Sodom, they would have been effectual to the producing repentance. Such is the fact stated, and that too by our Redeemer himself. But when the fact is admitted, we naturally inquire, why the heathen was more likely to listen than the Jew; and then why the message was not delivered where there would be the greatest likelihood of its meeting with success.

I. The first thing, then, for consideration is, that the foreign field, Sodom, may be more productive than the home field, Capernaum; in other words, so as to make the case completely our own, that ministerial success in an English parish may be far less than ministerial success in a missionary settlement. There seems, indeed, everything on the side of a clergyman who labours amongst those who have been baptized into a profession of Christianity, and everything against another, who addresses himself to pagans who know nothing of God. Christianity has so interwoven itself into all the framework of our society, that much of the rough work seems done for the minister, and he may at least take up the basis of moral instruction at a more advanced point than he who has to deal with the worshipper of idols. If I were now addressing you for the first time, I should not think it needful to begin with labouring out a proof of the existence of God, or of the falsehood of the notion of there being many gods. Nay, I may venture to suppose, that there is hardly one of you, the youngest or the poorest, who is altogether unacquainted with the scheme of redemption, who has never yet been told of the love of that Saviour who "put away sin by the sacrifice of himself;" and thus, if this were my introduction to you as your minister, I seem to find a great deal of preliminary work already effected, and I am at liberty to commence my ministrations with the full exhibition of some rich and scriptural truth; whereas, to take another supposition, if I had just landed on some distant shore, and there were gathered around me an assembly of savages, and I was desired to address them as a part of an enslaved, though redeemed population, should I not be hampered by a consideration of the gross darkness in which this people had lived, and find it difficult to begin at a sufficiently low point with an audience removed but few degrees from the brute? And if on a hasty calculation you set my circumstances, as commencing a ministration amongst yourselves, against those which would surround me, if engaged in a mission to the heathen, you would probably conclude that the likelihood of my success— success, we mean, in winning souls-would be vastly greater at Capernaum than at Sodom-in the English parish than in the African settlement-we must press upon your notice, that the likelihood of our giving ear to the gospel message diminishes in proportion to the frequency of its repetition. We have no language in which to tell you our idea of the moral hardness which is generated by the continued but neglected proclamation of the gospel. There is not upon earth so unfavourable an audience-an audience, that is, out of which there is so little probability that converts will be fetched to vital Christianity, as that which is made up of individuals well versed in the theory, and only in the theory of religion. The preaching of the gospel is never a neutral thing; it must either benefit or injure. It is with spiritual as with natural things. You may live within sound of the roar of cannon, till you become insensible to the sound, and even sleep without being disturbed. And thus you may grow habituated to the thunders of the Word, and hear them so often as not even to be startled by their roll. And shall it yet be said, on any principles of calculation, of that man of you who has stood out for many years in his formality and indifference, hearing the gospel till practically it has deafened him to its calls, that he is a more promising subject for ministerial attack than the rude dweller in the desert, who has never yet been told of his immortality, and never been offered salvation through a Mediator? Have I as much of scriptural warrant for hoping, that men who have been baptized with a Christian baptism, and educated in Christian principles, and plied with a Christian ministry, and nevertheless are utter strangers to the power of Christianity, will be brought over by another sermon, or will yield to another exhortation, as that men who have been heretofore debarred from every moral advantage, unto whom there has been no throwing

open of the sublime things of the future, will hearken gladly to the message delivered in its first freshness, and bearing to them the tidings of love and forgiveness? In the one case I am opposed by barbarism, and ignorance, and superstition, and these are formidable adversaries; in the other, I am opposed by enlightened heads and untouched hearts,-this is the combination which of all others threatens effective resistance. When, therefore, you contrast the English parish with the missionary settlement, Capernaum with Sodom, you must compare the probable march of the gospel where it has been long struggling for mastery, and where it has never yet gained footing. There is something in the condition of a country which has for many centuries been nominally evangelised, which deserves to be seriously thought on by its every inhabitant. It is with Christianity as with all other blessings: when long possessed it becomes less considered. Whilst there is a struggle for a blessing, and there seems any probability of its being torn from our grasp, we are alive to its worth, and firm in its maintenance; but let the danger pass, and that for which we would have fought bravely whilst in jeopardy, we grow indifferent to when secure. The gospel has come down to us, an heir-loom from our ancestors, and in our every village there is provision for its being published. It is not in the face of persecution, and it is not in the surrender of worldly advantage, that we are to make profession of the pure religion of Jesus; every man may "sit under his own vine and his own fig-tree, none making him afraid," whilst he worships the one Mediator, and approaches the Father through Christ as his way of access. But we dare not say, that the time of outward peace is necessarily the best for the growth of vital Christianity; we dare not say, that in proportion as Christianity becomes interwoven with the institutions of a country, we may look to see it engraven into the hearts of the people. We know too well of a mighty risk, that just because the blessing is within reach of all it may be neglected by the great mass of a community, and that whilst the external reception of a religion is almost the thing of course, a practical indifference to that religion may be overspreading every class of society. Therefore is it that we fear for a country which has long been favoured with the unclouded light of the gospel, and that we make its privileges the measure of our anxieties. The tendency of Christianity, as we have said, is to harden, where it does not soften and overcome. This renders our home parishes, our Capernaums, so doubtful, if not unpromising, as fields of ministration. A clergyman is set over one of those parishes, and he enters with zeal and with earnestness on its moral cultivation; but possibly the gospel has long been faithfully published in this parish; its families have been acted on by the very instrumentality which the new pastor is to wield, and though there may have been here and there a solitary conversion, so that Christ has not left himself without witness in the neighbourhood, the dissoluteness of the population is virtually unchecked, and but too probably their last minister went down to his grave, worn in strength and wearied in spirit, mourning the unfruitfulness of his self-denying labours. Hence the new clergyman has a soil to till, which the former tillage has only seemed to render increasingly barren; his business is that of striving to subdue, by means which have heretofore served to strengthen in rebellion; and who will deny that, entering on this hardened territory, the engines with which he must toil at the ploughing it up being those under whose workings the earth has already approximated to the stone, the labourer has even a less prospect of ministerial success than if sent as a missionary to some tribe of the heathen? So that, whatever in a certain respect the advantages of a home scene of ministration, they are counterpoised in the increased resistance to spiritual impression which is the produce of a disregarded gospel. All the blandness and all the beauty of the English landscape disappear, all the ruggedness and all the dreariness of the African scene melt away; for if the mighty works done in Capernaum had been done in Sodom, it would long ago have repented, sitting in sackcloth and in ashes.

II. But you cannot, we think, have followed us through our foregoing observations, without finding that another question suggests itself, which we pro

posed, in the second place, briefly to consider. If the foreign field of labour would be more productive than the home-if Sodom would hearken, though Capernaum was impenitent-why, you will ask, why is not the gospel sent thither? Why must it be preached where it is certain to be preached comparatively in vain ?

Now, we have but little to give in reply to such questions. It is better to confess ignorance than to hazard conjectures, where revelation has not been explicit. That many nations should be left through many centuries in all the darkness of heathenism, that millions for whom Christ died should pass out of the world unavoidably ignorant of the alone propitiation for sin-we allow at once that there is a mystery in this appointment which, with our present amount of information, is wholly impenetrable. We have evidently no sufficient means of determining why God should send the gospel to one nation, and withhold it from another nation: we can only resolve it into the sovereign will of the Almighty, and say, in the words of the Saviour, "Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in thy sight." But let us take heed not to heighten the mystery by adding suppositions not warranted by Scripture. After all, we know very little as to God's future dealings with the heathen. The heathen are redeemed men, as much purchased by the blood of Christ as those blessed with all the privileges of the gospel. In what degree the energies of the atonement may extend themselves to the stranger and the foreigner, and procure acceptance for those who act up to the light of the dispensation beneath which they live, this, indeed, we pretend not to determine; but neither will we venture to say, that those who are excluded from all knowledge must necessarily be excluded from all benefit. It may be that the special honour of composing the mystical body of Christ, that church which is emphatically described as the bride of the Lamb, may belong exclusively to those who have been outwardly admitted into the privileges of Christianity, and inwardly united to the Mediator; but we cannot close our eyes to incidental notices in the pages of Scripture, which seem to indicate that others besides the Lamb's bride shall have share in the happiness of the future. In the 45th Psalm you read not only of "the king's daughter, all glorious within," and whose "clothing is of wrought gold," but also of "the virgins, her companions," who are brought with her to the king. The king's daughter is the church, made one by faith with the Saviour. Who are the companions that thus bear her company? The same distinction is occasionally to be seen in the Book of Canticles; and though it might be rash to build any theory on such scattered intimations, yet so long as Scripture has not said that immortality is within reach of none but those who live beneath the Christian dispensation, who has a right to hold that every heathen must unavoidably be lost? The heathen, we may believe, will be judged by the laws of the dispensation beneath which they live; the standard of trial will bear an accurate proportion to the standard of privilege; and therefore, though it be impossible that those high things be reached whose attainment is ascribed to faith in a Mediator, we can well believe that those fearful things may be avoided which shall hereafter be ascribed to the despisers of Christ. The verse succeeding our text informs us, that it will be more tolerable at the judgment for Sodom than for Capernaum; so that where the opportunities are small, so probably is the responsibleness; and we the less marvel that God should have given only little, seeing that only little will be demanded in

return. "The Judge of all the earth" shall "do right;" and his dealings with tribes and individuals of our race, as cleared up hereafter, at the final settlement of the affairs of this creation, shall irresistibly prove him no respecter of persons. If beyond our comprehension, it is not beyond our faith, that those who seem morally abandoned of God shall stand forth at the last, as equitably dealt with as those who are encircled by every moral advan tage, and that no man, when judged, as every one shall be, by his improvement of means, will have cause to arraign the dispensation beneath which he was left whilst on earth. The "people of a strange speech" would hearken; and yet the prophet is not sent to address them. We cannot deny this; for the statement is that of the Almighty himself. Are not, then, the people of a strange speech injuriously treated, a blessing being withheld which they would confessedly have improved? But we reply, that unless informed of the exact nature of future dealings with the heathen, we only speculate rashly, and perhaps sinfully, when we thus impugn the injuriousness of an appointment of God. The men who would have hearkened are perhaps improving to the utmost means already in possession; they are not, then, men of whom we might say, they must perish, unless some prophet preach to them the message of revelation; improving the light already possessed, they will not, for any thing we can tell, be outcasts at the judgment; and however, it may seem to us, that they are disadvantaged by their moral position, surely, since we cannot prove them left of God to unavoidable ruin, it is no great demand on our faith that we believe it possible, that hereafter their condition, as compared with that of others, will be shown to have furnished no just ground of complaint.

Such are a few remarks that we would advance on a point, confessedly the most difficult, suggested by our text. That God appointed Ezekiel to continue preaching to the Jews though the Jews would not hearken; that Christ worked miracles in Capernaum, though Capernaum would not receive them; in this there may have been nothing but what was needed to the leaving man without excuse, whilst he filled up the measure of his iniquities. That Ezekiel should not have been sent to strangers who would have hearkened, that the miracles should not have been wrought in Sodom, though the city might have repented in sackcloth and ashes-I cannot pronounce that either unjust or unmerciful; for I cannot prove that any have perished who, if better taught, would have been saved. Indeed, I confess ignorance. I know that, having heard of Christ, I myself-every one of you—must unavoidably perish, unless we believe in Christ. I have been brought—every one of you has been brought—under the gospel dispensation; by the laws and the rules of that dispensation must I be judged at the last; and these laws and these rules condemn me to everlasting death, if not justified by faith in the Lord our Redeemer. Such is the case with myself; such is the case with all of you, every one who has been admitted into the Christian church, or to whom there have come the glad tidings of redemption; but I know not, for I am not told, how God will deal with those to whom Christ was never preached, whose mountains were never trodden by the feet of the messengers of peace; and I know not, for I am not told, how those of whom God foreknew that they would have hearkened, had they been called, may have been wrought on by that Spirit who can use other voices beside those of preachers, and other churches besides those made with hands. Let it be enough for us, that there are in Scripture such

statements as these: "And that servant, which knew his lord's will, and prepared not himself, neither did according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes. But he that knew not, and did commit things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes. For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required: and to whom men have committed much, of him they will ask the more." Enough for us to know, that if Sodom have the fewer advantages, Capernaum will have the heavier condemnation. "It shall be more tolerable for Sodom in the day of judgment than for thee." Let us only guard you against an error, which is often the issue of such trains of thought as we have just been pursuing. Unless men can feel sure that all the heathen are to perish, they will not take part in any missionary enterprise. "We had better," they will say, "leave the heathen in their ignorance. If we introduce the gospel, we shall probably only injure their condition, by increasing their responsibilities." But where there is a positive command, obedience must be independent on possible consequences. God has bidden us "preach the gospel to every creature." Then our duty is clear. We leave results to our Maker. I support missions, not because certain that all who die in heathenism go down to the bottomless pit, but because commanded to take measures for overspreading the world with Christianity. If certain that they would all be saved, it makes no difference; the command is too explicit to be evaded; and I would freight the ship with Bibles and preachers, and send her forth on the missionary voyage, if certain that they will perish. Their forlorn and fearful state may act on my feelings, and make me more energetic; but my first motive should be, that God had bidden me attempt their conversion, and the discharge of duty; ought not to presuppose the excitement of sensibility. If you carry no other lesson away with you, we trust you will carry this, that religion finds motive enough in the fact that a thing is commanded. It does not require to be assured that the thing will be successful. Ye will be earnest, then, if ye be Christian men, to send to the heathen lands the message of Christianity. A sense of your own privileges will move you to energy. O the load, the ponderous load of accountableness, which the possession of privileges lays on individuals! Better, far better, to have been born in a Pagan land, the worshippers of the unknown spirit of the mountain or the flood, than to have seen the light in a Christian territory, and neglected the God who has spoken to us by his Son! Do not so live as to turn your advantages into witnesses against you at the judgment! You cannot be willing to be crushed by your mercies! Therefore, in God's strength, let us all resolve to labour at turning our privileges to account, lest the waters of baptism, and a mother's prayer, and a father's counsel, and the sacramental elements, and a free Bible, and the exhortations of good men, and the remonstrances of faithful preachers, bear a condemning testimony at the last. Alas! it is but too possible-God avert it from us all!-that opportunities which, if improved, would have made full blessedness our own, should help, because despised, to build the prison and to fan the flame!

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