June 21

Ye that make mention of the Lord, keep not silence, and give him no rest, till he establish, and till he make Jerusalem a praise in the earth. - Isaiah 62:6-7.

WE have not only the example of the people of God to induce us to recommend religion to others, but we have the authority of God, whose will is binding on all his creatures, and from whose decision there is no appeal. Our Saviour enjoins it upon us, when we pray, to say, “Thy kingdom come,” as well as, “Give us this day our daily bread.” And if we notice the order of it, we shall find that he tells us to pray for the coming kingdom of God, before we ask for our daily bread. Then, also, we should remember that we have the blessing of the gospel not only for ourselves, but also for others. The possession of the gospel is not only a blessing to enjoy, but a talent to use; and we are therefore debtors to those who are destitute of it. Then benevolence should also plead for this practice.

We admire every kind of benevolence; we bless those who endeavour to feed the hungry, to clothe the naked, to heal the sick; but what, after all, is the body to the soul? Charity to the soul is the soul of charity. And he that “converteth a sinner from the error of his ways shall save a soul alive, and hide a multitude of sins.” Then the importance of the thing pleads for the practice too. We do not wonder that those who believe that people may be saved, or nearly as well saved, without the gospel as with it, should feel an indifference in this case; but that they who profess to believe that for those who are in darkness and in the regions of the shadow of death there is salvation in no other, that none cometh to the Father but by him, and who approve of the apostle’s meaning,- How shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher? and how shall they preach except they be sent?-it is most astonishing that these people can feel any alter native between this belief and the obligation to employ all the means and resources in their power to spread the gospel!

Then, also, the experience we have had of the value and preciousness of the gospel ourselves should make us earnest to send it forth to others. Oh, what has it done for us! What was it relieved us under the burden that pressed our lives down to the ground? What was it that supported us under our trials, so that we said, Unless the Lord had been my delight, I should have perished in my affliction? And what has it done for us not only in spiritual things, but in temporal? What might we have been at this hour but for the gospel? If not in hell, our bodies might now have been hanging on the gallows, or we might have been in prison, or we might have appeared in penury and rags, instead of being able not only to enjoy the comforts of life but also to diffuse them.

And is it for us to be indifferent to the spread of the gospel? Then the possibility of the thing also should plead for it; for it is not an impracticable thing that is enjoined upon us. It is not a thing which requires miracles; then our strength might indeed be to sit still. But was it by miracles the gospel was first brought to this happy island? Was it by miracles it was sent to Greenland and the Eskimo? And was it by miracles that it was conveyed to the South Sea Islands? We have peculiar advantages to send it forth. We are not restrained by Government. We have the remedy that brings a cure in our possession, and we have the means to convey it to others, who are perishing, either by ourselves or by means of others. Let our daily prayer be, “Oh, send out thy light and thy truth.” But we must do something else if our prayers are either importunate or sincere; for they are neither, unless they induce us to adopt a line of conduct corresponding to the object, and dispose us to make use of the means which are conducive to it.

Of all our substance we are not the proprietors but the stewards, and it becomes a steward “to be found faithful.”