Wit (Ufa of o gtaton. 
 
 A DISCOURSE 
 
 PRONOUNCED ON OCCASION OF THE 
 
 ORDINATION OF MR. J. M. CURTISS, 
 
 TO THE 
 
 .first (Irak in tire Jlpstolit Drkr of tire gtinistrj, 
 
 ’ . I 
 
 Jr / 
 
 - •■'fJjH/Wt jk 
 
 IN ST. PAUL’S CHURCH, LOUISVILLE, 
 
 UPON FRIDAY MORNING, MAY 23, 1856, 
 
 BY DAVID C. PAGE, D. D. 
 
 louisbilUj f£g. 
 
 “I knew it long ere now, 
 
 Yet am I not afraid; 
 
 The God to whom I pledged my vow, 
 
 Will sureiy send his aid. 
 
 At cost of all I have, 
 
 At cost of life and limb, 
 
 I cling to God who yet shall save, 
 
 I will not turn from Him.” 
 
 Lyua Germanic*. 
 
 LOUISVILLE: 
 
 S. RINGGOLD, CHURCH HOOK STORE. 
 
 HULL AND BROTHEB, PRINTERS. 
 
 1856. 
 
P is l <£ 
 
 T O THE 
 
 REV. J. M, CURTIS^, 
 
 IJrittcipal of % Jtatbiai $c£oai, 
 
 $f &t. loan's parish, Ifomisbillt, 
 
 The following Discourse delivered on occasion of his admis 
 sion to the order of Deacons, is most affectionately inscribed by the 
 author, in token of his high respect for the “ simplicity and godly sin¬ 
 cerity,” and for the more than mediocre talents which so clearly augur, 
 under Heaven’s blessing, his signal efficiency and usefulness, whether 
 in the lower or the higher ministries of the Church. 
 
CORRESPONDENCE. 
 
 Louisville , Ky., May 2 Gth, 1956 . 
 
 The Rev. David C. Page, D. D: 
 
 Rev. and Dear Sir. —The undersigned having enjoyed the pleasure 
 and advantage of listening to your very able and impressive discourse, 
 delivered on the occasion of the recent ordination in St. John’s Church, 
 respectfully request that you will furnish a copy of the same for pub¬ 
 lication. 
 
 We are, Rev. and Dear Sir, 
 
 Your faithful Friends, 
 
 and Fellow Servants, in Christ Jesus, 
 
 B. B. Smith, Bishop of the Diocese, 
 
 Gr. P. Schetky, Rector of St. John’s Church, Louisville, 
 
 F. H. Bushnell, Rector of Grace Church, Louisville, 
 
 J. Singer Wallace, Rector of St. Andrews’ Church, Louisville, 
 
 J. M. Gosiiorn, Rector of S. Paul’s Church, New Albany, Ind. 
 
 Jas. Runcie, Rector of St. Paul’s Church, Jeffersonville, Ind. 
 
 D. L. Miller, St. John’s Parish, 
 
 G. R. Penton, St. John’s Church, 
 
 John S. Arnold, St. John’s Parish, 
 
 S. Ringgold, Grace Church Parish, 
 
 R. L. Talbot, St. John’s Parish, 
 
 Wm. Inman, St. John’s Parish, 
 
 Jas. P. Arnold, St. John’s Parish, 
 
 E. W. Crittenden, St. Paul’s Parish, 
 
 Wm. F. Pettet, St. Paul’s Parish. 
 
 The Rev. Mr. Craik being absent from the city, and the Rev. Mr. 
 Denison engaged in parochial duty, were prevented from attending on 
 the occasion. 
 
R E PLY. 
 
 To The Rt. Rev. B. B. Smith, D. D., Bishop of Kentucky, the Rev. 
 
 Gr. P. Schetky and others of the Clergy, and to Mr. D. L. Miller, 
 
 and W. F. Pettet and others of the Laity: 
 
 Rt. R ev. Father in God, and Beloved Brethren .—To be called upon 
 by the Bishop of the Diocese, and by so many respected and beloved 
 brethren both of the Clergy and the Laity, for the publication of the 
 Discourse delivered by me at the recent ordination at St. John’s, is a 
 distinction certainly more flattering than I deserve, but it leaves me no 
 alternative other than that of unhesitatingly placing the manuscript at 
 your disposal, and of heartily thanking you for this most gratifying 
 mark of your recognition of the claims of my sermon to be given to 
 the world. 
 
 Meanwhile, Beloved Brethren, 
 
 I am most Respectfully and Affectionately 
 
 Your Faithful Friend and Servant, 
 for Christ’s sake, 
 
 DAVID C. PAGE. 
 
 Louisville, May 2 6th, 1856 . 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 in 2019 with funding from 
 
 University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Alternates 
 
 
 
 https://archive.org/details/discoursepronounOOpage 
 
SERMON. 
 
 ‘‘Thoy that have used the office of a Deacon well, purchase to them' 
 selves a good degree, and great boldness in the faith which is in Christ 
 Jesus.— St . Paul's 1st Epistle to Timothy , 3 rd c ., VSth verse. 
 
 We are assembled my brethren, upon an occasion 
 no less solemn and interesting than that of the ordina¬ 
 tion of the brother now before us to the sacred office 
 of a Deacon, and did I feel myself at liberty to con¬ 
 sult my own preferences merely, I should be a listen¬ 
 er, and not the preacher of the day. But it having 
 been thought good by our Bishop to assign this duty 
 to me, I have no other alternative but to proceed as 
 best I may, to its fulfilment; and in view of the pecu¬ 
 liar nature of the office about to be conferred, have 
 chosen the above very suggestive words, as the sub¬ 
 ject of my discourse. “ They that have used the office 
 of a Deacon well, have purchased to themselves a good 
 degree, and great boldness in the faith which is in 
 Christ Jesus.” These I say, are the words which J 
 propose to speak to now, and we may learn from them 
 in the first place, 
 
 I. That THERE IS A DIVINELY INSTITUTED GRADA¬ 
 TION in the Christian Ministry; for, says the Apos¬ 
 tle, “they that have used the office of a Deacon 
 well, have purchased to themselves a good degree.” 
 And where, I might ask, where throughout the uni- 
 
8 
 
 verse of God, where are there not degrees of authority, 
 and differences of order, and gradations of rank? Of 
 the economy of the heavenly state, but little is revealed 
 to us, yet still we perceive manifold traces in Holy 
 Scripture, of the existence of a Heavenly hierarchy. 
 We read of a regular subordination among the Heav¬ 
 enly intelligences; of a succession of grades; of rank 
 rising above rank, until the sublime images are pre¬ 
 sented to us of the High Archangel, of cherubim and 
 seraphim, of thrones and dominions, of principal¬ 
 ities and powers; and when we come down from that 
 lofty elevation, to this, our earthly dwelling place, we 
 find that into all associations which are organized for 
 the attainment of common and public views, the idea 
 of a gradation of offices, of a series of rank, necessa¬ 
 rily' enters. Such a constitution is inseparable from 
 the idea of a regular army, of an established marine, 
 of any association of men indeed, the attainment of 
 whose objects depends in those who manage their af¬ 
 fairs, upon a large experience, extensive knowledge, 
 and consummate skill. Nay, whenever we think of 
 an accomplished military commander, of a distinguish¬ 
 ed director of any department of civic and of social 
 life, we picture to ourselves one who has diligently and 
 patiently passed through the lower gradations of em¬ 
 ployment and distinction, and has thus become quali¬ 
 fied by much study, and toil, and discipline, and self- 
 denial, and submission to authority, for the illustrious 
 station to which he has finally been exalted. 
 
 And so it has ever been in the Church of God. Un¬ 
 der the ancient dispensation, there was the High Priest, 
 the Priest and the Levite. In the aboriginal Christian 
 
9 
 
 Church, there was our Saviour himself, the twelve 
 Apostles, and the seventy Disciples; and after our 
 Lord’s ascension, there were the Apostles, and Elders, 
 and Deacons, which offices have ever been continued, 
 if not in all their circumstantials, yet in all their essen¬ 
 tial features, in uninterrupted succession from that time 
 to this. 
 
 And there is a striking propriety, a divine wisdom 
 in this economy; a propriety indeed, and wisdom, 
 which is well expressed in the final collect in the office 
 for the ordering of Deacons. “Make them, we be¬ 
 seech thee, O Lord, to be modest, humble, and constant 
 in their ministrations, to have a ready will to observe 
 all spiritual discipline, that they, having always the 
 testimony of a good conscience, and continuing ever 
 stable and strong in thy Son Christ, may so behave 
 themselves in this inferior office, that they may be 
 found worthy to be called unto the higher ministries 
 of the Church.” There is then a regular and most 
 edifying subordination in the evangelic ministry, and 
 the lowest grade, the first point in the ascending series, 
 is the office of a Deacon. We will advert for a mo¬ 
 ment to the nature of this office as it is laid down in 
 Holy Scripture, and in accordance therewith, in the 
 ordinal of the church. We learn then from the Acts 
 of the Apostles, that, in the early church, “when the 
 number of the disciples was multiplied, there arose a, 
 murmuring of the Grecians against the Hebrews, be¬ 
 cause their widows were neglected in the daily minis¬ 
 tration Then the twelve called the ntultitude of the 
 disciples to them, and said: It is not reason that we 
 should leave the word of God, and serve tables, where- 
 
10 
 
 fore, brethren, look ye out among you, seven men, of 
 honest report, full of the Holy Ghost, and of wisdom, 
 whom we may appoint over this business. But we 
 will give ourselves continually to prayer, and the min¬ 
 istry of the word; and the saying pleased the whole 
 multitude, and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith, 
 and of the Holy Ghost, and Philip, and Prochorus, and 
 Nicanor, and Timon, and Parmenas, and Nicolas, a 
 proselyte of Antioch, whom they set before the Apos¬ 
 tles, and when they had prayed, they laid their hands 
 on them.” And we are told further on in the book, 
 ‘that Philip one of the seven Deacons so appointed, went 
 dowm to the city of Samaria, and preached Christ unto 
 them; and that when they believed Philip preaching 
 the things concerning the Kingdom of God, they were 
 baptized, both men and women.” 
 
 Now, in accordance with this Scriptural statement 
 of the origin and powers of the Deaconate, we are 
 taught in the form and manner of ordaining Deacons; 
 “that it appertained to the office of a Deacon in the 
 church where lie is appointed to serve, to assist the 
 Priest in Divine Service, and especially when he min- 
 istereth the Holy Communion, and to help him in the 
 distribution thereof, and to read the Ploly Scriptures, 
 and Homilies in the Church, and to instruct the youth 
 in the Catechism; in the absence of the Priest, to bap¬ 
 tize infants, and to preach, if he be admitted thereto, 
 by the Bishop.” And furthermore, it is his office, 
 where provision is so made, to search for the sick, poor, 
 and impotent people of the Parish, to intimate their 
 estates, names, and place where they dwell, unto the 
 curate, so that they may be relieved by the alms of 
 parishioners and others. 
 
11 
 
 Now, what I would have you observe, in view of 
 these expressions of the ordinal is, that though from 
 the great exigencies of the Church, in these United 
 States, the functions of the Deacon are not strictly 
 conformed to the primitive and apostolic model, (Dea¬ 
 cons having hitherto been called to perform the duties 
 of preaching, baptizing, and offering the devotional 
 offices of the church,) yet, that according to its true 
 theory, and for the most part as it would seem, its 
 more primitive exercise, the Deacon’s ministry is em¬ 
 phatically a ministry of mercy. For of this sacred 
 order it is here affirmed, to be the proper and peculiar 
 province, to seek out objects of benevolence and char¬ 
 ity ; to visit the sick, to relieve the destitute, and to be 
 the almoners of their more favored brethren, to the 
 children of poverty and sorrow. And the time is 
 coming, when, as I believe, the office of a Deacon 
 shall revert to its original simplicity, and when there 
 shall be associated with the Pastor of every consider¬ 
 able Parish, in the large cities especially, of our coun¬ 
 try, one or more Deacons, who shall fully carry out 
 the original conception of the office, and thus afford 
 the edifying and impressive exhibition of the three or¬ 
 ders in their integrity; the visible and striking embod¬ 
 iment of the three-fold apostolic ministry. Meanwhile, 
 it becomes those who are of the order of Deacons to 
 continually bear in mind, the peculiar nature and pre¬ 
 rogatives of their office, to remember that their mission 
 is empatically a mission of mercy, and that they are 
 constituted by the form and manner, the explicit terms 
 of their commission, the messengers of a pitying God, 
 of a compassionate and merciful Saviour, to the needy 
 
12 
 
 and suffering partakers of our common nature, to those 
 of them in especial, “who are of the household of 
 faith,” and that they have a special call to the service 
 of that crowning grace of the Holy Gospel, the grace 
 of charity, and to pass into the church higher minis¬ 
 tries, with the outstretched hand of relief, and the gen¬ 
 tle words of heavenly consolation and peace. 
 
 And who does not see, that the office of a Deacon, 
 were it duly carried out, is admirably adapted to cher¬ 
 ish and to keep in vigorous action, those other cardi¬ 
 nal graces of the gospel, modesty, humility, the spirit 
 of subordination, and submission to lawful authority. 
 The spirit of arrogance and presumption, a proud, as¬ 
 piring, self-sufficient, self-righteous spirit, is natural to 
 man, to the young man in especial, and therefore what 
 a divine wisdom is there not ’in that, element in the 
 church’s constitution, which provides in the order of 
 Deacons, a powerful check to these wayward propen¬ 
 sities of our nature, by precluding an immediate and 
 abrupt transition to the full and unlimited exercise of 
 the ministerial office. The obvious tendency of such 
 an arrangement, is, to foster a modest, humble, self- 
 distrusting spirit, to suggest and to establish habits of 
 self-discipline, self-control, and deference to authority. 
 For what is the genius of the Deaconal office as it is 
 delineated in the ordinal, and defined by the canoni¬ 
 cal provisions of the church \ Why, it is emphatically 
 a limited and subordinate office. For it is an express 
 canonical provision, that, Deacon’s orders shall not be 
 conferred upon any person, until he shall be one and 
 twenty years of age, nor Priest’s orders upon any one 
 until he shall have attained to the age of four and 
 
I 
 
 13 
 
 twenty. It is provided, moreover, that the Deacon 
 shall be subject to the regulations of the Bishop, and 
 that he shall officiate in such places as the Bishop shall 
 dictate. The canons contemplate then, that a Deacon, 
 if he be admitted to his order at the age of twenty- 
 one, shall be subjected to probation of three years, 
 before his admission to the higher order of Priests; 
 and during that interval, as it is provided in the ordi¬ 
 nal, his official duties and prerogatives are to be en¬ 
 tirely subordinate and auxiliary to those of the Priest, 
 and with regard to the duty of teaching, in especial, it 
 is expressly set forth in the ordinal, that he is to preach 
 the gospel only if admitted thereto by the Bishop him¬ 
 self. Accordingly, my advice would be to the Dea¬ 
 cons of the church, and it will be regarded perhaps, 
 as being entitled to some degree of weight from my 
 long and active ministry in the church’s service, my 
 advice, I say, would be to the Deacons of the church, 
 that they should seek no abridgement of the prepara¬ 
 tory interval required by the canon, but that deeply 
 thankful rather for the canonical restrictions imposed 
 on them, thev should devote the entire interval with- 
 out a day’s curtailment, to assiduous study, to fervent 
 prayer, to meditation, and searching self-scrutiny, to 
 works of charity and mercy, and to the occasional, 
 indeed, but not very frequent exercise of the office 
 of preaching; and that they should by no means be 
 deterred from this course, by the fear of “ hiding their 
 talents in a napkin,” or “burying them in the earth,” 
 or of “quenching the spirit,” or of neglecting to “let 
 their light shine,” or to keep in action, real or imagi¬ 
 nary gifts and graces. It is quite sufficient, to keep 
 
14 
 
 down all such unpleasant misgivings, to remember, that 
 Christ Jesus the Lord, the Great High Priest of our 
 profession, did not enter upon the exercise of His pub¬ 
 lic ministry until He had attained to the ripe age of 
 thirty years, and that His great Apostle declares, 
 “This is a true saying, if a man desire the office of a 
 Bishop, he desireth a good work. A Bishop then must 
 be blameless, the husband of one wife, vigilant, sober, 
 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 sub¬ 
 jection, 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; more¬ 
 over, he must have a good report of them that are 
 without, lest he fall into reproach, and into the snare 
 of the devil.” But a strict carrying out of the true 
 genius of the Deaconal office, would tend to save a 
 man from the evils here contemplated by the Apostle, 
 and to superinduce that very spirit of humility, mod¬ 
 esty, self-government, and submission to authority, 
 which is universally regarded as the best preparation 
 for being elevated to places of high trust, and of com¬ 
 manding influence. 
 
 And such a spirit is the best preparation not only 
 for such a position, but constitutes the best title to it 
 also. Nothing great or good in life is to be acquired 
 without capacity, without self-possession, without un¬ 
 tiring vigilance, without patient and persevering toil, 
 and without a careful observance of the recognized 
 
15 
 
 proprieties, and conventional decencies of the social 
 state. He who conducts himself with scrupulous 
 fidelity and ability, in an inferior station, is surely bet¬ 
 ter entitled to be promoted to posts of higher trust and 
 distinction, than he who in the same station in life, has 
 given no proof of capacity, done nothing positive and 
 effective, or fallen culpably short it may be, of filling 
 up the measure of his obligations. And hence, there 
 is a peculiar and striking force in the words of the 
 Apostle in the text, ‘'they that have used the office of 
 a Deacon well, purchase to themselves a good degree.” 
 
 But the Apostle further affirms in the words I am 
 now speaking to, that “they who have used the office 
 of a Deacon well, purchase to themselves a good de¬ 
 gree,” not only, but “great boldness also in the faith 
 which is in Christ Jesus.” And this clause of the pas¬ 
 sage seems to admit of a two-fold interpretation. For 
 it may mean, that those who thus behave themselves 
 worthily in this inferior office, become in the vigorous 
 language of the ordinal, stable and strong in the faith 
 of Christ, and courageous and bold in the proclama¬ 
 tion and defense of the truth, and this is a very good 
 meaning, and very true to the spirit which is superin¬ 
 duced, by the worthily passing through the probation 
 of the Deaconal office. Or it may mean that the dis¬ 
 ciplinary and preparatory exercises of the Deacon's 
 office, such as the habit of mingling familiar counsels 
 and exhortations, with the benefactions he administers 
 to the sick and the poor, will, together with the sys¬ 
 tematic meditations and studies, which he is supposed 
 to pursue, and the occasional exercise of the office of 
 a public teacher, have the effect of giving him a promp- 
 
1G 
 
 titude of utterance, a readiness of thought and expres¬ 
 sion, And this, I am inclined to think, is the true 
 meaning of the phrase in question, inasmuch as it is 
 suggested in the first place by the genius of the Dea¬ 
 con’s office, and secondly, because as I would remind 
 my Rt. Rev. Father, and my Rev. Brethren, whose 
 studies have lain in this direction, the literal import 
 of the Greek word as it is defined by the learned lex¬ 
 icographer, Schleusner, is liberty of speech, or liberty 
 in speaking rather, and is applied to one who speaks 
 in public, and delivers his sentiments on the subject 
 which he is upon, with self-possession, without trepi¬ 
 dation, WITHOUT HESITATION, aild with REAL EFFECT. 
 So that, the true import of the passage as it seems to 
 me, is this, “they that have used the office of a Deacon 
 well, secure to themselves a title to a higher office, a 
 good degree/ and also will have attained to* a readi¬ 
 ness of thought and expression suitable to the clear¬ 
 ness and excellency of God’s Holy Word. 
 
 And now my beloved friend and brother, what shall 
 I say to you, in addition to what I have already said. 
 Long and intimately associated as you have been with 
 our Rev. Brother, the esteemed Rector of this Parish,j* 
 ever under his eye, guided by his counsel, and in¬ 
 structed and animated by his truly pastoral and edi¬ 
 fying example, I feel that it cannot be necessary, 
 nay, that it would be unbecoming almost, in me, to 
 dilate upon the awful responsibilities of the ministerial 
 office. But there is one point to which I may be per- 
 
 *noXX>ju ‘Tccppyjiav sv tflfSi ry sv Xpisru ) lydov 
 
 fRev. G. P. Schetky. 
 
17 
 
 mitted to call your attention upon this occasion, and 
 that is, the peculiar trials which are before you as 
 one of the ministers of Christ's flock; nay it is a point 
 which I feel, it may be highly profitable to dwell upon 
 for a moment. I would say then, many and grievous 
 trials you have before you, my brother. Of these 
 trials you may have some conception indeed, but as 
 yet, have had no experience. You must prepare your¬ 
 self then, for those sufferings, not only of the mind and 
 body which are common to all men, but for encoun¬ 
 tering MINISTERIAL AND PASTORAL TRIALS which in the 
 first years of your ministry in especial, will press upon 
 you with peculiar and most irksome severity. These 
 trials are of no less magnitude than the want of an 
 adequate appreciation on the part of those to whom 
 you minister, of the nature, the authority, and the 
 practical import of “the ministry of reconciliation,” a 
 profound and at times an almost overwhelming sense 
 of the dread responsibilities of our trust, and of the 
 insufficiency of any mortal man to meet its high 
 and sacred exigencies, a feeling in especial, of your 
 inadequacy to unravel that tortuous web of sophistry 
 in human hearts, which so often interposes fatal obsta¬ 
 cles to the reception of “the truth as it is in Jesus,” to 
 adapt yourself in your public teachings, and in your 
 private conferences, to all the varied phases under 
 which the human character unfolds itself; and, as “a 
 workman that needeth not to be ashamed, to rightly 
 divide the word of truth, and to give to each man his 
 portion in due season.” And not seldom my brother, 
 will you have to deeply and bitterly deplore the ap¬ 
 parent want of success, the painful fruitlessness of your 
 2 . 
 
18 
 
 most continuous, laborious, and best directed efforts, 
 the inexplicable indifference, the astounding insensibili¬ 
 ties of many of your flock to the weightiest, the most 
 solemn, and the most affecting verities. You will, 
 sometimes be immeasurably astonished and profoundly 
 humiliated by the consciousness of your own unprofit¬ 
 ableness and unworthiness, your infirmity of purpose, 
 your devotional inaptitudes, the weakness of your 
 faith, your backwardness to duty, and your strange 
 insensibility to the claims of our compassionate and 
 merciful Redeemer upon your heart’s homage, and 
 your life’s devotions. But be of good heart my brother 
 fear not, be not dismayed. “Greater is he that is for 
 you, than he that is in the world," and all the perfec¬ 
 tions of his illimitable nature are pledged for the suc¬ 
 cess, the support, the solace, and the final triumph 
 of His faithful ministers. With the Father of an infi¬ 
 nite Majesty, the Eternal Source of light, and life, and 
 joy, and power, with His adorable, true, and only Son, 
 with the Holy Ghost, the comforter, with Angels and 
 Ministers of Grace for your helpers and defenders, 
 what have you to fear? To what toils, to what sacri¬ 
 fices, to what sufferings will you not be equal ? What 
 heights of saintly purity and devotion may you not 
 attain to ? What glorious conquests may you not win 
 over the world, the devil, and the flesh ? What signal 
 success may you not hope for ? What a radiant crown 
 of celestial glory may you not aspire to? Yes, my 
 beloved brother in Christ, many long }^ears have 
 passed away since a very young man, looking anx¬ 
 iously into the distant future, and not knowing what 
 was before me in the developments of my ministerial 
 
19 
 
 life, I stood before the altar of God, to receive at the 
 hands of the venerable and now sainted White, the 
 successive orders of Deacon and of Priest, and I now 
 with a thankful and swelling heart declare, that Christ's 
 glorious promise to be with His ministers always, has 
 never failed me; that I have been refreshed in every 
 toil, cheered and comforted in every sorrow, left not 
 without many happy tokens of a successful ministry, 
 and standing forth this day, a living monument of in¬ 
 comprehensible and wondrous grace, I rejoice in the 
 felicity of setting this public and open seal to the truth 
 of that declaration of the Psalmist, “Happy is the mao 
 who hath the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope 
 is in the Lord his God, who made the heaven and 
 earth, the sea, and all that in them is, who keepeth mer¬ 
 cy and truth forever.” 
 
 '«/ 
 
 And now my beloved brother, in a few moments, 
 the hands of the chief Pastor will have been laid upon 
 your head; the vows of God will be upon you; and 
 you will be invested with the highest dignity which 
 
 CAN BE CONFERRED UPON MORTAL MAN, THE OFFICE OF A 
 
 Minister of Christ. How full of awful interest is not 
 this hour. How fraught with the most thrilling asso¬ 
 ciations of thought and feeling; unseen angels are in 
 this assembly, the Blessed Paraclete, the Celestial 
 Dove is waiting hither to descend, the Son of God, 
 the High Priest of our profession, himself, the first 
 in that illustrious line of Pastors and Teachers, with 
 whom he has promised to be “always even to the end 
 of the world/' is looking down upon the transactions 
 of this hour, with perceptions which he only can know. 
 Thou vain false world, with all thy pomp and pagean- 
 
20 
 
 try retire. Dare not with thy low trivialities, thy 
 sordid cares, thy pitiful pretensions, thy ungenerous 
 rivalries, thy vulgar aspirations, to intrude upon the 
 awful solemnities, the heaven-descended glories of this 
 hour. Begone, and leave us alone with Christ and 
 with God. 
 
 i. 
 
 Spirit of Christ, thine earnest given, 
 
 That these our prayers are heard, and they 
 
 Who grasp this hour the sword of heaven, 
 
 Shall feel thee on their weary wav. 
 
 4 ' • 
 
 II. 
 
 Oft as at morn or soothing eve, 
 
 Over the Holy Fount they lean, 
 
 Then fading garlands freshly weave, 
 
 Or fan them with thine airs serene. 
 
 III. 
 
 Spirit of Light and Truth, to thee 
 We trust them in that musing hour. 
 
 Till they with open heart and free, 
 
 Teach all thy Word in all its power. 
 
 IV. 
 
 When foe men watch their tents by night, 
 
 And mists hang wide o’er moor and fell 
 
 Spirit of counsel, and of might, 
 
 Their pastoral warfare guide them well. 
 
 V. 
 
 And oh! when worn and tired they siglv# 
 
 With that more fearful war within, 
 
 When passion’s storms are loud and high, 
 
 And brooding o’er remembered sin. 
 
 VI. 
 
 The heart lies down, 0, mightiest then. 
 
 Come ever true, come ever near, 
 
 And wake their slumbering love again. 
 
 Spirit of God’s most holy fear. 
 
 Now to God the Father, &e.