are yet more numerous than in the West."

"'*

As

St. Paul declares,† we are their "debtors;" for to them "pertaineth the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises; whose are the fathers, and of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came, who is over all, God blessed for ever. Amen." If we sincerely value the religion of the Gospel, we must feel it an imperative duty to strive to win them over to the faith in Christ. Their condition for the last eighteen centuries has been melancholy indeed, and cold must he be who is not touched with commiseration when he hears the sad complaint of Jerusalem :-" Is it nothing to you, all ye who pass by? behold, and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow, which is done unto me, wherewith the Lord hath afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger."§ Shame be it spoken, that the Christians for ages, in open defiance of the holy principles of their religion, heaped upon the Jews a fearful account of wrong, and gave them too just a cause to hate and blaspheme the name of Christ. That day, however, is now passing away; and we are called upon imperatively to

* Dr. Buchanan's Speech before the London Society for Promoting Christianity among the Jews, Dec. 1809. Romans ix. 4, 5.

+ Romans xv. 27.

§ Lament. i. 12.

See Basnage, book 7.

remove the stumbling block hitherto placed in their way, by our personal piety, and by evidencing a genuine Christian love towards them in caring for their souls. The conversion of the Jew is intimately connected with the salvation of the Gentiles, as may be gathered from many passages of Scripture. "I will sanctify my great name, which was profaned among the heathen, which ye have profaned in the midst of them; and the heathen shall know that I am the Lord God, when I shall be sanctified in you before their eyes. "'* "If the casting away of them be the reconciling of the world, what shall the receiving of them be, but life from the dead? Blindness is in part happened to Israel until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in.Ӡ

But here, again, we inquire, What has been done in the matter? As yet, but comparatively little. The Christian world at large is far from divested of contempt and cold disregard of the Jew. If we would affect complacency for the success of the feeble measures put into execution to convert the children of Israel, the frequent and earnest appeals on their part, which are made in vain to a wealthy community like ours, may lead us to weep over our apathy in a cause so nearly touching the name of God. "We urge upon the Jews the necessity of returning to + Rom. xi. 15, 25.

* Ezek. xxxvi. 23. ·

Moses and the Prophets, and tell them, if they believe and study Moses and the Prophets, and them alone, they will come in a direct road to Christ and his religion; and then, when we have raised a desire for the sacred Scriptures, and they come begging for them, even offering money for them, we tell them that we have none to give them.”*

From what has been thus stated respecting those classes of our fellow-men who still remain in a state of spiritual destitution, it is plain that the Christian Mission has been neglected to an awful extent, and that a vast sphere of duty devolves upon us, requiring our highest energies and devotedness. Our own countrymen, the Heathen, the Mahometans, and the Jews, each urge their claim with an earnestness which we dare not disappoint. It is time, then, that we attend to the summons. "The fields are white

for harvest; the harvest is plenteous; but, alas! the labourers are few." Some devoted spirits are engaged in the cause at home, and some are toiling in distant countries, having sacrificed all that makes life desirable to man. But the bulk of professing Christians have yet to learn what is meant by self denial, what is required in

*Letter from the Rev. J. G. Bergfeldt, Konigsberg, to the London Society for promoting Christianity among the Jews.

taking up the cross of Christ. They cannot delude themselves with the thought that, while they are neglecting to supply the means of spiritual instruction to those around them, or to the millions abroad, permitting the name of God to be dishonoured and the souls of their fellowcreatures to be swallowed up in ruin, they are fulfilling the sacred mission enjoined on every follower of Christ.

CHAP. III.

Objections to the Christian Mission, on the ground of its being unnecessary and impracticable, answered.

AFTER the plain and positive command given by our Lord to preach the Gospel to all nations, it might appear difficult to suppose that any of his professed disciples would dare to evade the obligation, and much less attempt to justify their conduct by alleging that the mission is unnecessary and impracticable. Few, it may be hoped, presume to make such assertions openly, yet we have reason to suspect that the objection has an indirect influence, more or less, on the minds of most of those who show an indifference to the subject. It is, therefore, worth our while to give it a brief consideration.

1. It is urged that the Christian Mission is unnecessary, since reason dictates that every man must be judged by his actions, and not by the creeds of religion.

What, then, it may be asked, is the meaning of