Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

And what, in all their counsels, in all their movements, in all their labors, distresses, trials, disappointments, and successes, what was the one never-failing stay, and supporting, and encouraging, and tranquillizing influence, on which the Apostles relied, and under which they acted? "We trust in the living God," is the Apostle's asseveration, "who is the Saviour of all men, specially of those that believe." Deeply engraved on the heart of the Christian missionary should be these words. He must faint under his burthen, if he realize not to his soul the very presence of an Almighty Father, reconciled unto him in Christ Jesus. There are crosses too heavy for us to bear up against, with our weak, and eager, and fretful temperaments, unless we be inwardly sustained, in all humble thankfulness, by this cheering conviction. Even in these Christian lands the minister of Christ must have much to contend with; much, of daily occurrence, to try his temper, to exercise his patience, to test his faithfulness, to call forth his charity. He is however in his native land; he is among the friends

B

of his youth; his kindred are all around him, or within his reach for intercourse or advice; opinion is already in favour of what is right; religion is no new truth, however imperfectly received; ecclesiastical discipline is already known, however we may have to lament its unavoidable relaxation, or its frequent breach and neglect; he has many with him, though there may be those who are against him; he moves as one of a body, and that body large, united, and influential: but in a distant and newlysettled colony, where all is strange; where everything relative to the foundation and just government of the Church awaits the forming hand of the Bishop; where law is weak or inapplicable; where opinion must be created, usage established, and religion taught from its very first principles, exemplified, upheld, promoted by every legitimate and righteous means, and set up as a countervailing force against that spirit of secularity which is so often the accompaniment and bane of Colonial undertakings; where instruction must be provided for all ages, Ministers sought out or ordained,

churches built, schools instituted, parishes defined, God honored, and man encouraged in virtue, reclaimed from vice, or converted to the Truth: how needful to him-unto whom, under God, is committed the great trust of evangelization in remote and heathen lands-how needful this prevailing sense of God's ever-watchful providence! "Commit thy way unto the Lord, and put thy trust in Him, and He shall bring it to pass;" "It is good for us to hold us fast by God, and to put our trust in the Lord God;" The Lord himself is thy keeper :

66

the Lord is thy defence, upon thy right hand; so that the sun shall not burn thee by day, neither the moon by night; the Lord shall preserve thee from all evil; yea, it is even He that shall keep thy soul: the Lord shall preserve thy going out, and thy coming in, from this time forth for evermore," is language, of which he only can feel the full import, or taste all the richness of its consolation, who has been left alone in some act of holy and perilous duty with God only near him-but that God, "the Saviour of all men, and specially of those

B 2

66

that believe." When I am in heaviness, I will think upon God," was the wise, no less than pious, resolve of the Psalmist. Man may give--and piously, and justly, and in conformity with very ancient custom3, and most beneficially give-to the higher Ministers of his God titles of dignity, and pre-eminency of rank; but that peace, which passeth all understanding, the world cannot give; neither can it take away; it is laid up for the faithful in the Lord only—even in the God of their salvation!

It is not possible to give utterance to these consolatory truths, without a prayer for him, who is now about to be sent forth to the work of a Bishop in a far distant land, that he may be abundantly comforted by them. It is a glorious spectacle, when one of the wisest and mightiest of the nations of the earth is seen rousing itself at length to the full sense of its religious obligations, and, like a giant refreshed from his sleep, putting forth its strength for the evangelization of

[blocks in formation]

the world. The Lord will assuredly be with a nation thus Christianly working in obedience to the Divine will, and in reliance on the Divine help! And may we not humbly, but confidently, trust, that He will be in an especial manner with him, who now, at the call of duty, bursting asunder the endearing ties of country, consanguinity, and friendship, full of the Saviour who died for him, intent on winning souls to Christ, ready to sacrifice all for Christ, and devoutly relying on the providence of his God, willingly offers himself to the Lord, going out, "like faithful Abraham" before him, not knowing whither, or on what he goes, save on the Lord's business, and at the call of those who have power from the Lord to send forth laborers into His vineyard? May the grace of the Almighty be upon him! May he be "endued with power from on high;" with wisdom, with purity of heart, with singleness of intention, with firmness of purpose, with the spirit of courage, forbearance, patience, condescension, and never-failing charity! May he have grace to preserve, under every un

« AnteriorContinuar »