V €\)t mik of t|? SBfofrtaj. A SERMON, P REACHED AT THE INSTALLATION OF THE REV. T. H, ROUSE, IN JAMESTOWN, N. Y. JANUARY 8, 1857. BY WALTER CLARKE, D. D., PASTOR OP THE SECOND CHUKCH, HARTFORD. HARTFORD: PRESS OF CASE, TIFFANY AND COMPANY. 1857. ¦% Wwk nf tlte 3&fowta|. A SERMON, PREACHED AT THE INSTALLATION OF THE REV. T. H. ROUSE, IN JAMESTOWN, N. Y. JANUARY 8, 1857. BY WALTER CLARKE, D. D., PASTOR 07 THE SECOND CHURCH, HARTFORD. HARTFORD: PRESS OF CASE, TIFFANY AND COMPANY. 1857. SEEMON EPHESIANS, 4 : 11, 12. AND HE GAVE SOME APOSTLES, AND SOME PROPHETS, AND SOME EVANGELISTS, AND BOMB PAS TORS AND TEACHERS ; FOR THE PERFECTING OF THE SAINTS, FOR THE WORK OF THE MINISTRY, FOR THE EDIFYING OF THE BODY OF CHRIST. These words reveal the origin, and declare the object, of the Christian Ministry. Apostles and prophets and evangelists and teachers, and if there be any other order of actual and accepted ministers, are all and all alike, Christ's bequest to the world. He gave them. Coming from him they come on his errand, and are here to do his work. What is that work? It is a question for ministers. It is a ques tion for the churches. Nay, it is a question for all who enjoy the services of the ministry, — What is the precise and definite work, assigned by our Sovereign Lord, to his heralds and ministers? My text you perceive answers this question. It tells us that the ascended Savior has sent to his church, the ministry in its several orders, or divisions, that they may per fect his saints. That then is the prescribed work of the Christian Ministry. And here I have my theme for this occasion. I propose to discourse to you, my brethren, upon the prescribed and proper work of the Christian Minis- try. I shall set forth that work, as it is authorita tively defined, and exactly described in my text, representing it, as a work to be performed within the church and upon the saints, a work namely of perfecting the people of God. It must be acknowledged, however, here at the outset of our inquiries, that at first view, the defini tion given in the text, seems to be incomplete and partial. The apostle has apparently omitted, at least, two essential departments of the minister's appointed work. It is undoubtedly of great importance that God's people detained in his earthly churches, should be instructed and edified. But is it not equally de sirable, that general intelligence should be promoted, and social order secured, and public virtue enforced? And is it not plainly part of the appointed work of the ministry to suggest and set forward all needed reforms, to instruct rulers, to assist in laying down the platforms of parties, to be present in caucus meetings and congresses, to name presidents, and superintend generally the business and the morals of the world? Do not all these public interests need supervision? Are they not all in the empire and under the authority of Christ the Lord, and so responsible to his appointed ministers? And yet in this seemingly careful statement of the inspired apostle, touching the proper business of the ministry in this world, no mention is made of any of these duties. Is there a serious omission then in our text? But again : the apostle has said nothing in this text, of the work of the ministry among the unre- generate outside the church. It is certainly of the utmost consequence to the well-being of society and the progress of religion, that sinners should be in structed and brought to repentance. It has always been considered an important part of a minister's duty to seek in all possible ways, and by the most earnest and persevering endeavors, the conversion of his impenitent hearers. And yet in this inspired account of the work assigned to the ministry, nothing is said of labor among the ungodly. What shall we say to these things? Is the text defective? Has the apostle set down only a part of the minister's work? Or have we been mistaken, falsely imagining that the ministers of religion had in charge the public morals and the souls of the un- regenerate ? The answer to these questions is not difficult or doubtful. It can not be claimed for a moment by any candid reader of the New Testament that questions of public virtue and general well being have been by authority of Christ, ruled out of the mind and the care of his ministers. They owe it to their Master, and owe it to their office, to labor diligently and zealously, to advance intelligence, and develop virtue, and promote just legislation among all orders of the people. Nor can it be questioned, that it is also part of the minister's appointed and indispensa ble work, to seek the conversion and salvation of the impenitent. The question is not at all a ques tion of doing or neglecting. It is only a question of doing in one way, or in another and less successful way. For example: admit that the minister of Christ is appointed to supervise and improve the public morals. It will still be matter of careful con sideration, by what kind of endeavors, and what kind of work, he can best accomplish what he de sires? If it be conceded, as it doubtless will be, that no instrumentality is so efficient and so sure, for this object, as is a good example, and if it be con fessed furthermore, that the saints of God exhibit in their daily walk a good example, just in proportion as they are edified in grace and perfected in god liness ; then the way, the precise and particular way, for a minister to promote public virtue is by obeying the text, and edifying and perfecting the saints. The history of all the centuries informs us that one good man is worth more to the community and to the world, than volumes of sermons. If this be so, and nobody doubts it, it decides the question concern ing the course to be taken by Christ's ministers. Let them do their utmost to furnish and send forth into all the walks and relationships of society, saints, that are not only converted but also exemplary and eminent. The text, therefore, includes, though it does not name this important work. But again : it is unquestionably the duty of every minister of Christ to seek the conversion of the impenitent. The only question to be asked on this point is, as before, — In what way ? Every one ans wers, — In the most certain and the most successful way. The conversion of sinners is a matter of such infinite moment to all persons and parties, that no congregation and no community and no man can afford to have it attempted, and especially by the minister of Christ, in any but the best way. What is that best way ? There are certain facts, derived from long experience, which will assist us in answer ing this question. Let us attend to them, and that with a becoming patience and care and candor. First then : It is a fact proved by the experiment of ages, that the ministry which fails to edify and perfect the people of God, fails also, and in every instance, in its attempts to convert sinners. Look the world over, and it was never known that a min ister of Christ was successful among the ungodly, who was either negligent or impotent in his work among the saints. It would seem from this single fact that the power of the ministry over impenitent men, is in some way dependent on its success among the people of God. But let us advance a step ; and say secondly, — It is another fact equally well attested, that when ever the ministry has been successful in its pre scribed and specific work of perfecting the saints, it has succeeded also in gathering and converting sinners. History has another law which we must not fail to study in this connection. In the progress of the ages, great numbers of persons, of all ranks, races and conditions have been converted and brought into the church. Now it is a most interesting and instructive inquiry, — By what agency, that is, by what personal agency and human endeavor, have these impenitent souls been converted? We all believe that whoever is truly converted is born of the Holy Spirit, and of divine truth. And we are inquiring now, not for 8 the efficient author, or the inspired instrument of regeneration, but for the human agency through which this work has been effected in former times. If those who have been brought into the kingdom of Christ thus far, have been awakened and led to the Savior mainly by ministers and sermons, that fact ought to be discovered and published. For it reveals to the people of God, that the converting instrumentality of the church is hid in the pulpit. If, on the contrary, it be a fact that a large majority of all the converts of all past ages, have been brought to Christ, by the labors and prayers and pious exam ples of other orders of christians, that fact ought to be ascertained and published. For it declares that God's people, and not his ministers, are the appointed and chief instrumentality for the conversion of the wicked. Now what is the truth on this question? Take the members of any one of your churches, the present or the previous members, and inquire into the origin of their religious history, and I venture the assertion, that seven-tenths of them were brought to inquiry and repentance neither by ministers, nor by sermons, but by the personal influence and faith ful endeavors of private christians. Doubtless min isters and sermons contributed something to the final result. But the direct and the decisive instrumen tality, was that of private christians. And if we pass to other sections of Christendom, and go back to former ages, the same law has prevailed in all countries and under all dispensations, since there was a church in the world. More than seven-tenths of all the converts who have ever entered the fold 9 of the Redeemer, have been led to the Savior, not by sermons, but by private endeavors made by indi vidual christians. In this great and glorious work of gathering for Christ, parents have ever had the chief honor and the greatest success. My brethren, here is an array of well attested and impressive facts. We can not deny them. We can not ignore them. They stand before us bearing a lesson and a meaning. What are we to infer from these decisive experiments, and these unquestioned results ? Nobody it seems to me, can hesitate as to the inference. These facts inform us, that the church, not the ministry, the church is God's great converting instrumentality in this world. But we have not done yet with the experiments and the lessons of the past. More than seven-tenths of all the converts who have come into the church, thus far, have been led to Christ by the endeavors and the prayers of private christians. That is one fact. Another is, that whenever this work of con verting the ungodly, has been transferred to the ministry, whether by the negligence of the people, or the usurpation of the preacher, it has uniformly declined and failed. It is God's purpose and com mand that his people shall bring sinners to his Son. And therefore so soon as private christians lay off their responsibilities, and suspend the work of calling impenitent ones to Christ, impenitent men cease coming to Christ. But all experience declares, once more, what it needs no experience to understand and believe, that private christians are qualified and disposed to engage in this good work, just in the pro- 2 10 portion in which they are perfected and sanctified. Parents, Sabbath School teachers, and others in other relations, uniformly undertake this work, and suc ceed in it, according to the measure of their piety and spirituality and faith. With these facts in view, what shall a minister of Christ do, who desires the conversion of impenitent men, and wishes to do just what shall be most wise and most effectual for that end ? Of course he will preach the Word, declaring to men the whole counsel of God. Whatever truth or duty is sent to sinners in the inspired message, he will dehver, and deliver to the 'right persons. That is to say, he will divide the Word, and give to every hearer his portion. But while he preaches to saints and sinners alike, on what will he rely for his chief success among the impenitent. Why plainly, not on sermons and ex hortations addressed to the ungodly, but on the example and the influence of the people of God. And to make that example most impressive and that influence most potent, he will give himself earnestly and daily to the work set down in my text, edifying the body of Christ and perfecting his saints. The apostle does not abridge the functions, and contract the field of the ministry, then, by the terms of our text. For whatever it is proper for a chris tian pastor to do, or to attempt to do, in his official caUing, whether it be to reconstruct governments, or reform rulers, or improve the public morals, or con vert impenitent men, he can do successfully and safely only through the instrumentality of a sancti fied and symmetric church. When therefore the 11 inspired apostle bids the ministry to seek first of all and chiefly, the perfection of Christ's servants and saints, he comprehends in that one work, and that by its certain and predestined issues, all the offices and all the ends of the ministry. Our way is now open to the subject in hand. The great and leading work assigned to the Christian Ministry in this world, is the work of edifying and perfecting the saints. This is the doctrine of our text. This is the theme of our sermon. Perfecting the saints obviously means, improving and perfecting their christian character. And a christian's character may be improved or perfected in two ways; first as respects its symmetry, and secondly as respects its measure. By the first pro cess, absent graces are supplied and dwarfed affections developed, and the character that was before deform ed, is rounded and finished. By the second process all the graces are developed together to greater strength and ripeness. This is the work to be per formed by Christ's ministering servants, edifying and perfecting his saints. Contemplating our subject more directly now, let us consider — I. What obvious occasion there is for just this WORK, IN EVERY ONE OF THE CHURCHES OF CHRIST. Take for example, this church to which we are to day to give a pastor, a church of a hundred and twenty, or a hundred and fifty members, gathered out of all ranks, conditions, ages and callings, in this community. Set before your mind in the first in- 12 stance, some one of these communicants, and care fully note his present condition as a christian. There are in his heart all the rudiments and first principles of genuine piety ; aU gracious affections, all good instincts. These were secretly implanted by the Holy Spirit, at his conversion. There are also as the fruit of the first uses of these new affections, the begin nings perhaps of a complete set of christian habits. So much has been accomplished. Religion has un folded so far in that regenerate mind. But look again, and that with a view to discover how much remains to be done in that mind and heart, before the religion of Christ has captured and cleansed and sanctified the entire man. In the first place, all the old corrupt affections, that like secreted diseases, or the roots of weeds, remain in that regenerate heart, are to be detected and dislodged. Secondly, all the old worldly habits of thinking, of feeling, of acting, that have been for years woven into the very fabric of his daily life, are to be separated and thrown aside. And then thirdly, the new affections and first principles of grace, now so weak, so timid, and so intermittent, are to be developed, and confirmed, and made strong within, and courageous and conspic uous in their outward acts. All the germs of chris tian habits too, are to be watched and nurtured and led up to strength and steadfastness. So much re mains to be done, after the convert has entered the church and come under the care of a pastor. And you will observe, my brethren, that all this remaining work is to be done, in one and but one way. Since the Holy Spirit never adds a new faculty to the new 13 man, the child of grace, like the babe of nature is complete, so far as organic powers are concerned, from the moment of birth. Accordingly, whatever the christian gains or reaches after conversion, must come as the fruit of simple culture; must come, that is, through the one process of perfecting present graces. What a work waits the hand of the pastor then, in every beUeving soul of his charge! And how appropriate the term which, to describe that work, caUs it perfecting the saints. Take another view of the case. You have before you a given christian, member of the church and servant of Christ. Take now the several traits, graces, and habits, that make up his religious character, and just picture to yourselves in imagination, what would happen to those qualities and affections, if religion were to become fully developed in that converted soul. Descend to particulars. There is in that heart a genuine christian faith. You observe however that at present, it is exceedingly weak, is rather the germ of faith, thanfaith itself. Butit is capable of an unlim ited expansion and an immense improvement. Ex pand it then. Make it all that christian culture and christian capacity permit; all that can be expected or experienced this side of heaven. And what en largement of capacity and power, would come to that single trait! Take next the man's prayers. You see what they are now; genuine and sincere, but exceedingly defi cient in scope and spirit, in devout affection and power with God. Improve these prayers, in temper, in frequency, in faith, in tone, and substance, 14 and scope, till the supphcant can accomplish day after day at the throne of grace, aU that it is permitted to mortal supplication to achieve. And what an amaz ing increase and expansion has been wrought, by just perfecting in the saints the one grace of prayer. Take once more for illustration, the example of the christian. We aU observe what it is now ; luminous at points, but obscured and disfigured on every side by remaining sins, or the scars of sins erased. But im prove that example. Improve it just as far as it is possible in this world, to improve the visible charac ter, and increase the personal influence of a christian. And what a removal of the old eclipse of sin, and what an expansion of Hght, and beauty, and power ensue as the certain and glad result. Who can tell how much of this glorious and goodly work, of perfect ing holiness in the fear of God, remains to be accom plished in any single christian mind. Here is the work given in charge to the gospel ministry. Take these converts, says the Savior, and busy yourself day by day, perfecting their graces. Thus far we have looked only at the work to be done in a single regenerate mind. Let us enlarge the view for a moment now, and conceive of an entire church of converted men and women. Here are a hundred, here are perhaps six hundred regenerate souls, committed to the care of a single pastor. And in each of these souls, there is such a work to be done, as we have tried to conceive and delineate. Take 'these babes in religion, these beginners in godliness, and per fect them says the Savior. In their interior graces, and their outward example; in their habits of wor- 15 ship, and work, and intercourse, improve them, im prove them all, building up religion upon its own foundations, and perfecting the work, which has been so hopefully commenced. My hearers, can any of us fail to see, that there is in every church of Christ on earth, an occasion and a call for this very work which our text tells us has been assigned to the minis try? Had the Savior omitted to provide for such a work, would not the churches, long before this, have together implored him to consider their necessities, and give them apostles, and prophets, and evangelists, and pastors, and teachers, for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ ? You have seen the obvious need of this work. Consider now in the second place, II. Its very great importance. And to discern this, reflect, in the first instance, on the fact that the work in question is absolutely in dispensable. Every christian is caUed to holiness : to incipient holiness at conversion ; to increased and proximate holiness, by subsequent culture in the school of Christ on earth ; and to consummate and perfect holiness in the kingdom of God on high. At conversion this great work of sanctification and growing purity commences, and as every such work must commence, in an act of divine power. The believer is then created in Christ Jesus unto good works. At the resurrection, there wiU occur another supernatural act, and another miraculous change in the christian's character and condition. But between these two points, between the regeneration of the soul, and the resurrection or regeneration of the body, 16 there lies an interval in which there is to be in the case of aU who live after their conversion in this lower world, a growth and a progress of genuine piety. And this growth in grace is everywhere set down in the New Testament, not only as a mark of the true religion, but also as an indispensable attain ment. But the only way the saint can grow in grace is that described in our text. The believer grows, while, and only while ministers, and ordinances, and duties, and discipline, attended and enlivened by the Holy Spirit, perfect his existing habits and edify his present piety. Here then is a work, that is not only important, it is also indispensable. The christian must be delivered from his sins. These pernicious sores must be healed. If ordinances and instructions are too weak to do the work ; if the ministers of grace labor in vain, to perfect his children, sooner than see his purpose fail, God will send his minis ters of judgment, and hew* off tenacious habits and tough sins, with his sharp axe of affliction. Here then is our first view of the work in question, look ing at its importance. It is a work which if not done by the ministry, must be done by severity and discipline. The saints of God are called to holiness, and by one means or another, a faithful Savior will make them holy. It will assist us to estimate aright the great importance of this work if we con sider, secondly, How much the peace and usefulness of every christian must of necessity depend upon his growth in grace. What is it that like a gangrene in the heart, is continually eating out the vigor and the life 17 and the happiness of the saint, giving leanness to his graces, and alarm to his hopes? We all know. His remaining sins eat like a canker, so long as they are not subdued and eradicated. And what is it that is continually tarnishing the lustre, and defacing the beauty of the christian's example? Everybody answers, — His remaining sins, creeping ever between him and Heaven to eclipse his graces and darken his life. And what relief has the saint? How can he retain the vigor and the joy of his religion? How can he keep the light that shines in his example, that is to say, how can he escape this ever return ing cloud of sin ? There is but one way ; and that is described in my text, where the ministers of Christ are sent to their task, and told to employ themselves continually in perfecting the saints. Whatever the peace and usefulness of a hundred or many hundred regenerate souls are worth to them, and to the world, then, that and more is tl^ value of this work of per fecting the saints. I say that and more. For con sider, thirdly, That since by a law in the kingdom of God, the convert's capacities for receiving and enjoying the Holy Spirit on the one hand, and for communicating his influences on the other, increase in the exact proportion of his rehgious growth, — all the higher measures of grace, and all the riper and richer forms of experience are reserved, to be conferred, if at all, after the convert has advanced to superior stages of attainment, and reached a higher stature in grace. The lowest measure of the Holy Spirit — if such a phrase may be used for mere illustration — the small- 3 18 est measure of renovating grace ever given to one of God's people, is given at conversion. Just as in the distributions of his Providence, God sends to the buds and the grasses of spring, the faintest beams of the sun, reserving the hot noons and harvest weeks, for their riper hours — and gives to babes, the tiniest thoughts and the feeblest strength, keeping manlier ideas, and greater vigor, for manly years; so in divid ing to his people the grace of the Holy Spirit, he gives the convert what the convert needs, but with holds the higher and the richer measures, for riper wants and later uses. How then shall the members of a church attain to these higher measures of grace and power ? What shall a pastor do to lead his re generate flock up to these waiting treasures? Sup pose he never tries to do this. Suppose he and his people are content with mere conversion. If they can gather annually, or once in ten years, a harvest of regenerated souls, and add them to the church, they are satisfied. Religion prospers. The gospel is doing its work, they say. But is it so ? Does a church that receives only these first measures of grace ; a church whose ripest and best members are ever its most recent converts ; a church in which nothing is done or done effectually, to attain and enjoy and illustrate the higher forms of experience and the larger measures of grace; a church which habitually loses all but the mere beginnings of piety ; does such a church prosper? Would a village ever prosper in which the babes remained babes to the last? Would a farm prosper if the blades of corn and wheat which shot up in spring, remained sta tionary and the same, till autumn frosts fell on them? 19 This is not prosperity, my hearers. Let us be grate ful to God for his converting grace. Let us welcome with hearty thanksgiving, every regenerate soul that asks admission to our churches. But let us at the same time remember, that unless these converts, and the older saints with whom they associate, ascend together on this path of perfection described in the text, they and the church in which they sleep and shrivel, lose God's richest grace and come short of his best gifts. Let the pastor especially, understand and remember, that only by doing his appointed work, perfecting those whom God has converted and put under his care, can he lead his people to those wells of salvation and rivers of grace, for which conversion is no substitute, is only the preparation and the promise. What an accession of grace and power would come to our churches could we but get these reserved treasures, and these later donations of the Holy Spirit ! Though not a soul were converted, and not another member added, if those who are now within the fold could be put in possession of the grace, which God stands so ready to bestow, what a baptism would that be to all these thirsty hearts. One well developed man is worth more than many babes. In a house, in an army, in a village, men are mighty, babes weak. When will pastors and churches so understand the mind of God, that they shall togther seek, through the one method of perfecting the saints, to fill these nurseries with men, men in faith, men in stature, men in power ! But there is even a higher view than this, revealing the importance of the work assigned to the Christian Ministry. It is, fourthly — 20 The fact that the honor of Christ and the credit of his religion, depend in this world, on the develop ment which that religion attains and manifests, in the visible character of its converts. Christianity, it should be remembered, has but one residence in our world. Religion lives not in our creeds, or sermons, or scriptures. These are glasses, in which the daughter of God sees her own likeness. Religion lives in the hearts, and reveals herself in the lives of God's regenerate people. And as that is the only real Christianity which men can find, they' judge of Christ and his religion by this only specimen, looking ever at the example of the church. Now religion may exist in either of three conditions : in germ and embryo, as in the convert; in caricature and disgrace, as in the backslider ; or in complete development and full splendor, as in the ripened and symmetric saint. What then if in our churches we have converts and backsliders, but no ripened souls, no finished saints. What if evangelists and pastors and teachers become content with labors and suc cesses that only restore the lapsed to the standing of converts, and increase the ranks with added re cruits. What if we shall even get to that, that we ask and expect of our revivals, only that they shall give us a Christianity such as appears in the convert; and are content to show to the world, this as our highest specimen and best form of religion. My Brethren, is it not time we were pondering the ques tion with profound seriousness and much prayer, whether we are not dishonoring Christ and doing violence to religion, by consenting to exhibit it ever in embryo as in the convert, or in caricature as in the 21 backslider? We owe it to the world, we owe it to our dear ascended Lord, to lift up to the gaze of men, in this skeptical and unbelieving age, and espe cially in this new world, where busy millions are laying the foundations of many generations, an ex ample of Christianity in its full proportion and proper glory. To do this, we must have in our churches, not converts who can not grow, nor backsliders who grow only in sin, but saints shining as lights, and perfected in grace. Who can tell how much religion needs in our time and in our country, how much it needs in every one of our congregations, the credit and the authority which comes only from a success ful endeavor to perfect the saints. And how impa tiently does Christ our Master wait, till we have regard enough for his honor, to lay aside our world. liness, and put on our righteousness, and hold forth to men an example of his religion as it is, when after the blade and the ear, there comes the full corn in the ear. This will be done so soon as the work of the ministry is understood and accomplished, as a work of perfecting the saints and edifying the body of Christ. Having shown you the work of the ministry, what it is, and how important it is, I conclude the dis- coure, by remarking, 1. That this is a work requiring, in all cases, the coope ration of three consenting parties. The minister of Christ can do nothing by himself. Mere preaching, however faithful or frequent or im pressive, will never perfect a saint. The minister must preach; the saint must practice; and the Holy 22 Spirit 'must sanctify both the preaching and the prac tice, else the endeavor is vain. Let either party fail, let the minister be negligent in the matter, manner, or degree of his preaching; or the saint be negligent in hearing, or heeding, or obeying; or let the Holy Spirit abandon the case and there will be no im provement and no growth. The perfection of the saints is in all cases a work requiring the concurrent agency of three consenting parties. I remark, 2. There ought then, to le a distinct and perpetual un derstanding between tlie pastor and the members of his church, in regard to the work which he is commissioned and expected to do among them. Every member of the church ought to understand that the pastor is sent to him for the special purpose of improving and perfecting his religious character; that in all his studies, selections and sermons, he is, if he deserves the name of a minister of Christ, ear nestly engaged in this one endeavor; and that dis couragement and distress are sure to ensue, if he fails in this, his chief work. On the other hand, a pastor ought to be made to understand that every one of the members of his church expects him to labor expressly and earnestly for this end. He ought to have, animating and directing him in all his prep arations, the living assurance that his people, partic ularly his religious people, desire to be improved; desire to grow in grace, desire to get on to higher states and riper attainments in godliness; and that unless he assists them, by instruction and admonition and constant endeavor, he disappoints and displeases them. Such ought to be the understanding between a pastor and all the members of his church. 23 And then, with this mutual understanding as to the real object and proper work of the ministry, each party ought, 3. To be specially vigilant and careful to perform its prescribed and indispensable task. The pastor ought in all his preparation, to keep in mind what he is sent of Christ to do. Every address, every prayer, every sermon, ought to be selected and framed with special reference to the improve ment of his christian flock. Not omitting to preach the whole truth, nor forgetting that he is sent to offer the gospel to all men, he should at the same time make the edification of the body of Christ, his great aim, his preeminent work. No other object ought to be allowed to come in and divert him from this one business. No fierce gales of popular excite ment; no lordly pressure of great events; no regard to public opinion; no desire of popular applause; nothing should for a day seduce his thoughts from his one appointed work. His business is the perfect ing of the saints of God. Let him do it, and do it faithfully. On the other hand the saint who is to be perfected ought to be equally vigilant and equally faithful in his specific work. The pastor is to perfect his people in his appointed way, by preaching. The hearer is to contribute his part in his appointed way, by doing. Hence the admonition, Be ye doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. The whole experiment fails, if it fails here. If the christian neglects or defers to do, if he merely hears and omits to obey, all is disappointment, all failure. It is the imperative duty of every member of the church to carry out the divine plan and obey the 24 word, that so the ministry may do its work, perfect ing the saints. Brethren of this Church, and you their pastor elect and willing, I give you hearty joy and much congratu lation, on the auspices of this happy hour. Especially do I rejoice and give thanks, with you, flock of God, knowing as I do, the tried excellence and christian repute of him whom you have chosen to be set over you in the Lord. Long may he live and labor in this inviting vineyard. And may every returning year witness, as I doubt not it will, the same untiring zeal, and the same assiduous care, and the same pru dence, and the same manifest success, which have marked his previous ministry, and given him already the confidence of the wise and the fellowship of the good. Be it yours, my brethren, to understand from this hour your several responsibilities. Let it be his to seek with diligence and zeal and much simplicity of love, your christian improvement, your growth in grace. And be it yours, be it the desire and pur pose and settled habit of every one of you, to do the work which the gospel enjoins. So shaU Christ and his religion have the honor in this community, of an example in which the ripest graces and rarest traits of a consummate and perfected piety, shaU shine forth to the gaze of many beholders. So shall the work of the ministry begun to-day, be done and well done among you. Which may God grant through the gift and the working of the Holy Spirit. Amen. 9353 V