Do the WILL being exposed Acts vii. 51-54, 59. It resists the declaration of God's wrath. Matt. xxiv. 39. with 2 Peter ii. 5. Gen. xix. 14. III. The way to KNOW the DOCTRINE and not be offended. Turning of heart Prov. i. 22, 23. Rom. x. 10. of God. Psa. cxliii. 10. James i. 21. Eph. vi. 6,7. He is good. 1 Pet. ii. 1-3. Matt. xiii. 11, 12. Holy Spirit. Luke xi. 9, 10, 13. The blessing. Matt. xi. 6. QUESTIONS-Do we KNOW THE DOCTRINE of the Gospel? Are we offended at it? Have we found out that the offence is in our own hearts because we resist GOD'S WILL? TEXT PAPER, No. XXIII. Blessed are the merciful; for they shall obtain mercy. Christ states seven points of character in the BLESSED ONES, and one external effect. These are all consistent, and included in each other. We must examine ourselves by each. James ii. 10. I. The Fifth character of the blessed ones. They are merciful. 1. Mercy is compassion, sympathy, feeling with one another. 1 Peter iii. 8. Rom. xii. 15, 16. Zech. vii. 9-13; either as being of the same nature, Acts xvii. 26. Luke x. 33—36; or as being in the same condition. Rom. xi. 20, 30-32. 1 Cor. x. 12. 2. Christ's mercy, -as being of the same nature only :—no sin in Him. Heb. ii. 16—18; iv. 15; vii. 26—28. 3. Our mercy towards fellow sinners. Matt. xii. 7; vi. 14, 15; xviii. 21–35. Luke vi. 36:-towards brethren in Christ. Rom. xii. 3-5. 1 Cor. xii. 12, 13, 25-27. II. Their blessing-for they shall obtain mercy. 1. Not obtain mercy for, or because, they are merciful. Rom. ix. 15, 16. Luke xvii. 10. Rom. iii. 19; but blessed for, or because, they shall obtain mercy Rom. v. 7, 8, 23-25, because of Christ's merits. 1 Cor. i. 29-31. Psalm lxxxv. 9-11. 2. Obtain mercy, as needful now. 1-4. 1 Peter ii. 10. Fully hereafter. xliii. 25. Jude 20-25. Heb. iv. 16. Psalm xli. QUESTIONS—Am I merciful and sympathizing to my fellow sinners, as such? Merciful in my judgement of them-in my language concerning them-in my actions towards them? If not, how can I expect the blessing promised to the merciful? "Let not thine heart envy sinners: but be thou in the fear of the Lord all the day long. For surely there is an end; and thine expectation shall not be cut off." 66 IF sin could be seen in its true colours, and in its naked deformity, it would frighten us away from it at once; and if the miserable end of those who continue in sin could be clearly seen at the beginning of the way which opens to it, few, if any, would venture upon the road. Satan therefore takes good care to keep these things out of sight: and he never tempts us without dressing up sin so as to make it look pleasant, and hiding altogether the wages which the sinner is to get at the end. (Rom. vi. 23. James i. 15.) Those who are born of God understand this device of Satan; and when they know that some pleseant thing is sinful, the thought of the sin spoils the pleasure of the bait, and they have no more relish for it-" surely in vain the net is spread in the sight of any bird." (Prov. i. 17.) Yet the great weakness of the heart is sometimes forgetful; and a lingering desire runs after the pleasure, in spite of its being connected with sin. It is however a bad sign if you wish you might join in that which is not joined to God, but belongs to his enemies. It is a bad if you long to find there is no harm in one drunken clubday in a year. —or one day of pleasure at the fair-in one race-day -or in just now and then having some enjoyment, which often, or generally would be wrong. It shews plainly that the sense of the sin has not been strong enough to spoil the relish for the pleasure. It is envying sinners-sinners whose god is their belly, who mind earthly things, whose glory is in their shame"; and therefore, "whose end is destruction." (Phil. iii. 19.) Envy souls in such a case indeed! they are only proper objects of the deepest compassion. sign As long as you have the fear of God before your eyes, the alarm at the sin will quite put out the enjoyment of the pleasure: and how long are you to be in the fear of the Lord?" all the day long." If you leave the hiding-place of that fear for one minute, the envying of sinners will come upon you; and, even in that time will have led you into their company, and after their ways. And where will it end? There is an end, and a sure one. To know what that end is, read Psalm ix. 17, and Mark ix. 43 -48, and John v. 29, and Rev. xxi. 8, and a great many other parts of God's word. The fear of the Lord is produced by an expectation that God will certainly fulfil his word, for good and for evil-for joy and for sorrow-for blessing and for cursing ;— an expectation that the Lord will one day certainly say '. come ye blessed;" and as certainly say "depart ye cursed." (Matt.xxv. 34, 41.) The last proverb (x. 28.) shewed you what the worldly expectation was, and what was the result: and this proverb assures you that the well grounded expectation of one who is in the fear of the Lord all the day long, is a hope that maketh not ashamed-it shall not be cut off. He whose heart cannot envy the pleasure of sinners, because he lives in the fear of the Lord, has found that the honey of the world has lost its sweetness, because he has tasted of something sweeter than honey or the honey-comb; for " so shall the knowledge of wisdom be unto his soul when he has found it-then there shall be a reward, and his expectation shall not be cut off." (Prov. xxiv. 13, 14.) THE PASTOR'S REMEMBRANCER. A FORM FOR A MINISTER'S LIFE. : "IN solitariness to be least solitary in company obtaining or doing good; to my wife, my family, my neighbours, my fellow ministers to be kind to all with whom I have any intercourse; amiable, yet modest; low in my own eyes; often visiting the sick and afflicted: attending to reading; taking pains in my preparations for the pulpit; not easily provoked to anger; not hastily carried away with conceits; not wandering in fond dreams about ease and delusive pleasures; not entangled in the world, nor making lawful liberties my chief delight: readily affording assistance to all who need my help, and all those that I ought to regard and all this, with constant perseverance, even through the whole of life. "Chief corruptions to be watched against are, sourness, sadness, timorousness, forgetfulness, fretting, and inability to bear wrongs. "I am too backward to private visiting of neighbours at their houses, which neglect is very injurious: for from this cause their love to me cannot be so great as it would be; nor am I so well acquainted with their particular wants and states, and therefore cannot speak to them so fitly as I might. "A minister had need look to it, that he profit by all his preaching himself, because he knows not what others do: many, he is sensible, get no good; of many more he is uncertain; so that if he get no good himself, his labour and travail shall be in vain altogether."-Rogers's memorials for a godly life. THE PASTOR'S ASSISTANT. FEBRUARY 1, 1843. PART FIRST. SUGGESTIONS FOR THE PASTOR IN HIS STUDY. PASTORAL COMPLETENESS. CHAPTER I. In the course of the last volume it has been our object to shew, the real principles upon which church-membership is founded; and also the mode of carrying those principles into action, so as to maintain an effectual discipline in the Church of England. If we have at all convinced the reader that our argument is sound, and correctly stated, it must appear that the judicious application of statistical statements is a powerful means of obtaining the desired result. This has been shewn with respect to the classification of those persons in a parish who, with more or less of permanency, frequent the Lord's table,-that being the centre-point of church discipline; and the successful application of it to this point will suggest to the mind, that the same mode of statistical discipline is capable of being applied with effect much more largely. It shall be our purpose to endeavour to shew, in what manner the same principle may be carried out, so as to bring the whole work that lies before a parochial minister within the view of his mind, in order to the proper application of VOL. II. NO. XIV, D the means of grace, and of instruction to every part; and so also as to draw the people into co-operation with his designs for their good. Such an application of the principle may be made to do so much, that the examination of the subject may not improperly be conducted under the title of " Pastoral Complete ness. When a young clergyman first undertakes the charge of a parish, he receives, by the solemn act of institution, ecclesiastical authority to take account of the spiritual welfare of every soul within a certain defined district. He arrives amongst the people thus committed to his care, and begins his public and his private ministrations. But according to the ordinary manner of proceeding, if the population be of any considerable number, it must be a long time before he can become really acquainted with the condition of his flock in a defined manner; and a much longer time before he can have marked out the various channels through which their spiritual condition may be improved. His private visits will not have produced any thing like the benefit to his own mind which they ought to do in making his arrangements, unless he seeks in each visit to obtain information upon distinct points; and unless he arrange this information systematically when he has obtained it. In order to be able to apply the means of grace and spiritual instruction in a manner suitable to the wants of his people, the minister should ascertain, with exactness, the precise numbers of the flock, classified under such heads as may give a distinctness to the variety of instruction that will be required. A parish should be classified in three ways:-First, as regards station :secondly, as regards age; and thirdly, as regards religion ;-the two former being subservient to the last. These three classifications are, in their very nature, plain and simple, so far as the principles explained in the former volume are carried out with respect to church-membership. But besides this there is another classification in its nature entirely private, the details of which must be confined to the minister's own breast, and which after all must form the ultimate object of his whole ministry;—that classification which gives energy to his hopes and to his fearswhich guides him secretly in the adaptation of his preaching and of his prayers-that by which, in his own mind and before his Divine Master, he distinguishes between the precious and the vile, the hopeful and the hardened. It is in order to come to a right conclusion, privately, with respect to this, that he must strive diligently to arrive at precise results in the three classifications above stated. |