again, and they perish! The arm of power is either nerved or withered by its breath. It extinguishes the claims of prerogative and prescription; laws and customs the most ancient and revered, vanish at its bidding; fleets and armies are subject to its sway.

Again, lifting up our eyes, and glancing over the mighty expanse of ages, we behold lights springing up throughout the length and breadth of the Roman world. The vanity of idolatry is proclaimed; the being and character of the true God are set forth. The knowledge of the facts of the glorious gospel works wonders on men of all nations. Mind is set at liberty. The spirit of man now soars to the highest heavens. It roams through all space and through all time. It plunges into the future, and pries into the deep secrets of eternity. It analyzes its own nature, its prerogatives, its relations, and its duties to its fellows, to society, and to God. The circle of its inquiry widens every hour, and the means of investigation are daily multiplied. The missionary presents to the nations the key of all knowledge secular as well as sacred; and his instructions extend to all classes. He is the teacher of the multitude-of the whole multitude-and the only teacher of the multitude that ever appeared among heathen nations. His method of tuition is as original as the subject of his communications. He teaches his disciples in masses: all his lessons equally expand the soul, and refine the feelings. Each of these masses, denominated churches, is placed under the instruction and regulation of a number of competent individuals. Set seasons, of frequent recurrence, are appointed for the special object of their training, and each individual disciple remains under instruction to the end of life. The exercises of instruc

tion and of devotion are blended; to a great extent they are identical. Devotion is one of the surest and most valuable vehicles of instruction. The work of instruction, moreover, is not confined to the rectoral body. All are teachers of those beneath them,-learners from those above them.

The Scriptures of truth are the store-house, the common treasury whence they derive facts, principles, doctrines, and precepts. This is the sole fountain of their literature. By this instrument alone was formed the Public Opinion of which I have just spoken, while the infant literature of Christianity, created and fostered by the missionary, contributes to develope and extend it. In that literature gospel doctrine is disguised, and therefore, less offensive to an ungodly world, while, through that world, it diffuses by degrees the principles of truth and righteousness. The Christian missionary, and he alone, has been the Educator of the millions of mankind. To him is to be traced every thing which is now seen either to grace or bless modern society in European nations, and whatever remains to deform or afflict it, can be removed only by the persevering and more abundant diffusion of the doctrines which the first missionary communicated.

Sir, it were an endless task to attempt an enumeration of even the chief benefits conferred upon Europe by the Christian missionary. These benefits extend to all classes and to all objects. But, Sir, the Christian mission is not at an end. Although Popery arrested its progress, at the same time corrupting its purity, obscuring its glory, and impairing its power, it ultimately burst its fetters; and, having reposed for a season, as if to recruit itself after the conclusive struggle of the

Reformation, it arose again, and, marching forth to renew the conflict with idolatry, it has, during a half century, been multiplying its triumphs and extending its empire. In the course of that period what wonders it hath wrought among multitudes of many kindreds, tongues, and peoples! From what it is now doing for others we may more fully learn what it has accomplished for ourselves. The nature and object of the Christian mission are still unchanged. The character and claims of the Christian missionary are consequently subject to no mutation. The duties of the office are the same; and the same, too, is the honour of the Order. Is not he then great to whom mankind owe all their greatness? Whom shall we compare with him? You, Sir, have devoted a long life to learned inquiry and to laborious meditation. You have traversed the whole field of polite literature; you have minutely examined its merits in relation to the glory of God and the good of mankind. You have carefully weighed the characters of those who have been its chief cultivators; you are no stranger to the names which have obtained distinction in connexion with science; and you are now well able to institute a comparison between the masters in letters and philosophy, and the missionaries of Jesus Christ. On these grounds, Sir, the myriads of thoughtful men whom you have at once delighted and informed, will allow that I may, with the utmost propriety, appeal to you in behalf of the claims of the missionary character.

The fame of the literary and philosophic character, which, occasionally, meet in the same person, is, perhaps, more coveted than that which is political or military. In all these walks of the human understanding, the power put forth is chiefly intellectual, and on

intellectual power, alone, their glory is based. Europe, since the revival of letters, has produced a multitude of men, distinguished by that species of power. United together they form a splendid constellation of intellectual light. Considered intellectually they are all greatmany of them superlatively great-so great, that for ages they have been the objects of envy, of praise, of admiration, and of idolatry. A number of these illustrious men, however, have been, although in an inferior degree, also distinguished for moral qualities; but these have brought them small praise. The great Idol of European worship is at this hour, and, ever since the revival of letters, has been-Intellect! This is one of the most affecting indications of our fallen state. To the eye of man, blinded by pride and passion, there is no lustre, no glory in the greatness which is moral. This is nothing new. When he "who is the image of

the invisible God"-he "in whom dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily,"-appeared among the Jews, even after they had for many centuries enjoyed the instructions of inspired men, he had, in their view, "no form nor comeliness:" when they saw him, there was "no beauty." Hence they "despised and rejected him, and esteemed him not." So it was; so it still is: they who most resemble Christ have fewest charms for a world lying in wickedness. From this pride and perverseness arises man's uniform preference of mental to moral excellence; and hence, too, his uniform admiration of the literary and philosophic, and his uniform contempt of the missionary character. It may contribute to expose the folly and injustice of this course if I group the literary and philosophic chiefs of Modern Europe, according to their several walks and

pursuits, and endeavour to measure their moral stature, aplying to them the principles of true greatness as set forth by Cicero, and contained in the sacred Scriptures. This process will, I doubt not, result in establishing the immense superiority of the missionary character.

*

Justice demands that we commence with Bacon, the patriarch of true philosophy, the common father of literary and scientific men. Before his intellectual greatness that of all others shrinks into littleness. Amid all preceding philosophers he shines like the sun among the stars. The comprehensiveness of his understanding was equalled only by its penetration. Soaring in the heavens his eagle eye not only surveyed the ocean of human knowledge from shore to shore, but pierced its waters to their lowest bed. His judgment was not greater than his genius. His imagination had made a property of the universe-it extended to all thingsand its magnificent combinations were illimitable. His abilities fitted him to have been the historian of universal nature, while his sagacity was such as to enable him to become the prophet of human knowledge; for prophesy he did, and many of his sublime predictions have to the letter been fulfilled. His eminence was unexampled, and must remain unrivalled: he is the Melchizedek of science. He united every excellence of the human mind; and stood pre-eminent in all the pursuits of the understanding. As an intellectual being he stands alone, clothed with a robe of matchless honour, and bearing a crown of imperishable glory. But viewing him simply as a stupendous, all-compre

* See p. 273, supra.