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MUDD Mwv25 1842P

YALE UNIVERSITY
LIBRARY

THE OBJECT OP THE MINISTRY.

SERMON

PREACHED AT THE INSTALLATION

REV. SAMUEL OSGOOD,
AS PASTOR OF THE
WESTMINSTER CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH
IN PROVIDENCE,
DECEMBER 29, 1841.

By REV. EPHRAIM PEABODY.

PROVIDENCE:
B. CRANSTON AND COMPANY.
1843.

SERMON.

2 Corinthians, 5: 17.
AND ALL THINGS ARE OF GOD, WHO HATH RECONCILED US TO HIMSELF BY
JESUS CHRIST, AND HATH GIVEN TO US THE MINISTRY OF RECONCILIATION.
What is the object of the Christian Ministry'?
What shall it propose to itself as its great and ap
propriate work ?
This question has practically received very dif
ferent answers. By multitudes, in many lands, re
ligion has been regarded as little more than an in
strument of state ; the altar valued as one of the
buttresses of the throne ; the members of the priest
hood as subordinate agents of the civil power. The
state has supported religion, and she, faithless to
her divine commission, has been the slave of the
state. Then there have been some, who, without ex
cluding other objects, have described the ministry,
as if its main purpose should be to promote the
present welfare of men. They who enter on that
office are to be the peacemakers of society, to do
away unkindness and enmities, to cultivate litera
ture, to be the promoters of taste, to look after
the interests of education, to bring the rich and
poor together in friendly relations, and to allay the

sorrows of life and the anxieties of death by the
consolations of religious hope — their object not so
much to effect a change in the principles .by which
the worldly, the selfish, and the sinful are governed,
as to soften the harsher expressions of their pre
sent principles, — to make the most out of those
by which they are now controlled, — to smooth the
surface, while the substance remains much the
same. Others, and those perhaps especially in the min
istry, have seemed to consider as its chief object,
the protection of men against heresy and theo
logical error. They have regarded themselves as
set in defence of the gospel, not in the sense in
which the apostle used these words, but in defence
of a few theological opinions, and these, perhaps,
the most abstract and least practical of all. They
have preached the Christ of contention, have drawn
from religion only subjects for metaphysical con
troversy, and turned the temple of God into an are
na for earthly strife.
That in many of the relations referred to, the
ministry has exerted a useful and beneficent influ
ence, no one can doubt ; nor can we any more doubt,
I think, that its influence in these respects should
be not so much the direct object of its labors, as
the incidental, though natural results of labors di
rected to still higher objects.
What then is the first and supreme object to
which the ministry should be devoted 1 There can
be no question more important to those who hold
that office, and none more suitable to an occasion
like this.

In general terms it would be said, and said truly,
that the object of the ministry is to meet the
spiritual wants, of society. But what is the great
spiritual want of society 1
In answering this question, let us, dismissing all
theological phrases and speculations, look simply
at the actual condition of mankind. Go down into
the streets and the lanes, to the wharves and to the
exchange, to the thoroughfares of traffic and the
places of toil — and what is the spiritual condition
of men 1
And here, that what I have to say may not be
misunderstood, let me not be thought to underrate
the virtues of men. As we look over the world,
there is much that is bright, in the moral prospect,
to greet the eye. No where, and at no time, is all
dark. Mingling in strange contrast, like summer
valleys under the shadow of alpine glaciers, like
a southern wind of spring, breathing through the
naked scenes which winter has left, amidst these
scenes of human labor and competition, there every
where appear kind affections and self-denying prin
ciples. The selfish contests, the sordid passions of
men, are softened by higher sentiments. He that
toils for wealth, as he counts over his gains, feels not
merely the glow of successful avarice. The thought
of home, like a blessed but invisible presence, goes
with him into the place of labor. He thinks of
those most dear to him, who, when he is gone, shall
by his labors be blessed with competence and inde
pendence. The ambitious man rejoices in success,
for his children, when he is in his grave, shall re
member their parent with more affectionate respect,

knowing that in life he was honored and respected
by his fellow men. Many noble sentiments grace
the place of business, and disinterested acts enno
ble the humblest callings, and integrity creates
trust and makes men worthy of trust. Nor is all
light from heaven shut out. Many a thanksgiving
goes up to God from amidst blessings, and many a
resigned heart cleaves to him in affliction. When
all to the prophet seemed hopeless, there were thou
sands in Israel who had not bowed the knee to Baal;
and in the darkest hours of Christendom, multi
tudes of pious souls have remained, to preserve the
light of heaven amidst the gloom of earth, as in the
darkest day there are breaks in the clouds through
which the sunbeams stream in to light up with
spots of beauty the breadth of the vallies, or to
crown with passing splendor the summits of the
hills. All is not evil in the world. Kind affec
tions, disinterested virtues, and visions of pious
trust, cast gleams of sunshine on the paths of men.
Were it not for these, the world would be uninhab
itable. The competitions of men for worldly suc
cess and selfish aggrandizement, would be as the
struggle of gaunt and famished wolves over their
prey in the desert.
But rate these virtues as high as we may, and
make as large exceptions as we may, still, what is
the spiritual condition of the multitudes of mankind?
If life were a mere holiday, and the virtues of men
merely the grace and ornament of summer hours,
and no immortal issues were depending on these
mortal lives, the question would be comparatively
unimportant.

But life is not a mere holiday. We may use the
words till familiarity deadens their meaning, but
still what a momentous truth it is, that we are here
but the pilgrims and sojourners of a day; that here
is not our home ; that the shadows of eternity,
which like those of the descending sun rapidly
lengthen and whose chill approach we feel, must
soon enclose us ; and that beyond the sphere of
this world we must render account of all that we
have done, and, not less dread thought, of all we
have left undone, to the Judge of the quick and
dead, who is of too pure eyes to behold iniquity.
Were life to end at the grave, take away the ideas
of duty, of God, of futurity, of retribution, and our-
doings here would be of little moment. But eter
nity gives a fearful solemnity to even the common
est daily acts. These toils, these pleasures of to
day, shall reappear again in their spiritual conse
quences. Were the superficial veils that hide the
realities of life, to drop, over every hall of pleasure
we should behold it written ; " Thou that enterest
here art accountable ;" and over every place of
business, " Thou that toilest here art accountable ;"
and over all the paths of men, " Thou art accounta
ble to God." This one word — accountability — so
lemnizes life.
If man is spiritual, immortal and accountable,
if hour by hour, as waters towards the sea, we
move on towards the judgment seat of a Holy God,
if we are to prepare for a heaven of holiness, into
which none but a penitent and holy heart may en
ter, if these things which religion teaches, at which
the good have trembled while they hoped, and from

8
which the sceptic has shrunk in awe even when he
denied, if these things are true, then are they the
most solemn realities of existence.
Now what is the condition of men in respect to
these all-important truths 1 Is the world governed
by these great truths of heaven, or by worldly ex
pediency and worldly enjoyment/? Must we not
say, fearful as the thought is, that the world rules
in the heart of man, and that God does not rule
there? I mean not to say that there have not been
multitudes of the redeemed, who, in penitence andi
piety and faith have passed on to their reward in
heaven ; nor that multitudes now on the earth are
not following in the same blessed road. Nay, more;
in a christian country, few can b.e found whose
characters have not been more or less affected by
christian influences. In the long night of an Arctic
winter, a pale and spectral dawn comes and goes,
even when the sun does not appear above the hori
zon. So on the worst men, some rays of christian
truth have shone, and although unheeded, have
done something to enlighten and warm and guide
their souls.
But after making all possible exceptions, what
is the condition of multitudes'?
The law of God goes to the principles by which
life is controlled. And to a vast extent, must we
not confess, that men are governed by worldly
principles — that on the throne before which men
bow, not God, but the world sits and is adored 1
What then is the great spiritual want ? It is
the regeneration of the heart — the recovery of
man from the dominion of the world, of selfishness,

9
of sin, to the benignant and holy sway of God. For
the worldly, the sinful, the first, essential, supreme
want, is repentance, regeneration, a new life, a com
plete revolution not of a few external habits, of a
few inward feelings, but of the very principles which
control all habits, all thoughts, all feelings, all pur
poses, till in the soul where the world reigned, God
shall reign and supreme ; a change of heart, a sur
render of the human will to the Divine, until we can
say, where God calls we will go, what He bids we
will do ; His will shall be our will, whether to do
or to bear. Repentance, regeneration, the forgive
ness of sin and that peace with God which is prom
ised to the penitent soul ; here lies the great spir
itual want of the world. And every worldly man,
and every unregenerate man, however he may ap
pear to men, not less than the most pious and de
vout, in every hour of thoughtfulness feels this to
be true, — that till this change of heart takes place
which transforms him who was subject to the
world, into a trusting child of God, that life has
been wasted and lost.
How startling are the revelations which are
perpetually coming up from the depths of human
souls, bearing testimony to this great truth. The
young woman whom you have seen pass only in
gay and brilliant throngs — who seemed a creature
of the sunshine — with no thought but for the hour,
and no cloud ever passing over her path, seeks you
out alone. She seeks counsel and guidance ; and
with amazement you hear a revelation of an inward
life, which makes that glittering outward show
seem as a fearful mockery. That creature of the
2

10
sunshine, — it has been bright without, but within
have been trembling and fear and darkness. Under
the robes of pleasure, she has worn, not indeed the
girdle of penance, but the self-condemning heart.
You hear of months passed in religious anxieties.
She has tried to pray and dared not. She has
tried to lose herself in the world and could not
She has tried to unbosom herself to friends, but
her tongue has refused its office. She has sought
peace in intellectual pursuits, in the indulgences
of taste, in the gaities of the world, and has not
found it. For every where has come up the thought
of death, of immortality, of accountability, of God.
She has felt that she has lived for herself and for
the world, and not as a child of God, and a crea
ture of eternity. Her companions might laugh at
her fears, or endeavor to allay them by pointing to
an unblamed outward life. But the deepest and
the truest instincts of her soul refuse such solace.
In bitterness of spirit she says, — what shall I do to
be saved 1 Where shall I find peace 1 And you
cannot but answer, and she feels its truth, only by
a change of heart, by repentance, by a self-surrender
of the soul to God.
Nor is it so with the young and sensitive only or
chiefly. The man of business, ripe with years,
wise in counsel, energetic in action, honored and
imitated, meets you under circumstances in which,
his cares for a time cease to engross him. He
speaks of his past life — and speaks of it in sadness.
You may say that it has been attended by success
and an untarnished name. Alas ! he replies, there
is not the difficulty. Success seems a slight thing

11
as old age approaches. Doubtless I have main
tained a character for integrity ; — my business
success depended on it. Pride has protected me
from acts of meanness and words of falsehood.
But here is not the seat of the trouble. And he
tells you, and sometimes it may be in tears, such
as nothing else but the death of wife or child could
wring from him, I have been a wordly and sinful
man. I have desired to die the death of the right
eous and yet have not lived his life. My heart has
not been right and I have looked forward to the
hour of change, from youth to manhood, from man
hood to riper years, and the hour has not come. I
do not say that I have been guilty of immoralities,
but the law of my conduct has been found in
worldly expediency. I have lived without God in
the world, or have thought of Him only in fear, and
with the effort to exclude the thought from my
mind. And yet, day after day, the question comes
up and will make itself heard; — what shall I do to
besaved? — where shall I find peace? Tell him
any thing short of this — that he needs a change of
heart, that the first step towards peace, is repent
ance, regeneration, a complete revolution of the
very principles by which life is governed, and he
will feel and know, as you feel and know, that you
are trifling with his most solemn interests.
How often is the minister of the gospel called to
sick and dying beds. Many there lie in the tran
quillity of hope, and many in insensibility. But
how often, when the mind is neither fevered nor
prostrated by sickness, will the sick man turn to
him, and with almost imploring eyes, in feeble and

12
whispered accents, as if man might help him, say,
I am not ready to die ! And the reason is, that
in that hour, rises over the past, black and threat
ening and casting its shadows far into the future, a
cloud of unrepented sins, and in which, because
there has been no repentance, there hangs no rain
bow of mercy and promise.
There are fears and sorrows enough in the world,
but all together, are not to be thought of in compari
son with the anxiety, the despondency, the feverish
efforts after self-forgetfulness which sin occasions.
The burden which weighs down the heart of the
world, is the burden of unrepented sin. It is this
which dries up the dew of life and brings clouds
over its brightest noon.
And these convictions of the guilt and danger of
sin, deep as they may be, are rarely deeper than are
warranted by the gospel. Why did God burst
through the laws of nature and appear in his power
among the children of men? It was not to rescue
men from any slight evil — not to rescue individu
als, or even nations, from temporal calamity, but to
rescue man from sin. The first teachings of John
and of Christ were, repent. The death of Jesus is
a divine attestation to all ages, of the danger and
evil of sin ; for the magnitude of the evil is only
seen when we consider the wondrous interpositions,
the magnitude of the influences by which God
would save man from it. 'And the revelations of
Christ of a judgment to come, uttered tenderly in
deed, but with awful solemnity and distinctness,
who that knows his own heart shall read them and
not tremble. It is the very tenderness of the

13
Saviour's character which gives such force to these
revelations. It is no harsh and unfeeling being,
who would needlessly excite the terrors of men,
but one who could weep for and over his enemies,
who in affectionate, solemn warning, lifts up the
veil and discloses, gleaming far away, the disas
trous penalties of sin, and then drops it again over
the dread abyss.
And these convictions which men have of the
guilt and danger of sin, are not superficial feelings
about unimportant things. All men sometimes
have them, unless frivolity has frittered away the
soul, or the intellect hardened like an encrustation
around the heart and stifled its natural action ;
and the worst man knows that his best and most
reasonable hours are when these convictions are
felt most deeply. The excitements about the gains
and losses of the day may be frivolous and idle ;
but these emotions, when the soul ponders its des
tiny and is moved by immortal truth, no one may
venture to call trivial or meaningless. Then, as
the tides of earth are moved by the attraction of
the skies, the soul is moved by heavenly influences.
Then God is passing over and the soul of man
acknowledges his presence.
Now into such a world — a world where sin
abounds, where multitudes are heedless of duty
and God — where multitudes struggle with unequal
strength against temptation — where the best often
fall short of duty, — and yet a world of dying, immor
tal and accountable beings — into this world the
christian minister enters. Of his own choice, he
seeks this field of labor.

14
What then must be his object? The condition
of mankind decides what it must be. He must
labor for the salvation of men from sin. He must
labor to convert sinners to God, to confirm the
wavering in christian principle, and to encourage
and keep alive the spirit of the pious. He has
more to do than to state from Sabbath to Sabbath,
moral truths and serious reflections, which shall
merely be in harmony with pure and right feeling.
He has something more to do than to discuss ques
tions of philosophy, or debate with imaginary
antagonists doubtful points in theology. When
he looks on the world as it is, he must feel that his
purpose must be, as far as Providence shall aid, the
conversion of men, their regeneration, their salva
tion ; to lead men to take their stand on christian
principle, to make that the law of heart and life;
by that to live and in that to die. His purpose
cannot be less than this, it cannot be more. —
Around him Sabbath after Sabbath gather those
who look to him for instruction, the sinful as well
as the good, the tempted, the wavering, the falling,
the fallen ; immortal beings, whose spiritual inter
ests are their highest interests. In a few years
each and all shall have gone to their account. The
seats now filled, shall still be filled, but with another
generation. As a christian minister looks on a con
gregation, not of strangers,7 but of friends, and
considers how soon the lives of all must close, and
both he and they appear before God; when he
remembers that his influence will go far to deter
mine the standard of duty for a generation, and
that if he do no good he must do evil, because he

15
shuts out from a place of power some other one who
might be more useful, what object should he, what
object can he have in view, but to induce those who
listen to him, to take their stand on christian
ground, to repent of sin, to become followers of
Christ. There are other useful works to be done in
the world — this is his work. If he accomplish not
this, as a minister, he does nothing and worse than
nothing. It is a good work to gratify the taste of
men, to nourish and feed the sentiment of the
beautiful. But this is the work of the poet, the
artist, the literary man. The minister who should
make this his object, trifles with the souls of those
who repose confidence in him. The cultivation of
science is a good and needful work, but it is not the
work of a minister. Affairs of state are of suffi
cient moment worthily to occupy the ablest minds,
but they are not what should engross the mind of a
christian minister. To these pursuits, as an occu
pation and end, there are men whose lives are
dedicated. They are not the pursuits to which the
life of a christian minister is dedicated. The object
of the ministry, the object to which the christian
minister devotes himself when he enters the pulpit,
is to arouse men to the consideration of their spirit
ual interests, to awaken their spiritual natures, to
make them familiar with duty, with truth, with
Jesus, with God, to save their souls from the slavery
of selfishness, of the world and of sin. Of his own
choice he takes part in that work for which Christ
lived and died. He puts himself in a place where
he must for evil or good exert much influence on
the souls of men ; where his fidelity, with the aid

16
of Providence, shall open above them the light of
heaven, or where, if he be unfaithful he must shut
out that light. If with his most faithful and devout
endeavors he accomplish nothing, then his purpose,
in the judgment, shall stand in place of the deed.
But if he labor not truly for the recovery of men
from sin, for the regeneration of human souls, for
the promotion of holiness, he is faithless to his office.
If he labor not for this, if he devote not himself to
this, no matter what else he may be, no matter how
wise, how honored, when his last days have come
and he reviews the past, he shall feel that standing
where he has stood, occupying the trust he has
occupied, he has been faithless to his office, has
mocked at the most solemn interests of the souls
that have looked to him for impulse and direction
in the way to Heaven ; that his life has been a
miserable, wretched, disastrous failure.
However men may speculate, the christian min
ister does, as a matter of fact, hold a peculiar
relation to others. What a sphere of influence is
opened before him. What opportunity could the
politician or the philanthropist desire in which to
sway the minds of men, greater than that possessed
by the christian minister, who from Sunday to
Sunday a hundred times in the year, may urge on
hundreds of willing auditors the truths in which he
is interested. For this opportunity of influence
he is responsible. Then he must exert influence.
His life and instructions will practically determine
for multitudes their views of the christian charac
ter. On him, more than on any single earthly
influence, it will probably depend, whether the

17
everlasting truths of God shall be felt to be of
infinite moment, or not be felt at all. He may by
his unfaithfulness, stifle religion among his people,
or with God's blessing, breathe new life into their
hearts. He who stands in such a position, whose
hand daily touches on the springs of life in human
souls, who, as far as man has power over man,
does practically open or shut for them the gates of
heaven, is and must be accountable for the trust.
These are considerations, at which no one can
look without trembling ; but let us look at them,
not to shrink from a trust, but that we may be
more faithful.
The object to which the christian ministry is
devoted is the regeneration of men by the power of
christian truth. There can be no higher object
for human effort, and it is an object of too momen
tous a nature, to allow of its holding only a divided
interest in the mind. That man's life, as a chris
tian minister, is thrown away, to whom this object
is not the engrossing one. And when it is the
engrossing object of a pure and devout heart, no
limits may be set to the holy influence which shall
be exerted. With such an object, the weak be
come strong, and the ignorant wise, for God is
with them, and they are fellow-workers with Him.
And the christian influence of any sect of Chris
tians must depend on their fidelity to this object.
The sect which in our times has exerted the deepest,
the broadest, the most beneficent influence on the
religious condition of mankind, is probably that of
the Methodists. We may not receive all its doctrines
nor like its form of church government, but almost

18
within the memory of some now living, it has be
come one of the largest sects of Christendom ; nor
this alone — it has not only nourished the flame of
piety in its own bosom, but it has quickened all
other sects with a new life. The blessing of God
has been upon it ! Where, so far as human means
are concerned, has lain its power? Not in the
number of its distinguished scholars, nor of its wise
and great names. Not in its theological specula
tions and controversies ; for these, more than
most sects, it has abjured. Not in its church go
vernment, nor in its forms and modes of administra
tion, for these, without the spirit underneath, to give
them life, are nothing, are a dead weight and an
incumbrance. In what has consisted its power?
It has sought the end which Christ sought, and
has sought it faithfully. It has devoted itself to
the promotion of holiness, of greater holiness in
society and in the individual heart ; and in this de
votion to the all-embracing end of Christianity has
resided its power. Holiness, th e necessity of greater
holiness ; this is the principle on which it is founded.
When the Wesleys and their friends met in Oxford,
and spent days and nights in fasting and prayer, it
was because they themselves pined after a holier
life. And as they drew nearer to God, and the
spirit of Jesus more entirely filled their hearts, and
as they looked out on the waste-places of the
world, their hearts burned to go forth and win others
to the blessed peace which they themselves had
found. At a time when religion seemed dying out
of the hearts of men, they went forth like the apos
tles of old, strong only in their weakness and their

19
faith ; and the word ever in their hearts, and ever
on their lips,was, holiness ! — more of holiness before
God ! Multitudes that had sat in darkness rejoiced
at the sound, as at the rising of the day. New
converts caught up the divine message, and in
chapels, in private dwellings, in the fields, wherever
men would listen, exhorted them to repentance
and a holier life. Theologians might cavil at their
dogmas, the refined might sneer at the rude forms
in which the message was sometimes conveyed,
yet the message was divine, and the hearts of
multitudes bowed before it. The wrecker and the
miner, degraded by all the vices of civilized life and
by the ignorance of savage life, heard the call,
and became the children of God ; and its echoes,
spreading on all sides, penetrated even and stirred
as by morning airs from heaven, the religious
lethargy that slumbered under cathedral arches.
What blessed influences, broadening out from the
river to the sea have flowed from that fountain.
There are many places on earth hallowed by the
memorials of genius or by heroic deeds, but what
one shall the pilgrim foot more gratefully visit, than
the retired chamber, where the first Methodists,
self-distrustful but fervent, chanted their hymns
and uttered their prayers to God.
Let it be observed that this great principle which
formed the burden and the power of their preach
ing was something entirely aside from their peculiar
sectarian theology. Their theology might be
wrong in many things, but that principle is a part
of Christianity which all receive and believe to be of
supreme importance. They were not peculiar in

20
receiving this principle, but if they were peculiar,
they were so only in their fidelity to it, in the fer
vent devoted faithfulness in which, as christian
ministers, they labored for the regeneration and
salvation of man. In their devotion to this object,
we feel that they were christian ministers. And
whoever, with a sincere and devout heart devotes
himself to this work, no matter of what sect, no
matter what his creed, is a christian minister.
This was the end for which Christ lived and died,
and this is the work for a minister of Christ.
May this spirit abound in our churches, that
hallowed by the prayers of the penitent and devout,
they may be places where the Most High may
delight to dwell !
In these remarks I would not forget the duties
of others ; nor in speaking of the object of the
christian ministry, would I ascribe to those who
hold that office, a responsibility or a power greater
than what belongs to them. They may labor and
labor in vain. Their strength and their success is
of God. Even Paul may plant and Apollos may
water, still it is God who gives the increase. But
the christian minister is responsible for his pur
poses, and for the end to which his labors are
dedicated. Nor can I imagine a happier lot than his, who,
when life approaches its close, can look back and
feel, that not for any personal advantage, but in
sincere fidelity and devotion, he has labored for the
good of human souls ; who is greeted by those,
young and old, whose hearts he is permitted to feel
that he has been in some degree an instrument of

21
awakening to penitence and leading to a lasting
peace ; who with a true heart has labored to con
duct men to holiness and God. If his life and his
words have awakened one thoughtless heart, or
whispered peace to one truly penitent and troubled
spirit, it shall be a grateful memory to him, when all
the praises of men and all the honors of life shall be
as dust in the balance.
Nor here alone. The hour rapidly comes, when
minister and people shall alike depart; when,
faithful or unfaithful, their labors over, the book of
life shall be sealed and laid away for eternity.
Happy he, the record of whose life in that book
shall speak only of christian fidelity. Happy he,
who in that day of account, when he stands
trembling in the midst of a trembling world and
dares not answer for himself, shall hear some one
of that number, whom his persuasions have won to
virtue and holiness, come forward and in that dread
silence, answer for him. Infinitely happy, if he
shall hear the voice of heaven, forgiving his imper
fections, declare, " Inasmuch as ye have done it
unto one of these little ones, ye have done it unto
me. Enter ye into the joy of your Lord."

CHARGE,

REV. NATHANIEL S. FOLSOM.

Mr Brother,
You have chosen the office of a Christian Pastor. You
have received, not now for the first time, the sacred
trust. You had borne it already in another field, from
which you were called to this. Although the same great
duties are sjtill before you, and you apprehend them not
inadequately, yet in entering on them here, in becoming
the Pastor and Teacher of the church and society who
worship in this house of God, the occasion justifies the
renewal of the impressive solemnities, with which your
first sacred trust was committed to you : and to me, as
one of the Council of ministers present, is assigned the
delivery of the Charge. With whatever of authority this-
office, to which I am now called, is invested, it resides
not in me, nor in the Council in whose name I speak,
but in the truth ; in the Church, which is "the pillar
and ground of the truth ; " in the individual church, by
whose appointment we are here convened, and which,
independent of all ecclesiastical control from without,
whether over itself, or over its pastor, is, for all its own
religious purposes, the executive body of Him who has
been made " Head over all things to the Church.,"
Your great duty, my brother, and comprehending every
other, is to " preach the word " — " the truth of God " —
" the gospel of Christ. " Preach it in its purity, and in

23
its fulness. Preach the truth " as the truth is in Jesus, "
for it is in Jesus as it is in God. Preach it as contained
in that Holy Record, the authority of which is implied in
your office as a " minister of the New Testament, " and
lies at the basis of it. Preach " the everlasting kingdom
of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ " — the reign of ho
liness in the soul, begun on earth and perfected in Heaven.
There is indeed truth which may be seen in the primal
light of the human soul. There is truth, which may be
read by all, in the Heavens and in the earth, and in the
inner creation of man's immortal nature. There is a
"law written in the heart, " there are natural sentiments
of justice, goodness, truth. Whatever of these intuitions
belong to man, Christianity recognizes, and addresses
itself to them. It gives them strength and clearness. It
moreover adds truths pertaining to the dearest interests of
man, which were undiscovered until He revealed them,
" who was in the bosom of the Father. " We cannot
say that we know them, except as we rely on the author
ity of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Beautiful, and
sublime, and desirable to be believed they might seem to
be, harmonizing with reason as perfectly as the full day-
spring harmonizes with the first few beams of the earliest
morn ; but they are not such as we can affirm either as
matter of consciousness, or as the sure perceptions of the
reason. We can affirm them only as we believe in Jesus ;
only as faith stands leaning on his word. The credentials
of that divine authority in which we trust, and, trusting,
have the deepest inquiries of the soul satisfied, are that
through him shone the Father in a fulness and glory
manifesting the works and words of Jesus to be in effect
the works and words of God ; that his revelations when
made, carry their own light with them ; that all he did
and-said, by aid of power from on high, was crowned by
his resurrection from the dead, and ascension to his Fathf"-
and our Father, his God and our God.

24
Preach Christianity, then, in its union of the intuitive
With the authoritative. Nor will you preach the intuitive
solely as intuitive, when }'ou consider that the natural
sentiments become perverted by the passions ; that the
light in man becomes darkness by means of sin ; that
the wisest have often mistaken the positive decisions of the
fallible understanding for the sure intuitions of reason ;
that born as we are into the light of a christian land, and
imbued with the truths of revealed religion from our earli
est youth, we are in danger of attributing to the native
capacities of the soul, the power of seeing what we have
learned at the feet of Jesus, and should have learned no
where else but there. Preach therefore a faith in the
authority of Christ, as a teacher come from God, that
shall predispose the soul to a reception of his truth.
Preach Christ the light of the world, whom all those must
follow, who would not walk in darkness. Awaken by
your preaching, implicit trust in his word when under
stood, the profoundest deference to his .divine authority,
the cordial reception of him as " the way, the truth and the
life, " with not the remotest disposition to go behind his
real meaning, or to question his perfect truthfulness, and
the truthfulness of those by whom he afterwards spake.
The great object of the divine mission of Christ, was
to reveal the Father, and by this manifestation to recon
cile man to God. The object of Christian ministers should
be the same, for they are now " in Christ's stead, " they
are " God's embassadors for him. " In your preaching
show, therefore, the Father. Show the Father in him
who was "the brightness of the* Father's glory, the ex
press image of his person, " and who manifested the love
of God pre-eminently on the Cross. Set forth " the
glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. " Show Him
as ready to forgive the truly penitent, and as furnishing in
Christ all those aids we need, to obtain deliverance from
our sins, and to become holy. Preach " Christ crucified,"

25
as that which, more than this outward universe with all
its revelations to the attentive spirit, and more than all
other voices within and without, speaks to man of the
Father, and draws forth the resolution from the heart of
the sinning one, — " I will arise, and go to my Father,
and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against
Heaven, and before thee, and am no more worthy to be
called thy son. " In a word, preach that faith, which
receiving Jesus as the Christ, the Son of God, receives
also the Father who sent him, and hearkening to Christ's
words, obeys also the Father who spake in him — which
is the true " repentance toward God, " implying and in
volving " faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. "
The Life and Cross of Christ speak of reconciliation
not only of man to God, but also of man to man ; for if
Christ so loved us, and God so loved us in him, how
ought we to love one another! Preach Christianity to
your fellow-men, as binding them together in mutual
peace and good will. Preach human duty in its near,
and in its remotest range, with the sanction of the new
commandment that men should love as Christ loved.
Preach a charity, which beginning at home, shall also go
abroad, and seek the welfare of the whole brotherhood of
man — the bond and the free, the high and the low, the
virtuous and the vile, the rich and the poor. Let your
preaching contribute to the universal diffusion of right
eousness, peace and joy.
Let the truths you proclaim to others, my brother,
exert all their power over your own soul, so that you may
preach in earnest, from your own experience, and that you
may say with your Divine Master, " We speak that we
do know, and testify that we have seen. " If you would
quicken men to a new life, and move them to duty, yours
must be the eloquence of the inward life. It must be the
utterances of a heart full of spiritual emotions, the vehicle
of ideas of life and power. It must be the pouring out of
4

26
clear .and great thoughts on a tide of earnest feeling.
Cultivate, then, the religion of your own heart. Cherish
the life of God in the soul. Commune, in the prayer of the
clpset, with the Father of your spirit. With a pure heart,
seek and obtain those views of God granted only to the
pure in heart. With the spirit of Jesus, enter into
the sanctuary of truth, and comprehend the length and
breadth, and height and depth. With this preparation,
come forth to present before your people those great ob
jects of truth, which shall move their will and affections,
and be the power pf God, through his spirit, to their
regeneration, to, their redemption from sin to a life of holi
ness, and their meetness for the inheritance of the saints
in light.
The religion of personal experience, appearing in the
daily life, shall moreover attend you, when you preach,
as a halo of light round your head, and shall prove your
most divine credential as a christian minister, lt shall
be as soft summer clouds, from behind which the rays of
truth shall oft fall gently on hearts predisposed to receive
the truth, and cause the surer germination and unfolding
of every christian grace.
By the aid of a pure heart, and of that Spirit given to
all who ask for it in filial confidence, and of those sources
of Truth which are opened to you especially in the Holy
Scriptures, strive to gain higher and clearer perceptions of
God, of Christ, of man. Strive to fulfil in your office,,
more and more your own ideal of a perfect minister. Be
desirous of presenting juster, and larger ideas of truth and
duty. It is recorded of an eminent English sculptor, that,
in modelling the bust of a man of genius and literature,,
he chose indeed an impressive aspect, but it was not, after
all, the perfect image of his admired friend ; and he sought
another, which preserves,, as lpng as marble can endure,
the expression of the poet such .as he was in the bosom of
his friends. Deem the object of presenting truth, my

2?
brother, worthy of the last application of your powers
cultivated to the last.
While as a christian minister, you seek first to bring
your hearers into the christian life, and' awaken in them
the love of divine things, seek also to promote an obser
vance of the christian institutions of baptism and the
Lord's Supper — those sacraments so full of aid to the
Christian life. Awakening, by your preaching, the sin
cere and earnest confession among many, that Jesus is
the Christ, the Son of God, with the corresponding pur
pose to follow him in the life, lead therh to consecrate
themselves to God in Christian Baptism,, and to draw
around the altar of Communion, that they may nourish
their hearts into all love and goodness, by commemorating
the death of their Saviour as their life, and the life of the
world. On that rock of confession build up a chrirch,
against which no adverse powers shall prevail.
To all your flock be a watchful shepherd. Like the
Great and Gepd Shepherd, be willing te lay down your'
life for the sheep. Cherish especially the youthful, feed
the lambs.
Let your presence be with the people of your charge
not only in the house of God, but at their homes. With
the bland spirit of Christian friendship and love, enter the
family circle, promoting domestic harmony, grafting With
your own hands the christian graces on the social virtues ;
and whether in the temptations of health and prosperity,
or in the trials of adversity, sickness and death, proving
yourself a faithful bishop of souls, that you may present
every one perfect in Christ Jesus.
And in -your intercourse with your felltiw-christians,
beside the people of your charge,1 cultivate fraternal love,
and remember the last prayer of our Lord, that his disci-'
pies might be one. Be a true fellow-laborer with your'
brother of the same faith -in this field, keep the unity of

28
the Spirit between these sister churches in the bond
of peace, and mutually strengthen and encourage one
another. With your fellow-christians of other churches,
who stand ready to treat you according to your moral and
christian worth, notwithstanding diversity of names, culti
vate a free and fraternal intercourse. Overcome the dis
trust of many sincere christians, and their fears that with
the individual faith you hold, you deny the Lord that
bought you, by letting your life show that he cannot
possibly deny his Master, who exhibits his spirit, and
acknowledges him in word and deed before men. To
the sectarian dogmatist, and denunciatory bigot, show that
calmness, which shall make them feel how small a thing
it is with you to be judged of man's judgment. Welcome
whatever light may shine from others ; impart to them
whatever has come from the great source of light to your
own mind. And by this free receiving, and free giving,
shall all christians yet learn their mutual dependence as
members of the same body, and divisions shall be no
more, for the Church shall be one.
Finally, my brother, regard the hopes of those, who
this day receive you into a relation so closely connected
with their welfare both for this life, and the life which is
to come. Regard these witnesses to your consecration,
and the witness of God and angels. Regard your ac-
countableness to Him who will render unto every man
according to his work. Regard the expectation of those,
who, having known your christian fidelity and success
hitherto, confidently trust to behold the same, only in
increasing measure, in this wider field. Regard the inter
ests of your fellow-men, which are bound up for good in
the progress of true Christianity, in the universal spread
of the light and life of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Regard
the now fast opening scenes of God's Providence, the ful
filment of the predictions of His prophets for the glory

29
of the Church, the accomplishment of His beneficent
designs for the world. Labor in faith and in hope — in
that faith which makes all things possible to him that
believeth — in that hope which lifting you up above every
discouragement, shall lead you forward to realize the good
tp which it points the way, and obtain the everlasting
reward.

RIGHT HAND OF FELLOWSHIP,

BY

REV. GEORGE F. SIMMONS.

My Fkiend and Brotheh,
I have been appointed by the Council, to offer you
their Fellowship, their welcome and encouragement.
They beg yeu not to give heed to those who say, that
this is a time when ministers ought to be compasionated,
For there is not a little enlightened and illustrated piety
among our people, and may you find not a little in this
society — piety founded on Christianity reconciled to the
dictates of reason. And if on the contrary, it be true, as
I suppose it is, that the present is not a period of great
religious susceptibility, like the period in which Methodism
arose, and men are perilously absorbed in the projects of
their material well-being, how happy still ought one to
count himself that it is his office to pour among these,
the world's baser uses, that which alone is able to control
them. In truth every circumstance, and every time has
a call for the religious teacher. There is no gopd thing,
that dpes not become better in the light of Religion ; and
there is no bad thing, that does not find its cure and over
coming enemy in the Gospel of Christ.
We welcome you therefore to the preaching of a Word
which has been spoken, and not dreamed. We could
hardly venture to give you joy, if it were yours to attempt
to lead men through the dangerous path of life, by the

31
gropings and glimmering twilight of Philosophy. But
this altar is erected to no unknown God. We welcome
you, therefore, to the preaching of a God who has made
himself known. We welcome you to the preaching of a
Saviour whose miracles have shaken the world, and whose
word is to remould society. We welcome you to the
preaching of that Divine Love, which finds its emblem in
the light which the Morn sheds upon the face of Nature ;
of that divine Truth, which, like the Sun, penetrates and
fertilizes every place. We welcome you to the preaching
of that Word, whose clear and persuasive declarations
none but the heart of stone can wholly resist. May you
be made happy by knowing that Christianity, through
you, is received and felt by the people. May you have
about you a band, thpugh it be a small ene, of whom the
Lord is not ashamed. And may you, at the end, be wel
comed into a world which now we cannot see, by Christ
and the Apostles, as a fellow-laborer in the great cause.
Receive, therefore, the Hand of Fellowship which the
Churches do now through me stretch forth unto you.
They desire to embrace you in an eternal sympathy.
And they request you to return unto them the same.
Many years ago, at the University, we have often thus
taken one another's hand. But the act is now done with
a far deeper significance, by as much as the friendship
and brotherly love which are in Christ, are more fervent
and profound, than the friendship of the world. May the
Word of Christ, through you, sink into the hearts of this
people, and make them happy in Heaven above.

ADDRESS TO THE SOCIETY,

BY

REV. JAMES W. THOMPSON.

Christian Brethren,
At your request the Council, here convened, have
directed me to say a few words on some of the views
which it becomes you to take of the relation which has
now been solemnly recognized and established. I need
not require your attention long in this service, for the
experience you have had already must have instructed
you with far more impressiveness and effect than any
words of mine can.
Passing over then the care which it is the part of a good
people to take for the outward convenience and comfort
of their minister, and the respect which is due from them
to his personal wishes and feelings ; passing over the ten
derness with which they should cherish his character and
reputation, the sympathy they should manifest in his joys
and sorrows, and the hearty co-operation they should lend
in all his plans and efforts to do good ; passing over these,
not because they are of little importance, but because they
are too obvious to require remark, I proceed to notice
some of the objects and expectations of a Christian society
in providing the public ministrations of religion.
The house of God is set apart to holy uses. It is not
a hall of science, nor a temple of fashion, nor a theatre pf
amusement. It is consecrated to religion and to religious

33
exercises. To resort to it merely because others do,
merely to obtain a little relief from the ceaseless toil and
wearing monotony of week-day life, merely to enjoy a
luxury of the eyes and the ears, merely to gratify a literary
taste, merely to sharpen the wits by following the train
of a high and subtle argument, — 'for either or for all of
these purposes — can be justified by no suitable views
of our moral wants and spiritual relations, and is scarcely
less than a profanation of the institution of worship. And
yet — sad to say ! — there are many who seem to have no
higher object. They go to church because it is respect
able to go, because their friends go, because it would be
dull staying at home, or because they expect an intellectual
entertainment. They are, every Sunday, on the alert to
hear some bold speculation started, to have their fancy
tickled by flowers of rhetoric, or to be excited by the
eloquent statement and defence of some novel absurdity.
They demand that preaching shall be their recreation, and
the Sabbath their holiday, and so they are ever following
in the train of the newest and most fascinating preacher.
My friends, let not the example of such as these tempt
you to this folly, nor be your apology for this disgrace.
But when you appear in the sanctuary of faith, bring with
you the humble, reverent, devout spirit that may hallow
it and make it a shrine of God. Come with the desire to
lift your hearts by prayer and praise into a serener and
holier atmosphere than that which encompasses your
secular walk. Come with an earnest craving for bread
from Heaven and the water of life out of the river of God.
Come to learn the knowledge of the ancients, the wisdom
that is from above, the simplicity that is in Christ. Let
religion, goodness, piety, be the thing sought, and worship
pure and fervent, the act performed. Let seriousness be
the frame of every mind and the expression of every
countenance. Let it be felt that what is done here tran
scends in importance and dignity all other concerns of
5

34
life ; that no exchange, no legislature, no cabinet on earth
is entrusted with duties that bear the least conceivable
proportion in the depth and compass of their interest to
those which claim attention here : since the former relate
to what is outw.ard, transitory and perishable, while the
latter have to do solely with the spiritual, enduring, and
incorruptible, — with the soul that is made to live forever,
with God in whom it lives, and with the condition that
awaits us when these heavens, this earth, these forms cf
beauty and love, shall have disappeared from our sight.
And when you come here, my friends, do not indulge
the unreasonable expectation of being always highly
gratified, or, as it is termed, " entertained, " by what you
hear. Do not expect to be always addressed in a sermon
exactly to your taste, and conformed to your own views.
Do not expect to retire from every service with " beauti
ful " — "splendid " — " the finest that was ever heard, "
and such like extravagances of praise on your lips. Do
not expect even to be always deeply impressed or greatly
benefited by the discourses to which you listen. The
minister's mind, like his body, has days of activity and
vigor, and days of lassitude and dullness. Sometimes it
can bring forth things new, striking, of absorbing interest,
but pftener it must be satisfied to repeat and illustrate
things old and familiar. Occasionally God permits it to
rise into regions of beauty and sublimity and bathe itself
in the waters above the firmament ; but generally it must
be content barely to wet its feet with the dew of our own
mountains and tp lave in pools where no angel has -dipped
his wings. Even Horeb and Sinai had no .perennial
fountain of inspiration, but only now and then as prophets
bowed amid their silent and lofty solitudes did the Divine
spirit flow into them. If you only knew all the distrac
tions to which the minister is liable, the endless range and
variety of his duties, the constant drain that is made upon
his resources of every kind, the pains and sorrows and

35
sins — besides his own — which sometimes press, in vast
accumulation, upon his soul, you would need no argument
to persuade you to a lenient judgment on his official min
istrations. And without such kindness on your part he can neither
be happy nor useful amongst you. He cannot live as
your minister independently of your good opinion and
tender regard. We hear of the independence of the pul
pit, but properly speaking there is no such thing. The
idea is foreign to the nature of our religious institutions.
In a free Protestant church there can be no such thing.
We acknowledge no priesthood, no hierarchy, no papacy.
Our religious teachers and their congregations form one
body, all the members of which, whether the hands, the
feet, or the head, have a reciprocal dependence, and a co
operating activity. Your pulpit has not been set up before
you by your own hands, like the throne of an Eastern
despot, to dispense smiles and frowns, to grant favors and
denounce judgments. It is not placed here as " an avenger
of God " to deal out curses and trumpet terrors. But you
have erected it for an altar of devotion, for an oracle of
heavenly wisdom and christian love, for a seat of instruc
tion to the young and of consolation to the old, of kindly
exhortation and rebuke to the wicked, and of brotherly
encouragement and sympathy to the good. It is not
independent. It does not stand here alone. These walls,
these pews, that choir and organ, are its companions and
supporters. Your minister, I am sure, will not wish to be
regarded as standing apart from his people in isolated and
icy independence. He will choose rather to be known as
a friend, a brother, " a fellow-worker unto the kingdom
of God " in a company of the followers of Jesus, all bound
together by the bands of a heavenly faith, all interchang
ing the offices of christian watchfulness, candor, and love,
all sustaining one another in the great conflicts of life, all
imparting warmth to each other's hearts and cheerfulness

36
to each other's steps in the solemn pilgrimage of the
world, with eyes fixed on the same bright goal, and souls
panting for the same immortal rest.
All the independence the pulpit asks, is freedom to speak
the truth in love : and this it does not ask, for it belongs
to it of right, it is a part of its very nature, one of its
universally acknowledged attributes — -freedom to speak
the truth in love. This liberty, no considerate people
will ever wish or consent to have abridged or controlled ;
for in precisely the degree that this should be done the
ends of the ministry would be defeated. To the full
enjoyment of this liberty, tbe minister you have received
this day is entitled and ordained. He will maintain it in
its widest extent so long as he shall occupy this place,
and none of you certainly can desire him to do otherwise.
In the exercise of it, it may be that he will sometimes
give utterance to thoughts which you cannot accept, and
express feelings in which you can have no sympathy. It
may be, that he will feel it to be his duty to discuss sub
jects here which some of you will think better suited to
another place, and that he may manifest a decided interest
in objects which have not yet stirred your hearts. Still,
restrain not his freedom. While the opening of his lips
is in love, let him freely speak what he may choose, as a
minister of the gospel, on all subjects. Put no lock upon
the mouth which is speaking out the convictions of a
genuine, fervent, religious soul. You cannot be hurt by
them, though you may be sometimes rebuked and chas
tened. It may be, on the other hand, that subjects in
which some of you take the strongest interest, measures
which some of you deem to be fraught with the highest
good and to be called for by the clearest duty, and which
the advocates of them regard as proper and important to
be discussed here, may fail to impress him in the same
way, and even be viewed by him as unsuitable to be
placed amcngst the tppics cf the pulpit and the Lprd's

37
day. Should this be the case, blame him not for it ; he
cannot help it, he takes the course he thinks he ought as
a christian minister. Fetter not his liberty in this par
ticular ; leave it untouched ; nay, defend and honor it.
The slightest encroachment here is the certain forerunner
of parochial difficulty. Its effect is evil and only evil, and
that continually.
There is another point which connects itself very
naturally with the foregoing, on which you will allow me
to offer one or two suggestions. In a religious community
constituted of persons professing a liberal faith and claim
ing great latitude of inquiry, it is almost a thing of course
that diversity of opinion should arise on questions of the
gravest moment, and provoke not a little earnestness of
discussion. It is natural that there should be some whom
constitutional habits or early influences lead to inquire
for the old paths in which their fathers walked from peace
to glory, to lean on the strong and faithful arm of experi
ence, to hearken to the still small voice from behind them,
and to turn away distrustfully from all novelties of doc
trine and projects of change ; whilst there are others who
seeing and deploring the sad deficiences of the past, feel
little reverence for its wisdom, deny its authority and its
ability to teach, and in their impatience for something
better, seem willing to destroy the good which the present
has inherited from it. It is to be expected that there
should be some who from the peculiar cast of their minds
or from the particular nature of their studies should seek
to explain the facts of religion by their philosophical
theories ; whilst there are others who choose to interpret
them by the simple and direct process of a child-like faith,
giving themselves little concern whether they harmonize
with the metaphysics of this or that school, enough for
them that they do not contradict the metaphysics of
Christ. Now this diversity of opinion and feeling, which
is so natural, is believed actually to exist amongst us, and

38
it has given rise, in some instances, to cpntrpversies net
the most gentle or judicious.
Brethren, suffer from us the word of exhortation that
you do not allow the good fellowship of your church to
be disturbed by any of these questions, and that each one
of ypu cherish the faith which tc him seems truest, safest,
best, and leave te the rest unhindered the same privilege.
Dp npt be concerned about the philospphical views cf your
minister, nor be curious to know to which of the schools
he attaches himself, so long as you feel no doubt that he
belongs to the school of Jesus, and is a faithful minister
of the New Testament. If he preaches Christ and him
crucified, the power of God and the wisdom of God unto
salvation, if he labors without ceasing to build you up as
a holy temple unto the Lord, let that suffice you. But of
this you have a right to be satisfied. Any doubt on this
point would be fatal to your christian progress. The
Pastor of your choice, of whom in all the churches there
is a good report, is installed here as a christian minister,
a preacher of Christianity, an expounder and defender of
the written Gospel. As such you have called him ; as
such you receive him ; and none of you surely will, be so
inconsistent as to expect him to depart in his ministrations
by the slightest variation from " the faith once delivered
to the saints. " As men conversant only with the religion
which is native to the soul and which is sometimes nursed
into power by the maternal influences of nature and
providence, you have a right undoubtedly to the utmost
liberty of inquiry and speculation ; but when you come
into Christianity and profess to be followers of Jesus, you
step into an enclosure which, limits your liberty. Your
faith then places you in the centre of the circle of the
Gospel, and pointing in every direction to the circum
ference, says : " Thus far — and no farther. " It gives you
a liberty as broad as itself — no broader. If you would
look into the depths of the soul, into the mysteries of life

39
and of death, into the realities of the eternal world, into
the unfathomable perfections of God, it requires you to
stand reverently on its own foundation, and not be dancing
on the moonbeams of a poetic conceit or a mystical
philosophy. It requires you to acknowledge all as brethren
in Christ who seek to establish themselves on that ever
lasting Rock. But christian liberty is not liberty to call
in question the truths of Christianity, to doubt the wisdom
of its precepts, to deny the Cross of the Saviour and the
power of his resurrection. It is not liberty to pry out
the stones of the temple walls to gratify a presumptuous
curiosity, or that propensity to mischievous activity some
times miscalled the spirit of investigation. And you will
not be so unreasonable as to complain of your minister for
failing to travel out of the ample field of Christianity to
gather food for your spiritual appetite, when you remember
that it is as a servant of Christ, a laborer in his vineyard,
that he has consecrated his life.
I have thus glanced at some of the views which it
seemed to me suitable to commend to your consideration.
1 have spoken with great plainness, but every word has
been prompted by a sincere desire for your religious
prosperity as individuals and as a Christian society ,• and
I would offer you my hearty congratulations on the auspi
cious signs which this occasion gives out. Brethren,
though you have had many trials, you have been, on the
whole, a favored people. From the very foundation of
your society, and through all its struggles and embarrass
ments, you have been blessed with an able, faithful, and
affectionate ministry, whose hand was strong when you
were weak, whose voice was one of cheering, when
you would have desponded, whose step was ever right
onward when you would have been turned aside by diffi
culties. And now, under a new ministry, I dare not trust
myself (if it were proper,) to speak as I feel of the rich

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promise which is afforded you. May your religious
growth and spiritual enjoyment be commensurate with
your christian privileges. " Be of good comfort ; be of
one mind ; live in peace ; and the God of peace shall be
with you. "

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