touch; and, when centuries had rolled away, as a recompense, to announce that the years had accomplished their appointed circles, that the fulness of time was come, that the Messiah was born, and then, as when the foundations of the earth were laid, "the morningstars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy." Then pealed the choral song through the skies, while supernatural radiance spread over the plains of Judæa, "Glory to God in the highest, peace upon earth, good will to men." In the mean while, all this is a most limited commission. Still some faint corruscations of light alone played over the deep and universal darkness. They announced only generally, a King to raise the fallen throne of David, and " a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord." All that they were "allowed" to do, was but preparatory; all the knowledge which they possessed was circumscribed. It touched the particular point to which it was expressly directed, and extended no farther. When they had delivered their message they returned to give an account of their specific embassy, and to lay down their delegated authority at the feet of Him from whom they received it. They fell into their ranks, and waited in silent submission to see how these grand mysteries would unfold themselves, and to execute whatever other charge might be intrusted to them. They watched the progress of events with intense interest. Every new development of the wisdom and mercy of God, the astonishing combination of justice and compassion, the perfect and evident harmony of all his attributes, awakened more ardent expectations, on their part, relative to those very "things which are now reported unto you, by them which have preached the gospel unto you with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven; which things the angels desire to look into."

But how contracted, and how inferior, was angelic delegation to the apostolic commission! "Now, then, we are ambassadors for Christ; as though God did beseech you by us, we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God. For he hath made him to be a sin-offering for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him." But after all that sophistry and criticism have done to confine this passage to the first heralds of salvation, and to their official and inspired appointment, it stamps upon the brow of the christian ministry its legitimate character still; and the message passes unaltered through dying lips and successive generations, undeteriorated by human infirmity, in all its primitive force and majesty. And he who is "allowed" to tell the tale of the cross to lost and perishing men-the only doctrine by which they can be saved-the minister who is employed to repeat the words of Jesus-"God so loved the world that he gave his only

begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life;"-to say, with Paul, "This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief;"-and to exclaim, with John, overwhelmed with the infinity of the subject, "Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins;"—such a man is honoured and privileged above an angel. He stands on the summit of the mountains, while the valleys below him are enveloped in darkness and the shadow of death, illuminated by the unrisen sun, a spectacle to both worlds, to angels and to men—a point of light upon a dark horizon-a pledge that the day is about to break, and the shadows to flee away and of those who are "allowed of God to be put in trust with the Gospel," it has been already written, "How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things!" Such, and so great, is the privilege of the ministry. We pass to the consideration of,

"But as we were allowed of

II. ITS SUBLIME RESPONSIBILITY.
God to be put in trust with the gospel."

The character of this trust induces a reference to the force of the word translated allowed, and which signifies approved, or, as the apostle elsewhere expresses himself, "counted worthy." In this, and the former view of the subject, there is nothing contradictory. It is such a permission as implies approbation-it is such an approbation as excludes merit. It is an act of grace crowned with the divine sanction. Neither does it at all affect the argument that we are responsible, because we are privileged; or that we are privileged because we are responsible. We are both-both are expressed, both are inseparable from the office. If it be an office which an angel might covet, and which is indeed higher than any with which he has been invested, it is, for that very reason, demonstrably a trust under which an angel would sink, unsustained by Omnipotence. In this point of observation does the apostle himself place it; and who shall doubt his accurate comprehension of the nature, and extent, and consequences of his commission? Alive to all its distinction, he is no less sensible of its difficulties, and the fearful weight of the charge. It is in the very midst of his exultation in the one, that he feels especially the force of the other. "Now thanks be to God, which always causeth us to triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest the savour of his knowledge by us in every place. For we are unto God a sweet savour of Christ, in them that are saved, and in them that perish: to the one we are the savour of death unto death; and

to the other the savour of life unto life. And who is sufficient for these things?" "And such trust have we through Christ to Godward: not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God, who also hath made us able ministers of the New Testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life."

Such was the source of apostolical confidence, such the secret of apostolical success—and oh! when we remember that our preaching cannot be a matter of indifference; that it must be followed by some certain result; that its effect, be it what it may, is not temporal, but eternal-whither shall we go for the strength requisite to sustain so weighty a change, but to Him who has “put us in trust with the gospel?" And while it is thus clear that the responsibility is reciprocal, how will you support your share in it, but by constant reference to the same source, and dependence upon the same energy? Many things may serve to illusrtate the principle, in its tenderness and assiduity of application-no circumstances will, however, carry it out to the full compass and extent of its operation. The parent looking round upon his children feels his responsibility increase with every addition to his family; every child born to him is another undying spirit committed to his charge, and placed by the Creator under his nurture and admonition. Here is an obligation involved in all the instinctive affections of his nature, as well as interwoven indissolubly with his moral accountableness. Such is the analogy between the duties of the parent and of the minister. Both are unalterably binding, both associated with that purest and most powerful spring of human action-love. Nay, this is the very image employed by the apostle in the immediate connexion of the text; and he seems to blend with paternal affection maternal softness, at the very moment when that tenderness is most actively occupied in tending upon the helplessness of infancy, or training the expanding faculties, and ministering to the increasing exigencies of childhood. "We were gentle among you, as a nurse cherisheth her children: so being affectionately desirous of you, we were willing to have imparted to you, not the gospel of God only, but also our own souls, because ye were dear unto us." "As ye know how we exhorted, and comforted, and charged every one of you, as a father doth his children, that ye would walk worthy of God, who hath called you unto his kingdom and glory."

The master feels his charge enlarged, when he regards the members of his household, to whatever extent of numbers, consigned also to his keeping. If less of the meltings of nature be here, there is not in fact less of moral responsibility as to principle,

P P

although it must undoubtedly be measured by the extent of his control. As in the paternal character, the tenderness most closely allied it to the ministerial, so that of the domestic head, in his wider sphere of action, more nearly approaches it in its yet more comprehensive duties and anxieties. These, however, only approach it; and when their separate characteristics are combined, it surpasses them both; it is not less than the one in affection, it is far beyond the other in compass; it is identified with both in responsibility. When the pastor looks round upon his flock, Jesus says to him, 'These are mine!' The under shepherd is accountable to the chief Shepherd for the entire fold. The duties and the abilities are precisely correspondent. Not one can be lost, without a strict and undeceivable scrutiny, whether or not it arose from the carelessness of the pastor. The smallness of the flock shall not excuse negligence when it shall be asked, in another spirit than that which dictated the inquiry originally, "With whom hast thou left those few sheep in the wilderness?"-and the largeness of it shall not extinguish responsibility. If royalty, having no specific spiritual superintendence connected with it, shall not escape a scrutiny relative to national apostacy; if it shall be demanded whether those whose high station possessed necessarily a corresponding influence, whether that influence were beneficial or demoralizing; if it shall be said, as in the language of the prophet to "the king and to the queen, Humble yourselves, sit down; for your principalities shall come down, even the crown of your glory;" if, when this shall be accomplished by that irresistible potentate, the king of terrors, the Eternal Judge himself, presiding at the final tribunal, shall demand, "Where is the flock that was given thee, thy beautiful flock?"--what must be the responsibility of the pastor in his spiritual jurisdiction, whatever be its measure and extent? And shall not the observant vigilance of the minister give a pulse of unutterable feeling to his heart? And ought not the sincerity of the uncontrollable emotions to awaken some sympathies on the part of his people, when, in prospect of this last meeting, when each, and all, shall alike pass under the examination of that "God who trieth the hearts," he shall warn and mourn over the careless, the unruly, the impenitent and gay-"If ye will not hear it, my soul shall weep in secret places for your pride; and mine eye shall weep sore, and run down with tears, because the Lord's flock is carried away captive?" for this captivity of sin is a bondage more cruel than tyrant ever devised, or nation endured, therefore infinitely surpassing the event which the prophet contemplated, and its consequences are without remedy and eternal. Oh, then, judge ye, whether the unequalled

privilege of the ministry is not fully balanced by its sublime responsibility?

III. ITS FAITHFUL ADMINISTRATION: "But as we were allowed of God to be put in trust with the gospel, even so we speak; not as pleasing men, but God.”

"Even so we speak."-I know not how to fill up this outline. What! can we speak commensurate with the magnitude of the subject? Will the most faithful and devoted ministry correspond, in all its points and bearings, with the comprehensive character of that "gospel" with which we are "allowed of God to be put in trust?" I have no hesitation in answering-No! Not the labours of a Paul, not the earnestness of a Peter, not the affection of a John, accomplished the whole. Every power was consecrated to God, on the part of each and all of these distinguished beings. But the plea, "Even so we speak," relates evidently to the sincerity and fidelity of the administration, rather than to the comprehensive majesty of the subject itself; and, in every case, the minister was content to be lost in his message. Yet was there an evident correspondence between the commission and its execution; and, indeed, the apostle distinctly marks this fact, "Not as pleasing men :" it is, then, evident that many things please men, which neither consist with the word of God, nor with our ministerial fidelity, to sanction. We dare not approve that intense anxiety relative to worldly concerns, which so much, and so often, distracts the attention of professors of religion. We dare not sanction those intellectual speculations which amuse and bewilder philosophical amateurs in religion. I am sorry to borrow a foreign term, but really I know of no English word that will designate the tribe (I am afraid a large one) of men who have no further interest in religion, than just to indulge in reveries respecting it, as a thing indifferent in itself, and doubtful as to its claims. Every thing in the context is full of life, every thing in the text full of feeling; and the irresistible conclusion is, that you must decide, and for yourselves, between abstract notions and vague professions, and simple experimental truth, demanding a corresponding life and character.

"Not pleasing men, but God." This is an overwhelming sentiment, yet it is a determinate one. To please God, must occupy every faculty of a rational creature to its utmost extent. At the same time, to please God is to declare his will expressly according to his own revelation, and in conformity with its plain, simple, and obvious import. As to please man and to please God are two different things; nay, are here absolutely opposed to each other, it is of great importance to ascertain how they are opposed? For