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affairs attend to their own proper business,-they have their duties to perform, you have

yours,

"Go

thou and preach the kingdom of God." And another also said, "Lord I will follow thee, but let me first go and bid them farewell that are at home at my house." Here again the reply of our Lord affords every minister of the Gospel a lesson as plain as it is instructive, and not less valuable in its results, than simple in its dictates. The calls of religion are imperative, the duties of the ministry are so pressing as to admit of no delay, no excuse whatever. That concern for temporal affairs, which, even as respects the Christian pastor, is not always to be blamed, which in many instances may not be dispensed with, regard also and solicitude for the welfare of friends, whom we justly esteem and love, nay even a fond and due affection for those united to us by the most powerful of earthly ties, must all give way to the far more important duties incumbent on such as have dedicated themselves to the service of Christ in his heavenly vineyard. There must be no hesitation, no delay, no irresolution, no "looking back;" for to apply the maxim of our blessed Lord, so forcibly urged, and so pointedly expressed, "No man having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God."

We have here before us a portion of Scripture which most deeply concerns every individual who

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believes himself to have been duly called to the ministry, which peculiarly addresses itself to all that are "separated unto the Gospel of God, concerning his Son Jesus Christ." By a reference to these interesting proceedings of our Lord and Master, in selecting and appointing a regularly commissioned ministry, we are carried back to the first principles of our duty in that character in which, according to annual custom, we are now assembled together. To deduce from these principles such consequences as may place before us the duties of the pastoral office in the most commanding attitude, is the object of my present discourse.

In the case of the first of these candidates, we cannot but see how tenderly our Lord points out the necessity of caution and deliberation on entering upon an office of so much difficulty and responsibility as that of a minister of the Gospel.

In the case of the second, we are reminded of the indispensable obligations we are under, as ministers of Christ, of withdrawing our heart and affections from the secular affairs of life, and of yielding ourselves, not in part only, but wholly and unreservedly, to the special duties of our calling.

And the remarkable answer given by our Lord to the proposal of the third candidate, in the words of my text, is eminently calculated to impress upon our minds the guilt and danger of " looking back,"

or in any degree departing from the full measure of duty incumbent on the Christian minister.

Let us now endeavour to derive some lessons of practical utility from a closer consideration of these three cases, as they appear to bear upon the responsibility and obligations of our sacred office. With this view I proceed to treat of them in order.

I. Every reflecting mind must perceive and acknowledge the indispensable necessity of mature deliberation, assisted by all the support which fervent prayer and mental devotion can supply, ere he venture to take upon him so weighty a responsibility as that of a minister of Christ, and in seeking that holy office, he can have but one legitimate object, namely, a zeal for the glory of God, accompanied by an ardent desire for the everlasting welfare of man;-whether this was the predominant impulse by which we individually were actuated at that awful crisis when we assumed the sacred ephod, and first became the teachers and guides of others, it is now too late to enquire; nor is it necessary for our present purpose to enter upon those subtile and abstruse points, involved in the important question, whether our call to the office was like that of the great Apostle of the Gentiles, positive, imperative, and irresistible; or whether we were more remotely influenced by the divine suggestions of the Holy Spirit. No wise man, assuredly no man skilled in worldly wisdom, would undertake

"to build a tower, without first sitting down to count the cost;"-but however our minds may have been influenced in the first step of our ministerial career, it is certain that we are irrevocably pledged to a faithful discharge of most important duties ;we have spontaneously and most solemnly dedicated ourselves to the service of the altar; we have put our hand to the plough; we have, in an extended sense of the metaphor, taken up the cross ;-and although forcibly yet tenderly forewarned by our blessed Lord of the almost overwhelming difficulties and responsibility of the undertaking in those words so feelingly addressed to his earliest recorded candidate, yet with this everlasting beacon before us have we enlisted ourselves under the sacred banners of the cross, as "ministers of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God." We have solemnly and deliberately engaged in an irreversible compact, and whether by fervent prayer for the assistance of God's Holy Spirit to direct our hearts and minds in the important decision, we strove in the first instance with zeal and devotion properly to fit ourselves for the duties of so heavenly a calling, or whether we failed in this grand requisite for a due assumption of the holy office, certain it is, that we have now but one course to pursue ; we may amend the past, through a thankful acceptance of God's grace to help us, but we may not, we must not look back.

II. The next important point for our consideration presents itself in the case of the disciple, who expressed his readiness to accept the gracious offer of becoming a commissioned teacher of the Gospel of Christ, but who, at the same time said, "Lord suffer me first to go and bury my father." Doubtless this man conceived that he had a fair and admissible plea for procrastinating, but our Saviour penetrated the inmost recesses of his heart, knew what he perceived not himself, saw through the flimsiness of the pretext, and for the benefit of all future aspirants to the holy office of a Christian teacher, rebuked him with apparent harshness, "Let the dead bury their dead; go thou and preach the kingdom of God." Thus are we taught with authoritative emphasis, that he who has once decided on the important work of the ministry, must on no occasion suffer the affairs of the world to interfere with his spiritual duties. Not that we are so set apart from the rest of mankind as to countenance the endless absurdities of an ascetic life, but from the moment that we engage in the service of Christ, we are bound to wield the sword of the Spirit, to the furtherance of his kingdom, and "forgetting those things which are behind, to press forward." All secular affairs must be left to the conduct and management of those to whom such matters belong. When any of the duties of our sacred office demand our attention, however

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