bondslaves of men. Wherein does this servitude, this slavery consist? Is it not in sympathy, active, inexhaustible, boundless sympathy, Christ-like sympathy, in rejoicing with those that rejoice and weeping with those that weep, in living with those that live and dying with those that die? To enter into all the cares however trivial, to share all the sorrows however private, to study all the temptations however special, of those committed to your charge, to find a place for all these things in your heart-this is the servitude, to which to-morrow will bind you over. Servus servorum, 'slave of slaves'; such is the high title, which the proudest of Christian prelates arrogates to himself. Poor indeed when so arrogated; but blessed, unspeakably blessed, if it be not a title, but a fact; not a fashion of speech, but a rule of life.

Ambassador of God, slave of men. Here are the pillars which flank the gateway of ministerial efficiency. These two conceptions realised make up the ideal of the clerical office. Strive you to realise them. Realise them in your prayers and meditations in the few hours which remain before your consecration to-morrow; realise them in your lives throughout the long years which lie before you, the long years with all their hopes and fears, with all their tremendous responsibilities and all their glorious potentiality.

V.

God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.

2 TIMOTHY i. 7.

[Advent, 1881; Advent, 1884.]

TO-DAY a deacon, to-morrow a priest; to-day a layman, to-morrow a deacon-for all a great change, for some the great change in the condition of your lives is imminent. How shall you best prepare to meet it? What at such a moment shall be the predominant feeling in your hearts? Shall it be exultation? God forbid. You know little of yourselves, if, confronted with the burden of responsibilities which awaits you, you can find place for exultation. A profound sense of awe will be yours; an abundant overflow of thanksgiving will be yours; that youyour unworthiness, your feebleness, your ignorance, your nothingness—you of all men should have been

chosen for so high a dignity and so weighty a task; but for exultation there is no room. Shall it be depression and despondency? Again, God forbid; a thousand times, God forbid. You do well to recall at such a crisis the sins of your past lives-your wayward youth, your wasted opportunities, your spurned blessings. You do well to pour out your heart in contrition before God for all these things. You do well to pause for a moment on your own weakness, your own incapacity. To pause there, but not to dwell there. This is before all things a time for faith, for hope, for a trustful reliance on God, for a thankful looking forward to the work of Christ which is in store for you, remembering always that you have not chosen Him, but He has chosen you. What then shall be the attitude of your souls on this the eve of yourordination? Not exultation, and not despondency; not pride in your strength, for this is your weakness; not dismay at your weakness, for this may be your strength; no dwelling on your capacities or incapacities, on your greatness or your littleness, but on God-on God's pledges, on God's gifts, of which you will receive the earnest to-morrow.

So then let us steady and concentrate our thoughts by fixing them on one text, which describes the hopes -nay, let us rather say, the assurances-of our consecration to the clerical office. Οὐκ ἔδωκεν ἡμῖν ὁ

Θεὸς πνεῦμα δειλίας, ἀλλὰ δυνάμεως καὶ ἀγάπης καὶ σωφρονισμοῦ.

'God gave us not a spirit of fearfulness, but of power and of love and of sobering discipline.'

These are directly ministerial gifts, you will observe. The context makes this quite clear. They are the gifts which Paul himself received, the gifts which Timothy received, the gifts which every duly ordained minister of Christ receives or may receive by virtue of the promise of the Holy Spirit, which Christ has left to His Church; a great potentiality which by prayer, by self-discipline, by zeal and devotion may be developed into an active, living, power; a magnificent earnest of a larger, fuller, richer endowment in the time to come; a germ of living fire, which, duly fanned and fed with fuel, will spread into a mighty flame, purifying, dissolving, illuminating; an ever intensifying centre of light and heat. t Jous

Yet, though a ministerial gift, not differing in its essential qualities from the gifts bestowed on the faithful, whosoever they may be. Is not power, is not love, is not the discipline of the heart and life, the attribute of the layman not less than of the ordained priest and deacon? Should you expect it otherwise? What is your diaconate but an intensification of the function of ministering which is incumbent on all believers alike? What is your priesthood but a

concentration of the priesthood of the whole people of Christ? Yes, you will do well to press upon your people in season and out of season that the Church of Christ is one great priesthood, one vast spiritual brotherhood, gathered together of all sorts and conditions of men, for the good of humanity, if you will, for the saving of individual souls, if you will, but beyond all and through all and before all for the offering of continual sacrifices to the praise and honour and glory of God; that God-not humanity, not this or that parish, not this or that man-may be all in all.

All in all. Yes, God is the end of your work, but He is the beginning also. God is the last link of the chain, but He is the first also. If there is to be hereafter any power, any vitality, in your ministrations; if you would rescue your clerical office from sinking into a listless, lifeless, thing—a dreary round of monotonous tasks without heart, without hope-why then you must feel and know that, along with the burden of responsibility which He lays upon you in your ordination, God endows you with the strength to bear that burden; He bestows upon you then and there the earnest of His Spirit. Looking back on the day of your ordination in the months and years to come, you must be able to say; 'God gave to me-gave to me-a potentiality of power and love, which (His