due candour and industry, attain to infallible certainty on all subjects of prime importance. What topics can be more inviting to a man, attached to studious pursuits, than to examine the arguments which prove the divine origin of the holy scriptures; and to ascertain their meaning, to apply his discoveries to promote the virtue, peace, and happiness of man; to tranquilize and purify every human heart; to establish love and harmony in society; to free life of its bitterness, to disarm death of its horrors; and to render the assured hope of happiness in a future life, the guardian of human happiness, and the chief source of consolation in the life which we now enjoy. No candid and competent judge will pretend that there is within the reach of human understanding, any studies at all comparable to those which are appropriate to the gospel minister, whether in regard to dignity, or pleasure, or utility. The life devoted to such pursuits, cannot be thought an existence dragged out in mean and miserable drudgery.

There is one branch of the ministerial office which, though accompanied with acknowledged and great difficulties, is at the same time productive of a fund of such satisfactions, as would alone be capable of balancing all the evils of the profession; I mean the public preaching of the gospel. It is impossible to conceive a situation, which should afford to man a fuller exercise and enjoyment of all the faculties, with which God has endowed human nature, than that which the pulpit furnishes to the minister of the gospel. His theme is the grandest and most interesting, that can be conceived; at once noble and ennobling; one which not only gives scope to genius, but which inspires it; and sustains and elevates it in its towering darings.

A theme which involves the highest interests, and tenderest hopes, and final destinies of every human being; which binds together the orator and the audience in a common fate; exacting that he shall declare, and they receive the doctrine of eternal life, at the common peril of their souls. If any where on earth a public orator can bring into operation the utmost efforts of his genius, and the whole resources of his learning; can indulge his imagination in every legitimate exertion of its creative and embellishing energies, it is in the pulpit; where, besides, all the sensibilities of the soul naturally infuse themselves into the theme of discussion, and produce incessant bursts of every species of moral pathos. Is there no felicity in such employment, to tempt a generous mind to solicit it as the business of life, from the merciful giver of all that is good. Nor let it be supposed that the sacredness of ministerial office, diminishes in the slightest degree the enjoyments connected with the exercise of its functions. The very reverse is the fact. Is it possible that the understanding should ever exert itself with greater satisfaction, than when elevated above the necessity of quirk and sophistry, it proclaims, demonstrates, and defends the doctrines of infallible truth? Can any orator plead with greater ardor, than he who is persuaded, that he is pleading the cause of the God who made him and redeemed him? Can any thing inspire greater zeal than a consciousness, that a man is not pleading for the property, life, or liberty of his fellow beings; but for the eternal salvation of their souls and bodies, for their deliverance from endless degradation and torment; and to secure to them glory, honour, and immortality?

Will his energy be any thing abated by the consciousness, that his own soul is at stake equally with those of his auditors? And in what respect can his efforts, or his pleasure in making them, be impaired by that pulpit inspiration which is poured out from on high upon every preacher of the gospel? All these questions carry their answer along with them. Indeed it will be found that whatever a gospel minister may be elsewhere, he is more than himself in the pulpit.

The

But my brethren, let me direct your attention to the more unsightly and ungainly details of ministerial labour. There are circumstances in a minister's vocation, which wear to the eye of common observation the appearance of mere toil and drudgery, but which furnish him with one of the fruitful sources of his satisfactions. Not every thing which excites painful sympathy, or temporary distress of feeling, is ultimately detrimental to human happiness. The sympathetic sorrows of our social nature, are the elements of some of our most sacred virtues, and the unquestionable origin of many of our purest pleasures. minister of the gospel is placed in circumstances, where he is not obliged to seek in the fictions of tragedy, for the lovely joy of tears. The tragedy of real life, the daily catastrophes in the fortunes of his cotemporaries, furnish him with abundant occasions of painful feeling, where the distress of sympathy is soon swallowed up in the delightful sensations of active benevolence. The minister of the gospel is by office, the widow's husband, and the orphan's father; he is eyes to the blind and legs to the lame; the cause which he knows not he searches out; and the blessings of many who were ready to perish come upon him.

The poor solicit his relief, the unfriended his patronage, the oppressed his protection. He is familiar with the objects of woe; his invitations are to scenes of suffering, to families in affliction, to the beds of agony and of death. The wounded conscience pours out its agonies into his bosom; and awaits with supplicating eye, his consoling interposition. Even in that which is the most painful of all his duties, rebuking the disorderly, and restraining the head-strong; though he must count on sometimes meeting with audaciousness and slander, he on other occasions experiences the purest and most exalted of all joys, that of seeing a sinner turned from the evil of his ways, which is the joy of the angels in heaven. This particular view of ministerial character, I conceive highly interesting, because in this instance they are most nearly assimilated to their God and Redeemer, who is never so precious to mankind as in the hour of their calamity. Let the world forget me in their prosperity, provided they think upon me in the evil days when distress and dismay are upon

them.

And to close this subject, my brethren, let me conclude with a paradox, I consider the ministerial office a desirable object, on account of the affection, esteem, respect, and influence, which it meets with among mankind. If this be a paradoxical declaration, the paradox lies in the phraseology, which was not adopted, however, for the purpose of catching attention by surprise, but because it was the native expression of my thoughts. After all that men have said on the other side of the question, and said with truth; I cannot but think that ministers of the gospel enjoy as large a portion of respect, and have a much larger portion of affec

tion bestowed on them than any other description of men in society. That ministerial character is generally respected by society, I have never yet seen reason to question. It may indeed be alleged that from mere men of the world, this respect is altogether hypocritical though I cannot persuade myself that the allegation is universally correct; yet admitting it to be so to any extent you please, I would ask is not this precisely the species of regard which worldlings, usually exchange among themselves. Do they not pay hypocritical visits, exchange hypocritical courtesies, pass hypocritical compliments among each other, without an atom of real mutual esteem. Nothing is more customary among such men, than to prepare sumptuous dinners, and splendid balls and amusements, for persons, whom they hold in no manner of consideration. In fact, among them, demonstrations of respect are rarely paid to the man, but to the rank which he holds in society; and of consequence every social honour, which they pay to ministers of the gospel, is a public recognition of the respectability of their profession in the social ranks.

But passing this over, as a matter of inferior concern, I bring into notice an object of genuine sanctified ambition, in the influence which the ministers of the gospel exercise upon the whole of society. So visible and undeniable is this influence, that the general cry both within the church and without, is that it is too great. For this influence, however, ministers are not indebted to mankind at all; it is neither conceded by worldlings through courtesy, nor conferred by the pious for promoting the progress of religion. It is the gift of the Sovereign who invested them with