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OBSERVATIONS ON THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY. 225

Give strength the evil to forsake,

The cross of Truth to bear,
And love and reverent fear to make

Our daily lives a prayer!

J. G. WHITTIER.

Observations on the Christian Ministry.

I CONCEIVE that the Christian Church at large is much indebted to George Fox and his brethren, for the bold, clear, and steadfast manner in which they maintained the doctrines of universal and saving Light. Happily they are held by a large and very increasing proportion of Christian believers. The late William Wilberforce, so well known as an evangelical member of the Church of England, emphatically expressed to me, on two occasions, his full conviction that an effective offer of salvation is made to "every man born into the world :" and how can such an offer be made, except by a visitation of the Holy Spirit?

Little as I am inclined to cast any blame upon others who are evidently accepted and assisted by their "own Master," I conceive it to be a duty, plainly laid upon the Society of Friends, to hold up a still higher and purer standard respecting the Christian ministry. It is a principle generally understood and admitted by the members of that Society, that the faculty of the Christian ministry is a gift of the Spirit, which cannot be rightly exercised otherwise than under the direct and immediate influence of that Spirit. Friends are not, therefore, satisfied with any general impression, that it is their duty to preach the Gospel nor do they venture, under such impression, either

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OBSERVATIONS ON THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY.

to employ their own intellectual exertions as a preparation for the service, or to select their own time for performing it. If it be the divine will that they should minister, they believe it will be manifested to them, by the divine Spirit, when they are to speak, whom they are to address, and what things they are to express. In the exercise of so high and sacred a function, they dare not depend, either in a greater or less degree, upon their own strength or wisdom; but they feel constrained to place their sole reliance upon Him who "searcheth the reins and the hearts;" upon Him who "hath the key of David;" who "openeth and no man shutteth, and shutteth and no man openeth." The use of the Christian ministry, whether in preaching or in prayer, whether in the public congregation, or even in the more private circle,-is immediately connected with the worship of God. It is universally understood to constitute a part of that worship. The sentiments of Friends, therefore, on this subject, like those on the rites of baptism and the supper, arise out of that part of the divine law as revealed under the New Covenant, which declares that God is a Spirit, and must be worshipped, by his followers, in spirit and in truth.

According to our apprehension, the hiring of preachers degrades the character, and corrupts the practical operation of the ministry of the Gospel. It is evident that such a system. is closely connected with the notion, that the preacher may exersise his high functions on the authority, and according to the pleasure of man: and, in practice, it obviously tends, in a very injurious manner, to confirm and establish that notion. Were it true that the ministry of the Gospel is properly the work of man, requiring no other sanction than his appointment, and no other forces than his exertions, no objection whatever, could be made to such a method of proceeding. In that case, it would arise out of those fundamental laws of justice, which ought ever to regulate transactions between man and man.

OBSERVATIONS ON THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY. 227

But, no sooner is the opposite principle allowed-no sooner is it admitted that the ministry of the Gospel is the work of the Lord that it can be rightly exercised only in virtue of his appointment, and only through the effusions of his Spirit and that man has no power to command, and no authority to restrain, the influence which leads into such a service-no sooner are these things understood and allowed, then the compact which binds the minister to preach, on the condition that his hearers shall pay him for his preaching, assumes the character of absolute inconsistency with the spirituality of the Christian religion. "Though I preach the Gospel," says the apostle Paul, "I have nothing to glory of: for necessity is laid upon me, yea, woe is unto me if I preach not the Gospel! For if I do this thing willingly I have a reward: but, if against my will, a dispensation of the Gospel is commited unto me.”

Such being the sentiments of Friends respecting the direct spirituality and perfect freedom of the ministry of the Gospel, it evidently becomes their duty, in a plain and consistent manner, to uphold those sentiments in their practice. Not only, therefore, do they refuse to pay or hire their own ministers, but they also decline making any contributions to the paying or hiring of ministers of other denominations. Did they act otherwise, they might justly be deemed unfaithful to the light bestowed upon them, and they would, in fact, be subverting with one hand, the edifice which they are professing to erect with the other.

It appears, then, that the allowance of the public preaching and praying of women, in the Society of Friends, necessarily results from their principles respecting the character of all true ministers that we dare not, in this respect more than any other limit the Holy One of Israel in the exercise of his own prerogatives-that our practice, in reference to the present subject, is justified by the records of Scripture, respecting the effusions of the Spirit of God in times of old-that, even under the

228 OBSERVATIONS ON THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY.

legal dispensation, many female servants of the Lord were called to the exercise of prophetical gifts-that, of the Gospel times, the common participation of those gifts by men and woman, was one decisive mark—and that the injunctions of the apostle Paul, against the public speaking and teaching of women, can only be understood (himself being witness) of speaking and teaching which were not inspired-which were not prophesying. J. J. GURNEY.

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THERE is no need of smiting a rock in the wilderness, to supply the thirst of the heart. So far as outward things are concerned, no spring-floods of good fortune are necessary for the purpose if the mind is kept in action, and the affections unchilled by selfishness, every day of life may be a festival of gladness, because, when the power of enjoyment is kept in order, the means of enjoyment are never wanting. The great truth that happiness depends on what we are and not what we have that when the spirit is kept in tune, the harmonies of nature and of life will always be listened to with delight that, to be at peace with ourselves, with others and with God, brings out those full organ tones of glory and love on which the soul floats as on the ocean, upborne from all things unworthy, and brought continually nearer to the skies.

Ar a banquet, an ambassador desired the wise men to deliver, every one of them, some sentence or parable which he might report to his King; one was silent, which the ambassador perceiving remarked. The wise man replied " report to your king that there is one that can hold his peace."

66

BARON'S APOTHEGMS.

The Wish of Co-Day.

I ASK not now for gold to gild
With mocking shine a weary frame,
The yearning of the mind is stilled-
I ask not now for Fame.

A rose-cloud, dimly seen above,

Melting in heaven's blue depths away— Oh! sweet, fond dream of human Love! For thee I may not pray.

But bowed in lowliness of mind,

I make my humble wishes known

I only ask a will resigned,

Oh, Father, to thine own!

To-day, beneath thy chastening eye,
I crave alone for peace and rest,
Submissive in thy hand to lie,
And feel that it is best.

A marvel seems the Universe,
A miracle our Life and Death;
A mystery which I cannot pierce,
Around, above, beneath.

In vain I task my aching brain,

In vain the sage's thought I scan;

I only feel how weak and vain,
How poor and blind, is man.

And now my spirit sighs for home,
And longs for light whereby to see,

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