SOME years since we heard from the lips of the venerable William Jay, of Bath, while preaching a missionary sermon, a statement which evidently thrilled a vast congregation, and settled in the minds of many of his hearers a very important question.
The preacher told us that in his very early life, now a hundred years ago, the missionary topic began to excite great interest, and he was invited to take an active part in advancing it. He had, however, some difficulties on the subject. The object appeared so vast, and the means at hand so small, that effort seemed to him almost hopeless till God should, in some wonderful manner, give indications that His time was come. Indeed, the preacher told us that he sympathized not a little with those who were disposed to let the world alone.
Before he quite made up his mind to refuse to deliver one of the first missionary sermons in the metropolis, he determined to consult his old friend and counselor, the venerable John Newton, of London. He found the old minister with his ever constant pipe, and soon began to lay before him the whole subject, in all the aspects in which it had been presented to his mind, concluding with a request for his opinion.
The excellent old minister listened to him with the most profound attention to the very end of his story; and then, emptying the ashes of his pipe on the side of the grate, and looking with intense feeling into the face of his young friend, he said, in tones of solemn earnestness, “My dear brother, I have never once doubted either the power or readiness of God to convert the heathen world since he converted me.”
“All my doubts,” said Mr. Jay, “were gone forever, and I have ever since felt that the grace which converted is can as easily convert the most abandoned sinners on earth. Let us therefore labor for this object.”
W. R.