for your escape.- This Christian society is next committed to you; in all the extent and complication of its interests:-to provide for its safety by vigilance,—for its improvement, by spiritual wisdom, -and for its nutriment and comfort, by the judicious dispensation of those provisions which are destined for the household of faith. No zeal or diligence in the propagation of the gospel elsewhere, can exempt you from the condemnation of unfaithfulness, if you be not here found "teaching every man, and warning every man, that you may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus." With all the exigencies and all the progress of this people, you are bound henceforth to consider your own as intimately blended. You receive from the chief Shepherd, not the injunction to so many acts of service -but to the safeguard and tutelage of so many ransomed spirits, each more precious than the brightest beam of heaven, and exposed to severer perils than a lamb surrounded by deserts and devouring wolves. Here is a garrison invested by the foe, ready to spring from his ambushments to overwhelm it in devastation and slaughter:-the soldiery within are at rest; but you, as the sentinel, must abide upon your watch-tower, to guard it against surprise. It is a fortified but a besieged city, secured by no other defence besides those walls and bulwarks of salvation, which, when shielded from violation, and preserved against decay, afford a safe retreat from every enemy. You must stand upon its ramparts-—— with your sword ready for conflict, and your trumpet for alarm:-slumber in you is treachery,-as

cowardice would be defeat;-and the life of the citizens shall be demanded at your hands. But why should I multiply images, when no similitude can represent, and no language suitably express, the tremendous though sublime reality? I will sum up all in words which alone will not degrade so great a subject-"You WATCH FOR SOULS, as those that must give account!"

It would now add little to that impression I am desirous to insure, were I to dwell at length upon the collateral and remoter obligations of your office. -The mind that is not weighed down by such reflections, would experience little concern from the superadded burden of whatever cares or labours;it would behold unmoved the last possible accumulation either of responsibility or of danger. The only fear, indeed, is, lest their excess of power should neutralize itself, and beget despondency where it should invite to action;-lest we should do nothing, aim at nothing, hope for nothing, only because we see that to accomplish every thing is a task too great for our ambition. When thus bewildered and appalled, and "wearied in the greatness of our way," it is of inestimable benefit to be able to recur to simple and primary remembrances, which, though the plainest, are ever the most important. And there is nothing in this view fitted more directly to correct our opposite deviations from sobriety and practical wisdom, than to recollect that the tribute demanded of us is, not success, but diligence,-not conquest, but fidelity,-to have the heart right with God, the eye fixed upon eternity,-the object of

our ministry simple, sincere, and uniform,—and our whole mind undividedly and singly consecrated to its fulfilment, reposing in the assurance, that such a course of action shall neither be unacceptable nor unavailing,—that when our principles are in the measure of our duty, our strength shall be according to our day.

This is our next consideration-and permit me to illustrate

II. How, when our purposes and efforts are thus absolutely concentrated, being directed unitedly to the faithful execution of our ministry,-that concentration will insure success.

And here let me request you to remember

1. How salutary will be the direct effect of such a principle on your own mind.-Independently of the divine blessing, which you may confidently anticipate on labours prompted by so pure a motive, and flowing so manifestly in the channel of that agency which "worketh all" in all its own operation, will be incalculably beneficial,—at once for the counteraction of hinderances, and the creation of salutary impulse. Entering practically into the fulness of this noble sentiment, the diligence of your efforts will be proportioned to the strength of resolutions, and this to the force of your convictions. You will be secure against indolence, from mere incapacity to find rest otherwise than in the execution of your purpose. You will be inaccessible to vanity, from the consciousness of perpetual defect. The morning will find you meditating fresh

your

plans of usefulness, and the evening revolving with sorrowful remembrance the negligence and failings of the day. Into every company you enter you will carry at least the spirit of your office; and there will be nothing you either see or hear that will not minister to its fulfilment. All things will be made subservient to your great design,-and, by a thousand diversified and nameless methods, contribute to its more effective prosecution. It will not be requisite that you should compel them to this service; they will render it spontaneously, and with the certainty and steadiness of the economy of nature. Neither need you do violence either to your own feelings or those of others, when aiming to accomplish this result; the only violence that could be offered would be by the effort to neutralize or to restrain this influence, and to act otherwise than as became your character. This you would feel to be difficult indeed; and it would be better for you to die, than that any man should make void your glorying, or rob you of your crown. By such methods, your improvement in knowledge and holiness will become ceaselessly progressive; every day will carry it forward in an accelerated ratio,-and, though insensibly to yourself, you will be gaining continually a larger competency of ministerial endowments. Your value to the church will be receiving large and constant accessions. You will go from strength to strength, and be at each stage of your advancement safer and happier than before, till your pilgrimage is ended, and your warfare honourably accomplished, and you hear the voice which

secret prayer.

calls you to your everlasting reward. In every situation alike, you will be working the work of the Lord. When not directly occupied in outward service, you will be engaged in meditation, or in The indulgence of solemn thought will become so habitual as to fill up, without an effort, those intervals which, in the most devoted life, must otherwise be abandoned to unprofitable musing. Hallowed sentiments, fervent aspirations, devout affections, will dwell within your breast, like a cloud of incense ascending perpetually from the altar, and mingling, in richest odours, the most precious productions of earth with the ethereal fire of heaven.

But if such be its effect upon your ordinary habits and daily occupations, and it operate thus powerfully even when that operation is insensible,-what may not be expected from it in the more sacred functions of your ministry? As in the ancient sacrifices of the heathen, the multitude were summoned to devout attention by the loud and significant command, "Hoc age;"—as in the services of the early church, the voice of the minister was heard breaking the awful stillness of devotion by the solemn cry, "Lift up your hearts!" and was answered, "We lift them up to the Lord;"-so, with what absorbing conceptions of the invisible and the infinite, will it then elevate your mind above every present and perishable object! What fixedness will it give to your thoughts, and what energy to your address, when seeking to depict the realities of the spiritual world, or holding public and solemn communication with