demnation of which you have uttered so many sneers and sarcasms?"

This is no overdrawn picture. There are atheists sustaining precisely the character here described; and Mr. Parker, to be consistent, must turn his back upon them, and say,- Gentlemen, you are not Christians; you deny the essentials of truth; I cannot walk with you. With what grace, then, can he accuse those of abridging Christian liberty and of denying the right of private judgment, who say,—“Mr. Parker, you are not a Christian, because you do not receive the essentials of truth; you reject the revelation God has given us; and if this is rejected, we have no guide to duty, no standard of righteousness, no foundation on which to build a hope for the future. We must cling, therefore, to the revelation of God, even though we have to withhold from you the Christian name.”

THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY.

BY REV. E. G. BROOKS.

A FORMER volume of this work contains a brief article from the writer upon "THE PULPIT AND THE PEOPLE." Adopting the importance of the Pulpit as its basis, its chief design was to show the responsibilities of the People in reference to it, and that with them it almost wholly rests to manifest its real effectiveness and power. We desire, in this article, to take up this same idea of the importance of the Pulpit, for the purpose of presenting it more fully, and of saying some things, which before we were not able to say, concerning the claims, and what we believe should be the character, of the Christian Ministry.

We confess ourselves, in the outset, so old-fashioned as to regard the Christian Ministry as a divinely appointed institution, and as having claims to our respect and support, on this account, which are not to be lightly esteemed,—all those claims which any institution can derive from the divine sanction and appointment. Christ was the first minister of the gospel in its fulness, and we trace back the Christian ministry to him just as directly and clearly as we trace back

the gospel itself to him. When he had entered upon the great work of his life as God's messenger, he called around him those whom he designed to make teachers and apostles, that he might prepare and discipline them for the high trust they were to receive; and when, his work on earth accomplished, he was about ascending to his Father, he committed the ministry of his truth into their hands, saying, “Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature." The Christian ministry was thus established,-established for the promulgation of the gospel by the same authority by which the gospel itself was given as a religion for man. So long, then, as we regard the gospel taught by Christ as a divine religion, so long we must regard the ministry established by him as a divine appointment, having the same claims upon our support as the gospel has upon our confidence.

The ministry, it is true, is liable to err. It may be, and sometimes is, perverted, and, through the mistakes and unfaithfulness of those who stand in it, evil influences may sometimes go out from it. But what then? What good thing may not be perverted, and result, sometimes, in evil? To argue from the perversion and abuses of the ministry, or from the unfaithfulness of those who occupy it, against the ministry itself and for its abolishment, is,-adopting the principle of argumentation as correct, to argue that because the heat of the sun sometimes burns and withers, or may be abused, it is better to have no sun;—that because water sometimes deluges and drowns, or may be applied to evil purposes, it is better that there should be no water ;that because the gospel is perverted and misunderstood, and is made, sometimes, the occasion of dispute and bloodshed, the gospel itself should be blotted forever from the record of God's truth, and the soul and the world be utterly deprived of its divine unfoldings! The ministry, like all appointments, like all principles, is to be regarded, not in the light of individual cases, which may be exceptions, but in its general relations and influences. And thus regarded, it will commend itself to every intelligent and candid mind, as an instrumentality of mighty and incalculable influence for good in the world. Blot out,-if such a thing were possible,blot out from the present all that the ministry,-unfaithful, pedantic, ignorant, inefficient, corrupt, as it has sometimes been, has accomplished, and all that it has contributed to the great sum of human progress; let all the influences that have gone out from it to enlighten, to exalt, and to purify,

be as if they had not been,-and what of the present condition and attainments of the christianized world would remain? Christ was a minister, the greatest, the only truly divine of all ministers. Paul, and Peter, and John were ministers. And Luther, and Knox, and Fenelon, and Oberlin, and Murray, and Channing,-were they not all ministers, and was not the ministry the position from which they influenced society and the world? Blot out, then, all that these, and the host of others who have labored with them, have done to make the world in knowledge and in virtue what it is, and how much of what we now see of these things would be left ? Or, take the present; let the ministry cease, and the voice of the pulpit on all those great themes which are presented for its discussion be hushed,—and how much of what is now being done to elevate and purify our race would continue to operate ? Alas! how many influences, contributing now to human progress, would be utterly cut off! The importance of the ministry, in this respect, is, probably, not sufficiently estimated by any of us. We are too prone to look for striking, immediate results. Such results are rarely witnessed. The work accomplished is rather a continual diffusion through our communities of an influence unseen, but effectual, keeping alive the religious sentiment, and nourishing and strengthening the moral feelings and the sense of accountability among the people. Hence, doubtless, in the absence of striking results, very many come to regard the ministry rather as an established custom, which it may be very well to observe, than as the means of any really important practical good, -as a source of moral influence absolutely indispensable to the true welfare and highest interests of society. Let it be abolished, however, and such would soon see, in the disastrous results that would follow, how necessary it is, as a conservative power and a means of progress, to the individual and social interests of the now-called Christian world.

The foregoing remarks show somewhat of the claims: which the ministry has to be sustained and supported. In exhibiting these claims, they serve also to show how impor-tant it is that every one, who stands before the people in the: ministry, should seek to be true to its responsibilities, and to fulfil its mission faithfully as far as it is in his power to do it.. It is a great thing to be a true and faithful minister of Jesus: Christ. He who is so, and receives the plaudit, "Well done, good and faithful servant," has a crown of higher glory than the greatest monarch of earth, or the conqueror

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of a thousand worlds. Let us notice, briefly, some of the most prominent of those characteristics of a true ministry, which every minister, in order to be useful to his people and accepted of God, must strive to exhibit.

1. It must be a Christian ministry. In this general proposition we embrace, particularly, two ideas. First, it must be a ministry recognizing Christ and the Bible as its infallible authority and guides, and basing, therefore, its arguments, instructions and appeals upon them as such. In these boasted days of progress, Christ and the Bible have, in the estimation of some, become antiquated and behind the age. Their work was in the Past, it is thought. They did very well for those olden times, but the world is outgrowing,has outgrown them now. Christ was a very good man, but not perfect, and we may look for other Christs who will be more perfect; nay, we ourselves may become Christs. The Bible is a very good book, and contains a great many good and true things; but it is not particularly inspired, and it has no more authority than any other book that may unfold truth. Christianity is a very good religion; but, after all, the soul and its consciousness are above it, and may perceive higher truths than it reveals, and constitute a source of higher appeal. These are some of the ideas, which, in the mental fermentations and unrestrained speculations and discussions of the present day, have appeared around us. As the consequence, there are those abroad disposed to make the ministry something, baptized still in the hallowed name of Christ, it is true, but really acknowledging no more allegiance to him than to any distinguished worthy or sage, and recognizing in him and in the Bible no more infallible authority than in any good man, or in any book that may declare the truth. With such a ministry, we feel compelled to say, we can have no sympathy, and, whatever it may be called, we cannot regard it, in any sense, as truly Christian. In order that one may be a Christian, it is not enough, in our estimation, that he believe that such a person as Christ existed, that he was a good man, and that he uttered some good and true things. Voltaire, Thomas Paine, the grossest unbeliever himself, acknowledges all this, and they, surely, are not Christians. Neither is it enough to constitute one a believer in the Bible, to be willing to allow that it teaches some truth and many good things. We remember to have read once of an open declaimer against the Bible, who was found teaching his child from it, and who, when asked his reason for such a

course, said he could nowhere find such excellent moral precepts and instructions as it afforded. And yet, certainly, he did not, in any right or true sense, accept or believe in the Bible. In order to such an acceptance, the Bible must be received as specially enforced by the Divine sanction, as having an authority for, and claims upon, us, such as no book of mere human production can have, and as an infallible guide in all matters of religious faith and practice. And so, in order that one may be a Christian, it is necessary to believe in Christ as he represented himself,—as the peculiar and especial messenger of God, clothed in his authority, to make a perfect revelation of truth and duty,—which revelation has a higher authority than all human reason, and all that may be dignified as human consciousness. If anything less than this may constitute a Christian, some of the boldest unbelievers that have ever lived may properly lay claim to the name. In such an acceptance of the Bible, then, in such a faith in Christ, we hold the ministry should be Christian, and only as it is based on these can it be truly so.

In another sense, too, it must be Christian. Based on Christian ideas, it must labor to present and enforce Christian doctrines and principles; it must deal much and largely in Christian teachings and promises, exhortations, warnings, and duties. There is a tendency, at the present time, to some extent and in some quarters, to lose sight of this as a characteristic of the gospel ministry, and to have it derive its character from its philosophical discussions, its moral essays, and its treatises upon science and art, rather than from the enforcement of the spirit and power of Christianity, as found in its doctrines and its divine unfoldings of truth and duty. This, we believe, is wrong. The ministry belongs to Christ and to his truth. It was appointed for his defence and its promulgation, and neither he nor it should be slighted or forgotten in it. It should be Christian, distinctly, constantly, eminently Christian, presenting God, and Christ, and religion, and all divine things, broadly and faithfully as the Bible and the gospel present them to the understanding and the conscience, making these its great themes and dwelling most upon them. At the same time,

2. It should be Comprehensive. That is, it should find its themes and its occasions for discourse, its illustrations and its motives not only in the Bible, but in the world, in history, in all unfoldings of truth,-wherever anything is afforded to instruct, or to kindle the aspirations of the heart after divine and heavenly things. We have no