II. The Work of the Ministry. Why has the great Head of the Church instituted the ministry? What is the particular work which they are to perform? What peculiar service are they to render? In reply to these questions, I scarcely need say, that theirs is not a secular employment. They are not sent to serve tables. The ministry of the Word is something entirely distinct from this. If tables are to be served-if secular work is to be done-let seven men, or more, or less, be chosen, who may be appointed over this business. The minister of Christ is neither to be a trustee nor a deacon. Much less is he to be made responsible for any of the pecuniary derangements or deficiencies of the ecclesiastical treasury. "It is not reason that we should leave the Word of God and serve tables." This is no part of the burden laid upon him. The less he has to do with such matters the better for him. It ruined a Judas, and has been the ruin of thousands in and out of the Papacy-thousands who might have both saved themselves and those who heard them, had they given themselves "continually to prayer, and to the ministry of the Word."

Nor is the minister of the gospel called and sent merely to administer the ordinances of Christ's Church. These ordinances are not without their use, and are by no means without signifi. cation. But their place is subordinate. They are but means to an end. They are not the end itself. That is quite a different thing. The administration of the Lord's Supper is of great use to the Church, and it is important in its place-highly so. But this is not the work which the ministry are called to perform. It is a part, and but a small part of the work. It is important that baptism be administered to believers and their households, and it is a work very properly to be performed by the ministry; but it is not the work for which Christ Jesus has enabled them and put them into the ministry. "Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel." Had Paul believed that baptism was a sealing ordinance, a saving act, identical with regeneration, he would, of course, have used very different language in relation to its administration. If he could so easily have regenerated men, he would have baptized all he could, and have given him. self to this particular work. But no; he had other and greater work to do, and therefore seldom troubled himself about such matters, leaving it indeed not undone, but to be performed by the spiritual teacher of each particular church, as a matter of form to be duly observed in the admission of members.

The impression seems to be gaining ground in some quarters, that the due and orderly performance of these ordinances and certain antiquated rites and ceremonies is the work of the ministry. Would to God that the impression were made on the minds of Papists and Crypto-papists alone! Are there not others who

seem to think that the ministry are but appendages to--very convenient, indeed, and very useful in their place--a sort of necessary furniture for an elegant church, to go through a regular form on the Sabbath-day, of praying, or reading divine service, of preaching or performing the ceremonies of the church, for the gratification of a purse-proud aristocracy, a pleasure-loving peo ple, and a fashion-following assembly? Is this the work which Christ has given us to do? Is it to preside at a ceremony; to give a sanction by our sanctimony to the gayety, and pomp, and display of a Sabbath assembly? Is it, in any sense, to minister to the entertainment of our fellow sinners in the sanctuary, whether by splendid praying, or eloquent preaching; by an admirable reading of the service, or by elegance of administration? Or are there those who make themselves content with such a work? Alas! that one such can be found.

"He mocks his Maker, prostitutes and shames
His noble office, and, instead of truth,
Displaying his own greatness, starves his flock."

The work of the ministry is something vastly different from all this. It is coincident with the work which Christ himself came into this world to do. Not indeed to make an atonement for sin, not indeed to regenerate the souls of their fellow-men, neither of which is in their power. But it is to carry forward that great design for the execution and completion of which he promised and gave his Spirit; for the fulfilment of which he sent forth, and continues still to send forth, his chosen messengers with the Word of Life. We are sent, my brethren, to be apostles, not of Temperance, nor of Emancipation, but of Christ; to seek and to save that which was lost. We are sent to arouse the sinner from his slumbers, to sound an alarm in the ear of the careless, to trouble them that are at ease in their sins, to convince, to persuade, to entreat, to exhort, to beseech the sinner to be reconciled to God. We are sent to win souls; to rescue, if possible, the perishing and the dying; to pluck them as brands from the burning; to set before them the cross of Christ as the only hope, and to give them no rest until they are brought cheerfully to receive this only Redeemer as their prophet, priest, and king. We are sent not only to bring you out of darkness, but to introduce you into the marvellous light of the gospel; to lead you to the green pastures and the quiet streams of grace. We are to strive not only for the salvation of the sinner, but for the sanctification of the saints; "for the perfecting of the saints; for the edifying of the body of Christ," "whom we preach, warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus."

In short, the great work of the ministry is to preach the gos

pel of Christ that the souls of their fellow-sinners, as many of them, and as speedily as possible, may be truly converted and brought into the liberty of the children of God. So did the early ministers of the gospel believe and act. They saw the world lying in wickedness, under the wrath and curse of God, and hasting to the judgment; and they earnestly sought to save them. For this they labored. For this they endured reproach. For this they frowned upon the flattery of the world. For this they denied themselves, took up the cross, and suffered without the camp. For this they counted not their lives dear to them; gladly laid them down. This was their great burden. This it was that made them such weeping prophets; that made a Paul protest that he had great heaviness and continual sorrow in his heart, that he could wish that himself were accursed from Christ, for his brethren, his kinsmen, according to the flesh. This it was that made them so often cry with the son of Hilkiah, “Oh, that my head were waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people."

Such, brethren, is our work-the work which is given us to do. This is the work that is to engross our thoughts, to task our energies, to lay our whole man under contribution. Unless we are doing this work we are doing nothing. We may be ever so popular, preach ever so eloquently, please and gratify the people of our charge ever so much, but it is all laborious trifling if we are not doing the work which is given us to do. "Hard studies, much knowledge, and excellent preaching," says Baxter, "is but more glorious hypocritical sinning, if the end be not right." We must not be content-how can we be?-unless by God's help we are winning souls to Christ. We must cry unceasingly in the ears of these perishing thousands, “Turn ye for why will ye die ?" "I would think it a greater happiness,' said Matthew Henry, "to gain one soul to Christ, than mountains of silver and gold to myself. If I do not gain souls, I shall enjoy all my other gains with very little satisfaction; and I would rather beg my bread from door to door than undertake this great work."

In like manner we hear the missionary Brainerd exclaiming : "I care not where or how I live, or what hardships I go through, so that I may but gain souls to Christ. While I sleep I dream of these things; and when I wake, the first thing I think of is this great work." God forbid that any of us who are called to labor in this vocation should be content with any thing else than souls-very many souls-for our hire; that we should content ourselves in any thing short of the salvation and sanctification of those that hear us.

Let us now for a few moments look at

III. The Results of the Ministry. The gospel of Christ can never be faithfully preached in vain. "The weapons of our warfare are not carnal," it is true, not such as the world are wont to use in their sanguinary conflicts, and therefore the world may despise them. But feeble as they seem, they are "mighty, through God to the pulling down of strong holds." "The word of God is quick and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart." "Is not my word like as a fire, saith the Lord, and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces?" "For as the rain cometh down, and the snow, from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it."

God's Word is never preached in vain. The faithful minister of Christ never labors in vain. The preaching of such a minister ever savors of Christ. His very person spreads the savor wherever he goes.

""Tis e'en as if an angel shook his wings:
Immortal fragrance fills the circuit wide,
That tells us whence his treasures are supplied.
So when a ship, well freighted in the stores
The sun matures on India's spicy shores,
Has dropped her anchor, and her canvas furled
In some safe haven of our western world,
'T were vain inquiring to what port she went;
The gale informs us, laden with the scent."

So has it ever been. By the foolishness of preaching it has pleased God to save them that believe. Unnumbered millions have thus been saved. Christ's ministers have reaped a rich reward. They have preached" not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power; not as pleasing man, but God." The word thus preached has triumphed over all opposition, and proved itself, in instances numberless, to be "the power of God and the wisdom of God unto salvation." It is adapted to the sinner's state. It is fitted to awaken, to arouse, to convince, to alarm, to instruct, to enlighten, to sanctify, to save. Its efficacy is life-giving. It is a savor of life. Its voice is that of hope and salvation. It points to heaven, it leads the soul to God. It is a savor of life unto life. Myriads on myriads in the full fruition of paradise can testify to its life-imparting virtue, and not a few who still linger on the shores of time, not a few who worship with us in the sanctuary. And as it is with the word itself, so is it with them that preach it. They are a savor of life. Their work, their ministry, their

preaching, their labors are unto life. They have been angels of mercy to untold millions. A great company, whom no man can number, will bless God for ever that they were permitted to enjoy the labors of a godly ministry. The ministry to them was as life from the dead. What a dark world it would have been, but for their light! What a wretched world, but for their hope of which they have spoken! What an abandoned world, but for the ministrations of piety and love! What would you have been, dear hearers, but for the ministry? To what, under God, do you owe your own selves, your comforts, your consolations, your hopes of heaven, your blessed foretastes of the joys above, but to the ministry so despised of men, so honored of God?

"In them that are saved, and in them that perish." It is too true -we cannot but admit it--there are those that perish even in an atmosphere so salubrious, so adapted to life. That which was ordained unto life becomes to some an occasion of death. To some who hear us, "we are the savor of death unto death.” "We bear, indeed," says one of the early fathers, "the sweet odor of Christ's gospel to all; but all who participate in it do not experience its salutiferous effects. Thus to diseased eyes even the light of heaven is noxious; yet the sun does not bring the injury. And to those in a fever honey is bitter; yet it is sweet, nevertheless. Vultures, too, it is said, fly from sweet odors of myrrh; yet myrrh is myrrh, though the vultures avoid it. Thus if some be saved, though others perish, the gospel retains its own virtue, and we, the preachers of it, remain just as we are. The gospel retains its odorous and salutiferous properties, though some may disbelieve, abuse it, and perish."

The language of the apostle in reference to these results of the ministry is taken, apparently, from the writings of the Rabbins. We often meet with similar expressions in the writings of the ancient Jewish doctors. Thus they say of the words of the law, "They are a savor of life to Israel, but a savor of death to the people of the world." Again, "Whoever pays attention to the law on account of the law itself, to him it becomes an aroma (a savor) of life; but to him who pays no attention to the law on account of the law itself, to him it becomes an aroma of death."

It is thus with medicine; to the one it proves a savor of life, and to the other of death. The minister of the gospel "is set for the fall and rising again of many in Israel;" while to those who receive his message and his Master he proves an unspeakable blessing, to those who reject both he becomes an occasion of increased condemnation. Solemn and awful is the relation of a pastor to his people. It affects the spiritual condition of every member of the flock. For weal or for woe, will every one of them remember him through all eternity. To all eternity you