Again, the fact that the Gospel is the power of God should fill our hearts with hope in every effort for its extension; and we find it so employed by the Lord when He taught us in His prayer to urge it as an argument for the speedy coming of His kingdom. We may observe that the spread of the Lord’s kingdom has always required men to make attempts apparently beyond the reach of human power. Nothing, for example, could have appeared less probable eighteen hundred years ago than that the whole of civilized Europe should be more or less controlled by the preaching of twelve ill-educated fishermen on the shores of Galilee; but so it is; and for the simple reason that “the Gospel is the power of God.” It would have appeared at first sight next to impossible that such an one as William Tyndale, a private tutor in a gentleman’s family in Gloucestershire, should break down the barrier which Rome had raised against the circulation of the Scriptures, and force the New Testament into this country in spite of the united powers of Henry, of Wolsey, of the nobility of England, and the hierarchy of Rome. But the Gospel was the power of God, and the humble private tutor triumphed. Nothing could have appeared more hopeless to all human calculation than the mission of Mr. Marsden, when he first landed among the cannibals of New Zealand, and saw lying stranded on the shore the hull of a vessel whose unfortunate crew had been recently devoured by the islanders; but he landed there in faith, and because the Gospel is “the power of God,” the island has been won to the sovereignty of our Queen, and a noble church gathered out to the glory of the Lord. So in all our present efforts we must ever bear in mind that our weapon, the simple Gospel of the Lord Jesus, is not a human but Divine instrumentality, and we must endeavour to go forth to our work in the same spirit in which Morrison went to China, of whom it is related, that, when asked on one occasion, “Do you expect to convert the Chinese?” he replied, “No, but I expect that the Lord will.” There may be many hindrances, for example, in the way of the Jews’ conversion, and much to dishearten the devoted labourer in the dense masses of our manufacturing population, but who need be discouraged when he strives to preach a Saviour, and remembers that his simple message is the mighty power of an omnipotent God? And so with reference to the great principles of the Reformation, those principles so inexpressibly dear to the heart of every scriptural believer, there may be much to alarm in all we see around us; in the many adversaries, some open, and some secret; some in undisguised opposition to the truth, and some professing it, it is much to be feared, for the unhallowed purpose of betraying it. Yes! there is much to be feared; but there is much more to be hoped for by the Christian; for our weapons are Divine; our trust is in the Word of God, the truth of God, the grace of God; and therefore we may go on our way