ise was made, "Lo, I am with you alway, even to the end of the world;"-and the promise is as sure to Christian ministers and missionaries to the end of time, as the precepts recited are binding to the end of time.

It will be my object, on the present occasion, to illustrate the importance of this promise to Christian Missionaries.

This promise will be seen to be of great importance to the missionary of the cross,

1. As it respects HIS QUALIFICATIONS.

The christian missionary enters upon a peculiar work; a work arduous, self-denying, and responsible; and consequently he needs peculiar and high qualifications. He must go forth ordinarily into nations and tribes entirely heathen; where all the ignorance of paganism is to be enlightened, all the prejudices of paganism to be removed, and all the superstitions and idolatries of paganism to be done away.

He needs in such circumstances high mental qualifications. He will find full scope for the vigorous exercise of a clear understanding, a sound judgment, a ready invention, a retentive memory, a well disciplined and well cultivated mind. He needs a facility in acquiring languages, that he may be able to translate the Scriptures into the vernacular tongue of those to whom he is sent; a most important and responsible part of his labors; and to tell the heathen "in their own language the wonderful works of God." He must establish schools, that he may teach them to read the Scriptures.

It will be found in most pagan nations, that there is little sound learning, and little more knowledge of the

useful sciences, than of the gospel of Jesus Christ.The heathen are generally as degraded in ignorance, as besotted in vice, and destitute both of knowledge and morality. As an important auxiliary, the Christian missionary must cast around him the rays of knowledge, and promote useful civil and literary institutions. He is encompassed with mental darkness as intense as midnight; and he must be a radiating point; he must electrify by his own energy minds long torpid and palsied; he must be able to impart useful knowledge on almost all subjects; and he must excite ignorant, sensual pagans to think and reflect, to read and meditate. And who does not perceive, that for such a work he needs high mental qualifications; and who will affirm, that he, who is not qualified to move and direct minds somewhat enlightened, and accustomed to reflection at home, may better be sent forth to dissipate the thickest mental darkness, and to arouse and enlighten minds, never accustomed to thought and reflection? Who will say, that the dim taper, scarcely sufficient to guide the steps at twilight, would be a sufficient guide in exploring all the recesses of a dark cavern, where no ray of light from abroad ever entered? But the mistaken opinion that men of less than ordinary mental energy and acquisitions may well be employed as missionaries to the heathen, we trust is vanishing from the public mind, like the spectres of the night; and it begins to be generally seen, that high mental qualifications are necessary to the extensive influence and useful operations of the Christian missionary.

He needs also physical strength and vigor. His exposures are many and severe; his labors constant and arduous; his privations various and sometimes exhausting; and bodily indisposition may either wholly interrupt his labors, or weigh down his spirits, and palsy his efforts, and very much limit his usefulness. To go forth to his work with the fairest prospect of accomplishing his great enterprise, he needs a sound mind in a sound body; a capacity to labor diligently, to endure all things, and to exert a resuscitating influence upon the stupid, inactive multitude around him. And who can impart and continue these qualifications, but he who gave the precious promise, "Lo, I am with you alway, even to the end of the world;—he who giveth to man understanding and knowledge;" who said to the first Christian missionaries, "Behold I give you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy; and nothing shall by any means hurt you." What hope would the missionary have of attaining those high intellectual qualifications so desirable; or of possessing that health and vigor necessary to sustain the abundance of his labors and the severity of his hardships, unless he could confide in the promise and presence of the Creator and Preserver of both body and mind? Confiding in this promise, he is not dismayed, though so many, who have gone far hence to the Gentiles, have died early, and rested from their labors.

That the Christian missionary needs high moral qualifications all will admit. He must not only have been renewed in the temper of his mind, and have renounced the supreme love of the world for the love of

Christ, but he needs great devotion to his service, glowing benevolence to the souls of men, elevated views, singleness of purpose, and strong faith. The chief Apostle to the Gentiles was not prepared for his labors as a missionary of the cross, until he was humbled in the dust, renewed by divine grace, and fired with unquenchable benevolence to the souls of men. When he was only a moralist, a formalist, and a Pharisee, he opposed the cause of missions and the spread and influence of Christianity; and with malignity attempted to imprison, or put to death all, who espoused this heavenly cause. "When it pleased God," says this great Apostle to the Gentiles, "who called me by his grace, to reveal his Son in me, that I might preach him among the heathen, immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood." Then it was, and not till then, that he was prepared to enter upon this sacred and self-denying enterprise.

The Christian missionary not only needs genuine piety to form the resolution of spending his life in toils and sacrifices for the salvation of the Gentile world; but he needs increasing, deep-toned piety, to execute such a resolution. He needs a heavenly temper, an ardor of benevolence, possessed by few, to give himself away by solemn ordination in the presence of God, angels, and men, to "go out from his country, and his kindred, and his father's house;"—to turn his back upon every thing he holds dear on earth, and commit himself to the mercy of the waves, or of more dangerous men. What a test of the piety of Martyn, when he tore himself away for the last time from his dearest friends, his much loved country, and all his

precious privileges;-a trial of his piety, which not only evinced that it was real, but that it must be increased for future exigencies, and, if possible, for greater trials?

The missionary needs increasing piety and more ardent benevolence, as he reaches a pagan shore, and enters a region of spiritual gloom, where the moral darkness is visible, and may be felt; where such a moral renovation is to be effected, and such a mighty work is to be accomplished, as would lead men of only ordinary attainments to sit down in despair. When he begins to sustain all the burden and toil of learning new and difficult languages, perhaps almost without books and instructors; and to learn them so, that he can read not only, but speak them fluently and impressively, and make them the vehicle of thought to minds the most benighted, he is in danger of fainting under the pressure of the task. And when he has sustained all this toil, and, after years of diligent application, is prepared to preach the gospel in the languages of those, to whom he is sent, their stupidity, their ignorance, their cavilling, their opposition, their determined adherence to their debasing superstitions and horrid idolatries, are suited to produce deep despondency, and to relax, if not interrupt, his efforts. Amidst such toils and such prospects, how much does he need elevated and glowing piety;-a zeal, which nothing can damp; an ardor, which nothing can quench; an aim, which no obstacles can reach; a benevolence, which nothing can withstand.

Contemplate the missionary in any probable circumstances of his life, and how much does he need high