fulfilled; and yet all this is done in a method suited to man, coming down to his weakness and wretchedness, and offering him just as he is in this sin-smitten world, in which he is born, and out of which he is to die and appear before his Creator, a finished gratuitous, honorable and glorious salvation. To preach Christ and Him crucified is to preach the being and glorious perfection of Jehovah as the one only living and true God, the Creator of all things; the future judgment and eternal state of righteous retribution; the lost state of man, and his recovery through the One great Mediation; the necessity of regeneration, repentance, conversion and personal holiness through the Spirit; the duties and precepts of the Gospel.

"THE WORD OF GOD ONLY;

THE GRACE OF CHRIST ONLY:

THE WORK OF THE SPIRIT ONLY."

2. The minister of the Gospel who stands on the apostle's great platform must know Christ experimentally as his Saviour. He must be truly a pious man. Ile must know by experience what it is to repent and believe, and have a sweet experience in his own soul of the preciousness of the Saviour's love. How can he point others to the Lamb of God, if he has not seen Him for himself? How can he teach others, who has not himself been taught? There is something fearful in the idea of an unconverted and ungodly minister. Terrible is the thought that his own doctrines and preaching shall come up as a swift witness against himself in the great day of eternity-that having preached Christ to others, and thereby been the instrument of saving others, he should himself be a castaway. But such things have occurred. There were wicked prophets and false apostles, and there are doubtless unconverted ministers. It becomes us all to watch and pray.

3. The minister's platform is to believe and preach the same truths that Jesus Christ believed and preached. There is no irreverence in speaking of the creed and worship of our Lord. He was an example in all righteousness. His inner life as the Godman-mediator, as to the truth which he believed, the precepts he honored and the devotions he poured out to his God, is the highest model for the piety of every one that believes in Him. As his ministers, we are to believe and preach what the Son of God believed and preached, concerning God his Father, himself and the Eternal Spirit, and the whole economy of free grace. The DIVINE WORD, therefore, which is the utterance of Christ's Spirit to us by prophets and apostles, is the sum total of all we are to believe and preach. It is our armament, arsenal, fleet, artillery and land forces, with which we are to lead his sacramental hosts in our great aggressive movements upon the kingdom of darkness. We must enforce and explain the Scriptures, because they

testify of Jesus, and therefore it is that in them we have eternal life. The Scriptures set forth Christ crucified in promises, prophecies and types. They give an account of his birth, life, death, resurrection, ascension and intercession. They represent from beginning to end a suffering, atoning, dying, yet living and reigning Messiah as the only hope of mankind. The sacred oracles are our "only Rule of Faith and manners." It is by the truth through the sanctification of the Spirit, that men are to be saved -sanctified through the truth-begotten by the truth. The Scriptures are able to make us wise unto salvation through faith in Jesus Christ. There is then great amplitude as well as emphasis in the Apostle's injunction-PREACH THE WORD. If insulated texts are used, however eloquently and skilfully it may be done, there is danger that the minister's discourses will be substituted for the Divine Word, and that his discourses will become mere dry rhetorical flourishes or essays, and SENTIMENTS, opinions, and fancies be regarded as the teachings of eternal truth. Holy Scripture must be explained by Holy Scripture, and not wrested out of its proper connection. The customs of the country of their several writers, and the idioms and meanings of the words in which the mind of the Spirit has been communicated, must be understood by the interpreter of the sacred text. This exposi tory method of preaching is sometimes called lecturing. It is more difficult, if it be well done, than the topical essay kind of preaching; but I doubt not far more agreeable to God, who hath placed the chief honor on his word as his instrument for converting men from error. Earnest, pointed, practical exposition was without doubt the primitive mode of preaching. It was thus Ezra preached. He read the law and then caused the people to know its meaning. The blessed Saviour stood up and read out of the Jewish Scriptures, and then sat down and taught the people the true meaning of what he had read. It was thus Philip preached to the Eunuch, and in like manner we find that Paul and the other apostles were daily engaged in expounding the Scriptures to the people in the synagogues. The Reformers, and the most eminent and useful ministers of Christ in past ages, have been able doctrinal, expository preachers of the Word. This mode of preaching has this advantage-that the minister always has his subject before him, and in going through a book by chapter and verse, all sorts of characters are spread out before him, and all manner of opinions, so that he has an opportunity of striking home every kind of error, without seeming to aim his discourses at particular persons in his congregation. It may be best, sometimes, for a pastor to use but a single text as the theme of his discourse; but the fullness and the richness, the profitableness and the mellowness of his ministrations, will depend upon his acquaintance with, fondness for, and ability in expounding the whole volume of God's truth. Its promises, threatenings,

doctrines and precepts, rewards and punishments, are set forth best when preached in the order of the Spirit of God. If a minister of the Gospel, through ignorance or indolence, or for the want of courage, smother up the light that is given him-if he do not preach and cause his hearers to understand the great truths of Revelation, he is a traitor to his Sovereign, or totally unfit for his mission. The burden of the Lord on the minister who stands on the Apostle's platform, will always be "Repentance towards God and faith in Jesus Christ." "Christ the wisdom of God and the power of God." "Of God Christ is made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification and complete redemption."

4. On the Apostle's platform Christ is set forth as the minister's MODEL in the manner as well as the matter of preaching. The minister of the Gospel who knows nothing but Christ and Him crucified will strive to imitate the Son of God in his humility, piety and zeal. Our Lord had all wisdom and power, yet never was there one so meek and unassuming. He never exerted his omnipotence for display, nor for His own personal comfort. He who was in the form of God, and thought it not robbery to be equal with God, took upon himself the form of a servant-humbled himself-emptied himself of his ineffable glory-and became a man-a man of sorrows and of sufferings, obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. The minister of Christ, therefore, is not to preach himself, but Christ Jesus the Saviour of sinners. He is not to preach his own fancies or sentiments, but the words of eternal life. "We preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, the unsearchable riches of Christ." There may be-there will be differences and diversities as to the form and manner in which Divine truths are presented by preachers of the Word; yet Christ must ever be the centre in which all the lines of Truth meet. The preacher of the WORD may command the wealth of history, the powers of eloquence and the charms of rhetoric-splendid talents, varied and profound attainments, great learning and untiring research, and the more knowledge of men and things, of learning sacred and profane he can lay under tribute, the better able is he to be useful, but like the wise men from the East, he must lay all his talents and attainments at the feet of Jesus. If he speak in "thoughts that breathe and words that burn," let it be of Christ, the brightness of His Father's glory, and the express image of His person-the Lord JEHOVAH, OUR STRENGTH AND RIGHTEOUSNESS. The Apostle Paul, on the great platform laid down by himself, is an example to be well studied and followed. He had talents to shine in the Senate, or to rule in the Sanhedrim-genius and position to have been among the first men in his nation; but the only pre-eminence he desired after his conversion, was a pre-eminence in suffering and in devotion to the glory of His Divine master. See Acts xx: 17,

27. Paul was a preacher of free grace-a doctrinal, argumentative, earnest, practical preacher. He brought logic and rhetoric and philosophy and the heathen classics, and a well trained and powerful mind to the cross of Christ, and baptized them all into his blood. The prominent, the chief topic in all his discourses and in all his epistles, is free grace. How often do we hear him acknowledge his indebtedness to redeeming love. He seems never to weary of the theme, nor to have been ashamed of his obligations. By grace are ye saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, was with him a sort of stereotyped address. He exulted in the obligations laid upon him as a sinner saved by free grace. He speaks of it as undeserved, unexpected, and when first revealed to him undesired. He says it came to him from the highest Heavens, arrested him in his career of impiety and persecution, and made known to him a saviour. Free, sovereign grace is the affecting theme that melts his heart, elevates his powers, and tunes his tongue to praisewhich dissolves his whole soul in tenderness and pours out the deep emotions which heaved his bosom. He could say by experience: It is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief. The grandeur of his mind; the amplitude and strength of his intellect; his moral courage; his heroic devotion, his patience in suffering; his powerful genius; his decision of character; his fixedness of purpose; his eloquence and zeal-all give him a prominence in the ministry of God's dear Son, that well entitle him to the study and careful imitation of all Christ's preaching servants. Who more powerful, massive, clear and overwhelming in argument than Paul with the subtle and vain philosopher? Who more terrible in dealing out the thunders of Jehovah and sounding forth the trumpet-tongued curses of Sinai against gainsayers and all the ungodly tribe, who refuse free grace? And yet never was there a more tender and affectionate son of consolation in his discourses to the timid disciple. He knew better than any other man how to wind his way into the human soul-"how to coil around its most sacred affections-how to explore the secret place of tears, and to put in motion all its kindest sympathies." But, it is when he speaks of the fullness, depth, length and breadth of free grace, whereof he was a minister, and an Apostle both to Jew and Gentile, that he looms higher and shines more gloriously than on any other subject. Here all his powers of intellect, and all his feelings are concentrated. He declares unhesitatingly that the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ was exceeding abundant and that he had obtained it for this end, that in him, first the Saviour might show forth all long suffering to them who should believe on Him, to life everlasting. He regarded himself as a monument inscribed with: THERE IS FORGIVENESS WITH GOD. He tells us, moreover,

that his ministry was marked with many tears. I have often thought of the Apostle in tears. I have tried to imagine how he must have looked when preaching free grace in tears. There is something peculiarly affecting, tender and sublime in the tears of an Apostle. But wherefore, O thou man of God, these "many tears?" Did he weep before the Jewish Sanhedrim or before the Roman Governor? Did he weep when he was shipwrecked-when he was put in prison-when he was scourged-when he was stoned and taken up half dead-or when he was in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, or in perils of false brethren, or when he was carried to Rome and appeared before Nero, and under sentence of death, or when taken to the block to be beheaded? No, my brethren, there is no record of any tears from Paul on any of these occasions. But he does tell us expressly, that none of these things move me; nor do I count my life any thing, only that I may finish with joy the ministry of the Lord Jesus. For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of right

eousness.

The fountain of his tears was sealed up too deep to flow on his own account. But the great deeps of his heart were broken up, when he saw his countrymen rejecting the only Messiah-when he saw his fellow-men rejecting free grace-putting away from them the only words of eternal life. Having a full view of the completeness and glory of the Gospel, and of the terrors of the Lord, and the awful destruction that awaits the finally impenitent from the presence of the Lord, he could not refrain from tears. Now the eyes that knew no tears while he stood in chains before a Roman governor, nor when he was sentenced to death by the bloody Nero, are suffused and overflowing. Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved. He was willing to be accursed after the manner of Christ, for his brethren's sakes. Like the prophet, he was ready to exclaim, "Oh that my head were waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people." Whitefield and many other eminent servants of God have not been able to refrain from tears when pleading with sinners to be reconciled to God.

5. For a minister of the Gospel to stand on the platform of knowing nothing but Christ and Him crucified, is, as the dying Rutherford said to his fellow presbyters: "To do all for Christ; to pray for Christ, study and preach for Christ; feed the flock committed to your charge for Christ; to visit and catechise for God, and out of love to the souls of men, and to beware of men-pleasing.' a word, it is to make Christ the all in all of his ministry-the soul of all Christian graces, ordinances and sacraments. Psalms and hymns, spiritual songs, prayers and sermons, baptism and the holy supper are nothing without Christ. He gives them all.

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