made in their names. See the ministers, as these children improve in years, approach God's holy altar, feeding them with that spiritual food which giveth life to those who partake of it, the body and blood of Christ. See them when they draw nigh to that same altar, to enter the holy estate of wedlock, which the Apostle has pronounced to be "honourable among all men;" then observe the ministers exercising that power which, until the sectarian spirit decreed it otherwise, was exclusively restricted to their order, but nevertheless of divine appointment. See them then performing that office which is of so sacred and deeply important a nature, as to signify "unto us the mystical union that is betwixt Christ and his Church," which holy estate Christ adorned and beautified with his presence, and first miracle that he wrought in Cana of Galilee; see them calling down the blessing of heaven, that the parties may be filled with all spiritual benediction and grace, that they may so live toge

ther in this life, that in the world to come they may have life everlasting. However slight and inconsiderable the fulfilment of these offices may appear to the worldly mind, they are not so to those who regard us as "the ministers of Christ, and stewards of the mysteries of God."

But other duties, fraught with incessant care, claim no inconsiderable portion of the minister's time and zeal. If you would judge of his labours, which are more removed from public observation, accompany him to the haunts of wretchedness and gloom and poverty. Witness him breathing commiseration into the ear of agony; infusing faith into the bosom of despair; changing the deep and deadly oath to the pious aspiration of prayer. See him tendering the offers of mercy to the guilty.; of spiritual riches to the poor

-see him, by the touch of sympathy, melting the frozen heart of infamy itself, and by the power of the Gospel, leaving behind him peace, where before there was no peace.

What undertaking can be more honourable and delightful than this? to stand as a representative between earth and heaven; to proclaim the message of salvation to lost sinners; to bring comfort to those who are weary and heavy-laden; to restore to the flock the long-lost prodigals; to infuse into the soul that peace" which passeth all understanding."

But go still further with the minister of Jesus Christ. Enter with him the deathchamber, and see then the joy and peace he is empowered, by means of the Gospel, to spread around. Very many there are, who when in the glow of health despise the minister of the Church, and neglect the means which he takes to draw men to salvation; but these, at the eve of the soul's departure, will send for him, imagining often, that from the blaze of Christian faith, he could miraculously shed those effulgent rays, whereby the sinner might almost discern the abode, and ascertain the raptures of a future state. Poor is the

hope! But see the minister with the reprobate before him. Observe his wretched and convulsed countenance. See the workings of a guilty conscience, the gnawings of the worm of misery and woe. Hearken to the deepdrawn groan, issuing from the heaving breast; note the haggardness which sits scowling in every feature; mark the remorse and bitterness lodged in the furrows of an emaciated and indented countenance; see the sinner about to enter upon another world; picture to yourselves his death-bed. In that sad and melancholy hour the minister applies that which alone has power to save him-the Gospel of Jesus Christ. And though he cannot ensure salvation by any means, he can partially restore peace, yea, he may be the humble means of reconciling, through Christ Jesus, that sinner to his offended Father. He can kneel down and pray for mercy, he can induce the sinner to cast his whole care upon God, to believe in that Saviour who is an advocate with the Father,

and who is able and perhaps may be willing to save him in the last hour; yea, even in the agonies and struggles of death. He promises nothing; he can only pray; he can only exhort the sinner to pray for mercy and forgiveness through Christ for past sins. Dreary as this picture is, yet all its lineaments are true; and the colour in which the reality is depicted, is rather subdued than overwrought. If you would also know the alterations of feeling, with which the discharge of his ministry not unfrequently affects his mind, attend him from such a scene as the one described, to the death of a faithful Christian. The change is as great, and the contrast is as perfect, as the utmost powers of conception can suppose it to be. No departing spirit struggling its hard way out of the flesh in remorse, in anguish, or in tears, adds to the melancholy of the solemn sight; no fearful anticipation of God's retributive judgment, no agonized retrospect of a misspent life, no fruitless clinging to earth in the state of