This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
188
the fitness of the gospel

be assured, therefore, that it shall not fail in the work to which He hath appointed it. Here, then, we have the character of Clod pledged to the completion of His own work. We have His promises, too, that His Gospel shall prevail, and lie has given vouchers for the triumph of the Gospel, in the glorious facts which the work of missions presents in every quarter of the globe, and among the most debased of human tribes, "turned from dumb idols to serve the living God" There is a certainty about our work, then, which anticipates our labors, and which has never been realized before, in any of all the endeavors of men. Here is ground for faith and assurance which men in no other undertaking could possibly experience. We do not merely trust in and hope for the triumphs of the Gospel; we know that all the rudeness and barbarism of surrounding heathenism shall vanish from this neighborhood; that the Church of God shall supplant the disorganized paganism of this people; and that here, where now indifference, obstinacy, sickness, death, and discouraging weakness seem to baffle all missionary zeal, the Cross of Jesus Chrbt shall shine with a burning lustre, on hilltop and in the valley—the symbol of an o'ermustering and victorious faith!

(b) We have, moreover, every incentive to renewed exertion in all our labors; for we see that a great feature in the economy, that is, the workings, of this gracious scheme for man is, God's use of human agencies for the ends he purposes.We are the present agents He employs for the grand objects we have been considering. And as God has always