XXXVI. THE INWARD CALL. Who gives to man sufficiency? and whence

Proceed the holy wish, the good design,

The righteous deed, save from the source divine, The Spirit of God!—If thine the heart-felt sense Of holy love; if, cautious of offence,

Thine be the wish with knowledge meet to join

True zeal of God, and so to serve his shrine;
Fear not to own thy humble confidence,
God's Spirit moves thee to the work—No bold

Presumptuous bearing, no intemperate flame,
No voice internal loud and uncontrollid,

God or his Church expects ; but the just aim Sincere, to feed, not unprepar'd, his fold

With food celestial, and adorn his name.

XXXVII. PASTORAL STUDIES. Wuo would teach others, first himself must learn

The lore he fain would teach them. Who would teach

High lore, surpassing human wisdom's reach, For grace must beg God's wisdom to discern, Nor fail God's sacred book by day to turn,

By night : yet think not 'twill God's pow'r impeach,

If weapons, meet to pierce the hidden speech,
He fetch from learning's armory, nor spurn
Aid from well-cultur'd reason. Truth divine

Comes not with light intuitive to guide
The man of God; tho', duly sought, 'twill shine
His polar star.

Then
may

his vessel ride In safety on: nor from its course decline

Astray, nor founder in the darkling tide.

XXXVIII. PASTORAL RECREATIONS. What fitter, man of God, thy thoughts to share,

To charm, nor less improve, a vacant hour,

Than thy great Master's works !—The wild fieldInsect or bird, that gaily wings the air, [flower, And what earth holds of wonderful and fair,

Invite thee forth; to thread the coppice bower,

Pierce the deep glen, or climb the rocky tower, Wave-hollow'd bank, thick wood, or mountain bare. Rich is the volume of the word of God:

Rich is the volume of his works! At home Be that; be this thy cherish'd search abroad!

Like Noah's dove, there see each fine-wrought plume God's love attest: each plant, like Aaron's rod,

With signs of might and thought paternal bloom !

XXXIX. THE PREACHER.

Who would not, choose the PREACHER's words sincere,

Which truth unmaim'd and unadulterate deal

To willing ears and minds? With prudent zeal, Temperate, tho' earnest; grave, but not austere ; Strong, without coarseness ; without meanness, clear;

Firm, to denounce God's wrath ; but meek to feel
For human frailty; pitiful, to heal
The wounded spirit, and the weak to rear
Gently with mild endurance! Wouldst thou find

Wild rhapsody, the gesture strange, the start
Ecstatic, apt the better sense to blind ?

Go, elsewhere seek it! His the soberer part, Like Paul to satisfy the reasoning mind,

And “ draw by cords of man” 1 the obedient heart.

XL. PREACHING EVANGELICAL.
Say, what is GOSPEL-PREACHING ?—'Tis to show,
How from his Father's love by wilful deed

Man fell; and how, for ransom'd man to bleed,
The Son of God took in this world of woe
Our flesh, and quell'd by death our mortal foe:

And what his Spirit’s aid; and whither lead
His laws;

his
means

of grace; and what the meed Of faith, matur'd by love; and what we owe The THREE in ONE! This knowledge, passing reach

Of man's device or angel's, broad and deep, God by his Son deliver'd; this to teach

Mankind, he charg'd the shepherds of his sheep: If man or angel other Gospel preach, 1

He "sows the wind, and shall the whirlwind reap.” ?

XLI. PREACHING UN-EVANGELICAL. “ To shut the gates of mercy on mankind," 3

By God's mere will excluded, save a few,

Will they or not, who pass selected through; To stint the stream of heavenly love; to bind By strong necessity the human mind

To sin and endless woe; to hold to view

The God of all perfection, as untrue,
Unjust, unpardoning, pitiless, unkind :
Is This TO PREACH the Gospel ?- In thy word

Not such, great God, thy loving-mercy's call
These eyes o'erjoy'd have seen, these ears have heard.

Thy name is “ LOVE.' By our forefather's fall, All sinn'd and died. Forgive me if I've err'd,

Deeming thy Son a ransom paid for all ! 6

5

Hos. viii. 7.

3

i Gal. i. 8.

1 John iv. 8, 16.

Gray's Elegy. • 1 Tim. ii. 6

5

XLII. THE POOR MAN'S FRIEND. “He was the POOR MAN'S FRIEND! He sought and know

Who needed succor, and would fain incline

His ear and hearken. From his care benign The parent help, the child instruction true, Deriv'd: on age a cheering gleam he threw;

The sick man's wounds he bath'd with oil and wine :

On sin denounc'd the scourge of wrath divine, But more the meek with words of comfort drew."You've read his epitaph : do you

ask his name ? Full

many a POOR MAN'S FRIEND does Britain own Among her pastors; though from public fame

Remote they labor, mark’d by God alone, And those they tend; but mid the world's acclaim The Lord's - Well done" shall make their labors

(known.

XLIII. THE PASTOR'S HELP MEET. And no kind HELP dost thou, my country know,

MEET for such Pastor ?--Yes, 'tis she who bears

Her more than portion in his household cares;
Wife of his bosom, friend in weal or woe,
His children's mother! As thro' life they go,

Knit in the bonds of holy love, 'tis hers,

As woman may beseem whose meekness fears
Offence, his charge to deem her own, and sow
Instruction, comfort, round. Alas, she needs

Comfort herself too oft, when left to feel
Want link'd with widowhood. Her gentle deeds

Bear then in mind; lo her the kindness deal,
She dealt to others; bind the wound that bleeds

And soothe the heart which none but God can heal !

XLIV. THE PASTOR'S WIDOW AND

ORPHANS.
Yes, she must go, and from their place of birth

Her children with her; from that pleasant spot,

Where Providence had cast their goodly lot,
The Pastor's dwelling. They the tale of mirth
No more shall pass around yon Christmas hearth ;

No more shall they on yonder grassy plot

Sport the long summer eve: for he is not,
The husband, father!- Truly they on earth
Are strangers, pilgrims they! Their wonted home,

Yes, they must leave; and what may then betide,
O God, thou knowest. O, as hence they roam,

May'st thou watch over them! May'st thou provide Friends, shelter, food, and comfort yet to come,

The ORPHAN's Father, and the widow's Guide !

XLV. THE ARK OF CHRIST'S CHURCH. Rent were at once the floodgates of the sky,

And burst the great deep's fountains. All was dark,

Throng'd with the forms of drowning men: and hark, O'er the wide earth one agonising cry! Then mid the swelling surge, careering high,

Fraught with the world's remains, the Patriarch's ARK

Went o'er the waters : for that wondrous bark
Liv'd in the safeguard of Jehovah's eye,
Past is the plague! But still o'er earth the flood

Of sin reigns paramount: still God provides
An Ark of health for those who walk with God;

His power secures it, and his wisdom guides.
Faith clings obedient to that lov'd abode,
And o'er the waves the life-fraught vessel rides.