4 
 
/ 
 
 /%4M — ^ 
 
THE MEANS 
 
 OF A 
 
 RELIGIOUS REVIVAL. 
 
 BY 
 
 JOm HOWARD HTNTON, M. A. 
 
 V 
 
 AWAKE, awake: PUT ON THY STRENGTH, O ZION !" 
 
 Isaiah lii. I,., 
 
 WITH AN IJNTRODUCTORY ESSAY. 
 
 BOSTON: 
 
 i^TNCOLN AND EDMANDS 
 1831. 
 
DISTRICT OF JMASSACHUSETTS-TO WIT i 
 
 District Clerk'^s Office. 
 Be it remembered, that on the 1st day of April A. D. 183Iy 
 ill the fifty-fifth year of the Independence of the United States 
 of America, Lincoln & Edmands, of the said district, have de- 
 posited in this office the title of a book, the right whereof they 
 claim as proprietors, in the words following, to wit : 
 
 'The Means of a Religious Revival. By John Howard Hinton, 
 A. 'Awake, awake-, put on thy strength, O Zion I' Isaiah 
 lii. 1. With an Introductory Essay.' 
 
 In conformity to the act of the CJongress of the United States, 
 entitled ' An act for the encouragement of Learning, by securing 
 the copies of maps, charts, and books, to the authors and pro- 
 prietors of such copies, during the times therein mentioned ;* 
 and also to an act, entitled ' An act supplementary to an act, 
 entitled, ' An act for the encouragement of learning by securing 
 the copies of maps, charts, and books, to the authors and propri- 
 etors of such copies during the times therein mentioned j" and 
 extending the benefits thereof to the arts of designing, engraving, 
 and etciiing historical and other prints.' 
 
 JNO. W. DAVIS, 
 ; Cl&rk of the District of Massachusetts, 
 
 ADVERTISEMENT. 
 As the great subject of religious revivals is attracting an increas- 
 ed attention, in the various sections of the United States, the 
 publishers hope to promote the interests of vital piety, by pre- 
 senting, in a convenient form for circulation, the excellent 
 work of Mr Ilinton on the * Means af a Religious Revival.' It is 
 peculiarly adapted to excite to awakened activity, every individual 
 of the Christian Church. To the work is prefixed An Intro- 
 ductory Essay, written by an American Minister, desirous to aid 
 the interesting object of the publication. 
 
 WAITT AND DOW, PUTNTERS, 
 
INTRODUCTORY ESSAY, 
 
 The progress of religion does not, like that of 
 the sciences, depend on the discovery of new 
 principles. God has given to us in his word a 
 complete revelation of religion. It is from the sa- 
 cred oracles, and from them only, that we are to 
 derive all our rehgious knowledge. And these 
 oracles were as complete at the filling up of the 
 present canon as they now are, or as they will 
 be at any future period. 
 
 There is nothing like this in any of the scien 
 ces. There is no system, in which is developed 
 every principle, and to which we are to confine 
 ourselves in every inquiry into the laws of nature, 
 requiring of us simply to multiply our observa- 
 tions of facts to illustrate truths already known. 
 
 Every scientific treatise is esteemed valuable — 
 mostly in proportion to what in it is original — 
 to the discoveries it gives to the world of impor- 
 tant, ultimate facts. 
 
4 
 
 INTKGDUCTORY ESSAY. 
 
 Not SO in religion. There God has given us 
 the principles of which if we are ignorant, it is 
 because we have not searched his word. We 
 would not be misapprehended in this statement, 
 as if we thought there were no field for research, 
 no claim upon the intellect in a revealed religion. 
 Nothing can be farther than this from our views. 
 
 But while it is true, if there were no revela- 
 tion, to which we might resort with confidence, 
 we should be more in the dark upon the subject 
 of religion than we are in the sciences of nature, 
 as sin has introduced a confusion into the mor- 
 al, which it has not into the natural world — yet 
 with the revelation which has been given us, the 
 certainty of morals stands altogether pre-emi- 
 nent. 
 
 What intellect has to do with the progress of 
 religion is confined, first, to the study of the re- 
 vealed word. Nor will it find here a field of re- 
 search either limited or barren. The extent of 
 this revelation, together with the character of its 
 truths, affords an ample task for the stoutest and 
 most untiring mind. While all that is necessary 
 to salvation is simple and plain — so that a child 
 may understand and be made to feel the power 
 of its renovating truths — there is much also that 
 is sublime, much that is incomprehensible. 
 
^ INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. 
 
 5 
 
 To relish the one, and to know the exact point at 
 which the human understanding has its limit in 
 the other — requires a mental cultivation and ex- 
 pansion to which we are not prepared to set 
 bounds. And the degree of this cultivation on 
 the part of the friends of God and religion — oth- 
 er things being equal, — might be taken perhaps 
 as the measure of the progress of morals and re^ 
 ligion in the world. 
 
 Besides this, there are many collateral studies 
 with that of the Bible — such as antiquity, es- 
 pecially that of the Jews, which are now throw- 
 ing, and probably will continue to throw increas- 
 ing light upon the sacred text. Many portions 
 of revelation, of which we may now be utterly 
 ignorant, or but imperfectly understand, will yet 
 be made clear, and thus be brought to bear up- 
 on the consciences of men. Those, united with 
 what was before understood, will be an accumu- 
 lation of religious power. 
 
 Again : Not only may the researches of the hu- 
 man understanding throw new light upon what 
 God has revealed in his word, but it may, in the 
 next place, advance beyond its present state of 
 ability to select, arrange and combine truth, so 
 as to affect the heart more powerfully than it now 
 does. 
 
 1* 
 
6 
 
 INTRODUCTORY ESSAY* 
 
 In other words, the character of preachhig and 
 of religious addresses to the consciences of men^ 
 whether in public or private, may be changed for 
 the belter, compared with what they now are. 
 There has been a great change within a few years 
 in this respect, and the fruits of ministerial labor 
 show that this change has been favorable to re- 
 ligion* We need not say that this change is great- 
 er simplicity, and a style of address more prac- 
 tical in its character. 
 
 Nor are we by any means prepared to say, that 
 all has been done, on this subject, that can or will 
 be. If any man would be great in the kingdom 
 of Christ, he must not labor to discover new 
 doctrines which may convert the soul, but he 
 must task his intellect in so combining and illus- 
 trating the simple principles which God has al- 
 ready revealed, as to make them bear with new 
 force upon the heart and conscience. Genius 
 must here be seen in making men feel greatly, 
 for not doing what they have known for years 
 they should have done, and for doing, on the oth- 
 er hand, what they have often done without com- 
 punction, though they were well aware of God's 
 displeasure against the acts. The great object is, 
 the power to make men feel what the same truths 
 have not yet been able to do, the ability to 
 make all things appear neWo 
 
INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. 
 
 7 
 
 When we say, therefore, 'the sacred oracles' 
 are complete, it is meant that God will neither 
 reveal nor will men discover, unaided, new laws- 
 new doctrines — new motives of conduct — or 
 prospects of the world to come. No new revela- 
 tion will be found to exist between God and 
 man, whereby the obligations of the latter shall 
 not be included in the well known command- 
 ment, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all 
 thy heart, might, mind and strength. No new 
 relation shall be discovered to exist between men, 
 as fellow men, and fellov/ pilgrims — where the 
 mutual obligation shall not be the standing one, 
 ' Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyrelf ' 
 
 The simple law of gravitation was known as a 
 fact, and to govern the material universe, before 
 any thing like a full developement was made of 
 its relative influence upon the different spheres. 
 Nor is it supposed that future inquiries will not 
 throw new and important hght upon the whole 
 subject, though the simple law in any case before 
 us may be perfectly understood as it ever will be. 
 
 So the revealed principle binding on man as a 
 rule of life, to love our neighbor as ourselves, may 
 yet be seen to imply, and men may acknowledge 
 their obligations to pursue a very different course 
 of conduct from what is now practised. 
 
8 
 
 INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. 
 
 The very simple rule which we often see illus- 
 trated m the intercourse of two individuals who 
 deal justly, naay be hereafter seen to reach us, 
 and extend out, more than it now does, into all 
 the variety of intercourse among communities and 
 nations. New obligations may be discovered 
 and felt, of which the world has httle thought. 
 
 And as the bare supposition "of an increase of 
 hght on this subject must also imply an increased 
 wilhngness to recognize and obey the laws which 
 it shall disclose— (for surely the world will not 
 labor to search out and increase obligations, which 
 it has no disposition to discharge) — we can predict 
 the advance of general righteousness in the world 
 as surely as that of light. 
 
 But we have no reason to expect, that there will 
 arise any new prophet or inspired Psalmist or 
 Apostle or preacher of righteouness. Our pre- 
 sent Bible, is all the revelation, so far as we 
 know, which God designs to make to this fallen 
 world. With us, then, it is to the law and the tes- 
 timony, that we are to have recourse. And he is 
 wise who searches them, and them only, thinking 
 to find the words of eternal hfe. 
 
 Again : The Bible is not only a complete re- 
 velation, but it is also sufficient. 
 
 The holy scriptures are not only able to make 
 him wise unto salvation who shall follow the 
 
INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. 
 
 9 
 
 precepts which they contain, but also, thorough- 
 ly to furnish the servants of God, who are labor- 
 ing to advance his cause among men, unto all 
 good works. 
 
 A tradesman may fail in business, because he 
 could not foresee and calculate on the fluctuation 
 of the market. The husbandman may be disap- 
 pointed, w^hen he enters the field to reap his har- 
 vest, because he could not predict the unfruitful- 
 ness of the season. The merchant may lose his 
 ship at sea, because the tempest wliich wrecked 
 it could not have been anticipated and escaped, 
 or the rock on which it dashed had been hitherto 
 undiscovered. 
 
 But he that shall have gone from the cradle to 
 the judgment seat of Chiist, with a Bible in his 
 hand — will not find a pardon or an extenuation of 
 his sin on the- ground of ignorance. 
 
 All scripture is given by inspiration of God, 
 and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for cor- 
 rection, for instruction in righteousness, that the 
 man of God may be perfect, thoroughly fur- 
 nished unto all good works. The proposition that 
 a sufiicient revelation has been given us, is only 
 repeating the sentiment of the Apostle, whom we 
 have just quoted, with one, yet by no means an 
 important qualification. The Jewish scriptures 
 which are here declared to be able to make the 
 
10 INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. 
 
 man of God perfect, were not then a complete re- 
 velation. 
 
 They, if believed, were sufficient to reclaim the 
 heart to God, to save the soul ; but very impor- 
 tant revelations were made afterwards. All that 
 is new in what are called the New Testament 
 writings, are an after revelation. They make the 
 sacred oracles complete. 
 
 It ought to be distinctly understood, however, 
 that while the revelations of the New Testament 
 are so important, that they are said to bring life 
 and immortality to light — they are, nevertheless, 
 in general, only a fuller development of what had 
 already been suggested. The Psalmist says, 
 ' Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light 
 unto my path.' At the coming of Christ and the 
 opening of the new scheme of revelations, it was 
 said, the ' day-spring from on high hath visited 
 us — to give light to them that sit in darkness.' As 
 the hght of a full and unclouded sun rising upon 
 the world is compared to the feeble light of a 
 taper — so is the abundance of Gospel light and 
 knowledge, compared with what was before en- 
 joyed. 
 
 This increase of light, however, has as much 
 reference to its universality, to the greater num- 
 ber of persons who walk by it, as to the increased 
 benefit to any one individual. Those devout 
 
INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. 
 
 11 
 
 men of old who walked with God, seem to have 
 had then- light to themselves, shut up, most of it, 
 within their own bosoms. Under the Gospel, the 
 sun that has risen upon us, sheds his beams on 
 all around, while at the same time it makes 
 the path of each individual more luminous and 
 safe. 
 
 But the Old Testament, though incomplete, 
 though an unfinished revelation, was neverthe- 
 less, sufficient, if received with faith, to make 
 wise unto salvation. 'The law of the Lord is 
 perfect, converting the soul.' This was said as 
 true of the Jewish Scriptures. What, then, ought 
 to be considered to be the value of a complete re- 
 velation, where, if there were not one new princi- 
 ple or ultimate fact disclosed, the more perfect 
 development and brilliancy of illustration, of 
 what had been previously known as true, makes 
 the comparison as the sun to a taper. If Enoch, 
 Noah, Abraham, Moses, David, Elijah, Isaiah, and 
 Daniel, had sufficient divine knowledge to make 
 them so perfect in personal piety as they were, 
 and so thoroughly furnished to teach men the fear 
 of the Lord — what manner of persons ouglit we 
 to be, not only in all godly conversation, but al- 
 so in the ability to persuade men to be reconciled 
 to Ged. 
 
12 
 
 INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. 
 
 There is now more religious power in the 
 world — for knowledge is power— than there was 
 before the Gospel revelations were made. And, 
 if we are not holier men than those ancient ser- 
 vants of the Most High were, and if we do not 
 accomplish more in carrying forward the cause of 
 God in the w^orld than they did, we are unfaith- 
 ful, unprofitable servants. For he hatli abounded 
 toward us in all wisdom, having made known 
 to us the mystery of his will, according to his 
 good pleasure, which he hath purposed in him- 
 self, that in the dispensation of the fulness of times, 
 he might gather together in one, all things in 
 Christ, both which are in heaven and which are 
 on earth. 
 
 Jfe have a complete revelation ; and if it was 
 suffiinent to convert and sanctify the soul before 
 it was completed, much more then is it now. 
 We ought, therefore, not only to make higher 
 attainments in personal piety, but also, to exhib- 
 it a greater measure of the spirit and power 
 which characterized Elijah's ministry. 
 
 Finally : The renovation of the heart does not 
 depend so much on the amount of knowledge, 
 as on the state of mind at the time of its recep- 
 tion. 
 
 Since truth is the great instrument wdiich God 
 has appointed to renew and sanctif^^ the heart : 
 
liNTKODUCTORY KSSAY. 
 
 i3 
 
 and as it has been stated, since no farther revela- 
 tions are to be expected, the sacred oracles be- 
 ing ah-eady complete ; it may be asked, Why 
 are no more converted and saved ? And why are 
 not those who are renewed, more perfect, more 
 thoroughly sanctified ? Why are not christians 
 holier men and women ? 
 
 The difficulty is by no means in the small 
 amount, or the feebleness of truth, either as to 
 God's laws, or the method of salvation. The 
 kiw of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul. 
 The Gospel is emphatically styled the wisdom 
 and the power of God unto salvation. 
 
 We not only have this declaration of the Scrip- 
 tures in their own favor, but we also have facts 
 before us for illustration. We have repeated in- 
 stances of conversion on hearing the Gospel 
 preached for the first time. The case of Diony- 
 sius, a judge of the court of Areopagus, at 
 Athens, is pertinent; and he heard but one dis- 
 course, upon the falsehood and folly of idolatry, 
 and he believed. The jailor seems to have been 
 converted under the influence of what truth he 
 received, while standing, for aught we know, 
 with his sword yet unsheathed, w^hich he had 
 drawn with the design of committing suicide; 
 and he asked. Sirs, what must I do to be saved ? 
 And they said, 'Believe on the Lord J^sus 
 2 
 
14 INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. 
 
 Christ, and thou shall be saved.' And they 
 spake unto him the word of the Lord ; and he 
 took them the same hour of the night, and wash- 
 ed their stripes, and was baptized. 
 
 There are repeated instances in heathen lands, 
 where the labors of our missionaries have been 
 crowned with sudden success. Where, without 
 regard to age, a very little knowledge of the 
 way of salvation, has induced the mind to seek 
 it; and a very little know-ledge of the will of 
 God, has subdued the mind to obedience. Now 
 compare this with what we often see. Individu- 
 als, from their childhood till old age, sit under 
 Gospel light a|; intense as an unclouded noon- 
 day sun, without any saving effect ; perhaps are 
 less susceptible of a religious impression, are more 
 sceptical, at the age of fifty, than they were at 
 twenty-five. 
 
 This want of saving effect cannot be attributed 
 to the want of divine knowledge, or to the fee- 
 bleness of truth, any more than a starving man 
 could justly complain that food did not nourish 
 iiim, of which he refused to partake, though his 
 table was loaded ever so bountifully. * The word 
 preached does not profit them, not being mixed 
 with faith in them that hear it.' 
 
 Paul says to Timothy, spealdng of the Holy 
 Scriptures, that they are able to jiiake wise unto 
 
INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. 15 
 
 salvation, through faith that is in Christ Jesus. 
 We see, then, that whether complete or not, a 
 sufficient revelation has been given us, if the 
 mind only be disposed to receive it. Salvation 
 — in a word, all that redeeming and purifying in- 
 fluence which divine truth exerts, depends on 
 faith. But here one may say, the strength of 
 faith must depend on the amount of evidence. 
 If the v^orld have not believed, it must be be- 
 cause God has not yet given them the reasons. 
 Such, it will be readily acknowledged, is the 
 law of the human mind on all other subjects; 
 the more evidence, the stronger the conviction 
 produced on any given mind. But not so in re- 
 ligion. Belief requires evidence. But the state 
 of the mind may be such as to disregard all evi- 
 dence. It is indeed the fool that hath said in 
 his heart, * there is no God.' But it does not 
 mean the man who has not the natural power of 
 discernment ; but one whose moral feelings have 
 blinded the eyes of his understanding, and his 
 folly is seen perhaps in nothing but the fact, that 
 he believes not. 
 
 There are, on the other hand, men of very 
 small capacities, who have not an intellectual 
 grasp sufficient to comprehend any considerable 
 portion of the evidences which God has given to 
 the world, of his existence, attributes, govern- 
 
16 
 
 INTKODUCTOHY 
 
 ESSAY. 
 
 ment. &c. ; but yet, who have such strong con- 
 fidence in him ; have such a perception of spir- 
 itual things, that no bribe, no temptation, per- 
 haps not death itself, could bend their integrity, 
 or wrrest from them the hope of an eternal weight 
 of glory in another world. 
 
 Truth purifies the heart, only in connexion 
 with faith ; and faith does not depend so much 
 on the amount of evidence as on the disposition 
 of the heart. It is in the power of any man to 
 resist the counsel of God against himself, in the 
 same way that he may starve himself to death, 
 with his table loaded with the richest viands. 
 
 The strength of our faith will depend on the 
 strength of our love for the things revealed as 
 the object of our belief. A mathematical de- 
 monstration may produce equal or nearly equal 
 conviction upon any two minds ; but of the very 
 same individuals, one may reject all evidence of 
 a God, or be blind to every spiritual doctrine of 
 his word, while the other with a hundredth part 
 of the evidence, may believe to the saving of 
 his soul. The conscience of one is shielded, 
 and from it, the arrow rebounds, and falls pow- 
 erless. The other is naked and openjand the 
 arrow reaches and penetrates, and fastens, and 
 converts. 
 
INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. 
 
 17 
 
 An individual of small understanding may, by 
 yielding to the force of what divine knowledge 
 he has, have in the soul so much that is heaven- 
 ly, as to enable him, like the philosopher in the 
 use of general principle, to infer much as to 
 what heaven is. Of two men, of two christians, 
 the less intellectual may have views of heaven 
 altogether more discriminating and controlHng in 
 their influence than the other, of a stronger 
 mind, but more worldly, in whose heart has been 
 shed abroad, less divine love. 
 
 How strikingly manifest, then, must this be 
 in those cases where the heart is yet enmity 
 against God, not subject to his Jaw. All who 
 consider this subject with candor, must be con- 
 vinced that the reason why the truths of God's 
 word have not savingly affected their hearts, (if 
 in fact they have not,) is not owing to any de- 
 ficiency in the revelation, as being incomplete^ 
 or insufRcient ; but to a spirit of religious unbe- 
 lief. 
 
 I can but imagine with what peculiar emo- 
 tions and with what solicitude those holy men 
 of old, who rejoiced in the divine light which 
 shone upon their path, and who died believing 
 the promises, — if they are allowed to take cog- 
 nizance of what mortals do — must watch our 
 * I)rogress here on earthy astonished, not only at 
 
 a* 
 
18 INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. 
 
 the entire disbelief of many, but even at the fee- 
 bleness of their faith, who do believe, and are 
 striving to enter in at the strait gate. Could 
 their voices but reach us, w^e should hear them 
 paying, Brethren, believe in the promises. 
 
 With less knowledge, they have triumphed 
 over sin and ignorance, and have entered their 
 rest. With less evidence than we have, they 
 have exercised faith, which enabled them to 
 live as strangers and pilgrims in the earth; they 
 endured, supported by the power of faith, the 
 trial of cruel mocking and scourgings; yea, 
 moreover, of bonds and imprisonments ; they 
 wandered in deserts and in mountains, and in 
 dens, and caves of the earth. 
 
 How must that crowd of witnesses, look down 
 -upon christians of the present day. How won- 
 derful to them our little attainments in piety, and 
 faith, and sanctification : and above all, how as- 
 tonishing to them that any should live unaffected, 
 amid so much that is convincing, having no hope, 
 and without God in the world, though he is not 
 very far from every one of them. 
 
 O how can a modern iafidel stand before this 
 lioly army of martyrs, in the day of judgment. 
 How can those who love darkness rather than 
 light, because their own deeds are evil, denying 
 the doctrines of God's word, crying peace, when 
 <jod hath not pronounced it, stand before them. 
 
INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. 
 
 19 
 
 How can they wlio remove the scandal of the 
 cross, ' denying the Lord that bought them,' ap- 
 pear before those who beheved in a Saviour to 
 come ; and having obtained a good report, 
 through faith, are now worshippers of the full 
 glory of the Lamb. 
 
 O what confusion must be theirs, who, almost 
 persuaded to be christians, have nevertheless 
 failed of the grace of God ; meeting at the judg- 
 ment seat of Christ, those, as they must, who 
 have been sanctitied, and have been made victo- 
 rious over sin and death, through the power of 
 the same truths, which to themselves have been 
 a savor of death. 
 
 In review — if the Scriptures are a complete 
 revelation, with what diligence ought we to 
 search them, as *the oracles of God,' containing 
 the words of eternal life. 
 
 If God has given us a sufficient revelation, with 
 what gratitude ought we to receive it. 
 
 If more is depending on the state of the heart, 
 on the submissive disposition of mind, than on 
 the amount of knowledge, with what a prayerful 
 and childlike spirit should we study God's word, 
 assured, that if any man will do his will, he shall 
 know of his doctrine. 
 
 It is with this view of the state of religion and 
 of the means which the Almighty has given his 
 
20 
 
 INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. 
 
 frieDds for carrying forward his cause among men 
 that we have been induced to offer to the pubUc, 
 this httle work on Religious Revival. It is not 
 recommended as containing any new principles, 
 either doctrines or rules of life. But whoever 
 shall read it with a devout, prayerful heart, seek- 
 ing simply a more willing mind to labor for 
 God in the Gospel of his Son, will find truth 
 clearly stated, duty forcibly illustrated and urged, 
 and the whole accompanied with a: pious spirit, 
 an unction from the Holy One, which wins the 
 soul to a life of active piety. 
 
 It shall be followed by our sincere and fer- 
 vent prayers, that the Divine Spirit, without 
 whose aid all is in vain, may make it a silent, 
 but awakening and powerful preacher to hun- 
 dreds and thousands of the members of our 
 churches who need a deeper consciousness of 
 the worth of the soul, and of the imminent dan- 
 ger of the impenitent, and whose zeal needs to 
 be called into vigorous action, in order to make 
 them extensively useful in the cause of our bless- 
 ed Redeemer. 
 
> 
 
 AUTHOR'S PREFACE. 
 
 Observing the annunciation that Wednesday, 
 the 10th of December, would be set apart by 
 the Baptist churches in London as a day of ex- 
 traordinary prayer, the congregation meeting in 
 Hosiers' Street, Reading, immediately adopted 
 a similar resolution. The attendance was nu- 
 merous, the spirit fervent, and the season sol- 
 emn. The sermon now presented to the public 
 was preached by the author to his own people 
 on the morning of the Lord's day following, in 
 order to promote a spirit of exertion conformable 
 with the attitude of prayer. It is primarily to 
 them that he still addresses it from the press ; 
 and if he commits it to a more extensive circu- 
 lation, it is neither because he conceives himself 
 to be particularly entitled to the attention of his 
 brethren, nor because he has anything new or ex- 
 traordinary to communicate ; but because he re- 
 joices to perceive a growing excitement in refer- 
 ence to the progress of religion, and would be 
 happy to aid in giving it a right direction. 
 
22 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 In attempting to do so, he has urged the adop- 
 tion of a habit of personal and individual effort, 
 among the disciples of Christ, for the conversion 
 of the ungodly. It may perhaps occasion sur- 
 prise, that he should have thought it necessary to 
 dwell on such a topic, in a day which claims to 
 be regarded as pre-eminently characterized by 
 christian exertion. The writer is not wholly ig- 
 norant of the kind or the degree of activity which 
 prevails in the religious world, in which, indeed 
 he has borne some humble part, and to which he 
 wishes to do ample justice ; but his deliberate opi- 
 nion is, that, while, in the kind of activity which 
 exists, the degree is far from being just matter of 
 complacency, there is a large sphere of obliga- 
 tory effort criminally and almost totally neglect- 
 ed. He is ready to allow whatever can be just- 
 ly said of the pecuniary liberality of the present 
 period ; he acknowledges the zeal which is 
 shown for the maintenance and extension of an 
 official ministry ; and, with still greater pleasure, 
 does he contempUite the incipient labors of those 
 who go "into the streets and lanes of the city:" 
 but, to say nothing of the very partial and inade- 
 quate execution of these sacred duties and bles- 
 sed enterprises, ivhat are the proffesors of religion 
 doing individually to save sinners'? Let any man, 
 in a spirit of the most fervent charity, make the 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 23 
 
 inquiry respecting those whom he personally 
 knows, and with whose general habits he is well 
 acquainted ; in whatmethod or to what extent, do 
 these persons appear to try to rescue a soul from 
 death ? The answer to this question could scarce- 
 ly be far from the truth, since efforts of such a 
 character are not easily concealed : but, inasmuch 
 as they may be so in part, let every professor 
 make the scrutiny perfectly accurate, by carrying 
 it into his own bosom, and seriously asking. What 
 have I ever done, or what am I in the habit of do-^ 
 in g, for the conversion of ungodly men? The 
 writer has a stong conviction that, in comparison 
 with its resources, almost nothing is done in this 
 direction, through the whole church of Christ. 
 Amidst all the activity of the age, the direct means 
 of conversion are for the most part resigned to 
 professional hands, and the care of men's souls 
 almost as completely left to the ministers of the 
 gospel, as that of their bodies to the ph^^sician. 
 With even the awakened anxiety of the present 
 moment re&pecting the progress of religion, there 
 is associated to a great extent the mistaken and in- 
 jurious sentiment, that the only thing wanting is 
 a divine blessing, and that the only means to be 
 used is prayer ; or that, if any persons are to be 
 more laborious, it is only the ministers. The Lord 
 help his ministers to be more laborious ! We. 
 
24 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 have all need to be quickened in our work, and 
 no faithful minister wishes to shrink from it. But 
 this cherished feeling of exemption on the part 
 of christians at large is a great evil ; it is one of 
 the greatest evils of the present age. It lies like 
 a mountain on the bosom of the church of Christ, 
 and it oppresses the heart which would otherwise 
 heave with far mightier throes for the salvation 
 of the world. It stifles her voice; it paralyzes 
 her hands ; it induces a sluggishness of the gen- 
 eral circulation, and with it a morbid want of 
 sensibility, which renders it impossible to elicit 
 even the existing signs of life, except by a sys- 
 tem of excessive and unhealthy stimulants. Nor 
 can any rational hope be entertained of what 
 seems to be so ardently longed for, namely, a 
 revival of religion, until this vast slumbering 
 body is aroused to throw off its incubus, and bend 
 its whole energies to the effort. 
 
 To the exhibition and the remedy of this evil 
 the author of the following discourse has direct- 
 ed his attention. As was his duty, he has first 
 addressed himself to the people of his immediate 
 charge ; but if there be truth or value in the sen- 
 timents he has expressed, he earnestly commends 
 them to the consideration of his remoter brethren. 
 What exceptions may be justly claimed to the 
 opinion he has formed, he does not know; but, 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 25 
 
 while lie fears they are few, he is sure that those 
 who are truly most devoted will not be the most 
 eager to except themselves, or the most difficult 
 of access to the influence of stimulant appeals. 
 If there are some who could not say that they 
 have ever strenuously tried to turn one sinner to 
 God, what multitudes more must confess that they 
 have suffered many to pass from their influence, 
 at whose conversion they ought to have aimed ; 
 that they have neglected innumerable opportuni- 
 ties in which such an object might have been 
 hopefully pursued ; and surrendered many an 
 hour to indolence, to luxury, or to folly, which a 
 deeper tone of piety would have consecrated to 
 this nobler end ! 
 
 It may seem difficult to reconcile a state of 
 inaction in a direction so obviously pointed out 
 by divine truth, and so strongly congenial with 
 devout feeling, with a lively state of experimen- 
 tal religion. The author is not disposed, how- 
 ever, to come to a very painful conclusion on 
 this point. He conceives rather that this part 
 of their duty has been overlooked, while the 
 attention of christians has been absorbed in their 
 own edification. It cannot for a moment be 
 suj)posed that the writer holds spiritual consola- 
 tion and improvement in low estimation, or 
 would insinuate that any person can be too earn- 
 3 
 
26 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 est in the pursuit of them. But attention to an 
 object, though not excessive in itself, may be so 
 in comparison. It may be disproportionate ; it 
 may unawares lead us to forget another, which 
 has equal, or at all events decisive claims on our 
 regard. This the w^riter conceives to have hap- 
 pened with christian edification. Professors have 
 desired this not too fervently, but too exclusively ; 
 and while bent on satiating their own souls, they 
 have not been alive to the relief of the hungry 
 and the perishing, Hence it is that you may 
 find devout persons, who make no more direct 
 effort to convert a sinner than if there were not 
 such a being in the world. Hence it is, too, that 
 the state of church union loses in a great measure 
 its appropriate character of activity ; and while 
 it is valued as a pavilion into which the righteous 
 may enter to pour out their sorrows, and find re- 
 fuge from their trials, it ceases to resemble a for- 
 tress, from which the soldiers of the cross are 
 continually issuing, to assail the kingdom of dark- 
 ness, and rescue the captives of Satan. Hence, 
 finally, it arises, that even the ministry of the di- 
 vine word has undergone a most injurious modi- 
 fication. The pastoral character in great part 
 absorbs the ministerial, and the edification of the 
 church takes precedence of the conversion of the 
 W'^rld, In this manner the preaching of the gos- 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 27 
 
 pel loses its primary and most important aspect, 
 to assume almost exclusively a secondary and 
 less important one ; and its main address is no 
 longer to sinners, but to saints. The consum- 
 mation of this process is, that ministers, being in 
 the habit of speaking chiefly to the righteous, 
 have few sinners to address ; and at length, in 
 some cases, come to the strange conclusion that 
 they have nothing to say to the wicked if they 
 were there. This corruption of the gospel is a 
 most afflictive one ; and one for the origination 
 and continuance of which the churches of Christ 
 have to accuse chiefly themselves. The author 
 would rejoice to promote an increasing readiness 
 in christians, not only to endure, but to welcome 
 a large measure of address to the unconverted. 
 He cannot but think, that, if they felt a due pity 
 for their condition, and were accustomed them- 
 selves to strive for their conversion, they would 
 delight in such appeals, and be scarcely less hap- 
 py to sit and pray for others, than to be comforted 
 themselves. 
 
 The author is well aware, that the habit of pub- 
 lic exertion which the last thirty years has intro- 
 duced, is conceived to have been unfavorable to 
 the cultivation of personal piety, and to have im- 
 parted to it, as known in the present day, a su- 
 perficial character much to be regretted. What- 
 
28 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 ever justice there may be in this remark, it is ob- 
 vious that the efforts he enforces cannot have a 
 similar tendency. The evil has arisen from de- 
 serting private for public activity. To attend 
 committees, to frequent pubhc meetings, to un- 
 dertake collections, to write reports, to make 
 speeches, are things, which, however necessary, 
 useful or agreeable, tend not to feed, but to ex- 
 haust piety ; and a man had need be of more than 
 an ordinary standard, and maintain an unusual 
 nearness to God, to sustain such a life without 
 injury ; while, in too many instances, these exer- 
 tions have been suffered to abridge those devout 
 retirements, in which the essential nourishment 
 of religion is chiefly derived. The effect of per- 
 sonal effort to convert men will be altogether dif- 
 ferent. It takes no man far abroad. It begins at 
 home, with his children and his servants. It ac- 
 companies him wherever he goes, and leads him 
 precisely where he would go, if he had no such 
 object. Or, if it occasionally conducts him else- 
 where, it is not to scenes of even religious dissi- 
 pation, but to individual converse ; it is to behold 
 depravity and guilt, not in picturesque descrip- 
 tion, but in embodied misery ; and to aim at the 
 conversion of a soul, not by loud plaudits of an 
 orator, but by the compassionate pleadings of his 
 own lips ; not by the opening of a liberal purse^ 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 29 
 
 but by the more influential utterance of a melting 
 heart. This is work to do a man's soul good, to 
 teach him what it is to be a christian, and w^hat 
 a christian ought to be ; to make him feel the 
 value and the need of sterling principles of piety ; 
 and to send him to his knees, both with more 
 fervent supplication and more ardent praise. 
 
 But the writer must check himself in a course 
 of remark, by which he is, perhaps, too long de- 
 taining his readers from the main subject of the 
 discourse. What joy would it not afford him, if 
 each would peruse it with a spirit of serious ex- 
 amination and fervent prayer ; and, without once 
 thinking either of the sermon or the author, yield 
 his whole soul to conviction, penitence, and re- 
 formation ! 
 
 3* 
 
MEANS 
 
 OF 
 
 RELIGIOUS REVIVAL. 
 
 Matthew v, 13. 
 
 ** YE ARE THE SALT OF THE EARTH I BUT IF THE 
 SALT HAVE LOST HIS SAVOUR, WHEREWITH 
 SHVLL IT BE SALTED ? IT IS THENCEFORTH 
 GOOD FOR NOTHING, BUT TO BE CAST OUT, 
 AND TRODDEN UNDER FOOT OF MEN." 
 
 Our attentjoii lias lately been directed to the 
 very serious and afFecting fact, that the progress 
 of religion, at the present period, is by no means 
 rapid ; far less so than must be desired, and 
 might be ex])ected. On this account we have 
 engaged in an exercise of extraordinary prayer ; 
 an occasion on which your attendance was grati- 
 fying, and on which we are assured that the 
 God of Zion accepted graciously whatever of 
 real prayer was presented at his footstool. Ever 
 since that day, however, I have seemed to have 
 ringing in my ears the words of the Lord to one 
 of his ancient servants, "What doest thou here, 
 Elijah ?" Was it then wrong to pray ? No : k ut 
 
32 
 
 it will be wrong to content ourselves with pray- 
 er. The question addressed to the prophet was 
 designed to turn him from his lamentation over 
 the idolatrous state of the Jewish nation, to his 
 duty as its destined reformer; and we need 
 equally to be directed from our supplications to 
 our labors. We have presented our petitions at 
 the throne of grace, for the conversion of the 
 world. Here is the answer to them : " Ye are 
 
 THE SALT or THE EARTH." As thoUgh the 
 
 Lord had said, " The conversion of the world 
 lies not only with me ; it lies in part with your- 
 selves. If it is mine to pour out a blessing, it is 
 yours to employ the means upon which alone 
 a blessing can rest. Depart, therefore, to your 
 labor ; and see that you are as faithful to your 
 obligations, as you have implored me to be to 
 my promises." Such ought to have been our 
 spirit and our purpose while waiting at his 
 throne ; and if indeed it were not, we could ex- 
 pect little else than to be driven from his pres- 
 ence, with the indignant rebuke, " Wilt thou call 
 this a fast, and an acceptable day to the Lord ? 
 Bring no more vain oblations; the calling of as- 
 semblies I cannot away with.' 
 
 I am constrained, therefore, by a solemn sense 
 of duty, and a deep feeling of its importance, to 
 dwell upon this subject to day, and to urge, 
 
33 
 
 with affectionate importunity, our obligation to 
 instant activity. And though, in an effort which 
 may encounter estabhshed habits of thought and 
 feeling as well as of action, if I may not rather 
 say of inaction and self-indulgence, I might be 
 apprehensive of little success, the time, the cir- 
 cumstances, the remembrance of your prayers, 
 together with the awakened interest and increas- 
 ed excitement of your minds, encourage a hope 
 that it will not be in vain. At all events it is my 
 duty to make the attempt ; may God crown it 
 with his blessing! 
 
 The passage before us divides itself into two 
 portions. It contains, first, a general view of 
 the relation which the disciples of Christ sustain 
 to the world : and, secondly, a representation of 
 the importance of fully maintaining the charac- 
 ter assigned to us: "Ye are the salt of the 
 EARTH. But if the salt has lost its sa- 
 vour, wherewith shall it be salted ? It 
 is thenceforth good for nothing, but to 
 be cast out, and trodden under foot of 
 
 MEN." 
 
 I. Our Lord here presents to us, in the first 
 place, a general view of the relation which his 
 disciples sustain to the world. They are the 
 salt of the earth. 
 
 Of course this is figurative language. By the 
 
34 
 
 earth is doubtless intended the general mass of 
 mankind. And when Christ speaks of the salt 
 of the earth, he clearly intimates that mankind 
 generally are in a state susceptible of, and, in 
 truth, imperatively requiring, a beneficial change ; 
 as some substances, under the action of salt, re- 
 ceiv^e an additional flavor, or are even preserved 
 from decay. The assertion that his disciples are 
 the salt of the earth, carries with it the idea of 
 their fitness and destination to produce the con- 
 templated effect. Let us mark the sentiments 
 which the passage, thus interpreted, is adapted 
 to convey. 
 
 1. It teaches us, in the first place, that man- 
 kind generally are in need of a beneficial change. 
 The change to which the text refers is obvious- 
 ly a religious one ; and the implication of it is, 
 that the great bulk of mankind are in an irre- 
 ligious state. That this was the case at the time 
 our Lord spoke, is sufficiently manifest, without 
 particular proof; and, when we think of the 
 wide tracts and multiplied nations yet scarcely, 
 or not at all, enlightened by the gospel, it can 
 admit of no doubt that it is so still. But can 
 such a representation be truly made of human 
 society, within the more favored limits of re- 
 ligious light and christian profession? Is the 
 bulk of protestant countries, or of our own coun- 
 
35 
 
 try, ungodly ? Are the majority of our neighs 
 bors living without God in the world ? Are the 
 irreligious to be found in the circles of our acr 
 quaintance, and in the bosom of our families ? 
 To answer these questions, it is needful to de-r 
 termine on what principle the answer shall be 
 given. The grand inquiry is this : Is religion a 
 matter of name and form, of relation apd profes- 
 sion ? Or is it personal, internal, and spiritual ? 
 If the former, then indeed may we look round 
 upon the swarming population of our country 
 with a complacent apd delighted eye: but if the 
 latter, as we most solemnly believe to be the 
 case, its aspect assumes a very different and a 
 melancholy hue. "Except a man be bori^ 
 again," said our divine Instructor, "he cannot see 
 the kingdom of God."* "If any man be in 
 Christ,' says an inspired apostle, 'he is a new 
 creature. Old things are passed away ; behold 
 all things are become new."t Pot de- 
 
 ceived : God is not mocked. For what a man 
 soweth that shall he also reap. He that soweth 
 to the flesh shall pf the flesh reap perdition ; but 
 he that soweth to the spirit shall of the spirit reap 
 life everlasting." f Judging by this rule, it must 
 be admitted, with whatever pain, that the irre> 
 ligious are to be found among us in numbers of 
 
 *Johniii.3 t2Cor. v, 17. JGal.vi. 1,8, 
 
36 
 
 a most airlictive amount. It is not tlie many who 
 are characterized by piety and purity, by love to 
 God and delight in his service, by self-denial and 
 consecration to his glory. These, alas ! are the 
 few. Persons of a different character, under a 
 thousand varied aspects, indeed more or less 
 amiable or unarniable, but all destitute of pure 
 and undefiled religion, are everywhere discerni- 
 ble, both in the social and the domestic circle. 
 Happy is the family in which every inmate is a 
 friend of God ; and that is yet more happy in 
 wdiich the same can be said of every relative. 
 What circle in a neighborhood could you de- 
 scribe, that should comprehend even a very few 
 persons and not enclose an ungodly one ? How 
 often might you explore a similar compass, w^ith- 
 out discovering a christian indeed ! In what tho- 
 roughfare could you stand, and receive a candid 
 answer from every passenger, without perceiv- 
 ing that the mass of society is yet far from God ? 
 At what point of general concourse could you 
 attend, and observe the display of character elici- 
 ted there, without a deep and melancholy convic- 
 tion that the world still iieth in wickedness? 
 Along what street, or through what hamlet, could 
 you go, and take the most charitable glance into 
 every dwelling, v.ithout ascertaining them to be, 
 in a deplorable niuuber of instances, habitations 
 
37 
 
 of ignorance, if not of vice ? During what day- 
 can you conduct your ordinary concerns, with- 
 out feehng yourselves brought into contact with 
 many wlio have not the fear of God before their 
 eyes ? O ! it is too true, that the mass of human 
 society, in the most favored circumstaiiiftes, needs 
 to have added to it a flavor of godhness. Reh- 
 gion, real religion, is yet to be imparted, ere we 
 can be truly called a christian people ; ere the 
 stain of sin can be efl^aced, or its everlasting and 
 calamitous consequences prevented. 
 
 2. Our Lord's declaration that his disciples 
 are the salt of the earth, teaches us, in the second 
 place, that they possess a fitness to produce this 
 most desirable and important change ; as salt is 
 adapted to prevent the decay and improve the 
 flavor of the substances to which it may be suita- 
 bly applied. The truth of this representation will 
 readily appear. 
 
 The first thing necessary to the conversion of 
 ^ sinner is instruction ; and every disciple of 
 •Christ, without excepting even the least informed 
 is in possession of suflicient knowledge for this pur- 
 pose. He may know little ; but if he has been 
 taught of God (and if he has not, he is no disci- 
 ple,) he knows well and clearly, both his guilt and 
 liis miseiy ; together with the way of salvation by 
 Jesus Christ, in its suitableness, its excellency 
 and its all-sufiaciency. If he knows this, he caa 
 4 
 
38 
 
 teach it ; and if this is all he knows, as it is enough 
 for his own salvation, so it is enough for the con- 
 version of his neighbor. For Christ is " the wis- 
 dom of God, and the power of God ;^ and to 
 know him is to become wise unto salvation. 
 
 It is neA important to the conversion of a sin- 
 ner, that he should be addressed neither with 
 harshness, nor with coldness ; but in a tone of 
 deep feeling as to the general importance of sal- 
 vation, and of fervent kindness in reference to his 
 particular welfare. Such a mode of address is 
 obviously most adapted to conciliate his regard, 
 and to peneti'ate his heart. And this is just the 
 tone which the disciple of Christ is prepared to 
 emploj. Having been in a similar condition of 
 wretchedness and ruin, he is is qualified to feel 
 tender compassion for that of his fellow man ; 
 nor,*even in endeavoring to convince of sin, can 
 he well be harsh with the faults of another, since 
 he has experienced a gracious .forgiveness of his 
 own. If he speaks, it may truly be (?5pected to 
 be with pity in his heart ; and with a thrilling 
 solemnity about the salvation of a soul, which, in 
 his own case, has been \^o^clerfully rescued from 
 everlasting burnings. 
 
 To this substantial fitness for attempting the 
 conversion of sinners, may be added the inciden- 
 tal facilities arising from the circumstances and 
 relations of life. The disciples of Christ, though 
 
 * 1 Cor. i. 24. 
 
39 
 
 separated from the world in their character and 
 pursuits, are not so in their condition. Not of 
 the world, they are still in it. They continue to 
 sustain its various relations, and to possess the 
 kindly and important influences which arise from 
 them. In conversing on the concerns of religion, 
 instead of speaking as a stranger, it will be in 
 one case, as a neighbor or an acquaintance ; in 
 another, as a friend ; in another, as a relative, a 
 brother or a sister, a parent or a child. All these 
 circumstances give us facilities for speaking, they 
 teach us how to speak, and they open many de- 
 lightful avenues to the heart. Such intercourse 
 has a great superiority over every other kind of 
 address. How often may it be renewed ! What 
 advantage may be taken of occurrences perpetu- 
 ally varying ! How easily may instruction be min- 
 gled with the kind offices of friendship, or be in- 
 sinuated amidst the expressions of conjugal, fra- 
 ternal, or parental love ! 
 
 To cro%n all, the disciples of Christ are fitted 
 to be the salt of the earth by the very fo^ce of 
 piety itself Religion gives a visible pecuharity 
 to the character; it makes men different from 
 what they were, and from what others are. And 
 the character thus formed is an instructive one. 
 It presents an aspect of happiness, loveliness, and 
 excellence. It is a practical confiiTnation of that 
 which has been poured from the lips, and appeals 
 
40 
 
 powerfuliy to the heart of the observer. " This 
 man has been telHng me," he naay say withm 
 himself, "that I am unholy, and indeed his con- 
 duct puts me to shame. He has assured me that 
 there is a happiness greater than any I have yet 
 found ; and I must believe it, for I see it in his 
 countenance. He tells me that rehgion raises the 
 character, and in truth I see a great change in 
 him. It must be as he affirms." Thus a holy 
 hfe has a voice. In more convincing tones it 
 echoes the instructions of the lips which have al- 
 ready been as a fountain of w^isdom. Its elo- 
 quence never ceases. It speaks when the tongue 
 is silent ; and is either a constant attraction or a 
 perpetual reproof It speaks on all subjects, and 
 shows the nature and excellency of religion, both 
 in duty and in trial, both in sorrows and in joys. 
 
 3. While it is thus manifest that the disciples 
 of Christ are instruments admirably fitted for the 
 conversion of men, the text leads us to observe, 
 in the third place, that the accomplishment bf 
 this end requires a specific effort. Salt is adapt- 
 ed to impart a flavor ; but it will not do so unless 
 it is applied. It might be thought, perhaps, that 
 the simple locality of true christians, dispersed as 
 they are through society in all its parts, would 
 correspond sufficiently with the metaphori- 
 cal import of the text in this pai'ticular ; and 
 it is true that, in consequence of this locality, with- 
 
41 
 
 out any specific effort, their example will shiiie^ 
 and may be expected to produce a measure of 
 advantage. But it is obvious that the fitness for 
 the conversion of sinners possessed by the disci- 
 ples of Christ, is not fully brought into action by 
 this means. The influence of example, on the 
 contrary, is only a part, and a very small part, of 
 that which it is in their power to employ. It 
 tends rather to confirm instruction which has 
 been given, than in the first instance to convey 
 it ; nor can it have its full and proper efiicacy, 
 except as an illustration and seal of what the lips 
 have uttered, and the ear has heard. The know- 
 ledge of divine things possessed by a christian in- 
 deed, cannot be made truly conducive to anoth- 
 er's good without express communication; nor 
 can the impressive seriousness and tender com- 
 passion which he feels, find any such access to 
 the heart as by the tones of the voice. Superad- 
 ded to these, the influence of a holy conduct will 
 be great and decisive ; while without them it 
 might rather impart an air of inconsistency to the 
 general character. Must it not be deemed strange, 
 that, if a man's life pleads for God, his lips should 
 not plead too ? And would not the conscious- 
 ness that a christian was studiously framing his 
 conduct so as to exhibit the importance and ex- 
 cellency of religion, while he was yet silent on 
 the subject, lead an ungodly man to say, " I am 
 4^ 
 
42 
 
 sui*prised he does not speak to nie about it ? If 
 the salt is to impait its saltness, it must be fully 
 aud directly applied : aad if the disciples of Christ 
 impart the benefits which they are fitted to con- 
 vey, it can be only by bringing the whole of their 
 character and aptitude into bearing. The tongue 
 must be employed to communicate instruction, as 
 well as the conduct to confirm it ; and this too 
 in all the circumstances of life, and on ail the op- 
 portunities which its varied intercourse may af- 
 ford. To fail of this is to abandon the grand in- 
 strument of our usefulness, and to leave the ii^ 
 religious to their wretchedness and their ruin. 
 
 4. The declaration of our Lord indicates, fourth- 
 ly, that his disciples are the appointed instruments 
 for the conversion of the world. " Ye are the 
 
 SAI.T OF THE EARTH:" HOt Ouly of the 
 
 nature of salt to a savourless or putrifying mass ; 
 but THE SALT, by which specifically the mass 
 is to be flavored and preserved. 
 
 It cannot be intimated by this passage thatlhe 
 conversion of a sinner is a work, as to its actual 
 accomplishment, within the compass of human 
 power. Though it be only to instruct, to con- 
 vince, and to persuade ; though the motives are 
 of immense power, and though the disciples of 
 Christ do possess an eminent adaptation to it : 
 yet it is foretold to us, by Him who knows the 
 secrets of all hearts, that tlie actual conversion of 
 
43 
 
 a sinner demands another and a superior agency 
 " Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, 
 saith the Lord." * He works in those whobe- 
 Heve with " the exceeding greatness of that pow- 
 er which he wrought in Christ, wlien he raised 
 him from the dead."! The influence which can 
 change the heart is exclusively his own ; and 
 however well adapted the means may be, or 
 however zealously employed, without his blessing 
 there will be no success. Paul may plant, and 
 Apollos water, but " God giveth the increase." }: 
 The agency allotted to his people is clearly sub- 
 ordinate ; and I trust that nothing I may say 
 will be interpreted into a confounding of the 
 work of the saints for conversion, with the work 
 of God the Holy Spirit in it. His is the efficient 
 agency, theirs the instrumental. Keeping up a 
 clear, distinction between these two, that wliich 
 we have now to observe, is, that an instrumental 
 agency in the conversion of the world is truly 
 appointed to the saints. They are the salt of the 
 earth. 
 
 Such a destination might be not obscurely in- 
 ferred from the very fact that a character adapt- 
 ed to this end is formed in them. For there is 
 in all the works of God, combined with bound- 
 less fulness, a strict economy of resources. No- 
 thing is wanting, neither is anything wasted. 
 
 * Zech, iv. 6. 
 
 t Eph. i. 19, QO. 
 
 X 1 Cor. iii. G, 
 
44 
 
 ■ ♦ 
 
 With endless abundance there is no prodigality. 
 Whatever the properties of anything may be, 
 they are brought into action and use. If he has 
 made great lights, it is to rule the day, and to 
 cheer the night. If he gives to the thirsty at* 
 mosphere suppUes of moisture from the teeming 
 earth, or permits it to drink ampler draughts 
 from the swelling ocean, it is that the watery 
 treasures of the sky may descend in blessings 
 on the fruitful ground. It is necessary to his 
 v^isdom that it should be so : for " neither do 
 men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, 
 but upon a candlestick, that it may give hght to 
 all that are in the house." ^ Now the works of 
 nature are the pattern of the works of grace. If 
 he suffers no beam of natural light to be kindled 
 without an object, much less the brighter beams 
 of light divine. If he has made us, who were 
 once darkness, to be light in the Lord, it is that 
 we may shine as hghts in a dark place. Or, to 
 return to the metaphor in our textj if he has 
 made us as salt to a corrupt world, it is that we 
 should be the salt of the earth, and diffuse on 
 every hand the savour we have received. Were 
 it not so, it would be production without design ; 
 the creation of an instrument v/ithout an ob- 
 ject to be attained by it ; an instance, in a word. 
 
 * Matt. V. 15. 
 
45 
 
 aifid in Him an incredible instance, of prodigality 
 and wastefulness. 
 
 We are not left, however, to this inference 
 alone. God has instructed us in the nature of 
 his design, by express directions as to our duty. 
 Our text itself has the force of an injunction, that 
 the salt should not lose its savour. And almost 
 immediately afterwards it is added, "ief your 
 light so shine before men, that they seeing your 
 good works, may glorify your Father which is 
 in heaven.""^ It was to his disciples at large, 
 that Christ said, " Go ye into all the world, and 
 preach the gospel to every creature." f He ad- 
 dresses the exhortation no less to every con- 
 vert, "Go home to thy friends, and tell them 
 how great things the Lord hath done for thee, 
 and hath had compassion on thee." t To this 
 we may add the words of the apostle, " Have 
 no fellowship with the unfruitful works of dark- 
 ness, but rather reprove them;"§ "among 
 whom shine ye, as lights in the world, holding 
 forth the word of life." || 
 
 In accordance with the design which these in- 
 junctions discover, is the station of prominence 
 and publicity in which Christ has placed his dis- 
 ciples. He has not suffered them to be either 
 hidden or disguised. There is something in re- 
 
 * Matt. V. 16. t Mark xvi. 15. X Mark v. 19. 
 
 ^Eph.v. 11. II Phil. ii. 15, 16. _ 
 
46 
 
 ligion, indeed, which tends to make itself known, 
 and will not suffer a christian to be altogether 
 concealed^ But in addition to this our Lord has 
 required from all his followers^ an avowal of 
 their attachment to him, and a public dedication 
 of themselves to his service. It is demanded of 
 them to witness a good confession, in the face 
 often of a wondering, and sometimes of a scoff- 
 ing world. They thus acquire an inevitable 
 publicity. They are as a city set on a hill, which 
 cannot be hid. Their prominence, like the ele- 
 vation of a candle on a candlestick, is intended 
 to enlarge the sphere of their influence ; to make 
 their light spread through a larger area, and 
 reach a wider circumference. It adds nothing 
 to their comfort ; it rather increases their respon- 
 sibility, and with it their cares, their difficulties, 
 and their dangers ; and it shows, therefore, the 
 more strongly, that it is God's design, in the 
 conversion of one sinner, to make him instru- 
 mental in the conversion of others. 
 
 The measures which he has actually pursued 
 in reference to the prevalence of religion, exactly 
 correspond with the idea we are enforcing. 
 After the departure of our risen Lord, the faith 
 was " delivered to the saints,"^ The diffusion 
 of the gospel was left in the hands of the disci- 
 ples of that age, and it has equally been left 
 in the hands of the disciples of every suc- 
 
 *Jude 3. 
 
47 
 
 ceeding age. No instrumental agency for 
 this end has been brought into bearing, but 
 the voluntary efforts of the people of God ; 
 nor is an intimation any where given that any 
 other will hereafter be employed. The an- 
 gels are ministering spirits, sent forth to minis- 
 ter to the heirs of salvation ; but no part appears 
 to be allotted to them in the proclamation of the 
 gospel, or in tlie conversion of sinners. They 
 rejoice in it, indeed, but it is as a work wrought 
 by other hands. Nor are the spirits of the just 
 made perfect called into this field of labor, though 
 it could not but be highly delightful to them, and 
 though they can scarcely be otherwise than, in 
 some respects at least, prereminently qualified 
 for it. The whole of this instrumentality is con- 
 fined to the living disciples of their Lord. In- 
 cluding in our language the whole of this body, 
 it may be afiirmed, that nothing will ever be 
 done for the conversion of the world, but what 
 we do for this end. We are the salt of the 
 earth ; and if it derives no seasoning from us, 
 it will derive none from any other quarter, but 
 will proceed from its present corruption to its 
 final perdition. 
 
 It is not to be imagined that so grievous a state 
 and issue of things will be prevented by an abun- 
 dant out-pouring of the Spirit ; since there is no 
 object to be attained by such an efiusion, but to 
 give efiicacy to means employed. To a work 
 
48 
 
 which is to be accomplished by means, the use 
 of those means is as necessary as the power which 
 is to give them success. Such a work is the con- 
 version of the world. The earth is to be seasoned 
 hy the saints ; and no farther than their exertions 
 are employed for this end, is there any thing up- 
 on which the influence of the Spirit may rest, or 
 to which his gracious efficacy will be imparted. 
 
 5. We have yet further to observe, fifthly, that 
 the design of our Lord respeciing the beneficial 
 instrumentality of his disciples is universal : or 
 rather, without limitation. 
 
 On the one hand, it comprehends the whole 
 number of his followers. When he says " Ye 
 are the salt of the earth," he contemplates no par- 
 ticular portion of them, but the body at large. 
 The words occur in a discourse which cannot be 
 alleged to have any special reference to the apos- 
 tles ; nor can they by any means be confined to 
 the multitude then in attendance on his ministry. 
 Nor is there any reason why a limitation ^should 
 be assigned to them. It is obvious, indeed, that 
 a great diversity in point of knowledge and abili-- 
 ty, wealth and influence, exists among christians ; 
 but it should be remembered, that these are not the 
 things in which their adaptation to usefulness has 
 been shown to consist. That which fits a follower 
 of Christ to do good is, that he knows the value 
 of a Saviour, that he feels the importance of eter^ 
 
49 
 
 nity, and that he can confirm his words by 
 his example. These quaUfications will be found 
 to obtain universal!}^, and perhaps most abun- 
 dantly where least suspected. If there be one 
 found totally deficient in them, let it be ad- 
 mitted that he is not to be reckoned among the 
 salt of the earth ; but it will surely be difficult to 
 retain him in the family of God. And if every 
 disciple of Christ, however obscure in his circum- 
 stances, or destitute of general information, pos- 
 sesses in fact the essential requisites for the con- 
 version of the world, it needs nothing more to 
 demonstrate that he was intended to co-operate 
 in the work. 
 
 On the other hand, as the language of the text 
 carries universality with it when indicating the 
 class of agents to be employed, it has a similar 
 force when it refers to the sphere of their influ- 
 ence. " Ye are the salt of the earth : " not of a 
 portion of the earth merely, but of the whole. 
 It is clear that the efforts of each individual will 
 naturally commence with those in immediate 
 contact with liim ; nor can it be expected that 
 many will be able to extend their endeavors be- 
 yond a small circle of relations and neighbors. 
 Yet it is not difiicult to trace the tendency of 
 such operations to the conversion of the world. 
 Each little circle thus formed has a principle of 
 increase, and will extend its limits until it blends 
 5 
 
50 
 
 itself with others by whicl) it may be more or 
 less nearly surrounded. These larger circles, 
 again, will augment their circumference continu- 
 ally, both by the essential activity of the extreme 
 points, and by throwing outwards the energy 
 which may be accumulated at the centre, and 
 less urgently required in the area already occu- 
 pied. Nor can any limit be assigned to this pro- 
 gress until the earth shall be full of the know- 
 ledge of the Lord. And this is the scope marked 
 out by Christ for the influence of his followers. 
 "Ye are the salt of the eakth adequate and 
 destined to the conversion of the world. 
 
 6. We observe, finally, that the language of 
 our Lord encourages a confident expectation of 
 success. 
 
 Though nothing is expressly said on the sub- 
 ject, the very appointment of the means to the 
 end involves this idea. Consider who it is that 
 speaks. It is not merely that a casual observer 
 has discovered an aptitude in pious persons to in- 
 duce piety in others; but it is the voice of the 
 Redeemer himself, in the first instance, declaring 
 the adequate adaptation of his followers to the in- 
 strumental conversion of the world, and then an- 
 nouncing his design that they should effect it. It 
 is inconceivable that he should have chosen for 
 such a purpose an insufficient agency ; or that, 
 having appointed one, he should withhold the 
 
51 
 
 blessing needful to its success. His affirmation 
 that his disciples are the salt of the earth, is equi- 
 valent to saying that their attempts for its conver- 
 sion shall be triumphant. When we know the 
 only means which he will employ for this or any 
 other purpose, we know also that those means 
 will infallibly succeed. 
 
 It may be felt, perhaps, that this representation 
 scarcely corresponds with the facts within our ob- 
 servation. Many efforts have been made for the 
 conversion of individuals which have not succeed- 
 ed. But in how many instances is want of suc- 
 cess precipitately inferred ? Who ciin tell, till 
 the day shall declare it, with what happy results 
 our endeavors may have been crowned ? And 
 in instances of effort really unsuccessful, how 
 probably may the failure be referred to a want of 
 ardor ! How much greater our reward might 
 have been, had we labored as we ought ! But, 
 in truth, the language of the text is not of an in- 
 dividual but a general reference ; so that the suc- 
 cess of individual christians must be distinguished 
 from that of the body, and the conversion of in- 
 dividual sinners from that of the world. An oc- 
 casional failure in the former case, or final im- 
 penitence in the latter, does not invalidate the 
 general truth. In the end, the whole earth will 
 be brought to glorify God, and this blessed re- 
 sult will be achieved by the instrumentality of 
 
52 
 
 the saints. They are the salt of the earth : and by 
 them shall the corrupt mass be seasoned. 
 
 Having thus briefly surveyed the relation which 
 the disciples of Christ bear to the world, it is 
 important before we proceed, to glance at the as- 
 pects which it wears. 
 
 1. The institution of this relation must be re- 
 garded, first, as an exercise of the Redeemer's Wis- 
 dom. It has not happened accidentally, but has 
 been deliberately arranged : and he has adopted 
 this coui^e, doubtless, not through any constraint 
 or necessit}^, but because he saw it wisest and 
 besL There is in it a fitness and excellency, 
 which made it seem good in his eyes : it is to be 
 regarded, therefore, with the highest reverence 
 and respect. 
 
 But this is not ail. Vain as it would be to sup- 
 pose that we could discern the whole reasons 
 which, in any case, may have determined the on- 
 ly wise God, there are few instances in which we 
 may not discern some of them : nor is it by any 
 means difficult to trace the wisdom of the an*ange- 
 ment. that the conversion of the world shoald be 
 effected by those who have already been called 
 by his grace. 
 
 It is a method which brings into operation ex- 
 isting resources. It is characteristic of wisdom to 
 expend no more on an object than its attainment 
 requires, and to accomplish with instruments al- 
 
53 
 
 ready formed, every thing for which they are pro- 
 perly adapted. On this principle the conduct of 
 our Lord proceeds. He has an end to attain, 
 namely, the conversion of the world. He might 
 easily produce new instruments for accomplish- 
 ing it ; but why should he make such an elFoit 
 without cause ? Has he in his present works any 
 agents adapted to the end ? Assuredly he has. 
 Though they are few and feeble, his disciples are 
 so ; and he employs them. " Ye are the salt of 
 the earth ; ye are the light of the world." Here 
 is true and dignified economy, associated with 
 boundless wealth. It is wisdom, turning to the 
 fullest and best account all the resources it com- 
 mands. 
 
 The method he has chosen is, also, pre-emi- 
 nently suitable, easy, and effectual. Let it be 
 compared with the methods by wPiich the same 
 end has been attempted, according to the wisdom 
 of men. Place it, for example, by the side of en- 
 dowed establishments for the maintenance and 
 propagation of the gospel, or compare it with the 
 institution of a highly educated order of legalized 
 clergy, irrespective as both these systems must be 
 of any spiritual character. O how much more 
 good has unlettered and individual piety achiev- 
 ed in every age, than all this magnificent and 
 showy apparatus ! 
 
 5^ 
 
54 
 
 You will not suppose me to depreciate for a 
 moment either of those most important and ob- 
 hgatory means of aiding the progress of religion, 
 the stated miinstry of the gospel, or missions to 
 the heathen ; but place even them in comparison 
 with universal personal endeavor, and the result 
 will be greatly in its favor. Missionaries and min- 
 isters are comparatively few, and provided with 
 difficulty ; individual effort brings hundreds of 
 thousands of laborers into the field in a moment. 
 The support of ministers and missionaries in- 
 volves (however unwillingly) a large annual ex- 
 penditure ; butVor every christian to labor at home, 
 costs absolutely nothing. Missionaries have to 
 make great sacrifices, to run great risks, and often 
 to hll an early grave ; while individual effort in- 
 volves no hazard, bereaves no parent, afflicts no 
 family. A man sent abroad goes as a stranger, 
 with a thousand impediments to encounter; in 
 seeking to convert our neighbors and our friends, 
 our way is open, our countenances are known, 
 our language is understood, our influence is felt, 
 our intention is appreciated. Private christians 
 have many advantages ever ministers of the gos- 
 pel, even in the most favored circumstances. 
 The one speak in virtue of their office, and often 
 under a degree of suspicion as to their sincerity ; 
 the other can speak from no motive but unfeign- 
 ed love. The one can address their hearers but 
 
^0: 
 
 55 
 
 occasionally ; the other may do it frequently, and 
 follow up their instructions by almost incessant 
 watchfulness and admonition. The one speak 
 as comparative strangers ; the other may employ 
 the more touching eloquence of social kindness, 
 of ardent friendship, and perhaj)s of fraternal or 
 paternal love. The one can speak only to those 
 who choose to attend on their ministry ; the oth- 
 er are scattered through society in all its paths, 
 and can carry instruction and reproof to the heed- 
 less and the abandoned. Had there been noth- 
 ing instituted, therefore, but the pubhc preaching 
 of the gospel, whether at home or abroad, the 
 easiest, most extensive, and most effectual means 
 of converting the world would have been over- 
 looked. Superficial observers might have con- 
 ceived that little result could have been expect- 
 ed, from even a multitude of such feeble efforts 
 as those of individual christians in the same way 
 as one might at first exclaim. Who would think 
 of setting bounds to the sea by a sand bank : but 
 He who knew that grains of sand form the only 
 effectual barrier to the raging waters, discerned 
 • too that grains of salt would best season the cor- 
 rupted world. He has, indeed, done well in in- 
 stituting a public ministry ; but the consummate - 
 ness of his wisdom lies in evoking the individual 
 energy of his people. "Ye are the salt of the 
 earth ; yje are the light of the world." 
 
56 
 
 % In the second place, the language of our 
 divine Lord must be regarded as an expression of 
 Ms WILL. It clearly marks out the line of con- 
 duct which he would have his disciples pursue, 
 and is fully equivalent to a command. 
 
 " Ye are the salt of the earth.^^ It is as though 
 he had saidj " By my grace I have fitted you, and 
 in my good pleasure 1 have appointed you, to be 
 the instruments of converting the world. Be ye 
 the salt of the earth. Every where let your influ- 
 ence be felt, and your capabilities be exerted." 
 The text necessarily assumes this aspect, because 
 the result anticipated implies and requires the 
 voluntary effort of the followers of Christ. The 
 corrupt earth will not be seasoned by the mere 
 fact of Christians being scattered through it, 
 without their endeavors to instruct, to convince 
 and to persuade. The Lord's declaration, there- 
 fore, must be our directory. Let us charge it up- 
 on ourselves solemnly, if we are his disciples in- 
 deed, that it be with us an object of real and prac- 
 tical endeavor to do every thing that can be done 
 for the conversion of sinners. We are not called 
 upon merely to cherish a desire, however fervent, 
 that sinners may be converted, or even to pray, 
 with whatever enlargement, for this blessing ; nei- 
 ther are we to content ourselves with remote and 
 indirect efforts for this end, such as supporting 
 the ministry of the gospel, or promoting missions 
 
57 
 
 to the heathen : that which is demanded is our 
 personal labor. We are individually summoned 
 to use the direct means of conversion ; to be the 
 salt of the earth. 
 
 The means of conversion are of great variety. 
 Among them undoubtedly may be reckoned en- 
 deavors to circulate the holy scriptures, and to 
 put into the hands of every man the volume 
 which is able to make him wise unto salvation. 
 But this is not all, nor even chief. The intention 
 ispf Christ, as expressed in this passage, plainly is, 
 that the actual character of his disciples should 
 be brought into complete contact with that of un- 
 godly men ; for they are the salt of the earth. 
 The words lead us of necessity, therefore, to the 
 use of such means of conversion as express this 
 character ; namely, to conversation of an instruct- 
 ive, convincing, or persuasive tendency ; to serious 
 admonition, or even pointed reproof ; to affection- 
 ate prayer ; and the subserviency to this object 
 of all the intercourse of life, as the writing of let- 
 ters, occasional visits, offices of kindness, and the 
 influence of relationship or domestic association. 
 It is thus, by direct and personal effort, that a dis- 
 ciple of Christ should seek the conversion of sin- 
 ners. 
 
 And this should be the attitude of every disci- 
 ple. None are exempt from the appointment, 
 none are destitute of the qualification. None are 
 without fitness for the work, and none are at lib- 
 
58 
 
 erty to decline it. It may easily be said by some 
 My ability is very small : and without entering 
 into any argument on this point, I only say, that 
 whatever it may be, it is enough, with God's 
 blessing, to convert sinners. Besides, does not 
 Christ know what it is ? Is it not such as he has 
 given you ? Is it not such as he requires to be 
 employed ? Do you presume to say that what 
 he has prepared for beneficial action is unfit for 
 it ; or that what he demands for this purpose shall 
 be refused ? However small a portion, you still 
 are a portion of the salt of the earth : see that 
 you act as such. The less your talent, the more 
 need of activity. Beware lest your plea of incom- 
 petency be but a cloak for your indolence. Do 
 not so much covet the ability of others, as show 
 diligence in the application of your own. 
 
 It may with equal ease be said by others, My 
 station is obscure, and my influence small. 
 Granted : but you will also admit, on the other 
 hand, that, however narrow your circle may be> 
 it is nevertheless a circle of some dimensions 
 that you occupy. You do not stand alone upon 
 the earth. You have some relatives, acquaintance, 
 and neighbors. And are they all pious ? If you 
 were to try earnestly, could you not reach any 
 who are living without God? Behold, then, 
 your duty. Labor for the conversion of these un- 
 happy persons ; and wrap yourself no longer in 
 
59 
 
 the delusion, that in this direction Christ can re- 
 quire and expect nothing/rom i/ow. 
 
 It may with truth be alleged by a third class that 
 they are excessively busy, and are thrown into sitn^ 
 ationsin life which demand all their time and all 
 their power ; they surely may leave the work of 
 converting sinners to more leisure hands. Yes ; if 
 you are willing to abandon your hope of salvation, 
 and to give up your interest in Christ : but not else. 
 If you are his disciples, you are also the salt of 
 the earth ; and not the busiest man in the world 
 is at liberty to relinquish one part of the charac- 
 ter, and to imagine that he can retain the other. 
 But the allegation supposed is, in all probability, 
 truth exaggerated into the character of falsehood. 
 You either have, or might have, some leisure in 
 the early morning; and you allot the evening 
 hours to the agreeable relaxation of domestic or 
 soci^t intercourse. Does a feeling of surprise, to 
 say no more, start up in your bosom at the men- 
 tion of these things ? You are upon the verge 
 then of discovering that it is not time you want, 
 but inclination ? Be assured that this is the 
 fact; and that, however closely engaged, you 
 ought to find, and may find, if you are disposed, 
 means of specific exertion for the salvation both 
 of your domestic inmates, your acquaintance, and 
 your neighbors ; while a similar aim may run 
 through even the busiest of those busy hours. 
 
60 
 
 which, so far from becoming a plea for yonr to- 
 tal exemption from labor, ought to be regarded as 
 furnishing you with incessant opportunities of 
 promoting this blessed end. 
 
 The duty of laboring directly and individually 
 for the conversion of sinners is, in a word, one 
 from which none of the followers of Christ can 
 be excused. He knows the varied talents, and 
 circumstances of all ; and comprehends them all 
 in the declaration, " Ye are the salt of the earth." 
 
 Further, If endeavors to convert ungodly men 
 should be recognized as a duty by every disciple 
 of Christ, it should also be esteemed a duty of 
 the highest moment. Of our many duties, none 
 are without importance ; but in this respect all are 
 not equal. Our first duties are those which re- 
 late to our own salvation ; and the next are those 
 which relate to the salvation of others. By the im- 
 mense magnitude of the object, and its direct ref- 
 erence to the glory of God and the highest happi- 
 ness of our fellow creatures, these take the decided 
 precedence of all duties respecting the temporal 
 interest, either of ourselves or of others. I am ve- 
 ry well aware how often the callings of life will 
 allow but a comparatively small })ortion of time 
 to be applied to it ; but the same may be said of 
 the cultivation of personal piety, which is never- 
 theless our first duty. What we mean by this is, 
 that the attainment of this end should hold the 
 highest place incur desires ; that it should be our 
 
61 
 
 chief aim ; and that all other affairs should be so 
 arranged as to afford us the amplest possible op- 
 portunities of pursuing it. So when we say that 
 endeavors for the conversion of sinners form the 
 second class of our duties, we mean that, next to 
 oiu' own salvation, we should feel more concern- 
 ed about this than any other object ; that it should 
 be actually second among the great aims of hfe ; 
 and that our affairs should be so ordered as to al- 
 low us the utmost practicable opportunity of pro- 
 moting it. We mean that when a christian asks 
 liimself. For what great ends do I live ? he should 
 be able to say. First for the good of my own soul ; 
 next for the conversion of others ; and only after 
 this, for the diligent prosecution of my worldly 
 calling, and efforts of temporal benevolence. 
 
 N o d u ty , r i g h tly u ndersto o(l , clashes with a n oth - 
 er. And as it happens with our first duty, that 
 of securing our own salvation, so it is with our 
 second, that of seeking the salvation of others, 
 that an attention to it requires no interference 
 with a due regard to earthly affairs. While we 
 are dihgent in busujess, as, on the one hand, we 
 may be also fervent in spirit, serving the Lord ; 
 so, on the other, we may be animated by a deep 
 concern for the spiritual welfare of those around 
 us, and be ready to embrace every opportunity 
 of advancing it, as a matter far more important 
 than any secular advantage. And nothing short 
 6 
 
62 
 
 of this is the state of feehng and of action to which 
 our Lord calls us, when he says, " Ye are the salt 
 of the earth." 
 
 3. In the third place, the declaration of our 
 blessed Redeemer may be considered as an exhi- 
 bition of his CONDESCEJVDING GRACE. The COU- 
 
 version of the world is an operation for which he 
 has ample resources, without employing our aid. 
 It might be accomplished by his immediate pow- 
 er alone, without the intervention of any instru- 
 mentality; or if any intermediate agency were 
 accepted, it could be a matter of no necessity to 
 engage our own. It is in truth a display of won- 
 derful condescension, that he should choose to em- 
 ploy instruments so feeble and unworthy ; to as- 
 sociate with himself in a work so glorious, crea- 
 tures so mean and insignificant ; and to employ 
 for the conversion of his remaining enemies 
 those who, but a little before, were enemies and 
 rebels themselves. 
 
 Among the reasons which have induced him 
 to do so, we are authorized to assign a powerful 
 influence to his kindness towards his people. It 
 was not surely that he would lay on them a bur- 
 den, or encompass them with difficulties; but 
 rather that he wished to enlarge their happiness. 
 He had a work to perform, the execution of 
 which afforded the most exquisite bhss, and the 
 most exalted honor. He was about, not to pro- 
 
63 
 
 duce a world, but to restore one which sui had 
 destroyed ; to bring out of moral chaos a new 
 creation of righteousness and joy, in glory far 
 exceeding the wotiders and beauties of the first ; 
 to open the blind eyes, that the light of the 
 knowledge of his glory might shine into them, 
 in the face of Jesus Christ ; to break the stony 
 hearty that he might pour into it the balm of his 
 love ; to quicken dead souls, that, like his bless- 
 ed ones in heaven, they might live unto God ; to 
 bring floods of penitence from the flinty rock, 
 that he might pronounce the forgiveness of sins ; 
 to purify the corrupt mind, that he might adorn 
 it with celestial graces, and himself dwell there- 
 in forever ; to open the bosom which had been 
 barred against him, that he might shed abroad 
 consolations in a world of sorrows, and inspire 
 the peace which passeth all understanding ; to 
 allure the wretched and ready to perish to a 
 feast of eternal gladness ; and to stretch out his 
 mighty arm to snatch the lost from perdition, as 
 brands out of the fire. And being about to do 
 this, he seems to have been unwilling to confine 
 to himself either the honor or the joy. It is as 
 though he had looked for some whom he loved 
 well enough to make them partakers of his bless- 
 edness; and he has conferred the privilege 
 upon his saints. " Ye," says he, " shall be the 
 salt of the earth, the light of the world. The 
 
64 
 
 knowledge of my truth shall be spread by your 
 instructions, and the flame of piety kindled from 
 your hearts. The perishing wretches who re- 
 ceive the forgiveness of sins, shall trace the un- 
 speakable benefit to a fellow creature's hand. 
 The obdurate whose heart melts under the in- 
 fluence of my love, shall remember that he 
 heard of it from a brother's or a parent's lips. 
 Thus my disciples shall have the luxury of con- 
 veying the richest boon that almighty grace can 
 give ; of making the avenues of earthly affection 
 ways of access for everlasting joy ; and of be- 
 coming, amidst all their poverty, the highest 
 benefactors of their kind. These who are shar- 
 ers of my heart, shall also be sharers of ray joy ; 
 and I will put upon them a portion of the hon- 
 or with which I myself shall be clothed, as the 
 Saviour of the world." 
 
 Sa}^^, beloved brethren, whether condescend- 
 ing love could have presented to us a greater 
 privilege. We know the luxury of doing good 
 in the communication of temporal benefits ; how 
 much more in conveying those which are eter- 
 nal! It is no ordinary pleasure to feed the 
 hungry, to clothe the naked, to relieve the 
 wretched, to comfort the mourner; but how 
 much more delightful must it be, to be the in- 
 struments of enlightening the ignorant, of hum- 
 bling the proud, of subduing the obdurate, of re 
 
65 
 
 claiming the profligate, of saving a soul fro til 
 death, and hiding a multitude of sins ? What 
 benefits can we convey, what sorrows Can wd 
 alleviate, what consolations can we impart. 
 Once to be compared with those which respect 
 an eternal world ? 
 
 And if this consideration is not destitute of 
 power in its general bearing, how touching does 
 it become when applied to the smaller circles of 
 life ! If it would afford me joy to convert a 
 stranger, how mucih more a friend ! If it were 
 dehghtful to induce piety in a neighbor, how 
 tnuch more in a child ! In these narrow spheres 
 our warmest affections flow forth. It is among 
 the chief pleasures of our lives to become ample 
 benefactors to them in all that relates to this 
 World ; and O ! what joy unspeakable, to be per^ 
 luitted to convey to them the all-important bless- 
 ings of the next ! 
 
 Nor is the honor small which God thiis puts 
 Upon us. We should deem ourselves honored, 
 if he were to make us the instruments of saving 
 a fellow creature from death : how much more 
 if he will employ us in rescuing one from ever- 
 lasting burnings ! To do good is one of the 
 lovehest characteristics of God himself, and to 
 be the essential fountain of good is one of his 
 chief prerogatives. He allows us a measure of 
 his own fehcity and glory, when he permits ui 
 6^ 
 
66 
 
 to convey any benefit; but be does so pre-emi- 
 nently wben be confides to us tbe transfer of 
 spiritual blessings. In this chief of bis works 
 sucTi an arrangement associates us with himself^ 
 and presents us to the eyes of all as workers to- 
 gether with God. 
 
 And as it makes us a link in the chain of se- 
 cond causes through which God transmits the 
 emcacious influence which brings all his designs 
 to pass, so it equally includes us in the train 
 through which the gratitude of those by whom 
 blessings are received will return to him. As all 
 benefits come ultimately from him, so to him, 
 undoubtedly, will be all the glor^^and praise ; yet 
 the gratitude inspired will breathe most fragrantly, 
 as it ascends, upon those who became the in>stru- 
 mems of his goodness. It is thus that efi[brts of 
 temporal benevolence bring upon our heads the 
 blessings of those who are ready to perish, and 
 often fill the heart with a mingled sense of luxu- 
 ry and unworthiness almost overwhelming : but 
 how inexpressibly touching will their accents be, 
 who, amidst heartfelt benedictions, shall say, 
 "You, hke the Saviour, came to seek and to save 
 the lost ; you taught us to know our sinfuhiess 
 and our misery ; you prayed over us w^ken we 
 would not pray for ourselves, and led us by your 
 importunities to his feet, who hath delivered us 
 from the wrath to come I " 
 
67 
 
 li. Such tlien is the relation which the disci- 
 pies of Christ sustain to the world. Let us pro- 
 ceed, in the second place, to the representation 
 which the text contains of the importance of 
 maintaining the character assigned to us. "Ye 
 are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have 
 
 liOST HIS SAVOUR, WHEREWITH SHALL IT BE 
 SALTED.^ It is THENCEFORTH GOOD FOR NO- 
 THING, BUT TO BE CAST OUT, AND TRODDEN UN- 
 DER FOOT OF MEN." 
 
 1. Here it is necessary for us to inquire, what 
 is to be understood by the salt having lost his sa- 
 vour, or saltness. This must be conceived to take 
 place, when the character and conduct of a pro^ 
 fessed disciple of Christ are not adapted to pro- 
 mote the conversion of sinners. 
 
 Such a state may arise in two ways. Upon the 
 supposition that a professor does exert himself 
 for this end, his conduct may be so inconsistent, 
 as not merely to fail of adding to the effect of his 
 words, but to diminish, and even to destroy it. 
 Such would be the case, for example, if he were 
 subject to occasional intemperance, or given to 
 an indulgence of appetite ; if he were known to 
 deal frauduently, or to take unfair and ungener- 
 ous advantages ; if he were a man of unbridled 
 passion, or ill-regulated temper; if he were of a 
 wanton tongue, or a heedless retailer of scandal ; 
 if he were a man of covetousness, or grinding to 
 
m 
 
 the poor ; if he were engrossed in worldly ptif- 
 suits, or in schemes of aggrandizement : if he 
 were characterized by a prevailing spirit of levi- 
 ty ; or if; in shott, his conduct were ill any ob- 
 vioiis degree otherwise than exemplary. In such 
 a case the salt would have lost his savour. Such 
 a person's conduct would have no tendency to 
 convince an observer of the importance or ex- 
 cellency of religion, but the contrary. Even if 
 he were to speak on the subject, with whatever 
 vehemence, he would scarcely fail to induce the 
 reply^'^If religion should not do more for m6 
 than it has done for you, it will do me httle 
 good." 
 
 But, in addition to consisienc]/, there is a stu- 
 died and intentional exemplariness, which is ne- 
 cefssary to the full savouriness of a christian. It 
 ig not only that Our example should exercise a 
 right influence when it exercises any at al], or 
 that it should be left to produce what effect it 
 may in a consistent walk ; but that it should be 
 studiously and constantly framed with a view to 
 its influence* This is the express direction of 
 our Lord in immediate connexion with the text : 
 " Let your light so shine before men, tTiat they 
 ma}f see your good tvorks, and glorify your Fa- 
 ther which is in heaven." ^ Such expressions of 
 
 * Matt. V. 16. 
 
69 
 
 christian temper and character, therefere, as are 
 adapted to be usefid to others, should be con-- 
 spicuous in our conduct as observed by them, 
 and be rendered so for the purpose of doing 
 them good. Our aim should be, notwithstanding 
 the occasional depression arising from the trials 
 of life, by an habitual cheerfulness to show reli* 
 gion to be, what it really is to us, a source of the 
 highest happiness ; to do everything so well, so 
 maHifestly upon right principles and for a right 
 end, as to evince the perpetual operation of 
 piety ; and to avoid everything, even at the ex- 
 pense of personal sacrifices, by which our con- 
 duct might be rendered liable to misconstruc- 
 tion, and rendered less striking in its aspect, or 
 less beneficial in its influence. , I know that 
 such a method requires as much of deliberate 
 purpose and effort as specific conversation ; but 
 it is certain that professors who fail to use their 
 example with this holy wisdom are as salt 
 which has lost its savour. 
 
 A similar state is indicated by defectiveness in 
 the direct and individual effort which we have 
 already described. The savouriness of salt is its 
 readiness to impart its flavor to the substance to 
 which it is applied ; and, in like manner, the sa* 
 vouriness of a christian is the readiness which he 
 manifests to diflTuse the sentiments which animate 
 him: a religious professor, therefore, has lost his 
 
70 
 
 savour, if, under whatever circumstances, he is 
 content to live without actually trying to convert 
 some person ; and, in truth, if he does not endea- 
 vor to convert every ungodly person to whom 
 he can consistently gain access. It will not serve 
 to free us from this charge that we contribute to 
 a regular ministry, and that we aid missions to 
 the heathen abroad, or the ignorant at home. 
 We are, or should be, the salt of the earth. Our 
 duty is that of personal exertion, in all the ave- 
 nues that are open to us. 
 
 The text leads us next to speak of the evil of 
 such a state ; but before we do so, let us pause, 
 for the purpose of a close and serious examina- 
 tion of ourselves upon this point. How far have 
 any of us lost our savour^ The question may 
 perhaps be painful at its first aspect ; it may bring 
 an immediate conviction that we are guilty. But 
 let us not, therefore, evade it, nor be content with 
 a general acknowledgment of our fault. As it is 
 important that ourcrimhiality shauld not be whol- 
 ly concealed from us, it is scarcely less so that 
 our perception of it should be accurate and com- 
 prehensive. Let us be willing to know our whole 
 error. How otherwise can we expect to be ade- 
 quately humbled, or to attain an effectual remedy ? 
 A desire to hide such an evil, if it could be sup- 
 posed to exist in any bosom, would indicate a 
 state of mind inexpressibly lamentable. What- 
 
71 
 
 ever our faults are, may God give us an openness 
 of heart to welcome investigation and rebuke, and 
 to implore the quickening influences of his grace ! 
 
 Our general inquiry is, whether, as professed 
 disciples of Christ, we are duly exerting ourselves 
 for the conversion of sinners. Let me carry it 
 into particulars, and suppose that you, dear hearer, 
 are a husband or a wife, with a partner who 
 knows not the Lord ; and let me ask you, not on^ 
 ly Avhether this is a grief to you, nor only wheth- 
 er it awakens you to prayer ; but whether you are 
 doing any thing to induce conversion. What 
 means, and with how much diligence, have you 
 employed to convey instruction? When, and 
 how often, has the tenderness of conjugal love 
 thrown its softening influence into an expostula- 
 tion with a heart obdurate in sin ? With how 
 much frequency has your affection been shown 
 to dwell intensely on the spiritual and eternal 
 welfare of so dear a friend ? With what constan- 
 cy of endeavor have you so regulated your tem- 
 per, and every department of your conduct, that 
 it might add the stamp of truth and the power of 
 eloquence to what your lips have uttered ? 
 
 Or let me suppose you are parents, with chil- 
 dren as yet unconverted ; and then I ask, not 
 merely what you have felt for their salvation, but 
 what you have done for it ? What efforts have 
 you made to acquaint them with their duty to 
 
72 
 
 God, and to inspire them with love to Christ ? 
 With what diligence have you plied the task of 
 imbuing their minds with seriousness, and re- 
 pressing youthful vanity ? With what ardor 
 have you striven to make them feel that your 
 most intense anxiety respects their salvation, and 
 that, if this be not attained, it will be an unutter- 
 able affliction to you that they have ever lived? 
 How sedulously has the fondness of parental ca- 
 resses been directed to lead them to the Saviour ? 
 How studiously have you exemplified before 
 their eyes the importance you attach to prayer 
 and the fear of God, and their influence upon 
 the temper and the tongue ? 
 
 Let me suppose that you are a master, or a mis- 
 tress, having servants not religious in your 
 house. I ask, then, Have you done anything 
 for their conversion ? Have you ever inquired 
 into the state of their minds, or endeavored to 
 ascertain the degree of their knowledge ? Have 
 you used m.eans to impress them with a deep 
 sense of the value of their souls, and em- 
 ployed the influence, of your station to induce 
 them to listen to the things that belong to their 
 peace? Have you enjoined and promoted 
 their attendance at the house of God, and in- 
 quired into their profiting by it ? Have you pro- 
 vided for and encouraged the reading of the 
 scriptures and other instructive books? Have 
 
73 
 
 yoli allowed time for retirement, and urged its 
 improvement for reflection and prayer ? Have 
 you required their presence at your family wor- 
 ship, and made it an instructive and impress 
 sive exercise ? Has your just authority been 
 used to prohibit vice, and discountenance 
 levity ? And have you charged them, not as 
 servants only, but as children, with an affection- 
 ate kindness to which your character will give 
 the greater weight, that they serve and fear the 
 Lord? 
 
 Let me suppose that, in addition to domestics, 
 you have to do with others ; with some, perhaps, 
 in the family, as apprentices, or with others, as 
 laborers, or persons employed by you in business. 
 I ask in this case, whether you have attempted 
 their conversion? What endeavor have you 
 made to convince them of the sin and folly of 
 an ungodly life ? When did you urge them to 
 a right employment of the sabbath ? What 
 touching proof have you given them that their 
 souls are precious to you, or what have you done 
 to render them precious to themselves ? 
 
 Or, I may suppose you to be a younger mem- 
 ber of a family ; a brother, or a sister. Perhaps 
 not any, or if some, not all your brothers and 
 sisters know the Lord ; or, you may have the 
 grief of beholding one or both of your parents in 
 ignorance of him, I ask you then. What means 
 7 
 
74 
 
 you have used for the conversion of any of 
 these ? Have you spoken kindly to a brother, or 
 a sister, about the welfare of the soul ? Have 
 you read to them, or prayed with them ? What 
 ingenuity have you employed to bring under a 
 parent's notice a subject so interesting to your 
 heart ? What effort have you made, at once to 
 avoid a censorious or dictatorial conduct, and yet 
 to show an exemplary and instructive one? 
 What have you done to make them feel that it is 
 the great end of your life to lead them to the 
 Saviour? 
 
 Perhaps you hold an inferior, and yet an hon- 
 orable situation in the domestic sphere. You 
 may be a domestic, either alone, or associated 
 with others. Perhaps the family are strangers 
 to God : and what tendency have any of your 
 efforts had to their conversion ? Has the pow- 
 er of example, which may perhaps be your chief 
 instrument there, been carefully employed by 
 you ? Have you been so far heedless, so often 
 out of temper, or so quick in answering again, 
 as to cauae it to be felt that it is a disagreeable 
 thing to have pious help in the house? Or, 
 have you tried, by showing in your charac- 
 ter what religion can do, to make even those un- 
 derstand its excellency to whom you cannot 
 with propriety speak on such a subject ? Op- 
 portunities of speakhig on it, however, must 
 
75 
 
 often arise: have you improved them? Have 
 you, in a word, labored for their conversion 
 more than for anything else in the world, your 
 own salvation excepted? Or, perhaps your 
 companions are ignorant of Christ: what has 
 been your conduct towards them ? Have you 
 fallen in with their levity, so as to encourage 
 them in it ? Or, have you tried to wean them 
 from it by the cheerfulness of piety ? What 
 savor of seriousness has pervaded your conver- 
 sation? With what fervor and affection have 
 you endeavored to save them ? 
 
 I may suppose that you occupy a place in a 
 large circle of relations ; that you belong to a 
 family widely dispersed, yet in its various 
 branches occasionally meeting ; but not, alas ! 
 all united in everlasting bonds. What have you 
 done to bring these fragments into the blessed 
 union? Have your letters been impregnated 
 with a savor of piety ? Have your occasional 
 interviews been seasons of solemn endeavor to 
 engage their hearts for Christ? Have you 
 sought opportunities, or have you embraced 
 such as arose unsought, for alluring their souls 
 to eternal life ? 
 
 I may suppose, finally, that you have a more 
 extended connexion with society, and with the 
 world. You have a circle of friends, a wider 
 circle of acquaintance, and a circle still wider of 
 
76 
 
 general intercourse. What have you done for 
 the conversion of any of them? Which of 
 your neighbors has heard the gospel from you ? 
 When has the confidential intercourse of friend- 
 ship turned solemnly on your friends' best inter- 
 ests ? With what resolution and ingenuity has 
 the course of general conversation been directed 
 to spiritual improvement ? 
 
 These inquiries are not many, but few ; and 
 merely a specimen of those which we should 
 address to ourselves, according to the peculiari- 
 ties of our condition. I may perhaps have ad- 
 dressed them to some professors of religion who 
 can give none of them a satisfactory ansv/er ; 
 who really never think of trying to convert any 
 one. You imagine that you feel for the conver- 
 sion of sinners, you concur.outwardly in praying 
 for them, you support the ministry of the gospel 
 and missions to the heathen ; but this is all. 
 The ungodly are, without exception, abandoned 
 by you to the efforts of others. Neither husband 
 nor wife, neither child nor grand-child, neither 
 friend nor neighbor, do you endeavor to instruct 
 or to save. O salt of the earth ! if it be thus 
 with you, you have lost your savor. 
 
 Doubtless many of you are not subject to so 
 severe a censure. Th(?re are some for whose 
 salvation you are laboring. But is this number 
 as comprehensive as it ought to be ? You seek 
 
77 
 
 the conversion of your children, but perhaps not 
 that of your domestics ; of your domestics, but 
 perhaps not of your laborers ; of your relatives at 
 home, but perhaps not of your relatives abroad ; 
 of your family, but perhaps not of your friends ; 
 of your friends, but perhaps not of your neigh- 
 bors. You try to convert a brother or a sister, 
 but perhaps not a parent ; a fellow servant, but 
 not a master or a mistress ; an equal, but not a su- 
 perior. Yet, why should it be so ? In all these 
 directions you are both fitted and intended to 
 exert the characteristic influence of piety. O 
 salt of the earth ! if it be thus with you, in a 
 great degree you have lost your savor. 
 
 It is yet further to be examined, whether, if 
 your efforts are directed to all the proper objects 
 of them, they are employed with a due fervency. 
 Of the opportunities which present themselves, 
 you improve some ; how many do you neglect ? 
 Would not many more occur to you, if you were 
 closely on the watch for them ? Might not 
 more good be generally done, if you were prompt 
 in beginning your work and dihgent in pursuing 
 it? Might not more seriousness and affection 
 be thrown into your efforts ? Are your endea- 
 vors of this kind anything like the great business 
 of hfe ? Or does it seem with you rather like a 
 subordinate concern ; a useful thing, if you have 
 time and inclination for it; something which 
 
78 
 
 may fill up the crevices of the day, if the world 
 leaves any empty ; and occupy just the fragnaents 
 of time and the remnants of exhausted strength, 
 while life's great end is business or labor, plea- 
 sure or ambition ? O salt of the earth ! if it be 
 thus with you, to an extent much to be deplored 
 you have lost your savor. 
 
 I knov/ not that any Christian can hold bim- 
 self clear from this charge. In truth he that 
 feels most and does most for the salvation of 
 men, is the likeliest to acknowledge that he both 
 does and feels much less than he ought. Was 
 the warmest zeal which ever glowed in the 
 heart of man adequate to the claims of an 
 object which has engaged the whole ardor 
 of the Almighty ? And what can he feel whose 
 whole soul is devoted to it, but that even such a 
 consecration is far below the glory of the end ? 
 
 What would our feelings be if we were on our 
 death bed, just entering into a dread eternity ? 
 What, if we were standing at the judgment seat 
 of Christ ? What, above all, if we were actually 
 beholding the dismay of the guilty there, and the 
 awful terrors amidst which tbe wicked will be 
 driven into hell, even all those who forget God ? 
 Ah ! would not our emotions at such a sight be of 
 an overwhelming power, and smite us with as- 
 tonishment and shame that they should ever have 
 been so slender ? Yet we should see nothing 
 
79 
 
 then but the truth, and feel nothing but what the 
 truth demands. And if our hearts were more 
 deeply moved, our exertions would be proportion- 
 ately augmented* What eager vigilance would 
 be employed to watch for occasions of useful- 
 ness; nay, what holy ingenuity in creating them ! 
 what precious portions of time would be rescued 
 from trifles ; or what golden hours obtained by a 
 wise arrangement of our affairs! How gladly 
 would the period of sleep be curtailed in the morn- 
 mg, and that of relaxation in the evening hours ! 
 What a vein of piety would run through the mass 
 of our ordinary intercourse, adapted to enrich even 
 a passing stranger with inestimable treasure ! O 
 salt of the earth ! if it be not thus with us, in an 
 afflictive measure we have all lost our savor. 
 
 9. With a conviction, then, of our personal 
 share in the state described, let us go on to 
 consider the representation here given of its eviL 
 " If the salt have lost his savor, whereivith shall 
 it he salted ? It is thenceforth good for nothing, 
 hut to he cast out, and trodden under foot of men,''^ 
 r^AV' 1. We are thus led to observe, in the first place, 
 that, when the disciples of Christ are not in vig- 
 orous action for the salvation of sinners, it frus- 
 trates an important part of the design of their 
 conversion. 
 
 The chief end of God in conversion is the glo- 
 ry of his holy name, through Jesus Christ: but 
 
80 
 
 there are also to be answered subordinate ends, 
 in the attainment of which, in truth, the accom- 
 pHshment of the primary object is involved. The 
 first of these is the eternal blessedness of the sin- 
 ner himself ; the next is his utihty as an instru- 
 ment of converting others. Redeemed sinners 
 are the very agents, and the only agents, which 
 the Almighty forms for the conversion of the 
 world. He lights the candle that it may shed 
 light around. He has seasoned, us with grace 
 that we may season the earth. Let it be set down 
 by us, therefore, as a certain and weighty truth, 
 that our usefulness in the salvation of others was 
 the second, and but the second great end he con- 
 templated in our own. It is one of the grand 
 methods by which he has designed us to show 
 forth his praise. 
 
 Now nothing can be more binding, and noth- 
 ing ought to be more delightful, than to fall in with 
 God's designs respecting us, and to fulfil the good 
 pleasure of his will. The force of all the mercy, 
 the rich and unspeakable mercy, which he has 
 shown us, leads us in this direction ; according to 
 the language of the apostle, " I beseech you, breth- 
 ren, by the mercies of God, that ye yield your- 
 selves a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable, 
 which is your reasonable service." ^ " For ye 
 are not your own ; for ye are bought with a price : 
 
 * Rom. xii. 1. 
 
81 
 
 wherefore, glorify God with your bodies and your 
 spirits, which are God's." ^ In agreement with 
 this exhortation are the aspirations of every re- 
 newed heart ; with Saul ready to ask, " Lord, 
 what wilt thou have me to do f and with him 
 ready to reply, " The love of Christ constraineth 
 me ; because I thus judge, that if one died for all, 
 then were all dead ; and that he died for all, that 
 those who live should henceforth not live unto 
 themselves, but unto him that died for them, and 
 rose again." J And such have been the vows, if 
 they have been anything better than hypocri- 
 sy, which we have often presented to our adora- 
 ble Redeemer at his throne, and at his table. 
 
 Can we then bear to think that there is any 
 part of his will concerning us which we do not 
 fulfil ; that in any line of activity he has marked 
 out for us, we are sluggish and ineffective ? Is 
 this our fidelity to the vows we have so frequent- 
 ly implored him to accept? Is this our evidence 
 of grace ? Is this our kindness to our friend, and 
 the return we are content to make him for his 
 love ? Forbid it, all that is influential in grati- 
 tude, or faithful in friendship, or sincere in piety ! 
 
 But if there be force in such a reflection in re- 
 ference to any part of God's will, how much more 
 when it applies to a particular of preeminent 
 
 * 1 Cor, vi. 20. f Acts ix. 6. J 2 Cor. v. 14, 15. 
 
,82 
 
 magnitude ! Our activity for the conversion of 
 others is no trivial thing with him. Next to our 
 own salvation, it is the chief end for which he 
 has called us by his grace ; and it is the grand use 
 to which he has intended to put us in the world. 
 It is an object of the utmost importance in his 
 view, and of the highest glory to his name ; an 
 object on which he has concentrated all the coun- 
 sels of eternity, on which he has expended the 
 amplest resources of his nature, for which he 
 has poured forth the blood of his Son, and to 
 which he is bending the whole administration of 
 his providence. And is it to his purpose in such a 
 point as this that we can be indifferent ? Is it here 
 that we fail to sympathize with him, or are slow 
 in coming forth to his help ? Is it to the losing 
 of our savor that we can by any possibihty be 
 reconciled, and to an entire unaptness for the 
 intended and blessed process of seasoning with 
 grace a corrupted world ? Alas ! if it be so, our 
 hearts are not right with God ; and whatever 
 portion of such a spirit there may be in us, it 
 ought to be matter of deep humiliation before 
 him. 
 
 2. A state of inactivity in reference to the con- 
 version of sinners greatly diminishes the value of 
 religious profession, and of religion itself as ex- 
 hibited among men. It has always been the 
 boast and glory of religion, that it has a tendency 
 
83 
 
 to spread itself abroad. Hence our blessed Lord 
 compared it to a grain of mustard seed, which, 
 though the least of all seeds, became a tree ; and 
 to leaven, which, though a little of it were hid 
 in three measures of meal, would extend its in- 
 fluence till the whole was leavened. The same 
 idea is conveyed when he describes his disciples 
 as light, and as salt ; since both these substances 
 are remarkably characterized by a diffusive quali- 
 ty. So eminently has religion borne this charac- 
 ter, that it could never have been considered as 
 exaggeration to say, Convert but one man, and 
 you make provision for the conversion of the 
 world. Upon this principle God himself has act- 
 ed. The conversion of the world is an object 
 which he actually contemplates ; but what has he 
 done for it ? He has converted some men, and left 
 them to be the conversion of others. When this 
 work was to make the most rapid and triumphant 
 progress, namely, after the resurrection of our 
 Lord, the body of converts who were, like the 
 little leaven, to begin it, was extremely small, the 
 number of the names together being but a hun- 
 dred and twenty ; yet such was his reliance up- 
 on the diffusive power of religion, that he did not 
 scruple to leave it in their hands. To the same 
 instrumentality he continues to look. Lamenta- 
 bly small as the effect has often been, he still con- 
 fides in the principle. Of his disciples he has all 
 
84 
 
 along said, and he still sajs, " Ye are the salt of 
 the earth ; " and from their exertion, if from any 
 quarter, are we still to anticipate the final tri- 
 umphs of the gospel. 
 
 This, I have said, is the boast and glory of 
 religion, that it is endowed with a vital power, 
 and is adapted to diffuse itself even through a 
 world as corrupt and hostile as this. But, alas ! 
 how much is this glory concealed, and this boast 
 invahdated, when professors are slothful ! If a 
 man's religion were what it ought to be, there 
 would not long be one convert in a place, with- 
 out his being the means of converting others; 
 but now, in how many places may we see not 
 only one, but several Christians, with no increase 
 of their number, with no change in the general 
 character of their neighborhood, but rather with 
 a dwindling of the hght which has been kindled 
 in them, and an approach to final extinction. 
 Judging from the nature of rehgion, one would 
 afiirm, that if we could place twenty pious peo- 
 i)le in a town of moderate size, we should make 
 an ample provision for its illumination ; yet how 
 often may we see that, in places where there is 
 a much larger number, the cause of Christ seems 
 stationarj^, if not declining. Might we not be 
 certain that one conversion in a family would lead 
 to more ? Yet in how many instances, where sev- 
 eral members of a household are pious, how lit- 
 tle of its effect is felt by the remainder! Ah, re- 
 
85 
 
 ligion ! is this thy boasted efficacy ? Are these 
 the records of thy glory? Is this the heaven- 
 ly remedy, the power of which was to ex- 
 ceed the virulence of the plague of sin, and to 
 follow it in its universal desolation ? What must 
 the quality of that piety be, of which there can 
 be so much in this kingdom, in this town, and in 
 our family circles, with so small an influence ? 
 
 Beloved brethren, if we have any anxiety to 
 free religion from so unjust and unmerited a re- 
 proach, if we have any concern even about the 
 sincerity of our own profession, let us be awake 
 to these things. If religion really were not diffu- 
 sive, it would deserve much less respect from 
 men, and would be held in far lower estimation 
 by God, than it has hitherto enjoyed on the one 
 hand, and claimed on the other. Salt which has 
 lost its savor is thenceforth good for nothings but 
 to he cast out, and trodden under foot of men : and 
 religious professors who do not strive to convert 
 the ungodly, are worth lamentably little now, and 
 run a fearful hazard of final rejection. 
 
 3. Negligence of the salvation of others is an 
 unaccountable abandonment of our privilege. 
 The honor and the delight associated with sa- 
 ving a soul from death, surely make a very in- 
 telligible and powerful appeal to the heart ; and 
 it might well have been supposed that, in pur- 
 suit of such an object, and in the communication 
 
86 
 
 of such benefits, we should have gone forth with 
 joyful zeal. Were any one to authorize us to 
 enter into a scene of distress, where, for exam- 
 ple, the hungry and the naked, the oppressed 
 and the captive, the sick and the dying, were to 
 be found, to announce a relief for every want, 
 and to carry comfort to every mourner, should 
 we not rejoice to execute the commission ? 
 And yet, when God makes us his almoners, and 
 instrumental dispensers of his bounty, we are 
 comparatively sluggish, if not almost unmoved ! 
 To which of the condemned sinners around 
 us may we not proclaim a free forgiveness ? 
 Which of the hungry poor may we not assure of 
 a welcome to the gospel feast ? To which of 
 the miserable may we not exhibit the Saviour's 
 fulness of grace r Which of the perishing may 
 we not hope to snatch as a brand out of the fire ? 
 What, then, is the meaning of our slothfuhiess ? 
 Is it that such deeds as these yield us no joy ? 
 that we count our privilege a task? that we 
 reckon the labor more than the reward? O 
 hearts destitute alike of ambition and of pity! 
 We confess, then, that we disown the luxury of 
 doing good, and desert the station of benefactors 
 of our kind. It is an honor and a joy, in which, 
 though they are worthy of the highest, we have 
 no pleasure. Wishing to increase our felicity, 
 he has caused them to overflow from his 
 
87 
 
 own bosom to ours; but we disrelish and 
 repel them. And for what do we refuse 
 them? Are there any pleasures holier, or 
 more exalted? None. Is it to be more 
 active in relieving temporal wretchedness ? 
 No. He that does most for men's souls, will al- 
 ways do most for their bodies. It is merely to 
 sink down into selfishness and indolence; to 
 give ourselves to the world, in its vanities or its 
 cares ; and to lead a life which is far more weari- 
 some as it passes, and will be totally fruitless 
 when it is gone. 
 
 Yet, no. Heavenly Father; we hope not. 
 We have been too insensible to our privilege, 
 but we trust we are not utterly callous to it. 
 Arouse us to deeper feeling, and enable us to 
 work with thee, with a heart like thine own ! 
 
 4. Negligence of the work of conversion per- 
 petuates the miserable and sinful state of the 
 world. " If the salt have lost its savor, where- 
 with shall it be salted?" or, how shall it season 
 that to which it is applied ? And if the disciples 
 of Christ do not lay themselves out for the con- 
 version of the world, how will it be achieved ? 
 
 If, in answer to this inquiry, it should be said 
 that the purpose of God will stand, and that if 
 he means to convert the world it will infal- 
 hbly be done, it would be a truth, but a 
 truth perverted to the purpose of a falsehood. 
 
88 
 
 For, as certainly as God has designed the con- 
 version of the world, has he designed also that it 
 shall be achieved by the instrumentality of his 
 people; their agency, therefore, though truly 
 subordinate, is not less necessary than the influ- 
 ence of the Spirit itself. If the world cannot be 
 converted without the one, so neither without 
 the other; just in the same manner that, while 
 God has declared harvest shall not cease, there 
 will be no harvest so long as the world stands, if 
 the seed is not sown. As to neglect sowing the 
 seed would destroy the possibility of the harvest, 
 so to withhold christian exertion prevents the 
 conversion of the world. In whatever sense it is 
 God's work, his fixed arrangements are such that 
 he not merely will not, he cannot perform it 
 while his people are inactive. It is by their 
 hands the bible must be circulated ; it is by their 
 lips the gospel must be preached. Their indo- 
 lence restrains his action. And whenever the 
 time may come that he shall arouse himself, and 
 endure this sluggishness no longer, his first ef- 
 fort towards the conversion of the world will be 
 to smite the obdurate hearts of his saints to tears 
 of penitence and tenderness, and to send them 
 forth weeping, bearing at length the precious 
 seed from whence the harvest of immortal joy 
 shall arise. 
 
 It may perhaps be conceived, that the instru- 
 
89 
 
 mentality to be employed in the progress of re- 
 ligion is to be chiefly that of ministers and mis- 
 sionaries. Without having any wish to depreci- 
 ate the office of the ministry, or to diminish its 
 responsibility, 1 must be allowed to say, that I 
 think the sentiment is carried much too far. In 
 the means to be used for the universal prevalence 
 of rehgion, there is much that ministers, with 
 whatever zeal, cannot do — it must be done by 
 private Christians, if done at all ; and there is 
 much more which they can do far better than 
 ministers. Besides, would Christ have fitted so 
 many thousands and hundreds of thousands of 
 persons for usefulness in saving sinners, without 
 intending to bring them into action, and into a 
 measure of action proportionate to their value ? 
 Does he mean that his wide triumphs should be 
 won by the comparatively small number of his peo- 
 ple technically known as ministers ? The idea is 
 absurd ; and it is falsified by fact. Inquire where it 
 is that the spread of religion partakes most largely 
 of the character of apostolic or millennial days ; 
 and you will have for answer. It is in the West In- 
 dies, and the islands of the Pacific Ocean ; where 
 indeed they have zealous ministers, but where, 
 too, they have zealous converts. It is in the West 
 Indies, where a single negro, in defiance of his 
 master's wrath (no trifle in a land of slavery,) in- 
 duces four hundred of his companions to hear 
 8^ 
 
90 
 
 the gospel, and lias the pleasure of soon seeing 
 forty of them join the church. It is in the isles 
 of the Southern sea, where men are scarcely con- 
 verted, before they take a boat to a distant isle, 
 and live for nothing, but to save their brethren. 
 This is the spirit we want at home : when shall 
 it once be ? 
 
 I confess myself to have a strong conviction, that 
 this is the kind of exertion by which the universal 
 prevalence of Christianity will be achieved ; that 
 the present stagnation is to be ascribed to the ab- 
 sence of it ; and that the final triumphs wait on- 
 ly for its developement. Let the church be con- 
 verted, and the world will soon be so too. Some- 
 thing, it is true, I admit even that much has been 
 done, and is doing for the maintenance and ex- 
 tension of an official miinistry ; but, in compari- 
 son with the number and capability of religious 
 professors, very little is done in the way of per- 
 sonal and individual endeavor. This is infinitely 
 the most valuable of ail the aids which can be ren- 
 dered to the cause of Christ, and would do more 
 good than all the wealth of the christian or the 
 antichristian world. While this is withheld, there 
 is little reason to hope for a blessing on pecuniary 
 contributions, or even to expect that they will 
 long continue to be supplied. The liberality of 
 the present age is eminently the creature of ex- 
 citement. In order to awaken it, and raise it to 
 
91 
 
 its present pitch, recourse has been had to a sys- 
 tem of stimulants, in some cases of a very equiv- 
 ocal character, and in many wholly incapable of 
 being perpetuated. Every such effort requires a 
 more pungent excitement than the last ; and while 
 the ingenuity required in the invention of them 
 is already almost expended, the result of the sys- 
 tem, when it ceases, must be a^proportionate lan- 
 guor and exhaustion. No pecuniary aids can be 
 permanent, but such as are derived with greater 
 ease, but such as arise from the deep emotions of 
 the heart in its intercourse with God, and from a 
 combined sense of duty and of privilege. These 
 springs it may be feared, afford but a small 
 proportion of the existing liberality of the pub-- 
 lie ; nor can they be opened by any cause but 
 one which will equally induce a habit of indivi- 
 dual exertion. Let a man once feel it to be his 
 duty and delight to make the great end of his 
 life, next to his own salvation, the conversion of 
 all around him, and he will then know, unbidden, 
 wdiat to do with his money, as well as with his 
 influence and his time. 
 
 The influence which the method of universal 
 and individual exertion would have in feeding the 
 oft exhausted and lamenting funds of public so- 
 cieties, is^ among the least of its benefits. It 
 would be an attitude of consistency and faithful- 
 ness upon which the blessing of God might be 
 
92 
 
 expected to rest ; it would multiply laborers be- 
 yond example, and beyond computation ; it would 
 place them in circumstances inexpressibly eligi- 
 ble for easy and effectual action ; and it would 
 cause the power of religion to penetrate the dense 
 mass of society in every direction. It would cre- 
 ate the most powerful operation, too, where it has 
 the greatest prospect of success, and where suc- 
 cess would be productive of the most beneficial 
 results; for its first achievement would be the 
 conversion of our country ; and there is no coun- 
 try with equal capacity for accomplishing the 
 conversion of the world. 
 
 But great results cannot arise without the zeal- 
 ous exertion we have enforced. If the salt have 
 lost its savor, the mass cannot be seasoned ; and 
 if the followers of Christ, who, collectively and 
 individually, are the salt of the earth, do not la- 
 bor for the conversion of the world, it will never 
 be achieved. Let but the people of God be inac- 
 tive, and mankind will still remain in the deprav- 
 ed, the guilty, and the miserable condition which 
 we profess to deplore, and for their deliverance 
 from which we have presented ourselves at the 
 throne of almighty mercy. 
 
 What an affecting consideration is this ! It 
 is not merely that the prevalence of sin and mis- 
 ery around us will be perpetuated, but that it will 
 be perpetuated by ourselves. We are the destin- 
 
93 
 
 ed instruments for its removal, and we become 
 answerable for its continuance. Ask w^hy, at this 
 late period of the christian dispensation, the world 
 still lies in wickedness : is it not because the fol- 
 lowers of Christ have been .indolent and unfaith- 
 ful? Ask why, after so long a possession of 
 evangelical privilege our favored country is 
 in so large a measure benighted and irreligi- 
 ous: is it not because Christians have been 
 negligent and slothful ? Ask why a town, 
 with a large leaven of piety for many years, is cha- 
 racterized by melancholy remnants of ungod- 
 liness: is it not because the salt has lost its 
 savor ? Or ask, finally, why our domestic and 
 social circles are so ineffectually pervaded by the 
 power of religion : is it not because we ourselves 
 have been wanting in the efforts required at our 
 hands ? Alas, for us, who have so many sins of 
 our own, that we should become chargeable with 
 the sins of others ! Alas ! that we, who profess 
 to gi'ieve over the wickedness of the world, should 
 become accessary to its continuance ! O to wash 
 our hands of this dreadful stain ! at least to re- 
 prove the works of darkness, and to shine as lights 
 in such a world, holding forth the word of life, 
 whether men will hear or whether they will for- 
 bear, that their blood may not be required at our 
 hands! 
 
94 
 
 BeloTed brethren, I have not set these consid- 
 erations before you for the mere purpose of excit- 
 ing your feelings, but I have wished by them to 
 lead you to the contemplation of a material change 
 in the character of your lives ; and I implore you 
 to consider whether it exceeds your duty, or will 
 be contrary to your happiness. Our attention has 
 been pointedly called to the stationary aspect of 
 religion at the present period, and we have uni- 
 ted in solemn and fervent prayer for a revival : 
 but what revival can we expect, if we do not la- 
 bor as well as pray ? There is assuredly much 
 room for enlargement in both ; and as we have 
 begun with prayer, let us follow it up with prac- 
 tice. Let it be fixed in your hearts, that it is for 
 you, each and every one of you, young or old, rich 
 or poor, wise or unwise, male or female, to try to 
 convert whatever sinners you may consistently 
 address, with all the vigor you would bestow up- 
 on a chief end of life. You who are parents with 
 your children, masters with your servants, trades- 
 men with your workmen, relations with your re- 
 lations, and all with your friends, companions, 
 and neighbors, see that you try at all times to save 
 these persons, with more earnestness than you 
 show in conducting your worldly business, or in 
 laboring for your daily bread. Nothing will make 
 you so happy ; nothing short of it will fulfil your 
 
95 
 
 duty ; nothing less will accelerate the triumphs 
 of the gospel. 
 
 I am not unacquainted with the impediments 
 you will find in the attempt. That which is new 
 always seems to be difficult. You may feel a 
 degree of unaptness in your early efforts, under 
 the influence of which you may imagine that you 
 cannot proceed ; or you may perceive your en- 
 deavors to fall so far short of what the object 
 demands, that you may be almost constrained to 
 relinquish them as unsuitable. But I can foretel 
 what will embarrass and obstruct you much 
 more. It is a cold and unfeehng heart. Cold 
 and unfeeling, I mean, not in the abstract ; 
 for, if you are a Christian, you do feel something 
 for perishing sinners ; but in comparison with 
 what you ought to feel. What moment will you 
 find, even in your most sacred hours, and when 
 your spirit is most solemnly impressed with eter- 
 nal things, in which your pity for dying souls is 
 adequate to their misery, and your resolution to 
 labor for their rescue equal to their woes ? But 
 how often will you feel far less warmly than this ! 
 Even by the time you reach the family altar the 
 fire in your bosom will glow more feebly, so that 
 the tone of your instructions there will be too 
 low ; and when you have been a few hours in the 
 world, when the cares of business have begun to 
 occupy you, or common pursuits to engage your 
 attention, how little will you feel then for the ir- 
 
96 
 
 religious around you ! Should an opportunity of 
 usefulnes then occur, liow easily may it be over- 
 looked, how negligently passed by ! Or how 
 nearly may it become the sentiment of that mo- 
 ment, " I must mind my business, and cannot at- 
 tend to the salvation of souls ! " Ah ! brethren, 
 believe me, this will be the grand obstacle to your 
 activity and success. Apply the remedy, there- 
 fore, to the root of the evil. Do not enter upon 
 labor, nor even resolve upon it, till your hearts are 
 deeply moved with pity and with love. Let your 
 first step be a visit, and an oft repeated visit, to 
 the throne of grace, to implore the enlightening 
 and melting influences of the Holy Spirit. La- 
 bor first of all to have your heart duly affected 
 with the evil of your own sins, the hateful cor- 
 ruption of your own nature, and the awful per- 
 ils frora which your own soul has been redeem- 
 ed. Endeavor next to realize the fact that ma- 
 ny of your children, relatives, and friends, are in 
 a similar condition ; and contemplate them in it, 
 as though you actually saw them in the presence 
 of God, or before his judgment seat, and sinking 
 into endless perdition. Give him no rest until he 
 makes your heart melt at the sight with the ten- 
 derest pity; till he m^kes you feel that it is your 
 privilege and your obhgation to save them, and 
 that all the duties and pleasures of life vanish in 
 comparison with the effort. Then you will be 
 
9? 
 
 fit to labor ; and then I may confidently predict 
 that you will labor O ! you will make no ex- 
 cuses then ; you will let slip no opportunities ; 
 you will hesitate at no sacrifices. 
 
 Such a state of mind, perhaps, is far above 
 what you now feel, and in seeking a higher ele- 
 vation you may find much discouragement, or 
 you may seem to make only larger and more 
 melancholy discoveries of the hardness of your 
 heait. Yet do not despair. A habit is not often 
 changed in a moment ; but it may be changed^ 
 and it will be changed by degrees. Think 
 of the importance and excellency of such 
 an alteration ; and wait upon the Lord for it 
 with Jacob's importunity, when he said, " I will 
 not let thee go except thou bless me." 
 
 Having attained a measure of a tender spirit, 
 before you commence your exertions, take a dc 
 liberate view of the field of your labor, and fa- 
 miliarize yourself with the persons, circumstan- 
 ces, and character of those whose welfare you 
 are seeking. Assemble round you in imagina- 
 tion your family group, husband or wife, chil- 
 dren or domestics ; then your laborers, acquaint- 
 ance, and neighbors. Endeavor to mark those 
 in whom no signs of grace appear; and then 
 concentrate upon them the general compassion 
 you already feel for impenitent sinners. A soul 
 ready to perish is an object touching to you in 
 9 
 
98 
 
 the abstract ; let it now be embodied in the per- 
 sons of this group in thought before you. Say, 
 This my husband, or this my wife, is a stranger 
 to the Saviour, and in danger of eternal ruin ; 
 this my child, these my children, are the children 
 of wrath, and growing up as enemies to God ; 
 these my servants are doing the service of sin, 
 the wages of which is death ; these my friends 
 and neighbors are in the gall of bitterness and 
 the bonds of iniquity, and the wrath of God 
 abideth on them. Dwell upon this fact, till it 
 becomes in your eyes infinitely the most impor- 
 tant feature in their condition, far outweighing 
 all varieties of character, and circumstances of 
 temporal good or evil; and then think how 
 much you may do for their salvation. Think 
 that every necessary means to convert them is 
 in your hand ; that you possess even a divine 
 adaptation to effect it ; that God has redeemed 
 you for the very purpose of making you instru- 
 mental in converting others ; and that you can 
 scarcely fail to labor with success. Next arrange 
 your methods of operation. Think how each 
 may be best approached, and adapt your efforts to 
 the varied character and circumstances witii de- ^ 
 liberation and design. Watch for opportunities, 
 and embrace promptly all which occur to you. 
 Labor for their souls, in a word, as though their 
 salvation were, what it ought to be, superior to 
 
99 
 
 all objects for which you live, next to the wel- 
 fare of your own. 
 
 Such being your spirit and your purpose when 
 you enter upon the duties of the day, recall 
 yourself often to the remembrance of it during 
 its progress. Ask yourself at various moments. 
 Am I now cherishing my highest aim ? and 
 striving to be useful to those who are in my 
 company ? Especially when an opponunity of 
 usefulness appears, remember how important 
 the improvement of it is ; that it affords you an 
 answer to prayer, and that it enables you to ex- 
 ert yourself for an object which an angel would 
 rejoice to promote, and for which your Saviour 
 died : and with these recollections lift up your 
 heart to God, that he may quicken you for the 
 effort, and crown it with success. 
 
 Next to attaining a tenderness of spirit, no- 
 thing is more important or more difficult than 
 preserving it. How soon does it decline, even 
 in circumstances most favorable to its continu- 
 ance ; but amidst the concerns of the world it 
 inevitably sinks. The vagrant heart must be 
 kept in check by constant access to the throne of 
 grace, and by close walking with God. The 
 measure in which our concern for sinners has 
 declined should be a subject of daily examina- 
 tion, and its revival and increase a matter of im- 
 portunate prayer. Most especially let us be con- 
 
100 
 
 eerned and resolved to leave our closet no morn- 
 ing, until our minds are deeply imbued with 
 compassion for sinners, solemnly impressed with 
 our responsibility for the state of those in imme- 
 diate contact with ourselves, and fully devoted 
 to their spiritual benefit as the highest object of 
 the day. Such a course will not be maintained 
 in vain. Religion never declines with us while 
 we are truly unwilling it should do so. " They 
 that wait upon the Lord shall renew their 
 strength ; they shall mount on wings as eagles, 
 they shall run and not be weary, they shall 
 w\alk and not faint."* 
 
 To this watchfulness over our spirit, it will be 
 highly important to add a daily examination of 
 our conduct, the true character of which will 
 not be known to us without an attentive review. 
 Let it be the serious business of our evening re- 
 tirement, to inquire. Whom have I attempted to 
 convert to-day ? When my eye was resting on 
 my children or servants, my neighbors or friends, 
 who know not God, did a sense of their guilt 
 and misery move me? And to what did it 
 move me ? Did I warn and reprove ; did I in- 
 vite and allure them ? Did I speak of the Sa- 
 viour, or commend his ways? Did I say or do 
 anything to infuse into their minds a solemn re- 
 gard to eternity ? Have I done this whenever I 
 
 *Isa. xl. 31. 
 
101 
 
 ought to have done it this day ; towards every 
 person ; on every occasion ; and with a due 
 solemnity ? Ah, brethren, while a professor who 
 never looks closely into his conduct may retain 
 a persuasion that he is nearly or quite without 
 blame on this head, it is impossible but such a 
 scrutiny should convict every one of us of daily 
 sin, and yield us cause for fresh humiliation, 
 and stimulus to more devoted fidelity. 
 
 0 that the Lord may grant you, beloved bre- 
 thren, a large measure of a tender spirit I O that 
 your awakening energy may show itself in new 
 and vigorous exertion ! Which of you intends to 
 be the cold, the sluggish disciple ; the salt which 
 has lost its savor? I will hope and believe 
 that, with one heart and voice, you would an- 
 swer, NONE. "Wherefore be ye steadfast and 
 unmoveable, always abounding in the work of 
 the Lord ; forasmuch as ye know that your labor 
 is not in vain in the Lord." 
 
 And now "let thy work appear unto thy ser- 
 vants, O Lord, and thy glory unto their children. 
 And let the beauty of the Lord our God be up- 
 on us ; and establish thou the work of our hands 
 upon us ; yea, the work of our hands establish 
 thou it 
 
 1 cannot close this discourse without address- 
 ing myself for a moment to those who know not 
 
 *P9. xc. 16, 17. 
 
 9^ 
 
102 
 
 God. Some who are now present do not 
 profess to be disciples of Christ, or conceive 
 yourselves to be so. You have heard me urging 
 upon the pious friends around you the importance 
 of attempting the conversion of sinners ; that is, 
 of attempting your conversion. Perhaps the dis- 
 course in this respect may have struck you with 
 some surprise. You were not aware that we 
 considered your salvation as of so much moment ; 
 none of us have spoken to you concerning it in 
 a manner adapted to convey to you such an idea. 
 We justly bring this reproof upon ourselves. 
 What can be more cutting than the rebuke you 
 thus administer ? Forgive us this wrong ! But 
 do notsufferour neglect to induce an opinion that 
 your salvation is a trifle. O no ! it is of infinite 
 moment. If our conduct has not conveyed this 
 impression to you, yet derive it from the aston- 
 ishing, and still only propoitionate attention 
 which has been paid to it by the Almighty. It 
 engaged his eternal counsels ; nay, it induced the 
 gift, and cost the blood of his Son. And, bless- 
 ed be his name, it is a benefit which he is in- 
 finitely willing to bestow. His mercy is without 
 limitation, and without reluctance. His language 
 is, " Come unto me, all ye that labor and are hea- 
 vy laden, and I will give you rest.^ Look unto 
 me, and be ye saved, all ye ends of the earth, f 
 
 *Matt. xi.28. 
 
 t Isa. xlv. 22. 
 
103 
 
 For him that cometh unto me 1 will in no wise 
 cast out." * Can you turn a deaf ear to an invi- 
 tation so delightful ? Or if the tones of a mor- 
 tal voice may add to the eloquence of heaven, 
 permit us to enforce this call with whatever of 
 affectionate concern our cold hearts may feel ; 
 and to implore you by the loathsomeness of your 
 corruption, by the magnitude of your guilt, and 
 by your peril of eternal ruin ; by the joys of heav- 
 en, and by the pains of hell ; by the anguish of a 
 dying and the entreaties of a living Saviour ; by 
 the mercies of a long-suffering God, and the ter- 
 rors of an avenging Judge; that you receive not 
 the grace of God in vain. " Behold, now is the 
 accepted time ; behold now is the day of salvation.f 
 To day, if ye will hear his voice, harden not your 
 hearts. I But take with you words, and turn un- 
 to the Lord, and say unto him. Put away all ini- 
 quity, receive us graciously, and love us free- 
 ly." § Amen. 
 
 * John vi. 37. 1 2 Cor. vi. 2. J Heb. iv. 7. 
 
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