The field of missionary labour is the world, and every part of it must be cultivated. In many places, harvests, broad and rich, are seen by those myriads of seraphs, who, in ministering to the heirs of salvation, are constantly passing and repassing from heaven to earth. But by far the greater part of this field is still barren and untouched by any culturing hand, and its famishing and dying inhabitants are constantly sending out to christian communities the Macedonian cry of--"Come and help us;" and this cry, like an angel's voice, has sunken deep into many hearts, and inspired them with a sympathetic interest which cannot die till its object is accomplished. I congratulate the world that such an interest has been excited. It promises much; it awakens the most delightful hopes; and it is not to _divide_, but to _enlarge_ it, that I appear before this respected assembly, as a messenger from the most dark and hopeless part of this field of blight and desolation, to say to you, in behalf of my brethren; "Come and help us also." The place from which I have come is a _prison_, and _prisoners_ are my brethren, whose cause I am going to plead. In calling your attention to these all-gloomy places, and to these neglected sinners, may I not be permitted to say, that _prisons_ and _prisoners_ are inseparably interwoven with the history and doctrines of the gospel. The Captain of our salvation, though Lord of all, was once a _prisoner_ at Pilate's bar; and though all-innocent, was condemned by Herod as a _criminal_, and expired on a _cross_. Of this same Being it is declared that he despiseth none of his _prisoners_, but looseth them, and by the blood of the covenant, sendeth them out of the pit wherein is no water. By his spirit he preached through Zechariah to those _captives_, who hung their harps on the willows and wept at the recollection of Zion, this affecting but cheering sermon--"Turn ye, turn ye to the strong hold, ye _prisoners_ of hope." In the same spirit he also went and "preached to the spirits in _prison_, which sometime were disobedient." In fine, benevolence to the lost is the spirit of Jesus, and good-will to mankind irrespectively, is the genius of his gospel. Moved then by the inspiration of Christ and his doctrines, I cheerfully and confidently anticipate the interested attention of all christians, while I paint the moral and spiritual dearth of our State Prisons, and plead with you to send thither the fertilizing streams of eternal life; nor will I fear, for a moment, that there is in this congregation, either a _Sanballat_ or a _Tobiah_, to be exceedingly grieved that a man is come, to seek the _welfare of captives_.