on planted by God, enriched by his providence, nourished by his Holy
Spirit, and brought to the strength of manhood in this solemnly momentous
time of the nineteenth century, seems to have committed to her in a
special manner the work of the world's conversion. Who knoweth but that
she is brought to her preeminent advantages for such a time as this--for
the interesting period preceding the latter day glory; and now if she
prove herself unworthy of so lofty and responsible a trust, and neglect
to put forth her strength to usher in the glorious day, deliverance will
break out from some other quarter, but she, like a third Babylon, may
sink in the bottomless abyss. An immense responsibility rests upon us. O
that God would give us grace to act worthy of our trust--_to do what we
can_ for a dying world!

Let us inquire, then, Do we _pray_ for the heathen as much as we ought?
Were one duly impressed with the condition of perishing millions,
certainly no less could be expected of him, than to fall on his knees
many times a day, and to lift up his cry of earnest entreaty on their
behalf. Filled with the love of Christ, and having distinctly and
constantly before his mind the image of millions of immortal souls
dropping into perdition, surely he could not refrain from an agony of
prayer. Under such a sense of the wants and woes of our perishing race,
a sense true to facts, he would have no rest.

But what prayer has actually been offered to the Lord for benighted
nations? Is it not a fact, that many professed Christians do not remember
the heathen once a day, and some not even once a month? Let the closet,
the family altar, and the monthly concert testify. Prayer-meetings for
the heathen--how thinly attended! what spectacles of grief to Jesus, and
to angels! And if that prayer only is honest which is proved to be so by
a readiness to labor, give, and go, there is reason to fear that few
prayers for the heathen have been such that Christ could accept them,
place them in his golden censer, and present them before the throne.

Since such is the case, what wonder is it that a million and a half of
Christians in the United States should be so inefficient? Inefficient, I
say, for what do this million and a half of professed Christians
accomplish? By their vows they are bound to be as self-denying, as
spiritual and devoted, as though they were missionaries to foreign
lands. If we should send abroad a million and a half of missionaries