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gifts, as you think? are there external hindrances in his preaching? and does he not suit your tone of feeling? Give glory to God, who can, even by means of broken instruments, make His word powerful to the saving of your soul; and pray for him. If this advice were acted upon, there would be no disproportioned valuing of a Paul or an Apollos, but a feeling of readiness to hear the preaching of the Gospel, and to receive the truth through this channel or that, by any minister whom Christ may be pleased to send to you. There would be

a feeling of thankfulness, that, though preached with many hindrances, the Gospel is what it is, -able to save and comfort your soul, even when put before you by a minister whose manner does not altogether please you. Those who love the Gospel must, on the one hand, thankfully and humbly receive it with earnest prayer to be kept safe from the snare of limiting their Gospel to that delivered by their minister; and, on the other hand, those who have a disinclination to it must beware how they allow themselves to be deceived under the notion that it is only a particular minister of whom they disapprove. All must hear the truth, and seek the whole truth, because it is the truth of Jesus Christ, irrespective altogether of the instrument He employs; remembering that all his faithful ministers are one, inasmuch as they come from one Master, with but one Gospel.

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III. We will proceed to inquire, how it is that God has been pleased to promise a special reward to His ministers, as we find in the text he has. Every man shall receive his own reward, according to his own labour." We shall not however examine now into the nature of that reward: this will come more suitably into the second division of the subject. The word reward is often very much misunderstood. Reward is not the same as wages; it is not that which can be claimed as just payment, due when work is done. To illustrate this we may take a very common case. When children at a school

have conducted themselves satisfactorily, the master gives to any amongst them whom he may select a present; but to this they could have no sort of claim whatever; it is a free reward; it is all of favour; they can make no demand for it. Now the text contains a promise of just such a free and gracious reward. What that gracious reward is,-how it affects the minister, and how it affects the people,—will come before us as soon as we come to the consideration of the 8th and 9th points of this instruction,-the WORKMAN'S GAIN, and the WORKMAN'S Loss. It would be out of its place now; and I have merely called your attention thus shortly to the subject, in connection with its apportionment as regards the different ministers, "the labourers." Thanks be to God that this free reward is held out-a reward not of merit, but of encouragement; to cheer the minister, and to urge him on in his work : A reward which the faithful minister estimates so much beyond any thing that this world can produce, that it encourages him to look altogether above the world. If he look forward to the jewelled crown, which is promised to those who turn many to righteousness, when they shall shine as the stars for ever and ever, it is enough to eclipse altogether in his view, all the earthly glories by which Satan so often strives to enslave and fetter him to the world. This, my brethren, is a great encouragement; and its connection in the Text is in order to shew that every minister shall receive this reward according to his labour. One minister plants, and another waters. I am brought here by the providence of God, after others who have gone before me, one after the other, for the last three hundred years, since the reformation. Here, then, I am brought by the providence of God, for the purpose of watering that which has been sown by others; and to put forth the great machinery adapted to gather in other souls. Each of us may share a proportion of the reward. How is it then possible, for a minister to go on preaching to a flock without

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much earnestness of anxiety concerning the effectual result to their souls, if only for the sake of his own reward? sible, I say, for me to look around upon you, while I preach to you, and then think of the anticipated reward, and not yearn over you, and tremble for you? Would to God that you would each apply this matter so personally, that it might make each cleave with greater earnestness to the Cross of Christ.

In closing this first division of the subject, I will suggest to you some important questions for self-examination, in order that you may profit by it. The argument of the Apostle is summed up in the 9th verse, where he closes his first comparison of the farm, or husbandry, and applies it; he says, "Ye are God's husbandry." The ministers are the labourers, working together with God. Paul, who planted, and Apollos, who watered, are labourers, labourers only, and God's people are the husbandry. If this be the case, I cannot employ too much earnestness in pressing upon you the question, Are you, my brethren, God's husbandry? Many of you are habitually engaged in agricultural labour, and are well acquainted with the comparison which is thus brought before you; I beseech you to put the question each to his own heart, "Am I a part of God's husbandry ?" The husbandry, the tillage, you well know produces the harvest. You can go forth to the fields, and see them ripening for the harvest. You have an interest in the fruits, which either belong to you, or you are one of those who will be engaged in reaping the corn, or in gathering it in, or it may be in gleaning after the reaper; but in some way or other you are expecting to receive the benefit of the fruits of the earth, the husbandry you are engaged in. The word of God says, "Ye are God's husbandry;" I ask you, what are your fruits? Are they such as justify you in hoping that you are indeed ripening for God's harvest ? - Are they such as the Spirit of God works in the hearts of his people? I stand here as the labourer, looking forward to the

time when the Lord's harvest will be gathered in.

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While you

are preparing for the harvest of the earth, and occupying your minds about it, I am looking upon you as the standing corn, hastening fast on to the time when you will be gathered. Remember that parable, that terrible parable—I call it terrible because it so clearly distinguishes, and draws the contrast between those who are the Lord's husbandry, and those who are not the parable of the Wheat and the Tares. The zizan, or false wheat, grows up like the true, and is not known to be false till the fruit comes; and then, you will remember, the one is to be gathered into the garner, and the other is to be bound for the burning. Are you wheat, or are you tares? Are you, my brethren, thus God's husbandry? What does the parable say also of the tares? He that soweth them is the Devil." Though God sends forth the wheat, and sows it-though God sends me as his labourer to do the appointed work of his tillage-though God's Holy Spirit takes His word and applies it, and some are converted by it, turned in the whole current of their affections, thoughts, and desires, so that old things pass away, and they are children of God, and fitted for eternal glory :—while, I say, God does all this— yet we know also, from the parable, that the Devil goes after the labourer-and while I am here preaching to you the Gospel of Christ, and watching how you apply it, the Devil goes after me, to try and confuse your minds, and bewilder you, that you should not understand it. While I am telling you the minister is nothing, the Devil goes after me, to make you think the minister is something, either in one way, or the other. While I am calling upon you to search well into your own hearts, and not to deceive yourselves, Satan follows me, to choke up your minds with the cares and pleasures of the world; or to make the exhortation fall upon the stony heart of unbelief-any thing to rob you of your souls, and the minister of his crown; that crown in which he longs

to have you placed as so many jewels.

Oh, my beloved

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Are you God's

brethren, how can I too earnestly ask you, wheat, or are you the devil's tares ?" I know not how to distinguish them; I cannot know, till the day come, that proves which is which: till then I cannot, I dare not attempt to separate them. "Let both grow together till the harvest." Then I shall know indeed, and then you will know; and oh, how terrible will be the discovery to those who have never thought of it before, to find out that they are only tares fit for the burning. In that day I shall perceive who God has been pleased to plant in His husbandry, and to draw, by the preaching of that very same word, which perhaps some of you have neglected, and others have derided. When the few years of time shall have passed away-these short years which so rapidly escape and eternity, a never-ending state, shall open; what millions of ages of sorrow, remorse, and bitter regret, will follow to those who will not be of God's tillage now. Are you, once more I ask, a portion of "God's husbandry ?" In answering this question, I do implore you be honest with yourselves; your salvation depends upon it.

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