APPENDIX. THE SUBSTANCE OF AN ADDRESS MADE TO ABOUT THREE HUNDRED AND FIFTY OF THE IRISH CLERGY, (AFTER AN EARLY BREAKFAST TOGETHER) AT THE ROTUNDA, IN DUBLIN, ON FRIDAY MORNING, APRIL 14, 1837 ; BEFORE THE ANNUAL MEETING OF THE HIBERNIAN AUXILIARY CHURCH MISSIONARY SOCIETY. THE Author sends out this Address with much reluctance, and only in deference to the kind and earnest expression of those who were most interested in it. He has made a few additions, which time did not allow him to give in the delivery; and he begs his dear brethren to receive it, as deprecating all assumption of authority, and dictated only by an affectionate desire to "stir up" his own mind and theirs, "by way of remembrance," upon a few matters of primary importance to those, who are charged with the high responsibility of the Christian Ministry. OLD NEWTON VICARAGE, MAY 3, 1837. ADDRESS. BELOVED FATHERS AND BRethren, "I AM with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling." I cannot but feel, that I am standing before many, at whose feet I should most gladly sit; I can only thank you for the strengthening sympathy of your prayers. I have longed these many years to see you, not as though I could "impart unto you any spiritual gift ;" but trusting "that we might be comforted together by our mutual faith" and love. And now that we are "come together with joy by the will of God, may we with each other be refreshed!” We have looked upon you as a Church in the fellowship of the sufferings of our common Lord. We have viewed you in the consecrated furnace, stamped with the special seal of God's election,1 the cheering badge of fatherly love; and having "the Spirit of Glory, and of God resting upon you." We come, therefore, not to sympathize with your sorrows, but to join in your songs of praise-"Thou causest men to ride over our heads; we went through fire and through water, and thou broughtest us into a wealthy place." Bear with me, however, dear brethren, while I bring before you one practical recollection connected with the Lord's dispensation with you. "The Refiner purifies the sons of Levi, and purges them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness.” We look therefore to see in you the shining of the furnace, the character of our God visibly reflected in you. We look for this manifestation mainly in the grand object of your ministration-the exaltation of Christ. This is the object for which we are to live; to set up Christ, and none beside him, before our people; Christ for us, the ground of our faith Christ in us, the life of our souls; his blood and righteousness, the matter of our trust; his Spirit, the quickening principle of our souls; Christ, "the way, the truth, and the life;" Christ, the refuge and consolation, the present and eternal salvation of his people. Ah! when we look at the hopes of a fallen world centering in him, this fixes our purpose, not to "know anything but Jesus Christ, and him crucified;" this gives to us our text, this furnishes the materials of our sermon; this brings out 1 Isaiah xlviii. 10. 4 Psalm lxvi. 10. 2 Heb. xii. 6. 5 Mal. iii. 3. 3 1 Peter iv. 14. * 1 Cor. ii. 2. ; the commanding truths of the Gospel before the Church, in a more vivid apprehension of the person, glory, and work of Christ. In adverting, however, to this point, I would state two features essential to a complete ministration of the Gospel. First, that it should be a continually advancing ministration. Though the whole substance of our message is contained in the single sentence —“Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners"—yet who does not know that in this compass is included the infinite and eternal love of God" the height, and depth, and length, and breadth, of that love which passeth knowledge ?" If we might be satisfied with having a family of little children, "begotten in the Gospel ;" instead of training up young men as the strength, and fathers as the stay, of the Church; then it may be sufficient to deal out the elementary truths of God. But if our souls grow, our Ministry will grow. If we regard the real welfare of our people, we shall "go on to perfection;" in the exercise of the work, "not laying again the foundation," so as to stop there; but "building up" our people "upon their most holy faith." We are to " speak to them the wisdom of God in a mystery ;"4 that they may not only "receive Jesus Christ the Lord;" but that they may “walk in him, rooted and built in him, and stablished in the faith;" adding to their " faith, knowledge; "forgetting the things that are behind, and reaching forth," in the path of heaven, "to the things that are before." This, my dear friends, I feel to be a matter of very primary moment. The exercise of it must lead us from Sabbath to Sabbath, and from year to year, to advance from general statements to more detailed and enlarged expositions; to descend into a more minute contact with the sympathies of God's people; to describe not merely the person of Christ, but, as in the book of Canticles, his very feature; as in the Epistle to the Hebrews, all the Office characters connected with him. I cannot allude to this point without the deepest humiliation before God. Often have I been tempted to commit the Ministrations of the last few years (though I believe them to be scripturally accurate in their character) to the flames. But I have felt the preservation of so humbling a memorial of scanty knowledge to be useful I have thought it also important by this means to mark continual progress, or otherwise, in thought and experience. I have looked also prospectively to make a valuable use of it in future time, by filling up the mechanism with richer moulding; the result of more deep in-wrought influence of Divine teaching. But, be that as it may, the real responsibility belonging to us is, not merely to preach, but "to fulfil the word of God;" to be going on in a course of expansion and enlargement, “warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom"-not satisfied to me. 1 1 Tim. i. 15. 4 1 Cor. ii. 7. 2 Eph. iii. 18, 19. with the early stage of the Christian life-but "that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus.” Secondly, I would suggest the importance of a complete ministration of the Gospel. This would include three points, suited to the complex character of man. There is doctrine for the head, experience for the heart, practice for the life and conversation. Take one or two of these things separately, and what a poor, starving, ineffective Ministration it is! What are doctrines without experience, but dry, abstract notions? What are they without practice, but Antinomian ungodliness? What, again, is experience without doctrine? It is a religion of feeling; a religion of delusion; fostered by excitement, instead of connected with principle; a mere ignis fatuus, instead of the "light of life;" inducing a spiritual "confidence in the flesh," instead of a "rejoicing in Christ Jesus." What is experience without practice? It shows only the power of impulse, instead of permanent habit, and leaves the man the wretched victim of his own delusions. Thus, again, what is practice without doctrine, but "the body without the spirit, which is dead?" without experience—mere external formality, wholly destitute of the "joy and peace of believing in Christ ?" We bring the matter to a very simple point, when we connect every feeling, and every obligation with a continual contemplation of Christ, and an entire dependence on him, “rejoicing with joy unspeakable and full of glory," that "all our springs are in him.” I am led to dwell upon this point, because, so far as my own observations have gone, I have uniformly marked instability of profession to be combined with partial views of Scripture, a sort of favouritism of Scripture. Sometimes it may be doctrines, or some particular doctrines. Sometimes it may be the prophetical parts of the Word-those parts that give occasion to the indulgence of speculation, or which act more directly upon the imagination, than upon the conscience and the conduct. It is very difficult to preserve a well-balanced mind in the reception or dispensation of the Gospel. Where no positive error is introduced, important truths are too often misplaced, or stretched beyond their scriptural dimensions. It matters little which be the favourite point. A partial exhibition must be ineffectual. We can never uphold a steadfast consistency of conduct, except as connected with a whole Christ, and a whole revelation of God. I add one further responsibility on this point. We "beget our children in the Gospel;" but we do more; we educate our children in the Gospel, and we must expect our children to show the character of their education, whether it be a wise and sound; or a defective, or eccentric, education. In the former case, we may expect them to set out the adorning of Christian perfection; in the latter case we shall observe the absence, or, at least, the imperfect development, of some feature 1 Col. i. 25, 28. |