THE IMPORTANCE OF MULIPLYING THE LABORS OF WELL QUALIFIED AND FAITHFUL EVANGELISTS.

(Continued.)

I SHALL proceed in this paper, in the first place, to a consideration of some of the disadvantages of the pastoral office and relations, in the existing forms. And in my statements on this subject, I shall endeavor to be conformed to the state of facts, so far as I have experienced and observed them. And I deem it fair to conclude, that the pastoral office, on the grand scale, is not likely to accomplish more than what it has done, so long as it exists and acts only in its present forms.

And, first, I observe, the existence of a civil contract, between a minister and his people, specifying and securing his salary, so called, is a disadvantage to his influence. Not that such a contract is improper, or inexpedient;-nor, that it is not, on the whole, the least of several evils. I wish not to be considered as deciding this question, either one way or the other. It is my object at this time simply to show, that there is a large field of influence left to the evangelist, which never is, and never can be reached, by the settled salaried minister.

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Does a minister know, that he is a salaried man?-So certainly does he feel a repressing, a binding, a limiting influence. He may be a good pastor, he may have a great deal of influence, and do a great deal of good;--but it is morally impossible that he should pray, or preach, or act, or do any thing, with that freedom, independence, and moral force, which would doubtless characterise the same man, were he exempt from this disadvantage. And besides, to feel that one is provided for for life, takes away one of the most powerful incentives to vigorous action.

And will not the people too be influenced by such considerations?-It is impossible it should be otherwise. Some are entirely excluded from all the salutary influences of the gospel by such a fact; others say, 'it is their trade;' and there is not one in the whole parish, who can bring himself to feel, under the official ministrations of his pastor, that he is now listening to a man of God, whose attitude waits for obedience to his message, or upon condition of non-compliance, is ready to shake off the dust of his feet, and turn himself to more hopeful objects. He knows that such is not the fact. He may respect the gospel and esteem its minister; but he does not feel the urgency of im

for a family, may be very great and absorbing, or they may be much curtailed, according to the resolutions and habits of a minister himself; and I may add, not a little depending on the character of his wife. A wife may make or spoil a minister. The restricted salaries of ministers often oblige them either to run in debt, or to reduce themselves to a degree of worldly mindedness in contriving, and shifting, and low bargaining; so that they can hardly escape the misfortune of pecuniary embarrassment, or of being called as careful for the world as any other men, and perhaps accused of a close and niggardly spirit.

The very necessity of such contrivance does in fact, in a great many instances, induce a worldly mind edness. So that not a few of the settled ministers of our country are found engaged in schemes of farming, trade, and speculation. They love their families, and wish to provide for them; and thus excuse themselves, on the ground of the equal rights of citizens of the commonwealth. As citizens, they are doubtless entitled to these rights. But whether it is expedient, as ministers of Christ, is quite another question. And this worldly spirit is sometimes carried so far, that ministers will suffer themselves to fall into a quarrel with a parish, about the relics of a salary, that is behind, until the society is nearly broken up, and sometimes completely ruined. And all this rather than sacrifice a civil right. It may be the fault of the people. But it would be more noble, and more like Christ and the spirit of his religion, to give up the right.

The effect of all this, though the most unhappy of such instances may be few in number, is to diminish public confidence in the spirituality and disinterestedness of the ministers of religion. And the influence of those most devoted and most heavenly minded, must be divided among

those, who have little or nothing of this character. So that, as a body, the Christian ministry has much less credit and influence, than it deserves. They are too often accused of worldly mindedness. And there is too often a just occasion. And who, that looks abroad upon this great and tearful fact, restricting and limiting so fearfully the influence of a preached gospel, does not feel the importance of bringing into the field a set of men against whom this accusation can never lie?—who shall carry along with them a demonstration to all the world, that they "labor not for the meat that perisheth?"

Doubtless there is a great difference in the character and influence of settled pastors. But all of them are subject, more or less, to these disadvantages, and to a numerous class of others that might be appended.

I revere the pastoral office, as one of the blessed donations to the church and to the world, which the ascended Redeemer has left behind him. And I lament too the infinite rubbish of human appendages, which the hand of man and public opinion have thrown around and over it. This rubbish has almost completely shielded the hearts and consciences of men against the power and efficacy of divine truth.

And how shall the church and the world be redeemed from these evils? By the abolition of the pastoral office? By no means. Let all the existing pastors stand in their places, and establish as many more as you can. But be sure and bring forward the long neglected and almost obsolete office of evangelist. It is this influence, direct and indirect, and this alone, I venture to predict, that will prove competent to break the chains of the pastor, and raise him to the original dignity and primitive influence of his office. Would God that the time might soon come, when the storied virtues of the village pastor shall not often and simply be,

that he kept the civil order of the community, so that neighbors did not quarrel with each other, without ever inquiring whether they went down to their graves in peace with their God. There is another and far more different story, that constitutes the crown of honor in a Christian pastor. In the mean time, pastors may do much, if they will, to redeem themselves from the disadvantages of their condition. It is partly, and not inconsiderably their own fault, that they are able to exercise so little of the proper pastoral and ministerial influence.

It seems necessary to say something on the subject of Domestic Missions, as it might appear to some, that these might supply the place of evangelists. There was, till recently, a form of Domestic Missions, which approximated nearer to the work of evangelists, than the mode of operation which has since been substituted. But even that itinterating course must necessarily fail to fulfil the of fice, contemplated by an evangelist. First, because the domestic missionary is a hired servant, and does not of course possess the proper character of an evangelist; which supposes one resolved, and proved by experience able, to stand upon his own footing. Secondly, being known to be a hired servant, he can never be received with those sentiments, which meet an evangelist. Much less can the present practice of locating domestic missionaries, which approaches so near to the pastoral office and relations, answer this purpose. The conception of home missions, on their present plan, is a truly generous and noble one, greatly hopeful of good, mostly of universal patronage, and ought to be urged on with untiring vigor. And while they may and ought to be placed upon an elevated footing, as independent of the world as possible, they can never answer the design of evangelists.

It remains to say something of the

proper qualifications of evangelists, how they can be obtained, of the fields in which it is most expedient for them to labor, and how they are to act in relation to other offices of the church. ANTIPAS.

IMPORT OF INFANT BAPTISM.

INFANT baptism now holds in the Christian church the place which circumcision held before Christ died; and its meaning is to be ascertained by the original design of circumcision. We may then go back to the institution of this rite. Circumcision was a seal of the righteousness of faith; and when applied to Abraham, signified his faith, and his acceptance with God through the blood of Christ, on account of his faith. The application of the seal to his children and family did not signify that his household were or would be all pious; nor that they all belonged to the visible church. The great promise to Abraham, which was sealed by the circumcision of his household, was, that he should have a numerous spiritual seed-that there should be a vast multitude who would walk in the steps of his faith, and who would inherit the promises made to him. "He received the sign of circumcision a seal of the righteousness of faith which he had yet being uncircumcised; that he might be the father of all them that believe, though they be not circumcised; that righteousness might be imputed to them also, and the father of circumcision to them who are not of the circumcision only but also walk in the steps of that faith of our father Abraham, which he had yet being uncircumcised. For the promise that he should be the heir of the world was not to Abraham, or to his seed through the law, but through the righteousness of faith. For if they which are of the law be heirs, faith is made void, and the promise made of none effect; because the law worketh wrath: for

where no law is, there is no transgression. Therefore it is of faith that it might be by grace; to the end the promise might be sure to all the seed, not to that only which is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all (as it is written, I have made thee a father of many nations) before him whom he believed even God." Rom. iv. 11-17.

From this passage it is evident that the promise to Abraham in its grand import referred to a spiritual seed, to those who should be the children of Abraham by possessing faith like his, whether they should be circumcised or uncircumcised, whether Abraham's descendants or gentiles.

It will be granted that there was made to Abraham a promise of a believing generation in his family until Christ should come; and that he had also a promise of the land of Canaan; but these blessings were subordinate to the one already mentioned, and were designed to fulfil it. That the Church of God might be presreved in the world, Abraham's family was separated from the rest of mankind, and was established in Canaan; but when the church was organized anew, and the promise began to be fulfilled in its largest sense, then the subordinate accomplishment ceased; and when the natural seed of Abraham shall be restored to the church, it will be in fulfilment of the promise relative to the universal enlargement of Christ's kingdom, and the spread of Abraham's believing posterity over all the earth. The covenant or promise sealed by circumcision," I will be a God to thee and to thy seed after thee," in its largest sense and genuine meaning did not refer to a natural offspring, nor to piety among that offspring, nor to the land of Canaan; but it referred to the true church, to Christ, and the vast multitude of Christ's disciples, and to the privileges they would enjoy in this world, and the

glory in the next which they would inherit.

Household circumcision had this large meaning, as an inspired Apostle has explained it; and thus interpreted, the promise sealed by it is worthy of the distinction that has been given it. Household baptism has the same generous import. The promises sealed by circumcision are still valid, and they are yet to be fulfilled; but they are brought to the view of faith by a new ordinance, an ordinance which has as extensive an application as circumcision, and signifies as large promises. When Abraham administered the ordinance of circumcision, he applied it to his domestics as well as to his children, thus signifying that its blessings did not belong to his descendants alone, but to others also. Why then should this large and beneficent import of baptism be overlooked? Why should it so generally be deemed a sign of promises respecting our own children alone? Baptism administered to believers and their households, signifies in substance what circumcision did. The promises sealed in circumcision are not yet fulfilled; and they still need to be represented by a proper sign; and such a sign is baptism administered to believers and their households. The promises are not yet fulfilled, for Abraham is to be the father of many nations-of all nations. If circumcision was not a seal of such large promises, I err greatly respecting the import of scripture on this point. The subject is one of great practical importance; and I apprehend that there is an extreme failure of making a sufficient and practical use of the ordinances of baptism and the Lord's supper. I will leave the discussion here for the present; and if I am not led to view the subject in another light I will offer some remarks on the practical uses of the rite of baptism as here exhibited.

E. M.