We may choose out acceptable words, may watch for the best moment when to press an unwelcome truth: this is duty. And in illustrating truth we may put to use all the softness and sweetness of language and figure that is possible, still no truth may be covered up or misstated. We may say to the righteous, it shall be well with them, but we must with equal plainness say to the wicked, it shall be ill with them. "He that believeth shall be saved, but he that believeth not shall be damned." We may dwell upon the glories of heaven, till we, and all about us who believe, shall long to ascend, but we must also raise the covering of the pit, till the ungodly, if they will not repent, shall begin to feel the scorch of its torments. He who would not handle the word of God deceitfully, cannot suffer his unregenerate hearers to choose what doctrines he shall preach, or what duties he shall urge, or what follies he shall spare, or what the fervency of soul he shall breathe into his message. If he believe a doctrine, he will not hide his faith; if there prevail an error, he dare not conceal his dissent; nor against any vice, however popular, can fail to bear his prompt and unequivocal testimony.

The minister of the gospel, who conceals his faith, is a traitor, and goes over soon to the enemy. And while he stays he is a plague and a nuisance. "If the trumpet give an uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself to the battle." Why have a plain and pungent and intelligible Bible, and put it into the hands of a crafty ministry, to be neutralized and tamed, and mangled, before it can reach the conscience? As well may the Bible be a riddle, or a dream, as the herald a knave. He can fritter down its, doctrines till the whole Book is a mere ballad. A people with such a ministry are in a case as pitiable as the wandering Tartar

V. The text instructs Christ's ministers how they may best commend themselves to the consciences of men. By manifestation of the truth. To be useful, we must have an advocate in the conscience of the people. Many may not relish the doctrines we deliver, and may hate our faithfulness, but there may still be, and there must be the conviction, that we are honest men, who act with reference to the judgment. In such a case, one may be useful, even to the men who cordially disrelish the whole testimony of God. They may kindle with rage at the juncture when the truth has found an avenue to the conscience.

And this ascendancy is gained by an undisguised exhibition of the truth. When men see that we dare not go beyond the word

of the Lord, and that we dare say all that God has bidden us; that we feel ourselves fast bound by the letter of our commission, then the conscience of our people, if well enlightened, will take part with God, and do homage to our integrity. They may wish that we would alter, somewhat, the message we have received from heaven, may even demand that the point of truth be blunted, may refuse to attend upon a ministry that handles so unceremoniously their passions, their practice, and their prejudices; but if we comply, we lose their respect, and their judgment denounces us contemptible hypocrites. They would rejoice to be successful, but the moral sense would reprobate us. While men writhe under the thrusts of truth, they yield the highest homage to the man whom no bribery can corrupt, who can be contentedly poor and homeless, but cannot be treacherous.

The American ambassador at some foreign court, may give offence, by pressing our claims; but should he violate his commission, and compromise the honor of his country and the rights of his constituents, he would lose all respect abroad and at home, and sink into deep and lasting contempt. Let it be seen early that no threat can scare us, that no bribe can buy us, that no considerations of ease, honor, or affluence, can for a moment, put our integrity to a stand, or bring us to yield an inch of the territory of truth: thus we give evidence that we have a conscience, and the enemy will be afraid that God will protect us. Men suspect, in this case, that our message is true, and fear that their obstinacy will undo them, and, feel as they may, they yield us respect. Here that Divine maxim is verified, "whosover will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it." The most contemptible of all men, is the man who holds this high commission, but employs his talents to lower down the terms of reconciliation, to the wishes of the unsanctified. He will stand yoked with the wretch who betrays his country, and goes over to be hated and despised in the camp and country of the enemy. But the man who is true to his Lord, who sacredly adheres to his commission, should he not be favored wtih any very signal success, may be respected, aud happy, and safe.

FINALLY-The apostle and his brethren felt themselves urged to faithfulness, by the consideration, that God was present. mending ourselves to every man's conscience, in the sight of God. It was the last promise of the Lord Jesus, "Lo, I am with you

alway even unto the end of the world!" The remotest idea of compromising the truth is immediately known to God, and is peculiarly provoking. All sin is committed in his presence. But of all sins, how flagrant and daring is the crime of deliberately altering the message he has given us to deliver to a rebel world! If we are faithful he is present to comfort and support us, but if we shrink, through the fear of man, which bringeth a snare, he is present to despise and reprobate us. Hence, let this be our motto, "Thou God seest me;" and let us live and die under a solemn impression of this truth. Let us have a character, and exhibit a conduct upright in his view. Then the gospel we preach will be to us a savor of life unto life. The all-seeing God will watch us till we die, will guard the slumbers of the sepulchre, and will raise us to enjoy his smiles for ever.

How delightful the thought, when slavish fear has not chased away hope, that we minister in the very presence of our master. If we are in our study he is there, or on our knees he is there, or in the consecrated pulpit, he is there; to know our embarrassments, lay our fears, raise our hopes, and pour consolation into our hearts. From what duty can we shrink, of what foe be afraid, by what sufferings be disheartened, while we serve a God at hand and not a God afar off, and may at any moment roll our cares upon One who careth for us. He who had not rather be a minister of Christ with all its trials, than wear a crown, knows not the pleasures of the service.

REMARKS.

We

1. The subject is very humiliating to Christ's ministers. enter the office by mere sufferance. We were under a sentence of condemnation, and any thing short of perdition is mercy, and yet so honored! Hence no position becomes us but that of the most complete prostration of soul. Our appropriate prayer is, "God be merciful to me a sinner." From no station of usefulness, enjoyment or honor, can we fail to look back to the rock whence we were hewn, and the hole of the pit whence we were digged. None were more unworthy of the office than we, none more richly deserved perdition, or if we reach heaven will celebrate our escape from death in sweeter Alleluias. How free, how sovereign, and how rich the grace that could raise such beings to a station so distinguished!

2. The subject will help us to judge, who are the true ministers of the Lord Jesus Christ. They have renounced the hidden things

of dishonesty, do not walk in craftiness, nor handle the word of God deceitfully. In the aspect of their whole moral deportment there is seen the open ingenuousness of truth. When they have known the mind of God they dare divulge it; they dare, even if the message be unpleasant. If faithfulness should endanger their interest, offend their benefactors, cut off supplies from their table, and make their children barefoot and houseless, still in their message will be seen the truth, the whole truth, the truth simple, and unadulterated, as it dropped from the lips of Jesus. If they must be lodged in a dungeon, and see kindled the fires that are to consume them, still supported by his presence who said, "I will never leave thee," it is presumed you would see associated with their rags, and their wretchedness and martyrdom, a soul too honest to betray the truth.

But we see, occasionally, the opposite of all this. The man presents himself in the attitude of Christ's minister, but makes it his great object to accommodate his message to the taste of the poor dying creature whom it should be his object to awaken and sanctify. He believes many a doctrine, and reads many a precept that he dare not urge upon his people, and sees approaching dangers against which he dare not warn them. His first concern is to secure to himself the honors and the emoluments of his office, even should it require the compromise of the Divine authority, and the Divine glory. It grieves us to know that he is likely to perish himself, and his deluded hearers with him. And moreover, he generates a contagion that spreads like the plague through all the Churches, and brings the reproach of the whole apostacy upon the men who have a less pliant conscience, and courage enough to do their duty; producing a fastidiousness of taste, that prepares men to resist the pressure of truth, till they have reached perdition. And it should greatly grieve us to apprehend that our children, when we are dead, may be thrown under such a ministry; may imbibe the contagion, may deny the Lord that bought them, may hate the doctrines that should sanctify them, and under the influence of a smooth and fair and popular religion, glide down gently and smoothly to the place of torment.

3. In a work so dignified, so responsible, and so perilous, we ought to expect the confidence, the affection, and the aid, of those for whose salvation this ministry is established.

It should secure us their confidence to know that our ministry admits of nothing concealed and mysterious, but is open, undisguised, and ingenuous. We spread before the people our whole

commission, make our design known, and open to them our whole hearts. We are willing to earn the confidence we ask, and would say to the world, if on any point we betray your interest, believe any doctrine, or credit any precept that we do not urge, or hide the danger that approaches you, then be distrustful and jealous, believe that we have run before we were sent, and that under the guise of the lamb, there rages the appetite of the wolf. If otherwise, we deserve your assurance. The office that God instituted, that Christ personally honored, should hold a place very sacred, and very high, in your esteem.

I know there are sections of Christendom where the vilest of men who do not deserve esteem, serve at the altar. But by their fruits ye shall know them. If they deal in the hidden things of dishonesty, or walk in craftiness, or handle the word of God deceitfully, you are not obligated to esteem them the ministers of Christ. And still it sometimes happens that a false and deceitful ministry is more popular than the one that Christ approves. It aims to commend itself, not to the conscience but to the unsanctified heart. It prophecies smooth things, heals the wounds of the awakened conscience slightly, and assures the wicked that it shall be well with them. It covers the pit over, and makes great efforts to lay the cry of alarm. The men whom you may trust, expose your danger, and depict your depravity, lead you to search your, hearts, and try your hopes; and they deserve and need your confidence. They have trials enough, when their people rally about them, and confide in their integrity.

Let me say to all the lost, it is equally your duty and your interest to love the ministers of Jesus Christ. They come to you on an errand the most kind, and it may happen, and God may know it, that when they disturb you the most, they feel the most tenderly. When it has seemed to you that they must hate you, they have gone home and wept over you, and interceded with God in agonized prayer for your eternal life. So your child thought you cruel, when you tore the thorn from his wounded hand; but was you not kind?

One thing it is easy to know, he who so presses home upon your conscience the doctrines and duties of the gospel as to of fend you, is not probably governed by selfish motives. His interest, when no reference is had to the last day, would lead him so to soften his message as not to give offence. You would then the more generously fill his board. Still, when you find him unbendingly faithful, he deserves your esteem the more. Else you tempt