own number to expound the scriptures, yet that does not release them from their corresponding responsibilities, nor substitute, in their case, a dignified retirement for active usefulness. Feeding the flock of God calls for much more than mere sanctuary services; and oversight is much more than mere preaching. Terms like these express full provision for the spiritual necessities of the church, that she may be edified, enlarged, sustained, refreshed. They include all that belongs to exhortation, prayer, watchfulness, consolation, warning, reproof, rule, &c. The elders must do all this, each one labouring in his own place, and according to his own ability; or, as the scriptures speak, some elders must preside well, and others must labour in word and doctrine. All are not intended to do the same thing, but a plurality exists to meet various wants. one man is adequate to sustain any spiritual community: Moses flagged; Paul sought a companion; and the master has not now left his ministry to falter under a distressing loneliness; but he has associated a brother with him in his labour of love;-and that brother is a spiritual officer, not a lay-elder, a fellow labourer, not an unfeeling and unsympathising ruler.

No

The elders already in office in this church, and those to be inducted this morning into office, agree in these general principles. I do not pledge them for every word, for every sentence, nor for every idea, here advanced. I would not treat any man in that way, neither would I suffer any man to treat me in this creed-making manner;—but I am warranted to assert a coincidence of view on general principles. They consider themselves to be invested with spiritual functions, and called to render spiritual services. They may exhort you to duty; they may comfort you by unfolding the merits of our beloved Redeemer, and the precious promises of our covenant God; they may warn

you of the fearful consequences of sin; they may pray with and for you; they may sustain a spiritual parentage to your children;-in a thousand ways they may be helpers of your joy, and companions in your sorrows. And all this may be done from the purest, the kindest, and the most magnanimous motives, and with an assiduity which cannot fail to be a blessing.

Now then, brethren, your duty is to "know them which labour among you, and are over you in the Lord, and admonish you, and to esteem them very highly in love for their work's sake." And again, I say, "obey them that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves; for they watch for your souls, as they that must give account: that they may do it with joy, and not with grief; for that is unprofitable for you." It will be yours to receive them affectionately when they call upon you; to send for them when you are sick; to ask counsel of them when you need it; to converse freely with them of things divine; to listen. in patience and love to their brotherly admonition; to bear them habitually on your hearts to the mercy-seat; and to afford them every facility in the discharge of their duties. What a glorious spiritual alliance is here! What a mingling of christian hearts! How well adapted the opportunity to a fine display of the social attributes of moral character! What tender sympathies, most happily elicited! These things never can be forgotten. Their memorials pass with us into eternity,-they are associated with all the recollections of redeemed spirits under the altar of heaventhey shall be revived in the most interesting form on the resurrection morning, our new name, our celestial thrones shall be their splendid and imperishable symbols.-0, that the time may not be far distant, when the eldership throughout the whole church shall be constructed on these benign and lofty principles; and when political government

in the church shall yield to spiritual effort! O, that this may be the commencement of a new era in this church, and may God pour down upon all her members and all her elders the healthful spirit of his grace!

A second question now presents itself to our view

HOW ARE ELDERS TO BE Ordained?

This question, it is presumed, may excite not a little curiosity, particularly as it is to be discussed in this church. For, since I have ventured to tell to the world, that it is my decided and unequivocal opinion, that the Bible is the only rule of faith and practice, and that God is the only Lord of conscience, I have been frequently asked, by old men and young men, by clergymen and lay-men, how elders or ministers can possibly be ordained? Or whether the abandonment of the old confession of faith, will not devolve upon the heretical theologian the necessity of making a new one? In some respects, this question is not unlike another which has often been proposed, by what name shall we now call ourselves, when our ecclesiastical connexions have been so rudely sundered? To which we would briefly reply, lifting up our eyes and hearts to the heavens,-"Yet thou, O Lord, art in the midst of us, and we are called by thy name; leave us not.-Doubtless thou art our father, though Abraham be ignorant of us, and Israel acknowledge us not.”—But in other respects, ordination to ecclesiastical office deserves our most serious attention.

The general principles, which are to be secured and recognized in an ordination ceremony, it appears to me, are few and simple. They are, to my apprehension, the following:

1. When a christian acts under official responsibilities in Christ's kingdom, his business is to obey the laws of his prince. This, it might readily be supposed, is a self-evi

dent truth; unless some one can show that church officers are a co-ordinate branch of legislators with Prince Immanuel. I then demur on the question of loyalty, being perfectly willing to fall into the hands of the master who loved me unto the death; but as to man, his tender mercies are cruel.

2. When a christian receives an official trust, he means conscientiously and faithfully to do his duty, agreeably to his best apprehensions, and according to his ability. This, it might be presumed, is equally clear, unless unfaithfulness is a virtue.

3. When there are a plurality of officers, having a common trust, and consequently associated in common services, they should live together in love, and act in harmony, so as to promote the common good. About this there can be no dispute, unless to be quarrelsome is to be virtuous; and a precept requiring us to "contend for the faith once delivered unto the saints," be understood as a carte-blanche to polemics to cover all manner of strife, and to convert their christian graces into burnished weapons for carnal warfare.

Are not these moral maxims, as clear as any mathematical axioms? Can any one answer, no? Then what shall I say to a man, who, walking under a noon-day beam, with his eyes open, and his vision clear, tells me the sun does not shine, and calls himself a philosopher? After pledges, tacitly or formally given, which embrace these elements of official life, what more can you have? Must you not necessarily trust to men's qualifications and integrity, and refer yourself to the master's providential oversight? Do you expect, by a multitude of vows, or a covenant long and minute, to frame a substitute for grace in the heart, or thereby to infuse grace into the heart? Would the great Immanuel, as the heir over all things, receive into his confidence a man who proclaimed himself a rebel against his laws at the outset? Would men trust an individual who had no intention

to be honest? Would any one take to his embrace an Ishmaelite, whose hand is against every man; or choose hatred and strife, rather than harmony and love?-But then all this is my creed, it may be said. Certainly it is; for I believe it all; and I suppose it must be the creed of every man, whose conceptions have ranged beyond the nursery, or whose intellect has out-grown the years of infancy. In like manner I believe that the sun shines by day, and that his effulgence is withdrawn by night;-Moreover, I believe, that all the powers upon earth cannot mantle his beams during the meridian hour, nor recall them to illume the midnight watch; neither can they prescribe to the human mind, faith or unbelief in such self-evident truths. And that which we want, is simply divine truth in its own native lustre, and in its own beautiful and fascinating arrangements; we wish to have it unclouded by the sophisms of the schools; undeformed by party strife; and detached from the peculiarities of our fathers, who were as prone to go astray as we can be. That which we want is the Bible, conceded, felt, and employed, as a competent instrument of divine operation on human hearts;-committed, on the one hand, to the best use which the human mind can make of it; and on the other, to the superintendence of the Holy Spirit, who, commissioned to take of the things which are Christ's, and to show them unto us, may shed his own divine radiance over its sacred page, and "let in" upon our blinded minds the light of redeeming love.

3

Still, however, the question returns upon us, in what form shall elders be ordained?-We are not desirous of introducing novelties for the sake of appearing singular; and yet the ordination ceremony, as it shall be conducted this day, may be a very great novelty among presbyterians in general, and perhaps altogether unanticipated by you. But we are desirous to fulfil what the scriptures enjoin; and can