be enlarged, and multiplied, and mingled into one universal revival over the whole earth, then will be accomplished in some important sense the prediction, that there shall be a new heaven and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness. And who that is not dead at heart, will not be thankful when permitted to witness the beginning of this glorious consummation? We, my christian friends, are allowed to behold enough to awaken in our souls the feelings of the Psalmist-UNTO THEE, O GOD, DO WE GIVE THANKS UNTO THEE DO WE GIVE THANKS FOR THAT THY NAME IS NEAR THY WONDR OUS WORKS DECLARE. I trust that some of us are not thankless, amidst the profusion of spiritual good descending upon us. God has wrought wonders among us, and our eyes must be holden indeed, if we do not see him to be NEAR. Humiliation, gratitude, and praise become us. If we feel nothing of these now-when, O when shall we? If we rejoice not and give thanks when the empire of Christ is extended, can we be his subjects; can we be prepared for their society and employment, who rejoice over one sinner that repenteth. But who are these that fly as a cloud, and as doves to their windows? Ye who feel the glow of your first love-you to whom redeeming mercy has but lately come with present peace, and promises of crowns and mansions imperishable in the skies-Oh, you should swell the loudest notes of praise to him who has prepared these crowns and mansions for you. You should now begin to sing forever in angelic strains to him whose immortality is yours, in the blest union of eternal love." And who will not give thanks to God for the excellent greatness of his mercy in the revival we behold? Is there one of you, my dear hearers, who will not? You shall then be pitied. For you I would pray. For you cannot join the song of Moses and the Lamb. In your present state, though in the midst of much that constitutes heaven, you cannot enter that world of purity and praise. But with our pity and our prayers, we will mingle our exhortations and our entreaties. Seek ye the Lord, while he may be found-call upon him, while he is near. It is a day of his great mercy. It is eminently a day of salvation. Never were my impenitent hearers brought into circumstances so deeply interesting, encouraging and solemn. The Most High God is executing his WONDERFUL WORKS of mercy on your right and on your left. Can you abide in unconcern? Can you remain unmoved? Can you continue impenitent? It is thy day, perishing sinner. O, that you might know-even you, the things which belong to your peace, before they are hid from your eyes. While others are pressing into the kingdom of heaven, will you force your way down to the empire of darkness and despair ? While others are melted into penitence beneath the breathing influence of the Holy Spirit, will you harden your hearts into more impenetrable adamant? This is thy day, careless sinner. It is the crisis of thy destiny. The presence of God will soon bring you to submit to the Saviour, or will leave you to irreclaimable obduracy. You will speedily become God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works or vessels of wrath fitted to destruction. You cannot long abide as you are amidst such circumstances. You must pass the crisis one way or the other. You must soon deliberately choose heaven to be your portion, be the consequences in this world what they may-or you must make it evermore certain that yours cannot be the inheritance of the saints. O, linger no longer on so perilous ground. Delay no longer when such dangers threaten. You may escape to heaven. Will you choose death? You may begin to day those acts of thanksgiving and praise to God for his works of grace, which will occupy perfected spirits forever. Will you choose rather to remain liable to spend your eternity amidst the woes and blasphemies of hell? But whatever you do, there are those here who cannot but say-UNTO THEE O GOD, DO WE GIVE THANKS. SERMON XXIV. Responsibilities of the Christian Ministry. 2 CORINTHIANS II. 16. WHO IS SUFFICIENT FOR THESE THINGS? THE Christian Ministry, viewed in its immediate, separate from its more remote and important consequences, exerts an influence upon society, at once the most commanding and salutary. By a full and accurate exhibition of divine truth, it discloses the only appropriate foundation of all sound morality, and furnishes those sanctions, by which alone its practice can be successfully enforced. It developes those relations and urges those duties, which are essential to the well being of communities-relations which otherwise would not be perceived-duties which otherwise would not be enjoined. The justness of this remark is abundantly illustrated by reference to facts. Within the circle of daily observation, may be discovered proof of the happy influence of a preached gospel in regulating the manners, improving the morals, and promoting the secular interests of the community. But it has a higher object than merely the reformation of morals, and the promotion of the decencies and felicities of the present life. Its scope and design partake of that characteristic grandeur, which invites to all the plans of him who is wonderful in counsel and excellent in working. Its aims are the perfection of that stupendous dispensation of grace for whose accomplishment the Saviour suffered and died, and which, for sixty centuries, has been the object of Jehovah's providential care. It looks beyond the fleeting visions of time, and concerns the unchanging realities of eternity. However directly and immediately the present welfare and concerns of men, the interests and conduct of states and empires, may be affected by the christian ministry, its grand and ultimate purposes respect an object of a nature inconceivably more interesting and important. Its business is with the undying soul. It seeks its recovery from those inherent pollutions, which would ensure its eternal separation from the only source of life and good. This is the sphere for its efforts. Here it labors to form a spiritual dominion-to introduce a saving principle-to give vitality to moral death-to " pour celestial day upon eyes oppressed with night"-to raise the desires from earth to heaven-to turn the affections from the power of satan, to God. Such briefly, is the tendency and design of the christian ministry. And who that is invested with the office, and consecrated to its services, does not tremble? Who can contemplate the dignity of man's original elevation and the depth of his present debasement, the infinite distance between sin and holiness, the terrors of hell and the joys of heaven, without deep solicitude and alarming apprehensions, when he considers himself as the constituted instrument of bringing back an apostate creature into an allegiance to his Creator, and of restoring the sinner to the resemblance and favor of God? Who can view the glorious display of divine perfections exhibited in the wondrous scheme of redemption, and think what he himself is, who has undertaken to be a minister of reconciliation, and the ambassador of Christ, and not be led to ask with the deepest abasement-who is SUFFICIENT FOR THESE THINGS? In view of considerations so affecting, who does not in some degree, realize the situation, and catch the spirit of the devout Isaiah, when he beheld Jehovah sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filling the temple, and with him exclaim in the language of unaffected humiliation-Woe is me, for I am undone, because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips? Under a sense of unworthiness and insufficiency so overwhelming, what minister of the gospel does not pray that some seraph might, as it were, be commissioned to touch his lips with a living coal from off the altar of God? Having the last week passed the anniversary of my settlement in the ministry among you, I deem it not unsuitable, while standing on a point where the past and the future gather with so much interest into one view, to ask you to pause with me, and for a little season, to endeavor to represent to our minds as far as practicable, according to its true dimensions, the greatness of the design proposed by the gospel ministry. It may be less necessary for you than for myself, but it cannot be entirely unseasonable or inappropriate for you to contemplate with me some of the duties, the discouragements, and the supports of the christian minister in his pastoral relations. I. A concise view will be taken of the most prominent duties of the ministry. To notice even cursorily the various duties connected with this holy occupation, would exceed the customary limits of a discourse. Those only can be mentioned, which have an intimate relation, and are peculiarly subsidiary to the great business of the ministry-the public preaching-the plain exhibition of divine truth. In order then, successfully to preach to others, a minister of the gospel must cultivate a deep and thorough acquaintance with himself. Without this he may speak with the tongue of angels, but will not speak to the hearts of his hearers. Destitute of this, he may understand all mysteries and knowledge, but he will not understand the avenues to conviction. He may have a faith to remove mountains, |