the gospel actuated by the narrow, contracted spirit of party.

But what do we mean by party spirit in religion? Not, as some would represent it, an ardent, strong, persevering attachment to the peculiar doctrines of the gospel. If this is party spirit, the more the better. If this is party spirit, then the goodly company of the apostles, and the holy army of martyrs, were deeply imbued with it. No, my friends, party spirit in religion, is, in our apprehension, a very different thing. It consists rather in an indifference to the great and leading doctrines of Christianity, and an undue attachment to rites and forms, and the outward ceremonial of religion. It consists more in an attempt to introduce a new system of faith, unknown to our fathers and our fathers' fathers, -than in honest and zealous efforts in contending earnestly for the faith once delivered to the

saints.

Those, in our judgment, are most remote from a party spirit in religion, whose zeal is directed to the essence and not to the forms of religion, who are ready to embrace in the widely extended arms of their charity, Christians of every name and sect, who bear the image of their Master, who possess his spirit and imitate his

example. Party spirit is a very different thing. It is little, mean and grovelling. It looks not abroad on the great and multiplied and diversified interests of the Redeemer's kingdom, but confines its vision to the little narrow circle in which it moves. It labors to build up its own little anthill, and, if that is done, cares not for all the world besides. This is party spirit. How unlike that generous, expanded, and ardent zeal for the honor of God's truth and the success of his gospel which is so often branded by that opprobrious name!

To endeavor to build up one particular denomination of professing Christians, to the exclusion and injury of every other, is to preach ourselves and not Christ Jesus the Lord.

That

We remark in the last place, under this division of our subject, that we preach ourselves when we are actuated by no higher and purer motive, than a regard to worldly support. those who preach the gospel should live by the gospel, is not only reasonable, but expressly provided for in the word of God. If those to whom they preach have been made partakers of their spiritual things, their duty is also to minister unto them in carnal things; and no people, who have an enlightened view of their obligations to

the Christian ministry, will ever suffer those, who devote to them their time, their talents, and all their powers, to want the necessaries and comforts of life, that they may not only be without worldly care, but be able, through their bounty, to do good and communicate, and to aid in the furtherance of the great objects of Christian charity. But, while it is the duty of the people to provide a competent and honorable support for their ministers, wo to that man, who is actuated by no higher and purer motive in entering the ministry, than to provide a comfortable maintenance for himself and his family. The church has suffered deeply in every age, from the worldly inducements that have been held out to enter the sacred ministry. How many have taken upon themselves the solemn vows of ordination, and, with awful hypocrisy, professed to be moved thereunto by the Holy Ghost, from no better motive than to procure a living. Put me, I pray thee, into the priest's office, that I may eat a piece of bread. From this source have proceeded those dreadful evils that have attended religious establishments from the days of Constantine to the present period. Blessed be God, in this free and happy land we have no established hierarchy, no orders of

streams.

priesthood supported by law, no compulsion of tithes, to maintain in luxurious ease the younger sons of titled nobility,—but religion is with us, as it ever should be, free as the air of our mountains, and uncontrolled as the current of our It asks not, it needs not, any thing from government, but respect and liberty to live under the overshadowing wing of constitutional law. But, notwithstanding inducements to enter the ministry from the unworthy motive of regard to filthy lucre are not so many and powerful with us, as in existing religious establishments, still there is danger in this way of preaching ourselves and not Christ Jesus the Lord. There are yet to be found among us those, who without any previous regard to personal piety, have been educated for the pulpit as others have been for the bar and the practice of medicine. Thus have the three learned professions, as they are sometimes denominated, been equally regarded as affording the means of support, and the prospect of distinction to the young aspirant of future eminence. This evil has been a very serious and alarming one. Men have in this way been introduced into the

sacred office, amiable,

indeed, it may be, in their dispositions, correct and moral in their outward deportment, of good

talents and respectable acquirements, but, like the young man in the gospel, lacking one thing, and that, the one thing needful. In this way have men become blind leaders of the blind. But a happier and brighter day dawns upon the church. The essential prerequisite of conversion to God in those who would look forward to the Christian ministry, is more generally acknowledged, and a goodly number of young men are training up on this principle by our education societies and theological schools, for great and extensive usefulness in the church of Christ. The Lord, and not man, has given the word, and great will be the company of those that publish it. The generation of ministers that is now providing for the church, will, we trust, possess much of the spirit of the apostles, and preach not themselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord.

II. We now proceed to the second division of our subject to consider what is implied in preaching Christ Jesus the Lord. And here, my friends, a boundless field opens upon us. Το do justice to it in a single discourse is utterly impossible. We can only sketch a brief outline of the all-engrossing, all-important theme, which