minister of the Gospel, and of performing with efficacy the duties of the pastoral office. The bulwarks erected by civil government for the defence of the clerical order are removed from you. You must stand on your own individual responsibility; and, as it respects human means, the accomplishment of the design of the Christian ministry, in this society, is in a high degree suspended on your personal character, on your exemplary conduct, and on the intelligent, serious, and acceptable manner in which you perform the public duties of your profession.

In your situation, ordinary vigilance and exertion will not be accepted. Every deficiency and defect will be pointedly noticed, and some may think you their enemy because you tell them the truth. Embody then our religion in your life, and give it, in view of all around you, a visible form. The unobtrusive example of the pious and benevolent minister addresses the people of his charge with persuasive eloquence; and the clerical character consistently supported, and the habitual exemplification of Christian virtues and graces, will eventually secure general respect and esteem. How bitter would be the regret, should the sublime cause, to which you have devoted yourself, suffer through your deficiency! Whether your ministry shall prove successful, depends in a great measure on the wisdom and propriety of your life and conversation. Even suspicion that you are destitute of professional information, or are in moral character defective, would to you be fatal. If you lose the confidence of your own flock, you lose the power to do them good. Should your character in common estimation become tarnished, your public usefulness will come to an end. Will the consequent mortification be compensated by any gratification to be enjoyed from the indulgence of an indolent mind, or a participation in the

empty amusements of the world? But, beloved brother, we are persuaded better things of you, and things that accompany salvation, though we thus speak.

Our religion furnishes motives to fortify your resolution, to animate your diligence, and enliven your zeal, even in a situation which will require in an unusual degree strenuous and unwearied exertions. You can expect comparatively little aid from your ministerial brethren. An independent spirit must be your support; and you must depend on the resources of your own mind. Be not discouraged. Reflect on the privations and dangers which the apostles of our Lord encountered when they went forth to preach the Gospel. None of their suffering moved them; nor did they count their lives dear unto themselves, so they might finish their course with joy, and the ministry which they received of the Lord Jesus to testify the Gospel of the grace of God. Consider that Jesus himself, in submission to the will of his Father, endured the cross, and despised the shame. Remember the divine promises: "My grace is sufficient for thee; for my strength is made perfect in weakness," "They that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament, and they who turn many to righteousness, as the stars for ever and ever."

Covet then earnestly the best gifts. Take heed to thyself. Give thyself to reading and to prayer. Do the work of an evangelist. Fulfil thy ministry.

In doing this, thou shalt both save thyself, and them that hear thee.

RIGHT HAND OF FELLOWSHIP.

THE day on which a young man is consecrated to the work of the Christian ministry, is a day of interesting associations, of many hopes, and many anxieties. In the freshness of opening life, he comes willingly to the altar of God, and offers there, not the gifts of Providence, not the service of an hour, but the labour of his whole earthly being; he offers himself, both body and soul, to the cause of heaven. The occasion awakens in the minds of those, who have already given themselves to the pastoral office, remembrances of a solemn and tender nature. The day is a day of sympathy, of natural and religious sympathy. The scenes of a former time rush to mind, when they too went in the strength of Christian faith, and made their vows of holy service. The feelings of that period come back, when the heart was full to overflowing, and the experience of the hours since that period comes with them, to tell that the apprehensions of the spirit were not groundless, that the ministry of the gospel of Christ is not an idle charge. The path on which a new brother cheerfully enters, has been found by those who have preceded him, to be a straight and narrow way, in which many difficulties must be surmounted, and constant vigilance be

exercised. They, therefore, while they exhort him to be faithful to his trust, and set before him the duties that he is required to discharge, withhold not the expression of their joy and sympathy; their joy, that he has undertaken an honourable and glorious work, their sympathy in his future trials. They are incited to this office of kindness, not merely by the feelings of natural association, but by the spirit of christianity, and the example of its first teachers. Our religion is an affectionate religion, and in this respect, as well as in its spiritual character, is distinguished from all other systems of faith and practice; and so far as any form of doctrine or conduct, breathes not the spirit of love, it deviates from pure christianity. St. Paul, in vindicating his apostolic character to the Galatians, tells them among the circumstances of his commission, that he received. the right hand of fellowship from the other apostles. When they had determined the sphere of their respective labours, when he and Barnabas were appointed to go unto the heathen, while James, and Peter, and John went unto the circumcision, they gave each other the right hand of fellowship. It was a symbol of their mutual relation, their equal authority, and their common affection. It was a pledge of their future remembrance, and perpetual union. They were on the eve of separation. A life of toil and danger lay before them; the world was their field of exertion. They knew not that they should ever again meet on

earth. They were

bound together by the ties of faith and suffering, and these ties required them to part. At such a moment, with how much fervour must that pledge of fidelity to each other, and to their Master, have been exchanged. It was not an unmeaning ceremony. It was the grasp of fraternal and Christian affection, of men of strong minds and warm hearts bidding each other farewell on