earnestness, he has decision, he gives himself wholly to the work. No one can doubt that he sees the danger of the soul whilst unrenewed, and that he can never be satisfied whilst any remain without the knowledge of God. There is danger lest the circumstances of our Church establishment-happy as that establishment is in many and great respects there is danger still lest it should interfere with this earnestness and decision, and impair the character of our ministry. The clerical life is a profession-a profession entered upon at an early period-sometimes without due consideration of its proper object and awful responsibility. Further, the clergyman, in some respects necessarily, often far more than is necessary, mixes with general society of the world; when it is difficult to carry on such intercourse without imbibing something of the spirit which leads us to view a state of sinfulness and irreligion-to view everything connected with the world to come, in a very different aspect from that in which they are represented in the Bible. The world is satisfied when respectability is maintained and nothing is admitted to shock the general sense of decency and propriety. The world is too apt to resent, rather than to approve what goes beyond this point, and he who exceeds it may in some instances encounter murmur, reproach, or scorn. There is a tendency in these circumstances to reduce both the doctrine and the practice of the clergyman below the level to which they would be brought if tested by the true standard. But we shall be tried at last not according to the judgment of the world, but by the balance of the sanctuary. St. Paul thought it a very small thing to be judged of man, or by man's judgment. He that judgeth him is the Lord; and the Lord has signified that he requires much of those who are placed as the lights of the earth—who are designed to be as the salt which is to avert the corruption that would otherwise prevail, and which salt must not lose its savor. The minister, therefore, who is aware of the downward tendency of his own nature, and this influence of the world, will oppose that tendency by constantly referring to the example held up to him and the conduct which befits a Christian minister. That example is presented in St. Paul, with whom we are made acquainted, not only as an Apostle to make the Gospel known, but as a pastor in the oversight of a congregation. As such he represents himself in the company of elders whom he summoned to Miletus: "Ye know," he says, "after what manner I have been with you at all seasons, and how I kept back nothing that was profitable unto you, but have shewed you, and have taught you publicly, and from house to house, testifying both to the Jews and also to the Greeks, repentance towards God and faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ. Wherefore I take you to record this day that I am pure from the blood of all men." And again to the Thessalonians, "Ye know how we exhorted and comforted and charged every one of you as a father doth his children, that ye walk worthy of God who has called you to his kingdom and glory."

This is a specimen of that earnestness which will be felt, and of that diligence which will be exercised, when the true value of the object before us is understood-when eternity is so viewed as he viewed it who had been favored with revelations and visions from the Lord-acquainting him more clearly, than is given to other sons of men, with the things that shall be hereafter. Those things remain the same. The terrors of the Lord are not diminished, neither is there aught taken from those good things which God hath laid up for them that love Him. There is reason, therefore, for the same warm affection towards those committed to our charge-the same anxiety for their welfare-the same dread of their falling away--the same earnestness to warn, exhort, rebuke, encourage, which is so strongly express

ed by the Apostle, and which made him constant in season and out of season, to prosecute the work in which he was engaged-to bring all committed to his charge to that agreement in the faith and knowledge of God, and to that righteousness and perfectness of agreement in Christ, that there should be no trace left among them, either of error in religion, or of viciousness in life. The same urgent motive which incited him to feel diligence, equally impelled him to self-denial, which is a necessary feature in every Christian character, and is most especially required in the Christian ministry. He must inquire not only what is lawful, but what is expedient-not only what might be allowable in himself or unobjectionable in others, but what is suited to himself in his capacity of clergyman. But what is not forbidden in the law of God, may yet tend to lower him in the eyes of his people, and so impair his influence among them. This will determine him with regard to places of public amusement-with regard to many social assemblies with regard to field sports, especially those of a boisterous kind. May we not here justly apply the Apostle's warning-" Thou, O man of God! leave these things." Indeed, with respect to most of them, the man of God will be restrained by other feelings than those of professional propriety. How little do they agree with the Scriptural view of life, as a warfare in which we are contending for victory against the world, the flesh, and the devil; or as a race which is set before us, to which we should be continually pressing forward-as a pilgrimage in which our object is not to put ourselves on the road, but to arrive safely at the end. We cannot be surprised that they should delight in those frivolities, who have never begun in earnestness to seek the kingdom of God; but they can have no enticements for men who are engaged not only to cease from the business of the world, the flesh, and the devil, but to form wholesome examples as patrons of the flock of Christ. They can present no temptations to men in whom the same mind is found as was in the Apostles, whose main desire was to be instrumental in delivering the souls of their people from destruction, and bringing them to a blessed immortality. These thoughts animated St. Paul in all his labours, that by any means he might save some. This made him affectionately desirous of the_Thessalonians, so as to have been willing to impart to them not only the Gospel of Christ, but also his own soul, because they were dear unto him. This excited his anxiety concerning them, so that he could no longer forbear, but sent to know their faith, lest by any means the tempter should have tempted them, and his labor would be in vain. And this caused him to rejoice when he received good tidings of their steadfastness, their faith, and charity; and seemed to give him new life. Now ye know these things, we live," he says, if ye stand fast in the Lord."

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Now, the pastor of every parish has a closer connexion, and a nearer interest, in his flock, than Paul in the Thessalonians, or any other congregation which he addresses. He went from place to place, and it is only at Ephesus and Corinth, that we know of his continuing even for the space of a single year. He had a multitude of flocks to attend. We are confined to the care of one. The interest is undivided, and the interest is permanent. We know not that it will terminate before life itself is terminatedtill we are summoned to give an account of our stewardship. Therefore we may justly test ourselves by the feelings of the Apostles, and if we do not use the same diligence, if we are not conscious of the same affection, if we do not watch with the same vigilance and witness every departure from the faith or every instance of steadfastness with the same earnest anxiety, we are below the standard by which our ministerial faithfulness should be measured. It is not perhaps at the present moment that we are able to

judge of these things truly. Our eyes are clouded with the mists of the present world, and we are little able to anticipate a consciousness of immediate responsibility, or to realise the open prospect of eternity. But in proportion as we bring before our minds the final account when every man's work shall be tried and every man rewarded according to his work, we shall be reconciled to self-denial-we shall think little of the labor-we shall be ready to teach, patient, in meekness instructing even those that oppose themselves, and according to the power which worketh in us and supports us we shall be incessantly warning every man and teaching every man, that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus, and so lay up for ourselves a hope, a joy, a crown of rejoicing in the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ at his coming.