God, we believe most religiously, depends in a far greater degree on the ministry of the church, than even her warmest friends may apprehend; and now, begging pardon for the tedious exordium through which we have led him, we ask the reader's attention to some of the characteristics of such a ministry as the circumstances of the church and the times demand.

And, first of all, such a ministry must be distinguished for its piety,—its deep and thorough knowledge of experimental religion, -its baptism of the Spirit. It is not enough for the minister to be orthodox in his views of religious truth; or accurate in his apprehensions of what the Bible inculcates; or effective in his address; or clear in his delineations of Christian morality and doctrine. He, himself, must be regenerated. He must be justified, and have an indisputable persuasion of his personal interest in Christ, and acceptance with God. How else shall he be able to fulfil his great mission? How can he urge upon others the immense and awful motives of religion, except he first feel their power in his own heart? How can he approach the sinner with warning and reproof, or how can he assail the strong holds of unbelief-the entrenchments of the world and sin-the bulwarks of error, libertinism, and apostacy, and carry them with the overwhelming force of argument, appeal, and persuasion, unless he is filled with the Spirit, and clothed with power from on high? He may argue with all the accuracy and strength of logic; he may bring to his aid all the taste and beauty of rhetoric, and the graces of cultivated and accomplished elocution, and deliver his message with the force and power of Cicero, or the resistless vehemence of Demosthenes,—yet, without grace in his heart, warming and purifying the affections; -without the unction from on high-his efforts will be as powerless for the edification of the church, and the conversion of sinners, as were those of the Roman and Grecian orators. Hear St. Paul on this point. "Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal." He goes farther, and, in a word, annihilates forever the hope of acceptance and success founded upon the orthodoxy of one's faith. "Though I have all faith so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing." It is not, therefore, in talents, natural or acquired; it is not in the profundity or accuracy of knowledge; it is not in

the rectitude of outward morality or religious faith; nor yet in the most abounding benevolence, to qualify the Christian minister for his great work. All these may be important; but the element in which they must live and thrive must be the piety of the heart. This cannot be dispensed with. If the minister of the gospel fails here, he fails totally, and wo is unto him!

THE DIVISION OF SERMONS.

BY REV. H. HUMPHREY, D. D.

In giving shape and body to your preaching, you may make it either topical, textual, or expository; or you may, for the sake of variety, and to secure the peculiar advantages of each, sometimes construct your discourses upon one of these plans, and sometimes upon another.

A topical preacher chooses his text with reference to some one point, which he wishes to prove; and, having derived his doctrine from it, proceeds to establish it by such arguments and illustrations as seem to him most permanent and conclusive. Edwards, Bellamy, Dwight, Smalley, Strong, and Emmons, were distinguished and powerful topical preachers. I do not mean, that all their discourses were constructed upon this plan, but that many of them were. We have an example of this in Dr. Smalley's sermon, from Ephesians ii. 10, "For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works." His doctrine is, that fallen men must be new created, before they can do any works truly good. The plan of this discourse is exceedingly simple. I. To explain the doctrine. II. To prove it. III. To answer objections. Another example we find in the first volume of Dr. Emmons's sermons. Genesis xxxii. 28, "For as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed."

DOCTRINE.

It is the design of prayer to move God to bestow mercy.

In the same volume he has a sermon from Romans viii. 7, 8. "For the carnal mind is enmity against God, for it is not subject. to the law of God, neither indeed can be; so then, they that are in the flesh cannot please God."

DOCTRINE.

The total depravity of sinners renders all their actions totally depraved.

This way of making sermons is recommended by some striking advantages. It better secures than any other the unity of a discourse; a capital excellence, at which every minister should aim. Every sermon ought to contain some one leading truth, to be proved, illustrated, and applied, so as to leave the most distinct and powerful impression upon the audience. And it is much easier for any man to keep to the point, after he has laid down his proposition and bound himself to sustain it, than it is under any more general statement. You will usually find, that topical sermons are clearer, more logical, better studied, and more easily remembered, than almost any that you hear. As a class, those ministers who adopt this method of sermonizing are the ablest reasoners, if they are not the most eloquent and popular preachers. Some of your most elaborate discourses, I will not undertake to say how large a proportion, but some of them ought to be constructed upon the topical plan. It will augment your strength, and increase your usefulness.

POWER OF THE PULPIT.

"THE English sermonizers have rarely been distinguished for the highest eloquence. Barrow is a mine of rich thought, all gold and precious stones. Jeremy Taylor was a wilderness of sweets. Howe was serious and mighty in the Scriptures; Tillitson wise, elegant, but cold. Baxter was heart-searching, pungent, and sometimes pathetic. But all of them, except, perhaps, the last, were deficient in oneness and concentration, and still more in selfabandonment to the great emotions which the tender and awful

themes of the New Testament are calculated to inspire. Old John Bunyan, with his comparative ignorance, his colloquialisms, and violations of taste, was more effective than either of them.

Whitefield belonged to two continents. He had a deep, experimental perception of gospel truth, and an almost infinite sense of its importance. He saw, or thought he saw, the English and the American churches reposing on the pillows of a dead orthodoxy, or in the freezing slumbers of Pelagianism. The doctrines of regeneration, and justification by faith alone, had, to a great extent, faded out of view. He looked upon many congregations as in immediate fearful danger. He looked upon the cross of Christ as the only refuge. He felt the great truths of our religion, as almost no man ever did. To him they were an almost present reality. He thought himself raised up to enforce them; they were as a fire in his bones till he spoke. With great majesty and persuasiveness, he went forth as a divinely commissioned messenger, to announce the wrath and mercy of God. At one moment he stands by the roaring flames of hell, and cries, Flee, flee, flee, O sinner, flee! At another by the cross, crying, Come, come, come, poor sinner, come! He united the courage, the judgment, and the passions, essential to a perfect popular orator; and, by a complete self-abandonment to his work, and to its appropriate emotions, he became the most effective of preachers.

Our own great Edwards was eloquent, but in a different way. His mind was of crystal clearness, acute, logical, ratiocinative, ardent. His convictions of truth were as decided as Whitefield's. He was more solid; if possible more solemn, soul-searching, and soberly earnest. But he had not that power of appealing to all the passions of men in popular address. He wrote his sermons, and confined himself to his notes. But he went on uncovering men's hearts, bringing out evil from the deepest recesses; exhibiting the hideousness of sin in the magnifying glass of truth; arresting the guilty, and arraying them before the judgment seat of Christ; painting heaven above and hell burning beneath, and wretched sinners suspended by a hair over its horrors; till a whole assembly, on one occasion, rose and stood, pale and trembling, ready to exclaim, where, O where shall guilty souls find refuge."

BY REV. HENRY WILKES, A. M.,

PASTOR OF THE FIRST CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH, MONTREAL, CANADA EAST.

THE RULING PASSION OF JESUS CHRIST.

For the Son of Man is come to seek and to save that which was lost. Luke xix. 10.

Ir has been often remarked, that the preponderance of some leading passion, apparently in the original constitution of the mind, gives to a man his peculiar cast and fashion of character. It often influences him in the choice of his profession or pursuits; usually impels him in the formation of his affinities and friendships; and, giving its own color both to his virtues and his vices, it unfolds its constant energy, in the least as well as the more important actions of his life. We are in the habit of calling it, sometimes, "the ruling passion;" at other times, "the prevailing disposition;" but however we designate it, the existence of the principle in man is indubitable; and that it is vigorous in its workings proportionate to the native strength of the character, is equally certain.

The variety of this preponderating principle, as found in the bosoms of mankind, and the various phases of the same principle in different individuals, constitute one of the main sources of that infinite diversity in their inclinations, habits, and pursuits, which forms so distinguishing a feature of the human race.