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Ambassadors of God,— from Christ,— of
Truth,-to All.
[ IsTo. 2. 3

PREACHED TO THE
c%tm\b Congregational (£fmrc|t
OF WIISTSTEIJ), CONN.,
liVCscy- 22, 1839,

C. H. J±. BULKLEY

[PUBLISHED BY REQUEST OF HIS V R f E K D S . ]

W LXSTBD:
W 1 X S T E I) HERALD JOB PKINTISG ESTABLISHMENT.
1 8 5.9.

Ambassadors of GKod,— from Christ,— of*
Truth,-to All.

A PARTING SERMON
PREACHED TO THE
SECOND CONGREGATIONAL CHURCll
OF WORSTED, CONN;,
ZrVEa-y 22d, 1SS9,
BY
O. H A. BULKLEY.

[PUBLISHED BY REQUEST OF HIS FRIENDS.]

W I N S T E D :
WINSTED HERALD JOB PRINTING ESTABLISHMENT.
18 5 9.

SERMON.

I CORINTHIANS, V : 20.
"" NOW THEX WE ARE AMBASSADORS FOR CHRIST, AS THOUGH GOD DID BE
SEECH YOU BY US ; WE PRAY YOU, IN CHRIST'S STEAD, BE YE RECONdX-ED
TO GOD."
Truly, a distinguishing title and an honorable office have the
Ministers of Christ. They are not common subjects of a throne,
nor hired servants of a people, but ambassadors, sent from God, in
the place of Christ — the representatives of Truth, speaking authori
tatively to all men.
Whether young or old, whether learned or unlearned, whether
brilliant or ordinary, they are to be recognized and respected as
those commissioned of God to do his work and speak his word, if
so be the Holy Ghost testifies to their calling by a godly walk and
scriptural teaching and by souls converted and sanctified through
Christ. An earthly ambassador comes from the court of his prince, to
represent the character and conduct the affairs of his government
in a foreign land. His name is honored, his character is sacred,
his person is inviolable. He is to make known the will of his sov
ereign whom he personates, and obey implicitly all his instructions.
Such is the character, the relation and the function of a Minister of
the Gospel, and especially of a Pastor over a Church.
He comes from the presence of his God, a messenger to the
world, occupying personally the place and representing the character
of Christ. His work is to conduct the affairs of the Church in all
its spiritual interests, according as God teaches and commands
him. Whatever he has received of the Divine Will, he must pub
lish and obey, teaching that obedience to all men.
As an ambassador therefore of God, in Christ's stead he may
claim a sacredness of character, an hoaorableness of name and an
inviolability of interest, from every man. Whoever touches hb\

in these respects, touches God ; whoever offends one of the least of
these, offends Christ.
What I desire now, and what I think God leads me to do, is the
exhibition of the ministerial office and the pastoral relation in their
true light. The people and churches of our day, even here in New
England, swinging away from the extreme reverence and obeisance
which were paid, a half century since, to the teachers of religion,
who were allowed to be the popes in all ecclesiastical matters and
the dictators in all civil affairs, have oscillated to the other extreme
of a comparative disrespect and insubordination towards their spir
itual guides. The progressive spirit of the age, aiming* at the
highest liberty, has run into the largest license. The predominant
influence of wealth and office has subordinated the ministers of
Christ into hireling stewards of men, whose feet must tread the
paths and whose lips must speak the words which the masters who
pay their wages dictate. A low estimate of the ministry and a
tyrannic treatment of them as underlings have thus subtracted
from the influence of Truth.
The ambassadors of Christ themselves are much to blame for
this their degradation. They have not sought and received that
inward and spiritual witness of- their calling, which developes into
the full manhood of Christ and elevates the soul into a living, mas-
tsrly consciousness of their high commission whereby they may
speak the Word, in the demonstration of the Spirit and with
power. They have come down from the high mountains of God,
where they might have walked with beautiful feet, proclaiming the
glad tidings of salvation with success, and have groped in the
lowest valleys of common men, amid the mire and ooze and brush
wood of carthliness — to their failure and God's dishonor. So much
of commerce and literature- and art, has encompassed us with
temptation, that we have slept in the arms of Delilah and foolishly
permitted our locks to be shorn. So little of true faith in God
and so much of fear before men have we had, that the loss of posi
tion or salary or reputation has made many cringe and fawn to the
compromise of God's truth and the neglect of duty.
Still, had not the world and self and error crept and climbed
into the Church, it might have been otherwise. Had God's people
been true to their Master, true to their fathers and true to their
principles, they would so have treated the ambassadors of Christ,
as that these would have been constrained to maintain, their official

dignity and their representative character, speaking God's truth as
Christ did, not as the Scribes and Pharisees, but with the authority
of truth itself, commended in love.
If therefore I may in anywise check this disregard of Christ's
ministry, and leave you to treat a future Pastor, not as an agricul
tural machine, nor as a fine specimen of animal, good for show or
work or breed ; not as an instrument of music, making such tunes
as men's fingers play ; nor even as a factory hand, able to turn off
so many knives or scythes or hoes of skins in a day, all which may
be handled to the using up, or sold or bartered or dismissed at
will — but as a messenger from the reigning God — as an ambassa
dor from the princely Jesus — as a teacher from the school of the
prophets, bringing only truth — as a leader of saints, as a shepherd
of souls, as a friend, a counsellor and director in moral things
growing out of personal, social and spiritual relations; if I may
leave you thus, I shall have accomplished, here a great work for the
ministry and the church — greater perhaps than any God has yet
enabled me to perform for your good.
I. To this end, I ask first your consideration of Christ's minis
ters, as ambassadors sent from God himsdf.
The too common notion of the- Church in this day is, that the
choice and employment of a teacher primarily rest with the people,
precisely as in the case of a principal to a common school. We
have a right to choose or dismiss our Pastor as we please — even to
make or unmake a minister for ourselves, if we will. So many-
think and speak. But has God nothing to do in this matter ? Has
he no right to choose and appoint ? Are his people not to consult
ani obey his direction ? It would seem sometimes as if indeed
God were not recognized as the life, nor Christ as the Head of the
Church over whom he appoints his ministers. There come two
men to a people to-day ; the one is eloquent, elegant, rhetorical and
attractive. He offers a modicum of truth, outsided and onesided,
in platters painted and gilded ; but alas, he has no spiritual life nor
divine power. Unlike him the other speaks in language plain,
Simple and scriptural, unadorned and unmodified. Truth, clear,
strong and searching, comes from his lips, as a burning coal, with
the fire of the Holy Ghost. Which is God's ambassador ; which
should the people choose ? Alas ! the probabilities are as nine to
one that the man of popular attractiveness is preferred in order to
draw a crowd and pay expense?. If God should afterwards con-

vert his soul and make him a Holy Ghost preacher, he must be
sacrificed to fastidiousness and expediency.
The fact is, that while God has made us all, through his Son,
kings and priests unto himself, he chooses and appoints to the
special work of gospel ministration, those whom his people are to
recognize as such. Theirs therefore is not a primary and independ
ent choice, but a secondary and subordinate recognition of the man
as an ambassador whom God sends by his providence to them, and
seals by his Spirit for them, to, be their true and faithful Pastor.
When they reject and disregard such an one, choosing another
according to their pleasure, they resist his authority and usurp his
prerogative. When their prejudices and passions burn against the
object of his commission, they burn against God himself.
That the ministry is the appointment of both, as to the office and
the men, is scripturally clear. So declares the Apostle in words
preceding the text. " And all things are of God, who hath recon
ciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry
of reconciliation, to wit : that God was in Christ, reconciling the
world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them ; and
hath commilted unto us the word of reconcUiation." " Ye have not
chosen me,'' says Christ, " but I have chosen you and ordained you,
that ye should go and bring forth fruit." " But our sufficiency is
of God," says Paul again, " who also hath made us able ministers
of the new testament." And likewise, writing to the Ephesians, he
declares the ascension-power of Christ in that "he gave some,
apostles, and some prophets, and some evangelists, and some pas
tors and teachers, for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of
the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ." God alone,
therefore, makes ministers and sends them as ambassadors. God
constitutes them as Pastors, and men only are to recognize and
receive these as such.
For what end ? As stewards of the manifold grace of God ;
the stewards of Christ, and not of man. Paul in his charge to the
elders of Ephesus says, " Take heed therefore unto yourselves and
to all the flock over which the Holy Ghost hath made you over
seers, to feed the Church of God." The figure here used is that of
a shepherd who guides, directs and commands his flock; Evidently
there is a rule of some kind implied as the function of a Pastor.
There is in a certain sense an authority which God gives to him,
and which it is presuumtion for men to denv and rebellion to resist-

It is the authority to speak with freencss, with boldness, with point-
edness — to reprove for sin, to proclaim forgiveness through repent
ance and faith, to assure of sanctification by the Holy Ghost for
them that receive the promises. It is authority to take the lead
in the discipline and government of the Church — not indeed lord
ing it over God's heritage, but opening the way and calling the
hosts of God's elect to the conquest of sin. The rule of a Pastor
is that of a father in his family who reproves and corrects with all
tenderness and faithfulness ; for so Paul illustrates to Timothy the
office of a -bishop. Such elders as thus rule well, are to be
accounted as worthy of double honor, especially as they labor in
word and doctrine. Therefore the command is given in Hebrews,
" Remember them which have the rule over you, who have spoken
unto you the word of God, whose faith follow, considering the end
of their conversation." The minister of Christ, therefore, is not put
by men under them, but set over them — constituted of God as their
authorized leader. He is not a hired man to move at the beck of
human fingers ; he is to recognize and follow the movement of
God's hands. If God clearly indicates his continuance and super
intendence, or his removal and transference, the Church rebels
either in rejecting or retaining him. There is no authority or right
ful power by virtue of office or position in Society, State or Church,
or by force of speech or action or number to be exercised over the
ambassador of God. To his own Master he stands or falls ; as a
servant to Christ, and a freeman to others. Whoever, by sneers,
by reproaches, by revilings, by whatever evil method opposes ; or
by intrigue, argument and influence, attempts to overrule and un
dermine his authority as a minister of Christ, assumes to himself an
authority which is ever to be reprehended as a usurpation towards
God, a rebellion against Christ, a resistance of truth, a grieving of
the Holy Ghost, which, unless repented of and abandoned, will
bring leanness to the soul and deadness to the church !
II. A minister or Pastor is to be regarded secondly, as an am
bassador for Christ.
The expressions " for Christ," and " in Christ's stead," might in-
, deed be understood as meaning " in behalf of the cause of Christ."
But the idea of an ambassador, as well as the phrase, " as though God
did beseech you by us," involves necessarily the idea of substitution.
The minister of Jesus therefore occupies personally and officially
the place which Christ has visibly vacated. What he was to the

Wdrld as a Teacher sent from God, every true messenger of his
Gospel is also. The relation which he sustained towards his disci:
pies while in the flesh, is that which his ministering servants hold
towards the Church.
He who represents another, or is substituted in his place, assumes
his relations. The king who temporarily vacates his throne and
yields it to the occupancy of a prime minister, puts him towards
his subjects in the attitude, and clothes him with the functions of
a ruler. Whatever therefore the king would desire or command,
must be expressed through that medium, and must be received thus
by the people with obedience. Joseph stood and acted thus in the
place and with the authority of Pharaoh. Mordecai was similarly
invested with regal power. A banker sending his agent to another
land or city, empowers him to transact business as he would do it
himself under like circumstances. It is thus with the minister of
Christ; He is the substitute for Christ, the representative and
agetit whom he invests with authority. Herein lies his responsibil
ity, as well as his dignity. I know that this idea has been nursed
into excess amid the hotbeds of Papal Hierarchies and prelatical es
tablishments. Hence its true and rightful germ has been disregarded
too much amid the gardens of Puritanism! and Protestantism. But
this abuse only should lead to the rescue and right employment of
the truth. The real relations and thence the duties of Christ's
ministers as he has given them, must needs be rightly upheld. Only
thus can a true ministry be established and prospered. The grand
error in the perversion of this substitutionary relation towards
Christ, has been that professed ministers of his have assumed
authority to originate their own, and enforcing these, instead
of the precepts of Jesus, as the teachings of the Church.
They have instituted ordinances and authorized traditions to be
more obligatory than those of the Apostles. Thus they have ex
ceeded their commission. So fearful therefore have the ministers
of Protestantism been of such an excess, that they have not
claimed even the authority and used confidently the language which
Christ has given them. But if we are anything at all in our rela
tions to Christ and his people, we are all that he has been as a
mail. Only such. We can claim nothing of the Divine, except a£
he imparts life, power and glory to our humanity. Christ was ^
teacher sent from God, and he who takes his place, must teach his
people even as he did, in all plainness, simplicity and faithfulness {'

So that though the proud Pharisees and the learned Scribes may
reject, yet the poor and distressed among the common people, may
gladly hear and rejoice. Here is the trying duty aud responsible
position of the minister of Christ. He needs first to learn with all
self-distrust and humility, what be the true principles of Christ—
what significance tliere is to his deep and pregnant teachings. He
must not exceed and multiply them, so as to bind heavy burdens
on men, grievous to be borne, which he himself shall not be able or
willing to bear. He must not limit or lighten them so as to relieve
men unwarrantably, giving them up to ease and self-satisfaction of
soul till they perish. But when he has by study, by prayer, by
faith and the Holy Ghost, learned the true doctrine of Christ — the
truth of which shall be knbwn not merely by rational processes and
logical conclusions, but by the inner consciousness, by deepening
experiences, by a vital inworking— then is he to come forth, and
without a trembling hesitancy, without a truckling sycophancy,
without a 'conservative foresight of threatened evils, proclaim his
truth— the truth of Christ — with all fervor, all boldness, all plain
ness, all pungency, whether men will hear or forbear ; whether they
smile or frown, whether they pat or smite. No matter if under
scorching truth they cry, " personal, personal !" No matter if they
deceive themselves, in saying that the methods and not the truths
themselves are offensive. True, it is of vast importance that a
minister's methods should be proper and suitable. But he need not
give himself much concern about these. If he be instinct with the
knowledge and life of truth ; if he be full of faith and the Holy
Ghost ; if he shall throw himself back in the calm recumbency of
faith on God's hands ; if he shall launch hiinsslf out on the broad
currents of love's eternal sea, and set his sails wide open to the
gales of truth, his methods will be good enough and efficient.
God then will use and develop his natural powers, will adapt his
idiosyncracies to men ; will make even his defects to accomplish
more than do the excellencies of men who are continually watchful
and sensitively fastidious to style. What men need, is truth. What
Christ would give, is life. What the Church craves, is power. He
who stands truly, honestly and fully in Christ's stead, shall have
these truths to present.
Not merely thus as a teacher of the known, but a prophet
of the unknown, shall the minister of Christ be made to a
people. By a close and thorough acquaintance with prophetic
2

10
Utterances ; by an intimate communion with the Divine Spirit, un-
, folding to him the mind of God ; by a real, vital union with Christ
in his thought, his affection, his purpose and his plan of redemption,
the soul of the true ambassador shall receive from God, through
Christ, that anticipating power of faith, that prophetic wisdom,
which shall be the fulfilment experienced of the promise of the
Spirit, " he shall shew you things to come." How otherwise shall
a spiritual guide truly and rightly lead a people — unless God un
covers to his view something of the spiritual results which lie
behind the curtain of the future in the pregnant womb of the
Church. How otherwise shall an ambassador know how to repre
sent his sovereign, unless he knows, not only the already expressed
will, but the future purpose to be effected ? How can the shepherd
lead his flock into the green pastures of God, unless permitted to
advance thither beforehand, or to view the promised land from
some mount of glory ?
Thus also in the other relations of Christ to the Church,
as a Priest, a Mediator, a Comforter, a Purifier, the minister
of Jesus stands. Not indeed does he sacrifice bleeding vic
tims at a visible altar, but he presents a crucified and bleeding
heart from within at the unseen altar of a total self-consecration.
Not indeed does he offer an efficient atonement in himself for sin,
but he bears in his person and sensibility the wounds and bruises,
the agonies and chastisements of the Son of God, by fellowship, by
sympathy, and by union with him, so that thus he intercedes and
mediates for the dying soul before a living Saviour— knowing " the
fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death."
Not indeed does he have power to enter and console the sin-pierced
and grief-smitten heart, thus of himself administering comfort; but
he can, amid his own griefs, so find that comfort of God, so be
filled with the consolations of love, as that he may plead for the
comforting Spirit to descend on the suffering frame and the stricken
conscience, and utter the exceeding great and precious promises of
hope, with such an unction of true experience, as that the soul shall
be aroused and quickened into a faith which receives and believes,
and a life which relieves and rejoices. Not indeed may he by argu
ment or persuasion; no, not even by example, exert whatever in
fluence which may tend to cleanse away the sins of men from their
hearts ; but he may himself have so found the cleansing power of
Christ, as large and full and free, beyond his poor soul's most

11
ardent hope; and tasted so much of the sweetness of Christ's life
within, as that he may proclaim a full salvation and a perfect, all-
sufficient Saviour. He may so have seen his own soul such a nest
of vile serpents, brooded by sin; such a reeking dunghill of in
iquity, steaming up from pride and envy and ambition and hate,
which he feels that Christ has crushed and removed — as only
Christ's power could do— that words of fire may be spoken, and
breaths of purity breathed, which may convince men of the abomi-
nableness of sin and the beauty of holiness. He may so have seen
in himself, in all nature, in revelation, in vision even, the terrible
consequences of sin, as at the judgment, as in an eternal hell, that
he shall be constrained in agony of soul, in travail of body, to lift
up his voice and cry aloud, sparing not ; telling men of sin and
warning them to flee from the wrath to come. Thus like Christ he
may be made their purifier, their comforter, their mediator and
their priest.
But all these relations of Christ cannot be met by any one of
his ambassadors towards a people, unless one has the holy char
acter of his Master. Office cannot do it, words cannot do it, actions
cannot do it. No matter how personally dignified' and impressive;
no matter how eloquent and persuasive ; no matter how energetic
and zealous. If the life and power of the Holy Ghost be wanting,
the minister is as sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal. True, he
cannot expect the Lord's sanctity in the measure and degree that
He possessed it, with all the fullness and power of the Godhead.
But he may, he should expect it, seek it and receive it, according
to the fullness of his own capacity, limited and finite. Ah, this is
what the ministry now needs— an apostolic fullness, a primitive
fervency, a Christian purity. What pre-eminently characterized
Christ, was holiness; this was the life and the truth and the way
in him, which he became to souls— the end he sought for them by
his words and deeds. So should it be with his ministers. Holiness
unto the Lord should be the sum and substance, the beginning and
end, the Alpha and Omega , of their studies, their prayers, their
desires, their sacrifices, their toils. Tkey are not indeed required
to possess a greater amount of holiness than all other followers of
Christ. But if it be needed for any, it is needed for them; as en-
samples to the flock, as leaders to, God's host. But alas! so little
have we as ministers sought and found this hohness, that we have
not been able to stand as those whom men might follow closely, so

12
as to become like Christ. So little therefore have we exemplified
and taught the holiness of Christ, that God's people have not
beheld in us and aspired after possible grace and attainable holiness.
So many have been the imperfections and transgressions of God's
servants, that they have led men to believe that a life of sin is a
necessity; that departures from Christ, failures and discrepancies,
are really essential to the Christian life. But should not every
amba; sador of Christ so resemble and represent his Lord — should
he not have such a high consciousness of the living Christ within
him, as that he may proclaim a holiness unconquered by tempta.
tion, and an uprightness untainted by the world. Alas! so great
is the deficiency and the unbelief on this point, that should God
suddenly by some mighty movement, or gradually by some gentler
process, lift a man up into the fuller life of Christ, and he should
declare that to which his consciousness and experience testify, he
would no doubt be deemed presumptuous, self-conceited, or charita
bly allowed to be deluded. But was not this the testimony of
Paul ? Did he not say, both to the Phillipians and the Corinthi
ans, " Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ ?" " It
has a sound," as Dr. Bushuell remarks, " taken as it may be taken,
of conceit and vanity; but when we look upon him as a man who
goes after Christ, in the ways of scorn and suffering patience; in
labors more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more
frequent, in deaths oft, receiving more than once his forty stripes
save one, beaten with rods and stoned out of cities, running the
gauntlet through all sorts of perils, in weariness and painfulness, in
watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and
nakedness, accounted as the filth of the world and the offscouring
of all things; when we see him tramping on heavily thus, bearing
his Master's dark flag of patience and loss, and calling others to
follow, we only see that he has taken Christ's own spirit and de
spises even to send the flock before him where he does not lead
himself." Bnt how many disciples and ministers of Christ declare that
" they never ask it of others to follow them. God' forbid that they
should indulge in any such conceit as that ! Yes, God forbid in
deed, the conceit, for it would be one, and what is more, God for
bid that others be ever found as their followers ; and for just the
reason that they do not follow Christ. They half consciously know
it themselves — hence their modesty. Would they could also un-

derstand how great a thing it is in Christ and his first messengers,
that they go before to lead in all sacrifice and suffering; doing first
themselves, whatsoever they lay upon others. I believe, my breth-
Ten, that there are almost none of us who do not slide into this in
firmity, complimenting ourselves on the high principles we hold,
and the severe standards we set up in our words and judgments,
when, in our practice, we fall low enough to require some such kind
of comfort to piece out our evidence and satisfaction. And then
we compliment again our modesty, that we do not propose to be
examples of others. How much more and more genuinely modest
should we be, if we judged only as we practiced, and set forward
others in words only as we fortify words by example."
By that example we truly represent Christ, as his ambassadors,
being as hewas,aEd doing as he did; having a humility towards God
opposed to a servility towards men; maintaining a faith which em
boldens and triumphs ; exhibiting a love which speaks reprovingly as
well as tenderly; crucifying ambition; trampling en the world; living
upon the Truth and by the Spirit of God. Oh! when such an
ambassador for Christ comes before a people, and their eyes are
open enough to recognize him as such, what glow of speech, what
life of power has he for them th.-ough their prince of glory I Christ
then himself lives and speaks, not merely as though present, but
being really present. The visible humanity of the Teacher, is only
the encasement and instrument of the invisible deity of the Son of
God. The utterances of the audible voice are only the heard tones
of the still small whisper of God within. Ah! when the ministers
of Christ shall so speak, conscious that his spirit within them die-.
tates truth, and when his people listen, thus recognizing in them
the Lord's presence and utterance, there will breathe a living pow
er unto Holiness within every heart, that shall transform the Church
into a celestial Power, and the world into a perfect Paradise.
III. The minister of Christ, it must be noted thirdly, is an am
bassador of Truth. That which comes from God, his own essen
tial life, imparted through his Son, Jesus Christ, is what his mes
sengers are to seek and receive. Becoming fully imbued therewith,
they are to present it as a living reality to men. The principles of
the divine nature constitute the truth of the Gospel, without which
all preaching were vain. But even these, without that living pow
er which is an inspiration of God in the soul, would be nothing.
A bare verbal utterance, destitute of a vital experience, robs truth.

14
of its power — makes it a dead letter. So, too, a mere personal in
terest in the subject matter of Truth, with whatever zeal and en
thusiasm it may be defended and enforced, becomes vain. Men
thus are made partizans; they contend then for their own belief,"
and their malignant passions enter into the arena of strife with the
weapons of a carnal mind. They therefore become gladiators and
bull-baiters for men, instead of peaceful heralds for Christ. Only
when a man has learned Truth by the teaching of the Holy Ghost,
it having become, not his thought only, but his life, may he wor
thily offer it to souls. Independent therefore of himself, of his own
private and personal interests and feelings in the presentation of
Truth, must he not also be independent of other men ? No mat
ter what the ancients have taught; no matter what the Fathers,
however much revered, may have transmitted to us; no matter
what may be the constructions of Truth received by surrounding
churches and held by ministerial brethren; no matter what odium
may be incurred by whatever divergence from old creeds he may
make; no matter what prejudices and animosities may thus be en
kindled; the ambassador of Christ is to seek and receive and pre
sent Truth directly from his Divine Master, out of the revealed
Word, at the Altar of Light. Wo be to him if he mutilates or
modifies that Truth to suit the tastes or notions of men! Worth
less is his utterance if he tinctures it with earthly philosophies
and human traditions ! His must be a purity of faith, that gives
a strictness and boldness of utterance which reproves and rebukes.
What if disturbances and dissensions arise in the Church occasion
ed by such a faithful ministration of Christ's truth ? What if een*
sure and opposition part friends and break the bonds of peace ?
Must that true utterance, that faithful ministration cease ? How
can it be, without a sacrifice of God's truth; without a loss of
Christ's life ? No ! a peace sought in the community and the
Church on such grounds is false and deceptive; tending only to ul
timate disruption and greater injury. You may build a granite
dome over the volcano's crater and erect on that a temple of
iron, but the boiling lava rising up will sweep it all away! You
may cover up hearts of sin and systems of error with ever so strong
a frame-work of worldly policy and outward smoothnesss, but the
corruption within will at last burst and blaze out to view!
What men must be taught is the truth of God — that truth
.which is presented both in the Law and the Gospel as twin chil-

15
dren of God. But tho Law has not been preached its' one with
that Gospel. As a preceptive method, as a rule of life indeed, it
has been too much preached. So much indeed that Our preaching
being only legal has gendered a legal Christianity, tending to bond-'
age; a religion of conscience; of dead works ; of shillings and re-
pentings; of an obedience of the will and not of faith. Such a
preaching of the law is death to souls. It makes the cross of
Christ of none effect; it produces a self-righteousness, hostile to
inward holiness; it ignores and drives away the Holy Ghost.
But there is another preaching of the law essential to the Gos
pel, now too much neglected. A sentimental religion prevails; a
false benevolence leads to the doubt of future and eternal wo to the
unrenewed sinner; an over partial display of divine love and mercy
is made; a selfish view of religion as sweet and joyful is given
which hides the terrors of the law from men. They see not sin
there in its hideousuess, they feel no sense of guilt, they find no
condemnation in themselves. Christ may be sought by tbem
indeed, but it is only as a dispenser of comfort and delight, not as
a cleanser from sin, a lifter up from the world. " You may
descant on divine mercy," says Dr. Griffin, " and till men feel that
they are undone, they will vacantly gaze at the pretty display,
smile in your face and think no more of it. You may tell them of
the joys of religion, and they will answer, If this is all you have to
say, our own tastes assure us that we can be happier in other
things. Or if the mind is convinced, a conviction of the joys of
religion, without a sense of guilt and ruin, will never make the sin
ner die as did Paul, ' when the commandment came.' It may ex
hilarate, it may draw tears, it may produce animal religion and
make him the stronger. It may enlist his selfishness on the side of
religion, may prevent him from openly opposing it, may induce him
to put on a profession and form of a thing deemed profitable; but
it will never bring him to the foot of the cross, and lift the cries of
a dying sinner for mercy. Christ is the only door by which men
enter into religion and into life ; and none will enter by this way but
those who feel their guilt and ruin. Without these apprehensions
oue may have a blind, selfish religion ; but a full exhibition of these
truths is necessary to prevent a thousand deceptions, to make judi*
cious Christians, to point to the very spot to which the remedy is
to be applied, and to state the precise good for which application
to Christ is to be made. Had not the terrors of the law been need*

16
fill, they would not have been displayed on every page of the
Bible, nor would the apostles have used this motive to persuade
men." Of what avail therefore is the preaching of Justification by faith
in Christ, unless the soul perceive the need of justification from a
condemning law ? That indeed has been the theme of modern
preaching, but it has been as a castle built in the air, without the
basis of a violated and condemning law.
Alas! the law and the Gospel have been sadly divorced — the
superstructure has been lifted off from the foundation of the divine
life. A worse and sadder fault than this has been committed.
Under the shade of an imperfect legal preaching and obedience, in
the half-way entrance of mere justification, the soul has been delayed
and the great doctrines of sanctification by faith alone in Christ,
and of a full Christian liberty, have been neglected. Hence those
sweet and grand experiences growing out of the3e doctrines have
been ungained. If I have done anything at all here, as an ambas
sador of Christ, for which I have met with coldness and suspicion,
by which I have shaken false hopes and uncovered evil hearts, it
has been by the pueaching of these doctrines. It is folly to deny •
this. Members of this Church to my face personally have rejected
the views I have taught. Others intellectually receiving them,
have yet shown by their excited speech the opposition of their
carnal hearts to such truths. What are these truths ? Nothing
new or heretical, unless that be such which finds its proof in the
Bible and evangelical formulas. If other ministers and churches
around, if any here have not taught and received them, they have
been heretical, not myself.
Look into the Presbyterian Catechism and Confession of
Faith, which is the basis of the Saybrook platform, adopted as
the true expression of orthodox Congregational doctrine, and
you will find them there. There you may read, that "sanc
tification is a work of God's grace, whereby they whom God
hath before the foundation of the world chosen to be holy, are, in
time, through the powerful operation of his Spirit, applying the
death and resurrection of Christ, unto them renewed in their whole
man after the image of God; having the seeds of repentance unto
life, and all other saving graces put into their hearts, and those
graces so stirred, increased and strengthened, as that they more
and more die unto sin and rise into newness of life."

lt
Now mark what that Confession of Faith says of Christian Lib
erty. "The liberty which Christ hath purchased for believers
under the Gospel, consists in their freedom from the guilt of sin,
the condemning wrath of God, the curse of the moral law; and in
their being delivered from this present evil world, bondage to Satan
and dominion from sin, from the evil of afflictions, the sting of
death, the victory ofthe grave and everlasting damnation; as also
in their free access to God and their yielding obedience unto him,
not out of slavish fear, but a child-like love and a willing mind.
All which were common also to believers under the law; but under
the New Testament, the liberty of Christians is further enlarged in
their freedom from the yoke of the ceremonial law, to which the
Jewish Church was subjected; and in greater boldness of access to
the throne of grace and in fuller communications of the free Spirit
of God, than behevers under the law did ordinarily partake of."
I want no fuller, clearer expression of my ideas of holiness than is
here given. These are truths which under the incubus of a tradi
tional and hereditary religion, a mere legal righteousness, have
been almost crushed out from the life of the church — they have
lain bedridden in our creeds. God has, I believe, led me to lift
them up and set them before you as the true basis of a Christian
life. The experiences they develop are found here and there in
such characters as that of James Brainerd Taylor, whose record
says: " I am ready to testify to the world that the Lord has
blessed my soul beyond my highest expectations. People may
call this blessing by what name they please, faith of assurance,'
holiness, perfect love, sanctification — it makes no difference with me,
whether they give it a name or no name — it continues a blessed
reality, and, thanks to my heavenly Father, it is my privilege
to enjoy it— it is yours also, and the privilege of all, to enjoy
the same, and to go beyond anything that I have ever yet experi
enced." Such truths and such experiences are the vital elements of a true
Christian hfe— they are the fibres and sinews of the Church. If
rejected, or viewed only as a theory or rarity, the soul's faith is
a dead corpse; its hope a cold ember, its works but dry ashes.-
The Church then has the name and form of Christianity, but noth
ing of its power; a mere institution or establishment. The minis-'
try then is only a band of hireling office-holders, and not an array
of divine ambassadors. Would to God that they were such holy
3

.18
men, so receiving and proclaiming sanctification, as that God's
people might, however much probed and disturbed at first, search
their hearts anew, build their hopes afresh, revive their faith, and
supplicate their God with power, for the fiery baptism of the Holy
Ghost, which shall burn out all the hay, wood and stubble pf a
legal righteousness and worldly religion, till the Church of Christ,
sanctified and cleansed, rebuilt with the most precious stones of
holiest truth, might be presented unto God " a glorious Church,
not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that it should be
holy and without blemish."
IV. Fourthly and lastly, the ministers of the Gospel are to be
viewed as ambassadors to all. Christ is no limited Saviour, inac
cessible and inefficient but to. a few. He is the propitiation not for
our sins only, but for the sins of the whole world. The Gospel is
not a testament which individualizes the subjects of God's glorious
legacies of salvation, and leaves others disinherited. For he is no
respecter of persons. Yet one would think from the assumptions of
some who make claim to superior consideration, and who require
their opinions and tastes to be consulted and submitted to,- that the
Gospel is a specialty for them. There are men of pecuniary means,
of social position or official standing, who seem to think that the
Gospel must be so dispensed, as to answer their wishes, promote
their interests, and conform to their belief; thus making it a monop
oly. Why, such men would monopolize the air, the light and the
water, as they do the latter, God's free gifts ; they themselves only
dispensing of these as they throw bones to the dogs or crusts to
beggars. Alas ! there be those also; poor, tame souls, who wink
and whistle at the beck of such men, willing to take the crumbs
that fall from the rich man's table.
I do not despise the wealthy, the learned or the honored of earth.
I rather pity them for their temptations, and sympathize with them
in their responsibilities. But I do condemn them when they so
speak and act as if wealth and position entitled them to a claim
for consideration and a weight of influence over and above other
men, poorer and humbler than they, but far more spiritual and
Christlike. I do indeed despise the mean, cringing sycophant who
servilely follows the lead of such self-appointed rulers and licks the
spittle from their lips. I hide my head with shame when a minis
ter of Christ times his speech and toadies in his action to " the
temporal support." That which supports the Church is the piety,

19

the faith, the prayerfulness of the few, the poor, the despised, who
stimulate and encourage him who serves them to preach a pure and
full Gospel.
Men of means and rank in the Church sometimes have great
unction and spiritual zeal. Then they are true noblemen of Christ
and worthy stewards of God; but without such heavenly qualifica
tions, their earthly accessories are only encumbrances and curses to
the Church. What Christ designed, and what we need, is the
equalization and commonalty of his disciples, t " Our business,"
says another Pastor,* "is the establishment of a church where the
poor and the rich shall meet together on common ground, acknowl
edging God as their Father, and Jesus as their common Saviour.
We desire a Church in which the poor man may worship without
being once reminded of his poverty either by what he hears or
what he sees. We want a Church to which the rich shall come
not thinking of his wealth or of wealthy and respectable sur
roundings, but profoundly conscious of his common manhood among
his fellow-worshippers. Our doctrine is, that the appreciation of
man as such, and as he stands related to the Atonement, is the
great idea of the Gospel, and the lever which is to pry over the
walls of despotism. Social evils, oppressions, grinding hardships,
are to find their cure in the universal creed that all men are cre
ated in their Maker's image ; and that their common interests for
time and eternity are incomparably superior to any interests which
pertain to them as distinct grades or classes of society."
" It is no ghostly shadow therefore at which we aim. It is a
great truth — the common demand of humanity and of Christianity.
But we freely concede that our 'work is environed with vast diffi
culties. Aristocracy is wool-dyed in man's fallen nature. Caste is
universal. It is not to be charmed out of society by honeyed words
or driven out by denunciation. It has an existence as real, as
frigid and as difficult to pass, as the ice barriers of the open sea.
Now and then a brave passage may be made ; but free access back
and forth will be had only when the great sun of the Gospel has
melted all down into a calm warm ocean. Let us be patient.
Christ's kingdom will surely come ! But meanwhile we must on
with our work. It is to bridge over the chasms of society and
make footpaths at least between the frowning bluffs of wealth and
poverty. By and by this abyss will be covered by the solid ma-

' Rev. F. a. Clarlf.of 23d St. Prcs. Ch., New York.

20
sonry of the coming kingdom. Enough for us, if mow and then we*
are permitted to see the angels of love walking on the fragile'
structures which we are trying to throw across."
But these structures would be strong, and those angels many,
were the ministers of Christ and his humble disciples never to bow
under the thrall of a worldly influence. An- ambassador comes?
from God to a people, commanded to preach the truth without re
spect of persons. He sees flagrant sins abounding, false hopes per
verting, dark errors deceiving, strong factions dividing. On either
side of him stands a spirit of good and a spirit of evil. Godliness
whispers to him, " preach truth— preach boldly, strongly, individu
ally." Money says, " no ! preach the doctrine of your hearers,
which they think is truth — preach it softly, gingerly, generally."
Godliness says, "visit the obscure, look tenderly after the widow
and fatherless, encourage the despised and forsaken." Money says,
"no! take your hat from your head to upperdom, frequent the
homes and office-rooms of the wealthy, the distinguished, the influ
ential." Godliness says, " minister to the wants of the spirife-al,
the prayerful, the hungerers after God's life, giving them the strong
jjjeat of the Gospel." Money says, "no! cater to the worldly tastes
the selfish notions, the unspiritual tendencies of the prominent and
powerful." Alas ! godliness too often pleads in vain, and money is too
eloquent, till the ambassador of Truth, from God, for Christ, to
all men, dwindles into the panderer to a caste, the steward of a
faction, and loses the honor and reward of his Master. Or if he
holds to his commission and recognizes no man's rule, no party's
dictum, they to whom he is sent will sit on nettles and sputter out
foam. Some vexed lordling, whose work for the Church has never
been saving, but always ruinous, finds a poor weakling, who goes
forth at the other's bid to feel the pulse and smell the breath of
every man. He meets dear old Prudence, who for the sake of
peace, gives in; he wheedles good natured Pliable into assent; he
gains mean Worldlyman's aid; he heaves up a granite Self-will on
his side; and thus he goes on till sore Conscience and stiff Prejudice
and hard Unbelief and dark Ignorance are all enlisted in a minority
of power which rides over a majority of weakness. Under that
strong pressure Truth is opposed and must be sacrificed. By that
influence the ambassador of Christ must be forced into retreat. No
matter what seals to his ministry God may have given. No matter

21
what indications point to the divine will as sending or retaining.
No matter what successful upbuilding of God's Church has hitherto
been done. The word of the influential few has gone forth and the
obedience of the uninfluential many must be rendered !
Is this the recognition and upholding of Christ's ambassadors as
sent to all men— to the whole world ? Is this the testimony that
with them there is neither bond nor free, strong nor weak, rich nor
poor, great nor small ? Alas 1 is it thus that the Church is to be
governed; is it thus that Congregationalism, that which is meant
to be an independency, a true democracy, must e^ist not indeed
as a hierarchy, a rule of priests, but what may be made a
thousand times worse, an oligarchy, a rule of laymen, a form of
government by which the supreme power is placed in the hands of
a few ? Not so otir fathers meant it— not so did Christ design his
Church to be administered and his Gospel to be preached.
There are many, in and out of the Church, who sit under the
preaching of the Gospel as if it were to be a conservator of time-
old customs, of set speech, of intellectual stimulus, and not rather a
power of progress, a letter which has life and a dispensation
specially to the spirit. Such hearers forget the habitudes and
training of the masses — the changing influences of the age, the
spiritual necessities of men. These in their narrowness and selfish
ness are not content to hear truth colloquially presented. They
call it " trash," when it comes to them with the most familiar illus
tration and in every day speech. They have no idea of a thought
as of worth unless it appear in high-sounding phrase and with
classic allusion. But thus thought too often is hid and smothered,
when it has true life and power in the expression which offends the
morbid taste.
It is the glory of the Gospel that to the poor it is sent; it is the
glory of Christ that the common people heard him gladly; it is the
glory of God that he "chooses the foolish things of the world to con
found the wise, and the weak things of the world to confound the
things that are mighty; and base things of the world, and things
which are despised, and things which are not, to bring to nought
things which are."
The more therefore that a minister of Christ addresses himself to
the easy comprehension of all men, especially the great majority
who are unlearned and uncultured, the more then he gathers round
him the numbers who though weak and despised in themselves, arc

22
mighty in their aggregate sympathies and affections; the mor,e that
he aims to render them godly and efficient for Christ, the more
then he speaks and works like his Master, and the more he glorifies
God. The more also that a Church has of such weak ones of
Christ, the more that she rejoices in and sustains them, the great
er then is her power, the fuller her life, the larger the blessings
which*tJod bestows upon her.
Oh ! when will the time come in which the Church will
see her Lord embodied and multiplied in those whom the
proud world regards as the filth and offscouring of life. When
will the tyranny of custom, of caste, of fashion, of adornment, of
art, of learning, of riches, Of office, of every worldly element, be re
sisted, and the freedom of the Sons of God be achieved in the equal
izing of all true believers, in the utterance of all truth to all men
by every ambassador of Christ, without respect of persons, without
distinction of color or rank, without whatever human restraint.
God grant that that time may speedily come, and that a Gospel,
full, free, and perfect, may be preached by many an ambassador of
Christ to the whole world and to all the inhabitants of the world.
When this shall be clone, the great bells of Creation will ring out
the Jubilee of the Millenial age, and the Sons of God will shout
amen in louder anthems, at the completion of another and a higher
Universe I
But this shall never be until the Church and the world recognize
the ministers of Christ as the ambassadors of G-od to them, whom
they shall respect, love, uphold and cherish, as the precious gift of
heaven. This shall not be until the ministers of Christ themselves,
filled with the strong consciousness pf their high mission, inspired
with the fullest life of Christ, shall speak his Truth, not as reasoners
and declaimers, but as earnest pleaders, themselves having felt its
full power and life within.
Brethren, I beseech you to regard us as Christ's officers towards
you, as overseers of God in the Church, not as hireling stewards to
be bartered with, not as footballs to be tossed about by men.
Through all the weaknesses of our humanity search for the hidden
Christ; in all the poor utterances of our lips hear the divine Spirit
speak to you. Be not so' narrowed down in thought as to be en
grossed with defects that like motes, in the eye excite pain and de
stroy sight. Yield not to prejudices and passions, which in striking
at the poor instrument, touch the person of Christ. Has he not

23
said, " he that heareth you, heareth me, and he that despiseth you,
despiseth ms ?"
As an ambassador, from God, as , one representing Christ, as
bound to utter truth to every one of you; and with the full con
sciousness of my commission to speak thus to you, I beseech you in
Christ's stead be ye reconciled. If there be bitternesses and preju
dices, or hatreds, or even chillinesses in your hearts towards me, or
towards one another, you are thus unreconciled to God. "If a
man say I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar. For he
that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he' love
God whom he hath not seen." I exhort you, I beseech you to put
away clamor, and wrath, and evil speaking; to stand firm and fast
together; to unite in receiving as God shall send, not a hireling,
but an ambassador of Christ — a true Pastor — one whose holiness
shall honor Christ, whose word shall be truth, proving the soul's
guilt, pointing to the cross, and leading onward and upward in the
highway of holiness — thus reconciling men with God, through
Christ. This was my hope, to be to you such a Pastor. But having
planted, another must water. May God give you great increase — ¦
a latter rain — more plentiful than the former. Be tender, be
liberal, be honorable, be respectful, be loving towards your coming
Teacher. Only thus may you find God's favor.
I speak now to souls unreconciled to God. If never before,
recognize now the fact that God sends you his Son, by his Spirit,
in the person and by the speech of him who speaks to you. How
long, how often, yet, alas, how unprofitably have you heard the call
to make your peace with God. Many messengers have come,
many truths have they uttered, many strivings of God's Spirit have
you had, yet you are unreconciled to God. Still unconcerned, or
unrepentant and unrenewed, I must leave you. Alas ! it is like
leaving you to drown in the sea, to burn in the flame, to sink in the
gloom, when release is offered free and full, but refused. I beseech
you not to meet me at the Judgment without Christ. Or if you
do, to acquit me now and there of your soul's loss.
Ah ! by the blood of Christ, by the love of God, by the dread
of hell, by the joy of heaven, by the hope of life, by eternal truth,
by all the motives which eternity can kindle, which your soul may
conceive and cherish, which human affection even and earnest
thought may invent— by all things above and below, seen and

24
unseen, as an ambassador from God, in the stead of Christ,
for his Truth's sake, I beseech you, I beseech you all, Be ye
reconciled to God !

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