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wretched pride and self-complacency-a mischievous weed, deep-rooted, which all my winter seasons have not yet killed. O may it at length be rooted out.'* It was therefore most judicious advice of Bishop Taylor to his Clergy-Let no man preach for the praise of men. But if you meet it, instantly watch and stand upon your guard, and pray against your own vanity; and by an express act of acknowledgement and adoration return the praise to God. Remember, that Herod was, for the omission of this, smitten by an angel; and do thou tremble, fearing lest the judgment of God be otherwise than the sentence of the people.'†

Great care is needed, lest we draw a veil over the glories of our adorable Master, by selfish ends. This is indeed to lose sight of the great end of the Ministry, which is not to gain applause to ourselves, but to bring glory to God, and good to our people. Our business is to make men think, not of our eloquence, but of their own souls; to attend not to our fine language, but to their own everlasting interest.' Our duty is, 'not to

* Biographical Portraiture of Rev. J. Hinton, p. 116. † Clergyman's Instructor, p. 108. 'Let all eloquent preachers beware, lest they fill any man's ears with sounding words, when they should be feeding his soul with the bread of everlasting life. Let them fear, lest instead of honouring God, they honour themselves. If any man ascend the pulpit with the intention of uttering a fine thing, he is committing a deadly sin.' H. K. White.

Smith on the Sacred Office, Lect. xviii. It was a bitter regret to Augustine, that his early Ministry had been distinguished by this character-'ut placeret, non ut doceret.' Jerome complained of many in his time-'Id habent curæ, non quomodo scripturarum medullas ebibant, sed quomodo aures populi declamatorum flosculis mulceant.' 'Do not say within yourself-How much or how elegantly I can talk upon such a text: but what can I say more usefully to those who hear me, for the instruction of their minds, for the conviction of their consciences, and for the persuasion of their hearts. Let not your chief design be to work out a sheet, or to hold out an hour, but to save a soul.-Watts's Humble Attempt, pp. 19, 20.

please but to feed'—as one of the old writers expressed it-'not to stroke the ear, but to strike the heart.'* Mr. Richmond well said, 'I have no wish to be a popular preacher in any sense but one, viz. a preacher to the hearts of the people.' Indeed the Gospel was never meant as an occasion of display, but as a treasure to dispense for the benefit of the world. And as far as we are embued with the spirit of our office, we shall esteem the enriching of one soul with the unsearchable riches of Christ, a more durable recompense than an investiture with the dignity and honour of an earthly crown.

There is no warranted expectation of success without this singleness of spirit. The matter indeed is from God, but the manner and the dress, the principle, the exhibition, is but 'incense thrown upon the altar of vanity.' We may preach clearly in statement and forcibly in manner, but defect in "doing all" with a single eye "to the glory of God," will ever prove a canker and a mildew upon our Ministry. However diligently we may be employed in his service, yet nothing is really done, to any purpose, or with any acceptance, that is not done for God. So that a painstaking Minister, who has been engaged in the service of God for selfish ends, may at last sink into the grave with Grotius's affecting lamentation-Alas! I have lost my life in doing nothing, with great labour.' Or should he be used as an instrument in the work of God, he will be in the unenviable character of the servant, who never tastes the provisions which he dispenses to the guests at his Master's table. § Godly simplicity is

* 'Pungere non palpare,' was Jerom's direction for the Preacher's words.

† Richmond's Life, p. 50. Hall's Sermon, p. 45. § It is a solemn remark of Massillon, that 'God sometimes, in saving his elect, makes use of instruments which he afterwards

the alchemy that converts every thing it touches into gold. A deficiency in talent or judgment may be compensated for, where the paramount desire is, that Christ "in all things may have the pre-eminence;" and where it is the corresponding expression of the heart--" He must increase, but I must decrease."* This indeed is the true character of the "friends of the bridegroom;"† to woo for him, not for ourselves--to seek his honour, not our own--and to adopt a tone of preaching, not as gaining more regard to ourselves, but as bringing sinners into union with their heavenly Saviour. I

'He that intends truly to preach the Gospel and not himself; he that is more concerned to do good to others, than to raise his own fame, or to procure a following to himself, and that makes this the measure of all his meditations and sermons, that he may put things in the best light, and recommend them with the most advantage to his people--this man so made, and so moulded, cannot miscarry in his work.

tainly succeed to some degree. him shall not return again.

He

and his reward from his labours.

He will cer

The word spoken by

shall have his crown,

And to say all that

can be said, in one word, with St. Paul, he "shall both

save himself and them that hear him."§

casts away.' A thought that may well call to mind 1 Cor. ix. 27, with deep and serious personal application.

*John iii. 29.

† Ibid. 30.

Mr. Cotton preached an university sermon at Cambridge, much approved by those who relished the wisdom of words more than the words of wisdom,' which, however, upon a clearer understanding of the true principles of the Ministry, he committed to the flames. Subsequently preaching in the same pulpit in a more Scriptural tone, his sermon was attended with the Divine blessing to one of the most eminent divines of that day-Dr. Preston. Mather's New England, Book iii. pp. 15, 16.

§ Burnet's Pastoral Care, ch. ix,

SECTION VII.

LOVE THE SPIRIT OF SCRIPTURAL PREACHING.

6

LOVE is the grand distinctive mark of the Christian Ministry, as a Ministry of reconciliation.' The great labour of the Minister should be to cast himself in the mould of his commission. Paley has admirably illustrated the exquisite address of Christian love, which characterizes the Epistle to the Romans, mixing itself with the most offensive statements of truth, and conciliating a kind attention, as the most effectual avenue to conviction.*

66

Speaking the truth in love," is perhaps the most complete description in few words of our office. Some from a false charity would keep back offensive parts of truth. Some again speak it in fear, from the apprehension of inconvenient consequences to themselves. Some also speak, in faithfulness, as if their responsibility was simply to deliver their own souls, and not rather to win souls to Christ.

Love should pervade the whole tone of our Ministry. The cause of truth may be weakened by an inaccurate exhibition of its spirit. The Scripture marks the temper as well as the subject matter of our Ministry. An Apostle assures us in his own case, that if he "were to speak with tongues of men and of angels," yet without love, he would be no better than "sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal." How delightful is it, when we can look down from the pulpit, and regard the Christian

*Hore Pauline. + Eph. iv. 15.

1 Cor. xiii. 1.

part of our congregation in the tender light of "mother, and sister, and brother." Even as respects the unconverted, the most fruitful seasons of our Ministry, are those, when we can most naturally weep over those who have no heart to weep for themselves. What force does that affecting declaration carry with it-"Of whom I tell you even weeping 199* The testimony that is borne on this particular respecting Mr. Brown of Haddington, is far more enviable than that of eloquence or originality. Though not deficient in the exercise of Christian sympathy, and able to endure bodily or domestic afflictions without a tear, (an exercise of self-controul however not desirable, and mentioned only for the sake of the contrast which it affords,) yet, when warning sinners of their danger, and "beseeching them to be reconciled unto God," he is said to have been often unable to restrain his emotions.†

*Phil. iii. 18. Oh! how deep into the heart go those periods that are sown in the unforced, uninvited tears of the preacher !'. Robinson on Claude. Calvin writes excellently on this pointSunt multi clamosi reprehensores, qui in vitia declamitando, vel potius fulminando, mirum zeli ardorem præ se ferunt; interea securo sunt animo, ut videantur per lusum guttur et latera exercere velle. At pii pastoris est, flere secum, priusquam alios ad fletum provocet; tacita cogitatione discruciari, pruisquam indignationis signa edat; et plus retinere apud se doloris, quam aliis faciat.' In 2 Cor. ii. 4.

Brown's Life, p. 22. Mr. Winter tells us of his friend Mr. Whitfield-'I hardly knew him to go through a sermon without weeping more or less, and I truly believe his were the tears of sincerity. I have heard him say in the pulpit-'You blame me for weeping, but how can I help it, when you will not weep for yourselves, though your immortal souls are upon the verge of destruction, and for aught you know you are hearing your last sermon, and may never have another opportunity to have Christ offered to you.'-Jay's Life of Winter, pp. 27, 23. The outward expression of love may greatly vary from constitutional causes, nor would we insist upon tears as a necessary evidence of a tender heart. But the spirit in the cases referred to was warranted by the strongest evidence to be genuine and fervent love to souls, and is well worthy of our imitation.

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