Sermon and other exercises, at the ordination and installation of Alexander McKenzie, as pastor of the South Parish Church, Augusta, Maine, August 28, 1861

d?/r &t^rvcc

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.

6

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-

8

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,

9

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

10

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

11

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.

12

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 !

13

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

14

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

15

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

16

"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."

17

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

18

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

22

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.

23

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

24

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."

25

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

26

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

30

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

- 31

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

37

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."

38

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.

48

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.

0 * 4 ^\

f ^

*'

* <&,

&