AN ADDRESS ΤΟ THE REV. EUSTACE CAREY, JANUARY 19, 1814, ON HIS DESIGNATION AS A CHRISTIAN MISSIONARY TO INDIA. AN ADDRESS. As it has been usual in the designation of a missionary, after solemnly commending him to God by prayer, to deliver a short address; in compliance with a custom not perhaps improper or illaudable, I shall request your attention to a few hints of advice, without attempting a regular charge, which I neither judge myself equal to nor deem necessary, since on your arrival in India you will receive from your venerable relative Dr. Carey instruction more ample and appropriate than it is in my power to communicate. When the first missionaries who visited these western parts were sent out, their designation was accompanied with prayer and fasting; whence we may infer that fervent supplication ought to form the distinguishing feature in the exercises appropriated to these occasions. An effusion of the spirit of prayer on the church of Christ is a surer pledge of success in the establishment of missions than the most splendid exhibitions of talent. As there is no engagement more entirely spiritual in its nature, nor whose success is more immediately dependent on God, than that on which you are entering; to none is that spiritual aid more indispensably necessary which is chiefly awarded to the prayers of the faithful. Separate to me, said the Holy Ghost to the disciples assembled at Antioch, separate to me Barnabas and Saul, to the work whereunto I have called them. When the omniscient Searcher of hearts separates a Christian minister from his brethren and assigns him a distinct work, it implies the previous perception of certain qualifications for its successful discharge not generally possessed; for though none can give the increase but God, much of his wisdom is to be traced in the selection of instruments fitted to his purpose. The first and most essential qualification for a missionary is a decided predilection for the office; not the effect of sudden impulse, but of serious, deep consideration; a predilection strengthened and matured by deliberately counting the cost. Every man has his proper calling; and while the greater part of Christian teachers are perfectly satisfied with attempting to do all the good in their power in their native land, there are others of a more enterprising character, inflamed with the holy ambition of carrying the glad tidings beyond the bounds of Christendom; like the great apostle of the gentiles, who was determined not to build on another man's foundation, but if possible to preach Christ in regions where his name was not known. The circumstances which contribute to such a reso lution are various, often too subtle and complicated to admit of a distinct analysis: a constitutional ardour of mind, a natural neglect of difficulties and dangers, an impatience of being confined within the trammels of ordinary duties, together with many accidental associations and impressions, may combine to form a missionary spirit; nor is it so necessary minutely to investigate the causes which have led to a given determination, as the legitimacy of the object and the purity of the motive. We adore the prolific Source of all good, in the variety and discrimination of his gifts, by which he imparts a separate character and allots a distinct sphere of operation to the general and essential principles which form the Christian and the minister. He gave some apostles and some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ. The sacred impulse to which we have adverted I am certain you have felt in no common degree, and that it has been your ardent wish to be employed as a messenger to the heathen from the time you devoted yourself to the ministry. Of your possessing this most essential prerequisite for the office you have undertaken it is impossible for those who know you to entertain a doubt. The next qualification of whose necessity I must be allowed to remind you is singular self-devotement, without a degree of which it is not possible to be a Christian, still less to any useful purpose a minister, least of all a missionary. In resolving to quit your native country, and to relinquish your nearest connexions, with little expectation of beholding them again in the flesh, you have given decisive indications of this spirit; nor to a mind like yours, exquisitely alive to the sensibilities of nature and friendship, can the sacrifice you have already made be deemed inconsiderable. But as it is still impossible for you to conjecture the extent of the privations and trials to which, in the pursuit of your object, you may be exposed, your situation is not unlike that of Abraham, who being commanded to leave his own country and his father's house, went out not knowing whither he went. As you are entering on an untried scene, where difficulties may arise to exercise your patience and fortitude of which you can form but a very inadequate conception, you will do well to contemplate the example and meditate the words of St. Paul in circumstances not very dissimilar:-And now I go up bound in spirit to Jerusalem, not knowing what shall befall me there, save that in every city the Holy Ghost witnesseth that bonds and affliction await me: but none of these things move me; neither count I my life dear to myself, so that I may finish my course with joy, and the ministry I have received of the Lord to fulfil it. The love of ease or the indulgence of secular ambition would be fatal to the object you are pursuing; nor in your situation is there any thing so much to be dreaded as a divided heart, a spirit which hesitates between the calls of duty and the attractions of the world. To arm yourself with the same mind that was in Christ, who himself suffered, leaving us an example that we should walk in his steps, is a most indispensable part of your duty. In proportion as you feel yourself a stranger upon the earth, eagerly attached to none of its enjoyments or pursuits, prepared without repining to relinquish whatever Providence may demand, and suffer whatever it may inflict; in a word, in proportion to the degree in which you abandon all right in yourself, will you be qualified for the work of an evangelist. Purged from earthly concretions and worldly passions, you will become a vessel of honour fitted for the Master's use. He who is not possessed of a considerable portion of a self-denying spirit, which was eminently the spirit of Him who pleased not himself, can engage in no employment more irksome and intolerable than that of a missionary; for what pleasure can he expect, what advantage can he hope to reap, independent of the consciousness or the hope of doing good? By the nature of your undertaking, all the avenues to secular reputation and emolument are shut against you; on the brilliant illusions with which the children of this world are enchanted you have closed your eyes, and nothing is left but the severe and sublime satisfaction of following in the steps of those apostles and prophets who, in the midst of the derision of the world, exhausted themselves in a series of efforts to enlighten and to save it. You have chosen, it is true, the better part; but it is a part which you must not hope to sustain but by the perfect subjection and mortification of every rival passion. You must be content to derive your satisfaction from yourself, or rather from your consciousness of the Divine approbation, since you will meet with few disposed to sympathize in your sorrows or rejoice in your success. The next qualification necessary for a teacher of Christianity among heathens is the spirit of faith, by which I intend, not merely that cordial belief of the truth which is essential to a Christian, but that unshaken persuasion of the promises of God respecting the triumph and enlargement of his kingdom which is sufficient to denominate its possessor strong in faith. It is impossible that the mind of a missionary should be too much impressed with the beauty, glory, and grandeur of the kingdom of Christ, as it is unfolded in the oracles of the Old and New Testaments; or with the certainty of the final accomplishment of those oracles, founded on the faithfulness and omnipotence of their Author. To those parts of Scripture his attention should be especially directed in which the Holy Ghost employs and exhausts, so to speak, the whole force and splendour of inspiration in depicting the future reign of the Messiah, together with that astonishing spectacle of dignity, purity, and peace which his church will exhibit when, having the glory of God, her bounds shall be commensurate with those of the habitable globe; when every object on which the eye shall rest will remind the spectator of the commencement of a new age, in which the tabernacle of God is with men and he dwells among them. His spirit should be imbued with that sweet and tender awe which such anticipations will infallibly produce, whence will spring a generous contempt of the world, and an ardour bordering on impatience to be employed, though in the humblest sphere, as the instrument of accelerating such a period. For compared to this destiny in reserve for the VOL. I.-L |