d yet all the
apostles, except one, were required not only to leave that city, but to
go without the limits of Palestine. Was not Antioch as important as
Boston or Philadelphia? Yet Paul and Barnabas were not suffered to
remain there.

Besides, is not the work of a missionary a difficult, important, and
responsible work? The Holy Spirit thought so in apostolic times. When a
man was needed to preach to Cornelius and his household, a man of no
less ability and influence than Peter was chosen. When a man was called
to go to Antioch, Barnabas was sent, a man of great piety and influence.
And when two of the five preachers at Antioch were called to go to the
heathen, the Holy Ghost did not choose Simeon, or Lucius, or Manaen, but
said, "Separate me BARNABAS and SAUL;" the men of the greatest ability,
experience, piety and wisdom. Thus the Holy Spirit seemed to declare
that the work of a missionary required greater talents, more mature
wisdom, and deeper piety, than the work of a pastor in the largest and
most influential churches.

And is not this doctrine, while it accords with the instructions of the
Holy Ghost and the practice of primitive times, also a dictate of common
sense? Would you choose weak men to penetrate into the very midst of the
enemy, and to grapple with the Anaks of the land, and keep those who are
strong in a garrison at home? Would you select indifferent statesmen to
settle the affairs of revolutionary France, or to reduce to order the
chaotic mass of the South American states; and employ the able, the wise
and talented, in governing a country already quiet and peaceful? Did it
require less wisdom to lay the foundation and form the constitution of
our good government, than it requires to manage the state on principles
already established? Does it require less skill to draft the plan of a
capitol, than to work at the building when the plan is mature? Does it
require less wisdom to govern a camp in a state of mutiny, than when in
subjection and at peace? Look, then, at the work of missions. Does it
require less talent to deal with minds clouded by ignorance, perverted
by superstition, and barred by arrogance, bigotry, and pride, than to
instruct the unbiassed, the willing, and intelligent? Does it require
less wisdom to tear up the foundations of heathen society, and lay it
anew on the principles of the Gospel--to change society morally,
religiously, and socially, than to preserve in a good condition a pe