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SERMON
DELIVERED ON
WEDNESDAY EVENING, JUNE 21, 1854,
AT THE INSTALLATION OF THE
REV. E. SMALLEY, D. D
AS PASTOR OF THE
SECOND PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN TROY,
BY WILLIAM B. SPRAGUE, D. D.,
MINISTER OF THE SECOND PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, ALBANY.
WITH THE CHARGE TO THE PASTOR,
BY THE REV. E. E. SEELYE,
AND THE ADDRESS TO THE PEOPLE,
BY THE REV. E. HALLEY, D. D.
TROY, N. Y.:
A. W. SCRIBNER AND CO., PRINTERS, CANNON PLACE.
1854.Troy, June 22, 1854.
Rev. Dr. Sprague—
My Dear Sir:
At the expressed desire of numbers who heard
your Sermon at my installation, last evening, I am happy to request of
you a copy of said Sermon for publication. It will be a valuable me-
mento in the history of this Church. Hoping that you will not deny
this earnest request,
I am, Dear Sir,
Yours very faithfully,
E. SMALLEY.
Albany, June 26, 1854.
Rev. Dr. Smalley—
Dear Sir:
I need not tell you that the Sermon preached at
your installation was not written with the remotest view to its being
printed. I£ however, as your note intimates, it is the wish of yourself
and your friends to possess it, as marking an important event in the
history of your church, I cheerfully place it at your disposal; and the
more so, as it gives me the opportunity thus publicly to welcome you to
our neighborhood, and to renew to you the assurance of my high and
fraternal regard.
W. B. SPRAGUE.SERMON.
Psalm xix: *7.
THE LAW OF THE LORD IS PERFECT, CONVERTING THE SOUL.
Let me ask you to transport yourselves in imagi-
nation for a moment, to some community in •winch.
Paganism, in the very worst form, has never even
divided her empire with any other religion. Ima-
gine vice of every kind to he there, unrestrained by
any influence from within, or from without, or from
above. Imagine fraud and falsehood, revenge in all
its fury, sensuality in all its loathsomeness, every
thing that can debase, every thing that can pollute,
to belong to the established order of things; or rath-
er to form a part of the universal disorder. Be-
hold the child of adversity looking on all sides for
consolation; but no comforter rises up to wipe the
tear from the eye of sorrow. Behold the dying
man, moving tremblingly along through the dark
valley without knowing where it terminates; strug-
gling with fearful but undefined anticipations of the
future; and finally yielding up his spirit in wild
uncertainty, if not in blank despair. There are al-6
tars there, in which, yon may recognize engines of
death. There is worship performed there, hut it is
such as devils ask for. In short, the very rites of
religion are acts of revolting and degrading vice ;
and there is every thing to make you feel that you
are in an antechamber of Hell.
Suppose now that there should appear in the
midst of that population, unblest with the first
beam from the Sun of Righteousness, a Christian—a
true Christian—an eminent Christian ; one whose
light was always shining before men, and whose
heart was always beating in love to God and his
fellow-creatures; and suppose he should be there
on a mission of good will, and should act out the
Christian so distinctively and impressively that his
character should become a thing of mark; suppose
it should be noticed that his grand aim seemed to
be to do good to all around him; that he was com-
posed and even joyful in the midst of tribulation;
that when he spoke of death, his eye brightened as
if entranced by some glorious vision beyond the
tomb;—and suppose, still further, that some one
should start the question—whence this singular
specimen of human nature—whence this passion
for making others happy—whence this meekness
under provocation, this fortitude in danger, this
serenity in grief, this fearlessness to lie down and
die % Let the Christian hand over his Bible to the
Pagan inquirer, and his questions are all answered.1
Bead this Book, study this Book, and you shall be
in possession of the secret of this moral renovation,
this spirit of benevolence, this inward tranquillity.
The soul is indeed naturally dead in trespasses and
sins; but here is the perfect law of God, converting
the soul.
What I design in this discourse is to refer Chris-
tian character, in some of its leading elements, to
the influence of divine truth; in other words, to
show that, however great the difference between
the true Christian and the mere man of the world,
the application of the word of God to the heart and
conscience of the former, fully accounts for it.
Allow me here to say, in order to prevent mis-
apprehension, that I do not undertake to separate
the word of God from the Spirit of God, nor to
show precisely how the two are combined in the
work of moral renovation. But the thought which
I wish particularly to illustrate is, that the truths of
the Gospel have a natural adaptation to the produc-
tion of the spiritual life and to the formation and
growth of the Christian graces. Take any distinc-
tive characteristic of the true Christian you will,
and I will show you the rationale of it, in some
truth or truths which I will bring to you out of the
lively oracles.
There is one general remark that applies equally
to all the virtues and graces that compose the Chris-
tian character; namely, they are all expressly en-8
joined in the Bible—in other words, they are re-
quired by divine authority. And when the char-
acter and government of God are considered, in
connection with the fearful peril that must hang
upon the foot-steps of disobedience to the authority
of such a Being, this, of itself, must form a most
commanding motive to obedience. The fact that
God requires me to be and to do whatever is im-
plied in the Christian character and the Christian
life, ought to press upon me with the weight of a
world; ought to constrain me to the most vigorous
efforts not only to embrace the religion of Christ,
but to make the highest possible attainments in it.
But we will consider this subject under several
distinct particulars. I say then
I. In the first place, the grace of humility is the
legitimate production of the seed of divine truth.
What is the representation that the Bible furn-
ishes of the natural 5character of man? It is that
he is a rebel against his Maker’s authority; and as
such, is justly exposed to his righteous displeasure;
that his heart is fully set in him to do evil,—so that
when the highest considerations that infinite be-
nevolence can suggest, are left to act upon him,
without being seconded by the higher influence of
God’s Spirit, he opposes to them a deliberate and
persevering resistance. The Bible represents the
race as having fallen in their great progenitor ; as
habitually imitating him in his transgression; and9
as justly exposed to the most terrible of all penal-
ties—the death eternal. Say whether this is not a
fearful character for a race to possess—a fearful
condition for a race to be placed in.
Now there is salvation provided for man; but
what kind of salvation is it ? What are the teach-
ings of the Bible in respect to the manner in which
the curse experienced is removed, and the curse
threatened is averted ? Does the Bible exalt man
into his own deliverer, and leave him to congratu-
late himself that his own right arm hath gotten him
the victory over the powers of darkness ? The lan-
guage of the Bible is—“By grace are ye saved
through faith; and that not of yourselves; it is the
gift of God.” And again—“Not by works of
righteousness which we have done, but according to
his mercy He saved us, by the washing of regenera-
tion and renewing of the Holy Ghost.” In short,
the whole work of man’s redemption, from its be-
ginning in the everlasting councils of peace, to its
consummation in the immortal glory of all the ran-
somed, is a work of grace. Man has not even the
merit of accepting the gracious provision that is of-
fered him; for he is made willing in the day of
God’s power.
And what is man’s character and condition in
this life, even after the renovating work of the
Spirit has been performed ? Does he move about
as a pure and spotless being, with no remains of a10
corrupt nature; with, nothing to lay the foundation
for an inward conflict; as holy as an angel, and re-
quiring no preparation for joining the society of
angels, save the mere putting off of the earthly
tabernacle ? Let the Apostle, whose attainments in
holiness, we may safely say, have never been ex-
ceeded, supply the answer to these questions:—
“I find then a law that when I would do good, evil
is present with me. For I delight in the law of
God after the inward man: But I see another law in
my members warring against the law of my mind,
and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin
which is in my members; oh wretched man that I am,
who shall deliver me from the body of this death ?”
The uniform representation of the Bible is, that
the Christian, so long as he continues in the body,
notwithstanding he has within him the germ of
immortal life and happiness, is still a miserably im-
perfect being ; that his life is a life of constant war-
fare, and that his security depends, under God, on
his never ceasing vigilance.
Now lay together these different representations
which we find scattered through the Bible, and say
whether you can imagine any thing better adapted
to form and cherish a principle and a habit of hu-
mility. Is it indeed so, that I am born in iniquity,
and that my very earliest exercises as a moral and
accountable being, have betokened my natural
alienation from God—have I lived in the viola-11
tion of the most sacred obligations—have I turned
a deaf ear to God’s warning voice, and even treated
lightly the awakening motions of his Spirit—then
surely it becomes me penitently to acknowledge my
unworthiness, and thus to justify God’s righteous
sentence of condemnation against me. Do I in-
dulge the hope that old things in respect to me
have passed away, and all things have become new
—but the history of this change, as I read it in the
Bible, is identified with the shedding of the Re-
deemer’s blood, and the gift of his Spirit;—it does
not allow to me so much as a particle of merit—in
being saved, I am only the subject of sovereign and
undeserved mercy—shall not then the workings of
this salvation in my soul,—shall not every recollec-
tion of my Saviour’s sufferings, every triumph gained
over the tempter, every beam of light from above,
every hope of an immortal life, bow my spirit in
the deepest humility, by reminding me not only of
the contrast between what I know I was and what
I hope I am, but of the grace that translated me
from the one condition to the other ? I look into
the Bible, yet again, and there I read of the Christ-
ian’s weakness and poverty and liability to wander
even in his sanctified state; I look into my own
heart and find that it is a faithful delineation of my
own experience—and is not here also a considera-
tion to keep me humble ? If when I would do good
evil is present with me—and this is Paul’s doctrineon the subject, to the very letter—can I—dare I—
lift up my head before my Maker, as if there was
nothing in my life, nothing in my heart, that might
not challenge the scrutiny of an omniscient and in-
finitely Holy God ?
II. The teachings of the Bible are adapted no
less to produce and cherish love to God,—another of
the leading elements of the Christian character.
The character of God, as displayed in his word,
is supremely excellent and glorious. It is marked
by no defect; it embraces every perfection. There
are attributes which seem, at first view, to be op-
posed to each other—as justice and holiness, on the
one hand, and goodness and mercy on the other ;
but upon a closer inspection, we find that they
blend with each other like the colours of the bow,
each rendering the other more transcendantly glo-
rious. The divine perfections are not merely as-
serted in the Bible, but illustrated; not merely set
forth in abstract statements, but brought out in pal-
pable facts ; in other words, in the history of the
divine government. And the character of God as
thus represented, is at once infinitely awful and in-
finitely amiable; and the feeling which it is fitted
to awaken is a feeling not merely of reverence but
of complacency and love.
But you will say that this supposes a previous
holy taste; for how can he who is the subject of a
prevailing corrupt inclination, have either an eyetp discern, or a heart to relish, the beauties of holi-
ness ?	1 admit indeed that the word itself, inde-
pendently of the Spirit, could never communicate a
holy taste,—could never render the divine charac-
ter an object of complacence; though the Spirit
works by the word, in some sense, even in accom-
plishing this result; but when the new and spiritual
taste is once formed, then the principle of love to
God is sustained and quickened, especially by the
representations which the Bible gives of his charac-
ter; and though the Spirit still co-operates with the
word, yet the soul always feels that it is in its ap-
propriate element while it is meditating on the
revealed character of God; and the more it medi-
tates, the more it loves and rejoices with a joy
unspeakable and full of glory. But it is not merely
the perfection of the divine character, but the great-
ness of the divine benefits, that is fitted to awaken
and increase our love to God; and in this latter
case, the principle takes the form of gratitude.—
True indeed we have no need to go to the Bible to
find expressions of the divine goodness; for the
whole constitution of nature is fruitful of them; and
if you were to shut your eyes upon them in the
world without, you would still feel them every mo-
ment in the world within. But the Bible opens
another field—it shows us that God is not only
good but merciful—merciful not only to the bodies
but to the souls of men; and it shows us how this14
attribute of mercy runs, like a golden line, through
the whole work of redemption; how it watched
over the manger of Bethlehem; how it presided
with justice amidst the scenes of Calvary ; how it
performed its part at the tomb of Joseph; how it
breathes into the soul the breath of a regenerate
life; how it embosoms itself in the divine provi-
dence for the safe conduct of the believer through
his pilgrimage ; and how, in the person of the Re-
deemer and the Judge, it will place upon his head
at last a crown of life. Take the best measurement
you can of the love of God and the love of Christ,
as displayed in redemption; calculate, as well as
you can, the worth of this redemption as it reaches
down and takes the soul out of the horrible pit,
and then identifies itself with an endless career of
purity and bliss ; and bear in mind that in all this
you are only contemplating the plain representa-
tions of God’s word; and say what can constrain
your affections into the liveliest exercise of grati-
tude, if this does not. Whether, therefore, God is
to be loved for what He is or for what He does;
whether as the Creator and Ruler of the universe,
or as our supreme and immortal benefactor—here,
from God’s word, goes forth an influence to form
such a temper.
III. Benevolence is another of the attributes of
the Christian character; and to this also the teach-
ings of the Bible are eminently subservient.15
For, in the first place, the Bible gives a greatly
increased value to human nature, by fully establish-
ing its immortality and illustrating its capabilities
of eternal happiness. Reason, it must be admitted,
has something to say on this subject ; but her teach-
ings are limited, dubious, unsatisfactory; and after
she has told you more than she knows, and all that
she can conjecture, you feel that even the simplest
question in respect to the future, is not fully an-
swered. But the lively oracles not only assure us
of our immortality, but they tell us every thing
concerning the nature and the measure of the glory
within our reach, that is necessary to form the
highest motive to strive for it. If man, who is a
creature of yesterday, were to exist no longer than
till the body dies, and had no prospect of a recov-
ered existence, he would be little worthy of the
exercise of an exalted benevolence; and more than
that,—there would be no sphere in which it could
operate ; for all the good to be accomplished in re-
gard to an individual must have respect to this poor,
short life—to this dying and corruptible body, whose
condition, on the principle referred to, would really
be a matter of very little moment. But when I
open the Bible, and see life and immortality brought
to light; when I recognize in every human form that
meets my eye a living principle that will live for-
ever ; when I remember that in the most degraded
and loathsome specimen of humanity that ever pas-16
ses me in the street, there is a piece of God’s work-
manship that is susceptible of receiving a divine
impress, and shining forth in angelic purity, mil-
lions of ages after the sun has done shining in his
strength and the moon walking in her beauty; and
when I remember still further that each of these
immortal beings is as susceptible of wo as of bliss,
and that the measure of the one must be as terrible
as that of the other is glorious; I feel that there
could not be a more worthy object of benevolence
than man; for in the exercise of benevolence to-
wards him, especially in caring for his higher inter-
ests, I am performing a work, the effects of which
will pass along the whole line of immortality. Christ-
ianity teaches me not merely that he is my brother,
but that he is my brother immortal; and not to
relieve the wants of such an one, not to consider the
interests of such an one, when it is within my abili-
ty to do so, would be an offence alike against rea.
son and against God.
There is one circumstance revealed in the Bible
which not only greatly exalts human nature, but
stamps with peculiar honour all the ministrations
of benevolence towards it—I refer to the fact that
this nature has been worn, is actually worn now,
by the Son of God. Shall we not reverence the na-
ture in which Jesus suffered? Shall we not reverence
the nature in which Jesus reigns, and in which we
shall behold him sitting upon the great white throne?And shall we not find a new motive for doing good
to our fellow creatures in the fact that He who
thought it not robbery to be equal with God was
made in the likeness of men? Shall not our'be-
nevolent impulses be quicker and stronger, when
we remember that they are directed towards not
only the beings for whom Christ died, but beings
whom, through the common humanity, He permits
to recognize Him as an elder brother.
And then there is the example of Christ record-
ed in the Bible—‘recorded for the very purpose of
leaving an impress on the hearts of those who
should contemplate it. Trace this adorable per-
sonage from his first appearance in Bethlehem, as a
babe, to the last words with which He blessed his
disciples, as the Heavens were opening to receive
Him; pause where you will in his career, and no-
tice what you will in his conduct; and you find
Him always, every where, in the diligent perform-
ance of his mission of good will to men. He was
always about his Father’s business; and that busi-
ness was to save and bless his erring creatures.—
And his condescension in these deeds of mercy
you are to estimate by the fact that He was in the
form of God, when He thus took upon Himself the
form of a servant. Who can hold to his thoughts
this sublime example of benevolence, and shut up
his own bowels of compassion ? Who can study
the life and the death of Jesus, with a heart open
318
to impressions, without even asking it as a privilege
that he may make some fresh offering to relieve the
wants, to supply the needs, to elevate the condition,
of those who are legitimate subjects for his charity.
IV. It belongs to the Christian to exhibit forti-
tude in danger, patience in adversity, serenity or
triumph in death: if we examine the constitution
of the Gospel, we shall find that in it which will
fully account for these exalted qualities.
Here is revealed the doctrine of a particular
providence—the assurance that, however apparent-
ly adverse the course of events may be, all things
shall ultimately work together for good to them
that love God. Here is revealed God’s paternal
character—the fact that the secret of the Lord is
with them that fear Him, and He will show them his
covenant; and that like as a father pitieth his chil-
dren, so the Lord pitieth them that fear Him. Here
death is revealed, not as an enemy to the Chris-
tian, but as a friend; as performing an office which
the decree of infinite wisdom has made necessary
to our entering on an immortal life, and upon which
contempt will be poured by the scenes of the great
resurrection day. Here too, Heaven is revealed as
the quiet resting place of the spirit after all the
storms of life are over; as the eternal habitation of
both body and spirit, when the grave shall have
given up the one to be gloriously re-united to. the
other.19
Now who that walks in the light of these revela-
tions and imbibes their spirit, will not be prepared
to triumph over every form of human calamity ?
What though dangers seem to threaten, and the
sound of an approaching tempest betokens the wreck
of our best earthly hopes, can we not feel safe in
the secret place of the Most High; can we not re-
pose in the promise that his providence will be our
covert from the storm; or if the storm should sweep
us into eternity, that it will only hasten the day of
our complete redemption? If sickness overtakes us
and palsies our energies; if poverty comes and tries
us by its inconveniences and privations; if bereave-
ment covers us with badges of mourning, and some
chamber in our dwelling echoes to the monsters
tread, and the affections which used to find their
object at home, go and linger about the grave; why
should our spirits rise in rebellion—rather why
should they not repose in serene submission,—when
we remember that it is the hand of a Father that
has struck away the prop on which we were lean-
ing, and that the affliction we have experienced, is
part of the instrumentality by which God designs
to prepare us for Heaven? And finally, if the
shadows of the last night of our earthly existence
have fallen around us, and we have evidence that
we cannot resist that our days are actually num-
bered, and that our moments will quickly be, what
matters even this, if like martyr Stephen, we can20
look up and see the Heavens opening for our recep-
tion ; if we can feel assured that the last pulsation
on earth is immediately followed by the first pul-
sation of an immortal life; that earthly objects
fade upon our vision only to make way for our be-
ing absorbed and entranced by the glories of the
Heavenly world ? Who that amidst the agonies of
death, should hear his Redeemer saying, “ Come
up hither, welcome to this purchased crown and
throne,”—might not afford gratefully to respond—
“ Come, Lord Jesus, come quickly?”
Our subject teaches us in what sense the true
Christian has the witness within to the divine au-
thority of the Gospel. It is no miraculous testi-
mony that is here implied: the Christian simply
notices the effect that has been produced upon
him, and refers the effect to its legitimate cause:
he finds that the graces that are produced in his
soul are the very counterpart of the truths of God’s
word; and hence the truth of the Bible becomes
to him a matter of personal experience. And
there is little doubt that this kind of evidence is
more relied on by the mass of Christians than any
other. An ingenious skeptic might easily perplex,
by his cavils, an unlettered peasant; and if we
were to judge by the triumph of the one and the
confusion of the other, we might suppose that
Christianity stood at best upon a very weak foun-
dation • but believe me, the infidel has made noapproach, towards reasoning the Christian out of
his convictions, when he has sealed his lips; for
the Christian has something else to fall back upon;
and that is his own inward experience: he knows
that the Bible is not a forgery, because its teach-
ings correspond to what he finds within him; and
because he is conscious that it has accomplished a
work upon his own heart, which nothing could have
accomplished in which there was not a divine pow-
er. The skeptic may glory in his triumph; but
it is a poor triumph at best; for it has left the
humble Christian, whose faith he has assailed, as
clear, and as firm, and as happy, in his religious
convictions as ever.
Again: Our subject shows us what is the true
test of Christian character. If we are begotten
again to the lively hope through the word, then
our characters, as regenerate persons, must bear,
in some good degree, the impress of the word; our
experience must be that which the word not only
describes, but is fitted to produce. The Christian
is at best an imperfect being, conscious of a vast
amount of remaining sin; but then this does not
vitiate his claim to the character of a Christian;
for this is precisely in accordance with the Scrip-
ture representation. The Christian nevertheless
has within him the elements of a perfect character—
the embryo of all the Christian graces; and this is
not only just as the Bible represents, but it is the22
legitimate result of a belief in the Bible. Are you
relying then with great confidence on some particu-
lar feature of your character as evidence of your
heavenly birth; or are you greatly distrusting your
claims to Christian character on the ground of some
dark and dubious sign in your experience—in either
case, it is your true wisdom to refer the quality
which you are contemplating to the standard of
God’s word. However much you may have gloried
in it, possibly you may find that it could not be the
product of the seed of divine truth; however much
you may have doubted in consequence of it, possi-
bly it may turn out that the Bible recognizes it as
something that is incident to human infirmity, and
that has marked the characters of the best of men.
I say again, if you will judge your character intelli-
gently, you must inquire whether you are bring-
ing forth the fruits of the Spirit; in other words,
whether your temper and conduct are such as a
belief in God’s word is fitted to produce.
Again: Our subject teaches us that faith is, to
the spiritual system, what the process of assimila-
tion and digestion is to the bodily system. God
has revealed in his word that truth by which men
are to be sanctified and fitted for Heaven; and
herein He has lodged the energies of His own Om-
nipotence. But then the truth does not work upon
man as a machine; it does not arrest him and mould
him into a vessel of mercy, independently of his23
own volitions and efforts; but it moves his own
moral powers; it diffuses itself as a purifying leaven
through his whole moral constitution; it works
within him as a divine power both to will and to
do; and it accomplishes all this through the influ-
ence of faith. You believe God’s truth, and it fills
you with terror in respect to the future. You be-
lieve God’s truth, and it brings you to the foot of
the cross. You believe God’s truth, and in the act
of thus believing, you welcome Jesus as your Sa-
viour. You believe God’s truth, and you are hum-
ble and grateful and benevolent and ready to bear
the cross. It is in the exercise of faith that you
become a true Christian; and it is in the continued
exercise of faith that your Christian character ma-
tures and brightens, and that you finally reach the
fullness of the stature of a perfect person in Christ.
Finally: Does not the subject we have been con-
templating, give great significance and impressive-
ness to the occasion which hath convened us ?
As it is the office of the perfect law of God, or
the truth revealed in God’s word, to convert the
soul, so it belongs to the Christian ministry to pre-
sent the truth in such a manner as is best adapted
to bring it home to the mind, both as light and as
power. You, my friends, members of this Christian
society, have reason, especially on this occasion, to
thank God, for the establishment and preservation
of this institution in the midst of you. Notwith-24
standing the disappointment which you have re-
cently experienced in the removal to another
sphere of labour, of a deservedly esteemed and be-
loved pastor, you have not, like many congrega-
tions, been subjected to protracted vacancy, and
the evils often consequent upon it—on the contra-
ry, the Presbytery had scarcely performed the office
of dissolving the pastoral relation here, before it
was summoned to the more grateful office of re-
constituting it,—and that under the most auspicious
circumstances ; for the man whom you have chosen
brings with him a character that may well justify
the expectation, if life and health are spared, of a
career of vigorous and honourable devotion to
your highest interests. But forget not, amidst all
the passing gratulations, that the mission on which
he comes to you is one of awful moment—it is no-
thing less than to open to your understandings, and
urge upon your consciences, and endeavour to lodge
in your hearts, that perfect law of the Lord that
converts the soul. No matter what else his minis-
try may accomplish, any thing short of this, must
render it to you a barren ministry. But need I
say that such a result is not to be anticipated in-
dependently of your own hearty and earnest co-
operation; for he cannot perform the double office
of preaching to you, and hearing and believing
for you. See to it then that ye do not discourage,
enfeeble, neutralize his labours, by an indolent and25
careless attendance upon them. See to it that ye
do not render the sword of the Spirit powerless in
his hands—that ye do not cause the message he
delivers, to return upon you as a ministration of
condemnation another day. See to it, Christians,
that ye are found ready to help him in his high
vocation; that thus the bright hopes which connect
themselves with this occasion may be fully realized,
and you and He may rejoice together at last in a
glorious harvest gathered from this privileged field
of Christian and ministerial labour.
May I not be allowed to congratulate you also,
my dear brother, by whose courtesy, in connection
with that of this venerable Presbytery, it is my
privilege to bear a part in these introductory ser-
vices. I confess that my feelings in meeting you
on this occasion are somewhat modified by the fact
that, like yourself, I was baptized, and to a great
extent trained, and for many years exercised the
pastoral office, in the Congregational church; and
not till my right hand forgets her cunning, shall I
cease to hold in grateful remembrance the scenes
in which I mingled, the brethren with whom I-was
associated, in those early days. But I have found,
and I am sure that you also will find, that the
change, in passing from the body with which you
have been, to that with which you are now, con-
nected, has respect more to form than substance;
and I cannot doubt, judging from my own expe-
426
rience, that you will have no occasion to regret,
either in respect to comfort or usefulness, your
change of ecclesiastical relations. I congratulate
you that you come to a neighbourhood in which
the churches and the ministers are at peace; that
you come to a congregation in such good repute
for intelligence, stability and zeal. 1 congratulate
you on the unanimity and cordiality with which
you have been called and welcomed to this import-
ant field. I congratulate you that you are imme-
diately associated with beloved and honoured
brethren, who will account it a privilege to be fel-
low-helpers with you unto the kingdom of God. I
congratulate you on all that is auspicious in this
hour. May your whole ministry among this people
be an ever accumulating proof that the law of the
Lord is perfect converting the soul,CHARGE TO THE PASTOR.
BY THE REV. E. E. SEELYE.
Respected and Beloved Brother:
You are now occupying the respon-
sible position of a Pastor over this Congregation.
A new field of labour is now before you, and it is
with hope and confidence the Presbytery bids you
enter upon it. The occasion is one 'which suggests
the propriety of a few words addressed directly to
yourself, with reference to the deeply interesting
circumstances which surround you; although I can-
not hope to advance any thing which your own
prayerful reflection has not already anticipated.
We have no formal instructions to make out for
you. When any human government sends out its
ambassador to a foreign court, it furnishes him with
full dispatches which clearly indicate to him what
questions of diplomacy he is to treat about, what
terms he is to propose, and what are the fundamen-
tal principles which are to govern him in all his
negotiations. But a similar duty does not devolve
upon us, when we install you over this people. For28
your instructions are already made out. The whole
subject matter of your ministry is furnished to your
hand in the word of God. As a Church Court we
claim no right to add or take away aught from the
truths revealed. We have no new doctrines to
propose—no rites and ceremonies to institute. All
we can say to you on that point is : follow your in-
structions,—study well your dispatches,—keep close
to your commission, and prove faithful, as God’s
ambassador to this people.
It is not necessary that I should attempt at this
time to draw a picture of pastoral life, or to paint
on the perspective of the future, the diversified
experiences through which you must expect to pass.
For you have already tried the ministry. You
cannot but know something—yea, much of the
routine of labour and of duty,—of the pleasures and
the difficulties, the promises and discouragements,
the hopes and the ’ solicitudes of one who is ap-
pointed to watch for souls. I know of nothing
strange or peculiar in the state of this Congrega-
tion, of which you are now the Pastor. You will
find a people, I believe, not essentially unlike other
congregations which you have already known.—
You will, in this church, doubtless meet with the
same variety of experiences which you have else-
where found already,—professing Christians in all
the different stages of Christian life; some adorn-
ing the doctrine of God their Saviour, and othersencompassed with manifold temptations; some full
grown men and others babes in Christ; some pro-
gressing but slowly in faith and knowledge, and
some, alas, who you may fear have a name to live
but are dead. We know it is thus elsewhere, and
it will be strange if you find it not so here. There
will be much to cheer you, and some things to dis-
courage you. As your acquaintance with your peo-
ple becomes matured, and their characters shall be
developed by succeeding circumstances, your own
wisdom and past experience will teach you how to
carry yourself among them, and to adapt your min-
istrations to all the peculiar emergencies which
transpire; and with that same fidelity to your Mas-
ter, which will prompt you sometimes to lead them
as a son of consolation, you will at other times be-
come to them a son of thunder. Thus there will
doubtless be to you the alternate lights and shad-
ows of ministerial life;—hours of gloom and hours
of gladness;—seasons of discouragement, and sea-
sons of refreshing. For all these, I trust you are
prepared.
I deem it unnecessary for me to detain you at
this time with a detailed account of your specific
duties. The call which this congregation has given
you, and your installation over them by the Pres-
bytery, are a sufficient expression of their confi-
dence in your piety and wisdom to apprehend what
those duties are, and to perform them as God shall30
give you strength. A few observations of a more
general nature will be all that I shall offer.
Need I remind you, my Brother, of the import-
ance of assiduously cultivating your own personal
piety, as a means toward the successful prosecu-
tion of your work?—I can conceive of no more
thankless and soul-crushing task, than that of a
godless minister endeavouring to play the part of a
Christian teacher to win the approbation of the
world. I can conceive of a truly Christian man
ministering in holy things with comfort to himself,
only when his heart is fully in his work, and when
the graces of the Spirit are in lively exercise in his
own soul. Intellectual discipline and study are in-
deed necessary. But the discipline of the heart is
also indispensable,—that discipline which is secur-
ed only by constant self-examination and prayer.
It is indispensable to your own peace and comfort
in your work. If you would not go to your pulpit
like a galley slave, if you would not be again and
again sick of, the ministry, and hackneyed and dis-
gusted with cares, if you would not go through
your routine of labours mechanically, and heartless-
ly, and drudgingly, then must you watch your own
heart; then must you live in fellowship with Christ,
and with a felt apprehension of the things of Christ.
Would you labour successfully, you must preach
from the depth of your own experience, and speak
that you do know, and testify that which you have31
seen. This it is, that will give an air of sincerity
to all your teachings, and enable you to commend
yourself to the consciences of your hearers. Let
your whole heart, then, be consecrated to your sa-
cred work. Let your whole faith grasp with a firm
hold the great, living doctrines of the cross; and
preach them to your people, like one who knows
their preciousness and power.
Again. Let me suggest to you the importance
of cherishing a warm affection for this people.—
You ought to love them, if you expect to benefit
them. Only let them see, in all your ministrations
in their behalf, that you earnestly seek their good,
—that you are willing to exhaust your strength for
them, and give your time for them,—let them feel
that when they are sitting under your ministry,
they are not listening to the voice of a hireling
who careth not for the sheep, but to one who loves
their souls, and you may then find a door of en-
trance to their hearts. You may then deal plainly
with them. You may make them sorry for a time,
as Paul did his Corinthian brethren, but instead of
turning upon you with malice and fierce recrimina-
tion, they will sorrow after a godly sort, and event-
ually thank you for your kind, but faithful reproof
The love which you bear them will also prompt
you to acquaint yourself, as far as possible, with the
different circumstances and experiences of the dif-
ferent members of your congregation. You need32
not be a stranger in their houses. You need not
keep at a studied and majestic distance from them
in order to magnify your office. You will not do
it, if you love them as you ought. Yours will be
the pleasing task to move among the families of
your charge, not with the air of a cold hearted cen-
sor, but as a familiar and sympathizing friend.
You are the one to whom they can unburden their
cares without restraint, and look for counsel and
encouragement. Your place is by the humble fire-
side of the poorest Christian, as well as by the
sumptuous board of some rich parishioner. They
will look for you by the bedside of sickness and in
the chamber of death. They will ask the tribute
of a tear around the coffin of departed kindness,
and the warm pressure of your friendly hand, when
the hand they once loved to press is stiff and cold.
And can you give them all this, unless you love
them ? Can you rejoice with them who rejoice,
and weep with them who weep, unless you feel a
oneness with your people, a strong attachment to-
ward them, and a tender interest in their welfare ?
Surely not.
Again. Let me exhort you not to rest satisfied
without seeing the results of your labours in the
ingathering of souls. You certainly are warranted
in looking for fruit in its season. You certainly
may preach in faith; in a clear expectation that
your preaching will take effect, that Cod will bless
it and souls be saved by it.38
It should be a sore disappointment to you to see
your congregation going home Sabbath after Sab-
bath just as they came, and 'no sinner awakened,
and no anxious one lingering behind to ask you
what he must do to be saved. Is it said that ex-
perience shows this to be the general fact ? True,
but would not a different experience follow from
labours prosecuted with a different expectation ?
Would not more be done, if we had faith to look
for it? Is it sheer presumption for the man of
God, as he walks up and down the valley of vision,
to have his ears open and his eye intent to catch
the sound and to see the bones stirring and the
dead quickening ? Rest assured that the measure of
your success, will bear some proportion to the mea-
sure of your faith. Go to your work then, believing
that your labour will not be in vain in the Lord.
Cast your eye around for signs of promise. Pray for
your people, and preach to them as though you were
impatient for their salvation. Let them discover
that in all your labours, you are expecting something
—like Elijah on the top of Carmel, bidding his ser-
vant to stand on the mountain brow and gaze sea-
ward for the little cloud, while he prayed long and
earnestly for rain. Should disappointment attend
your efforts, let it quicken you to humility and self-
examination. Only rest not contented till you can
point to the fruits of your travail, in those whom
you have begotten in the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
534
Finally: Let me charge you to keep in view your
final reckoning and reward. You watch for souls as
one who must give account. You will labour best by
keeping the Judgment habitually before your mind.
It will be well for you to feel that there is a keen
eye upon you all the while, and a reckoning day
awaiting you, to look upon your ministry from some
stand-point in the future when it shall be finished.
The reward of your ministerial fidelity should be
enough to prompt you to diligence and sustain you
in discouragements. Think of the glad approval of
the faithful minister meeting him as he closes up
his earthly labours, and points to the seals of his
ministry, saying, “ Lord, thy pound hath gained ten
pounds.” Keep your eye upon the crown; it will
cheer you in despondency; it will revive your
hope. Heaven is not so far off, as it often appears
to be. A long work day seems now opening be-
fore you here, but in a little while you will rest
from your labours. Be thou faithful unto death.
Accustom yourself to an habitual look-out towards
eternal things, a familiarity in thought and medita-
tion with things to come. Then may you endure
hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. Then
may you take heed unto yourself and unto your
doctrine, and in doing this you shall both save
yourself and them that hear you.—“ And when the
Chief Shepherd shall appear, you shall receive a
crown of glory that fadeth not away.”CHARGE TO THE PEOPLE.
BY THE REV. E. HALLEY, D. D.
My Dear Hearers :
May I not congratulate you on the
interesting purpose that has convened you this
evening. You were recently deprived of the ser-
vices of a beloved and talented Pastor by his accep-
tance of a collegiate chair in a literary institution of
our country.* It not infrequently happens in such
circumstances that a considerable time elapses ere
the Church obtains another, and in the meantime
its former harmony is rent by dissensions and its
character for efficiency and general excellence great-
ly impaired by unholy passions that have been en-
gendered. By the interposition of a kind provi-
dence you have been preserved from both of those
evils. Your period of vacancy has been of brief
duration, and through it, your measures have been
characterized by entire harmony, and concert, and
resulted in the cordial and unanimous choice of the
Pastor who has been this evening installed among
* The Rev. T. P. Field, Professor of Rhetoric in Amherst College, Mass.36
you. The solemn and arduous duties connected with
the faithful discharge of the pastoral office have
been satisfactorily exhibited by the preceding
speaker. But there are important duties also de-
volving oh you. Transfer not, I entreat you, the
exclusive responsibility arising from the relation
formed this evening, to your Pastor. With what-
ever skill he may exhibit the doctrines of the Gos-
pel, and with whatever earnestness and eloquence
he may address himself to your hearts, the benefit of
his labours will be entirely neutralized among you,
if you do not faithfully execute your duties as
“ hearers of the word.” Believing that you desire
his ministry to be eminently blessed among you,
permit me to subjoin a few plain and practical sug-
gestions, by the careful observance of which your
Church will be eminently “ a prosperous vine which
shall give forth her fruit,”
I. This Church will flourish under the ministra-
tions of your Pastor if its members evince an ardent
attachment to the ordinances of religion. These are
institutions of divine appointment, designed to in-
crease our knowledge, our piety and usefulness on
earth, and to qualify us through the discipline and
activities of the Christian graces here, for the glo-
ries of an imperishable inheritance. God has also
promised to honor the assembly of his saints with
his blessing, and the experience of the Church in
every age has borne testimony to the efficacy of37
these ordinances in the conversion of sinners, and
the edification of saints. “ Love then the gates of
Zion, more than the dwellings of Jacob.” Be joy-
ful “ when it is said to you let us go unto the house
of the Lord, let our feet tread his sacred courts.”
Prepare for the sacred services of the sanctuary by
prayer and private communion with God. Thus
shall you be fitted for engaging with a devotional
frame when you meet to engage in its public du-
ties. A person who attends a political meeting
soon breathes the atmosphere of the place, catches
the enthusiasm of his party, and is borne along in
the resistless tide of eloquence which advocates
some important measure. It is otherwise in a reli-
gious assembly. Its discoveries are not so palpable
to the mind. Its truths are not so welcome to the
heart. Its interest do not so naturally associate
themselves with our trains of thoughts, nor so
promptly lead to vigorous action. Hence the pro-
priety of invoking Jehovah “to send forth his
light and truth to us, before we go to the altar of
God.”
Allow no trivial apology, no unwarrantable plea
originating in indolence or disinclination to inter-
fere wish, your attendance. How many frame ex-
cuses, for “ forsaking the assembling of themselves
together” in the house of God. They are weary
and they need repose, or they are feeble, and can-
not bear the excitement of the services, or they are38
sick and must remain quiet in their apartment, or
there is a storm gathering which will sow the seeds
of disease in their frame. Never advance an apolo-
gy here, which yon will he ashamed to present in
the “presence of the Lord Jesus Christ with all his
saints.” Every head of a family also will exercise
his parental authority, in bringing his children
along with him, exclaiming like Joshua, “What-
ever others do, as for me and my house I will serve
the Lord.” Few spectacles are more fitted to in-
duce an angel to pause in his embassies through
space, as a family in full muster in their seat on
Sabbath, and the Christian parent, as he looks
along the row of immortals soon to be introduced
into the cares and temptations of the world, con-
signing them to the guardianship of Jehovah and
exclaiming, Behold I and the children whom thou
hast given me.
Nor in a church of this character will the Sab-
bath ever be mutilated in its services. Its worship-
pers will not rest satisfied with only one visit “ to
draw water from the wells of salvation,” its morn-
ing service will not be attended with a dense
mass of worshippers, and the following, be hon-
ored only by a select group scattered along our
pews, “few and far between,” but the holy Sab-
bath through all its ceremonial, will be regarded
“the delight of the Lord and honorable.”39
The deportment of the worshippers will also
evince the importance they attach to the services
of the Sanctuary. There will be no drowsy and
vacant countenances, no indications of levity or
irreverence, but they will conduct themselves as
those “assembled to hear the things commanded
them of God.” They will not desire to be amused
with rhetorical figures, or harmonious periods, dis-
quisitions on the arts and sciences or expositions of
the political questions of the day. No, they will
come “hungering and thirsting after righteousness
that they may be filled.” The Gospel, the whole
Gospel, and nothing but the Gospel, will be the
theme to which they delight to listen. And they
will regard it as a religion whose lessons are to be
reduced to practice in their intercourse in the world.
In the beautiful and comprehensive language of
our shorter catechism, “ they will attend on these
ordinances with diligence, preparation and prayer,
receive them with faith and love, lay them up in
their hearts and practise them in their lives.”
II. Your church will flourish under the minis-
trations of your Pastor if it is pervaded by a spirit
of prayer. Perhaps the world never produced a
race of saints equal to those of the apostolic age.
Now from incidental intimations given of their
habits and practices in the acts of the Apostles, it
would seem that they attached far more import-
ance than we do to the exercise of prayer, and de-40
voted to it a much larger space of time. It would
seem that almost all their religious enterprises were
preceded or accompanied with prayer, and that
they spent a considerable portion of every day in
the exercises of private or social devotion. The
prominence that they gave to this exercise is amply
justified by the importance that the sacred writers
assign to it in the epistles which they addressed to
the Churches, “ Pray without ceasing,” “ praying
always,” “continue instant in prayer,” “be sober
and watch unto prayer ”—these are a specimen of
their injunctions upon this subject with which their
writings are so abundantly interspersed. How
important is this duty to a church when taken into
connection with the success of the Gospel. The
blessing of God is indispensably necessary to give
success to the means of Grace. The Pastor may
be a man of talent, of piety, and zeal,—he may ex-
hibit the Gospel in all the cogency of argument and
all the pathos of persuasion,—he may conduct his
hearers to the lightning wreathed brow of Sinai, or
the ascending chariot on Mount Olivet,—he may
preach and weep and exhort and entreat, but with-
out the blessing of God, his ministrations will be
only as “ sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal.”
How incumbent then on the members of a Church
to supplicate that those celestial influences may de-
scend by which the careless may be awakened, the
impenitent converted, and the glory of God pro-41
moted. By this instrumentality abundantly em-
ployed in the midst of you, you may expect “ times
of refreshing from the presence of the Lord.”
Prayer is also an indispensable evidence of the
Christian character, and if there be a member of a
church who lives in the neglect of this duty he is a
gilded potsherd, he is a whitened sepulchre, a tare
among the wheat,' a goat among the sheep, an
Achan in the camp of the godly, a treacherous
Judas in the family of Christ. Every Christian
will maintain this intimate communion with God.
He has wants that nothing but prayer can supply,
perplexities that nothing but prayer can dissipate,
aspirations that nothing but prayer can gratify.
He will “ pray to his father who seeth in secret,
and his father who seeth in secret will reward him
openly.”
But a church where religion is prosperous will
also abound in family prayer. There are some
duties of religion resulting so plainly from the rela-
tions we bear to each other and to God that they
scarcely need to be made the subject of positive
precept, and are therefore left to the deductions of
intelligence and the dictates of conscience. Of this
nature is the one of which we are now speaking.
We find our warrant for it not so much in explicit
injunction as in its obvious connection with the
glory of God, and our own welfare, in the rich
promises of God’s mercy to those by whom it is
6observed, and in Scripture examples of Abraham,
Job and others recorded with the testimony of the
divine approbation. How salutary the influence of
this service on the young of a household—cradled
thus amid the influences of piety, accustomed to
these periodical seasons of devotion, which no or-
dinary arrangement ever disturbs, listening to the
fervency of prayers offered up in their behalf morn-
ing and evening, we cannot but expect that under
such training, they “will remember their Creator
in the days of their youth.” Such impressions are
treasured up in the cells of the memory and become
illuminated in the sunshine of future years. John
Newton, Colonel Gardiner, and many others, who
plunged into the excesses of vice, found that these
recollections embittered the cup of intemperance
and gave them no rest till they bowed to the au-
thority of the Gospel.
In such a church, also, as I am now describing,
meetings for social prayer will be instituted and
numerously attended. In these, mutual love will
be promoted, and the piety of its members advanced.
Amid the engrossing scenes of business the Christ-
ian will hail these as resting places in the feverish
game of commerce, desirable pauses in the journey
of life. He will love to lay aside his ledger for his
Bible, and to exchange for an hour the society of
the worldly and the wicked for that of the righte-
ous, and to look beyond the narrow and cloudy43
horizon of time at those things that are unseen and
eternal. And when we look at the world in its
widespread fields of superstition and depravity—
when we remember that sin is reigning and Satan
triumphing, and iniquity abounding on every side,
that Idolatry grasps its hundred millions in its iron
servitude, and the Gospel is gaining few triumphs
at home, shall not a Christian church be seen rally-
ing around the mercy seat at these solemn convo-
cations, bringing down divine influences by prayer
to bless a preached Gospel in the midst of us,
and to prosper the cause of the cross which has
been unfurled in Heathen lands.
III. Your church will flourish under the minis-
trations of your Pastor if it is distinguished by its
purity.
The Church and the world are invariably repre-
sented as societies distinct and widely dissimilar;
“Ye are not of the world,” said the Saviour to his
disciples, “even as I am not of the world.” “Ye
are a chosen generation,” says an Apostle, “ a royal
priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people, called
out of darkness into light to show forth the loving
kindness of our God.” A church absolutely pure,
consisting only of genuine saints, is perhaps scarcely
to be found on earth. The College of the Apostles,
though it consisted of only twelve persons, contain-
ed one person who was a traitor and a devil. But
though absolute purity is not to be expected, com-44
parative purity is not unattainable, and every one
“ who has named the name of Christ will study to
depart from all iniquity.” The Christian character
will be exemplified in their lives, as combining
11 whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are
lovely, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever
things are of good report.” Aim then at elevated
attainments in holiness. Let all men “ take know-
ledge of you that you have been with Jesus.” O,
when a church is walking “ in the fear of the Lord,
and in the comfort of the Holy Ghost,” its mem-
bers will not resemble those non-descript speci-
mens of the Christian character so unhappily pre-
valent in the midst of us, those shadowy abstrac-
tions where little more is seen of religion but the
name. Such hollow hearted professors do incalcu-
lable mischief to the cause of religion. They cause
“the name of Jesus to be evil spoken of,” and
strengthen the prejudices of the impenitent who
regard religion as nothing but grimace and hy-
pocrisy. What shall we think of professors of our
holy religion, who sanction with their presence the
temples of fashion, and the abodes of theatrical
amusements, where the pious and the worldly, the
gay and the grave can mingle in the same dance,
or witness the same scenes where religion by uni-
versal sufferance is abjured, and a dangerous and
seductive brilliancy is thrown over vice. Where
then is the ignominy of the Cross? Where the45
reproach of the world ? Where the “ testimony of
a good conscience, that in simplicity and godly
sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom, hut by the grace
of God they have their conversation in the world ?”
Strive to maintain the consistency of your charac-
ter, by the rectitude of your pecuniary transactions,
the purity of your conversation, your forbearance
under injury, meekness under provocation, and a
general deportment “ void of offense towards God
and man.” Live as something divine amid what is
human, as heavenly citizens on earth, as candidates
for a heavenly crown.
IV. Your Church will flourish under the minis-
trations of your Pastor, if it is pervaded by a spirit
of love. How strikingly was this feature exhibited
in the character of the primitive Church. Even
their enemies were constrained to exclaim, Behold,
how they love one another ; as an evidence of this
in the church of Jerusalem,. “ they that believed
had all things common, and sold their possessions
and goods 'and parted them to all men, as every
man had need.” In their reciprocal affection for
each other, as disciples of the same Master, and
heirs of the same blessed inheritance, they found a
sufficient compensation for all the sufferings to
which they were subjected. Study my Christian
friends to be “like-minded,” “walk in love as
Christ has loved you.” Especially, let this be di-
rected to those who are of the household of faith.46
However humble may be their condition, however
scanty their possesion, esteem them as children of
the most high. Let jealousies among families be
unknown^ Let the tale of calumny never circulate
to injure the reputation of any brother, and be
ready to put the most favorable construction on
reports, affecting the character of another, until he
is proved to be guilty. Believe me, few things
prove more deleterious to the prosperity of a
church, than when it is agitated by dissensions, and
rent by factions. The dove-like spirit can never
be expected to dwell in such an assembly, nor the
holy graces he implants to flourish in such an in-
congenial soil. On the contrary, what a happy
state does a church present when the obligations
of the ever new commandment of Christ is felt. It
is a little enclosure, fenced off from the warring
and troubled world. The tumult and the peace
are heard without, but all within is peace and con-
fidence. “O, how good and pleasant it is for
brethren to dwell together in unity.” The precious
ointment that was poured upon the head of the
high priest, diffusing its fragrance over all his robes,
the dew of Hermon that descended on the mount-
ains of Zion, hanging its countless gems of orient
pearl and gold, in the morning ray on blade and
bush and tree, when glittering in the beams of the
sun, present not so grateful an image, produce not
so pure and refreshing and delightful an impression,
as the scene which a Church exhibits, when “the47
multitude of them that believe, are of one heart
and one soul.”
Y. Your Church will flourish under the minis-
trations of your pastor, if it be pervaded by a
missionary spirit. Every Church exists not for
her own sake alone. The privileges and immuni-
ties entrusted to her, are also given for the sake of
a world lying in wickedness. The province of the
Church of Christ is not conservative merely, but
aggressive. How mournful that she has so little
walked worthy of her high vocation. Too often
has she exhibited the spectacle of her friends
drawing their swords against each other, in the
way of conflicting opinions, instead of turning
them against the common foe, and marching in
one closely united phalanx, to pull down the.
strongholds of satan. It is high time to suspend
these petty feuds, when error and heresy and infi-
delity are coming in to reap that harvest which
should have been done by the Church. The pres-
ent is a peculiar season of energy and activity, as
to evangelical propogandism. Departments of
Christian benevolence are multiplying in every
direction. Agencies, embracing almost every plan
whereby ignorance can be instructed and vice
eradicated and suffering alleviated, are spreading
themselves on every hand. Sustain, then, as you
have hitherto done, — aye, and if possible, with
increased liberality—all the religious efforts of the
age: the Bible Society and the Foreign Mission-ary Society and the Tract Society and the Home
Missionary Society, the Sunday School Union and
the Bethel Flag, the Society for the conversion of
the Jews, the Education Society, for training up
youths to the holy ministry, and the Extension
scheme, for aiding in the erection of Churches, in
the destitute districts of our country. These are
indispensable parts in that glorious system of ma-
chinery, which the Church is now employing for
the regeneration of a lost world, and no doubt
they will yet multiply into more ramifications, as
fields of usefulness open up, or greater subdivision
of Christian effort may be deemed necessary. In
all these efforts, my dear friends, study to be a
Church of the times. Remember the high posi-
tion you occupy, as the professed followers of
Christ. The Church of Christ! What important
resources are lodged in her. Her Scriptures and
her ministry, her Sabbaths and her ordinances, her
prayers and her self-denying efforts, are the hope
of benighted and lost men. Strive ye, as a section
of this, to multiply your efforts, that God’s name
may soon be known in all the earth, and his saving
health among all people.
And now, my dear friends, I commend your
Pastor and you to God and the word of his grace ;
may the relation now formed between him and
you, be eminently a happy and profitable one, and
may he through eternity, have many of you who
shall be his crowns of joy and rejoicing.