" everlasting burnings ! " If we laboured throughout our whole lives, and succeeded but in one instance to accomplish our desire, how richly should we be recompensed ! What if the great mass of those whose welfare we had sought, had derided us as weak enthusiasts ? the thought of saving one soul from everlasting perdition would compensate all the obloquy that ever could be cast upon us. The truth is, we can form no idea what it must be to spend eternity in weeping and wailing and gnashing our teeth in the regions of despair, and under the wrath of an offended God. But, if we could form any conception of it, we should need no other inducement to labour day and night in endeavours to guide men into the way of truth, and to save their souls alive.]
2. We shall hide a multitude of sins —
[Who can ever count the sins of an unconverted soul ? Yet shall they all be hidden, hidden from the sight of Almighty God, " out of the book of whose remembrance they shall be blotted," and from before whose face they shall pass away " as a morning cloud :" yea, God himself will " cast them behind his back into the very depths of the sea," and " will remember them against the sinner no more." Hear the declaration of God upon this subject : " The iniquity of Israel shall be sought for, and there shall be none ; and the sins of Judah, and they shall not be found : for 1 will pardon them whom I reserve b." Now consider this : consider an immortal soul laden with iniquities more numerous and weighty than the sands upon the sea-shore ; and liberated from its burthen through your offices of love ! Methinks, the most distant hope of conferring such a benefit is enough to turn you all into heralds and am- bassadors of the Most High God. Yet let me not be misun- derstood. It is not to the office of public instructors that I would call you ; for that should be undertaken by none but those who are called to it by God himself: but to the office of private instructors, I would invite you ; and would urge you with all importunity to engage in it: for it is not of ministers that the Apostle speaks in my text, but of private Christians; every one of whom he encourages to engage in this labour of love, saying, " Let him know, whoever he be that converts a sinner from the error of his ways, let him know, that he saves a soul from death, and hides a multitude of sins."]
See then, beloved,
1 . What is the true end of the ministry —
[The whole world is out of course : all are erring from the fold of Christ, and wandering like sheep that know not
b Jer. 1. 20.