THE SPREADING GOSPEL.

MATTHEW, xxviii. 19.

Go ye, therefore, and teach all nations."

I HAVE pointed you to the baptismal scene which our Saviour appointed when he spoke these words. The former part of the verse provides another scene, which, whenever the Saviour's last command is obeyed, is spread out before the risen and the rising generation. That scene appeared in beauty and glory, when the apostles and disciples obeyed the Saviour's command, and believed his word. He ascended up on high, led captivity captive and received gifts for men; yea, for the rebellious also, that the Lord God might dwell among them. The Lord gave the word: great was the company of them that published it. The gospel was proclaimed in all the world; believers multiplied in every land; and Jews

and Heathen received Jesus as the promised Messiah. In Jerusalem, at first, there were added to the disciples three thousand souls, and they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers; and they, continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart; praising God, and having favour with all the people. The same scene appeared glorious in every land; the name of the Lord was magnified, and it was said of those who were bound together in the love of Jesus, "Behold! how these Christians love one another!"?

Blessed be the Lord who daily loadeth us with benefits, that in our time there are so many obedient to this command, and that our eyes are opened to see the blessed scenenow that many are running to and fro with the good news of salvation, and that knowledge is increasing

It is the Lord Jesus who gave this command; who spreads out this scene before your eyes: a scene becoming daily more glorious. Well do I remember how the first glimpse

of that scene, just beginning to be spread out, met my own early childhood, when my father first told me that a ship had gone half around the world to publish the glad tidings of the gospel to the miserable natives of the islands of the Southern Ocean; and that in Britain thousands had brought forward their alms, and offered up their prayers, that those miserable islanders might be turned from their idols; repent of all their evil deeds; no more murder their little children, but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. Ever since that day, now near thirty years ago, there has been a more ready and general obedience to our Lord's command, and the number of those who run to and fro has been greatly increased.

Behold the scene; At home, a widening and brightening increase of Christian charity. See in your own neighbourhood, see within. your own door, its lovely movements; and notice its increasing power. See the poor as well as the rich, the little children, with their parents and grand parents, sending abroad their little and their larger alms, and sending up their prayers to heaven that the gospel

may be published among all nations. See the active societies receiving and spreading abroad the charity of Christians-the store-houses filled with Bibles and tracts, and multitudes departing laden with the precious gospel, and having their minds filled with the heavenly purpose of bearing it among all the families of the world.

Behold the scene abroad! Look toward the north! Yonder, far beyond the hills, on the ice-bound coast of the northern seas, are the Moravians, the meek and faithful servants of the Lord; preaching to the poor Esquimaux and Greenlanders salvation by Jesus Christ; shedding the light of the gospel upon their miserable huts, and cheering their long winter with the hope of heaven.

Look to the south. Behold the islands of the southern Ocean. Near thirty years ago, the ship Duff carried the missionaries of Jesus Christ to those sin-polluted islands. That ship was bought and freighted, and spread its wings that it might fly with the everlasting gospel. How richly laden with that heavenly treasure! What an angel of mercy, flying with glad tidings! Month after month the

ship is borne upon the deep, until at last the cry of land is heard, and the ministers of Jesus look upon the dwelling-place of base idolators, and there are brought to their desired haven, and make their home among a people of strange language and abominable sins-a people who murdered their children, and piled together, in honour of their kings; whole heaps of the eyes of men! Oh, it was too base a people to desire and love the pure and holy gospel!

But the messengers of Christ quit the ship, and establish their habitations there: and for years, advancing and retreating, suffering and dying, cast down but not destroyed, they cease not to proclaim their despised and rejected message.

And how altered now! Now that the bloodstained Areoys are broken down-now that the mother's hands are washed from her children's blood, and her hard heart softenednow that the idol gods are burned in the fire, and the God of hosts is worshipped in every family-now that Christian churches gather in a converted and pious people-now that the