A brave, good man, who loved life well, but who loved good better: and who, when a thing was put before him, and when Timidity whispered, 'Is it safe?' and Expediency hinted, 'Is it politic?' and Vanity suggested, 'Will it be popular?' took counsel of his own true heart and simply enquired, 'Is it right?' There is no feat more noticeable than the devout earnestness with which he studied the Divine Word and the reverence which he cherished for it throughout the whole of his life-----
" 'Not perfect, nay, but full of tender wants,
No angel, but a dearer being all dipt
In angel instincts, breathing Paradise.'
"One great want of our times is a commanding ministry a ministry of a piety at once sober and earnest and of mightiest moral power. Give us these men! 'full of faith and the Holy Ghost/ who will pro claim old truths with new energy, not cumbering them with massive drapery, nor hiding them 'neath piles of rubbish. Give us these men! Men of sound speech, who will preach the truth as it is in Jesus, not with faltering tongue and averted eye, as if the mind blushed at its own credulity not discomposed, that a chemical analysis alone can detect the faint odour which tells it has been there but who will preach it apostle wise, that is, 'first of all at once a principle shrined in the heart and a- motive mighty in the life the source of all morals and inspiration of all charity the sanctifier of every relationship, and the sweetener of every toil. Give us these men! Men of birth, and the pride of rank, and the pride of office, and the pride of intellect, and the pride of money, and will rebuke their conventional hypocrisies, and demolish their false confidences, and sweep away their refuge of lies. Give us these men! Men of tenderest sympathy, who dare despise none, however vile and crafty, because, the 'one blood' appeals for relationship in its sluggish or fevered flow; who deal not in fierce reproofs nor haughty bearing because their own souls have just been brought out of prison; by whom the sleeper will not be harshly eluded and who will mourn over the wanderer, 'My brother, ah! my brother!' Give us these men! Men of zeal untiring, whose hearts of constancy quail not, although dull men sneer, and proud men scorn, and timid men blush, and wicked men revile: who, though atrophy wastes the world, and paralysis has settled in the church, and hazard and hardship are 'valiant for the truth upon the earth,'
" 'And think
What others only dreamed about, and do
What others did but think, and glory in
What others dared but do.'
"Give us these men, in whom Paul would find congenial reasoners; whom the fervent Peter would greet with a welcome sparkle in the eye; to whom the gentle John would be attracted as to twin souls, which beat like his own all lovingly. Give us these men! And you need speak no more of the faded greatness and prostrate might of the pulpit; the true God-Witness shall be re installed in their ancient moral sovereignty, and 'by every man's conscience in the sight of God.' "
God make us men like these!
