1 ,

y. ,- 0

REV.
MR.
BLAGDEN'S SERMON
ORDINATION OE MR. JAMES H.
MEANS.
/99f
:; f'
PREACHING AS CONNECTED WITH FAITH.

SEEMON,

PREACHED AT THE

ORDINATION OE MR. JAMES H. MEANS,

AS PASTOR OF THE

Btcoviii (fljjttjgregatioital Cljarrrj ctnfc tfocutg,
DORCHESTER, MASS.,

JULY 13, 1848.

BY REV. GEORGE W. BLAGDEN,
PASTOR OF THE OLD SOUTH CHURCH, BOSTON. -.-^.f-'t

'-¦r\-

BOSTON:
PEESS OF T. E. MAEVIN, 24 CONGRESS STREET.
1848.

Dorchester, July 17, 1848.
Rev. G. W. Blagden,
Sir, — The subscribers were appointed a Committee in behalf of the
Second Church and Society in Dorchester, to request a copy of your
Sermon delivered at the ordination ofthe Rev. James H. Means, 13th inst.,
for publication. Your compliance with the above request, will much
oblige your humble servants,

Edward Sharp, . „
' { Committee.
Marshall P. Wilder,

R, J

Boston, July 24, 1848.
E. Sharp, and M. P. "Wilder, Esqs.
Gentlemen, — Agreeably to your request, as a Committee in behalf of
the Second Church and Society in Dorchester, a copy of the Discourse at
the Ordination of the Rev. James H. Means, on the 13th inst., is herewith
submitted to your disposal. Yours, with much regard,
G. W. Blagden.

SERMON.

2 COR. iv. 1-3.
WE ALSO BELIEVE, AND THEREFORE SPEAK.
It is a marked characteristic of the gospel, that
it regulates the outward, by purifying the inward
man ; and controls the issues of life, by the diligent
keeping of the heart. This truth is recognized in
the text.
The apostle Paul, in his connection with the
Corinthian church, had been subjected to great and
peculiar trials. False teachers had crept in among
them, desiring to turn them from the faith. Even
his own character had fallen into suspicion, and al
most into disgrace. They had quarrelled among
themselves respecting their religious teachers ; one
affirming that he was of Paul, another that he was
of Apollos, a third that he was of Cephas. And,
they had also entertained jealousies and heart-burn
ings towards one another, in regard to the relative
distinction and importance of their respective gifts.
The Apostle's heart seems to have been almost
broken, by these dissensions. And his two epistles
to this church are alike an encouragement and a

guide to every preacher, called, as every one may
be, to act with any people in a trying and disputa
tious time. They are an encouragement, because
they show that troubles between himself and any
people, do not necessarily prove that the fault
must be on his part, since an inspired and de
voted Apostle had to meet them. And they are
a guide, because they show how such an Apostle
acted in the midst of such trials ; and to what con
siderations of religious truth he resorted, to sustain,
comfort, and make him faithful.
The text develops one consideration which had
great influence in keeping the Apostle faithful, in
the most trying times. He had been, in immediate
connection with it, rapidly detailing to the Corin
thians, the trials, difficulties and dangers with which
he and his brethren, as apostles and ministers of the
gospel, had to contend. And, in a kind of climax
of apparent paradoxes, he had said : — " We are
troubled on every side, yet not distressed ; we are
perplexed, but not in despair ; persecuted, but not
forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed. Always
bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord
Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made
manifest in our body. For we which live are al
ways delivered unto death for Jesus's sake, that the
life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our
mortal flesh. So then death worketh in us, but life
in you. We having the same spirit of faith, ac
cording as it is written, I believed, and therefore
have I spoken ; we also believe, and therefore
speak."

This is our text. And the subject it presents, is
particularly appropriate to this occasion. It is, the
necessary connection there is between faith and the
preaching of the gospel. Comprehending in the
word preaching, — as the text and the whole epistle
warrant us in doing, — pastoral duty, or preaching
from house to house, as well as the public proclama
tion of the truth ; while we shall direct our atten
tion more particularly to the latter.
1. Before proceeding to illustrate the direct and
more specific connection between true faith and
preaching, as thus defined, it is desirable to notice,
generally, that the great object of this faith is
Christ. It is because the preacher becomes like
the Saviour, and spiritually and truly identified with
Him, that he thus preaches. This was the declared
position of the Apostle. He assured the Corinthi
ans, that it was because the difficulties and dangers,
he and others met and endured, caused them al
ways to bear about in the body the dying of the
Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus was made
manifest in their body. And therefore, he added,
" We which live are always delivered unto death for
Jesus's sake ; that the life also of Jesus might be
made manifest in our mortal flesh." This was the
reason why they preached powerfully and faithfully,
in the midst of trials. This was the reason why
death worked in them, but life in their hearers. It
was because, by faith, they imbibed the spirit of
Jesus, — his love, his patience, his courage, his zeal,
his submission to his Father's will.
Paul, with his companions, having this spirit of

faith, according as it is written, I believe, and
therefore have I spoken : he also believed, and
therefore spoke. This was the secret of his zeal,
and holy and indomitable courage, in proclaiming
Christ and him crucified. And therefore, he also
added, with great propriety, " For this cause we
faint not ; but though our outward man perish, yet
the inward man is renewed day by day." Yes,
the Apostle, both as a preacher and a Christian,
emphatically hid his life with Christ in God ; and
endured as seeing Him who is invisible ! And,
there was the hiding of his power. It was a favor
ite theme with him, one with which this, and all
his other epistles teemed, that the obstacles he
encountered in his course of duty, made him dead
to sin, and alive unto righteousness, — causing him
to hide his life with Christ in God. And therefore,
he also affirmed, in that fine and rich declaration in
his epistle to the Galatians ; — " I am crucified with
Christ ; nevertheless I live ; yet not I, but Christ
liveth in me ; and the life which I now live in the
flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who
loved me, and gave himself for me."
A personal and vital union to Christ, is thus ne
cessary, as the first and most essential element in a
good preacher of the gospel. He must believe, if
he would speak.
2. But, besides Christ himself as the great object
of faith, there are great truths or doctrines, con
nected with the Saviour, which make him so dear to
the soul of every faithful preacher, and sustain him
in his duty so efficaciously. One of these truths is

mentioned by the Apostle in connection with the
text ; and this plainly implies others, while all of
them are essential to the Christian scheme of sal
vation. Thus Paul speaks, just after the text, of the
certain resurrection of the dead ; and of the deep
conviction of himself and his fellow-laborers, that
though their ou-tward man perished, their inward
man was renewed day by day ; so that their light
affliction, which was but for a moment, worked out
for them a far more exceeding and eternal weight
of glory. While they looked not at the things
which are seen, but at the things which are not
seen ; for the things which are seen are temporal ;
but the things which are not seen are eternal.
Now this looking, by faith in the resurrection, to
an eternal state of glory, beyond the grave, was
plainly connected with the fundamental truths, or
first principles of the gospel, as the means of attain
ing to such a joyful resurrection. It was connected
with repentance for sin, and faith in Christ as the
Lamb of God which taketh it away, and with new
obedience, and the doctrine of a future judgment,
and a state of reward and punishment. Thus the
doctrine of the resurrection was so prominent with
the first preachers, not only as an evidence of the
truth of Christianity, but on account of the other
doctrines it implied.
These truths were in the hearts of such preach
ers as Paul and his companions, and believing
them as living and ever operating verities, they
spoke accordingly. As out of the abundance of the

8
heart the mouth speaketh, men whose minds were
filled with such ideas, must proclaim them. They
made the interests of time important. only in their
bearings on eternity.
We know the power of any great political princi
ples, over the minds of men, sometimes actuated in
their propagation or defence, by thoughts of this
world only. We know how such men will contend
in argument, and sometimes shed their blood free
ly and unto death, in the field of battle, for their
maintenance. So also we know that a faithful and
honest preacher of the gospel, forming some just
conception of his mighty themes, " of judgment and
of mercy," must speak out. He feels that wo is
unto him, if he preaches it not. And in proportion to
his faith, he will, he must preach it forcibly. This
is the most important element in his preparation for
preaching. It is essential. No true zeal and
power in proclaiming the truth can be possessed
without it. It cannot be successfully counterfeited.
If the heart is not in the work, it will be a heavy
and a dull one. And so long as there is truth in
the oft repeated maxim, that if the orator wishes
others to weep, he must himself feel deeply, it will
continue to be true that a preacher must believe,
in the fullest and most comprehensive meaning of
the term, if he would speak faithfully, feelingly, and
powerfully to others.
It is this vital indwelling and operativeness of the
truth as it is in Jesus, thus energizing in the
heart, which constitutes, I apprehend, the essential
element of a call to the Christian ministry. Doubt-

less other indications are to be taken into the ac
count, but this is the main one. I cannot but think
that the truest, and in all respects the most gifted
preacher of the gospel, usually, if not always, feels
at first, somewhat as Moses did, when first com
manded by God to go and speak before Pharaoh ;
as if he could not dare to enter on his work. He
shrinks and draws back from it. He trembles, in
any sense, to touch the ark of God, lest like Uzzah,
he be smitten by the wrath of the Almighty. And
it is only as " the truth as it is in Jesus " glows
within him, that while he is musing, the fire of feel
ing burns, and he is obliged to speak with his
tongue. If the private history of the most devoted preach
ers of the gospel were known, it would probably be
found that they have not, as too many I fear sup
pose, rushed into the office, as a means of support,
or a road to anything like distinction ; but they
have entered it with fear and with much trembling,
constrained by the smitings of conscience, when
ever they dared to go back ; and keeping on, in
spite of many temptations drawing them to some
secular callings, to which Christian truth, and as
they humbly hoped, the constraining grace of God
would not allow them to yield.
Arid here, in speaking of the practical efficacy of
the doctrines implied in faith on the preacher's
mind, I cannot but allude, briefly, to the practical
influence over him of the important truth, that faith
itself is not of ourselves, but the gift of God. The
practical recognition of this doctrine will make him,

10
as it made the apostle Paul, whose writings are
filled with it, at once humble, active, prayerful, and
most emphatically faithful in teaching others to be
so, in the midst of their highest zeal. Need it be
said to you that this is a great point to be regarded
in a preacher's character ? How necessary that he
should be perfectly humble, as well as courageous
and powerful in preaching the truth ! And how
can he be courageous and powerful, unless he be
truly humble and self-renouncing ? And what truth
is so likely to make him thus, as the constant, prac
tical recognition of the doctrine, — that in believing,
personally, himself, so as therefore to preach, it is
by the grace of God, he is what he is ; — and that
in preaching to others, " Paul may plant, and Apol
los water, but God giveth the increase."
And how much his hearers need the enforce
ment of this truth as at once a motive and a test
for their own humble, but active submission and
obedience to the gospel. Setting forth as it does
the infinitely perfect and sovereign perfections of
God in their strongest light, as having mercy on
whom he will have mercy, and hardening whom he
will, without infringing on the accountable agency
of man, its whole tendency is to make men1 un
selfish in their professed submission and obedience to
Him ; and to produce that patient continuance in
well doing, which, feeling properly its constant de
pendence on the sovereign wisdom and power of
God, will not trust inordinately in man. And
therefore will be delivered from that striking and
almost universal fault of Christians at the present

11
time, of crying out even to some of their best re
ligious teachers, as the Jews did to Jesus : Ho-
sanna, to-day ; and Crucify him, to-morrow.
We want, — oh we want, — the sovereignty of
God in the gift of faith, intelligently and clearly
recognized both by preachers and hearers ; that
God may be duly exalted, and man properly hum
bled and steadied in character, working out his
own salvation with fear and trembling, because it is
God that worketh in him both to will and to do of
his own good pleasure !
But the general view we have now taken of the
necessary connection between faith and preaching,
will be much strengthened and enforced, if we
descend to some of the specific and essential ele
ments of faith. I shall accordingly ask your atten
tion in the remainder of the discourse, to the
connection there is between preaching and faith, if
we consider it as including : —
The convictions of the intellect ;
The feelings of the heart ;
And the practice of the life.
I. In affirming, first, that the intellectual convic
tion implied in faith is necessary to effectual preach
ing, we do but utter, in other words, the very
obvious, but most important truth, that for any one
to speak powerfully, he must form a clear concep
tion of what he desires to say, and then say it.
But to conform to this plain and simple rule, in
urging on our fellow men the great truths of the
gospel, in their proper relations and connections, so

12
as to give every one his portion in due season ; and
to do this in one or two discourses, once a week, for
a series of years, and to the same people, — present
ing a desirable variety in the midst of a continued
uniformity of first principles, — may be truly said to
be one of the hardest tasks for the best human in
tellect. It is comparatively easy even for a young preacher
of the gospel, to go, as some of his older brethren
sometimes do, from place to place, with a few faith
fully studied and select discourses, on the most im
portant and familiar truths of the gospel, and
preach to the edification, and, by the blessing of
the Holy Spirit on his labors, to the conviction and
conversion of his fellow-men.
But it is another and a far more difficult duty, to
come to the same people, on nearly each successive
Sabbath of every year, and bring forth from that
rich treasury of eternal wisdom^ the Word of God,
things new and old, in such forms, and with such a
desirable variety of statement, illustration, and ex
hortation, as shall build up believers in the faith ;
and by the blessing of God, so interest unbelievers,
as to convince the unconvinced, convert the uncon
verted, and save the lost. It is another and a
greater thing, thus to do that work, so necessary
and important to be done, if we would form and
cherish in each community worshipping God in the
same place, such an intelligent and^stable piety, as
can be found only under the instructions and labors
of the same settled pastor, in regular and well
adapted pulpit efforts, among the same people, for a

13
long series of years, and what is better still, a whole
life-time. Nothing but a clear, intellectual faith in the gos
pel, and its great leading doctrines, can enable a
preacher to do this. And to accomplish it, he must
not only possess a knowledge of the doctrines in a
general way ; but he must have a minute and spe
cific understanding of them, which shall enable
him to make proper and necessary distinctions in
presenting them ; and bring him to that most de
sirable and hardly attained state of mind, in which
he can illustrate and enforce the sublimest of them
without obscurity, the plainest without sameness,
and all in that beautiful and sublime simplicity,
which shall make him, like his Master, a preacher
of the gospel to the poor.
2. We include also in the intellectual part of
faith, that process of reason, by which a general
principle or law of action is drawn from the consid
eration of particular facts, and is made ever after
ward a rule of life. Thus the Apostle writes :—
" Through faith we understand that the worlds
were framed by the word of God, so that things
which are seen were not made of things which do
appear." (Heb. xi. 3.) Here faith is exhibited as
drawing from sufficient evidences, seen in the works
and word of God, the general principle that " in
the beginning God created the heavens and the
earth." And this truth becomes ever afterwards a
rule of action to the soul, so that the believer feels
and acts under the influence of the conviction that
there is a Creator and Governor of all material

14
worlds. And this really includes, to some extent,
the doctrine of a particular providence ; since He,
who created all things, established their laws, and
must, in doing this, order and ordain what may occur
under those laws.
Similar is the declaration only two verses farther
on,— » he that cometh to God must believe that he
is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligent
ly seek him." (Heb. xi. 6.) Here faith is
represented as believing not only in the divine
existence, but also in the divine moral government,
so that it fixes it as an established moral principle
or rule of life, that God is the rewarder of them
that diligently seek him in his appointed way.
Now whenever any one fixes in his mind for
life a clear and firm moral principle, a great deal
has been done for his future stability, and firm
ness, and zeal in duty. The establishment of
a single principle, clearly, on any subject, always
has great power over the human mind. We may
easily conceive that before the discovery of the
safety-lamp by Sir Humphrey Davy, some single
miner may have noticed, at distant intervals of
time, that the deadly gas of the mine did not ex
plode when exposed to only a point of flame. But
it was after that eminent philosopher, from a series
of careful and varied experiments, announced the
general and universal principle or law, that under
no circumstances would it explode when it came in
contact only with such a point, and gave to the
world the simple apparatus of the lamp, in accord
ance with his theory, that every miner in England

15
became interested in the fact, and ventured then,
and continues to venture now, fearlessly, into an
atmosphere of surrounding death, with only the
space, as of a pin's point, between himself and
destruction. Most emphatically, then, must this
adherence by faith to firmly established principles
of religious truth, have great power over the mind
and life of a preacher of the gospel.
On this topic, we may happily draw an illustration
from the well known history of this church and its
late pastor. At a time when those great and funda
mental truths of the gospel, usually called the
doctrines of grace, — truths which have been em
braced and upheld by the great mass of Christians,
of all sects and forms of worship, in all ages, — were
in great jeopardy in this community, your former
pastor, sustained and encouraged by this church,
planted himself, by faith, on what he and you
held to be fundamental and eternal truths. How
clearly and honestly, in his first communication to
the church and society, before he would give
any answer whatever to their unanimous call, did
he explicitly make known his religious belief !
The characters and amiable qualities of private
men, your neighbors and relatives, whether cleri
cal or lay, though much respected and loved by
you, were then held to be comparatively nothing,
and principles every thing. The high and holy
truth, uttered by persecuted Apostles, — " We ought
to obey God rather than men," — became his rule
and yours ; and looking not at the present time, and
things seen only, but also at the future and things

16
unseen, of which faith is the evidence and the sub
stance ; he and you, by the help of God, remained
faithful — and behold the result ! To-day, you are
consistently and happily maintaining and promoting
the same great truths, to which you then clung,
and by which you then sustained yourselves ; and
by the blessing of God, your pastor and you have
placed yourselves by the side of that catalogue of
adherers to the truth, recorded in the eleventh chap
ter of the epistle to the Hebrews, for the encourage
ment of believers in all ages of the world.
It is by promoting adherence to principle, in the
midst of trials, and even unto death, that faith
makes a preacher firm and effective in speaking the
truth. And, when once a soul, in the exercise of
its reason, infers from the recorded facts of Scrip
ture a principle of truth — " out of weakness it is
made strong," — because by faith, it trusts, in its
helplessness, on God and his truth ; and enduring
as seeing him who is invisible, it may be sawn
asunder, but it will speak. We may conceive of a
character by nature vacillating, or a mind subject
ed to the power of some one inordinate passion by
which its high moral decision and energy were be
fore always weakened ; but when faith fixes on
principle, and that principle terminates in Christ, —
that divine invisible object, as seeing which, faith
endures ; vacillation changes into immutability ; and
the weakness of wayward passion alters into the
strength of calm and determined principle ; by
parting from the idol that led it astray, and taking
up the cross and following Jesus, and having its

17
treasure in heaven. So did the dying Stephen ad
here to the truth ; so did the suffering Paul ; so have
a cloud of witnesses, in all countries and periods of
the world.
Inexpressible and inconceivable are the force and
perseverance of the weakest human mind sustained
by faith in an essential truth of the word of God.
Women, under its power, have received their dead
raised to life again. Others have been tortured,
not accepting deliverance, that they might obtain a
better resurrection. Others have had trial of cruel
mpckings and scourgings, yea, of bonds and im
prisonments. They were stoned, they were sawn
asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword ;
they wandered about in sheep-skins and goat-skins,
being destitute, afflicted, tormented. But these all
obtained a good, report, through faith. And so
may every preacher of the truth, now, and through
all time.
The tendencies of our day make it also desira
ble to notice, that this intellectual conviction of
faith, so necessary in preaching, also pertains to
subjects of a moral nature not essential to salvation,
as well as to those great truths which are essential.
I allude to this topic here, because we who are
preachers of the gospel, are in much danger of com
mitting ourselves on such moral subjects, before we
may have sufficiently examined them in the light
of the word of God.
Without attempting now, to enforce any opinions
of my own, to interfere with the pleasing and
proper harmony which should be cherished and not

18
even endangered on an occasion like this, allow me
only to say, that no minister should dare to preach
on forms of political government, or to enforce any
sudden alteration of those relations of society among
men, recognized by human law, without knowing
well what he says, and whereof he affirms.
II. But, my friends, it is a truth we are con
stantly too prone to forget, and yet one which
cannot be too deeply and continually remembered,
that the intellectual element, of which I have now
spoken, is the subordinate and lesser part of faith,
so necessary in preaching. Knowledge puffeth up ;
it is love that edifieth. And without love, without
the faith which includes the affections of the heart,
though the preacher have all knowledge, so as to
comprehend all mysteries ; and though he speak
with the tongues of men and of angels, he is only
" as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal."
I would use this term love, or the affections of
the heart as implied in faith, in a wide sense ; as
including prevalent and increasing holiness of de
sire, guiding and bending, as well as strengthen
ing the will in the choice of the highest good ; and
as including purity and peace of conscience also, as
well as those many mellowing and lovely affections
of joy, and godly sorrow, and bright hope, and filial,
reverential fear, we usually imply in the idea of
Christian love. In a word, all the moral feelings of
the soul, as distinguished from its merely intellectual
states, I would include in these affections of the
heart. And using the term in this sense, may it not be

19
repeated, with great truth, that right Christian af
fections are far more important to a preacher, than
the clearest and strongest intellectual views ? Nay,
my friends, can any one ever arrive at clear and
strong intellectual views of religious truth, without
right feelings ? As Thomas a. Kempis wisely, as
well as piously said, that he had rather feel repent
ance, than be able to describe it ; ought we not, all
of us, ever to think, and feel, as well as say, that
the state of the heart is of far higher comparative
importance, both in discovering, preaching, and
hearing religious truth, than any astuteness of the
understanding ? Doubtless it is so ; and therefore
is it written, " With the heart man believeth unto
righteousness." " And now abideth faith, hope,
charity, these three ; but the greatest of these is
charity," — or love.
But alas, we are prone, too prone, and especially
so at the present day, both as hearers and preachers,
to reverse this process. And, as it has been truly
said, that the undue love of knowledge has, in very
many respects, the same kind of bad effects on the
human mind, with the undue love of money, so there
are many, too many, preachers as well as hearers,
liable to be led astray by its subtle and deceitful
power. Hence the extravagant straining after
effect, which too often betrays itself in some
modern religious writings, and even sermons.
My young brother, now upon the threshold of
the pastoral office, — my reverend fathers and
brethren, members of this council assembled for his
ordination, — let me affectionately exhort you and

20
myself to be careful and prayerful here. "The
foolishness of God is wiser than men ; and the
weakness of God is stronger than men." It was
with direct reference to the superiority of the spir
itual and moral feelings of the gospel to the mere
wisdom of this world, that the Apostle uttered
these words. And no one who duly considers the
great influence of the desires of the heart over the
reason and the will themselves, in all subjects of a
moral kind, can fail to be convinced of the immense
power of the affections, as included in faith, over
the style and matter of a preacher.
Especially is this the fact, when we include, as I
have done, the dictates of the conscience among
these affections. If this wonderful faculty be not
tender, and also at peace, there must be a great
weight upon the spirit, a paralysis over all the
powers of the speaker of truth. His inward state
must belie his words, as he proclaims and enforces
the duties of the gospel. The wings of the imagi
nation itself will be crippled, or else, with an adven
turous and blasphemous boldness, it will rush into
scenes and among objects amid which it should not
intrude. The sensibilities will lose the tenderness
and simplicity which innocence alone inspires. And
there can be little or none of that benevolent and
lovely frankness of character which produces bold
ness and power of speech, because the soul is
conscious of right desires and intentions ; and which
makes the rejoicing of the preacher, as of the
apostle Paul, the testimony of conscience, 'that
in simplicity, and godly sincerity ; not with fleshly

21
wisdom, but by the grace of God, he has had his
conversation in the world.'
Here I may allude in passing, to the religious
cultivation of the social affections, to which scrip
tural and comprehensive ideas of faith would lead.
Are we not often in danger of losing these, in the
sternness of principle we cultivate, without suffi
ciently considering that faith should also make us
" kind one to another, tender-hearted, forgiving one
another, even as God for Christ's sake hath for
given us."
III. If faith be so necessary to the preacher, as
including right affections, so is it equally necessary
as inclusive of the practice or obedience of the life.
Indeed we are assured by Inspiration itself, that it
cannot exist in the genuineness of its feeling and
intellectual conviction, without affecting the practice
of the life. For faith without works is dead, being
alone. And, perfectly harmonizing with the apostle
James in these words, the apostle Paul, sometimes
erroneously alleged to differ from him, writes to the
Romans : " Do we then make void the law through
faith ? God forbid ; yea, we establish the law."
As works are thus the only credible evidences of
the genuineness, so, as they are performed in a true
spirit, are they, in every private Christian, and es
pecially in every preacher of the gospel, among the
most efficient means of increasing his faith, both in
the intellectual knowledge and proper feeling of the
truth. As he does the will of God, so shall he
know of the doctrine ; and because he so firmly be
lieves, will he the more powerfully preach it.

22
As he performs his duty, in other words, as he is
active as a pastor and minister ; as he is instant, in
season and out of season ; as he reproves, rebukes,
exhorts with all long suffering; as he visits from house
to house ; as he devises plans, and in connection with
his helpers in the church, (for every member of the
church, of every age and sex, ought to be his help
er,) strives to execute them, the preacher places
himself in circumstances to which new and clear
views of religious truth are needful to him, to sus
tain his activity, and to meet the exigencies which
his very progress in doing good causes to arise. He
must therefore see the teachings of the word of
God in new relations, as the seaman beholds new
constellations in the natural heavens, as he sails
toward either pole.
What Christian, either in a public or private
sphere, but especially what Christian preacher, has
failed to notice, how invariably new and unex
pected and most interesting and instructive views
of divine truth have been discovered by him, as he
faithfully tried to serve God in doing good to others,
or performing the works of faith ?
It is recorded of Whitefield,* that he was remark
able in his preaching for citing texts of Scripture
with great clearness and vividness, and for presenting
them in new lights, in which the most pious of his
audience had never noticed them before. He was
not, that we know of, remarkable above many other
men, for his critical knowledge of the Bible, either
* See Account of the Revival of Religion in Boston, in the years 1740-
1-2-3, by Thomas Prince, one of the Pastors of the Old South Church.

23
in our own version or in the tongues in which it
was originally written. And why was this ? Sim
ply, we have reason to believe, because that devoted
preacher so gave himself up to the untiring duties
of his most responsible and arduous office, that such
new views of truth, as he thus presented to others,
became absolutely necessary to the guidance and
support, and spiritual sustenance of his own soul, as
he so eloquently preached to save and sanctify the
souls of others. And therefore, when he spoke in
the name of Christ, in public, it was only for him
to let the sentiments of his heart flow forth in an
undisguised honesty and fervor, and they expressed
truth which at once instructed, animated, and saved
those who listened to him.
So it is, and will be, in some degree, with every
preacher who does the will of God. As the laborer
in the natural world finds his appetite for food
increase with his diligence in business ; so will the
preacher, full of the works of faith in the spiritual
world, hunger and thirst after righteousness, and be
filled. Besides, the obedience of faith imparts to the
soul all the happy sprightliness which the wise
goodness of God has made, in the nature of things,
inseparable from a life of benevolent activity. Such
a preacher enjoys the luxury of doing good. He
experiences in the pleasures of his own spirit, that
it is the joy of the just to do judgment. And there
is certainly a vivacity and Christian cheerfulness of
spirit connected with even arduous labor in any
form of doing good, — and of course with the form

24
of arduous labor as a pastor and preacher of God's
holy word,— compared with which, the repose of
wearisomeness in well-doing is the most melancholy
misery. I heard it said once, from quite a distin
guished source, that sloth was one of the besetting
sins of the clergy. Brethren, whether this be true
or false of others, let it not be true of us. If we
would be happy, as well as truly learned preachers
of the word, " eloquent men, and mighty in the
Scriptures," we must gird up the loins of our minds,
and walk and not faint, and run and not be weary ;
and strive to be like the angels, that excel in
strength, and do God's commandments, hearkening
unto the voice of his word ! A slothful preacher of
the gospel ! May the Lord preserve every one of
us from falling into the snare into which every one
of such a character must have fallen !
As a further stimulant to the works of faith, that
we may be faithful preachers, we should consider
also the hardness of heart inevitably produced by
preaching without a corresponding practice.
It is a most interesting and solemn fact, that,
although we are not to neglect the contemplation
and speaking of the truth on this account, yet both
its contemplation and declaration without putting
it into practice, have a necessarily hardening effect
on the mind. And therefore well did an Apostle
virtually exhort us to be not forgetful hearers, but
likewise doers of the word ; and a prophet com
plain of the Jews, " This people draweth nigh
unto me with the mouth, and honoreth me with the
lip, but their heart is far from me."

25
The preacher must obey, as well as understand
and feel the truth, or else ^conscience becomes seared
by the selfish acknowledgment of what the soul
does not sufficiently heed ; and feeling grows cal
lous under the selfish excitement in which no good
is done ; as the reader of a novel may weep over
the fictitious sufferings of virtue, and fancy -that he
detests the machinations of temporarily successful
vice, when he lifts no hand, and gives nothing of his
substance to relieve real misery, and affords no help
in detecting and punishing actual iniquity.
It seems to be true, that our passive feelings be
come deadened by exercise, if they be not accom
panied by habitual activity in the duties they
require. The child that wept at first on beholding
a dying lamb, by the frequent repetition .of the
sight, feels it not as before. On the same principle
we become insensible to danger by familiarity ; and
the distresses that once shocked us., by being often
witnessed, affect us no more. If we do not act, as
we may be able, when the objects which excite our
feelings require, we thus become very hardened.
And it is partly on this account, that it has been
solemnly said, that " of all the forms of depravity,
there is none so desperate and execrable as that
which reigns in wicked ecclesiastics." Such per
sons have learned, by habit, to contemplate and
speak the most momentous truths, with a seared
conscience and a hard heart. It required a Judas.,
brought up under the teachings of Jesus, to betray
him. In short, my friends, to sum up and apply prao

26
tically what has been said, the essential elements of
effective speech, in behalf either of God or man,
are, — a clear, intellectual conception of the truth ;
a corresponding fervor of feeling, under its influ
ence ; courage to declare the sentiments with which
we are impressed ; and action in obedience to the
truth, at once opening the eye of the mind to its
clearer apprehension, and stimulating us, by the
blessed effects obedience to it produces, to its fur
ther discovery and more zealous proclamation.
These elements of a sacred eloquence are pro
duced by faith. According to the degree of faith
in every man, and proportionally with the natural
gifts of body and of mind with which the Creator
has endowed him, may each one say, " I believe,
and therefore speak." As faith, and these natural
gifts of God's sovereign providence vary, in each
preacher of truth, so does the power of a sacred
eloquence vary. Often, one is more distinguished
for a clear intellect, another for fervor of feeling, a
third for efficient action. Seldom, if ever, is any
one blessed with the possession of all, in beautiful
proportion. Seldom, if ever, has any one of the
frail and imperfect children of men, grace enough
meekly to possess, and properly to use such a fine
combination of excellencies.
There are, therefore, now, as aforetime, diversi
ties of gifts, and the same spirit. Each one is
needful in his proper place, and in the due exercise
of his gift. And each ought to be honored and
valued in the faithful use of what he has received
and by a prayerful and unselfish diligence may ac-

27
quire. In proportion as any preacher possesses
and acquires each of these elements, eloquence is in
him, and in some form it will come out. Whether
extemporaneously, or from the written page, or at
varied times in both ways, matters little. It will
come out. And, whenever by any one, these ele
ments of effective speech for God are possessed in
a high degree, as is sometimes the case, then we
may say of sacred eloquence, what has been poeti
cally and beautifully said of hope : —
" Oh then, thy kingdom comes, Immortal Power ! "
Above all, my fathers and brethren in the minis
try, should we, and our hearers, remember, that the
faith which thus prepares and moves men to speak
for Christ, is not of ourselves, but is the gift of
God. Not of works, lest any man should boast :
for we are his workmanship, created in Christ
Jesus unto good works, which God hath before
ordained that we should walk in them. A re
cognition of this truth will not lessen, but increase
a proper conviction of our accountability and moral
agency ; while it will make us humbly and truly
dependent on God. It will save the preacher from
pride, and the hearer from unreasonable and un
christian discontent, if, when the preacher pos
sesses and improves, in some degree, some one or
more of these elements of speech, he may not pos
sess them all.
You, therefore, my friends of this church and
society, in receiving your pastor, now young and in
the dew of his youth, should be careful to look

28
comprehensively and benevolently on his ministerial
qualifications. You should* remember that all gifts
are not usually combined in the same person ; nor
does each exist in one individual, in the same degree.-
Therefore, learn to discern and value the excellen
cies of your pastor,- while you are not and need not
be insensible to his defects^ His intellect may
prove to be clearer and stronger than his affections
are fervent ; or these last may be stronger than his
intellectual qualifications ; or his efficient- activity
may surpass both. Learn to notice and to en
courage what is excellent ; and to pray for, and
help to improve, in all proper ways, whatever may
be deficient. Above all, avoid the error, too com
mon, of fixing your minds, inordinately, on some
one qualification, and of concluding that your pas
tor's usefulness must be at an end, if he may not
possess that one particular excellence to the degree
you may desire.
Be ye workers together*" with him. Help him-.
Encourage him by your looks, your words, and your
hearty cooperation. He should not be left to labor
alone, while you only watch for the results. You
are to help one another. You are to bear each
other's burdens. In the appropriate sentiment of
one of the hymns yet to be sung on this occasion,
while he lifts over you " the prophet's rod," uphold
his hands " with prayer."
My young friend and brother, — in choosing this
subject, I have had a reference in a great degree, to
what I have had the pleasure, for a number of

29
years, of knowing respecting you. From the
time I became pastor of the church of which
your parents are the members, and had an unworthy
agency in guiding you as you came to Christ, and
receiving you into communion and fellowship with
the people among whom those parents dedicated
you to God in baptism, I have known your course
and manner of life. And I have had the best rea
sons to believe, that from the time you first hoped
that you had yielded yourself to God, by faith in
Christ, you have tried intelligently, feelingly, ac
tively, and prayerfully, to increase your faith ; until
now, in the kind providence and rich grace of God,
you are permitted practically to use the words of
the text to this people, and say, — I believe, and
therefore speak.-
It is a cause of great pleasure, and an occasion for
sincere gratitude to God, that under such circum
stances your father and mother, the church of which
you have been a member, its officers and pastor, are
now permitted to see you entering on the duties of
a preacher of the gospel, and of a pastor over a
flock of Christ, with which we have all sustained,
for many years, a most intimate and happy connec
tion. This is, no doubt, to all of us, a cause for the
greater and more affecting joy, because you are also
the successor of one whom we have all loved and
respected, and to whose memory We cannot help re
curring, at this time, with tender and mournful, yet
on some accounts pleasing associations.
One of the last remarks Dr. Codman ever made
to me, only a short time before his death, referred1

30
to you. It was, that the first time he became
acquainted with you, when a student, he " had
his eye on you," as one who might possibly be
his colleague. It was a remark, the more readi
ly to be repeated for your encouragement, but
not to flatter your pride, because it has seemed
to me that one of the most useful and remarkable
traits in our departed friend, was a practical good
sense in judging of the characters of men, and es
pecially of ministers of the gospel. Having traveled
much, he had gained that which is seldom if ever
acquired by anything else than travel and an ex
tended intercourse with mankind, — a quick and
almost instinctive insight into character. This
church and society, by a most happy and united
action, have in this instance, as well as in others,
paid a most affectionate tribute to the memory of
their late minister ; and we have every reason to
believe, that by the blessing of God on your course
in future, as he has been pleased to bless you in the
past, they shall find that they have not erred.
If departed spirits are permitted, as I fondly hope
they are, to take an interest in the movements of
those they loved on the earth that they have left,
the spirit of our departed father and brother in the
ministry is rejoicing in the scene and services in
which we are now actors ; and he blesses you, my
brother, from the eternal world. Let it be the
prayer of your heart and life, as well as of your
lip, — " Lord, increase my faith." And then, clear
in intellect, strong in feeling, energetic and consist
ent in action, amid the discouragements and hopes

31
of the Christian ministry, you shall endure unto the
end. And when the last feeble accents of speech
shall be hushed by the finger of death, closing your
lips in silence, the spirit shall sing the song of
Moses and the Lamb, — when faith shall have inher
ited the promise.
The subject presents a vivid picture of the ardu
ous yet improving and animating work of a faithful
Christian minister. He must study. He must
keep his heart. He must be active. " Be thou
faithful unto death ! " Amen.

32

CHARGE TO THE PASTOR,

BY REV. RICHAKD S. STOERS, D. D.

It is in accordance with the uniform usage of the churches
and the spirit of the Christian institution, that on occasions like
this, a word of counsel and exhortation be given to the newly
inducted Pastor. So revered and scriptural an usage is not to
be neglected, even if its utility as a means of instruction be
questioned : for, who needs not to be reminded of his responsi
bilities, at the beginning and throughout the progress of an
official engagement, so solemn and momentous, if he would meet
at the end, the smile of his Saviour !
But, it is with unfeigned diffidence, that I address you, my
brother, youthful as you are, in relation to duties now devolved
on you, by the laying on of the hands of the presbytery. Being
still a learner in the school of Christ, like yourself, and only an
elder brother in the hallowed relationship to our common Lord
and Master, I must say, in all sincerity, that a sense of incom
petency rests on my mind as heavily as it can possibly rest on
yours, in prospect of the yet unconceived labors and trials of
the office to which God calls you.
I feel oppressed. A sad conflict of emotions arises within.
To describe it, would be irrelevant ; to conceal it, is impossible.
Grief and joy, poignant regret and delightful anticipation min
gle, in doubtful but unavoidable strife. That father, brother,
friend, who used to stand here as Heaven's legate, and one of
Zion's firmest pillars — God's commissioned messenger, and
man's prevailing intercessor, has passed away, leaving us drown
ed in tears ; and a youth, loved of God and man, enters his va
cated pulpit, receives his falling mantle, and echoes back as from
another world, on the ears of the bereaved congregation, the

33
lately silenced voice of pastoral love and godly jealousy. White
the known, the honored, the long-tried leader, of " the sacra
mental host " sleeps in dust, the youth of sweet promise, rich
attainment, and unquestioned moral worth, arises to take hold
on the weapons of the spiritual warfare, and conduct the con
flict with principalities and powers. Griefs and joys, regrets
and pleasing anticipations, must mingle, therefore, in every
heart interested in these solemnities.
Forgetting, however, as far as possible, the things that are
behind, we will look to those that are before. The same dear
brother, whose absence from earth and presence with God, oc
casions this day's assembling, looks from on high, with emotions
of inconceivable delight, on the scenes here transpiring ; for it
is the man of his deliberate choice, the man cordially chosen
by his congregation, and the man selected by Christ himself,
that succeeds him in the holy office from which he has been
called to higher ministrations, — a grief-assuaging and precious
reflection, to all of us who survive.
But what, beloved brother, shall I say to you at this solemn
hour ! In my own name, I may not, dare not speak. Yet, in
the name of these assembled servants of God, and the churches
of Christ ; in the name of the disenthralled spirit, so lately borne
upward to heavenly places ; and above all, in the name ofthe great
Apostle and High Priest of our profession, I must charge you :
To be faithful to the high trust this day committed to your
hands. Immortal beings are thrown upon your teachings, by
the great Shepherd of Israel, that their aspirations may be enno
bled, their activities directed, aud their eternal destinies shaped,
by your care. Present and unborn generations lie within the
range of your direct influence, and will mingle their songs with
the myriads about the throne, or their groans with the lost, ac
cording as the word from your lips shall become to them a savor
of life unto life, or of death unto death. Nor can it be doubted
that your influence will be salutary, in proportion as your heart
shall be kept in the love of God, and as your physical and intel
lectual ability shall be maintained and increased.
Over yourself therefore, you will maintain unceasing vigilance,
always cherishing the spirit of humility, self-distrust, and prayer-

34
ful reliance on God. You will ever watch against temptation,
and cultivate a lively sense of personal infirmity, of exposure
to spiritual enemies, and the entireness of your dependence on
all-sufficient Grace. You will maintain the religion of the
closet as the well-spring of all usefulness and holy enjoyment ;
and whether or not, like Luther and Beveridge, you devote three
or five hours a day to special communings with your own heart
and God, you will carefully devote so much time to retire
ment, as shall be needful to uninterrupted intercourse with
heaven. From the heart are the issues of life. Be diligent
therefore in keeping it. Study the Bible, not only for the in
struction it affords, but for the spirit it breathes, not only that
you may be prepared to teach others, but that you may edify
yourself. The stamp of your own piety will leave its imprint on
the piety of your church. Are you devout ? so will the faithful
among your people be. Or, are your affections earthly, sensual 1
the same affections will predominate, on every side of you.
" Like priest, like people," is now as fixed a truth as three thou
sand years ago.
Be provident for your health. Equally avoid excessive labor,
and enervating self-indulgence. While you abhor the corroding
rust of the animal machinery produced by indolence, let not the
vital springs be broken by violent effort, even for the attainment
of the best ends. " A sound mind in a sound body," is true
philosophy forever ; regard it ; and regulate your food and ap
parel, your exercise and repose, and whatever else relates to
bodily soundness, with discretion.
If your mind be strong to-day, resolve that it become stronger
to-morrow. Though your acquisitions be already large and rich,
let them be increased through each succeeding day of life.
Study is your great work. Inspiration is of God alone. And
if, in any sense or degree you shall partake of his inspiration,
it will be derived through the faithful appliance of your intellec
tual powers to scriptural investigations. Your own heart de
mands such application. The Saviour's commission in your hand,
demands it ; the great end of your ministry demands it. Science
may open its mines of wealth to your eye, or literature may
spread before you its broad fields of beauty ; and the spirit of
the age may invite you to penetrate those mines, or to gather a

35
harvest from those fields ; and, so far as science and literature
can be made auxiliary to the purifying of man's affections, or
the enforcement of God's truth, their claims to attention are not
to be resisted ; but when they come in as rival claimants with
the word of God, on your time, — when they demand for them
selves the forth-putting of those energies that are claimed by the
condition of a world lying in wickedness, they are promptly to
be met with " Procul, procul este, O profani." Sacred is
your vocation, sacred be all your arrangements for its fulfilment.
And though I say not literally, "trim the midnight lamp"; I do
say emphatically, call down the light of heaven's morning, noon
day, and setting sun, on the open page of God's revelation, that
the illuming of your own mind may constantly advance, and that
the perfect day of celestial glory may burst on your people, as
they successively pass from time to eternity.
The social principle wrought into the framework of humanity
is never to be overlooked by him who ministers in holy things,
nor to be touched capriciously, or perverted to unworthy uses.
Let every man, whether high or low, rich or poor, find in you a
fast and faithful friend. If the elevated and influential have
claims on your respect, so have the lowly and obscure claims on
your kind attentions. No one is so base in the world's esteem,
nor so abject in his own eyes, nor even so obnoxious to heaven's
displeasure, that you are not bound to extend to him a brother's
hand, and pour the full tide of a brother's love into his bosom.
But in all your intercourse with your people, the blended dignity
and suavity of your manners, the mingled cautiousness and
frankness of your conversation, the evident cordiality and self-
respect of your whole demeanor, or, in a word, the just devel
opment of the social principle, will contribute equally to your
own happiness among them, and to their intellectual and moral
elevation. Thus, and only thus, did the Apostle of the Gentiles
become all things to all men.
In your public ministrations, you will take heed that your
doctrine be according to godliness, and strictly consistent with
the teachings of the Holy Spirit — unmixed with fables, either
of ancient or modern origin, and sustained by a " Thus saith
the Lord," rather than the subtle ratiocinations of proudly philo-

36
s'ophic minds. We have confidence in you as holding fast the
form of sound words, and prepared to defend and reiterate the
Apostolic averment of the plenary inspiration of the Scriptures,
with the whole train of connected doctrines and duties inscribed
on the inspired page, as they have been expounded by evangeli
cal men in all generations, and as they were taught by your la
mented predecessor from this pulpit. Without demanding of
you the surrender of the right of free inquiry, or the blind sub
mission of your judgment to the dictation of any man, or body
of men, living or dead, we yet charge you to follow fearlessly
the counsel of the Lord, lest the Philistines come down upon
you and shave your head, and weaken your hands, and you be
come like other men, of the spirit of Hymeneus and Philetus.
Your power in the ministry will ever be proportioned to the
closeness with which you follow the footsteps of Christ and hia
Apostles, and the fearless and tender earnestness with which you
urge the same truths that led to the malicious plottings and re
lentless violence of the Scribes and Pharisees. " Speak what I
bid thee," is heaven's stern command. " As the Lord will,"
must be your cordial response !
The ordinances of the gospel, you will administer with such
frequency, solemnity, and discrimination, as a matured judgment,
a devout spirit, and divine authority require. "Times and sea
sons" are left to the determination of your own, and the wisdom
ofthe church. But the spirit, of the administration is learned
from the scenes of that gloomy night when Jesus was betrayed.
And God has settled it, that only the penitent and believing share
the privileges of the sacramental board, and with their children,
the waters of the baptismal font. To none, who in the judgment
of charity are new creatures in Christ Jesus, will you deny the
bread and the wine that do show forth the Lord's death till he
come ; nor from them, nor their offspring, will you withhold the
significant token of faith in Christ and of cleansing in the
fountain opened for Judah and Jerusalem.
Maintain discipline in the church, with impartiality and ener
gy. Suffer not sin upon a brother, lest you become a partaker
of his guilt. Warn, rebuke, entreat, in the spirit of fraternal

37
love, as circumstances may demand. If the offender repent,
you will forgive him ; if he persevere in folly, you will withdraw
from him, as from a heathen man and a publican, and make the
withdrawal as public as was the receiving of him to your fellow
ship. But let nothing be done in strife or vain glory, whether
dealing with offenders in the church, or out of it. Let your
moderation be known unto all men, that your good may not be
evil spoken of.
Soon will the aged, who fall under your charge to-day, descend
to the grave, and mingle their dust with their fathers. The
middle aged too, will after a few years fall asleep, and those who
shall survive to bless your declining years with their support and
cooperation, are the children and youth who scarcely realize at
all the sacred relation into which they are brought with you by
this day's transactions. And I am sure of the sympathies of
every father and mother present, when I say, " Take care of these
children." Begin your labors with them early, and employ your
best talents, at the fireside, in the sanctuary, the Sabbath schooli
and every where, to render those who are
" Their parents' hope, their parents' joy,"
the comfort of your own future years — the burning lights of
other generations, and the heirs of fadeless glory ! If, dazzled
by the splendors of modern missionary enterprise, or grasping
larger views of the claims of the Pagan world than our fathers
had, we earnestly inquire, what the Lord will have us do, to give
the gospel to every creature — it is yet demonstrable, I fear, that
we fall behind our fathers far, in the attention bestowed on the
olive plants of our domestic garden ; are less careful to nur
ture them, to detect the insidious spoilers about their roots,
to lop off excrescent buddings from their branches, and mature
their fruits by the kindly appliances of parental instruction,
drawn from the Scriptures, and fastened on the memory by the
familiar catechism, or the sweet rhythmic numbers of Watts
and Doddridge. It is a backward advance making a*t this day,
in the education of the rising generation, if I mistake not, when
their religious instruction is forestalled in the common school by

38
legal enactment, precluded from the domestic hearth by vain
reliance on strangers, and wholly resigned by pastors into the
hands of Sabbath school teachers. Think it not a work of su
pererogation then, if we exhort and charge you, to look well to
the spiritual interests of the children and youth who come under
your pastoral care.
It will be no less your pleasure to weep with them that weep,
than to rejoice with them that rejoice. Visit the children of
affliction, and mingle your tears with theirs. And whether they
lie on the bed of sickness, or watch beside it ; whether they taste
the bitterness of bereavement, or only anticipate the coming
blow ; direct their eyes to " the Man of Sorrows" ; assist them
in their prayers ; instruct them into the great principles of prov
idential movement ; show them how all is well with them that
fear God ; and assure them, that what they know not now, they
shall know hereafter. Remember them too in your retirement ;
wake up the sensibilities of others in their behalf; and bring if
possible, the ministering spirits of heaven to their aid.
You will sometimes be called to pronounce on the qualifica
tions of men for the work of preaching the gospel ; and also, to
place them in the same office, into which you are inducted to
day. Satisfy yourself that they are possessed of unfeigned piety,
of a sound mind, of adequate learning, of fixedness of purpose,
and at least, an ordinary share of common sense. Lay not your
hands on " skulls that cannot teach, and will not learn." And,
if the pulpit "Must stand acknowledged, while the world shall stand,
The most important and effectual guard,
Support and ornament of virtue's cause,"
then be careful that you put no man into it, whose deficient
piety, stolid ignorance, fitful imagination, bold assumption of
knowledge beyond what is revealed, or wildly fanatical tenden
cies, will render him a " dry nurse of the church," or, the
" grand caterer" of errors in doctrine, follies in counsel, and
inconsistencies in conduct, suited to the morbid appetites of the
vultures and hyenas, always hovering about the walls of Zion,
and ready to gormandize on the offals of her commanded sacri
fices.

39
I charge thee, therefore, my dear brother, before God and the
Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his
appearing — that you watch in all things, endure afflictions, do
the work of an evangelist, and make full proof of your ministry ;
— and then, when the time of your departure comes, it shall be
your privilege to say with the Apostle, " I have fought a good
fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith," and,
" henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness,
which the Lord, the righteous Judge shall give me at that day ;
and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appear
ing."

RIGHT HAND OP FELLOWSHIP,
BY REV. WILLIAM A. PEABODY.

My Brother : — The ordination-vows are upon you. You
have been publicly consecrated to the most solemn office upon
earth. You have been charged to be faithful to your high voca
tion, and doubtless though you have often felt before the respon
sibilities of this work, they never so pressed upon your spirit as
now. You have never before fully known what it is to be a
minister of Jesus Christ.
The time, the hour, has come, which for so many years you
have anticipated. Your early and long-cherished hopes are now
fulfilled. The prayers too, of parental faithfulness for a beloved
and an only son, are now answered. You have been chosen as
the shepherd of this flock. Their united voices and their united
hearts have called you to be their spiritual guide. But theirs
are not the only voices, nor theirs the only hearts, which bid
you welcome. These fathers and these brethren in the ministry,
with the churches represented here, greet you with their warm
affection. We bid you welcome, and my brother, take this
hand, as a pledge of our friendship for you, and our confidence

40
in you. We dare not utter a word, that shall diminish aught of
the heavy, and yet precious burden which this day brings upon
you, but we may and we will help you to bear it. We will
preach for you in your pulpit, and our pulpits shall be open to
you. We will pray with you, and in the secrecy of the closet
we will pray for you. We will rejoice with you when you re
joice, and we will weep with you when you weep. For, my
brother, our work is one. We have no separate interests. We
all hope to serve the same Lord. We all look forward to the
same heaven, and the churches to which we minister, are all
members of one great family, of which Christ is the head.
These churches and these pastors are here to-day, to recog
nize this mutual relationship ; to strengthen the bonds of our
fraternal union ; to kindle anew the flame of holy love and
Christian sympathy on the altar of our common faith. Other
ties of union may be strong ; men may be combined together
for other objects, — they all have their limit with the grave. But
what so deep, what so abiding, as Christian fellowship ! Chris
tian love blooms with unwonted freshness, and breathes immor
tal fragrance beyond the tomb. They sin, who tell us such love
can ever die.
You are entering a profession in which you, as all of us,
will need this sympathy. In many of its aspects, our life is a
spiritual warfare, and you are a youthful soldier of the cross,
just putting your armor on. We welcome you to a work whose
glory is, that it is a hard work and a good work ; one that will
require all your energies of mind, heart, and body. If you, like
Timothy, endure this hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ,
we will not, like some of the ungracious warriors of earth,
attempt to take the weapons from your hands, because you may
use them so well, and so much better than ourselves. We will
honor the spiritual victories which, with the blessing of God you
may gain. We will not tear away the wreaths of triumph which
Christ may place upon your brow. We will go out together
upon the great battle-field, which is the world, and stand, shoul
der to shoulder, in the thickest of the strife against the hosts of
sin. But, my brother, you must remember, that " the race is not
always to the swift, nor the battle always to the strong." Though

41
you may toil eagerly, and struggle, night and day, in season and
out of season, you may not have a perfect crown on earth. It
were unlike your Master's earthly crown, if fhere should be
never a single thorn in it. We might indeed ask for you free
dom from all trial and suffering ; but in the noble pursuits, the
exalted aims, the thrilling joys, of the ministry, somewhat of the
discipline of suffering may well be blended. Rejoice then, if
at any time you shall be a partaker of Christ's sufferings, that
when his glory shall be revealed, you may be glad also with ex
ceeding joy. " If you suffer with Him, you shall also reign with
Him." Much is said in our times, of the trials of the ministry.
Much has been said on this occasion. But, great as they often are,
" they are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to
be," or that even now is " revealed in us," if we are the faithful
servants of Christ ; and there is not an ambassador of God here
to-day, who if invited to exchange a pulpit for a throne, would
not feel himself stooping, in the contrast, to touch a bauble.
We welcome you to these duties of a preacher and a pastor,
which have just been so truthfully described. With an affec
tionate interest, _we think of all those new and untried scenes
which open in such vivid reality upon a youthful minister. We
shall think of you, as you stand here on the approaching Sab
bath, in your own pulpit, in the freshness of this day's anoint
ing yet upon you, to preach your first sermons, pronouncing,
with an emphasis of feeling, those hallowed words, " my people,"
and hearing the response from hundreds of hearts, " our min
ister," each feeling that you belong personally to him, though
they know you are the common treasure of all. We shall
follow you to the sacramental Sabbath, when you shall first ad
minister the rites of that holy feast, in the communion of the
body and blood of that Saviour whom you delight to preach;
then the first baptism, when you shall dedicate the lambs of the
flock to the good Shepherd ; and more than all, the first gather
ing within the fold, of those who, through your instrumentality,
shall have become the friends of Christ. What a moment that
will be in your life, when for the first time, some soul, bur
dened with a crushing sense of sin, shall come and tell you
that this or that sermon, this or that faithful private conversation,
was the arrow from the quiver of the Holy Spirit that pierced
6

42
his heart, and led him to ask of you, " What shall I do to be
saved 1 " Scenes like these, are, we trust, before you, and they
will atone for many a severe trial, which may come upon you ;
for we presume that you, like other ministers, will sometimes
bitterly feel, that you live in a sinful world, and that you cannot
persuade men to be or to do as the Bible commands. We
pity you, that sometimes, like all your brethren, you may be
obliged to preach to listless hearers ; that sometimes you may
gaze upon empty pews ; that your sermons probably will not be
always quite as good as all your audience may wish ; that some
times you may choose such subjects as will not be equally pleas
ing and profitable to all ; and if on a few stormy Sabbaths in the
winter, you shall look out from your door upon the narrow path
through the snows, with only here and there a traveler, in it to
the house of God, you must remember, as you press on through
the tempest while most of your people maybe comfortably seated
by their fire-sides at home, that many a brother-minister can
then sympathize with you in all these troubles.
But, though this be a glance at the dark shades ofthe picture,
we congratulate you that you enter the ministry jn this spot, this
church, this parish. The home of your childhood was in a
neighboring city ; you are not far from the venerable university,
that fountain whence you drew the rich treasures of classic lore.
Here too, art vies with nature to invest the earth with loveliness.
Sea and land are smiling in beauty before you ; the graves of
some of the choicest of New England's early patriarchs,
prophets, and patriots, are around you. You preach to those
whose ancestors the historian tells us in his own quaint language,
" were a very godly and religious people, and many of them
persons of note and figure." They and their descendants have
known how to respect and love their pastors. We welcome you
to such a place, a place where your honored and lamented pre
decessor ministered nearly forty years ; so that the children of
those who settled him, with only a few of the fathers remaining,
are now praying that the mantle of the ascended Elijah may fall
upon you. The same warm place in their hearts which was
given to him, is opened for you. Still more then, we welcome
you as the successor of that beloved man of God. The same
birth-place cradled you, the same alma mater nurtured you, and

43
you and I can never forget that parting interview, when his
blessing rested so benignantly upon you. Before his last fatal
illness, when first unable to preach, and just as he had concluded
an arrangement with you to supply this pulpit during the winter,
ardent were his hopes, and not seldom expressed to the speaker,
that the connection might prove so mutually agreeable to all the
parties affected, as to result in your becoming his colleague.
That pleasant vision was destroyed by death ; but if we may
believe the spirits of the departed ever return to their former
abodes, or if, from the eminences of heaven they sometimes
catch a glimpse of the scenes of earth, may we not feel, that
with the same earnest cordiality which always characterized his
living attachments, he would stamp the seal of his approbation
upon the transactions of this day !
From the endearing relation which I was permitted to sustain
to him, allow me, therefore, again to give you this right hand.
Take it, as a proof of what I know to have been his affection
for you. Take it too, let me add, as the pledge of our own
personal friendship, and an assurance, that though you will find
among us all, a kindly sympathy in your joys and sorrows, you
shall have here, especially, a brother's hand, a brother's heart,
and a brother's prayers, that when on the great day of account
the prophet's question shall be asked, " Where is the flock that
was given thee, thy beautiful flock 1 " you may answer it with
joy, and may be welcomed to lie down with them, " in the green
pastures, beside the still waters of eternal life," to enjoy with
them forever, "the rest which remaineth for the people of God."

Z396 Z9880 2006 S