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THE AMERICAN

NATIONAL PREACHER.

No. 10. VOL. XX.] OCTOBER, 1846.

[WHOLE NO. 238.

SERMON CCCCXXXI.

PREACHED BEFORE THE AMERICAN BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS FOR

FOREIGN MISSIONs, at new havEN, CONN., Sept. 8, 1846.
BY THE REV. JOEL HAWES, D.D.

PASTOR OF THE FIRST CHURCH, HARTFORD, CONN.

THE HELP OF THE LORD, THE SEAL OF THE MISSIONARY WORK Hitherto the Lord hath helped us.-1 SAMUEL, VII. 12.

THIRTY-SIX years ago, on the fifth of the present month, five grave and venerable looking men met by appointment in the private parlor of a Connecticut pastor.* They were men of large minds, of devoted hearts, and of great wisdom and energy in devising and executing plans of Christian benevolence. They constituted the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions. They had been appointed to their office the preceding June, by the General Association of Massachusetts, and were now met, for the first time, to organize the Board and devise ways and means for carrying out the great object of their appointment. One of that number still survives;† the others have gone to their reward on high. Their meeting attracted but little notice. They had come together, three from Massachusetts, and two from Connecticut, to consult on a subject respecting which the community then felt but little interest, and had but little knowledge. They were without funds, without a single missionary in the field, without experience, and, in so far as this country was concerned, without precedents to guide them in their deliberations.-Added to all, how the public would regard the enterprise in which they were engaged, was wholly problematical. Like the disciples of old, in that upper room in Jerusalem, they had a mighty work to accomplish, but the means of its accomplishment were yet to be made known to them. But strong in faith, and relying on God for help,

Rev. Dr. Porter, Farmington. VOL. XX.

15

Rev. Dr. Chapin, Wethersfeld

they entered upon the great work which had been assigned to them, formed their plan of operations, appealed to the Christian public for aid, and the work went forward far beyond their most sanguine hopes. Taking our position at this point, let us, Brethren and Friends, briefly review the dealings of God with the Board, and the missions established under its patronage during the period of its operations, and, if I mistake not, we shall find occasion, at every stage of the review, to take up the language of the text, and say, "Hitherto the Lord hath helped us." And,

1. This is true in respect to a vast enlargement of the accessible field of missions. At the commencement of the period under review, but a comparatively few spots on the globe were open to missionary operations. The great empire of China was hermetrically sealed against Christian light and influence. The dark continent of Africa was very little known, covered over by a dense cloud through which scarcely a ray of light, from any source, had penetrated. The London Missionary Society had, indeed, a few years before, commenced operations in South Africa. But its missions encountered violent opposition, were repeatedly broken up, and had for a long time to struggle for existence. At Tahiti, the mission established there by the London Society, was almost extinct, owing to the bloody insurrections and wars among the na tives. In Hindoostan, though under British power, so great was the jealousy of the government in regard to missionary influence, that even the missionaries, who had been sent out from England, were tolerated only with the greatest difficulty, and when the first missionaries of this Board arrived in the country, they were at once ordered to depart; they fled to Bombay; orders to leave followed them there; and it was only after a long controversy with the local authorities, and encountering innumerable reverses and discouragements, that they were permitted to remain on mere sufferance. This was thirty-three years ago, last February. How changed the state of the world now, in regard to being accessible to Christian influence! Instead of being obliged to ask, as were the founders of our Board, with great solicitude, where can we send missionaries, we may rather ask, where can we not send them? The world, which is the great field of missions, has been surveyed in well nigh all its parts; and the portions of it now perfectly open to the bearers of the Gospel message are large enough to exhaust the resources of all christendom for many years to come. China, with her three hundred and fifty millions of people, is open, and the decree of the Emperor has gone forth, for the free toleration of Christianity in his dominions. Hindoostan, with her one hundred and forty millions of souls, is as free of access as our own country. The same may be said of the islands of the Pacific, of Australasia, and of many large and thickly populated portions of Africa. Even in Turkey, where but a few years since a Christian missionary could not go, without incurring certain death, or the most imminent risk of it, the rights of conscience are

now recognized, and the sword of persecution sheathed. Mohammedans may change their religion and no longer be exposed to decapitation; and the persecutions to which our Armenian brethren were subjected during the last winter, have, in the wonderworking providence of God, resulted in securing for them religious freedom, which, we may hope, will be extended throughout Syria, and all the dependencies of the Ottoman empire.

Thus God has been opening the way all over the globe for the going forth of his truth to the conquest of the nations. There are, at this moment, not less than five hundred millions of souls, to whom, so far as freedom of access is concerned, we might carry the gospel to-morrow, and who are now perishing for lack of vision. Had this been predicted thirty-six years ago, it would have been deemed utterly incredible, and the friends of the missionary cause would have said, "If the Lord would make windows in heaven, then this thing might be." But the thing is done, and in consequence, the state of the world may now be said to be very similar to that of the Roman empire at the period of the planting of Christianity. Roads had been cut into all parts of the empire, radiating in every direction from the capital, over which the Apostles and first preachers of the gospel might travel with ease and safety, as they went forth to bear the messages of salvation to remote tribes and nations of men. So it is now, only in a higher and far more perfect sense. Most surprisingly in these latter days has God, in his providence, been removing the barriers which formerly separated the nations from each other, and has opened up high-ways by land and sea, whereby the heralds of his grace may fly abroad, as on the wings of the wind, bearing their messages of love to earth's remotest bounds. In consequence of the extension of commerce and the vast increase of intercourse among the nations, consulates and embassies have been established by Christian powers, in all the important ports and countries on the globe; and this is often a great source of safety and assistance to the missionary in the prosecution of his work,--an advantage but little known or enjoyed, only a few years since. Thus true is it, that the Lord hath helped us in opening before us new and greatly enlarged fields of missions.

2. This is equally true in regard to a vast increase of the missionary spirit. It is an interesting fact that our country, especially this northern portion of it, was planted in the spirit of missions. One great design of our fathers in coming here was to build up the kingdom of Christ in these ends of the earth, and gather the natives into the fold of Christ. And there has never been a time from that day to the present, when the spirit of missions was not alive and active in the bosoms of many of the friends of the Savior,

*An arrangement to this effect was made some two years since, chiefly through the agency of Sir Stratford Canning, British Embassador at Constantinople. It had special reference to that class of Mohammedans, who, having renounced Christianity, might wish to return to their former faith. It is believed, however, that the arrangement is, in fact, or will be made by construction, applicable to the whole body of Nu solmea,

prompting them to sacrifices and efforts for the salvation of the heathen in the land, equal, at least, to any made in our day. Still it was not until the formation of the Board that anything was done in the way of sending the Gospel to the heathen abroad. The spirit of home missions had a few years previous been rising in the churches, and several societies had been formed in different sections of the country for the purpose of sending missionaries to our destitute new settlements. This naturally awakened concern in the minds of the benevolent for the benighted heathen; and individuals, here and there, began to inquire whether something might not, and ought not to be done for their salvation. But no general interest was felt on the subject. It was the day of small things. Many regarded the enterprise of a foreign mission as chimerical, many openly opposed it on various grounds; and through prejudice or want of information, it found favor only with a comparatively few. And when it was, at length, resolved by the Board, to attempt a mission in some part of the heathen world, so great was the doubt whether the Christian community would furnish means to sustain the undertaking, that it was deemed expedient to send one of the four young men, who had been accepted as missionaries, to England, to ascertain "whether their support, in whole or in part, at least for a season, might not be derived from the London Missionary Society."

How different the state of things now? From the time of the organization of the Board till the present hour, the spirit of missions has been steadily on the advance. It has pervaded all denominations of Christians in the land, and has organized them for the great purpose of spreading the Gospel through the world. There is nothing sudden, enthusiastic, or ephemeral in the rise and progress of this spirit. It is calm, deliberate, intelligent and decided. It is generous, self-denying, self-sacrificing. It has every mark of an heavenly origin, and it has been gradually bringing the whole Christian community under a deep-seated, practical conviction, that the Gospel of the grace of God ought to be published with the least possible delay, to all mankind. This is now coming to be the settled persuasion of all who call themselves Christians; and it is not easy for any one to establish his claim to a Christian character who does not acknowledge his obligation to bear a part in the evangelization of the world.

"Mark how this spirit of missions pervades the Christian literature of the day; how it mingles itself with the very elements of instruction in the sabbath-school and by the fire-side; how it speaks from the pulpit in the voice of every minister of the word; how it breathes in the prayers of myriads in the closet, in the family, and in the praying circle; how it goes forth with unwea ried step, gathering funds from all classes of people in all parts of the land, and operating everywhere and in every form, to carry out the last command of the Savior, to preach the Gospel to every

creature."

It is this spirit which has given rise to so many benevolent societies in our day, and is supplying them so generously with the means of usefulness. It is this spirit which has raised the funds of the Board from hundreds to hundreds of thousands of dollars; which has so much multiplied its missions and its missionaries; which has drawn around it so strongly the affections, the prayers, and the co-operation of the friends of Christ, and awakened such exalted hopes, as to the agency it is destined to exert in bringing on the latter-day glory of the church. Surely, in all this, we cannot but gratefully recognise the hand of God. The spirit of missions, which now so widely and so efficiently pervades the Christian community, is of his own inspiring, and by his help it will continue to spread and to increase in activity and power, till the entire resources of christendom, so far as needed, shall be called forth in the world's conversion. The progress of the spirit of missions, so remarkable in our country, has not been less so in Great Britain and other Protestant lands. The Baptist mission to India, established in 1792, began with a subscription of only 131. 2s. 6d. When the yearly income of the society had risen to 15007., Andrew Fuller said he did not doubt that it would, in the course of time, reach 5000l. Dr. Bogue, one of the founders of the London Missionary Society, said, when it had an income of 5000!., he did not doubt that one day, as the consummation of faith and exertion, the annual income of the society would be 20,000l. The yearly income of the Baptist Society has risen to 26,000l., or nearly 130,000 dollars, and that of the London Society to the sum of 80,000l., or 400,000 dollars. There has been a corresponding increase in the resources of the other great missionary societies, both in England and on the continent. The British Wesleyan Missionary Society expends nearly half a million of dollars a year in the cause of missions, and the Church Missionary Society about the same sum. It is estimated that at least two millions and a half of dollars are annually expended in advancing this great cause, by the various Protestant societies in christendom. All this is the fruit of the spirit of missions, which has grown up chiefly within the last fifty years. Surely, we must say, in view of all these co-operating agencies, "Hitherto the Lord hath helped us." He has shown in a most striking manner, that the silver and the gold are his, and at his pleasure he can allay prejudice, silence opposition, remove objections, and open the hearts and the hands of the rich and the poor to contribute of their substance to aid in spreading his Gospel over the world.

3. We shall have still further evidence of the continued help of the Lord, if we advert for a moment to the wise and successful manner in which the concerns of the Board have been conducted. Bating the imperfections common to all benevolent associations, conducted by fallible men, we venture to claim for this institution such a measure of wisdom, disinterestedness and efficiency in its spirit, policy, and plans of operation, as justly challenges univer

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