Gospel are
required to labor directly for the destitute at home, and to go forth to
the heathen abroad? It was far otherwise in the days of the apostles.
Then the whole church--driven out, indeed, by persecution--went
everywhere making known the Saviour. And at the present hour, not only
are ministers needed in propagating the Gospel in destitute places at
home, and in raising up heathen nations from their deep degradation, but
there are needed also, in their appropriate spheres, teachers,
physicians, mechanics, farmers--in short, men of every useful profession
and employment.

Besides, much is to be done at home in sustaining those who go abroad.
Has there been no lack in this part of the work? Alas! there are facts
to meet such an inquiry, facts too well known to be named: disbanded
schools, detained missionaries, and deserted monthly concerts: facts
that stand registered on a book that shall hereafter be opened. Dear
brethren, I speak earnestly and boldly of your obligations, not
forgetting my own; and I would entreat you, by all that is affecting in
the death of souls, and by all that is constraining in the love of
Christ, to admit freely to your hearts, without subterfuge or excuse,
the full import of the Saviour's last command, and to commence at once a
life of sincere obedience. O! let us deal _honestly_ with ourselves, in
a matter of such immense moment.

CHAPTER V.

LAYMEN CALLED TO THE FIELD OF MISSIONS.

In Acts, 8:4, it is said, _Therefore they that were scattered abroad,
went everywhere preaching the word_. And from the previous verses it
seems that these persons, who were scattered abroad, were lay members of
the church. The history is instructive.

After the day of Pentecost, the number of converts to Christianity
amounted to several thousands. They were Jews, and had strong feelings
of attachment to the city of Jerusalem, to the temple, and to the land
of their fathers. They therefore clung to Jerusalem, and seemed inclined
to remain together as one large church. But it was the design of the
Lord Jesus, that the Gospel should be preached _everywhere_: such was
his last and most solemn command. As, therefore, the disciples seemed in
a measure unmindful of this command, the Saviour permitted a persecution
to rage, which scattered them abroad, and they went "everywhere
preaching the word." The term _preaching_, in this place, means simply
announcing or making known the news of salvation. This