Page images
PDF
EPUB

the land! Go, ready prepared as you are, for the re-entrance of that unclean spirit, who will take with him seven other spirits, more wicked than himself, so that your last state shall be worse than your first!' No, my brethren! These will not be your words! I know, that you will open, you will enlarge, you will perpetuate this merciful asylum. And, while heaven looks down, with complacency, upon your holy work, you will say, with one united voice, to these repentant sinners,.. NEITHER DO WE CONDEMN YOU; GO; AND SIN NO MORE!

ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES.

(1) Page 281.

None are admitted as inmates, after having attained the age of twenty years.'] It would appear desirable, that, in all similar establishments, this, or at least, some equally efficient principle of selection were adopted. The multiplication of institutions for the reception of female penitents, or even the considerable enlargement of those already in being, is also to be deprecated. It is, indeed, most indispensable, that means should be provided, of restoring those, who are truly solicitous of returning, to the ways of virtue. But, in the present state of society, a slight knowledge of the world may abundantly suggest, that large and indiscriminate admission, would, on many accounts, be dangerous, if not fatal, to numbers that are now innocent and unperverted.

(2) Page 281. Sacred principles, imparted with the most faithful, and the most affectionate zeal.'] The Rev. Richard Herbert Nash, D.D. then Fellow of Trinity College, Dublin, now Rector of Ardstraw, in the Diocese of Derry, was, in the year 1810, Chaplain to the Magdalen Asylum. His ministry in the pulpit of that institution is, at this day, no less vividly recollected, than are his instructions in the Divinity School of the University.

288

SERMON XI.

(PREACHED AT SAINT WERBURGH'S CHURCH, DUBLIN; MARCH 23, 1806; WHEN AN ORDINATION WAS HELD, BY THE RIGHT HON. AND RIGHT REV. THE LORD BISHOP OF KILDARE; AND ORI. GINALLY PUBLISHED AT THE REQUEST OF HIS LORDSHIP, AND OF THE GENTLEMEN THEN ORDAINED.)

1 TIMOTHY, IV. 16.

TAKE HEED UNTO THYSELF, AND UNTO THE DOCTRINE; CONTINUE IN THEM; FOR, IN DOING THUS, THOU SHALT BOTH SAVE THYSELF, AND THEM THAT HEAR THEE.

IT is the great object of the Christian

ministry, to advance true religion in the hearts of men: to open their eyes, to turn them from darkness unto light, and from the power of Satan unto God.

The world, we are told in scripture, lieth in wickedness; and it is the office of Christ's ministers, to awaken it from this deadly sleep, to rouse it from this perilous condition. The poor are too commonly sunk in ignorance; and it is our happy privilege, to communicate to them the glad tidings of salvation. The affluent are often hurried away by deceitful vanities; and it is our high allotment, to recal them to soundness of mind, to reason with them, concerning righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come. The whole family of Adam have offended against their Almighty Governor; but he hath graciously proclaimed an amnesty, and to us he hath committed the ministry of reconciliation. Whether, therefore, we consider the magnitude of the duty, the dignity of the office, or the majesty of him, whose commission we bear, it surely becomes every individual, who undertakes this high and holy ministration, to lay to heart the apostolic warning of the text; to take

U

heed unto himself, and unto the doctrine; to take heed, and to continue in them; conscious, that, by no other means, can he save his own soul, and the souls of those who hear him.

I. Take heed unto thyself. Prove thyself, first, as a Christian, that thou art, indeed, in the right faith; that things distant, future, and invisible, are so presented to thy mind's eye, and so impressed upon thy heart, as to overcome the allurements and attractions of this visible world; that the facts revealed in Scripture, have a real influence upon thee, elevating thy affections to high and heavenly things; that God is the supreme object of thy love, the prime source of thy happiness, and the end of all thy actions; that Christ dwelleth in thy heart, a living principle of holiness and wisdom; that, through the gracious influence of his spirit, there is formed within thee a perennial fountain of goodness, springing up into everlasting life, and sending forth its happy streams through every portion

« ՆախորդըՇարունակել »