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considerations which have a direct bearing upon our subject.

I. The importance of the ministerial office. The nature and objects of Christianity demonstrate the importance of its ministry. From Christianity it derives all its consideration. We must, therefore, view it from the stand-point which Christianity presents, if we would see it in its true relations.

I

I shall not attempt to prove the divine origin of the gospel, nor shall I enter into an argument to show that it supplies a deep religious demand of our nature. shall assume that it came from God, and is adapted to man's spiritual necessities. And now let us consider the question, What necessities does it supply? Such, we answer, as arise in consequence of our ignorance and sinfulness. Man is endowed with varied and noble powers, and occupies a sphere which is bounded only by the circle of eternity. Knowledge concerning his nature, relations, duties, and destiny, is essential to his welfare. He comes into the world weak and ignorant. He gradually acquires a knowledge of his earthly relations, and of things around him. Nature takes him under her instruction and gradually imparts to him such knowledge as is necessary to guide him in the first stages of his developement. But her knowledge relates only to the earth he now inhabits. There soon rise in his soul intimations of a higher destiny. He begins to feel that the sphere he is capable of filling is wider than time, and loftier than earth. He thirsts, therefore, after higher truths than nature can afford him. Her science and philosophy can throw no light upon his spiritual relations. They cannot answer the questions which his soul propounds when it seeks a knowledge of its Author, origin and destiny. This is the highest knowledge which he can acquire, and the most essential to his present well-being. It lies at the very foundation of all right developement, of all social progress. In its absence there could be no permanent advancement on the part of society. This knowl edge Christ brought down to men. We call it Christianity. Wherever it has prevailed, it has given a new impulse to humanity. Acting like a deep central force, it has elevated Christendom above the dead level of the

surrounding pagan world, until, like mountains at the break of day, it is bathed in light, while shadows still rest upon the plain below.

Again. Man is a sinner. He needs deliverance from the bondage of sin. He sighs after the liberty of the children of God. Nothing can afford this deliverance and perfect freedom, but Christianity. No power but its own can smite the chains of superstition and sin from the soul. No light but its own can guide the ransomed to the Zion of salvation. How momentous, we exclaim, is the importance of our religion! It stands related to man's highest interests, and it meets the deepest necessities of his nature. It is the sun of the moral world, before whose rising, the night of ignorance and error recedes. It is the pilot given by God to guide our age safely among the rocks upon which other ages have struck, and by which other civilizations have been shattered.

Such is the divine office of Christianity. And what is our inference concerning the importance of the Christian ministry? Does it not derive a deep significance from the relation it sustains towards the religion whose name it bears? I am well aware that there are those who admit the truth of all I have said respecting the importance of Christianity, but who deny the inference which I would deduce therefrom. They deny the divine origin of the ministry. They contend that it is of human origin, and that it is an artificial instrumentality. They have been led to this conclusion, I apprehend, by defects in the ministry, more than by any other cause. I thus judge, because such are accustomed to dwell upon these imperfections, and to give them prominence when speaking of the ministry. Suppose we admit, as we unhesitatingly do, that the ministry is far below the religious requirements of the age, or that divine standard presented in the New Testament. Does it follow that the ministry is, therefore, a needless institution? All the various forms in which Christianity is now presented, under the names of Calvinism, Arminianism, Unitarianism, Universalism, etc., are far less perfect and complete than the religion they were intended to represent. They correspond to this religion, as the various maps of the world, which different ages and nations have published, correspond with

the exact outlines of the islands and mountains, deserts and seas, continents and oceans. Does it follow that these charts of Christianity should be set aside because of their imperfections? O no; these we require, and these we must gradually correct, as our knowledge increases respecting those heavenly truths which shine down upon us from their everlasting spheres. It is better that Christianity should be imperfectly represented, than not represented at all. Better is it, that we have an imperfect ministry, than no ministry.

But the Christian ministry is a necessity. We refer it back to the Author of Christianity. It resulted naturally from the religion which he gave to the world, and from the wants of men. It is an instrumentality by which his religion is to be extended through the world. Were it abolished to-day, a kindred institution would spring into being on the morrow. It is an essential means in the religious education of the race. While men feel the need of religious truth and spiritual culture, the minister will be just as much of a necessity as will be the teacher of science, while the truths of science are desired and sought by mankind. My conclusion, therefore, is that since the Christian ministry arose naturally from Christianity, and man's necessities-since it is an essential instrumentality in the great work of religious education, it must derive importance from the religion it teaches, and the great end for which that religion was revealed. In order, therefore, fairly to estimate its importance, we must consider the nature and object of Christianity. We must weigh well its momentous truths, and consider the relation they sustain to the welfare of the soul and the progress of the race. From the stand-point we now occupy, we perceive that the ministerial office is of the first importance. We see that upon the ministry rest vast responsibilities. It is entrusted, in a degree, with the highest interests of humanity. It touches the springs of spiritual life. It is one of its noblest safeguards. It has an important part to perform in the work of laying those deep foundations upon which must be built the essential institutions of society. By it must be surveyed and graded the track over which the car of permanent progress must pass. I place it first in the scale of institutions. I believe that more depends

upon the part which it performs, than upon any other agent of progress. This opinion is justified by the facts of history. What other institution has ever wrought so much evil to our race as this, when blinded by superstition, or corrupted by power? And where is the institution that has contributed so largely as this to the elevation and progress of humanity, when acting in its appointed sphere, and with reference to its legitimate ends? The present bears witness of its mighty influence. What other power in Protestant lands stands so firmly at the helm of society or directs more steadily! And what power save that of a corrupt priesthood could hold back, with such mighty grasp, the generous, progressive impulses of Ireland, or bring down such a fearful doom as is resting upon Mexico, Spain and Italy!

Thus powerful, and thus important, is the Christian ministry, when acting in its appointed sphere of religious culture and of social progress. The poet, therefore, was right when he denominated the pulpit,

"The most important and effectual guard,
Support, and ornament, of virtue's cause."

From the importance of the ministerial office, we pass to consider the labors of the faithful minister. The import ance of his labors are indicated by the nature of his office. If we regard that aright, we cannot hold in light esteem the work of its faithful incumbent. But let us contemplate the sphere of his labors. We observe that he has to deal with man's spiritual interests. His field of labor is the moral vineyard of his Master. He works upon the human soul. He stands, therefore, at the very fountain-head of activity, to give right direction to the onward flow of individual and social life. We must place him above the inventor, the engineer, the teacher of science, the statesman and philosopher. By a faithful performance of the duties of his office, he creates a necessity for all the instrumentalities of social progress.

We have said that his business is with man's spiritual nature. Consider, for a moment, the benefits which, by faithfulness, he may confer. He addresses the soul in the name of his divine Master. He throws upon it the light of the gospel, and by that light reveals its native worth,

its capacities, resources, relations and destiny. By such revelations the dormant energies of our spiritual nature are roused to a divine activity; a higher life is imparted to the soul, and it is guided to deeper fountains of blessedness than science has ever revealed. I would not undervalue the services of any faithful worker. I acknowledge my indebtedness to him who has removed an obstacle from the path of my worldly success, or who has lightened the burdens of those social evils which I bear. But greater is my indebtedness to him who lifts from me the burden of sin, and irradiates my soul with the light of divine truth. Such is the office of the Christian ministry; and the minister who faithfully performs its duties must be ranked among the greatest benefactors of our race. None can confer so great a benefit upon me as he who fits me for a useful life, for a calm and triumphant death, and for a qlissful-immortality.

But the value of the faithful preacher's labors is certified by other witnesses. I may cite our free institutions. These are our pride and boast. They stand the grand watch-towers of liberty amid the social convulsions of our era. Beneath their shadow we rest in safety, while their solid base turns back the angry tide of oppression. To whom are we indebted for these? Who laid their deep foundations? Who established in the public mind those great principles which give them permanency, and in the absence of which they would stand like temples based on sand? To no class of men are we more indebted than to those fearless and faithful preachers, who declared, while the storm of revolution was gathering over the land, "Tyranny is no government; the gospel promises liberty, glorious liberty.' None did more than they to make the "thought of independence enter the heart of America." As we contemplate these institutions, and enjoy the security they afford, let us not forget that they have for their foundation the great principles of the gospel which were implanted in the public mind mainly by a pulpit deter

mined to be free.

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Again. We often speak of our civilization in terms of eulogy. We contrast it with the civilizations of pagan antiquity, and prize it for its surpassing excellences. It is vastly superior to the old, which have passed away.

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