heartened? Let them, by way of antidote, contemplate frequently and intently the exceeding weight of glory reserved for the faithful followers of the crucified Saviour. Let them look forward to the rest prepared for the people of God, and to the abundant entrance which will be ministered to them into that everlasting kingdom, where the Patriarchs and Prophets and Apostles are tuning their harps to His praise who loved them and redeem ed them to God by his blood. Let them look forward to the time when they too shall bear some humble part in that immortal song; when they too shall unite in ascribing praise and honour and glory to Him who died for them and rose again, and who hath made them kings and priests unto God. This will abundantly compensate to them all the sufferings of mortality, and console them under its heaviest trials. May we be enabled ever to derive our support and consolation from these hallowed sources whilst here, that we may hereafter be admitted to drink of those streams of unceasing gladness which flow from the throne of God.

For the Christian Observer.

ON THE CAUSES OF WANT OF

ed characters of every age have been formed on this inflexible prin ciple. They have proposed to themselves one supreme object of pursuit; to this their strength, their talents, their property, their life itself, were unintermittingly devoted; they lost no time, and exhausted no energy, in extraneous occupations; they indulged in no episodes or parentheses of action; but pressed on towards the goal of their hopes, steadily, cheerfully, and at last triumphantly. If the attention be divided in its aim by two distinct objects, neither of which the mind is willing to relinquish, it is probable that both will be missed; and the more numerous and powerful the contending attractions, the greater the uncertainty of securing any. Hence, among other reasons, the earnest exhortation of St. Paul to Timothy, in reference to the duties of the Christian ministry, "Give thyself wholly to these things ;" and hence the determination of the twelve Apostles to relinquish as much as possible affairs of a secular and distracting nature, in order that they might devote themselves continually" to prayer and the ministry of the word."

In this, as in all other respects, our blessed Lord has left a bright SUCCESS IN THE CHRISTIAN example to his ministers. How

MINISTRY.

(Concluded from p. 473.) 4. A FOURTH impediment to success in the pastoral office, is the want of greater simplicity and disinterestedness in ministers. In every department of human action, an earnest devotion to a given object is requisite to ensure a high degree of pre-eminence. The great master-pieces in every art have been the work of men who dedicated themselves with unbroken unity of design to their beloved vocation; whom no temptations could draw aside from what they esteemed to be, at least in their own case, the most interesting and valuable of human attainments. The exalt

intently was he occupied in his heavenly Father's business! how completely was every power of his soul brought into willing subjection to his great object, the redemption of the world! For this re deliberated, he prayed, he watched, he laboured, he suffered, he died. His Apostles all exemplified a similar character. They lived "not to themselves, but to Him who loved them and gave himself for them:" they proved that one supreme object engrossed their minds-namely, to save themselves and them that heard them." The faithful servants of Christ in all ages have studied the same simplicity and entirety of character;

66

the same ardour for the advance- font or the altar, by the sick-bed ment of their Redeemer's kingdom; or at the tomb, and in general, the same steady endeavour to pro- perhaps, on all occasions of formal mote, to the utmost of their power, professional engagement; but he the welfare, especially the spiritual too often forgets it in his ordinary welfare, of mankind. commerce with society. Instead of raising the tone of worldly intercourse, he sinks to its level; he suffers his tastes and prejudices, perhaps his passions or interests, to become implicated with engagements of a secondary nature, which deteriorate his character and deform his spiritual-mindedness. His parishioners are not accustomed to look upon him as decidedly a man of another world: they rivet him to their topics, instead of listening to his; and the business of their farms and their merchandize engrosses the moments which he should devote exclusively to their souls. This secularity of spirit is deeply injurious to the success of the Christian ministry, and annihilates a principal benefit which was intended to be secured in rendering the clergy as far as possible free from the concerns of the exchange and the market, and providing for their reasonable necessities without the fatigue of labour, the harassing vicissitudes of profit and loss, or the dangerous temptations of worldly speculation and barter.

It is indeed readily admitted, and it ought never to be forgotten in any discussion respecting the success of the Christian ministry, that the whole of that success must flow supremely from the blessing of God and the influences of the Holy Spirit a point which has been already considered in a former part of these remarks;-but, mediately, and instrumentally, the character of a minister is of the utmost importance to the production of this effect, and particularly as respects his singleness and decision of aim. An individual who would succeed as a statesman, a man of business, a poet, a painter, a musician, keeps his main object constantly in sight: he is known, and wishes to be known, to society only, or chiefly, in his appropriate character wherever he goes, and in whatever pursuit he is engaged, the ruling passion shews itself predominant over the counteracting casualties of the passing hour. Now this parallel applies to the minister of Christ: he must be known by the world strictly in his pastoral character; he must appear among his people, not to buy or to sell, not to converse on politics or agriculture, not to receive or to communicate mere secular intelligence, much less to join in vain amusements or debasing occupations; but to urge upon men the serious consideration of sickness, and death, and eternity; to alarm the thoughtless, to direct the misguided, to heal the brokenhearted, and to point all to the cross of an infinitely gracious Saviour. The want of this singleness of character is one frequent and extensive cause of ministerial failure. The ambassador for God remembers the nature of his office in the desk or the pulpit, at the

The difficulty of maintaining an habitual character of unaffected pastoral simplicity and disinterestedness, free from debasing commixtures, is readily acknowledged. Even clergymen of undoubted piety. and devotional habits may find in their indispensable worldly engagements, in the daily concerns of a family, a school, a parish, or even a charitable institution, much to chill the current of their thoughts and affections. Their intercourse with the world will, in many instances, of necessity be" concerning giving and receiving;" they will come in frequent contact with their neighbours in points where questions of interest or inclination may arise; for they cannot go out

greater zeal and energy.-A clergyman, however prudent or faithful, however devout or disinterested, will be an inefficient pastor, if his ministrations are characterised by tameness and languor. Even affection is not an adequate substitute for earnestness, though, happily, it has a tendency to produce or augment it, except so far as it may be counteracted by the deadening influence of professional familiarity with sacred things-an effect against which a minister cannot too vigilantly guard. The habit of frequently reading the same services, composing and delivering discourses on nearly the same round of topics, and performing the same offices of piety and benevolence, will in time repress much of a minister's ardour in his duties, unless, in proportion as the functions of his profession lose in point of excitement by the absence of novelty, they gain in heart-felt interest by his largely increased estimate of their importance, and by his growing tender

of the world, even while they en deavour to live above it. But the effects of this necessary intercourse should, as far as they are baneful, be sedulously guarded against, and the intercourse itself be restricted to its narrowest possible limits. A clergyman should not be ashamed for it to be fully known and felt, throughout the whole circle of his acquaintance with society-yea, he should account it his greatest honour-that he lives under the paramount influence of what Lord Shaftesbury sneeringly calls "the sublime passion of saving souls." He should carry the spirit of his office into all his pursuits: the spear of Ithuriel should be in his hand; his touch should refine even secular intercourse, and make earth itself administer to thoughts of heaven. Were every minister of Christ thus habitually minded, we might, under the Divine blessing, confidently hope for vast aceessions to the true members of the Christian church;-accessions the extent of which we may presump-ness of conscience, and love to tively judge of by the abundant success with which God is sometimes pleased to bless the labours of those individuals who in some humble measure approach towards this desirable standard. Nor needs a minister, in order to maintain this character, shrink, as some are accustomed to do, from labours of apparently a temporal nature only, wherever duty requires his presence. He may preside in his parish vestry, and take an active interest in the affairs of the poor and the discipline of his neighbourhood, not only without impeding the effects of his ministry, but with manifest advantage to it, even in its most spiritual objects, if only he be careful to maintain, throughout all his proceedings, a constant spirit of devotion and disinterestedness, regulated by wisdom and, sweetened by affection.

5. Connected in some measure with the last-mentioned cause of failure, is another-the want of

God, and affection for the souls of men. How frequently does it happen that a Christian instructor, whose early ministrations excited a deep and general interest in his parish, and seemed to be rapidly changing its character and giving birth to an exhaustless energy of religious improvement, in a few years cools himself, and cools all around him; preaching indeed the same doctrines, and going through the same routine of duties, as in his most zealous days, but infusing into none of his ministrations the devout earnestness which once gave them one of their most powerful attractions! Where indeed this decay of pastoral energy arises merely from the natural consequences of advancing age or infirmity, it is usually counterbalanced by advantages which in some measure compensate for the defect. The Apostle John, for example, though incapacitated towards the close of bis protracted life for being as ener