The whole epistle, and especially the sentences which have been chosen for our text, happily exhibit the relation of pastor and people, and that mutual confidence and sympathy which ought ever to subsist between them. You will not regard it as unsuitable to the present occasion, and I hope it may be profitable to us, to direct our attention, this afternoon, to some considerations which manifest their importance. The It is not for us to discuss the propriety of the pastoral office. We might, indeed, see some reasons for its expediency, or, perhaps, for its necessity. But it has been established by one who is infinitely wiser and better than we. "When he ascended up on high, he gave gifts unto men,- apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers,- for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ." apostle employed one evangelist for this special purpose, that he should travel throughout the extensive island of Crete, and set in order the things that were wanting, and ordain elders in every church. On his return from Macedonia to Jerusalem, as he passed near Ephesus, the same apostle called together the elders of the church there, and exhorted them to take heed to themselves, and to the flock over which the Holy Ghost had made them overseers. Churches were originally organized, and officers appointed in them, by divine authority. Under the name of elder, overseer or bishop, pastor or minister, one was to preside in their assemblies, lead their public devo - tions, repeat to them the doctrines of revelation, administer the sacraments, and watch over the spiritual interests, and devote himself to promote the spiritual good, of the community. In this sacred station many have labored, and many are laboring to advance the kingdom of Christ. However unworthy one may feel of its honor and authority and responsibility, which, though inseparable, are often equally burdensome, he may not shrink, when called to it by the providence of God, nor by tameness and distrust and inertness while in it, prostitute his noble office. Nor may the people, when they have called him to it, and clothed him with the pastoral vestments, reluctantly yield to him his proper influence; lest in degrading him, they degrade themselves, and in desecrating his office, they desecrate their own religion, which has constituted, and which sustains it, or in despising him that is sent, they despise him that sent him. But the influence that appropriately belongs to him is chiefly a moral influence. There are no specific statutes that prescribe or limit it. It depends on the principles of the gospel; it is sustained and upheld by the authority of Christ, and is best exerted where the mutual confidence and sympathy prevail which the gospel is adapted to inspire. The duties of a Christian minister are, in many respects peculiarly delicate. He labors not for the body, but for the soul; not for the understanding, but for the heart. He appears before the people, not to amuse their fancy, or to afford an hour's intellect ual entertainment, but to make them better. He is to utter truths which he might not speak on his own authority, and in a manner which he might not assume in any other capacity. He comes to the people, as the messenger of God, to read to them his law, to proclaim his promises, and to repeat his awful denunciations. He may never expect to perform the services of the sanctuary, without disquieting the minds and disturbing the feelings of some who hear him. When he presents the demands of the law, he urges claims, to which few are willing to yield. When he sets before them the beauty of holiness, there are some that will see no beauty there, and some that will be made painfully conscious of their own deficiency. When he describes the deformity of sin, there are those that will turn from it in distress, because it reminds them of their guilt. If he speaks of the joys of heaven, there may be not a few that will hear with uneasiness, because those joys do not harmonize with the feelings of their hearts; and they will be made unhappy from the conviction which settles upon them, that they cannot now think of those joys as joys for them. If he speaks of the woes of hell, he knows it is a subject awful and appalling to the minds of all, most repulsive to many, and which some cannot hear without writhing in agony, because the description of those for whom that place is prepared, embraces themselves. Even when he speaks of a Saviour, the very name of Saviour implies that this compassionate one has come to save only those that are lost. Indeed, the minister of Christ is always acting upon the hearts of men,- he is concerned with their desires and aversions, their joys and sorrows, their hopes and fears, he is always touching their tenderest feelings. In the discharge of his duties he may often afford comfort, but he will often give pain. He may strengthen the hope and delight the feelings of some, while at the same time he inculcates principles that take from others their dearest opinions, and their highest expectations for eternity. There are no subjects on which men are, in many respects, so sensitive, as on those of religion. Christian minister certainly needs all the magnanimous devotedness and generous affection of the apostle in our text, to enable him well to perform his delicate task; and the people need to cherish all that reciprocal confidence and affection which nature will allow, to enable them to receive from him with meekness and kindness and profit the service which he aims to bestow. The The subjects which the gospel embraces, or with which it is immediately connected, are many of them infinite in their extent, and beyond our entire comprehension. They are things, that are unseen and eternal. They relate to invisible spirits, to boundless space, to endless existence, to unlimited knowledge, to almighty power, and to that wisdom which sees intuitively the harmony and mutual adaptation of all the constituent parts of universal being. They are above the grasp not only of the human, but of any finite mind. "Who can, by searching, find out God? who can find out the Almighty to perfection?" Wherever we stop, in our inquiries, mysteries lie beyond. If we would go further, and were able to solve one of them, another lies next beyond it, equally amazing, still tempting the curiosity, still exhausting the energies, disquieting the feelings, and baffling the ingenuity of man. Even the work of redemption, however simple it may be in its application to our wants, and however grateful it is to the penitent heart, exceeds in the extent of its relations our utmost capacity. It is an unfathomable mine. The angels desire to look into it. We may see that there are riches there, but those riches are unsearchable. In discoursing on such subjects, he who spake under the influence of the Spirit of God, was constrained, as he saw them extending boundlessly, and rising stupendously before his mind, to stop and exclaim: "O, the depth of the riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!" He felt, too, that the last answer to be given to the captious and persevering disputer must be, "Nay, but who art thou, O man, that repliest against God!" Well, then, may we be humble when we read, and simple-minded when we hear. There can be nothing more subversive of the design of the Christian ministry, than that spirit of mutual distrust, and self-vindication, which prompts the preacher in all his ministrations to disguise his ignorance, and seem to know every thing within the limits of theological inquiry, and |