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hearers cry out, Men and brethren, what shall we do? It tickled not the ear, but sank into the heart; and when men came from such sermons, they never commended the preacher for his touching voice or gesture---for the fineness of such a simile, or the quaintness of such a sentence; but, they spake like men conquered with the overpowering force and evidence of the most convincing truths, much in the words of the two disciples going to Emmaus--- Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked with us by the way ?" ---Language may indeed be figurative and elevated, but, it must be straight forward and bold; it should be used to affect the imagination only as the imagination forms an avenue to the heart. In the preaching of Christ and him crucified, ornament is misplaced, unless it contribute to the pungency of truth, and the arousing of the conscience ;---and it can never be rendered subservient to such an end; but when flowing from lips, touched with a coal from the altar in heaven.

And then, in regard to earnestness. How little compatible is a cold indifference to the success of our ministrations, with the nature of those momentous truths that form the subject of our preaching, I need not tell. A cold heart better befits the seraph, bending before the throne of God, than the minister of the earthly sanctuary. Look again at his object! It is nothing less than to pluck immortal men as brands from the burning---to tear them away from their idols---to reconcile them to God, and raise them to thrones of glory. For this, he holds in his hand a commission from the once bleeding, now enthroned Lamb of God---and if faithful and successful, he shall shine above the brightness of the firmament forever and ever! Can he then stand before his people as a statue that has eyes and sees not---that has the form of a man, but no heart!---Not such an one was Jeremiah, when he exclaimed, “O that mine 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." Not such an one was Paul, when his continual desire and prayer to God for Israel was that they might be saved. And least of all, was the Great Exemplar of the Christian Minister such an one, when he laid down his life to save his enemies from eternal death. May none of our pulpits ever groan under the weight of leaden statues, without souls!

A word to the Pastor Elect, and I am done.

DEAR BROTHER:

I feel assured, that among the people to whom God has now sent you, you will know nothing save Jesus Christ and him crucified, and that you will steadfastly maintain the two grand principles settled by the text--that "the world by wisdom knows not God," and that "it is by the foolishness of preaching God will save them that believe." An entire conviction of these truths lies at the foundation of all success. You will labor in vain and spend your strength for naught, unless sustained and directed by the same spirit that animated the Apostle--a spirit, that would not suffer him to cease, day nor night to warn every man with tears, while he deeply felt his own insufficiency, and yet affirmed, "I can do all things through Christ that strengtheneth me." Your own strength is weakness---your own wisdom folly. Impressed with this truth, you will not fail to have recourse to Him who is MIGHTY TO SAVE:---By prayer and by diligent study of the Scriptures, you will commune with him daily. Your own heart will be laid open to those divine influences which you implore, for the sanctification of your hearers; and then, you will readily bring forth from your treasures things new and old, and have always at command the most powerful weapons for "casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalteth itself against God." The word of God, which is the sword of the Spirit, when wielded by the arm of faith, under the promptings of a heart filled with all prayer and sup

plication, will pierce to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, of the joints and the marrow, and will prove a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Compared with this, all human learning is pointless, and inefficient.

Said Cecil, when beginning to recover from a sickness that had brought him to the borders of the grave---" If God should restore me again to health, I have determined to study nothing but the Bible. Literature is unfriendly to spirituality, if it be not kept under with a strong hand. A man ought to call in from every quarter, whatever may assist him to understand, explain, and illustrate the Bible; but there, in its light and life, is all that is good for man. All important truth is there, and I feel that no comfort enters sick curtains from any other quarter. I have been too much occupied in preparing to live, and too little in living. I have read too much from curiosity and for mental gratification. I was literary when I should have been active. We trifle too much. Let us do something for God. The man of God is a man of feeling and activity. I feel-and would urge with all possible strength on others, that Jesus Christ is our all in all."

Act, my brother, under the influence of the conviction here stated, and you will not labor in vain. It is not your duty to convert men-but it is your duty to show them by living action that you desire their conversion, and that you will gladly spend and be spent for them, even though the more you love them, the less you be loved. And thus acting, it shall be your privilege, to become the instrument of turning them to God, and to be a partaker of their joys hereafter.

Is your field of labor small ?-large enough however to employ more than an angel's resources! Is it difficult? and where lie not difficulties in the way of God's ministers. Is it unpromising? say not so! God has blessed

it heretofore, and will yet bless it again.

Stay yourself

The "Things which are not:" God's chosen instruments for advancing

His Kingdom.

A SERMON,

PREACHED AT CLEVELAND, OHIO, OCTOBER 1, 1861,

BEFORE THE

AMERICAN BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS FOR
FOREIGN MISSIONS,

AT THEIR

FIFTY-SECOND ANNUAL MEETING.

BY RICHARD S. STORRS, Jr., D.D.,

OF BROOKLYN, NEW-YORK.

NEW-YORK:

JOHN A. GRAY, PRINTER, STEREOTYPER, AND BINDER,

FIRE PROOF BUILDINGS,

CORNER OF FRANKFORT AND JACOB STREETS.

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