Have not such objects been already accomplished, to a certain extent, in various parts of the heathen world?—This is indisputable. Many in Asia, Africa, America, Australasia, and Polynesia, no longer worship idols; no longer destroy each other. Many mothers no more cast their children to the crocodiles, or drown them in rivers. Many aged and sick persons, who would have been cast out into the woods in age and infirmity, are now cherished by their children. Many thousands of children, in the different Mission Schools in India, Africa, the South-Sea inlands, and other places, are now reading the word of God, worshipping our Saviour, and singing his praises; who would otherwise have been trained up in idolatry, and all its polluting and degrading superstitions. Many adults have been brought to the knowledge of Christ; and many have died in peace and in the hope of heaven, whose sun would otherwise have set amid the dark and lowering clouds of Heathenism. Finally, the work, though in some places feeble, has been begun; it is spreading its enlightening and sanctifying influence among surrounding millions; and it exhibits to our faith and hope the dawn of the universal salvation.
Are you a man?—Do you not then shudder at the miseries, and oppressions, and murders, which Heathenism is daily practising, and which Christianity brings to an end wherever it prevails? On the principle of common humanity and sympathy, you will then surely feel an interest in Missions, nor suffer the cry of slaughtered widows and children, and the voice of distress, pouring out its wailings from all lands, to reach your ears in vain.
Are you a briton? Think of the vastness of the British Empire, comprising, at a low calculation, upwards of a HUNDRED MILLIONS of subjects, most of whom are Pagan idolaters. Why has Providence given us power, but to employ it so that, wherever it is felt, “mankind may feel our mercy too?” Shall we enjoy the advantages of that extensive commerce which so vast an empire gives to us; shall we revel in the luxuries of the West and of the East; shall we turn every colony to gain? and shall we neglect the souls of our fellow-subject? If we do so, we cannot be guiltless before Him who governs the world, and who will bless our blessings, or wither them, as we are faithful or unfaithful to the behests of His Providence. As a Briton, therefore, you are bound to support Missions, and by them to fill the whole empire with the blessings of that Christianity we enjoy at home.
Do you profess to be a true and lively christian?—Then you love your Saviour, and must desire that all should love and worship Him. Then you pray daily, “Thy kingdom come,” and must mean something when you thus pray, or you offer vain service, and mock God. Then you pity the ignorant, and weep over perishing souls; and, if so, you must, you will, do all you can to point them to “the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.”
Are you a christian parent?—You look with joy and gratitude upon your rising family. You placed them, by holy baptism, in the arms of Jesus, that He might bless them. They are in covenant with Him. They hearken unto you, and you teach them the fear of the Lord. You send them into life, commended to God as their “sun and shield.” You rejoice in the hope of meeting them all again in the kingdom of Heaven. O happy Christian parent! O favoured Christian families!—families “whom Jesus loves.” But Missions are creating many such families among Negroes, Hottentots, Fejees, New Zealanders, the Friendly Islanders, the American Indians, and the Singalese. Many a Heathen hut resounds with praise; and parents and children, once idolaters, bow before the throne of grace in united family worship. Do not you rejoice in this? and will you not do your utmost to promote the cause of Christ, till all the families of the earth, like your own, are blessed in Him?
Are you a christian child?—What do you owe to Christ, whose adorable name you bear! But for the blessed Gospel, you had scarcely known your parents’ tender love. No prayers to the true God would have been offered by them on your behalf. You would have been a worshipper of the ugly, gloomy gods of Paganism. You might have been cast into a river, or turned out to perish in a wood; or, if not, you would have grown up in ignorance, vice, and misery. You would have had no education; never have read the blessed Bible; never have sung a hymn of praise to God, and would not have had, as now, the prospect of a happy, useful life, and a glorious heaven. O what do you owe to Christ! You feel that you ought to love Him, and how can you better show that you do love Him, than by pitying poor, ignorant Heathen children, and contributing some little of your spare money, to send them Ministers, to build them Schools, to buy them the Bible and holy books, and teach them all the blessed truths which you have learned of Christ, the Saviour of the world?
Have you lately been made yourself a partaker of the grace of christ?—How much do you owe to Him who hath brought you “out of a horrible pit, and out of the miry clay;” and how ought you to pity all who are living “without hope and without God in the world!” When you felt the burden of sin, you heard of Christ, and his willingness to save.
“Dying, you heard the welcome sound,
And pardon in his mercy found.”
But millions of the poor Heathen feel that burden too, yet they know not where to fly for relief; they go from idol to idol; from sacrifice to sacrifice; perform painful pilgrimages, and torture their bodies. But in vain! the sting remains; the fear of the future still pursues them. Do they not cry, even in your ears, “Men and brethren, what shall we do?” and will not you, remembering the sweetness of that hour when you obtained mercy by believing in Christ, make haste to tell them, by the Missionaries you send forth, where pardon may be found? O you not, by your liberalities, cause these blessed words to be sounded in the ears of all such mourning, broken spirits?—
“Sinners, believe the gospel word:
Jesus is come your souls to save!
Jesus is come, your common Lord;
Pardon ye all through him may have;
May now be saved, whoever will:
This man receiveth sinners still.”