DIRECTORS of this vast and noble Institution, see in this subject your honour and your duty. Yours is the distinction of uniting, organizing, and directing the zeal of a large proportion of the Christian world; a zeal which has for its object to make known the Saviour of mankind to perishing millions. A sacred trust is reposed with you. May the wisdom that is from above replenish your minds, the love of Christ constrain your souls, the unity of the Spirit pervade your councils, the bond of peace encircle your hearts, and the blessing of God crown all your exertions.

Continue to cultivate a friendly intercourse with other kindred societies, remembering that we all attack the same enemy, and move under the same banner; and though one may have inscribed upon the pole of the standard the name of the Church Missionary Society, a second the name of the Baptist Mission, a third the name of the Wesleyan Missions, yet all have placed the cross in the centre of the banner, and all have written over the sacred emblem, the ancient motto, "By this conquer." Your generosity in past times to our Moravian Brethren, and more recently to the Edinburgh Society, produced but one feeling, and that was admiration; and called forth but one expression, and that was applause. Perish for ever all envy and all rivalry, and let the only contest be this, who shall most glorify God and bless the human race!

Direct your Missionaries to exhibit THE GREAT PROPITIATION to the heathen, and to consider this as the very end of their mission. At the same time give them opportunity of acquiring those qualifications, which are so preeminently important in their situation. I speak the sentiments of all my brethren in the ministry with whom I have conversed on the subject, when I respectfully, but urgently, advise a lengthened term of education for such of our Missionaries as are destined to the East. It is our opinion, that four years are quite little enough for the literary and theological education of men, who are to preach the doctrines of the gospel in a strange language, and to present them pure as they were revealed from heaven, in a

faithful translation of the sacred volume. In this country, valuable as are literary attainments, and highly valuable they are every where; a minister may discharge the duties of his office with considerable success, although he be a novice in every language but his own; and even should he unhappily swerve from the truth, there are many on every hand to pluck up the weeds of error, as fast as they arise in the garden of the Lord: but what is a Missionary to do, without a literary education, who cannot hold a conversation with a pagan till he has acquired a foreign tongue; who cannot distribute a tract till he is able to translate it into a language, the genius and structure of which are totally dissimilar to any with which he is acquainted? The work of translating the Scriptures is of immense importance, and of no small difficulty, and should not be entrusted to unskilful hands. One imperfect version of the Bible may pollute the crystal stream of revelation for ages, and one error in theology planted amongst the heathen, may luxuriate amidst the almost boundless space of continents. First versions, and first systems of doctrine delivered to the converts from idolatry should be as perfect as possible, since these are the models of others which succeed; and in addition to the circumstance of propagating their own imperfections, if any such attach to them, they soon acquire the veneration which is paid to antiquity, and cover even their errors with the defence of this sacred shield.

I can assure the Directors that any increase of expense incurred, by renewed attention to civilization in barbarous countries, and by an extended literary education being granted to their Missionaries going to the East, will be most cheerfully defrayed by increased liberality on the part of their constituents.

There is one circumstance which is as a bunch of myrrh in the festive goblet of these annual banquets of benevolence and zeal: I mean the vacant seats of some who have "fallen asleep in Jesus," and in the increasing infirmities of others who yet remain.-Aged and honourable men! whose revered forms inspire veneration, whose noble exploits provoke emulation, and whose memory will be held

in everlasting esteem; does it make you linger amidst the scenes of labour, weary and worn as you are, and render you almost unwilling to retire to your eternal repose, lest when you are gone, that cause which you have sheltered by your prayers, watered with your tears, and which is dearer to you than your life's blood, should be neglected? Dismiss your fears; around you are your younger brethren, whose character you have formed by your example, and into whose spirit you have breathed your own; confide the sacred trust to them. Bequeath to them as a legacy, the interests of the Missionary Society, and whenever the chariot shall arrive, far distant be yet the day, which is to convey you in triumph to the skies, step into it without reluctance, being assured that we will search for your descending mantle, and never give up the pursuit till we have found the inspiring vest.

MISSIONARIES, ye noble hearted men, whom I feel myself unworthy to address, with whom we all regard, or ought to regard, not as the menial servants of our Institution, but its respected, and beloved agents in foreign countries; receive my congratulations upon the high honour to which you are called. Your's it is to follow next in the train of the Redeemer's retinue and earth's best friends, to apostles, evangelists, and martyrs. Learn from the subject of this discourse your exalted and unalterable duty. Your peculiar and almost exclusive business is to "make manifest the savour of the knowledge of Christ in every place."-"You are debtors both to the Greeks and to the barbarians, to the wise and to the unwise, so much as in you is, to be ready to preach the Gospel of Christ.""You go far hence to the heathen to make known the unsearchable riches of Christ." However, you may sometimes, for the sake of relaxation, engage in the studies of natural history or local statistics, this is your business, to preach the Gospel. Seek to have your own minds filled with the glory, and your own hearts attracted by the influence of the cross, till you burn with inextinguishable ardour to plant the holy standard on the loftiest ramparts of superstition. Take the inspired Missionary to the Gentiles as

your example, and determine in his spirit "to know nothing
save Jesus Christ and him crucified." Repose unbounded
confidence in the weapons of your warfare. Seek to be full
of faith. Leave your unbelief in England-in England did I
say.-
-Oh no: leave it not here, we have too much of it al-
ready; carry it with you on board the vessel which is to con
vey you to your station, then sink it ten thousand fathoms
below the surface of the ocean, and call the monsters of the
deep to sing its requiem. "Be ye holy that bear the vessels
of the Lord." Be diligent; death has passed on before you;
along the line of your march rise the tombs of departed
heroes; while Swartz, and Brainerd, and Vanderkemp, and
Cran, and Des Granges, come forth from their sepulchres
as you pass, to admonish you in the language of Scripture,
"Whatever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might,
for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wis-
dom, in the grave, whither thou goest." "Be faithful unto
death." Never forsake your standard. When you are found
amongst the slain, let your face be toward the foe, and no
scar be seen upon your back; then we will tell the world
that,

"When you fell, you fell like stars,
"Streaming splendour through the skies."

My respected FATHERS and BRETHREN in the Ministry, has this subject no voice to us? Let us learn here our obligations. The pulpit is intended to be a pedestal for the cross, though alas even the cross itself, it is to be feared, is sometimes used as a mere pedestal for the preacher's fame. We may roll the thunders of eloquence, we may dart the coruscations of genius, we may scatter the flowers of poetry, we may diffuse the light of science, we may enforce the precepts of morality from the pulpit, but if we do not make Christ the great subject of our preaching, we have forgotten our errand, and shall do no good. Satan trembles at nothing but the cross: at this he does tremble; and if we would destroy his power, and extend that holy and benevolent kingdom, which is righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost, it must be by means of the cross.

Upon the CONGREGATION, the subject of this discourse prefers just and extensive claims.

Behold the Lamb of God for yourselves, my hearers, with penitence, with prayer and faith. Could you direct the eyes and hopes of millions to the Saviour, this would avail nothing for your salvation, in the absence of a personal application on your own behalf.

Having first given yourselves to the Lord, then use every scriptural means for making him known to the heathen. Be importunate in prayer, that his kingdom may come, his "will be done on earth as it is in heaven." Believing prayer is the animating soul of the Missionary cause. It is this which distinguishes it from every worldly combination, and elevates it far above the level of mere earthly institutions. Let this cease, and it sinks down from its own exalted rank, to take the place, and share the fortune of all other human associations. Any increase of eloquence, funds, or patron. age, which the cause of religion might acquire, when the spirit of prayer is departed, is only like the extension which the human body sometimes gains when the vital principle is extinct, or at best but as the tumefaction which precedes dissolution.

Your property, however, must be added to your prayers, since he who has commanded us to ask, has also enjoined us to seek; evidently intending by such an order of injunction, that rational and devotional means are to be united in every case where human agency is employed. Christians, 1 come to ask you this day, not what you will give to send a specific remedy to a nation, desolated every year by the ravages of the plague; with such an object I might be bold in appealing to your benevolence; how much more bold then, when I ask what you will give, what you ought to give, to send the doctrine of the cross to more than six hundred millions of your fellow sinners, who are without Christ, and therefore without God, and without hope in the world. Answer me this question, not upon the principle of a mere worldly calculation, which looks round upon a circle of luxurious enjoyments with the inquiry, what can I spare and not be poorer; or which values every thing by a pecuniary standard; but as a Christian, who professes to have felt the constraining love of Jesus, and "to have rejoiced in God through Jesus Christ, by whom we have received the atone.