unconscious of the deeper and dominant impulses of his being, of the law and obligations of duty, of his higher destiny as a rational and moral being? and will not his own conscience, whenever he is awakened to a sense of its admonitions, reproach him for the neglect of other, and higher, and more momentous duties? Experience, I am sure, warrants the assertion, that whenever awakened to a deeper knowledge of ourselves, and made conscious of the presence of these wrong principles of action, we are constrained to feel, not only that we are responsible for their character, but are justly chargeable with it as an evil, in the view of conscience and of Godas a deep and radical evil, affecting our essential characters as accountable beings, and constituting us sinners in the sight of God.

First. In the light of the foregoing teaching, we can understand how it is, that in proportion as we have a practical knowledge of our own hearts, as manifested in the light of truth, we shall be constrained to humble ourselves. Before human tribunals, and having reference only to the conventional rights and duties of civil society, we may stand upon. our integrity, and lay claim, perhaps, to virtuous and upright intentions. We may discourse, too, of the exalted rank and dignity allotted us among the creatures of this lower world, and with good reason render thanks to God for the high destiny to which we were formed in the divine purpose. But when we look into ourselves and ask what have been our purposes, consider what is demanded by a law which is holy and spiritual, place ourselves before Him who searcheth the heart, we can only say, God be merciful to us, sinners! In proportion to the increasing brightness of that divine light which shines within us, dissipating all self-flattering delusions by exposing in their true character the motives and principles that govern us, we shall become self-abased. Such has been the experience of the most eminently godlike and holy men in every age. "I have heard of thee," says the ancient patriarch, "by the hearing of the ear; but now mine eye seeth thee: wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes." Second. We cannot shun responsibility by abiding in dark

ness.

We cannot escape the consequences of evil principles lurking within us by remaining in ignorance of what they are.

It is enough for us that we ought not to be ignorant of ourselves, but to walk in the clear light of divine truth, and to keep consciences void of offense. "It is," says another, "the express purpose and effect of divine truth, and of the holy law of God, to make known to us our true character, and to bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and to make manifest the counsels of the heart." "But," says one, "if a person only be sincere, must he not be esteemed guiltless whatever the nature or tendency of the maxims practiced?" We may well inquire, What is to be understood by "sincerity" here? Is it that easy-going, slipshod thing usually had in mind when this quite popular, but very specious, plea is made? There is a vast deal of juggling with this word "sincerity." It is made. to cover and disguise an amazing amount of sophistry. Be not deceived. No sincerity consisting in a mere meaning to do, a mere seeming to be right, can ever save one. "There is a way that seemeth to be right, but the end thereof is death." The only "sincerity" that can ever be successfully plead in extenuation of one's ignorance or insensibility is that which has taken the form of earnest conviction-conclusions wrought out through agonizing struggles and fierce conflicts.

Thirdly. Nothing, as a principle of action, but righteousness can save character. What is your highest motive? Is it the desire of happiness, or to go to heaven? That will never do. Is there not reason to fear that the character and purpose of the Gospel are exposed to grievous misapprehension from a too exclusive reference to the natural desire for happiness, too exclusive appeals to motives of self-interest, in the exhortations and instructions from the pulpit, over that simple exhibition of divine truth calculated to awaken a consciousness of sin and of the obligation to be holy? True, our Saviour and his apostles sometimes, nay, often, address themselves to the interests, the hopes, and the fears of men; nor can any one doubt that, to arouse men from the lethargy and false security of sin, this is necessary and proper. But as the highest motive by which the good man should be governed, and as a principle of action on which the awakened sinner can safely rest, it is authorized neither by conscience nor the word of God. Many have been the slurs flung at Christianity by those who have represented it as appealing only to motives of self-interest; and many men,

it is quite possible, of strong minds, and not wholly regardless of truth and duty, perceiving but too readily that these are not the highest grounds of moral action, have been alienated from the doctrines and duties of Christianity by being led to misconceive it as a system which appealed only to mercenary motives, to the fears of punishment and hopes of reward in a future life. An old writer has said that "so much occasion is sometimes given for men to fall into this fatal error, that one might almost be tempted to wish, according to a fable of one of the Christian fathers, for the annihilation of both heaven and hell, in order that men might serve God from pure love, or from naked principle, without fear of punishment or hope of reward."

The most ardent religious devotee, therefore, if his highest motive be only to serve a human ecclesiasticism or to get to heaven; if his conscience, at best, be only an ecclesiastical conscience, and his highest aim to accommodate himself to, or to heed the behests of, certain ecclesiastical superiors, is, as yet, not only in bondage, but in sin. Was not just this Paul's condition previous to his conversion? His "good conscience" was only an ecclesiastical conscience, one cultivated and kept simply by the faithful observance of all the ordinances and requirements of his Church. If, while yet "breathing out threatening and slaughter" against the infant Christian Church, he "verily thought he was doing God's service". was in the path of duty-it could only have been in this low ecclesiastical sense. There can be no doubt but that, in his secret soul, Paul had his misgivings as to the strict righteousness of that persecuting business; misgivings that finally culminated so gloriously on his way to Damascus, bursting, at the first prick of the accuser's voice, into, "What, Lord, wilt thou have me to do?" Nay, we are not surprised that when Paul came thus to have his mind fully opened to the light of divine truth, and thereby to become deeply conscious of the inward sources in which his former purposes had had their origin, his conscience unqualifiedly condemned them as evil-bore witness that, though hitherto he had been but dimly, doubtfully conscious of them, those principles of action yet ought not to have been.

Righteousness, we repeat, is the only principle that will hold

as a safe and saving groundwork of character, both as an immediate rule of outward conduct and as the rightful and ultimate end at which we are to aim. Does the skeptic, failing to apprehend many of the spiritual doctrines of the Gospel, yet adopt as his supreme motive the desire, the purpose, to be and to do right in the sight of God? Then must he be saved, though as by fire. Is the religious devotee actually actuated by this same highest of motives? Then, even though a persecuting fanatic, (albeit it is difficult, if not impossible, to conceive of such a case,) he must be accounted not only guiltless, but holy.

The doctrine said to have been recently enunciated by Dr. Goss, Roman Catholic Bishop of Liverpool, indicating a marvelous stretch of Christian liberality and bad "churchmanship" for a Roman prelate, evidently cannot be gainsaid. Speaking of us Protestants, he is reported to have said: "Though they reject the ordinance of the Catholic Church, yet if they are sincere in their belief, and follow the light as far as God has given it to them, I believe that the Almighty will have regard to their sincerity of belief, and that, if they have a real and true sorrow for sin, it will suffice for their salvation."

us.

Lastly. On this ground, and with this view, we can in some measure apprehend that lost condition, the extent and malignity of the evil, the depth and hopelessness of the ruin, from which, in the boundless love of God, his Son came to redeem If we are not only poor and miserable in ourselves, but guilty of rebellion against God and of opposition to his holy law; if we are not only cursed and consumed by the physical consequences of transgression, but are under just condemnation of conscience for sin, and are hereby exposed to its righteous and unmeasured penalty, we may apprehend, in some degree, how "God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." In a word, if we so feel the evil of sin as a principle affecting our inmost and most essential character, and bringing us into bondage to the law in our members, which is the law of selfishness, as to realize the necessity of some higher principle than belongs to our enslaved natural will to overcome and subdue its malignant power, then shall we be prepared practically to receive

the doctrine that we must be born again, and to hail with joy and thanksgiving the proffered aids of any spiritual power promising to deliver us from this dominion of sin and death and to restore us to spiritual and eternal life. That very power, happily, resides in Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of all grace. Uncounted myriads have testified, and are now testifying, that Jesus Christ has power on earth to forgive sins; that God is in Christ reconciling the world unto himself. The true end and purpose of the Gospel is to eradicate and subdue that self-seeking principle or tendency of the natural will which, as opposed to the law of love or the law of the Spirit, must be accounted essentially evil, and by the power of divine truth, and the aids of that Spirit which always accompanies and abides in the truth, to impart to, or implant within, us a higher and spiritual principle of obedience to the divine law, and thus truly recreate us in righteousness and true holiness, and restore in us forever the ruins of the fall.

ART. V.-THE CHRISTIAN PASTORATE.

The Christian Pastorate: Its Character, Responsibilities, and Duties. By DANIEL P. KIDDER, D.D., Author of "A Treatise on Homiletics," "Sketches of Residence and Travels in Brazil," etc. Pp. 569. Cincinnati: Hitchcock & Walden. New York: Carlton & Lanahan. 1871.

WHEN Christ "ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men;" and among these divine gifts for the completion of all things we find that of Pastors and Teachers, the two offices frequently in one person. When a man is divinely appointed to any given work, he may expect that work to afford him enough of labor and enough of reward; and the Christian minister finds that his office is no sinecure, his labor no insignificant thing, and his reward in proportion to his faithfulness and efficiency in his calling. While God calls men to the work of the ministry, and grants them abundant evidence of that call, he does not furnish them with the qualifications they can themselves obtain. While the promise, "Lo, I am with you alway," is freely given, yet the man of God is not perfect, nor thoroughly furnished unto all good works by that single promise. There is a preparation