sympathy; relieve them, if it is necessary, from the anxieties of poverty. If you are judicious in the selection, and will conduct the process of mental discipline to a proper extent, it will prove to be a wise and benevolent expenditure of your means. If you find no such materials among yourselves, you can aid those churches who have the young men, but not the means of educating them. Should not every church in Virginia take up a collection once a year for educational purposes? 3. To allow your pastors such compensation as will enable them to devote their whole time to the ministry. I plead not for an idle, pampered race of clerical gentlemen, but for a working, devoted and faithful ministry. This you never can have until you give such remuneration as will justify prudent men in doing little else than the duties of the episcopal office. No church deserves or should expect an efficient pastor, until they say to him in substance: "Occupy your whole time in serving us, and we will supply all your reasonable wants." It is indeed miserable economy to permit an able preacher to toil in the school-room or on the farm, for the support of his family, when a few hundred dollars would enable him to preach far more frequently and profitably. To pray for an increase of ministers; to educate them for their calling; and then to confine them to extraneous pursuits, is most inconsistent and unwise. Let ministers cultivate habits of frugality in themselves and families; let them be content with moderate salaries; let them convince their churches that the only motive that impels them to ask a support is a desire to do more faithful and more abundant service in the cause of Christ; and then let the churches willingly extend that support and enjoy that service. But to conclude: Brethren in the ministry! yours is a fearful responsibility! In the final day you will stand with your respective charges before the great white throne of judgment, and render an account of your stewardship. Why did you preach? Was it from a constraining love to Christ and pity to the souls of men? What did you preach? Was it the whole counsel of God, neither mixed up with human philosophy, nor modified to suit the corrupt tastes of men? How did you preach? Was it with plainand solemnity, and zeal, and faithfulness, and a tender importunity? How often did you preach? Was it ness, whenever and wherever you could find an auditor? In the sick chamber; in the social parlor; in the workshop; on the high-way; in the mansion of wealth; in the hovel of poverty; as well as in the pulpit? Above all, did you preach by your example as well as by your discourses? These will be subjects of investigation in the great day. If here you study to show yourselves approved unto God, there you will be found to be workmen that need not to be ashamed. If here you are faithful unto death, then you shall receive a crown of life. Yes! for every tear you have shed; for every honest, well directed effort you have made; for all your toils, by day and by night, through cold and heat, through drought and storms; for all your sacrifices of ease, and wealth, and domestic joys; God will give you an accurate reward. Every sinner saved by your instrumentality will augment your bliss. They that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament, and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars forever and ever. Nor is this consummation far remote. I look round me in vain for the dignified forms of the devoted Rice; the warmhearted Kerr; the decided Mason; the affectionate Jones; and the eloquent Daniel. Fourteen years ago we held our anniversaries in this house, when they mingled in our counsel and we heard their voice. Where are they now? They have gone to their reward. You too will soon die. "The time of hope And of probation speeds on rapid wings, Swift and returnless. What thou hast to do Do with thy might. Haste, lift aloud thy voice, And publish to the borders of the pit The Resurrection . . . Then, when the ransomed come With gladness unto Zion, thou shalt joy To hear the vallies and the hills break forth Ministerial qualifications. No other man, in whatever profession or pursuit employed, has more use for mental discipline, and attainments of the highest order, than has the gospel minister. Things deemed final, by other great men, in responsible stations, are with him only instrumental for nobler purposes. History, philosophy, belles-lettres, logic, rhetoric, every department of science and literature,whatever is useful,-whatever is ornamental,-is imperiously demanded by his every-day avocations. He needs, to begin with, not only an accurate and familiar acquaintance with the language he speaks, but some knowledge of the languages in which the Bible was originally written. This is a profession which actually includes all other professions. Go to the most distinguished university you please. Consider the aggregate of the talents and acquisitions of its twenty learned professors. It were desirable, were it pos. sible, that the preacher possess them all; he has daily use for all. These are not indeed the most important parts of the endowments his office demands, as has been shown in Mr. Ryland's sermon before the Education Society; but they nevertheless have their own intrinsic and relative value. Geology is not so valuable to the geologist himself, as it is to the interpreter of the Bible. The mere philologist, to whatever department of language or thought he intends to appropriate the results of his labors, cannot have so valuable a purpose to which to apply them, as has the minister of the gospel. Were he familiar with every translation, of every text, ever made by the greatest linguists, so much the better. Unbounded resources may be made tributary to the duties of his office, in every conversation; in every epistolary correspondence; in every meditation; as well as in every sermon or prayer. The higher his ascent in metaphysical and moral studies, the better is he qualified to converse with a child, or to instruct a servant. Ministerial pursuits. And yet, notwithstanding the truth of the foregoing remarks, and while the peculiar and appropriate duties of the pastor, or the evangelist, are so various, absorbing and overwhelming as they are, all christendom, with here and there an exception, concurs in the opinion, that the business of a preacher requires only a por tion of his time. Nay more, that that portion is so small as to justify his dependance upon other than ministerial pursuits for his support:-in other words, that the labors of a gospel minister, in his official capacity, demand only such shreds of time as other men devote to their amusement. We heard it asserted by an individual, who ought to know, that the salaries of the ministers of the Episcopal churches in Virginia, do not average more than two hundred dollars. Those of the Methodist churches, including the circuit riders, are not probably greater. Of the Presbyterian churches, we cannot speak advisedly. But of the Baptists, we affirm, and we can demonstrate it if required, that there is no known body of men in existence, among whom there is so much unemployed, inactive, or misemployed capital. There are known to us personally, not a few, men of varied learning, fair reputation, sterling abilities, and indefatigable zeal in their master's cause, whose main employment is farming, teaching, merchandize, surveying, the practice of medicine, anything else than the ministerial profession, while to the latter they apply what time they can conveniently spare. In the mean time, the churches are praying to the Lord of the harvest to send forth laborers into his harvest. They pray for the multiplication of those whom they are already unwilling to employ. One of the saddest effects of this state of things is this: The impression is made upon the world, upon the whole non-professing community, that christians themselves consider religion a merely secondary, or third rate thing. Intelligent men, and men of business minds, cannot be made to believe, that any human being considers that to be of the first importance, in support of which he is unwilling to make some sacrifice. Other professions are supported. There is no congregation in christendom which does not support its medical faculty, its advocates at the bar, its police officers, and every thing else, but its preachers. The inference is irresistible, and too plain to need to be stated in words. Ministerial Candidates. One tendency of the evil exposed in the foregoing paragraph, is, to exclude from the pulpit the greatest and best men:-men of talents, attainments, honest convictions, and fine moral feelings. Such men know, there are other duties, besides that of preaching the gospel. THE BAPTIST PREACHER. VOL. IV. September, 1845. NO. 9. PUBLIC OFFENCES, OR CHURCH DISCIPLINE: A sermon, by Rev. A. W. CHAMBLISS, Tuskegee, Alabama. NO. I. "Now, I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offences, contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned, and avoid them: for they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ."-Rom. XVI: 17, 18. In a former discourse, we labored to show the distinction between public and private offences; and we hope we were not unsuccessful in explaining the divine law in relation to those who have trespassed against us, in our private capacity. The offence was between us as individuals, and we had the right, nay, it was our duty, to settle the matter between ourselves. We may not, until every other expedient has failed, introduce it before the public. To bring it into the church, is the very last resort. The language of the "Baptist Confession of Faith" is, "should any private matter be brought into the church, before the previous steps (described in Matt. xviii,) have been taken, the person that brings it in ought to be severely reproved and admonished, and that publicly, before the whole church, for his irregular and injurious conduct therein," (p. 221.) "Let all things be done decently and in order." Having, therefore, disposed of private offences, we shall in this, and the following discourse, invite your attention to those that are public. To such, our text has allusion. "Now, I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause *"The Baptist Confession of Faith." This volume, of about 300 pages, was first adopted in London, A. D. 1699: and afterwards by the Charleston Association, S. C., A. D. 1831; and as a summary of Faith and Practice,' may be said to represent the views of the Baptist churches generally: although neither this, nor any other confession or formula, is considered binding on the conscience of any, the Bible being the only acknowledged standard. 21-Vol. IV. |