring the learned Brahmun to bow at the feet of the cross, and a greater number of idolaters to true repentance and a meetness for Heaven, than the word of God given in the languages of the Heathen, and the gospel preached in their languages, and attended with a divine influence; we shall be willing to look candidly at the evidence, and disposed to review the present system of missionary labor. Until the experiment has been made, the fact evinced, and the evidence furnished, we shall think the present general system for evangelizing the Heathen ought not to be condemned.

We shall now attempt to show, as concisely as possible, that Jesus Christ approves the greatest efforts and sacrifices for the salvation of the Heathen world.

1. Our first remark is,that he requires such efforts and sacrifices for the attainment of this object. The command he gave his disciples was, "Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature." Now could the disciples obey this command, few in number as they were, and not only destitute of all civil aid,

but withstood by the prejudice and ignorance of the world and by the power of the civil arm, and assailed by opposition and reproach at every step, without making great efforts and sacrifices? To obey the command of Christ, and accomplish the sacred enterprize of evangelizing the world, they must travel and toil; they must sacrifice their worldly possessions and prospects, their ease and reputation; they must submit to false accusations, and persecution, and want, and imprisonment, and stripes. All this the first disciples of Christ were required to do for the conversion of the Heathen. And while the Saviour required his Apostles to make such efforts and sacrifices for the salvation of the world, he required the churches they had planted, to administer to their necessities, and to be instant in prayer for the success of their self-denying labors.

This command of the ascended Saviour is still in force. The promise annexed evinces, that the requisition is still binding; "Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the world." Nor can this command now be obeyed without benevolent efforts and personal sacrifices. Those, who go to translate the scriptures into the languages of Pagans, and to preach to them the gospel of Christ, must make great sacrifices, and endure hardness, as good soldiers of the cross. They must abandon their friends, and country, and choicest privileges, and commence their mission at a great sacrifice. They must toil and study and preach amidst privations and hardships, with vigorous effort, to the end of life. Churches in Christian lands must

make strenuous and persevering efforts to advance religion at home, that the fountain of Christian benevolence may rise higher, and send forth more copious streams; that the number and piety of "the sacramental host of God's elect" may be greatly increased, and a vast army be enlisted to storm the strong holds of Paganism, and set up the banner of Zion's King in every land. To furnish the requisite means for carrying the word of life to every nation, and preaching the gospel to every creature, the churches must make sacrifices as well as efforts; they must deny themselves in some respects at least, that they may evince their love to him, who "pleased not himself;" that they may secure the approbation of him, who delights in obedience to his commands.

2. Jesus Christ expressed the highest approbation of the greatest efforts and sacrifices to honor his person and advance his kingdom on earth. His declaration with respect to the conduct of the disciple mentioned in our text, who poured an alabaster box of very precious ointment on his head, is one instance. She had made the highest sacrifice she could; she had presented, as an expression of her attachment to the Saviour, the most costly offering. Our Lord declares, "she hath done what she could;" or as the original imports, hath given that she had, all she could. And he would have his unqualified approbation of the deed proclaimed, wherever his gospel should be preached, throughout the whole world.

On another occasion the Saviour sat in the temple over against the Treasury, into which the people cast

their offerings to defray the expenses incurred by the stated services of the sanctuary; and while he saw the rich contributing large sums, he observed a certain poor widow cast in two mites, which was all her living. He then took occasion publicly to express his cordial approbation of the great sacrifice she had made to so pious a purpose, by declaring, that she had cast in more than all the rich, because her offering was a sacrifice of all she had.

The Apostles made great efforts and sacrifices to spread the gospel, and to promote the salvation of the Heathen world. For this they relinquished friends, and ease, and reputation, and all worldly good, and "counted not even their own lives dear unto themselves." The Saviour blessed their labors and sacrifices in this cause; he gave them greater success, than any preachers of the gospel before or since. Never have so great efforts and sacrifices been made for the salvation of the world; never have efforts for this object been so extensively succeeded; never so high approbation conferred by the Great Head of the Church.

3. For the salvation of the world the Saviour himself made the greatest efforts and the highest sacrifices. It is the testimony of inspiration, that "though he was rich, yet for our sakes he became poor, that we through his poverty might be rich." He was born in a manger, lived in obscurity, entered on his ministry in the face of danger, reproach, and death, and spent his days amidst privations and sufferings for the salvation of a perishing world. Follow him to the place where he was betrayed, the hallowed place of

his secret devotions;-to the hall where he had his mock trial, was buffeted, was smitten with a reed, was crowned with thorns;-to Calvary, where he was nailed to the cross, and reviled, and given vinegar to drink, and crucified;-and consider, all this he endured, his own life he sacrificed, for the salvation of the world. Not merely for the city of Nazareth, where he was brought up; not solely for his own countrymen the Jews, because they had on this account peculiar claims upon him; but for the Gentiles also, for the chief of sinners, for the remotest generations, for the world. "He became a propitiation for the sins of the whole world." In all these efforts, and sacrifices, and sufferings, for such an object, he was approved of his Father, and afterward received up to glory. The greatest efforts and sacrifices, in the same cause, he will approve now, and before the assembled Universe at his second appearing.

4. The salvation of the Heathen world is an object of sufficient importance, to demand and justify the greatest efforts and sacrifices. What is wealth; what are worldly distinctions, or worldly pleasures, or the highest mental cultivation, or all the objects for the attainment of which the greatest efforts and sacrifices are actually made, compared with this? What all else man pursues with the most unwearied labors and painful self-denial, compared with the salvation of one soul? Suppose by all the efforts and sacrifices, which can be made by the whole Christian world, but one Pagan should be rescued from the darkness of Gentilism, from the greater darkness of spiritual death, and