It would be in vain to address a reproof or an admonition to those hardened offenders who have arrived at the highest degrees of vice-who have grown insensible to shame who have become apostles of impiety, and leaders in profligacy. Seldom are they to be found in the house of God. They voluntarily place themselves beyond the reach of our remonstrances. I can only hold them up as beacons for your warning.-Ah! my young friends! let not the fatal progress of your follies mark you out hereafter as beacons for the warning of others. Be-. ware of the examples and the solicitations to evil that assail you on every hand. The time cometh, saith the Apostle, when the wicked men and seducers shall wax worse and worse. Is not that time now? Hardly can youth walk: abroad without criminal objects to invite, dangerous com-, panions to solicit, scenes of temptation to corrupt them.. Ah! how industrious are the champions of vice! Incessant in their labours to corrupt and destroy-assiduous in mischief, as if they were honest men employed in a good cause; hardly can you escape the innumerable snares which they have laid for you. Trust not those false illuminations to which the vain pretenders to a monopoly of reason, have boldly laid claim, while they have only poisoned the minds of youth, corrupted manners, and torn asunder all the moral bands of society. Impious. fanatics! illuminated only to themselves, and in the visions of their own fancy! another age will hold them in merited contempt this age ought to pour upon them that indignation which is due to their multiplied crimes. Retire from the contagion, both of their presumptuous folly, and their presumptuous sins.

Extract from a Missionary Sermon, preached in Philadelphia, May 19, 1806, by REV. ELIPHALET NOTT,

D. D.

A$ in the natural, so in the moral world, visible and intermediate agents effectuate the designs of the unseen first cause. The piety and the prayers of Asa, produced in Israel a memorable reformation. Jehoshaphat, inspir

ed by the example of a venerable father, extended and perpetuated the Heaven approved work. And, when under a succession of guilty princes, Judah became corrupted, Jehoiadah, the priest, espousing the cause of expiring virtue, rescued from perdition that apostate tribe.

From the Jewish, turn your attention to the Christian church, the era of whose commencement was emphatically the era of miracles. Ere an age had elapsed, the reign of Messiah was extended from India to Ethiopia, from Scythia to Britain. And how was it extended? Apostles were ordained, evangelists commissioned, and sent forth the advocates of the Cross, conquering and to conquer. The facts they attested were believed; the opinions they inculcated were adopted, and thousands, in every country, and of every age, recognized the promised Messiah, and paid a willing homage to the Son of God.

From this bright period, pass on to that dark and dismal epoch, when authority prevailed against reason, and superstition triumphed over virtue. A glorious reformation is again to be effected: And again illustrious advocates of righteousness are raised up, by whose efforts the kingdom of error is shaken, and by whose light the city of God is made glad. In one word, wherever Christianity hath been extended-in Europe-in Asia-in Africa-it hath been extended through the intervention of human agency.

Late indeed, and with a feeble sound, has the Gospel jubilee been published to the wandering native, in these ends of the earth. And yet, even here, the publication has not been in vain. From among the savage tribes, which once inhabited these shores, evangelists commissioned by our pious fathers, won many souls, as the seals of their ministry, and the crown of their rejoicing. These souls were the first fruits of a more abundant and glorious harvest. And if the first fruits have been gathered by the use of means, can it be a question how the residue are to be gathered?-That they are to be gathered in some way does not admit of a doubt.-I have read you from the records of eternity, the CHARTER of the kingdom of Jesus Christ. A charter that covers all nations, extends over every clime, and comprehends the islands of every sea. That wilderness, inhabited by savages, belongs to Jesus;

it is his husbandry, and in spite of Hell, he will one day gather its precious fruits.

Open your eyes, Christians, for the fields are already white to harvest. Wherefore double your exertions, and, looking up to God, pray him to send forth labourers into his harvest.

No new method of salvation is to be expected. Converts to Christianity, have been made by the exertions of the saints, in time past, and thus will converts be made in time to come. Hence, to the original commission, Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature, were added those valuable words of Christ, Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.Behold! the presence of Jesus accompanies his ambassadors, And it shall come to pass, that whosoever calleth on the name of the Lord, shall be saved. But how shall benighted pagans call on him, in whom they have not believ ed? And how shall they believe in him, of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher ? And how shall they preach unless they be sent? And I may add, who shall send them, if Christians will not? Christians, who have tasted the love of God, and felt the power of the world to come.

Continuation of Dr. Nott's Missionary Sermon, delivered at Philadelphia, May, 1806.

EVERY enterprize tending to meliorate the condition of man, reflects glory on its author. How many individuals have rendered themselves illustrious, and immortal, by deeds of charity. But if benevolence appears divine, when visiting the prisoner's dungeon, and ministering round the sick man's couch, how must she appear, when entering, unsolicited, an inhospitable wilderness, enquiring for the habitations of the wretched, and bearing to the unknown sufferers the cup of Heavenly consolation.

If to shed on the ignorant the light of science, and restore to the oppressed the joys of liberty, be magnanimous, by what words shall we express their magnanimity, whose zeal pours on the valley of death, the light of

salvation, and restore to the souls whom Satin has enslaved, the privileges of the sons of God?

Christians, can you conceive of any thing more glorious, than extending the blessings of Christianity to those tribes of wretched Pagans who dwell upon your borders?

You admit the object glorious: but the difficulties of attaining it discourage you. What difficulties? Can the ingenuity of statesmen, or the infidelity of Christians, suggest difficulties insuperable to God? Are there any intricacies in the way which Omniscience cannot trace? Or mountains which Omnipotence cannot sink?

You say the natives are indolent, vicious, abandoned. to drunkenness, passionately fond of the pleasures of the chase, impatient of restraint, and utterly averse, not to the purity of the Gospel only, but also to the restraints of civilized life. We admit this statement. They are indeed subjects every way unpromising. But let it be remembered, that the dry bones, over which Ezekiel prophesied, were no less so. And yet, these heard and lived. And, who knows, but those also may hear and live?

There are always difficulties to be encountered, when reformation is the object. And there always must be, while human nature remains perverse, Do you imagine, however, that these difficulties excuse you from exertions?" Had Asa reasoned thus, Israel had not been reclaimed. Had the apostles reasoned thus, Holland, Germany, and Britain, countries which gave birth to our pious ancestry, had remained, to this day, ignorant of the Gospel and its benefits. Had the apostles reasoned thus, you whom I address as children of the light, and partakers of the liberty of the sons of God, would now have been enveloped in impenetrable darkness, and bound in accursed chains.

And in place of thee, venerable house of God: of you, holy altars, ministers of grace and witnesses of Jesus, with which I am surrounded, mine eyes had beheld a pagan temple, cruel altars, priests stained with blood, and worshippers paying homage unto idols. But they did not reason thus. No; blessed be God! they did not. And yet their difficulties, in diffusing the knowledge of the Saviour, far exceeded ours.

In proof of this assertion shall I call back the scenes of apostolic sufferings? Shall I retrace those paths cover

ed with the bodies, and stained with the blood, of the witnesses of Jesus? Shall I lead you to the confessor's dungeon, to the martyr's stake, and point to fires, and racks, and gibbets, means of cruelty and instruments of torture, till now unknown ?-In addition to the obstinacy of those whom they sought to christianize, such were the difficulties with which the early friends of the Redeemer struggled.

Both Jews and Gentiles obstructed their course, and counteracted their influence. Emperors persecuted, and princes combined to crush them. But they combined in vain. Their love for Christ was stronger than death, and floods of ungodliness could not quench it. In prison and in exile; on the scaffold and from the cross, salvation was published, and multitudes were converted.

Such were the exertions, and such the success of the primative saints. And if our motives were as pure, and our exertions as vigorous, who knows but our success would be as great?

This, however, is not the ground on which I rest the argument. I dare not promise you immediate success. I know that the reign of Messiah will come, because God hath said it. But whether it will come in your day, and be introduced by your exertions, I know not.

Instead, therefore, of encouraging you by such assur ances, I propose a consideration of a different kind-a consideration, which must subvert every objection which avarice or infidelity can suggest; it is this:

That to fail after having made sincere endeavours in so good a cause, will be glorious.

Zachariah did not succeed in reforming Israel, but fell between the porch and the altar. He fell, however, covered with glory, and his name stands conspicuous on the list of martyrs. Wickliffe did not succeed in rending the vail of Papal superstition, and yet the attempt added celebrity to his life, and in the bosom of the church embalmed his memory. But why do I mention these instances? Jesus Christ himself did not succeed in his mission to the Jews. But though Israel were not gathered, yet was He glorious in the eyes of the Lord, and in the eyes of all his people.

There are those who exclaim, whenever the salvation