skilfulness of his hands' the combatants on the public arena. But the real battle-field is not there. The closet is that battle-field. It is in the closet that the man of God' is thoroughly furnished unto every good work.' It is there he receives the Divine armour. Carnal zeal may carry a man through elsewhere. But carnal zeal will not avail him greatly there. Reader! what aspect does thy closet present? Does it see thee, each morning and each evening, drudging through the duty of prayer? Or does it see thee wrestling, like Luther, in his chamber at Coburg, and like Jacob, in the solitude of Peniel?

ART. VIII.-The Free Church Pulpit. Vols. I. and II.
Perth: J. Dewar & Son.

OUR object is not to criticise the discourses which these volumes contain. We simply notice them as specimens of the ministry in our Church. They are a fair and ample representation of the Free Church of Scotland. Many of them are richly fragrant with the name of Christ, and all of them, in a less or greater degree, exhibit and proclaim it.

History too will prize such documents. They will rise in value with another generation. For naturally the question will arise as to what was the real character, piety, ability of the men of 1843? What sort of ministers were they who did the deed at which men cannot cease to wonder? Were they fools, fanatics, idiots? Or were they men of mind and soul,-men of worth, and weight, and learning,—calm, serious, thoughtful, solemn men? These volumes of the Free Church Pulpit will answer such questions to all who think it worth their while to consult them for an answer. But we do not dwell on these points. We pass from them to considerations of another and more personal, more pressing nature.

These two volumes contain 104 Sermons. Each of these has, we doubt not, been preached more than once to large congregations. Had each of them been preached but once, and had the audience in each been but one hundred, still upwards of ten thousand souls must have been spoken to of Christ and salvation, and the long everlasting. But we may safely conclude that each of them has been preached three times at the least, and to audiences whose average could not be under five hundred, on a very easy calculation. If so, then upwards of one hundred and fifty thousand immortal souls must have heard those messages from the living lips of Christ's ambassadors.

Of all that vast number, how many have been saved? Into how many souls have these words been dropped as seeds for eternity-an eternity of glorious life? Alas! many are called, few are chosen. A thought like this may both solemnize and stir us: while it saddens, it should arouse us.

Another thought occurs. Have these 104 Sermons all come pouring forth from believing, loving, yearning hearts? Were the texts given of God in answer to prayer? Were the sermons written on our knees, steeped in our tears, and spoken from the warm lips of men who were far on the way to the kingdom themselves, and who were, with an infinite earnestness, beckoning a dying world to follow them? How sadly short of all this have we fallen! Do we wonder that our words fell powerless,-that our messages were unblessed?

We remember many years ago to have heard of one who, looking forward with fear and trembling to entering on the work of the ministry, yet earnestly desirous that his ministry might be blessed, resolved that he would as far as possible have his pulpit preparations finished on Friday night, that he might give the whole of each Saturday to fasting and prayer. Perhaps this in many cases would scarcely be practicable; but to a certain extent it might be carried into effect; at least the spirit of it might be matter of imitation. With what living power and freshness would we ascend our pulpits, after a whole day's fellowship with the Father and the Son!

'

We remember also to have been told of another who, beginning his preparation as early in the week as possible, kept his sermons always before him each time that he knelt to pray, that in every supplication they might be called to mind; nay, who placed them under his pillow at night, that his last thoughts as he went to sleep, and his first as he awoke, might be of them. Sermons such as these are the winged words' which fly swift and far,—the sharp arrows of the mighty,' which no panoply ean resist. 'Men fell before him like slaked lime,' were the words used in reference to the preaching of Venn. And who was Venn, or Whitefield, or Berridge, or Rowlands, but men of like passions with ourselves? Among the world's warriors of other days, it was a saying that each British archer, each time he went forth to battle, carried in his quiver the lives of twelve foemen. Spirit-stirring boast for the men of war and might, with garments rolled in blood! But how much more blessed might be our boast in going forth each Sabbath to the better battle-field, that in that quiver of heaven, which we call our message', were contained the lives, not of twelve, but of twelve times twelve of the enemies of the King! But, alas! our bow is loosely strung, our

arrows are blunted or unfeathered,—sometimes our quiver is empty!

Were our hearts really set upon success in preparing and delivering these sermons? Did they throb with expectant eagerness as we ascended the pulpit, saying within ourselves, now let some more souls be won? On this point we remember some weighty and precious sentences of Bunyan, which we shall here quote. We cite them along with Dr Cheever's remarks, in his recent volume entitled, Lectures on the Pilgrim's Progress.

"We venture to say, that there was never in the world, since the time of the Apostle Paul, a more remarkable instance of a wrestling spirit in behalf of others. And this it was, that, by the blessing of God, made his preaching efficacious; it was the deep, powerful, soul-stirring intensity of interest with which he entered into it himself, preparing himself for it by fervent prayer, and following his own sermons with a restless importunity of supplication for the Divine blessing. In my preaching,' he tells us himself, I have really been in pain, and have as it were travailed to bring forth children to God; neither could I be satisfied unless some fruits did appear in my work. If it were fruitless, it mattered not who commended me; but if I were fruitful, I cared not who did condemn. I have thought of that word, Lo! children are an heritage of the Lord; and the fruit of the womb is his reward. As arrows in the hands of a mighty man, so are children of the youth. Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them; they shall not be ashamed, but shall speak with the enemies in the gate.'

"It pleased me nothing to see the people drink in my opinions, if they seemed ignorant of Jesus Christ, and the worth of their own salvation; sound conviction of sin, especially of unbelief, and an heart set on fire to be saved by Christ, with strong breathings after a truly sanctified soul, that it was that delighted me; those were the souls I counted blessed.

'If any of those who were awakened by my ministry did after that fall back (as sometimes too many did), I can truly say their loss hath been more to me than if my own children, begotten of my own body, had been going to the grave. I think verily I may speak it without any offence to the Lord, nothing has gone so near me as that; unless it was the fear of the loss of the salvation of my own soul. I have counted as if I had goodly buildings and lordships in those places where my children were born. My heart hath been so wrapped up in the glory of this excellent work, that I counted myself more blessed and honoured of God by this, than if he had made me emperor of the Christian world, or the lord of all the glory of the earth without it. Oh these words! He that converteth a sinner from the error of his ways doth save a soul from death. The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life; and he that winneth souls is wise. They that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament, and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever. For what is our hope, our joy, our crown of rejoicing? Are not even ye in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at his coming?

For ye are our glory and joy. These, I say, with many others of a like nature, have been great refreshments to me.'

"Not only before and after preaching was Bunyan accustomed to cry mightily to God for an effectual blessing, but also while he was in the exercise; for every word that he spake sprang out of an earnest desire by all means to save some. 'When I have been preaching, I thank God my heart hath often, all the time of this and the other exercise, with great earnestness cried to God that he would make the word effectual to the salvation of the soul; still being grieved lest the enemy should take the word away from the conscience, and so it should become unfruitful; wherefore I should labour so to speak the word, as that thereby, if it were possible, the sin and person guilty might be particularized by it. Also, when I have done the exercise, it hath gone to my heart to think the word should now fall as rain on stony places; still wishing from my heart, Oh that they who have heard me speak this day did but see as I do, what sin, death, hell, and the curse of God is; and also, what the grace and love and mercy of God is, through Christ, to men in such a case as they are who are yet estranged from him. And indeed, I did often say in my heart before the Lord, that if to be hanged up presently before their eyes would be a means to awaken them, and confirm them in the truth, I should gladly be contented."

66

Here is at least one notable example. Bunyan teaches us how a minister's heart should beat. Has ours been beating like his? If not, what marvel that we should be left to complain of poor success?

Set upon success! What presumption and irreverence! What interference with the sovereignty of God! So some would say. So say not we. And God forbid that any minister of the Gospel should take shelter under such an excuse, and cast the blame of a fruitless ministry on God, as the sinner casts the blame of his damnation upon God for not choosing him to life. But on this point we have another quotation at hand, which we ask every minister of Christ to ponder. It may serve to drive some from their refuges of lies ;-for have not ministers, as well as sinners, often their refuges of lies, out of which they must be dislodged?

"The language we have been accustomed to adopt is this, we must use the means, and leave the event to God, we can do no more than employ the means: this is our duty, and, having done this, we must leave the rest to Him who is the disposer of all things. Such language sounds well, for it seems to be an acknowledgment of our own nothingness, and to savour of submission to God's sovereignty: but it is only sound; it has not really any substance in it, for though there is truth stamped on the face of it, there is falsehood at the root of it. To talk of submission to God's sovereignty is one thing; but really to submit to it is another, and quite a different thing. Really to submit to God's sovereign disposal, does always necessarily involve the deep renunciation of our own will in

VOL. XIX. NO. III.

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the matter concerned; and such a renunciation of the will can never be effected, without a soul being brought through very severe and trying exercises of an inward and most humbling nature. Therefore, if, whilst we are quietly satisfied in using the means without obtaining the end, and this costs us no such painful inward exercises and deep humbling as that alluded to, we think that we are leaving the affair to God's disposal, we deceive ourselves, and the truth (in this matter) is not in us. No; really to give up anything to God, implies that the will, which is emphatically the heart, has been set on that thing; and if the heart has indeed been set on the salvation of sinners, as the end to be answered by the means we use, we cannot possibly give up that end, without, as was before observed, the heart being severely exercised and deeply pained by the renunciation of the will involved in it. When, therefore, we can be quietly content to use the means for saving souls, without seeing them saved thereby, it is because there is no renunciation of the will, that is, no real giving up to God in the affair: the fact is, the will, that is, the heart, had never really been set upon this end: if it had, it could not possibly give up such an end without being broken by the sacrifice. When we can thus be satisfied to use the means without obtaining the end, and speak of it as though we were submitting to the Lord's disposal, we use a truth to hide a falsehood, exactly in the same way that those formalists in religion do, who continue in forms and duties without going beyond them, though they know they will not save them, and who, when they are warned of their danger, and earnestly entreated to seek the Lord with all the heart, reply by telling us they know they must repent and believe, but that they cannot do either the one or the other of themselves, and that they must wait till God gives them grace to do so. Now, this is a truth, absolutely considered, yet most of us can see that they are using it as a falsehood to cover and excuse a secret insincerity of heart. We can readily perceive that if their hearts were really set upon salvation, they could not rest satisfied without it. Their contentedness is the result, not of heart-submission to God, but in reality, of heart-indifference to the salvation of their own souls. Exactly so it is with us as ministers: when we can rest satisfied with using the means for saving souls without seeing them really saved, or we ourselves being broken-hearted by it, and at the same time quietly talk of leaving the event to God's disposal, we make use of a truth to cover and excuse a falsehood; for our ability to leave the matter thus is not, as we imagine, the result of heart-submission to God, but of heart-indifference to the salvation of the souls we deal with. No, truly; if the heart is really set on such an end, it must gain that end, or break in losing it. Whether a minister ought to be satisfied with using the means to save souls, without seeing them actually saved, is certainly a question,-a question too, that can be answered only by referring to the word of God. Now, an examination of Scripture will plainly show, that it is not the mind of God a minister should be satisfied without seeing the fruit of his labour. 66 No; if his heart be really set upon that end, he will not be satisfied without it. How express is the promise of success made to Timothy, and in him to every minister of Christ! 'Meditate upon these things, give thyself wholly to them, that thy profiting may appear to all,'—or,