OBEDIENCE THE LIFE OF MISSIONS BY THOMAS SMYTH, D. D. PHILADELPHIA: No. 265 Chestnut Street. Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1858, BY JAMES DUNLAP, TREASURER, In the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. PREFACE. THE following argument is a sequel to two that have preceded it. I. "How is the World to be Converted? or, Christians Christ's Representatives and Agents for the Conversion of the World." II. "Faith the Principle of Missions." Like them, it was prepared by the author as Chairman of the Committee on Foreign Missions; read in substance before the Synod of South Carolina; and by it ordered for publication. And as the first was commended to the Board of Publication, and the second was also published by it, this also is issued through it, that the voice of this southern Synod may be heard and find an echo in the hearts of dear brethren and sisters in the Lord throughout the length and breadth of the land, and all the tribes of Israel come up together "to the help of the Lord, to the help of the Lord against the mightly." Exert thy power, thy rights maintain, The influence of thy crown increase, We long to see that happy time, That dear, expected, blessed day! The second Adam shall obey. The prophecies must be fulfilled, Though earth and hell should dare oppose; Soon shall the blended Image fall- In one sweet symphony of praise, Sink in the abyss of endless night. Soon Afric's long benighted sons Shall join with Europe's polished race, The glories of redeeming grace. From east to west, from north to south, 7-VOL. VII. OBEDIENCE, THE LIFE OF MISSIONS. THE FAITH WHICH IS THE PRINCIPLE OF MISSIONS, LEADS TO THAT OBEDIENCE WHICH IS THE LIFE OF MISSIONS. The feeling of love and good-will to men, and the conscious obligation to communicate to them whatever benefits we enjoy -so far as our opportunity and ability permit-are collateral and coextensive. Where one exists, the other cannot be absent; and to whatever extent the one prevails, the other will be found operative. To love our neighbour as we love ourselves-the second of God's two comprehensive commandments-is to do unto others as we would think it right and humane in others, if in our circumstances, to do unto us. The faithful and even proportionate application of this principle to the gospel, and to its manifold blessings, is however only possible to those who cherish a deep and life-inspiring faith in that gospel, as "the power of God, and the wisdom of God, unto the salvation of every one that believeth." Faith, therefore, is the Principle of Missions;* faith in the sinful, guilty, and dangerous condition of the heathen; faith in the gospel as that remedy, by the foolishness of preaching which, it hath pleased God to save them that believe; and faith in those awe-inspiring declarations of God's word, that the whole world are guilty before him;-that without a written law, the heathen are a law unto themselves, their own consciences accusing or condemning them;-that there is no other name under heaven by which they can be saved but the name of Jesus;"—"go ye therefore into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized, shall be saved; but he that believeth not, shall be damned." Faith in these truths is the principle of missions, as a Christian duty, although there are many other motives which conspire in urging upon every humane and philanthropic mind an enterprise designed to convey to semi-civilized and barbarous nations that gospel which is not only in itself considered the greatest of all earthly blessings, but is also the source and the security of all perfect civilization, refinement and progress. When royal Truth, released from mortal throes, A patron multitude, Or courted Tetrarch's eye, or claimed to rule By the world's winning grace, or proofs from learned school. *See "Faith, the Principle of Missions," published by the Board. |