tality, "is sufficient for these things ?" 2 Cor. ii. 16. This will be especially felt by every sincere and serious minister, when he comes deliberately to dissolve the connexion thus formed after it has long subsisted; because then he is compelled to reflect on the general imperfection and insufficiency of those ministerial labours which are now to cease; of which he cannot hope, by any system of selfdelusion, to conceal the deficiency which he feels, and which, in such circumstances, he is compelled to acknowledge. I stand before you at this time for the purpose of dissolving for ever that connexion which was formed between us by the earnest and unanimous desire of this congregation, as it subsisted twoand-twenty years ago. Many important changes have occurred among us during that period. Many of those who then made up our number, and who took an active and a Christian share in our concerns, have finished their course in faith, and do now rest from their labours: while, of those who remain, others are following from day to day, leaving to us the deep and the solemn warning,

"Therefore be

ye

also ready; for, in such an

hour as ye think not, the Son of Man cometh."-Matt. xxiv. 44.

with no

I thus present myself before you affectation of feeling, and with no pretence of humility. Affectation is always out of place in the exercise of the Christian ministry. It is a contemptible exhibition in all circumstances, even of our ordinary life; but it would be especially out of place, and criminal even, on an occasion which necessarily directs my attention, and I would hope yours also, to considerations of the deepest interest, both past, present, and prospective. This is the last occasion which I shall ever have of addressing you in the relation which has so long subsisted between us. In looking back, as the occasion compels me to look back, on the commencement and the course of this connexion, I feel, with a deep and a selfabasing conviction, that I have attained less, much less than I expected and hoped, when I yielded reluctantly to the desire of those with whom it was originally formed. In recollecting my first resolutions and my earliest hopes, I can, in all sincerity of heart, declare that I desired not yours but you.

Yet,

though I have never been intentionally deficient in any duty incumbent on me and in my power, I feel that I have never completely fulfilled those resolutions, nor ever competently realized those hopes. The sincerity of my purpose has never subsided; though my practical exertion has not always been equal to my wish nor correspondent with my intention. With the experience which I now possess, had I to commence my career a-new in the vigour of life, there are some things which I have done, which, by God's blessing, I would not do, and some which I have left undone, which, with the same Divine aid, I would endeavour to do. These are vain regrets, though they are brought forward for no vain purpose. They are brought forward in awful warning to you and to myself, that, while our day of salvation, through the long suffering of God, yet lasts, though it is fast hastening to its close, we may at length be roused, by God's grace, to give diligence to make our calling and election sure,-that so an entrance may be ministered unto us abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

I have sought to dissolve the relation which subsists between us, because I have found, by manifold proofs, that, situated as I am, I am now unequal to the exertion which even the most ordinary duty requires. I have sought this dissolution under the influence of emotions which I will not attempt to express in any shape. They may indeed be much more easily imagined than I could express them, especially by those who, with any portion of the feelings which have lately occupied my mind, recollect my early and frequent intercourse with this congregation during a period of fourteen years before my pastoral connection with it was formed, who remember that it was thus formed in consequence of that intercourse, at their desire and not by my solicitation, aud who consider, at the same time, that I never stood in the same relation to any other religious community. Popularity, as it now agitates the religious world, I never sought, and never possessed. Indeed, when I commenced my professional course, we stood on somewhat firmer and better ground, less ensnaring to the minister and more creditable to the people. In this way,

I possessed for many years, as my brethren before me and around me possessed, what was much more valuable than mere mob popularity, the kind consideration, and the steady adherence, of a well instructed community, generally attached, on sound and solid principles, to the peculiarities of the church of which they were members. This is a ground of adherence which, founded in Christian principle, will generally survive the highest pitch of mere personal popularity, which is always fleeting, as the vain passions are which it excites, and by which it is nourished. He who is carried by mere personal feeling towards Paul to-day will be found running with equal eagerness after Apollos to-morrow-and anon he will crowd the adherents of Cephas; without reflecting, in his rapid race after effect and novelty, that we are expressly and solemnly prohibited from glorying in men,-1 Cor. iii. 21.; that Paul, Apollos, and Cephas were ministers merely, who planted with industry and watered with skill, but God only gave, as God only can give, the increase. For we are labourers together with God: Ye are God's husbandry, ye are God's building. For other founda