which are despised, hath God chosen, and things which are not, to bring to naught things that are; that no flesh should glory in his presence. And I, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God; for I determined not to know any thing among you save Jesus Christ, and him crucified. And I was with you in weakness, and fear, and much trembling, and my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the spirit and of power, that your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.-I have planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase. So then neither is he that planteth any thing, neither he that watereth, but God that giveth the increase. We are labourers together with God. Ye are God's husbandry; ye are God's building." Again: "I am made all things to all men, that I might by all means save some. And this I do for the Gospel's sake, that I may be partaker thereof with you.--I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection; lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway."

The example of the apostles and first teachers of Christianity most clearly indicates as proper to a minister, besides a just knowledge of the Gospel, a spirit of supreme selfdevotement to its service, and of self-denial with respect to all other objects; an aptness to teach, comprising a practical knowledge of human nature, a knowledge of the susceptibilities, affections, passions, habits of thought, sentiments and prejudices of men, a capacity to gain their confidence, win their attention, conciliate their regard, and convey to their minds the simple, persuasive, and affecting truths of Christianity. And in the exercise of their office it is clearly indicated, that they should in their temper and conduct exemplify its spirituality, purity, humility, inoffensiveness, impartiality and universal benevolence; that they should, at whatever personal sacrifice and self-denial, adapt themselves to the state of mind and the circumstances of the people, avoiding in their temper, manners and habits, every thing, even things in themselves indifferent, which might offend, alienate or prejudice the weakest mind, obscure their exhibitions of the Gospel or hinder its success, and that their engrossing and chief business from day to day should be that of teaching, warning and exhortation, in conformity

with the command of Christ, "go teach-disciple, all nations -every creature."

Perhaps some reader may be inclined to suppose, that because there were no books or means of instruction in general use in our Saviour's time, and no sufficient places for large assemblies to meet on the Sabbath day, to hear sermons, his method and that of the apostles, of outdoor, personal and family instruction, was very proper and very necessary; but not so in the present age of schools, books, and church edifices. Shallow as this view of the case is, it has probably satisfied many a one to waste his life in worse than monkish indolence, dreaming over the trash and gossip of the day, and being in earnest only on such themes as eating, drinking, sleeping, and being clothed, while nine out of ten of the human race, whatever their schools and books might teach, knew nothing, nay, never so much as heard of the Gospel, and not a small proportion of the most favoured communities, in the midst of the greatest abundance of Bibles and other books, had no idea of the method of salvation, nor any sense of its importance to themselves.

The method of our Saviour and his apostles is founded in the nature of man, in his susceptibilities, affections, and conscience; and while the race continue to bring the same nature and qualities into the world with them, as heretofore, it will be just as applicable and as necessary, as at any former period.

The absurdity of supposing that the knowledge and influence of the Gospel can be imparted to all the individuals of any community, without the diligent use of that method, may be illustrated by supposing that a schoolmaster, being engaged to instruct an hundred children of five years old and upwards, in the alphabet, spelling, reading, and the various branches of a common education, should attempt to accomplish his object, by delivering a course of weekly lectures, addressed indiscriminately to the whole school, instead of dividing them into proper classes, and devoting himself to the constant, laborious, daily task of teaching each individual and each class separately.

Surely, words need not be multiplied upon this subject. If ministers will occasionally drop their books and papers, and look out from their comfortable and pleasant libraries upon the condition of the people around them, they will discover where the difficulty lies. Let them consider how

small a number out of one or two thousand residing nearest to them, have been brought under the influence of the Gospel; how small a proportion are regularly present at public worship; how few even of the adults, to say nothing of the children, usually understand or give any earnest attention to the sermons which are addressed to them; to what proportion of the hearers the sermons have no appropriateness; how little influence of the public services extends beyond the hour or the place in which they are performed. Let them minutely survey the state of those who seldom or never hear preaching, the vagrant, uncatechised children, the reckless youth, and the various groups of poor, infirm, ignorant, misled, vicious, sick, without hope and without God in the world; and then consider what is the nature of their labours? what are their discouragements? what is it that undermines their health and wears them out ?-and let them seriously bring it home to themselves to perceive and feel how very limited and meagre is the effect of their personal agency and influence in a course of years, even supposing them to be cheered once and again by a day of Pentecost; and finally, let them lay it to heart how little three quarters of the people around them are much the better for their agency, talents,

and sacred office.

Let them also contemplate the prospects of Christianity; its prospects of perpetual and universal controversy on the present plan of promoting and maintaining it; its prospects here and in other Protestant countries, in relation to Popery, and all the forms of errour, fanaticism and delusion, without and within; and its prospects in relation to the myriads of the heathen world, who have not in eighteen hundred years so much as heard of its existence.

And let them glance at the prospects of society in respect to social order and domestic quiet, virtue, security and happiness. All experience admonishes us that mankind in the enjoyment of liberty, in proportion as they are unblest and uncontrouled by the influence of moral causes, become impatient of all social and legal restraint, insensible to the value of their blessings and advantages, ungrateful, supremely selfish, and hardened in depravity. This downward course of licentiousness is accelerated by the growing and resistless force of numbers; it quickly bursts the feeble barriers which oppose it, sets law at defiance, renders life, as well as property, insecure, and inevitably ends in despotism: VOL. II.

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despotism with its iron rod, its intolerance, and all its known and dreadful evils, is welcomed by the wisest and best, at the hands of military heroes or aspiring demagogues, as a refuge from anarchy. There is no security for any community against this course of things, there are no adequate means of security, man's wisdom has devised none, experience furnishes none, God has provided none,-except the Gospel. Christianity, and that alone, furnishes the means, and is adequate to the end. No other religion, no system of philosophy or politics, no combination of reason, interest, imposture and superstition, ever has, or ever can reach the seat of the disease, much less cure it. The roots and germs of the disorder are in the heart, and all other remedies besides that which Christianity offers, do but increase the evil. But this remedy neither is, nor was designed, nor can in the nature of things be effectual, any more than a prescription of medicine to a community infected with the plague, except it be applied to individual cases.

But can ministers of the Gospel obviate the difficulty? Can they supply the needful instruction, and interpose the requisite instrumentality. As surely as Christianity is of God, and comprises the means of enlightening and saving the world. There is piety, knowledge, and talent enough in the ministry, and in the church, if employed as in the first age, to impart the essential truths of the Gospel to every family on earth within a short period. Nor is it necessary that ministers should, as men and Christians, be equal to apostles, to effect this; nor to such reformed doctors as Baxter, though a few such might sooner change the face of the world. But it is necessary, that, humbly depending on God alone for success, they should, as his servants, devote themselves to the labour of teaching the essential truths of the Gospel privately, and in the family, as well as from the pulpit, at the same time availing themselves of all possible aid from the prayers and co-operation of the church.

Were ministers, having acquired a suitable education, to devote themselves, the chief part of every day, to the instruction of individuals and families, and to the cultivation and exercise of those gifts and graces, and those habits of benevolence, self-denial, and labour, which the object requires, they surely might, by their own direct efforts, and the subordinate assistance of the laity, bring the light and influence of the Gospel to bear on the minds of several

thousand times as many people as they can on the plan generally pursued.

In this case, the whole life of a Christian pastor would not be required for the instruction, by weekly discourses, of a few persons, who could come at once within the sound of his voice. By his familiar intercourse with the people, and his knowledge of their religious wants, by his personal influence and example, by removing their prejudices, resolving their doubts, and gaining their confidence, by enlisting their sympathies, and awakening their hopes, by constantly plying the means of direct instruction and persuasion both privately and publicly, and by directing the efforts of all those who were capable of teaching in Sunday Schools, and assisting the common object in various ways, he might indefinitely widen the sphere of his influence. Nor would any disorders or difficulties result from such broad-cast efforts; for so certainly as he accomplished his object, and to whatever extent he gained the attention and confidence of the people, the softening, matchless influence of the Gospel itself would fall upon their minds. This instrumentality, brought into contact with men's minds, is provided, designed, and adapted, by the Divine wisdom, to supersede other influences, and to restrain, reform and sanctify. And why should it be doubted but that the same effect which is now so conspicuous in the case of the few upon whom this influence is constantly exerted, would be co-extensive with any enlarged application of the same means.

By thus bringing the truths and sanctions of the Gospel, and its testimonials of grace and love, directly to the minds of the people, fixing them in their associations and feelings, and enforcing them by example, they would exert a mighty and growing influence. Religion would be regarded as the one, chief, all-important concern, both for the life that now is, and that which is to come. Levity and vice would be checked. The people would feel that they have souls, and that their eternal destiny was at issue. Their attention would be fixed on those plain and unquestionable truths of Christianity, which concern each and every one personally, and not on the jargon of scholastic theology, the warfare of party zeal and passion, or the solemn trifling of the scribes and pharisees of any sect. A book of heresy or infidelity, under such circumstances, would be as harmless as a false system of arithmetic. Such association of religion with the