ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS 
 
 DEI IVKUKI) n\ 1 in 
 
 SECOND COMMENCEMENT 
 
 SOUTHERN BAPTIST 
 
 ®Iu0l0Dtntl j$tfthrxrg, 
 
 AT G R KKX V I Lb E, S. Q. 
 
 Monday, May 27th, 1861, 
 
 BY REV. E. T . W I N K LEB, D . D . 
 
 PUBLISHED ii v Tin; r \i i j i ■» . 
 
 CHARLESTON: 
 
 • TEAM-POWER PRESSES <>i KVAXfl l COGSWELL, 
 
 7\ l'-ri. i<l ud 103 Knot Hay Streets. 
 
TREASURE ROOM 
 
 George Washington Flowers 
 Memorial Collection 
 
 DUKE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY 
 
 ESTABLISHED BY THE 
 
 FAMILY OF 
 
 COLONEL FLOWERS 
 
ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS 
 
 DELIVERED ON THE 
 
 SECOND COMMENCEMENT 
 
 SOUTHERN BAPTIST 
 
 A T GREENVILL E, S. C. 
 
 Monday, May 27th, 1861. 
 
 BY REV. E . T . W I N K L E B , I) . D . 
 
 II BLIflHftD BT THE FACTI.TY. 
 
 CHABLESTON: 
 
 BTKAM-FOWKH FRSBSBfl <>i KVAN8 & COQSWKLL, 
 
 .. Broad »ni M y.»-i is,iy streot*. 
 
 18(11. 
 
 ■3 
 

 ■3<f 
 
 - uJ^-^-c Cjr<- 
 
 Tv."K 
 
 ■S- ^&TW 
 
 ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS. 
 
 Brethren of the Faculty, and Students of the 
 
 Southern Baptist Theological Seminary: 
 
 It is a privilege to take part in the solemn, and ye( the 
 genial, exercises of this day. Through the prudenl plans, 
 die Christian sacrifices, and the energetic conduct of a 
 single man. tins [nstitution lias been reared; through the 
 liberality of a denomination, whose members, in our 
 various States, at once acknowledged the grandeur of its 
 object and the justice of its claims, the enterprise has 
 been sustained; by the laborious and learned Gdelity of 
 its professors, it has been conducted to its present state 
 of prosperity. And this community is now permitted to 
 celebrate the services of its second commencement. 
 
 I'jiou such an occasion it is natural that we should 
 dwell, with a certain grateful feeling, upon the character 
 of our Institution. In common with seminaries ofa simi- 
 lar sort, it is tributary to the nobler portion of man's 
 being; and it also renders gratuitous instructions, accord- 
 ing to the prescription of Him, who said : '• Freely ye have. 
 received, freely give." But this Theological Seminary is 
 especially worthy of regard^ on account of its flexible 
 application to the various orders of intellect and degrees 
 of attainment, and to the different circumstances of those 
 who resorl to its instructions. Who can fail to observe 
 the wise and admirable adjustment to these diversities, 
 in the compression of each study within a single year; 
 in the Ordering of the school-, so that the student may 
 
 select from them in such manner, as to Bupply hi- defi- 
 ciencies, and prepare himself Bpeedily for his work ; ami 
 the further division between the English and the learned 
 
 departments of schools, wherein the same thoughtful 
 
 consideration of the student's wants and opportui 
 
 is displayed ? And who of us is without a sens* of grati- 
 
 P 62727 
 
tude at the thought, that this seminary, having already 
 received for the most part, and being about to receive in 
 entirety, an ample endowment, bids fair to last forever ? 
 
 Does it not remind us to-day, although it has yet no 
 outward show to commend it, of those comprehensive 
 foundations to which, in the twelfth century, the name 
 of "University" was first applied— the Sorbonnes and 
 Oxfords where science and religion collected their diverse 
 and yet harmonious schools beneath the Gothic arches — 
 those institutions that seemed to have discovered the 
 secret of perpetual youth — that in the conflicts of centu- 
 ries stood fast, rearing their holy towers above the mists 
 of morning and the dusts of noon, and "pointing in 
 silence heavenward."* 
 
 It would be of deep interest, did the time serve and 
 the occasion permit, to trace the links which bind our 
 Institution to the general history of learning. It would 
 be pleasant to enumerate those convocations and those 
 saintly spirits who, age after age, have devoted them- 
 selves to instruction because of their great love to Christ 
 and to the souls of men; who asserted that knowledge 
 must be freely imparted, because it was religious — because 
 God had assigned to sinners, saved by grace, to erect the 
 new Kingdom of Light upon the ruins of the classic world; 
 and who often illustrated the condescensions of learning 
 by marching with their pupils, after the recitations were 
 over, back to their homes, lest some harm or temptation 
 should befall them by the way. Pleasant it would be to 
 revisit that Mother-School of Alexandria, illustrious with 
 the names oi Clement and Origen, where the most mag- 
 nificent intellects of the age deduced from the Bible the 
 essential principles " of philosophy, of politics and legis- 
 lation, of eloquence and poetry, of all truth, all inspira- 
 tion, all beauty. "f Will not the reassertion of these prin- 
 ciples, at some future period, constitute such a " Ees- 
 tauration of the Sciences" as Bacon never dreamed of? 
 Pleasant it would be to descend into that more ancient 
 school — the subterranean catacombs of Saint Agnes — 
 through chapels panelled with paintings and with tombs, 
 
 * Lyra Apostolica, 217. f Abbe de Jager. 
 
to those unadorned halls "where a seat carved ou1 of (ho 
 soft tufa murks where the master presided in the old days 
 of persecution ; and the opposite settle of stone, wh ere the 
 first Christian scholars were arranged before him. We 
 would have liked to accompany Patrick, the founder of 
 the Irish Schools in the fourth century, when, having 
 desired to set' the t'niit of his thirty years' lahors, he fell 
 into a trance, and was carried to a high mountain which 
 commanded a view of the whole island ; and lo ! from sea 
 to sea, it was on fire, and the tire was the light of faith ! 
 We have attended in fancy tin 1 saintly Germain of the 
 sixth century, when he sat in the apsis of the Basilica at 
 Paris, with his priests and deacons around him all in 
 white, and before him his scholars, in two choirs, singing 
 under his direction the Psalms of David. And yonder, 
 in the seventh century, is the old palace of the Lateral! 
 where Gregory the Great had his school, and the bed from 
 which he taught when the infirmities of ago oppressed 
 him. and the portentous rod with which he used to men- 
 ace the slothful. And here was a school, at Condat, 
 where two whole languages were taught; and here ano- 
 ther, where the most learned monk of the Benedictine 
 company devoted three mortal hours a day to the work 
 of instruction ; and here another, proud of its library — a 
 little collection of Greek ami Latin Fathers — hut prouder 
 of one splendid missal that the ladies of Flanders had 
 transcribed, and illuminated with gold and gems; and 
 yonder we think the good fathers must he tolerably safe 
 from intrusion, for they have perched their scholastic 
 retreat mountain-high at Bobbio, among the very eyries 
 of the eagles ! 
 
 And bo, onward from those old days, where We have 
 delayed the longer because they are so picturesque ami 
 gonial, the moon between religion ami learning has been 
 maintained. It is easy to recognize it in the golden 
 of Charlemagne - ] and A.lcuin — -amid that gloomy pi 
 ensuing, wherein the lighl of truth continually struggled 
 
 * Cliovii. Bienfaita, otc dn( nrlitiitninnio, 5S3-C11. 
 fit wai tins great monarch who established tht I 
 
 i.y llinii'T. \"i 8| i I - 
 
 n o o n o ri 
 
6 
 
 (as now again in our present political crisis) with north- 
 ern and feudal barbarity, and the blessed voices of Gcrizim 
 were well nigh drowned by the curses from Ebal — in the 
 age of subtle dialectics which thence extended onward to 
 the Reformation — in the age of criticism and controversy 
 which that great change inaugurated — and finally, in that 
 age of philosophic thought which has now indefinitely 
 extended over one or two recent centuries.* The sum- 
 mary of Chateaubriand,*}" although imperfect, deserves to 
 be recorded- he justly claims as attestations of the im- 
 mense achievements of religion, all the famous nurseries 
 of science in Europe — the University of France, by 
 whose means Alcuin sought to change a barbarian Em- 
 pire into "a Christian Athens;" Cambridge, the alma 
 mater of JNewton, and Oxford, boastful of her friar 
 Bacon, and her Thomas More, her Persian library, her 
 mss. of Homer, her Arundelian marbles and her excellent 
 editions of the classics; Glasgow and Edinburgh, in Scot- 
 land ; Leipsic, Jena, Tubingen, in Germany; Leyden, 
 Utrecht and Louvain, in the .Netherlands; Gandia, Alcala 
 and Salamanca, in Spain. The seminary whose com- 
 mencement we now celebrate, is but one of the ex- 
 pressions of that antique alliance between intellect and 
 religion. It belongs to that series of radiant ensigns 
 which has led the progress of the ages, and upon whose 
 folds it has been inscribed, that the God whom Christians 
 serve, is light, and with Him is no darkness at all. 
 
 But, not to lose ourselves in this wide field, we return 
 to the fact that it is a theological institution whose an- 
 niversary we honor — an institution in which the purer 
 spirit of the past is concentrated — an institution in which, 
 as of old, religion overshadows secular science — an insti- 
 tution which bears the same relation to the higher semi- 
 naries of learning amongst us as the normal school bears 
 to the common •schools — and for this reason, that in our 
 institution arc to be' educated the highest teachers of the 
 people. Such a co-ordination of studies, let us say, has 
 been recognized from the earliest times. It is impossible 
 
 *P>aliiies' Protestantism and Catholicism, 412. 
 f Genius of Christianity, part iv, bk. G, ch. 5. 
 
to designate that ancient period when the liberal arts 
 were distinguished as seven, and these seven were divid- 
 ed into two classes: — Ethics, which was called Trivium, 
 or the Triple Way, and which included grammar, dia- 
 lectics and rhetoric; and Physics, to wh'ch was applied 
 the name of Quadrivium, or the Quadruple Way, and 
 which included arithmetic, geometry, astronomy and mu- 
 sic. These classes of arts were styled " ways," because 
 they led on to something nobler — to the crowning sci- 
 ence of theology. We find this distinction and Bub- 
 ordination recognised not only in the seminaries of 
 continental Europe, bu1 in those of Ireland in the age 
 of Columban. The famous schools of the Emerald 
 Isle not only sought to instruct all the nations of their 
 time; hut also to subsidize all knowledge — Barbarian, 
 Roman, Greek — to the interests of the Christian plan : 
 and hence it has been said of them that they knew how 
 to popularize antiquity, and to weave Homer's laurelled 
 wreath into the legendary crown of their Saints. 
 
 The acknowledgment of these simple times is well 
 worthy of being now repeated. We need now to avail 
 Ourselves of every means of influence in order to secure- 
 to religion the firsl place in the majestic procession of 
 the sciences. In those old times when the patriarchal 
 life seemed to share in the venerable permanence "f 
 nature, and he who was a father, was also an anointed 
 priest and absolute king of his household, it would have 
 been an enormous crime in a child to make light of the 
 relation. Who can forget that curse upon Canaan, which, 
 denounced in the days of Noah, went on in repeated ful- 
 filments through the history of the Jews; which formed 
 the dark hack ground of all their festive and radiant 
 scenes, and sent it*- deep and plaintive undertone through 
 all their songs of victory ! And surely nol less criminal 
 
 is the warfare of that pretentious and unthankful erudi- 
 tion, which, gaining strength in these late years, now 
 
 menaces the hoary author of its being: 
 
 ■■ Voice of the wiee of < • "I « 1 ! 
 
 Q '. breathe your thrilling whicpert now 
 I.i oelli where learned eves late \i_il- bold, 
 Ami teach pi 'ii I here in veil her I 
 
8 
 
 We deem it proper, and not unsuitable to the present 
 occasion, to vindicate whatever the learning of eighteen 
 hundred, years has uttered in reference to the supremacy 
 of theological studies. And to this end, permit us to 
 exhibit the grandeur of the office to which theology CDK- 
 tributcs and the beneficence of the sphere which it pre- 
 pares men to fill. 
 
 We say. then, that the value of theological studies is 
 to be estimated by the dignity of that office to which 
 they contribute — -the office of the Christian ministry. 
 Can we overestimate that office, whether we Consider the 
 circumstances of its establishment, the method of its 
 procurement^ or the ends of its appointment?* 
 
 How sublime was the occasion when this office was 
 bestowed as a gift of Christ upon his people ! It was 
 imparted when Jesus made his glorious and triumphal 
 ascension to the Mediatorial throne. As ancient con- 
 querors celebrated their victories, with kings at their cha- 
 riot wheels, and scattering rich gifts among the soldiers 
 and the spectators, so Christ is represented as celebrating 
 the victories of Redemption. He ascended with such 
 majesty as encompassed Jehovah when he went up from 
 Sinai. lie ascended among the angels, leading captivity 
 captive, having conquered Satan, sin and death, as for- 
 merly the flower of the Egyptian people had been con- 
 qucred, when the Monarch of Israel overwhelmed them 
 in the waves of the sea. Christ displayed his triumphs 
 to the angels, but his princely largesses he scattered 
 among his churches. "He gave gifts to men." What 
 were these gifts? — sanctifying graces for his people, but 
 chiefly ministerial graces; " Me gave some prophets and 
 apostles, a ml some pastors and teachers" He gave instruct- 
 ors to his people; and these instructors he endowed with 
 gifts for that grand office which ministers to the number 
 of the redeemed, and to the acclamations that swell 
 around the throne of God through eternity. Men can 
 make a prelate, a cardinal or a pope ! it is Christ only 
 who can make a gospel minister. And therefore it is that 
 
 * Owen (vol. 4. p. 49S) has discussed this subject with his usual simplicity and sug- 
 gestivsness. To this discussion I am, to somo extent, indebted here and subsequently. 
 
9 
 
 when such a man is set apart to his high office, no 
 outward show is needed — no uplifted crosses, no floating 
 incense, no pealing anthems, no dark robes falling in 
 graceful folds. The splendor of the occasion is invisible. 
 Its triumphant choristers are unheard by mortal ears. 
 It has already boen gloriously celebrated in the heavenly 
 sanctuary of God. Enough for us it is. to welcome each 
 new minister as a gift which our ascended Lord imparts 
 to his people; to realize that now Jesus, our King, lifts 
 up his sceptre among us, and that "being by the right hand, 
 of, God exalted, <///</ having received of the Fatfu r. the promise 
 of the Holy Ghost, hr hath shed- forth tin's that ye noic .s< e 
 and hear." How dignified is thai office which dates from 
 Christ's coronation day, and which still attests his roy- 
 alty : 
 
 Again, the method by which this grace was secured is 
 not less illustrious than the occasion on which il was 
 imparted. The humiliation of the Son of God secured 
 this precise blessing. Hence the Apostle teaches, that 
 our Lord, tor this end. u descended f<< tin lower parts of the 
 
 earth" By this term is either indicated the world in 
 which we dwell, which is sunk so low in God's universe by 
 the sin that has entered it ; or is suggested the tact that 
 Christ's lifeless body was consigned to the dark under- 
 ground ot the grave. And now the doctrine of the ApOS- 
 tle is thai these humiliations .procured the granl of the 
 ministry to Christ's people. The Redeemer broughl the 
 office from his dishonored grave. So deep did he set the 
 foundations of his power as the King of Zion, and by 
 such a condescension did he secure the ministry a- :i 
 royal embassy to man. On the cross, he slew the enmity 
 between the Creator and the creature ; be submitted t" 
 the last demand of the violated law in the tomb, and 
 thence eoming forth he said to his disciples: "Go teach <ill 
 n, it inns, baptizing them in th, name of tfu Father, <nnl of the 
 Son, and of tin Holy Glwst ,• ,/ /( ,/ h,, I ,i, n with you alway, 
 even t<, the end of the world." 
 
 We cannot, then, understand the office of the mini-try, 
 unless we associate it with the humiliations of the Son of 
 God. These themes, apparently so diverse, are inseparably 
 
10 
 
 interwoven in the New Testament. How closely, for exam- 
 ple, do the suffering Saviour and the Preacher of the Word 
 stand associated in that familiar passage : "All things are 
 of God, who hath reconciled us unto himself by Jesus Christ, 
 and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation, to wii: 
 that God ivas in Christ reconciling the world unto himself, 
 not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed 
 unto us the word of reconciliation. Note, then, we are ambas- 
 sadors for Christ ; as though God did beseech you by us, we 
 ■pray you, in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God. For he 
 hath made him to be sin for us who knew no sin, that ire 
 might be made the righteousness of God in him." The min- 
 istry is consecrated hy the dust of Christ's mid-day jour- 
 neys, and the dews that fell on his upturned brows, as he 
 prayed through the solemn night : by the red sweat of 
 Getlisemane and the water and the blood of Calvary. Its 
 ordination robes are the linen bands that swathed the 
 wasted body of Jesus, and its perfumes are the spices 
 that were laid in his tomb. If a sweet constraint of 
 nature causes the widow to cherish the tokens of her hus- 
 band — his letters, his unforgotten words, the love-lock 
 cut from his brows before they were hidden beneath the 
 mould, even so will the Daughter of Zion cherish the 
 ministry wherein the voice of her departed bridegroom 
 still speaks — wherein she sees the visible pledge of Christ's 
 dying and yet undying love. 
 
 This is the only source of ministerial prerogative. Let 
 pope or archbishop boast : " I have palaces and temples : 
 I have great revenues : I sway a hundred or a thousand 
 churches; I am an honored leader amid the societies of 
 men." *' But, me," a true minister alone can say, '< but 
 me a suffering Saviour has set apart to preach his glo- 
 rious gospel." The appointment of such a man indicates 
 that God has published overtures of peace to the race; 
 that the grace which once distilled like dews on the fields 
 of Palestine now pours in showers of mercy on the waste 
 places of the world. Great is that office whose graces 
 were purchased by redemption, and whose message is 
 redemption itself! 
 
 Nor, again, is the object to which the ministry is devo- 
 
11 
 
 ted, loss illustrious, lis end is thai Jesus may fill all 
 things. It was for this purpose that he passed above the 
 heavens; all the heavens; all that we sec of celestial 
 glory, whether it burns in the orb of day, or glitters in 
 the nocturnal constellations. He went there to occupy a 
 throne which human enmity could not reach, and which 
 the wrath of devils should assail in vain. Thence his 
 power should he felt along the course of (he a<j;es. There, 
 at the righl hand of God, he should reign until all ene- 
 mies were put under his i'cv\. lie had begun the work on 
 earth ; he must behold its completion from heaven. Here 
 he had sown the immortal seed; there he must wait for 
 the purple harvest, more precious than the fruit of the 
 vine. And now, ministers are the husbandmen whom the 
 Lord of the Harvest sends forth into Ins vineyard. They 
 are the spiritual builders who must construct God's temple 
 on the sure foundation stone. In the ministry Christ 
 asserts his right to the universe, and this is the method 
 by which that right is to he vindicated. They preach his 
 truth; they proclaim his dying love; and as they dis- 
 charge their sacred embassy, the authority of Christ and 
 the energy of the Spirit attend their words; and never 
 shall their glorious function cease, until the name of 
 Christ shall he honored cyci'\ where, and the whole Dum- 
 ber of his people shall lie saved. It matters not where 
 this ministry perform their functions, whether under the 
 shadows of the forest or amid the mountain caverns and 
 snows, whether in log cabins or in ceiled houses; they 
 are Christ's gifts to the world, the officers Of Hini around 
 whom saints and angels gather far above the airy and 
 the starry heavens — of Him who is throned in the place 
 of God's peculiar residence — of Him who is the King 01 
 kings, and the Lord of lords. 
 To this ministry, established at his ascension, purchased 
 
 by his blood, and sent to Bubdue the world to hifl domin- 
 ion, our Lord imparts gifts suited to their office. A min- 
 istry without gifts is not thai which Christ has se1 up. 
 
 Here is the weak point in that doctrine of BUCCC8Sion, by 
 which a minister links hi- 0WD Ordi nation 1" a Slipp08itt- 
 
 tious list of appointments running back to the da 
 
12 
 
 the Apostles. If even these genealogies were authentic, 
 of what value, we might ask, is a series of ordinations, 
 descending through a series of prelates, whose office was 
 unscriptural, and many of whom did not pretend that 
 they had the grace of God in their hearts — of what value, 
 when a church did not elect the candidate to the min- 
 istry — of what value, ahove all, when he who hoasts of his 
 orders may perchance have never been called by Christ to 
 the sacred office? Can merely human ordinations, which 
 are contrary to the Saviour's prescriptions, establish a 
 new office in his kingdom ? We think not. For our part 
 we insist that it is necessaiy to follow the directions of 
 the King of Zion, in order to have a valid ordination. 
 
 lie knows what his churches need, and has provided for 
 that need in every age. For the original establishment of 
 his Kingdom he founded extraordinary offices; for its 
 growth, the ordinary ministry. Temporaiy offices were 
 framed for that peculiar age, when error and iniquity 
 were universal ; and the gospel banner was unfurled 
 against kings, and priests, and nations. Then the gifts 
 of inspiration, prophecy and miracle were needed to sus- 
 tain the cause of God on earth; and accordingly apostles 
 and prophets were raised up, in addition to the ordi- 
 nary ministry for this work. They established the first 
 churches. But now these officers have been withdrawn. 
 What they effected by their labors, Ave are to effect by 
 their words. The ordinary minister follows the extraor- 
 dinary. The ordinary are qualified to act in the settled 
 state of the churches — to preach the word, to perform the 
 ordinances, to inculcate the doctrines and precepts of the 
 Head of the church. On this account Paul and Barnabas 
 ordained elders in every city of Asia Minor, where they 
 succeeded in establishing churches. 
 
 As w T e glance over Paul's enumeration of the ancient 
 offices of instruction, it is evident that but one of these 
 offices now remains. u Are all," he says, "apostles; are 
 all prophets ; are all teachers; are all workers of miracles; 
 have all the gifts of healing ; do all speak with tongues ; do 
 all interpret?" There are no apostolic ministers but those 
 marked down in this catalogue; and of these, but one — 
 
13 
 
 the teacher — remains. And lie is a teacher, as this pas- 
 sago indicates, by the grace of Christ imparted to him. 
 It follows, therefore, that neither eloquence nor secular 
 learning are indispensable to a minister; he may he a 
 chosen servant of G-od without either. For none of those 
 gifts can effect conversion. Our hearts may bo ravished 
 with eloquence; our intellect and taste may he delighted 
 with large views ami graceful images; and yet our souls 
 may he lost . 
 
 Nevertheless this niinist ry, grand and peculiar as it is, 
 is dependent upon study. The teacher must, of necessity, 
 first be the learner. The ministerial gift is not a mere 
 animal instinct, as many seem to Suppose, which, without 
 reflection, perfectly performs its worlc— it is a human 
 quality — a talent which, like all others, demands assidu- 
 ous culture. If it he an implanted capacity of religious 
 knowledge and utterance, this capacity musl he supplied 
 with appropriate aliment. If it lie a grace, in this -rare 
 wo must grow. Need we argue that it must he of incal- 
 culable advantage to the religious instructor familiarly to 
 know the languages of inspiration ; the antiquities which 
 explain so large a number of its texts; the facts of his- 
 tory, scriptural and ecclesiastic, so influential in their 
 Warnings and their mighty inspirations; the experien- 
 ces of his predecessors in the pastoral office; the nature, 
 the harmony and the certainty of that body of doc- 
 trines wherein the essential spirit of the Gospel dwells ; 
 and the most approved methods of instruction and per- 
 suasion? Such are the studies which gave efficiency 
 
 to our predecessors, and which are not the less needed by 
 
 our ministry now. We are apt to wonder at the influ- 
 ence exerted by "the Fathers" over the Christian thought 
 of all subsequent ages, and we wonder at the overmas- 
 tering power of the reformers of the sixteenth century; 
 but we need not wonder — these nun were mighty, J ust 
 because being tirst inspired by religious zeal, they had 
 also compassed the Learning of their age. The fact is 
 very suggestive, that when Julian, the wisesl of all the 
 Christian persecutors, sought to re-establish Paganism, he 
 declared that be could not undermine Christian!! 
 
14 
 
 long as its pastors unci defenders were the most learned 
 men of the empire, and therefore began his nefarious 
 enterprise by forbidding Christians to teach grammar, 
 eloquence and philosophy.* And so, on the other hand, 
 when an institution of Christian learning has boon wisely 
 arranged and thoroughly organized, we, on our part, 
 are permitted to rejoice, inasmuch as the foundations of 
 Christ's cause arc more deeply laid, and as its means of 
 influence are gloriously multiplied. 
 
 Such is the thought which possesses me — a compara- 
 tive stranger — as I revisit this charming place. 1 am not 
 insensible to that glory and blessedness descending from 
 these unbounded, muny-hued and changeful skies. I 
 exult in contemplating these broad and undulating land- 
 scapes, carpeted with green, solemn with groves, sublime 
 with distant mountains; these rivers that along their 
 channels of grey primeval stone, and with the pure 
 beauty and frequent song of waterfalls, descend south- 
 ward and eastward to their ministry of blessing. But 
 there is a subtler spirit in this air — a holier investiture 
 upon this vast plateau ! Here the tribute of a whole 
 denomination to Christ's cause has been collected. Here, 
 amid the heights, as anciently from Noah's altar, the 
 smoke of its accepted sacrifice ascends and mingles with 
 the clouds of heaven. And hence proceed those streams 
 that generation after generation, and century after cen- 
 tury, shall make glad the City of our God ! 
 
 So much of the present and the past. What of the 
 future? We have before us a number of students, who, 
 having either passed through the entire course of theo- 
 logical study, or who, having received instruction in vari- 
 ous of its schools, are about to enter upon the work of the 
 ministry; and others who contemplate that work at more 
 remote periods. May I not, then, be permitted, before I 
 conclude, to speak of that sphere for which this Insti- 
 
 * Butler's Lives of the Saints. 1 p. 7s2. It is carious to find an English Prelate of 
 tin- age of Queen Anne, recommending the re-adoption of Julian's policy against 
 Christians. "Sharp, Archbishop of York, held that the Church was in danger from 
 seminaries maintained by the Dissenters, and be assumed this broad principle, that 
 the education of the nation ought to be left entirely in the hands of the Established 
 Church." — I'ict. Hist. England, vol. iv, p. 117. 
 
15 
 
 t lit ion is training its pupils — the practical sphere of the 
 ministry — the building up of Christ's holy cause, and {he 
 guarding of his churches from the incursions of error. 
 
 Hi sun', sum me Dcus, qui tibi militant: 
 Hi sunt, <|ni stabiles sedifioant domos : 
 Una docta cohors arma tenel maun, 
 Muros construit altera.* 
 
 Suffer me still, for the season, to magnify my office. 
 Let me say that the ministry is given " for the perfecting 
 of the saints," i. e., as the word signifies, for Betting them 
 in order as churches. The churches without a ministry 
 are in a state of incompleteness — with a ministry they 
 are marshalled like an army in battle array. The min- 
 ister is not a priest, as many maintain, for the merely 
 human priesthood has been abrogated, Christ, having 
 assumed to himself all its functions of sacrifice, inter- 
 cession and blessing. There is no human being who now 
 may stand between man and Cod, much less who may 
 absolve us from obedience to any of tin 1 divine com- 
 mandments, or from tin 1 guilt of our sins. The minister 
 is the religious teacher of the church — the performer of 
 their public services — the leader in their public devotions 
 and their familiar friend and counsellor. In his appoint- 
 ment provision has been made for the maintenance of the 
 orderly worship, the riles, the discipline and the commu- 
 nion of (he Gospel. 
 
 And now. this office having been established, and this 
 officer being at his post, he must address himself to the 
 work of the ministry; for his position is not an honor, 
 but a sphere of labor. It is not a means of personal 
 advancement ; but a charge, upon which great i 
 depend, and of which a solemn account must he given. 
 It any take their duties easily, they are certainly not the 
 persons whom the apostolic epistles describe. '1 In 
 men in the early chiuvh called themselves "theservat 
 the Lord Jesus Christ," and the title will apply to the true 
 minister of these days. And the specific duty assigned to 
 the minister is "the edifying of the body of Christ." H< 
 must labor for the conversion of the impenitent ; ho must 
 
 * Parisian Bi 
 
16 
 
 strive to gather the number of Christ's elect out of the 
 world j in company with his fellows in the sacred office — 
 those who have lived, and those who are now living, and 
 those who shall live hereafter, to rear, stone by stone, the 
 mighty fabric of the divine temple until all the elect are 
 built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus 
 ( 'hrist himself being the chief corner stone, and the whole 
 spiritual structure is erected, and the headstone stands 
 fixed with shoutings of " grace, grace unto it." 
 
 But, simultaneously with this enterprise, another must 
 be carried on. The ministry must labor that the churches 
 shall become more trustful, diligent, loving, Christ-like. 
 While they are engaged in gathering God's children out 
 of the companies of his enemies, and rearing God's temple 
 amid the ruins of an apostate world, they must seek to 
 win for themselves and their churches higher gifts in 
 time, and superior glories in eternity. For conversion 
 is but the beginning of the work, while a career of toil 
 and jieril lies beyond. Ah ! when the sun of righteous- 
 ness rises upon us at the first, it is a glorious and hopeful 
 morning in which we see nothing to fear. The earth 
 shines with new lustre; heaven beams with beauty; and 
 we look forth, beyond the scenes of the present, to a 
 bright and lair eternity: but when the clouds and the 
 storm gather, the soul needs encouragement and instruc- 
 tion; and so the minister is provided for that hour. And 
 even the subsequent works of righteousness may be peril- 
 ous ; they may engender that, pride that comes before a 
 fall. The tree needs to strike its roots more deeply into 
 the soil, that it may support its increasing wealth of 
 foliage and the weight of its ripening fruit. And so the 
 believer, as he grows in grace, must take a firmer hold upon 
 the mere} 7 of his Saviour. And therefore the minister is 
 appointed perpetually to hold forth Christ crucified before 
 the people. And so in every instance. The church is to 
 be built upon Christ; to rest on this rock, to indulge no 
 hope of salvation but in this Saviour. All are to be perse- 
 veringly taught that God requires us to glorify his name 
 in the very sphere in which his providence has placed 
 us. All to be assured, whatever the difficulties and straits 
 
17 
 
 of their condition, that they have a religious work to do, 
 just where they are; and thai they can do all things 
 through Christ thai strengthened them. A. 11 are to be 
 stimulated to labor for unity — the unity oi each church 
 and the unity of all believers; nol a mere formal anity, 
 nol a unity of indifference or a unity of compromise, bul 
 siici i unity as would exist, if all who profess Christ's name 
 did actually receive his teachings, and did faithfully obey 
 the ordinances of his word. They should not be silent 
 
 on these subjects. They should be zealous to speak the 
 truth, and yet careful to "speak the truth in love." 
 apostles were not silent when idolatrous feasts and holi- 
 days divided the church at lionie; they did nol look with 
 indifference upon the strife of parties and sects at Corinth, 
 and the grievous wolves that preyed upon the flock at 
 Ephesus; they did not withhold their admonitions when 
 the abrogated rights of Judaism were imposed upon the 
 churches of Calatia. Neither should the minister 
 churches Of JeSUS Christ he silent now. when the majori- 
 ty of Christians give ecclesiastical membership to per- 
 sons incapable of its intelligent and voluntary reception, 
 and. at the same time, withhold communion from the 
 persons they have received; thus, in the one instance, 
 changing the New Testamenl polity, and in the other. 
 confounding the churches and the world. We are hound 
 to strive tor unity, remembering always that there can 
 be no true unity except upon the gospel platform. This 
 is the aggressive work- of the ministry. 
 
 On the other hand, there is a defensive work. Tic 
 ministry must guard the churches from external dan 
 False doctrines have ever threatened the members, and 
 interfered with the mission of the-'' sacred associations. 
 Eph. iv, 14. — sometimes, like violent wind-, assailing the 
 churches at intervals with dangerous impetu 
 tine-, by persistent insinuation and stealthy craftin< 
 fee ting their members, and producing in them a feeble, 
 fluctuating, capricious religion, wholly unworthy ol the 
 
 name of piety. Sueh is the < 
 
 phy. on the one hand — "the Religion of R 
 
 baa been called; and ot superstition, <>n t 
 
religion of form and ceremony, and blind feeling. The 
 
 apostles repeatedly denounce the teachers of these false 
 beliefs. Paul compares them to gamblers whose busi- 
 ness is contemptibly trifling, and who cheat while they 
 trifle. And to guard his people against them, is one of 
 the ends sot directly before a minister, lie must ever 
 remember that it is the truth which forms a strong and 
 hoi}' church ; and that it is the ministry of truth which 
 shall induce the brethren to bring forth fruits of right- 
 eousness to the glory of God, and which shall maintain 
 those bonds- of faith and love that make Christian com- 
 munion inviolable. Thus shall the churches, under the 
 discipline of the Captain of Salvation, and marshalled by 
 his appointed servants, present their embattled front 
 against the world The minister, indeed, will not escape 
 from censure, or the church cither, if the}^ are loyal to the 
 truth: just as, fortius reason, the apostles and prophets 
 Avere condemned of old, and our Master " bore the contra- 
 diction of sinners against himself." But w r e may leave 
 the consequences with Him. lie will take care of us; 
 and here, in our earthly flelds of conflict, he will permit 
 us to gather those trophies, which shall follow us, like 
 the banners and spoils and white-robed throngs attend- 
 ant upon the triumphal cars of old, as we ascend to the 
 Heaven of Heavens, llev. xiv, 13. 
 
 d