PSALM lxxxvii. 3-5.

Glorious things are spoken of thee, O City of God. I will make mention of Rahab and Babylon with them that know Me: behold Philistia and Tyre with Ethiopia; this man was born there. And of Zion it shall be said, this and that man was born in her,' and the Highest Himself shall establish her.

Few probably, in these days, but are familiar with many, at least, of the glorious announcements of the Gospel in the Old Testament. We hear or read them currently repeated, whenever the attempt is made to call forth fresh interest in any of the various endeavours to convert the heathen; few breasts but have at some time glowed with them; and in that glow of spirit, it is natural that people should not weigh very accurately the words which they hear or repeat; they take them by a sort of tradition, as they have been wont to hear them applied; they see that they relate to the extension of the Redeemer's kingdom; they know or think that Missionaries, and the circulation of the word of God, are means to this end; and the Word of God is to them His written word, as they have it printed in their Bibles, and Missionaries they know

i.e. amongst, as being amongst them, that know Me.

to be ، persons sent out ;" and so it never occurs to them, but that persons sent out any how, or the Bible any how dispersed, are the means of which Scripture speaks; and so habituated are they to associate these means with the Prophetic promises, that they would not think of examining or doubting about it. The received notions are assumed as certain truths.

This is very natural; for persons almost always understand Holy Scripture according to notions previously received, and were intended so to do, provided they be derived from the right source; it is very natural, but it may be very pernicious; for men may thus be claiming to themselves the promises of God in behalf of a system, to which God has promised no blessing; nay, they may, by this random employment of God's word, be encouraging themselves in a system contrary to that which that word really prescribes. This is of much moment; for faithfulness to God requires, not only that we should do what we know to be His will, but that we should be at cost and pains to know it. "The servant who knew not His Lord's will," was also "beaten." It is also irreverence to God's word to take it in this careless way, contenting ourselves with just a portion of what lies upon the surface, and just that portion which suits our own views and encourages us in our own ways. The least result which we can expect from such a course, is to be left to our own ways, and to eat of the fruit

of our own devices; that " building hay, straw, stubble," though upon the right" foundation," our "work shall be burned," and we ourselves "suffer loss; well will it be, if we be not found marring His work, and, " gathering not with Him," be found to be "scattering."

I would then, by God's assistance, in connection with your Sovereign's recommendation of an ancient Society to your Christian bountifulness, trace (now and this afternoon, in what degree the occasion permits,) the plan of promoting the extension of our Lord's kingdom furnished by Holy Scripture, and acted upon by the Church in old times and by our own. For this Society which (with the Christian Knowledge Society, whose missions it now incorporates) was for 100 years the only Missionary Society in this nation, has been of late less supported than others, for its very excellence, that it is not like those recently set up, popular in its constitution, does not give persons control over it simply because they contribute to its funds, but remains under the direction of those, who are set over us in the Lord; the Bishops of the Church, and those called in by them to their aid; as the Apostles, whose successors they were ever known to be, called in the seven Deacons.

First then, the way whereby our Lord's kingdom is to be enlarged, plainly is by Missionaries, not as has been extensively tried of late, by the simple circulation of the word of God. It were indeed

almost incredible to us, (but that we live in times when people are daily and systematically acting upon the supposition,) that any could have maintained, that the mere circulation of the printed Bible would convert the heathen; that it was but necessary to persuade men to accept the Bible, and that the reading it, without any previous knowledge of its contents, or any one to explain it, that the written word without a preacher, would turn men from Satan to God. So contrary is it to the way adopted by Almighty God!" Precious," we know, "in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints; precious (and glorious) is their blood in His sight;" yet sheweth He His value of it, not by sparing it, but by honouring it, when "poured out like water;" not by hindering the sacrifice, as neither did He that of His Son, but by accepting it in that all-sufficient Sacrifice, as a sacrifice well-pleasing to Himself. He shewed His love to His saints, by making them thus far like His Son, "that for Thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter"," that they "died daily," that the office of an

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Apostle" was to be "set forth as a spectacle unto the world, and to angels, and to men, as those appointed unto death '," (lying continually under sentence of death,) as "always" being delivered over to