THE DUTY OF CHRISTIAN AFFECTION BETWEEN MINISTERS AND THEIR FLOCK.

LOVE to God and charity to our neighbor are the sum and substance of the decalogue. The latter part of the duty forms that "new commandment" which our divine Lord gave to his disciples, and which is an epitome of the second table of the other ten.

The universality of the duty of loving our neighbor does not, however, prevent its applying with peculiar force to the more intimate relations and connexions of life. Husbands and wives, parents and children, brethren and sisters, masters and servants, are placed by the gospel under particular obligations to the practice of this delightful command. There is also another connexion which is frequently and pointedly mentioned in the New Testament; namely, the sacred and responsible relation, between spiritual pastors and their flock.

Emancipation from ecclesiastical tyranny is reckoned, and justly, among the privileges of modern times. But in throwing off a burdensome and useless yoke, in restoring conscience to its just and unalienable rights, may not men, in the usual spirit of innovation, have done more than was necessary, more than was wise? The present age has not indeed materially abridged the immunities of the church; but has it not introduced, what, to a clergyman who really values the souls of his fellow-creatures, must appear far more injurious, a general diminution of affection and esteem for its

ministers? Has it not discarded most of those innocent prepossessions in their favour, which, with whatever disadvantages it might be attended, once formed also a plentiful source of usefulness? Compared with former days, how little do we now hear of persons applying to their religious teacher for advice in difficulties, for direction in scruples of conscience, for mediation in cases of contest and dispute?

The laity, in fact, tend to fill the church with indolent, unskilful, and irreligious ministers, by not making it a public disgrace not to be the very reverse of these characters. Were they unanimously to show, that they expect from their pastors, not simply the accustomed public services, but private advice and instruction, and an example of all the holy, humble, self-denying graces of the Christian and ministerial characters, improper persons would be in a great measure excluded from the church, by finding that it was an arduous, and, to them, irksome employment, instead of the pleasant sinecure which they had been taught to expect. They could not withstand public opinion. The clerical function would be a torment to a mere man of the world, and he would seek refuge from it in some less spiritual vocation.

But so long as the laity are willing to tolerate irreligious ministers, they must not be surprised if such ministers abound. The general opinion of the world is indeed no excuse for a pastor who does not live up to his holy profession; but this opinion, if correctly exerted, would be a powerful drawback upon those who intended to assume the sacred garb only for the sake of interested considerations.

The great mutual duty between clergymen and their parishes is Christian affection; for where this exists, it will prompt its possessor to discharge every other obligation of his allotted calling.

On the part of a minister, the necessity of Christian affection is self-evident. His very office is a "labor

of love." He is a shepherd, a guide, a messenger of peace; and every thing that can demand affection and fidelity belongs to his responsible vocation. When he considers how the incarnate Son of the most high God," that great Shepherd of the sheep," laid down his life for his flock, how can he avoid feeling something, though comparatively but a small part, of his divine Master's love? Daily employed, as he must necessarily be if he live up to the duties of his profession, in teaching men to " put on bowels of mercy, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, long-suffering," and to fulfil that new commandment of Christ, that, as he loved us, so should we love one another," how can he but imbibe something of the blessed spirit which he inculcates upon others? How can be binself avoid learning what he thus teaches to all human kind?

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One of the most striking features of the apostolic age is the Christian regard that subsisted between pastors and their flock. The language and wishes of St. Paul are inexpressibly affecting. To attempt to select individual examples of his tenderness for his Christian converts would be superfluous; for what page is there of his writings that does not abound in them? In like manner, the beloved apostle who leaned upon Jesus' breast, and seems there to have imbibed no small portion of that meek philanthropy which adorned the character of the Redeemer, was accustomed to exhibit by the most endearing epithets the Christian affection of his heart. Brethren,-my beloved, my well beloved,-my little children,—are the usual titles by which the venerable Saint John was wont to address his interesting charge; whilst every thing that he uttered or recorded proved the amiable feeling of his own heart, and was well adapted for infusing a kindred principle into the hearts of others.

There is much in every class of character and every situation to excite the affection or pity of a Chris

tian minister. For the younger part of his flock, he surely cannot but feel an inexpressible anxiety whilst he considers their ignorance and thoughtlessness, and how in the bloom of their days, and at the very time when they ought to yield themselves unreservedly to their Creator, they are gaily and smilingly running the road that leadeth to destruction. For the aged he sheds a more bitter, because more hopeless tear, while he views them, though upon the very brink of eternity, more insensible oftentimes of their danger than youth itself. Over early piety he watches with the affectionate solicitude of paternal regard. For the advanced Christian he feels the love and esteem due to a brother in Christ Jesus; while to the aged disciple, bending beneath the weight of accumulated years, and about to be gathered, like a shock of corn fully ripe, into the heavenly garner, he looks up with the veneration of a son beside the death-bed of an expiring parent.

How intense are his feelings when upon the Sabbath he beholds his flock collected to receive instruction from his lips! “These immortal souls are given to my charge." He needs no other reflection to excite his affection. This one thought contains a volume. What tie so binding? What responsibility so awful? What claim to Christian love so strict and so endearing? Would you ascertain the ardor of his feelings? Trace, if possible, the fervent aspirations that silently ascend from his inmost soul to the throne of mercy, while he beholds one unhappy sinner ignorant and inattentive, another callous and impenetrable, a third evidently grovelling in the world, scarcely unharnessed from the overpowering cares of the week; and even of those who seem, for the moment, really interested and affected, the greater part obliterating the hallowed impression as soon as the solemn service is concluded.

So completely indeed ought Christian affection to be the characteristic of a pious minister, that he should

become the entire property of others. Forgetting himself, and his personal feelings, he should become "all things to all men;" he should "weep with them that weep, and rejoice with those that rejoice;" "to the weak he must become as weak, to gain the weak ;" he must seek, "not his own, but another man's" prosperity, and must comfort those that are in trouble, "by the comfort wherewith he is himself comforted of God."

Without however entering more deeply into this exhaustless part of the subject, it may be more generally useful to consider the propriety of a reciprocal affection in the flock towards their spiritual pastor.

If a minister really exhibit an affectionate spirit, gratitude demands a similar return.

St. Paul very forcibly urges this consideration in his apostolical advice to the Thessalonians :-" We beseech you, brethren, to know them who labor among you, and are over you in the Lord, and admonish you; and to esteem them very highly in love for their work's sake." A minister is, or ought to be, like his adorable Master, a spiritual physician; and surely if we feel grateful to those who are anxious to restore to health the diseased body, we should not forget those who evince an equal anxiety to perform a still more kind office for the immortal soul; especially when we consider, that in so doing they are often obliged to sacrifice their own personal feelings, and to bear opposition and ill-will for the unsparing faithfulness of their

exertious.

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Could we once fairly enter into the feelings of a conscientious minister, we could not surely withhold our gratitude, even though we might not duly perceive the necessity of his solicitude upon our account. see, and perhaps applaud him, in his more open ministrations; but forget that his private moments, his silent meditations, his literary hours, his sleepless nights, his unseen retirements, are not less spent for our