ness throws over the truth, will be dissipated, and he will see things clearly. His interest in the exercise will be in proportion to its continuance and intensity; and if he continue the process sufficiently long he will perfectly ravish his own soul with the study of the Bible. His fondness may become so exquisite and delicate, that he, at all times, seems to be in communion with the spiritual world; his religious sensibilities blaze out upon you, as if they had been lighted in heaven. How such a man is fitted for the work, either of planting or watering in the spiritual vineyard of Christ! How rare are his attainments, and how much guilt rests upon the church of God, that they are so rare! To be consistent we ought to do one of three things, viz.: to condemn this train of thought, or reduce it to practice, or condemn ourselves for the neglect. It is not too much to say, that in this age of bannered and bustling benevolence, of strange, mixed, and conflicting moral tendencies, there is great need of keeping close to the Bible. We do not want less action, but more meditation, more of soul-stirring contact with truth divine, to keep piety alive upon the altars of the heart. In the absence of this ingredient, the piety of the church will become noisy, clamorous, and powerless in one direction; formal, mechanical, and purely artificial in another; it will have all the symbols and insignia of power, without the elements of victory and strength. The history of all ages proves, that whatever comes between our intelligence and the Bible, so as to separate the two, results in our weakness; and if long continued, it will issue in total ruin. It may assume a most captivating title; it may burrow through antiquity, searching for jewels in the patristic age; it may adorn religion with scenic parade; or invest it with the lofty and scornful mien of philosophy, human and born below the Throne; if it intercept communion between the soul and the word of God, it will have the essential, the damning, the destructive properties of a Roman Pope. This is no flourish of words. Truth lies here--such truth as it has cost the world groans and ages of darkness to learn.

5. Finally, I would submit for your consideration the habit of uniform Christian activity. Some Christians are distinguished from others by the title of active Christians. What is Christian activity? It may be defined either by its end or its means. For its end it has the deliberate design of making men Christians, and thus glorifying God; its chief, its only purpose is to proselyte the world to Christ. In reference to the question of means, it employs all the methods of Heaven's appointment for the production of this end. It does not propose any emendations upon the plan of God; but such as it is, to use it with all its might. It is a spirit which acts everywhere and anywhere, where good can be done, and souls can be saved. It never says to others,— "Go forward, we wish you great success-we very much approve your course." Its language is, "Come, let us rise up and build." It never spends its strength as a mere spectator, and above all, as a mere ascetic and antinomian critic upon labors, which he is too lazy to undertake; it has time neither for the one nor the other; it has infinitely better business to do. What are the operations of this spirit upon him,

whose it is, written by the finger of time upon the tablet of ages? The mind is increasingly qualified for service by the simple act of service. By the experience of toil it learns to endure hardness as a good soldier of Christ. It is not easily fatigued, trifles do not discourage it; like some birds of passage it can remain long on the wing. When responsibilities are to be met, and great labors are to be performed, you will find this mind ready and willing to share its full weight of moral burdens. It is not the mind to be in an eternal flutter, yet doing nothing; feverish, yet exhausting itself in a mere effort to expurgate its own excitement. It has acquired a steadiness of purpose, a soberness and earnestness, which are the fruits of beginning to do, and then long-continuance in doing. Such a Christian, I assure you, is no figure of speech; there are in him all the dignity and reality of a man qualified to do something. The church needs such men; first, to keep it steady; secondly, to block it up when it makes advancement; thirdly, by continued pressure to augment its aggressive action upon the powers of darkness.

This discussion opens a very broad theatre for inferential remarks. Pleasing and profitable as the exercise might be, my time forbids me to indulge in it. With a brief retrospective glance I shall relieve your patience. What are you, my Christian hearers? Planters and waterers in the vineyard of God, which is the world. What is the ground of your encouragement? The assurance that God will bestow" the increase" upon your efforts. What is the ordinary relation of the divine benediction to the kind and character of those efforts? One that honors God, and speaks the words of deep and awful responsibility to the conscience of every Christian. What is the mode by which we, acting harmoniously with the laws and kingdom of grace, shall do the most good and the least evil? How simple the answer! We must be Christians ourselves; and in the only wayi n which it can be done, the elements, which make us Christians, must be largely expanded. We shall never rise above our own level; and if this be at a low point, though we had an angel's gifts, the world will be none the better. Cancel not your responsibility by some metaphysical subtlety about the sovereignty of God; plead not the inefficiency of means as an apology for selfishness and idleness; the kingdom of grace so harmonizes with that of means, as to preserve the integrity of the whole, and leave unimpaired the distinct sphere of each. Look around you—look at the thousands who are impenitent in these great cities; behold the work sin is achieving; follow out its results through unmeasured ages; then tell me, ye that are born of God, and who hope to shine in heaven, shall nothing be done? How well are you prepared to enter upon the work of rescue, and in all its details scatter the radiance of the skies through the walks of men? Events move too rapidly, and great issues are too speedily made up for cold speculation. There is the practical, as well as the theoretical, in moral being. I have sought in this discourse to give you the former, and I now commend it to you, and the God of grace, for his blessing.

SERMON CCCLXXV.

BY REV. NATHANIEL BOUTON,

CONCORD, N. H.

Preached before the Alumni of the Theological Seminary at Andover, Mass., September 3d, 1844.

EXPERIENCE IN THE MINISTRY.

"Meditate upon these things; give thyself wholly to them, that thy profiting may appear to all." 1 Tim. iv. 15.

THE qualifications and labors which are essential to success in the ministry, may be exhibited in at least two different ways: either, first, in the form of authoritative precepts, enjoining, as in the text, the observance of them, on ministers of the word; or, secondly, in the form of example, giving the results of experience and observation; thus showing how eminent usefulness in the ministry has been attained.

Each of these modes has its advantages. The former is the more common; but as we are now assembled, as Alumni of this Sacred Institution, where we studied the rules and the theory of our profession, and sought those moral and intellectual qualifications which were deemed essential to success; it cannot be unsuited to the occasion to rehearse the lessons of experience. In the fields of labor which Providence hath assigned us, and which we have cultivated, some, five; some, ten; some twenty years and more; we have reduced the theory of our profession to experiment; we have tested the wisdom of instructions and counsels given by our venerated teachers; and we have proved the moral efficacy of those doctrines of religion which we had studied and embraced as the truths of God.

I propose, therefore, to speak at this time of EXPERIENCE IN THE MINISTRY. By experience, however, I mean not chiefly the views and feelings, with which we have personally prosecuted our work; not merely our trials and discouragements, or our comfort and success: but rather, I mean to include, in experience, what has been found generally in the ministry to be most conducive to usefulness. I would further remark, that in my illustrations of the subject, I shall have special regard to the experience of ministers, as pastors of churches.

I. In the first place, experience teaches the necessity of a high standard of piety in ministers.

It is admitted as a first principle that piety is the primary qualification for the ministry. No man may even presume to enter upon the sacred office without being "called of God and moved thereto by the Holy Ghost." He must, in the scriptural sense, be a converted and sanctified man. For how cán he preach the gospel to others, who has no experience of its renovating power on his own soul? How inculcate repentance, if a stranger to godly sorrow himself? How recommend a Saviour, whose love he has never felt? How describe the exercises of faith, of love, of hope, of humility, and other Christian graces, if the lineaments of them are not drawn on his own heart? How can he warn sinners to flee from the wrath to come, if he himself be in the broad road that leads to it? And how guide saints to heaven, if his own feet tread not the celestial way?

But every year's experience in the ministry has not only confirmed but greatly deepened our impressions on this subject. The nature of our work is such, that we cannot proceed a step in it, with comfort, without a pure conscience, and a sense of God's approving presence. Every private, social and public duty, demands gracious affections; and as most of our duties imply higher responsibilities than rest upon Christians in ordinary life, so we feel the need of a larger measure of grace and of the spirit of devotion. Without this, we can attain to no such views of the perfections and glory of God; or of the excellence and love of Christ; or of the odiousness of sin and the beauty of holiness, as are adapted to produce strong and lively impressions on the minds of our hearers. We can neither preach nor pray, converse nor administer ordinances, with comfort to ourselves and edification to others, while conscious that our own hearts are not imbued with the spirit of the gospel. "I must confess," says Mr. Baxter, "I speak it by lamentable experience, that I publish to my flock the distempers of my soul. When I let my heart grow cold, my preaching is cold; and when it is confused, my preaching is confused also; and I have often observed it in the best of my hearers, that when I have grown cold in preaching, they have grown cold accordingly. The next prayers I have heard from them have been too much like my sermons. What minister's experience is different from this?

On the other hand, what minister cannot testify, that in proportion as he has lived near to God in daily communion; as he has walked with Christ and drank of his spirit; as he has felt in his heart the glowing graces of love and faith, of hope and joy; as he has been impressed with the worth of souls, the guilt of sin, the terrors of God's wrath and of the bliss and glory of heaven; in that proportion have his preaching, prayers, and other labors, had a spiritual savor imparted to them, and produced a visible and salutary effect on the religious state of his people?

II. Experience proves that to ensure permanent good results, ministers must be wholly devoted to their appropriate work.

That special preparation is needed to enter upon the work of the

ministry is generally conceded. Hence, we argue the necessity of a long course of mental training and discipline in collegiate and theological studies: in the former, to lay broad foundations for intellectual growth and vigor; in the latter, to gather and arrange the materials for professional use. But is there less need for application to our appropriate studies, year after year, so long as our Master sees fit to employ us? Can we even retain what we already know, without increase? And will not our ministry grow feeble, our preaching be uninstructive, and all our powers be paralyzed, unless our time and all our mental energies be steadily applied to our appropriate work?

Experience gives one uniform answer to these inquiries. The work of the ministry is so great, that no man can "make full proof of it," without "giving himself wholly to the discharge of its duties." The preparation of sermons alone, which are profitable to preach, demands our best powers. We are expected and required to bring forth from the treasure of the divine word, "things new and old." Having due regard to the various circumstances of our hearers, as to age, intellectual culture, moral and religious character, we are rightly to divide the word of truth, and to declare the whole counsel of God. We must unfold, explain and defend, according to our best ability, the grand system of divine truth as the spirit has revealed it; gathering our materials for argument and illustration from the inexhaustible mines of scripture, and from the boundless resources of nature. But no one topic of discourse, either of doctrine or duty, can be fully explained and applied in all its relations, in a single sermon. It is a sublime peculiarity of the truths of the Bible, that the more they are studied, the more fathomless their depths, the wider their relations, the more grand and glorious their applications and results appear to be. Time was, in our ignorance and inexperience, when we verily feared, that after preaching a few score of sermons, we should exhaust the whole system of Theology. But so different is experience from this, that the more we study and the further we advance, the more the system expands, opening to our view new and brighter glories; as when the eye surveys the evening firmament, after exhausting its own ken, then with telescopic aid it ranges through the illimitable expanse, and beholds new worlds and new systems spreading higher and further, filling the universe with demonstrations of the power and glory of

their Maker.

Our experience therefore is, that if in preparing sermons, we brought to our aid only the meagre stock of knowledge which we acquired in our preparatory studies, our resources would soon be exhausted. At least, our ideas would soon flow in a sluggish stream or even become a stagnant pool. Hence, it is necessary to add to our stock every day. The mind must not only be burnished by exercise, but enriched with new acquisitions.

Add to the labor of preparing sermons for the Sabbath, the duties expected and required of every faithful pastor-the preaching of lectures and occasional discourses, once, twice or thrice a week-visit