daily contradiction of sinners against himself in the course of His ministry. Did He not every day endure a conflict, not with various success, as we, but a real conflict, meeting continually a hail-storm of darts? If He did not more than any man, then it is contrary to the expectations we should form, considering Him the prototype and leader of a redeemed church, against whom, more than all that church combined, Satan would have a special enmity and direct his mightiest strength. We have then not merely His sympathy, care and aid in the conflict, but His example also. Jesus endured more contradiction of sinners than we-Jesus received more shafts from the armory of hell than we-Jesus suffered more pain of body and soul than we, and overcame them all. And it is not a small thing when He holds out to us that example—“ even as I overcame."

3d. The final reward. The collation of the blessings in these messages is magnificently rich-"exceeding great and precious promises." Eat of the tree of life-not be hurt of the second death-eat of the hidden manna-not blot out His name from the book of life-shall go no more out, but have eternal citizenship-sit down on an eternal throne. They are figurative, but they are so necessarily, and instead of exaggerating the reality falls infinitely short. O that we might receive with a believing spirit the truth involved, and conceive more worthily of the great reality.

Who then is grieving at his hard lot in the world, real or imaginary? Is it sickness, poverty, struggling for necessaries? Look away to the end of these labors. There, beyond this concave, so blue by day, so bespangled by night, lies a country more enchanting than Eden. It is the garden of God. No noxious tree grows there, bearing death and woe, but the tree of life. It shall give strength, not weakness; eternal, not temporary relish; an everlasting guard against the approach of sickness, pain, and death. To take of its fruits and eat to the full, no need of labor, care and watching. It grows itself, watered by the river of God, and its life-giving power cannot be exhausted nor its abundance drained, though millions upon millions feed upon it, ages eternal.

Who again, is enduring the sharp conflict of direct temptation? Who feels himself daily solicited, and as it were drawn with a cord, to commit some direful sin or series of trangression? Let him, indeed, be afraid of the sin, but not disheartened at the temptation, nor entertain a thought of yielding. Let him not repine at his lot, that he is placed in a world of temptation, or that his circumstances are peculiar. Thousands have been in circumstances as trying and peculiar, and yet have come off conquerors. Let him look away to the city of the great King. He that overcometh shall have the freedom of the New Jerusalem-the name of God, of His city, and of His dear Son inscribed upon him. To all the privileges of that city he shall be admitted, and angels and redeemed ones shall acknowledge him as a fellow citizen of that city-he shall go no more out.

Who again, may suffer a violent persecution (not impossible), called on to deny Christ's name under heavy penalties, even death? Grieve not, nor refuse such an allotment. The Great Leader has trodden this path too, and says, "He that overcometh, shall not be hurt of the second death." Having himself met the first death and triumphed, He urges his own successful example. Who will slight it?

Such then are the aids, the example, the rewards. There is no discharge from the war in this world; but at death there is eternal dis

charge. Does three-score years seem a long service to gain rewards so great and so enduring? It is a very short period. Are the aids smail? they are mighty through grace; not one who trusts them shall fail to come off conqueror. Are the instructions in the book of our discipline obscure they are intelligible and very plain. Who then will faint in the conflict, and say, 'I will give up and take the rest this world af fords? Will any? No,' let each reply with his whole soul, Never,' let all with united voice respond, 'We will not forego blessings so great, glory so enduring, for the sake of ease or respite so short and so unworthy. Come sickness, come poverty, come fightings from without or fightings within, come persecution, come death in terrific form, we will not give up the contest, nor deny Christ.

Brethren, let the associations of this day, contribute to the confirmation of a purpose so worthy. It is pleasant to remember these places. This place of our worship, and first efforts in the pulpit-those halls of daily discipline-those alcoves with their portraits. It is pleasant to recall the anniversaries-each his own-to me, my own (1824). Brethren of that period, I think you have not forgotten a tall, muscular form, great contemner of Lord Chesterfield, great admirer of Hercules, and his insignia, who from this place, as chief orator of the class, addressed the Rhetorical Society-his theme, "Liberty, only through the gospel."-Perhaps you may even remember his closing words.

"Be girding up your loins and taking to yourselves the whole armor of God. And when you go forth to fight your short battle for God and man, may he go with you; and when you are called off from the contest, may he receive you to himself and his blessedness."*

Short, truly, his own battle in the cause he loved; thirty moons wasted, and himself called off. I will not speak of the hopes frustrated in his death: 'Maximo suorum, et bonorum omnium desiderio mortem obiit.' I will speak only of the last circumstance of his death, for the sake of my closing thought. He was absent from his paternal roof when the last bleeding seized him; but he could not die away from his home. Almost in a dying state, they placed him in a sleigh and drove him rapidly twenty miles. Borne under the accustomed roof, he saluted and kissed each member of the household circle, and immediately died. O wonderful power of that word HOME! and sweetest emblem of the eternal home! "In my father's house are many mansions." Brethren, shall we all get there at last-east, west, north and south, from the cannibals of Sumatra, from the pirates of the China sea, from Oregon's savages, from intestine feuds, from the universal bitternesses of this bitter world-shall we all at length get home? Fathers, Juniors, Cotemporaries, whole Brotherhood at once! shall we all at length get "He that overcometh, will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out." Amen.

* Memoir of Samuel H. Cowles, Christian Spectator, Jan. 1828, p. 16.

NATIONAL PREACHER.

No. 11, Vol. XXII.

NOVEMBER, 1848.

SERMON CCCCLXXXVI.

Whole No. 263.

DELIVERED BEFORE THE SYNOD OF NEW YORK AND NEW JERSEY, AT
NEWARK, OCTOBER 18, 1848.

BY REV. ASA D. SMITH,

Pastor of the Brainerd Presbyterian Church, New York.

IMPORTANCE OF A SCRIPTURAL MINISTRY.

"All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works."-II. TIMOTHY, 3: 16, 17.

By the term " scripture " here, the Books of the Old Testament-those accredited by the Jews, and with which Timothy was early familiar-were doubtless primarily intended. Yet is the text, in its spirit, quite, as applicable to the New Testament; and it may be taken as embracing the whole completed canon. "The man of God" is the minister of the gospel; and it is with reference to him, the Bible is here commended. Inspired of God, it is precious to all; but in the work to which he is called, it has a peculiar and transcendent value. It meets all the demands of that work. It is profitable for "doctrine," or the unfolding of divine truth; for "reproof," or the confutation of error; for "correction," or the rebuke of evil practices; for "instruction in righteousness," or in the whole course of Christian duty. By it-and by it alone is the man of God made "perfect," or, as the word is explained in the subsequent clause," thoroughly furnished unto all good works." We depart not, then, from the scope of the text, nor overlook nor misapply one of its particulars, when we derive from it the subject of discourse assigned by the Synod to this evening-" THE IMPORTANCE OF A SCRIPTURAL MINISTRY." VOL. XXII. No. 11.

I. But what mean we, it is well that we inquire, at the outset, somewhat particularly, by a scriptural ministry? There may be, there is often, mistake on this point. We touch not, on the present occasion, the warrant of the ministry; we concern ourselves rather with its functions. The inquiry now in hand is, not who may minister, but how they should minister. The general answer is, scripturally ;-for all their work they are to be furnished from the full armory, the exhaustless storehouse of the divine word. They are to be emphatically ministers of the word-not of form-not of tradition-not of philosophy-not of the dogmas of men. The word is to abide, first of all, in their hearts. Truly scriptural preaching can come only of scriptural experience-an experience produced by God's truth, and of that truth the very transcript. Evermore," out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh." The preacher, too, should in understanding and memory be "mighty in the scriptures." How else shall either the matter or the manner of his discourse be scriptural? From the word are his doctrines to be drawn. That he should deem the sufficient and only rule both of faith and practice. He is to bow reverently to its decisions; where it goes, he is to follow-where it stops, he is to stop. What it leaves unrevealed, he may be assured, is either unknowable, or need not be known. Nor is it enough that truth is exhibited by the preacher; it should be exhibited as God's truth-just as it lies in his word. His themes are to be drawn as directly as possible from the Bible-in the organic forms they take there, rather than as vague and inapprehensible metaphysical abstractions. His analyses should be not fanciful or unintelligibly subtle, but either such as the scripture suggests, or as find in it a warrant and a counterpart. The bread of life is to be held forth as God has provided it-not as decomposed. The proofs of doctrine, the ties which bind it to the conscience and the heart, are to be fabricated, not of the moonbeams of fancy, or the gossamer of philosophy, but of the adamant of eternal truth. The seal of all his utterances must be a Thus saith the Lord;" not merely in his own thoughts, but as manifest to the people. His illustrations even, he will borrow largely from the Bible. Walking in its ample and wondrous galleries, he will point you, now to a portrait of some evil passionnow to a living model of some Christian virtue; now to a pictured scene of sin's fearful issues-now to a glorious panorama of the triumphs of faith.

Such a preacher is apt to abound in expository discourse. In this, he is most likely to present truth as it is-in its proportions, shapes, hues, relations;-not as "a dried specimen," but in living beauty; not as a dissevered member, but in its organic connections; not as a single stone from the edifice, but as a perfect and glorious whole. He is most likely, also, to hold it forth as God's,

and to hide himself behind its ineffable majesty. Said that prince of pulpit expositors, the late Rev. Dr. Mason, as he gave his farewell counsels to his people, "Do not choose a man who always preaches on insulated texts." Such preachers are not apt to bring out the whole counsel of God; however undesignedly, they will almost certainly keep back some things that are profitable to the people. There is, indeed, a sort of exposition which, with a great show of scripturalness, has little of the reality. Let it not be confounded with that we commend. "There is

a caro and spiritus," says Cudworth, "a flesh and a spirit, a body and a soul, in all the writings of the scriptures. It is but the flesh and body of divine truths that is printed upon paper; which many moths of books and libraries do only feed upon; many walking skeletons of knowledge that bury and entomb truths in the living sepulchres of their souls do only converse with; such as never did anything else but pick at the mere bark and rind of truths, and crack the shells of them." Fitly does this set forth not a little of the scientific and technical "exegesis" of modern times. The hermeneutical apparatus of many an eminent critic, seems to have been specially suited to press out of a text, however unctuous, however it may have nourished the faith and hope of confessors and martyrs, its very life and marrow. As you turn, for example, from the rich and eminently scriptural pages of Luther on the Galatians, to many of the commentaries of his more recent countrymen--not to speak of certain Anglo-Saxon expositors-it is like passing from the Garden of Eden into Ezekiel's valley of vision. The bones there are "very many," and, "lo! they are very dry." There is neither sinew, nor flesh, nor skin upon them, nor breath in them.

To complete the outline of the scriptural preacher, we may add, that from the sacred text he quotes freely, not for proof only, as has been already noted, but for enforcement and adornment. Many a precedent for this has he, both in the apostolic writings and in the discourses of our Lord. His pages are resplendent with the gems of inspiration; in his noblest paragraphs they shine out-as they could not fail to do in the most eloquent of human compositions" as apples of gold in pictures of silver." Nor does he scruple to blend with his own diction, not only for the purpose of exact statement, but of felicitous and impressive allusion, scripture phraseology. He is not ignorant of the cry of cant, which so many have raised, from the courtiers of the merry Charles to the free-thinking Hume, and from Hume to the semi-sceptical Foster. Even "one John Milton," as Whitlocke called him, Hume declares to be not wholly free "from the cant of former times." It was not the classical and mythological cant of the Paradise Lost he blames, but the evangelic language, or rather the evangelic thought. All sorts of cant are tolerated by these