THE ASSIMILATION OF PASTOR AND PEOPLE.

A SERMON,

I'llEAC'IIED AT THE

INSTALLATION OF EEY. E. LYMAN,

WASHINGTON, CONN.,

JUNE 3 0, 1S52.

BY REV. H. D. KITCHEL,
PASTOR OF THE FIRST CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH IN DETROIT.

* DETROIT:
FREE PRESS BOOK ANI)*J01! OFFICE PRINT.
185-2. \

SERMON.

Exodus, xxxii: 35. — And the Lord plagued the people, because they made the calf
which Aaron made.
There are not a few particular truths and special
applications of truth that find no direct statement in
so many terms in the Scriptures. And yet many of
these, of great importance, drop upon us, as it were,
through the interstices of other truths; and out of
many a simple statement of fact in God's Word, a
thoughtful mind will often see some great principle
looking out upon us, some whole philosophy set forth in
a word. Our text is an instance in which a broad
principle, worthy of a volume, is simply suggested,
dropt unawares, as it were, by the inspired writer, out
of the affluence of truths with which his soul was
laden. Here, in effect, were a Minister and a People —
Aaron and the Hebrews — who, by their influence on
each other in that relation, had so molded each other,
and grown up into such unity of spirit and character,
as to have become even identified in action and in
responsibility. It is this single implication in the text
to which your attention is invited. There had resulted
between these parties such a community of sentiment
and such a correspondency of being, that they are

4
spoken of not distinctly, as having each from his own
point of individualism consented to one act, and each
by his own agency shared in its execution ; but the
deed of the one is broadly affirmed to have been the
deed of the other. The people made the calf which
Aaron made ! He made it — they made it. We might,
indeed, go on to distinguish, and say that the people
originated the plan of making an idol, and that Aaron,
with criminal facility, entered into the scheme and led
in its execution. But the inspired historian seems to
have felt that any such discriminations would be shallow
and only apparent — that underneath all these there
was a spiritual fusion of the parties into one. We
should make coarse work in dissecting any such joint
act. The sacred writer does not attempt it, but asserts
a common and indivisible agency, as of parties so
blended and interwoven together that they are identified
in their deed.
I am persuaded this peculiar form of expression was
chosen to convey a great and important truth, and one
which is especially pertinent to an occasion like this.
Suffer me, then, to drop altogether the painful transac
tion to which it refers, and fix your minds simply on
the fact which it affirms, namely : that this Minister
and People had so conformed themselves mutually to
each other, that in one of the greatest acts in their
history, the deed of the one is the deed of the other —
each acts in the act of the other — their agency, their
responsibility can no longer be discriminated.
Now, just what is so distinctly asserted and so clearly
seen in this instance, is substantially true in every
similar relation. The relation between Pastor and

People is one that tends to mold the parties to a
community of character and responsibility. They
flow into each other, and impart themselves to one
another, until each comes to act in, and to be responsi
ble for, the other, to an extent which no philosophy of
strict individualism can measure.
In attempting to unfold and illustrate this truth, I
shall feel that my topic is eminently in point to-day,
and has a deep practical interest that will stir your
minds, and suggest many a thought which I shall fail
to express.
There is a power in all near and continued intimacies,
far beyond the common apprehension — a secret power
of mutual influence, silently and deeply at work to
mold and assimilate the parties to each other. We
form all our intimate associations in this world under
this law of our Social Nature, that we impart ourselves,
our spirit, the tone and style of our being, to those
with whom we hold fellowship ; and that, in turn, we
receive their impartation of themselves to us. Every
human intimacy that proceeds on terms of cordiality
and affectionate freedom of intercourse, results in an
assimilation of character between the parties. A silent
and unconscious transfusion of spirit goes on between
them. Friend is thus reflected over into friend. Much
is neutralized — much is given, much received by each.
Neither remains what he was. Both have passed over
to a middle ground, their spirits approaching each
other and becoming attuned to a medium tone. And
this comes not of design and by purpose of the parties.
It is involuntary. It is done by a force inherent in
character. We flow into one another. Every close

G
union places our souls in contact and communion, and
they change into each other's image. Hence results
the community of character that marks even members
of the same race, the same nation, district, and, still
more, of the same family — the contagion of character
acting more intensely, and the transfusion of qualities
becoming more marked, as the circle narrows and the
contact becomes more close.
If this be true of other intimacies, it holds eminently
in the relation of Pastor and People. Only grant that
it be a real union, and not a mere disjunctive conjunc
tion, as we sometimes see it between incompatible and
distrustful parties ; grant that it be a unioii of mutual
confidence and affection, and, beyond almost any other,
it is a relation that lays open the souls of the parties
to each other, and tends to blend and mold them to a
community of thought, feeling and character. From
the first hour of such an union the process of assimila
tion commences. The connection between them is
every way fitted to promote the contagion of character.
And this influence is mutual between them. Not
only does the Pastor exert a forming power and impress
himself upon his People, but they also surround him
with influences that quite as effectively tell upon him.
There is a molding influence of a People upon their
Minister as real and important, though not so much
noted, as of a Minister upon his People.
I distinguish the following sources of that power by
which a Christian Pastor attracts and modifies and
forms his People after his own image :
1. It is a personal power. It lies in his qualities as
a man. It is as far as possible from true that it mat-

7
ters little what sort of a man is to be a Christian
Minister, provided only he be of devoted piety. It
maters vitally that he who is to go in and out and be
ever before a people, in honorable regard, in the digni
ties and solemnities of that office, and in all social
relations, should be, first of all, of the better style of
humanity, in the highest sense a Man, of true nobility
of nature, of forcible qualities and sound sense and
excellent manliness. In these lie some of the first
elements of his power. For, first of all, in order to
the full working of God's plan of a human ministry,
the people are to receive the man himself in esteem
and love — they are to receive him to the end that they
may receive something else and far better through him.
His qualities as a man will hourly work upon the com
munity in which he moves, and in a thousand secret
ways will stream in and impress and reproduce them
selves in the open souls of his people. The strength
and excellence of his personal qualities will lay strong
hold on the souls of all around him, and lift them day
by day into a higher plane of character.
2. Intellectually the Pastor has power for the forma
tion of his People. His cultivation and style of mind
will, in process of time, be essentially reproduced in
them. Let him be a man of thought and taste and
sense, let his lips be bathed in knowledge and his soul
be fed with study, let him be rich in thought, scholarly
but not scholastic, sound, elevated and elevating, and
all minds will own the secret attraction and be drawn
toward the level of his cultivation. Young and old
will feel the formative force of his mind upon theirs.
It is not enough considered what an agency for popu-

8
lar mental cultivation God has- provided in His plan of
the Christian Ministry. I question whether at this
hour more is not done by Christian Preachers, in this
indirect power of their teaching, to stir and educate
and exercise the thinking faculty among men, than by
all our schools and seminaries of every grade. This
is not,, indeed, the great intent of the Institution — but
it is a tendency which God has hidden in it, and meant
to hide, of inestimable value to the world. And it
should be a ruling point with every people in selecting
a Minister for themselves, and with all Councils intro
ducing men into the ministry, that there be in the man
such dignity of gifts, and degree of culture, and mea
sure of taste and sense in matter and manner of
thought, as shall give him power to elevate his people.
3. A power still greater is exercised by the Christian
Pastor in the sacred duties of his office, as a Minister
of Christ. He is the Teacher of Divine Truth, the
spiritual Leader and Instructor of his people. And
God has given him, in the truths of His Word, an in
strument divinely framed for this very end of molding
the hearts and characters of men. His themes are
more affecting than any other. The great problems
of Life, Duty, Character and Destiny are for him to
solve, as he is taught of God ; and in these, as the high
matter of his teaching, he brings himself closer to
men's hearts than any other can. The whole broad
field of morals is also his ; for Christ, and He cruci
fied, is no more truly in the doctrines of Faith than
He is in the Moralities and beautiful Proprieties of a
Christian Practice. All these lie around the Pastor as
his means of influence. They are instinct with the

9
power of an endless life, and mighty through God to
this very work of forming again lost souls after the
Divine image.
And for opportunity, who has it like the Christian
Pastor 1 Consider the more than a month and a half
of Sabbaths each year, that are given up to him — con
sider those hundred Sermons of his, two volumes octa
vo per annum, of prepared thought on Christian
themes — and published, too, in the most effective man
ner, by the living voice. He is to his people a whole
Tract Society in himself. Add to these the holy ordi
nances in which he ministers — the frequent scenes of
social worship, more endearing than any other — and,
still more, his privilege of bearing with him the Gospel
from house to house, every home open to him, every
family bidding him more than welcome. The channel
of communication is thus ever open between his spirit
and their's ; and the highest and warmest of human
friendships lends the power of personal affection to this
commerce of truth and prayer, of instruction and
counsel. Every joy of his people is a joy of his own —
every sorrow of their's calls him to their side — he kneels
with them by their dying, and looks with them in the
last look at their loved ones dead. Surely, in all this
he too will pass along with his messages into the souls
of his people. His theology, his thoughts, his spirit,
his religious manners, will in time be their's, even as
in water face answereth to face.
4. His gracious character will give type to the piety
of his people. More even than by his teachings, he is
to give tone to their Christian character by the tone
of his own soul. His devout, humble, earnest piety —

10
his heartiness and sober constancy in duty — the all-
subduing sovereignty of gracious principle in him — ¦
these, or the opposites of these, if they are found in
him, will breathe themselves around him and leaven
the lump. All men, and eminently the Christian Min
ister, impress themselves on others chiefly by virtue of
what they are, by the radiating power of their charac
ter — not so much by effort and intent to make men
good, as by the attractive and transforming force of
goodness existing in them and shining forth, as the sun
does, not of design and set purpose, but because it is
luminous and cannot help shining. And all hearts feel
the force of a noble and holy character as it beams
down on them in the serene beauty of goodness. Oh !
the worth of a tried and approved good man ! The
sight of him is a means of grace. He is worth more
as he moves among men than a temple. And so the
goodness of a good Christian Pastor goes forth around
him, and bathes in its brightness the souls of his peo
ple. The spirit that is in him is passing silently
and continually along the lines of love and sympathy
that bind him to the hearts of his people ; and hourly
thus, for seven days in each week, in all their houses
and in all their souls, the character of the Minister is
uttering sermons of heartfelt power. He, their Pas
tor, their beloved teacher and tried friend, is a sincere
ly devout and earnestly good man, full of love and
faith and truth : and therefore he is a man of power
for good, for by a holy contagion his spirit passes over
into them.
5. Now add to these a Divine Presence, ever work
ing in and through the Christian Minister as an am-

11
bassador of God. Faithfully employed in his work,
he has God's promise that He will be with him and
breathe a divine efficiency into him and all his efforts.
He shall himself be made a means of grace to his
people. He, and the truth he speaks, and the spirit
he breathes, and all the means he employs, shall be
breathed on from on high, and a power above human
shall energize them all. The power of the Holiest is
with him. What scenes await the devoted Pastor
when the Spirit of God moves among his flock, open
ing their souls, melting their hearts, alarming the
careless, and bending the strong will to loving submis
sion ! And how soon, thus blest of God, will the Pas
tor be able to look around him on many whom he has
led to God — between whom and him the tie of spiritual
paternity is established forever, he in Christ Jesus
having begotten them through the Gospel. And the
marks of that paternity will be in them forever.
Such are the ways in which a Pastor imparts him
self spiritually to his people and molds them after his
own image.
But this is only one part of the process of identifica
tion which is going on between them. With nearly
equal power the People react on their Pastor, impart
of their spirit to him, and attract him towards them
selves. He also changes into their likeness. While
he draws them, he is also drawn by them, toward some
style of common character between them.
It would be strange indeed if this were not so. He
too is human, a man of like passions with them, with
a nature open and sympathetic, pervious to influence,
and hungering for the sympathies of his kind. And

12
now with this open nature, the Pastor is just im
mersed in his people, bathed on all sides in their views,
sympathies and opinions — all that they think and feel
streaming in upon him, and producing an effect. Every
day their influence is at work upon him, sometimes
silently, often not silently. It should be so ; for half
his power to do them good comes of his being thus
steeped in the thoughts and feelings of men, one with
them in all that is right, that he may correct the
wrong. The plan might have been that he should be
let down when the bell tolled, to preach and straight
way be caught away upward again, and be seen no
more among men till the bell should ring him down
again. But with all the advantages of such a plan in
respect of salary and slip-renting, totally the other
scheme is adopted. The Pastor is, as far as he well
can be, identified with his people, steeped in the social
influences of the parish, and touched by all the epi
demics of popular sympathy. And in virtue of his
humanity, unconsciously he imbibes at every pore the
popular spirit on a thousand points, and is colored with
the social hues around him. This may work harm —
he may be corrupted ; but it also enters largely among
his capabilities of usefulness ; and whether the effect
be good or bad, the fact stands : The Pastor will largely
contract the common sentiment and spirit of his
people. So much will be done by way of sympathy. And
then, more directly, the forming of their Pastor is very
much in the hands of the people. As he comes to
them he is simply the material out of which they are
to make for themselves a good Minister. As he comes

13
to them, whatever he may have been to others, or
whatever he may be capable of becoming, he is as yet,
to them, simply a man of devoted piety, of good gifts
and cultivation — a good beginning of a good Minister.
And now, with this as their capital, with God's bles
sing on him and them, they may go on to make of him,
year by year, a more and more able, influential, elo
quent, devoted, and every way successful and precious
Minister of Christ, ripening him in gifts and power
and grace, into that noblest character of a Pastor after
Christ's own heart — or they may so deal with him as
to obstruct his growth, and cramp his powers, and
minify all his capacities as a man, as a Christian, and
as a Minister, and ripen him for a speedy dismission.
1. See, first, how much will be done to this end by
the simple fact that he is taken cordially home into
the affections and confidence of his people, to dwell in
their hearts — or by the other fact, that he must walk
ever as on trial, over the hot embers of parish conten
tions, with eager jealousies and personal dislikes ever
biting at him as he goes. Were I called upon to de
pict a condition of things more calamitous and com
fortless than any other, I would select the case of a
Pastor and People between whom mutual confidence
and affection were at an end, and their place filled with
a cold, suspicious alienation. A condition more to be
deprecated, on all sides, I cannot conceive. And on
the other hand, were I to look on earth for a picture
of blessedness over which a passing angel would pause
with delight as like his native heaven, I would look
for some Christian people united in bonds of sacred
affection to the Pastor of their choice, their hearts

14'
wedded to each other, intent on each other's peace and
highest welfare, and each forgiving the other that their
human is not divine. But laying happiness and use
fulness both aside, settle which of these is to be a Min
ister's condition and you settle nearly the whole ques
tion as to his growth in gifts and in grace. In the
sunshine of his people's love he will thrive in all great
ness and goodness — denied that, his heart is chilled
and his intellect blunted within him.
2. Consider, briefly and parenthetically, how much
it decides for or against a Minister's increase in weight
and worth, whether he is placed in a condition of
pecuniary comfort and peace in his pocket, or whether
he is doomed to be harassed with debts, imperative to
be contracted, but the payment in the optative. It is
all done for a man in the latter case. Grow, when all
the roots of his honorable manhood are cut off, and he
is distracted by sitting forever on committee of ways
and means of living! Doubtless he will grow like
unto his people, small, unjust, and withered in spirit.
Muzzle the ox, and lo ! in his leanness he staggers in
the furrow ! " Thou shalt not muzzle the ox that
treadeth out the corn. Doth God take care for oxen"
only, and not for His Ministers also ?
3. Two very different conceptions may be cherished
by a people as to what the chief work of a Minister is.
The one makes it the grand method and chief aim of
ministerial labor, to circulate, to pastorize, to spend
himself mainly in social operations and personal ap
proaches, with studies so abbreviated and sermons so
extemporized as the case may demand. The other
places the Sacred Desk in the foreground, and regards

15
the Minister as first of all a public Teacher of high and
heavenly things, encouraging him therefore before all
things else to be a diligent student, searching far and
wide and meddling with all the knowledges that per
tain to divine matters. Very different results will
inevitably flow from these two methods. The unwise
people that will form their minister on the first of
these plans should lay their account that he will speed
ily descend into tedious performances and vain repe
titions. The terrible but righteous penalty would be,
that, having made him, they should keep him. Those
dull, frivolous discourses of his — who made them?
Who made the calf which Aaron made 1 And their
just retribution should be to sit and listen to him till
death should afford them relief.
Of all the labors which a Minister can perform for
his people, none is so indispensable and every way
profitable, none by the neglect of which he so deeply
defrauds both himself and them, as that labor which
he performs in his study — the labor of research, of
reading, of thought, and of the pen. On this depends
his permanent worth as a preacher. Social and pas
toral duties are second to this. I do not disparage
these, but I distinctly pronounce them, and would call
upon every people to esteem them, second in impor
tance as they are in ultimate usefulness. The Minister
whose profiting shall appear, who will be more prized
after ten years hearing than at first, is he who, first of
all, devotes to his preparation for the desk so much,
and the best, of his time and strength, more or less, as
he shall find requisite for the production of well-con
sidered, thoroughly thoughtful discourses. This first

16
— then so much of pastoral omnipresence as remains
practicable. It is easy to see how a people, loving
their minister not wisely but well, may be strongly
tempted to insist upon his social and pastoral labors
to an extent quite incompatible with his highest suc
cess as a preacher. And it is easy to understand how
their preferences should have power to seduce him into
compliance, to his injury and their's. It may be more
grateful to his people, for the present, that he should
spend himself in retailing the Gospel by their firesides.
And much of that he should do — prompt especially to
respond to the divine call in the sickness, the trials,
and sufferings of his people. But after all this, it re
mains his first grand work to preach the Gospel, and
do it as well as he can — too feebly done even then.
And the abilities of that minister are rare indeed, or
his idea of a good Gospel Sermon very different from
mine, who does not often deny himself the pleasures of
social and pastoral intercourse among his people, and
betake himself to the solitude of the study. Something
more goes to the production of such a Sermon than
simply that one stand and deliver.
4. A People will do much to form their Minister by
the manner in which they appreciate his efforts. It
will make all the difference in the world with him
whether they discern the good, the better and the best
in his efforts, and prize things worthy at their worth,
or whether they esteem all things alike. The growing
ability and richness of service in their Minister is, in
this way, determined in great measure by the people
themselves. They may make him a studious dealer in
substantial thought, inspired with that most genuine

11
eloquence which lies in the earnest utterance of felt
truth — or they may infuse into his trite and common
place homilies all the qualities of an opiate. They
have but to show him, in ways very significant and
which he will not fail to understand, that they expect
nothing from him worth their coming or their keeping
awake to hear — he has but ,to see that they prize his
best efforts no more than his most extemporaneous
thoughts in the loosest dress, and his ministrations will
soon sink to such a character of dullness and insipidity
as will not long be endurable. Then comes the old sad
story of disaffection, their indifference feeding itself
into alienation, till the profitless union hastens to a
close. This is no mere theory. Very many of the
dissensions that occur on the ground that the minister
fails to interest and profit his people, ought to be as
cribed to the people themselves, as having created, in
large part, the very fault of which they complain.
Had they prized at its just worth every really able
effort that he made — had they discerned and duly rel
ished every well-presented subject, every well-wrought
discourse, every choice and noble sentiment, the ground
of his dismissal had never existed, and the bonds of
esteem and affection had been loosened only by death.
Behold, they have made the calf which Aaron made.
His heavy, spiritless style, and dull discourse are their
own production.
And here let me take occasion to say — what Minis
ters cannot very well say to their own people, but
which greatly needs to be said and considered — that
there are many ways in which, with no approach
toward adulation, a people may show their Pastor that

18
they understand and value his efforts. It seems, often,
that a people regard themselves as under bonds to utter
no word, to give no overt token, of their pleasure and
profit in their Pastor's ministrations. Why should
there not be, instead of this reserve, a frank expression,
under law of taste and discretion, of the esteem in
which they hold his labors 1 His heart is the heart of
a man. Often it sinks wifhin him under his toils and
weakness. It resents the cold official isolation to
which it is too often consigned, and craves human
sympathy and words of honest commendation. Oh !
if people did but know how like water to a thirsty soul
the truthful and honest expression of their pleasure
and profit from his labors would often be to their Min
ister — how it would come on his many hours of weari
ness, and it may be of despondency, like a ray of spir
itual sunshine, could he Only know what is often known
to many of his people, for instance, that such a dis
course was as the arrow of God to such a sinner — that
another was as balm to the spirit of some troubled
believer — that such a view of his had poured light on
this or that soul's darkness — could he know these things
as many a time they are known to others, it would be
as the girdle of the Lord to his weary loins ; his mind
would gain an impulse better than the fire of genius ;
his pen and. tongue and soul would glow with new
courage that his work was not in vain in the Lord.
5. A good Minister is, in large part, the growth of
time. Especially his real worth to his own people is
the product of continuance. They must keep him.
Other things being right, every year of his continu
ance among them will add largely to his weight and

19
worth and power to do them good. All the best
meaning and real efficiency of a minister — all that fine
and impalpable net- work of moral forces and influences,
which go to make up his character and give him power
and validity — all these are of home growth, have local
relations, and can be acquired only by continuance
and identification with his people. They do not come
along with his Greek and Hebrew, in the Seminary ;
neither can he pack up hisministerial character and
whole significance, as he can his library, and carry it
with him to a new parish.
Let the people, then, who would form for themselves
a ripe and complete Minister, keep him till he can
attain to years of discretion among them. Let him
dwell among his own people a whole generation, if
God will ; and every year shall find him more abun
dantly rich in grace and power. Even as it is written,
" the old is better ;" and no wise people, blest with an
adult Minister, will straightway desire a young one.
All things must indeed be young before they can be
old — and therefore God allows of young Ministers.
We must needs begin, but a considerate people will
begin in this matter just as seldom as possible.
I have dwelt too long, I fear, on these several meth
ods in which a Pastor and People act and re-act on
each other. But now, is it not manifest that they lay
a broad foundation for the blending of spirit and char
acter and for the moral identification of the parties 1
And now let these influences go on and have their
perfect work — let time be given for this commingling
and assimilating process to reach a complete result,
and you have, as that result, a Pastor and People who

20
have so imparted themselves to each other and flowed
together, that there is now not so much a likeness as
a moral sameness, in them. A deep spiritual affinity,
a moral kinsmanship, is now established between them.
His image is on them, their's on him, forever. They
have graven deep lines in each other's souls. They
have contracted a profound relationship of spirit, which
no time, no changes, can ever dissolve.
Such was God's intent in the appointment of a
human ministry ; and wherever that ministry works
truly and fully, it works out just this result. Look
wherever it has wrought long and well, and this re
sult is legible to every eye. Look especially upon
New England, dear to us all, and blest of God, as it
has been, with a faithful and permanent Ministry, how
many are the instances there found in which Pastor
and People, after a long and happy union, are thus
visibly and strongly marked with the same traits, the
same spirit, and character. This may be more obvious
in the molding of the people after the stamp of their
Pastor — but the approach has been mutual. Often
the strong qualities of a Minister are seen to charac
terize a whole community long after he is sleeping in
his grave. He, in his day, entered as a leavening ele
ment into his people, and now, even to the third gen
eration, his name is a name of love on their lips, and
his qualities are in the marrow of that people, and flow
down as an ingrained blessing from sire to son. He
being dead still speaks, still ministers to them. His
memory is blessed. Time lends its aid and throws a
mellow and magnifying radiance over the cherished
remembrances of that good old Minister, who, rich in

21
years and grace and fruits, went down among them in
his white hairs and holy honors to his rest.
It is instructive, and should be encouraging to us on
whom the work of this ministry now rests, to meditate
upon the fact that almost every old parish once had a
perfect minister— one, perhaps more than one, whose
memory thus flourishes green and stainless, and whose
name is henceforth a symbol among them of all that is
good and great. But these were all at some distance
in the past. Back thirty or fifty years, we find the
Hero Age of the Ministry. There were giants in the
earth in those days. It is not for us to say that they
did, not in fact surpass the later generations of Minis
ters — neither are we to believe that in all such cases
they did. Could we go back to their time, and see
them as they were seen by those who sat under their
ministration, they would not in most cases differ
greatly from Ministers now on the earth. Time has
enlarged and glorified them. The softening air of dis
tance has lovingly buried every fault and enhanced
every excellence ; and, in the memory of gray-haired
men and women, those old and reverend Ministers, the
Angels of the churches, who laid the baptismal water
on their brows, who molded them in childhood, and
taught them in manhood, and led them to Christ, now
loom up in the past with a greatness and perfectness
more than human. In truth, there never can be, as
there never were, while actually alive and among men,
such Ministers as many have come to be in the affec
tionate memories of men, now that they have passed
away from the earth. They were human, even as we ;
they too had their faults — preached personal sermons

22
— had hard things said of them — were even at times
almost dismissed. But all this time has covered.
Only the good, the beautiful, the great remains, larger
and brighter than ever !
The secret of all this lies in the molding process
which we have contemplated. These Pastors in their
day inwrought themselves with the very being of their
people, and left themselves deep in their hearts as a
permanent moral Force,, still working on when they
are dead ; and thus, in his retired and humble parish,
the man of God stirred a concentric wave in the great
sea of moral and spiritual Influences, that still goes
rolling out and onward, and shall roll forever. And
such a power, more or less, every faithful Pastor may
still hope to wield.
But there is a view still higher and more precious.
The spiritual affinity which thus results between Pas
tor and People is too essential and intimate ever to be'
annulled. What they have wrought in each other can
never be undone. The lines they have drawn in each
other's character will abide, and be seen and read by
them long after time has had an end. Death will have
no power to dissolve that spiritual relationship which
has thus been cemented between them. And here
these thoughts reach upward, and open out amid the
scenes of eternity, beyond our grasp. We trace the
endearing and uniting power of the Pastoral relation
onward even to the grave — and how is it beyond?
Will all these bonds be broken, will this unity be rup
tured, as they pass into the spiritual world? No,
verily. Rather they will be a thousand-fold strength
ened then. A thousand-fold more clearly will they

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then see and feel forever all that they have been and
all that they have done to each other. A relation so
intimate and influential as this, which had power here
to wed soul to soul and leave its impress in the very
depths of character — such a relation, we may assure
ourselves, is not for this world only, but will be taken
up substantially in the life to come, and find some
glorious completion there. To believe otherwise would
imply a violent disruption of this life from the life to
come, such as would leave atmost no connection be
tween them.
It remains, then, that the relation between Pastor
and People, long associated on terms of affectionate
esteem, communing together in the fellowship of Doc
trine and Duty, sharing in the same tuition of Provi
dence and the Spirit, until the full influence of the
union has been realized in the confluence of spirit and
the mutual molding of character, is a relation that
defies death, and reaches over in its product into the
better life. There are paternal and filial ties as deep
in the spirit as in the flesh ; and it cannot be that these
shall not hold in heaven. It cannot be that parties
who have blended into spiritual unity here shall be all
lost to each other there, unknowing and unknown
among the multitudes of the ransomed. Nay, but such
a Pastor and People will rush together then, and be
cemented in a higher and purer fellowship than ever.
He shall be theirs — they shall be his — as their portion
and the crown of their rejoicing for ever. They shall
possess one another in virtue of the good they have
wrought in each other, by that imperishable and in
alienable investment which they have made in each
other's character.

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And so of God's grace it shall come to pass, that in
heaven, around each holy man of God, who in his day
wrought faithfully in the great trust of this Ministry,
shall gather, as the years roll by, all in whose salva
tion he bore part, all whom he forwarded toward the
glory of perfected goodness, all whose character he
touched with a more CHRisT-like nobleness and beauty.
And the number of these shall fill him with wonder
and joy. He did moSe good than he knew. He
dreamed not that he started such wide and lasting in
fluences, that should go on working good, in ways past
all tracing, long after he was in heaven. And while
the ages go on, as in glad expectancy he looks out
earthward from the Celestial City on the fast-coming
throngs of the redeemed, behold ! as the fruits beyond
measure of the seed he sowed, his own spiritual children
come flocking homeward, as clouds on the wind, and as
doves to their windows ! All these shall be his, and
he shall be theirs forever. Each in the Lord shall be
the treasure and the joy of the other.

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