Morning Star

MORNING STAR.

For the Morning Star.

A SERMON,

BY E. NOYES, OF LYNN, MS.

" But ever follow that which is good, both among yourselves and to all men." 1 Thes. 5:15.

The true Christian has a heart to engage in every good work. If there is a good work in which he is not engaged, one of two things must be true. He has not ability to engage in it, or he does not understand it to be good.

Where one has a disposition to engage in a good work, and has not ability to do so, God will take the will for the deed, and the prayers of the individual will be accepted as an offering. David's desire was acceptable to the Lord, inasmuch as it was in his heart to build a house for the Lord, tho' he was not permitted to build it. Hence, it appears that the poorest child of God can do something in every good cause. He can desire its prosperity. If, therefore, a Christian does not pray for the success of a good cause, and do all he can to help it along, it is certain he has not yet learned that it is good. His heart is right, but his understanding needs to be enlightened.

All that is necessary, is, for him to be convinced that the work is God's work, and then he is all ready to act.

Now, no one will deny but it is good to seek our own welfare. We have found it good to labor for the conversion of souls in this village, and is it not equally good to labor for the salvation of souls in other places, where in the habitable world they may be found?—

This is the work that I understand is contemplated by the Mission cause. It does not guarantee the salvation of every individual in the world. This, neither God nor man can do, while men remain free agents; capable of receiving or rejecting the truth; but it contemplates giving the gospel to all mankind.—

Now, is not this a good cause in itself considered?

It appears to me that all I have to do in order to enlist every Christian, in this house, in the cause of Missions, is, to prove to you that the cause is a good one. This, then, is my work, and the more simply it can be done the better; but don't forget that if you are convinced that the work is good, you are, every individual of you, bound as Christians, to do all you can for its support.

1. I expect you will allow my testimony to go for something. I have tested it, and found it to be good. I have spent seven years in the cause for which I have derived no worldly profit, and I should like to be engaged in it while I live. Many of you have heard me lecture on the wretchedness of the heathen, and of the change produced in them by the gospel. Now, from the fact that you, knowing what my former life has been, and what my sentiments were, invited me to become your pastor, I infer that you regarded me as a man of truth. Should I therefore be indifferent with respect to this cause, you would have just cause to think me a hypocrite—and to suspect that I went to India for some other cause than to save souls. If, therefore, I possess one particle of your confidence, believe me when I say, that I have great heaviness and continual sorrow of heart for the poor Hindoos, and that I firmly believe God requires us to sacrifice talent, money, and every thing else necessary to give them his word.

2. Many good men have given practical demonstration that they believe in a good cause. It would be unnecessary for me to give a list of such names as Carey, Ward, Marshman, and a cloud of such witnesses, who have hazarded their lives in this holy work. And why should we leave out the apostles, since they were all missionaries, and missionaries to the heathen too. And thanks be to God that the name of the great founder himself, the Lord Jesus Christ, will ever grace the list, and his command will remain in force till the end of the world, when he will appear to give further orders.

3. The cause of missions is good, because we, through them, are now enjoying the gospel. Had it not been that missionaries brought the gospel to our European forefathers, we should now have been worshipping idols, and practising all those abominable and bloody rites of which our forefathers were guilty, and to which the present race of the heathen are subject. Previous to the introduction of the gospel into their countries, the inhabitants of Europe were as great idolaters, and as vile and wretched as the Hindoos are at this day. Had Christians then reasoned as too many do now, we should not have been blessed with the Bible, and its concomitant advantages. Does not gratitude for what we have received, bind us to compassionate the case of others?

4. This cause must be good, because it is the most purely benevolent of all causes.—

There is little or no room for the exercise of selfishness. In laboring for the promotion of religion, or for our benevolent institutions at home, we may mistake patriotism for a purely virtuous love. Indeed, we have reason to fear that many of our good works, when we labor for the conversion of our friends and neighbors, may be tinctured with selfish motives, but the cause of missions contemplates benefiting a people, who would never injure us by their evil practices and examples, if unconverted, and who would never benefit us by their Christian example, if converted.—

We shall never see them in this world, but must look forward to the world to come for our first personal acquaintance. The one who goes on the embassy, can only expect sacrifices of friends, country, health, ease and interest, propelled by disinterested love for souls, and he who gives his money, can only hope for that reward which is received in the very act of benefiting a fellow creature.—

Hence, it is that those causes that cast all their rich treasures into the bosom of our own country, commend themselves so much more readily to our sympathies, than the cause of missions.

5. This cause must be good, because it contemplates the giving of the Bible to the heathen. Who, I ask, has given a single volume of God's word to the heathen but missionaries and their coadjutors? No one. Now, if this is a work of priestcraft, then priestcraft has done a more glorious work than all the world besides. Ah, when I think that within the last half century, the Bible has been given to the Hindoos in more than 30 different languages, my bosom burns with emotion, and that millions of heathen within ten years past, have seen the word of life in their own tongue, my heart is filled with overwhelming gratitude. O God, is it possible that the only cause that gives thy own Book to heathen souls, is not thy cause! Are all the cold-hearted and the worldly-minded engaged in this work, and are all the spiritual standing aloof! By their fruits ye shall know them.

6. This cause is good, because it contemplates the relief of human sufferings. Would that I could carry your minds to the shores of Hindoostan. There you would see the weary pilgrim plodding his way from one celebrated place of pilgrimage to another, anxiously seeking for something to calm his restless spirit. And who is that naked human form that lies stretched upon the earth? What is he doing? Let us ask him. He raises his emaciated and disfigured frame, and says, "in search of supreme joys, I have thus measured my length for months, encountering the scorching heat and drenching rains." "My body, as you see, has become worn out with toil and fasting." A spectacle not less appalling you see in that poor wretch, into whose back the hook is thrust, and who is then raised, and swung for 15 or 20 minutes.

Wherever you turn your eyes, you see the heart-rending effects of idolatry in erected arms, mangled flesh, and broken limbs, all voluntary on the part of the sufferer! And what is still more revolting to humanity, is the mother sacrificing her own infant daughter in fulfillment of a presumptuous vow, or to save it from a life of degradation and infamy. See, too, the woman who throws herself into the flames, and burns with the dead body of her husband, and then say, if the cause that contemplates the healing of such sorrows, the quenching of such flames, is not good. Many of these poor, deluded sufferers, have already been snatched as brands from the burning, and the friends of missions are determined not to cease till the last fire that burns on Moloch's altar is extinguished, or, till they are called to their immortal home.

7. This cause contemplates the bringing of the rising generation under the influence of the gospel. Hundreds of poor orphan children have, by missionaries, been snatched from famine's withering hand, and are now under the influence of Christian instruction. Many of them have been converted to God, and some are now engaged in preaching Christ. The life of one human being is of great value in the sight of God, for not even a sparrow falls to the ground without his notice. Is it not therefore a good cause that contemplates the rescuing of so many from death and the bringing of them up under the influence of the gospel? Parent, what if your little son or daughter was lying by the high-way side, in Hindoostan, in a starving condition, would it not be a good work to save his life, and would it not be a good work to prevent him from being contaminated with the vile influence of idolaters? Your conscience and your heart answer, yes. Do to others, then, as you would have them do to you.

8. This cause contemplates the salvation of men from sin and its consequences. It saves men from idolatry, falsehood, theft, drunkenness, lasciviousness & murder. Thousands have already been raised from the greatest degradation to the enjoyment of a pure gospel. Some of our most devoted Hindoo Christians were once subject to all the disgusting practices of their country.

9. It contemplates the eternal salvation of souls. The missionary goes to tell the heathen that whosoever believeth on Jesus may not perish, but have eternal life. O, heavenly news. No wonder the angels, who bore the tidings of a Savior's birth, should have exclaimed, Glory to God in the highest, peace on earth and good will towards men. Good news, indeed, and shall we not give it to all mankind? Shall we deposit it in our own bosoms while the mass of men perish?

REFLECTIONS.

Alas, how little the mass of the church know of the condition of the poor perishing heathen. How hard to interest them in the salvation of nations that are so far from us. How hard to make the church feel that she is responsible for the heathen. But, my brethren, think as we may of this subject, God will soon call us to a reckoning, and we shall then know how far he has held us accountable for the heathen, as the professed light of the world, and the salt of the earth.

But, perhaps you are convinced that the cause is good; but still you do not feel yourselves able to do much for its support. I answer, you can all do something. None of you are poorer than the widow who gave her two mites, and this, you recollect, was not her surplus money, but all her living. The great ocean is composed of drops.

But it may be thought by some that it is now too late to engage in this work; that the heathen will be "dashed in pieces like a potter's vessel," before missionaries could get to them, and hence, since we have neglected them so long, we had better let them go to hell, and look out for ourselves. But I fear we shall find it hard looking out for ourselves, if we continue to neglect the heathen; for,

whether human probation closes this year or not, we shall not be saved unless we "occupy till the Savior comes." And while God goes on with his work in the natural world, causing the small tree to grow, as if destined to become large enough to bear fruit, we may safely go on with his work in the moral world.

O let us all be found engaged in well doing when the Master appears, that he may say to us, "Well done, good and faithful servant."