forward to a career of usefulness unequalled in the annals of our church. It should not be forgotten however, that under God, it depends on the interest felt and manifested by the churches, whether the hope inspired by the present promising aspect of things is to be realized, or not. The churches have it in their power to urge onward with ten-fold vigour this bless. ed work, and they have also the fearful power of checking, retarding, stopping it. By simply exercising their high privilege, and prayerfully doing their duty; they may send the streams of salvation through our land;-by withholding, they may dry up these life-giving streams, bring on themselves the curse of barrenness, and leave millions to perish. believe cannot be mistaken by any enlight. ened Christian; nor can there, we think, be a doubt, as to the duty of the church, to come up to this work, promptly, unitedly, and with their whole strength. The providence of God indicates, too plainly to be mistaken, that now is the time for decided, united, energetic action. And we rejoice in the evidence we have, that the home mis. sionary spirit is rising, and gaining strength; that in many of the churches, God is moving on the hearts of his people, and giving them more just and enlarged conceptions of this great work, and of their own obligations and duty. The conviction we believe is becoming much more general, and is constant. ly gaining strength, that to the churches in this land it emphatically belongs, "to take care of thier own country”—and we think We beg the churches not to forget that too, there is increasing evidence that our the engagements of their Board are already people are beginning to feel " that the Pres- very large, that new and pressing demands byterian church has a most weighty respon- for the bread of life are almost daily made sibility in this matter, of having the gospel upon them, that the demands of the past preached to all the inhabitants of this land. year have entirely exhausted their treasury, In view of these tokens of favour to our be. and that drafts are now due their devoted loved land, we thank God, and take courage. missionaries, which cannot be met until the We are permitted to commence the mis-churches furnish the means. Beloved brethsionary operations of another year, under many circumstances of peculiar favour, the opening prospect is full of promise, and if we are faithful to our Master in heaven, and to the important trust he has committed to us, we may, with humble confidence, look ren, the work is before you; it is a blessed work. Let a fair trial be made of what can be effected for the salvation of this great country, by the united influence, and prayers and resources of our own beloved church. And may the Lord prosper his own work.] Receipts in the Treasury at Philadelphia, in May, 1843. RECEIPTS IN THE TREASURY AT LOUISVILLE, KY., IN MAY, 1843. SYNOD OF CINCINNATI. Pby. of Miami. Harmony cong. per Rev. J. Coe, 21,75; B. F. Ellis and lady, Dayton, Ohio. to con. h. mem. 30, Pby. of Cincinnati. Per Rev. S. Gazley, 8,90; Springdale, 2,50; Somerset, 4,50, Phy. of Oxford. Hamilton and Rossville, bal. per Rev. T. E. T. 4,44; Seven Mile and Somerville, 32; First Presb. ch. Oxford, 8; Harmony, per Rev. J. McArthur, 6,25; Mount Carmel, Ind. per Rev. S. Montfort, 8,81; do. per do. 1,60, 51 75 15 90 Pby. of Palestine. Palestine, Ill. 29; Pleasant Prairie, Ill. 6; Charleston, Ill. 3,81; Mount Carmel, Ill. towards hon. mem. of Elijah Harris, 13; SYNOD OF KENTUCKY. Pby. of Louisville. John Martin, Louisville, 3; 2nd ch. Louisville, 81,85; Miss Gillett, 3,50; 3d ch. Louisville, 13, Beulah, (20, of which towards h. m. of Dr. J. R. Moore,) 32,07, Pby. of Transylvania. New Providence, per Rev. H. P. T. 51 81 133 42 8 25 Pby. of Madison. New Washington, per T. C. C. 4,50; Mrs. Lee, Hanover 1, SYNOD OF ILLINOIS. Pby. of Sangamon. Springfield, Ill. Total, $831 20 70.00 WM. GARVIN, Treasurer. Pby. of Sidney. Sidney, per Rev. W. B. Spence, 13,00; Buck Creek, 5, SYNOD OF INDIANA. Pby. of Salem. New Albany, Mount Carmel, Tenn., per Rev. C. S. 32,25; Denmark, per do. 12,50, 600 28 28 RECEIPTS IN THE TREASURY AT PITTSBURG, IN MAY, 1843. SYNOD OF PITTSBURG. Pby, of Blairsville. Cross Roads cong. per Rev. S. McClung, Pby. of Redstone. Round Hill cong. per Wm. Eaton, Pby. of Ohio. Bethel cong. per Rev. Mr. Annan, 6,12; Sewickly cong. per T. H. Nevin, 3,16; East Liberty cong. in full, per Rev. Mr. Mcllvaine, 3; Valley ch. per Rev. Mr. Green, 16, SYNOD OF WHEELING. Pby. of Washington. 19 00 Upper Buffalo cong. 11.00 Pby, of Steubenville. 1st ch. Steubenville, addl. per Rev. Mr. Comingo, 50; 2d ch. Steubenville, per Rev. Mr. Annan, 32,75, 82 75 Pby. of St. Clairsville. Treasurer of the Pby. Rev. J. Kerr, 14,50; Nottingham cong. per do. 14,75; Cadiz cong. per do. 8,75; Mt. Pleasant cong. per Rev. Mr. Bronson, 3, 41 00 Total, $210 60 BAILEY & CO., Treasurers, THE FOREIGN MISSIONARY CHRONICLE. AUGUST, 1843. BOARD OF FOREIGN MISSIONS. MISSIONS WILL SUCCEED: A Sermon, PREACHED BEFORE THE BOARD OF FOREIGN MISSIONS OF THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, AT ITS MEETING IN PHILADELPHIA, PENN. MAY 21ST, 1843. BY WM. S. PLUMER, D. D. Ps. XI. 3-" If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do ?" THE distinction between fundamental and non-fundamental truths results from the nature of things and is useful. Some indeed pervert it to unworthy ends. Yet wise men will not on that account reject it. They will rather inquire how they may lawfully and profitably use it. This distinction is applicable to the subject of Missions. If this enterprise be all superstructure without foundation, it will, it must come to naught. For it makes demands upon us to an extent that ensures utter and early abandonment, unless there exist the best reasons for our patient continuance in well-doing. It summons its friends to repeated sacrifices of luxury and comfort for its support. Our missionary institutions could ill spare those contributions, which are the fruit of a rigid selfdenial. The amount of them is large and a rich blessing is in them. Indeed the missionary cause could much better lose those of its wealthy friends, whose gifts though large, cost no sacrifice, than those of its poor friends, who, for their love to Christ, give all but the means of meeting their absolute wants. Besides, a much larger sum of money than is now expended in Foreign fields, VOL. XI.-29 could be advantageously expended in our own country in well-tried methods of disseminating truth. Nor has the American church ever given her parting blessing to one of her sons to go among the heathen, because she could not find ample work for him to do at home. The impression seems to be extensive and extending, that to no work is our church more loudly called than to the lengthening of her own cords and the strengthening of her own stakes. The work of Foreign Missions also demands sacrifices of feeling, which none can appreciate, but those who have made them. It is no small matter to part father and son, mother and daughter, brother and sister, with the expectation of seeing each other's faces no more in the flesh, unless wasting disease should send home the servant of Christ with a shattered constitution. The young missionary too gives up his country, dear to him as Jerusalem to David. I have no desire to exaggerate, but the disruption of these tender ties ought not to be called for without very strong reasons. Moreover, Foreign fields seem far less promising than some near at hand. The heathen are besotted, caste-ridden, invete-possessed natures wholly different., God rate in their habits and prejudices, mad was angry with man every day. And upon their idols. Most of them are bloody man was in a state of unceasing enmity and cruel. Often have they menaced and to God. To reconcile them there must sometimes murdered the servants of Christ. be a Mediator. Thus much for the disError is entrenched behind immemorial tinction between these covenants. usage and dignified by alliances with science and power. These things being so, he is blind who admits not the necessity of being fully persuaded that we have the sanction of a divine approval in our Foreign Missionary work. The day of missionary romance is past, and we have come to the sober and difficult realities of an enterprise whose chief properties are strongly repulsive to the carnal heart. If this work be of man, it will be arrested. If it be of God, it can be shown to be so. Thanks be to Jehovah, He has not withheld the needed light, nor sent us a warfare at our own charges. The foundations of this enterprise are broad, obvious and firm. The mediatorial throne is not more stable. Allow me specially to notice some of the great truths on which this enterprise is built. In the covenant of redemption the subduing of all nations to Christ was fully promised. The Scriptures most full on this point, are the 49th chapter of Isaiah, and the 89th Psalm. The first of these passages contains some things so pertinent that I will give them nearly entire. "The Lord said unto me, Thou art my servant, O Israel, in whom I will be glorified. Then I said, I have laboured in vain, and spent my strength for naught, and in vain; yet surely my judgment is with the Lord, and my work with my God. And now, thus saith the Lord that formed me from the womb to be his servant, to bring Jacob again to him, Though Israel be not gathered, yet shall I be glorious in the eyes of the Lord, and my God shall be my strength. And he said, It is a light thing that thou shouldst be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel. I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles, that thou mayest be my salvation to the end of the earth. Thus saith the Lord, the Redeemer of Israel, and his Holy One, to him whom man despiseth, to him, whom the nation abhorreth, to a servant of rulers, kings shall see and arise, princes also shall worship, because of the Lord, who is faithful, and the Holy One of Israel and he shall glorify thee. Thus saith the Lord, In an acceptable time have I heard thee, and in a day of salvation have I helped thee; and I will preserve thee and give thee for a covenant of the people, to establish the earth, to cause to inherit the desolate heritages that thou mayest say to the prisoners, Go forth; to The them that are in darkness, Show yourselves.*** Behold these shall come from far; and lo, these from the north and from the west; and these from the land of Sinim." Isaiah xl. 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 12. I. In the covenant of Redemption, between the Father and the Son, this great cause formed a chief part of unchangeable stipulation. Some sound and able divines do not distinguish between the covenant of redemption and the covenant of grace. But others, unsurpassed in character, make the distinction. And the Scriptures seem to recognise it. In the covenant of redemption the Father and the Son are the equal parties. In the covenant of grace, God and man are the unequal parties. The covenant of redemption was made in Eternity before all worlds. The covenant of grace was made in time, after the creation and after the fall. The parties to the covenant of redemption had in each other infinite confidence and required no surety. parties to the covenant of grace had no confidence in each other, and, therefore, a days-man, that could lay his hands upon both, was indispensable. The Father and the Son had the same glorious nature. For an extended explication of this pasThey were one in essence. They need sage, the student of revelation is referred ed none to reconcile them. God and man" to Flavel's "Fountain of Life," or to Charnock's "Author of Reconciliation." visions to thy Holy one and saidst, I have But a few remarks are here offered for the better understanding of it. 1. The name "Israel," in the first verse quoted, is supposed to refer to Christ, the true Prince, that prevails with God. 2. The promises of reward for service rendered by the Son, seem to be made by the Father upon his own estimate of what was right. The work of salvation is as agreeable to the Father as to the Son. God the Father required no mediation to make him benevolent to our guilty race. Christ died not to render the Father merciful, but to enable him to be just in pardoning the guilty. 3. The promise here made is so large, that if all the Jewish church were left out of the account, the reward should still be glorious. "The end of the earth, the Gentiles, the prisoners, the people in darkness, and the desolate heritages" are forms of expression here employed to denote the vastness of the empire secured. 4. It is matter of no small interest that in this portion of Scripture, the Chinese Empire, under the name of "Sinim," is expressly given to Christ as a part of his reward. v. 12. 5. Lastly, the grant here made is upon the faithfulness of the Father. These things shall surely come to pass "because of the Lord, who is faithful." v. 7. laid help upon one that is mighty; I have exalted one chosen out of the people.*** My loving kindness I will not utterly take from him, nor suffer my faithfulness to fail. My covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips.*** His seed shall endure for ever, and his throne as the Sun before me. It shall be established for ever as the Moon, and as a faithful witness in heaven." Ps. 89: v. 3, 4. 14. 19. 33, 34. 36, 37. Such are some of the forcible expressions in this remarkable Psalm. We have then a clear and glorious revelation of a covenant between the Father and the Son, stipulating that all nations, however degraded, however remote from the usual scenes of prophecy, shall be embraced in the compassings of redeeming mercy. No wonder that the Scriptures represent Christ as "henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool." He knows that all nations are given to him by a faithful God, who cannot deny himself, who will not disappoint his Son. Before he died he said: "All that the Father giveth me shall come to me." John vi. 37. II. There is also a covenant of grace, revealed in the word of God and abounding in glorious promises to the church. In this covenant Christ, the surety, no less than the Father, pledges the divine faithfulness to the fulfilment of all it engages and all it requires. This covenant secures to individual believers all those In the 89th Psalm also much is said on the same subject. Dr. Lightfoot thinks that this Psalm was written before the Exodus from Egypt, and that the name of David is in it only prophetically. How-spiritual blessings by which they become ever this may be, it is generally agreed that David is here spoken of chiefly as a type, and that God the Father in this Psalm reveals in a glorious manner his engagements to his Son. To quote the whole Psalm and remark upon even half its wondrous stipulations would detain us too long. The following are a sample "I have made a covenant with my chosen, I have sworn unto David, my servant. Thy seed will I establish for ever, and build up thy throne to all generations.* Justice and judgment are the habitation of thy throne. Mercy and truth shall go before thy face.*** Thou spakest in : fitted for, and entitled and admitted to eternal glory. But some of its most cheering and enlarged promises have special reference to the full establishment of Christ's kingdom upon earth.-The very first disclosure of mercy, made by God to man, gave such an intimation: "The seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent's head." Such a crushing of the serpent, such a deadly blow as seems to be promised by "bruising his head," has not yet taken place; but it is not therefore doubtful whether it shall. To Abraham God also said, "In thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed." All the |