Go to thy unknown grave, old year,
With all thy sorrows go;
Thy mantle is stained with many a tear
Thy rough hand forced to flow:
Thou hast withered many a golden flower
Which laughed in the pride of spring,
And burst the bright promise of many an hour
With disappointment's sting.

Go to thy unknown grave, old year,
With all thy pleasures go;
Some sunshine rays the gloom to cheer,
Thou didst on all bestow;
Thy deserts contained some spots of green,
Where silvery streams did roll,
And amid thy storms some hopes serene
Did calm the troubled soul.

1.8

THE EXPERIENCED MINISTER DISTINGUISHED FROM THE HIRELING.

"Feed the flock of God which is among you; taking the oversight thereof, not by

constraint, but willingly not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind. Neither as being lords over God's heritage, but being ensamples to the flock."1 Pet. v. 2, 3.

"Beware of false prophets, u hich come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves."-Matt. vii. 15.

THE salvation of God, revealed in the word of truth, proceeds upon this plan, which renders all glory to the free, sovereign, and unmerited grace and mercy of Jehovah in covenant, and imparts all the benefits to poor, lost man, freely by his grace, independent of any act of the creature, until grace is consummated in glory. Persons may, indeed, by industry and natural abilities, make themselves masters of the doctrines of the gospel, and have much to say for and against different schemes and systems of sentiments; but all the while the heart remains untouched. For that which influences them is pride and covetousness, and God declares a covetous man to be an idolater. (Eph. v. 5).

The first lesson in the school of Christ is to become a little child, February, 1841.]

sitting simply at his feet, that we may be made wise unto salvation, through faith which is in Christ Jesus: by the operation of the Holy Spirit. When Christ Jesus ascended up on high, and received from his Father all power both in heaven and in earth, he undertook the building of his own church. And for the perfecting of this holy building he sent down grace and gifts unto men, by which they were made able and skilful builders. The gifts which Christ gave, are those that should perfect the saints, fulfil the work of the ministry, and edify the body of Christ. A spiritual and divine life and light is given in an eminent and more than ordinary measure, to those that are enabled and taught from above to be spiritual teachers. God, who commanded light to shine out of darkness, shines into their hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ." They receive light, that they may turn others from darkness to light, and shew them the way of peace, which by this light they have discovered. They have a Urim from on high; and a spiritual light and sight, by which they become eyes to the blind, and light to them that sit

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in darkness. The Great Shepherd of souls never sends out from his school the blind to lead the blind, that both may fall into the ditch; but he makes them burning and shining lights, that they which see them may not only rejoice in their light, but be led to the enjoyment of the supreme and sovereign light, Christ Jesus, in the vision of whom is perfect blessedness. And he that hath this light, hath the key of knowledge, by which, under the Spirit's power and teaching, he can open the mysteries of salvation, and discover the counsels of God, and see the mind of Christ, and find out wonders in God's law. They are baptized with that fire, which not only kindleth light in the souls of his messengers, but makes his ministers a flame of fire. And being thus kindled from above, with holy Barnabas, they are good men, full of faith and of the Holy Ghost. There is a great difference between an experienced captain and one that is not. For if the great Captain of our salvation learned experimental obedience by the things which he suffered, and by his sufferings, experimentally tasted and known, knows how to take due notice, consideration, and compassion on those that suffer; how much more advantage is added to his undercaptains by their experience in the christian warfare? A heavenly teacher (with St. Paul) having run the christian race, through honour and dishonour; "through evil and good report; as unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and yet alive; as sorrowful, and yet always rejoicing; as having nothing, and yet possessing all things." Such an one, when he meets with souls in the same path of honour or dishonour, and the other things incident to a christian's life, he can directly, out of his own experience, draw forth lessons of direction, reproof, or consolation: yea, out of his experience, he can almost foretell events, and the issues of temptation. And indeed, as in other

states of soul, so especially in the case of a broken spirit, experimental teachers have the advantage. For such an one looks back to God's leading his own soul, and there reads what God has taught him in his own experience, and from thence he tells the distressed soul both the cross which she endures and the joy set before her. He talks with the soul in her own language, having thoroughly learned it in this high school of experience. And when the grieved soul hears the teacher speaking this language, she is revived. Yea, when she hears him speak so truly of the grief, she believes it is possible that there may be truth in his comforts. Yea, it is no small comfort to the distressed soul, by such infallible and evident descriptions, to find and hear one that hathbeen in the same dis-. tress wherein she is now afflicted; for one of their greatest terrors arises from hence, that none was ever in their case, and that the Almighty hath singled them out from all the world, to be the very marks for his

arrows.

Besides, when these men bring consolations for tribulations, they bring sure and sound ones; for they bring every one of them with a probatum. They can name the man that was cured by them, and say with the Psalmist," This poor man cried unto the Lord, and thus was heard, comforted, and healed." With St, Paul,

they comfort others with the very same consolations wherewith themselves have been comforted of God." Thus this skill of experi mental divinity, gives an advantage of knowledge, and not of knowledge only, but of confidence to the teacher; for he speaks what he knows. And, on the other side, it gives an advantage of trust and comfort to the hearer.

But the inexperienced man, when he comes to a soul set on the rack of a tortured conscience, and there uttering the fearful expressions of a terrific mind; this distressed soul is

a barbarian to him, and he is a barbarian to her. She speaks what he understands not, and he cannot speak to her in a language which she can comfortably understand. But this teacher is often of the same opinion concerning this troubled soul, which Christ's carnal kinsmen had concerning him, "They sent out to lay hold on him, saying, he is beside himself," Mark iii. And no wonder, for they never saw sin in its true colour; they were never upon Mount Sinai; neither have they heard the thunders and lightnings of the law against sin; and therefore they are not like Moses, who did quake and tremble. This quaking and trembling is so strange to them, that they ask with wonder of these amazed souls, Why did ye skip as lambs, and tremble as little lambs? To whom it may be answered, It was at the presence of God on Sinai.

Again, on the other side, when the time is come, when God calls out "Comfort ye, comfort ye my people," there is no balm in their Gilead, there is no oil of joy in their lamps. They have not had the foregoing tribulations, nor the following consolations. Therefore if they would give consolations. they must be borrowed ones, (like the axe of the young prophet,) and not the very same with which themselves have been comforted of God. Yea, for want of experience, they know not the crisis of a soul, nor when the soul is upon a turn, and is come to the season of receiving consolation. They know not the hour of our Saviour, when he is ready to turn the water of tears into the wine of consolation. And therefore such an one often makes mistakes in holding out restoratives to a soul not purged from the love of sin, when it were more fit to weep with them that weep, and, by that agreement in weeping, to draw the mourning soul to second agreement, even to rejoice with him that rejoiceth. For this is the wisdom of a spiritual teacher, experimentally taught from above;

and this wisdom is justified and in high estimation of all her children.

There is a gift of love infused by God into the heart of a teacher, by which he is taught of God to love his flock; and this love inflameth, constraineth, and teacheth him to teach. In St. Paul we see deep impressions and powerful expressions of this love. Yea, we see him as a man all on fire with this love; so that for the love of souls, weariness and watching, hunger and thirst, cold and nakedness, perils and persecutions are all but as stubble in his way (2 Cor. xi. 23), and the fire of love, which hath eaten him up, consumes them also, and turns them into nothing. He feeds his sheep sometimes at his own cost. He might call himself a labourer, and so might plead for the wages due to his work; but he calls himself a father, that thence he may fetch a reason for providing for his children. Yea, he doth not express his love only under this title of a father, (though that character if well stamped on a pastor, with the affections belonging to it, would make him actively and industriously careful for the good of the flock,) but he descends into lowliness, and (as it were) the fondness of a nurse (1 Thess. ii. 7). He softly handles and dandles, as a nurse her children. He speaks encouraging and plain language to them, when he sees they are not gone beyond milk, nor come to the digestion of stronger meat (1 Cor. iii. 1, 2). And he is so fervently affectionate to them, that he is willing to have imparted to them, not the gospel of God only, but his own soul.

And he tells them the reason, because they were dear unto him.

Hence we learn, that it is the dearness of the flock which is the mainspring that sets all to work, and not the fleece, as it does thousands in the present day. Hence he says, "I seek not your's, but you." Thus it is with those who impart the gospel willingly, "not by constraint, not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind;