most gorgeous tints. This is the season when the trees of the forest are clothed with their glory, and all nature seems to have put on her holiday attire. We grow more in love than ever with the external world, and reluctant to allow the thought to bring a shade of melancholy over our musings, that all this glory must speedily vanish, and in a few days become the sport of the east wind. There are lessons derivable from these autumn leaves of purple and gold. They furnish one illustration of the counsel of the Divine Teacher, "Judge not according to the outward appearance, but judge righteous judgment." A little science will explain to us the occasion of this autumnal glory, and experience whispers to us, as we gaze with delight on the lovely picture-"These are the certain indications of early decay." You may have marked on the cheek of a beloved friend a brighter red, all the more beautiful to your eye because it shaded off into the purer white of that amiable countenance. This is beauty, but is it health? Judge not according to the outward appearance. That cheek, like the autumn leaf, reads a valuable lesson to those who can rightly interpret these beautiful signs. "We all do fade as a leaf." The bright vermilion, bordered with almost snowy whiteness, may deceive the inexperienced; but it is only the hectic flush-the evidence of an inward consuming fire-burning up the vitals, and drinking up the fountains of existence. Frail leaves in your extinction is shown An emblem too sure and too sad of our own; The summons that tells us to fall like the leaf.) But there are trees whose leaves fade not. They retain their verdure at all seasons. They arrest our attention by the contrast which they present to the naked branches of surrounding trees, and though not so showy as the painted foliage of the autumn, they have in them the element of permanence-a principle which resists those outward influences which pleased us with what seemed beauty, but which secretly and silently wrought destruction. In the visible church, there are a few who are the evergreens. These are the trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, whose grace faileth never. For a season they were surrounded with trees of foliage as fresh, but that foliage has withered, and has disappeared. Thus it is that showy profession becomes dead formalism, contrasting now more strikingly than ever with living and abiding piety. And what do the glories of the forest glade symbolize when contrasted with the evergreens? They are a showy ritualism, feeding the eye but starving the soul. They are cloths of gold covering the branches, the painted windows, and the priest's vestments, the religion of the outward man, instead of the adornments of a soul clothed with heavenly grace. Let us turn again to our Lord's lesson. We cannot read it too often, nor are we likely soon to fail in finding occasion for the practical application of it-"Judge not according to the outward appearance, but judge righteous judgment." The harvest may suggest pleasing reflections; but a devout mind learning lessons from it, reads others which are painful. As in the natural world, so in the moral world, there is work to be done, and which ought to be done at the appointed season. If the opportunity is lost, it cannot be recalled. We cannot bring yesterday back again."If the sluggard will not plough by reason of the cold, therefore shall he beg in harvest, and have nothing." There is a time for everything, but everything should be done in its time. There is a time for sowing seed in the field, which, if neglected, is irrecoverably lost. There is a time for planting grace in the soul, which, if neglected, roots of bitterness will be sure to spring up plenteously. There is a time for storing up the fruits of the earth, every hour of which is invaluable to the husbandman; so there is a time for laying up treasure in heaven-laying up in store against the time to come-that we may lay hold on eternal life; but if the season is neglected, the reflection will one day roll in on the soul like an overwhelming flood; "the harvest is past, the summer is ended, but we are not saved." It is wisdom in the husbandman to improve the proper seasons for making provision for the life that now is; and it is worse than folly for any man to neglect making provision for the life which is to come. "Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goest." Boast not thyself of to-morrow. Now is the accepted time, now is the day of salvation. If the sickle should now be sent forth to reap the harvest of the earth, better to fall before it as a shock of corn which is ripe and ready for the garner, than as a bundle of tares, fit only to be cast into the fire. ADDRESS DELIVERED BY THE REV. WALTER M'LAY TO THE REV. JAMES MARTIN, AT HIS ORDINATION AS A MISSIONARY TO JAMAICA, IN THE EAST UNITED PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, STRATHAVEN, ON TUESDAY, AUGUST 29, 1854. MY ESTEEMED YOUNG FRIEND, AND DEARLY BELOVED BROTHER, You have now been solemnly set apart to the office of the holy ministry by prayer, and the laying on of the hands of the presbytery, and most affectionately and earnestly I bid you God speed. My anxious wish, my fervent prayer for you is, that you may be long spared to be a faithful, able, and successful minister of the New Testament, that the Great Head of the Church would bless you, and make you eminently a blessing. My honoured fathers and respected brethren of the Presbytery have appointed me to address you on this interesting and exciting occasion, and you will believe me when I say, that I never have been ap it not been for the close relation you bear to this Church, and the deep interest which you and your kindred have ever taken in its prosperity, had it not been that I look upon you as my "son in the faith," I would most certainly have declined the honourable, but difficult and responsible position which I this day occupy. But these and other considerations weighed with me SO strongly, that I could not but consent to the appointment; and though I feel myself very inadequate to the task, I proceed to its fulfilment, in the hope that you will bear with me in what is advanced, and that the Holy Spirit will accompany, with a salutary influence, the counsels I purpose to address to you. Had it pleased your Lord and Master to give you a portion of the home vineyard to cultivate, had you been appointed to minister in a congregation here, I would have considered it my duty to bring prominently before you the necessity of personal piety-that this is the first and indispensable qualification in a Christian minister, that whatever be his intellectual gifts or literary attainments, whatever be his genius or eloquence, if the love of Christ be not shed abroad in his heart, he is perfectly unfitted to minister at God's altar, to take the oversight of souls. All other qualifications apart from this, let me say, are but as sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal; the man with all his powers and all his profession, is but a whited sepulchre, beautiful outwards, but within full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness. I would likewise, my young friend, have considered it my duty to urge upon you the fact, that to fulfil aright the office of the Christian ministry, a holy example and a blameless conversation are essentially necessary, and that wherever these are awanting, wherever there is inconsistency of conduct, wherever there is the abuse of seriousness, a man cannot expect to be useful or acceptable. Indeed, I go farther, and say his appointment is hurtful, very hurtful, to the interests of the church of Jesus; for his imprudences and irregularities give a keener edge to the weapons of the infidel and scoffer, and lead them to denounce the religion of the Saviour as nothing but hypocrisy and priestcraft. Yes, though such a man be clothed in the livery of heaven, the devil is the leader he follows, and the master he serves. Though seemingly the messenger of peace, he is the serpent with the angel's voice; and instead of guiding souls to Christ and preparing them for heaven, he "strews the path which leads to hell with tempting flowers, and in the ear of sinners, as they take the way of death, he whispers peace." I would likewise have deemed it proper to address you as to the subject matter of your preaching, to press upon you the fact that, whilst you are to "declare the whole counsel of God," whilst you are to proclaim to sinners all the doctrines and duties, all the promises and threatenings of the gospel, Christ crucified is to be the burden of your song, the alpha and omega of all your discourses. And I would have urged upon you, further, the necessity of diligent study, of careful preparation for your pulpit services, for you are to be "a wise householder," bringing out of your treasures things new and old; you are to "feed the flock with knowledge and understanding," and without constant study, without a gathering proportionate to the expenditure, without diligence in laying up a store for yourself, you will not be able to give them sufficient nourishment and support. And I would likewise have considered myself bound to advert to other duties, such as the visitation of the sick and the dying, and the instruction, the religious instruction, the godly upbringing of the youthful members of your charge. But, my dear brother, on reflection, I thought it proper to give a different tone and turn to my remarks this daynot that these qualifications are not as necessary for a minister in Jamaica as for a minister in Scotland-not that the duties referred to are not as obligatory on you there, as they would be if settled here-but because it occurred to me in the prospect of leaving home, and parents, and friends, perhaps never again to return, in the prospect of facing toil and difficulty and danger, what you more especially needed at this time was a word of comfort and encouragement. Be encouraged, then, my dear young friend, to go forth to your appointed sphere of labour, when you consider the DIGNITY OF YOUR COMMISSION. Your commission is not from this presbytery, or from the mission board of that church to which we have the honour to belong. It is true, that after solemn and prayerful deliberation we have declared our satisfaction with your gifts and graces, to exercise the functions of the holy ministry; and we have this day as a court of Christ, set our seal to your call as a missionary to the "heathen." But you have a higher commission than can be granted by any council of presbyters, however honoured, or however influential. Believing, as I do, that you are a holy man, a "man of God," and that love to Christ and his cause were the great motives and inducements which led you, at a very early period of your academical course, to resolve on this step, believing this, I would remind you, for your support and consolation at this interesting but trying season, that you leave us commissioned by the "Prince of peace," the "Prince of life," by him who has "all power in heaven and on earth," and who has on his vesture and on his thigh a name written King of kings, and Lord of lords. Yes, my dear Sir, this is the distinguished, the Divine personage on whose mission you are now sent. You are the ambassador of the Lord of Hosts; and this, let me say, is the highest and most honourable office which any man can hold. So high and so honourable is it, that angels may covet it, yea, the "highest seraph that adores and burns" would be honoured by the appointment. I admit that to the eye of sense, to the men of the world, there is nothing that is either dazzling or dignified in your present appointment. I admit, and I grieve at making the admission, that even in the estimation of some professing Christians, the office of a minister or a missionary is regarded as a very paltry one, as one intended only for persons of meagre attainments, and of ignoble birth. I admit that you are going forth on an embassy which will secure for you no temporal crown: that after you have laboured to the ut most of your strength, after you have borne the heat and burden of the day, you have no hope of being rewarded either with worldly riches or worldly applause. Of all this I know you are perfectly aware, for you counted the cost ere you resolved to be a missionary of the cross, to "preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ." But though this be the estimate which the world forms of your office and your appointment, and though it will bring you neither wealth nor worldly reputation, still, I assure you, all other offices and distinctions dwindle into meanness, yea, utterly vanish, before that noble, glorious, god-like calling to which you have this day been separated and set apart. You go, charged with a commission, the magnitude of which surmounts and surpasses every other, as far as heaven surpasses earth, or eternity time. You go, charged with a commission, whose results shall endure when the negotiations of human governments are all forgotten, and earthly dynasties have declined and been driven to pieces. You go, charged with a commission, the consequences of which will not be fully known till the great day declare, and the glorious results of which will form for you and others, grounds for praise and rejoicing throughout eternity. O, then, let the reflection that you are the servant, the chosen servant, of the Son of God, that you are appointed to negotiate the most important of all transactions; that to you has been committed the "ministry of reconciliation," let this support you and solace you, now when you must doubtless feel burdened, as you anticipate the future, and let it sustain and succour you, when you reach the place of your destination, and enter on the duties of your arduous and anxious occupation. Again, be encouraged to go out to Jamaica when you consider the OBJECT OF YOUR MISSION. The object contemplated by the "sender," and which it will be your aim to accomplish, is "to turn men from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God." You go forth on the godlike errand of attempting to "seek and to save that which was lost." You go forth to Christianize the sable sons of downtrodden Africa, trodden down by Britons-for at no distant period we held them in slavery-ay, and in their bones, and sinews, and blood, we long, and shamefully, and sinfully trafficked. You go forth to "open the eyes of their understanding," to tell them the way of salvation, to proclaim liberty to the captives, to break their spiritual fetters, to bring them to the knowledge of the truth; and "He is the freeman whom the truth makes free, and all are slaves beside." You go to water the churches which are already planted, to comfort and edify the "saints, the faithful in Christ Jesus," and to build up and enlarge the household of God. These are the grand objects of your mission, and these will surely encourage you. knowledge that the trust is momentous, that the responsibility is weighty, that the office is important, that its trials are many, and that its difficulties and discouragements are neither few nor small. I acknowledge that, looking at the ministry in these and similar points of view, every right-thinking mind must feel constrained to exclaim with the apostle, "Who is sufficient for these things?" But after having made all these acknowledgments, I must again remind you that the object of your mission is greatly calculated to sustain and animate you. You are a "fellow-labourer with God." You are labouring for the best of causes. You are a watchman placed on Sion's towers to blow the trumpet, and warn sinners of their danger; a herald to point out I ac the way of escape and the place of safety. You are the negotiator of peace between God and man, set apart to train the citizen of earth for the higher and nobler citizenship of heaven. And, my dear young friend, should not this encourage you? If you are the means, in the hands of the blessed Spirit, of enlightening one of that black population, if you are the instrument of bringing one soul to Christ, will not this be a sufficient reward for all the self-denial and sacrifice made in leav ing the home of your fathers and the land of your birth? If you are the means of opening one of the closed eyes of the negro race, of making a single bondsman the "Lord's freeman," of strengthening the faith and stimulating the graces of those who have tasted that the Lord is gracious, will not this be more than a recompense for all the trials you may have already experienced, or may yet endure? Assuredly it will be so. O, then, my dear brother, let the thought of being the humble instrument of "converting a sinner from the error of his ways, and saving a soul from death," let this animate you, strengthen you, for the work that is before you, for O! what a mighty achievement is the salvation of a soul. "Knowest thou the value of a soul immortal? Behold this midnight glory. Worlds on worlds Amazing pomp-redouble this amaze- more Then weigh the whole-one soul outweighs them all." And Be encouraged to go to Jamaica, because HE ON WHOSE MISSION YOU ARE SENT GOES WITH YOU. When your Lord and Master commanded the apostles "to go and teach all nations," to preach the gospel to every creature, he added the promise, "Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world." this promise given to the apostles, and in their case so remarkably fulfilled, is still given, and is still made good in the experience of every devoted missionary of the cross. He is "always with you.' Always with you, dear young friend; with you to qualify you for the work to which he has now called you, to sustain you in the season of weakness, and succour you in the season of temptation; with you to direct you in perplexity, and to comfort and cheer you amid your sorrows and your difficulties; with you always, by night and by day, on land and on sea; with you amid the various scenes and circumstances in which you must necessarily mingle in the country to which you are going; with you during the whole of your mis |