SERMON CCCCLXXXV.

DELIVERED BEFORE THE ALUMNI OF ANDOVER THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY, AT ANDOVER, SEPTEMBER 5, 1848.

BY REV. JOHN RICHARDS, D. D.

Pastor of the Church at Dartmouth College, N. H.

THE DIFFICULTIES OF MINISTERS.

"He that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out."-Rev. 3: 12.

TRIAL seems essential to a moral government. Possibly God might create moral agents and preserve them eternally in rectitude, without subjecting them to previous trial;-with God all things reasonable are possible. But neither reason nor the analogy of providence would lead to this conclusion. It seems at first glance, more honorable to God to prepare moral agents for an eternal career by previous discipline, in which their own essential nature as moral agents, may be developed. To struggle with the difficulties peculiar to moral agency and overcome, magnifies God's workmanship. Exalted intelligences look with more admiration on a rational, immortal mind that has passed through trial and come out safe, than they can on any other work of creation. "Doth Job serve God for nought? Nay, he is a selfish, Belial-sort of a man; touch his substance or his flesh, and he will curse thee to thy face." But when Job came forth from the furnace whole, radiant in moral beauty, God was honored and Satan confounded.

Analogy leads to the like conclusion. Angels were put on probation. Some kept their first estate, and were confirmed in it others kept not their first estate and fell, and are reserved in everlasting chains, under darkness, unto the judgment of the great day. The man Christ Jesus was appointed to trial, to constitute Him a faithful High-Priest and mighty Redeemer of his people. God has set forth, through all the path of time, pre-eminently good men as subject to severe trial-Noah, Job, Abraham, David, Peter, Paul. Pre-eminence in piety is in proportion to trial. Everywhere we see trial, nowhere exemption. Why should we not conclude that trial is essential to moral government? "Through much tribulation we must enter into the kingdom of God," is doubtless a universal proposition. Let not our hearts rebel. The diversity of trial is striking. If there is occasion for wonder at the variety of God's works, in every department of natural history, there is as much in the variety of trial which he appoints. Every individual has his own, as well as those which are common; every class has its own, and every age its own. The circumstances of life are so infinitely various, they furnish ground for a corresponding variety in trial.

I am called to address you as a brotherhood, from a spot endeared by its object, its history, and our personal associations with it. In casting

about for a subject, my mind settled at length on the one suggested by the remarks already made

THE DIFFICULTIES OF MINISTERS.

I invite your attention to a consideration of some of these, with an exhortation to constancy.

I. We are exposed to the idolatry of this world.

None of us, it is to be hoped, are so arrogant as to deny that he is assailable to this temptation, and probably none who do not account the actual experience of it among the difficulties which impede usefulness in the sacred calling. Yes, brethren, the vulgar love of wealth,-at least the susceptibility to it is in us; and in various degrees, each has occasion to acknowledge sin in this respect. Why should we not? The Devil, knowing that Christ was a man, took it for granted that this susceptibility was in Him, and therefore set Him on a pinnacle of the temple and showed Him all that wealth, and said, "This will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me." Our great leader and deliverer resisted the appeal then and ever; but the instructive and impressive fact stands, like letters graven in rock, for our constant admonition. The Redeemer was assailable but invincible: we are assailable and not invincible, and it is improbable that the adversary, having attacked the leader, will let alone his ministers.

Whether the present time exhibits to the world more overt sin among ministers in this respect than former periods, it might be invidious to But who say; and certainly I stand not here to accuse my brethren. can shut his eyes to the fact, that the temptations of this age are new and gorgeous. The equal distribution of property in our country which characterized the last century is very much disturbed, and the census of valuation is vastly increased. The representative of a hundred years ago, were he to revisit his former walks, would hardly know the localities-so changed the surface, the employments, the manners. Go into the dwellings; instead of the primeval utensils-the bare necessaries of republican life-there are carpets, soft sofas, paintings, vases, the indications of exuberant wealth. The facilities of travelling too have greatly multiplied, and where the minister could make an annual visit to his own youthful domicile, he can now go seven times to the me tropolis, and once to Europe. Instead of passing through Vanity Fair And they offer us its wares with amazing once, many of us live in it. pertinacity and impudence. Now, it is a speculation in the pines of Maine, now in the building lots of a new city, now in the fifteen per cents of a manufactory or a railway, and again, the mines of Lake Superior. "Come, make an investment-'twill grow while you're sleeping. Why should the minister neglect to provide for his household, and so deny the faith and be worse than an infidel ?"

We are not to expect this order of things to be reversed in our generation. Nor ought we to desire it simply to get away from temptations, And since God in His for then must we needs go out of this world.

providence places us in the new circumstances, of which the fathers knew little, what is the path of duty? What but to set the face as a flint, and stand firm in this evil day? And when some man of the aforesaid city says, "Marry my daughter, and I will give her Babylonish garments and a dowry," let the voice be drowned rather in the echo of a deeper note, "Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth." Or if there is heard at frequent or at distant intervals a

whisper, Are you not ashamed to be so poor ?" and, "You cannot do any good, because you are so poor," and, "The Gospel does not forbid the use of riches, but only their abuse:" take it for granted that they three are so many lies, and say, "Get thee behind me, Satan.”

If the providence of God calls any to the stewardship of much wealth, he should not refuse the trust; but meet its trials, encounter its temptations, bear its responsibilities. And yet if we might suppose any case in which a child of God were found deprecating a situation of trial, and saying, Lord, I am not afraid of poverty, or persecution, or sickness, or death, but I am afraid of the stewardship of much wealth,-if it be possible, let that cup pass from me,-this surely would be a case in which we might suppose God would grant the petition in its terms. I have never classified the passages in the Bible which caution us against the desire of wealth and warn us of its temptations, so as to compare them with those which permit the possession and use of this world's substance; but it strikes me that the number and weight of the former are greatly in the preponderance. Christ was poor, and the first Christians were poor, and the Puritans were poor; and the excellence of the Chris tian religion has certainly shone out in its most attractive coloring, when her ministers have been poor in comparison with those around them.

Poverty indeed has its own trials-" Lest I be poor and steal "-lest in my want, I distrust that God who feeds the ravens-lest in the grinding necessities of the present hour, I lose sight of durable riches-the inheritance of faith. These temptations are incident to such a state, but not necessarily overpowering. They may even be converted into means of grace; for the antagonist motives are so obvious, and the contrasts which may be drawn so striking. "What if I am poor? shall I steal, when my Heavenly Father will so soon give me all things?" An argument from selfishness might counteract so direct a temptation, much more one from duty. Why did the Holy Spirit describe the new Jerusalem in such material splendors-each several gate of one pearlstreets as long (Rev. 21: 16) as from here to Washington, paved with gold-was not one reason, to pour contempt on the splendor of this world?-that when we might be inclined to worship St. Peter's and not St. Peter's God, we might forthwith be ashamed.

Again, idolatrous regard to the honors of this world may surely be numbered among the difficulties of ministers. We have no direct line of promotion, like what is seen elsewhere. But there is one indirect, resulting from the nature of things; so that if we would escape temptation here, then must we needs go out of this world. "All men are not

born free and equal"-the Senator from South Carolina is right to a certain extent. To one, God gives ten talents, to another five, to another one, to each according to his several abilities: and if we rebel against this ordinance of God, we peril our character for good sense, and act as foolishly as they do in France, or as they do in certain conventions which refuse a presiding officer. We might as well quarrel with the fluids in the chemist's tube of illustration, and say, "What right have the ether, the alcohol, and the oil, to raise themselves enviously above the water, the vitriol and the mercury?" But they will act just so, do what we will: if we shake them up and insist on equality, they will revert, each to his own station. And we are slow to learn this great law of nature, and conform to it with becoming deference. Generation succeeds generation, exhibiting substantially the same weaknesses. "Ye Moses and

Aaron! ye take too much on you :" "Grant that these my two sÓDS may sit, the one on thy right hand, and the other on the left, in thy kingdom." Diotrephes, loveth the pre-eminence. And we are not yet in the millennial age, in which we believe grace will give extraordinary power to crush in the bud, the envyings and aspirings and disquie tudes of a partially sanctified state.

What is it then, Brethren, but to gird on the gospel armor with zeal, to resist here the temptations which Satan is permitted to use? The motives are obvious. This is a path of difficulty, we cannot escape it by any lawful means, and he that walketh in his own strength will assuredly stumble. Let him acknowledge the difficulty and seek the requisite aids. "And He took a little child and set him in the midst, and said, except ye become as little children ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven." "But be not ye called Rabbi, for one is your Master, even Christ, and all ye are brethern." The same, said on a different occasion, and with a sublimity awful, "My kingdom is not of this world.”

Brethren, imbued with the spirit of these precepts, and with the image of their Author clearly in view, who would seek a metropoli-station for its honor? or an academical chair, or a chief seat in any synagogue? "Lord, have I grace to bear the fire of its trials, faithfulness to keep the trust, ability to do its work?-let me not go unless there is truly need of me." Imbued with this spirit, who would covet an honorary degree?— horse-load of folly and sin, best of all illustrated by the old pictures of Bunyan's Pilgrim, before he reached the cross. Imbued with this spirit, how the vanity of authorship would flee away! It could not stand before the cross, any more than the bird of night can face the sun. And if the effect should be vastly to diminish the number of books, the world might lose nothing.

II. Controversies on fundamental doctrines are among the difficulties of ministers.

Controversy may be an evil, or not; I agitate not that question. Controversy is not peculiar to this age; it has marked every age since the apostolic. But in relation to this brotherhood, compared with those who preceded the founding of this Seminary, it would seem that our difficulties were somewhat peculiar and increasing. For the latter half of the last century and a part of the present, the churches had, for the most part, peace. Some of us grew up to man's estate without knowing that there was debateable ground on many fundamental points,--at least within the bounds of our own denomination. But those times have gone by. We live in the midst of stirring controversy, on the Trinity, the Atonement, the work of the Holy Spirit, the nature of Sin, the foundation of virtue, the native character of man, eternal retributions. And some of the fathers and elder brethren say, there is a growing departure from the simplicity of the former faith, manifesting itself in preaching of less discrimination, in ecclesiastical measures of more than questionable propriety, and in general laxity in the tone of christian morals, and they fear even this brotherhood is contributing to these evils.

Brethren, let me deny, as the organ of your unanimous acclamation, that this is so on our part. Let me say, the imputation, nay the suspicion is injurious.

There is one God in three persons (hypostases), the same in substance, equal in power and glory.

The Logos became flesh, and dwelt among us, taking to himself a true body and a reasonable soul.

Man in his beginning is entirely destitute of holiness-love to God. He must be born again-of the Spirit.

The atonement is-vicarious.

The retributions of the last day are eternal.

Now, whatever discussions may exist in the airy regions of these pillars of Christian faith, however an adventurous Phaton here and there may drive his chariot zig-zag and wavy, now towards the North Pole, and now the South; now too near heaven for mortal eyes to bear, and now too near the earth; I will not believe that we are ready to forsake the beaten path that has conducted so many endeared names to the bright abodes, the happy seats. But it is to my purpose to say, that in these discussions we walk in difficult paths-in an atmosphere sometimes smoky and misty. And it is not surprising that some should see those radiants in whose light we have been instituted, as lighthouses in the dark distance. Nevertheless, let us be exhorted to constancy here. If it is a difficult path, hear the great leader when he speaks:-"He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment, and I will not blot out his name from the book of life." And if any sees no difficulty or danger, let him, in the spirit of the little child set in the midst, inquire humbly before God, whether his confidence be vain or worthy. If worthy, the inquiry will not be vain, but add firmness. Brethren, when I contemplate myself as a rational soul, immortal, responsible, and of quick transit to its destination, I confess that I cherish, and feel myself instinctively moved to the ultra-fidianism of Sir Thomas Browne, rather than its contrary. I would risk the errors incidental to the reception of a mystery in a believing spirit, rather than the certain consequences of an inflated Sadduceeism. "My father, thou wilt forgive the errors of the believing spirit, and guide;" and, "What I know not now, I shall know hereafter."

We are reminded occasionally of the words of the venerable John Robinson, at Delft Haven. "More light is yet to break forth from God's holy word." How comprehensive, or with what limitations he spoke, it may be difficult now to determine. First, and chiefly, no doubt, he was thinking of church polity and the rights of Christians. But it is very doubtful if he meant to spread that oracle over the whole field of saving truth. It may be true, if he did not so intend. I hope it is so. I believe it is so, when I think of the millennium. But let us not abuse the oracle-let us beware, lest we put darkness for light, and mistake a comet for the sun-the beautiful evanescences of the kaleidescope, for heaven's clear blue, with God's emblem in it. How good is the world? how pure is the church? how consecrate is the ministry? these are questions that have some relevancy. Is there so much righteousness as to warrant the expectation, that great light will break forth in our generation, or the next?-more piety, more light? But the reverse, not so, of course.

We read that the Greeks of the Orphic age, attributed an exalted character to Epos, Love-progeny of Calus and Terra-ever-present author of all good things to men. But the generations after, very considerably modified this hypostasis; and behold! a little winged boy with bow and arrows. And yet the Greeks of Anacreon's age boasted of superior light, and were emphatically seeking after wisdom. But as we look back on both, it is obvious that the former were more entitled to boast of light. Nay, we see in the former, some last vanishing rays of the light of revelation, but over the latter, the pall of utter darkness.