we freely admit. But they are not to be regarded as forming an order of means distinct from the gospel economy, and superior to it. They wait on its steps. So vast is that economy in its sweep and design, that it includes and appropriates every kind of agency; presses into its service, as we saw in the preceding chapter, the angel of wrath, as well as employs the angel of mercy; and lays under tribute all the revolutions of time, and all the dispensations of Providence. In those events, then, which may lead others to say, "Lo, here is Christ;" or, "Lo, there is Christ;" and which may thus distract attention from present duty, and awaken hopes never to be realized, we are to recognize only a call to greater diligence, and to remember that if we would apply them to their proper purpose, we must study to render them subservient to the diffusion of his gospel.

We admit, also, that, at times, the progress of the kingdom of Christ may be too slow for our impatience, and may seem to postpone its consummation to a hopeless distance. But let us remember that he can afford to wait. Had he any occasion to doubt the issue, he might be induced at times to precipitate the end. But "he seeth the end from the beginning" sees it so clearly, and awaits it so confidently, that his patience emphatically announces the efficiency of his gov

ernment.

And not only do impending judgments call for the diligence of the church, and proclaim the efficiency of the divine administration, they indicate also the surpassing claims of that dispensation on whose account they are to be made to impend. Had the final sufficiency of the gospel economy been doubtful, we may warrantably suppose that many of the divine disclosures of coming terrors would have been graciously withheld. Their unreserved disclosure is a certain pledge of its constant progress and eventual triumph. The eye of faith can only behold, in the awful pomp and grandeur of the future, the indication of its greatness and the celebration of its triumphs.

IV. Now, if the conclusion to which we have come be scriptural, we may take it for granted that it will bear to be subjected to certain appropriate tests; and that the result of such an ordeal can only tend to illustrate and confirm the truth.

1. If it be a doctrine of prophecy, that the diffusion of the gospel is to be the grand instrument in the hand of God for

the conversion of the world, may we not expect that other departments of Holy Scripture will be found to contain allusions and statements corroborative of the doctrine? May we not expect, for example, that the apostles have left on record some indications, however incidental, that they interpreted ancient prophecy in the manner supposed? Accordingly, we find that such indications actually exist. The application which St. James makes of the prophecy of Amos, to which attention has already been called, is precisely on this principle, and might properly be regarded as supplying the legitimate key to all those figurative predictions of the gospel dispensation which employ language drawn from the Jewish economy. Had Isaiah predicted that Christ should “be given for a light to the Gentiles?" "Lo, we turn to the Gentiles," said Paul and Barnabas, "for so hath the Lord commanded us, saying, I have set thee to be a light of the Gentiles, that thou shouldest be for salvation to the ends of the earth." * Whence we learn, first, that they inferred the prophecy was to be fulfilled, and the world to be enlightened, by the publication of the gospel, for this was the only instrumentality they employed. And, secondly, that so coincident. in their view was the spirit of the prophecy with the spirit of the apostolic commission, that they regarded the prediction as equivalent in meaning to a divine command to preach the gospel.

Had the prophet Joel announced that during the "last days whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved?" "How then shall they call upon him in whom they have not believed?" inquires the apostle Paul; † “and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher? and how shall they preach except they be sent?" By putting the necessity of preaching the gospel in this interrogatory form, he would impress us in the most emphatic manner that there is no other conceivable instrumentality by which the Gentiles can be saved.

And had "the voice of him that crieth in the wilderness " announced, "All flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field; . . . the grass withereth, the flower fadeth, but the word of our God shall stand forever"? "This is the word," says the apostle Peter," which by the 1 Pet... 24, 25

*Acts xiii. 46, 47.

Rom. x. 14, 15.

gospel is preached unto you;" plainly implying that, in opposition to the instability of all things human, the dispensation of the gospel is to last forever; and that, in defiance of all the hostility of earth, it is to continue as the great and only principle of the world's regeneration. Were it possible that the present economy should be suspended or terminated before the world is saved, all hope of human recovery would perish. Man would behold the only rock on which his hope can anchor, sink in a shoreless and tempestuous sea. For amidst the ceaseless whirl and disappearance of every thing around him, the only ground of hope for the future which God himself has supplied consists, according to this apostle, in the sufficiency and perpetuity of the gospel of Christ.

2. May we not expect to find that the cheering anticipation of a world reclaimed by the sanctified diffusion of the gospel would lead "holy men of God" to give utterance to corresponding desires in prayer? The expectation is not disappointed. The psalmist prayed, "That thy way may be known upon earth, and thy saving health among all nations;" that the healing influence of divine revelation, like a heavenly current of vital air, might sweep over the spiritual sickness of the world, and impart to it health, and vigor, and happiness. And as he regarded the knowledge of God as the only remedy of the world's misery, so he appears to have taken it for granted that the prosperity of the church would be marked by the diffusion of that knowledge, and that such diffusion would be attended with the most happy results. "God shall bless us," he adds, “ and all the ends of the earth shall fear him :" the leaven of his grace shall work from his church outwards till the entire mass of humanity be leavened; his kingdom shall extend on every side till it embraces the world. But the language of Christ himself on this subject is conclusive. † "When he saw the multitudes he was moved with compassion on them, because they fainted, and were scattered abroad, as sheep having no shepherd. Then saith he to his disciples, The harvest truly is plenteous, but the laborers are few; pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth laborers into his harvest." That this was not a duty binding only on those immediately addressed is evident, for the reason of the command is laid in the destitute condition of the multitudes. As long, there

* Psa. lxvii.

Matt. ix. 36-38.

fore, as it is true that any portion of mankind are perishing as sheep having no shepherd," it will continue to be the duty of Christians to pray that shepherds may be provided for them. And as long as any disproportion remains between the vast harvest of souls to be gathered into the garner of Christ and the number of laborers employed, it will ever be imperative on the church to repeat the cry for an increase of Christian instrumentality. The language of Christ thus plainly implies that the harvest of the world is to be reaped by the agency of his people; and that in proportion as that agency is increased under his superintendence, will be the extent of harvest saved.

And still more to the purpose, if possible, is the language of Christ in his intercessory prayer: "Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also who shall believe on me through their word; that they all may be one-that the world may believe that thou hast sent me;" leaving us to the necessary inference, first, that the only way in which the church is to look for additions, is by men being brought to believe the gospel; for if any are to be converted otherwise, for such the Savior did not pray. And, secondly, that as often as such additions are made, they are to unite with the great body of the faithful for the conversion of others, and thus to proceed till the world is saved.

3. May we not expect, further, that if the kingdom of Christ on earth is to be set up by means of his dependent but devoted subjects, the result will be attained gradually as opposed to suddenly; and that, in order to correct and guide our expectations, scriptural intimations will be afforded that progressiveness will be one of the characteristics of the work? Analogy, indeed, might lead us to expect this; for progress is one of the distinctive features of all the divine operations in nature and providence. But here, where the agency to be employed is human, it appears unavoidable. For the eminent piety of the individual Christian, and the union and devotedness of the collective church the twofold element of instrumental fitness requisite for the conversion of mankind can only result from a prolonged course of divine discipline. Accordingly, the various imagery under which the dissemination of Christianity is represented in the word of God, is remarkable for the uniform manner in which it preserves this characteristic of progressiveness. If Ezekiel beheld it in the living stream which flowed from the sanctuary, he saw that

stream deepen and widen in its onward course, till "the waters were risen, waters to swim in, a river that could not be passed over." If Daniel was instructed to recognize, in a stone cut out without hands," an emblem of the kingdom of Christ, the mysterious manner in which it became enlarged, and occupied province after province, till it "filled the whole earth," strikingly represented the growth of that spiritual empire which is destined to "break in pieces and consume all" hostile power, and to "stand forever." If the Sovereign himself of that kingdom selects appropriate emblems of its progress, he finds them in the growth of the mustard-seed, and in the diffusive influence of the leaven. Not, indeed, that in its progress to perfection it will be entirely exempted from external shocks. Like the earthly empires which it is destined finally to absorb, its affairs may often approach a crisis which may appear to threaten its existence. But, true to the emblems by which our Lord represents it, its history will eventually exhibit the threefold characteristic, of original insignificance, constant though often imperceptible progress, crowned with ultimate greatness and universal power.

4. But what appropriate test of the truth of the doctrine can we look for in Scripture without readily finding it? Is it an express command on the subject? We possess it in the final command of Christ to his servants, to "preach the gospel to every creature." Is it a promise of divine assistance and success in obeying this command? We have it in the promise which accompanies it, "Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world," for the context implies and requires a promise, not so much of protection in danger, as of success in the accomplishment of the object proposed; so that the command and promise combined may be regarded as the great missionary charter of the church for all time; securing to his devoted servants, in every age, a measure of success proportioned to their zeal for his glory.

V. It remains, then, in the next place, that we harmonize the whole with the chapters which have gone before. And here our course is too obvious to be mistaken. For, if the object of the first chapter was to unfold that Scripture theory of influence by which Christian is to be united to Christian, and church tɔ church, and the whole to be subordinated to the agenc, of the Holy Spirit for the recovery of