Blessed be God, there have been many patterns, even in these latter days, of such Labourers! Not to mention living characters, nor to go back to Apostolic Times, we would bring to your recollection Swartz, and Brainerd, and Martyn, and urge you to follow them as they followed Christ. But, after all, the Lord Jesus Christ Himself is your great exemplar. He was sent of His Father on the very work in which you hope to labour. Oh that you may be likeminded with Him; and have some thing of His ardent devotion, laborious love, tender compassion, gentleness and meekness, patient forbearance, and unreserved dedication of Himself to God! May the same mind more and more be given to you, to us, and to all His followers! Once more, remember that you are BRETHREN; and are bound to love one another with peculiar fervency. How delightful is the thought, that you are indeed Brethren; not in name only, but in truth-born of one Spirit-children of one Fatherengaged in one warfare-going to one home! Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ. Love as brethren. Be pitiful—be courteous. Seek not your own things only, but the things of others also. Our hope, from what we have already seen, is, that the law of love will reign throughout the family-that you will mutually edify one another in love; and will be a striking evidence of the truth of David's declaration, Behold how good and pleasant it is, for brethren to dwell together in unity! You will look back, we trust, in future years, with grateful recollections on the days passed in this Institution: and the associations and friendships now formed will furnish you with many delightful hours here; with the additional blessing attached to Christian Friendship, that it never fails, but will subsist in greater purity and higher joy throughout eternity. After the description which has been given of that high and holy character to which your Office calls you, you may feel ready to tremble, on viewing the arduous character and difficulty of the work to which you have consecrated yourselves. But the hopes of the Society in sending you forth are placed wholly on Him, in whose Name you go. On Him alone your hopes also must be reposed. Relying with simplicity and lively faith on the promised influences of the Holy Spirit, in the diligent use of the Means of Grace both public and private, you will be both strengthened for your labours and blessed therein. It is a source of great encouragement to the Committee, as it may be to you, to be assured that Christians not only increasingly feel their need of the Holy Spirit, but do now more publickly and constantly than ever express their decided judgment, that it is only by His gracious influences, that any part of the great work of the Conversion of the World can be accomplished. May you all seek to be filled with the Holy Ghost! This, this alone, will make you true Missionaries, a comfort to us, a blessing to the world, and the glory of Christ. Barnabas was a good man, and full of the Holy Ghosts and so, much people was added unto the Lord. The Holy Ghost is the true and effective spring of a holy character, of a faithful Minister, and of a devoted Missionary. From the Holy Ghost comes eminent usefulness, comfort in life, joy in death, and meetness for the inheritance of the saints in light. Above all, then, seek this grace. Walk in the Spirit. Fear to grieve Him. All languages and sciences which you may acquire, all external or internal qualifications, all advantages which man can communicate to you or your own best industry and talent can procure, are all unprofitable but as you are under the leading of Him, who guides into all truth, who is the Spirit of wisdom and under standing, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord "Whose blessed unction from above Is comfort, life, and fire of love." When upon you, as on our Divine and Almighty Saviour, the Spirit of the Lord is poured out, and you are sent of the Holy Spirit, then will you be most effectually prepared to be Missionaries-then will you, in your measure, be anointed to preach the Gospel to the poor-then will you be sent and qualified, as your Heavenly Master shall be pleased to prosper you, to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, and to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord. May it please the Father of Mer cies and the God of all comfort that numbers may thus, from age to age, go forth from this Institution, to benefit and bless our ruined world; and that similar Institutions may be multiplied through our Land, and through the Churches of Christ in every country. Oh that the Lord may thus answer the prayers of His people, and thrust forth Labourers into His harvest, till the knowledge of His glory cover the earth as the waters cover the sea-till His kingdom come, and His will be done on earth, even as it is in heaven! To Him be all glory and dominion for ever and ever! Amen. Address, by the Principal of the Institution. NY LORD, AND GENTLEMEN OF THE COMMITTEE In meeting you for the first time since my accession to the Office, in which you have been pleased to instate me, I must be strangely insensible to be free from lively emotion. Called by your partial opinion from a retirement, that was within a few paces of absolute solitude, I should have thought it incumbent on me, had this been an ordinary convocation, to tender you the homage of a public acknowledgment, and to bespeak that indulgence on which I am aware that I shall have to draw largely in my Academical functions. But, from much of the embarrassment inseparable from explanations and professions respecting oneself, I am relieved, by reflecting, that I can hardly be permitted, on the present occasion, to glance at such topics; the business on which we are now convened being of so high and holy a nature, as almost to preclude the introduction of subordinate matters. I am truly thankful, Gentlemen, that, on my first introduction to you, hardly expected to appear in I am an official capacity; but rather to join with you, as a simple individual, as an humble Member of the Church Missionary Committee, in dedicating this Institution to the Lord, with the solemnities of religious worship. In concert with you, I would acknowledge the goodness of Jehovah in accepting our feeble co-operation in building up His temple; and I would mingle my fervent prayers with yours, to the Great Head of the Universal Church, that He would prosper, with his Divine power and blessing, our attempts to diffuse the knowledge of His Name. The aim of this Institution is transcendently noble and elevated. In framing it, Gentlemen, you have been alive to the importance of giving to the Missionary System a more perfect organization; and one better adapted to the expanding rays of your operations, to their increasing complexity, and to the steady progress, in literature and in the arts of civil life, of many of those nations, which are still immured in the vilest abominations of Paganism. You have decided, that, in point of mental culture and general knowledge, the Christian Teacher ought to be far in advance of the people whom he labours to convert; and that none should venture into Heathen Climes, as heralds of a doctrine which demands the submission of sense and reason to faith, without carrying with them a decisive superiority in intellectual attainments and in useful practical science. Such is your decision, Gentlemen: who can impugn its correctness? Accordingly, with a view to give it effect, you have resolved to bring together the Students who have hitherto been dispersed among several Masters, and to place them under a single superintendence. Through this arrangement, an exact and uniform plan of education can be pursued; and many local facilities will be at hand, for initiating or perfecting the Students in various departments of knowledge-facilities, it may without offence be asserted, which are not within the compass of education in a country village, nor attainable under the roof of any private individual however able and accomplished. In such a Seminary, moreover, a system, both domestic and academical, may be adopted, which shall be, in some degree, preparatory to the Missionary Warfare, and under which the Soldiers of the Cross may be gradually inured to habits congenial with their evangelical destination—a system, which, by having something of an ascetic and pilgrim character impressed upon it, may fit them for that life of self-denial, I was nearly saying self- annihilation, which they have prospectively embraced. From the assembling of the Students in one place, you will also obtain a vast advantage for ascertaining the real character, and the comparative capacity and qualifications, of each individual. Thus you will be secured, so far as human circumspection can secure you, from sending into foreign parts unholy and unqualified teachers, agents of darkness in the form and with the credentials of angels of light, who may prove scandals to the Heathen and blots on the Christian Name; thereby clothing our Society in mourning, and drawing down upon themselves an aggravated condemnation. Neither is the benefit trivial, which this Institution is calculated to produce, by giving to the Society, of which it must needs be a prominent member, a due publicity with regard both to its objects and its measures. It is, we believe, the want of a thorough acquaintance with the character of the Society, that has checked and limited the support which it has hitherto received from those high Functionaries of Church and State, whose favourable estimation of our proceedings would be an event of great promise to the best interests of mankind. This disadvantage will be considerably obviated by the present Establishment. It will serve for a test and measure of our general operations; and will contribute, it may be reasonably expected, to propitiate many persons, whose scruples to unite with us have originated in misconception of our principles and measures. Addressing myself to the Missionary Students, whom I truly and affectionately greet, I have great satisfaction in reflecting, that the very circumstance which connects them with us is no inconsiderable pledge of their Christian Character. It is evidence, that they not only profess to be serious in personal religion, but also to be ardently zealous for the salvation of unbelievers: and, assuredly, a want of gracious dispositions, corresponding with a profession which has gone the length of a tender of Missionary Service, would argue an insincerity or a levity of character, of which the bare supposition is inexpressibly painful. Still, in the wide range of human' depravity, it is possible that hypoQ crites may steal into this inclosure, notwithstanding its avenues are watched with sleepless vigilance, and fenced about with the most awful sanctions. This is possible; and such a possibility ought not to be overlooked. But a more probable case, one against which our precautions can hardly be, immoderate, is the intrusion of selfdeceivers; of men offended with the world, but not weaned from it in spirit; or of such as are captivated by the specious illusion of a wild and savage freedom; of unfixed and roving characters, to whom the future and the distant are always gilded with a light from which present ob. jects are excluded; of persons dissatisfied with the station allotted them in the economy of Providence, who are ambitious of rising in the scale of society, impatient of subordination, and greedy of rule, who are puffed up with self-conceit, and pant for a spacious theatre of ostentatious action. I remind our Students of these corrupt incentives to Missionary Undertakings, not from any suspicions, which would indeed be ground. less and injurious, of their integrity; but because I am convinced, that persons of the truest sincerity will do well to search and examine themselves, lest any such morbid motive gain a partial influence over them, and taint and enervate their better principles. I cannot doubt, my Dear Friends, that you have frequently pondered the endowments requisite for a Missionary; and you must have perceived them to be a rare combina tion, no vulgar and spontaneous growth, but the product of diligent culture under an extraordinary effusion of spiritual influences. You must have seen that the Missionary Character requires a large measure of humility, to suffer what is most revolting to natural pride; of hardi. ness, to undergo the severest fatigues; of meekness, to put up with affronts and injurious treatment: and that it of You supposes an unusual subjection Neither can it have escaped you, how severe a wisdom will be necessary to discern between good and evil, and what courage resolutely to choose the one and to reject the other; how exact a judgment, to balance contending reasons; how much sobriety of mind, to avoid rash enterprises; what generosity to undertake great designs, what cautious prudence to conduct, what unconquerable energy to achieve them. To be able Ministers of the Gospel in Pagan Lands, you must LOVE THE CROSS, according to the largest sense of that comprehensive figure. You must be content to prophesy in sackloth; and count the bare honour of your holy work an ample indemnification for all which it involves, of what is grievous and terrible to nature. Without for a moment intermitting your diligence, and with a constancy of soul that is proof against incessant disappointments, you must await in hope the tardy germination of the seed which, you have scattered; and be willing, after having poured out apparently in vain your whole strength of soul and body, that other men should enter into your labours, and reap with joy and singing what you have sown in tears. You must be fortified against the manifold temptations, which are incident to your vocation, and to the particular scene of your respective labours; and you must be ADDRESS BY THE PRINCIPAL OF THE INSTITUTION. 227 prompt to take advantage of every opening for usefulness, which may present itself, through the civil, the domestic, or the personal peculiari. ties of the people among whom you may be stationed. By previous study and reflection, you must have become conversant with the features of savage intellect; and be prepared for the monstrous forms and the devious excesses of barbarous vice. But the tract of your future labours is a region of mountains, wonderfully various in form, of which I cannot pretend to trace the outline. Into this region, however, it becomes you to go forth in spirit; to expatiate through its length and breadth; to thread its labyrinths, to climb its heights, to dive into its dells, to explore its thickets, and to make yourselves familiar with all its steep and rugged and crooked paths. While you learn, by such anticipations of actual experience, the arduousness of the service in which you are enlisted, you will grow more and more alive to your natural insufficiency, and be earnest in prayer for natural supplies of light and strength and patience. super One principal object of these remarks is, to induce you to regard yourselves, while you remain attached to this Institution, as under education for the Work of Missions in its utmost extent and comprehension; and as bound to collect assiduously all the material and moral requisites for executing it duly, Beware of idle, frivolous, and de. sultory habits. In the details of your daily employment, and in the appropriation of every hour of your time, you should always be looking, directly or indirectly, at your ultimate destination. Impressed with the sentiments which I have ventured to suggest, you will deem it of high consequence to become proficients in those departments of secular learning, to which your attention will be directed by your superiors. The notion that piety alone is a sufficient qualification for entering the lists with the Atheist and the Idolater, with the Mahomedan and the Jew, is contrary to experience, and to the testimony of God both in His Word and in the visible method of His Government. The most vigorous powstate of improvement, are not more ers of the mind, in its most advanced than an adequate array against those powers of darkness, which have enof man's vitiated understanding. It trenched themselves in the fastnesses self of every engine, which the spirit is the part of true piety, to avail itof the Gospel does not disallow, for subverting that throne which is founded on the wisdom of the world. fying its perverseness, against the Turn that perverse wisdom, by rectiapostate world itself. Be fully equipped for your services, by various literature, and by a competent acquaintance with the physical sciences and the mechanical arts; and take putting to the proof your ability to every occasion whieh may offer, of short, to be expert in all that apperwield your weapons. Endeavour, in tains to your holy trade of winning souls to salvation. In your chamber and in your walks, in your stated or casual intercourse with others, have it always in mind to collect materials for future use; and disdain no fit ingredient of the Missionary Character, be it ever so minute. Need I exhort you to a diligent and devout study of the Sacred Volume, that you may speak as the Oracles of God; clearly dividing and expounding revealed truths; exhibiting them in their just order and connection; enforcing scriptural positions with scriptural arguments; and illustrating them, as much as possible, in the words of Him who spake as never man spake, and in those of His inspired Apostles. Obtain clear conceptions of the Gospel Scheme of Salvation, of its separate parts and their harmonious combination; that you may |