[ed. This is yet another "missionary" lecture defending missionary societies and modern missionaries. We wonder if such things were so utterly biblical, why were they so much defended? They should have been obvious to all! Nevertheless, since these missionists speak in a strange tongue to the followers of Jesus, we will translate their words into the proper language that the children of God can clearly understand.]
A DISCOURSE, DELIVERED OS Wednesday Evening, the 16th of May, 1798,
BEFORE THE PHILADELPHIA MISSIONARY SOCIETY AND THE CONGREGATION OF THE BAPTIST MEETING HOUSE. PHILADELPHIA.
By the Rev. WILLIAM STAUGHTON , PRINCIPAL OF BORDENTOWN ACADEMY.
O’er the gloomy hills of darkness, Louk my foul, be Hill and gaze ; All the promiles do travail With a glorious Jay of grace. Blessed Jubilee, Let thy glorious morning dawn.
Philadelphia : PRINTED BY STEPHEN C. USTICK,
TO
The Philadelphia Missionary Society ,
THE FOLLOWING DISCOURSE, WHICH APPEARS IN PUBLIC AT THEIR REQUEST, IS VERY RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBED, BY The AUTHOR. DISCOURSE.
ISAIAH 55:12
Ye shall go out with joy, and be led forth with peace : ihe mountains and the hills (hall break forth before you into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.
WHEN ancient predictions of glory to the righteous are contemplated, the habit of beholding the impiety and infamy of the world, greatly diminishes the rapture they are designed to inspire. We regard the excellent events they foretell, as objects of desire, rather than objects of expectation; and, though the faithfulness of the divine testimonies suffer not our languishing faith to expire, when we contrast times with prophecies, we are led to place the period of blessedness at a distance far remote.
But let us hope that more diligent attention will furnish ideas more encouraging.
It is true, that though the knowledge of the Lord shall cover the earth, men are perishing for lack of knowledge: having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their hearts.
It is true, the depraved passions of the human- soul are everywhere revealed. Iniquitous policy and mad ambition control the actions of nations. The banners of war At this time it would have likely referred to the naval tensions between Napoleonic France and Great Britain, which were beginning to affect American neutrality in the seas. are unfurled; — fleets on the ocean, armies on the shores are meditating and at each other projecting destruction. In the private circles of life, uncleanness and inebriation prevail. The God of heaven is blasphemed, his servants are pitied or despised, his holy oracle is trampled under foot, and the great principles of piety, like tares in the harvest field, are declared pernicious, and industriously rooted up.
It is true, misery is everywhere discernible. Diseases generated by crimes are consuming the bodies of thousands, and a convicted conscience chastening their spirits. The depopulations of pestilence are seen, are heard of, and widows and orphans, moving over fields of slaughter or to dwellings of poverty, are raising their piteous lamentations.
It is true, but, why should we amplify this afflicting detail? Though we continue to shroud mankind in darkness and guilt till destruction and death say “it is enough,” we must even then remember, that the measures of Providence are not controllable by the offenses and calamities of men; that the luster of prophetic truth cannot be concealed, and that in the fulfillment of prophecy, the grossest darkness has frequently preceded the most; marvelous light.
Under these impressions we are about illuminating this animating prediction, “Ye shall go out with joy and be led forth with peace, the mountains and hills shall break forth before you into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.” This passage appears to have been written about the close of the reign of Hezekiah. Prophecies had been delivered foretelling the certain and impending dissolution of the house of David and the captivity of the people. After Hezekiah’s recovery from sickness, the king of Babylon sent to him letters and a present. — Letters perhaps to make the king of Judah his ally in his meditated revolt from the King of Assyria, and a present or offering expressive of his veneration for a person, the sign of whole recovery was the going backward of that sun, he had been accustomed to adore as the sovereign deity! Hezekiah, left of his God to the vanity of his heart, as though eager to prove himself a desirable confederate and a proper subject of the honors he had received from the heavens, shews to the messengers of the son of Baladan “the house of his precious things, the silver, the gold and the spices, and the ointment, and all the house of his armor, and all that was found in his treasures: there was nothing in his house nor in all his dominion that Hezekiah shewed them not,”
But immediately after this circumstance Jehovah made manifest: the folly of the prince, by foretelling the fate of the people. Then said Isaiah to Hezekiah, “Behold the days come, that all that is in thine house, and that which thy fathers have laid up in store until this day, shall be carried to Babylon: nothing shall be left, saith the Lord.” To Manasseh the successor of Hezekiah the Lord spake by his servants the prophets, saying, “I will forsake the remnant of mine inheritance, and deliver them into the hand of their enemies ; and they shall become a prey and a spoil to all their enemies.”
But in wrath he remembers mercy. Not more clearly is the captivity of Judah foretold than her glorious deliverance; not more, her sin than her repentance, her transient disgrace than her permanent honour. Yes, ye children of Judah, from Jerusalem , ye shall go out with weeping and be led forth as prisoners of war; the mountains shall mourn, the hills shall tremble, and the trees of the forest shall howl in sympathetic woe; but, yet, from Babylon, ye shall go out with joy and be led forth with peace, the mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.
The prophet foretells a variety of events which were to attend Judah’s restoration, well calculated to awaken transport. See yonder the welcome ambassador! How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace; — that faith unto Zion, thy God reigneth! Hark! The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Hear the language of Jehovah, he speaks to the deep — “Be dry, and I will dry up the rivers to Cyrus. I will go before thee, and make the crooked places straight: and I will break in pieces the gates of brass and cut asunder the bars of iron. For Jacob my servant’s sake, and Israel mine elect, I have called thee by thy name.
To the heavens and earth. “Drop down, ye heavens, from above, and let the skies pour down righteousness; let the earth open and let them bring forth salvation."
To Zion in affliction. “Awake, awake; put on thy strength O Zion, put on thy beautiful garments, O Jerusalem; shake thyself from the suft, arise, loose thyself from the bands of thy neck, O captive daughter. No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper; and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn.”
But is this word of Jehovah firm? It is firm as the ordinances of heaven, it is firmer than the mountains of the earth. “For this is as the waters of Noah unto me ; for as I have sworn that the waters of Noah should no more go over the earth; so have I sworn that I would not be wroth with thee, nor rebuke thee. The mountains shall depart and the hills be removed, but my kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed, faith the Lord, that hath mercy on thee.” -
Are the expeditions of so great a deliverance reasonable? They are reasonable as the expedition of the rising of vegetation under the influence of protecting snows and refreshing rains. “For as the rain cometh down and the dew from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give feed to the fewer and bread to the eater: So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it"
It is generally conceded that the prophecies of the Bible allude to distinct and distant periods of time. That while a prophet announces the ruin of the enemies of Jerusalem, the deliverance of Judah, and the blessings she should enjoy, he frequently carries forward our reflections to the destruction of every antichrist, the establishment of the kingdom of the Messiah, and the evangelical and immortal happiness of his subjects.1 Lest the propriety of fuch a mode of illustration should be disputed, a few ideas shall be suggested in its vindication.
The error of restricting predictions to their immediate subjects, may be proved from their superiority to the capacity of such subjects. For example, of Solomon his inspired parent said, “In his days shall the righteous flourish; and abundance of peace so long as the Moon endureth. He shall have dominion also from sea to lea, and from the river to the ends of the earth. All nations shall serve him. His name shall be continued as long as the sun.”
To assert that the dominion of Solomon extended from the lake of Sodom to the Mediterranean sea, from the river Euphrates to the borders of Egypt, is to assign but a mean fulfillment to fo grand a prophecy. But what mean these expressions, “abundance dance of peace so long as the moon endureth — a name continued as long as the sun.” Solomon, alas! has slept with his fathers and his very sepulcher is no more. At midnight the moon still walks in her brightness, but war, captivity, and penal retribution have demolished the kingdoms of Israel and Judah. In the morning, the sun still comes forth as a bridegroom, but the name of the son of Bathsheba is not known by a thousandth part of the human beings it enlightens. The prophecy must be fulfilled — In Solomon, with all his glory, it cannot. Behold then a greater than Solomon here. It is Jesus only, whose name shall endure forever, and whom all nations shall serve; whose dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom from generation to generation. What flattery declared of Caesar, truth asserts of the Messiah. It is he “who shall terminate his authority by the ocean, his fame by the stars.”2
The scriptural application of some prophecies to different events and periods, induces us to contemplate others in the fame light. Of such an application take the following instance from Hosea 11:1. “Out of Egypt have I called my Son.” This text certainly refers to the days of Moses, when Israel by a succession of miracles was delivered from the tyranny of Pharaoh. It has an allusion to the days of Hosea, and seems designed as a preface to a prediction in in the 5th verse of the chapter. It alludes to the days of Christ. "The angel of the Lord appeareth to Joseph in a dream saying; Arise, and take the young child and his mother, and flee into Egypt, and be thou there until I bring thee word: for Herod will seek the young child to destroy him.” Joseph was there until the death of Herod: “that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, out of Egypt have I called my son.” Nor should I conceive the words at all misapplied, were they produced as illustrative of the calling of sinners from the power of Satan to God, or of the church from obscurity to noon-day.
Predictions of this capacious nature are proper both as parts and proofs of a divine revelation. The fullness they discover, while it astonishes the faculties, invites the investigation of mortals, and proves the pages the production of a mind capable of comprehending at a glance the part, the present, and the future.
Such predictions are accommodated to the dispositions of men. Does an infidel question the fulfillment of a prophecy? For his plenary conviction, or that he may be left without excuse, its accomplishment shall be repeated. Is the impression of the importance of a prediction weak on the mind of a Christian, because fulfilled at a distant period, or at a distant place? He shall feel its grandeur, blush at his error, and give glory to his God, while he beholds it performed in the presence of all the nations of the earth. If the prophetic morning star be discredited, or the day be declared far distant, the majestic fun shall diffuse universal conviction and reproof.
In the government of the world, in the progress of redemption, Jehovah has been passing from strength to strength. As the ritual dispensation was an emblem of evangelical glory, so Jewish predictions embrace the salvation of Gentiles. The polity of the Jews must necessarily have been demolished, because of its carnality, because of its restriction. But how admirable are the measures of heaven! Hebrew prophets have been inspired to foretell that the abundance of the seas should be converted, and that the forces of the Gentiles should come. They have been employed to prophecy down the prejudices of their nation, and prepare the way for that glorious ministration under which there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free : but Christ is all and in all.
These observations justify the application of our text to the times of the gospel, and such an application may lead us to explain it as illustrative of the influence of Christianity.
I. On Missionaries themselves, and
II. On the people to whom their mission is directed.
The selected passage may represent the influence of the gospel, in producing in the heart of a Missionary zeal, transport, and tranquillity. “They shall go out with joy and be led forth with peace.”3
Superstition may fend her votaries inactive to her cells; avarice may fit in wretched concealment, idly pondering over perishing bags; indolence and insensibility may fold the arms for slumber, but Christianity is the parent of action.4 Listen to its precepts — “Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. Gird up the loins of your mind, be sober and hope to the end.” Did competitors at Olympic festivals, fight, run, wrestle, with all that agony the dread of infamy and the love of renown could inspire? Rival their ardor fight the good fight of faith, run the race set before you, wrestle with principalities and powers. The world is your theatre of action.5
Diminish its miseries. Be eyes to the blind, be feet to the lame, clothe the naked, feed the hungry, visit the imprisoned, that the blessing of him that is ready to perish may come upon you.6
Diminish its crimes,7 ye preachers in the sanctuary! Ye messengers to the heathen! Prophecy asserts, ye shall go out with joy, and he, to whom prophets gave witness, commands your zeal. Our text foretells your successes, a preceding verse contains your message. Ho! everyone that thirsteth, come ye to the waters: and he that hath no money, come ye, buy and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money, and without price. The great supper is prepared. Go out ye ministers into the streets and lanes of the city. Go out, ye Missionaries, into the highways and hedges and compel to come in that the house may be filled. Go ye into all the world, preach the gospel to every creature. A man qualified for the sphere of a missionary looks forth on the sea of the world; notwithstanding his fears, and disappointments, at the word of his savior, he casts his net and becomes a fisher of men. He is led forth by a conviction of the value of a soul, by the attractions of divine love, by the openings of divine providence and by the hand of his fellow Christians. Are missionary societies established? he hearkens to their instructions, enjoys their patronage, and shares in their addresses to the heavenly throne.8 Clad with zeal as with a cloak, his faith substantiating the hoped for blessing, the fearing of the name of the Lord from the well, and his glory from the rising of the sun; he cries, I will go in the strength of the Lord God, I will make mention of thy righteousness, even of thine only.9
Christianity produces in the hearts of its ministers or missionaries the emotions of joy. They who bear the vessels of the sanctuary with joy, may draw water from the wells of salvation.10
The faithful Missionary possesses the joy which springs from conscious integrity. Rectitude and pleasure are associates. In the transgressions of an evil man there is a snare, but the righteous doth sing and rejoice. We acknowledge the purest conduct may be ascribed to the barest motives. Though a Missionary, fired with love to God and to a man, subject himself to perils by sea and perils by land. Though he pass over toilsome hills and gloomy deserts, his only sustenance the berries of the forest and the waters of the brook. Though he be wet with the flowers of the mountains, and embrace the rock for want of a shelter. Though like Jacob when the sun is set, he have only the stones of the place for his pillow, and his life be endangered from wild beasts or wilder men: neither his piety, his fortitude, nor his sufferings can secure him from the imputations of calumny.11 But let calumny prepare its bitterest accusations. Term him, ye children of the wicked one, a deceiver, a fanatic, or let him suffer reproaches from false or mistaken brethren; he approves himself a minister of God, in much patience, in afflictions, in necessities, in distresses; by the word of truth, by the power of God, by the armor of righteousness. He is as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing. Perceiving that primitive missionaries who were in perils by the sea and in perils by the heathen, in weariness and painfulness, in cold and nakedness, differed the most cruel reproaches, as their follower, with them he cries, our rejoicing is this, that in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God, we have had our conversation in the world. He is a good man and is satisfied from himself.
But not more does he rejoice in the purity of his motives, than in the excellency of his cause. It is truth and must prevail. Jesuits12 have endured excessive fatigue, and have exposed themselves to dangers and deaths for the dissemination of their erroneous sentiments; but the missionaries we contemplate labor not, suffer not, that ecclesiastical thunders may terrify the heathen, that human creeds may be imposed by civil force, that a cross may be worn, that a host may be worshipped. They acknowledge no sovereign over conscience but him whom winds and sea obey; no system of faith, no rules of conduct inconsistent with his holy oracles.13 They go out with joy while they reflect, that though superstitious zeal and literary artifice, the malice of individuals and the persecutions of empire have been employed for its destruction, the Gospel they deliver, Hands like an awful column firm proof against the winds, the lightnings, the earthquakes of envious ages. — They address themselves to their work animated by a conviction, that the word of the Lord abideth for ever.
The gospel missionary goes out with the joy which springs from benevolence. Good will towards men, enters into the foul of the gospel. Through all the word of God a selfish temper is forbidden — We must do good and communicate. None of us liveth to himself, none of us dieth to himself. Missionaries are commonly sent among nations who have changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, four-footed beasts, and creeping things. His spirit, like the apostle's, is stirred up within him, while he perceives cities and kingdoms wholly given to idolatry. There he views a fellow creature doing homage to a tree, and yonder another Hands adoring a river. In one place, fifties are assembled to worship a rat, a hawk, a crocodile, or a beetle. In another, hundreds are venerating a cow, a frog, a serpent, or a stone. Does the good man go out in the evening, his eye affected his heart while he fees multitudes blessing the moon as the queen of heaven, and the stars as her attending armies. In the morning, not like Ezekiel, only in vision, he beholds men with their faces toward the east worshipping the sun. He finds himself among a people, who, as the natural consequence of their depraved conceptions of the deity, are full of unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity, Rom, 1:29.
Nor does he in the affliction of his foul behold only the crimes of heathen nations, he hath seen and can bear witness that their sorrows are multiplied that seek after another God. The sword, the pestilence, the noisome beast, and the famine, frequently spread desolation over an idolatrous land. Heathens, conscious of guilt, apprehensive of danger, and ignorant of the way in which sin can be removed, seek mental ease in corporal torture. It is from hence, the horrible practices of torturing, burning, drowning, and sacrificing human beings have taken their rife. — Though enormities so gross as these we have named do not obtain among American Indians, yet there are evils among them, some of which we shall name before we close our discourse, which loudly call for our pity and zeal.
But O how delightful the work to suppress these sins and calamities ! How suited to the feelings of the heart in which the love of God is shed abroad! Is "joy a delight of the mind, from the consideration of the present or assured approaching possession of a good?" The missionary of Jesus then goes out with joy. He rejoices in present good — Such is the possession of the grace of God in his own heart, the being invested with the office of a teacher of the ignorant, and the share he enjoys in the prayers of his fellow Christians. But his heart is inspired with a sacred enthusiasm while he contemplates the good, of the approach of which he is so well assured. He goes out with promises of support.14 I, the Lord thy God will hold thy right hand, saying unto thee, Fear not, I will help thee. I will make thee a new sharp threshing instrument having teeth: thou shalt thresh the mountains and beat them small, and shalt make the hills as chaff, and thou shalt rejoice in the Lord and shalt glory in the God of Israel. I have put my words in thy mouth, and have covered thee in the shadow of my hand, that I may plant the heavens, and lay the foundations of the earth, and fay unto Zion, thou art my people — Lo I am with you alway, even to the end of the world.
He goes out with prospects of success. Whatever degree of blessing may attend particular millions, it is certain that the gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations. The Messiah has asked and has received the heathen for his inheritance, and the uttermost: parts of the earth for his possession. The heroes of antiquity were filled with transport at the ambiguous answers of the oracle of Delphi. Favorable responses from the gloomy cavern of Trephines, would render the credulous Grecian fearless in the midst of the most dreadful danger. An American Indian, relying on the friendly dreams of a soothsayer, goes forth to war with all the confidence of success. But how infinitely greater is the encouragement of a man of God. He credits no dreamer of dreams. He believes in the Lord his God and is established. I have not spoken, faith Jehovah, in secret, in a dark place of the earth: I the Lord speak righteousness: I give direct answers. — The promises in Christ are yea and amen. When Jesus was about to be separated from his disciples, and was commissioning them to publish his gospel, having given them promises of support and prospects of success, he said, these things have I spoken that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full.
Ye shall go out with joy and be led forth with peace. The disciples of Jesus possess peaceful dispositions. Pride, obstinacy, and severity, are frequently charged on the possessors of Christianity. If the charge be true, the guilt is wholly their own. Ignorance may be proud, bigotry may be obstinate, and malice may be severe; but the gospel is designed to make the ignorant wife, and the ill-natured gentle. It teaches us to put off as a shameful covering, all anger, wrath, and malice, and to put on, as our faired dress, bowels of mercies, kindness, long-suffering.
Missionaries go forth with peaceful messages. With angels they proclaim, on earth peace. Theirs is the word which God sent unto the children of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ.
Mahomet, for the propagation of his religion, encouraged his followers to make proselytes by force of arms. These are his words in the Koran, “When “ ye encounter unbelievers strike off their heads.” — “ As for those who fight in the service of God’s “true religion, God will not differ their work to perish, he will lead them into paradise.” How different the words of the Prince of Peace! Put thy sword into the sheath, said he to Peter, and immediately touched and healed the man whose ear Peter had cut off. Jesus answered to Pilate, If my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews; but now is my kingdom not from hence.
Of such who deviate from the Arabian religion, the false prophet says, “kill them wherever ye find them:"15 but when our Lord first shewed himself after his resurrection to the disciples who in the hour of darkness had all forsook him and fled, he said, Peace be unto you; as my father hath sent me so send I you.
But peaceful as are the dispositions and messages of the propagators of the gospel, they have often been charged with seditious designs. Guilt has turned the moral world upside down. It resembles an inverted pyramid, which only the long-suffering hand of God prevents from falling into awful ruin. When the apostles by manifestation of the truth, by revealing one mighty to save, were desirious of placing the fearful pyramid on its basis, the Jews of Thessalonica cried, these that have turned the World upside down are come hither also, these all do contrary to the decrees of Caesar.16
There is a sense in which Christ himself came not to fend peace, but a sword; the disciples are imitators of him. They go forth armed to destroy that peace of the world, by which men engage not to disturb each others quiet in the way to hell. Peace without righteousness is but a dead calm, before a desolating tornado. Peace, peace, to him that is far off and to him that is near, faith the Lord, and I will heal him. But the wicked are like the troubled fea, when it cannot rest. Tremble ye Herods of the earth; vociferate ye Demetriuses A reference to the Diana-worshipping silversmith who incited a riot against Paul. (3 John 1:12); your thrones, your shrines are in danger. Not because Shrines and thrones are desired by the servants of the most high God, but because your thrones are founded in blood; your shrines are but polished blasphemy. Jehovah appears as the God of peace, when he bruises Satan beneath the Christian’s feet. Believers appear still as the Ions of peace, when their preaching produces rage and tumult. Angry effects may follow; but the true end of the spread of the gospel, is the establishment of joy and tranquillity. This will be fully demonstrated as we proceed to display its influence.
II. On the people to whom a Christian mission is directed.
While Missionaries go out with joy and are led forth with peace, mountains and hills break forth before them into singing, and all the trees of the field clap their hands. In the Old Testament, allusions to hills and mountains are very frequent. The land of Judah is called the country of the hills. Josh. 10:40. Prophets derived their emblems from surrounding objects. Would they give dying mortals a strong idea of the eternity of God? They cry before his footstool, Thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations, before the mountains were brought forth, from everlasting to everlasting thou art God. Is a sense of the majesty of Jehovah to be impressed on the hearts of the people? Hills are feen smoking at his touch. They reveal him weighing mountains in scales and hills in balances. Would they exprefs abundance of temporal good? Hills flow with milk and mountains drop down sweet wine, for the cattle and the vines are there. Have they to represent a state of tremendous despair? Wretches are heard crying. Rocks! fall on us, mountains! cover us. Would they exhibit the end of all things? Hills are departing, mountains are not found. Does a jealous God draw near to judgment ? Who can stand before his indignation? His way is in the whirlwind and in the storm, clouds are the duft of his feet; the mountains quake at him and the hills melt; but when prophets display the God of salvation, the deliverer of his people, mountains and hills break forth before them into singing.17
There is a strange power in the human mind of converting everything, in imagination, to the likeness of itself. The mind seems as capable of acting on external objects, as external objects are of atting on the mind. Does an individual mourn? To him all nature appears to partake his sorrows. Does he rejoice? Mountains and hills feem to feel his raptures, and trees of the field to clap their hands.18
When the Lord turned again the captivity of Zion, the people were like them that dream. Their mouths were filled with laughter, and their tongues with singing. But there was still greater occasion for triumph, than their release from Babylon.
The Hebrews often asked, and God often granted signs from heaven. When our Lord was working the mightiest miracles among the Jews, they were impatient for a sign. They had conceived the Messiah was to rescue them from Roman servitude. False Christs had persuaded the people to follow them, promising them miracles and signs of liberty. Unless the dead were raised, or the ocean calmed as pledges of approaching victory over Rome, they were considered as inadequate proofs that Jesus was both Lord and Christ. To the Jews no sign but the prophet Jonas was given. No other was needed. But when an event seemed remote from the promise or the threatening, signs the most striking ensued. Eli! this shall be a sign unto thee, that there shall not be an old man in thy house forever. Hophni and Phineas shall die both in one day. Hezekiah! this sign shalt thou have that the Lord will heal thee, the sun shall go backward ten degrees on the dial of thy father. Ahaz! the Lord himself will give thee a sign, that the counsels of Rezin and Pekah shall not hand: Behold! a virgin shall conceive and bear a fon and shall call his name Emmanuel. Shepherds! this shall be a sign unto you, ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. O Judah! thy deliverance from captivity is a token of future, greater blessings: it shall be for an everlasting sign, that shall not be cut off, v. 13. Let us not suppose ourselves, brethren, uninterested in the restoration of the Jews from Babylon. We have already justified the application of ancient predictions to the dispensation of the gospel; while we perceive that their primary fulfilment is only a pledge of their re-accomplishment in the latter days, let our faith be strong and our joy be full.
Wherever the glorious gospel of the blessed God is circulated, there are glad tidings of great joy; and they, whose hearts receive it in its power, are excited to sing aloud of the great salvation it brings. There are a variety of senses in which Christianity may be viewed as tending to promote the happiness of any people. Let us contemplate its effects, first, on men in general; and secondly, on believers in particular.
[ 1The subject of Isaiah's prophecy includes in it three distinct parts. The deliverance of the Jews from the captivity of Babylon; the deliverance of the Gentiles from their miserable state of ignorance and idolatry; and the deliverance of mankind from the captivity of sin and death. These three subjects are subordinate to one another; and the two latter are shadowed out under the image of the former. They are covered by it as by a veil; which however is transparent and suffers them to appear through it. Lowth's Translation of Isaiah.]
[2Imperium Oceano, famam qui terminet astris. Virgil]
[ed. 3Stripping this Arminian cake of its biblical frosting, the passage should read, hirelings or employees will be sent out to where the MISSIONARY SOCIETY directs after a proper vote by the delegates.]
[ed. 4Should read: The world DOES NOT BELONG TO GOD. It is the theatre of the MISSIONARY SOCIETIES, as long as the money holds out!]
[ed. 5Correct translation should read: As long as the funds hold out and the "treasury of the Lord is not deplenished!]
[ed. 6Do the things that are normally ascribed to the almighty God and ascribe them yourself by your own efforts and by the loyal support of the Missionary Society (with adequate funds of course)]
[ed. 7We are puzzled here. This obscure phrase would seem to imply that it is within the power of man do reduce the sinfulness of another man in the eyes of God. Since it speaks blasphemy clearly enough, we deem to not require any translation, merely commentary.]
[ed. 8Here all the proper duties of the missionary are layed out - obey orders, receive their salary as a true hireling, and pray for the things the Missionary Society wants.]
[ed. 9The reader should not be confused by this mere lip service to the strength of the Lord, it is just a smokescreen that contradicts everything said previously.]
[ed. 10Christianity (or religion) produces joy, not the Lord directly in the heart of a believer. The "vessels of the sanctuary" represent the methods and materials of the Missionary Society. The salvation received is the natural mind's notional assent to the gospel facts.]
[ed. 11To reduce this to its barest simplicity, it simply means that while the Missionary Societies exploit these hirelings by not providing them money enough to live, these Societies and their leaders become wealthy, living in nice homes, dressing in fine clothes, having the praise of men, and managing large amounts of money which at times, they mishandle, such as Luther Rice.]
[ed. 12Like the other supporters of missions of the time, they held the Jesuits as the model of dedication, even though it was for "a bad cause". But they wish to have the same zeal as their Catholic brethren.]
[ed. 13Their labors within 60 years would colonize but not evangelize India and China, and have their missionaries protected by western armies. They will proclaim the false doctrine of Fuller's non-atonement, they will proclaim means as a way to salvation by the natural mind; while their missionary societies lord over their hirelings, as long as the money continues to flow. These societies will also be able to call their hirelings back home should they act in way inconsistent with the goals of that society.]
[ed. 14This should read, he goes out with support of the missionary societies which of course the Lord "stands behind", but which without those societies, the Lord could not carry out His work.]
[ed. 15This should read: The Muslims were more tolerant of religious disagreements than out Protestant counterparts in Europe. We cite just one example of this truth:
the events after the First World War to the present time have created an atmosphere in the Western world where Islam is branded as a religion of terror and where Muslims are generally labelled as terrorists. History books, especially by the Orientalists, like to present the picture of the Muslims as holding the Qur'an in one hand and the sword in another—thus implying that wherever the Muslims went, they gave only two choices to the conquered people: Islam or death.
However, more serious historians would challenge this distorted picture of Muslims. There is no denying that Muslims in Middle East and Asia conquered lands of other peoples but they did not impose their religion over them. There is a clear distinction, in history, between, "the expansion of Muslim states" and "the expansion of Islam" as a religion.
For example, Muslims ruled India for many centuries, but majority of its citizens always remained non-Muslims. India came under Muslim rule by force, but Islam penetrated among the people of India by propagation and example of the Sufis. This is a fact which has been clearly elaborated by the famous journalist-writer of India, Khuswant Singh, in the first volume of his The History of Sikhs.
Time does not allow me to go into this discussion more than this, but let me say one thing about the issue of tolerance towards minorities and freedom of practicing religion; if we were to compare the attitude of the Muslim rulers towards the minorities living under their rule during the nineteenth century—with the attitude of the Europeans and the Americans towards their minorities, I dare to say that the record of the Muslims would be much better.
I think it would be sufficient to quote Roderic H- Davison, a prominent Western historian of the Ottoman Empire. On the issue of tolerance towards the minorities, Davison writes:
"It might in fact have been argued that the Turks were less oppressive of their subject people than were Prussians of the Poles, the English of the Irish, or the Americans of the Negroes - There is evidence to show that in this period {late 19th century}, there was emigration from independent Greece into the Ottoman Empire, since some Greeks found the Ottoman government s more indulgent master (than their own Greek government)". (Reform of the Ottaman Empire 1856-1876, NJ 1963)Of course, like in any other historical topic there is always disagreement, so this view of Islam is not unanimously held look here and here.]
[16In Cluny, a city of Spain, there Hands a column, erected by Diocletian which has this inscription, ‘To Diocletian, Jovius, aud Maximinus, Caesars, for having enlarged the empire and for having exterminated the name of Christians those disturbers OF THE PUBLIC REPOSE.’ ]
[ed. 17This whole passage since the last footnote is just a smokescreen to give some sort of biblicalness to the Missionary Societies and their activities.]
[ed. 18They should know. They have done the same thing, twisting the Bible to fit their imaginations.]
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