ing: "Our conversation is in heaven-Thy word was found of me and I did eat it; and it was to me the joy and the rejoicing of my heart-To me to live is Christ— Enoch walked with God-I press towards the mark-My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God; when shall I come and appear before God?"

Now let me try if I can bring out, in a sentence or two, the vital connection between this state of soul, and the discharge of the whole work of the Ministry. See it, for instance, in that word of Paul, (2 Tim. i. 12,) "I suffer these things; nevertheless I am not ashamed, for"-mark the secret of his heroic bearing; we talk of the magnanimity, the heroism of Paul; but observe the secret of all his labours, and toils and sufferings,- "for I know," says he, "whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day." Ah! that is what will make a man go through the flames for Christ, that element deep and strong in his soul, "I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed to him." Or, see the same in the words of David we were just singing, "Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation, and uphold me with thy free Spirit; then will I teach transgressors thy ways, and sinners shall be converted unto thee;" then,-Lord, how shall I teach thy ways, unless I am seeking to walk close and straight in them myself,-unless, restored and upheld by thy good Spirit, I am both discovering and loathing my own ways, and carefully and constantly seeking to tread in thine. Or, take it thus. Our themes, fathers and brethren, the hinges of the Ministry, are Sin and Christ. Well; how shall a man discover the sins of others, solidly and tenderly, not harshly, but tenderly and lovingly, who is not seeing and weeping in secret places over his own iniquities? And as for Christ, the very idea of the Christ, the Beloved of the Father, his "elect, in whom his soul delighteth," is one of the heart and soul. It is not to be taken up by mere intellectual apprehension. "The love of Christ constraineth us," says Paul, giving the spring of his whole labours. "Lovest thou me," Peter? then "feed my lambs," "feed my sheep," thou can'st never feed them otherwise. "That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you." of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh."

"Out

But the way

Or take this view of it. The Word is our instrument, our sword. to get into the very heart of the Word, and to get the Word into our heart, so as to have it inwrought into our very being, is nothing else than our living on it in secret; praying over it, weeping, rejoicing over it. Thus it becomes our own, and we come to use and wield it with facility. Otherwise, the Word is to a man what Saul's armour was to David, when he said, "I cannot go with these, for I have not proved them." It is a cumbrous, clumsy thing, hanging about a man, which he can make no use of. The theme, in short, is endless. If we are not prospering in soul, living much in secret prayer, we are cut off from the fountain of all our strength for the Ministry together. What guilt lies on us in this whole matter! What mischief have we thus done to souls! What good have we not failed to do! What endless opportunities have we lost! We, who ought to have been "ensamples to the flock,"-we, who have had so many and peculiar advantages for walking with God, (for I can never admit that our familiarity with divine things, often as we suffer it to become a snare to us, is not in itself a mighty privilege and advantage,) alas, our distance from him has all but paralysed our Ministry! We have not dwelt in the secret place of the Most High. We have not lived under the powers of the world to come. We have not walked humbly, and softly, and mournfully before the Lord. We have not gloried in the cross of Christ. His Word has not dwelt richly in us. We have not "spoken because we believed." I have no doubt we have spoken what we believed, but too little because-because we "could not but speak the things which we had seen and heard." Thus have we been too much in our own work like some nervous, sickly man that must work, rather because he is yet upon his feet. But we have wanted the spring, and vigour, and elasticity of the ministry, which comes from a sound, healthy state of the soul before God. "Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy loving-kindness; according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies, blot out my transgressions."

2. If we have felt anything, beloved, of this parent guilt-this inner, central iniquity, I may mark more briefly a second line of ministerial sin, coming necessarily

out from that centre. I refer to very faint impressions of the character, and great objects and ends of our Ministry. Take these, for brevity's sake, in that one word, "Come with me, and I will make you fishers of men,"—" from henceforth thou shalt catch men.' Now, there is one simple way in which, I think, it may come out this day, by the Lord's blessing, to our painful and sorrowful apprehension, how faint have been our impressions of this the great character and end of our work. I allude to the little concern we have felt, comparatively, (and here I cannot speak without trembling and dismay,) the little real hearty concern we have felt, provided we were carried in some comfortable manner through our work, about the spiritual fruits and results of it,-whether souls were verily saved by it or no. Ah! the truth here comes out too undeniably in such a contrast as that, "I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost, that I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart; for I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ, for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh.' "God is my record, how greatly I long after you all in the bowels of Jesus Christ." "My little children, of whom I travail in birth until Christ be formed in you." "Now we live if ye stand fast in the Lord." I would venture to ask Ministers who know what prayer about their work is, whether they are accustomed to pray much for the success of their sermons after they have been preached, when the work of the day is over, as we say. I fear the fact on this head will be found to disclose some painful things, evincing that, even when we have prayed, the object of concern with us has more been, at bottom, the assisting and carrying through of the messen. ger, than the saving success of the message.

66

Some one perhaps will say that issues are God's, and duty only ours. No doubt issues, issues from death, are God's, to accomplish them: but O! they are ours, to long, and strive, and pray and pant after them. And, in truth, we never can do our duty, till we are in that spirit; till we feel, in some measure, about the souls of unconverted men, as we should about persons intoxicated and lying half asleep in a house in flames. "I became all things to all men," says Paul, "that I might by all means save some. It was the intense desire of saving some, pulling them out of the fire, that impelled him to the using of all possible means, now this one, and now that" to the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might gain the Jews; to the weak became I as weak, that I might gain the weak; I am made all things to all men, that I might by all means save some." And, elsewhere, in his writings, (1 Thess. ii. 8.) "Being affectionately desirous of you, we were willing to have imparted unto you, not the gospel of God only, but also our own souls, because ye were dear unto us;"-anything to save your souls,-" for ye remember," he adds, "our labour and travail; for labouring night and day, because we would not be chargeable unto any of you, we preached unto you the gospel of God.' A few verses before he had said, "we were bold in our God to speak unto you the gospel of God with much contention ;" again, immediately, we were gentle among you, even as a nurse cherisheth her children." But whether it were the boldness of the lion, or the gentleness of the mother and nurse, the secret of each lay there, "so being affectionately desirous of you," &c. “I am made all things to all men, that I might by all means save some. Look how it is in any other matter. If a man goes to negociate some affair at a market, or with a mercantile house, it is little comfort to him that he has gone to the place, and made his proposals, if the bargain is not closed,-if the gain is not secured, the affair brought to a successful issue. Ah! souls are our gain, fathers and brethren, our hire and wages. "He that reapeth receiveth wages, and gathereth fruit unto life eternal," Why are we so indifferent about our profits and gain? "My dearly beloved and longed for, my joy and crown "what is our hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing? are not even ye in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at his coming?". "Compel them to come in," says the Lord. The counterpart of that is not, "doing our duty," in the ordinary sense of that word, but it is the giving men no rest, and “giving the Lord no rest,"-pleading with men for God, and with God for men,-longing, agonizing to pluck souls as brands from the burning,-labouring in the spirit of these words, "whom we preach, warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus.'

C

"I acknowledge my transgressions, Lord, and my sin is ever before me-" God be merciful to me a sinner."

3. Let me mark a third line of ministerial guilt, inseparably connected with these, in our little, little realising of the exceeding weight and responsibility of the Ministry. One verse here is a volume. "We are unto God a sweet savour of Christ, in them that are saved, and in them that perish; to the one we are the savour of life unto life, and to the other the savour of death unto death." No wonder if Paul adds, "and who is sufficient for these things?" No wonder if he speaks elsewhere of being with the Corinthians" in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling." Alas, that there is so little of this trembling among us,—that we can enter our pulpits with so light a heart, especially when we have got our preparations pretty well completed. Ah! surely that were just the time, if we felt aright, to be most of all weighed down in spirit by the recollection "to the other the savour of death unto death." No doubt we cannot make the word to be the savour of life unto life to any soul. But what if it fail of this through our fault,—what if, through our fault, it become the "savour of death unto death?" Can we, indeed, deceive ourselves so far as to doubt that in many, many cases it actually has? "O Lord, have mercy upon me '-" deliver me from blood-guiltiness, and my tongue shall sing aloud of thy righteousness!" How lightly have we often spoken in the public prayers of the word not returning to God void! Doubtless it shall not. But what if it have found its issue and fruit, through our neglect, in the aggravated destruction of our hearers? I find Dr Kalley of Madeira, in a letter addressed a few weeks ago to a society in this country, speaking of the Word of God, under the figure of "a conductor for the galvanism of heaven." "It stretches forth," says he, "from God into our world, and when its point is directed to the soul of man, there is a transmission of power, compared with which that of all the batteries on earth is nothing. It may consume,-it may become the savour of death unto the soul, adding the most agonizing torments to the eternal misery of an immortal spirit. With what feelings, with what care and prayer should we employ so tremendous an engine, lest through our fault it destroy.' That is in the spirit of the apostle, "who is sufficient for these things?

4. This leads me to mark a fourth great line of ministerial guilt, in our very faint impressions of where the strength and sufficiency of the Minister alone reside. Ah! we are too little with thee, Lord,-too little in thy secret place,-too little conversant with the great end of our ministry—the quickening of the dead, raising souls from the grave of trespasses and sins, bringing sinners into vital union and communion with Jesus Christ-to enter much into that word, "the weapons of our warfare are mighty through God;" "our sufficiency is of God;" "when I am weak, then am I strong.' For the ends we are practically very much satisfied with, our own strength may well enough suffice. It may be enough for preparing a suitable sermon and preaching it; but it will not suffice to save lost souls: and what we need is to go to our sermon, and to our pulpit, feeling, Lord, I go, under thee to pluck men as brands from the burning, to open their eyes, and turn them from darkness to light,-to espouse sinners, in an everlasting betrothment, to Christ Jesus,-to present every man perfect in Christ Jesus. Who is sufficient for these things? In such a work weakness is strength. Strength is but deep-felt weakness linking itself to the arm and word and love of Jehovah. Here the little child is truly the "greatest in the kingdom of Heaven." My strength is made perfect in weakness."

66

"What

How little have we known of that baptism of suffering and humiliation, which Moses underwent, and Joseph, and David, and Paul,-Luther, also, and Zwingle, and all that have been greatly blessed of God in any age! We have known little of the mystery of combining the careful use of all appointed preparations and means, with the renunciation of all,-of using them, and yet, in the very act, paradox though it may seem, renouncing them,-aye, and the more complete they are, the more renouncing them, and the more simply and singly looking to the Lord alone. was felt most," (writes Dr Duff in the account of his memorable shipwreck,) as being to him irreparable, was the entire loss of all his journals, notes, memorandums, essays, &c. &c., the fruits, such as they were, of the reflection and research of many years, when he possessed special opportunities which he could never expect again to realise. 'But they are gone,' was his own written declaration at the time, they are gone; and blessed be God I can say 'gone,' without a murmur. So perish all earthly

The

things; the treasure that is laid up in heaven alone is unassailable. only article which was recovered, in a wholly undamaged state, was a quarto copy of Bagster's Comprehensive Bible and Psalm Book. ** Ah! the lesson and the schooling of a mysterious Providence seemed now complete; and its designs and intentions perfectly devoloped. ** It seemed as if the heavens bad suddenly opened, and a voice from the Holy One had sounded with resistless emphasis in his ears, saying, 'Fool that you are, to have centred so unduly your cares and anxieties and affections on books and papers! So intense and devoted was the homage of your heart towards these in the eyes of the heart-searching God, that, as there seemed no other method of weaning you from them, your heavenly Father, to save you from the doom of an idolater, has in mercy to your soul removed the idols-sinking them all to the bottom of the deep, or scattering them in useless fragments on this desolate shore ;-all, all save one, and that is, the ever-blessed Book of life. Here is the Bible for you,-grasp it as the richest treasure of infinite wisdom and infinite love-a treasure which, in the balance of heaven, would outweigh all the books and papers in the universe. Go, and prayerfully consult that unerring chart,—that infallible directory,-humbly trust to it, and to your God; and never, never will you have reason to regret that you have been violently severed from your idols, as thereby you become more firmly linked by the golden chain of grace to the throne of the Eternal *.” How little, thus also, through ignorance of our own utter insufficiency, have we known of prayer! As for Luther's three hours of prayer, daily, it is now rather an anecdote we tell, than a thing at all approached to. And yet we fail less seriously

in the time, than in the spirit of this exercise, the spirit which would come out of the soul's being intensely set on the end of the ministry, in the excellency of it, the exceeding difficulty of it, and the divine promise of it,-the spirit of Jacob's wrestling with the Angel of the Covenant, and of Moses' strange unearthly pleading upon the Mount,-of Jacob's "I will not let thee go, except thou bless me," and Moses' answer to the Lord's, "let me alone," -"remember, Lord, Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, thy servants, to whom thou swarest by thine own self," &c., &c., (Exodus, xxxii. 9-14.) How little do we know of such pleading as that in Exodus, xxxiii. 12-15, divinely applicable to the ministry, throughout, "and Moses said unto the Lord, See, thou sayest unto me, Bring up this people; and thou hast not let me know whom thou wilt send with me: yet thou hast said, I know thee by name, and thou hast also found grace in my sight. Now, therefore, I pray thee, if I have found grace in thy sight, shew me now thy way, that I may know thee, that I may find grace in thy sight; and consider that this nation is thy people. And he said, My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest. And he said unto him, If thy presence go not with me, carry us not up hence." How wanting have we been, alike, in pleading with God for our people, and with our people for God! "Hide thy face, Lord, from my sins, and blot out all mine iniquities. heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me."

Create in me a clean

5. But this runs into a fifth great line of ministerial guilt. The four preceding, it will have been observed, belong rather to the habit, the frame and temper of the soul. From this state of soul, however, there springs a fifth iniquity, that might be branched out without end. I refer to great and criminal perfunctoriness in every department of our work. I believe that the more the matter is considered, it will be the more evident how a man may be diligent, comparatively, pains-taking and conscientious in the ministry, and yet may discharge it, if its proper nature be regarded, in a very slight and perfunctory manner after all. Look at Paul's command to Timothy, "preach the word; be instant in season, out of season," connecting it with the distinction already so often drawn, between the heart of a Minister bent on the winning of souls, as the end of his work, and his seeking, substantially, the discharge

* Duff on India and India Missions, pp. 492-4. I would add that the importance of anxious and careful preparations, both for the ministry in general, and for the pulpit, every Lord's day in particular, is not to be over-estimated. Nothing can be more mistaken, however, than the sort of antagonism which we are apt to conceive of, and in our folly and carnality often to create, between such preparations, and a spirit of simple dependence upon God. Never, perhaps, on various accounts, has à Minister more cause to hang, with child-like simplicity, on the arm and promise of the living God, -in a sense renouncing his whole preparations, in the very act of making the fullest use of them, than just when they are the most complete and satisfactory, in their own place, and for their own ends.

of his duty, the satisfying of his conscience, by some due measure of laboriousness in his work. A man in this last state of mind will not be even able to understand that word, “instant in season, out of season." It evidently supposes a Minister bent on saving souls, any how, if it be at all possible. Such a man will take all sorts of times, and ways, and places, not forbidden by scripture, or by sound spiritual good sense, to attain his object. If, for example, he cannot get hearers to come to him, he will go to them, though it be to the streets and highways. Why not? If he can reach them" in season," well. But if not, yet "out of season he must come at. them. "I became all things to all men, that I might by all means save some." 66 They watch for your souls," says Paul," as they that must give account." They watch for them. Look how it is with a man of this world, set on mercantile gains. He watches his opportunity. He is not content with going through a routine. Bent on realising profits, he observes the prices. He watches their rise and fall, and eagerly steps in at what he deems the most favourable time. It is otherwise, alas! with us. We have exonerated our conscience-we have done our duty. Have we ? In reality we have done nothing like it, since we have lost unnumbered opportunities, just from not lying on the watch-not being bent intently on the great gain, the gaining of imperishable souls. Ah!" the children of this world are wiser in their generation than the children of light."

66

T

This perfunctoriness appears, to take an example or two, in the preaching of the word. In our preparations it comes out, in our not seeking, laboriously and prayerfully, for those things which might be the most fitted under God, to save and edify souls, but rather being satisfied with things which will give ourselves less trouble, or may be pleasing, simply, and satisfying to the better part of our hearers. And then in the preaching itself it appears, in the absence, to a fearful extent, of that winning tenderness and affection, that simplicity, that chastened and loving zeal, for which noise and vehement gesticulation are but miserable substitutes. The same perfunctoriness appears in our dealing with young communicants, where we are too much satisfied with being just able conscientiously to admit or reject them, without longing after their souls, looking up to the Lord for them, seizing the golden opportunity, the most precious we can ever possess, of getting into close and earnest and personal dealing with them. In our discipline it appears, in that we are generally content, I fear, when we have given some due compliance with the letter of the Church's laws, in place of sincerely travailing with offenders," (to use the language of our ancient statutes,) to bring them, if the Lord will, to a repentence not to be repented of. In family visitation there is a miserable perfunctoriness. If we have got through the work of the day, comfortably and pleasantly, we are content, though we have neither wrestled before hand, nor much looked up, in the course of the work, for the Lord's special presence and blessing in it. In the public prayers the same spirit comes out, in our not "stirring up ourselves to take hold of God,"-not throwing our whole souls into " fellowship with the Father and with his son Jesus Christ.' As to the government of the Church, our Presbyteries, and other ecclesiastical courts, we have but to look, I think, at this present Assembly, to see how miserably we have, in a great measure, thrown these away, deeming their work very much over, just where the chief spiritual efficacy of it might have begun. Altogether, who can read the following words of Paul, without seeing, in the contrast of them, and seeing in every thing, a great and lamentable perfunctoriness, "therefore watch, and remember that, by the space of three years, I ceased not to warn every one night and day with tears.

"

6. I mark only one other line of our guilt, in the briefest manner, viz. our very imperfectly living, holding forth, in our lives, the ministry we have received of the Lord Jesus. I speak not, of course, of any outward immoralities—the Lord be praised we are kept from these. I speak of nothing that could indicate that we had entered the priest's office for a bit of bread. But what I point to is that high standard of living, which the apostle marks in the words, "giving none offence in anything, that the ministry be not blamed,"-the elevated ministerial character marked in the following divine words of Bunyan, in his Pilgrim. Among other pictures which the Interpreter shewed Christian, furnishing him with certain great cardinal lessons for his journey, one is thus spoken of: "So he had him into a private room, and bid his man