DISCOURSE I. PHIL. III. 13. "One thing I do." It is not my design, in the remarks I am about to offer, to direct your thoughts to the detail and practical execution of the office with which you have now been solemnly invested. The piety of your whole past conduct, and the diligence you have uniformly manifested in seeking to avail yourself of every source whence you might hope to derive becoming preparation for your task, assure me that you will hereafter assiduously improve such opportunities as shall be brought within your reach, tending in any way to mature your experience, or increase the efficiency of your exertions. From many inestimable treatises on the pastoral character,-from your advancing familiarity in practice with the nature and exigencies of your work,-and, above all, from the ripening principles of holiness, and your more intimate acquaintance with the human heart, derived from the operations of nature and of grace within your own,—you will acquire such competency in the discharge of every duty, as no counsels of mine could impart ;-such indeed as, independently of every other consideration, it would be vain to hope for from the suggestions of an individual discourse. The method I have deemed it better to adopt, therefore, is, rather to aim at concentrating your attention upon some single topic from which the transition may be easy and natural to all that belongs to those engagements on which you are called to enter. And how could this be more effectually accomplished, than by inviting you to reflect on the necessity of such concentration and singleness of thought, not in the present service only, but in the whole fulfilment of your ministry? In the declaration before us, this sentiment, though simply, is yet most energetically embodied;—and I commend it to your notice, as worthy to excite, and certain to repay it. I select this single fragment, detaching it from its connection with a very important and striking passage, not so much for any special adaptation to convey, of itself, a just conception respecting the nature or ends of your employment; as because it may, when thus detached, through its brevity and pointedness of expression, secure, perhaps, a more permanent remembrance, and serve to recall more vividly the solemnities and obligations of this day. It may be remembered, when all besides is forgotten; and, though every observation now offered, and every momentary feeling now awakened, should pass into oblivion, I trust these few emphatic words may be frequently renewed in their impression, amidst the occupations that await you as a Christian pastor. Often will they bring back to you the good confession you have publicly witnessed, the vows you have solemnly recorded, and the prayers and |