of its renewing and sanctifying power. If he is sincere, he has undertaken to preach the Gospel from a full conviction that it is the only way of salvation, that it is a gift of priceless value, not to be exchanged for worlds. His great effort as a preacher is to induce men to accept the Gospel, and to live according to it, because he believes this to be the only way of safety and of happiness. The more he studies the Gospel as a system, the more does he see of its perfection. The more he is called in the exercise of his office to exhibit the various truths of the Gospel to the different classes and conditions of men, the more does he learn of its universal adaptation and comprehensive worth. Yet after all (such is the imperfection of human nature), this view of the supreme excellence and value of the Gospel may come to be with one who is called continually to present it, too much of an abstraction; an opinion not to be disputed indeed, nor yet to be felt always as a living truth. Christians in general are insensible to the real value of the Gospel, because amid the hurry of business or the excitement of worldly pleasure, they bestow so little thought upon it; but the minister of the Gospel, less exposed to the perverting influence of direct and habitual contact with the world, may rest on the other hand in a staid conviction of truths, the value and the power of which he may not be in circumstances to estimate aright. Hence he needs trials to give him fresher views of the Gospel; to place him on another point of observation. Let health fail him, let friends forsake him, let him be left destitute with a growing family around him, let his character be assailed, his motives misconstrued, his well-meant endeavors be frustrated, let near and dear relatives be taken from him by death: then, with nothing else to lean upon, he discovers that the very Gospel which he has so long preached, and with which he is so conversant, is, indeed, his all that through his very familiarity with it he had failed to appreciate many of its beauties, or to realize all its worth. Now its truths break upon him with the freshness and power of a new revelation. He is in another school. The school of theology and of criticism is important to prepare the preacher for his work. Years may be spent in the profitable study of the original tongues of the Sacred Scriptures, with a view to the full and correct development of their meaning. The careful and discriminating study of systems of theology, derived from and based upon the Word of God, is also necessary that the man of God may be "thoroughly furnished." Yet in connexion with all this, there is need of a practical discipline in the truth; such, for example, as that of applying the truth to various classes under the immediate influence of the Holy Spirit; such especially, as that of applying the truth to one's own heart under various aspects and conditions. In this view the school of affliction is the best school in which to learn the full value of the Gospel. It may better qualify the minister for his work to receive some thorough and painful schooling there.

II. Afflictions serve to qualify a minister more abundantly for the work of preaching the Gospel, by giving him a livelier perception of certain important but familiar truths. Thus far I have spoken only of a deeper conviction of the value of the Gospel as a whole. His own afflictions, and those of others with whom he is enabled to sympathize, bring a minister to a deeper sense of the importance of his work as a preacher of the Gospel of the grace of God. But there are certain truths which are brought vividly to mind under affliction. The particular truths vary of course with the nature of the affliction. They are such as the following:

Man's entire dependence upon God. This is a truth taught both by reason and the Scriptures. It is a truth to be daily kept before the mind to excite within us, gratitude and godly fear. The preacher labors to impress upon his hearers the thought of an everpresent, all-sustaining, all-controlling God. But even his own perception of such a being may need at times to be quickened, and this is done most effectually by means of affliction. Let him who has talked of God's presence and God's power, and of man's dependence upon God, until the very phrases have become natural to his tongue, be suddenly prostrated upon the bed of sickness, his voice silenced, his hand palsied, his strength abated, and he will realize what it is to be in the hands of God, to lie completely at his disposal, to live in him. Or let him be called to part with some dear friend-perhaps the dearest on earth, to lay his kindred, his children, his companion, in the grave-and he will feel as he never felt before, his dependence upon God, absolute, entire; dependence for every earthly blessing that remains, dependence for comfort, for life, for all that yet is or is hoped for; dependence still when every earthly prop is gone. He will know better how to exhibit that truth after such experience.

Another class of truths impressed upon the mind by such afflictions are those relating to death and the future world; the vanity and the uncertainty of life, the nearness, the certainty, the dreadful certainty of death. These are among the most frequent topics of pulpit discourse, as they are the most frequent subjects of admonition and exhortation in the Word of God. They are fitted to make a deep impression, and they ought to make a deeper impression than they do. They ought to make men thoughtful and prayerful, and watchful, and diligent; but few realize them as they should. The minister sees the declarations of Scripture upon these points continually verified. He is called to visit the sick and the dying. On any day, at any hour, he is liable to such a call. The house of mourning is to him a familiar place. He sees death under every aspect. He follows to the grave the young and the aged, and those who were in the prime and vigor of life; some who are cut down suddenly, and some who die of lingering disease. He sees the sweet babe laid in that cold bed with the

fresh flowers of spring upon its breast; he sees the wife and mother laid there while husband and children weep around; he sees the husband and father laid there amid the sobs and groans of a helpless family; he sees the lovely, blooming maiden cut down like a flower; he sees the strong and enterprising young man wither and fall.

He goes to the grave from the stately mansion, from soft carpets, and cushioned seats, and tapestried halls, and surrounded with the costliest furniture of grief,-and he goes there from the narrow chamber with its bare floor and naked walls, now rendered thrice desolate. He follows to the grave a friend, a neighbor, a loved one of his own flock; and he follows there a stranger whose countenance, mutely fixed, gives no token of recognition, and asks only to be covered out of sight by the hand of strangers. Such are the scenes of a pastor's life,- -scenes from which he often turns aside with an aching heart. And yet they are scenes with which he grows familiar, and is perhaps less keenly affected the more they are repeated. He sees what death is, he mourns what death does, but by degrees he even becomes accustomed to death. He therefore needs at times to view death in another aspect; to realize that death, though familiar, is still dreadful; to feel death's icy fingers on his own heart tearing away the loved ones nestling there; to look at the effects of death, not at a distance, but at home. Then death wakes up the soul to own and fear his power. He will not be forgotten; he will not be thought lightly of; he will not be treated as a familiar thing; he will not yield his title or prerogative as the king of terrors. Ah! it is one thing to look upon the stiffened form of a stranger, and another thing to find one who always greeted us with the warm words and kiss of love, all cold and speechless;-it is one thing to offer consolation to a company of mourners, and another thing to be surrounded by one's dearest friends in the garments of woe, and to feel too much need of comfort to offer it to them ;-it is one thing to look with pity upon the struggling grief of those who are bidding a last farewell to the poor unconscious clay, and another thing to go trembling and bursting with sorrow to take the last look at what has been so precious in our eyes;-it is one thing to see the coffin closed upon the young, the beautiful, the admired whom we knew not, and another to have it hide from us our dearest treasure; it is one thing to go to the grave officially, as a friend, as a minister, and another thing to go there as a mourner to lay down our precious burden in its cold, dark bed, feeling that we ourselves would lie there too. Он, DEATH! thou art terrible! Yet terrible as thou art we would know thee; we would feel thy most sudden stroke; we would behold thee in the most painful and bewildering contrasts; that

The author was reading a cheerful letter which he had just received from his sister, when a telegraphic dispatch was brought him informing him of her sudden and

our souls may be alive to thy presence and thy power; that we may warn men with becoming earnestness to prepare for thee; that we ourselves may be always prepared for thee; doing our master's work, faithful, diligent, laborious, watchful, "redeeming the time."

The realities of the future world are made nearer and more impressive to the mind of a minister by means of affliction. He is called to contemplate these realities habitually in the regular course of his ministry. His constant endeavor is to bring his hearers to contemplate them also, and to act in view of them. But be often of necessity surveys them at a distance and imperfectly. Affliction brings them near; it shows that they are real; it gives them distinctness to the eye of faith; it makes the future everything; it brings the soul in a higher sense than was originally intended, under the full commanding influence of "the powers of the world to come," of the grand facts in relation to the destiny of

man.

Such are some of the particular truths or classes of truths which the personal afflictions of a minister bring most vividly before his mind. The effect of a livelier perception of such truths upon his preaching is obvious. We can always preach most powerfully and most efficiently from our own experience. It was the wisdom of God that appointed those who had themselves experienced converting grace to be the instruments of the conversion of others. He who knows nothing personally of regeneration and sanctification, though he may explain theoretically their nature and necessity, cannot describe the process like one who is a subject of it, nor urge its importance with the earnestness of a sinner saved. As experience is an essential qualification for exhibiting aright the very rudiments of Christianity, so it is desirable for the right presentation of all subsequent truths. An experimental knowledge of truth, so far as it can be attained, is one of the first qualifications for preaching the Gospel. "All successful preaching is the result of a firm and settled conviction of the truth of the Gospel." "We believe," says Paul, "and therefore speak." How earnestly did Peter insist upon the divine authority of the Lord Jesus Christ, because he had been an "eye-witness of his majesty upon the mount of transfiguration! How eloquently did Isaiah and Paul depict the glories of Jehovah's presence, because the lips of the one had been touched with a live coal from the very altar before the throne, and the other had been "caught up into the third alarming illness. He hastened to the cars and reached Philadelphia the same evening, only to realize the dreadful import of the words "too late!" She who was next to him in age, his playmate in childhood, his companion in the Christian race, whose happy home he had lately visited, whose fond words he had just read, was already gone. With her family cheerful and well at the breakfast table and the domestic altar, at noon summoned away without giving a word or look of recognition even to him the nearest and dearest-who stood by her side!

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heaven!" Though Paul had seen and heard "things unutterable," things which human language could not describe, how did their influence pervade all his writings, and all his acts; how did his tongue glow when he approached this theme with an eloquence which the thorn in his flesh could not impede.

He who has been rescued from a drunkard's grave, can utter warnings and appeals to those who are in like danger, to which those who have never had such a dreadful experience, are wholly inadequate. And how much more eager are we to hear a narrative of danger from one who has escaped it than from those who repeat it at second hand! Just so it is in preaching. Experience is one secret of power. Truth worked into the soul, as it were, by the fire and the hammer; truth which a man knows and believes in the fullest sense, is the truth that is preached with earnestness and power, and not that which is picked up on the surface of books. Now affliction brings the minister into the closest contact with some of the most important truths, yea, welds them into his soul as by fire and hammer, and so confers, as it were, a new gift for preaching. His people will hear of his afflictions. Not that he is to preach about them to awaken sympathy; not that he is to bring private griefs before the public (though when no longer private, he may speak of his afflictions as Paul did, to glorify God, and to enforce the lessons of Providence), but that truth will come out of the furnace into which his soul has been cast, burning with new lustre. "If we be afflicted it is for your sakes."

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III. The personal afflictions of a minister qualify him to sympathize with the afflicted. This he is called to do continually, and it is one of the most tender and inviting, useful, and yet delicate and difficult duties of his office. Sympathy is always sweet to those who are in affliction. If we cannot help them, it is pleasant to them to know that we feel for them. God sympathizes with his children in all their troubles. He was the Savior of Israel. all their affliction he was afflicted, and the angel of his presence saved them; in his love and in his pity he redeemed them; and he bare them and carried them all the days of old.” "As an eagle stirreth up her nest, fluttereth over her young, spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh them, beareth them on her wings, so the Lord alone did lead him."

Jesus is a sympathizing Savior. It is one of the most interesting features in the work of redemption that the Son of God participated in the trials and sufferings of humanity, that he might sympathize with us and succor us according to our need. "Forasmuch as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same :-for it behoved him in all things to be made like to his brethren; that he might be a merciful and faithful High Priest in things pertaining to God, to