you need not go beyond the limits of the United States to feel
the force of this remark. Look at the destitutions in the more newly
settled states and territories, and see if there is not need of men to
preach the Gospel. But notwithstanding this need, only a small number,
comparatively, offer themselves to the work. Almost all young men, even
the professedly pious, slide easily into lucrative occupations; but to
bring them into the direct work of making known Christ, they must be
urged and persuaded by a score of arguments.

It is needed, too, of lay members of the church, to do much in searching
out the destitute and the dying, who exist in multitudes, even about
their own dwellings; to give here a word of warning, and there a word of
consolation; to add here a helping hand, and impart there the restoring
effect of sympathy and kindness; in short, to employ some hours in the
day in going everywhere, as the early disciples did, from house to house
and street to street, and in communicating, in an appropriate way, the
simple truths of Jesus. Laymen, too, are needed in great numbers in
the foreign service. There are reasons numerous and urgent, which I
cannot here name, why lay members in the church should go abroad.

But notwithstanding this call for personal effort, it is too often that
we meet with church members who are completely engrossed, from early
dawn to the close of day, in accumulating wealth; and who deny
themselves the luxury of spending either hour of the twenty-four, in
conversing with souls, and leading them to Jesus. Such persons will give
somewhat of their substance, when called upon; and press on, almost out
of breath apparently, in the cares of the world, not thinking to say to
this man or that, on the right hand and the left, that there is a heaven
above and a hell beneath, and death is at the door. You would almost
imagine, from the conduct of some, that they would like to commit to
proxy even their own faith and repentance. Now this entire engrossment
in worldly cares, even though professedly for Christ's sake, will never
illumine the dark recesses of the earth--will never usher in the
millenial day.

It is not so much, after all, an accumulation of wealth that is needed,
as the personal engagement of Christians in making known everywhere, at
home and abroad, the precious news of Jesus. The disposition to go
everywhere, regardless of wealth, and with Jesus on our lips, must be
the spirit of the