1 CORINTHIANS 3:5-7.

5. Who then is Paul; and who is Apollos, but ministers by whom ye believed, even as the Lord gave to everyman? 6. I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase. 7. So then neither is he that planteth anything, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase.

In conducting an enterprise of great extent and importance, it is on many accounts desirable, if not indeed necessary, that we know the causes and circumstances on which the success of it depends. It is only by this knowledge we shall be enabled to conduct it with intelligence and judgment. We have thought, therefore, that on the present occasion on which we are met as the office-bearers of our Church, an endeavour to promote in our own minds such knowledge with respect to the great enterprise of the Christian ministry, and more especially, (for it is not the knowledge of the truth so much as the experience of its power that we attain), to extend and confirm its influence over our hearts, could not be unsuitable and might be attended with profit. In the case of this enterprise the knowledge in question is altogether indispensable; and, if it is not possessed, or, which is practically the same thing, if its power is not felt and it does not become "a lamp unto the feet and a light unto the path," the consequences will be more disastrous than the total mismanagement and entire failure of any other enterprise could involve.

When we inquire into the sources of success in the case of other enterprises, we take as the basis of the inquiry certain first principles and fundamental laws which are applicable to them all; and what we seek to ascertain is, how we may best avail ourselves of these principles and laws in each case, and by what selection and application of means we shall proceed from them, with most advantage, to the accomplishment of our object. But when we come to the Christian ministry - the great enterprise of bringing sinners to the Saviour, what had thus hitherto formed the basis of our inquiry now entirely fails us. The principles and laws, on which we proceeded in every other case as so many fixed and ascertained points, do not operate or exist in this. Unless we attend to this difference, and trace its consequences with care and accuracy, our views of the conditions on which the success of the Christian ministry depends, must, in a very great measure, if not wholly, be erroneous and delusive. As it is, therefore, a point of vital importance, and would be highly interesting though it were merely a matter of speculation, we shall endeavour to illustrate somewhat fully wherein the sources of success in this case are peculiar and specifically different from the sources of success in other cases.

I. In the natural world we behold on every side numberless causes in constant operation, and producing, with much regularity, what, from this regularity, we regard as their appropriate effects. And when the regularity fails with which certain effects follow the operation of certain causes, we can easily satisfy ourselves that the failure arises, not from any thing that renders the connexion of effects with their causes imperfect or partial, but from the interference of disturbing or counteracting causes. Accordingly, it may be stated as the law which regulates the efficacy of natural causes within their own proper province, that every cause produces its appropriate effect, not generally, but always, if this result is not prevented by the operation of an opposing cause. There must be this interference and opposition to prevent the effect; and this is the distinctive point to which we are desirous to direct attention. There are, indeed, natural causes over which man can exercise no control; they are wholly beyond his reach; and no efforts or arrangements of his can bring them into operation; but still they are natural causes, and the necessity of their operation in any case is not, therefore, the necessity of anything supernatural; it only implies that cases occur, as certainly numberless cases do, in which man cannot fulfil for himself the essential conditions of the results which he desires to gain. In short, it is the universal law in the natural world, that nothing is necessary to the production of effects but the operation of natural causes, and that, such causes operating, if counteracting causes do not prevent, their appropriate effects will follow. Thus, when the sun is above the horizon our hemisphere is enlightened, unless this effect - the appropriate effect in this case, is prevented by the counteracting cause which produces an eclipse, or, in regard to a particular locality, by the operation of some local cause, - as it was in Egypt during the plague of darkness. When good seed has been sown in fertile and well-cultivated fields, and the weather proves favourable, all the causes are in operation of which a good crop is the appointed effect, and this effect will accordingly be realized if hostile causes do not operate - if, for example, the caterpillar or the locust do not destroy the fruits of the earth, which should otherwise reward the labour and demand the gratitude of the husbandman. When we turn to the spiritual world, and to the Christian ministry, the great agency of that world in which man is employed, we find natural causes still in operation, and natural effects still connected with them. The preaching of the Gospel, which occupies so large and important a place in the work of the Christian ministry is in one view and to a certain extent, the application of natural causes. It exhibits and enforces suitable truth, and does this in a form and under circumstances admirably fitted to secure attention to the instructions which it conveys, and a cordial acknowledgment of the claims which it urges. It is, therefore, precisely such an effort as we should resort to on natural grounds for imparting just views, inculcating sound principles, and thus impressing upon the conduct, upon all the internal and external movements, a right direction and character.

But while the Christian ministry, as it is exercised by man, is thus occupied in the application of what, in certain respects and within certain limits, are natural causes, still it is not in the natural effects connected with these causes that the end is realised for which it has been instituted, and to which the exercise of it is ever to be directed. To realise that end, certain spiritual effects must be produced; and to the production of these, from the very circumstances that they are spiritual, natural causes are inadequate; they can be produced only by an agency which, like the effects themselves, is superior to nature. The scriptures accordingly teach us, that it is only by the supernatural influences of the Holy Spirit they are ever produced; and that it is impossible in the nature of things they should result from any other agency. The language of our text is very strong and decided on this point; "Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers by whom ye believed, even as the Lord gave to every man?" "One saith I am of Paul, and another, I am of Apollos," as if Paul and Apollos had exerted any efficient power in communicating to you the blessings of salvation; whereas you "believed," and thus became partakers of these blessing, "as God gave to every man," and not as Paul or Apollos gave you. "I have planted," he adds, "Apollos watered, but God gave the increase," - we have applied the outward means, but whatever saving effects have attended the application of them, they have all been given by God, they have in no degree been produced by any power of ours, either personal or official. "So, then, neither is he that planteth anything, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase." The ministers of the Gospel cannot impart to its ordinances the least degree of saving efficacy, and when, therefore, the dispensation of its ordinances is attended with the conversion of sinners or the growth in grace of those who believe, it is by "the working of the mighty power of God," (Eph. 1: 20.) and by this alone, that these effects are produced. As the Lord challenges to himself exclusive divinity, "I am God and there is none else,'' (Is. 45:22), so in this case also he stands alone; he that planteth is nothing, and he that watereth is nothing, God is all, and there is none else; he alone gives the increase, in all its parts and degrees, and in all that pertains to it.

In other passages this important truth is asserted in contradiction to the doctrine that there is a power inherent in the gospel which is adequate to the production of all the spiritual effects that constitute the success of the Christian ministry. "The preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God." 1 Cor. 1: 18. "We preach Christ crucified; unto the Jews a stumbling-block, and unto the Greeks foolishness; but unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God." 23, 24. The gospel cannot even gain for itself, by any power of its own, a cordial appreciation of its excellence on the part of those to whom it is preached; it is foolishness to them that perish, to all in whose case the preaching of it is not accompanied by the supernatural exercise of divine power, for it is only those to whom it is thus, as the apostle expresses it, "the power of God," that do not ''perish" - that are "called" and "saved.'' The relation in which it stands to the exercise of divine power in saving sinners is the source of all its efficacy; and, accordingly, when the apostle would remove or prevent the impression that he was ashamed of it, this is the only point to which he directs attention; "I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation," Rom. 1: 16. It was this, in his estimation, and not anything inherent in it, that gave it all its virtue.

The scriptures are equally opposed to the opinion, that man even in his fallen state possesses a power to perform spiritual acts, and therefore to believe, at least with that aid which it is alleged is afforded to all without distinction to whom the gospel is preached, and that the supernatural exercise of divine power for which we contend is therefore unnecessary. "No man," says Christ himself, "can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him;" John 6: 44. And that this drawing is distinct from any influences which attend the preaching of the gospel in every case, is proved by the fact, that the Jews, whom our Lord addressed on this occasion, did not believe, though the gospel was preached to them; "Ye have seen me, and believe not;" (36). Whereas all believe whom "the Father draweth;" "every man that hath heard, and hath learned of the Father cometh unto me." (45). In another part of the same discourse we find a similar statement of man's inability to come to Christ until he is visited with a special exercise of divine power; an exercise of it which does not in every case or by any necessary and ordinary connexion accompany the preaching of the gospel: "It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing; the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life. But there are some of you that believe not. Therefore said I unto you, that no man can come unto me, except it were given unto him of my Father," 63, 64, 65. In the chapter preceding our text the same doctrine is taught in the following terms:- "Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him." - the saving knowledge of them is not naturally possessed by man nor attainable by natural means. "But God," the apostle adds, "hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the Spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God." 9-12. The knowledge of which he here speaks is not the knowledge which was given by inspiration, but that knowledge which every true believer possesses - the knowledge of the true God, and of Jesus Christ whom he hath sent, which is life eternal, the same knowledge for which he made request so earnestly in his prayers for the Ephesians:- "That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him; the eyes of your understanding being enlightened, that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe." Eph. 1: 17-19. That it is this knowledge he intends is evident from what follows:- "But the natural man receiveth not the things of the spirit of God; for they are foolishness unto him; neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned." The knowledge meant, therefore, is, that knowledge of "the things of the spirit of God" which leads to the reception of them from a sense of the wisdom which they display and of their infinite value, and with which, therefore, salvation is connected. Now "the natural man," - man, that is, in his natural state and while he has not yet experienced the regenerating influences of the holy spirit, whatever natural causes and even the ordinary operations of divine grace may have done for him, - does not possess this knowledge, and cannot attain to it. The eyes of his understanding have not been enlightened, he has not received the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of spiritual things; and, therefore, he "cannot know them because they are spiritually discerned."

We might further argue the necessity of the supernatural exercise of divine power for which we now contend, from the nature of the effects to be produced. "Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God;" John 3: 3. "But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ;" Eph. 2: 4-5. "We are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works;" Eph. 2: 10. These and other similar expressions all designate the same work; and if we attach to them any adequate and appropriate meaning, it is obviously such a work as divine power alone can accomplish.

While the Christian ministry, then, as it is exercised by man, is an application of means which partake of the general character of natural causes, the end to be sought in the exercise of it is wholly beyond the efficacy of these means, and can be accomplished only by a supernatural exertion of divine power.

This point having, as we trust, been sufficiently established, we are now in a condition to perceive, and this it was our object to illustrate, wherein the sources of success in the case of the Christian ministry are peculiar and specifically different from the sources of success in other cases. In ordinary enterprises, and in the Christian ministry alike, outward means must be applied; and this having been duly done, the law in the former case is, that the appropriate effect, and, supposing our calculations have been correct, the desired result will follow, if a counteracting cause does not prevent; while in the latter case, in the case of the Christian ministry, a different law obtains, that the desired result will not follow, unless the application of the outward means which has taken place is accompanied by a supernatural exercise of divine power. In ordinary enterprises, there is first the application of the proper natural causes, and then the supernatural exercise of divine power, and then the desired result. Between the necessary application of means and the desired result, which in other enterprises follows that application in immediate succession, if it is at all realised, there is here an intervening exercise of divine power. Without this the desired result will not at all appear.

This is the peculiarity which we sought to illustrate; and it obviously gives to the work to which it attaches a character wholly distinct from anything we find elsewhere. Accordingly, the prosecution of that work must be characterised by a corresponding difference. In other departments of exertion the application or the proper means brings us to the very verge of the result which would crown our labours with success, to a point beyond which nothing is required to produce that result, though somewhat may occur to prevent it; but in this the application of means which has been committed to us, and to which alone we are competent, brings us only to the point at which the effective power will come into operation, if it operate at all; all that we have done, and of which we are capable, neither secures its operation nor renders it unnecessary - it may operate or it may not for anything in our application of means, but if it do not operate nothing saving will be effected. The agents of other undertakings pursue a path which is open and continuous to the very spot they desire to reach, whatever adventitious hindrances they may have to encounter along its course; whereas the path which the Christian minister pursues may be compared to the route which Moses was commanded to follow, in leading the children of Israel out of Egypt: "The Lord spake unto Moses, saying, speak unto the children of Israel, that they turn and encamp before Pi-hahiroth, between Migdol and the sea, over against Baal-zephon." Ex. 14: 1-2. In this position, while they were shut in by hills on either side, and Pharaoh and his army were immediately behind them, the Red Sea stopped their further progress, and as a barrier to them impassable, and which divine power alone could remove, separated them from the object which they desired to reach - freedom from the degrading and oppressive bondage of Egypt. When the Christian minister has performed all the duties of his office and we shall suppose his performance of them is characterised by every possible excellence, he occupies a position precisely similar to that of the children of Israel before Pi-hahiroth; he is still at a distance from the object which he has been taught to desire in all his ministrations, and can make no further progress towards it by any efforts of his own; as it was in their case so it is in his, - a barrier to him impassable, and which divine power alone can remove, separates him from that object. If divine power is exerted in removing this barrier, and then only, his ministrations will be attended with success.

II. This view of the source from which alone the success of this enterprise, understanding by its success, as we have done all along, the production of saving effects, can flow in any instance or in any degree, leads us by direct and easy inference to certain qualities which must distinguish the agency by which it is prosecuted, or which, in other words, must distinguish the exercise of the Christian ministry.

1. The first of these qualities we shall mention is diligence in the application of the outward means. The application of these means is the proper mark and occupation of our office; if, therefore, we do not apply them, we fail to discharge our official duty, - wholly, if we do not apply them at all, or, if we apply them but partially, to the extent to which, from want of diligence, our application of them is defective. The divine command which requires the application of them is not only conveyed to us in express terms, but is implied in the institution, and proclaimed by the existence of the ministry; and it is necessarily a command to apply them with the utmost diligence, for in every case it is the full and perfect and not the partial performance of duty that is required by God. And we voluntarily undertook and solemnly engaged to apply them conformably to this command when we entered upon the sacred office. On these and such grounds, the diligent application of the outward means by the ministers of the Gospel is a duty of the most unquestionable and strongest obligation, But the ground on which we seek at present to evince its obligation is the entire and peculiar dependence of the Christian ministry for success on the supernatural influences of the Holy Spirit - that whosoever may plant, and whosoever may water, and however much they may be workmen that need not be ashamed, it is God alone that giveth the increase. This and similar principles are, indeed, sometimes referred to as furnishing an excuse for the neglect of means. As man, it is said, can accomplish nothing, he may as well attempt nothing; it is vain for him to apply the means, as his application of them can have no efficacy to effect the end; as it is God alone that giveth the increase, he will give it when and to whom it pleases him. Those who would justify or excuse in this manner their neglect of the means of grace, in their bearing either on their own salvation or on the salvation of others, must be perfectly indifferent in regard to the whole matter; for in regard to anything that gave them great or even considerable concern, they would speak quite differently, and could not but do so. Now to be indifferent and unconcerned in regard to our own salvation is altogether monstrous, for our salvation embraces and includes in it every thing, in the most strict and absolute sense, that in a very short time will be of any importance to us. Nor is this, strong as it is, the only consideration that justifies us in representing such indifference as monstrous, as indeed the greatest perversion of nature that can befall a sentient being; for while, on the one hand, it rejects the claim of everything whatever that viewed in the light of eternity has a valid claim upon our regard, on the other hand, it bestows the regard, which is thus denied where it is due on objects which not only have no claim to it, but of which the nature is such as ought in the strongest manner to repel it. And, in like manner, indifference to the salvation of others violates and perverts our nature with respect to the love of our neighbour, which ought to be the reflection and a faithful image of our love to ourselves. All who disregard and neglect their own and others' salvation, may be truly said to refuse the good and to choose the evil, and that too the good and evil, not only morally considered, but as they are respectively proved to be such by the manner in which at last they will affect the condition of sentient beings. They refuse what is good as constituting or imparting happiness, and choose what is evil as constituting or inflicting misery.

Wherever this indifference to salvation, whether our own or that of others, gives place to a just concern for it, the fact of our entire dependence upon God for its blessings, from first to last, will operate as an incentive, and the kindred fact of God's gracious interference to bestow its blessings, according to his good pleasure, and always when his interference is sought with earnestness and in faith, will prove an encouragement to the diligent use of means. If God alone can give what we most earnestly desire, and if he has appointed a mode of applying to him and waiting upon him for it, what other effect can the knowledge and belief of this have upon our conduct, but that with all diligence we shall apply and wait according to this appointment? And then it is not a matter of arbitrary arrangement that we are wholly dependent upon God for salvation; it arises from the nature and necessity of the case. No power but his can accomplish for us what our salvation requires; and if we understand this, our only encouragement to make any effort to obtain salvation must be, that his power is exercised to accomplish it, and ordinarily in connexion with the diligent use of means on our part. But for this fact our salvation would be impossible, and we would of course abandon efforts which we knew would be altogether fruitless. And if God's gracious interference did not take place according to his good pleasure, it would cease to afford encouragement, on the supposition we mean of just views of our actual state as fallen creatures. It would otherwise be attached to some condition which we should be required to fulfil before it took place; but until we are renewed by divine grace, that is, until this very interference take place in regard to us, we are unable to fulfil any condition to which it could be attached. The fulfilment of such a condition would necessarily be a spiritual act; and of all such acts we are incapable in our natural state, because in that state we are destitute of spiritual life.

In regard particularly to the exercise of the Christian ministry, the more we recognise that, while we are appointed to plant and water, it is God alone that giveth the increase, the more we shall be incited to diligence if we are only actuated by an earnest desire that our labour may not be in vain. We are not warranted to expect the increase unless we apply the appointed means; and as it is not attached to every instance of the application of them, and we do not know what particular instance may be attended with it, the only course for us plainly is, to be instant in season and out of season, to seize every opportunity in the hope it may prove an occasion on which the increase will be given. If we are negligent in the exercise of our ministry, we fail to the extent of that negligence, to open those channels through which the blessings of salvation are poured forth; and, therefore, to the same extent, our official conduct is calculated to prevent, appalling as the idea is, the salvation of those to whom we minister, and is as criminal and as much to be condemned as if it actually had the effect of preventing it; as if, through our negligence, those who are saved had perished, and those who perish would, but for our negligence, have been saved.

And there is something in the consideration, that in performing the duties of the sacred ministry, particularly in preaching the Gospel, we are bringing forth and laying out an instrument, which we hope God will take up and employ, that is calculated in the highest degree to impress with the propriety at least, of exercising the utmost care and diligence. There is great irreverence and even a sort of impiety in performing such an office heedlessly, without the best application of mind at the time and the best preparation previously which we are able to bestow.

The range of duty in which diligence is to be exercised is far more extensive than the remarks we have hitherto made may seem to represent it. It embraces, 1st, The general improvement of our minds, the cultivation of personal piety, and the extension of our knowledge, particularly of theological and kindred subjects, and more especially still of the sacred scriptures; 2ndly, Direct and special preparation for the discharge of particular duties; And 3rdly, The actual exercise of our ministry in all its parts. "Till I come," says the apostle Paul to his beloved Timothy, "give attendance to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine. Neglect not the gift that is in thee, which was given thee by prophecy, with the laying on of the hands of the presbytery. Meditate upon these things; give thyself wholly to them, that thy profitting may appear to all. Take heed unto thyself, and unto the doctrine; continue in them;" and then the solemn consideration is urged, "for in doing this thou shalt both save thyself, and them that hear thee." 1 Tim. 4: 13, 16. In the Second Epistle to Timothy, similar exhortations occur: "I put thee in remembrance that thou stir up the gift of God, which is in thee, by the putting on of my hands;" 2 Tim. 1: 6. "Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed,- rightly dividing the word of truth;" 2 Tim. 2: 15. "I charge thee before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom; preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with all long- suffering and doctrine. Watch in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry;" 2 Tim. 4: 1-2, 5.

2. The Christian ministry, it is further obvious, from what we have seen, is the only source of its success, ought ever to be exercised in a spirit of entire and exclusive dependence upon God. This is only to say, that in the exercise of it we ought to look for success from the only source from which success can come. God alone giveth the increase, and from him alone, therefore, we ought to expect it, and that none the less that we ourselves have planted and watered. Our language with respect to it must ever be that of the Psalmist, - "My soul wait thou only upon God, for my expectation is from him." Ps. 62: 5.

To the doctrine or intellectual recognition of this dependence upon God, it is easy to attain, but to attain to the corresponding feeling and exercise of soul is peculiarly difficult, and indeed impossible, but as we are assisted by the Holy Spirit. Our minds are so prone to extremes, and so unsteady in the middle path, which in general is the path we ought to tread; that the very diligence with which we are to perform the duties of our ministry, and to prepare for performing them, is very apt to draw us away from a simple and sole dependence upon God for its success. When we are anxiously seizing every opportunity and straining every power to apply all the appointed means, and especially to preach the Gospel, in such a manner as will give them every advantage which the mere outward application can impart, we are greatly in danger of falling insensibly under the impression, that what we thus endeavour to attain is all that is necessary, and that if we do attain it, our ministry will, as a matter of course, be attended with the utmost success we are warranted to expect or desire. We labour strenuously to acquit ourselves as "workmen who need not be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth;" as those who "know the terrors of the Lord, we persuade men;" and while we are thus occupied, if divine grace, and prayer and watchfulness on our own part, do not preserve us from the error, we shall certainly feel as if it depended altogether on our statements and illustrations, and on our arguments and appeals, what should be effected in the souls and for the salvation of our hearers.

And while there is thus, even with the best, a tendency towards practically denying or at least overlooking the doctrine - that neither is he that planteth any thing, neither he that watereth, but God that giveth the increase;" with some it is a principle to deny it. With these it is an avowed and defended sentiment that a power is lodged in the ministry, which is not only adequate in point of fact, but is the very power provided to effect and perfect every change of man's character and state, which is necessary to his salvation. They require, indeed, that the ministry exist under a particular form, and have the advantage of a particular descent or mode of transmission; but, these conditions having being fulfilled, as they maintain they have been among themselves, they do not regard the exercise of it as an application of means which, as applied by man, and for anything that is necessarily connected with them as thus applied, are wholly impotent; they look upon it as an efficacious agency, as the exertion of the proper power to produce the effects which they desire to realise. Now, though they were relieved altogether from the necessity of proving that the ministry had come down to them from the Apostles by an unbroken succession, under the very form and through the very channel which divine institution has prescribed and which alone it sanctions, and were themselves the Apostles, even then the efficacy which they claim for their ministry would not belongs to it.^[1] Such efficacy those who were Apostles uniformly disclaimed as belonging to their own ministry. Of this our text is sufficient proof: "Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers by whom ye believed, even as the Lord gave to every man? I have planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase. So, then, neither is he that planteth any thing, neither he that watereth, but God that giveth the increase. "We," says the apostle in another place, "have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us." 2 Cor. 4: 7. By depositing the treasure of ministerial gifts in mere "earthen vessels" - by employing the weak and mean agency of man, God would render it evident that the excellent power by which saving effects are produced is wholly his own. Let all, therefore, in this case, learn to say with the Psalmist, "God hath spoken once; twice have I heard this, that power belongeth unto God." Psalm 62: 11. - to him exclusively.

As some, in the manner on which we have just remarked, seek to relieve themselves from the necessity of an exclusive, and, indeed, of any, dependence upon God for the success of their labours by magnifying the power of their office, others with the same view diminish the difficulty of their work. According to these, though the fall has greatly corrupted our nature, it has not inflicted upon us a total depravity; it has weakened but not destroyed the principles of spiritual life in our souls. All we need therefore is, that with due care and by a proper application of means, both on our own part and towards us by others, these principles, thus already existing, be gradually strengthened, developed, and matured; we do not need the implantation of any new principles. If we punctually observe all the ordinances of religion, if we have gained regular admission to all the outward privileges of Christians, and if withal we have established ourselves by the power of habit as well as by the force of our resolutions in a course of correct morality, adorned it may be with acts of charity and benevolence, we have experienced all the change which the Gospel is intended to effect, and have attained that state into which it calls us here, that we may at last enjoy the happiness of heaven.

By such views as these, they so degrade the nature and reduce the magnitude and difficulty of the work to be accomplished, that they easily conceive it may be accomplished by ordinary means. They deny therefore that Christ exercises his regal power in giving efficacy to the ordinances of his Church.^[2]

Seeing, then, that a great, and constant tendency to undue reliance on the outward means operates universally, and that pernicious errors in regard to the power inherent in the ministry on the one hand, and to the extent and difficulty of the change to be effected in the condition of man on the other, which justify and authorise such reliance, are very prevalent, let us my brethren, "keep our hearts with all diligence," lest we too, as so many have done, yield to that tendency and fall into those errors; in all the labours and amidst all the occurrences of our ministry, let us carefully maintain a simple dependence upon God for success. And particularly as regards preaching of the gospel, the great duty of our office, let us never enter upon it until we have first stirred up our hearts to the exercise of this dependence; nor are we merely to exercise it prospectively, but, all along while we are engaged in the actual performance of the duty, so that while as ambassadors for Christ we beseech the people to be reconciled to God, we shall be occupied at the same time as intercessors for the people in beseeching God that he would reconcile them unto himself by the blood of the cross; or, while we urge upon the people the duty of believing, shall be looking up to God on their behalf for grace to believe; and, in a word, in every exposition of truth, in every argument, and in every appeal, shall have it as our object to open a channel through which we at the same time earnestly pray the divine blessing may descend upon our hearers. This is the proper attitude of soul in preaching the gospel; and what reason have we to lament that we do not attain to it more frequently and fully? May God grant that our preaching may be more characterised by this simultaneous pleading with and for sinners!

3. We now proceed to a third remark - that we must earnestly desire the salvation of those among whom we exercise our ministry. It is quite conceivable, and the case it may be feared is often realised, that one may preach the gospel and perform the other duties of the ministry, merely to meet the necessity and satisfy the demands of his official situation. His office requires that a certain duty be performed at a certain time, and he must therefore perform it then, though he expects no result from it, no result we mean connected with the salvation of sinners, for the sake of which, if he were left to act according to his own choice, he would perform it at all. Nor ought we, my brethren, to suppose that we ourselves are in no danger of substituting for the due exercise of our ministry such a service of hypocrisy and bondage as this.

Our safety in this as in every similar case requires that, with energy and diligence, we pursue the opposite course: let us, therefore, be careful to exercise our ministry "not by constraint" - under the pressure of some necessity which compels us to offer violence to our inclination - "but willingly" and "of a ready mind," our hearts being in the work. 1 Peter 5: 2. We must earnestly desire the salvation of those among whom we labour; and as we move along the path of official duty, it is this desire, in proper subordination to zeal for the glory of God, that must operate as the propelling force. Let the example of the great apostle of the Gentiles discover to us our duty in this case:- "I would that ye knew," he writes to the Colossians, "What conflict I have for you, and for them at Laodicea, and for as many as have not seen my face in the flesh; that their hearts might be comforted, being knit together in love, and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the acknowledgment of the mysteries of God, and of the Father, and of Christ." (Col. 2: 1-2.) And in the same epistle he declares, "We preach Christ, warning every man, and teaching every man, in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus: whereunto I also labour, striving according to his working, which worketh in me mightily." Col. 1: 28-29. "Though I be free from all men," he says elsewhere, "yet have I made myself servant unto all, that I might gain the more, and unto the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might gain the Jews; to them that are without law, as without law, that I might gain them that are without law; to the weak became I as weak, that I might gain the weak; I am made all things to all men, that I might by all means save some." 1 Cor. 9: 19-21! Addressing the erring Galatians as his children, he adds, "of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you." Gal. 4: 19. Having adverted to his sufferings, in his Second Epistle to Timothy, he thus accounts for the patience with which he bore them, "I endure all things for the elect's sakes, that they may also obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus, with eternal glory." 2 Tim. 2: 10.

The consideration that God alone giveth the increase ought powerfully to excite the desire which we urge, and which is thus enforced by the example of the apostle. As God is throughout the author of salvation, as it was not only provided by his love, but is applied by his power, it is to him the whole glory of it redounds. We ought therefore, from a regard to his glory, to desire earnestly that sinners may be saved.

4.We would remark further, that in exercising our ministry we ought to look for savings effects. The mere desire of such effects without this expectation does not seem to imply faith, or at least to involve the present exercise of it; and without faith it is impossible in any case to please God. We may expect that sinners will be saved under our ministry on the ground of such promises as assure us in general terms that the influences of the Spirit will accompany the preaching of the gospel and render it effectual, and that by means of it therefore sinners will be converted and sanctified. We apprehend, however, that a more specific expectation than this is sometimes attained. It is true, indeed, that there is no promise that sinners will be saved in a particular locality, and under the ministry of a particular individual, and that where there is no promise, a believing expectation cannot be directly and immediately entertained. But the salvation of sinners is represented to us as a result to be most earnestly desired, - it is glorifying to God, and eternal blessedness to those in whose case it is realised; and then we are greatly and in various ways encouraged to expect that what we are enabled to desire, not only with great earnestness, but altogether under the influence of just views and in the exercise of right affections, will be done for us. We cannot rise to the fervour and elevation of spiritual and holy desires, but as the spirit of God enables us, and as "the spirit searcheth all things, yea even the deep things of God," he preserves, we conceive, a harmony between the desires which he awakens, particularly those desires which he fosters into great intensity and strength, and the blessings which may be obtained to gratify them. Hence such declarations as "Ask and ye shall receive." If we ask, if we fulfil this requirement, if we do in kind and in degree what is here enjoined, we "shall receive." The requirement is the only limitation of the promise. But, then, we cannot ask unless the Holy Spirit awaken in our souls those desires we should express in asking, and at the same time enable us to accompany the expression of them with those acts of faith and other graces which will constitute it true asking in the estimation of God. Now the Holy Spirit will not work thus in us with respect to anything which either from its own nature or from circumstances attaching to it we cannot receive. He will not enable us to ask, to fulfil the command, in any case which does not permit the fulfilment of the promise. There may, then, be such intensity of desire and such an exercise of the different graces of the spirit of which the exercise is suitable to the case, with respect to a particular blessing, that on this ground alone we shall be greatly encouraged to expect it.

Let us then stir up our souls to desire earnestly the salvation of those to whom we minister. In every instance of the exercise of our ministry, let us keep the production of saving effects in view, as the result we desire. And let us look for it: let us not only regard the return of sinners to the Lord as desirable, but let us hope it will take place. The fact that the ministry has been instituted, that we have been entrusted with it, and that opportunities to exercise it are given to us, demand and justify such hope. And as it is "God that giveth the increase," - as it is "as he giveth to every man," that sinners believe, the worst case to which the exercise of our ministry can be directed is not hopeless, for unto God nothing is impossible.

As regards the people, they ought to exercise, in attending on the various ordinances of religion, the same diligence, the same exclusive dependence upon God, the same earnest desire, and the same humble and believing expectation, which we have shown it is the duty of ministers to exercise in dispensing its ordinances. They must be careful that their attendance on ordinances be a waiting upon God, that they have an object and an expectation, and that for the accomplishment of that object their eyes be directed to him who alone giveth the increase.

In conclusion, let it be observed how necessary in connection with such a duty is frequent and fervent prayer on the part of both ministers and people - on the part of ministers, for themselves and the people - and on the part of the people, for themselves and their ministers.

Footnotes

[1] As to the question of Apostolical succession to which we have now adverted, it is not to our present purpose to bestow upon it any discussion. We would only remark, that there is another question which we apprehend ought to be decided before the question of succession is at all taken up. Before we investigate the facts of the succession alleged in any particular case, it is obviously necessary that we first ascertain the law of succession. The facts adduced may be sufficient to establish a succession, an unbroken descent; but unless they fulfil the law which obtains in the case, the succession which they establish will not be valid, and will carry along with it no peculiar benefit or privilege. The posterity of Ishmael, and of the sons of Keturah, as well as the posterity of Isaac, are the descendants of Abraham; but their descent from him is not such as the law of succession in the case requires, - "In Isaac shall thy seed be called," Gen. 21: 12 - and therefore they are not his heirs. An Episcopalian, accordingly, can infer nothing in favour of the ministry and ordinances of his own Church from the Apostolical succession which he claims for it, until he has first shown that the descent to which he gives this name, is a substantial fulfilment of the law of succession, whatever it be, which applies to the Christian ministry. When he has accomplished this, he may next address himself to the arduous task of proving the unbroken transmission of the sacred office from the apostles of our Lord through a continuous line of diocesan bishops to the present time; but until he has accomplished it, to prove such a transmission would serve no purpose. It must therefore be inquired at the very outset, what the law of succession is in this case - whether, so far as the question lies between Episcopalians and Presbyterians, it is that for which the former, or that for which the latter contend - whether it enjoins the transmission of the ministry by the laying on of the hands of a single diocesan bishop, or by the laying on of the hands of several parochial bishops or, in other words, of a presbytery. If it should appear that it enjoins the latter mode of transmission it would be in vain to urge that the ministry cannot by such transmission be derived from the Apostles in a continuous and unbroken line, or without encountering long and total interruptions. However much it might surprise us, that divine providence should permit such interruptions to occur, we could not surely regard them as setting aside or annulling the appointed mode of transmission. And, besides, the appointed mode must have obtained for some time, and obtained alone, before the first interruption of it to the place, and this period effectually breaks and destroys the continuity of every rival mode of transmission. The whole inquiry therefore resolves itself into the question, which is the appointed mode of transmission, or what is the law by which the succession is regulated. The appointed mode of transmission, whether divine providence has preserved it in uninterrupted use, or allowed it to fall, more or less, into temporary desuetude, ought, doubtless, to be the practised mode. But though the question of succession, irrelevant as it is, were to be entertained, a succession, we apprehend, could be made out for Presbyterianism equal in continuity, and superior as regards the purity of the bodies in which it was preserved, to any that can be proved in favour of Episcopacy.

[2] If to this denial we add the practical denial further of his right to exercise regal authority in maintaining and regulating the dispensation of the ordinances of his Church, we shall have a summary of the principles with which the Church of our fathers was desolated so long and to an extent so melancholy and disastrous. In the sense just explained, those who held and carried out these principles, conceived themselves to be independent of Christ as regarded the end, and would not therefore be subject to him with respect to the means; they neither desired as necessary nor recognised as real the blessings of his covenant, and would not therefore acknowledge the rights of his crown. But we have reason to bless God that Christ has at last returned to that Church, and revived his work in the midst of it; that it seems now to be receiving the fulfilment of the promise, "they that shall be of thee shall build the old waste places; thou shalt raise up the foundations of many generations; and thou shalt be called, the repairer of the breach, the restorer of paths to dwell in;" Is. 58: 12. And his power to save having been exercised and experienced, his right to rule was soon acknowledged; and the acknowledgment of it has been acted on and carried out in practice. This, as might be expected, awakened the opposition of those by whom it was denied, and that opposition has not yet been withdrawn or overcome; but whatever the issue may be, a Church is surely in a far better state when a majority of its members maintain the doctrine of Christ's headship, though their maintenance of it gives rise to a contest, than when all its members reject that doctrine, though from this melancholy unanimity no contest exists.