from selfish bias. Have you noticed the steady and quiet strength of the man who trusts the Spirit's word: "I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way that thou shalt go; I will guide thee with mine eye?" The Scriptures contrast the full tide of rational and satisfied life which fills the breast of the Christian, with the wild excitements and insatiable cravings of him whose dependence is upon physical stimulants. "Be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess, but be filled with the Spirit." No, the atmosphere of the Spirit is not one of nitrous oxide,- it is the pure, cool air of the mountaintops of truth, and the more one breathes it, the more he recognizes it as a "spirit of power and of love and of sound mind." A wisdom that is not of this world, becomes his. The Holy Spirit makes him not only a ready but a trained and skilled assistant, in the work of bringing others to Christ.

Persons who are not naturally attractive have in these ways been made centres of saving influence. The bent piece of soft iron has no natural power to draw other iron to itself,-- but attach it to the battery, and it becomes a magnet, that draws to itself everything within its range. Sunder its connection with the copper and the zinc, and all power is gone, but thus connected, it is its very nature to attract. So let God's Holy Spirit take possession of the teacher and he becomes a magnet, to draw those whom he instructs to God. Virtue goes forth from him. He becomes a living force for good. Borne himself upon the mighty current that sweeps toward the centre and source of all things, he finds that he is not left to go alone. Others are won to commit their barks to this same current, and so to accompany or follow him. Even though he may see no outward sign of the

movement in himself, or of the power that he has on others, still he may be sure that the Holy Spirit uses him. You remember those Arctic explorers, who day after day with infinite toil and pain, made their way northward, as they thought, only to find at the week's end that their instruments indicated a progress of many miles in the opposite direction. They thought themselves going away from home and friends, but they found themselves nearer to them at the end than when they began. At last they solved the problem. They were not on solid ground at all, but rather upon an ice-floe of vast extent, and this whole mass, apparently solid as the granite hills, was moving toward the tropics every day upon the bosom of an ocean-current so broad and deep and still as to give no sign whatever of its power. So the teacher may seem to himself to be getting further and further away from the things he loves and the persons for whom he labors. But in spite of all appearances, God is furthering his work by invisible but tremendous operations of his providence and grace. He supplements our efforts, and guides them to ends which his wisdom, and not our skill, has set. Consciously or unconsciously, we are borne onward to the accomplishment of the plans and to the glory of the name of him, "of whom, and through whom, and to whom are all things."

Thus I have spoken of our need of the Spirit as grounded, first, in the methods and nature of God, and secondly, in the ignorance and powerlessness of man. Or to put it in plainer words, we need the Holy Spirit, first, because without him we can receive nothing from God. We need the Holy Spirit, secondly, because without him we can communicate nothing to men. And I have shown you that this last is certain, because only the Holy Spirit

can make us real possessors of the truth, believing advocates of the truth, and wise adapters of the truth to the wants of those we teach. But the Holy Spirit can make us able teachers. And the gift of the Holy Spirit is within our reach. The power to bestow the Holy Spirit, and to make men teachers of his word, was part of the Savior's recompense for his sufferings. He could not give the Spirit, until he was glorified. But now, he sits at the right hand of power, for the express purpose of pouring into us, through the Spirit, the inexhaustible fulness of his divine life. I honor Christ my Lord, not when I hold back, from a sense of my unworthiness, and refuse to believe that so great a gift can be for me; I honor him only when I take the gift, in the same spirit in which it is offered, and use it gratefully in the service of him who gave it.

There is a

The decision whether I will have this Holy Spirit, this present Christ, this fulness of power and blessing, rests in a true sense with me. Unless I will to have it, it will never be mine. I must put in the link of connection between my soul and God's efficiency, by the exercise of faith. great reservoir of sweet and limpid water up among the hills, all gathered there by the art of man, for the supply of the thirsty town. Conduits are built, and pipes are laid; my own house is provided with basin and faucet; but still the water does not run, and I am dry. What is lacking? Nothing but the touch of my hand, yet without that, I may go thirsty all the day. My friends, Christ is a reservoir in which all the resources of the Godhead are gathered up, and gathered up for the use of each of us. The Holy Spirit is the conduit through which Christ's fulness comes to us. And yet we shall never be practical possessors of his power, until by a 'personal act of surrender and of faith, we set the stream to running. Set it running, and let it never stop! Drinking it, you shall never thirst, and it shall be in you a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.

-

There is only one thing more. Let this water bless others, as well as yourself. Our Lord did not forget this, when he gave his promise. "In that last, that great day of the feast," when he "stood and cried, saying: If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink," he added these words: “He that believeth on me, as the Scripture hath said, out of his heart"stirred as it is with new-discovered truth and purified by nobler affections —— "shall flow rivers of living water. But this spake he of the Spirit, which they which believe on him should receive." He only is a true servant of Christ, who receives in order to give. He shall receive abundantly, only in order that he may give abundantly. The spring that has gladdened his own heart shall gladden others. Widening and deepening as they flow, the waters from it, like those of Ezekiel's vision, shall carry life and verdure with them, until somewhere in the future, near or far, the ultimate result shall be the recovery of all the moral wastes that have been caused by sin. and the recreation of the earth in the beauty of our God.

On Easter morning at Jerusalem, the people gather together in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, long before the dawn, all carrying torches not yet lighted. The Archbishop enters the tomb in which tradition relates that the body of Christ was laid, and brings out from it a lighted torch, which he pretends to have been kindled there by supernatural power. One by one the people light their torches from its blaze, and others are lit from

these, until the darkness of the great church is chased away by the flooding radiance of many thousand lamps. The people carry the sacred fire to their homes, lighting still other torches as they go, until every Christian house in the great city is illuminated. So Christian influence widens and spreads. The fountain of its light and power is in the presence of the Lord- - not in the sepulchre where his body lay, but in the secret place where the risen and glorified Redeemer meets with his chosen ones, and communicates to them his own life-giving Spirit. But he who has his own soul kindled there, gives light to those he meets, and is not impoverished but enriched by giving. Oh you, to whom is given the work of teaching others in the truth of God, regard the dignity of your vocation and fulfill it well! Recognize the Holy Spirit as the only source of power, and the Holy Spirit will prosper your labors! As you have the promise of the Father, put that promise to the test, and receive the Holy Ghost! So, enlightened and quickened by God himself, you shall be "servants of the Spirit," and successful participants in his great work — that work of which nature and history are but the preparation and arena- the work of bringing back a revolted humanity to its lost estate of holiness and of communion with God!

XXII.

COUNCILS OF ORDINATION:

THEIR POWERS AND DUTIES.*

In an age like the present, when laxity in doctrine abounds, and when men are not unfrequently led by unworthy motives to desire the pastoral office, it concerns the purity and even the existence of our churches to surround with all proper safeguards the entrance to the ministry. Such safeguards may in part be found in Ordaining Councils, provided that those who compose these bodies have proper understanding of their position and responsibilities. It is the object of this paper to present a just view of the powers and duties of such Councils, and to indicate the method of procedure best adapted to secure the ends for which they are called.

When we speak of the powers of Councils, we do not mean to intimate that these Councils are self-constituted, or that they have original authority. The Council, on the contrary, is called into existence only by the local church, can determine only such questions as that church may submit for its consideration, and has power to advise the church what its action should be, but no power to compel the acceptance of this advice. The so-called Council of Jerusalem certainly gives us New Testament example for one church's seeking advice from other churches, in difficult junctures, but there was, as we may suppose, an element of inspiration in that decree of "the apostles and elders with the whole church," which cannot be claimed for the conclusions of subsequent Councils. While Scripture favors that interdependence of local churches which results from acknowledging the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in others as well as in ourselves, and the due value of the public opinion of the churches as an indication of the mind of the Spirit, it still in the last resort throws each church upon its own responsibility of ascertaining doctrine and duty by individual interpretation of the divine providence and word. Interdependence, in short, is but the qualification of a fundamental and inalienable independence. On earth there is no higher authority than that of the local church. No other church, and no union of churches, whether directly or through its representatives, has any rightful jurisdiction over the single local body which Christ has brought into immediate subjection to himself as Lawgiver and King.

Yet all the more has the Council, when rightly called and constituted, the power of moral influence. Its decision is an index to truth, which only the gravest reasons will justify the church in ignoring or refusing to follow. If there is a moral obligation to seek its advice, there is also, in all ordinary cases, a moral obligation resting upon the church to take its advice, when

* Printed in the Examiner, January 2 and January 9, 1879.

this advice is given. So much, at least, is assumed when matters of importance are committed to the decision of a Council, with no provision for a subsequent meeting of the church to review the Council's action. In such case the church virtually constitutes the Council its representative, in effect deputes the Council to act in its place, tacitly accepts the decision of the Council as its own. The fact that the church has always the right, for just cause, of going behind the decision of the Council, and of determining whether it will ratify or reject that decision, shows conclusively that the church has parted with no particle of its original independence or authority. Yet though the Council is simply a counsellor-an organ and helper of the church the neglect of its advice may involve such ecclesiastical or moral wrong as to justify the churches represented in it, as well as other churches, in withdrawing from the church that called it their denominational or Christian fellowship.

It is but an application of these general principles to a particular case, when we say that it is the church which ordains, aud that in ordination the Council is only the adviser and assistant of the church. In ordination, as in deposition from the ministry, the church may, in extreme cases, proceed without a Council or in spite of the decision of a Council; the effect, however, being that such ordinance or deposition on the part of the single church has no ecclesiastical validity outside of its own body, and that the church may be even disfellowshiped by neighboring churches where there is manifest violation of New Testament principles in its procedure.

Ordination is an ecclesiastical act so important in itself, and so serious in influence upon other churches as well as upon the church that ordains, that the counsel of others may well be deemed obligatory before the act is consummated. In the case of deacons, who sustain official relations only to the church that constitutes them, ordination requires no consultation with other churches. Licensure, which points only to a temporary or experimental service, may properly be left to the wisdom of the individual church. But the setting apart of a preacher of the gospel to a permanent work of ministration in the churches involves so grave responsibilities and demands such practised judgment, that the ordaining church should never fail, where this is possible, to add to its own the wisdom and experience of other churches of the same faith and order.

The Council is called, therefore, not to confer upon the candidate, by superior authority, some special grace without which he could not be denominated a true minister of Christ, but to assist the church in two respects : first, in determining whether the candidate has been called and qualified by God's providence and Spirit; and secondly, in granting to him express authorization to exercise his gifts as pastor or teacher, within certain definite local boundaries of the church or the denomination. The prior call to be pastor may be said, in the case of a man yet unordained, to be given conditionally, and in anticipation of a ratification of its action by the subsequent judgment of the Council. In a well-instructed church, the calling of a Council is a regular method of appeal from the church unadvised to the church advised by its brethren, and the vote of the Council approving the candidate is only the essential completing of an ordination of which the vote of the church calling the candidate to the pastorate was the preliminary stage.