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of preparing for the ministry by a regular literary and theological education; and if you call to remembrance the whole course of your life since; you must perceive, that you are indebted to the goodness of God in no ordinary degree, and that you are bound, by everlasting obligations, to devote your talents, your life, your whole being, to his holy service. You are not your own. The powers of mind which you possess; the literary acquisitions which you have gained; your skill in sacred criticism, your theological knowledge, and all your qualifications for the work of the ministry, and for the particular office you are now called to fill, are given you by the Head of the church. And for what are they given? To fill your heart with vanity and self-complacency? To excite and gratify an aspiring ambition? The Spirit of God, I trust, has taught you a very different sentiment. Just in proportion to your talents and your attainments in knowledge, are your obligations to love God and promote his cause. Your understanding, your heart, your learning, your time, health, and influence are God's. Pride, then, is impiety; it is sacrilege. Banish it forever from your heart. Or if it strives to maintain its place there, make unceasing war against it. And let the hateful thing be made to destroy itself, by occasioning deeper humility and selfabhorrence.

Study, preach, and labor from love to Christ, a principle of action infinitely nobler than ambition. Let that love be your ruling passion. Under its holy influence, strive in all things to excel; but with such a temper, that you will always be pleased with the superior excellence of others. Forever avoid the disposition of those who envy the height which they cannot reach, and who endeavor to stain and depress the fairest character which they see rising above them.

You are engaged, my dear nephew, in an enterprise great and arduous for any man, especially for one so young and inexperienced. But your Saviour offers you his all-sufficient grace. And there is one thing which cannot be mentioned, without bringing into view the wisdom and goodness of God; that is, that the whole course of your education has manifestly been directed by his

providence with a view to the particular station for which you are designated.* Your education has been suited so exactly to prepare you for that station, that if you had from the first definitely fixed your thoughts upon it, you could not have made any desirable alteration in your plan of study. With this view of the merciful guidance which God has afforded you, and with a full reliance on his grace, take courage, and go forward in your work, always keeping a steady eye upon your great object. While laboring to discipline the minds of your pupils, and to promote the interests of learning, remember that you are a Christian, and a minister of the gospel, and that it is your duty, in both characters, to strive for the promotion of true religion, as your great object. Go forward then in the strength of God. Be faithful unto death; and your merciful Saviour will give you the crown of eternal life.

* Note to the present edition of the Sermon.

The particular situation referred to was a Professorship in Columbia College in the District of Columbia. After that, the Rev. Alva Woods, was for several years, President of the College in Lexington, Ky., and then, for a longer time, President of the College in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.

A SERMON

DELIVERED AT THE ORDINATION OF THE REV. BENJAMIN WOODBURY, AT FALMOUTH, MASS., JUNE 9, 1824.

1 Cor. 9: 22.-I AM MADE ALL THINGS TO ALL MEN, THAT I MIGHT BY ALL

MEANS SAVE SOME.

THERE is perhaps no passage of Scripture which has been more frequently misinterpreted than this; and none which has been applied to purposes more contrary to the design of the writer. The principal abuse of it is to be found among those, whose temper inclines to indecision and timidity, and who endeavor to justify this weakness of character by the account the Apostle here gives of his own conduct. The mistake which has in this way been committed, and the injury which has resulted from it to the interests of religion, have been so palpable, that some have been led to discard altogether the principle of action asserted in the text, and thus have fallen into errors as really hurtful to religion, as those which they have labored to avoid.

It becomes then a matter of consequence, to determine what views the Apostle meant to express by the language of the text,"I am made all things to all men.” What is the import of this declaration? And what are the limitations and cautions to be

observed, in a practical application of it to ministers at the present day.

Let us, in the first place, see what light we can derive from passages in the same Epistle relating to the same general subject. In the preceding chapter the Apostle introduces a question as to the lawfulness of eating things offered in sacrifice to idols. He teaches, that in those who partake of the sacrifice, there may be no violation of a good conscience; and yet that they ought scrupulously to abstain, if their partaking would be any injury to others. "Let every one of us please his neighbor for his good to edification." In other words we should consider the consciences and weaknesses of those around us, and be ready to give up our own liberty, and as far as may consist with higher obligations, our own rights too, for the sake of doing good. But the particular design of the Apostle in the text becomes still more apparent from the verses immediately preceding. In various forms, he asserted his right to a maintenance from those, to whom he preached. But to prevent objections which might arise against the Christian religion, and to give additional weight to his instructions, he forebore to urge this right. The mention of this instance of his benevolence led him to state more particularly in what manner he regulated his conduct in relation to such subjects as these. Though he was in the highest sense free, yet for the purpose of doing good, he made himself a servant to all. " Unto the Jews," he says, "I became as a Jew, that I might gain the Jews; to them that are under the law, as under the law, that I might gain them that are under the law; to them that are without law, as without law, (being not without law to God, but under law to Christ,) that I might gain them that are without law; to the weak became I as weak that I might gain the weak; I am made all things to all men, that I might by all means save some.” In things indifferent, he conformed to the feelings and customs of those around him. In this practice of yielding, he went as far as he could, consistently with duty. He never created offence by deviating unnecessarily from the opinions or manners of those, with whom he was conversant.

But we shall be further aided in fixing the proper limitations of the Apostle's meaning, by a consideration of the object he aimed at. "I am made all things to all men, that I might by all means save some.” His object was the salvation of men. The means he adopted were suited to promote this object. And if so, it must be clear that, in becoming all things to all men, the Apostle could not have conformed either to the sins, or to the errors of men as such a conformity would have had an influence directly contrary to his object. For the same reason, he could not have withheld divine truth. For he considered divine truth as the means of turning men from their sins, and training them up for heaven. To suppose that he suppressed any of the essential truths of revelation, or that he either taught or countenanced error, is to suppose that he not only forgot the end of his preaching, but put a real obstacle in the way of attaining it.

It was still of great importance, as a means of promoting his object, that he should abstain from everything in the mode of preaching that would bar the minds of men against conviction, or furnish them either with advantages to oppose religion, or with an excuse for neglecting it. The consideration of his object must also have induced him to forego any personal gratification, for the good of his fellow-creatures, and in all cases to exhibit a kind and peaceful deportment. We see what his disposition was in respect to his maintenance. He claimed it as his unquestionable right. But as there were some, who might impute wrong motives to him if he should urge his claim, and might by that means acquire an influence prejudicial to the cause of Christianity; he thought it his duty to forbear. The mention of this led him to state more fully, as in the text, that principle of condescension and selfdenial, by which he sought to help forward the salvation of men. If, then, a question arise in our minds respecting the duty or propriety of any particular instance of compliance, it will conduce directly to a satisfactory answer, to inquire, whether it will have an influence favorable to the salvation of men. Will it produce or strengthen in others a disposition to listen to the truths of God's word, and attend to the duties of religion? Will it be like

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