or with holy joy. In the first case, his soul is sweetly disengaged from its earthly tabernacle, while he breathes out the supplicatory language of happy Simeon: "Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace; for mine eyes have seen thy salvation." But in the second case, he leaves the world in a state of holy triumph, crying out in the fullest assurance of faith, "My persuasion takes place of sight; and without the help of vision I endure, as seeing Him that is invisible; as effectually sustained as though, contemplating, with Stephen, an open heaven, I saw the Son of man standing at the right hand of God, ready to save and glorify my soul." Of these two manners of holy dying, the most enviable appears to have been the lot of St. Paul, if we may judge from the anticipated triumph which graces several of his epistles, and particularly the last he addressed to Timothy from Rome, where he received the crown of martyrdom: "I desire to depart, and to be with Christ; for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death." Philip. i. 23; iii. 8, 10. "I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give me at that day; to whom be glory for ever and ever.” 2 Tim. iv. 7, 8, 18. "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or the sword? Nay, in all these things we are more For I am

than conquerors through him that loved us. persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus." Rom. viii. 35-39. "O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? Thanks be to God who giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." 1 Cor. xv. 55, 57.

Thus the great apostle went forth to meet his last trial, counting it an honour to suffer in the cause of truth, and

rejoicing in hope of the glory of God.

The enemies of Christianity rendered him at last conformable to Christ in his death ;* but while they severed his head from his body, they united his happy spirit more intimately to that exalted Jesus who had once met him in the way, and who now was waiting to receive him at the end of his course. Happy are the faithful who, like this faithful apostle, live unto the Lord yet happier they who, like him, are enabled to die unto the Lord; "their works do follow them," while "they rest from their labours," and wait in peace the resurrection and all the sublime rewards of the righteous.

Tradition informs us, that St. Paul, in the second journey he made to Rome, received the crown of martyrdom under the emperor Nero, about thirty-five years after the crucifixion of our blessed Lord. St. Clement, the contemporary of St. Paul, speaks of that apostle in the following terms, in his first epistle to the Corinthians: "By means of jealousy, Paul has received the prize of perseverance. Having been seven times in bonds, having been evil-entreated and stoned, having preached in the east and in the west, he has obtained the glorious prize of his faith. After having instructed all the world in righteousness, coming into the west, he has suffered martyrdom under those who command; and thus quitting the world, after having shown in it a great example of patience, he is gone into the holy place.”

THE

PORTRAIT

OF

LUKEWARM MINISTERS

AND

FALSE APOSTLES.

CHAPTER I.

THE PORTRAIT OF LUKEWARM MINISTERS.

THE essence of painting consists in a happy mixture of light and shade, from the contrast of which an admirable effect is produced, and the animated figure made to rise from the canvass. Upon this principle we shall oppose to the portrait of St. Paul, that of lukewarm ministers and false apostles, whose gloomy traits will form a background peculiarly adapted to set off the character of an evangelical pastor.

If the primitive church was disturbed and misled by unfaithful ministers, it may be reasonably presumed, that, in this more degenerate period of its existence, the church of God must be miserably overrun with teachers of the same character. There is, however, no small number of ministers who form a kind of medium between zealous pastors and false apostles. These irresolute evangelists are sincere to a certain point: they have some desire after the things of God, but are abundantly more solicitous for the things of the world; they form good resolutions in the cause of their acknowledged Master, but are timid and unfaithful when called upon actual service; they are sometimes actuated by a momentary zeal, but generally

influenced by servile fear; they have no experience of that ardent affection and that invincible courage with which St. Paul was animated; their wisdom is still carnal; 2 Cor. i. 12; they still confer "with flesh and blood." Gal. i. 16. Such was Aaron, who yielded, through an unmanly weakness, to the impious solicitations of his people. Such was Jonah, when he refused to exercise his ministry at Nineveh. That this prophet was possessed of a confidence in God, and a desire for the salvation of his fellow-creatures, we have every reason to believe; but we find that neither the one nor the other was sufficiently powerful to engage him in a service which appeared likely to endanger his reputation among men. Such were also the apostles before they were endued with power from on high. To every pastor of this character that expression of Christ, which was once addressed to the most courageous man among his disciples, may be considered as peculiarly applicable: "Thou art an offence unto me; for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men." Matt. xvi. 23.

Lukewarmness, false prudence, and timidity, are the chief characteristics by which ministers of this class may be distinguished. Perceiving the excellence of the gospel in an obscure point of view, and having little experience of its astonishing effects, they cannot possibly discover that religious zeal which is indispensably necessary to the character they affect to sustain.

The pious bishop Massillon gives the following representation of these unqualified teachers, and the ill effects of their unfaithfulness :-" -“Manners are every day becoming more corrupt among us, because the zeal of ministers is daily becoming colder, and because there are found among us few apostolical men who oppose themselves, as a brasen wall, to the torrent of vice. For the most part, we behold the wicked altogether at ease in their sins, for the want of hearing more frequently those thundering voices which, accompanied with the Spirit of God, would effectually rouse them from their awful slumber. The want of zeal, so clearly discernible among pastors, is chiefly owing to that base timidity which is not hardy enough to make a

resolute stand against common prejudice, and which regards the worthless approbation of men beyond their eternal interests. That must needs be a worldly and criminal consideration which makes us more anxious for our own glory than for the glory of God; that must truly be fleshly wisdom which can represent religious zeal under the false ideas of excess, indiscretion, and temerity,—a pretext this which nearly extinguishes every spark of zeal in the generality of ministers. This want of courage they honour with the specious names of 'moderation' and 'prudence. Under pretence of not carrying their zeal to an excess, they are content to be entirely destitute of it; and while they are solicitous to shun the rocks of imprudence and precipitation, they run without fear upon the sands of indolence and cowardice. They desire to become useful to sinners, and, at the same time, to be had in estimation by them. They long to manifest such a zeal as the world is disposed to applaud. They are anxious so to oppose the passions of men, that they may yet secure their praises; so to condemn the vices they love, that they may still be approved by those they condemn. But when we probe a wound to the bottom, we must expect to awaken a degree of peevishness in the patient, if we do not extort from him some bitter exclamation."

"Let us not deceive ourselves," continues the same author: "if that apostolical zeal which once converted the world is become so rare among us, it is because in the discharge of our sacred functions we seek ourselves, rather than the glory of Christ, and the salvation of souls. Glory and infamy were regarded by the apostle with equal indifference while he filled up the duties of his important office. He knew it impossible to please men, and to save them; to be the servant of the world, and the servant of Christ. Nevertheless, there are many among us who are seeking to unite these different services which the apostle believed to be irreconcilable."

M. Roques agrees with the pious bishop in condemning those ministers who neglect to copy the example of St. Paul. "The little piety that is to be found among ministers," says this excellent writer, "is the most effectual