ministers of Christ. God will try us, and make us holier men, or he may abandon us. If he has indeed chosen us and ordained us, it is that we should go forth and bear fruit, and that our fruit should remain. If we are indeed his, he will assign more to suffer, as well as more to do; until we can say with Paul, "I count not my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the Gospel of the grace of God." The preacher and the man must be one. His heart must be a transcript of his sermons, and then will he be a chosen vessel to carry His name who was crucified to lost men. It will be no inconsiderable evidence of the truth and power of Christianity, when such are its preachers, and such the power exerted by its pulpits.

CHAPTER XVI.

THE EXAMPLE OF MINISTERS.

WE need not stop to introduce the subject of the present chapter by any exordium. In order to give the pulpit power, ministers themselves must enforce its instructions, by a life and conversation in keeping with their high vocation. This is so obvious a truth that any illustration of it would seem to be needless; yet are there some things in relation to it, which have been too frequently suppressed, and which, perhaps, may subject him who utters them to obloquy. It were no more than the sober truth, were the writer to say, that in expressing his thoughts on this topic, he does so in the deliberate expectation of rebuke from some of those whom he highly respects, but who, in his judgment, have mistaken views.

It is too much to expect that the ministers of Christ should be perfect men; defects in their character are what the Church and the world must always look for. We have no objection to perfect ministers, if we could find

them; but all whom we have ever yet seen, had something to confess and be forgiven, and much need to grow better. "There is no man that liveth and sinneth not ;" there is no living minister, and none who ever did live, but those who knew him best, were able to detect some discernible blemish, some weak spot in his personal character. We are not apologists for human imperfection; yet do we pity the man who, in this fallen world, expects to find every thing in his minister, to gratify either his piety or his pride. He can have little knowledge of himself, and little of that charity which hopeth all things, and covereth a multitude of sins, if he cannot appreciate true excellence because it has blemishes. It were a rare combination, to find any one man possessing all the personal qualifications that are to be desired, in those who minister at the altar. The beau-ideal may be a very agreeable picture to the imagination; but it will never be realized. It was, indeed, once realized; but it was too unearthly for this low world, too pure for men to look upon; they defiled it, yea they spit upon it, and smote it with their hands, and exclaimed, "Let him be crucified!"

There are two ways of estimating the char acter of God's ministers; the one is by making their imperfections prominent, the other by giv ing prominence to their excellencies. A mir

ister may have some good qualities, and be deficient in others. He may be distinguished for prudence, and not for zeal; or if distinguished for zeal, be exposed to imprudencies. He may be unsocial, but studious; or if not studious, he may make some amends for this deficiency, by the familiar acquaintance he cultivates with bis fellow-men. He may be heedless of his secular affairs, and you may reproach him for making perpetual exactions upon the bounty of his people; or he may be careful of them, and you may accuse him of worldliness. The man will find enough to do who sets himself to search and hunt out a minister's imperfections; he will find them in plenty. He may triumph in them, and live upon them, as those do who "eat up the sins of God's people;" but he will not, I am thinking, on that account, enjoy a more thriving spirituality. A happy man he cannot be; how holy he is, must be left to the decisions of his own conscience, and of another day. But it would not be surprising, if his humility, and his contrition, and his self-diffidence and meekness were somewhat questionable, and if he were not exposed by his own spiritual pride to fall into the snare of the devil. I am acquainted with men, who are in the habit of sitting in severe judgment upon the character of ministers; but they are suspicious men, rash men, and men whose word would be taken

with some grains of allowance in a court of justice. It would certainly seem to be a more pleasant and profitable employment, and would savor more of Christian equity, in forming an estimate of the ministerial character, to give its acknowledged excellencies their due weight..

Not a few of the moral defects of ministers depend upon their natural temperament. Those who have the fewest imperfections, are not always the best men; and for the obvious reasons that they may have the fewest excellencies. They may not be capable, from their natural temperament, of possessing strong and striking excellencies; and on this account, their imperfections may be comparatively few. It may be difficult to detect them in an imprudent, or an idle word; because their disposition is naturally retiring and taciturn, and they rarely speak at all, except in the pulpit. You may not be able to reproach them with rash, or imprudent conduct; because they are men of shrinking diffidence, and instead of throwing themselves amid scenes of exciting interest, they leave such scenes to men of a different spirit. Well do I remember a minister in this community, now gathered to his fathers, who, if judged by his imperfections, would meet a severe verdict; but who, when estimated by his excellencies, has scarcely left his equal behind him. I loved and honored him,