other objects, they have other and higher functions.

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It is the will of God that these two worlds, if I may use so bold an expression, should go on together, neither overpowering nor interfering with the other. If the visible and temporal world were to prove too strong for the invisible and spiritual, the result would be seen in the demoralization of society, by the loss of all the most effectual motives and sanctions of duty; the world would become absolutely and exclusively worldly: if, on the other hand, the ranks and priorities of the invisible world should attempt to usurp the same station visibly; if the priesthood, for instance, because their real functions are higher and more noble than those of any other set of men, should therefore claim to supersede all others in visible authority and temporal honour, the result would be the same, but from another cause. The world would become altogether worldly; not because religion was overpowered, but because it was betrayed.

To us, my brethren, the greater part of whom are now, for the first time, about to enter upon the sacred functions of the ministry, it is a most im portant thing to perceive our exact place, and with it our exact duties in the midst of our brethren. We are to be the ministers of the invisible and spiritual kingdom. We are not to endeavour to alter or interfere with the visible and temporal order that subsists around us. The objects of our

address are to be the consciences of individuals. We are to endeavour, in the prosecution of our high duties, to induce individual men, members already of the visible and temporal arrangement, tó recognise the spiritual world, its orders, its motives, and its hopes; not to desert their station, but to sanctify it by living therein to higher purposes; to use this world, in two senses; both as not abusing it, and as using it to please God therein, and attain His favour. We may, and ought to magnify our office, because it is in truth the most elevated office entrusted to mankind: but, meanwhile, we are not to desecrate it with any worldly ambition, nor to attempt to confound it with other offices different from it, and incompatible with it.

The particular point which I am anxious to commend to your present meditation, as of the first importance to all Christian ministers, and as rising most naturally out of the beautiful narrative from which my text is taken, is this: that it is the love of Christ deeply felt in our hearts, which alone can give us the true view of our situation and duties, supply us with unfailing motives for discharging those duties, carry us through the difficulties and discouragements by which we shall assuredly be beset in them, and make them available to the Christian advantage of ourselves, and those who are the objects of our ministerial exertions. "Jesus saith to Simon Peter, Simon son of Jonas, lovest thou me more than these? He saith unto Him, Yea,

Y

Lord, thou knowest that I love Thee. He saith unto him, Feed my lambs.”

Do we love Christ? Yea, Lord, thou knowest that we love Thee! and He hath given us authority to feed His lambs. If we love Him, we shall therein be enabled to know our duties, and to fulfil them. Seeing Him as the great Shepherd, seeing His Christian people as lambs of His flock, loving Him with all our hearts, and them for their good Shepherd's sake, we shall be guided to honour Him, and benefit them and ourselves, by the knowledge and faithful discharge of our sacred duties.

Now it is not my intention to prove that the love of Christ is the real motive to the proper undertaking of the pastoral office. The passage of Holy Scripture which I have chosen for the text, sufficiently proves it. I rather desire to illustrate it in a few instances, understanding the words of Christ to be addressed to St. Peter, as a representative of the clergy in all times.

Consider first the case of a clergyman who, placed perhaps in a large and ill-conditioned parish, is conscious of no good result from his continual and zealous labours; who sees vice and irreligion abounding round him not less plentifully, though his best efforts have been and are made, year by year, to check them. Or suppose him unpopular, either as a preacher, or in some other way not incompatible with his ministerial faithfulness; or suppose him opposed not unsuccessfully by Dis

senters; his teaching vilified, his people often misled, the cause of truth apparently losing, rather than gaining, ground under his stewardship. What is to support his cheerfulness, to uphold his energy, to conquer the tendency to relaxed effort and broken hope which such circumstances will certainly bring with them? It is plain that his strength must be within. It is plain that he needs a source of cheerful exertion different from external excitements, of whatever kind they be. Nor will the mere sense of duty, such as is common to all conscientious men, carry him through his difficulty. It might suffice to keep him at his post, to make him persevere in regular discharge even of neglected and apparently unprofitable offices. But could it supply the heart, the fervency, the love for the souls of men for Christ's sake, which will fight up against discouragement, which will feel the spirit of a loyal service, which will recognise the presence and superintendence of a beloved Lord, even when no visible effects result from the most anxious labours? For in the midst of disappointment and opposition, when those to whom we would fain do good are bound to us by no natural tie, are careless of our lessons, impatient of our advice, irreverent perhaps towards what we hold most sacred, have no sympathy with us in any matter, love and affection have naturally no place. such persons are likely to be merely for conscience' sake.

Duties performed to cold, ungrateful, done We need something

of God's own merciful love to His poor weak creatures, before we can do His service to such persons quite heartily. We need a feeling akin to that of fatherly compassion to erring yet not outcast children. But how is one weak and sinful man to master all his own human feelings so far as to learn to regard his brethren so? By learning to regard them as they stand to Christ. By looking upon them as His: His created, His redeemed, His baptized though disobedient children, and for His sake, in His love, loving their souls.

But suppose again that discouragements, such as I have mentioned, affect him in another way,--by making him doubtful and distrustful of himself, by throwing him back upon the consideration of his own fitness for the situation of arduous responsibility in which he is placed. He comes to fear that the lack of visible good which he deplores may be owing to his own supineness, or negligent preparation for his duties, or want of spirituality and devotedness to God; and he feels tempted to relinquish his post, though he has been duly called and appointed to fill it, lest the work of advancing Christ's kingdom should be checked or interrupted by his unworthiness. Undoubtedly such feelings may often be just and well-founded; undoubtedly ministerial insufficiency may often be the cause of diminution of blessing to the flock. But I desire rather to put the case in which real faithfulness is joined, from such causes as I have mentioned, with