I have spoken of an inward impulse. That thought turns our attention to our own hearts. I have spoken of a definite command; that turns our eyes to the Throne. I speak now of a bond of brotherhood. That sends our thoughts out over the whole world. There is such a bond. Jesus Christ by His Incarnation has taken the nature of every man upon Himself, and has brought all men into one. Jesus Christ by the grace of God, has tasted death for every man,' and has brought all men into unity. And so the much-abused and vulgarised conception of fraternity,' and even the very word humanity,' are the creation of Christianity, and flow from these two facts--the Cradle of Bethlehem and the Cross of Calvary, besides that prior one that God hath made of one blood all nations of men.' If that be so, then what flows from that unity, from that brotherhood thus sacredly founded upon the facts of the life and death of Jesus Christ, the world's Redeemer? This to begin with, that Christian men are bound to look out over humanity with Christ's eyes, and not--as is largely the case to-day--to regard other nations as enemies and rivals, and the lower races' as existing to be exploited for our wealth, to be coerced for our glory, to be conquered for our Empire. We have to think of them as Jesus Christ thought. I cannot but remember days in England when the humanitarian sentiment in regard to the inferior races was far more vigorous, and far more operative in national life than it is to-day. I can go back in boyhood's memory to the emancipation of the West Indian slaves, and that was but the type of the general tendency of thought amongst the better minds of England in those days. Would that .it were so now!
But further, brethren, we as Christian people have laid upon us this responsibility by that very bond of brotherhood, that we should carry whithersoever our influence may go the great message of the Elder Brother who makes us all one. We give much to the heathen' populations within our Empire or the reach of our trade. We give them English laws, English science, English literature, English outlooks on life, the English tongue, English vices--opium, profligacy, and the like. Are these all the gifts that we are bound to carry to heathen lands? Dynamos and encyclopaedias, gin and rifles, shirtings and castings? Have we not to carry Christ? And all the more because we are so closely knit with so many of them. I wonder how many of you get the greater part of your living out of India and China?
Surely, if there is a place in England where the missionary appeal should be responded to, it is Manchester. As a nest hast thou gathered the riches of the nations.' What have you given? Make up the balance-sheet, brethren. We are debtors,' let us put down the items: -
Debtors by a common brotherhood.
Debtors by the possession of Christ for ourselves. Debtors by benefits received. Debtors by injuries inflicted.
The debit side of the account is heavy. Let us try to discharge some portion of the debt, in the fashion in which the Apostle from whom I have been quoting thought that he would best discharge it when, after declaring himself debtor to many kinds of men, he added, So as much as in me is, I am ready to preach the Gospel.' May we all say, more truly than we have ever said before, We cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard!
