2. But throughout his pastoral epistles-and, indeed, in all his scattered references to the Christian ministry--the prevailing motive of the apostle is the sacred and spiritual greatness of the office. Imagine what his estimate of it must have been, when, with a celestial crown in view, he could yet say, "I am in a strait; I wot not which to choose." Had it been to rule a kingdom, or to wear the purple, he would have felt no strait. How could the diadems of earth possess attractions for him, when there-full before himwere the open portals of the New Jerusalem, and its unfading glories streamed on his view, and its glad hosannahs reached his ear, and there (he distinctly saw it) his own Redeemer held up to view a crown of life. And is it possible that aught on earth can prevent him from hasting at once to possess it? Yes, though he desired to depart, and was all but on the wing, he thought of his work as a minister of Christ; and such was his estimate of its importance, that his seraphic soul returned to it, and in the next moment you might have seen him writing himself, "Paul, a minister of Christ," as one of the highest titles—writing it with a greater sense of its dignity than he would have felt at ascending the steps of a throne and putting on a crown.

Rise, my brother, to a conception of the dignity of your office. You are an agent of heaven. All holy motives move you-motives which have made a Saviour, which have developed new features in the character of the blessed God. All spiritual forces meet you to-day at the threshold of your office, and offer to join you-the Spirit himself. All lofty themes gather around you the highest among them are to be your ordinary topics. Think, your ordinary themes transcend the sublimest themes of the ancient philosophers. Socrates in his last hour could only lisp and guess on subjects on which you can fluently expatiate and authoritatively pronounce. Plato and Pythagoras sit at your feet. In your every discourse, you can produce a sublimer "Phædo," or become the teacher of Cicero on the "Nature of the gods."

You are a steward of the mysteries of God-a confidant of the heart of God. They only saw the shadows behind a veil, which you are permitted to raise, and within which you are called to officiate. You have not to do with shadows and with surfaces, but with essences-with the sublime, the imperishable, and the eternal. You have to do with the merit of an infinite sacrifice-the purposes of an infinite mind-the agencies of an infinite Spirit—the everlasting destinies of souls. The earth itself exists only as a stage for carrying on the great work to which you are committed. Then bid every inferior interest to stand aside, that you may see your work— to quit your path, that you may press right on. Gaze at it, till you see nothing else. Weigh it, measure it, walk around it, and you will be secure against vanity, from a perpetual consciousness of defect; and against indolence, from mere incapacity of finding rest otherwise than in labouring to fulfil it; and against defeat, for you will see that the glory of God is bound up with its triumph.

3. Remember, too, the noble succession in which you stand. To this motive the apostle appeals, "Make full proof of thy ministry; for I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand." In becoming a minister of Christ, you fall into a train in which the prophets and apostles, the martyrs and confessors, the reformers and missionaries, the worthies and saints of all ages have formed a part-a procession of which the front ranks have long been mingling with the radiance of the ineffable glory—a train which still reaches from earth to heaven. You are encompassed by a great cloud of witnesses. You pass to your work through their bending ranks. A part of their joy consists in seeing you prosecuting their work and emulating their example. They kindled the lamps we carry. Their feet wore the paths we tread-paths which were not seldom watered with tears-soddened with blood. We inherit their experience. "Other men have laboured, and we have entered into their labours." But we cannot live

on the past. We inherit it only as we employ it, and only that we may employ it. Their labours did not leave the world as they found it; and we enter into their labours only as we carry them forwards, and make full proof of our ministry.

4. And then glance at the glorious issue of such a service. Of this the apostle never seems to have lost sight. As in the context, as often as he lifted up his eyes, there was suspended the crown of life. My brother, we must not so think of the solemnity and responsibility of our work as to forget its joyfulness. I do not think that, generally speaking, enough of this element enters into our preaching. True, it is a tender, grave, affecting work. But it began in love, and ends in joy. Our theme is gospel. It was announced from heaven in song. Every step it takes is part of a triumphal march. Every truly Christian sermon is a rehearsal for the final chorus-is, in effect, already set to music. Every truly Christian ministry is a perpetual feast of the Epiphany-a constant manifestation of a living, glorified, triumphant Saviour. Every Christian minister works with the government of God-moves in a line with His purposes. Every hallowed aim takes an angel-shape. Every lofty aspiration. enters into a bright imperishable form. There is nothing good which it does not bless-nothing great which does not bless it, and join it. That was a sublime view of a great artist which represented the sculptor as seeing, in the yet unshaped block of marble, the future statue. That is a

sublimer view which not only foresees the angel, or the spirit of the just man made perfect, in the yet ignorant and unrenewed hearer, but which already places a congregation of such in grand perspective around the throne of God. And yet the apostle did this. He aspired to present all he addressed, “every man perfect before God." Blessed anticipation this! The faithful minister of Christ "gathereth fruit unto life eternal." He has operated on mind-cultivated spirit-sown immortal seed in immortal soil; and he goes

to reap a harvest which will be ever growing under his sickle —to pluck fruit over which time and change have no dominion. And the reward of each is to be enjoyed in fellowship with all; and is thus to be indefinitely enhanced. How shall we picture the joy of spirits, rescued themselves from endless death, meeting alike the embrace of those who were the means of saving them, and of those who were afterwards saved by them? How Divine the delight of finding themselves all in the presence of the great Master-receiving His approbation-entering into His joy-sharing it with Himrejoicing with Him in the harmony and welfare of all sanctified spiritual being, in the attainment of which He allowed them the honour to participate. In prospect of that day, "the Lord bless you, and keep you; the Lord make his face to shine upon you, and be gracious unto you; the Lord lift up his countenance upon you, and give you peace. Amen."

CHARGE IV.*

THE GOOD SOLDIER OF JESUS CHRIST.

2 TIM. ii. 3, 4—"Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life, that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier.”

HERE are three things-the character to be aimed at by the Christian minister, the conditions of his success, and the hope which should inspire him in fulfilling those conditions.

The character he is to aim at is that of a good soldier of Jesus Christ. This single simple phrase lays open to view, as by a magic touch, or as when the eyes of the prophet's servant were unsealed, a wide scene of martial conflict, filled with more than horses and chariots of fire. It may take us back in thought to the hour of the Fall; for then the struggle began, and the martial imagery was first employed-"The seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent's head." Through all the long ages of expectation which followed, the promised Deliverer was seen in prophetic vision, "girding His sword upon His thigh," and preparing for the great encounter. And though His arrival was at length announced as "peace on earth;" though that was the great design of His coming, and will be its certain issue; so certainly would the godlike attempt array all the hostility of hell against it, that He himself averred, "I am come," first

* This charge was Dr Harris's last public discourse, delivered, about three weeks before his death, at the recognition of the Rev. Macbrair, as minister

of Barbican Chapel.