66 me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry, which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God."* "For God is my witness, whom I serve in my spirit in the gospel of his Son. "+ "I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation."I Who then is Paul and who is Apollos but ministers by whom ye believed, even as the Lord gave to every man? I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase. So then, neither is he that planteth any thing, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase.... For we are labourers together with God.....Therefore let no man glory in men." "For our rejoicing is this, the testimony of our conscience that in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God, we have had our conversation in the world, and more abundantly to you-ward." "Now thanks be unto 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? For we are not as many which corrupt the word of God: but as of sincerity, but as of God, in the sight of God, speak we in Christ." "And such trust have we through Christ to God-ward: Not that † Rom. i. 9. *Acts xx. 18, 19, 24. Rom. i. 16. 1 Cor. iii. 5, 6, 9, 21. § 2 Cor. i. 12. ¶ 2 Cor. ii. 14-17. we are sufficient of ourselves to think anything as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God."* "But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God and not of us."+ "Wherefore we labour, that whether present or absent, we may be accepted of him... For whether we be beside ourselves, it is to God, or whether we be sober, it is for your cause." Giving no offence in any thing, that the ministry be not blamed: But in all things approving ourselves as the ministers of God." "Yea, and if I be offered upon the SERVICE and SACRIFICE of your faith, I joy and rejoice with you all."§ "For our exhortation was not of deceit, nor of uncleanness, nor in guile; 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, which trieth our hearts."¶ "For what thanks can we render to God again for you, for all the joy wherewith we joy for your sakes before God."** We will close these quotations with the memorable words with which an elder minister of Christ addressed a younger one: "I give thee charge in the sight of God, who quickeneth all things, and before Christ Jesus, who before Pontius Pilate witnessed a good confession: That thou keep this commandment without spot, unrebukeable, until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ: Which in his times he shall shew, who is the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings, and Lord of lords: Who only hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can ap * 2 Cor. iii. 4, 5. † 2 Cor. iv. 7. 2 Cor. vi. 4. Phil. ii. 17. ¶ 1 Thes. ii. 4. 2 Cor. v. 9, 13. proach unto; whom no man hath seen, nor can see; TO WHOM BE HONOUR AND POWER EVERLASTING. AMEN."* The question of the retention or resignation of the ministry of the gospel, ought also to be conducted strictly under the light and influence of the great principle of regard for the divine glory. The man who has undertaken and who has carried on the ministry of the gospel with a sincere aim to glorify God, will not readily relinquish it at the calls of secular aggrandizement, the solicitations of friends, the suggestions of indolence, the pleadings of worldly gratification, the promises of science, of literature, or of fame, the murmurs of disappointment, the proud and pettish disgust at the frailties and vexations, which ought to have been calculated upon and provided against. These united clamours will be hushed by that one voice, the voice of God. But will not the same motive sometimes dictate the relinquishment of the office? We feel the delicacy of this subject. It is indeed a sore place in the body of the church, and few dare touch it; nor would we wantonly, or roughly, or unkindly treat it. But if not allowed to disturb the wound, we may, at least, ask a few questions about it. Are there not, besides just and proper notions of the permanence of ministerial obligations, some mere prejudices, conscientious it may be, on the part of the minister, and amiable on the part of others, lying against the resignation of the sacred functions? May not a man mistake his quaif this mistake is proved by expe lifications? And * 1 Tim. vi. 13-16. Should it not riment, ought it to be persevered in? rather be rectified? To be " apt to teach" being one of the great prerequisites for undertaking the work of the ministry, ought not demonstrated inaptitude to be considered an argument for discontinuance? Are there not infallible proofs of this inaptitude? Is not the union of general unacceptableness and unsuccessfulness one? Is not the almost universally unfavourable judgment of the judicious, the kind and the pious, another? If men universally or generally dislike a preacher, is he likely or apt to teach them? If people are not gathered, if attention is not awakened, if interest is not excited, if the hearers are scattered, if none of the great ends of the Christian ministry are answered, if none are impressed and none are edified, if all things wither under his hand; has not the preacher reason to apprehend that he has mistaken his vocation or at least his sphere? Is not many a field made desolate through inefficiency in the husbandman? Does not many a desert rejoice and blossom as the rose, on the retreat of a feeble and disqualified labourer - a retreat too, possibly condemned by some? Is the minister justified who continues to occupy a station where nothing is done, where every thing dies, whilst all good men weep and sigh over the desolation? When all is fruitless and decaying, ought not the labourer to be certain, in order to be easy, that there are other causes, and that he himself is not the cause? Shunned abroad and forsaken at home, has he reason to think that the commission reaches to him, to preach the gospel to every creature? And in weighing this serious matter, ought he so readily to take it for granted that he I is in his proper office, or proper field? Should he not guard against a partial and self-favouring decision? Should he listen to the pride that disdains to come down lower? Ought he to identify the resignation of his office or his charge with the abandonment of usefulness? Should he not rather conclude that he is more likely to be serviceable in the sphere for which he is better adapted? Shall he surmise that his "heavenly Father" will not care for him and his, but by his occupying a station for which he is not fitted, and which might be filled to advantage by one to whom God has given the apt endowments? Ought others to be accessory to such errors in the first instance, and to countenance perseverance in them afterward? Ought all to be silent spectators of these calamities? Is there no "meekness of wis dom," and no tender faithfulness, which may be usefully employed in these cases in modes of Christian admonition, counsel, and entreaty? And ought any motive to determine in this matter but regard for the glory of God, as involved in his revealed specification of ministerial fitness, in the edification of believers, in the increase of the church, in the conversion of sinners, and in the general spread and triumph of the gospel of Jesus Christ? There is another point connected with the ministry of the gospel, upon which our inquiry may be made fitly and advantageously to bear. We cannot but think that were the grand consideration we are seeking to illustrate more powerfully realized, it would prevent an appearance which strikes somewhat painfully upon the eye of the devout and the zealous-the frequent waiving of the sacred office where qualifica |