acquit ourselves of our solemn vows and obligations. Thus only can we presume upon the cheering and sustaining presence of God's good Spirit in our hearts and on our toils, and thus alone, will we win at last the "Well done, good and faithful servant," of our Lord. "These messengers," says Archbishop Leighton, speaking of the clergy, "should come near the life of angels, always beholding the face of the Father of lights; but if their affections be engaged to the world, their faces will still be that way. Fly high, they may, sometimes, in some speculations of their own; but, like the eagle, for all their soaring, their eye will still be upon some prey, some carrion here below. Upright, meek, humble, and heavenly minds, then, must the ambassadors of this great King have, and so obtain his intimacy; mounting up on those wings of prayer and meditation, and having the eye of faith upwards. Thus shall they learn more of his choicest mysteries in one hour than by many days poring upon casuists and schoolmen and such-like. This ought to be done, I confess; but above all, the other must not be omitted. Their chief study should be that of their commission, the Holy Scriptures. The way to speak chiefly from God, is often to hear him speak. The Lord has given me the tongue of the learned,' says the evangelic prophet (chiefly intending Christ), 'to speak a word in season to the weary.' (Aye, that is the learnedest tongue when all is done.) But how? 'He wakeneth morning by morning, he wakeneth mine ear to hear as the learned.' (Isaiah 1:4.) Thus we see how these 76 DISCOURSES AND CHARGES. ambassadors have need to be friends, a friends with their Lord. For if they be God in the Mount, their return to men w brightness in their faces, and the law in th their lives and their doctrines shall be hea THIRD CHARGE.* ! MY REVEREND BRETHREN: I propose to resume this morning a subject which I introduced to your notice when we last met. That subject addresses ministers of Christ as students, and presents as worthy of their consideration three questions : I. HOW WE OUGHT TO STUDY? II. WHAT WE OUGHT TO STUDY? and To the first only of these topics, that touching the method of study, was I able to give attention at that time. I proceed then on this occasion to consider the matter of the studies which pertain to our profession; or in other words, I shall endeavor to answer the question, what ought to be his subjects and textbooks for study, who is called, in this age and land, to discharge the duties of a minister of the Protestant Episcopal Church. In entering on this subject, I need hardly remind * Delivered, May, 1851. |