tries in which the shepherds of the East lived prove this duty to have been then, as it still is, one of great danger. So we read that David said to Saul, "Thy servant kept his father's sheep; and there came a lion and a bear, and took a lamb out of the flock and I went out after him, and smote him, and delivered it out of his mouth; and when he arose against me I caught him by his beard, and smote him and slew him. Thy servant slew both the lion and the bear." So also our Lord, when speaking of Himself and His people as shepherd and flock, spoke of the thief and the wolf," and said, "The good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep." This He proved; for, that He might save the flock of God His Father, he yielded Himself unto death. Now, the holy Scripture distinctly tells us of "perilous times" that "shall be in the last days" of him, who, "as a roaring lion, goeth about seeking whom he may devour;" of the wrath of the devil amongst "the inhabiters of the earth......because his time is short;" of the hosts of " the angel of the bottomless pit;" of "the wicked spirits in heavenly places;" of "deceivings" and "lying wonders and miracles," which shall be the work of the Evil One in the last days; misleading, if that be possible, the very elect of God. Where is our defence against these manifold and terrible powers and dangers? In the Church of Christ. And who are they who alone can defend us from them? The pastors whom the Lord has appointed-the shepherds to whom He hath given His flock in charge. It is their special work to watch the goings of the adversary, and to save their people from his hand; and the safety of

If

all is in abiding under their defence and protection. any man suppose that he can defend himself-if any man suppose that, by force of sagacity or of human wisdom, he can escape the many snares which are spread for his feet, he has forgotten that which the Apostle says, that our warfare is not against flesh and blood-it is essentially spiritual, in which the strength needed must be ministered by the Holy Ghost, and the guidance and leadership be spiritual in their authority and nature. The contest of the Church with Satan is one wherein human wisdom finds no place, except as an auxiliary to the "wisdom which is from above;" wherein indeed as measured against the subtlety of the devil, it is as the opposition of the reed to the whirlwind. If we break the bonds which exist between us and those whom God has set over us-if we depart from His defences, and wander forth alone from place to place in the gratification of a morbid longing for novelty or excitement, we must not complain if we meet with the enemy, nor wonder that, being single-handed, we are worsted. We cannot discern ourselves-we cannot know by any intuitive power of perception of what spirit we are-we cannot tell what we most need-we cannot, in short, "pastor ourselves." God alone, our heavenly Father, knoweth what we truly are, and what we truly need and it is by His pastors that he ministereth to our necessities; and if we put ourselves out of their care, our spirits must remain undiscerned, and our wants unministered to. This is the sad position in which so many are found, who, dissatisfied with their own pastors, or craving excitement, run from

church to church, and set up certain preachers as idols. Another error which is prevalent is the judging of our pastors with regard, not to their office and authority, but to their intellectual capacity and attainments-a dangerous error truly, at once a pitfall for the minister and his people. If, through God's grace, he does not discern it, and warn them of it, his flock is led to look at man and not at God, and he is induced to feed them with food which the Lord has not provided, and which will not, and which cannot, sustain them in the time of trial. There was not long ago a pastor who said, he knew no other hold that he had over his people than what he possessed by force of intellect. Unhappy man! and unhappy people! The one broke his heart in his effort to meet the demands that were made upon him; the other became a vain and heartless people, filled, indeed, with high-sounding and useless theories, but without one true idea of Christian doctrine, and without one particle of living faith-they "sowed to the wind, and they reaped the whirlwind." So it will ever be where the pastor is not recognized in the authority of his office as of God; if his qualifications are not regarded as of the Holy Ghost; if the power and strength for defence committed to him are not recognized as spiritual, and not carnal.

I do not say to you that human wisdom, and intellect, and talent, are for nothing in the service of God; that there is no place whatever for their exercise in His ministries, and that, therefore, they are to be despised. This would be very wrong. All God's gifts to man are good, and when rightly used, and

in their proper place and order, each contribute to work out the mercy, and oneness, and blessedness of His purpose in giving them. The Church can make use, and ought to make use, of every gift and every power which man possesses: for it is in the dedication of them first to God that their whole exercise is sanctified, and all their fruits righteously enjoyed. But things most beautiful in themselves when in their proper place, cease to be so when out of it. And any gift perverted from its right use, to a purpose for which it was not intended, ceases to be a blessing, and becomes a curse. The spirit of man is the highest thing in his constitution; his understanding and all other powers are servants to his spirit. With the spirit God first deals in His holy Church, and He does not deal with that by intellect, but by spirit. Whilst, therefore, all man's powers have their right exercise in righteous subordination to his spirit, renewed by the Holy Ghost; so in ministries, whichare spiritual in their authority and whole character, these may rightfully be used as the handmaids of that Holy Spirit, and in subservience to that heavenly wisdom, in the power of which those ministries are exercised. If they take the place of these, and have precedence, and are the only strength that is looked for, they are out of place, and must be counted, as they will be proved to be, as nothing.

It is our duty, then, to see that we furnish the ear which may be spoken to, and the heart which shall be open to the voice and precept of God in His ministries; it is our duty to recognize the spiritual bond which binds us to our pastors; it is our duty,

as we would be saved from the snares of the devil, to abide in faithful reliance upon, and in connexion with, the spiritual defences which God has provided for us; not, in the gratification of a selfish and wayward spirit, to seek what pleases us, but to have a humble reliance and faith, that what God has provided for us is best, and that where His providence has placed us is our proper place, the true sphere of our action.

But many will say, "My pastor does not preach the Gospel, and therefore I am bound to leave him." And wherefore? That, supposing this to be true, he may be left without the aid of that faith and those prayers by which, as a true member of Christ's Church, and in the exercise of the love and longsuffering of the Lord, it is my duty to uphold him, and so the more readily fall beneath the power of the common enemy? Alas for the deceitfulness of our own hearts! Alas for the pride and self-pleasing which we mistake for righteous maintenance of God's honour! Alas for the almost entire absence of Christian charity that is manifest on every hand! If the tie between a pastor and his people were one between man and man, it might be broken at pleasure. If our attendance in our place at church were a polite compliment to our minister, we might be justified in withholding it as expressive of our disapprobation. If we could be sure that God cared nothing for us-that we were more jealous of His honour than He of His own-more concerned for ourselves than He for us-then, indeed, such a plea might have some justification. Jesus for our "sakes