I WOULD first call upon myself, and every Minister present. every watchman on the walls of Zion, to take up the language of the text. "I will stand upon my watch, and set me upon the tower, and will watch to see what he will say unto me." "Speak, Lord; for thy servant heareth." I will watch to see what thou wilt say unto me of mine iniquities and sins, as one set by thee to watch for souls as they that must give account."

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1. And I feel constrained to begin, as the root and spring of all our sins as Ministers together, with the low state of our souls as Christians, the low state of religion in our own hearts. I assume in this, fathers and brethren, that we are Christians, that we are converted men; although the Lord is witness that I assume it not as thinking it a matter of course in reference to myself, at least and I do believe that it were a very salutary thing this day, be our state and character before God what it may, if we were bearing solemnly in mind, that a man may preach the Gospel to others, and be himself a castaway; that Ministers are in singular hazard of deceiving themselves in this matter; that many will say another day, "Lord have we not prophesied in thy name, and in thy name cast out devils, to whom he will answer and say, I never knew you, depart from " that Judas was the last of all the twelve, when the announcement was made, One of you shall betray me," to put the question, “Lord, is it I?" O it were well if we this day heard that great and gracious One addressing the inquiry to each

me;

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* Sermon preached before the General Assembly of the Free Church of Scotland, on Tuesday, May 21st, 1844, being the Day appointed by the Assembly for solemn Humiliation and Prayer, in reference to the State of Religion. By Rev. Charles J. Brown, Minister of the Free New North Church, Edinburgh. Edinburgh, Bell and Bradfute.

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of us, with which he thrice prefaced the command, Feed my sheep," Feed my lambs: " ""Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me?" blessed, if we shall be able, with humble hope to answer, "Lord, thou knowest all things, thou knowest that I love thee!"

As we ought not to be Ministers at all, however, if we be not Christians, regenerated men, so, assuming this, I believe that one of our chief sins, and the parent of all other evils in the really Christian ministry together, is to be found in the low state of godliness, of the life of God, in our own souls. I am aware that this statement is liable to be misunderstood; and all I can afford time to say, to obviate misapprehension, is just this, that I am not here comparing us with our for mer selves. In this view, perhaps, we may have made some happy progress; and this, that we are not quite so far off as before, may just be the secret of our seeing more distinctly to-day our fearful distance from the mark. I am comparing our spiritual state with such words, such notes of a lively and prosperous Christian, as the following:conversation is in heaven." Thy word was found of me, and I did eat it; and it was to me the joy and the rejoicing of my heart." "To me to live is Christ." Enoch walk d with God." "I press towards the mark." "My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God; when shall I come and appear before God?"

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Now let me try if I can bring ont, in a sentence or two, the vital connexion between this state of soul, and the discharge of the whole work of the ministry. See it, for instance, in that word of Paul, 2 Tim. i. 12: "I suffer these things; nevertheless I am not ashamed; for,”—mark the secret of his heroic bearing; we talk of the magnanimity, the heroism, of Paul; but observe the secret of all

his labours, and toils, and sufferings, -" for I know," says he, "whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day." Ah! that is what will make a man go through the flames for Christ, that element deep and strong in his soul: "I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed to him." Or, see the same in the words of David we were just singing: "Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation, and uphold me with thy free Spirit; then will I teach transgressors thy ways, and sinners shall be converted unto thee;" then,-Lord, how shall I teach thy ways, unless I am seeking to walk close and straight in them myself,-unless, restored and upheld by thy good Spirit, I am both discovering and loathing my own ways, and carefully and constantly seeking to tread in thine? Or, take it thus: Our themes, fathers and brethren, the hinges of the ministry, are sin and Christ. Well; how shall a man discover the sins of others, solidly and tenderly, not harshly, but tenderly and lovingly, who is not seeing and weeping in secret places over his own iniquities? And as for Christ, the very idea of the Christ, the Beloved of the Father, his "elect, in whom his soul delighteth," is one of the heart and soul. It is not to be taken up by mere intellectual apprehension. "The love of Christ constraineth us," says Paul, giving the spring of his whole labours. "Lovest thou me," Peter? then "feed my lambs," 66 feed my sheep,"-thou canst never feed them otherwise. "That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you." "Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh."

Or take this view of it: The word is our instrument, our sword. But the way to get into the very heart of the word, and to get the word into our heart, so as to have it inwrought into our very being, is nothing else than our living on it in secret; praying over it, weeping, rejoicing over it. Thus it becomes VOL. XXIII. Third Series.

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our own, and we come to use and wield it with facility. Otherwise, the word is to a man what Saul's armour was to David, when he said, "I cannot go with these; for I have not proved them." It is a cumbrous, clumsy thing, hanging about a man, which he can make no use of. The theme, in short, is endless. If we are not prospering in soul, living much in secret prayer, we are cut off from the fountain of all our strength for the ministry together. What guilt lies on us in this whole matter! What mischief have we thus done to souls! What good have we not failed to do! What endless opportunities have we lost! We, who ought to have been "ensamples to the flock;" we, who have had so many and peculiar advantages for walking with God; (for I can never admit that our familiarity with divine things, often as suffer it to become a snare to us, is not in itself a mighty privilege and advantage ;) alas, our distance from him has all but paralyzed our ministry! We have not dwelt in the secret place of the Most High. We have not lived under the powers of the world to come. We have not walked humbly, and softly, and mournfully before the Lord. We have not gloried in the cross of Christ. His word has not dwelt richly in us. We have not "spoken because we believed." I have no doubt we have spoken what we believed, but too little becausebecause we "could not but speak the things which we had seen and heard." Thus have we been too much in our own work like some nervous, sickly man that must work, rather because he is yet upon his feet. But we have wanted the spring, and vigour, and elasticity of the ministry, which comes from a sound, healthy state of the soul before God. "Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness; according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies, blot out my transgressions."

2. If we have felt anything, beloved, of this parent guilt, this inner, central iniquity, I may mark more briefly a second line of minisNOVEMBER, 1844. 3 S

terial sin, coming necessarily out from that centre. I refer to very faint impressions of the character, and great objects and ends, of our ministry. Take these, for brevity's sake, in that one word, "Come with me, and I will make you fishers of men,"-" from henceforth thou shalt catch men." Now, there is one simple way in which, I think, it may come out this day, by the Lord's blessing, to our painful and sorrowful apprehension, how faint have been our impressions of this the great character and end of our work. I allude to the little concern we have felt, comparatively, (and here I cannot speak without trembling and dismay,) the little real hearty concern we have felt, provided we were carried in some comfortable manner through our work, about the spiritual fruits and results of it,-whether souls were verily saved by it or no. Ah! the truth here comes out too undeniably in such a contrast as that, "I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost, that I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart; for I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ, for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh." "God is my record, how greatly I long after you all in the bowels of Jesus Christ." "My little children, of whom I travail in birth until Christ be formed in you." "Now we live if ye stand fast in the Lord." I would venture to ask Ministers who know what prayer about their work is, whether they are accustomed to pray much for the success of their sermons after they have been preached, when the work of the day is over, as we say. I fear the fact on this head will be found to disclose some painful things, evincing that, even when we have prayed, the object of concern with us has more been, at bottom, the assisting and carrying through of the messenger, than the saving success of the message.

Some one perhaps will say that issues are God's, and duty only ours. No doubt, issues, issues from

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death, are God's, to accomplish them but O, they are ours, to long, and strive, and pray, and pant after them. And, in truth, we never can do our duty, till we are in that spirit; till we feel, in some measure, about the souls of unconverted men, as we should about persons intoxicated and lying half asleep in a house in flames."I became all things to all men," says Paul," that I might by all means save some." It was the intense desire of saving some, pulling them out of the fire, that impelled him to the using of all possible means,-now this one, and now that: "To the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might gain the Jews; to the weak became I as weak, that I might gain the weak; I am made all things to all men, that I might by all means save some." And, elsewhere, in his writings, 1 Thess. ii. 8: “Being affectionately desirous of you, we were willing to have imparted unto you, not the Gospel of God only, but also our own souls, because ye were dear unto us ;" any thing to save your souls; "for ye remember," he adds, "our labour and travail; for labouring night and day, because we would not be chargeable unto any of you, we preached unto you the Gospel of God." A few verses before he had said, "We were bold in our God to speak unto you the Gospel of God with much contention;" again, immediately, "We were gentle among you, even as a nurse cherisheth her children." But whether it were the boldness of the lion, or the gentleness of the mother and nurse, the secret of each lay there,

so being affectionately desirous of you," &c. "I am made all things to all men, that I might by all means save some." Look how it is in any other matter. If a man goes to negotiate some affair at a market, or with a mercantile house, it is little comfort to him that he has gone to the place, and made his propo sals, if the bargain is not closed, if the gain is not secured, the affair brought to a successful issue. Ab! souls are our gain, fathers and brethren, our hire and wages. that reapeth receiveth wages, and

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gathereth fruit unto life eternal." Why are we so indifferent about our profits and gain? My dearly beloved and longed for, my joy and crown.' ""What is our hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing? are not even ye in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at his coming?" Compel them to come in," says the Lord. The counterpart of that is not, " doing our duty," in the ordinary sense of that word; but it is the giving men no rest, and "giving the Lord no rest,' pleading with men for God, and with God for men, longing, agonizing to pluck souls as brands from the burning, labouring in the spirit of these words, "Whom we preach, warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus." "I acknowledge my transgressions, Lord, and my sin is ever before me.' "God be merciful to me a sinner."

3. Let me mark a third line of ministerial guilt, inseparably connected with these, in our little, little realizing of the exceeding weight and responsibility of the ministry. One verse here is a volume: "We are unto God a sweet savour of Christ, in them that are saved, and in them that perish; to the one we are the savour of life unto life, and to the other the savour of death unto death." No wonder if Paul adds, "And who is sufficient for these things?" No wonder if he speaks elsewhere of being with the Corinthians "in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling." Alas, that there is so little of this trembling among us, that we can enter our pulpits with so light a heart, especially when we have got our preparations pretty well completed! Ah! surely that were just the time, if we felt aright, to be most of all weighed down in spirit by the recollection, "To the other the savour of death unto death." No doubt we cannot make the word to be the savour of life unto life to any soul. But what, if it fail of this through our fault? what, if, through our fault, it become "the savour or death unto death?" Can we, indeed, deceive ourselves

so far as to doubt, that in many, many cases it actually has? "Ö Lord, have mercy upon me." "Deliver me from blood-guiltiness, and my tongue shall sing aloud of thy righteousness!" How lightly have we often spoken in the public prayers of the word not returning to God void! Doubtless it shall not. But what, if it have found its issue and fruit, through our neglect, in the aggravated destruction of our hearers? I find Dr. Kalley of Madeira, in a letter addressed a few weeks ago to a Society in this country, speaking of the word of God, under the figure of "a conductor for the galvanism of heaven." "It stretches forth," says he, "from God into our world; and when its point is directed to the soul of man, there is a transmission of power, compared with which that of all the batteries on earth is nothing. It may consume, it may become the savour of death unto the soul, adding the most agonizing torments to the eternal misery of an immortal spirit. With what feelings, with what care and prayer, should we employ so tremendous an engine, lest through our fault it destroy!" That is in the spirit of the Apostle, "Who is sufficient for these things?"

4. This leads me to mark a fourth great line of ministerial guilt, in our very faint impressions of where the strength and sufficiency of the Minister alone reside. Ah! we are too little with thee, Lord, too little in thy secret place, too little conversant with the great end of our ministry,-the quickening of the dead, raising souls from the grave of trespasses and sins, bringing sinners into vital union and communion with Jesus Christ,-to enter much into that word, "The weapons of our warfare are mighty through God." "Our sufficiency is of God." "When I am weak, then am I strong." For the ends we are practically very much satisfied with, our own strength may well enough suffice. It may be enough for preparing a suitable sermon and preaching it; but it will not suffice to save lost souls: and what we