ing to witness its complete success, that they may use it as a lever to overturn the oppressive systems under which the old world has so long groaned. Meanwhile, the abettors of despotism are hoping and prophecying that it will be a failure, for they know that its success will seal their doom. And as the apocalyptic serpent, (if we may be allowed to accommodate the passage to our present purpose,) persecuted the woman when she fled into the wilderness, and "cast out of his mouth water as a flood, after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away of the flood ;" so these men have conspired together to deluge our nation with a flood of papal superstition and corruption, hoping thereby to carry away our free institutions, whose silent but irresistible influence is undermining their thrones. And certainly they could not in any way employ themselves so directly to their own advantage, as by laboring with all their might to destroy the free institutions of the United States. But as "the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed up the flood which the dragon cast out of his mouth," so, we trust, the torrents of superstition and corruption which they are vomiting forth upon us will be swallowed up by the universal diffusion of the glorious principles of the Gospel. It will be so if we are faithful to our high trust. If we take hold, in earnest, of carrying the Gospel to our own countrymen, all the machinations of Rome will be vain. She may make a desperate effort to hinder the progress of truth. But where this prevails, her power is broken. She was born and nurtured up in the night of ignorance. Darkness is her element. The light of truth she cannot bear. It scathes her unholy eyeballs. Like a wild beast, when it is night, she creeps forth, and roars after her prey. But when the sun of Gospel knowledge arises, she retreats, and lays herself down in her den.

Let us then, carry the Gospel to every hamlet of our nation, and the noble fabric of our free institutions will stand firm, and tyranny, civil and ecclesiastical, will melt away before it, until the staff of the oppressor is broken in all nations, and the whole earth is at rest, and is quiet, and breaks forth into singing.

Secondly: There is no nation in the world that possesses greater energy of character or mightier resources than the United States. As the Saxon is the predominating element in our language, so is it also in our national character. The history of England from the landing of Hengist and Horsa on her shores to the present hour is an illustration, on a stupendous scale, of the energy of the Saxon race. To this race we belong. It was because our fathers were Englishmen, and felt the blood of Englishmen coursing through their veins, that they took up arms, in their poverty and weakness, against the oppression of England, and maintained a successful conflict with the fleets and armies of the richest, the bravest, the best disciplined, and the most powerful nation on the globe. And the same vigor of character which carried them through the war of the revolution is now manifesting itself in all the departments of civil and social life.

Is there any enterprise too arduous and daring for our countrymen? Is there any obstacle capable of being overcome by perseverance, and skill, which they do not overcome? Is there any field of activity which they fear to enter? Is there any undertaking that promises good to the public from which they are deterred by the consideration of the difficulties that attend it? Is there a harbor which our ships do not visit? Is there a region to which the productions of

our industry do not penetrate? If any one would witness the development of our national energy upon a scale of gigantic magnitude, let him visit our own West. The traveller who, a few years ago, wended his dreary way through the unbroken wilderness, can now scarcely believe the testimony of his eyes, when in pursuing the same track, he finds himself in the midst of cultivated fields, adorned with neat villas. The forest has melted away before the woodman's axe, cities and villages have sprung up as if by magic, the howling of wild beasts has been exchanged for the lowing of herds and the bleating of flocks, and the plowman's whistle is heard instead of the whoop of the savage. "The pastures are clothed with flocks; the valleys also are covered over with corn; they shout for joy, they also sing."

If such is the energy of our national character, our national resources are equally unbounded.

Look at our sea-coast! For nearly two thousand miles the ocean laves our shores, wafting to us on his boundless and ever-heaving bosom the riches of all nations. Every wind that blows from the East, is freighted with the wealth of the Old World: every southern breeze is fragrant with the spices of the torrid zone.

Look at our sea-ports crowded with the commerce of all countries! How majestically do our tall ships spread their wings of canvass, and speed their way to earth's remotest corners, and return again to pour the princely spoils which they have gathered in overflowing abundance into the lap of the nation!

Look at our mighty rivers, sweeping through vallies of unrivalled extent and fertility! What channels of internal communication! What outlets of our own, what inlets of foreign commodities!

Look at our vast inland seas, their waves heaving like the ocean, and whitened all over with the canvass of commerce, and their shores lined with growing cities and villages!

Look at the exuberant fertility of our soil! It is "well watered every where like the garden of the Lord"—" a land of hills and vallies, and drinketh water of the rain of heaven." The barns of our husbandmen are filled with plenty, and their granaries are ready to burst with fulness.

Look at our mineral treasures!

dig brass."

Our "stones are iron, and out of our hills we

Look at out mechanical arts and manufacturing establishments! What exhaustless sources of wealth, ornament, and comfort! "Surely the lines have fallen to us in pleasant places, and we have a goodly heritage."

Now let all this energy of character, with all these unbounded resources at its disposal, be sanctified, and consecrated to the advancement of the Redeemer's kingdom, and the church will have at her disposal all the external means which she needs for the vigorous and successful prosecution of the enterprize of the world's conversion.

Does she need wealth? There will be as much wealth placed at her disposal as she can employ to advantage in this work. Even at the present time, notwithstanding the severe pecuniary embarrassments of the nation, there is money enough in the hands of our citizens, that might be spared, fully to sustain all the great benevolent operations of the day. But few of them, alas! have the

salvation of their fellow-men deeply at heart, and, therefore, the means cannot be commanded.

Here it is proper to remark that the vigorous prosecution of the work of Home Missions is one of the most effectual ways of advancing that of Foreign Missions. The operations of the American Board, and of other Boards operating on the foreign field, are seriously impeded, not because there are no resources in the country, but because there is not enlightened piety enough to place these resources at their disposal. Instead of $240,000 a year, the American Board needs, and could economically expend at least $1,000,000. Let the domestic field be so cultivated as to be made as productive as the State of Massachusetts, and this amount could be annually realized. Every effort of Home Missions in the West eventually contributes to swell the income of our Board of Foreign Missions. There are multitudes of churches on this Reserve, that were formed and nurtured up to maturity under the fostering care of Home Missions, which now send their annual contributions to the American Board, and some of them have already given more to the cause of Foreign Missions, than they ever received from the Home Missionary Society. Let this good work of evangelizing the West go on, and be consummated, and there will be no want of means for prosecuting the work of Foreign Missions.

But the foreign field demands not only money but men; well educated, selfdenying, enterprising men. Convert the West, and she will furnish such men -men of intrepid spirits, and indomitable perseverence, ready to go anywhere and subject themselves to any privations and hardships for Christ's sake.

If, then, we contemplate the field of Home Missions simply in its relation to the salvation of the world, its importance is unlimited.

It remains that we consider

The preparation of this field.

Here it may be affirmed, without fear of contradiction, that there is no region in the world so fully open to evangelical operations of every kind as this mighty territory of the West, nor which yields, in return for a small outlay of means, so rich a harvest of spiritual good.

It is true that the obstacles to the progress of the Gospel in the West are many and formidable, such as can be overcome only by the power of God's Spirit accompanying the dispensation of the truth. Still they are such obstacles only as the natural heart of man every where creates to itself through its enmity to God's holy requirements. Here, as elsewhere," the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked." Here "men love darkness rather than light, because their deeds are evil." Here they court delusion, and run into every refuge of lies that can screen their consciences from the brightness of revealed truth. Here their hearts and their hands are so engrossed with the pursuit of this world's profit, pleasure, and honor, that it is difficult to obtain for the message of God, an attentive hearing. But these obstacles are not peculiar to the West. They are the obstacles which human depravity every where op. poses to the progress of the Gospel.

But here, all those mighty ramparts which Paganism, Mahommedanism, Pope

ry, and Despotism have raised against the Gospel in the old world are wanting. Here the public mind is prepossessed in favor of the Christian system. Here perfect freedom is allowed to all religious denominations. Here the press, unshackled by the will of despots, whose interest it is to keep the people in ignorance, exerts its unrestrained power for good or evil over the human mind. Here all the habits of the people lead them to think and investigate for themselves. In a word, here truth and error, left each to its own resources, are brought to grapple in fair combat. And this is precisely the field which truth demands, and on which she has already won so many glorious victories. Give her free scope in the conflict with error and it is all that she asks. Where has she ever had, in the history of the human race, such a noble theatre for displaying her divine energy, as that which this young republic presents?

The results of Home Missions show most impressively the preparation of the field. Wherever the stream of Home Missionary operations has flowed, its path has been marked by spiritual verdure and fruitfulness. The history of hundreds of churches in the West might be thus briefly told. The missionary came into a settlement that was destitute of the ordinances of the Gospel. He found, perhaps, a handful of spiritual Christians who had long been praying that God would send them one to break to them the bread of life. He found also a number of poor wandering backsliders from the Atlantic States, who had once made a profession of godliness, but in emigrating to this western world, seemed to have left their religion behind, and were living in a wretched and dreary condition, with too much conscience to enjoy the world, and too little devotion to enjoy God's service. He found also a number of respectable men, who had never made any profession of religion, but who had lived long enough without the institutions of the Gospel to witness the deplorable results of such a destitution. To complete the picture, he found a motley assemblage of unbelievers and errorists of different names. A meeting for divine worship was appointed: a few assembled another was appointed: more came: the Christians in the place besought him with tears to abide with them: he consented: their hearts were encouraged, and their faith was strengthened: one backslider after another was reclaimed: the attendance upon public worship steadily increased: a Sabbath-school was formed: a church was organized: God poured out his Spirit and converted a goodly number of the impenitent: their place of meeting became too strait for them, and they set themselves to the work of erecting a sanctuary: another, and still another revival followed: they felt that it was now time for them to relinquish their claims upon the Home Missionary Society, and to sustain the Gospel by their own exertions and now they contribute annually a handsome sum to the cause of Foreign Missions. And in that community temperance, good order, neatness, refinement of manners, and schools for the education of the young have all followed in the train of the Gospel.

The last Annual Report of the American Home Missionary Society, states that during the year preceding, 5,853 had been added to the churches under its care on profession of their faith, and 2,370 by letter-in all, 8,223, and that this number would doubtless have been larger, but for the brief period that had elapsed since the revivals referred to in the Report. Thus largely have these churches shared in the precious revival of the past year-churches many of

which owe their existence to the efforts of Home Missions, and where, but for these efforts, no dews of divine grace would, in all probability, have fallen in the late merciful visitation of God's Spirit.

But this very state of preparation which furnishes such facilities to the missionary of the cross, furnishes also equal facilities to the emissaries of Satan. And these facilities they are not slow to improve. It is now reduced to a certainty that if the friends of Christ do not occupy the field, his enemies will. Rome has laid her plans broad and comprehensive to take this mighty region captive to her superstition, and is expending more money upon it than the American Board upon all her stations in the foreign field. If we do our duty, she cannot succeed. But if we prove slothful servants, God may allow her to triumph, and this will be such a curse to the world as fills the imagination with horror at the bare idea of its possibility. Other errors are also rife throughout the whole of this vast region, drawing away multitudes after them. Let us be fully aware, then, that if we do not occupy it for Christ, and that speedily, others will for Satan.

It has been shown that the field of Home Missions is one of immense magnitude that its relations to us as Christians give it a paramount claim upon us for cultivation-that upon its successful cultivation depends the permanency of our free institutions-that the salvation of the world is intimately connected with the success of the cause of Home Missions-that there is no region in the world in such a state of preparation as this field for evangelical operations of all kinds--and that if we do not speedily occupy it for Christ, others will for Satan. The conclusion is inevitable that the cause of Domestic Missions is, in its importance, and in its claims upon the American churches, second to no cause whatever : and that this importance and these claims have been greatly overlooked by the churches.

It is, therefore, the immediate duty of these churches to repent of their sin in this respect, and to give to the cause of Home Missions its proper place in their contributions. Some appear to be apprehensive that, by so doing, we shall diminish the resources of the American Board. Such a result I do not apprehend. Christian charity, like maternal love, is of an exceedingly expansive character. It enlarges itself in proportion to the increase of the number of its objects. As the mother does not love her first-born child the less because God has given her other children, so the Christian that has cherished, with ardent affection, the cause of Foreign Missions, will love that cause none the less, because another cause, having equal claims upon his benevolence, is presented to his mind. Instead of giving less to the cause of Foreign Missions, he will, as a general fact, give more to the cause of Home Missions. It is true that there is a limit to his means, and when this limit is reached he can go no farther. Most Christians, however, are far enough from having reached this limit. They could give much more than they do without transcending their means. Upon them we may expect that the full presentation of the claims of Home Missions will produce the effect of expanding their benevolent feelings, and drawing from them a larger amount of charitable contributions, so that while the cause of Foreign Missions shall not suffer, that of Home Missions shall be benefitted. At all events, where a Christian is giving up to the limit of his ability, there can be no