I. The object of domestic missions is to supply the destitute portions of our own population with the institutions of the gospel. There are two methods of doing this. The one is by itinerant preachers. This method was the one originally adopted in our church, and continued until a recent period of our history. The object of such itinerants was partly, to preach to the scattered population who had no opportunity to attend any place of stated worship; and partly, to organize new churches by gathering scattered members and ordaining officers over them, and thus to put them in the way of getting a minister for themselves. The other method of conducting the work of missions is to aid feeble churches in sustaining a pastor. This method, with us, has almost superseded the other. There is no reason why they should not be combined. Neither, of itself, is sufficient. Dr. C. C. Jones, when secretary of the Board of Missions, acted on the plan of aiding a church for a few years, and then abandoning it, if it did not become self–supporting. This was a disastrous policy. There are great practical difficulties in this work, because no central Board can know the necessities of every locality, and the judgment of presbyteries so often influenced by special regard to their own field and neglect of the wants of other portions of the country; they are influenced also by natural sympathy with their own members.
II. Who are to perform this work? Whose duty is it to see that the gospel is sustained among the people? There are two different principles on which the Church has been divided. The one is that the duty of sustaining the gospel in any one place, rests on the people of that place. This is natural, or at least plausible. The support of the municipal officers of a town or borough rests exclusively on the people of the town. It is their concern, and the concern of no one else. The same is true also of the poor. It seems unreasonable that people of one town should contribute to the support of the minister of another. This principle would be the right one provided,
1. The people felt the necessity for a minister as they do that of municipal officers, and
2. Provided the interests at stake were those of the people of that place exclusively. But neither of these things are true, and, therefore, this plan if rigorously carried out would be destructive. The other principle is that the obligation to sustain the gospel rests upon the Church as a whole. The command is to preach the gospel, i.e., secure its being known, everywhere. This is the true principle,
1. Because all the considerations, except those which are personal and family, which bind us to support the gospel in one place, apply to all others. The gospel is necessary everywhere. Men will perish without the knowledge of it. The honor of Christ is promoted by the conversion of souls everywhere. The interests of morality, religion, and social order, and national prosperity are as much concerned in having the gospel in one place as in another.
2. The gospel cannot spread, and will not be sustained on the other plan. People will not send for it, nor support it.
3. The Church acts on this principle among the heathen.
4. The most aggressive and prosperous denominations act on it.
5. The state has been forced to act on it in matters of education.
6. The permanence, power and spiritual welfare of our church is deeply concerned in this.
III. Reasons why we should devote more energy to Domestic Missions.
1. The general reasons of the command of Christ, the value of the soul, and the necessity of religion to social and national prosperity.
2. The special reason of the greatness of the work. Compare this work in England and Scotland with the work here. The extent of the country and the sparseness of the population render it specially difficult, and therefore demanding zeal.
3. The rapid increase of our population; it is outrunning the means of supply.
4. The certainty that error and vice will prevail, if the gospel be not preached and sustained.
5. The importance of the forming period of a nation’s life, and the permanency of the original type. Illustrations.
6. All other good enterprises depend on this.
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