Apr 3, 1804 Sermon Index
Van Deusen/Kosinski Collection
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PAGE 46

Otaheite and went to New-Holland, where they have been successful in preaching the Gospel.

The London Society sent four missioanries in 1798 to the Cape of Good-Hope. They had two in Canada, and one in Newfoundland. They had also one in India, and have since sent eight or ten more to Otaheite. In 1799 they had sent out above eighty missionaries to different parts of the world.

Among all these vast exertions for the instruction and conversion of the heathen, the mission by the way of the Cape of Good Hope to the southern parts of Africa, has attracted most attention, and been crowned with the greatest prosperity. The venerable Dr. VAN DER KEMP, of Rotterdam, a physician of improved talents and exemplary piety, offered his service to the London Society, and was received with the respect due to his character. He cheerfully engaged in a mission to Africa, and has penetrated above five hundred miles from the Cape, where he is now successfully labouring with Mr. Edwards and some others, in the conversion of the Caffres. The pious young Kicherer, also from Holland, is employed with Mr. Edmonds and others among the Boschmen, the most savage of all the Hottentot race. The accounts transmitted from these apostolic men, dated from the most inhospitable regions of the earth, excite astonishment and gratitude. The Lord is evidently with them. The power of divine grace appears to be first exemplified in the most wretched and degraded portion of the human family, as a prelude to mercies to be conferred upon all nations.

The society of Edinburgh have sent seven missionaries into Russian Rartary. The Emperor Alexander, upon application, proved friendly to this mission, and appears disposed to encourage that good work in any part of his extensive empire. In a letter from these missionaries to the Society, dated at Karass, October 4, 1803, they proposed to redeem a number of young persons from slavery, and teach them the Tartar, Circassian, English, and Russian languages, and the principles of the christian religion. They intended also to publish a translation of the scriptures in the Tartar language; and as soon as they were sufficiently masters of the Cabardian, to translate, at least, a part of the scriptures in that language. They also mention their intention to circulate short religious tracts through the eastern part of the Turkish empire, in the Turkish and Arabic languages.

Sufficient documents are not at hand to furnish a catalogue of all the missions now supported, much less to determine the number of missionaries at present employed in different nations. A history of these establishments, it is said, is preparing, and will soon be published in Britain, which cannot fail of proving an interesting and acceptable work. - From the imperfect

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outlines here drawn, a view of the subject may be taken. Attend to what has been done within the last ten years. Estimate the greatness of the design, and the promptitude and extent of the execution. Consider all this as only a small portion of the plans formed, only the first stirrings of the spirit which now invigorates the Churches. Compare the whole with what has heretofore been attempted, and then decide whether it does not constitute a new and distinguished epoch in the history of the Church.




C.

Isaiah xxvi. 17. 21.

IT was said in the Discourse, that little respecting the immediate space between the opening and the close of the New Testament dispensation, could be expressly collected from the prophecies of the Old Testament. Among the exceptions to this observation, is a remarkable prediction in Isaiah xxvi. The Church, under the Gospel dispensation, is in this and the preceding chapter, the principal subject of prophecy. Zion is introduced singing. A song is always, in the prophecies, a symbol of the enlargement of the Church. In verses 17, 18, she complains of feeble and ineffectual efforts in extending the interests and kingdom of her Redeemer. We have not wrought any deliverance in the earth, neither have the inhabitants of the world fallen. She receives in answer the consoling promise of a period when she shall make vigorous and successful exertions, and no longer complain of abortive labors; when converts, numerous as the morning dew, shall join her standard. Thy dead shall live. Awake and sing - thy dew is as the dew of herbs. No season or time is particularly ascertained when this promise will be accomplished; but another event is foretold, and immediately connected with this. A judgment, a singular judgment, inflicted as the punishment of a peculiar and enormous crime, is mentioned. The event is represented as inevitable; the Lord's people may not pray for its removal, until the indignation be overpast. For, behold the Lord cometh out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for thier inquity; the earth shall also disclose her blood, and shall no more cover her slain. The terms here used, compared with the parallel expressions in the Revelation, put it beyond a doubt that the blood of the martyrs is intended, and the punishment predicted is the avenging of that blood. This is introduced as a coetaneous event with the enlargement of the Church. Whenever that precious blood begins to be avenged, then Zion will sing of mercy as






        
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