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ledge, acquire habits of self-denial and industry, and covet earnestly the best gifts, that as "men of God you may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works." You will then be able to say, "we are labourers together with God."

Secondly, THE SPIRIT IN WHICH THE WORK UNDER CONSIDERATION SHOULD

BE PROSECUTED.

It is not only necessary that we should have correct views of the nature and importance of this work, but that we should also engage in it in a right spirit. It is possible to assume the office of a Christian minister and not preach the Gospel and it is possible to preach the truth and yet to do it in a spirit that is calculated to disgust rather than edify, and excite division rather than promote harmony and spiritual improvement. The prayer of David ought to be the prayer of every man, but more especially of every Christian minister: "Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me." What, then, is that spirit which every disciple of Christ, and more especially every preacher of the Gospel, ought to manifest? We ought to engage in the work of the Lord.

First, in the spirit of humility.

The consideration of the infinite disparity between ourselves, and the Being in whose service we are employed, his avowed hatred of every species of pride, and the momentous consequences attending our ministry, might be thought sufficient to induce the most unfeigned and habitual humility. The character also of Him whom we preach, who, although Lord of all, and in whom were hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, took upon him the form of a servant, and was meek and lowly, humbling himself in obedience even unto the death of the cross, might be supposed to furnish sufficient motives to the cultivation of a spirit which he has sanctified and enforced by his own example. But, alas! such is our depravity that, even in the most sacred employment and with prospects of overwhelming solemnity, we are in danger of self-adulation and of glorying in ourselves instead of the Lord, to whom we are indebted for all our gifts and usefulness.

There are but few traits of character of more importance to a Christian minister than humility. It will essentially promote his usefulness, and this ought to be a sufficient inducement to its cultivation. So hateful is pride that, although it is often cherished and manifested, no one will plead its cause or is willing to be thought a proud man. Talent, learning, wealth, and power have a commanding influence, but pride excites pure aversion, unmingled disgust. On the other hand, humility will gain the esteem both of friends and strangers, and will dispose them to cultivate our friendship, and receive our instructions with candour.

Humility is necessary to peace of mind. A proud man is never satisfied, is generally irritable, and will be sure to irritate many with whom he must necessarily have habitual intercourse; and, if he be a minister, they will not fail to let him know and make him feel that such a spirit is glaringly inconsistent with his office and the duties which he daily inculcates. And when he retires from public view and communes with his own heart before God, when he considers his manifold imperfections of character and service, and anticipates appearing before his Lord to give an account of his stewardship, the recollec

tion of a proud look, haughty behaviour, and imperious language towards any of his fellow sinners, will fill his soul with shame, confusion, and remorse. The man who is of an humble spirit will escape this mental conflict and self-inflicted degradation. In short, the approbation of God, the example of our Lord and Master, the esteem of our fellow men, the profit of our hearers, the prosperity of the church, and the peace of our own consciences, combine to show the importance of humility in a Christian minister. "Be ye clothed with humility: for God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble."

Secondly, They who are labourers together with God must be influenced by love to God.

In no department of life will there be vigorous and persevering exertion unless the heart be interested. This is particularly observable in religion. Many hear the word, give their assent to its truth, and do many things which would be good and acceptable, if the heart were right with God. But their perception and belief of the truth are too superficial and vague to affect the heart; and, therefore, their obedience is limited to the more prominent duties of religion, is without feeling, and of short continuance. It is the man who understands and believes the Gospel, as it respects the character and government of God, the depravity and guilt of man, the mediatory character and work of Christ, and the necessity of being renewed by his grace and justified through his righteousness, whose heart will be truly and fully interested in religion: and according to the extent of his knowledge and faith in the Gospel will be the degree of interest he will feel in the kingdom and service of our Lord Jesus Christ. Where the heart is fully with God and its affections set on the things which are above, there will be decision and fortitude: difficulties and dangers will not deter that Christian from following his Lord and striving to promote his glory both in the church and in the world.

It will be obvious that, if the heart must be interested to secure consistency and perseverance in the ordinary duties of religion, it must, if possible, be more deeply interested to secure efficiency in the discharge of ministerial and pastoral duties. The work itself is far more extensive and arduous, and, therefore, requires corresponding experience of the power of religion in the heart to induce close application and vigorous exertion. If we have not clear and scriptural views of the character and government of God, how shall we instruct the people in the fundamental principles of the Christian system? If our faith is not strong in the truth as it is in Jesus, with what consistency and effect shall we speak to others of the duty of believing in the Lord and of the advantages to be derived from implicit dependence on the promises of God? If we do not feel an ardent love to God, on account of his infinite perfections and what he has done for us in the works of nature and the economy of redemption, we shall exercise but little self-denial, make but little exertion for the spread of the Gospel, and be indifferent whether we succeed or not in seeking to reconcile the sinner to God through Jesus Christ, and to promote the increase and prosperity of his kingdom on earth. But if our love to God be fervent and steadfast we shall think no labours too great, no sacrifices too costly, in order to atain these important ends, and "make full proof of our ministry."

Thirdly, They who are labourers together with God must be influenced by love to their fellow men.

The holy Scriptures not only enforce the duty of love to man, but also adducc

as motives to its exercise the love of God to our world, and the example of the first labourers in the Christian field. "God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another." If the apostles and their coadjutors had not been powerfully influenced by love to God and their fellow sinners, they would not have exposed themselves to the reproaches, the losses, and the bitter persecutions they endured whilst, as "labourers together with God," they, going from nation to nation, called upon all men to repent of their iniquities and believe in Jesus Christ for pardon and eternal life.

If we would succeed in our labours to any thing like the extent of the first preachers of the Gospel, we must emulate their devotedness to God and the salvation of men. We must enter more feelingly into the condition of sinners. We must look upon them as our dearest kindred and members of our own body. And if our most tender affection would be painfully excited by the thought of an endeared relative or child being cast into outer darkness, so should our hearts be grieved by witnessing the ignorance, the irreligion, the vice, the profaneness, the self-deceivings, and the presumption of the multitudes around us; knowing that "for all these things God will bring them into judgment." And if we ourselves are not willing to be cast into the bottomless pit, neither should we be willing that any of our fellow sinners should go into perdition; for we are commanded to love our neighbour as ourselves. If he that witnesses the perpetration of a crime and does not attempt to prevent it, although he has an opportunity of doing so, is justly considered as participating in the guilt, how can we be innocent, if we witness the sinner violating the law of God, and thereby destroying himself, without using those means, which, under the divine blessing, would "save a soul from death and hide a multitude of sins?" Let us awake, my brethren, to our responsibility, that we may be "clear from the blood of all men."

The full exercise of Christian love is equally necessary to the peace and prosperity of the church. Every deviation from this principle inflicts a painful and extensive injury on the mystical body of Christ. You cannot smite the surface of a lake without the effect extending to the whole of its waters. You cannot manifest coldness, resentment, or insult, even to an obscure person in a Christian community, without doing it to all those who are one with him in Christ. Such conduct interrupts the harmony of Christian fellowship and co-operation in the service of God: and is not this an injury to the whole church and to the whole world? Such conduct gives the enemies of the cross occasion to speak evil of the people and good ways of the Lord: and is not this an unspeakable injury to that cause which ought to be dearer to us than our lives? Such conduct grieves the Holy Spirit, who commands us to "keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace; and who can calculate the loss which is sustained by such an event? Therefore, "be ye all of one mind, having compassion one of another, love as brethren, be pitiful, be courteous: not rendering evil for evil, or railing for railing: but contrariwise blessing; knowing that ye are thereunto called, that ye should inherit a blessing."

We reject the authority of men in the kingdom of Christ, and glory in taking the New Testament as the only standard of our faith and rule of our worship But, perhaps, we are sometimes in danger of committing the offence which we

profess to avoid. It is possible, that, in our zeal for what we consider to be conformity to the letter of the Scriptures, we may violate the spirit of holy love, forbearance, and unity which the Gospel breathes and is designed to nourish and perfect in the church. Whenever we do this, whether in prescribing unscriptural terms of fellowship, lording it over God's heritage, or in our behaviour towards each other in the social walks of life, we as truly usurp an antichristian authority as those who dictate laws and articles of faith, and enforce their observance by acts of parliament and other human devices. Let it also be remembered that all statements, inferences, and customs which violate the spirit of the Gospel, owe their existence to an abuse of the letter on which they profess to be founded. If we would convince the men of the world that we love them and are desirous to promote their everlasting welfare, we must set before them convincing proofs that we love one another and are one in the principles, the spirit, and the privileges of the kingdom of Jesus Christ. "Be ye therefore followers of God, as dear children: and walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savour."

Fourthly, they who are labourers together with God should prosecute their work with holy zeal.

If strong feeling and strenuous exertion are justifiable in any cause, they are in the work under consideration. This will be felt the more deeply when we consider the immortality and capacity of the human soul for improvement and happiness, deterioration and suffering; and that our labours are connected with the glory of God, and will affect the spiritual and everlasting interests, not only of those whom we personally address, but also through them of multitudes around and of future generations.

As our feelings towards persons and things are regulated by the estimate which we form concerning them, so the peculiarity of our spirit will be according to the nature of our predominant principles. How important, then, that we should understand and rightly estimate the genius of the Gospel and the nature and design of that work in which we are "labourers together with God." Through ignorance, error, or unbelief on these points, our hearts may be cold, when they ought to glow with spiritual and benevolent feeling; our language may be tame and feeble, when it ought to be firm and pointed; and our whole conduct careless and repulsive, when it ought to be formed after his example who esteemed it his meat to do his Father's will, and who went through the cities and villages, teaching the people in the temple, the synagogues, the streets, and the fields. Let us learn from the example of the Saviour the character and degree of zeal in which we should seek the conversion of sinners and the prosperity of his church. In the spirit of their Lord the apostles "went forth and preached every where," persuading Jews and Gentiles to embrace "the hope set before them;" they "laboured night and day;" they "endured hardships as good soldiers of Jesus Christ;" they "counted not their life dear unto themselves, so that they might finish their course with joy, and the ministry which they received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the Gospel of the grace of God." Let us cultivate the same spirit, and labour in the same manner, and our success will bear some happy proportion to theirs. But let us imitate them and labour.

Fifthly, In the spirit of prayer and of faith.

We do not for a moment imagine that human agency alone is sufficient to attain the ends we have been contemplating, we know and feel that divine influence is absolutely necessary. Then let us pray, and pray more fervently, and more frequently, and be more united in prayer for the entire fulfilment of the promise, "I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh." Ah! my brethren, "we have not, because we ask not, and we ask and receive not," because we do not "ask in faith," and follow up our prayers by strenuous exertions to attain the things for which we supplicate. We pray and forget our prayers. We act as though we thought it would be too much to expect them to be answered and in too many instances it would, for they are offered without heart and without faith; and "let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord." We are not straitened in the Lord, but in ourselves. Our limited views, our weak faith, our carnal and selfish policy are the barriers which prevent our progress and usefulness. If we were more sincere, more devotional, and more zealous, the Gospel would be preached with "the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven," to the dense and profligate inhabitants of the lanes, the alleys, and the courts of our large cities; to the ignorant and irreligious people in our neglected villages; and to the Jews and Gentiles of every nation under heaven.

If God has provided means suited to the mental and moral condition of man, adapted to convey spiritual knowledge to the mind and produce contrition in the heart; if he has commanded us to apply these means and is daily giving us opportunities of doing it; and if he has, moreover, promised to be "with us alway," and that his word “shall not return unto him void; but shall accomplish that which he pleaseth, and prosper in the thing whereto he sent it;" are we not warranted to expect the conversion of multitudes, the universal spread and triumph of the Gospel, a millennium of spiritual prosperity to the church, when the gracious promise shall be fulfilled, "The Lord shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee. And the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising?" Is it too much to expect that God will be faithful? "Hath he said, and shall he not do it? or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good?" He declares, “heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away."

"O for a strong, a lasting faith,

To credit what the Almighty saith!"

Let ministers and every member of our churches act on the principles which have engaged our attention this evening, and " every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low; and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain: and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together; for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it."

May the Lord give to you, my brethren, who are pursuing a course of preparatory studies, "understanding in all things;" that you may become able ministers of the New Testament, and hereafter "feed the flock of God, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but willingly; not for filthy lucre, but of a ready-mind; neither as being lords over God's heritage, but being examples to the flock :" and "when the chief Shepherd shall appear, ye shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away."

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