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1^ 
 
 National Library Biblioth^ue nationale 
 of Canada du Canada 
 
■> 
 
 '*^,^7-^ 
 
 MUTUAL OBLIGATION; m 
 
 OR» 
 
 THE DUTIES OF THE PULPIT AND THE PEW ^ 
 
 TO EACH OTHER, 
 
 AND OF BOTH TO GOD. 
 
 TWO ADDRESSES 
 
 DILIVSIUBD IM THE 
 
 RICHMOND STREET CHURCH, TORONTO. 
 
 BY 
 
 W. MORLEY PUNSHON, M.A., 
 
 President of the Cotyftnnce. 
 
 ♦♦ 
 
 -> 
 
 V. 
 
 TORONTO: 
 
 KINO »'TRZai EAST. 
 

 «^ 
 
 
RESOLUTION OP CONFERENCE. 
 
 Bbsolves, — "That our President, the Rev. W. Morlbt 
 PuNSHON, M.A., be respectfully requested to prepare for 
 the press, for general circulation, in Tract form, his Charge 
 to the Society 'last Friday evening, and his Charge to 
 the Ministry on Sabbath morning, thus embracing the 
 mutual duties of the Ministry and Society, the evangelical 
 principles of Ministerial and Lay co-operation in the great 
 work of spreading the truth and holiness of the Scripture* 
 over the land." ■'; 
 
 •^ 
 
In compliance with tlie wuhes of those to whose judg' 
 tnent I defer, and in the humble hope of the great 
 Master's following blessing, t oominit these addi*esse8 to 
 print. I am conscious, not only how far they are below 
 the gravity of the occasion which demanded them, but 
 how far they have failed to reach my own* ideal of what 
 they were to be. I feel that I have but scattered crumbs, 
 where I would fain have spread a table ; but if the Lord 
 wills, the basketful can grow into a banquet, on which 
 thousands may be fed. 
 
 • - W. MOBLEY PUNSHOV. 
 
 •-..:■ ■■...J- ; 
 
 • ^^ ^ 
 
 I 
 
-i<: ♦ 
 
 CHARGE 
 
 ADDRt»8ED TO 
 
 FIFTEEN YOUNG MINISTERS 
 
 ON THieiR 
 
 ORDINATION TO THE CIIRIRTIAN MINISTRY IN CONNEXION WITH 
 TUB WE8LEYAN METHODIBT CUUUCU IN CANADA, 
 
 ,y. . , On SUNDAY, June m, laM. 
 
 " '■■ ' LuKK xii. 42, 43. '■' •" '''"■ '"'■ ' '"^''- '' 
 " Who then is that faithful and toise ateward, whom his lord shall 
 make ruler over his household, to give them their portion of 
 meat in due season f BleMed is that servant, whom his lord 
 when he comtth shall fnd so doing." 
 
 " What I say unto one, J say unto all, Watch." This 
 is the burden of this chapter's message, impressed in many 
 varieties of homely and solemn illustration : by the cer- 
 tainty of the last revelation, by the ever-watchful pro- 
 vidence of God, by the rich man doomed amidst his 
 dreams of wealth, by the servants waiting for their master 
 from the wedding, by the good man's vigilance when the 
 thief is stealthy and nigh. In their original uttei-ance 
 there seemed a doubt whether these were general warnings, 
 addressed to the whole church, or whether they were 
 applied especially to the witnfsses whom Christ had chosen; 
 and Peter — spokesman, perhaps, of the unuttered thought 
 

 6 
 
 CIIAHnP!. 
 
 of otliopfl — askfid tlio question, " lionl 8|>oakost thou iliin 
 para))lo unto us, or oven to alH" Our li<»nl auHwcfH 
 in the words of the text, — wortla whicli, while they aHsunie 
 the church's obligation to watchfulucas to bo not less 
 binding, fasten upon the ministers of Clirist a reHi>on8ibility 
 commended by loftier mvnctions, and involving graver 
 issues ; so that if it behoves a boliovor to be watchful, and 
 faithful, and wise, upon the minister there is a double 
 necessity j and that he, if he overcome and bo approved, 
 is the heir of a sublimer rocomponsc, and if lie fail and 
 be condemned — of a more appalling doom. 
 
 Amongst the many passages which bear upon minist/eiial 
 character and service, I have selected thi^ on which to 
 ask your attention at this very interesting and very solemn 
 crisis in your lives. To you it is impossible to exaggerate 
 the importance of the present hour. The hopes and anx- 
 ieties of yeant are crowded into it. If you have thought 
 of it rightly, it has been a burden upon your souls, an 
 occasion for searching of heart, a time whose approach has 
 stirred the depths of your being to watchfulness, weeping, 
 and prayer. This hour, for you, is the central hour of 
 your life. All the past has converged to it ; all the future 
 starts from it. It compresses the obligations of time ; 
 it is charged with the destinies of eternity. In the pre- 
 sence of the God whom you have sworn to serve, — in the 
 presence of Christian people, whose wealth is in your 
 character and usefulness, and to some of whom you may 
 
Tiiv 
 
 
 cnxRoc. f 
 
 hnve to miniHtor the word of life, — in tho pr«»«*m<y) of 
 watoliinf;; ai)g<OH, and of i^lorirutd KpirttH, dear to Home of 
 yon, who look down with loving eyo« from the reward, — 
 in the prencnce, it may be, of ftcoflen who deride your 
 calling, and of advorsarira, both earthly and spiritual, who 
 watch for the halting of your feet, — you are liere to take up(Hi 
 you the vows of the Chiistian Ministry, at onoo the noblest 
 profession and the most solemn rea^ Msilnlity upon earth. 
 It is a duty of my position to counsel and to cheor you, — 
 to remind you of the character w^ • h it Luhovc ^ ou to attain, 
 Hid to stimulate you with iho horx of the reoompenso 
 which awaits your toil. I con^e to this task under the 
 constraint of office, having over you thu melancholy advan- 
 tage of years, but sad with a sfiong sense of short-couimg 
 ill my own soul. With lofty conceptions of the ii^eal of 
 ministerial character, and a sincere love of it, and an 
 earnest purpose for its attainment, I speak to you, ^'not 
 as those who have already attained." I have to urge you 
 to become what I am not, but am only striving to be ; I 
 can but indicate the glory of which I have caught only 
 the faint and distant radiance ; I can but point you to 
 the pure bright summit, from the far slopes up which 
 I am painfully climbing. If my counsels are shorn of 
 their authority by this confession, give me credit for that 
 sympathy with yourselves which may be an element of 
 power instead. Listen, not to the teacher of unapproach- 
 able sanctity, but to the brother in experience, in infirmity, 
 in struggle, in desire. The standard is the same, although 
 
vre fail to reach it. PreBsed beneath the same s:mctiorr«> 
 animated by the same hopes, reliant on the same Almighty 
 arm^ " come, and let us reason together " of the minister's 
 character and his reward, „ > . > 
 
 There are various simiHtndes under which, each in its 
 own aspect of fitness, the office of the ministry is pro- 
 sented ; but the ideas of trust and of r3sponsibility are 
 leading and present in them all. The Minister is the 
 Dresser of the vineyard, tending early and late upon the 
 vines; the Fisher of Men, toiling through the dark and 
 in the roin ; the Master-builder, charged to see to it that 
 the house is safe and strong ; the Shepherd, bound to feed 
 aad fold the fiock, or to search through the gorge or on the 
 mountains for the one that has wandert>d astray ; the 
 Watchman, earnest and unweary in the hours when other 
 men slumber ; the Ambassador, to whom are confided the 
 honour and the message of the King. In none of these, 
 however, is there a more impressive illustration — a greater 
 blending of trust and t^Klemess — ^than when, in the Lord's 
 awn words, the Minister is the Steward of the household 
 from which the Lord is absent for a season. You will 
 readily appreciate the fitness of the allusion. The Church 
 is a wide and loving fiimily — a brotherhood united by 
 sacred bonds, by community of interest, and by the love of 
 one common Father. Of this family the Steward has 
 charge. He must provide for its wants and vindicate its 
 honour j he must maintain its rights^ preserve its purity 
 
CHARGE. 
 
 9 
 
 
 inviolate, and cheribh among ite members the harmony 
 witliout vliich the family compact would be snapped 
 asunder ; he must watch over the health and welfare of the 
 weakest, encourage the timid, and repress the rash ; he 
 must guard equally against excess and against indifference, 
 — against the parsimony which would grudge, and the 
 wastefulness which would spend, all ; he has authority, 
 therefore, but it is to be wielded only in the interest of the 
 family and of the Father, and he must act as under the 
 glances of a living eye, which marks his every movement, 
 and under the pressure of the thought that his Lord may 
 at any moment return and ask for the account of his 
 doings. Now lift all these duties into the region of the 
 spiritual ; think of the family as being a family of souls 
 
 on their journey to heaven, and seeking their inheritance 
 there ; think that the responsibilities of the stewardship 
 stretch out into eternity ; think that misapprehension of 
 the Steward's obligations, or failure to discharge them 
 aright, may involve loss that is iireparable, and bow down 
 the unfaithful one beneath the terrible guilt of blood ; and 
 then, while in the deepening sense of the awfulness of the 
 office upon which you enter to-day, your humbled souls may 
 well cry, as under a burden, " Who is sufficient for these 
 things ?" you will be penetrated with a desire, passionate in 
 its intensity of strength, that when the Master comes you 
 may be able to stand in His presence, " saved" yourselves 
 and " saving them that hear you." 
 
 1* . - ^■:.,- 
 
mmmm 
 
 10 
 
 CHARGE. 
 
 You observe that the two great qualifications which the 
 text iiDplies as necessary to a successful stewardship, arc 
 those of fidelity and wisdom : " Who then is that faithful 
 and wise steward." The first of these has reference to the 
 disposition of the heart, and the second to the due apportion- 
 ment of endowment and strength. ' The first is the active 
 principle, the second the discriminating application of 
 means. In the union of these will be found the complement 
 of the Minister's qualification, and the sinews of his power. 
 
 That you may be thoroughly furnished for your work you 
 must, indeed, have other qualities, upon which I cannot 
 largely dwell. You must have Knowledge, garnered stores of 
 the wisdom of the olden time, the best thoughts of the best 
 thinkers, hoarded for mental exchange. You must have 
 Industry — a diligence which does not flag, which seizes 
 upon every opportunity, wearied in the toil often, but of 
 the work never.. You must have Courage, the best shield 
 of faith ; the bravery which at all hazards, and in all 
 seasons, will confess the Master, stern in its denunciations 
 of popular vices, bold in its reproofs when rank and riches 
 sin. You must have Patience, the hope which waits for 
 God, though the wheels cf His chariot tarry, which is not 
 disheartened by months of discouragement and delay, which 
 cheers itself by songs in the night, all through the winter 
 singing of the spring which lies, floVer-crowned and fair, 
 beneath the snow. You must have Meekness, that you may 
 bear the indiflference of the ungodly, and the scoffing of the 
 

 CHARGE. 
 
 11 
 
 profane, enduring, sublimely as your Master, the contradio- 
 tion of sinners. You must have Nobleness of Soul, to lift you 
 above the insolent pettinesses of murmuring, and vanity, 
 and envy ; the rare heroism of the Baptist, willing to 
 decrease so that the loftier Teacher may be exalted and 
 honored. Above all you must have Charity — the yearning 
 after souls — ^the travail in birth for souls ; a divine, tender 
 magnanimity of compassion, akin to that of Mx>ses when he 
 wished himself blotted out of the book for the children of 
 Israel's sake, — akin to that of Christ when he was " strait' 
 ened" until the accomplishment of hiB baptism of blood. 
 All these, in their measure, are comprehended in the 
 fidelity which is the prominent duty of your lives ; but it is 
 to Faithfulness, in the full import of the word, that you are 
 exhorted now : " It is required in Stewards that a man bie 
 found faithful." Nothing can comi>enflate for the lack of 
 this. You may have talent, it will not profit ; you may 
 have popularity, that is easily acquired, and if that be 
 Itll, it is a poor recompense for any man's toil ; yo\i 
 may have an average personal experience, winning 
 planners, and a blameless life, the^ n^^ive qualities 
 will neither do you nor the world much good ; you 
 may pass through your duties respectably, and have a 
 good report of theta that are without, ^d yet be des>- 
 titute utterly of the true spirit of your calling, and 
 ^hrob wit^ no heroic passion for saving souls. Oh, think 
 pf tbifi 1 Burn it into your hearts ftmid the solemn saACr 
 
12 
 
 CBAROH. 
 
 tions of this hour : *' I may be talented, popular, agrceablev 
 blameless in the world's eye, respectable, scholarly; and yet 
 in the sight of God accursed, because unfaithful, and sent 
 away from the judgment with the brand of the traitor and 
 the felon." Brethren, for mysolf - and you, I deprecate thai 
 doom. I urge you : — 
 
 I. Be faithful in the keeping of your own sovh. — You 
 have already testified, in the presence of the great con- 
 gregation, that you have experienced, really and con- 
 sciously, the change of heart, and that you are living 
 in God's favor, and striving earnestly after the fulness 
 of His image. We do not, knowingly, lay hands upon 
 any who are not thus spiritually alive. The blind 
 cannot lead the blind. Corpses cannot animate the dead. 
 Let me affectionately remind yo\i that in the maintenance 
 of your own inward life consists the secret of your power. 
 Alas for you if you deal in the "cold traffic of unfelt 
 truth;" if languor or worldliness be suffered to eat out 
 the heart of your piety ; if you relapse into formality ox: 
 secret unbelief; if the flame upon the closet-altar bums 
 dimly, or is quenched ; if you minister in a service from 
 which your affections are estranged; if the inspirations 
 of the former time are but as a woi-n-out spell, or an 
 extinct volcano, with no fire in its passionate heart! 
 What of good to the world, or of blessing to the church, 
 can come from the ministry of a man paralyzed in soul? 
 — a man who flaunts upon his brow the shiivelled symr 
 
CHAROE. 
 
 IS 
 
 bols of liia former consecration, — a man whose heart is 
 like the sepulchre on the Resurrection morning — a thing 
 of clothes and spices — but without a Christ. Brethren, be 
 incessant in prayer and watching, I charge jou, lest 
 there come upon you thin diuhonour. Your ordination will 
 not save you frooi barrenness of souL Your ministerial 
 status will be no help to preserve you from that declen- 
 sion which is your greatest peril. It is no safeguard to 
 you that you wear the garb of piety, and speak the 
 language of piety, and are busied day by day in the ac- 
 tivities of piety. Nay, there is a sense in which these 
 advantages are increased sources of danger. There is 
 a familiarity which breeds indifference, if not contempt. 
 In the wards of a hospital the sensibilities are blunted 
 to suffering ; on the field of battle men overcome their 
 horror of blood. So strangely have we been warped by 
 the fall, that the highest excitements are apt to degen- 
 erate into the sensual and the unworthy, just as the faU 
 from the cliff is headlong if theie be the false step on 
 its verge. Moreover, as Ministers, you are the subjects 
 of especial assault, because a watchman slain makes the 
 surprisa of tb'^ citadel more easy ; and you are the sub- 
 jects of especial temptation, because your fall would be 
 to the adversary an occasion of peculiar triumph. You 
 will not be free from the common allurements which 
 beguile unwary souls. The love of ease, the love of 
 money, the love of applause, the prompting to be selfish. 
 
mmKmm 
 
 U 
 
 CHAROR. 
 
 r 
 
 and censorious, and petulant, and proud ; — all these will 
 beset you as tliey beset ordinai'y men ; nay, it may be 
 with fiercer onset, for the dwellers on the mountain 
 shiver in the terror of the blast, when the peasants of 
 the vale are unconscious that the hurricane is roused. 
 Besides these you will have temptations of your own, 
 springing out of your office, in which those around you 
 cannot share. If God gives you success, you will be 
 tempted to elation, — if you labour without visible result, 
 you will be tempted to despond ; if your work is easy, 
 you may yield to spiritual indolence ; if it is ifficult, 
 you may suffer it to master you, in spiritual apathy, or 
 vaunt that you can overcome it, in spiritual pride. You 
 must prosecute it amid counteracting influence'. Your 
 plans may be thwarted by the "opposition of your associ- 
 ates, or by the indifference of your professed friends. 
 Weak men will obtrude their partialities, and timid men will 
 be unreasonably repressive, and narrow men will cherish 
 their prejudices, and ambitious men will make sacrifices to 
 their vanity, and sensitive men must be continually ap- 
 peased, and crotchety men must be continually humoured. 
 It will be difficult for you to preserve your scul in patience 
 and in the meekness of wisdom. Tempted by the outside 
 enemy and by the inner traitor, tried equally by danger 
 and by duty, with peril lurking both in the heart and 
 in the office, bewildered by the magnitude of the interests 
 committed to your frail guardianship, — nothing will s?vq 
 
CHARGE. 
 
 15 
 
 yon but a continual dwelling under the very shadow of 
 the meroy-Heat : a close, constart, strengthening walk with 
 God. Brethren ! be faithful in this matter. Livo so near 
 to God that the adversary cannot approach to harm you. 
 Let your ideal be the divine Saviour, who could say, look- 
 ing calmly upon a world of foes, "The Prince of this 
 world cometh, and hath nothing in mo." Satan will not 
 enter the house if there be no beckoning eye from the window. 
 Keep your spirit free from all allies of the Evil One, that 
 so, humbly trusting in your Heavenly helper, and baring 
 your heart for Divine scrutiny, you may rejoice to say, 
 " Thou haat proved mine heart, thou hast visited mo in the 
 night, thou hast tried me, and shalt find nothing ; I am 
 purposed that my mouth shall not transgress. Concerning 
 the works of men, by the word of thy lips I have kept me 
 from the paths of the destroyer." 
 
 II. Be Faithful to the Truth. — You have already testi- 
 fied, before many witnesses, your belief, whole-souled and 
 earnest, of those truths which have been handed down to us 
 from our fathers, and which are hallowed by centuries of 
 toil and triumph. We have a right to exjject of you that 
 in this testimony you have made no rash avowal. You 
 have had opportunities, during your years of probation, of 
 becoming acquainted with our system of doctrine, both in 
 the harmony of its strength, and in the power with which 
 its enforcement is attended. You have seen the illustration 
 of the doctrine in the life. It has been the glorying of our 
 
^^W«!1 
 
 16 
 
 CUAROC. 
 
 church that, by the grace of Gocl, no doctrinal controvcrsirs 
 have disturbed it through the century of its evangelistio 
 labour. We ask of you in confidence that you will not 
 "make" this "glorying void." In the name of your 
 fathers who confide to you their trust unimpaired, in the 
 name of the churches to which you 'will minister, and 
 whom your heresy might disturb and injure, in the name of 
 the Methodist people to whose taste this word has been 
 sweet, and who cry in hunger of heart — " Evermore give us 
 this bread;" because of the scoffing world, who will ac- 
 knowledge the moral power of a whole anny " valiant for 
 the truth," I ask you to hold fast, and to hold forth, the 
 ancien t Word of Life. 
 
 There is a necessity for fidelity to the truth especially in 
 times like ours, when every doctrine passes through the 
 crucible, when that which has commanded the veneration 
 of ages is roughly handled by the sciolists of modern 
 thought, and when even those truths on which our dearest 
 hopes repose, are in some quarters fiercely assailed, and in 
 others lightly regarded. Perhaps there never was a time when 
 the enemies of the truth fought with more various weapons, 
 or were animated by a more cruel antagonism. The 
 ancient adversaries return to the charge as freshly as if 
 they had never been beaten ; and there are others, more 
 subtle and dangerous, who fight in the army of the aliens, but 
 in the armour which they have stolen from the faithful. 
 You will have to exercise your ministry in the midst of 
 
CHAROE. 
 
 17 
 
 this luxuriance of error. There will be around you a dark 
 ngonious spirit of unbelief, poisoning the fresh blood of 
 youth, and disheartening the last hope of age ; somotinios, 
 like Herod, coarsely insolent in its impiety ; soroetimos, like 
 Judas, betraying the Saviour -with a kiss. There will bo an 
 earnest, well-disciplined, crafty superstition, restless in its 
 endeavours to regain its ascendancy, marshalling its forces 
 with wonderful skill — holding to its purpose through tlie 
 patient years with a zeal and devotion which it were well 
 for its opponents to imitate ; but hiding the Saviour in the 
 drapery in which it swathes Hini, and hampering the free 
 grace of His atonement by a frail and tangled net-work of 
 its own. There will be a pretentious formalism, denying 
 all connection with Komanism, but quietly doing its work 
 — high in its asceticism, and haughty in its exclusiveness ; a 
 thing of wax-work and symbols, but with a soul of treason 
 to the old Protestant truth. There will be a wide-spread 
 indifference, more fatal than enmity, because it is so in- 
 tangible that you can no more fight with it than with a 
 shadow ; a spurious liberality, which the tendencies of 
 the age foster, proceeding on the assumption that all 
 religions are alike, and that there is no essential difference 
 between truth and error. There will be the avowed denial of 
 the divinity of Jesus, or of the freeness and fulness of His 
 grace, or of the spirituality of His reign. There will be, 
 as it would seem, a restless and intolerant evangelism, 
 blinding the world and deluding the unwary in- the Church 
 
18 
 
 CITARnR. 
 
 » 
 
 by the uttor errors of Iiulf-truthR, ignoring repentance in its 
 pi-ofeawid exrtltation of faitb, virtually discrowning the 
 Holy Spirit in its desire to vindicate the human spirit's 
 freedom, substituting a)i Antinomian apathy for the liberty 
 of the gospel of Christ— running a tilt against the sects, 
 while itself is the straitest and most unchaiitable of sects, 
 consistently speaking evil of " system " from its own Babel 
 of disorder, and yet encouraging, on system, attacks upon 
 all Chiistian organizations in a spirit more akin to that of 
 '* robbers of churches," than of apostles to a leprous and 
 unhappy world. There will be other forms of various and 
 eccentric en'or, which it does not need to dignify by a 
 mention ; and you may take it as an axiom that no iorm 
 of heresy can be too sacrilegious or too silly for the credulity 
 of men. How needful amidst this abounding darkness that 
 the light-bearers should " let their light shine before men." 
 Dear brethren, your duty, always imperative, is to-day 
 invested with more solemn obligation, to hold fast, and 
 contend earnestly for, 'the faith which was once delivered 
 to the saints." The ark is not in danger, but it must have 
 well-furnished Levites in its service. While error has its 
 emissaries everywhere, some from barbarous Phrygia, some 
 from scholarly and sceptical Athens, be it yours to abide in 
 the good old paths in which your fathers travelled to 
 Heaven. " Inwardly digest" the truth until it is assi- 
 milated to your nature, and enfibred with your every 
 interest anfl affection. Take your stand, firm, calm, hetoic, 
 
CIIAROE. 
 
 19 
 
 by the ancient altar, and from tliat altar let noither 
 ribaldry nor rationalinni ox|Kd yoii. '* Be no longer children," 
 except in simplicity; "but in underBtanding l)e ye men." 
 Let your faith rest with a child's reliance, and yet with 
 a tenacity strong as the death grasp of a martyr, upon the 
 " truth as it is in Jesus." You must be children of the truth, 
 if you are to be its witnesses. Feeling it in the heart, your 
 faith a living faith, blest with its consolation and hopes, 
 you will withstand the enemies in the gate ; and though 
 witlings deride, and scoflfers sneer, and cowards basely flee, 
 your resolve will ring out like a clarion in the ears of a 
 world, which your fidelity shall constrain to heed you. 
 " I determine to know nothing among men, save Jesus 
 Christ and Him crucified." 
 
 III. Be faithful to the Church of your choice, and to 
 your Brethren in the Ministry. — In the present state of 
 the world and of the minds of men, there must be distinct 
 organizations of believers as well as, and within, the 
 uriversal church. The central thought, the great necessity 
 of churchmanshlp is, of course, union with Christ. But 
 human hearts have strong chords of sympathy, by whose 
 inevitable influence like yearns for like, and the believer 
 longs for the companionship of those who are inspired by 
 the same hope, both for mutual benefit, and for the com- 
 pleter outworking of all schemes of holy toil. Hence 
 comes the visible church, existing not so much a mechanical 
 idea, as a social necessity — a supply for that creaturely 
 
20 
 
 CHAHOE. 
 
 
 want which abliorrcd the uttor lonolincfs, oven in Edon — 
 a realization of tho bouI'b strong instinct of brotherhood. 
 But Christianity is the religion of intellectual freedom — 
 it snaps the fetters alike of social and mental bondage, and 
 secures the light of private judgment unto all. Those 
 who are substantially agreed on tho vital points without 
 which Christinnity itself could not be, may still have 
 minor, though important dififerenoes of opinion. Hero 
 again, by tfle same law, like yearns for like. So comes 
 the denomination, an inner circle within the church, 
 neither unwarranted nor unscriptural, I take it, because 
 it springs out of the genius of Christianity, and is almost 
 a necessary adjunct of a free church life. The denomina- 
 tion becomes harmful only when it cherishes a spirit of 
 exclusiveness or jealousy, and is forgetful of that divinest 
 charity which is " the core of all the creeds." The talk 
 about absorption is, at best, an amiable dream. The 
 crusade against church organization is at once a folly and 
 a sin. 
 
 There is room, I think, for the exhortation to be faith- 
 ful to the church which you have chosen. I am not so 
 foolish as to claim any exclusive excellence for Meth- 
 odism. I have na quarrel with other churches. I am 
 catholic enough to wish them God speed, and my co-opera- 
 tion with their work has ever been warm and willing. 
 Each of them, that is faithful to Christ, has its mission 
 from the royal signet, and in the past, each of them has 
 done some work for the world, which no other has 
 
CUAROE. 
 
 31 
 
 t)ont) BO woll ; but amiu an all-embracing generosity, com- 
 mend me tu the man who has a home. You are to 
 minister in the ministry of the Methodist Church. Not 
 in vaunting, but in gratitude we express our conviction 
 that it is "not a whit behind the chiefest" It has a 
 heritage of sound doctrine, and traditions inspiring as 
 the chronicles of ancient kings. It has a theology, broad, 
 well-defined, scriptural, free from all unworthy limitations 
 of /be Son's love, free from all disloyal forgetfulness of the 
 Spirit'it grace. It has a godly discipline which it knows 
 how to enforce, and which hedges round the enclosures in 
 which its flocks are folded. It has a church order as 
 effective as the most orderly, and a church life as vigorous 
 as the most free. It has, moreover, a wondrous adapta- 
 tion, not for clan or family, but for all circumstances, com- 
 plexions, and climes. Unbending, in its woven roots and 
 giant trunk, like the old oak of the forest, it courts the 
 rays of every sunbeam of the heavens, and its branches 
 wave freely in every breeze that blows. Its past is the 
 augury of its future, if it be not traitorous to its heavenly 
 calling. You have a church, therefore, that is worthy to 
 be served by leal-hearted and enterprising sons. Be faith- 
 ful to it, I charge you. Do not allow it to become the 
 vassal of any but Christ, nor the enemy of any but <dn. 
 Work for it as if you were jealous for its honour, and 
 remember that its honour is its fidelity to the Head of the 
 Church in heaven. You have studied its doctrines and 
 
22 
 
 CRAROE. 
 
 have seen the workings of its polity. You have accorded 
 to it your intelligent preference, and in the face of the 
 world, you testify to-day that you believe it to be the best 
 sphere of toil m all the world for you. Keep to it " until 
 death do you part" Bind yourselves to it with th6 solem- 
 nity and tenderness of a marriage vow. Don't be tempted 
 away from it by the hope of increased respectability, or 
 ease, or gain. Free yourselves from the unworthy little- 
 ness which motives like these imply. The prodigals who 
 go off into the far country have sometimes only a brief 
 enjoyment, succeeded by a famine of soul. Wander where 
 you will, you will not find greener pastures, nor stiller 
 waters, nor a more rich and resting influence of God. 
 
 Be faithful also to yottr brethren in the ministry. They 
 are henceforth more to you than common men. They are 
 brothers in effort and affection ; fellow-labourers in the 
 Lord's work ; fellow-heirs of the wealth which the Lord 
 has promised to his children. Hold them in high esteem 
 and honour, Guard their reputation as you would guard 
 personal treasure. Screen them from the attacks of those 
 who would depreciate their usefulness ; ignoble assassins of 
 the character which rebukes their own. Against envy, and 
 malice, and slander, I hope I need not warn you. These base 
 spirits cannot dwell in the temples of the Holy Ghost. But 
 he who is cunning enough to adapt the temptation to the 
 feebleness, sometimes takes advantage of eminence in any 
 special grace to tempt to the committal of the very oppo- 
 
CHARGE. 
 
 2a 
 
 site sin. Thus the meekest man was hurried into unad- 
 vised speaking ; tiie hero-heart of Elijah was smitten with 
 a coward's fear ; the brave confession of Peter was neu- 
 tralized by a shameful denial ; the loving spirit of John 
 would call down fire from heaven. Watch, therefore, lest 
 in some unguarded moment you sin against the great law 
 of love. Be frank and generous in your admiration of the 
 excellencies of your brethrrai : leave to others to carp and 
 shrug the shoulder, and damage by the hint of speech or 
 by the hint of. silence. No meaner reputation can cling to 
 a minister than that his people should say of him, **■ Yes ! 
 he is able, and might be useful too ; but he nt^ver speaks a 
 good word of his brethren." Of all churches, the sus- 
 picious church will be the least prosperous — just as of all 
 characters the censorious is the most unlovely. Let no- 
 thing but absolute wrong-doing destroy your faith in those 
 with whom you associate ; and in that case, if discipline is 
 faithfully exercised, you will associate with them no longer. 
 Guard against a bitter, factious spirit of partisanship. 
 Resist^ £is you value the church's spirituality and peace, 
 anything that would reduce it to a political confederacy, or * 
 assimilate its practices to those of political stiHfe. " Be 
 pitiful, be courteous." These are the apostolic expressions 
 of love to the brethren. Cherish that nobility of soul 
 which thinks so much of the Master that it has no time 
 nor room for overweening thought of itself. Do not be 
 quick to imagine personal slights, nor to nurse little 
 
 ■I 
 
24 
 
 CRAROE. 
 
 troubles into colossal injuries. The true ministerial dig- 
 nity is that of a king, to whom it never occurs that any 
 should question his royalty ; or that of a high priest of the 
 temple, secured by a spotiessness and honour which have 
 never known shadow or stain. Oh ! for the times of the 
 old Gospel morality ! " In honour preferring one another ;" 
 " each esteeming the other better than himself;" modesty^ 
 taking the lowest room at a festival ; self-sacrifice, oontent 
 to be dmded and forgotten ; humility, washing the dis- 
 ciples' feet ; meekness, " enduring contradiction -" charit 
 long-suffering, and yet uniformly kind ; pride and ange^ 
 trampled under the feet, while self-mastery climbs the 
 moral height of forgiveness to a seventy-times-seven of- 
 fender. Let us have this morality exhibited in the associate 
 heralds of any Church, and their life will make their wtrd a 
 power ; the love in their hearts will flash through the eye 
 and kindle on the tongue ; and as on the banks of the 
 bright Chebar river, in the demonstration of the Spirit in 
 their ministry, mea shall see " visions of God." 
 
 IV. Be faithful in the great work of preachiTig to dying 
 men. — You are to be the Christian Minister everywhere, in 
 the pastorate, in the parlour, in the Sabbath-school,— in the 
 official meeting, in your intercourse with the churches, out in 
 the broad arena of the world; and there are important 
 duties connected with each sphere of service which you 
 must not allow yourselves to disregard. You must be 
 faithful in that which is least. You are not at liberty to 
 
CJHAROe. 
 
 2f5 
 
 .»• 
 
 choose among the commandments. There must be no frag- 
 ments broken off the table of stone. But I speak to 5^*011 
 now in regard to your greatest work, — ^that which is to t)e 
 henceforth the business of your lives. I speak to you as 
 Preachers of the Word. In spite of the cavil of th6 mo» 
 dem Fhaiisee and the clamour of Sadducean indiffor^ncei, 
 the Pulpit is yet upon its throne. Amid the strife of 
 tongues, its voice is still commanding. God's witnesses, if 
 they witness trlily, will make their testimony felt. TPhe 
 world's conscience is not dead, and as oft^n as the minister- 
 ing witness speaks in power from without, the accusing or 
 approving monitor is busy with its answer from within. 
 I know there are those who tell us that preaching is an 
 effete ordinance, well enough for the childhood of the world, 
 but outgrown by the culture of its riper years. Brethren ! 
 it is not true; and, if the preachers do not shame their 
 calling, it never shall be true. Give us the prophet's lips of 
 flame, and the spell-bound listeners shall linger on Carmel 
 still. I want to rouse you to the remembrance of your duty 
 and your privilege. To stand, like the angel in the sim, that 
 you may fling down the healing of his rays; or between 
 the living and the dead, like the priest who Svayed the 
 plague; to arouse the sleeping from their slumber, and 
 the dead in sins out of their graves ; to bear God's 
 offers, — of reconciliation to the worst rebel, of a child's 
 cleanneas to the most loathsome le()er, of holiness like that 
 of heaven to the heart set on Are of hell j to lift up the 
 
|6 0HARQ9. 
 
 ■aointed cross, that whoooever looks may live ; " in the 
 •i^t of God to comoiend yourselves by msnifestation of 
 the truth tlo tihe conscience of every man," Ob this is tm, 
 employment which might well wile a seraph tnm his 
 bloth^Qpd, and bring th9 white-robed eldeiv down on swift 
 wings to earth again, low bending befbr^ the thront^ in 
 acknowledgment of the unwonted honour 1 And this emr 
 ployment i|i yours and mine. Qod has counted us worthy^ 
 puAting us into this ministry. Make full proof of it, I 
 phmge you, and let your vows of fidelity be sworn upon the 
 altar to-day. 
 
 Tov> are to be men of one theme. — The good old term by 
 whidi our fathers in the ministry were accustomed to call 
 tiiemselves must apply to you, " Preachers of the GospeL" 
 AH your energies are to be bent towards the understand- 
 ing, that they may be spent in the exposition, of the Bible. 
 The things which you make in your study must be things 
 QoncerQing the King. You are neither to be philosophers, 
 i^oralists, rhetoricians, nor critics : though philosophy the 
 subtlest, and morals the most complete, and rhetoric the most 
 tiling, and the profoundest criticism, are contained in the 
 message you deliver. You are to be preadbers of Christ. 
 1^ Chiist be not in your word, it shall be as the blasted fig- 
 tree on the plain. If Christ be not the all and in all of your 
 lltteK^ce ; if every sermon does not savour of Him, lead to 
 Him, ^lify Him, there will be leanness in your people's 
 fiQuls, and ]jrou will lie down at last with the consciousneee 
 
CnARGE. 
 
 27 
 
 »le'B 
 
 of wasted labour. la the world tired, do you think, of the 
 old tidings ? Is thera any other name before which it will 
 bow the neck of its pride ? The apostles might have 
 thought this, when they began in the purple twili^t of the 
 Augustan age ; Yirgil, and Horace, and Oicero were but 
 recent memories ; Philosophy had her schools ; Art piled 
 up her magnificent creations ; Poetry sang in strains of 
 the most rapturous music. What ! tell among these, the 
 refined, the scholarly, the high-born, of the Nazarene and 
 the Crucified ! Yes, and nothing else ! No conciliation to 
 haughty philosophy, no compromise with pagan prejudice, 
 no admission of JeSus amidst the rabble gods of the Pan- 
 theon ! The apostles were wiser, far, than to commit so 
 fatal an error, and the most stalwart of them all declared 
 with a voice which knew no faltering, and wich an eye whose 
 glance swept, like a prophecy, through the centuries to come, 
 " We preach Christ crucified." So must you preach, if you 
 would be wise winners of souls. You are to preach the 
 Gospel of Christ, — not a mutilated Gospel, not a remote 
 Gospel, not a limited and exclusive Gospel. Each of these 
 is another gospel which is not the Lord's ; and if you 
 preach another gospel you do so at the peril of a curse 
 which would scathe the human with an agonized immco** 
 taUty, and involve a seraph in a demon's fall. " If we, or 
 an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you 
 than that which we have preached unto you, let him be 
 accursed." 
 
28 
 
 CHARGE. 
 
 You are to he men of one aim. — You are to aim at 
 saving souls. You will be a curse to the Church, not of 
 use to it, if you fail in this. If you are satisfied with a 
 good report, with extensive popularity, with material pros- 
 perity, with a replenished treasury, with deep and sustained 
 attention, your estimate of your office is unworthy, and the 
 sooner you amend it the better. An orderly service and a 
 wide-spread fame, but Sabbaths without souls, and years 
 without increase, — How can you bear it ? Look beyond 
 the living phantoms whom you call men, and listen to the 
 naked spirit, lost, it may be, through your neglect, as it 
 wails before the Judge on its sad way to doom. " He 
 prophesied smooth things to us, and daubed over our con- 
 science with untempered mortar ; he won us, but he did 
 not warn us j we were charmed, but not convinced under 
 his word ; he preached himself, not his Master ; to be sure 
 he told us of a hell, but he spoke so calmly and pleasantly 
 that we thought there could be no danger ; he never burnt 
 into our hearts the sense of guilt and peril. We are lost, 
 and, alas ! our minister cared not for our souls." Brethren, 
 if that accusing voice should fall upon your ears, would 
 you need any other judgment 1 Would you not sink down 
 abashed and remorseful, as if already blasted by the aveng- 
 ing thunder ? My dear brethren, tempt not this complaint 
 against yourselves. Preach so that if some indifferent 
 heaver straggle into the church, he shall be forced, in spite 
 of himself, to say, "This man is in earnest to save my 
 
CHARGE. 
 
 29 
 
 Boul." As to tho style of your preaching, I have but little 
 to say. Ube the gifts which God has given you, and do 
 not assume the possession, nor strain after the acquirempnt 
 of those which he has wisely withheld. It would be a sin 
 against God's beautiful variety, to prescribe one ideal for 
 all of you. The brooklet, as it purls and murmurs on its 
 mossy bed, does its work as well as Niagai-a with its voice 
 of many waters, or the eternal thunder-peal of the tri- 
 iimphant sea. God has ordained equally the zephyr and 
 the hurricane, and in His own modes of working He 
 shakes into conviction the stronghold of the Fhilippian 
 jailor's soul, and He opens the heart of Lydia to the truth, 
 as the rose-heart opens to the sun. Put your soul into your 
 style, whatever it is, and you will reach other souls by the 
 blessing of God. Of course you will not descend to become 
 pulpit buffoons, nor savage polemics, nor ecclesiastical 
 posture-masters, nor small dealers in literary millinery ; 
 but, according to your cast of mind, you may argue, or ex- 
 pound, or declaim, or depict, — and the power may rush 
 through the argument, or lurk in the calm statement of 
 truth, or leap from the eloquent words into the sinner's 
 conscience, or through the picture melt the penitent to 
 tears. Only aim at soul-saving, and God can bless all 
 styles that are simple and natural ; but if this aim be want- 
 ing, you may be masterly in reasoning as Paul, and tender 
 in persuasiveness as Barnabas, and stem in rebuke as 
 Ezekicl, and gorgeous in imagery as Isaiah, and your min- 
 
30 
 
 CHARGE. 
 
 istry will be soulless and feeble, the sinner's damage, the 
 Borrowing Cliurch's pity, and the worldling's utter scorn. 
 Set this before you, then, as the life-purpose which you are 
 striving to fulfil : " By all means I will save some. I 
 may not be remembered for my brilliancy, for my scholar- 
 ship, for the possession of commanding gifts or regal mind, 
 but, God helping me, I will lead sinners to Christ ; I will 
 join with the penitent when his sighs burst out in song ; I 
 will comfort the troubled soul with the consolations of the 
 gospel ; I will build up the believer, till his faith is strong 
 as the promises of God ; I will warn the wicked of the error 
 of his way ; I will deliver myself from the guilt of blood." 
 If this be your resolve, it is easy to prophesy your future. 
 In one sense it is mercifully hidden from us. We cannot 
 tell who of you will be spared for years of service, and who 
 of you will have his sacrifice accepted in the morning, and 
 be early welcomed and crowned ; but your ministry, be it 
 long or short, will be blight and prosperous. You will feel 
 your own helplessness, and will give yourselves continually 
 to prayer. In self-despair you will be driven to a power 
 that is mightier than your own. You will honour the 
 Holy Ghost by seeking His divine baptisms, and he will 
 clothe your word with the unction that is better, as St. Ber- 
 nard says, " than erudition, or the stores acquired by read- 
 ing ;" constantly realizing the invisible you will preach as in 
 the sight of God. You will have fruit of your labour, so 
 that) like Bunyan, '' you shal^count that you have goodly 
 buildings and loixlships in the places where your children 
 
CRAROK. 
 
 SI 
 
 are born, and you will be no wrapped up in the glory of 
 this excellent work that you M'ill fefel more blessed 
 and honoured of God by this than if he had made you 
 the Emperor of the Christian world, or the lord of the 
 glory of the earth without it." Your usefulness will in- 
 crease with your years, as your experience ripens, and your 
 heart gets nearer heaven. Yon shall lie down calmly on 
 the death-couch, " blessed of the Master when he finds you 
 so doing," and the highest eulogy of language shall be pro^ 
 nounced over your ashes by those who tell of you to the 
 "generation following." " He was/aU^/itl unto d^th." 
 
 « Faithful unto death !" Realize it in its fulness of 
 meaning. See, there is a faiivhaired lad just come firom 
 his mother's smile, and from the companioni^ip of many 
 friends, into the war. The inspirations of patriotism are 
 upon him, and he is set to bear the flag of his regiment. 
 He beara it with holy pride. It is sacred to him as the 
 gage of love. His highest chivalry, his soul of honour, 
 all his care for the present, all his hope on earth, are bound 
 up with the safety of the flag. The battle rages ; ftwt and 
 thick there flies the muf^erous hail. Many ard borne 
 down by his side ; closer comes the shook of the charging 
 foe ; hand to hand, and hilt to hilt, they wage the deadly 
 strife, but the banner waves aloft, carried in a hand whiob 
 knows not to relax its hold. Ha ! he reels, he Mis ; thad 
 thrust of Uie bayonet lets out his young lif6 upon the 
 sward ; but ere his fingers stiffen he has tossed the torn 
 flag to his comrades, who bear it proudly from the field 
 
32 
 
 CBARO& 
 
 ftnd wAtcbang its safety, a light frpreerls ovor tho blancliod 
 face, and "firea the glaring eye," and you may catch tho last 
 whisper iGrom the hero's lips before they are still for ever : 
 "I am dying ^ btU I have kept Uis colours T Faithful unto 
 death! Brethren, God gives you a banner that it may 
 be displayed because of the truth. Through evil report 
 and good report, in the breach and in the battle, you are to 
 bear it. However allured, however frightened, however 
 outnumbered, you are to be '' valiant for the truth upon the 
 earth." It is your Captain's order that you keep it, and 
 you dare not let it go. Hurt by tlie archers, bleeding from 
 many wounds, exhausted with the toil of the conflict, you 
 are still to grasp that banner, that so your latest effort may 
 be to transfer it into other hands, torn, but not dishonored) 
 and to cry, apostlewise, in dying, " I have kept the faith, 
 henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, 
 which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give me in that 
 day." And, thus faithful unto death, the crown shall not 
 be withheld. Tou shall stand in the joy of a fulfilled mis- 
 sion before God, waited for at the gate by some loving con- 
 verts who have gone home before you, and as, in meek and 
 thankful humbleness, you give as the account of your 
 stewardship, " Behold I, and the children whom thou hast 
 given me," you shall hear the voice long listened for, whose 
 melody is present heaven : " Well done good and faithfvJ, 
 servant, thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will 
 make thee ruler over many things, enter thou into the joy 
 of thy Lord." 
 
ADDRESS TO THE CONGREGATION 
 
 OM TBK 00CA8I0H OW TUI . 
 
 PUBLIC RECEPTION OP PIPTEEN YOUNG MINIRTER8 INTO PULL 
 
 CONNEXION WITH THE CONPERENCE OF THE WEULEYAN 
 
 METHODIST CHURCH OF CANADA, 
 
 Delivered in Richmond Strut Church, Toronto, on Friday, June 4th, 1809. 
 
 Mt Dear Friends, — 
 
 I rejoice to meet with you on so interesting and 
 solemn an occasion. You Lave come in ci'owds to hear the 
 testimonies of these men who are to be on the Sabbath 
 ordained to the ministry of the Gospel, and who will hence- 
 forth be tLe " messengers of the churches," and " your ser- 
 vants for Jesus' sake." Jt is right that you should feel inter- 
 ested ; for your own souls' welfare, and the prosperity of the 
 caiise of Christ, are largely wrapt up in the good or evil in- 
 fluence of these men. They have all, originally, received the 
 attestation of the people amongst whom they labored as to 
 their fidelity to duty, their personal experience of truth, so 
 far as man can judge it, and their capability to become well 
 furnished and thorough ministers of the Gospel. Their 
 progressive course has been watched through patient years 
 2* 
 
34 
 
 ADDRESS. 
 
 of trial, Hnd having finiHlietl their probation without re- 
 proach, thoy aro to ]>e pniilioly tloHignatod to the fiilnofwof 
 their office by prayer and the laying on of handH. It will l)0 
 my duty, in connection with that aerviop, to addrcBS to tlieir 
 heart and conscience some seasonable truth, as God may put 
 it into my lips : I believe it to be equally my province to 
 remind you — the people — that you have duties towards the 
 ministry of which you cannot rid yourselves, and which it 
 were folly and sin to disregard. If Joshua is to fight 
 manfully with the foe in the plain^ if Moses, in his mellow 
 age, is to uplift his princely and prevailing prayer, Aaron 
 and Hur must inspire the warrior's courage by holding up 
 the intercessor's hands. Will you bear with mi, therefore, 
 while I endeavour, with all plainness, to urge you to " take 
 heed how you hear," to " esteem " your ministers " very 
 highly in love for their works' sake," and to " look to your 
 selves that they lose not their full reward." 
 
 It is of the essence of the constitution of a church that 
 there should be fellowship, sympathy of feeling, mutual re- 
 gulation and control, aud well-adjusted division of labour. 
 There are some things wliioli a minister can do for his people ; 
 but there are other tkiiigs bearing equally upon their spiri- 
 t\ial interests which are beyond his power. Ho cannot watch 
 and pray in their stead ; he cannot, in their stead, mortify 
 the deeds of the body, nor evolve the radiance of a holy 
 character, nor " keep their tongue from evil, and their lips 
 from speaking guile." They must dwell upon the mount 
 
ADDRESS. 
 
 as 
 
 if they woulJ jut upon th« multitude for >;ood. They must 
 jiereonally liave audienco of the King if thoy would be 
 prompt an«! jwwerful in His service. IT^ey must inoorpo> 
 rate the direct rays of the Sun of Righteousness if they 
 would " let their light shine before men." In a word, no 
 solitary duty of Christianity can be done by proxy. It 
 recognizes individual ref^nsibility which cannot be trans- 
 ferred, and olaioui the personal service of each and all, 
 This is what has been well termed a characteristic of Pro- 
 testant Christianity. It is not known that there is any 
 other form of religion in the world which has no prieste* 
 In our religion there are none ; only pastors of the flock — 
 ministers of God to them for good. There is ne room for 
 the charge of priestcraft against the Ministers of the Gospel 
 of Christ — for the di^erence between the priest and the 
 ])astor is so radical that they cannot be honestly confounded, 
 A priest offers sacrifice: — a pastor points to a sacrifice already 
 offered, one which is complete and abiding. A^ priest as- 
 sumes to be a mediator — a pastor relies, both for himself 
 and his people, upon the sole and sovereign mediation of 
 Christ ; a priest derives his power over conscience from hia 
 supposed knowledge of occult mysteries, from which the 
 people are excluded — a pastor's power over conscience is ip 
 direct proportion to the truth which be enforces and rev^s; 
 (a priest retains the key of knowledge in his own hand, mi(1 
 dc^es out the treasure tp those who propitiate or pay, — » 
 pastor snaps the cl^^ i^rh^ch fetters the Bible in the sacristy, 
 
A 
 
 ADDRESS 
 
 and bids all the world to search the Scriptures that they 
 may live. In fine, a priest performs religioufo duties in the 
 people's sioad ; it is a pastor's duty to hold up the Divine 
 Pattern, and urge, and admonish, and entreat until " that 
 mind " be in his people *' which was also in Christ Jesus." 
 2Tow there is some danger that the churches which have re- 
 nounced the theory should in practice subside into the com- 
 fortable heresy of priesthood, by leaving the pastor unsup- 
 ported, and often discouraged, to do all the work of the chiirch. 
 ^* Brethren, — ^here is the peril against which I wish to warn 
 you. Hold up your ministers' hands by your generous con- 
 struction of his conduct, by ungrudging liberality in his sup- 
 port, by willing co-operation with his eflfbrts, by <he mainten- 
 ance of the true brotherhood among yourselves, and by impor- 
 tunate and earnest prayer. In other words, help your minis- 
 ters to do their work by fidelity in the doing of your own. 
 '''" In the 134th Psalm, there is a beautiful illustration of 
 this mutual encouragement and blessing. It consists but of 
 three verses, the first two of which are a benediction in- 
 voked upon a band of watchers, the last of which is tho 
 response of the company to the blessing of the friendly 
 singer. You will understand the tenderness of the saluta- 
 tion. TPhose who are thus commended in blessing are the 
 Zieviteg whp are t^ie giiardians of the temple in the night, 
 who watch over its treasures with eyes that do not slumber, 
 and who are careful that the lamps he not extinguished, nor 
 the fire upon the ajtar of bumt-ofiering be suffered U) ^ie. 
 
 \ 
 
ADDTII 6=1. 
 
 37 
 
 ^ 
 
 The singer is the officer who closes the gates of the temple. 
 As he takes his leave he warbles this song in the night, 
 " Behold, bless ye the Lord, all ye servants of the Lord, 
 which by night stand in the house of the Lord. Lift up 
 your hands in the sanctuary, and bless the Lord." Soothed 
 and strengthened by the melody, as they address them- 
 selves to their patient night watch, they fling back 
 the responsive music, — "The Lord that made heaven 
 and earth bless thee out of Zion." The same theory 
 of mutual blessing has a recognition in an inter- 
 change of loving greeting whicli goes on, Sabbath after 
 Sabbath, in the liturgy of the Episcopalian Church : " The 
 Lord be "ifith you," such is the minister's utterance, " And 
 with thy spirit," — so do the people respond. 
 
 Now it is this, thus illustrated by inspired and liturgical 
 example, that I wish to be exhibited to-day, not in the lips 
 merely, but in the daily outflow of the life. It is by this in- 
 terpenetration of symp^*thy between the pulpit and the pew, 
 that chur.hes live and prosper. If you do not recognize your 
 obligationK in .ms matter, your estimate will be unworthy, 
 both of the ministerial ofiice and of your own calling as 
 witnesses for Christ. Unless you are faithful, «nd sympa- 
 thizing, and diligent, the zeal and power' of the minister will 
 be of scanty avail. There will bo fulness in the sanctuary, 
 and leanness in the souls of men. Eloquence like that of 
 apostles may pour from living lips, but it will be as music 
 played among the tombs ; the temple may be crowded, but 
 
A9DRESS. 
 
 it will be with the careless ones to whom the Word ** is as 
 a very lovely song, for they hear" the preacher's " words and 
 do them not," and in respect of all the higher purposes of 
 the ministiy there will be a catacomb of impurity and death* 
 It is my solemn ocnviction that you, as representing the 
 laity of the Methodist Church, have its prosperity largely ii^ 
 your own hands, and therefore it is that I am ^e more 
 earnest in my summons that you be " co-woricers" ait onee 
 with your ministers and their " God." 
 
 JB6 generoM in yov/r eonslrtbction of j/our minieierB* con 
 duet. — Receive them in the name of a Prophet, that you 
 may receive a Prophet's reward. Beware of regarding your 
 teachers as if they were lifted by the office above human 
 infirmity, or screened in some sheltered noo^ of grace from 
 the blasts of temptation, and from the diverse onsets of evil. 
 They are not angels, but men, — of like passions with your- 
 selves, with the same indwelling frailty, the same weariful 
 impatience, the same traitorous hearts. They are, in all 
 respects, as human as other men, as readily crushed by 
 sorrow, as perversely troubled by waywardness, as urgently 
 ohumingy therefore, to be charitably judged. Look into 
 jrour own hearts, my friends, and thin^ ^f the cf'Tiflicts of 
 your Ohristian experience ; how often your duties h&ve tried 
 you, so that you have forborne to discharge them ; or your 
 hindrances have tried you, so tiiat your strength has fainted 
 by the way; or your companionships have tried you, so 
 that you have mourned over your cowardice of soul ; an^i 
 
 i '^ 
 
i 
 
 ADDRESS. 39 
 
 when theae thoughts arise, and these memories are vivid 
 remember that all of difficulty which you feel presses upon 
 your ministers in equal measure, and that th^re are du*- 
 couragements in the nature of their work of whioh you 
 know nothing, but which make their burden heavier 
 to bear. Ihey have resigned, so to speak, a portion of their 
 liberty, that they may be the ministers of Qod to you for 
 good. Their reputation, their life, are in the church's 
 hands. Guard that treasure which they have in good faitii 
 entrusted to your keeping, and let no anxieties destroy 
 their life, nor suffer any slander to whisper their good name 
 away. 
 
 Be tender and loving in your judgment of all they say 
 and do. If a sermon seems to you feeble, think how many 
 others have been strong, and how, even from the feeblest 
 and faultiest^ you can gather more teaching than you are 
 prepared to carry out into the life. Remember how the 
 aching head, or the deranged digestion, or the bruised and 
 paining nerves, can impart languoi^ to the mind, and shear 
 the spirit of its power. Ask yourselves whether it be not 
 possible that when he entered the pulpit he was ready to 
 preach with vigor and freedom, but he was thrown from his 
 balance by the noisy intrusion of some late conier to the 
 8anctu£ury, or by the vacant stare of the thoughtless, or the 
 silly laughter of the trifling, or the impatient rustle of the 
 wearied, or, it may be, by the equivocal approval of some 
 slumberer's assenting head. Nay, my friends, do not hesi- 
 
40 
 
 ADD HESS. 
 
 tate to go further. If you are disposed to tliink that he 
 was not experimental enough, or not clear enough, or not 
 practical enough ; if you complain that there was lack of 
 fire, or lack of food, ask what was your own warmth or your 
 own appetite. You thought him in a sickly condition to 
 preach — are you quite siure you were in a healthy condition 
 to hear) Had your spirit had rest from the week's fitful fever? 
 Could you (1^ ji>r»re inan wash the gold dust from your husy 
 fingers ere yoix v ent into the house of the Lord ? My 
 friends, there are proprieties of hearing as well as of preach- 
 ing. If you were all suhjected to the same ordeal as your 
 ministers, the examination might not be quite satisfactory ; 
 if you had to remain on probation until yoti had graduated 
 into proper dispositions for heedful hearing of the word, it 
 might be that there are some even here who would be kept 
 a long time upon trial. Brethren, give me a suspicious, cen- 
 sorious, exacting church — hard, stem, keenly critical — in- 
 sisting on its tale of requirements like an Egyptian task- 
 master, and you have given me the secret of many an ap- 
 parent failure. Give me a loving, prayerful people, generous 
 in their judgments, considerate in their claims, tardy to 
 censure, frank and hearty to commend, and for such a 
 people any minister whose soul is in his service will "spend 
 and be spent " without ceasing, nor grudge in their behalf, 
 were it necessary, the costly offerings of the life and of the 
 blood. 
 
 £e generous in the provision which you make for your 
 ministers, — They have a right to expect this at your hands. 
 
ADDRESS. 41 
 
 They have foregone the chances and the fortunes of the 
 world, trusting to your faith and honour. The same 
 ability which fits them for their high office, if exerted in 
 other professions, might have made them an wealthy, or 
 perhaps wealthier, than yourselves. The care of the soul 
 is certainly as important, and should be as well recom- 
 pensed, as the care of the health or the care of the estate. 
 The minister's claim to his stipend rests upon a law of 
 heavenly justice, and it is the same law which regulates 
 the salary of the statesman, the returns of the merchant, 
 and the charity which is rendered to the poor. <' Thon 
 shalt not muzzle the ox that treadeth out the corn. Doth 
 God take care for oxen?" asks the assenting apostle. 
 " Yea, but doubtless for oiir sakes this was written," for 
 as in all labour there is profit, it is the right of every man 
 to live by sweat of brow or brain, and they who preach the 
 gospel, of the gospel have a right to liva 
 
 Those who would obey Divine law in this matter will 
 be liberal in the apportionment of the Minister's stipend, 
 and honest and prompt in the payment of it, that he may 
 not be called down from his great work by the comfortless 
 pressure of financial cares 3 that the diligence which ought 
 to be ceaseless in its study of the Word may not have to 
 exercise itself in maintaining a dubious equality between 
 the winner and the spender; that he may not be forced 
 into an unworthy dependence, destructive of his self-respect, 
 and making his reproofs, which ought to be bold as those 
 of a prophet, languid as the harmless angers of a child. 
 
49 
 
 ADDRESS. 
 
 ] would pray the churches, as they value the manliness 
 and spiritual power of their teachers, to lift them above 
 the anxieties of embarrassment; for Hunger is a sharp 
 thorn, and when Want looms upon the soul it is the dead- 
 liest and surest of human tempters to evil. If they are 
 sincere men, and chosen of Christ to be his witnesses, they 
 will have trampled out of their hearts the love of money ; 
 but they have a rightful claim that a just and liberal 
 rewj rd f^R.A be made to them, not with niggard hand, nor 
 with patronizing manner, by the people of their charge ; 
 and He, .ue vTi-eat Master, whose servants they are, has 
 joined in a wedlock, which no man shall dare to annul, the 
 liberality of earth and the bountifulness of heaven. " Bring 
 ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be 
 meat in my house, and prove me now herewith, saith the 
 liOrd of Hosts, if I will not open you the windows of 
 heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not 
 be room enough to receive it." (Malachi iii. 10.) 
 
 Be warm and vnlling in your readiness to work for 
 Christy and so hold up your minister's hands. — ^We cannot 
 too often remind ourselves that spiritual prosperity results 
 not from unaided ministerial or lay endeavour, but from 
 the intelligent and hearty work of the whole church of 
 Christ It is a fatal error to imagine that all the work is 
 to be done by the minister. If the leader has no followers 
 what avails his generalship in the battle. If an architect 
 cannot find workmen, what hope for the completion of thd 
 
 o 
 u 
 
 i 
 
 
ADDHESS. 
 
 43 
 
 building. Though I yield to no man under heaven in my 
 estimate of the office of the ministry, though 1 would rather 
 have the seal of its Imptism on my brow than wield the 
 sceptre of the Caesars, I fulfil one of its most glorious obliga- 
 tions when I summon every believing spirit to personal 
 service for Christ. That relic of stern and hoary priestcraft, 
 which absorbs all efibrt in the pulpit, and refuses to admit 
 the partnership of the faithful in the work of saving souls, 
 has no place in the sympathies of the true minister, nor in 
 the heart of the living church. There is for each of you a 
 field of Christian toil, and an awaiting recompense of 
 honour. There is room for the meanest as for the mightiest 
 —for churlish or for royal blood in the warfare for the world, 
 and its victories ennoble both. The child with a linen coat, 
 in whom, though he knows it not, the prophet's spirit 
 slumbers, and to whom in the startled night the summoning 
 voices come ; the maid in the Syrian palace, whose charity 
 shone through her Ixmdage, like a star in the thunderous 
 sky ; the men of Cyprus and Cyrene, swurthy and honest 
 heralds, who had never sat at the feet of Gamaliel ; tli6 
 fugitives hunted fi-om their liomes, driven into exile on the 
 blast of a nation's fear, but who carried the gospel in their 
 souls, and " went everywhere preaching the word;" all these 
 show that each of you who has a heart to work, has the 
 heaven-sanctioned ordination which will warrant you in 
 doing good. 
 
 
 ■VJ**^.'j 
 
44 
 
 ADDRESS. 
 
 My friends, how is it with you towlay? Have your 
 pastors a valiant army at their back, ready in all daring 
 enterprizes to dare and to do 1 Perhaps if I could touch 
 you, as with the spear of Ithuriel, I should not discover the 
 energy which befits the soldier. Your fathers did noble 
 things : has the burial ground become richer than the 
 church 1 You were active and zealous in God's cauae, the 
 pastor's most willing helpers, but perhaps that activity 
 and zeal are matters of history now. You have retired 
 from the service, you hardly know why, on the plea, it may 
 be, of business engagements, or fancied infirmities, or 
 advancing years ; or in times of abandonment and peril you 
 grew saddened and out of heart — you indulged in the 
 murmuring of the " old man" you had put o£f, rather than 
 in the trusting of the " new man" you had put oh ; your 
 effort relaxed just when it should have been strenuous; 
 your prayer became feeble just when it should have been 
 princely; if there were few who assembled to plead for 
 God's blessing, your absence always made them fewer; if 
 the standard bearers have been ready to faint, you were not 
 by to shout their courage back agnin, to lift the banner 
 from its drooping and stream its glad folds to the wind. If 
 you have embodied the Revelation angel at all, you flew forth 
 with the gospel in fine weather only — your timorous wings 
 were furled in the season of the storm ; or perhaps that is 
 not your case ; perhaps — 
 
ADDRESS. 46 
 
 " You stood the stonn when winds wore rongh, 
 But in some sunny hour (ell off, 
 Like ships that have gone down at sea 
 When heaven was all tranquillity." 
 
 You brooded over some real or fancied injury ; your motives 
 were impugned, your efforts thwarted, and angry at your 
 fellows, and fretted from your own calmness, you wandere<l 
 into the wilderness, and you are useless and solitary now. 
 Brethren, come back and do your first works, and feel your 
 first love. The Lord hath need of you, for the harvest 
 droops for want of reapera to gather it iji. The world hath 
 need of you, for it is sick at heart, and longs to be told of 
 Jesus. Yoiur pastors have need of you, that they may 
 house the sheaves into the gamer. Don't dwell any longer 
 in that unsightly land of Cabul ; come into the bright 
 Beulah country — it is pleasant to labour there — where airs 
 from the other side of the river fan the wearied brow, and 
 where a thrilling sound of music, as of hai*pers harping with 
 their harps, reminds you constantly of heaven. 
 
 Above all be constant and earnest in your prayers. — You 
 are too well instructed in the things of God to have for- 
 gotten that there is no period of a Christian's life in which he 
 ceases from the cry of helplessness, from the invocation of 
 Divine strength, from the expression of vehement desire. 
 If you haye thought otherwise you have some humbling 
 secrets to discover by-and-bye. If you think that a cause 
 can be built up by one man's labour in the pulpit, and by 
 
46 
 
 ABDREflS. 
 
 many tuen'i labour in the church, you will find your mis- 
 take full 8odn. Confusion of tongues will be the token of 
 heavenly displeasure, and in the ruin of your prostrate 
 Babel, the vaunt of your Atheism will be seen to be a dis- 
 carded lie. No wrong can be redressed, no fear dispelled, 
 no sin removed, no sinner saved, without Qod the Spirit 
 in the fulness of His divine working, and the plenitude of 
 the Spirit is poured out in answer to prayer. You expect 
 your minister to pray. You think you can discover, some- 
 times, by the vigour or feebleness of his services, the 
 measure of his individual devotion. But is the prayer to 
 be all on one side ) Are you under no obligation too ? 
 Think you there is no difference felt* when you come to the 
 sanctuary with dull face and leaden feet, and when you 
 come straight from the Pisgoh summit, with its shinings on 
 your forehead and its fragrance on your breath, and your 
 ' footsteps glad as when you have pleasant memories of a 
 friend ? I tell you here is just the difference between curse 
 and blessing. Give me a praying church, and there will 
 follow the mighty ministry, and startled sinners, and the 
 gi'acious rain, and the opened and peopled heaven. If the 
 ministers are to preach the truth, and nothing but the 
 truth — if they are to be saved from shallow conceits and 
 questions which gender strife, — if the old gospel is to swell 
 grandly from lips that are strong to speak it, — if, in fine, 
 this longing world shall ever see a Babel reversed by a 
 Penticost, it will be when the feeblest intercessor shall be 
 

 ADDRESS. 
 
 47 
 
 < 
 
 ' 
 
 evon OB David, and David as an angel of the Lord, and 
 from each heart and lips of the sacramental hotft shall swell 
 the bold resolve, "For Zion*8 sake I will not hold my peace, 
 and for Jerusalem's sake I will not rest, until the right- 
 eousness thereof go forth as brightness, and the salvation 
 thereof as a lamp that bumeth." 
 
 Dear Brethren, suffer, I pray you, the word of exhorta- 
 tion in these matters which beur largely upon the welfare 
 of the church. There is a remarkable passage. in one of the 
 Epistles of the beloved disciple to which I should like, in 
 dosing, to refer you, — "Look to yourselves, that we lose not 
 those things which we have wrought, but that we receive a 
 full 1*6 ward." (2 John, verse 8.) Is not the mybterious truth 
 here indicated, that in some way or other — how and where- 
 fore we know not — there is a connection between the 
 spiritual progress of the people and the fulness of 
 ministerial reward 1 It would seem to be the doctrine of 
 the Bible that there are degrees of recompense, and official 
 w well as individual approval. Hence Ve read of a 
 "prophet's reward," and of a "righteous man's reward,"— of 
 the starry lustre of winners of souls, of the runner's prize, 
 and of the apostle's crown. In this aspect *>h<.i.i is some- 
 thing almost melancholy in the aged apostle, the best loved 
 of the Master, condescending to an entreaty like this. Paul, 
 on the verge of the dark river, throbs with holy triumph, 
 hesitates with imperial indifference between longer life and 
 heaven, and sp.aks exultingly of the fruits of his ministry 
 
 ./" 
 
48 
 
 ADDKEflS. 
 
 as liiH •' Ijopn uiul joy and crown of rejoicing." John, latest 
 of tho Imnd to lingor, still breathing tho love which he had .. 
 caught on the Master 'b bosom, longing, one would thi ;v 
 a renewal of that intercourse which had once uuule Galileo 
 a heaven, seems to stop upon the threshold to make sure 
 that by tho apathy or treason of his spiiitual children, he 
 may not be robbed of one jewel from his crown. Oh, if 
 there be but a possibility of this ; if the fulness of minis- 
 terial joy can bo hazarded in any way by unfaithfulness or 
 by declension, if there be such a strange and subtle affinity 
 between those who teach and those who are taught, that it 
 stretches into the other world — you will not surely p to 
 the multiplied buixlens we have already to bear, t' ^r 
 lest we should suffer by our people's fault, and lest your 
 lukewarm or unworthy attachment should dim tho lustre 
 of our ministerial crown. 
 
 Brethren, dearly beloved and longed for. spare your 
 Ministers this pain. Help them in their work by the con- 
 scientious doirig of your own, and let it be our rejoicing 
 hope, as it was that of our honoured fathers in the gospel, 
 that, to the last courses of the sun, Methodism may rejoice 
 
 in AN EARNEST MINISTRY, SUStuincd by AN EARNEST CHURCH. 
 
 TORONTO : 
 PlilNTKD AT THE WESLKYAN CONFERJiKCE OFFICE, 
 
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