duty of ministers is portrayed ; I mean that of a mother, nursing her infant offspring d. St. Paul, declaring his anxiety for the welfare of his converts, compares his feelings with the pangs of a woman in child-birth6; and his delight in them, with that of a mother cherishing in her bosom her new-born infant. The language in our text is exquisitely beautiful and touching. The nurse spoken of, is not an alien, but a nursing-mother : it is not in her arms only, but in her bosom, that she cherishes the child. In all her treatment of it, she is not harsh, as one that is soon wearied in performing offices of love ; but gentle. If absent from her infant for a few hours only, she is most affectionately desirous of it, and delights to draw forth to it the breast, even though it be with great pain and inconvenience to herself; and she would impart to it, as it were, her vital strength, yea, her very soul : and all this she does to it because of the tender affection which she bears towards it. The whole creation does not afford a sublimer image than this ; yet this fitly represents the conduct of St. Paul towards the Church of Christ, and conse- quently, the conduct of every faithful minister, in proportion as he resembles St. Paul.
Mark then, under this image, the habits of the faithful minister ;
1. His tender affection —
[St. Paul's concern for his converts was never surpassed by that of any mother for her children. If there was the least reason to fear that any temptation had operated to the injury of their souls, he had no rest in his spirit, till he had ascer- tained their real state ; and, if he received a favourable account of them, then every trial was easy, and every affliction light f. Thus it is also with every servant of the Lord Jesus. " If any man care not for his sheep, he is an hireling," and unworthy of the name of a minister of Christ. The true shepherd will, I had almost said, " lay down his life for the sheep." Well he knows that nothing but the Gospel, faith- fully administered, can benefit their souls : and this he is willing to impart to them to the utmost of his power, as the remedy for all their diseases, and as a supply for all their
d Isai. lxvi. 10—13. e Gal. iv. 19. '1 Thess. iii. 5—8.