sponsibility can say, "I take you to record this day, "that I am pure from the blood of all men. For I "have not shunned to declare unto you all the coun"sel of God."* Temptations to the contrary are numerons and powerful: terrible to themselves and others is failure. "This is one means of filling hell, a loathness to displease; and it is a hard condition, "that the necessity of our calling compels us in some "cases, to run upon the pikes of displeasure."t 2. He who trasheth, intends, and hopes to succeed, in separating the grain from the husk; and he does succeed. So shall the word of God be, which proceeded from his mouth, for it is sharp and powerful; by it, character is detected and displayed. After our Lord had urged the necessity of self-denial; from that time many walked no more with him-they were offended at his doctrine; while his genuine followers became by the same means more confirmed in their attachment, and renewed their allegiance to their chosen sovereign. With this success the word is now honored; in the hearts of individuals, conviction is wrought; the siner is separated from his sins, he loathes them and says, "What have I any more to do with idols? Turn thou me and I shall be turned." *Acts, xx. 26, 27. + Bp. Hall's Contemp. In our domestic circles, the froward person and he that worketh deceit, will not tarry long in the house where he is daily thrashed, nay, hewed by the word of God; when he supposes that day unto day, and night unto night in devotions of the family-his sins, unknown indeed to his earthly employer, are set in order before him, and even placed, as he imagines, in the view of his fellowservants—he is either reformed, or rushes heedlessly from the means of succour into ruin. Finally, this is seen in our churches, for weeds and wheat are often gathered into the same barn; bad and good fishes are comprehended in one net; but by the exercise of a salutary discipline, or by testimony, the true thrashing instrument used by God's appointment, borne against their evil ways, either their opinions are changed or their persons expelled. Thus must ministers act; this is their warrant: “ 0 my thrashing, and the corm of my floor : that "which I have heard of the Lord of hosts, the God "of Israel, have I declared unto you."† Labors for the spiritual good of others, must be discriminating, to be successful; each must receive his portion of meat or medicine, as the case may require, in due season. 3. Does not the toil of the thrasher receive a remarkable and instructive commendation, in the removal of the chaff when the corn is winnowed? He hopes that he shall so thrash as that the subsequent process of the fan shall thoroughly purge the floor. Awful confirination to what is now spoken in God's name, will occur when He shall return and discover between the righteous and the wicked; between him who serveth God, and him who serveth him not. It is to be feared that many forget whose message is delivered to sinners, by the preachers of the gospel. Dreading to arrogate undue importance to themselves, especially in this day when the office of the ministry has been aspersed, and the attempt made to annihilate that standing institution of the Great head of the church; in this day, when the temper and the tongue of Korah and his companions are again perceived, and their remonstrance is often heard, "Ye take too much upon you:" in this day, when efforts are made to level every distinction, all who are like Moses, and who sincerely wish all the Lord's people were prophets : such preachers, and at such a time, fear misapprehension when they enforce attention to their message, by affirming in words, by which nevertheless all must be judged at the last day. "He that heareth you, heareth me; ❝ and he that despiseth you despiseth me; and he "that despiseth me, despiseth him that sent me."* But terrible will be the sanction that God the Judge of all will give to every rejected message; the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous; they are like the chaff which the wind driveth away; yes, because they set at nought all God's counsel, and would have none of his reproof, he also will laugh at their calamity, and mock when their fear cometh, when their destruction cometh as a whirlwind. 4. The termination of ministerial toil, is suggested by this metaphor; when the husks and chaff are separated from the grain the husbandman thrashes it no longer. In their present state, their pleasant privilege is to cease from repeating the terro s of the Lord, and to comfort those that mourn. Boanerges and Barnabas, the sons of Thunder and Consolation, were united in their mission; in the order in which they were enumerated, we have a model for imitation. Happy indeed is he who either by temper or talent, or special commission, is ever called to *Luke, x. 17... קין bind the broken in heart, and to comfort those who mourn! but generally this pleasure succeeds the pain of previous efforts. We break that we may bind up, and well is the toil repaid when we perceive the fair and finely formed grain rising readily from the flail; these are our hope and our joy, and will they not be so in the day of Christ Jesus? We have reason to expect that those days are not distant when this toil of ministers and others, will not be needed in the church generally; when all shall know the Lord, from the least even to the greatest; when Jesus shall be universally acknowledged and obeyed; and that prediction receive its full and final accomplishment. "And an highway “shall be there, and a way, and it shall be called, "The way of holiness; the unclean shall not pass "over it; but it shall be for those: the wayfaring "men, though fools, shall not err therein. No lion "shall be there, nor any ravenous beast shall go up "thereon, it shall not be found there; but the re"deemed shall walk there."* When kingdoms shall call him blessed; and "One song employ all nations; and all cry Isaiah, xxxv. 8, 9. |