![](LINEOWL.GIF")
A
SERMON
DELIVERED AT THE
ORDINATION
OF THE
REV. JOHN CODMAN
TO THE
PASTORAL CARE
OF THE
SECOND CHURCH OF CHRIST IN DORCHESTER,
DEC. 7, 1808
............
BY WILLIAM ELLERY CHANNING,
PASTOR OF THE CHURCH IN FEDERAL STREET
BOSTON
.............
BOSTON:
JOSHUA BELCHER, PRINTER
1808
[3]
SERMON
II Timothy, iv. 2
BE INSTANT IN SEASON, OUT OF SEASON
We are this day assembled to witness a solemnity peculiarly
interesting to the friends of religion. This day we are to
behold a new labourer introduced into the vineyard of God. This
day are to be laid on a young man the vows and obligations of the
christian ministry, the care of many immortal souls. This day a
relation is to be formed, by which the everlasting interests of
numbers will be deeply affected.
On this occasion, I have thought that it would be useful to
dwell on the importance of a zealous and affectionate performance
of ministerial duties. On this subject I could wish to hear
rather than to speak. I feel that the place which belongs to me,
is not that of a confident teacher, but of a humble, self-
accusing learner. When I look round on my fathers and brethren
in the ministry, whose years and experience and improvements in
piety peculiarly fit them for this [4] theme, I feel no faint
desire to resign to them the office I am expected to perform.
But my feelings and wishes have been overruled; and now that I
must speak, I wish to suggest something, which will tend to
quicken my own heart; which will stir up the minds of my
brethren; and which will impress this numerous assembly with the
duties and objects, the tremendous responsibility, and the
infinitely solemn consequences of the sacred ministry.
It is the exhortation of Paul to Timothy, "Be instant in
season, out of season," i.e. 'Be urgent, engaged, not only when
thine own ease and convenience may permit, but at every season
when thou canst hope that truth may be imparted, or serious
impressions be produced.' These words furnish us with this
practical doctrine, that a minister of Jesus Christ should be
distinguished by zeal, earnestness and affection in the discharge
of his sacred office. In the present discourse, I propose to
offer a few remarks on the duty enjoined in the text, and then to
present considerations suited to enforce it on our consciences
and hearts.
First, to be instant in season and out of season, is to be
cordially devoted to the great object of the christians ministry.
It is to exert on this object the strength of our affections, to
make it the centre of our thoughts, and the great end of our
labours. In this zeal and earnestness it is implied, that our
work is [5] our happiness; that we do not make our ministry a
means to some further, selfish end; that we do not enter on it
from love of ease, or distinction, or gain; but that it is itself
our choice, and that we cling to it with an affection which
overpowers all private considerations. It is implied, that we
oversee the flock of God not from constraint, but willingly, not
for filthy lucre, but from a ready mind, that the love of Christ
bears us away, and that from this love we desire to feed his
sheep.
To be instant in season, and out of season, is to be carried
by affection to habitual, continued efforts for human salvation.
It is not to make a few convulsive efforts when our feelings are
accidentally warmed, and then to settle down into supineness and
sloth. It is not to confine ourselves to a cold, mechanical
round of what we call our duties, and to feel that we have done
enough when we have done what is claimed and expected. It is to
glow with a desire of success, to stand watching opportunities of
doing good to the souls of men. It is to think that we have done
nothing, whilst multitudes within our reach are perishing in
their sins. It is to think no labour difficult, no sacrifice
great, by which men may be saved. It is to explore new means of
usefulness; to enquire what peculiar forms of christian exertion
our peculiar conditions and relations admit; and then to follow
with resolute purpose and strenuous effort the plans which
approve themselves to our serious judgment. Perhaps, there is no
profession, no occupation which [6] encourages so much musing, as
the profession of a minister. It is very easy and very pleasing
to make out paths of usefulness, to set at work in our
imaginations a variety of means, from which the happiest effects
are to flow. But to DO as well as to WILL, this is the toil. To
be instant in season and out of season implies, that we carry
deliberation in to practice; that we convert possible into real
good; that no discouragements have power to shake those purposes,
which we deliberately approve; that we wait not to consult ease
or opinion, when we have already consulted God and our own
consciences; that we press forward in the path of duty,
undismayed by the opposition, unabashed by the ridicule of the
world.
This zeal and earnestness ought to pervade our whole
ministerial duties. -- We should carry it into our private
studies and devotions. A minister can impart to his people only
what he has himself received. His own understanding must be
first
enlightened, his own heart first kindled, before he can
communicate a rational and fervent piety. Hence a minister
should apply with zeal to the various means of personal
improvement. He should never be content with his present
attainments, never imagine that he has learned all which God has
revealed, never say that he has formed his system, and has
nothing to do but to preach it. Divine truth is infinite and can
never be exhausted. The wisest of us are but children: our views
are very dim and narrow; and even where we discern the truth, how
faint is its practical [7] impression. Every minister, I think,
who studies the scriptures with a simple heart, must feel that
there is much to be corrected in his views of religion. From the
difficulty which he finds in making all scripture easily and
naturally harmonize with his own sentiments, or with any other
system, he must infer, that even where the truth is held in the
greatest purity, it is still blended with not a little error.
This conviction, united with a consideration of the influence
which he necessarily exerts over the minds of others, should lead
him to his Bible with almost trembling solicitude. He ought to
bend on it the whole powers of his mind, that he may attain
enlarged and consistent conception of the divine character and
will. He ought, in his studies, habitually to exert a
watchfulness over his mind, less some unworthy feeling, some
narrow interest, some prejudice of education, some attachment to
a party secretly insinuate itself, and incline him to one view of
religion, rather than another. He ought to unite fervency of
prayer with earnestness and freedom of enquiry, and distrusting
himself seek the better guidance of the Father of Lights and the
Spirit of Truth.
But a minister must not only be earnest in his private
studies; he must be urgent and alive in his public duties. From
his retirement he should bring into the sanctuary a heart glowing
with christian affections. His prayers should discover a mind
familiar with God, accustomed to the mercy-seat, elevated by
habitual devotion, and breathing without effort the [8] pure and
humble desires of a christian. In preaching, his heart should
disclose itself in his sentiments, manner and style. Whilst
unfolding the divine perfections, he should let men see, that
they are perfections he himself loves and adores. In enjoining a
christian temper, he should urge it as one, who has felt its
beauty and power. When describing the promises of the gospel, he
should speak with the animation of a holy hope. Whilst directing
men to the cross, he should speak as one, who has prostrated
himself at its foot. This is pulpit eloquence. He should let
men see that he has come, not to dazzle them with the studied
ornaments of
rhetoric, not to play before them the tricks of the orator, but
to fix their solicitous attention on the concerns of eternity, to
persuade them to be reconciled to God, and to invite them to
universal obedience. Let me here mention that it is highly
important, that his manner be earnest. By this I do not mean a
noisy, tumultuous manner. I do not mean, that a minister must
have lungs of iron and a voice of thunder--Noise and earnestness
are very different things. I only mean, that the minister should
deliver his message, as if he felt its infinite weight, as if his
whole soul were interested in its success; and this he may do
without being a brawler. In the still, small voice, we may
discern the language of the heart. I repeat it, this expression
of the heart is the perfection of ministerial eloquence. Rules
are very useful to teach us what to avoid. But when rules have
done all that they can for us, they will leave us chilling
preachers, unless we superadd that tenderness [9] and
earnestness, which an engaged heart can alone breathe through our
delivery.--May I be permitted to mention the want of this
earnestness as a prevalent defect at the present day. My
brethren, should not our sleeping hearers, and the faint effects
of our ministry lead us to enquire, whether we present religious
truth in the most impressive form. Is it asked, how this
coldness of manner is to be remedied? Let us not, for this end,
mimic feelings we do not possess. Let us rather, before we
preach, possess our souls with the importance of the truth we are
to deliver. Let us make our discourses truly our own, by
catching first ourselves the impressions we with to make on
others. Whilst preaching, let the presence of the Divine Majesty
frequently recur to us, that it may extinguish our fear of man,
and excite an animating confidence in the blessing of God. Were
these our habits, would we not be more interesting preachers?
But farther, the zeal of the minister of Christ should
extend beyond the sanctuary. He should carry into his common
walks and conversations a mind bent on his great end, and ever
ready to seize an opportunity of impressing men with religion.
He should
particularly labour in his own life, in his own familiar
intercourse, to exhibit a uniform and interesting example of the
truth he preaches. He should not only be solicitous to preach,
but still more to live Christianity. That minister is not
instant in season and out of season, who has learned to excite in
[10] himself some momentary feelings, and to employ words and
tears of entreaty, whilst in the pulpit; but who comes into the
world ready to sympathize with its evil feelings, and to comply
like a slave with its tyrannical requisitions.
Such is christian zeal. I need not mention that this zeal
cannot be maintained without great attention to the government of
our desires and passions. The mind and heart can never act
vigorously on religion, whilst fettered and benumbed by any
sensual lust, by avarice or ambition. Would we attain the bold
and persevering zeal enjoined by the apostle? We must keep under
the body; we must partake with rigid temperance of animal
pleasure; we must look with holy indifference on worldly wealth
and honour; and thus preserve unwasted the energy of our souls,
that we may consecrate it to the work which we have voluntarily
assumed.
This genuine christian earnestness is too rarely seen.
Ministers and private christians are indeed very often in
earnest: but their zeal is not seldom an unhallowed, destructive
fire, kindled at any altar rather than that of God. There are
some, whose zeal is madness, who place religion in the fervors
and extacies of a disordered mind and who shatter their own and
others' understandings in a whirlwind of sound.-- There are some
whose zeal is partial: they spend it all on forms and opinions,
which, though not unimportant, are not the essentials of
christianity. They [11] compass sea and land, not to make
followers of Christ, but converts to their sect. They overlook
the heart, that they may rectify the head; and make christianity,
not a vital, inward, efficient principle, expressed in increasing
conformity to Jesus Christ, but a dry, cold, barren system of
modes and speculations. --There are some who are earnest enough,
but their earnestness is passionate and irritable. They cannot
bear contradiction. They do not address serious argument to the
erroneous, and affectionate persuasion tot he sinful, but express
their zeal in clamour, abuse, hard names, and all the varieties
of persecution which their situation places within their reach. -
- There is also a zeal which is the base born progeny of pride
and ambition. It is ever busy and active, for it loves to be
seen and heard, and to acquire influence in the church. It is
greedy of services which draw attention, and seeks to heighten
itself by casting severe
reflections on the lukewarmness of others. Remote from all these
is true christian zeal. True zeal is enlightened and judicious;
meek and gentle; sensible of its own infirmities, and therefore
ready to bear long with others; not devoted to party, but to the
wide interests of christian piety; not anxious for elevation, but
willing to be eclipsed, and thrown far behind by the more
splendid and useful exertions of others for the common cause of
christianity. So single, disinterested, and fervent is the zeal,
which the gospel requires of its ministers.
I now proceed to suggest some considerations suited to
excite and strengthen this holy earnestness, [12] this active
fervent devotion to the service of God. And here I know not
where to begin, or where to end. Wherever my mind directs
itself, arguments throng and urge their claim to attention.
Christian minister, there is nothing in life or death, in heaven
or hell, which does not call thee to be earnest and engaged.
First, the importance of ministerial earnestness will be
seen, if we consider what concern God has expressed, what
infinite means he has employed for that great end, which the
christian ministry is designed to advance. The salvation of man
is the leading object of the providence of God. This his
merciful voice promised to our guilty parents immediately after
the fall. For this, the cumbrous fabric of the Mosaic
dispensation was reared. For this, prophets were inspired, and
were enabled successively to cast a clearer light on futurity.
For this, the son of God himself left the abodes of glory, and
expired a victim on the cross! For this, the harmony of creation
was disturbed, and stupendous miracles were wrought to attest the
gracious promises of God. For this end, a church has been
erected, and its interests guarded amidst the convulsions of a
sinful world. For this end, nations have been, and still are
shaken. Yea in this end, all heaven is interested. Heaven is
gladdened by the tidings that a sinner has repented. Angels are
sent forth to minister to the heirs of salvation.
My friends, view these endless, these most costly means.
Behold the church, the spiritual temple of [13] God, reared
through ages with such toil, with such care; and shall we, to
whom its interests are peculiarly committed, imbibe none of the
earnestness which God has exhibited? Shall we slumber in a
cause, which has called forth such exertion in heaven as well as
on earth, and which God has espoused as peculiarly his own?
Secondly, another argument for ministerial earnestness maybe
drawn from the example of Jesus Christ, who condescended himself
to sustain the office of a preacher of truth and righteousness.
And how did he fulfil this sacred office? Was he sluggish,
irresolute, and self indulgent? Behold him traveling through
regions where he had no place to lay his head. Listen to his
common conversations on the road, in the house, at the feast, and
see what object was ever present to this heart. Hear now as
solemn reproofs, now his animating exhortations, now his
consoling promises, and can you help discerning the marks of a
mind deeply interested in its end? Jesus is a glorious pattern
of ministerial earnestness. He had everything to discourage him.
He saw little immediate fruit of his labour. He saw his divine
truth kindling a malice, fierce and unquenchable as the fire of
hell. He saw around him men, whose hands and garments were, to
his prophetic eye, already stained with his blood. But did these
things move him? The nearer he
approached his cross, the more solemn, bold, urgent, and forcible
was his preaching. He pressed his great object close to his
heart in the hour of danger, and held it [14] fast in the agonies
of death. Christian minsters, look at your Saviour, and catch
his patient, firm, and persevering zeal.--Did I think that you
needed other examples, I would direct you from the Divine Master
to men like yourselves, to his apostles, the first ministers of
his kingdom. I would show you these disinterested men, forsaking
their homes, encountering dangers by sea and land, carrying their
saving, holy truth, almost with the rapidity of lightning,
through a dark, wretched world, and at length voluntarily sealing
their testimony at the stake or cross by the last drop of their
blood. Christian minsters! here are the men, whom you are called
to succeed. This was the path, by which your elder brothers in
the ministry ascended to glory. Hear them exhorting you with
their last breath to exert every nerve in that cause, for which
they thought it an honour and happiness to die.
Thirdly, it is a powerful argument for ministerial
earnestness, that on this our success very much depends. When
the preacher sleeps, the people will sleep under him. If he
discover no sense of the importance of his work, his people will
hardly be impressed with it. He has to treat of distant, unseen
objects. Unless he feel them, and appear to feel them, his
earthly sensual hearers will hardly be convinced of their
reality. Men are slumbering and need to be awaked. Is it the
voice of the sluggard, which will rouse them to exertion? Of all
the frowns of
Providence, perhaps none is more threatening than the settlement
of a cold hearted, uninterested minister. His [15] coldness
petrifies all within his influence. Men judge of religion by the
character of its heralds. If in them, it is a torpid, inactive
principle, beholders will think that nothing but a lifeless
assent is
necessary to make a christian. An earnest minister will not
always be successful in proportion to his earnestness. But if he
have the humble, affectionate zeal I have described, if his
people see that with him religion is an ever present reality, if
they hear him addressing them with solemnity and tenderness, with
a heart trembling for their danger, and ready to leap with joy at
their improvement, I think he cannot always speak in vain. Of
all principles, sympathy is the most active. A warm heart
diffuses itself on every side. Moral heat is as expansive as
natural. it differs only in this, that we gain by imparting it.
-- But in addition to the power of sympathy, the earnest minister
has reason to expect a peculiar blessing from that Being, who
enjoins and approves his designs and labours. On the vineyard
which he has so assiduously cultivated, he may expect the
gentlest, the most reviving, the most fertilizing showers of
heaven. Christian ministers, what an argument is this for
earnestness! Can we bear the thought of seeing our people
remaining year after year worldly and formal, and at length
sinking into the grave indifferent to religion? Can we bear the
thought of spending our lives and growing old, without seeing any
fruit of our labours? Do we wish to carry this thought to the
bed of death, that we have lived in vain? Is this the worst of
evils? Let us then be earnest and alive in our sacred work. [16]
Fourthly, as another most solemn incitement to earnestness,
let us consider the dangerous circumstances of his people. To
whom is he sent to preach? To men, of upright hearts, disposed
to receive and obey the truth which guides to heaven? To men,
before whom the future is arrayed in light, and who are
surrounded only with objects friendly to peace and improvement?
Ah no! He is called to guide a wandering flock through a thorny
rugged
wilderness, beset with snares and beasts of prey, and, on this
side and on that, terminated by abrupt and hidden precipices. He
is sent to a world of sinners, in whose hearts lurk idolatry,
sensuality, pride, and every corruption. He is sent to many who
are bound in fetters of iron, and are perishing with the most
loathsome diseases. He is indeed sent with balm for their
wounds, with light, and hope, and consolation. But there are
those, and sometimes not a few, who turn away from the offered
aid. Even among the decent and regular, he sees his most solemn
instructions crowded out of the mind, and the most hopeful
impressions worn away, by the cares and pleasures of the world.
He sees immortal beings, committed to his care, advancing with
rapid steps to the brink of the abyss, from which they are never
to arise. And can he be unconcerned? Can he read of that fire
which is never quenched, of that worm which never dies, and yet
see without emotion fellow beings, with whom he sustains the
tenderest connexions, hastening forward to this indescribable
ruin. My christian brethren! when we look on the people of [17]
our charge, can we hope that every soul is safe, that the sigh of
acceptable penitence has ascended from every heart? Are none
living without God? And is it not a thought unutterably
affecting, that these are all trembling on the verge of the
grave, that soon, very soon, one or another will be forever
removed from the reach of our warning voice, to receive an
irreversible sentence from the righteous Judge? Negligent
minister, look forward to the tribunal of God. Behold a human
being there condemned, whom thy neglect has helped to destroy.
In that countenance of anguish and despair, which might have
beamed with all the light and purity of heaven; in that voice of
weeping and wailing, which might have sung the sweet and happy
strains of angels, see and hear the ruin which thou hast made:
and canst thou yet be slothful and unconcerned?
But, 5thly, be incited to earnestness by the amazing and
unparalleled felicity, which a faithful ministry is suited to
communicate! Surely you would call that man most hard-hearted,
who should move sluggishly, when sent to carry a healing medicine
to the dying, to stay the uplifted arm of the executioner, or to
snatch from a precipice a sinking traveller. But the christian
minister is enabled to render still more important services; and
shall HE be sluggish and unmoved? It is the peculiar excellence
and glory of the truth he preaches, that, where it is cordially
received, it gives peace tot he conscience, and purity to the
heart. It carries comfort into the house of [18] mourning, and
contentment into the abodes of the poor; it sustains the
trembling decrepitude of age; it puts the language of serenity
and submission into the pale and parched lips of sickness, and
kindles a ray of hope in the dim, closing eye of death. Nothing
but religion can make men happy. It is the work of the minister
to promote
religion. By his earnest and affectionate labours, the
insensible are made tender; the thoughtless are composed into
reflection; the proud knee is bent before God; the selfish heart
dilates with benevolence. Behold that man so mild, so heavenly.
Once he was a child of Satan. By the truth which fell from the
minister of Christ, he was awakened, he was humbled, he was
converted. Behold him now exerting a kindly influence on all
within the reach of his arm, or the sight of his example. See
how gratefully he receives the blessings, how meekly he bows to
the afflictions of Providence. See how peacefully he dies. But
do the fruits of ministerial labours end in death? No. Death
has only carried the christian to receive the rewards, for which
a faithful ministry has helped to prepare him. Death has purged
from that soul its last stain, and exalted it to the perfect love
and unclouded vision of God. Death has introduced the saint to
the friendly throngs of saints and angels in heaven, and made him
the sharer of their purer praises and endless improvements in
truth and goodness. My brethren, look forward to eternity! When
the trophies of heroes, the monuments of earthly grandeur, shall
have mouldered away, when [19] the empires of conquerors shall
have fallen, when the last conflagration shall have reduced to
one wide ruin the labours of ages, then the souls which ye have
guided through an evil world, shall survive in purity and endless
felicity. Shall we not then be roused to exertion?
Lastly, let the minister of Christ be excited to an earnest
and affectionate discharge of his duties, by the consideration
that this own eternal interests are involved in it. A minister
has a soul to save, as well as his people. Like them, he is
spending life in the presence of his Judge. Like them, he has a
work assigned, an account to render, a probation on which
eternity depends. Soon his pastoral relation will be dissolved,
his period of usefulness be closed, and he must meet the Chief
Shepherd, the Head of the church, to answer for the trust
assigned him. Of all men, a cold, negligent minister has the
darkest prospects. It is the whole tendency of his life to form
him to peculiar blindness and hardness of heart. By repeating
often, with hypocritical formality, the tenderest expressions and
the most animating motives, his conscience becomes peculiarly
seared. The most alarming threatenings become too familiar to
move him. With moral feelings thus depraved, that decency of
life, to which his
profession almost compels him, easily passes with him for true
religion. He dies, as he lived, self-deceived. Need I describe
to you his anguish on that day, which will prove him a false,
heartless minister of Jesus Christ, which shall discover to him
[20] many souls lost through his neglect, in which the searching
eyes of Jesus shall be fixed on him with righteous indignation,
in which he shall hear the voice of the Saviour saying to him,
'Behold the inestimable souls for which my blood was shed, which
I
committed to you care, but which your negligence has helped to
destroy. Depart with them far from me into everlasting fire.'
Oh scene of agony! Let us, my friends, hold it to our minds, till
it shall have exerted its full power; and then let us turn for
relief to a brighter prospect. Contemplate the character and
rewards of the faithful minister of the gospel. The
affectionate, pious labours, in which he is daily engaged, have a
peculiarly
ameliorating influence on his heart, by continually awakening the
sentiments of kindness and devotion. The truths and impression,
which he so zealously communicates, are reflected back on his own
soul, and he is himself most improved, whilst he labours to
improve his fellow beings. With what joy will such a minister
stand before the judgment seat of Christ. With what joy will he
meet again his christian friends, the objects of his former
solicitude, safe from every temptation in a happier world, Think
ye, my hearers, that the overflowing gratitude of men whom he has
guided to heaven; think ye, that the mild countenance of his
Redeemer beaming on him with complacency; think ye, that the
humble hope of having swelled the everlasting joys of heaven,
will give no thrill to his pure heart? Behold his fidelity
approved by his merciful Judge. Behold him entrusted with new
talents and powers, [21] exalted to be the minister of divine
benevolence in other worlds, perhaps united with the beings whom
he instructed on earth, in accomplishing purposes of love too
vast for the most expansive imagination to embrace. Glorified
servant of God, our lifted eyes toil in vain to follow thee, in
thy rapid and eternal progress towards divine perfection. God
Almighty, God most merciful! grant to us thy servants, that, by
our earnest faithful ministry, we may ensure that glory which eye
hath not seen, nor heart conceived, but which thine infinite
grace has prepared for the sincere and devoted preachers of they
holy word.
I have thus attempted to explain and enforce ministerial
zeal. Leaving these remarks to every conscience and every heart,
I now hasten to the usual addresses of this day.
My dear friend, you need not that I should tell you the
feelings with which I now address you. Our past affectionate
intercourse, and the domestic relations which you sustain, give
me no common interest in the solemnity of this day. How can I
better express the friendship I bear you, than by solemnly
intreating you to open your heart to the motives, truths, and
duties, which have now been, and which will yet be brought to
your view.
From the warmth of your feelings, from the affection with
which you habitually attach yourself to the objects of your
pursuit, I am encouraged to hope, that [22] your ministerial
labours will be characterized and enlivened by earnestness and
zeal. Watch, my brother, that your zeal may be a pure, serene,
and heavenly flame, shedding a cheering heat, and a clear and
steady light. Let it be blended with all the gentle, kind, and
peaceful virtues of the gospel. Contend earnestly, but contend
meekly, for truth and righteousness. Let your zeal be witnessed
by the ever present God in your solitary studies and devotions,
as well as by man in your public duties. Let your zeal shine
forth in a life of humble piety, and of active, varied, and
diffusive benevolence.
My brother, receive through me the ardent wishes of many
hearts, that the union, which is now to be formed, may be
lasting, useful, and happy. May you gain the affections of this
people by a zeal for their salvation, by a pure example, and by
an unaffected sympathy with their joys and sorrows. May their
blessings descend on your head, through your whole life. May
they cherish your memory, and pronounce your name with tenderness
and gratitude, when you shall sleep in the dust. May you meet
them again never to be separated in a happier world. My beloved
brother, to the God of grace, to the merciful Redeemer, I
affectionately commend you. Be thou faithful unto death and thou
shalt receive a crown of unfading glory.
Brethren of this church and congregation, we rejoice with
you in the pleasing prospect which this day [23] unfolds. We
rejoice that God has sent to you a pastor to dispense to you his
best gifts, the word and ordinances of his gospel. It is our
hope and prayer, (and we can ask nothing better for you on this
side of heaven,) that under his ministry, you may be nourished
with truth and guided to holiness, that you may feel the power
and enjoy the consolations of our holy religion. You have this
day been called to consider the importance of an earnest faithful
ministry. Do your part, my brethren, that this blessing may be
yours. Encourage your pastor by your prayers, by your devout
attention, by your willingness to receive the whole counsel of
God, by a candid construction of his words and actions, and by
habitual offices of condescension and love. Remember, that to
your affection he is now confiding much of the happiness of his
life. On you, the colour of his future days very much depends.
To you he is now consecrating the strength of his youth, the
warmth of his heart, the best powers of his mind. Let him not go
sorrowing through life, with the painful conviction that he is
spending this strength for nought.
Consider, my friends, that this day, a solemn responsibility
is to be imposed on you. You are now in the house and presence
of God, to receive a pastor who, we trust, will faithfully
admonish and instruct you. Do not forget that for every
instruction you must render an account. Let not this prove a
day, to which you look back with anguish in a future world. Let
not the privileges, you will henceforth enjoy, rise at last in
judgment against you. These are the warnings, which this solemn
occasion compels me to suggest. But I must look forward to
brighter prospects. I must hope that you and your pastor, bound
in mutual love, and imparting mutual support, will walk together
in the path of christian holiness to a blessed immortality.
To this numerous assembly I have only time to add: Let the
subject of this day teach you your interest in an earnest,
faithful ministry. Why is it, that we are called to be instant
in season and out of season? It is because the ruin of sin, to
which you are exposed, is unutterably tremendous; because the
blessings of the gospel, to which you are invited, are
unutterably glorious. Do not then be offended with a serious,
earnest ministry. Forgive us our importunity. We must be
importunate; or we shall hazard your best, your eternal interest;
we shall forfeit our own immortal hopes; we shall perish with the
blood and execrations of multitudes on our guilty heads. But,
what did I say? Forgive us our importunity? Oh, heart searching
God, forgive us, that we have been so cold, so uninterested; that
we have delivered thy message, and advocated thy cause with such
faint and sluggish hearts. Take now, we beseech thee, the entire
possession of our souls, and may our whole future lives be
devoted to thy glory, and to the salvation of mankind. AMEN.