t may not be too much to affirm, that the
prosperity of these will be in some measure proportionate to the spirit
of that exercise that may be infused into them. How is so much justly
expected from the prayers of saints on behalf of missions, and
apparently so little from solemn Covenant engagements that might be made
at least once, or occasionally, to carry them into effect? Do not men do
but a part of their duty when they promise to one another, but do not
Covenant with God? Is it not He who in His word unfolded the missionary
chart, and by His own finger pointed out where they should be sent; who
told that nations should be born at once; and the isles should wait for
his law; and who made known, that out of Zion should go forth that law?
"He established a testimony in Jacob, and appointed a law in Israel,
which he commanded our fathers, that they should make them known to
their children; that the generation to come might know them, even the
children which should be born, who should arise and declare them to
their children."[225] And as to his people Israel, engaged by Covenant
to obey him, he thus spake: He says to his servants, Covenanted to his
service, "Praise ye the Lord. Praise, O ye servants of the Lord; praise
the name of the Lord. Blessed be the name of the Lord, from this time
forth and for evermore. From the rising of the sun, unto the going down
of the same, the Lord's name is to be praised."[226] An elegant and
powerful writer, in a work on Missions, wherein, among other important
collateral duties, entire consecration to the missionary enterprise is
urged by the highest motives, remarks regarding the work in reference to
Missions, that would seem to have been allotted to the Christian
communities in Britain,--"But Christianity had marked the island for its
own. And although its lofty purposes are yet far from being worked out
on us, from that eventful moment to the present, the various parts of
the social system have been rising together."[227] And in responding to
this, may it not be asked, Has there not been, on the part of the
Churches in these lands and elsewhere, as to kindred objects of
Christian exertion, especially to the missionary enterprise, an
injurious want of solemn Covenant devotedness? Could resolutions to
prosecute this be embodied so well as in a solemn Covenant engagement
with God? In this manner might there not be made arrangements regarding
missions, more solemn than has heretofore bee