providential circumstances prepared the way for this predicted deliverance, and cut channels through which the waters of life, long pent up, now once again released, might flow on and on to the healing of the nations.

Take only four events of the first importance, which all occurred within seventy years of each other and of the Reformation-the fall of Constantinople in 1453, the direct effect of which was the revival of Greek learning in Western Europe; the invention of Printing with moveable types, 1447; the discovery of America, 1492; and the opening up of the Cape route to India by Vasco de Gama in 1497,—as illustrations of this remark.

But we who rejoice in the light and liberty of Protestant and Reformation truth, fix our eyes again upon other prophecies of Holy Scripture, the fulfilment of which is to us of main concern. These point us forward to a further great evangelistic revival, in the times before the end,-an ERA OF MISSIONS, which should usher in the close of this Dispensation and the dawning of the brighter day for which so many loving spirits long and watch, and work and pray. The period in question is portrayed in prophecy as remarkable, and in many respects abnormal; and as having features peculiarly its own.

In proof that such an era is predicted, I need only now refer to our Lord's prophecy in Matt. xxiv. 14, to the remarkable scene at the opening of the seventh trumpet in Rev. xi., and to the vision of the flying angel in Rev. xiv. 6.

Have we even now entered upon this era? Can we trace in the Missionary enterprise so rapidly developing in our midst the predicted features of this period? Above all, can we see in this case also a concurrence of Prophecy and Providence similar to that already noted? If so, then we must feel that to us is given an opportunity of exceptional character and of priceless value, which our fathers longed in vain to see, and we must ask the Lord to give us grace to use it worthily to His praise. We will reverently search and see.

Let us recall a few startling facts.

1. In 1800 there were but seven Protestant Missionary Societies; of which four were just newly formed, and one was specially for Colonial, not for Missionary, work. There are now no less than 100 Missionary Societies and Churches in Protestant Christendom.

2. In 1800 there were scarce 170 Protestant Missionaries in the field, of which number 100 were Moravians. There are now some 5000 European and American Missionaries, not reckoning native helpers.

3. In 1800 the Protestant converts from heathenism may have numbered 50,000. The native Christian communities now exceed 2 millions.

4. The annual expenditure on Protestant Missions in 1800 was £50,000. It is now 2 millions-i.e. more than nine times as much as the reported income of the whole Romish Propaganda.

5. One hundred years ago who thought of Missions? In 1783 a Bishop of the Church of England, in his place in the House of Lords, said that the obligation said to be incumbent on Christians to promote their faith through the world ceased with the supernatural gifts of Apostolic days.' Later still, a Scottish General Assembly declared a motion in regard to Missions to be 'fanatical and absurd.' But now all agree that (to quote from one who will not be suspected of undue partiality,-Professor Max Müller) Christianity is a missionary religion; in its nature converting, advancing, aggressive, encompassing the world.' The age of world-wide Missions has begun.

6. But this is not all. We gratefully note that during the past eighty years there has been something more than the development of a Missionary era, unparalleled in the history of the Church. The RATE of development has been continually on the increase. It has been, as it were, a geometrical progression. Take India. The rate of increase in the number of Christians during the last three decennial periods has been respectively 53 per cent., 61 per cent., and 86 per cent. ; while the communicants have risen from 14,000 and upwards in 1851 to 24,000 and upwards in 1861: to more than 52,000 in 1871: and to more than 113,000 in 1881.

Nor is the case of China less remarkable. In 1843 there were six communicant converts; in 1853 there were 351; in 1864, 1974; in 1868, 5743; in 1877, 13,035; in 1881, 20,000,-representing a body of at least 50,000 professing Christians.

If then we are living in an age long foretold, and long expected, of which Evangelical Missions are at once the peculiar characteristic and the special responsibility-may we not expect to be able in this case also, as in the former cases, to see how God's providences have opened the door of utterance and the door of opportunity, and prepared the way for the fulfilment of His prophecies?

And it is scarcely too much to say that never before in the history of Christendom would such a work have been possible as has characterised these last few years. This same period, which has been pre-eminently an era of Missions, has been also beyond all others an age of science, education, locomotion. It has often been remarked that in many impor

tant matters the world went on much without change from the time of Abraham to the reign of George III. But within this century, especially as regards communication and locomotion, all has changed.

I need not stay to show how the spread of education, the application of steam and electricity, and the development of engineering skill and mechanical inventions, have prepared the way of the heralds of the Cross. Nor need I tell how, within this period, countries long closed have been opened to missionary efforts, and especially how access has, even within the last few years, been most providentially obtained for the Gospel to the secluded ladies of Eastern lands, in whose hands, to a very great extent, the training of the next generation, both of men and women, is committed.

But what will in the future stand out as one of the most startling phenomena of the age is that during this predicted era of missionary effort no less than one-fifth (and probably more) of the world's population, and about one-sixth of her land-surface, should be united under the sceptre of this foggy little island in the northern seas. Why has Germany no colonies? Why did not India fall to Napoleon, who was much more eager for it than we? Surely one of the most signal historical and political coincidences in God's providential government is that this era of Missions should find such political and administrative influence exercised by a nation which, with all her many inconsistencies and shortcomings, has yet pure Protestant Christianity in a special manner embodied in her statute-book, and which has become known above all other nations by zeal for God's truth, reverence for God's day, and love for God's ancient people.

Viewed, then, in the twofold light of Prophecy and Providence, our present missionary enterprise appears not only a good work, but THE SPECIAL WORK which God has, in these last days, set before His Church. And this consideration will lead us not only to more absorbing zeal, and more selfdenying exertion, and more concentrated energy in the prosecution of Missions, but it will lead us to more searching study of, and more watchful preparation for, certain other prominent features of this same missionary epoch, hinted at already, traceable alike in prophecy and providence, which else might take us unawares, to the damping of our zeal and the weakening of our faith.

1. First, then, Scripture links the era of Missions with a general decline of faith and love among professing Christians. It will be the confessors who press this work, and press it at a time when the general condition of the visible Church is disheartening and dull.

The whole of Matthew xxiv. is to be carefully studied in this connection (12-14): 'And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.' So St. Paul (2 Tim. iii.). So St. Peter (2 Pet. iii.). And is it not even thus before our eyes? Has not this century of Missions been marked by a surprisingly successful and most truly lamentable effort to revive the old error of applying to any Church visible the promises and prerogatives of the mystical body of Christ, and thus to entangle us again in those very same sacerdotal theories and sacramentarian heresies from which God at such a cost with His own right hand delivered us? Has it not seen also, on the other hand, a daring rashness of speculation, scepticism, and superstition, which tends to make our hands hang down?

Very possible would it be for a Christ-loving soul to sink into a habit of morbid despair as he looks at the growth of formalism and materialism, and at ecclesiastical convulsions going on around, were it not that the Master links with these very phenomena the urgent privilege of handing on devotedly the torch of truth to the ends of the earth. This is our present work, and those will help best the necessities of the Church at home who bend themselves boldly to the Church's work abroad. We probably none of us realise what a power in the cause of truth in Britain may be found at some not distant crisis, in our various Missionary Societies formed for the evangelisation of heathendom.

2. Again, God's Word connects with the era of Missions the daring assertion of various forms of error. Thus our Lord predicted, Many false prophets shall arise.' And verily in our days we hear on every side the noisy self-asserting croak of the Apocalyptic frogs. These prophecies are fulfilled in our midst. On the one hand, India and the East are being flooded with the sceptical and materialistic literature of Western Europe. Extracts from Paine's Age of Reason are placarded on the walls of Calcutta, and eagerly read, while our missionaries are met with questions from Hegel, Strauss, Renan, and the like. On the other hand, a fact too little known, Buddhist literature is in England attracting much attention, and beguiling not a few unstable souls. The lessons to us are of grave importance. We must not only pray for grace to stand firm as a rock against all the '-isms' of the day, but we must see one great security against their seductions in a whole-hearted devotion to this great work

1 There actually exists in England a Mohammedan brotherhood, including perverts from Christianity, both men and women.

which the Master has set before us. And (may I lay stress on this ?) we must see in this development of infidel propagandism a call to give of our most capable, most highly cultivated, best workers, whether men or women, to the work of Missions-those to whom evangelical truth is a matter not only of vivid spiritual experience, but of deep mental conviction, ready to give not only the heart with all its affections, but the mind with all its powers, to this noble service. The Lord has need of them!

3. And so, too, does not the Master connect with this Missionary era a startling upheaving of old institutions, and thoughts, and ways? 'The powers of heaven shall be shaken.' This general shaking of the most venerable traditions, political, ecclesiastical, domestic, social, is day by day going on amongst us. That fearful, and, to the mind of many of us, clearly-predicted convulsion which we call the French Revolution, has not yet spent its force; and as its commencement synchronises in a most striking way with the opening of this Missionary era of which we speak, so will those two potent influences develop side by side, and become more and more palpably the influences of the period. And as the people of God are disappointed in and weaned from their long-cherished national and religious centres of expectation and hope, they will be brought to realise more and more clearly that they have received a kingdom which cannot be moved, and that their Church is, after all, the Church of the First-born, which is written in heaven; and thus, by increased fervour in the extension of Christ's kingdom, will they 'look for and hasten on the coming of the day of God.' We must not be surprised, then, if in these last days God should be seen to use new and unlikely methods, and possibly unexpected agents also, in His work, and if the individual, as contrasted with the corporate or ecclesiastical, enterprise, becomes increasingly prominent, and often, when apparently feeblest, abundantly owned and blessed.

4. This leads me to speak of another prominent feature of this Missionary epoch, which, as predicted in Scripture, is being fulfilled in our midst, viz. a great marshalling of the forces, both of good and evil, in preparation for a fearful and a final struggle. Rev. xvi. 13-16 should be thoughtfully studied. I need not stay to prove to you how in our day the powers of hell are waxing bold-how Herod and Pilate are, as it were, making friends together if only they may lead an attack against the Word of God, the Day of God, the Saints of God, and the Commandments of God. But what I do wish to suggest is that Missionary work has had, and is having, a very marvellous influence in the closing up of the ranks of God's people, and uniting our forces on the side of our Lord Jesus Christ.