Or suppose you were sent as a missionary to the heathen; would you modify the gospel, so that they might think it coincident with their own superstitions? That they might be induced to take on them the Christian name, would you amalgamate their faith with yours? This experiment, too, has been tried, The Romish missionaries in China, acting on the genuine theory of their master Loyola, carried out the plan of converting the heathen by accommodation. They gave up the main things in which Christians and heathens had been accustomed to differ, and allowed the Chinese every favourite species of idolatry. The consequence was, they had a great many converts such as they were; but thinking people looked upon the missionaries as more converted to heathenism, than the heathen to Christianity.1

I have thus imperfectly fulfilled the task which I assigned to myself in several preceding lectures, designed to exhibit the general characteristics of a good sermon. The first characteristic, which I stated to be indispensable in a sermon, is, that it be evangelical. After showing what this implies, I urged the importance of it from the twofold consideration, that no other than the evangelical system fully brought out in sermons, is adapted to accomplish the great end of preaching; and that in point of fact, no other ever has accomplished this end.

The next characteristic of a good sermon is, that it be instructive; namely, that it have an important subject; that it be perspicuous in method and language; that it be rich in matter; that it have the form of discussion rather than that of declamation; and that it exhibit divine truth in its connexions.

That a Christian sermon ought to be instructive,

1 Fuller's Works, II. 38.

appears from the constitution of the human mind ;—from the nature of the gospel;-from the best examples, and the best effects of preaching;-and from the tendency of instructive preaching, and of this only, to promote the unity and strength of the church.

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The third characteristic of a good sermon is directness. What this implies is illustrated from the preaching of Christ. The causes which produce the indefinite and indirect sort of preaching, are, Want of intellectual precision in the preacher ;-false taste in the preacher ;constitutional delicacy of temperament in the preacher ;and absolute want of piety, or a low state of piety.

The topics on which I have thus expressed my thoughts at full length, I regard as of vital importance to the interests of religion. Doubtless the real gospel may be preached so technically, or paradoxically, or controversially, or with such an air of ostentatious fidelity, as to frustrate its proper effects. But preachers of the present day are unquestionably more in danger of erring on the side of cautious reserve, than of indiscretion, in exhibiting Christian doctrines.

LECTURE XXIII.

ON THE CULTIVATION OF SPIRITUAL HABITS, AND PROGRESS IN STUDY.

[Addressed to the Students at Andover, November, 1831.]

THE brevity with which I am compelled to treat the subject of personal religion, at this time, is not to be understood as implying that I regard its importance as secondary to that of any other subject. On the contrary, I am persuaded that whatever else you may possess or acquire, without the love of God shed abroad in your hearts by the Holy Ghost, you cannot be qualified to preach the gospel;-nay, in the attempt to do it, you would probably become a burden on the church, and a reproach to the ministry. But as my chief object lies in another direction, I cannot enlarge on the importance

1 We must indeed work, like Nehemiah and his men, with the trowel in one hand and the sword in the other. We have to build and to fight at the same time, and with incessant employment. The progress of the work would be stopped by the laying down of the trowel. The enemy would gain a temporary advantage by the sheathing of the sword. Nothing therefore remains but to maintain the posture of resistance in dependance upon him who is our wise Master-builder, and the Captain of our salvation-waiting for our rest, our crown, our home.-BRIDGES.

Magnum opus omnino et arduum conamur; sed nihil difficile amanti puto. CICERO.

The eloquent author of the Reformed Pastor, having spoken of Paul's charge to the Elders at Ephesus, says;

of personal religion in ministers, nor even touch many interesting branches of the subject, which demand the solemn and often-repeated consideration of theological students. In this division of the Lecture, I shall remark only on one point, THE IMPORTANCE of the SPIRITUAL

HABITS WHICH YOU FORM.

According to a settled law of our minds, habits are formed by the periodical recurrence of the same thing. Even in those habits which are called passive, regular reiteration stamps impression. No man forgets that there is a sun, or doubts his return to-morrow; but if there were no regularity in the succession of day and night, no order in the seasons,-there could be no experience, and the business of the world must cease. When a man's habit of dining at a particular hour becomes fixed, it is of little absolute importance whether it is early or late; but if that hour is changed continually, so as to be early one day and late another, he has no habit ; and is liable to suffer both in comfort and health.

By the influence of custom, things laborious or irksome

'O brethren, write it on your study doors, or set it as your copy in capital letters still before your eyes. Could we but well learn two or three lines of it, what preachers should we be! Write all this upon your hearts, and it will do yourselves and the Church more good than twenty years' study of those lower things, which, though they get you greater applause in the world, yet separated from this, will make you but sounding brass and tinkling cymbals.' BAXTER.

'Qui cupit juxta Paulum esse didaktikos, det operam ut prius sit @codidakтos, i. e. Divinitus edoctus.' ERASMUS.

'None but he who made the world can make a Minister of the Gospel. If a young man has capacity, culture and application may make him a scholar, a philosopher, or an orator; but a true minister must have certain principles, motives, feelings, and aims, which no industry nor endeavours of men can either acquire or communicate. They must be given from above, or they cannot be received.'

NEWTON.

become tolerable and even pleasant; things apparently impossible become easy;-things trifling or indifferent become important. A man of twenty may with little trouble change his room, his bed, his chair ;-he breaks up no habit: but to a man of eighty the change would be a real inconvenience.

Now, to apply these illustrations. The man who imagines that he can perform his secret devotions in the street, as well as in his closet, or as well without as with stated times for the purpose, is ignorant of his own mind. Intellectual and spiritual, as well as other habits, are formed on the principles of association. In the regular recurrence of the thing to be done, there must be identity of time, and place, and circumstances. He who assigns to his closet devotions a particular season, will find the return of that season bring with it the recollection of the duty; so that the omission of it at the customary time will be attended with mental uneasiness. His avocations too will regularly become adjusted to this settled order, so as not to intrude on his hours of communion with God. But the man who waits for impulses, and goes to his closet only at irregular times, has no advantage of habit in this duty. He attends to it without constancy, without preparation, without enjoyment. He has no current of spiritual feeling; other engagements thrust themselves between him and God; the day and the night pass away, without any season of retirement; he forgets to pray, because he has no system in the care of his own heart. Thus perhaps he slides into estrangement from his closet for days and weeks together.

There is no point in Christian experience more settled than this, that there is an intimate connexion between enjoyment in closet devotions, and their return at regular seasons. The best writers on the subject say so. De