the kingdom of God to other cities also, for therefore am I sent." See the Missionary spirit here! At another time we are told that He "went round the villages teaching"-extending His circuits to the small, obscure, distant hamlets of the land, far away from the interest and thoughts of the great city teachers. Again we see the readiness with which Jesus tarried and taught in Samaria, alien as it was from the true worship of God, at the request of the men of Sychar. More observably we find Him on the borders of Tyre and of Sidon, honouring, by word and miracle, the faith of a poor Gentile woman, and going there no doubt for that one very purpose. The centurion was honoured, too, and no opportunity lost by our Saviour of telling that many should come to Him from all quarters of the earth; and when certain Greeks were desirous to see Him, Jesus at once marked it as an indication of His own approaching death and crucifixion, to save both those near, and those (whom they represented) afar off, even as the corn of wheat, "if it die, bringeth forth much fruit." Note again the constraining necessity of love in our own behalf, and in behalf of all who should believe in Him, at any time, or from any region of the earth: "And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold and one Shepherd. And listen to that missionary prayer: "Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on Me through their word; that they all may be one; as Thou, Father, art in me, and I in Thee, that they also may be one in us that the world may believe that Thou hast sent Me." Thus much, I conceive, is sufficient for my purpose on this division of our grand subject. And as we all know well one essential mark of true Christians to be, "We have the mind of Christ"-as we know the exhortation, "Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus"+-as this mind is so fully expressed, declared, and exemplified in our Lord's Person, Spirit, and work, while He "dwelt among us"-or, as in the Greek, okývwoev év ňμîv-let us, while in this our brief earthly tabernacle (of which these words may well remind us) fail not in copying Him. Jesus said of Himself, as to His days in the flesh, "I must work the works of Him that sent me, while it is day. The night cometh, wherein no man can work." So our days on earth must be very brief. Still of their importance, for ourselves and for others, and for the glory of God, what tongue can tell? And if we have the mind of Christ, we shall leave a light and a glory behind us: and none can be brighter, more glorious, or lasting (to speak of this passing world) than the long, bright track of any faithful * 1 Cor. ii. 16. + Phil. ii. 5. John i. 14. and true missionary's life, spent where without him no Gospel would be preached at all, and causing so many to "shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father," who, without him, never could have even heard of that kingdom at all. The III. Another aspect of our Lord Jesus Christ, in the Missionary character of His work, still claims attention. It is that manifested, in Him and by Him, subsequently to His death, resurrection, and ascension; and it appears immediately. Missions were, in fact, the grand, leading subject of His intercourse and words with His chosen witnesses during the forty days "in which He showed Himself alive after His passion, and spoke of "the things pertaining to the kingdom of God."* St. Matthew's Gospel thus ends: "All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye, therefore, and teach all nations”—μalŋteúσate, make disciples of them—and so on to the end. In St. Mark it is the same. "Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature." concluding verse of that Gospel tells their obedience to the command, with all its blessed results: "And they went forth and preached every where, the Lord working with them, and confirming the word with signs following." What does St. Luke record among our Saviour's last declarations of this time on the object and end of His sufferings and resurrection? "That repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem." And on what were even His very last thoughts engaged? -what were His very last words before His final ascension into heaven from Mount Olivet? We know them from the Acts: "The uttermost part of the earth!" "But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto Me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judæa, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost of the earth." It almost brings a blush upon one's face, as a member of the Church of Christ, to quote these passages one after another, and to think of the neglect, contempt, and disobedience with which they have been treated for above 1800 years, and indeed are so treated still, except by a small, very small, minority! But to proceed. Jesus, we know, has that glorious title "The same yesterday, to-day, and for ever." "He changeth not." "This same Jesus,' was the angel's epithet at the season to which I have referred, when describing Him who had just left the earth, but was to "come again in like manner as ye have seen Him go into Heaven." Therefore He, who had come forth "from the bosom of the Father," on His mission hither, and who had fulfilled it on the earth, and had now ascended into Heaven, was from Heaven to † Luke xxiv. 47. + Acts i. 8. - *Acts i. 3. dispense all the full benefits of that mission for all the dwellers upon earth. Therefore we may look to a risen and ascended Lord for example as well as for strength,-to learn of Him, even there, of what spirit and of what course of action we too, as His followers, should be in all that concerns Missionary love and work. Only ten days elapsed, and the Day of Pentecost came, that day, the grandest in Missionary annals, which has ever yet dawned,-when "the Promise of the Father" to the Son was fulfilled. The first miracle of that day-that conspicuous and constraining miracle, whence came all the other mighty results of the day-the first miracle of that day was the gift of tongues," of ability to speak, at an instant, all sorts of languages,-the only one solitary instance when Babel's confusion was reversed, that all might hear "in their own tongues the wonderful works of God." See our Lord's missionary work from Heaven! And He, who had shed down from Heaven this miraculous gift, by the Spirit, taught and inspired His apostle Peter, by the same Spirit and on the same day, to declare that the Promise was not only to those who stood by and to their children, but to "all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call."* All which follows in the Acts is just and most specially the narrative of what Jesus did, is doing, and shall do upon the earth, in the way of missions, for the gathering of souls into His everlasting kingdom. It is just the expansion, the embodied, realized, practical application of that love, in which Jesus came to seek and "to save that which was lost," to "gather together in one the children of God that were scattered abroad."+ The Acts, truly, is a Book of Missions, under Him, even Jesus Christ, who, by Missions, was to "see of the travail of His soul, and be satisfied." Through Him and "from Him God the Holy Spirit sent Philip unto Gaza, which is desert," that he might there meet the Ethiopian traveller, preach Jesus to him, and send him "on his way rejoicing," with the message of life and salvation for his own remote African land. All the account of Peter and Cornelius is precisely of the same character, ending with the declaration,-"Then hath God also to the Gentiles granted repentance unto life." But soon the whole history of Scripture centres marvellously in one single person. Who is that? St. Paul. And what a position he occupies! How peculiar and pre-eminent it is! But passing by all other marks and honours of that man, I just take him, "the Apostle of the Gentiles," and would present him, not now as an example in himself to us, but rather as the living, formed, and embodied sign of that which Jesus felt, willed, and accomplished for the salvation of men. To him Jesus appeared as He appeared to no other. And when, by Ananias, He sent him the message of peace, the reason was given, "For he is a chosen vessel unto me, to bear my name before the Gentiles, and kings, and the children of Israel."* And straightway he "preached Christ in the synagogues,"+ Christ at Damascus,‡ Christ everywhere. Our Lord's purpose and will was far, far more revealed in and through St. Paul than by any other person in the whole New Testament. And he was, above all, a Missionary. With this office all his words were connected, with this all his deeds, with this all his writings. And none of this from himself. It was all from the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus formed him for all this-yea! mightily preserved him for accomplishing it. For this He called him-converted himled him by the way which he knew not of-guarded him through all his inconceivable perils. And observe, that Jesus was ever extending St. Paul's work; ever more and more giving it a Missionary form. When St. Paul was "praying in the Temple," Jesus appeared to him and said, "Make haste, and get thee quickly out of Jerusalem: for they will not receive thy testimony concerning me." "Depart, for I will send thee far hence unto the Gentiles."§ Nor was Asia itself, in the purpose of Christ, sufficient for his ministry; for the time came when our continent of Europe was to hear the Gospel, dark then as it was and idolatrous; and the "vision appeared to Paul in the night. There stood a man of Macedonia, and prayed him, saying, Come over into Macedonia and help us."|| Soon Jesus had His churches of believers at Philippi and Thessalonica, at Corinth and at Rome, and in all the regions round about. And the last which we hear of St. Paul was in the very centre of the world dominion at the time, from whence the Gospel which he preached might be most easily carried to the empire's utmost bound. And Spain perhaps was visited, for we know it to have been in the apostle's mind; and perhaps Britain too, though not absolutely mentioned by him. And why all this honour-all this glorious evangelic travel-all this work given and allowed to one man? Just because he was the "chosen witness" for Christ afar off,-His representative, messenger, ambassador,-His chosen vessel to bear His treasures and gifts unto men,-the reflector of that Living Light, which lighteneth every man coming into the spiritual world of His saved people. Yes! I have seen a Swiss mountain peak illumined in a moment, at morning dawn, by the beams of the rising sun; and I have seen that peak, blazing in all this concentrated light, send back floods of radiance on valleys and crevices lying in darkness before. So Paul, that Acts ix. 15. † v. 20. † v. 22. || Acts xvi. 9. "burning and shining light," told of and reflected one no less than Jesus, the one "Sun of Righteousness." And though ages could not tell all things of Christ, which we learn in and through the great Apostle and Missionary to us Gentiles, yet one thing we may now surely learn and apply from his history. That is, the grandeur of his labours in the Saviour's eye-the unspeakable importance which He assigns to them-the love and preservation wherewith He led him-the success which He granted him-the promises which He made him-the place which he occupies in Scripture-the everlasting honours which are his. And in all this our Saviour has embodied, for our learning and example, His own mind, counsel, and will in Missionary undertakings; and betokened for us His own concern, His own glory in them, and how he would have them carried on from man to man, from faith to faith, to the uttermost parts of the globe. May the Holy Spirit make the love of Christ towards us, as our Missionary, manifest and glorious; and may we be constrained, in the contemplation of His Spirit and work, to follow him and do likewise! Islip, Oxon. HINDU PHILOSOPHICAL SYSTEMS. A Rational Refutation of the Hindu Philosophical Systems. By Nehemiah Nilankantha, &c. THE arrival of such a book as this from India is a good sign. The causes of Christian joy and congratulation are indeed often hidden from the world in their origin, principles, and outward manifestations. But here we imagine that no thoughtful or patriotic mind can survey the progress, implied by a publication of this kind, without perceiving cause for rejoicing both nationally and ecclesiastically. The Apostle Paul was fond of referring to families or individuals as "the first fruits of Achaia," because he felt that there was a pledge, a representative case, to be followed in due time by the more general harvest of souls. This book, printed in Calcutta, written by a learned Christian native, and having for its subject a rational refutation of Hindooism, is to be hailed as such a production. It marks a new era in our Missionary work; and intimates that the native mind has not only been impressed, but is at last beginning to react upon its own literature. In fact, here is another of those "results" demanded by our secular journals the other day. |