rolls down for ages, like the blessing of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, on all the tribes of Israel.

It is said that in the ocean there is a mighty under-current, setting from the equator to the poles, and carrying the heat of the tropics to colder regions. This immense body of water, keeping its submarine channels, flows under the whole broad Atlantic, and under vast continents of floating ice, and at length comes to the surface at the north pole, and there giving out its heat, creates that open Polar Sea, which is the wonder of navigators. In this is there not something like that influence of deep piety and strong character which a good man exerts? an influence which shuns notice; which retreats from observation; which sinks, as it were, to the bottom of the ocean, but which there, mingling with the great undercurrents of society, flows slowly on into other latitudes, carrying its blessed, vital warmth into the frigid zone, there to impart a milder temperature to the wind blowing over the deep, and sending a softer air to the neighboring shores, thus soothing the most rugged and inhospitable climates of the earth. Of such an ancestry any man may be proud. There is a vulgar pride of birth which looks only to the rank or fortune of a forefather. This is to be despised. The only thing which may cause a glow of just pride is to know that we are descended from honest and heroic men; patriots and christians; men who feared God and served their generation. Such were the fathers from whom is derived our best American blood. Happy is he who can look back to such sires; who can say with Cowper:

"My boast is not that I derive my birth

From loins enthroned, or rulers of the earth;
But higher far my proud pretensions rise,
The heir of parents passed into the skies."

Some of these patriarchs linger still. I see them walking our village streets. How serene is their old age; how steady their step as they go down into the dark valley. Their eye is bright, and on their foreheads is reflected the light of that resplendent city of God which they are approaching.

If therefore any here tremble at the power which God has put into their hands, let them consider how that immense authority may be used for good as well as for evil. You, who are a father, stand to your child in the place of God. You are in one sense the author of his being, and the source of an infallible authority. To you he looks up at first as to a being who cannot lie, and who cannot err. Soon, alas! this childish error will be dissipated. But strive for a few years to prolong your influence by the wisdom and mildness of your control. For his sake repress your violent impulses, and endeavor to "live soberly, righteously, and godly in the world." By whatever care you govern yourself, by so much you insure his virtue and safety. When you are dead, your example will be still powerful; and then shall he receive the reward of your goodness to others. Men shall look on him with affection, because he is your child; your name will awaken sweet memories in the hearts of the living, and they will be kind to the poor orphan for his father's sake, then sleeping in the grave.

do

But I have not done with this subject until I add one word to another

class. I have spoken to fathers. I now speak to sons; and not to the sons of the good, but of the bad. Are they given up by the operation of this law to hopeless ruin? Have they no part nor lot in the determination of their destiny? We can imagine one of those children of vice, of whom I have spoken, thus to mourn his unhappy fate: I am one of the lost ones of the earth-accursed in every circumstance of my being-accursed in my parents-accursed in that impetuous nature which they have given me accursed in my condition-surrounded with a thousand temptations to crime. No ray of gladness shone upon my birth. No father ever taught me the way to God. No mother ever prayed for my salvation. No kiss of affection ever won my child's heart. Alone, unfriended, I have wandered on from youth to manhood. And now what is to become of me? I see no resource of honest industry-nothing, but to keep on as I am the companion of desperate men, and to share their wretched doom. With a look of unutterable despair, he cries, I am in the toils of hell, and I shall not escape.

Is there then absolutely no hope for the children of depraved parents? Is this law a sentence to destruction? Oh no: there are no human beings thus foredoomed of God-bound in the chains of inexorable fate, and consigned to misery hopeless and eternal. This is not a bill of attainder, executed upon all the generations of the wicked-executed before they are born, and cutting them off from the common privileges of humanity. There is salvation even for the lowest and vilest of mankind. God's grace can purify pollution, and reform the criminal, and rescue those who seemed irretrievably lost. For such, then, there is hope. Only that hope is very small. They have a hundred fold more difficulties to encounter than others. Their salvation is possible only by the most heroic efforts to break away from the evil associations of their family, and to separate from every form of temptation. What a position for a son, to be obliged for his salvation to fight against a father's example, and against those terrible passions which he feels burning in his blood. Nature is mighty, even in reformed men. He will feel the powerful impulses of evil returning upon him like paroxysms of madness. There will be times when he will cry out, Who shall deliver me from the body of this death? But let him pray, like Jonah, even from "the belly of hell," when he was "cast into the deep, and went down to the bottom of the mountains, and the earth with her bars was about him forever," and God can bring him up from the gates of death. Is there in this house one who is conscious that the circumstances of his early life were all adverse to piety and to happiness? Reproach not your parents as the authors of your misery. Tread lightly over their dust. They were unhappy enough themselves, and they have left you but what they experienced. They at least have given you existence; and if you use it well, it will prove a blessing beyond all price. Receive it, then, from the hand of God. And against all obstacles live a good life. There is an Eye above, by which your struggles will not pass unobserved. And though your earthly father be not worthy of the name, there is a Father in heaven, who will pity you as a friendless orphan, and adopt you into His holy and happy family.

SERMON DCXXXVII.

BY REV. J. FEW SMITH,

PASTOR OF THE SECOND PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, NEWARK, N. J.*

HOW SHALL THE MINISTRY BE USED TO THE BEST
ADVANTAGE.

"But what are they among so many ?"-JOHN vi. 9.

Ir cannot be regarded as a merely fortuitous circumstance, that the miracles of our Lord are so well adapted to convey moral or spiritual instruction. That this is a characteristic of them, every thoughtful reader will readily perceive. And the theory that the physical was designed for the moral; that the material thing which furnishes the figure was purposely made for the thing signified, and not merely taken up and adopted as by a sort of after-thought, certainly has much in its favor. God, who has "made every thing beautiful in his place," seems to have set those things one over against the other; and so to have constructed things sensible, that they shall subserve the higher purposes of his moral government, by being vehicles of moral truth. He has placed around us a thousand monitors, so that wherever we tread we might see the tokens of his presence, and reminders of that spiritual kingdom, which though invisible, is most real; so that we might hear voices speaking of Him, and of the way of holiness, and to the "purged ear," there might come even out of the dead things of the material world, and out of the discords of earthly living, continually the music of a higher life; so that, "sun and moon, and stars of light, fire and hail, snow and vapor, stormy wind fulfilling his word, mountains and all bills, fruitful trees and all cedars, beasts and all cattle, creeping things and flying fowl," while praising Him, should be appealing to us, and bidding "kings of the earth and all people, princes and all judges of the earth, both young men and maidens, old men and children," also to praise the Lord, and to behold his glory and serve Him. And that He has done this, that He has so made the world, enhances our adoring estimate of his excellence, and of the supremacy of holiness.

Were I designing to discuss this point at large, the miracle before us would afford fit illustration of it. While leading us to reflect on our dependence on the Divine Being for "life and breath and all things," it would also remind us of the unwasting and unlimited sufficiency of the provision of almighty grace for the redemption of lost men. The bread of life which is to save the soul, can feed only those who receive it from the Saviour's hands; but in his omnipotent hands it may feed all the hungry millions that will crowd to receive it, and still it will be ample for the supply of other millions. The Lord who has it to bestow, is not

* Preached at the recent meeting of the Presbytery of Newark, at Madison, N. J. Published by request.

willing to send away unsupplied, any who will take it at his hand. But this is not the main object which I now propose to myself; and these remarks are offered simply to justify the appropriation which I purpose to make of the text to a specific subject. You probably anticipate this appropriation, and will readily perceive that I apply the words to the Christian Ministry. Compared with the wants of the world, the ministers of the Gospel are few among the many. I regret that it has not been in my power to procure such statistics as would enable me to present the exact number of evangelical ministers, with the populations of the several fields of labor which they occupy. But it is a fact familiar and undisputed, that ministers are comparatively few in number; so that the language of the text is justly applicable to them, What are they among so many? And it is an inquiry of grave importance, how shall the wants of the world be met? How shall the ranks of the ministry be filled? And constantly are we called upon to pray the Lord of the harvest, that He would send forth laborers into his harvest. That, however, all important as it is, is not the theme now before us. The scope of the narrative more naturally leads us to another inquiry, not so often propounded, and yet worthy of careful consideration. It is, How shall we make the most of the ministry we have? How shall we turn them to the best account? How shall we make them go as far as possible? That was the matter that came practically before the mind of Christ in response to the inquiry of the disciples. The problem was to make the five barley loaves and two small fishes supply the wants of the great multitude. He at once solved it in the only way in which it could be solved-by a miracle. Now the point before us is, How can the ministry, as it now is, be made most available in meeting the wants of the world? Of course we do not look for any miracle to be performed; and yet obviously without a miracle, the ministers now holding commission cannot at once accomplish the work of preaching the Gospel to the whole world. The single fact, that of one thousand millions, the population of the globe, only two hundred and seventy-five millions are nominally christianized, and that of them only eighty-five millions are Protestant, is enough to press upon us the solemn consideration that with the present evangelical ministerial force, nothing short of a miracle can accomplish the speedy conversion of the world. And therefore we can never cease our calls on the young men of the church to give themselves, and on parents, to give their children to the Lord; our efforts, not only to keep up a regular supply of the ministry, but also to summon more and more to this work of the Lord. But how can these few do most among the many? This is our theme. How shall the ministry be used to the best advantage? Before coming directly to the discussion, let me make two or three preliminary remarks.

In all that is to be said on this subject, our absolute dependence on the Holy Spirit, is kept constantly in view. No ministry, however able, faithful, and numerous, can be successful, unless He give the increase. But this dependence, while absolute, must be intelligent. It is the dependence of one working in the line of duty, and looking for no miracle to supply his lack of service.

Again. While we are not to look for a miracle to be performed to secure the proposed end, so neither is any thing miraculous expected of us. Nothing is required of us beyond the bounds of human ability. We find

it no where written that we must be ubiquitous. Nor is the work of the world's evangelization any where prescribed to us as the work of a day, or a year, or a generation. Ministers are men; the world is large. We are to be continually working, praying, hoping, waiting; we are to walk by faith, and to work the work of Him that sent us, while it is day.

Further. Whosoever attempts to comprehend this subject, will find himself met at the outset, by certain difficulties arising out of the present organization and state of the church, the removal of which would greatly enhance the strength of the ministry. There is, for instance, sectarianism, not only interfering with cordial co-operation, and tending to limit the reach of individual usefulness-an evil which might possibly be counterpoised by the benefits of concentration-but also producing a rivalry that not seldom partakes of unholy competition, a spirit quite unfavorable to the spread of godliness. But more than this, it divides the strength of the ministry and of the churches. By the multiplication of agencies and machinery, it expends the resources of the church unwisely. It causes several ministers to be occupied on ground for which one would be allsufficient. Several small churches are often found existing in a village, whose wants might be amply met by one organization, and one house of worship, and one minister. This is an evil not easily remedied. Denominational feeling, which is right under proper guards, and controlled by christian charity, is apt to become very strong, and to verge towards sectarianism. Differences of sentiment will exist, and preferences may be indulged; still, it is a question, whether the cultivation of charity and the exercise of self-denial, might not do much to prevent the evil; to bring together in one assembly those who are divided into two or three, and thus allow the ministers unnecessarily employed, to devote their labors to some other sphere. We may say what we will about the impossibility of persons of different sentiments uniting in one communion for the service of God. Here is an evil: can it not be remedied? No matter now how we feel, the question is, how ought we to feel, and to act?

And the evil, while it is more apparent, becomes also more tangible and more controllable, when you come to those denominations between which there is very little difference as to doctrine, or government, or form of worship. We all know many cases in which one minister could do the work now done by two or three. And is it right when the wants of the church and of the world are so numerous and pressing-is it right thus to waste ministerial strength? Is it not evident that one thing that we greatly need to make the ministry go farther towards feeding the hungry millions, is a larger effusion of the almost miraculous power of christian love? Kindred to this, is the mistake sometimes made of multiplying feeble churches of any one denomination, when a little self-denial on the part of the people would give them church accommodations in already established organizations. Of course I shall not be misunderstood as opposing a judicious church extension. No one will more readily advocate the organization of new churches in suitable localitics, when either the pressing demands of the present, or the clear judgment of forecasting prudence, call for them. But we have seen churches commenced, and struggling, and dying, because injudiciously begun. The mere organization of a church, and building of a house of worship, is not always an indication of an accession of strength. Ministerial energy and ability