hath died. He loved me, and gave himself for me. Christ hath appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.

2. To succor the tempted.-All believers are a tempted people. Every day they have their trials; every time is to them a time of need. The unconverted are little tempted; they are not in trouble as others, neither are they plagued like other men. They do not feel temptations rising in their heart; nor do they know the power of Satan. Before conversion, a man believes as little in the devil as he believes in Christ. But when a man comes to Christ, then he becomes a tempted soul, "poor and needy, seeking water, and there is none."

He is tempted by God.-God did tempt Abraham; not to sin, for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man. Still, God always tries his children. He never gives faith, but he brings his child into a situation where it will be tried. Sometimes he exalts him, to try if he will turn proud and forget God; sometimes he brings him low, to see if he will murmur against God. Blessed is the man that endureth temptations. Sometimes he brings them into a strait, where the trial is, whether they will believe in him alone, or trust to flesh and blood.

The world tempts a child of God.-They watch for their halting. They love nothing better than to see a child of God fall into sin; it soothes their conscience to think that all are equally bad. They frown, they smile.

Their own heart is a fountain of temptation.--Sometimes it says, What harm is there in that? it is little sin; or, I will just sin this once, and never again; or, I will repent after and be saved.

Satan hurls his fiery darts. He terrifies them away from Christ, disturbs them at prayer, fills their mind with blasphemies, hounds on the world against them.

Ah! believers, you are a tempted people. You are always poor and needy. And God intends it should be so, to give you constant errands to go to Jesus. Some may say, it is not good to be a believer; but ah! see to whom we can go.

We have a merciful and faithful High Priest. He suffered being tempted, just that he might succor them that are tempted. The high priest of old not only offered sacrifice at the altar, his work was not done when the lamb was consumed. He was to be a father to Israel. He carried all their names, graven over his heart; he went in and prayed for them within the veil. He came out and blessed the people, saying, "The Lord bless thee, and keep thee. The Lord make his face shine," &c.; Numbers vi., 21–26.

So it is with the Lord Jesus. His work was not all done on Calvary. He that died for our sins lives to pray for us, to help in every time of need. He is still man on the right hand of God. He is still God, and therefore, by reason of his divinity, is present here this day as much as any of us. He knows your every sor

row, trial, difficulty; every half breathed sigh he hears, and brings in notice thereof to his human heart at the right hand of God. His human heart is the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever; it pleads for you, thinks on you, plans deliverance for you.

Dear tempted brethren! Go boldly to the throne of grace, to obtain mercy and find grace to help in your time of need.

Are you bereaved of one you loved? Go and tell Jesus; spread out your sorrows at his feet. He knows them all; feels for you in them all. He is a merciful high priest. He is faithful, too, never awanting in the hour of need. He is able to succor you by his word, by his spirit, by his providence. He gave you all the comfort you had by your friends. He can give it you without them. He has taken away the stream that you may go to the fountain.

Are you suffering in body? Go to this high priest. He is intimately acquainted with all your diseases; he has felt that very pain. Remember how, when they brought to him one that was deaf and had an impediment in his speech, he looked up to heaven and sighed, and said. Ephphatha! He sighed over his misery. So he sighs over you. He is able to give you deliverance, or patience to bear it, or improvement by it.

Are you sore tempted in soul; put into trying circumstances, so that you know not what to do? Look up; he is able to succor you. If he had been on the earth would you not have gone to him? would you not have kneeled and said, Lord help me? Does it make any difference that he is at the right hand of God? He is the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever.

SERMON XI.

ORDINATION SERMON.

At the Ordination of the Rev. P. L. Miller, Wallacetown, Dundee, 1840. "I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing, and his kingdom; preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long-suffering and doctrine."-2 Tim. iv., 1, 2.

I. Where faithful ministers stand-" Before God and the. Lord Jesus Christ."-There is not a more awfully affecting situation in the whole world than that in which a faithful minister stands. 1. Before God. This is true in two ways:

1st, Ås a sinner saved by grace. He was once far off, but is now brought nigh by the blood of Jesus. Having "boldness to

enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which he hath consecrated for us through the veil, that is to say his flesh," he draws near. He stands within the veil, in the holiest of all, in the love of God. He is justified before God. A faithful minister is an example to his flock of a sinner saved. God says to him as he did to Abraham, "Walk before me and be thou perfect." He can say with Paul, "I was a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious, but I obtained mercy." A faithful minister is like Aaron's rod that was laid up beside the ark of God, and budded there.

2d, As a servant.-In the East, servants always stand in the presence of their master, watching his hand. The Queen of Sheba said to Solomon, "Happy are these thy servants which stand continually before thee and hear thy wisdom." So it is said of the angels that "they do always behold the face of my Father which is in heaven." Even when most engaged in the service of the saints, they feel under his all-seeing, holy, living eye. So ought faithful ministers to feel. They should feel constantly in his presence, under his soul-piercing, gentle-guiding, holy, living eye. "I will guide thee with mine eye." "The eyes of the Lord are over the righteous." Ah! how often we feel we are before man. Then all power withers, and we become weak as other men; but oh! how sweet to feel in the presence of God, as if there were no eye on us but God's. In prayer, how sweet to feel before Him: to kneel at his footstool, and to put our hand upon the mercy-seat-no curtain, no veil, no cloud between the soul and God. In preaching, how sweet to say, like Elijah, when he stood before Ahab, "I stand before the Lord God of Israel." To stand at his feet, in his family, in his pavilion, O believers, it is then we get above the billows. The applause of men, the rage and contempt of men, then pass by us like the idle wind which we regard not. Thus is a minister like a rock in the ocean; the mountain-billows dash upon its brow, and yet it stands unshaken.

2. Before Jesus Christ.-This is also true in two ways:

1st, The faithful minister has a present sight of Christ as his Righteousness. He is like John the Baptist, "Seeing Jesus coming unto him he saith, Behold the Lamb of God!" Or like Isaiah, "He saw his glory and spake of him." His own soul is ever watching at Gethsemane and Golgotha. O brethren, it is thus only we can ever speak with feeling, or with power, or with truth, of the unsearchable riches of Christ. We must have the taste of the manna in our mouth, "Milk and honey under our tongue," else we cannot tell of its sweetness. We must be drinking the living water from the smitten rock, or we cannot speak of its refreshing power. We must be hiding our guilty souls in the wounds of Jesus, or we cannot with joy speak of the peace and rest to be found there. This is the reason why unfaithful

ministers are cold and barren in their labor. They speak, like Balaam, of a Saviour whose grace they do not feel. They speak like Caiaphas, of the blood of Christ, without having felt its power to speak peace to the troubled heart. This is the reason why many good men have a barren ministry. They speak from clear head-knowledge, or from past experience, but not from a present grasp of the truth, not from a present sight of the Lamb of God. Hence their words fall like a shower of snow, fair and beautiful, but cold and freezing. The Lord give us to stand in the presence of the Lord Jesus.

2d. The faithful minister should feel the presence of a living Saviour. A minister should be like the bride in the song, "Leaning upon her beloved." This was Jeremiah's strength (i., 8), "Be not afraid of their faces, for I am with thee to deliver thee, saith the Lord." So it was with Paul (Acts xviii., 10), "Be not afraid, but speak and hold not thy peace: for I am with thee, and no man shall set on thee to hurt thee; for I have much people in this city." So Jesus told all the disciples, "Yet a little while and the world seeth me not, but ye see me. Because I live ye shall live also." And again he says expressly," Lo. I am with you alway, even to the end of the world." Yes, brethren, Christ is as truly walking in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks, as truly in this place to-day, as if you saw him with your bodily eyes. His humanity is at the right hand of God, appearing in the presence of God for us. His Godhead fills all in all. Thus he is with us, standing at our right hand, so that he cannot be moved. It is sweet to know and feel this. Thus only can we be sustained amid all the trials of the ministry. Are we weary? we can lean, like John, upon his bosom. Are we burdened with a sense of sin? we can hide in the clefts of that rock of ages. Are we empty? we can look up to him for immediate supply. Are we hated of all men? we can hide under his wings. Stand before the Lord Jesus Christ, and then you may smile at Satan's rage, and face a frowning world. Learn here also the guilt of refusing a gospel ministry. "He that refuseth you refuseth me; and he that refuseth me refuseth Him that sent me."

3. Within sight of judgment,-" Who shall judge the quick and dead."-Ministers and their flocks shall meet together before the throne of the Lord Jesus. That will be a solemn day. They have many solemn meetings on earth. An Ordination day is a solemn day. Their meetings from Sabbath to Sabbath are solemn meetings; and Sacrament days are very solemn days. But their meeting at the judgment seat will be by far the most solemn of all. Then,

1st, The minister will give in his account either with joy or with grief. He will no more meet to plead with the people, or to pray with them, but to bear witness how they received the word. Of some he will give account with a joyful countenance, that they

received the word with all readiness of mind, that they were converted and became like little children; these will be his joy and crown. Of most with grief, that he carried the message to them, but they would not come, they made light of it; or perhaps they listened for awhile, but drew back into perdition. He will be a swift witness against them in that day. "Depart, ye cursed."

2d, Then the people will give in their account of the minister. If he was faithful; if he made it his meat and drink to do the will of God; if he preached the whole truth with seriousness, urgency, love; if he was holy in his life; if he preached publicly, and from house to house: then that minister shall shine like the stars. If he was unfaithful; if he fed himself but not the flock; if he did not seek the conversion of souls; did not travail in birth; if he sought his own case, his own wealth, his own praise, and not their souls: then shall the loud curses of ruined souls fall on that wretched man, and God shall say, Take the unfaithful servant, and bind him hand and foot, and cast him into outer darkness. O believers, it is the duty of ministers to preach with this solemn day in their eye. We should stand, like Abraham, looking down on the smoke of Sodom; like John, listening to the new song and golden harps of the New Jerusalem. Would not this take away the fear of man? Would not this make us urgent in our preaching? You must either get these souls into Christ, or you will yet see them lying down in everlasting burnings. O brethren, did I not say truly that the place where a minister stands is the most solemn spot in all this world?

II. The grand business of the faithful minister-Described in two ways: 1. Generally-Preach the Word. 2. More in detail-Reprove, rebuke, exhort.

1. Preach the Word.-The grand work of the minister, in which he is to lay out his strength of body and mind, is preaching. Weak and foolish as it may appear, this is the grand instrument which God has put into our hands, by which sinners are to be saved, and saints fitted for glory. It pleased God, by the foolishness of preaching, to save them that believe. It was to this our blessed Lord devoted the years of his own ministry. Oh! what an honor has he put upon this work, by preaching in the synagogues, in the temple, and by the blue waves of Galilee, under the canopy of heaven. Has he not consecrated this world as preaching ground? This was the grand work of Paul and all the apostles; for this was our Lord's command, Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel." O brethren, this is our great work. It is well to visit the sick, and well to educate children, and clothe the naked. It is well to attend Presbyteries. It is well to write books or read them; but here is the main thing-Preach the Word. is, as George Herbert says, "our joy and throne." watch-tower. Here we must warn the people.

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