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piety and in your greater would be

grieve some of the brethren, but induce others to violate the "holy commandment" whose scruples have hitherto restrained them; and the more confidence they might have in your knowledge of the Scriptures, the the danger. Ministers are expected to be more strict in their religious habits than the generality of private christians. If you were to make it a practice when you exchange, to go out of town five or ten miles on the Lord's day, how many of your church would come at length to think, they might travel as well as you. You would make a distinction. You would tell them there is an essential difference between going abroad to preach and for any secular purpose. But it is morally certain that many would not see it; and some would ultimately be led by your example to "wound their own consciences."

Now, ought not this consideration to deter every minister from travelling on the Lord's day for exchanges, if there were no other objection? Supposing for a moment, and only for a moment, that it were, in itself considered, a matter of entire indifference, like eating or not eating meat offered in sacrifice to idols, would it not be his duty to abstain? Might we not reason with him as the great Apostle to the Gentiles reasoned? "Take heed lest by any means this liberty of yours become a stumbling block to them that are weak. For if any man see thee who has knowledge, travelling on the Lord's day, shall not the conscience of him that is weak be emboldened to travel also? And through thy knowledge shall the weak brother perish for whom

Christ died? But when ye sin so against the brethren and wound their weak conscience, ye sin against Christ. Wherefore if travelling on the Lord's day, to exchange pulpit labors, make my brother to offend, I will travel no more while the world standeth, lest I make my brother offend."

In the third place; were you in making exchanges to go and come on the Sabbath, your example would tend exceedingly to encourage the irreligious in their habitual violations of this sacred institution. Your habit would be known of course. You would be seen by multitudes on the way, and they would be more glad to see you then, than on any other day of the week. If their consciences had begun to give them trouble, they would be greatly relieved. You could not stop and reprove them; and if you did, what good would it do? They are riding out, and so are you. You may have a better reason than they can offer, but will they hear it? Can you convince a man who makes no pretenses to religion, that if it is right for you to travel ten miles on your business, it is not right for him to travel as far, or farther, on his? Where one person will admit the distinction which you make in your own favor, on the score of your sacred profession, two will deny that there is any foundation for it. You go abroad on the Sabbath, they will say, for your convenience, and we go for ours. If a minister who is so much looked up to for good examples, may travel one hour, surely we may travel two, for no one will regard our example as of any authority, one way or the other.

I know it is easy for ministers who are in the

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habit of going from home to exchange on the Sabbath to say, that there is an important distinction, whether worldly men will see it or not, and that they are not answerable for the influence of their example where the cases are so dissimilar. But are they sure that they are not answerable? This question ought to be settled in the affirmative beyond all doubt, before they lay the flattering unction to their souls.' What if some of their respective hearers should be emboldened and induced by their example, (improperly if you please,) to break the Sabbath, first by unnecessary travelling, and afterwards in various other ways, and should in consequence of it perish in their sins? Would these spiritual guides have nothing to answer for? I am sure it is not safe to venture upon such an issue.

But it is more than time to bring this long letter to a close. It appears to me, and I hope I have been enabled to show with some degree of success, that in all ordinary cases, ministers when they exchange, are bound by high and solemn considerations, to go before and return after the Sabbath. Only one word more. Let the brother with whom you exchange, occupy your study that he may be retired, and have no interruption from the family, and ask the same privilege for yourself. It is wrong to spend any part of holy time in miscellaneous and secular conversation, either at home or abroad.

I am very affectionately, &c.

MY DEAR E.

LETTER XXI.

You are now not only an ordained preacher of the gospel, but the installed pastor of the second presbyterian church in L. According to the original meaning of the term in the Old Testament, a pastor is a shepherd. A good shepherd not only 'leads his sheep into green pastures,' but watches over them to prevent their straying from the fold, and to protect them from the prowling wolf, and other beasts of prey. In the New Testament scnse, a pastor is one who takes the religious oversight of a people to "feed them with knowledge and understanding," and assumes the responsibility of watching over all their spiritual interests. While in the more limited sense of the term you are the pastor of the church in L, in the popular sense you are pastor both of the church and congregation. Your pastoral duties extend to all who sit under your ministry and to all their families. You watch for the souls not of a part, but of the whole of your flock.

In laying so much stress as I have done, upon preaching, as the great business of your sacred calling, it has by no means been my intention to undervalue pastoral duties, or to intimate, that any amount of labor in the pulpit can release you from the prompt and active discharge of these duties. While you are

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bound to teach your people publicly as a minister, you are equally bound to watch over them as a pasThe proportion of time which should be devoted to each class of duties, will vary according to circumstances. But whatever the proportion may be in the study, in the pulpit and out of the pulpit, one class of duties is as imperative as another. You can no more excuse yourself from discharging the duties of a pastor, by pleading that you want all your time for study and preaching, than you can excuse yourself from preaching well studied sermons, by pleading that pastoral duties swallow up all your time. If it is your duty to preach well, it is equally your duty to be a faithful pastor. When the Good Shepherd ascended up on high, "leading captivity captive," "He gave some apostles, and some prophets, and some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers; for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ."

Preaching is often so intermingled with pastoral duties, especially in times of revival, that it is impossible to separate them. Nor is it at all necessary for you to determine precisely, what is pastoral and what is ministerial. The great thing is, to "approve yourself unto God" in both these relations. But before I specify the more important of your pastoral duties, let me invite your attention to some of the essential qualifications for the proper discharge of these duties. This I shall do, for my own convenience and because I cannot do better, partly in the language of a discourse which I preached

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