INTRODUCTORY: THE MINISTERIAL OFFICE.

S. You wish me to give you some instructions on preaching, the study which it requires, and the preparation of your sermons?

J. I do. It is a branch of the Pastoral Office to which I think I can scarcely attach too much importance; and I want to avail myself of the experience which your longer engagement in these duties must have given you. I would avoid, as far as possible, that waste of time which I see will be created by early mistakes. Those errors, if I fall into them, will have to be corrected; and while they exist, they cannot fail to render all my labours less efficient than otherwise they would be.

S. You are right. The period for labour is too short to allow any portion of it to mere experimental occupation. Besides, your work terminates not in yourself. At the beginning of your course, as well as at its close, you have to seek the salvation of others: while, therefore, you may correct your own errors, so far as you are yourself concerned, yet many circumstances may occur to render the correction of them, as to others, utterly impossible. If you feel this, and if you connect with it a proper impression of the great design of the ministerial institution, you will most earnestly desire that your whole career may be one of correct and

efficient labour. Your object must be, the greatest possible extent of real usefulness. For this, you must have right principles, and a clear, comprehensive perception of the right method of applying them. Thus, whether you bring to your work the greater liveliness and vigour of youth, or the maturity and weight of age, you may humbly hope to be, by God's blessing, an able minister of the New Testament.

J. This, I believe, is my earnest desire. I cannot read the Scriptures without being convinced that I have not to mark out my own course. I am bound to "fulfil" the "ministry" which I have "received in the Lord." My course, therefore, is already prescribed to me.

S. Undoubtedly; and though we can none of us claim the title of "ambassadors for Christ" in the exalted sense in which it was borne by the holy Apostles, yet to every true Christian minister is the term applicable in all its leading ideas; and of these, one of the most obvious is, that the ambassador is to do the work of him by whom he is employed. In this work his character is entirely representative; and to the honour, the interests, the directions of the sender, he is to be continually attentive.

J. It is this view of the subject which has led me to attach to preaching the importance which it at present, in my judgment, possesses. I hope that I by no means underrate the other duties of the pastorate; but, as the ambassador is charged with the delivery of a certain message, and as in the delivery of that message by the Christian ambassador he is said to speak "in Christ's stead," to my mind a peculiar responsibility seems to be connected with that one branch of his work.

S. Not exclusive responsibility, certainly; but, as certainly, peculiar responsibility. Here, as in so many other instances, the common caution about "extremes" is indispensable. By some, preaching has been made everything. The minister is "the preacher;" to go up to God's house, is "to go to preaching;" as though the minister and his flock had nothing else to do, or as if all else were merged in the superior importance of this. Even as to the duties which

you owe to a Christian congregation, worship is something, as well as preaching; and other duties there are, the neglect of which will most materially affect your public ministry. But whilst you sedulously guard against this extreme, with equal sedulity guard against the opposite one. Preaching is never to be regarded even as a subordinate part of ministerial duty. There are objects to be accomplished by it which, ordinarily, can be accomplished in no other way. Men are to be saved by calling on the name of the Lord: for this, they must believe in the power and willingness which that name implies. How the Apostle connects this with preaching, you know. "So then, faith cometh by hearing; and hearing, by the word of God." No church can flourish, if any express ordinance of God be neglected; and no undervalued ordinance will regularly and constantly be performed with practical efficiency. In the present case, however, I do not say unto you, avoid extremes, but unite them. Your whole work is before you. Allot to each portion its due

share of your attention and time.

J. Although I am seeking to be guided by you in the performance of one particular branch of ministerial duty, yet I see clearly that this one is so dependent on the ministerial office generally, that you will allow me to request that you would carry up your observations to the very commencement, deducing the various recommendations you may suggest on the subject of preaching, from the principles on which the ministry itself rests.

S. In this also you are right. We cannot ascertain even how a sermon should be composed, much less how it should be delivered, till we clearly perceive the nature of the ministerial office itself, and the relation which preaching sustains both to its own particular department, and to the entire work of which it is a part.

J. From what you have said, I should conjecture that you would scarcely approve of those phrases which represent the ministry as a profession, differing from other professions only in reference to the subjects about which it is exercised?

S. I would never be captious about mere expressions, where the truth was not endangered; and undoubtedly it is

possible to give a harmless meaning to the phrases to which you refer. As the word is used to denote a class of employments neither mechanical, trading, nor commercial, but one in which the mind is chiefly concerned, it may be applied without any direct impropriety to the engagements of the ministry, which are as purely mental as those of either medicine or jurisprudence. But having said thus much, I am bound to add that one inconvenience (to use the lightest word) follows this application of the phrase; and that this is of such a serious character, that, at all events, as the use of it is not necessary, and may be prejudicial, it were far better avoided. The inconvenience is this:-other professions are merely of human origin; this is of divine appointment. In the others, men may engage with the usual objects by which they are influenced in fixing upon any employment,-trading, mechanical, commercial, professional; in this, the originating call must be from God; and the objects sought, those exclusively for securing which the ministry itself was instituted. Carry back your thoughts to the origin of the ministry. It is needless to quote a number of texts. I refer to one as a specimen. Of the ascended Saviour, St. Paul says, “When he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men. And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ," &c. (Eph. iv. 8, 11, 12.) If we be Christian believers, then must we believe that the ministry is of divine appointment. It is as much, and as peculiarly, his service, as the Sabbath is his day. He who engages in it, must do so, not as the means of obtaining a livelihood, but as believing it to be his duty thus to seek the honour of God, in the salvation of men. As his whole time, as all his energies, must be devoted to this great work, so, by the explicit ordination of God, he is entitled to the full, unembarrassed support of the church; and the more so, as his duties are peculiarly exhaustive,-I mean, when performed with the whole soul, and under an abiding sense of direct, personal responsibility. But for recompence, in the ordinary sense of the term, he is to look to the Master

whom he professes to serve. If in the existence and value -the real existence, the surpassing value-of what you will allow me to term, allusively, spiritual emolument, he is not a believer, then for the work of Christ's ministry he is utterly unfit.

J. Two things I gather from what you say. The ministry is an engagement to which no other is similar: and, its peculiarity consists in this, that it is of Christ's own institution; and he who engages in it, must do so simply and exclusively in reference to the objects for the sake of which the institution is made to exist.

S. Even so. And as I have only quoted one text as an illustration of the general tenor of the New Testament on the subject, so I will content myself with referring to the Ordination Services of our English Establishment, for what you will allow me to call an ecclesiastical confirmation of the views I have expressed as to the origin, nature, and objects of the Christian ministry. The very first question proposed to the candidate is, "Do you trust that you are inwardly moved by the Holy Ghost, to take upon you this office and ministration; to serve God for the promoting of his glory, and the edifying of his people?" To which question an affirmative answer is required. And in the service for "the Ordaining of Priests," the Bishop, before imposition of hands, in an admirably constructed prayer, among other weighty expressions, says, "For these so great benefits of thy eternal goodness," (he refers to the original appointment of the work,) "and for that thou hast vouchsafed to call these thy servants here present to the same office and ministry for the salvation of mankind, we render unto thee most hearty thanks, we praise and worship thee."

J. Standing then on the ground of the original appointment of the ministry, and acknowledging its unchanged character, I am to view it as being, in a special and peculiar sense, the work and service of God; instituted" for the promoting of his glory," "the edifying of his people," and "the salvation of mankind?"

S. Yes; and from this centre all the lines diverge. Whatever be the particular duty, forget not, by your own