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ORDINATION AND INSTALLATION

ALEXANDBB McKENZIE.

*

SERMON 'j£*tu

AND OTHER EXERCISES,

ORDINATION AND INSTALLATION

ALEXANDEE McKENZIE,

As Pastor of the South Parish Church,

AUGUSTA, MAINE,

Augxist 38, 1861,

AUGUSTA:

PRINTED AT THE KENNEBEC JOURNAL OFFICE.

1861.

SERMON

EEV. GEOEGE EICHAEDS

LITCHFIELD, CONN.

SERMON.

ISAIAH, xxvm : 10.

PRECEPT* UPON PRECEPT, PRECEPT UPON PRECEPT J LINE UPON LINE, LINE UPON LINE ; HERE A LITTLE, AND THERE A LITTLE.

This is the language of complaint. These Hebrews are finding fault with their religious instruction. It is too monotonous ; too repetitious ; the self-same lessons over and over.

Does not the preaching of our day provoke the like criticism with the prophesying of that day? Facing as we do, Sabbath after Sabbath, essentially the same con- gregation, speaking from the same book, educing from it topics, one very like another, is it not fair to conclude that some among our hearers, at least mentally, adopt the language of the Text?.

I propose to treat of the repetition incident to all genu- ine preaching : the grounds of it, the precedent for it, the advantages from it.

I. The Grounds.

The. very structure of the mind seems to require this reiteration of instruction. We have a strange facility in

*The verb is wanting in the Hebrew.

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losing the impressions made upon us. Either they are obliterated altogether, or they become vague and imper- ceptible to consciousness. The tablet of memory would soon become a blank, at least so far as recollection goes, were not great pains taken to hold back and call back the facts and truths recorded, from the oblivion toward which they ever tend. For lack of such studious retrospection, a large part of our mental acquisitions come and go like the shadow of the cloud on the standing grain, leaving no footprints. Religious impressions, above all, are liable to be thus evanescent. Whether because we are more will- ing to part with them, or because we are less able to retain them, certain it is that we must give earnest heed to the things which we have heard, or we shall let them slip! Instead of being "graven with an iron pen and lead in the rock forever," they seem "writ in water." See we not then a reason in our intellectual constitution for traversing the ground over and over, reviving the faded impressions, cutting anew, letter by letter, what would else become illegible and unintelligible ?

Again, outward exposures afford occasion for such renewal of impressions. Were the mind never so reten- tive in its own nature, it is subjected to the wear and tear of external influences. Religious impressions especially are liable to this abrasion. The world we live in is not friendly, but adverse, to serious things. There is always friction and chafing whenever they are brought in contact. However carefully you have trained your child and striven

to fortify him against coming dangers, you dread the hour when he must leave your protecting roof and when your unwearied efforts to imprint upon his susceptible heart the teachings of this Book must undergo the ordeal of ungodly associates and associations. Gladly would you keep him near you, and, day hy day, repeat your pious toil. But, no ! He, like you, is on probation and must submit to its tests, doubly "blessed" if he "endure" them. So Sab- bath-day impressions, at the fireside, in the Sanctuary, in the Sabbath School, must encounter the rude antagonism of week-day resorts and pursuits. Could we only make every day a Sabbath ! But we cannot. ' ' Six days shalt thou labor." The world has its rights and will assert and maintain them. What is left us, but to counteract this obliterating process, continually to renew what is so con- tinually effaced? Each Lord's day owes a service to all its predecessors, to do their work over again. Minister succeeds to minister, the heir to his responsibilities, " filling up that which is behind" of his unfinished toils : " one sowing, the other reaping, that he that soweth, and he that reapeth may rejoice together." We are an "Apostolical Succession" in the Apostolical sense: no man's task complete ; each to be an Old Mortality, with hammer and chisel re-etching the weather-beaten char- acters, trimming out the gathered moss, scraping away the accumulated stain, if so be the industry and zeal of other days and other hands may not be fruitless.

Again, the incessant fluctuation in human affairs re-

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quires old truths in new forms. Society is like "the sea when it cannot rest," and individual lives are its heaving and tumbling billows. No century, nor year, nor day, nor moment, is the exact duplicate of any other. Hence truth, to answer its ends, must adapt itself to this per- petual mutation. New truths will not answer ; we must have the tried, the tested, which long experience has passed upon and approved. Old forms will not answer: like antique armor they have served their purpose; are objects of curiosity and out of date. As the quaint Saxon Chronicles have to be translated, the type recast, the words respelled, to accommodate them to our modern eyes ; so must the sterling ore of God's word from time to time be stamped over in the mint of his providence, if the coin is to pass current. The precise questions, for instance, that arose in Moses' clay, or in Paul's, are not likely to recur in ours. But the principles then settled were estab- lished for all time. Casting the two into the crucible, we must eliminate the essential from the non-essential, the permanent from the transient, then apply the former to the vexed problems of our time. We are not to go back into the past to torture facts existing then into a forced identity with, or semblance to, facts existing now; but we are to go back to it, and point back, for those eternal rules of right which are of universal application, and are the best possible directory in every possible emergency. We cannot repair too often, nor lead others too often, to a wisdom incapable of amendment, perfect at the outset,

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whose record is here, and which has always light to shed on whatever concerns us or ours, our family, our neighbor- hood, our country, or mankind.

II. We have great precedent for such repetition of instruction.

He who made the mind and must be presumed to un- derstand it, thus deals with it. He does in Nature. This ever open volume, whose pictured pages alike instruct and delight us, is as old as the world. Its literature is peri- odical. Spring with its bursting buds, Summer with its ripened harvests, Autumn with its garnered stores, Winter with its pall of snows, march by us in single file, and utter, each in its turn, its word of wisdom, its parable of beauty and significance. The rear of the procession is scarcely past before its head appears again, and the same recital is gone over. What is lost in variety is gained in vividness. The Creator might undoubtedly have made every season unlike every other, and thus satisfied to the full our hankering after novelty. He preferred things as they are. "The old is better." It is the old, statedly renewed, revivified, readorned, but still the old.

As with the works and the ways of God, so with his word. Consider how the Bible repeats itself. The earlier Testament is the preface to the later: the later the ap- pendix to the earlier. Prophecy is the anticipation of history, history the realization of prophecy. The ten com- mandments of the first dispensation are condensed into the

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two of the second. The smoking altars of Judaism pre- figure Calvary ; herds of bulls and flocks of goats the one "Lamb of God." The cross links past and future; Eden and the Judgment. The only veritable history of human- ity is the History of its Redemption. Christ is the Alpha and the Omega, — "the beginning and the ending, the first and the last, which is, and which was, and which is to come." Is not here reiteration ? While Prophet steps into the place of Prophet, Apostle of Apostle — the former their Lord's forerunners, the latter His successors — from their lips and his breaks a single Gospel, the "Glad tidings of great joy to all people." We are in good com- pany then, when we determine to know nothing among men save Christ crucified. Our theme may lack the zest of singularity, but it is the most genuine, and the only genuine Christianity.

III. Decided advantages accrue to the preacher from this repetition of instruction. Three will be specified.

First, our office is brought within the scope of our abilities. He who constituted the mind what it is, and who deals with it as it is, has condescended to employ auxiliaries. His Ministers are to do his work, in his way. Happily for us we have not to originate our mes- sage, but simply to repeat it as it is told us. "The prophet that hath a dream, let him tell a dream : and he that hath my word, let him speak my word faithfully. What is the chaff to the wheat? saith the Lord. Is not my word like as a fire? saith the Lord; and like a

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hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces?" Between these covers, written down by the pen of God, is the sub- ject matter of our sermons. First, having ascertained, with the best helps at our command, and after careful and prayerful scrutiny, the true import of the record, we are next to declare it, "in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God." Genius is not so requisite to the preacher as a " teachable spirit ; ' ' for it is less his province to invent than to investigate. He is, to be sure, to employ his best faculties in the inter- pretation and elucidation of the Scriptures, yet it is his judgment, and not his fancy, that will stand him most in stead ; nor must that judgment be too sure of its conclu- sions, but must weigh them against other men's judgments, perhaps equally trustworthy. No single intellect is the unerring exponent of God's word, and least of all is that which deems itself to be ! Unless the sanctified learning and labor of centuries have been wasted, the soundest divinity must be largely hereditary, the heirloom of the church, accumulated and transmitted from age to age. The arrogant assertion, then, of one's intellectual inde- pendence, the aiming to differ, if possible, from our co- temporaries or our predecessors, an affected eccentricity, aping the tone and air of originality, are not only out of keeping with our calling, but at utter variance with it. We are not poets, but preachers, Evangelists, "bearers of good news," which are only trustworthy as they come from God, and bear His, not our, seal and superscription.

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As a denomination we subscribe to neither creed nor ritual prescribed by ecclesiastical authority: hence it is doubly incumbent on us that a wholesome public sentiment restrain us, and that each put a curb upon his tendencies to an extravagant and fantastic individuality.

Again, this feature of our ministry serves as a check to extreme opinions. Men are prone by constitution, or education, or position, to be over-radical, or over-conserv- ative; on one side, or the other, of the golden mean. Some cling to the old, because it is old, when it is high time it was relinquished. Others rush into the new, because it is new, while the old is to be preferred. Is it not a prerogative of our high and holy calling, that, identi- fying ourselves with neither class of ultraists, we gain the ear and win the* confidence of both? Watchful and thoughtful spectators of the hot contest of our day, instead of noisy partisans should we not be friendly mediators, bearing the olive-branch to and fro, between the hostile camps? Our blessed Lord was such, and '"it is enough for the disciple, that he be as his Master." When we come down into the ring, and mix with the fiercest in the fray, have we not forgotten the exhortation, "The servant of the Lord must not strive?" How can we object to what is venerable and time-sanctioned on that account, and still continue to expound this Book ? What is older than it ? How many customs, laws, usages, institutions, has it not out-lived ? Which of the new books, or libra- ries, is likely to supplant it, or improve upon it ? No !

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We should be false to our vocation were we behind any in deference and reverence for whatever of true worth has survived the wreck and waste of generations. Such mon- uments are too few to be undervalued. The Christian Ministry itself is one of them, its credentials reckoning their eighteen centuries ; and if old things must be rejected, its career draws to a close.

But while free from this rabid appetite for change we should be no less exempt from a jealousy of real progress and improvement. Was not our Master the foremost of Reformers? "He came not to bring peace, but a sword." The truth which He preached, which He was, was "like unto leaven;" He cast it into the mass, where it has seethed and fermented from then till now ; nor is its mission of commotion and agitation half accomplished. He brought peace indeed, but it was peace by the sword, peace through the sword : Christianity was to fight its way to conquest and dominion. Yet "the weapons of our warfare are not carnal." The Christian warrior is to be equipped from Heaven's arsenal : "his loins girt about with truth, having on the breast-plate of righteousness, his feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace, taking the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation, the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God." His panoply throughout, offensive and defensive, is a spiritual one. "Were Christ's kingdom of this world then would his servants fight ; but now is his kingdom not from hence." Their errand, like his, is to revolutionize society by the

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force of truth. No means can be so effective. Its expan- sive energy, mightier than subterranean mines and exploding missiles, can shake down the massive and hoary fortresses of error. When we resign this instru- mentality for any other, or make this subordinate to any other, we sell our birth-right for a mess of pottage. To preach the gospel in its bearings on social and political reforms is one thing ; to preach social and political theo- ries in their supposed bearings on the gospel is another thing. It is the gospel, the gospel, which we are to preach. "What is the chaff to the wheat? saith the Lord."

Once again, this feature of our calling enjoins it upon us to proclaim the truth, relying solely on the Spirit of truth. Even God's word is ineffectual without God. The hand that furnished the seed must give the increase, else Paul would plant and Apollos water in vain. A startling bulletin from the seat of war finds us all on the alert, eager to devour the latest scrap and crumb of information. But who would think of buying or selling, borrowing or lending, a last month's newspaper ? What then are we to do with a book, that has survived scores of generations, is in every body's hands, read through, who shall say how often, and preached from, morning and afternoon of nearly every Sabbath since preaching was ? How can we give life and freshness to it ? We ! The Author of the book and of the mind, who fitted them to each other, must beget in the latter an appreciation of the former : then no

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book will be less trite, less obsolete, than this, discolored, worm-eaten, tattered, dilapidated, though it may be. All things become new to him who is himself renewed. The change seems to be in them which is, in fact, in him ; as when after a winter of wasting sickness we venture abroad with the return of the birds, and the very light of Para- dise seems to illumine our homespun earth, and we gaze entranced on the Eden-like fertility and magnificence around us. The truest spring-time of the world is when the heart is transformed, and its enlightened vision beholds sky and earth and sea transfigured, the golden halo from within overspreading the heretofore dimmed creation. Let the soul be born again and the "new heavens" of the Apocalypse begin to bend above it and the ' ' new earth' ' to spread green around it.

Brethren and Fathers, happy for us is it that to the commission " Go, preach," was appended the prediction "lam with you always." It was the second command- ment with promise. "We know we accomplish nothing without God. If one of the Seraphim fly and touch our lips with a live coal from off the altar, if tongues as of fire hover over the waiting congregation, if the rushing mighty wind, that bloweth where it listeth, breathes through the valley of the dead, then, not till then, does this familiar Bible become the wonder of wonders, its stalest of stale messages the very latest news ; men read as if they had never read, and hear as if they had never heard; "The entrance of his words giveth light;" his

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"Testimonies become their heritage forever;" the "Law of his mouth better than thousands of gold and silver."

In conclusion, let me congratulate you, my brother, as well as this church and people, that you succeed to-day to this honored pastorate, and step into the line of able and faithful men who have here borne witness for Christ. Their ministry, gratefully remembered, so far from being terminated, is ever renewed in the toils and joys, reverses and successes, of those on whom their mantle has fallen, who have caught their spirit, and who hold high and pass on the torch which elder hands have relinquished. Suc- ceeding to these wise master-builders, you come, I know, not to try your " 'prentice hand" at odd freaks of archi- tecture, but to rear the spiritual house, after established methods and of approved materials, upon the foundations of many generations. If " cursed is the man that trust- eth in man and maketh flesh his arm and whose heart departeth from the Lord," twice cursed is the self-sufficient minister. It is when we are weak that we are strong. The very chiefest of Apostles accounted himself the chief of sinners, not worthy to be called an Apostle ; yet he could ' c do all things through Christ who strengthened him." "Not that he was sufficient of himself to think any thing as of himself, but his sufficiency was of God." And his more impulsive and equally zealous associate exhorts, "If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God ; if any man minister, let him do it as of the ability which God giveth."

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It is my hope for you in this hour of your solemn espousals to this people, not that you bring to your work superior abilities, disciplined and invigorated by patient study, nor that you are welcomed here by hearts compe- tent to appreciate you and ready to co-operate with you ; but that your "eyes are lifted to the hills whence cometh your help." "He giveth power to the faint and to them that have no might he increaseth strength." You do well to magnify your office ! If the Astronomer at night, in his silent watch tower, the noisy world asleep, penetrates the boundless spaces with his glass, counts and classifies orbs which his naked eye cannot detect, marks their posi- tions and relations, then by day registers and reviews his results and exhausts on them the maxims and methods of Geometry, finding in his "high and heavenly calling" ample motive and incentive to his wakeful vigils and his toilsome investigation; his ardor and assiduity, surely, should not be less, who by the eye of faith scans the heaven of heavens, makes note of its phenomena, then traces their bearings on the little globe which we tempo- rarily occupy, and which is the stepping stone to an incomparably grander and more lasting sphere of being. Yes, you enter to night on no holiday pursuit. Better play with the thunderbolts of the Almighty than with the barbed arrows of his word.

Not that I distrust you ! We are not strangers to each other. Having loved you and confided in you amid the exposures and temptations of a great city and its business

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pursuits ; having been cheered hy your countenance and aid in the devotional meeting, and by your christian fellow- ship at the fireside and the family altar ; having watched your growth and progress in the Academy, the University, the Seminary ; gladdened this evening by the ample field which Providence has so early opened to you ; my affec- tion and respect for you would make me doubly solicitous, were I not assured, after no limited observation, that you rely, not on your own strength, which is weakness, nor your own wisdom which is folly, but on the "grace which is sufficient for you." "For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, that He would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened by his Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your heart by faith ; that being rooted and grounded in love, you may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height, and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fulness of God."

Make full proof of your ministry; nor ever weary of your message, though it be "Precept upon precept, pre- cept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little."

CHARGE TO THE PASTOR

REV. JOHN E. TODD

BOSTON

CHAKGE.

My young Beother in Christ :

The ministry, upon which you now enter, is the only changeless profession. With the advance of civilization, the progress of dis- covery, the fluctuations of public taste, and the varying conditions of human society, philosophy forms new schools ; trades and arts revive, alter and fall into decay ; commerce finds new channels, staples and methods of traffic ; medicine invents new systems of practice ; laws are enacted, modified and repealed.

Upon the ministerial work and mission alone, the flight of eigh- teen centuries, so prolific of transformations, has left not the shadow of a change.

Any other business, or science, or art, requires of its devotees, continually new qualifications and new services. The minister alone "hath an unchangeable priesthood."

The reason is obvious. All labor is prompted and regulated' by some supposed knowledge. But the knowledge upon which every other employment is based is slowly and uncertainly derived from the experiments of progressive human research. The knowledge of the wants of human nature, and of the divine plan of salvation, has alone been revealed, once for all, with a distinctness and a completeness, which have left nothing to be discovered, by the study of the greatest intellects, or the experience of remotest ages.

The facts with reference to which the ministry was instituted being perfectly known, as well as unalterable, its work is the same, in all places, and at all times ; and the commission of the minister is a stereotyped form.

Yet perhaps you will bear it in more vivid remembrance, if it is briefly repeated to you, in new words, by the representative of that church, which, from a distance, is watching your course with peculiar interest and affection.

This fact, and your own request, must be my excuse for offering

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advice, and delivering a Charge, which would seem to come with more propriety, from older lips.

I charge you therefore, first of all, to remember that yours is "the ministry of the Word:" that is, that preaching is its one grand duty.

The amount of time and strength which you will devote to the cultivation of the friendships of your people, and to the acquisition of an individual influence with them, — the extent to which you will employ other instrumentalities of usefulness, — the rules which you will lay down for your own life and conduct, — every act, and course of action, must be determined with a view to the greatest possible pulpit influence.

Whatever opinions, or mode of life, harmless in themselves, and even whatever devotion to other means of usefulness, interfere with, and have a tendency to lessen your power in the pulpit, must be unhesitatingly sacrificed.

The pulpit is the great treasure committed to your safe-keeping, and must be always foremost in your thoughts, — not forgotten with its high and solemn interests, in any idle moment, or pressure of other cares.

Unless your people are uncommonly wise, or uncommonly unin- teresting, they will exert an unintentional but powerful pressure upon you, to induce you to give to their individual friendships, the strength that should be given to pulpit preparations. You will find also, an inward inclination to the same thing ; for it may seem that you can secure not only greater popularity, but an actually greater number of conversions, by means of personal influence than by means of preaching, and can thus accomplish a more successful ministry.

Be very careful of yielding to such temptations. Never aban- don for an instant, your great gun. It is " the foolishness of preaching" which is to save the world. The pulpit is the place for you to work. Here is the channel through which the influence of your life and character is to be poured, and will go forth with greatest power.

Do not be anxious for immediate and apparent successes, nor reckon the value of your labors by numbers of conversions. Let the mass of the community rather than particular individuals be your target. Be satisfied, as was the apostle, with laying a broad and deep " foundation" for others to build upon.

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It is upon communities that good ministers leave their impress. Their labors fruit in the ages to come. Their "record is on high."

Kemember that the mission of the preacher is, to teach rather than to excite. Strictly to give instruction rather than to move sensibilities. Feelings heal; Truth cuts deep. It is the truth, clearly expressed and forcibly illustrated, which is to do your work, and not your oratorical ability.

Avoid that rhetoric which only pleases the fancy, and blunts the edge of truth ; and above all, scorn to bring to the aid of truth, an attempted originality, which always walks on the brink of false- hood, or a forced eccentricity, which is the essence of vanity.

A " sensation preacher" is a " common nuisance," and a hin- drance rather than a help, to the cause he advocates.

Hope to find nothing so interesting, so beautiful, or so powerful, as the unembellished truths of the gospel. Any attempt to make them more attractive and effective is as absurd, as would be an attempt to decorate a lily with a painter's pencil, or to adorn with crackling, short-lived fireworks, the serene, eternal beauty of the sun-lit sky. The power even of the great Preacher lay, in simply bearing "witness to the truth!" And remember always, that evident earnestness and sincerity are far more effective than the most convincing logic, or the most brilliant eloquence.

You will find the pressure of public taste urging you to preach what are called " practical sermons ;" — commendatory of particu- lar virtues, and condemnatory of specific sins. Such sermons are always popular, if general in their application, and especially if their pointed rebukes are aimed at persons outside of the congre- gation.

A short experience will convince you of the comparative worth- lessness of such preaching. It makes but little impression, coming from one who is "himself compassed with infirmity." Those whose consciences approve, are not moved by it, unless their hearts are previously touched by the truths of the gospel, — and then they do not need it. While those who conscientiously differ from you. in your interpretation of the rule of duty, are only exasperated, and driven beyond the reach of your influence.

You will remember that there is no virtue, which did not exist long before Christ came ; and that preaching virtue therefore, is not preaching Christianity.

Such considerations will induce you, while careful to let your

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own views of christian duty be distinctly understood, to refrain from attempting1 to force the decisions of your own conscience upon others ; to set a slight value upon mere exhortations to mor- ality and inculcations of duty ; and to treat cautiously, or better yet, altogether avoid politics, and every other question of practical duty, which is honestly debatable. Be your own judge of what is the gospel, and "the whole gospel," and beware of " preaching suited to the times." The only " preaching suited to the times" is that which is suited to all times, "that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners, of whom" you and I are " chief."

You need not be afraid of setting forth too forcibly, or too often, the great doctrines, especially the more humbling doctrines of the cross. These are the truths which save. Once bring a soul under the power of the cross, and you have done that which you could not do in years of exhortation to virtue.

Proclaim with emphasis and distinctness, the fundamental truths of " Christ and Him crucified."

You will gain nothing by trying to adapt your language, or frame your opinions, to meet the prejudices, and feelings, and sen- timents, of the so-called more " liberal" of your hearers. Let there never be any doubt or misunderstanding about your position on the essential points of christian doctrine. Avoid no fundamental doctrine because it is disputed, nor consent to submit to the tyran- nical demand of the age, that the harsher doctrines of the gospel shall be tempered or suppressed. Proclaim clearly salvation to him who believes, — damnation to him who believes not."

In opposing error, prefer rather to exhibit the true, than to denounce and combat the false.

Settle distinctly in your own mind what are the essential doc- trines of the cross, and while you teach the others, insist not on them too strongly. I charge you, to lend your influence to the removal of unessential doctrines from the articles of faith of all denominations, and particularly our own, where they have so long grieved christian charity, and created disunity in the body of Christ.

Let the great burden of your preaching be, Jesus Christ ; and even above your devotion to the truths of the gospel, or your interest in your people, let there be seen a personal attachment to the Great "Author and Finisher of our faith," and the "Name that is above every name."

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Preach at times for the children. "Feed the lambs." At the same time preach a manly religion. Beware of doing- anything to deepen the too general impression, that the gospel- is only for fee- ble children and sickly women. And be a man, as well as a min- ister.

Much of your influence as a preacher will depend upon your conduct out of the pulpit. Beware equally of cultivating intima- cies, and of incurring resentments among your people.

You will find it the common opinion that ministers have no feel- ings of their own. Try not to show any. Be slow to perceive insults, but be sure to make men respect you. Do and suffer much for the sake of preserving your influence for Christ, to which you would not submit on any other account ; but remember that servility is likewise fatal to influence.

You will have no lack of advisers. Listen to all advice and sug- gestion, with patience and deference ; follow only your own judg- ment. A minister must be independent, or — nothing. Let it be early seen that you are not a man to be advised, — much less driven. Treat threats and flattery alike, with silent indifference.

Befuse to listen to reports of what various individuals may have said about you or your preaching. You will, it is true, lose much that would be encouraging and pleasant, and if any disaffection should spring up, it will take you more completely by surprise ; but it is better to be kilted outright by a thunderbolt, than to be stung to death by gnats. Never take any notice of gossip, least of all in the pulpit.

You must expect that the public will feel a great responsibility concerning your domestic affairs. Your utmost endeavors will fail to make it understood, that .their management belongs wholly to yourself. This you cannot resent. You can only guard against giving occasion for remark, or opportunity for interference. And yet let your private life be transparent rather than secret ; and prefer to show your expectation that others will not interfere with your personal affairs, chiefly by refraining from interference with theirs. Show and try to feel the most perfect confidence in your people, and that you may be able to exercise this confidence, be careful not to put yourself, by any imprudence, in the power of any.

You will find that you are expected to "get rich" on your salary It will be better not to do so. Yet if possible, "owe no man any

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thing," except gratitude for kindness which can never be repaid, with which, I am confident, this people will load you.

Never for a moment entertain the foolish and sickly "shady- side" notion, that the profession which you have chosen is above all others full of trial and hardship. Every life has its trials, and the life of the modern minister, as it is no sinecure, so also is no martyrdom. And think more of your duty, than of its reward. The "crown" is "reserved" to be given ; not even in the ministry can it be earned.

Remember always, and above all, that "he who waters" must "himself be watered," and that "the priest, as for the people, so also for himself," needs to "offer." Pray without ceasing." Drink continually of the fountain to which you invite others ; and while with one hand you lead sinners to the Savior, put forth the other and touch the "hem of his garment."

Often your heart will fail, and you will grow discouraged, and think your labor mis-spent and unrequited. In such hours, may the great unknown future results of your toil throw back their shadow upon you unperceived, and supply to you a strange secret strength and unaccountable joy.

Often you will feel burdened with a weight of responsibility almost crushing, and will be keenly sensible of the solitariness necessarily incident to the position of a sentinel. But you will be stayed up by the memories and prayers, not only of your people, but of one* at whose feet you used to sit, and of many hearts in a distant church, "f" who, fulfilling the commands of her Lord to "sow beside all waters," is here, through you, sowing beside the waters of the Kennebec.

And at every step of your pilgrimage, hark to that Voice ! deep and eternal, like the tones of waters around a lonely isle, " "Lo I

AM WITH YOU ALWAY ! "

*Rev. Mr. Richards.

t Winter St. Church, Boston.

EIGHT HAND OF FELLOWSHIP

KEY. WHEELOCK CEAIG

NEW-BEDFORD

RIGHT HAND OP FELLOWSHIP.

There are many things one might say, and would like to say in this connection, but there is not time for saying much. We all greet you to-night with a most loving and tender welcome. I speak for the churches at large, particularly those composing the Council ; for the surrounding community of which I am myself an offshoot, with roots of fond and imperishable recollection fastening me here now and forever ; I speak, in fine, for this entire assembly present, and for all whom it may concern ; — one and all, we greet you with a loving and tender welcome. *

Many rills of fellowship and heartfelt concord run together, to swell the gushing tide of kindly feeling which is now flowing from these thronging hearts into your heart. The brethren of this church take you home to their bosoms, as him in whose good com- pany and under whose leadership they hope to prosecute their pilgrimage of Sabbath ordinances and household cheer, — of toil, joy, sorrow and celestial hope, till earthly "travelling days are done." The dwellings of this parish have sent hither, this even- ing, their various inmates, "young mien and maidens, old men and children," to receive their always acceptable guest, their friend whose nameless, numberless other offices are to culminate m sealing them with sacraments, uniting them at the marriage-altar, solacing them in death and blessing them at the 'grave. The citizens of this town, for the sake of all its social and educational interests, are glad to win a new and scholarly accession to their genial circle. We further bethink ourselves, amid our joy on this occasion, of what we trust that coming days will not fail to develop, — the occasion's intimate and salutary bearing upon our noble College at Brunswick, and our precious Seminary at Bangor. Your prede- cessors in the pastorate are here to ratify and endorse the banns. The preacher who has uttered the divine word to us at this time, clothed as he is, in the associated ideas of our minds,, with fragrant

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thoughts of his sainted colleague and your sometime pastor, of blessed memory, enriches this ordination by contributing to it the memorable and sacred relationship which inseparably binds him and you together. The honored church in Winter street, where our tribes are wont, every month of May, to go up to worship, responds to the hospitable call of the people here, and officially assists our ingrafting of one of her members into this sister vine. It rounds the full-orbed symmetry of our content, that the Council includes among its sons of Maine the brave and faithful shepherd of the flock in old Salem street. A goodly company of neighbor- ing clergy and delegates proffer you a generous admission to their friendship. The foster-children of this church, returning to the dear old fold from manifold tossings to and fro in the earth, devout- ly rejoice that our precious and venerable spiritual mother, vigor- ous and queenly as in youth, has her annals illumined with the gladness of this auspicious hour.

Of these last, unworthily and humbly I conclude the train, blend- ing with the public emotions of the service the fervent love result- ing from private intercourse in pleasant years gone by. Here, dear Mr. McKenzie, is the elect garner to which our heavenly Father bids you bring, for their disbursing, your sheaves of culture gathered during the elapsed term of golden, swift-winged youth. Here God opens to our view the purposed, hitherto secret issue of things concerning which, on many a summer afternoon, we have taken sweet counsel by the Dartmouth shore, and along the beach of Buzzard's Bay. Eeserve a place in your heart for those now sundered companionships ; and to the firmament of your mind, with the sunbeams of your new home, admit, as a starry evening- shine, affectionate recollections of the days that will return no more.

But why should we give even a thought to these personal and temporary incidents, when it is our privilege to be absorbed in a contemplation infinitely profounder and more delightful. Let us chiefly clasp our hands, dear friend, in the fellowship of Christ.

" Forgotten be each worldly theme,

When christians meet together thus ; • We only wish to speak of Him

Who lived and died and reigns for us."

We all who in Christ's name are here met, have a common and inexhaustible fountain of reciprocal love, in the joint love we share

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for him, and in the unspeakable love he bears to us. We all love each other, and oh, how well ! forgiving and forgetting ; do we not ? — we love each other, because we seek in unison to serve him here for a little while, and hope then to go home to him together, "to die no more." Be these clasped hands of ours, my brother, the pledge and symbol of a loving union broad as the outermost circle of christian discipleship, deep as the inmost heart, stronger than death, enduring as eternity, and reaching far within the pearly gates of heaven.

CHARGE TO THE PEOPLE

REV. E. B. WEBB

BOSTON.

CHARGE.

It has fallen to me to address the members of this church and society, on this occasion, in behalf, and in the name, of the Council.

The results of this occasion may affect you more than they will me, but no one of you all feels a deeper interest than I feel in the acts and issues of this hour. I know that as to the place which as ministers we occupy in the horizon of your life and thought "he must increase but I must decrease,"" and yet I am comforted in the belief that your hearts are large enough to hold us both. It is not a personal consideration that affects me, but the possibilities and certainties of this new ministry as regards your immortality. The relation now formed touches the soul in the springs and conditions of its spiritual life — the issues that are to flow from this union will constitute ingredients, bitter or sweet, in your eternal cup.

Out of every relation there must arise mutual and reciprocal duties. What is laid upon, what is expected of, the new Pastor, you know. I am persuaded also that you know What the people ought to do, and I feel that I have only to stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance in this matter.

To come at once then to the work in hand, remember that you must provide for your minister's temporal support. "Do ye not know that they which minister about holy things live of the things of the temple ? and they which wait at the altar are partakers with the altar ? Even so hath the Lord ordained that they which preach the gospel should live of the gospel. It may be the business of other men to sow, and gather the products of the earth — to buy and sell and get gain, it is your minister,s whole business to preach the Gospel. This is the one paramount, absorbing work of his life. To it he must give, undivided, and unembarrassed, the whole energy of his being, — brain, heart and hand. And yet he does not work for hire, neither can he haggle about a dollar. Plainly, there- fore, every member of the society must take care for his temporal

36

support. And this I know you will do. In ten years experieenc I never found you wanting.

Again, let me remind you that you are to attend uniformly on his instructions. This is clearly involved in your engagement. You have not called this young man here to preach to these empty seats. No man at all worthy to be invested with the insignia of the sacred office would accept such a call, or respond to such an insult. But it seems to me that many persons are very thought- less, or very guilty in this respect. Suppose that there were but one pew-holder, (to get at the principle of the thing,) could he justify himself, having made this implied, this virtual agreement to meet his minister twice on every Sabbath, in staying away ? Or in any other case would he think it right to substitnte a woman, or a child to fulfil his engagement ? I do not know whether or not a want of manly preaching be the cause, but this I know that there is often a want of manly heads and hearts in the sanctuary. For one I have never yet acquired grace enough to get above my con- gregation. I can go out at night, and speak to the distant and silent stars. I can talk to the spirits that whisper in the trees, I can pour forth torrents of thought and ask burning questions of the dead that sleep beneath the white stones, but by no self-excita- tion, by no fiat of will, or imagination, can I ever arouse myself to preach to the pews that stand witnessing to the voluntary absence of indifferent and faithless parishioners. We speak now not of your obligations to God, but of your relation to your minister. This personal neglect, this sharp slight, oh, it cuts like a knife. Let this matter be thought of, and let every non-attendant know that he is doing all he can to depress, to dispirit his minister — to dry up in him all the warm fountains of sympathy and make him cold, and dull and lifeless.

Nor is it enough for a parishioner to take his body into the sanctuary : let him take his soul, and his sympathies along with him — let him give an open, front face ; — a steady, answering, in- spiring eye, and a smile, or a tear that shows a responsive sensi- bility.

Let me add also as you thus come in, and sit down to hear your minister, give him your confidence. Hear with a generous, unoc- cupied, teachable, childlike mind. If you are suspicious, disposed to hear what was not said, and to see what does not exist, of course you will go away without pleasure or profit. But beloved

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we are persuaded better things of you though we thus speak. Your presence here has been our strength — your generous atten- tion has been our unspeakable joy. And if any have been neglect- ful or otherwise wanting, now is the time to amend.

Further, you will not expect too much of your minister. It is a notion not yet extinct that having a revelation from God the work of study and research is superseded. It is true certain words and phrases have become familiar, but the truths which they represent must be learned by every soul for itself. It requires just as much effort really to obtain the truth now as it ever did — effort com- pared with which the toil of the hands and the sweat of the brow are pastime and play. But I need not dwell on this point. Too many of you are accustomed to think and speak, or write, and I have had too much evidence of your good sense, and generous consideration to doubt your future conduct. You have had to put up with some crude things for sermons ; you have found use for the vail of charity since I came among you. And while we have all confidence, and much expectation concerning your new Pastor, it will be a marvel if he does not make mistakes — if he does not say some things which were better not said. You will be pre- pared therefore not to expect perfection — not to demand a great sermon every Sunday, — not to go away pleased and satisfied every time. What we all need in order that we may be prepared for Heaven is rather a faithful application of the truth to our hearts and lives. We need to be held up and turned round to our own eyes — to have our passions, prejudices, false opinions, and foolish practices exposed to our own apprehension. Let me beg you therefore to encourage rather a plain, faithful style of preaching. If you find your minister growing in some direction where you are small let him grow, don't hack off his branches, don't dig up his roots — ask of him greatness but greatness in this, that he preach God's great truths — ask of him breadth but breadth in this, that he apply the gospel to all men — to all professions, vocations and prac- tices that admit of being brought to the test of right and wrong — to all questions that have a moral element — a religious side or influence. Don't undertake to hew off, or flatten the roundness of his disc, and leave him a darkened and sickly orb halting feebler and feebler in his course, but let him be rather full-orbed like the sun, shining on all sides, and if a pencil of rays falls on your dark- ness, don't shut your eyes, or complain like a night bird, lest you show yourself a man whose "deeds are evil."

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Never go from God's house fretting or finding fault.

If your minister offends you go and tell him his fault betwixt you and him alone.

As to parochial visiting, let me make one suggestion. It is not an easy thing to become acquainted with a thousand persons — men, women and children — so as always to recognize, and call them by name. When the minister calls in the afternoon, the lady is out, or the husband is at his place of business, in the field, in the woods — the children are at school, and thus very little is seen or known of the family, and yet there is a little disappointment at not being recognized next time.

Now just ask your minister to come and dine with you, and let him go when he has sipped his coffee. In this way he will see you all ; — and the little children, let them come to dinner too, and don't be distressed if they never acted so badly before. Let him see you thus and learn the home-side of your life, and to call Jean- nie, and Lillie, and Bob, and Jamie by their nursery names — names that are at the same time an expression of tenderness, and a wand of power.

There is another point towards which all this looks, and that is your belief and practice of the truth. This church I know will be ready to co-operate with the new minister in every holy endeavor. You will be ready in the prayer meeting, in the concert, as you have been ; — and those little outposts, where you have kept up the Sabbath school, and the weekly meeting — little spots where your own souls have been refreshed, and sinners quickened and con- verted under the smile of God — you will not grow weary in well doing, and suffer these to be deserted.

But to those who are still strangers to the faith and power of the gospel, let me say, respond to the preaching of this new min- ister, and become at once the loyal, loving, devoted followers of his Lord and Master.

The sweetest joy that I knew in my ministry here was the con- version of souls. I bless God for every remembrance of them. I meet them often with an indescribable tenderness. I expect to sing a louder and a sweeter note in heaven because of their pres- ence.

But there are others of you who give no evidence, so far as I know, of saving acquaintance and union with the Lord our right- eousness. I carried you on my heart, I reasoned with you, I

39

prayed for you, sometimes with strong crying and tears. God forgive me in the great day if I did not " long after you all in the bowels of Jesus Christ." And now I give you up to the care of this dear Brother, and to the truth and power of his ministry. I beseech him to love you tenderly, and labor with you faithfully. I tell him sorrowfully, I could not win you, I could not persuade you. I pray God to help him find the way through which he may bring Christ to your hearts ; and I pray you, I entreat you, for with some of you this is the last ministry and the last chance for your salvation. I entreat you to hear him, to yield at the first to his persuasions, and make Jesus Christ your own precious Savior, and Heaven your eternal home. Oh, what joy would come to this poor heart — what joy to this dear Brother — what joy in Heaven over yom\repentance.

When pressed with the weight of such responsibilities, he shall say with Paul, pray for me, that utterance may be given me that I may speak the word boldly even as I ought to speak, you, dear Brethren, appreciating the magnitude and the delicacy of his labors, will never fail in this duty. •

And now, having said more perhaps than was needful, in behalf of the Council, and for Christ's sake, dear Brethren and friends, rejoicing with you in the unanimity and affection with which you have called this beloved Brother, I "beseech you to know him who is to labor among you, and to be over you in the Lord, and to admonish you, and to esteem him very highly in love for his work's sake." And the God of peace make you perfect in every good work, to do his -will, working in you that which is well pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory in the church forever and ever. Amen.

REPORT OP THE COUNCIL

REV. EDWAED HAWES

WATERVILLE

KEPORT OF THE COUNCIL.

An Ecclesiastical Council, called to assist in the examination and ordination of Mr. Alexander McKenzie, met at the Chapel of the South Parish Church in Augusta, on Wednesday, August 28, 1861, at 2 o'clock P. M. There were present as Pastors and Delegates from

Shawmut Church, Boston : Eev. E. B. Webb and Mr. John H. Shapleigh.

Central Congregational Church, Boston : Eev. John E. Todd and Dr. George N. Thomson.

Salem Street Church, Boston : Rev. George W. Field. Litchfield, Conn.: Rev. George Richards. Litchfield, Me.: Rev. David Thurston and Mr. David Smith. Trinitarian Church, New-Bedford : Rev. Wheelock Craig and Mr. John P. Barker.

Central Church, Bangor : Dr. J. K. Lincoln. Congregational Church in Hallowell : Dea. S. Page.

Winthrop : Rev. S. D. Bowker and Mr. Peleg Benson. Waterville : Rev. E. Hawes and Capt Coffin. Gardiner : Rev. J. W. Dodge and Mr. T. W. Townsend. Topsham : Rev. D. F. Potter. Norridgewock : Rev. B. Tappan, Jr. Augusta: Rev. Benj. Tappan, D. D. The Council was organized by the choice of Rev. Dr. Tappan, as Moderator, and Rev. E. Hawes, as Scribe. The Moderator led in prayer. The record of the action of the Church and Parish relative to giving Mr. McKenzie a call was presented and read ; also the reply of the Pastor elect, in which the invitation was accepted. Mr. McKenzie having shown testimonials of his Church member- ship and of a license to preach, the Council then listened to an account of his religious experience ; after which a well-sustained examination in doctrinal belief was happily conducted by the Mod-

44

erator. The Council then, being by itself, voted that the prelimi- nary proceedings and the examination had been satisfactory, and proceeded, in concurrence with the Pastor elect, to assign parts for the service of Ordination, as follows :

Beading Minutes of Council : Bev. Edward Hawes.

Invocation: Eev. S. D. Bowker.

Beading the Scriptures : Bev. D. F. Potter.

Prayer : Bev. J. W. Dodge.

Sermon : Bev. George Bichards.

Ordaining Prayer: Bev. Benj. Tappan, D. D.

Charge to the Pastor: Bev. John E. Todd.

Bight Hand of Fellowship : Bev. Wheelock Craig.

Charge to the People : Bev. E. B. Webb.

Concluding Prayer: Bev. Benj. Tappan, Jr.

Benediction by the Pastor.

Voted to adjourn to meet in the Chapel, for the purpose of hear- ing the report of the Scribe, at 1 o'clock P. M.

E. HAWES, Scribe.

ORDER OF SERVICES.

ORDER OF SERVICES.

VOLUNTARY.

BY THE CHOIR.

ANTHEM.

" 0 sing unto the Lord a new song."

READING MINUTES OF COUNCIL.

REV. EDWARD HAWES.

INVOCATION.

REV. S. D. BOWKER.

READING THE SCRIPTURES.

REV. D. F. POTTER.

ANTHEM.

" How beautiful upon the mountains."

PRAYER.

REV. J. W. DODGE.

ANTHEM.

" How beautiful are Thy dwellings, 0 Lord of Hosts."

SERMON.

REV. GEORGE RICHARDS.

CHANT. ORDAINING AND INSTALLING PRAYER.

REV. BENJAMIN TAPPAN, D. D.

CHARGE TO THE PASTOR,

REV. JOHN E. TODD.

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HYMN.

[Singing by the Congregation.]

We bid thee welcome in the name Of Jesus, our Exalted Head; Come as a servant : so he came ; And we receive thee in his stead.

Come as a shepherd: guard and keep This fold from hell, and earth, and sin; Nourish the lambs, and feed the sheep, The wounded heal, the lost bring in.

Come as an angel, hence to guide A band of pilgrims on their way; That, safely walking at thy side, We fail not, faint not, turn nor stray.

Come as a teacher sent from God, Charged his whole counsel to declare: Lift o'er our ranks the prophet's rod, While we uphold thy hands with prayer.

Come as a messenger of peace, Filled with the Spirit, fired with love: Live to behold our large increase, And die to meet us all above.

RIGHT HAND OF FELLOWSHIP.

REV. WKEELOCK CRAIG.

CHARGE TO THE PEOPLE.

REV. E. B. WEBB.

CONCLUDING PRAYER.

REV. BENJAMIN TAPPAN, JR.

DOXOLOGY.

To Father, Son and Holy Ghost, One God whom we adore, Be glory as it was, is now, And shall be evermore.

BENEDICTION BY THE PASTOR.

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