3. Thirdly, the known blessings which the Gospel ever brings with it, also render it our duty to help those who as yet do not possess them. The very possession of the Gospel involves the duty to proclaim it. Every valuable discovery that tends to remove existing evils, or to promote or increase human happiness, is speedily communicated, as an obvious duty which we owe to our fellow-men; and the individual would be justly denounced as an enemy to his race, who knowing of any certain remedy for the plague, refused to make it public.

Now of all remedies, dear brethren, the Gospel is the most precious and effectual: since it heals the soul, the source of all our evils; goes at once to the root and origin of all man's wretchedness; and, by bringing him back to God, makes all things new; spreads blessings on every side ; proclaims "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good-will towards men." Were it only with reference to the earthly benefits of the Gospel, as a religion that makes men peaceable, kind, industrious, and pure, it would be our duty everywhere to make it known, and to gain converts to its doctrines: but its aim and tendency are far, far higher than this; even to save men from eternal misery, to make them meet to become inhabitants of heaven, and to enjoy the fulness of

God for ever. Compared with these objects, every earthly benefit is of utter insignificance, and when we think of these as the blessings which the Gospel confers, we must assuredly acknowledge that our time, our talents, our influence, our wealth and our all, should cheerfully and self-denyingly be employed in inviting those to become partakers of them who are still living "without God and without hope in the world."

4. And once more, and lastly, the glorious prophecies of Scripture respecting their conversion ought to awaken our sympathies and efforts towards the needy nations of the Gentiles. "The idols He shall utterly abolish." Every knee shall bow in devout acknowledgment of Jehovah's power, and "every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." "From the rising of the sun even unto the going down of the same, His name shall be great among the Gentiles," and "the whole earth shall be filled with His glory." Of all this we are fully assured by Him who is able to perform it; but this does not lessen, but rather the more increases our duty towards the heathen: since it is by the Gospel that men are to be made wise unto salvation; and "for all these things," God says, will be enquired of." Oh, yes, my brethren, men need to be told that they have a loving Father in

"He

heaven, and that He will give His Holy Spirit to them that ask Him, or how can they enquire, how ask, or seek, or obtain the heavenly treasure? The privilege is ours to be preparers of the way of the Lord. He has committed unto us His oracles of truth, that into every language of the earth they may be translated, and that His ambassadors may go forth and preach them, and that those who hear may live and rejoice for ever.

"Come over, and help us," might be the motto of all our great religious societies; for all men are in need of help, and it is both our duty and our privilege to help them. To a great extent, thank God, this has been done. The British and Foreign Bible Society has acted a noble and a Godlike part, and the Church Missionary Society has faithfully done hers. Thousands now in heaven arrived thither by means of this Society; thousands more are journeying thither by her guidance in stedfast faith and hope; and not thousands, but millions, we trust, will yet be directed by her missionaries to the same blessed place. Will you not therefore help, dear friends, in this glorious cause? Shall the cry of misery reach your ears and your hearts in vain? No, we believe it will not; for "Ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ; that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that ye through His poverty might be rich;"

and "the love of Christ," we trust, "constrains you to live no longer unto yourselves, but unto Him who died for you and rose again." The silver and the gold you know are His, and that you are but stewards of this and of every other talent that you possess.

But O that this appeal were productive not only of means, but of men; that God would put it into the heart of some whom I now address to give not only liberally of their substance, but also themselves to this blessed work! This, dear brethren, is our great want-agents to carry and dispense the help needed, labourers to reap the which awaits us in every land.

ripening harvest Give your aid in

money, for it is the noblest purpose to which you can apply it; and give your prayers, that those who preach amongst the heathen may do the work of the Lord faithfully, that "His word may have free course and be glorified," and that the "Lord of the harvest would send forth labourers into His harvest;" but above all, if you can, give yourselves, as "living sacrifices unto God" in this glorious cause. And assuredly you never will repent of it; for when the end shall come, "both he that soweth and he that reapeth shall rejoice together."

SERMON III.

"THY KINGDOM COME."

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Thy kingdom come.”—MATT. vi. 10.

No three words in our language are more familiar to us than these; and yet how pregnant and comprehensive, how blessed and glorious and important is their meaning! and how liable are we, just because of their familiarity and frequency of repetition, to forget, or regard at least with diminished, weakened thought and feeling, the sublime and divine petition which we in these words offer! But this is our infirmity, my brethren, and should be striven against and conquered; and it is the importance of our Lord's Prayer-its fulness and its beauty and its suitableness-that justify and commend its frequent use.

The petition contained in the text is the shortest, but the fullest; for it indeed embraces all the rest: and when that kingdom has come for which we