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public teacher of religion. To be Christian ministers, in the full meaning of the word, you must as pastors give watchful care to individual members of Christ's flock. The anxious inquirer will apply to you for spiritual guidance. The perplexed will seek your counsel. The gay and the thoughtless will need affectionate admonition. The wayward must have timely warning. Wanderers from the fold must be sought and brought back. The slothful must be aroused. Youth, on account of its want of experience, will have special claims for your direction and aid. Age, because of its "labour and sorrow," will expect to be comforted by you. The sick and the suffering will ask your sympathy and prayers. The dying will look to you for words of hope and promise.

Varied interests of the Church will likewise call for your vigilant oversight, and frequently you will be entrusted with the management of affairs which require tact and prudence. Your own devotedness to "the work of the Lord "should be associated with an earnest desire to secure the sympathy and help of others. Though you make no pretensions, and have not the least wish, to be "lords over God's heritage," as leaders of "the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers," you will have to incite its members to religious effort. All ministers are not gifted with the faculty for successfully organising great schemes of Christian enterprise, nor may you find it needful to attempt the establishment of new organisation. It is necessary, however, that the agencies already in existence in our Churches should be maintained in full vigour, but this cannot be accomplished unless pastors and people unite in diligent exertion. You will, to a large extent, be dependent on the co-operation of Christian friends for the success of your labour. What, then, are the best means of obtaining their co-operation? Where can you find competent workers to assist you? These are questions of great consequence, and ought to receive your serious.

attention.

That you may be able to present religious truth to others. clearly and powerfully, seek to be clear in your own conceptions concerning it. No man can be safely trusted as a guide while he is lost in a dense fog. Should your own minds be in confusion and uncertainty respecting the subjects on which you preach, it will be impossible for you to speak of them with convincing force. In order to expound the Scriptures intelligibly, endeavour to obtain a correct apprehension of their meaning. Frequent discussions of difficult questions of Biblical criticism in your public ministrations is not necessary nor desirable, but it is important you should be careful to give a proper interpretation of the words of theinspired writers. What

ever other studies you prosecute, you ought most of all to be students of the Bible. Use all means adapted to throw light on the sacred oracles you have at command. "Every scribe which is instructed unto the kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that is an householder, which bringeth forth out of his treasury things new and old." The preacher who has a thorough acquaintance with the various portions of Holy Writ will not lack interesting and profitable themes of discourse. The source whence we draw the subjects on which we preach can never be exhausted by us. If our ministry lack freshness and force, it must be from a defective manner of dealing with the truths we are appointed to teach. A question deserving your earnest study is, How can you make your presentation of Christian truth impressive and successful? How can you fashion your discourses so as to make them attractive, and at the same time instructing and edifying? What words can you choose that will arrest attention? He would be a sorry specimen of what a Christian minister ought to be who, in the preparation of his sermons, had no higher purpose than to show himself a clever framer of sentences; but as language is the medium through which truth is conveyed to the mind, care should be exercised in the selection of the language employed in preaching. "The preacher sought to find out acceptable words," says Solomon. And it is a part of the work of the preacher now to find out "acceptable words," words which are easily understood, words so choice and seasonable as to be "like apples of gold in pictures of silver," words so pointed and powerful as to stick like barbed arrows. "The words of the wise are as goads, and as nails fastened by the masters of assemblies."

The sublimest thoughts, if imperfectly expressed, may produce little effect. It ought not to be forgotten, however, that there may be a great amount of brilliancy in a sermon when there is a great lack of spiritual power. The drapery of a discourse may be splendid, yet it may have no adaptation to the wants of hungry souls. The most elaborate disquisition may fail to arouse men, when a warm-hearted exhortation would exert a powerful influence upon them. Homely fervour in the pulpit is better than respectable dulness. Rugged energy is more to be desired than refined impotence. Hearers of the Gospel sometimes need to be startled that their attention may be gained. A constant hankering after sensational effect, either by a minister or a congregation, cannot be healthful, but dread of a sensation should not be permitted to check a faithful and impassioned utterance of solemn truths. An exciting sermon is of great benefit, when it makes men thoughtful and serious concerning their spiritual interests. Persons who by living near a water

fall become so accustomed to its sound as not to notice it, may nevertheless experience a severe shock when they hear the terrific noise produced by the discharge of powerful artillery. And a man may become so familiar with ordinary religious discourses as to be rarely, if ever, deeply moved by them, but, if he be brought beneath the ministry of "sons of thunder," his soul may be shaken to its lowest depths by the electric words which fall on his ears. A desire to produce a marked impression on an audience should not, however, be permitted to lead preachers to extravagance in language or gesture. The practice of speaking with exaggeration is never more reprehensible than when it exists in professed messengers of truth, yet it is a practice to which some who preach the Gospel are strongly tempted. Bishop Simpson in his "Lectures on Preaching," delivered to students in Yale College, wisely observes: "The preacher who labours after extravagance of speech is really impairing his own moral sense, and sapping the morals of his own congregation. Mer of intense earnestness and vivid imaginations are especially exposed to this danger, and the habit grows upon them." As an example of the truth of the last remark, he cites the case of a minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church, who was so prone to exaggeration that when, after his brethren had admonished him in vain, he was brought before the bar of the Conference, and reproved by the presiding bishop, he received the reproof with meek submission, expressed his deep sorrow for his fault, declared that it had cost him many a pang, and that he had shed "barrels of tears" over it.

(To be continued.)

DEAR

LETTER TO THE EDITOR.

ASHVILLE COLLEGE.

EAR MR. EDITOR,-You and your readers will hear with much satisfaction that the sum of £2,000 towards the expense of enlarging this College has been guaranteed, as the statement in your advertising pages will show. The Governors met yesterday, and resolved to commence the enlargement forthwith. It was further resolved that as £2,000 had been promised, which is a sufficient warrant to enter upon the undertaking, but by no means sufficient to ensure complete financial success, the subscription list should remain open, ,and an earnest effort be made to swell the contributions to at least £3,000. Necessary as this is to the welfare of the College

it is equally needful to gratify our friends; many who have not contributed and could not promise anything before Christmas, wish to join their brethren in supporting so good an Institution, and will be glad to promise help early in the New Year. It would be unfair to prevent such generosity finding due expression.

Another gratifying fact is the following. As most of your readers know, it was determined, shortly after the decease of Mr. John Cuthbertson, to preserve the recollection of his eminent services to the Connexion in a suitable manner. A tablet to his memory has been placed in the chapel with which he was so long and so honourably connected; and a balance of cash subscribed to the Memorial Fund having remained-through the kindness of the Misses Cuthbertson, his daughters, with the concurrence of the Memorial Committee, and on the recommendation of the Connexional Committee-that balance is to be handed to the Governors of Ashville College for investment, that a sum equal to the annual income thereof may supply three prizes, to be competed for by the Ashville pupils, and to be called the "John Cuthbertson Memorial Prizes."

Dr. Richardson, the Head Master, in presenting his report to the Governors, stated that the health of the pupils had been good, their progress creditable, their attention to religious duties gratifying, and the domestic arrangements thoroughly satisfactory.

It will be interesting to your readers to know that three of the masters are contributors to the Enlargement Fund, and the first payment towards it was made by Dr. Richardson.

E. BOADEN, Secretary.

Harrogate, December 11, 1880.

INAUGURATION OF THE CONNEXIONAL TEMPERANCE

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LEAGUE.

HE Free Methodist Temperance League was formally inaugurated on Wednesday, November 17, 1880, by a conference and public meeting, held in Castlemere Chapel, Rochdale. This League has for its objects the spread of Temperance principles generally, and the promotion of total abstinence in the churches, congregations, and schools of the denomination. It was established by a unanimous vote of last Annual Assembly. Mr. E. Withy, of Hartlepool, presided over the conference in the afternoon. An able paper was read by the Rev. W. Heddon Bond, who may be regarded as the founder of the League. dealt with the aims of the League, the methods it should pursue, and

It

the necessity for its existence. Rev. S. Beavan, of Darwen, moved the first resolution, which was seconded by Rev. J. Thornley, of Sheffield, and unanimously adopted. It had reference to the establishment of the League, which it commended to the sympathy and co-operation of all the Churches of the body.

The second resolution called on all parents and teachers, by counsel and example, to guard the young from the numerous snares of the treacherous drinking customs of our country. This was moved by Rev. Jos. Kirsop, seconded by T. Watson, Esq., J.P., and carried.

The third resolution was as follows:-"That believing the common sale of intoxicating drinks is one of the greatest banes of our civilisation, and that for drink shops to be open on the Lord's-day is a scandal and a sin, this conference would earnestly recommend all well-directed efforts to stop the sale of drink during the whole of the Sabbath; and further, while gratefully recognising the valuable services of Sir Wilfrid Lawson in the Commons House of Parliament, would urge the necessity of continued vigorous efforts in order to secure a law which shall include the right of the people to veto the liquor traffic." This was moved by Rev. J. S. Balmer, of Blackpool, seconded by Mr. James Whyte, of Manchester, and carried with great unanimity. Thanks were then voted to Mr. Bond for his paper, and after a resolution declaring it desirable that the young should be cautioned against the use of tobacco in any form, the Conference came to a close.

In addition to the gentlemen already named, the following gentlemen took part in the conference: Revs. H. T. Chapman (Littleborough), C. Bentley (Macclesfield), Jos. Townend (Rochdale), T. M. Booth (Rochdale), Mr. E. Ridgway, of Salford; and Mr. T. Snape, of Liverpool.

At the evening meeting T. Watson, Esq., took the chair. He intimated that he had been connected with the abstinence movement since its origin forty-six years ago. He regretted that the Christian Church should have been so slow to move in the matter, and mentioned possible reasons of hesitation and delay. He rejoiced that now they had a society of their own, and he believed his name was first on the list. Speaking of the physical aspects of the question, he said that Dr. F. R. Lees had taught thirty years ago the truths now propounded by Dr. Richardson. Rev. Jos. Kirsop spoke on the bond of union. He said that while not objecting to mixed societies, nothing but total abstinence was adapted to the sentiments of the Free Methodist body. He recommended abstinence, showing that it was not a privation nor a ground of boasting, while it was a proper cause of gratitude, a sure safeguard against intemperance, a great help to

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