And we shall carry with us our fellowship with Christ. For this he died, that whether we wake or sleep, live or die, we should live with him. In heaven every desire, every emotion that finds expression in the Saviour's breast, will find an echo in the breasts of his saints; every cord that vibrates in the Saviour's bosom will find a cord vibrating in unison in the bosoms of his own. Otherwise heaven will be no heaven. What of joy or comfort is there to the sin-loving man of the world in the company of the devout men of the earth while they talk of joy in the Holy Ghost? To him there is no joy. He would prefer to be among those of his own character and passions. So a soul in heaven not in sympathy with Christ would find heaven a hell. His presence would mar the harmony of heaven, and ruin it, which God can never allow. Dr. McCosh somewhere uses an illustration like this: Here is a clock. It is a beautiful piece of machinery. Every wheel, and every cog in every wheel moves in perfect harmony with every other, and with the grand design of the maker. There is beauty, there is symmetry, there is accuracy. But mark! Every time the hand reaches a certain point on the dial, there is a jar. The clockmaker searches to find the cause. One cog on one wheel is out of position, out of harmony with the purpose of the maker. He may ply his nippers and twist it, or he may ply his file and rasp it. He will bring it into position and harmony if it will be brought. Otherwise he will destroy it. He cannot

allow his whole machine to be ruined for the sake of one miserable cog. So with God. The universe is God's grand machine, which he has built for a grand and glorious purpose. We are cogs in that machine. If we are in harmony with the rest of the machine, and with the purposes of the great Maker, all is well; if not, he will destroy us. God cannot help it. He cannot allow his universe to be ruined for the sake of a miserable sinner. God must destroy the sinner just because he is out of harmony and sympathy with

himself.

The heavenly bodies move, each in its appointed orbit. There is beauty, there is symmetry, there is accord, there is silence. The attractions and counter-attractions balance each other, and all move in harmony with each other and with the purpose of the Maker. But let one of those orbs leave its orbit, however little, and the longer it strays, the further it strays. The equipoise is destroyed. The orb must be brought back, or, darting hither and yon through the heavens without law, God must destroy it. So with us. While we are in sympathy and harmony and coöperation with the Divine will and purpose, all is well; but, out of sympathy with God, all must perish.

Now, if it be true that sympathy with Christ here is necessary to our sympathy and life with him hereafter, it behooves us to ask: Is there any one thing upon which Christ has set his heart supremely? If

so, in that we must sympathize. We look into the Bible and there learn that the one grand, absorbing, and, if I may so speak, consuming thought with the Christ is the saving of the souls of men all over this world. It was this that brought him from heaven, that carried him through all the scenes of his humiliation and suffering on earth, that took him to the cross and the grave. For this he lived, for this he labored, for this he sacrificed, for this he died, for this he arose again, and for this he now lives and pleads-aye, reigns in heaven.

All things were made by and for the Christ. For him the heavens were created, and all the angelic host; for him the orbs of light and beauty that roll in grandeur above us, the planets with all their inhabitants, if they have them. But upon none of these has the Son of God set his affections supremely. The angels sinned, but no provision was made for their redemption, and to-day they await in chains the day of the revelation of God's wrath. But on this little planet of ours God seems to have centred his love in a peculiar manner. Here is to be the scene of his triumph over evil. The redeemed of the earth are called the "glory of Christ." In them he finds his glory above every other glory. Through them God is to manifest such glories in his own character as in all eternity there has been no similar opportu nity of exhibiting. For this purpose he made the worlds. He created all things by Jesus Christ, to

the end that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known, by the church, the manifold wisdom of God.

To the accomplishment of his purposes in Jesus Christ God has subordinated every other purpose, every power, and every agency in the universe. Because Jesus Christ has suffered, God also hath highly exalted him, and given him THE NAME that is above every other name, that at the name of JEHOVAH JESUS every knee should bow, of things in heaven (angels), of things on earth (men), and of things under the earth (devils and damned spirits). Everything in heaven, earth and hell shall conspire to accomplish the work of Christ, which is the saving of men, and thereby the destroying of the works of the devil. If there be power in God Almighty to make Jesus Christ triumph, he will triumph.

And sympathy with Christ in this work of saving the souls of men everywhere is just the missionary spirit. It is inconceivable that a man should love Jesus and not love that which Jesus loves, not labor for that for which Jesus labors, sacrifice for that for which Jesus sacrificed, and die, if need be, for that for which Jesus died. Sympathy with Christ is the essence of Christianity, and is identical with the Spirit of Missions.

BAPTISTS AND MISSIONS.

BY REV. A. H. BURLINGHAM, D. D., NEW YORK.

We use the term Foreign Missions, as embracing modern efforts to evangelize heathen nations. And we view the relation of the Baptist denomination to this movement, in only a few particulars.

In tracing the connection of Baptists with the origin of Foreign Missions, we must, of necessity, traverse familiar ground. The names of Carey, Fuller, Ryland, Hall, Sutcliff, Morris and Pearce, are household words to those who have read the history of the rise of Missions in England. As early as 1784, at an associational meeting at Nottingham, by the suggestion of these and other Baptist ministers, a resolution was passed, recommending a Monthly Concert of Prayer, for "the spread of the gospel to the most distant parts of the habitable globe." This was the origin of the Missionary Concert, and was an unpurposed prophecy of the formation of the Baptist Foreign Missionary Society. This resolution was carried out for several years of the incipient period of this missionary movement. But these good men did not apprehend the silent meaning and drift of their prayers, The

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