distributed, we find that the whole which have been circulated by the direct and indirect efforts of the Bible Society, and all foreign Bible Societies, would just supply the population of Great Britain and Ireland if they were all able to read. And though about fifteen millions of Bibles and Testaments have been distributed, only half a million have found their way into heathen lands. Neither have these been scattered through the breadth and length of the pagan world, but confined chiefly to some favored spots, leaving hundreds of millions without any copies of the Scriptures at all. Thus while we admit with joy and gratitude, that through the instrumentality of missionaries, the Bible has been translated into languages spoken by more than half the population of the globe; yet even with this circumstance in their favor, and years to enable Christians to publish and spread through heathen lands the living oracles, only a number that London itself would require, if its reading population should all be furnished with a copy of the Bible, has been circulated among six hundred millions of human beings.

Again, if we examine the operations of missionary societies, the result is equally distressing. At the present time, about one thousand European and American missionaries occupy the heathen field, which is about three missionaries to every two millions; or in the proportion of about twenty ministers for the whole of England. Since these societies began, not more than two thousand missionaries have been sent forth by the Christian church. And is this all that the church has done for hundreds of millions of immortal beings? We have furnished a far larger number to our little

island, and the world has been comparatively overlooked. All our zeal and devotedness for the conversion of men has supplied as many ministers for six hundred millions, as are to be found in the county of York! Need we wonder that so little impression has been made on heathen nations. Look again at the direct influence which these devoted missionaries have upon the heathen. It is a large calculation to say that their instructions reach directly and indirectly ten millions of pagans. Here then, five hundred and ninety millions are literally uninfluenced by the ministry of reconciliation. The actual congregations of all Protestant missionaries do not amount to one million, and if we allow fifty thousand persons for all those who are in church fellowship, we shall exceed the real amount. This gives one hearer of the gospel to every six hundred of the human family, and one professed Christian man to every twelve thousand individuals. This then is the result of all the missionary efforts of the Christian church during the last forty years! But even this view is too favorable as far as one country is concerned. In China, containing one half of the heathen population of the globe, there is not one native convert to thirty millions of immortal beingsnot above ten individuals, among the three hundred millions to be found in that teeming empire, who are the servants of the only living and only true God.

Often has it been declared by missionaries, that their chief hope in heathen lands, was in the rising generation. The adult population seemed beyond the reach of Christian instruction and moral influence, so that with few exceptions, the millions of the present generation will linger out their dreary existence and

perish forever, shall I say, the victims of the neglect of the Christian church. What a miserable prospect for them, and how deeply affecting should such a consideration be to us. But even this hope respecting the rising generation, which missionaries so fondly cherish, is presumption, unless means are used to instruct them not merely in the art of reading, but in direct religious knowledge. The missionaries are convinced of this. Christian schools have been formed at every station, and their time and talents have been exercised in promoting this desirable object. What has been the result? If the rising generation among the heathen is not to perish, as well as the present generation, at least one hundred millions of children should be placed under the influence of Christian schools. Even if this were done, it would only be a sixth part of the heathen population placed in circumstances favorable to the reception of Divine knowledge. But what is the actual number in all the schools of all the missionary stations? The highest estimate that we can make is one hundred and fifty thousand scholars, or about one in every six hundred of the children that should be under Christian instruction; five hundred and ninety-nine of every six hundred being allowed to grow up in ignorance and sin, and preparing, by forming habits of iniquity, to reject the pure and self-denying doctrines of the gospel, if peradventure, in thirty or forty years, missionaries may be sent to them. Where is our hope then even of the children of the heathen, when these things are so? At this rate, when will the evangelization of the world be effected?

Let us include in our estimate, all the other means

Let us survey Let us consider

employed to enlighten human minds. the extended efforts of tract societies. the labors of the press in conveying to the refined heathen the knowledge of European science and literature, which will at least show to many of them the absurdity of their false systems of ethics and religion. And yet with all this machinery in operation, the Christian church has failed in bringing one hundredth part of the human family in heathen lands under direct and indirect religious instruction. Have not the consequences of unfaithfulness been awful indeed? How small is the extent to which the Christian church has exerted the power which it possesses! What is now to be done? How is this state of things to be altered? How are the heathen to be evangelized? We come to the closing part of our subject, to show,

IV. That if the Christian church will only begin immediately to exercise the moral power which it possesses, the world in a generation might be evangelized.

What will happen if Christians should be satisfied with their present efforts? If they proceed at the same ratio to seek the evangelization of the world as they have done during the last forty years, it will be six thousand years before the world is converted, and one hundred and twenty generations of men will have passed unblest into eternity! If we take a lower view of the subject, and refer merely to the preaching of the gospel, or the circulation of the Bible, it will be one thousand and five hundred years before the world is supplied; or thirty generations, or eighteen thousand

millions of immortal beings will have passed into eternity. And even if we allow an equal number, or twice the number of native teachers to be raised up, generation after generation will perish before the gospel spreads universally.

How can, how should the Christian church act in such an emergency? It is plain that it cannot go on as it has done, without increasing its guilt by disobeying the command of God. It is also plain that Christians will not exert their moral power as it ought to be exerted, unless some great change takes place. The present energy of the church is feebleness; the present zeal is apathy; the present giving to the cause of Christ is withholding, compared with what must be done, when rising to all the dignity of their office as the almoners of the world, when they all freely give, because they have freely received. When looking at the position they occupy as the watchmen of the world, they will watch for souls as those who must give account. There must in short be a contrast to all that has been done. There must be much, instead of little self-denial, instead of indulgence-zeal, instead of apathy. These things are named not to discourage, but to stimulate; not that we may yield to despair, but to inspire hope, so that the very mightiness of the work may bring into full and persevering exercise the whole powers of the renewed and the devoted heart.

In order to assist our thoughts on this part of the subject, let me state the following changes that should be effected among Christians, in order that the moral power of the church may effect the evangelization of the world.