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Wisdom, then, in one who would win souls, is necessary to know that truth, to defend it, and rightly to divide it. This is manifestly necessary in our day and in our country. While the truth has made our nation an asylum for all lands, we see Ireland pouring in upon us its hordes of outcasts. They come to seek the liberties, and advantages, and blessings which they cannot find at home; but they come with the ignorance, and superstition, and false religion which have oppressed them in their own land, and they are striving to propagate here the same idolatrous worship, the same traditions of men, the same subjection to "the man of sin," which has ruled them with a rod of iron, and which would exclude the word of God from the knowledge and faith of the people. Germany is flooding the land with thousands of infidels, who having been taught at home that religion. is only another word for spiritual despotism and oppression, when here, renounce all religion, and endeavor to lead others with them in the way to death. France, by its unbelief, its fashionable follies, its licentious taste, its extravagant show, its immodest art, is awakening in the minds of multitudes an idea, that simplicity of manners, purity of thought, and modesty and devotion of spirit, exhibit a want of refinement, and belong rather to simpletons than to persons of intelligence and position. Now we might at once confound all such reasoners by simply asking whether for ourselves or for them, there would be any advantage in making America an Ireland, or a Germany, or a France? If not, what has made our form of government, our institutions, our general morals, our freedom from religious intolerance, so much better for the masses of the people, than in their own countries? It is the diffusion, the knowledge, and the influence of The Word of God. Yet all these things are manifestly exerting a powerful, and wide-spread influence over our people. We remark, then, that those who would win souls require wisdom, not only to exhibit and defend the truth of God, but also rightly to divide it, or to select, and adapt that truth to the prevailing evils, or the character of the times. The great principles of gospel truth are the same in all ages, and equally essential for lost souls in any condition; but wisdom will" discern the signs of the times," and bring forth from the word of God, with force and faithfulness, the lessons appropriate to them. Even to a superficial observer of the present state of things in this city and country, it would be evident that if souls are to be won, something more is necessary than cold and abstract discussions in the pulpit. The almost universal prevalence of the inordinate love of wealth, of idle and corrupting amusements, of wicked extravagance in buildings, in dress, in luxurious living, in short, the common disposition to live supreme for this brief span of time, should waken as with one voice the rebukes, the earnest warnings and expostulations of the American pulpit. "The prosperity of fools shall destroy them.”

Wisdom in those who would win souls is also necessary to know what are the essential articles of faith, declared as such, in the word of God, in distinction from those prescribed in the various creeds of men-to compare the exercises of an awakened and regenerate soul, the ground of its trust, the evidences of its hope, with those revealed in the word of God.

The very expression, "winneth souls," shows also the necessity of tact, in meeting objections and excuses, in presenting truth, in drawin gout the experience, in probing every difficulty to its foundation, in suiting the remedy which God prescribes to the peculiarity of the case, in giving "to each his portion in due season."

So to win souls requires wisdom to discern and attain the spirit in which they are to be won. God declares it is only in the spirit of love for lost souls that we can win them. Terror frightens, force drives, but love wins. The heart then must be warmed with ardent love, if we would win souls. Even in speaking the rebukes, the warnings, the threatenings of God, we must "speak the truth in love." O, when the heart of the preacher ardently yearns for the salvation of souls; when he can say of them as Paul did, "My little children, of whom I travail in birth, till Christ be formed in you;" when, feeling their precious worth, his own soul melts over them, and wrestles in prayer for them; then will the truth of God come warm, and gushing, and mighty from his heart, and go home to theirs; then he will not need to borrow cold thoughts from others; his only difficulty will be to select thoughts from his overflowing mind, to control thought, and to stop in time the impetuous stream. Then he will speak with earnestness as one "who believes" and feels, and "therefore speaks." And this love of souls, when uttering the truth of God, is the mightiest medium through which the Spirit of God crowns the efforts of man to win souls that are lost. O how many sermons are preached, in which there is manifest no such love for souls, and which do not even seem to contemplate the winning of souls as the great aim and object of preaching.

But wisdom in winning souls is further necessary for the minister of the truth, to enable him to appreciate and improve aright the various authorized ways by which that truth may be employed to win souls. Such, for example, as first preaching that truth, faithfully and fearlessly, with this great end constantly in view. Secondly, imparting that truth by catechetical instruction to the children and youth of his charge. The good old custom seems to have gone out of fashion of late among us, or to be delegated by Pastors to other hands. But if they valued as they should the affection of the young, and the influence for good which this custom would secure to them, and the precious privilege of lodging that truth in these young minds, through which their souls may be won when the Pastors are in their graves, they would allow no man in this respect "to take their crown;"

they would themselves rejoice to do it. And in pastoral visits how directly may this truth be employed. Not indeed when the Pastor enters a house merely to talk about the weather, or the news of the day, or to get a cup of tea; but when he goes there like a tender watchful shepherd, to animate, encourage and guard, or to win the souls of his flock; when sociably and kindly, and yet faithfully, he converses with them on the great subject of their souls' salvation; and, where it is desirable, he unites with their family circle in prayer, showing that he is a Pastor, a Shepherd indeed, watching for the souls of his flock "as one who must give an account.'

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And, finally, he requires wisdom to know the source from which he must seek aid in all his labors, if they are to be successful in winning souls, and above all things to value the means of obtaining that aid. "If any man lack wisdom let him ask of God, who giveth liberally and upbraideth not." It is the Spirit of God only that can renew the soul, but God declares that he is more willing to give that Spirit to them that ask him than earthly parents are to give good gifts to their children." He who would win souls, then, must be eminently a man of prayer. Every subject, every text of the Preacher, should be selected with prayer; every sermon should be written with prayer; earnestly should he beg light, unction, power from God, in preparing discourses which, for good or ill, are to tell in the endless future of souls; and then from his knees in his closet, after fervent pleadings with God for his blessings, should he go to his pulpit to declare his message from God which is to be "a savor of life unto life or of death unto death.”

He that winneth souls is wise because

II. To win souls is an exhibition of the highest wisdom.
This is evident from

The good he confers, and

The reward he secures.

1. "Let him know," says the inspired word (James v. 20), "that he who converteth the sinner from the error of his way, shall save a soul from death, and shall hide (or prevent) a multitude of sins." "Shall save a soul from death!" Can mind conceive a greater good than this? An exalted, precious, immortal soul saved from death to everlasting life; from an enemy changed into a friend, a child of God; instead of being a soul forever lost, a soul forever won, and forever and forever the soul won by him. As angels in heaven rejoice over it, it is the soul won by him, as the peace of heaven is awakened within it, as it enters upon and pursues its new and holy life, as it triumphs in the hour of death, as it ascends to its home in heaven, it is the soul saved by him from death; and there it shall forever be, a happy, sanctified, glorified soul, saved by him from death.

Turn now from the soul won to consider,

2. The rewards of winning souls. As there is no end more important than this, no honor more exalted than this, no charity more blessed than this, so there is no purer, more angelic, more Christ-like joy, than that of being instrumental in winning souls. The consciousness of the evil we prevent, and the good we seeure, and the joy of our own soul, as its deep-tender sympathies partake in the holy joy of the new-born soul, begotten by the word and Spirit of God, through our instrumentality, into the family of the Redeemed, is, even here, the richest reward.

But what is this compared to the reward which shall be his, who, in the spirit of the Master, wins souls, in the day of the Lord Jesus?

What, says the holy apostle, when writing to those who through his instrumentality had been won from darkness and death, "what is our hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing, are not even ye, in the day of the Lord Jesus, at his coming?" O, if saved ourselves, as our own souls will then be delivered from every infirmity, and advanced in every grace, and be more like the holy angels, and even like the blessed Master, what thought can measure the joy of beholding there souls which we have won from sin to holiness, from death to life! So the word of God also declares, "They that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness, as the stars forever and ever." "He that winneth souls Is WISE."

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BY REV. ASA D. SMITH, D.D.,

PASTOR OF THE FOURTEENTH-ST. PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, NEW-YORK.

SINGLENESS OF PURPOSE. THE LIFE AND CHARACTER OF THE LATE REV. CHARLES HALL, D.D.

"If therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light."—MATT. vi. 22.

THE figure here employed is one of great beauty and expres siveness. A high place does the eye hold, in some respects a chief place, among our various physicial organs. In the language of the context, it is "the light of the body." If it be "evil"in other words, if disease fall upon it; if a film grow over it, so that through its exquisitely moulded casement but a glimmer of daylight steals; or if peccant humors pervade it, so that objects are duplicated to the view, or are blent together in perplexing and painful confusion; then, indeed, is the whole body "full of darkness." All its faculties are used to comparatively little purpose. The odors come to it as from an unknown land; that which the fingers touch is but half apprehended; the ear listens as to sounds from a realm of shadows; the tongue pours forth its utterances as into some cloudy abyss. The work to be done is hidden, and the hands falter at it; the path to be taken is obscured, and the feet stumble in it; the goal sought is wrapt in gloom, and the erring steps fail to reach it. Not so when the eye is "single;" when in its sound and normal state it discriminates keenly, apprehending every thing in its true proportion and relations. Then have all the other faculties their most facile and effective play. Then is our work disclosed to us, and the way of our feet clearly revealed; and whatever mark or prize we

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