fciculty of your souls be wholly and exclusively devoted to your God.
Yet one thing more I beg you to " consider ;" and that is, Jlotv rich is the recompence that awaits you. Look at the hus- bandman toiling at his work in the midst of winter ; what a hopeless task does he, in appearance, perform ! but look at his fields in the time of harvest, and you will say he is richly compensated. Thus will a minister find all his labours and sufferings abundantly repaid, when he shall bring before his Lord " those whom he has begotten by the Gospel ;" saying, " Here am I, and the children thou hast given me." And how richly will every Christian be recompensed, when he shall hear, from the lips of his adored Lord, those glorious words, " Come, ye blessed children of my Father ! inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world." Go, survey the glory and blessedness of heaven ; and then say, my brethren, whether any thing can be too much for us either to do or suffer, in the prospect of such a recompence. Would you but consider these things as you ought, you would think that all the labours of the most devoted soldier, all the exer- tions of the most strenuous wrestler, and all the patience of the most laborious husbandman, are but faint representations of what may well be required at your hands.]
2, Seek of God an experimental acquaintance with them —
[Truly it is God alone that can bring you to such a state as this. He alone can enable you to discern even the necessity of it, and much less its excellency. The unenlightened man would account such a life as this " foolishness;" and a person aspiring after it would be condemned as a weak enthusiast, that was " righteous over much." To long for it, as the per- fection of your nature, and as a heaven upon earth, is a feeling which no man on earth can possess, till he is born again, and renewed in the spirit of his mind by the Spiiit of the living God. It is altogether a new creation in the soul of man.
Moreover, God alone can guide you in such a path as this. Whether a person be a minister or a private Christian, he shall find, that, in this high and heavenly course, there are situations wherein no human wisdom could guide him aright. There is a film over the eyes of man which obstructs his sight, and a bias in his heart that perverts his judgment. Never, till God has opened the eyes of our imderstanding, shall we see our way. When God has given us " a single eye, our whole body will be full of light;" but till then, " the light that is in us will be all darkness." See the situations and circumstances to which St. Paul was often reduced ; and think how an unen- lightened man would have acteJ in his place: and you will