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transgressors and was grieved." "Rivers of waters run down my eyes, because men keep not thy law." "Horror hath taken hold of me, because of the wicked who transgress thy law." The honor of his Savior lies nearer to his heart than any other interest. The precious name of Jesus is as ointment poured forth to his soul; and he desires above all things to see it honored by redeemed sinners. He rejoices that the angels of God worship Him; but he would rejoice still more to see all nations submitting to Him and uniting in his praise. Says Whitefield, in a letter to a friend,—“ The more we do, the more we may do for Jesus. I sleep and eat but little, and am constantly employed from morning to midnight, and yet my strength is daily renewed. O free grace! It fires my soul, and makes me long to do something for Jesus " Again,-"It Again,—“ İt is near eleven at night, and nature calls for rest. I have preached five times this day, and weak as I am, through Christ strengthening me, could preach five times more." "Invitations," says he," are sent to me from several places. I want more tongues, more bodies, more souls, for the Lord Jesus. Had I ten thousand, he should have them all."

Says Brainerd, "Whom have I in heaven but thee? and there is none upon earth that I desire besides thee. O, I feel that it is heaven to please Him, and to be just what He would have me to be. O that my soul were holy as He is holy! O that it were pure even as Christ is pure! and perfect even as my Father in heaven is perfect! These, I feel, are the sweetest commands in God's book. And shall I break them? O my soul, woe, woe is me that I am a sinner! O, methinks if He would punish me for my sins, it would not wound my heart so deep as to offend Him. But though I sin continually, yet he continually repeats his kindness to me! O! methinks I could bear any sufferings, but how can I bear to grieve and dishonor this blessed God! How shall I yield ten thousand times more honor to Him? What shall I do to glorify and worship the best of beings? O that I could consecrate myself, soul and body, to his service forever! O ye angels ! do ye glorify him incessantly, and, if possible, prostrate yourselves lower before this blessed King of heaven! I long to bear a part with you, and, if it were possible, to help you." On another occasion he said " he felt as confident that he desired to glorify God, as any angel in heaven could feel."

Said Payson, “I felt willing to live or die, as God pleased, and to go among the Indians or to any part of the world where I could be instrumental in promoting the glory of God and the happiness of man." Says his biographer,-" Two or three times during his ministry, he adopted what would be generally regarded as bold measures; and they would have been absolutely rash and injurious, had they not originated in a sincere and glowing zeal for God, and the

eternal welfare of men. Yet who that estimates the worth of the soul, will dare to censure his conduct; or say that the importance of the object was not at least commensurate with his zeal ?"

3. An affecting view of the guilt and wretchedness of those who are living without hope, and without God in the world.Those who have been most successful will testify, that the pungency and power of their preaching have been almost in exact proportion to the clearness of their views of the guilt and wretchedness of the sinner. Perhaps there is no one respect in which ministers and christians in a revival, differ from what they are out of a revival, more than in this. Never will a feeble impression of such a subject lead us to dwell upon it, and to give it that prominence in our prayers and preaching, which are essential to any proper effect on the minds of others. Every experienced minister knows that the most pathetic appeals, founded on the mere danger to which the impenitent are exposed, and the most thundering representations of hell and damnation, seldom produce any permanent effect, while the cause which exposes the sinner to danger is kept out of view. That cause is his guilt; and that guilt arises from the violation of his obligations. The sinner must be made to see this; and be never can see it, until he is made to feel that he acted freely, and might have done otherwise; that this is true not only in reference to some sins, but in reference to every sin. In this way alone can he be made to feel that he is without excuse for being an enemy to God, and for all his disobedience both to the law and to the gospel. It is evident that such views are adapted to produce conviction, and to lead to repentance; and that where these points are made clear, and urged in such a manner as the feelings of a minister will dictate, who himself sees them clearly and feels them deeply, an effect will be produced, very different from any thing which could be expected to result from confused or erroneous representations of human agency, or from a cold and heartless exhibition even of the truth itself.

Whatever may be the speculative opinions of ministers with regard to the nature of depravity, inability, regeneration, etc., it is a fact, that where their ministry is successful, as it is in revivals, they preach to sinners as if they believed them to be possessed of all the powers of moral agency, capable of turning to God, and on this account (and no other) inexcusable for not doing so. Some have seen these points more clearly, and have explained them more philosophically and more scripturally than others; but there has always been a substantial agreement in their mode of preaching, among those who have been greatly blessed in turning sinners to righteousness. And so there is at the present time. Let brethren of the old and of the new school leave contending, and hunting for heresy in each others' writings; and let them hold protracted meet

ings together, and pray and labor for the conversion of men who are now hardening themselves in iniquity, and ripening for damnation, under the ruinous influence of ministerial strife, and our darkness would soon become as the noon-day; the enemy would cease to triumph, and God would again be glorified in the successful labors of his servants. Is it not worth while to make the experiment? Would it not be a safer one, and in all respects more pleasant to the parties concerned, than movements which tend to divide brethren who are substantially one in doctrine and in spirit?

But further: There must also be such a view of the sinner's present and prospective wretchedness, as will excite feelings of deep and tender sympathy; or that compassion which will prompt a minister to put into requisition the whole force of his mind, in the employment of the wisest and best adapted instrumentalities for saving those that are lost. Under the influence of such feelings, he "gives himself to prayer and to the ministry of the word." He is "instant in season and out of season;"" becomes all things to all men, if by any means he may save some." While this state of mind renders it impossible for him to be satisfied in accomplishing nothing, it prepares him to give an impartial consideration to any plan which may be suggested for promoting the object for which he is laboring; especially for increasing the efficiency of the gospel ministry. When such plans are proposed, while others look at them with suspicion, and stand calculating all the possible evils that might grow out of their adoption; how it would affect their reputation; whether it would devolve upon them an amount of labor which they might find to be inconvenient; or whether such a deviation from established usages might not be a greater evil than the loss of souls, etc.; he will be very apt to make the trial, especially if the means already tried appear to have lost their efficacy, and the new ones appear to have as much scriptural authority as the old, and to have been tried with success, by men whose works prove them to be "wise in winning souls," and upon whose labors the Spirit of God has set the broad seal of his approbation. On subjects of this nature the opinions of men, and especially of theoretical men, go for very little with the devoted servant of Christ. He judges of things by their practical results, and by the bible. If, according to this standard, public sentiment, even among christians and ministers, is wrong, he will not be influenced by it. His concern for the souls of perishing men will not allow him to turn aside from his work, for the sake of pleasing those whom he believes to be in error, however much he may respect and love them. And while he keeps his mind fixed upon the object for which he is laboring, his "head is often as waters, and his eyes as a fountain of tears;" for, in the light of divine truth, he sees his fellow men accumulating guilt and wretchedness upon themselves, and sinking

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to endless sorrow and despair; and he cannot but weep to think how many will be lost in spite of all his efforts to save them; and also, to see how few christians and ministers are laboring as if they really felt that they were "pulling sinners out of the fire," and rescuing them from the damnation of hell. This topic is illustrated in almost every page of Brainerd's Journal. It was his compassion for the souls of the poor Indians, that impelled him away from civilized life and christian society, to wear himself out by traveling and preaching in the wilderness. How many days and nights did he spend in prayer for them! How often does he speak of "crying to God for his poor Indians!" On one occasion, when he heard that the next day they were to meet together for an idolatrous feast, he says: "Then I began to be in anguish. In prayer I was exceedingly enlarged. I pleaded with so much earnestness and inportunity, that when I arose from my knees, I felt extremely weak and overcome. I could scarcely walk straight; my joints were loosed; the sweat ran down my face and body, and nature seemed as if it would dissolve. So far as I could judge, I was free from selfish ends in my fervent supplications for the heathen. I knew that they met together to worship devils, and not God; and this made me cry earnestly that God would now appear and help me in my attempts to break up this idolatrous meeting. My soul pleaded long, and I thought that God would hear. What I ed through was inexpressible. All things here below vanished; and there appeared to be nothing of any considerable importance to me, but holiness of heart and life, and the conversion of the heathen to God. All my cares and fears and desires of a worldly nature disappeared, and were in my esteem of little more importance than a puff of wind. I had no notion of joy from this world. I cared not where or how I lived, or what hardships I went through, so that I could but gain souls to Christ. I continued in this frame all the evening and night. While I was asleep, I dreamed of these things; and when I waked, the first thing I thought of was this great work of pleading for God against Satan." Again he speaks of "crying for mercy for his poor people," while "all his desire was for the salvation of the heathen." The following extract is from the biography of Whitefield. "From this principle of compassion for perishing souls, he now ventured to take a very extraordinary step. It had been the custom for many years past, in the holiday seasons, to erect booths in Moorfields, for mountebanks, players, puppet-shows, etc., which were attended from morning till night by innumerable multitudes of the lower sort of people. He formed a resolution to preach the gospel among them, and executed it. On Whit-Monday, at 6 o'clock in the morning, attended by a large congregation of praying people, he began. Thousands who were waiting there for their usual diVOL. V.

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versions, flocked around him. His text was John iii. 14. They gazed, they listened, they wept, and many seemed to be stung with deep conviction for their past sins. "Being thus encouraged, says he, " I ventured out again at noon, when the fields were quite full, and could scarce help smiling to see thousands, when a MerryAndrew was trumpeting to them, upon observing me mount a stand upon the other side of the field, deserting him, till not so much as one was left behind, but all flocked to hear the gospel. But this, together with a complaint that they had taken near twenty or thirty pounds less that day than usual, so enraged the owners of the booths, that when I came to preach a third time in the evening, in the midst of the sermon, a Merry-Andrew got up upon a man's shoulders, and advancing near the pulpit, attempted to slash me with a long heavy whip several times. Soon afterwards they got a recruiting sergeant, with his drum, etc., to pass through the congregation. But I desired the people to make way for the king's officer, which was quietly done. Finding these efforts to fail, a large body, quite on the opposite side, assembled together, and having got a great pole for their standard, advanced with sound of drum in a very threatening manner, till they came near the skirts of the congregation. Uncommon courage was given to both preacher and hearers. I prayed for support and deliverance, and was heard. For just as they approached us, with looks full of resentment, I know not by what accident, they quarreled among themselves, threw down their staff and went their way; leaving, however, many of their company behind, who, before we were done, were brought to join the besieged party. I think I continued praying, preaching and singing, about three hours. We then retired to the Tabernacle, where thousands flocked. We were determined to pray down the booths; but blessed be God, more substantial work was done. At a moderate computation, I received, I believe, a thousand notes from persons under conviction; and soon afterwards, upwards of three hundred were received into the society in one day. Numbers, that seemed, as it were, to have been bred up for Tyburn, were at that time plucked as fire-brands out of the burning." He and Wesley were often, in their field-preaching, "pelted with eggs and dead cats," and other offensive things. Mobs were raised; sometimes they were severely beaten, and narrowly escaped with their lives. They were slandered and persecuted, not only by the wicked world, but by professors of religion and ministers of the gospel. "One man rode several hundred miles, to pick up all the accounts he could get, of what was wrong, in what he called a religious stir." They were opposed by all sorts of people, and tried in every way; but the word of the Lord was like a fire in their bones, and compassion for perishing souls kept them at their work.

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