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thou wast precious in my sight, thou hast been honorable, and I have loved thee."

Some of us have come from a distance to join with you in these services. Though invited as members of a particular denomination, we cannot forget that we were christians before we were Congregational ministers and messengers of churches, and we hope to be christians, with you, forever, after these denominational distinctions shall have passed away.

We have one wish unfulfilled, we leave on record here one prayer-that, hereafter, in the new heavens and new earth, we may be summoned from our abodes to see this Pastor leading up every soul of his charge into the presence of his God and Saviour, and hear him say, OF THEM WHICH THOU GAVEST ME, HAVE I LOST NONE. Amen.

CHARGE TO THE PASTOR

BY

REV. JOHN TODD, D. D.

OF PITTSFIELD, MASS.

My dear Sir:-The winter of 1820 was one of the most severe, shutting up our harbors at the North, to an extent almost unprecedented. Just at evening, on a terribly cold day, a student from Yale College, destitute, sick, and bleeding at the lungs, was drawn down the harbor of New Haven, upon the ice by a sailor, upon a hand sled, to go on board a brig which had almost cut her way into open water. Friendless, the Faculty of College had advised his fleeing South as the dernier resort to save his life. In a few days he landed in this city-not knowing, as he supposed, a single soul in Carolina. It was on the Sabbath when he landed, and walking up the street, he was opposite this very building, when the public service closed. The first individual that came out was known to the student. It was Mr. Morse-since honored the world over as the inventor of the telegraph system. The young man belonged to the church of which his father, the Rev. Dr. Morse of Charlestown, Mass., was Pastor. Of course, they were acquainted. They were both young-the student nineteen, and Mr. M. a few years older. Mr. Morse took his young friend at once to the house of the Pastor of this church, the Rev. Dr. Palmer, whose great virtues I see commemorated on one of these beautiful tablets. In that family he was received with all the tenderness and kindness that parents could manifest. There he was nursed, and attended by the kind family physician (Dr. Whitridge,) for four months, and until health was nearly restored. This church then procured him a horse, bridle and saddle, and sent him back to Yale College! That young man has now been a Pastor for thirty-three years, and he now stands before you under direction of this council to give you their charge! As a matter of taste merely, this personal incident should have been omitted; but may I not be excused for referring to a burden of gratitude which has been lying on my heart for forty years, and which will not be taken off even now. It is the first opportunity, in all these long years, I have had to make my acknowledgments, and now the kind and noble ones whose faces I would recall are mostly among the dead! Their record, I am sure, is on high.

We have now installed you over this ancient Church and People, and, in committing them to your care, we solemnly charge you, dear Sir,

To be "a good minister of Jesus Christ:"

To preach the gospel of Christ in all fullness:

To administer the ordinances-the Supper and Baptism: To instruct and build up the Church of God:

To visit the sick, sympathize with the distressed, and comfort the mourners:

To bury the dead, with christian services:

To feed the lambs:

To maintain the discipline of the Church:

To warn the sinner and strive to present every man faultless in the day of the Lord Jesus; and

To clear your own soul from the blood required, and to give up your account with joy, when required.

Two great duties required, are to preach the gospel faithfully, and to lead the devotions of the people. You are to be God's mouth to them, and their mouth to Him. In preaching, do not try to see how many new, original, or smart things you can say, but how much of Bible-truth you can convey to men. It is not great, intellectual efforts that are to save the souls of man, but the great unchanging, awful truths of the word of God. Do not be afraid that these will ever be "behind the age;" that men will become tired of them, or that they were not made for the human soul. Bring your hearers among the great, granite pillars of truth, and see if they will not love to linger and wrestle there. Those great facts revealed, the fall of man-the depravity of the human heart-the atonement by the death of the Son of God-the regeneration of the soul by the Holy Spirit-the resurrection of the dead-the heaven that is eternal and the hell that is eternal-the one or the other for every man; these will never wear out! We charge you to preach them in all their fullness, their reach, their awfulness and their power. If your ministry is to be a power or a blessing to this people, the preaching of the doctrines of the Cross must be the instrumentality.

You will find three epistles in your Bible addressed especially to Pastors-give yourself to their study frequently and faithfully.

We charge you not to omit any duty, nor to indulge in anything that will lessen your influence as a minister of Christ or an ambassador from God. If riches or honors or worldly distinctions change hands, they are not for you. You have one aim, one great labor, one great hope, and nothing must turn you aside. Your power must not be drawn from earth. If

your face shines, it must be because you tarry long in the

mount.

And do not be surprised if you have trials. Indeed, no small part of the usefulness of a minister depends on his being chastened. The flower that sends out its sweetest perfume is the one that is crushed and wounded. Not one of our trials can be spared to us. Our master said to the noblest instrument that he ever used, "Behold! I will show him what great things he shall suffer for my name's sake!" We pretend not to say in what shape the trials will come, but be sure, if you are to be a great blessing to this people, they will come-and they may be many. A good soldier expects to face toil, dangers and wounds.

We have come, dear Brother, from the far off land of the Pilgrims to give a Pilgrim Pastor to a Pilgrim church. And we do not feel that we are leaving you here alone. You are surrounded by a noble band of Brethren in the ministry—and we charge you, as a principle of Congregationalism, and as a duty you owe these churches-avoid Sectarianism! Show at all times that you wear a coat so loose that you can work anywhere, and with anybody and everybody that loves our common Lord. Let your standard of duty be as high as perfection itself, your zeal pure and quenchless, and your charity and love as broad as the mercy of God.

O man of God! we lay a heavy burden on you this evening; but you know Who hath said, "Cast thy burden on me and I will sustain thee!" The day of responsibility hath come, but He saith, "As thy day is, so shall thy strength be." Ut dies, sic robur!

Once more, we charge you to be faithful until death. It will be but a short time ere He will send for you; and if faithful, the message will be, "Come up hither,"-"Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord." "Let no man take thy crown!" and may God grant that when you meet this flock before the judgmentseat, you may be able to meet them as your "crown," and your "joy" and to say, "Behold, I and the children which God hath given me."

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