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ministry. In our colleges it is, generally, not the young man who is most active in sabbath-schools, and in visiting the poor and the dying, that longs to be away; but it is the idler, who dislikes the fatigue of training, and is galled under the pressure of discipline. The efficiency of men, for doing good, depends much on their mental character. The kingdom of heaven in the souls of men is a kingdom of mind; the more mind, therefore, and the more cultivated mind, a holy man brings to the furtherance of this kingdom, the more likely he is to be useful. The time spent in preparations for usefulness is far from being time lost: what is spent in time is gained in efficiency. A man's usefulness is not estimated by the length of the time he is employed, but by the character of the resources, qualifications, and capacities, which he puts in operation during the period he is engaged. An educated mind, under the influences of the Holy Spirit, will be productive of more good than an uneducated mind in the same circumstances; just as a cultivated garden, under the same genial blessings, will be more fruitful than a rude heath. The Spirit CAN make it otherwise, as he CAN make the heath fertile, but we have no authority to expect it.

Without superiority of mind, the church cannot control mind. The influence which the church will exert over the mind of the world, will be in proportion to the amount of mind, and to the religious and holy character of mind, which she will bring to bear upon it. There are thousands whose minds are governed by the master-spirits connected with literature and the sciences. If these master-spirits were religious, the religious influences which they would exercise, would be wide and powerful. Without intellectual culture, Christians cannot give a religious character to the press of the day. Truth and error, sin and holiness, have been long contending who shall direct the fearful powers of this mighty engine. Were the master-minds, at the head of our influential periodicals and journals, holy men, the redeeming influence, which would be shed on the length and breadth of our country, would be incalculable. The religious portion of the press does not receive, from Christians themselves, the support which it deserves; confessedly and avowedly because there is not so much mind in it, as in the irreligious portion. Thus the mind, that is really maintaining a struggle against the irreligious power of the press, has an immense weight of Christian patronage against him; he is not only without that

weight in his favor, but it is all thrown into the scale of his antagonist. Every penny given to support a journal opposed to virtue and holiness, is a contribution of aid, to give to that flagitious or infidel paper, more power to influence public opinion against the interest of pure religion. If any Christian feels that he cannot influence and govern public opinion himself, the least he can do is, to withdraw his support from a power that contaminates and poisons it. In this way, the feeblest and the poorest Christian can do something to influence public opinion; and that something is just as much and as little as he himself chooses to render it.

4. To influence the world extensively and powerfully, the church must sanctify her property, with ready cheerfulness, and with enlarged liberality, to the interests of religion. In the church, the love of money has been a root of innumerable evils. While the church attaches respectability to money, honor to acres, and worth to titles, she will always seek the patronage of wealthy men, and seek her character from men of the world. Nearly all the money in the world is employed on the side of evil. Even of the property of Christians, almost the nine-tenth is employed, either in selfish and secular speculations, or in trades and pursuits, and customs, which tend directly to encourage and propagate sin. Christians frequently enter on business, not to live, or to maintain a family, but avowedly to gain a fortune, and then retire to enjoy it. When they pray for their "daily bread," they mean provisions and store-houses for their children's children. The present mode of carrying on business, between buyer and seller, must blast the healthiest piety that ever adorned a counting-house. It is lamentable, also, to think how much religion is now made an affair of mere money. In established churches, under lay patronage, the conveyance or transfer of the souls of a parish, from one man to another, is a regular and advertised money-traffic; and, in churches free from the state, there is, either in the pastor, an aspiration to wider spheres for larger emolument, or, in the congregations themselves, a desire to enjoy the best talents at the lowest stipend. At present, the best talents of the church are employed chiefly for the improvement of religious finances. Whoever has attended the committee of any Christian institution, for the management of its anniversaries, cannot fail to be convinced of this. In discussing the choice of the preachers, or speakers, for the annual exhibition, the conversion of souls, or the

revival of religion, seldom enters into the speculation; the persons most likely to obtain the largest sum of money are always deemed the most eligible. The entire blame of this does not rest with the committees. While committees have to appeal to sluggish, reluctant, and worldly Christians, who give rather from a charming excitement than from stern principle, the churches cannot blame them for seeking agents to meet the case. On this account, the expenses to which the churches put our best institutions, in appealing to their liberality, and in collecting their gifts, form frequently a serious and painful deduction from their resources for benefiting the world. Is it not a degradation to our popular brethren, that the church should prostrate their brilliant talents, and desecrate their high office, to the work of getting gain and filling the religious exchequer? On such occasions the messages of truth and grace to dying men are attended to, simply as what they are announced to be, "collection sermons." After all this apparatus, contrived to gratify the taste of the churches, the amount collected is little; little compared with their ability, as the Lord hath prospered them;" little compared with the claims and the merits of the institution pleaded for; little compared with the sum which they waste on themselves; and very little compared with what Christ has done for them, with what the Holy Spirit expects from them; and very little truly, compared with the panting cries of a world in death. A church, with the sinews of her holy warfare so enfeebled and so stiffened by avarice, is not the church to subdue the world.

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5. The whole world stands in awe of prayer. The prayer that conquers with God, is the prayer to overcome the world. Prayer is the only process that prepares the soul to receive a full supply, and abundant share, of Divine influences; and, without these influences, he "can do nothing" to subdue the world. In our attempts to influence public opinion upon our civil rights and Christian liberties, there are loud complaints that our struggles tend much to injure the tone of our piety. How is this to be accounted for? Luther and the Reformers, the Puritans of England, and the Covenanters of Scotland, had to sustain the same conflicts in a more torrid heat of the day, yet their piety, in the noise and dust of conflict, was calm, pure, and firm. The truth of the case is, that probably they prayed more than we pray, and FELT more than we feel, that their cause was the cause of God. We want, in our

The man

struggles, a deep feeling of dependence on God, and an intelligent reliance on the influences of his Spirit. It is by prayer that we master our own spirits, and it is by prayer we can best influence the spirits of other men. A life of prayer has everywhere been found a life of power. Prayer has power with God, and prayer gives energy to character. who prays must plead; he who pleads must believe; and he who believes must feel confidence in his enterprise, confidence that God intends to fulfil his promise. There is, probably, no community upon the surface of our globe that could hear, unmoved and unconcerned, that another class of people was constantly praying to some god against them; the feelings in this case would, perhaps, be stronger than in the case of intercession in their behalf. The very tidings of such measures would affect us, and impress us; we could not, after such information, be quite at ease, for the mind would be thinking of the possibility of some results. If the world were impressed with the conviction that Christians are much with God on its account, weeping for its sins, witnessing against it, seeking influences to bring its iniquity to an end, and wrestling for pardon and salvation, the minds and sentiment of its people would be affected by such facts; and worldly men would then be as ready in life, as they are now in death, to do homage to the power of prayer, and to the reality of religion.

THE CHURCH TO AIM AT THE SAME OBJECT, ETC. 225

CHAPTER II.

ON THE UNION OF PURPOSE AND DESIGN BETWEEN THE HOLY SPIRIT AND THE CHURCH.

SECTION I.

The Church to aim at the same Object as the Spirit. THE grand object of the Holy Spirit is the salvation of the world. For this, all his influences are intended: for this all his offices are adapted: for this all his means are contrived: and on the accomplishment of this all his feelings, dispositions, and inclinations are bent and fixed. The salvation at which the Holy Spirit aims, is a salvation that is practical in its operations, progressive in its effects, and to be perfected by the use of means. The salvation of the Spirit is not a salvation from sin in the abstract, for that would consist only in delivering the present system of the world from susceptibility to metaphysical evil; but it is salvation from sinning, and salvation from suffering the results of sinning. The world cannot be saved from "the curse of the law," until it is saved from doing what the law curses. To save the world from the guilt of sin, is to save it from being guilty of committing it. Salvation from the power of sin is a perceptible and evident deliverance of the mind, the judgment, the volitions, and the affections, from the force of sinning inclinations, and from the influence which certain temptations were accustomed to exercise over them.

This salvation is a practical translation, from a state of alienation, condemnation, and slavery, to honorable acceptance with God, to the privileges and immunities of his approbation and blessing, to the elevation and dignity of holy character and ennobled mind, and to the stupendous and brilliant hopes of the eternal weight of glory. Such a saving achievement is not accomplished in a moment or a day; it is a process going on gradually and progressively in the temper and character of men, and in the sentiments and morals of the world: it is a course of operations altering men in life, and not a mystic series of proceedings, which priestly craft can hasten into quick completion, in the moments of death. Scriptural testimony and Christian experience assure us, that

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