I would, though so often refused and wearied with disappointment, again point to you the open door, again invite your feet to the narrow way that may lead to the eternal city; and remember this, that if you listen not to my voice now, there cometh a day when it shall pierce sharper than a two edged sword -there cometh a day, when just in

fulness in publishing the doctrines of the everlasting Gospel, your neglect will stand aggravated, your condemnation be increased, and that he who now bends over you, and would constrain, with the affections of the pastor and minister, shall become a witness against you at the bar of judgment, and at the opening of the door of eternal destiny, and at the descent of a way that leads no more back. Amen.

THE importance of the Christian ministry rests upon the truth and authority of the Christian revelation. If the religion of Christ be not derived from the conjectures of men, but from the revelation of GOD, it commands human attention at once, by all the arguments of fear, and by all the allurements of hope. Its accents are no longer doubtful; its doctrines are no longer the sport of rival controversies, but the recorded decisions of GOD -decisions, the reception or rejection of which will tell upon the happiness or the misery of each man, eternally. Under this solemn impression the Apostle Paul devoted his life to the proclamation of the Gospel. "We are ambassadors for GOD"-we bear a high commission-we reveal the will

of GoD, in connexion with the dearest interest of mankind-we unveil the allotments of eternity-we unfold, to the eye of faith, scenes of the brightest glory, or scenes of the darkest despair. The subject of our ministry belongs to the deepest sympathies of our common nature; we convey a message from the Creator to his creatures, and in the communication of this message, painful as it may be to the pride of those whom we address, we repose on strength not our own. Our statement is from Christ, and we rely upon his succour for our success. "Now thanks be unto God, which always causeth us to triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest the savour of his knowledge by us in every place. For we are unto GOD a sweet savour of

Christ, in them that are saved, and in them that perish: to the one we are the savour of death unto death; and to the other the savour of life unto life. And who is sufficient for these things?"

This language is eminently figurative; and it is still a question, to what custom the Apostle refers. Some think the allusion throughout is to the triumph of a heathen conqueror, scattering fragrant incense in his way, the perfume of which would be deadly to the captives doomed to experience his revenge, and full of life to those who were to be the objects of the conqueror's clemency and regard. Others, and I think more justly, account the allusion to be to the sweet fragrance poured upon the dress of the Jewish high priest when he came forth to teach and to bless the people: for there the Lord promised his blessing, even life for evermore. To the penitent, who confided in the truth of his doctrine, that doctrine was as the savour of life; to the obdurate, who despised his Gospel, it was as the odour of death.

This figurative language was familiar to the Jews, "The law," says one of their ancient writers, "to them that go on the right hand of it is the savour of life; but to them that go on the left hand of it, it is the savour of death." The Apostle thus appears to adopt this language in respect to the Gospel, to whose effects, indeed, it far more emphatically refers. The ministers of Christ proclaim salvation by the death of Christ, and so are the sweet odour of life to those who believe; yet the ministers of Christ become the odour of death, the instruments of a deeper condemnation, according to the command of Christ, "Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be condemned."

In the use of this interpretation of the passage, the words of the Apostle will present to our view the nature of the Gospel ministry; its success in every place to be a ground of great thanksgiving to GOD; and the insufficiency of man for its due fulfilment. And, oh! that the mighty workings of the Spirit of Christ may so prevail in us, my brethren, as that we may grasp firmly hold of these momentous themes. If ever I have prayed for a sacred impression on your souls, I implore it yet more fervently to-day. I would be solemn in my own thoughts, I would have these thoughts to be full of eternity, and I would ask of GOD that you may be serious in your thoughts.

The expressions of the Apostle, in the First place, UNFOLD TO US THE NATURE OF the Gospel MINISTRY, "Now thanks be unto God, which always causeth us to triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest the savour of his knowledge by us in every place. For we are unto GOD a sweet savour of Christ, in them that are saved and in them that perish: to the one we are the savour of death unto death; and to the other the savour of life unto life."

The office of the Christian ministry, in the view of the Apostle, is to make known the savour of the knowledge of Christ in every place. The knowledge of Christ is the theme of his ministry, and the savour of that knowledge implies its excellency. "This is life eternal, that they might know thee, the only true GOD, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent." "Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in GOD, believe also in me." In reference to this knowledge, the Apostle could say, "What things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ. Yea, doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord." The subject of the

scatters it is still unseen; and when he comes the second time, without sin unto salvation, then shall we see him face to face, and know even as we are known.

Such is the subject of this ministry, and the operation of this ministry is to make manifest the savour of the knowledge of Christ. GOD would have all men to be saved, and to come to the knowledge of Christ; he would not conceal the tidings of great joy; he lays it rather upon his church to spread the tidings through the wide world. "Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature." This knowledge of Christ is as needful for one as for another. Within the boundaries of this knowledge lie folded up all the remedies for human calamity-wherever guilt requires pardon, wherever a torn conscience needs binding up, or a defiled heart requires pure affections-for the savage and the civilized, the learned and the unlearned, the child and the grown up person, these are the only sedatives for pain, the only cure for the soul's disease; without these we droop and die for ever.

Yet are the ultimate effects of this ministry widely different; it becomes, we are told, a savour of death unto death, as well as a savour of life unto life. The Apostle here says for himself and his fellow labourers, "We are savours of death unto death." Christ had put his fragrancy upon them, but the world was not refreshed by them. The faculty which should have rejoiced, was perverted and injured by sin; hence the character and the doctrines of the Apostles were too often slandered and condemned; the purity of their lives created resistance among the wicked, while the doctrines which they taught unfolded that pride which sought its own exaltation. "We preach," says the Apostle, "Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumbling block, and unto the

66

Greeks foolishness." Light," says the author of the Christrian doctrine, "is come into the world, and men love darkness rather than light, because their deeds are evil." To such persons-to the worldly, the proud, and the self-righteous, the Apostles became as the savour of death; they became the unwilling instruments to many of a more aggravated destruction. This result had already arisen from the instruction of their great Master, "If I had not come and spoken unto them," as none other man has, they had not had sin❞— that is, this aggravated sin-" but now they have no cloak for their sin. For they have hated both me and my Father." How often it happens in the natural world, that remedies, otherwise the most powerful, if they miss the desired effect aggravate disease!—so in like manner the word of GOD, when it proves not the odour of life, becomes the odour of death. But, blessed be GoD, very frequently the the effects were medicinal and, consolatory: the Apostles were to many as the refreshing odour of life; their doctrine distilled as the dew upon the parched soil of the human heart; it brought to the awe-struck criminal the hopes of pardon from his Almighty Lawgiver; it conveyed to the harrassed, with the vain speculations of vain Gentile philosophy, an attractive revelation of the name and character of the true God; it brought to the heart of him, torn with an incurable anguish by that vain philosophy, the full assurance of a blessed immortality; it brought to the soul degraded by selfish and sensual passions the high objects and glorious purposes for which Christ himself had lived and died; it became the medium, through the energy of the Holy Ghost, by which the love of Christ was shed abroad in the heart; it constrained the astonished and happy believer to live no longer to himself, but to him who