i/ 4017 <4 spy 1 y l iV 4017 K4 iopy 1 r e ober, of good behavior, given to hospitality, apt to teach ; not given to wine, no striker, not greedy of filthy lucre ; but patient ; not a brawler, not covetous ; one that ruleth well his own house, having his children in subjection with all gravity ; (for if a man know not how to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the church of God ?) not a novice, lest being lifted up with pride he fall into the condemnation of the devil. Moreover, he must have a good report of them which are without ; lest he fall into reproach and the snare of the devil." 1 Timothy 3 : 1-7. An ungodly minister is, of all characters, the most unnatural and the most odious ; and, I may add, the most guilty. He brings unmerited odium upon the hallowed name by which he is called. 11 He hardens scoffers against religion. He incurs the guilt and infamy of Jeroboam, who is never men- tioned but to be stigmatized as he who " made Is- rael to sin." "It must needs be that offenses come ; but woe to that man by whom the offense cometh." There are too many ministers, and ministers of whom we may charitably indulge the hope that they are Christians, whose conduct in the parlor ill accords with their appearance in the pulpit; who by the levity of their deportment, and the frivolousness of their conversation, and rhe sel- fishness of their spirit, exhibit a striking contrast to the humbling, self-denying doctrines which they inculcate. Brethren, pray for us, that we may be preserved from this snare ; ,; giving no offense in any thing, that the ministry be not blamed." We are men of like passions with yourselves. If God withdraw his grace from me, I am capable of perpetrating any crime. If God Almighty with- draw his grace from me, I may blast my char- acter, and ruin my public usefulness, and render my warmest friends ashamed to own me. Pray for me, that I may " hold the mystery of the faith in a pure conscience," and iw adorn the doctrine of God my Saviour in all things," and that I may be enabled to say at last with our Apostle : ''Our rejoicing is this, the testimony of our conscience, that in simplicity and godly 12 sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God, we have had our conversation in the world, and more abundantly to you-ward." " Pray for us : for we trust we have a good con- science, in all things willing to live honestly." To enforce this request further, we call your attention^ in the second place, to the duties con- nected with the office we sustain. The grand ob- ject of the Christian ministry is "to turn men from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified." " Whom we preach, warning every man, and teaching every man, in all wisdom ; that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus." The summit of our ambition is to save those who hear us, to qualify them while in the church mil- itant to unite with all the ransomed of the Lord in the church triumphant. And how is this object to be attained? Not by lectures on morality, but by the preaching of the glorious gospel of the grace of God. This is the work of our ministry. We shall merely advert a little to the manner of our discharging it.. We must do so faithfully. We are to speak boldly, fearing no man's enmity and court- ing no man's friendship at the expense of truth. Though we would not willingly or intentionally wound any one's feelings^ yet we must be honest 13 to our conscience and honest to our God. But this fidelity is to be accompanied with affection. We are to speak in love, not lording it over God's heritage, but with a manner and a strain which evince that our heart's desire and prayer to God for you is that ye may be saved. Unless we live in your affection and esteem, we can have no reasonable prospect of usefulness among you. Un- less you feel convinced that we seek your welfare, you will reject our counsels and spurn our re- proofs. The gospel should also be preached judiciously. It is a high attainment " rightly to divide the word of truth." And to reach this, it is necessary that a minister should have a very extensive knowledge of human character, and a very exten- sive acquaintance of the Scriptures; a sound, dis- criminating judgment, and a studious disposition. In one word, the whole counsel of God is to be disclosed in all its relative bearings, that by bringing things new and old out of the treasury of God, we may meet the" diversified necessities of those who hear us ; and we must be incessant in our labors, " instant in season and out of season." If you add to this catalogue of duties, my brethren, those of administering ordinances, visiting the sick, catechising, and family visitation, does not the mighty amount show how much we need 14 your fervent prayers ? Plead that these gifts and graces which your pastor so much needs may be imparted to him, and that those which he al- ready possesses may be preserved and increased. This will appear more necessary still if we con- sider, in the third place, the discouragements at- tendant upon or incident to our office. There are many who regard the ministry as a mere sinecure, and look on those who are in it as devoid of all care, enjoying undisturbed ease and tranquility. Those who have made the experiment, entertain respecting it very different sentiments. The most holy men have not hesitated to acknowledge that, if at the commencement of their ministerial career, they could have foreseen all the trials and dis- couragements which were in reserve for them, they would have declined the station. The Prophet Jeremiah seems to insinuate that he was brought into it by a species of deception. " Lord, thou hast deceived me, and I was deceived." Could candidates for the sacred office look into futurity, how often would the language of Moses have heen repeated, " my Lord, send, I pray thee, by the hand of him whom thou wilt send." And not one in a hundred would say with Isaiah, " Here am I ; send me." The speaker has comparatively a very imperfect knowledge of these discouragements. He has, how- 15 ever, experienced some of them, and he can easily imagine the source of others. Some of these arise from the nature of the office. We have seen that it is designed to render the depraved and the im- pure "holy, and harmless, and without rebuke. ,? The very mention of such an employment is suf- ficient to convince us that the difficulties connected with it are of no common magnitude, and to in- duce us to exclaim with Paul, "'Who is sufficient for these things ? " Men are by nature universally indisposed to the reception of the truth. It is most abhorrent to all their prejudices and clearest wishes. They do not feel their guilt and danger, and the man who attempts from Sabbath to Sabbath to convince them of these, will be represented as a messenger of evil tidings, and suspected of taking pleasure in overwhelming the soul with dark and evil fore- bodings. By many he will be regarded ' as de- lighting in the misery of his fellow creatures, and having in his religion a mixture of what is savage and inhuman. " I hate him," said the King of Israel respecting the prophet, " for he doth not prophesy good concerning me, but evil." There is perhaps nothing more painful to an affectionate child than to be suspected by its parents of ingratitude and want of filial love. And we think there can scarcely be anything more painful to 16 a minister who loves his flock, than to be suspected by them of delighting in their misery. My hearers? even the denunciations of a faithful minister against the ungodly are dictated by compassion. He may be pronounced unfeeling, and cruel, but he is just as cruel and unfeeling as the passing traveler whose humanity has prompted him at the silent midnight hour to knock up the slumberers in a tenement which had just caught fire, because, perhaps he has disturbed some pleasing dream or disturbed their repose. He is just as cruel as the angel who mercifully laid violent hands on Lot, reluctant to depart from the city of destruction. And he might with as much justice and propriety have taxed that merciful mes- senger with cruelty, as hearers the servants of the Most High God for attempting to rouse them from impending destruction. Our commission runs in the following fearful words: " Son of man, I have made thee a watchman unto the house of Israel : therefore, hear the word at my mouth, and give them warning from me. When I say unto the wicked, Thou shalt surely die ; and thou givest him not warning, nor speakest to warn the wicked from his wicked way, to save his life ; the same wicked man shall die in his iniquity ; but his blood will I require at thine hand. Yet if thou warn the wicked, and he turn not from his wickedness, nor from his wicked wav, he shall die in 17 his iniquity ; but thou hast delivered thy soul. Again, when a righteous man doth turn from his righteousness, and commit iniquity, and I lay a stumbling-block before him, he shall die : because thou hast not given him warning, he shall die in his sin, and his righteousness which he hath done shall not be remembered ; but his blood will I require at thine hand. Nevertheless, if thou warn the right- eous man, that the righteous sin not, and he doth not sin, he shall surely live, because he is warned ; also, thou hast delivered thy soul." Ezekiel 3 : 17-21. If at any time your minister should seem too urgent or too severe,'let this solemn and awful charge be his apology and excuse. Too urgent he cannot be. It is at the hazard of his life that he speak deceitfully, and it is at the hazard of yours if he shall speak in vain. The servants of Jesus who, with honest bold- ness, reprove vice and error wherever found, cannot expect exemption from malevolent aspersions. The enemies of truth and holiness who denounce the minister, will deride the servant, and strain every nerve to damp his ardor and mar his success. This was the life of our fathers who were set for the defense of the gospel, and it will be ours if we imbibe their spirit and walk in their steps. If we will not venture upon the enchanted ground of Antinomianism, and tell men that they may live 3 18 as they please, we will be stigmatized as legalists; and if, on the other hand, the doctrines of free sovereign grace form, as they ought, the leading features in our sermons, to the utter exclusion of all self-righteous pretension, then we will be tra- duced as the enemies of holiness and good works. If we cannot chime in with certain prevailing sen- timents which are the great rage of the day, we will be pronounced illiberal and narrow minded. Brethren, pray for us, that we may be enabled "to contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints," and " in meekness to instruct those who oppose themselves ; if peradventure God will give them repentance to acknowledge the truth." It frequently happens, I believe, that great offense is given unintentionally by a minister to his peo- ple. Should he be led by the Spirit of God to condemn any vices or practices unknown to him to which they are ad doted, he is regarded as being malevolent in his intentions and personal in his remarks. How frequently is he reproached for nothing but being faithful to his solemn vows, as he would wish to be found among the saints at the "appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ." Independent of these discouragements of a public nature, there are others which may be termed per- sonal. When a minister reflects on the qualifica- 19 tions which he should possess, on the knowledge, patience, prudence, integrity and fortitude requisite, on the stores of biblical knowledge, and the inti- mate acquaintance with the state of his flock which he should have, and contrasts these with his acquirements, he may be greatly dispirited. If he ask his own heart, where is that ardent love to the Lord Jesus Christ ; where that compassion for perishing sinners; where that meekness and heavenly mindedness which he should display ? such questions cause him to blush before God, and he is often ready, in a fit of heartless despondency, to abandon his post as uncalled and unqualified to fill it. And we believe those, who are most severe in their animadversions upon his public appearance, would pity him and pray for him were they fully aware of the feelings which oc- casionally pervade his heart. How little allowance is often made by congre- gations for the constitutional infirmities of their pastors. Hosts of nervous distempers are some times apt to seize the hard student, which he can never shake off afterward for life. The Bible may at times appear to him a sealed book. He may be often in deep anxiety about his own soul's sal- vation. The great enemy may at other times ply him with temptations. He must appear in the pulpit at the appointed hour, whatever be the 20 frame of his mind or the feelings of his heart ; and yet how many thoughtlessly expect that his discourses shall be equally interesting and equally instructive. Brethren, we trust that we shall obtain your indulgence, not to our errors or vices, but to the imperfections of our labors among you. If I want heart in the cause of your salvation, for that let me be despised. But if heart I have, for that let me secure your attention ; for that, when I cannot tickle your ears, let me interest your souls. Do not look upon me as an actor set up for your amusement. I trust you will come up to the worship of God with higher and holier motives, and that while I manifest a desire to be useful to you, and " speak the words of truth and sober- ness," I will be acceptable to you, however de- ficient in natural endowments. Censure me if averse to spend and be spent for your salvation, but oh spare me the cruel lash of criticism if I cannot amuse you with " the enticing words of man's w r isdom." I urge the request of the Apostle, in the fourth and last place, from the motives which originate from the office we sustain. Pray for us, on the ground of duty. We are the man of your own choice ; we labor for you ; our heart's desire to God and our great aim is that you may be saved. 21 The larger portion of grace we possess and the more gifts we receive, the advantage will redound to yourselves. If prayer be restrained, we will not be mutual comforts to each other. "I shall be found unto you such as ye would not, and I shall not find you such as I would." " God may humble me among you." In prayer you will find the grand secret of pros- perity. Without the influence of the Spirit your minister will preach in vain ; this house shall have been erected in vain ; your attendance here will be in vain. There is a homely but most important proverb upon this subject: "A praying people make a preaching minister." How often is he censured by the disappointed worshiper, when in fact, the cause was in that worshiper. He had offered no fervent and special supplication for a blessing on his pastor's labors. He had, there- fore, no right to expect it, and moreover, he was in no suitable frame to receive it, and thus it fre- quently happens that while the humble and earnest petitioner obtains a rich repast, the prayerle; s hearer departs empty away. I ask this favor, in in a word, as you value my salvation. " Pray for us," for if we perish our damnation will be double. The day of accounts and retribution is advancing. The solemn connection formed between us so lately is already in progress toward dissolution. I may 22 soon be called to my account ! And if I shall be found to have been false to the trust reposed in me, dreadful assuredly shall be my •doom. The blood of souls shall be required at my hand. And if misery be the portion of every transgressor, what shall be that of the minister upon whom the impenitent shall charge the ruin of his soul ? "I acknowledge that I am guilty, but my spiritual guide confirmed me in guilt ; at the time in which I violated thy precepts he proclaimed peace, peace, and I believed his report. He sanctioned my crimes by his own practices. Upon him I charge my destruction." My hearers, if sinners of a com- mon description shall cry to the rocks to fall on them, will not the ungodly preacher cry in agony to the mountains to hide him from the presence of Him who sitteth upon the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb ! Pray then for me, " lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway." Pray that I may ever speak and act under the full influence of the apostolic exhortation : " Take heed unto thyself, and unto the doctrine ; continue in them : for in doing this thou shalt both save thyself, and them that hear thee." " As for me, God forbid that I should sin against the Lord in ceasing to pray for you : but I will teach you the good and the right way." 23 " The Lord bless you, and keep you ; the Lord make his face shine upon you, and be gracious unto you ; the Lord lift up his countenance upon jou, and give you peace." " Peace be within thy walls, and prosperity within thy palaces. For my brethren and companion's sake, I will now say, Peace be within thee. Because of the house of the Lord our God, I will seek thy good. 5 ' Amen. ihS&SL °f congress 1 1022J68 899 5 „oV oF CONGR^ S III- OF CONGRli*^ Hi. 022 I 58 05S