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COMMISSION.
JqI.Z. APRIL, 1858. Ho. 10.
PECULIAR OBLIGATIONS OF
BAPTISTS TO SUSTAIN THE
CAUSE OF MISSIONS.
The spirit of Christianity is the
spirit of' missions. The first petition
formed in Ihe soul of the new born
child of God is that which the Saviour
thughthis disciples J?rst to utter: “ Thy
kingdom come, thy will be dono in
earth ns in Ilcnvcn and the first in¬
quiry that escapes from his lips, is that
of the newly enlightened Saul, while
the scales were yet upon his eyes:
“ Lord what wilt thou have mo to do ?”
Hence the true Christian, the map or
the woman who has the spirit of Christ,
and bears his imago, to whatever creed
attached, or by whatever name kijown
among men, must have the spirit of a
missionary —must be fired by the earn¬
est desire to do something for the good
of others. When Luther had found a
Bible and become imbued with its spirit,
the walls of the monastery and the
cloister of the monk could no longer
contain him, but ho niust go forth and
tell his fellow-men what a treasure ho
had found. When Bunyan was im¬
mured in Bedford jail, the same spirit
that had impelled him to preach the
gospel in opposition to the unrighteous
mandate of princes, forbade him to be
idle even in his gloomy cell, and moved
him to map down the road to the celes¬
tial city for the benefit of pilgrims in
all after times. And as all Christians
are led by the samo spirit, they must
all be the subjects, to. some extent at
19
least, of .similar impulses. Hence it is
to bo expected that all Christians will
cordially approve and .zealously pro¬
mote the cause of missions. But there
arc some reasons why Baptists should
feel under obligation to be foremost in
this glorious enterprise..
I. God has, by special providences,
too plain to be misunderstood; laid them
under special obligations.
1st. By awakening among them the
spirit of missions, and by opening the
way for them to enter into the work.
Who doubts that the spirit of God
moved Fuller and his brethren to orga¬
nize the monthly prayer-meeting for
the spread of the gospel, which was
the means of awakening the spirit of
missions throughout England and sub¬
sequently in other countries ? And that
the same spirit first impressed tho heart
of Carey with the desire to become
а
missionary, and moved him to study,
while pursuing his humble occupation,
that he might qualify himself for the
great work he was afterwards to accom¬
plish ? The motives which induced. himt
in the face of the most appalling dif¬
ficulties, to go to’India, were as disin¬
terested and as pure ns those which
stirred the spirit of Paul to reprove the
superstitious Athenians and to declare
unto' them the unknown God, whom,
though they had 'dedicated an altar io
him, they ignorantly worshipped.
God might have called a wealthy no¬
bleman and sent him to India,- at his
own charges, to preach the Gospel to
