ADVICE TO THE ELDER MEM BERS OF THE CHURCH. IV. Be examples to your FellowChristians of all goodness. All Christians are to be examples to the world, but you who are elders should be examples to the Church. 1. This is urged by the Apostles. "The elders which are among you, I exhort, who am also an elder, Feed the flock of God which is among you; taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but willingly; not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind; neither as being lords over God's heritage, but as being ensamples to the flock."—1 Pet. vi. 1-3. Timothy and Titus were exhorted to be examples to believers in all things, in word, in behaviour, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity. And the Apostle Paul himself could say, "Brethren, be ye follow.. ers together of me, and mark them which walk so as ye have us for an example." 2. It is absolutely necessary that we should be examples of all goodness, if we would ever see the Church what it ought to be. We may cherish hopes of the rising generation, that they will prove a wiser and a holier race than the present generation; but our hopes will be all vain, unless we who are at present elders in the Church, take care to be examples of intelligence and piety. The characters of old professors are the moulds in which the young ones are fashioned; our characters are the seals by which theirs are stamped. If the old professors are serious, thoughtful, intelligent, upright, loving, laborious, self-denying, zealous, persevering men, the young ones, as they come into the church, and begin to mingle with them, may be expected to take the same character, and carry out these excellencies still further. But if the old professors are ignorant, conceited, light-headed, unprincipled, self-indulgent men, the young converts will be corrupted, and either go back into the world, or hang like millstones round the neck of the church, and drown it in earthliness and sin. When children are very young, almost their whole work is imitation. They watch their parents and try to imitate them in almost every thing. And it is much the same with new-born Christians, They look on elder Christians, and especially on those who have been the means of their conversion, as their spiritual parents, and they have a natural.inclination to imitate them in all their movements. When children are young, they generally have a very high opinion of their parents; they regard them as the wisest and cleverest beings in the world; they are, with them, the standards of what is right and true, and they judge others to be what they should be, according as they approach to the likeness of their parents. And so it is in a great measure with young converts; they have generally very high notions of the goodness of elder Christians, they imagine them to be something like angels: they expect to find them free from all stains of sin and folly, and full of unmingled goodness. They never dream of counterfeits; they do not even dream of mixtures: they look for nothing but gold, fine, pure gold. When children are young, they have great confidence in what their parents teach them; they never imagine that any thing can be false that they receive from them; and they consider they have proved the truth of what they say beyond reasonable doubt, when they can say, "My father said so." And there is a similar respect in new-born Christians for the testimony of their spiritual elders. They are ready to drink in as true all that they teach. These things cause a tremendous responsibility to rest on old professors, and the consideration of them ought to make us use our utmost endeavours to be every thing that is wise and good. If on a closer acquaintance with us, the young disciples should discover that we are not the characters they supposed us to be; if they should find that instead of being full of all wisdom and all goodness, we are an idle, unthinking, earthly, lukewarm, half-hearted, unloving set of men, they are almost sure to be stumbled; and if they are not stumbled, they will be in danger of settling down into the same low, miserable and guilty state with ourselves, and of spending the remainder of their lives to no purpose. If we wish the friends who are uniting with us to be men and women who shall raise the church from its present fallen degrade d condition, and re deem the religion of Christ from its present state of humiliation and bondage, we must ourselves be Christians of an elevated character, examples of that intellectual and moral worth which we are wishful to behold in them. In a word, if the church is to be reformed, it must be reformed in us; if we want others to be thorough-going Christians, we must be thorough-going Christians ourselves. If the new converts do not become what we would wish them, we shall have, in a great mea sure, to blame ourselves. 3. Besides, we ought to be exemplary for the sake of the world, as well as for the sake of the young disciples. The world look at us, and they judge of religion from what they see in us. We know they do wrong in so judging, but so it is, and we cannot help it; and what we have to do is to try to turn the evil to advantage. Let us take care that they see in us nothing but what is good. Let us so speak and act before them, that if they will judge of religion by what we are, they shall be led to judge it something very excellent. 4. A good example will give us a right to speak to the world, and to our younger brethren too. The man that has got a beam in his own eye has no right to attempt to pull the mote out of his brother's eye. Let him first put things right at home, and then let him try to put things right abroad. If we wish to be able to advise or reprove another to good purpose, we must ourselves be blameless. If a man has a bad conscience, he cannot muster courage to reprove another; or if he does muster courage, he only brings down rebuke and shame upon himself, if his faultiness be known. And if we who are older professors, are not examples to the younger, we have no excuse. We have had more time and experience to teach us what is right, and more opportunities of getting the mastery over what is evil, and of getting free from what is imperfect. And if we are not examples both to the church and to the world, I see not how we can escape the greatest condemnation. IV. Seek for much wisdom as well as much grace, that you may be able to manage to advantage the affairs of the church. The affairs of the church will naturally fall into your hands. It is the appointment of God that the church should be guided by the elders. And it is of the greatest importance that the elders should be very wise, prudent, holy, exemplary, in order that they may be able to guide the church aright. We ought to be free from all selfishness. We ought to be free from all love of praise, of honour, of pre-eminence, of power, of lordship. We ought to be very lowly and loving, ready to wash each others feet. We ought to be very calm, mild, meek, patient, gentle. There should be nothing boisterous, violent, harsh, impatient, short-tempered, rough, uncourteous. Read the Epistles of Paul to Timothy and Titus, and seck to have the advice, which the Apostle gives in these epistles, written on your hearts. We have complained of the antichristian way in which some have managed the affairs of the church, and we have complained justly. The abuses which have crept into the church under the name of church discipline and church government, are truly frightful, both in number and enormity; but we shall run into the same evils, unless we keep close to the sacred oracles, and drink in the mind that was in Christ. Nothing can preserve us from laxity on the one hand, and from tyranny on the other, but a fulness of holy light and love, the rich in-dwelling of the spirit of Christ. V. And lastly, when those who are younger than yourselves have become full members of the church, and have begun to take part in the proceedings of the church, do not slight their suggestions, their plans of labour, or their views of truth. Do not think it impossible for you to learn any thing from them. Wisdom is not always confined to the aged. Revelations of truth are frequently granted to youthful minds, which are not presented to elder ones. And it is wisely ordered that it should be so. The young have more time to trace the relations of truths, and they have more time, as well as more activity, more ardour and more vigour, for carrying out new revelations of truth into practice. It is right that the young should pay respect to the elders, but it would be wrong in the elders to attempt to bind down the pro. younger to a strict conformity with themselves. It is right for the elders to advise the younger, but it would be wrong for the elders to attempt to enslave them. Great reforms have generally been begun and carried on by persons in the freshness and vigour of their days. John the Baptizer, the Apostle Peter, the Apostle Paul, Luther, George Fox, and John Wesley, all received those clearer manifestations of truth, and commenced those reforming movements with which their names are associated while they were yet in their youthful vigour. It is very dangerous to resist the movements of a member of the church, or to reject or slight his posals merely because he is young; in so doing we might be found fighting against God. Let us learn to believe it possible, that those who come after us, may learn something which we have not learned, and be called and qualified to do something greater and better than we have been able to do. The human mind is progressive, and we should be prepared to hear truths which we have not heard before, and we should be looking for a kind of benevolent undertakings which we have not yet seen. Christianity itself is not fully unfolded yet; it contains in itself views of truth of which the majority of its disciples have not the least conception. Christianity is perfect, we know, but it is but very imperfectly understood, even by its friends. Who would have thought that George Fox's views, which, when he first declared them, seemed so wild and monstrous, should in our days appear to such multitudes so rational, so lovely, and so true. And to George Fox only a part of the scroll was unrolled. The Friends will have to receive additions to their present sentiments and singularities, or else be left behind, as once others were left behind by them. On wealth, on law-suits, on civil governments, on terms of Christian fellowship, on trade, and on a multitude of other subjects, no Christian community with which we are acquainted have gone so far as the Gospel would lead them. And there are views of truth and duty to be unfolded by the spirit of God, through the instrumentality of the New Testament, of which none of us Let us have as yet a correct idea. not entertain the thought for a moment then, that we have reached. the end of what is true and good; we have done no such thing. The religion of Christ is only beThe ginning to be understood. light we have as yet is but the dim dawn, a grey mixture of light and darkness, of indirect and feeble rays with mists and clouds and shadows. And the persons who are to separate the light from the darkness, and to bring in the full bright light of day, may be sitting among those younger members of the church, which we are so prone to undervalue, so prone to listen to, when they speak in our meetings, with impatience. Let us be careful, that while we advise and caution, and endeavour to lead and guide the young, that we do not, like Herod, by our severities, drive from amongst us, into Egypt, the very persons whom God has commissioned to diffuse a new light and a better spirit through the church and through the world. STRIKING ANECDOTE. In a sea-port town on the west coast of England, some years ago, there was notice given of a sermon to be preached one Sunday evening. The preacher was a man of great fame; and that circumstance, along with others, attracted an overflowing audience. After the usual prayer and hymn, the preacher gave out the text, and was about to proceed with his sermon, when he suddenly paused, leaned his head on the pulpit, and remained silent for a few moments; it was imagined that he had become indisposed; but he soon recovered himself, and addressing the congregation, said, that before entering on his discourse, he begged to narrate to them a short anecdote. "It is now exactly 15 years," said he, "since I was last within this place of worship; and the occasion was, as many here may probably remember, the very same as that which has now brought us together. Amongst those who came hither that evening, were three dissolute young men, who came not only with the intent of insulting and mocking the venerable pastor, but even with stones in their pockets to throw at him as he stood in the pul pit. Accordingly, they had not long listened to the discourse, when one of them said impatiently, Why need we listen any longer to the blockhead-throw! but the second stopped him, saying, 'Let us first see what he makes of this point.' The curiosity of the latter was no sooner satisfied, than he, too, said— Ay, confound him, it is only as I expected-throw now!' But here the third interposed, and said it would be better altogether to give up the design which had brought them there. At this remark his two friends took offence, and left the church, while he himself remained to the end. Now, mark, my brethren," continued the preacher, with much emotion, "what were afterwards the several fates of these young men? The first was hanged, many years ago, at Tyburn, for the crime of forgery; the second is now lying under sentence of death, for murder, in the gaol of this city; the third, my brethren," and the speaker's agitation here became excessive, while he paused and wiped the large drops from his brow" the third, my brethren, is he who is now about to address you-listen to him!" CHRISTIAN ZEAL. IN the year 1665, when the great plague in London was raging with extraordinary violence, Mr. Thomas Vincent, who had been driven from his situation as a Christian mini ter for nonconformity, was employed as a tutor in an academy at Islington. But when he saw the lack of spiritual instruction, his spirit was stirred within him, and he formed the determination, whatever might be the consequence, to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ. His friends endeavoured to dissuade him from the dangerous enterprise; but in vain. He assured them that his resolution was the result of much serious thought. He had carefully examined the state of his own soul, and could look death in the face with comfort. He thought it absolutely necessary, that the vast numbers of people then dying should have some spiritual assistance; and that he never could have such a prospect of usefulness as a minister as now presented itself. During all the time of the plague, he preached every Sunday in some of the parish churches. He chose the most moving and important subjects, and treated them in the most pathetic and searching manner. The awfulness of the judgment, then before the eyes of all, gave great force to his addresses, and several were awakened under every sermon. He visited all that sent for him; and it pleased God to take peculiar care of him: for though, in London, there died of the plague that very year no less than 68,596 individuals, and 7 persons died in the family where he lived, he continued in perfect health all the time, and was a useful minister for upwards of twelve years. THE PUNISHMENT OF A PROFANE SWEARER. MR. Pawson, one of the old Methodist preachers, has furnished us with an account of an awful manifestation of Divine judgment, which occurred when he was stationed in the London circuit, in the year 1770. This account is as follows:-"Just behind our house, there was a very small inhabited by very wicked people. square; a very retired place, but It happened one day, that two of these poor ungodly creatures quarrelled to a high degree. In the conclusion, one of them solemnly swore by his Maker, that, if he did not procure a warrant for the other man the next day before ten o'clock, he prayed God would strike him dead. He was standing at his own door, just as St. Paul's clock struck ten, and at that moment the Lord took him at his word, and he fell down dead in an instant." Verily, there is a God that judgeth in the earth. A PROMPT REPLY. ALEXANDER demanded of a pirate, whom he had taken, by what right he infested the seas? By the same right, replied he boldly, that you enslave the world. But I am called a robber, because I have only one small vessel; and you are styled a conqueror, because you command fleets and armies. I am a monk, and yet no monk : I am a new creature, not of the Pope, but of Jesus Christ. Christ alone is my bishop, my abbot, my prior, my lord, my master,-and I acknowledge no other.-Luther. DEBTS, PUBLIC COLLECTIONS, Ney, 3rd March, 1842. I AM instructed by the friends at N--ey to write, to request you to come and preach our anniversary sermons this year, if possible. Several of the friends are readers of the Investigator, and a few have made a little progress in the way of self-denial, while all appear to believe the doctrines and duties therein taught to be in accordance with the oracles of Divine truth: and though not ready all at once to give up customs that have been handed down through many generations, and taught as duties even from the pulpit, yet are they anxious that "those men that have turned the world upside down should come hither also.' For really it appears astonishing (to worldly minds at least) that the heaven-born principles of Evangelical Reform should make such rapid progress through the length and breadth of the land. May they speedily extend from the rivers unto the ends of the earth. Oh! Sir, visit us if possible to give the cause a little impetus in the Village of Ney. We have not fixed any time, as we thought it best to leave that with you, as we are not particular to two or three months. We have had our sermons for several years on Whitsunday, and our temperance festival the day following; but many of the friends are so anxious to hear you, that I believe they would rather have you without a collection, (should you be opposed to making one) than to raise six or seven pounds with any other minister whatever. think it proIf you bable that you can come, please to inform us a few weeks before the time. We are aware that the distance is great, and Ney but a small village, yet we have some faint hopes, that if you cannot visit us direct from Gateshead, that some time when you visit Mossley or Manchester you will be prevailed on to pay us a visit, as we trust you are not secking any party interest, but the spread of pure and undefiled religion through the world. Hoping that you may be long spared for this great and glorious work, I remain, your's affectionately, т. н. Newcastle-on-Tyne, 3 Mo. 15, ' DEAR FRIEND, '42. So far from seeking any party interests, I am utterly weary of all parties, except the party scattered up and down through all parties,-the people who make the study, the practice, and the spread of the simple religion of Christ, the great business of their life. I can neither form a sect, nor belong to a sect, except the ancient sect of mere Christians, founded by Christ himself on the principles of simple faith and love. believe in Christ with such a faith as works by love, I regard them as brethren in the Lord, wherever they may dwell, or by whatever name they may be called. If men I would not belong to any denomiation that would not admit any sincere Christian to its fellowship, or that would not allow every sincere Christian freely to exercise his gifts for the edification of his brethren. I will be free myself, and I must leave others free. I am glad the principles of Evangelical Reform are spreading in your neighbourhood. I hope you and your Christian brethren will do all you can to exhibit a holy and prudent example. Let it be seen by all that you are yourselves better for the principles which you hold. Nothing so powerfully pleads the cause of truth, as a life and conversation in accordance with the principles of truth. I I shall be glad to see you at my earliest opportunity; but do not expect me to preach anniversary sermons, and make public collections: I believe I shall make no more engagements to preach what are called occasional sermons.' I think it is high time for us to lay public collections aside, and begin to raise the money we want among ourselves. And as for debts, we ought, in my judgment, never to incur them. believe the proper plan is, to incur no responsibility, till we have the money in hand or at our command. I believe chapel debts, school debts, society debts, circuit debts, and private debts are all bad things, and I feel resolved for myself, by God's help, to have nothing more at all to do with them. I believe that God does not require us to do that which we cannot do without going into debt. I will never be a party to the |