Why? The love of Jesus urges him to toil-the care of souls keeps his eye waking and weeping-the wickedness of men and their awful doom wears away his spirit and his life! What makes the amazing difference? Can we hesitate to say: the motives.

These illustrations will show what we design when we say, that the spirituality or moral excellence of specific actions, or general conduct, depends on motives. Now the most commendable or amiable actions of unregenerate men, viewed in this light, have "Tekel" written on them. They lack the motive which is required to make them holy in the sight of God. The law of God requires the heart and affections to enter into the acts of men, in order to be spiritual. "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God, with thy whole mind, and strength, and understanding; and thy neighbor as thyself." These are the motives which the law requires. And supreme love to God does not govern the conduct of unconverted men. This is the great fountain of depravity. This deficiency of motive attaches to the whole conduct. The heart is not set on God. The conduct, though externally proper, cannot be called holy. Reason, therefore, exercising her powers in conformity with a plain and unquestioned revelation, decides that man is totally depraved: because he is wholly deficient in proper motives.

4. The proposition deduced from the text may be strengthened by another kind of proof. The testimony of Christians.

The unanimous testimony of those who have been converted is, that human depravity-i. e., their own depravity by nature-is total. This testimony is credible and valuable. They have no motive to make uncandid statements. They view their former state accurately and not with prejudice. What do they say of the actions of unregenerate men, or depravity? They tell us, that the actions for which they once received praise-which were once given as evidences of something excellent in human nature, and which are no doubt praised in the same way in others, were, as far as spirituality of motive was concerned, hollow and deficient; and now awaken shame and regret rather than self-complacency. The candor which conviction of sin gives, is remarkable and very valuable. This candid testimony ratifies the verdict of the Bible, and conscience, and reason— —that human depravity is total: no really regenerate man has ever been found to give a different testimony.

5. This proposition, also, receives confirmation from unconverted men. When they have a point to carry, they may and do deny this doctrine, but when speaking of their fellow-men, under circumstances producing candor equal to Christians, they give the same testimony. Who has not, at one period of his life or other, heard the dispassionate verdict of those who have mingled much with their fellow-men in the intercourse of life, on this melancholy subject? What lawyer will dare to deny that his experience does not confirm the decision of Holy Writ? What secrets might they not promulge, to substantiate the whole of Scripture testimony, if they would draw the picture of human nature as it acts out before them in the ordinary details of business? What selfishness and covetousness; what naughty tricks and constructive lying; what mean advantages and dirty practices, would not be shown to belong to those whom the world calls honest, and who would be insulted if they were not thought virtuous!! Can we call this any thing but total depravity.

When some reverse of circumstances, or change of friendships, displays the real motives and genuine character of a man, how much of the kindness and courtesy, so much esteemed, is found to have been assumed to serve a purpose. How bitterly, but correctly, will human depravity then be described by those who suffer its cruel effects!!

The abstracted recluse who sees only the surface, does not probably imagine human nature to be totally depraved. The minister of God, to whom the fairest side is always shown, and with whom politeness often makes men appear pious, may not see the truth. But some do see it. They could, and would, if they were candid, bear emphatic testimony, that "the heart of man is desperately wicked." Hear a hoary veteran in sin talk of others. Listen to what he will say, after intercourse with every variety of character, and then see what any virtue is worth, but what springs from conscientious principles. Talk with those who have watched the windings of human depravity in the most polished circles, and who have lead the counsels of the greatest nations. Read their recorded verdicts on the depravity of human nature, and you will find that the Scripture declarations, though harsh, are amply confirmed. "The whole head is sick; the whole heart is faint; from the sole of the foot even to the head there is no soundness, but wounds, and bruises, and putrefying sores, they have not been closed, nor bound up, neither mollified with ointment.”

The strongest evidence of human depravity is, the envenomed thrusts at religion which wicked men make through the character of its professors. The charges of hypocrisy, and inconsistency, and selfishness, true or false, which are so lavishly made against professing Christians, prove human depravity to be total. If true, it shows that depravity can veil itself even in the garb of holiness; if false, it shows that depravity can vilify the only loveliness and excellence that is ever engrafted on man's nature.

We are thus, by the united verdict of the Bible, of the human conscience, of human reason, of the regenerate and the unregenerate, constrained to believe that human depravity is total; that there is no spirituality or moral excellence in unchanged human nature; that all men by nature are dead in sins; that the head and the heart, the intellect and the affections of men, are alike the subjects of this blighting curse. The apparent exceptions in the character and conduct of the unregenerate, may all be explained upon other principles. While no man is as bad, probably, as he might be, and while there are almost infinite degrees in the depravity of the human family, all are entirely depraved. Whatever may be the influence of conduct uninspired by proper motives on the affairs of society; however much such actions may serve to keep the world from utter confusion and ruin; however sweetly they may sometimes soften the asperity of human adversity, or smooth the ruggedness of life, in regard to spirituality they are totally deficient. At best, they are "amiable instincts," proofs of the original beauty of the structure of man's nature, rather than evidences of any present moral excellence. These do not at all interfere with the position that men are totally depraved. The deadliest poison is sometimes concealed by the fairest flowers.

We have no wish to make human nature darker than it really is. We do not dive into human degradation, or take the covering from plausible actions, because we love these discoveries. It is hard thus

to apply the stern sword of the Spirit to the only flowers that have outlived the fall, or the fire of truth to the graceful drapery around human character. But the truth of God is at stake. He describes human depravity in the Sacred Volume. And we must endeavor to show that God is true and every man a liar, even though it sweep away all that man is proud of; THAT GOD IS TRUE when he testifies

THAT BY NATURE ALL MEN ARE TOTALLY DEPRAVED.

It is not pleasant to dwell on the spiritual deformity of our nature. But it may be profitable. It is better to describe the disease painfully, if it will lead to the remedy, than to lull to security by false representation. It is better to unveil the deformity, if it lead to salutary abhorrence, than veil it to the ruin of the soul. If the doctrine be harsh, remember it is true. If it thwarts the natural feelings of the heart, it is the plain revelation of that Bible which gives us the only hopes of eternal happiness. If it crushes every proud passion, and humbles us in the dust, it is the truth of that God who only has life and death in his hand. We will disbelieve or disregard it at our eternal peril.

We might, by compromising the truth, present a view of this subject much more palatable, than natural, universal, and total depravity. But with compromise on this point, we must make a corresponding change in all that is peculiar and precious in the Christian system. If we veiled the truth on this point, we might form a system which no sinner would oppose. It would flatter human pride, and foster human merit, and permit the aspirings of human dignity, and lay no fatal axe at the root of human greatness. This we might do; for it has been done. This system would naturally withdraw a Divine Savior from the Sacred Volume, and present his sufferings as a model for our imitation, and not a sacrifice for our innumerable sins. This system would take away the Holy Ghost as an unnecessary appendage of Divine Revelation-change Satan into a personification-and all the fires of hell and the solemnities of the judgment, into figurative phraseology.

To

Such a system would be palatable to proud human nature. such a law" the carnal mind would have no enmity;" such light it would not hate; of such a plan of salvation it would shout hosannas; and for such a faith, involving no sorrow for sin, nor change of heart -no self-denial or holy obedience, there might be found votaries as numerous as the myriads that worship the Beast, or that follow the false Prophet.

But a minister must be far gone in depravity or in error himself, before he can be brought to the dangerous experiment of defending such a system to please the taste or buy the favor of his fellow-men; and we honestly believe that every man taught by the Spirit of God, is taught that depravity is natural, universal, and total-and the deeper his views of depravity, the clearer his conceptions and stronger his evidences of salvation.

THE NECESSITY, AND NATURE, OF THE EDUCATION OF THE MINISTRY.

2 TIMOTHY 2: 2.—And the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men who shall be able to teach others

also.

The text supposes the union of Piety and Knowledge as necessary to the perfect adornment of the minister of Jesus. "And the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men; (i. e. pious and devoted mcn;) who shall be able to teach others also." These are the men we need: men who in roaming the fields of knowledge, forsake not their intercourse with heaven: men who are examples to the world in every virtue: men who can instruct the opposer with meekness, and rebuke the transgressor with firmness: men of gentle hearts who can sympathize with the afflicted, and rejoice with the happy; who have the spirit of self-denial to bear them through all the toils and the trials of their office: men who labor on their appointed day without intermission-looking to the Great Lord of the Harvest for their reward; magnifying not themselves but their office; with all humility giving the glory to Him whose ambassadors they are, and who has honored them as his co-laborers in the work of the world's salvation.

Numerous are the objections which ignorance and prejudice have made against the thorough Education of the Ministry; but the only one of all these which is at all formidable or even worthy of notice, is that which is derived from the character and history of our Lord's apostles. These we are told were, with few exceptions, illiterate men; some of them were obscure fishermen; and nearly all, previous to their ministry, engaged in some secular occupation which left no time for scientific pursuits: yet they were the men who laid the foundations of the Christian church, and who succeeded more in rearing up the glorious fabric than any succeeding generation of ministers, however splendid their talents and extended their acquirements. The argument is more specious than solid. We deny the premises assumed, and, even admitting the premises, we deny that the inference which is made to follow, is justly deducible. What! methinks I hear it asked, will you deny the admitted and acknowledged fact, that the Lord Jesus called some of his disciples from the very boats in which they were mending their nets, and another from the place where he was gathering the taxes of the land? No, brethren; but we do deny most distinctly that they were immediately admitted to the functions, and performed the duties of the ministerial office. These but began their pupilage; for three years they sat in the school of Christ; listened to the instructions of the great Prophet of our world; heard from his lips doctrines which never fell from Socrates or Plato-and all delivered with a lucidness, a sweetness and a power which astonished even his enemies, and made the officers sent to arrest him exclaim with wonder, "Never man spake like this man." And these were not periodical or occasional privileges. They heard him at all times; not merely in public

lectures, like the students of the Academic philosophers, but in his most private converse: they received in secret the explanation of those parables with which he taught the multitude: by the most simple and lucid illustrations he made still clearer the great mysteries of his word: with the utmost gentleness and affection he removed one prejudice after another as he discovered it to prevail over their minds. Thus instructed by their great Teacher, they went forth fully equipped for their warfare able to contend with every gainsayer or perverter of their faith. It was not till they had passed through this preparatory stage, that they were fully intrusted with all the responsibilities and duties of their office. It was immediately preceding his glorious return to his Father, that he gave them the important commission, "Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature." Then he established that sacred order whom he hath promised to bless with his presence to the end of the world and the consummation of his kingdom. And now we ask with fearlessness, Were they not learned men? Who is the man that will dare to depreciate the teachings of the Great Messiah, and charge the pupils who issued from his school with ignorance or folly? It is true, in all probability, they knew but little of the babblings of a false philosophy or the conceptions of Platonic childishness. They knew enough, however, of these systems of superstition and error to ensure their destruction: and John, one of those very men who are charged with illiteracy, we behold opening his Gospel with a death-blow at the system of the Gnostics; holding forth Christ, the word of God, as the creator and preserver, the light and the life of the world, in opposition to all those theories which would degrade his divinity or hurl him from the throne of universal government. But whatever they may have known of these ancient and now buried philosophies, they were fully instructed in all the doctrines and mysteries of Revelation. He who was the object of the sacrificial types; the testimony of whom was the spirit and scope of all prophecy: He unfolded to their minds the ample page of sacred knowledge. Thus learning from the book of the Spirit of God and receiving the comment of the Son of God-the great wisdom of the Bible; who will venture to say that after all this training they became not men of knowledge and understanding, able to feed the flock of God from the stores which they themselves had received from the Great Shepherd?

But in addition to the falsity of the premises, the conclusion itself is illogical-the superstructure which is reared upon the assumed basis, is broader than the foundation. Until it can be shown that the present dispensation of the Gospel is coincident in all its parts with the primitive, no argument can be derived from this peculiarity in favor of limiting the intellectual qualifications of ministers of succeeding ages. But the truth is, that dispensation was itself an extraordinary one. It was the birth; the ushering in of all dispensations. The very foundations of Christianity were to be established, and there were the needed displays of power in its behalf, such as had never been and should never follow after. It was necessary to teach the world that the Christian system had not its origin in the school of the philosopher -sprang not from the conceptions of the Rabbin-was in no sense the discovery of the human mind, and therefore it was that Jesus and his disciples came forth from the shades of obscurity, unfolding a harmonious and magnificent system of truth, of which philosphers had never imagined in their proudest conceptions. But when this great object was obtained, there was no need to continue and perpetuate the peculiar means by which it was accomplished.

But further, The teachers of that age were endowed with powers which rendered less necessary the instructions and the intellectual training preparatory to the sacred office. Will those ministers of the present age, who justify a partial and meagre education in the ministry-will they pretend to the same powers? Will they profess to make up by Inspiration what they have lost by want of mental exertion? Will they supply the lack of classical learning by the gift of tongues? Will they work a miracle, heal the sick or raise the dead, in attestation of the truth of their doctrines, when unable to convince by sound argument and copious illustrations drawn from the word of God? Until they claim the possession of these