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more distinctive titles. Those who recollect that learning, during the dark ages, was chiefly confined to the clergy; that few, excepting persons of that profession, were able to read and write; and that the whimsical privilege, commonly called "benefit of clergy," grew out of the rare accomplishment of being able to read;-will be at no loss to trace the etymology of the word clerk (clericus) or secretary, to designate one who officiates as the reader and writer of a public body.

To distinguish the mass of private christians from the clergy, they were designated by several names. They were sometimes called Xamo, laici, laymen, from λaos, populus; sometimes dra, "private men," from 18105, privatus (see Acts iv. 13.); sometimes Biwrixo, "seculars," from Bios, which signifies a secular life. Soon after the apostolick age, common christians were frequently called ανδρες εκκλησιαστικοί "men of the church"-that is, persons not belonging either to Jewish synagogues, or heathen temples, or heretical bodies, but members of the church of Christ. Afterwards, however, the title, Ecclesiasticks, became gradually appropriated to persons in office in the church. See Stephani Thesaurus. BINGHAM's Origines Ecclesiastice, B. I.

A

SERMON,

PREACHED IN THE CITY OF BOSTON

BEFORE THE

Pastoral Association

OF MASSACHUSETTS.

MAY 31, 1826.

BY HEMAN HUMPHREY, D. D.

PRESIDENT OF AMHERST COLLEGE.

AMHERST:

PUBLISHED BY MARK H. NEWMAN.

CARTER AND ADAMS, PRINTERS.

PASTORAL SERMON.

EPHESIANS, IV. 11.

AND HE GAVE SOME

NEXT

PASTORS AND TEACHERS.

EXT to the divine art of preaching, which was the impressive theme of discourse at our last annual meeting, the pastoral duties and relations of a minister, claim, if I mistake not, the highest regard of this Association. I shall therefore offer no apology, my fathers and brethren, for taking the word pastor in its more limited and popular sense, and calling your attention to the qualifications, duties, and high responsibilities which plainly belong to this sacred office. And though it would become me better to sit at the feet of age and experience, than to offer my own sentiments, I shall, in discharging the duty which you have assigned me, speak freely, as I know you will hear me patiently and candidly.

I. Of pastoral qualifications. Without promising a complete enumeration under this head, and much less a finished portrait of the good pastor, I shall submit the following hasty sketch.

FIRST; he is a man of deep and unfeigned piety. However men of evangelical views and principles may differ on some other points, they can have but one opinion here. Piety is the life and soul of pastoral fidelity. Without it every thing must be forced and heavy, if not positively irksome. For how can a pastor form any just estimate of the worth of the souls committed to his charge, if he has never learned the value of his own? How can he realize the weight of his responsibility till he sees it in the light of eternity, and how can he see it in this light if his own eyes have never been opened? If the love of Christ does not constrain him, what can bear him on through evil as well as good report, in the discharge of duty? What shall sustain him under the trials and discouragements of the ministry; What shall rouse him to action when neither honour, nor pleasure, nor profit invites; but when all worldly motives conspire to discourage and impede him? If piety has found no lodgement in his bosom, if the love of souls is not there, what shall counteract the sluggishness of his own fallen nature, and induce him to follow his very enemies with prayers and entreaties, to the mouth of the pit into which they are plunging?

Every pastor must be with his flock in times of trouble and danger. He must see them when flesh and heart are failing; when earth is receding, and the awful portals of eternity are opening. He must accompany them to the entrance of the dark valley, and as it were dip his own feet in Jordan, as they

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