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BY W. MORLEY i^^UNSHON, M.A., PRESIDENT OP IVX, CANADIAN WESLEYAN CONFERENCE. LONDON: JAMES CLARKE & CO., 13 FLEET STREET, E.C. 1869. -.'^^^ i l il Oi i n.l i II . ■i» |[".l.^)i ii L,, ^ ' .. ' "^ BV4on.T^ PRINTED BY BALI ANTVN* AND COMPANY KOINBVR m AND LONDON •• -^ RESOLUTION OF CONFERENCE. Resolved, — " That our President, the Rev. W. MORLEY PUNSHON, M.A., be respectfully re- quested to prepare for t^e press, for general circu- lation, his Charge to the Society and his Charge to the Ministry, thus embracing the mutual duties of the Ministry and Society, the evangelical prin- ciples of Ministerial and Lay co-operation in the great work of spreading the truth and holiness of the Scriptures over the land." 108162 MMtaii * » In compliance with the wishes of those to whose judgment I defer, and in the humble hope of the great Master's following blessing, I commit these addresses 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 thef 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. I W. MORIEY PUNSHON. Si", 'I 5 ' '•"' * i'^jir^^ rr v< CHARGE ADDRRSSBD TO FIFTEEN YOUNG MINISTERS ON THEIR ORDINATION TO THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY IN CONNEXION "WITH THE WESLEYAN METHODIST CHURCH IN CANADA, Oh SUNDAY, June 6th, ii6^ " Who then is that faithful and wise steward, whom his lord shall make ruler over his household, to give them their portion of meat in due beason. Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing." — Luke xii. 42, 43. |HAT I say unto one, I say unto all, Watch." This is the burden of this chapter's message, impressed in many varieties of homely and solemn illustration : by the certainty of the last revelation, by the ever- watchful providence of God, by the rich man ■Hi 6 Charge. 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 utterance there seemed a doubt whether these were general warnings, ad- dressed to the whole Church, or whether they were applied especially to* the witnesses whom Christ had chosen ; and Peter — spokesman, perhaps, of the unuttered thought of others — asked the ques- tion, " Lord, speakest thou this parable unto us, or even to all ? " Our Lord answers in the words of the text — words which, while they assume the Church's obligation to watchfulness to be not less binding, fasten upon the ministers of Christ a responsibility commended by loftier sanctions, and involving graver issues ; so that if it behoves a believer to be watchful, and faithful, and wise, upon the minister there is a double necessity ; and that he, if he overcome and be approved, is the heir of a sublimer recompense, and if he fail and be con- demned, of a more appalling doom. Amongst the many passages which bear upon ministerial character and service, I have selected this on which to ask your attention at this very \) i Charge, ^) i interesting and very solemn crisis in your lives. To you it is impossible to exaggerate the import- ance of the present hour. The hopes and anxieties of years 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 deaths 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 c** time ; it is charged with the destinies of eternity. In the presence 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 have to minister the word of life — in the presence of watching angels, and of glorified spirits, dear to some of you, who look down with loving eyes from the reward — in the presence, it may be, of scoffers who deride your calling, and of adversaries, both earthly and spiritual, who watch for the halting of your feet — you are here to take upon you the vows of the Christian ministry, at once the noblest profession and the most solemn i 8 Charge, responsibility upon earth. It is a duty of my posi- tion to counsel and to cheer you — to remind you of the character which it behoves you to attain, and to stimulate you with the hope of the recompense which awaits your toil. I come to this task under the constraint of office, having over you the melan- choly advantage of years, but sad with a strong sense of shortcoming in my own soul. With lofty conceptions of the ideal 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 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 powQr instead. Listen, not to the teacher of unapproachable sanctity, but to the brother in experience, in infirmity, in struggle, in desire. The standard is the same, although we fail to reach it. Pressed beneath the same sane- s Charge. s •.; tions, animated by tfic same hopes, reliant on the same Almighty arm, " come, and let us reason together" of the minister and his reward. There are various similitudes under which, each in its own aspect of fitness, the office of the minis- try is presented ; but the ideas of trust and of responsibility 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 rain ; the master-builder, charged to see to it that the house is safe and strong ; the shepherd, bound to feed and fold the flock, or to search through the gorge or on the mountains for the one that has wandered 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 tenderness — than when, in the Lord's own words, the minister is the steward of the house- hold from which the lord is absent for a season. You will readily appreciate the fitness of the allu- sion. The Church is a wide and loving fami'/^ A 2 i i i lO Charge, a brotherhood united by sacred bonds, by com- munity 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 ; he must maintain its rights, preserve its purity inviolate, and cherish among its members the harmony without which the family compact would be snapped asunder; he must watch over the health and v/elfare of the weakest, encourage the timid, and repress the rash ; he must guard equally against excess and against indifiference — 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 inherit- ance there; think that the responsibilities of the stewardship stretch out into eternity; think that S {\ Charge, II s . misapprehension of the steward's ob gations, or failure to discharge them aright, may involve loss that is irreparable, 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 hum- bled souls may well cry, as under a burden, " Who is sufficient for these things ?" you will be pene- trated 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." You observe that the two great qualifications which the text implies as necessary to a success- ful stewardship, are 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 apportionment 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 12 Charge. 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 of his chariot tarry, which is not disheartened by months of discouragement and de- lay, which cheers itself by songs in the night, all through the winter singing of the spring which lies, flower-crowned and fair, beneath the snow. You must have meekness, that you may bear the indiffer- ence of the ungodly, and the scoffing of the pro- fane, enduring, sublimely as your Master, the con- tradiction of sinners. You must have nobleness of soul, to lift you above the insolent pettiness of murmuring, and vanity, and envy ; the rare ) Charge, U 1 heroism of the Baptist, willing to decrease so that the loftier Teacher may be exalted and honoured. 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 Moses when he wished himself blotted out of the book for the children of Israel's sake, — akin to that of Christ when he was " straitened" until the ac- complishment of his baptism of blood. All these, in their measure, are comprehended in the fidelity which is the prominent duty of your lives; but it is Xo faithfulness^ in the full import of the word, that you are exhorted now : "It is re- quired in stewards that a man be found faithful." Nothing can compensate 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 all, it is a poor recompense for any man's toil. You may have an average personal experience, winning manners, and a blameless life; these negative quali- ties will neither do you nor the world much good. You may pass through your duties respectably, and have a good report of them that are without, and yet be destitute utterly of the true spirit of H C/mrge. your calling, and throb with no heroic passion for saving souls. Oh, think of this ! Burn it into your hearts amid the solemn sanctions of this hour : " I may be talented, popular, agreeable, blameless in the world's eye, respectable, scholarly ; and yet in the sight of God accursed, because un- faithful, and sent away from the judgment with the brand of the traitor and the felon." Brethren, for myself and you, I deprecate that doom. I urge you — I. Be faithful in the keeping of your oivn souls. — You have already testified, in the presence of the great congregation, that you have experienced, really and consciously, the change of heart, and that you are living in God's favour, 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 affec- tionately remind you thatin the maintenance of your own inward life consists the secret of your power. Alas for you, if you deal in the "cold traffic of un- felt truth ;" if languor or worldliness be suffered to ? t i i Charge. 15 cat out the heart of your piety ; if you relapse into formality or secret unbelief; if the flame upon the closet-altar burns 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 worn-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 paralysed in soul ? — a man who flaunts upon his brow the shrivelled symbols of his 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 you, lest there come upon you this dis- honour. Your ordination will not save you from barrenness of soul. Your ministerial status will be no help to preserve you from that declension 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 activities of piety. Nay, there is a sense in which these advantages are increased sources of danger. There is a familiarity which breeds indif- iiii i6 Charge, ference, if not contempt. In the wards of a hospi- tal 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 degenerate into the sensual and the unworthy, just as the fall from the cliff is headlong if there be the false step en its verge. Moreover, as ministers, you are the sub- jects of especial assault, because a watchman slain makes the surprise of the citadel more easy ; and you are the subjects 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, and censori- ous, and petulant, and proud ; — all these will beset you as they beset ordinary 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 whi ";h those around you cannot share. If God gives you i i Charsre.- >/ \ 4 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 difficult, 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 influences. Your plans may be thwarted by the opposition of your associates, or by the indifference of your professed friends. Weak men will obtrude their partialities, and timid men will be unreason- ably repressive, and narrow men will cherish their prejudices, and ambitious men will make sacrifices to their vanity, and sensitive men must be continu- ally appeased, and crotchety men must be continu- ally humoured. It will be difficult for you to preserve your soiil in patience and in the meek- ness 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 magni- tude of the interests committed to your frail guardianship, — nothing will save you but a con^ tinual dwelling under the very shadow of the A3 i8 Charge, mercy-seat — a close, constant, strengthening v/alk with God. Brethren ! be faithful in this matter. Live so near to God that the enemy cannot ap- proach to harm. Let your ideal be the divine Saviour, who could say, looking calmly upon a world of foes, " The piince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in rne." Satan will not enter the house if there be no beckoning eye from the win- dow. Keep your spirit fif.c from all allies of the Evil One, that so, humbly trusting in your heavenly helper, and baring your heart for divine scrutin3% you may rejoice to say, *' Thou hast proved mine heart, thou hast visited me 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." AV II. Be faithful to the truth. — You have already testified, 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 expect of you that in this T Charge, 19 testimony you have made no rash avowal. You have had opportunities, during your years of pro- bation, 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 o^ the doctrine in the life. It has been the glorying of our Church that, by the grace of God, no doctrinal controver- sies have disturbed it through the century of its evangelistic laboui*. 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 t.he name of the Methodist people, to whose taste this word has been sweet, and who cry in hunger of heart — "Ever- more give us this bread ; " because of the scoffing world, who will acknowledge the moral power of a whole army " valiant for the truth," I ask you to hold fast, and to hold forth, the ancient Word of Life. There is a necessity for fidelity to the truth, especially in times like ours, when every doctrine 20 Charge. 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 thoss 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 this luxuriance of error. There will be around you a dark ingenious spirit of unbelief, poisoning the fresh blood of youth, and dishearten- ing the last hope of age — sometimes, like Herod, coarsely insolent in its impiety ; sometimes, like Judas, betraying the Saviour with a kiss. There will be an earnest, well-disciplined, crafty super- stition, restless in its endeavours to regain its ascendancy, marshalling its forces with wonderful skill — holding to its purpose through the patient Charge, 21 It 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 Him, and ham- pering the free grace of His atonement by a frail and tangled net-work of its own. There will be a pretentious formalism, denying all connexion with Romanism, 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 intangible 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 be- tween 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 by the utter errors of half-truths, ignoring repentance in its professed exaltation of faith, virtually dis- 22 Charge, crowning the Holy Spirit in its desire to vindicate the human spirit's freedom, substituting an Anti- nomian apathy for the liberty of the gospel of Christ — running a tilt against the sects, while itself is the straitest and most uncharitable of sects, consist- ently speaking evil of " system " from its own Babel of disorder, and yet encouraging, on system, attacks upon all Christian organisations 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 error, which it does not need to dignify by a mention ; and you may take it as an axiom that no form 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 emis- saries everywhere, some from barbarous Phrygia, ^ I' Charge, n ^^ 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 assimilated to your nature, and enfibred with your every interest and affection. Take your stand, firm, calm, heroic, by the ancient altar, and from that altar let neither ribaldry nor Rationalism expel you. " Be no longer children," except in simplicity; " but in understanding be 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 scoffers 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 24 Charge, to your brethren in the ministry. — In the present state of the world and of the minds of men, there must be distinct organisations of believers as well as, and within, the universal Church. The central thought, the great necessity of churchmanship, is of course union with Christ. But human hearts have strong chords of sympathy, by whose inevi- table influence like yearns for like, and the believer longs for the companionship of those who are in- spired by the same hope, both for mutual benefit, and for the completer outworking of all schemes of holy toil. Hence comes the visible Church, ex- isting not so much a mechanical idea as a social necessity — a supply for that cieaturely want which abhorred the utter loneliness, even in Eden — a realisation of the soul's strong instinct of brother- hood. But Christianity is the religion of intellect- ual freedom — it snaps the fetters alike of social and mental bondage, and secures the right of private judgment unto all. Those who are substantially agreed on the vital points without which Chris- tianity itself could not be, may stili have minor though important differences of opinion. Here again, by the same law, like yearns for like. So ^ Charge. 25 v^ 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 denomination becomes harmful only when it cherishes a spirit of exclu- siveness 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 organisation is at once a folly and a sin. There is room, I think, for the exhortation to be faithful to the Church which you have chosen. I am not so foolish as to claim any exclusive excel- lence for Methodism. I have no quarrel with other churches. I am catholic enough to wish them God- speed, and my co-operation 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 done so well ; but amid an all-embracing generosity, com- mend me to the man who has a home. You are to minister in the ministry of the Methodist Chur( h, A4 26 Charge. Not in vaunting, but in gratitude, we express our conviction that it is " not a whit behind the chief- est." It has a heritage of sound doctrine, and tra- ditions inspiring as the chronicles of ancient kings. It has a theology, broad, well-defined, scriptural, free from all unworthy limitations of the Son's love, free from all disloyal forgetful ness of the Spirit's 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 adaptation, not for clan or family, but for all circumstances, complexions, 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 faithful to it, I charge you. Do not allow it to become the va.ssal of any but Christ, nor the enemy of any ^ Charge, 27 but sin. Work for it as if you were jealous for its honour, and remember that its honour is its fidehty to the Head of the Church in heaven. You have studied its doctrines, and have seen the workings of its polity. You have accorded to it your intel- ligent preference, and in the face of the world you testify to-day that you believe it to be the best sphere of toil in all the world for you. Keep to it " until death do you part." Bind yourselves to it with the solemnity 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 littleness 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 your 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 28 Charge. children. Hold them in high esteem and honour. Guard their reputation as you would guard per- sonal treasure. Screen them from the attacks of those who would depreciate their usefulness — ignoble assassins of the character which re- bukes 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, some- times takes advantage of eminence in any special grace to tempt to the committal of the very oppo- site sin. Thus the meekest man was hurried into unadvised speaking ; the hero-heart of Elijah was smitten with a coward's fear; the brave confession of Peter was neutralised 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 brethren : 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 **• tJK vV Charge, 29 that his people should say of him, " Yes ! he is able, and might be useful too ; but he never speaks a good word of his brethren." Of all Churches, the suspicious Church will be the leart prosperous — just as of all characters the censorious is the most unlovely. Let nothing but absolute wrong-doing destroy your faith in those with whom you asso- ciate ; and in that case, if discipline is faithfully exercised, you will associate with them no longer. Guard against a bitter, factious spirit of partisan- ship. Resist, as you value the Church's spiritu- ality and peace, anything that would reduce it to a political confederacy, or assimilate its practices to those of political strife. " Be pitiful, be court- eous." 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 troubles into colossal injuries. The true ministerial dignity 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 spotlessness and honour which have never known .-^o Charge. shadow or stain. Oh ! for the times of the old gospel morality ! " In honour preferring one an- other;" "each esteeming the other better than himself;" modesty, taking the lowest room at a festival ; self-sacrifice, content to be derided and forgotten ; humility, washing the disciples' feet ; meekness, "enduring contradiction ;" charity, long- sufifering, and yet uniformly kind ; pride and anger trampled under the feet, while self-mastery climbs the moral height of forgiveness to a seventy-times- seven offender. Let us have this morality ex- hibited in the associate heralds of any Church, and their life will make their word 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, men shall see "visions of God." IV. Be faithful in the great ivork of preaching 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 bro'ad