Another doctrine that the apostle very frequently sets forth, as part of the counsel of God, is the necessity of a new nature-Christ is our title to cross the threshold of heaven; but a new heart is our fitness to breathe the air and relish the joys of heaven. If it were possible that I could get to heaven or into a state of reconciliation and justification by Christ's righteousness, but retaining a heart that loves sin, delights and finds its enjoyment in sin, then heaven would not be happiness to me; it would be the constant inspection of a pure, holy, burning eye, and, consciously so, of me a guilty, sinful, criminal being. It is, therefore, necessary that I should not only have a right, which is Christ's righteousness, to cross the threshold, but that I should have a fitness to breathe the air, and taste the joys, and mingle with the fellowship of the redeemed that are around the throne. Now the apostle tells us constantly, that we needed God the Father to love us, God the Son to die for us, God the Spirit to sanctify us and make us meet for the inheritance of the saints in light.

Then he would tell us that Christ will come again. This is the frequent testimony of Paul. "Looking for that blessed hope, the glorious appearing of Jesus Christ, our God and Saviour." "To them that look for him will he come the second time without sin unto salvation." These are some of the leading truths enunciated by Paul; and which constitute together the whole of the leading points of the whole counsel of God.

Now he says, "I have not shunned to declare these." Some of these doctrines are disliked, some of thern are liked; but the apostle did not think what his

people would say of his preaching; he merely thought, "Have I been the echo of the whole counsel of God?" It is most important to conciliate the people, and to say everything we conscientiously can to please. It is a great law, we all know, that people will take a valuable bitter medicine, if it be mingled only in a sweet compound. And if we can use the best of language, and with the gentlest of temper; and ransack all that is above, around, and below for imagery to set forth more clearly what we mean, we do that which is perfectly lawful, which is most expedient. But the instant we sacrifice truth to please, that moment we have gone beyond the line within which it is our duty to be, and we have shunned to declare the whole counsel of God. It is quite right to try to interest people; for we know too well that the most precious truths may be spoken to a listless, cold, indifferent people, with no ⚫effect whatever. But if you can only so awaken their attention, so stir their sympathies that they will listen, then the good seed will be taken into receptive soil, and it will bring forth in some sixty and in some an hundred fold. The only point that we must ever guard against is not to shrink from stating a truth that is unpalatable, or to dwell always upon truths that are palatable, and keep in the back-ground, or throw into deep shadow, those truths no less precious against which the natural heart rises in enmity. The apostle says, "I have not shunned to declare the whole counsel of God." And not only did he do so in reference to doctrine, but he did so too in reference to duties. Now it is just here where a faithful preacher will meet with difficulties that will make one shun to declare the whole counsel of God, if he fear the frown or, do more, try to conciliate

the favour of man. If he preach a doctrinal sermon the one Sunday, the more practical people may go away and say, "It is Antinomianism;" if he preach a practical sermon the next Sunday, consisting chiefly of moral duties, then another class will retire and say, “It was Arminianism." But the one Sunday he is just to preach salvation through Christ, and that alone, and not to be afraid of inferences; and the next Sunday he is just to preach duties, and duties in all their amplitude and obligation, and not to be afraid that he will be misconstrued as giving a subordinate place to doctrine. The true way to judge of a ministry is not to listen to a sermon, as some people do, and pronounce upon the whole; that is as bad as if a man about to purchase a house were to have a brick sent to him a hundred miles away, in order that he might be able to form a judgment of the whole. You are to judge of the house by a sight of the whole; you are to judge of preaching by hearing often. And hence the difficulty that is familiar to some; where people come by fits and starts, and, of course, must hear fragments, and never can see, in all their just and magnificent proportions, the great and precious truths of the Gospel of Christ. The apostle says, then, that he had not shunned, he had not been afraid, nor did he shrink from declaring the whole counsel of God. Now, what inspired Paul to do so? Amid subordinate motives, one might say, first, his desire to save souls. This is the only balm, the only medicine; and if he withhold it, or dilute it, or give not the full proportion that God has prescribed, he felt that the sick might die, and the dying never live. And, secondly, he did so because he desired to glorify Him whose ambassador and servant he was. God is glorified

How desirable it is that we

as he is made known: he glorifies him most who proclaims most plainly what he is and what he has done. And, perhaps, one reason why the apostle was not insensible was his desire to have a conscience clear and void of offence; or, in his own remarkable language, "pure from the blood of all men;" that is, if you perish, you perish as suicides. I have told you doctrine, and duty; I know not any one thing I have withheld, any one thing I have overstated, any truth I have diluted to propitiate your favour, or to avert your displeasure. "I can say, therefore, in the sight of God," says the apostle, "I have not shunned to declare unto you the whole counsel of God." What a blessed recollection, what a noble reflection! should be able to say so. But we must not only learn to say so as preachers, but as teachers, as heads of families, as connected with others that are ignorant. Wherever there is ignorance, there light has a duty that it cannot shake off; wherever there is sin, there true religion has a mission instantly obligatory. Wherever you are placed, and a word in season would be good, or a lesson instructive, where an example would be influential, there you have responsibility; and the head of the house, the teacher in the school, as well as the preacher in the pulpit, ought to be able to say, "I have not shunned in my place, where it was proper and expedient and right to say a word, to declare the whole counsel of God." And no doubt the apostle thus felt, not merely from these motives, but because he was taught, inspired, and directed by that Holy Spirit who reigned and ruled in his heart, and was guided by Him whose promise he ever realized, "Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world."

CHAPTER XX. 28.

CONCIO AD CLERUM; OR, A CHARGE TO THE CLERGY.

"TAKE heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood."

It is one of the great and characteristic excellences of the Gospel that the duties that are enjoined on ministers are open and accessible to the laity, and that the laity can read and ascertain those duties just as well as the preachers and the ministers themselves. The three epistles addressed to the clergy, strictly so called, are the two to Timothy and one to Titus; and these are bound up with that Bible which is not the monopoly of the few, but the privilege and possession of all mankind: so that all may hear and read what are the duties of those that preach, as well as appreciate the responsibilities of them that listen.

You have in these words an address to the Christian ministry, strictly so called. And in addressing to them the solemn and weighty advice, an advice that is partly caution, partly encouragement, he adds, "Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you bishops, to feed that flock purchased with the Redeemer's precious blood." First of all, "Take heed to yourselves;"