explored by Livingstone, from the banks of the Great Ngami Lake, from the shores of the Zambesi, there issues the loud, intelligible cry, "Come over to Africa and help us!" And yet another voice may be heard in this assembly to night. It comes down from the Heavenly Oracle; it is the voice of Deity; it is the inquiry of our Saviour, who has commanded the Gospel to be preached to every creature; it inquires, "Whom shall we send?" "Who will go for

us ?'

Some youthful heart, perhaps, has already replied, "Lord, here am I; send me." Let there be augmented liberality, combined energy, and fervent prayer for the Divine blessing on missionary labours in Africa, and her conversion to Christ will be effected. Ethiopia shall soon stretch out her hands unto God. The honour of her downtrodden humanity shall be vindicated; the efficacy of the Gospel to redeem the most wretched shall be proved; and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed. As the vessels that convey your commerce and missionaries to the shores of that land which we have contemplated to-night, are seen in the distance, native voices will be lifted up to exclaim, How beautiful on the mountain waves are those that bring good tidings, that publish salvation! In the efforts and extension of the Christian Church in Africa shall be realized the import of that sublime vision of ancient prophecy"Ye shall go out with joy, and be led forth with peace: the mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands. Instead of the thorn shall come up the fir-tree, and instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle-tree; and this" moral miracle "shall be to the Lord for a name, and for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off."

The Silence of Scripture.

A LECTURE

BY

JOHN C. MILLER, D.D.

HONORARY CANON OF WORCESTER; RECTOR OF ST. MARTIN'S, BIRMINGHAM; CHAPLAIN TO LORD CALTHORPE.

THE SILENCE OF SCRIPTURE.

"PUT off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground." *

Be such our spirit to-night. If reverence becomes us, as we consult "the oracles of God" and listen to their utterances, with reverence no less submissive and profound must we receive their SILENCE.

Not seldom are they silent where man would have them speak; where their silence humbles his pride and disappoints his curiosity; where a line would have cleared up a mystery and settled a controversy.

"He

"It is the glory of God to conceal a thing." + giveth not account of any of his matters." To vindicate his own majesty and prerogative; to discipline man's humility; to give room for his children's trust; to display, in the issue, his own perfections, he conceals himself-his nature, his works, his moral government, his WORD. "Verily thou art a God that hidest thyself, O God of Israel, the Saviour." §

Among the heresies of our day by which some have been unloosed from their moorings and moved from the sure anchorage of truth, the fallibility of inspired Scripture is

Exod. iii. 5. + Prov. xxv. 2. ↑ Job xxxiii. 18.

§ Isa. xlv. 15.