PART II.

THE CLAIMS OF THE MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE ARISING FROM THE BENEFITS WHICH HAVE ATTENDED IT.

Now if it be true that the Christian Church is thus constructed expressly to embody and diffuse the influence of the Cross; and if its full efficiency for this end depends, under God, on the entireness of its consecration to this office, we may expect to find that every page of its history illustrates and corroborates this truth.

I. No law of nature can be obeyed without advantage to him who obeys it; nor be violated, without avenging itself, and vindicating its authority. The same is true of the laws of the Christian Church. And, accordingly, it might easily be shown by an induction of the great facts of its history, that in every age it has flourished or declined in proportion as it has fulfilled this primary object of its constitution.

Need we repeat, for instance, that the period of its first and greatest activity, was the season of its greatest prosperity? that it expanded without the aid of any of man's favorite instrumentality, learning, eloquence,

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wealth, or arms? that it achieved its triumphs in the face. of all these? that its progress from place to place was marked by the fall of idol temples, and the substitution of Christian sanctuaries? and that God caused it to triumph in every place? And why all this, but because the Church was acting in character, and fulfilling its office, as the representative of the Cross to the world? Had we witnessed the devotedness of its first dayssubject though it was even then to many and grievous deductions had we heard only of its early history and triumphant progress from land to land, how naturally might we inquire the date when the Gospel completed a universal conquest? at what precise period it was that India embraced the faith of Christ? how long it was before China was evangelized? whether there was not a year of jubilee on earth when the Gospel had been preached to the last of the heathens, and in what year

the festival occurred? Alas for the Church that these inquiries should sound so strange; and alas for the world!

Need we remind the reader that the decline of Christian devotedness was the decline of Christian prosperity? We might indeed have inferred that such would be the result from the known constitution of the Christian Church; that if its relative efficiency depends on its entire consecration, the slightest diversion of its influence would be so much given to the very power which it was called into existence expressly to counteract; and that if that influence should come to be so diverted to any considerable amount, the efficiency of the Church would be comparatively destroyed, and itself be in danger of being vanquished by the counter influence of the world. And this, we repeat, is, substantially, the history of its long decline and fall. Physiologists inform us that life radiates, or acts from the centre outwards; and that on ceasing to expand it ceases to exist. And history affirms that nations flourish only while they continue to enlarge their bounds; that the tide of national prosperity no sooner ceases

to flow than it begins to ebb. Whether these statements be founded in truth or not, they may find at least an obvious analogy in the history of the Church. From the moment it lost sight of its expansive character, it began to lose ground to the world. The strength which should have been spent in conflict with foes without, was exhausted in fierce contentions within. When it ought to have been the almoner of God to the world, it became the great extortioner, absorbing the wealth of the nations. When it ought to have been the channel of the water of life to the world, it became a stagnant reservoir, in which the very element of life corrupted and bred "all monstrous, all prodigious things." When it ought to have been the birthplace of souls, it was the grave of piety, so that in order to live it was necessary to leave it. And at the moment when it should have been giving law to public opinion, and have attained the mastery of the world, it was actually in alliance with it-the willing and accomplished agent of its vilest purposes.

But as every departure of the Church from its Missionary design is sure to be avenged, so we may expect that every return to that character will be divinely acknowledged and blessed. Had we no facts at hand to prove this, the injunctions which our Lord gave to the seven Asiatic churches to repeat their first works, and his promises of prosperity if they did so, would lead us to infer it; the uniformity of the Divine procedure would warrant us to expect it; the very return itself, implying as it would a Divine influence, would be a proof of it. But facts are at hand. The history of the Roman Catholic Church demonstrates that even every apparent return to first principles has been, in so far, a return to outward prosperity; that, as Machiavel remarks, the kingdom of the hierarchy would have been sooner at an end, if the reputation of the friars for poverty and activity had not borne out the scandal of the excesses and inactivity of those above them; that no sooner have

symptoms of returning vigour appeared in one part of that Church, than all the vital properties which it still contained have moved off in that particular direction; that, as if conscious of owing its continued existence to the working parts of its body, it has recently (in 1814) repealed the order of Clement XIV, which restrained the aggressive activity of the Jesuits, and is already exulting in the ecclesiastical benefits arising from the change. And while facts demonstrate that activity will keep alive even a corrupt system, the history of every Protestant Christian Church in Christendom, during the last fifty years, clearly proves, that every return to spiritual devotedness is, in so far, a return to Divine prosperity. If we ascertain the measure of holy activity in any Church, we have ascertained the measure of its internal prosperity. So that a person might at any time safely say, Tell me which branch of the Christian Church is the most scripturally active and aggressive in its spirit, and I will tell you which is the most prosperous.

Before we proceed, however, to examine and exhibit the advantages accruing to the Christian Church from its recent resumption, in part, of its original design, it will be proper to furnish a brief chronological sketch of the steps by which it has reached its present activity; as well as a general survey of modern Missionary labours. Thus prepared, we shall be the better qualified to enumerate and estimate the benefits with which those labours have been attended, both in subserving the temporal welfare of men, and in promoting the higher objects and interests of the Church. After which we shall endeavour to connect the whole with the preceding Part, and practically to apply it, by showing that our success has been fully proportioned to our efforts; that advantages have flown from our returning activity, which nothing else could have conferred; that the one design of God in conferring that success, is to animate and redouble those efforts; leaving us to infer that a full return in faith and prayer to the