his pecuniary resources, enters the sacred office for the sake of money and worldly advantages; when it is obvious, that by that very act, he excludes himself from the opportunities open to every other class. It is true, that in the face of all this discouragement, in the certain prospect of poverty, and toil, and persecu tion, there have not been wanting many who are willing to make the sacrifice. Among them, too, men of the first talents and literature in the land. Men quali. fied to rise to the highest worldly distinctions. These prospects they have renounced. They have literally sacrificed their worldly all, to preach salvation to dying sinners.

This is the case with all foreign missionaries under the direction of missionary societies. They receive nothing but their food and raiment, and that often none of the best. They are excluded from acquiring separate property. They have no means of making provision for their wives and children, as they ought to have, and would have, if circumstances permitted, and yet we often hear the in fidel slander, of missionary operations being a "MONEY-MAKING CONCERN."

With regard to the great majority of ministers in our own country, especially in the west and south, their condition is such as has been described. And be cause there are generous spirits willing to make these sacrifices, and with apos. tolic heroism, willing to endure privation, and toil, and reproach, and death itself, in the service of their Master, let not these facts, so honorable to the ministerial character, be alleged by professing christians, as an apology for their negligence, avarice, and injustice, in withholding from their ministers that remuneration which is their right, and which God expressly commands.

"Let us not (says Dr. Mason) hear of self-denial, spiritual-mindedness, and a heroic indifference to worldly things, as characteristic of the true minister of Christ. Self-denial does not mean starving. The spirituality of the father will not stop the cravings of his children when they cry for food; nor is there any he. roism in preferring tatters and a hovel, to decent clothing and lodging, when they may be had. It is very convenient, no doubt, for men who are adding house to house, field to field, thousand to thousand, to harangue in a religious style, on the necessity of a minister imitating his Master, "who had not where to lay his head;" when the practical inference from all this is in favor of their own pockets. They are wonderfully concerned for spirituality and self-denial to be practised by their minister, but as to their own share of these virtues, as to their parting with a pittance of their pelf to render him comfortable-why-that is another affair. It is one of the most wicked forms of hypocrisy, to plead for the cultivation of a minister's spiritual-mindedness, by way of an apology for cheating him out of his bread. The sin of the neglect complained of is not equally gross in all. In some it proceeds from thoughtlessness; in others from an incapacity to make a right estimate; but in most, it is the fruit of downright covetousness. There has been, on this subject, an absurd squeamishness in those whom the Lord has authorized to "live by the gospel." It is time for them to claim their due in a modest but manly tone, and throw the responsibility of expelling an enlightened ministry from the church, upon those who are able but not willing to support it honorably. We say an enlightened ministry. For we have no conception that niggardly provision will soon strip her of every thing in the shape of a minister. You cannot place the pecuniary recompense so low as that it shall not be an object for some body. Fix your salaries at fifty dollars a year, and you shall not want candidates. But then they are fifty-dollar men. And it may be, little as congregations give, they give to the uttermost farthing "for value received." The mischief is, that the rule of abridgement becomes general, and the "workman who needeth not to be ashamed" must share the fate of him who is no workman at all.”*

The solemn truth is, the churches of almost every denomination need to be aroused on this subject. Let professing christians shudder at the thought of uni ting with infidels in their impious clamors against the authority of God. See Rom. 15:27; 1 Cor. 9:11-14; 1 Tim. 5:18.

*Christian Magazine, Vol. 3, p. 385.

THE CONDUCT OF SINNERS TESTED BY THE RULES OF WORLDLY WISDOM.

1 CORINTHIANS 10:15. I speak as to wise men : judge ye what I say. Most men are ready to claim a considerable share of worldly wisdom, and not a few, it must be acknowledged, possess it in an eminent degree. There are those who know how to make the most of their means of becoming rich; who are always on the alert to take advantage of every turn of circumstances; and whose sagacity in a single commercial speculation may bring into their possession a large fortune. There are those who understand well how to secure and advance their own fame; who, by simple management, attain some of the highest posts of worldly honor. And there are those who are sharp sighted to discern both good and evil as it respects the political relations of a community-men who will see a cloud in the distant horizon, and know that it is charged with lightning and tempest, when it is no bigger than a man's hand; men whose counsels in dark times are considered a safeguard to the public interests. In every department of human action there are indeed pretenders to wisdom; but there are also truly wise men;-men whose opinion on any subject which relates exclusively to this world is justly entitled to consideration and respect.

But while these men are sagacious to understand and secure the interests of the present life, in many instances at least, their wisdom utterly fails them in respect to the life that is to come. In the one case, they show themselves giants in wisdom; in the other, the merest dwarfs. In the one case, you may listen to what they say as if it were oracular; in the other, you may witness what they do, (for they generally say little,) and it will leave you wondering at their infatuation. My design, in this discourse, is to reason a little with this class-with all, indeed, who have a common degree of worldly wisdom, in respect to those great interests which they are prone to regard so lightly. I am going to speak to you as wise men; and ask you to judge of the course you are pursuing in respect to religion, by those common and acknowledged principles of wisdom which you are accustomed every day to apply, in your various professions and employments.

1. There is a lagre class who do not come to any definite and intelligent decision of the question whether the Bible is really a revelation from God; though they have all the means at hand for forming such a decision. I ask them, as wise men, honestly to pass judgment on their own conduct.

I can suppose there may be some danger here, that some of the class to which I refer, will not recognize this description as applicable to themselves.

Many of these persons no doubt take the comfort of thinking that they be lieve the bible because there is something in the thought of being an infidel that shocks them; but in order to ascertain the nature or the strength of this conviction, let them inquire whether they do not allow themselves in practices which they would not dare to allow, if they felt that it were absolutely certain that God had spoken in this book; and whether they do not feel less anxiety than they would feel, if the thought did not sometimes occur to them, that possibly the bible might turn out to be a mere matter of imposture. If conscience answers in the affirmative, then clearly they belong to the class I am now considering. But I doubt not there are many others who never lisp a word in favor of infidelity during their lives, and who pass in the world for firm believers in the bible, who yet purposely leave this matter entirely unsettled; who never take the trouble to inquire whether the bible is true or false, but who run the hazard of living precisely as if it were a set of fables. Now listen and judge whether, in adopting this course, you maintain the character which, in other respects, you choose to claim for true wisdom.

The bible professes to be a revelation from God. This you do not question; you do not even deny that it really is so; but in respect to this, you neither affirm nor deny: you are willing to remain unsettled. But the fact that your mind is not made up on the subject, proves that in your own view at least, there is a possibility that God has spoken in this book; and if he has spoken, he has spoken to the world to which you belong; he has spoken to yourself: and you may be sure he would not speak, if he had not something important to say. If there be a possibility, then, as you yourself acknowledge, that the great God in whose hand your breath is, and who, if there be any truth even in natural religion, will hereafter be your Judge,-if there be a possibility that he has sent you a message in the bible, what is the language of your conduct when you close the bible, and say that you shall not inquire whether it was inspired by God or forged by man? Without saying any thing here of the nature of the message it contains, do you not run the hazard of offering an awful insult to the Majesty of heaven, for which, let your character in other respects be as it may, he would require the blood of your soul?

Suppose a message were to reach you, professedly bearing the signature of some exalted personage, to whom you were under great obligations, and who had you completely in his power; who, while he was disposed to be condescending towards you, was still jealous for his own honor; and who withal, from the relation you sustained to him, and the circumstances in which you were placed, might be expected to address you; and suppose you should take what purported to be a message from him in your hand; and without any just reason to suspect that it was a forgery, should coolly lay it by, and say that it might or might not be genuine-you should not give yourself the trouble to inquire; I ask you whether such conduct would seem to you rational and prudent? If another person were guilty of it, would you hesitate to pronounce him a madman? But with all your wisdom, this is precisely the part you are acting towards the great God in relation to the bible. Here is something placed in your hand that professes to bear the stamp of his authority. You do not pretend that you have any particular reason to question its claims. Nevertheless, you are willing to lay it aside, and treat it with neglect, on the ground that, possibly, it may not have been of divine origin. I ask again, do you not treat God in relation to this matter as you would not dare to treat a fellow worm whose breath is in his nostrils?

But look farther at the nature of the message which the bible contains. If it were a matter of mere indifference on which it professes to address you

something which could not in any way materially affect your happiness, let the case result as it might, why then there might be some apology for your neglecting to settle the question of its authority; though if the point that God has spoken be previously determined, this certainly is evidence enough that the message is an important one. But, in the present case, there is surely no room for doubt: he who looks into the bible, must perceive at a glance that the message involves your most important interests; and that if it is really from God, the manner in which you treat it must decide your everlasting destiny. The most momentous interests of a state or an empire dwindle to nothing, compared with the interests which the bible professes to regard; for these are the interests of the soul; and the soul will live when all earthly states and empires are blotted out of being. Here again, what is the language of your conduct in remaining voluntarily undecided concerning the authority of the bible? It is that in a case in which you acknowledge God may have spoken, and spoken that in which your eternal all is bound up, you still will not take the trouble to inquire whether or not it is really God who has addressed you.

For the sake of further illustration, recur to the case I have already supposed. What if this message, purporting to come from some exalted personage to whom you sustained peculiar relations, should involve your highest worldly interests your character-your fortune-your all-would not this be a consideration that would stand in the way of your lightly passing it over and treating it as if it were altogether questionable whether it was genuine? Or if there were actually some reason to doubt its genuineness, would not this consideration make you careful thoroughly to test it, and would you cast it from you, so long as you could see a shadow of ground for believing that it was not a forgery; or do you believe you would rest, till you had settled the point whether it were so or not? The course that wisdom would prescribe in this case is obvious. Believe me, the dictates of wisdom are uniform. She marks out for you precisely the same course in respect to your treatment of that momentous message which professes to come to you from the King of kings. But it is supposable, in the case to which I have referred for illustration, that there might be nothing that should give you any just occasion to doubt that the message which reached you came from the individual with whose authority it was professedly stamped; and suppose, moreover, that many intelligent men had examined it, and had unhesitatingly pronounced it genuine; would not this be a circumstance that would render your indecision in respect to it more unaccountable and more foolish? It certainly ought not to be a reason why you should forbear to look at it for yourself; but surely it ought to remind you that the means of coming to an intelligent conclusion were within your reach, and that you were chargeable at least with singular stupidity if you did not avail yourself of them.

But wherein does your conduct in relation to God's word indicate greater wisdom than would be discovered by remaining undecided in the case I have just supposed? You do not yourself profess to believe that there is any thing in relation to the bible with which you are acquainted, that proves that it may not be the word of God. Those who have examined it most attentively, and under circumstances most favorable to arriving at the truth, have been fully satisfied that it is the word of God. You have all the means for coming to a decision which they have had, or which you could desire; especially you have the record itself, and the question of its divine authority is fairly within the scope of your faculties. If it were a question of extreme difficulty-one in respect to which your means of coming at the truth were altogether inade

quate, why then, inasmuch as it is a matter of so much moment, prudence would dictate that you should tax your faculties to the utmost. Though you might with more show of reason, plead discouragement. But as it is a subject every way within the range of your comprehension, and on which the light shines as brightly as the sun at noonday, what semblance of an apology can you plead for remaining undecided?

I ask you now, in view of all that has been said under this article, whether, as wise men, you can approve your own course? If the message which comes to you in the bible, professes to come from God; if it involves the interests of your whole eternity; if those who have examined it most thoroughly are fully persuaded of its genuineness, and if you have every opportunity of ascertaining whether it be genuine or not, I ask again, where is the wisdom of your remaining thus undecided?

2. There is another class who advance a step farther than the preceding: while they admit the divine authority of the bible, they have not, and do not profess to have, any definite views in respect to the system of truth it contains. Persons of this description sometimes even value themselves upon not being infidels; and they will speak of christianity in the general as an excellent system; but they have not, after all, exactly made up their minds on the question, what christianity is. They are willing to believe that all who assume the christian name, may, in the main, be right; and on a subject upon which there are such various and contradictory opinions, they think they cannot hazard much by remaining without any definite opinion at all. I wish to inquire of this class, whether they discern any wisdom in this course; and if so, where it lies?

On the question whether the bible contains a divine revelation, you profess to have your mind made up; and if you were to hear that some body had whispered that you are an infidel, you would probably say, in a tone much above a whisper, that he is a slanderer. Well now, judge honestly, what does this belief, so long as it is disconnected with any distinct views of christian truth, amount to? Only let a man say that he believes the bible to contain a reve lation from God, and whether he knows or believes a word of what God has spoken in it, becomes, in your estimation, an unimportant matter. But where lies the charm in believing the simple proposition that the bible is the word of God? Let me revert to the case which I have already used in the way of illustration. Suppose you should receive the message that should be brought to you from some earthly benefactor or potentate, and should express your full conviction that it was genuine, and should perhaps compliment him for having thus honored you; and to an inquiry which should then be made, what the message contained, you should reply that that was a matter of no mo ment, that it might contain one thing or another; and that as there would probably be different opinions in respect to its true import, you should not give yourself the trouble particularly to examine it, but should charitably presume that all might be substantially right, and that the whole benefit to be derived from it would be secured to you on your believing that it really came from the individual whose name it bore. Where is the man who would dare to hold up his head after having been guilty of such folly as this? But this is precisely a fair representation of your conduct in reference to the authority and doctrines of God's word. You make much of the one: you make nothing of the other. You will have it that God has spoken, and you would resent the imputation of believing the contrary; but as for what he has said, you regard that too unimportant a matter to trouble yourself about.

When we look into the bible, and contemplate the nature of the truths it