INAUGURAL SERMON.

BY REV. J. W. ADAMS, A. M.

Of Syracuse, New-York.

Acts, xx. 31.

By the space of three years, I ceased not to warn every one, night and day, with tears.

I place much dependence for my discourse to you on this occasion, upon the last two words in this passage. They inform us in one particular how Paul, as a minister of Christ, did his work. It was with tears.

No man ever entertained more correct views of the christian ministry than he, nor did any one ever discharge its responsible duties with greater fidelity or success. The world would have been evangelized centuries ago, had all who have professed to be Paul's successors in the ministry been anointed for their work as Paul was.

He was a learned Jew; but it was neither his extraction nor his learning that gave him his eminence in the ministry, for many a

gentile has been called of God to the same work, possessing stores of learning altogether more extensive and varied than his.

He was an apostle, acting on the authority of an extraordinary commission, and endowed with supernatural gifts and powers. His extraordinary commission however did not authorize him to preach an extraordinary gospel, or to enforce its claims by extraordinary means. It distinguished him from us chiefly by the plenary authority with which it clothed him, to adjust the ordinances of the infant church. We preach the same gospel which he did, and we have the same facilities of giving it a lodgment in the heart, which he had, if we except the demonstrations of miraculous power that were placed at his disposal. But what use did he make of these, and what ends were they intended to subserve? They were simply visible confirmations of the divine authority under which he acted, the bright signets which Heaven put into his hands to accredit his commission. But men were converted under his ministry just as they are converted now; not by miracles, but by the Spirit and

truth of God. He was, to be sure, endowed with an opulence of ministerial gifts, so that from that age to this, the church has not seen his like. But what gave him this distinctive and radiant eminence? Not his commission as an apostle, not his vision, and revelations, and miracles; but the burning ardor, the invincible energy, and the unparalleled selfdevotion which he brought to his work. In these respects he stood alone among apostles, and here he holds a solitary prominence among the stars that have since been set in the firmament of the church. No man has ever bestowed upon the propagation of Christianity the same amount of well-directed zeal, exact fidelity, untiring industry, and unfaltering courage that Paul did. The beamings of his spirit are seen in that small fragment of his history which I have already recited to you. "By the space of three years, I ceased not to warn every one, night and day, with tears." This was his contribution to a single church. But he spent thirty-three years in the ministry, and the whole period was employed just as he had spent the three years at Ephesus. What a multitude of tears must

he have shed in that time! What a victim to emotion must have been the manly spirit of this flaming herald of the cross-for it is manly to weep where there is occasion for weeping! The sensibilities of the heart, duly excited, are a fragrant atmosphere investing the soul, and shedding its soft and balmy dews on its powers. They are the silver

tissues that are woven into the delicate but immortal texture of the mind. They are the electric fluid that pervades the regions of the heart, throwing its subtle influence upon the springs of thought, and shooting its lightnings through every channel where the mind is wont to give expression to its hidden move

ments.

Our apostle could not, under any circumstances, be subject to a suspicion of mental imbecility or of fanatical weakness, as he was under the control of a governing influence from God. His tears came from fountains which that influence had opened and sanctified. There must however exist in his ministry, independently of this influence, adequate and perceptible causes for them. These causes, it is my intention, in the sequel of

this discourse, to bring out distinctly to your view; for I have proposed to myself to illustrate and establish the following proposition; namely,

That emotion in the preacher is necessary to an effective and successful proclamation of the word of God;

And also to answer the following inquiry By what means may this important attribute be secured to our ministry?

I have however a few preliminary remarks to offer; and,

1. By emotion I do not mean a pathetic tenderness, or a weeping sensibility, only and always pervading the bosom; but those different states of the affections which correspond with the import of the different themes on which we dwell, and the nature of the varying circumstances by which we are surrounded.

Nor when I speak of emotion do I mean those indefinable impulses, or sudden bursts of animal feeling which sometimes flood the soul, carrying away the landmarks of reason and thought, and leaving the mind to the mercy of an irresistible tempest of passion.