Christians was owing to their character. And in modern times I allude, to the remarkable success which has attended the labours of such men as Swartz, Brainerd, and Williams-to what, under God, can we attribute that success, but to their self-denying labours, their consistent behaviour, and their sincere benevolence. Hence, the extreme wisdom-ab, the solemn obligation of our Saviour's words, "Let your light so shine before men, that they seeing your good works may glorify your Father who is in heaven."

My christian Brethren, the bearing of this view of character upon the principle of my discourse is sufficiently obvious. Unconverted men come to hear our preaching. They turn their ear to us—their eye to you. They listen to our descriptions of christian character, and then they compare the theory with the practice, and they judge of the value of our words, by the correspondence, or the contradiction of your actions. If they see you exemplify what we preach, they will believe our messuage; but if you contradict our statements by your lives, they will reject our appeals; lest by attending to them, they should be identified with your hypocrisy, and injure a cause which they may be willing to allow would do good if consistently professed. Many, many a flaming professor of religion gives the lie to the announcements from the pulpit; and it is often the bitter lamentation of the devoted Pastor, that the beneficial tendency of his ministration is effectually counteracted, not indeed by direct and open opposition, that we could understand and repel, but by the private and public example of some of his professing People. It is this that wounds our spirit, that checks our zeal, and enervates our efforts; while it constrains us to exclaim with the bitterness of the Psalmist, "It was not an enemy that reproached me; then I could

have borne it: neither was it he that hated me that did magnify himself against me; then I would have hid myself from him but it was thou, a man mine equal, my guide, and mine acquaintance. We took sweet counsel together, and walked unto the house of God in company."*

I know that facts will warrant most of us to take another view of this deeply interesting and momentous subject. I know that the lives of some of our People exhibit a beautiful and appropriate comment upon the statements of our public Ministrations. I will only add that such characters are the richest treasures that our Churches contain. Their assistance in promoting our success is invaluable; even though it may not be associated with those more active duties, which others, sometimes less scrupulous, and less circumspect, are eager to perform.

In specifying the various ways in which your character really affects the result of our ministrations, I have viewed its influence in relation to the Pastor, and the unconverted, both directly and indirectly. There is still another bearing of this subject, which it would be wrong to omit. I allude, if I may so express myself, to its influence on God. From God, we know, comes the increase. Every adaptation in Minister and People will be unavailing-perfectly nugatory, without the additional, supernatural, and effective influence of the Holy Spirit. This fact brings our present topic within a narrow compass; for it only remains to determine whether the piety of the Church is an essential condition of the divine blessing being granted to the Pastor's labours. I believe it is. I believe that a Pastor, however holy, however devoted, cannot attain eminent success, unless the Church are like-minded. God, I believe, has, for reasons

* Psalm lv. 12, 13, 14.

satisfactory to his own perfect mind, established this state of things. The Almighty may fix whatever conditions of confering his blessings may appear to him fit; and the condition of blessing the Pastor, as, I believe, that his People be united, holy, prayerful, devoted.

This order of things is evidently wise and appropriate. Why establish the connexion unless the character of each party affected the result? What a tissue of contradictions would be presented to the world, if God blessed the preaching of his servant, whose descriptions of the excellence and blessedness of the Christian were perpetually denied by the example of his own People! How naturally would the success of a Pastor so circumstanced be confounded, in the eyes of the world, with the success of the whole society; and what would the act of blessing such a Community appear to be but a divine bounty on wickedness-the sanction of God to glaring inconsistency? We can discover great wisdom in withholding a blessing from the Pastor's labours, till the Church is prepared to recommend it to the world. The arrangement is worthy of God; and we infer that it is divinely established.

But more than this. Our principle is supported by facts. I appeal to the history of the Church in all ages. I maintain that this history supports our statement, that God grants an eminent blessing to a Minister's labours only in those cases where his People are eminently fitted to receive, and to improve such blessing. It is recorded in Scripture, that our Saviour did no mighty work in a certain city because of the unbelief of its inhabitants. Surely this fact warrants our conclusion, that it is in the power of a Church, by their unbelief, to withhold success from their Pastor, however benevolent his heart-however devoted to the cause of his

Redeemer. In the last chapter of the epistle to the Romans, the Apostle Paul speaks in such terms, of certain Christians who aided him in his ministry, as to justify the inference, that without that holy co-operation his success would not have been equal to what it was. Call to mind, moreover, the earnestness with which he entreated the prayers of believers, and the reason that he assigns" that the word of the Lord may have free course, run and be glorified;" and is it not evident that the Apostle connected his own success with the piety of his Brethren? Was not his mind, as a Minister, filled with the most gloomy forebodings, in hearing of the carnality which had crept into the Church at Corinth; and in respect to the spiritual declension of another christian community, did he not express the fear that he had bestowed upon them labour in vain? After speaking of his own zeal in the cause of his Redeemer, was it not his earnest desire that his christian Brethren might be like-minded? In one word, does not the whole spirit of the Apostle's addresses, in his epistles, to members of Churches-does not the whole tenor of his declarations respecting the importance of their pious labours, and the injurious results of their worldliness and spiritual indifference prove, that in his day, and within the range of his observation, the success of the Redeemer's cause depended as much on the character of the Church, as on the qualification of the Pastor?

Tracing the history of the Christian Church from Apostolic times down to the period that comes within the limits of our observation, we shall find the same fact sufficiently attested that Pastor and People have been in like manner spiritually-minded, whenever the ministrations of the former have been crowned with eminent success. Whose ministry,

I ask, do you know of, as proving extensively useful, independently of the spiritual sympathy, and the fervent prayers, and the diligent labours of the Church? What Pastor really succeeds where the Church is lukewarm, worldly, and disunited? What wise Minister, in aiming at the revival of religion, does not first endeavour to interest the Church in the design? And where does a Revival continue, where does it advance unless the Church are as deeply interested in the result as the Pastor? Does not your own observation supply you with many instances in which the earnest endeavours of a devoted servant of God to infuse a fresh zest into the spiritual services, and to increase his usefulness, have been retarded again and again, by the little prejudices, the party jealousies, the sluggish indifference, the callous selfishness, the grasping worldliness, of individuals calling themselves Christians?

I beg to add, to these evidences, borrowed from reason and facts, the express declaration of God himself. Among many passages in the inspired volume, which might be selected with a view to prove that God does not grant an eminent blessing to his Ministerial Servants till the Church are spiritually prepared to receive it, I shall specify only one. You will find it recorded in Matthew xviii. 19, 66 Again I say unto you, that if two of you shall agree on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father who is in heaven." It is plain, from the number specified, and the exercise recommended, that this divine declaration applies to a christian Church. On that religious assembly the duty of united prayer-the performance of which act necessarily requires the possession of high christian principle-is enjoined. The first exercise which such a state of character would lead the members to