XXXII.

FAITHFUL STEWARDSHIP:

A CHARGE TO YOUNG MINISTERS.

"Who then is that faithful and wise steward, whom his lord shall make ruler over his household, to give them their portion of meat in due season? Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing."-LUKE xii. 42, 43.

WH

HAT I say unto one, I say unto all, Watch." This is the burden of this chapter's message, impressed in many varieties of homely and solemn illustration by the certainty of the last revelation, by the ever-watchful providence of God, by the rich man doomed amidst his dreams of wealth, by the servants waiting for their master from the wedding, by the good man's vigilance when the thief is stealthy and nigh. In their original utterance there seemed a doubt whether these were general warnings, addressed to the whole church, or whether they were applied especially to the witnesses whom Christ had chosen ; and Peter-spokesman, perhaps, of the unuttered thought of others-asked the question, "Lord, speakest thou this parable unto us, or even to all?” Our Lord answers in the words of the text-words which, while they assume the Church's obligation to watchfulness to be not less binding, fasten upon the ministers

of Christ a responsibility commended by loftier sanctions, and involving graver issues; so that if it behoves a believer to be watchful, and faithful, and wise, upon the minister presses double necessity; and that he, if he overcome and be approved, is the heir of a sublimer recompense, and if he fail and be condemned, of a more appalling doom.

Amongst the many passages which bear upon ministerial character and service, I have selected this on which to ask your attention at this very interesting and very solemn crisis in your lives. To you it is impossible to exaggerate the importance of the present hour. The hopes and anxieties of years are crowded into it. If you have thought of it rightly, it has been a burden upon your souls, an occasion for searching of heart, a time whose approach has stirred the depths of your being to watchfulness, weeping, and prayer. This hour, for you, is the central hour of your life. All the past has converged to it; all the future starts from it. It compresses the obligations of time it is charged with the destinies of eternity. In the presence of the God whom you have sworn to serve in the presence of Christian people, whose wealth is in your character and usefulness, and to some of whom you may have to minister the Word of life in the presence of watching angels, and of glorified spirits, dear to some of you, who look down with loving eyes from the reward—in the presence, it may be, of scoffers who deride your calling, and of adversaries, both earthly and spiritual, who watch for the halting of your feet-you are here to take upon you the vows of the Christian ministry, at once the noblest

profession and the most solemn responsibility upon earth. It is a duty of my position to counsel and to cheer you to remind you of the character which it behoves you to attain, and to stimulate you with the hope of the recompense which awaits your toil. I come to this task under the constraint of office, having over you the melancholy advantage of years, but sad with a strong sense of shortcoming in my own soul. With lofty conceptions of the ideal of ministerial character, and a sincere love of it, and an earnest purpose for its attainment, I speak to you, "not as though I had already attained." I have to urge you to become what I am not, but only striving to be; I can but indicate the glory of which I have caught only the faint and distant radiance; I can but point you to the pure bright summit, from the far slopes up which I am painfully climbing. If my counsels are shorn of their authority by this confession, give me credit for that sympathy with yourselves which may be an element of power instead. Listen, not to the teacher of unapproachable sanctity, but to the brother in experience, in infirmity, in struggle, in desire. The standard is the same, although we fail to reach it. Pressed beneath the same sanctions, animated by the same hopes, reliant on the same Almighty arm, 'come, and let us reason together " of the minister and his reward.

There are various similitudes under which, each in its own aspect of fitness, the office of the ministry is presented; but the ideas of trust and of responsibility are leading and present in them all. The minister is the dresser of the vineyard, tending

early and late

upon the vines; the fisher of men, toiling through the dark and in the rain; the master-builder, charged to see to it that the house is safe and strong; the shepherd, bound to feed and fold the flock, or to search through the gorge or on the mountains for the one that has wandered astray; the watchman, earnest and unweary in the hours when other men slumber; the ambassador, to whom are confided the honour and the message of the King. In none of these, however, is there a more impressive illustration-a greater blending of trust and tenderness-than when, in the Lord's own words, the minister is the steward of the household from which the Lord is absent for a season. You will readily appreciate the fitness of the allusion. The church is a wide and loving family—a brotherhood united by sacred bonds, by community of interest, and by the love of one common Father. Of this family the steward has charge. He must provide for its wants and vindicate its honour; he must maintain its rights, preserve its purity inviolate, and cherish among its members the harmony without which the family compact would be snapped asunder; he must watch over the health and welfare of the weakest, encourage the timid, and repress the rash; he must guard equally against excess and against indifference-against the parsimony which would grudge and the wastefulness which would spend all. He has authority, therefore, but it is to be wielded only in the interest of the family and of the Father; and he must act as under the glances of a living eye, which marks his every movement, and under the pressure of the thought that his Lord may at any moment return, and ask for the account of his

doings. Now lift all these duties into the region of the spiritual; think of the family as being a family of souls on their journey to heaven, and seeking their inheritance there; think that the responsibilities of the stewardship stretch out into eternity; think that misapprehension of the steward's obligations, or failure to discharge them aright, may involve loss that is irreparable, and bow down the unfaithful one beneath the terrible guilt of blood; and then, while in the deepening sense of the awfulness of the office upon which you enter to-day, your humbled souls may well cry, as under a burden, "Who is sufficient for these things?" you will be penetrated with a desire, passionate in its intensity of strength, that when the Master comes you may be able to stand in his presence, "saved" yourselves, and "saving them that hear you."

You observe that the two great qualifications which the text implies as necessary to a successful stewardship, are those of fidelity and wisdom: "Who, then, is that faithful and wise steward?" The first of these has reference to the disposition of the heart, and the second to the due apportionment of endowment and strength. The first is the active principle, the second the discriminating application of means. the union of these will be found the complement of the minister's qualification and the sinews of his power.

In

That you may be thoroughly furnished for your work, you must indeed have other qualities, upon which I cannot largely dwell. You must have knowledge-garnered stores of the wisdom of the olden time, the best thoughts of the best thinkers, hoarded for mental exchange. You must have industry—a