wlio are suffering, — to diminish sorrow, — and to increase joy. His life is meant to be one of " giving/' rather than receiving. /^
This is a high standard, and a very peculiar one. Let it be well weighed, and carefully examined. It is plain, for one thing, that the life of a faithful minister of Christ cannot be one of ease. He must bo ready to spend body and mind, time and strength, in the work of His calling. Laziness and frivolity are bad enough in any profession, but worst of all in that of a watchman for souls. — It is plain, for another thing, that the j^osition of the ministers of Christ is not that which ignorant people sometimes ascribe to them, and which they unhappily sometimes claim for themselves. They are not so much ordained to rule as to serve. They are not intended so much to have dominion over the Church, as to supply its wants, and wait upon its members. (2 Cor. i. 24.) Happy would it be for the cause of true religion, if these things were better understood ! Half the diseases of Chris- tianity have arisen from mistaken notions about the minister's office.
We are taught, in the last j)lace, that it is a most dangerous thing to neglect the offers of the Gosjpel. It shall prove " more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Go- morrha" in the judgment day, than for those who have heard Christ's truth, and not received it.
This is a doctrine fearfully overlooked, and one that deserves serious consideration. Men are sadly apt to forget, that it does not require great open sins to be sinned, in order to ruin a soul for ever. They have only to go on hearing without believing, listening without repenting,