instruction which may be derived from the view already taken of the official character of our Saviour, in reference to all Christian ministers and missionaries. Every such functionary should in his measure sustain the same character with that which the text ascribes to our common Lord. To him, also, in a very subordinate but yet highly important sense, may be given the appellation of God's "servant." The language of Paul, the most illustrious of all merely human ministers and missionaries, was, "Whose I am, and whom I serve." In more than one of his epistles he takes to himself this introductory designation, "Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ." His brethren adopted the same language, and thought it "the highest style of man.” "James, a servant of God, and of the Lord Jesus Christ." "Simon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ." All true Christians do in some degree sustain this relation to God; but to the ministers of the Gospel it eminently belongs, and to none more rightfully than to those unto whom this grace is given, that they should preach among the heathen the unsearchable riches of Christ. Let Christian ministers be thankful for the high honor of this relation; let them be mindful of its momentous responsibilities; let them be careful to do God's work faithfully, diligently, and heartily; and let them, like their great pattern, the Messiah, God's servant-in-chief, be so intent on their Master's work and glory as never to allow any selfish interest or gratification to interfere for one moment with their ministerial duties. Let them consider, for the purpose of imitating in their measure, the great Apostle of our profession, Christ Jesus. Like him, let them not count their ease, or honor, or liberty, or life dear unto them, so that they may finish their course with joy, and receive the final plaudit of Him whose approbation will indeed be "an exceeding great reward" for the most toilsome services and the most painful sacrifices or sufferings. That they may be thus faithful and accepted, let them be fully persuaded in their own minds, on scriptural grounds, that God has "put them into the ministry." He that will be God's servant must, like the Mediator himself, be able to allege God's choice and call of him to that office. How much stress the first servants of the Lord Jesus laid on this point, is evident from this circumstance, that in almost all their pastoral letters they distinctly state, with a striking uniformity of idea and expression, that they were apostles "by the will of God." And all their successors in the work of Christ, but especially such as are occupied in those missionary labors which most nearly approximate in things essential to the duties of the primitive apostleship, should see to it that they have, in no uncertain or unimportant sense, their warrant in those commanding words of Jesus, "Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain." (John xv, 16.) And let all who trust that they are thus chosen and ordained remember, finally, that Jesus Christ is ready to put upon all his servants the same Spirit of power and holiness which the text describes the Father as having put upon him. For the full baptism of that Spirit let them apply in prayer and faith. If even apostles needed this unction from above, and were commanded to tarry at Jerusalem till they received its Pentecostal fullness, how manifestly needful is it for modern ministers and missionaries! Many other qualifications are desirable, but this is indispensable. When men thus called by God, and endued with the Spirit, not of fear, but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind, go forth to serve the Lord and their generation, the happiest effects may be anticipated. Such men will be upheld in their work by divine grace and providence; and God will smile with acceptance on their labors of love. By such helps and such sanctions given to their efforts, he in truth accomplishes in one respect the promise made in the text to the Mediator himself. He glorifies his Son in those by whom he is represented, and who are his agents and ambassadors among men. Nor is it only to ministers or missionaries themselves that this application of the text is important. To the Church of Christ at large it speaks the language of instruction in righteousness. It reminds us of our duty to pray to the Lord of the harvest that he will raise up, and ordain, and send forth laborers into his harvest; that he will qualify those whom he has called, or may be about to call, by the richest effusions and gifts of the Holy Ghost; that he will make them able and successful ministers of the New Testament, not of the letter, but of the spirit; and that he will continually uphold them by the secret refreshings of his grace, by the kindness and countenance of friends raised up to be fellow-helpers of the truth, and by the seasonable interpositions of a protecting and directing Providence: so that it may be said to each of these servants of God, "For my name's sake thou hast labored, and hast not fainted." (Rev. ii, 3.) My hearers, do not your hearts at this moment realize your interesting connection with those beloved brethren, the messengers of our Churches and the glory of Christ, who are serving the Lord, like Paul, with many tears and temptations, on various foreign shores? And will you not join with me in applying to them, with undissembled fervor, the words of our poet? "As faithful stewards of Thy grace, The crown of righteousness divine. "When they have lived to Thee alone, Enter into their Master's joy, And all eternity employ In praise, and ecstasy, and love." Such petitions, my brethren, we have every encouragement to address to God. For the Spirit that was put upon Christ, as the Father's servant, was given to him expressly in order to make full provision for every part of God's service to the end of the world; given to him for this among other purposes, that it might be in him a fountain of light and power, of gifts and graces, out of which all his servants should receive a full supply. Of his fullness may all we receive, and grace for grace. I call your attention, II. To the work itself for which Messiah has received this official character and qualification. I shall confine myself strictly to that portion of our Lord's work which is specified in the text, and illustrated by some following parts of the chapter. "He shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles." This is plainly a prediction of the illumination and conversion of heathen tribes by the truth and grace of the evangelical dispensation. Previously to that dispensation it was said, "He showeth his word unto Jacob, his statutes and his judg ments unto Israel. He hath not dealt so with any" Gentile "nation: and as for his judgments, they have not known them." (Psalm cxlvii, 19, 20.) But now a brighter day has dawned on the mass of mankind, and provision is made in the appointment of the Messiah for the universal diffusion of saving truth. "He shall bring forth judgment" even "to the Gentiles," as well as make the discovery of it more perfect and efficient with respect to the Jews; being both a light to lighten the almost totally benighted nations, and the glory of God's people Israel-the medium of conveying to them a yet more splendid illumination than they before possessed under a typical and imperfect economy. By judgment we are here to understand, 1. A direct, well-attested, and solemnly obligatory revelation of the will of God, as to the salvation and the duty of man. In the Old Testament the expression very frequently occurs in this sense. The testimonies and precepts of God are called by the psalmist "the judgments of his mouth;" of which he declares that they "are true and righteous altogether. More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold: sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb. Moreover by them is thy servant warned; and in keeping of them there is great reward." (Psalm xix, 9-11.) And in a subsequent chapter of Isaiah's prophecy it is written, "Hearken unto me, my people; and give ear unto me, O my nation for a law shall proceed from me, and I will make my judgment to rest for a light of the people." (Isaiah li, 4.) Revealed truth and precepts are called "judgment," because they contain not only light, but law; not only a rule, but a decision. They are the standard by which we ought to judge ourselves, and by which we shall infallibly be judged of the Lord. When once brought or published to us, they become ipso facto binding on us, and demand our instant acquiescence and obedience. "They are the judicial sentences of God concerning our state and actions-the decrees of the Almighty Lawgiver, given forth with authority uncontrollable. A man may appeal from the sentence of men; but this is judgment, as certain as if executed presently." Hence the testimony of the Gospel is not offered to men as matter of opinion and speculation, a subject for ingenious discussion and clever debate. All is already settled, adjudged, and decided by a supreme authority; and our only business with revelation, when once we admit it to be such, and apprehend its fair and obvious meaning, is implicitly to believe and obey it. To hesitate and refuse, in such a case, is to violate the first duty of a creature, and to rebel against the sovereignty of God. This property of divine revelation, that it comes to us with the authority and obligation of "judgment," is one of its greatest excellences. It is this which makes it pre-eminently a Gospel for the poor-for the multitude. It does not leave the less cultivated part of mankind to draw doubtful inferences, as to their duties, from abstract theories of moral fitness and beauty, or of general expediency and convenience—which the mass of men are utterly unable to comprehend-about which even the learned in such matters have maintained almost interminable controversies-and from which different persons have in all ages been found to derive very different practical results, or no practical results at all. Nor has God deemed it necessary or useful to propose the doctrines of the Bible to us in connection with abstruse argumentative demonstrations of their truth, or subtle metaphysical elucidations (so called) of their nature: he has rather revealed them to us as the judgments of infinite wisdom, the oracular declarations of Him who cannot lie. Happy would it be for the Church if its ministers and members would always be contented with the simplicity of Holy Scripture; and would not pay such undue and unwarrantable court to the curiosity or the pride of human nature, as to think it needful on every occasion to show cause, as it |