fering such as was demanded in the days of Polycarp and Ignatius; the power of detecting and exposing subtle error in the most skilfully constructed system of error that has ever obtained an ascendency over the human mind · requiring far more ability than was requisite to meet the subtilty of the ancient philosophy; and God raised up such men. The ministry furnished such men as Luther, and Calvin, and Knox, and Cranmer: and never were the demands of an interesting age of the world better met than by the labors of those men. They were made what they were in part by the times in which they lived; but they would have been adapted to any age, and would have left the impress of their great minds upon it. The idea which I have endeavored thus far to illustrate is, that the qualifications for the ministry, at all times, and in all lands, are essentially the same: a pious heart, a prudent mind, a sober judgment, well-directed and glowing zeal, self-denial, simplicity of aim, and deadness to the world; but that these qualifications are to be somewhat modified by the peculiarities of each age; and that the age in which men live must be studied in order that they may make "full proof of their ministry." I proceed now to what I intend as the main design of this part of this essay, to inquire what are the qualifications for the ministry which are peculiarly demanded by our times and country. What should be the grand aim of the ministry? For what should the ministers of the gospel be peculiarly distinguished? It may be impossible to consider these questions without trenching somewhat on what I have mentioned as the essential qualifications of the ministry at all times, but my main object will not be interfered with. 1. The times in which we live demand of the ministry a close, and patient, and honest investigation of the Bible. The general reasons for this are too obvious to detain us. The truths which the ministry is to present are to be derived from the word of God. They are not the truths of mental philosophy; they are not the theories formed by a fertile imagination; they are not the opin1ons held by men; they are not systems embodied merely in creeds and symbols, they are the ever-fresh and ever-living truths of the Bible. It is almost too obvious to need remark, that the man who goes forth to proclaim the gospel, should be able, at least, to read it in the language in which it was originally penned. Why should a man attempt to expound a message which he can neither read nor understand as it came from the hand of him who commissioned him? Can there be a more evident unfitness for his work than to be ignorant of the very document which it is the main business of his life to explain to others? It is almost too absurd for grave remark, to speak of an ambassador who cannot, except by an interpreter, read his own credentials; of a lawyer who cannot read the laws which he expounds; of a teacher who cannot read even the books which he professes to teach. And yet it is as true as it is melancholy, that the business of studying the Bible, in any proper sense of the word study, is a business to which even in the ministry there is often a sad reluctance. I speak now of the fair and honest study of the scriptures in the language in which they were originally written, and in the use of all the helps which the God of Providence and grace has now given to illustrate this most wonderful ancient book which the ministry is called to explain and defend. Who knows not how reluctantly this is approached even in the seminaries of Christian theology? Who knows not how it is often laid aside as soon as the departing evangelist has bid adieu to the place of his theological training? And who knows not that the whole arrangement of the "study" afterwards contemplates the removal of all books written in the Greek and Hebrew tongue to the most remote and unfrequented department of the Library? And who is ignorant of the fact, that to multitudes of ministers in this land, with all the advantages which they have had, the original languages of the Scriptures are unapproached and inapproachable treasures-gold and diamonds hidden from their view, or rich ore which they are incapable of turning up to find the truth. The study of the original languages of the Scriptures in our seminaries is often like the study of music in the schools of female education. Many a weary hour is spent upon it; many a difficulty met and surmounted; and when the sober business of life is entered on, music is laid aside as useless, or its memory is revived only to amuse an idle hour, or to please the transient guest. Happy would it be if the ministers of religion would, even for amusement, recall the study of the languages in which holy men spoke and wrote. But a higher motive assuredly should lead them to it—the high motive of being able to understand the book to an explanation of which they have devoted their lives. The age in which we live is not, as it seems to me, distinguished for simple and direct appeals to the Bible, in defence of the doctrines of religion. Extensively it is an age in which the appeal is made to the opinions of the fathers; to the authority of creeds and symbols of faith; to the opinions of other times; an age in which to depart from those symbols and opinions, or to doubt their infallibility, is regarded with suspicion, and when such a departure in the slightest degree turns many an eye with deep vigilance on the first steps of the wanderer. By many it is held, or rather felt, that the system of religious doctrine has been settled by the investigations of the past; that there is no hope of discovering any new truth; that theology, as now held, is not susceptible of improvement; that the whole field has been dug over again and again with instruments as finished as our own, and by as keen-sighted laborers as any of the present age can be; and that it is presumption for a man to hope to find in those mines a new gem that would sparkle in the crown of truth. No good or grateful man will undervalue the wisdom of the past. He will be thankful for all the toil of the hands, the head, and the heart, by which we are placed in our present advanced position over other times. In religion, as well as in every thing else, we are acting on the results, and deriving the full benefit of the experience of the past. We reap the fruits of all the self-denials and sacrifices; the profound studies, the travels, the skilful inventions, and the sufferings of past times. Every happy discovery, every ingenious invention, every hour of patient study, every improvement in past times, has gone into the amelioration of the human condition, and has contributed its part to the civilization and refinement of the age in which we live. There has not been a philosopher who has not thought for us; not a traveler who has not traveled for us; not a defender of liberty who has not fought for us; not an advocate of violated rights who has not pleaded for us; not a skilful student in medicine who has not contributed something to make our condition more happy ; not a martyr who has not suffered to establish the religion whose smiles and sunshine we now enjoy, and not a profound thinker in theology who has not done something to chase away error, and to disclose the truth, that we may see it and be made better for it. "Other men have labored, and we have entered into their labors." We begin where they left off; we start on life under all the advantages of the wisdom and knowledge and piety of past times; and we should not undervalue or despise it. But is the field fully explored? Is there nothing yet to be learned from the Bible? Is there no encouragement for us to study the word of God? Are we to receive the systems made ready to our hands, and to suppose that there may be no rich vein in this bed, that has not yet been fully explored? Even were it so, it would be better for the minister of religion to go to the Bible and get his views of truth there, than from any mortal lips, or from any human system of theology. There all is still fresh, and vigorous, and instinct with life. The word of God is a fountain ever fresh and health-giving; and the streams that issue thence create a rich verdure where they flow. They are like the rivers that flow along in the deserts in the East. There the course of a stream can be traced afar by the trees, and shrubs, and flowers, and grass that spring up on its bank, and that are sustained by it in its course-a long waving line of green in the waste of sands. Where it winds along, that line of verdure winds along; where it expands into a lake that expands; where it dies away or is lost in the sand, that disappears. So it is with views of truth that are derived from the word of God. Their course can be traced along in a world not unlike pathless sands, as the course of the river can be traced in the desert. The Bible is the true fountain of waters in this world; and as we wander away from that, in our investigations and our preaching, we wander amid pathless sands. But can there be any improvement in theology? Can there be any advance made on the discoveries of other times? Is it not presumptuous for us to hope to see what the keen-sighted vision of other times has not seen? Is not the system of theology perfect as it came from God? I answer, yes. And so was astronomy a perfect system when the "morning stars sang together;" but it is one thing for the system to be perfect as it came from God, and another for it to be perfect as it appears in the form in E* which we hold it. So were the sciences of botany, and chemistry, and anatomy perfect as they came from God; but ages have been required to understand them as they existed in His mind; and other ages may yet furnish the means of improvement on those systems as held by man. So God has placed the gold under ground, and the pearls at the bottom of the sea for man-perfect in their nature as they came from his hand. Has all the gold been dug from the mines? have all the pearls been fished from the bottom of the ocean? The whole system of sciences was as perfect in the mind of God as the system of revealed truth; yet all are given to man to be sought out; to be elaborated by the process of ages; to reward human diligence, and to make man a "co-worker with God." "Truth is the daughter of time;" and is it to be assumed that all the truth is now known? That there is no error in the views with which we now hold it? That all I am now speaking of the ministry, and not of theology in general; and I am urging to the study of the Bible with a view to a more successful preaching of the gospel. It seems to me that as yet we know comparatively little of the power of preaching the truths of the Bible. That man has gained much as a preacher who is willing to investigate, by honest rules, the meaning of the Bible, and then to suffer the truth of God to speak out—no matter where it leads, and no matter on what man, or customs, or systems it impinges. Let it take its course like an unobstructed stream, or like a beam of light direct from the sun to the eyes of men. But when we seek to make embankments for the stream, to confine it within channels, such as we choose, how much of its beauty is lost, and how often do we obstruct it! When we interpose media between us and the pure light of the sun that we deem ever so clear, how often do we turn aside the rays or divide the beam into scattered rays that may make a pretty picture, but which prevent the full glory of the unobstructed sun! There is a power yet to be seen in preaching the Bible which the world has not fully understood; and he does an incalculable service to his own times and to the world, who derives the truths which he inculcates directly from the Book of life. Besides, the Bible is receiving constant illustrations and confirmations from every science, and from every traveler into the oriental world. Not a |