believe on me, and try to be a secret Christian]-whosoever shall confess me before men, him will I also confess before my Father which is in heaven. But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven."

It has been very truthfully said that "the Lord Jesus sustains distinctive relations to his Church different from those which he holds to those without its fold." The elders at Ephesus were exhorted to "feed the Church of God, which he hath purchased with his own. blood." For all the world Jesus died, but especially for his Church. We are told that he "loved the Church, and gave himself for it," that "he might sanctify and cleanse it," and "present it to himself a glorious Church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing." We are also assured that God's people are members of a body of which Christ is the Head, and that to be separated from that body is to be like a severed branch, withered, fruitless, and dead. Without me," said Jesus, "ye can do nothing." He who denies himself the privi lege of Church membership cuts himself off from participation in the most assuring and blessed promises of the Word of God. The Church is Christ's bride, and only members thereof share in his covenant love. The Church is God's family, and only children in this household are certain of all the rights and privileges of heirship. The Church is God's husbandry, God's building, and only those who are identified with it are built up in Christ, their living Head in all things.

"The Church is appointed to fulfill certain offices towards the people of God.

"To her care and administration are confided those means of grace which have been ordained for the calling and salvation of men. The ministry of the Word execute their holy commission within her courts, and there stand to teach and baptize all nations.' To decline connection with the Church is necessarily to be excluded from the use of those means which are appointed in the wisdom and love of Christ for the welfare of his people.

"To take a single instance. Is the sacrament of the Lord's supper a rite to be despised and neglected without injury to the soul? Can a man be a true and vigorous Christian who slights all opportunities of receiving it? Then it must follow that our Lord has imposed upon us a needless and valueless ordinance, which we do well to treat with deserved neglect. But if the mind recoil from such a thought (as every reverent mind must do), then there is value in it, great value in it, value worthy to be bestowed by Christ's own royal hand, and all this value is forfeited when a man makes himself a

spiritual cripple by self-exclusion from it. Such a man will die eternally, not for the loss of an outward rite or the grace it could ex opere operato impart, but for the disobedience and contempt displayed in its neglect.

"Again, the Church can not, indeed, undertake to be the physician to sin-sick souls. But it can be, and is, the hospital in whose wards Jesus Christ, the great Healer, uses the balm of Gilead for the easing of wounded consciences, and the cure of the leprosy of sin. Beyond these walls his healing ministrations may sometimes, but do not ordinarily, extend. To refuse to enter is often to refuse to be healed. For those who can enter to decline is equal to a rejection of the tenderness and skill of Him who alone can staunch the bleeding wounds which sin has made.

"The Church is also the training-school into which the Lord introduces all his children who have been born of the water and of the Spirit,' for instruction and control, for protection and for discipline. Here he has appointed 'pastors and teachers for the perfecting of these his saints, for the work of the ministry,' and for the edifying of his body, while he, by his ever-present Spirit, superintends the whole.

"Shall a new-born child of God be permitted to refuse submission to that training and oversight, that discipline and control which the Father has declared necessary to its welfare? Shall he be allowed to say, I need no instruction from teachers, I will accept of no oversight from bishops, I will submit to no government from rulers, I will not be forced to attend upon the ordinances appointed for my growth; I intend to be a Christian, but I intend to be independent of all earthly authority and control? This is the exact meaning of every man's action who claims to be religious, but refuses to unite himself with the Church of Christ. No pastor has authoritative oversight of him or more influence over him than he chooses to concede; no rulers have control of his life; he may neglect all religious duties, and must, from the nature of the case, neglect many; he may run into any kind of sin, and refuse the rebuke of those to whom he has made no vow of obedi, ence in the Lord; he claims the right to bear himself as a waywardrebellious child in the household of God, defiant of all wholesome restraint and all appointed authority, and yet demanding the name, the respect, the privileges, and the expectations of a son. Every pastor's faith is tried and his influence hindered by many such cases. imagine that the approval of Jesus Christ, the Author of all law, human and divine, can rest on such a man, is a reflection on his wisdom and his love.

To

"Mark the example and conduct of those whose conversion is recorded in the New Testament.

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'On the day of Pentecost three thousand souls believed,' and ere the sun went down the three thousand were baptized into the Christian Church. So we are told that the Lord added to the Church daily such as should be saved,' as though it was then understood, without need of sermons, that those to whom was given the hope of salvation must from that fact identify themselves with the Church. So, again, when Cornelius was converted under the teaching of Peter, and the jailer at Philippi under the exhortations of Silas, and the Egyptian eunuch under the word of Philip, and the woman, Lydia of Thyatira, under the preaching of Paul,-they one and all gave immediate expression to their faith by entering the visible Church through the door of baptism. Their example affords a powerful argument, not for hasty professions, but for certain admission to the Church. You will search in vain for any instance recorded in the New Testament of a believer in Jesus Christ remaining separate from his Church when it was possible for him to unite with it. The very commission of the apostles laid it upon them, not only to make men believers, but to make disciples of all nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.'

cross.

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"There is, indeed, one instance in which a converted man was not received by ordinances into the Church-the thief, converted on the He could not be baptized; his hands and feet were nailed to the beam, and his heart-strings were breaking in the agonies of death. But his is the last case to which recourse should be had for an excuse in denying the Lord. He did what he could; he separated himself from sinners openly, fearlessly rebuking his companion; he courageously declared his faith in a King whose only token of royalty was the crown of thorns still clinging to his bleeding brow.

"It is very common to hear it said by persons who are not willing to form a connection with the Church of Christ that the reason of their refusal is a fear lest they should be unable to live up to their solemn vows, and should, by unfaithfulness, bring reproach on the Christian profession.

"From the lips of some this comes sincerely. These are really self-mistrustful, and diffident of their strength. To any whose inmost conscience witnesses that they are sincere we will answer: 'Be not afraid; only believe.' Christ Jesus your Lord has promised you his grace and assistance. He has declared that none shall pluck you out of his hand,' and nothing shall separate you from his love. He

bids you venture yourself on him, promising that you 'shall be holden up,' and that when you are weak you shall, by his grace, be made strong. To obey in the face of the dreaded terrors of backsliding, to follow in the midst of darkness and uncertainty, is to let faith have its perfect work. But to plead fears as an excuse for disobedience is the acting of a dishonoring unbelief. God has laid on you the duty— he has charged himself with the result.

"But it is to be feared that with many this apology is but a mask to hide other reasons even more unworthy. We have seen that the Church is a training-school, where Christ's children are placed under tutors and guardians for instruction and restraint. There are many who do not desire to submit themselves to the oversights, the selfdenials, and the control of the Christian life. Their consciences will not suffer them to be wholly irreligious. Hence they mediate between inclination and duty by the regular performance of pious devotions, while at the same time they maintain a strict independence of ecclesiastical control. They know that there are pleasures of which a Christian may not lawfully partake-their souls still cling to these pleasures, and refuse to resign them. They know that there are obligations which the Christian is bound to fulfill their hearts still recoil from these duties, and refuse to perform them. They desire a crown, but they wish to escape the cross and the thorny pathway. They hope to enter heaven, but they long to avoid the tribulation and the self-denial which intervene. This, whether known or unknown to themselves, is the secret motive of their hearts. They seek to silence conscience by the introduction of side questions, such as the inconsistencies of Christians. I do not wish to be a professor and not a possessor,' they plausibly say. Aye; but it is your solemn duty and opportunity to be a possessor; not to be such is a sin against the love of God, who offers his grace freely.

"The Lord Jesus told of some who shall knock, saying: 'Lord, Lord, open unto us. Have we not prophesied in thy name?' Have we not been believers in heart? But he shall answer: Depart; I never knew you.' No; they were not enrolled among his people. Their voice never confessed his name. He never saw them sitting at his table. He never knew them.

"Christian duty is plain. You can never hereafter justify neg lect by the plea of ignorance. The refuge of all who stop short of the open profession of a living faith is a refuge of lies.' You may live as you may, but separate from the Church of God's redeemed you can never be certain of salvation. Your disobedience must ever

throw a shadow over your hopes. And when you have gone where no eye can follow you to your destiny, the most that the largest charity will be able to write at your tomb will be this: We trust that God forgave him his sin." (Rev. J. H. Smith.)

THE MINISTRY.

The Christian ministry was established by our Lord, as a permanent institution in his Church, for the revelation of his will and the proclamation of his gospel as the light and life of the world. this purpose he "gave some apostles, and some prophets, and some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers," that every branch of the sacred office might bear the imprint of the Divine majesty, wisdom, and goodness.

This high character of the ministerial calling on the one side is more than offset by the human imperfections and humble attainments on the other. The union of the Divine and the human is always a union of contrasts.

Conscientious ministers have always felt this disparity. Even the chiefest of the apostles, sinking under the weight of his ministerial responsibility, was heard to say: "Who is sufficient for these things?" Who, whether man or angel, is sufficient to unfold the great mystery of godliness, to speak that which is unspeakable, to make known that which passeth knowledge, to stand before men as the representative of Jesus and say: We beseech you, in Christ's stead, be ye recon

ciled to God." What! We, unlearned ourselves, to instruct others! We to convey life, who are ourselves dead! We, so defiled, to administer a service so pure, so purifying! "Woe is me!" cried one of old, when contrasting this honor with his own personal unfitness, "for I am undone, for I am a man of unclean lips." But for the gracious assurance of the blessed Master, "My grace is sufficient for thee," and the not less gracious realization that "our sufficiency is of God," many who view the sacred office in its true light as the ordinance of God would feel utterly unable to enter upon the discharge of its solemn duties, or, having entered, to continue therein.

The faithful minister takes upon himself, or rather ventures to bear what God has placed upon him, the awful responsibility of proclaiming the unsearchable riches of Christ to perishing souls around him. He feels the tremendous guilt to be incurred by any who fail to receive him, and willfully reject his commission. He that heareth you heareth me, and he that despiseth you despiseth me, and he that