Southern Christian Advocate

MINISTERS.
From Dr. Prague's Sermon.

MINISTERIAL CHARACTER OF ST. PAUL:

The study of the ministerial character of St. Paul, teaches us that our highest efficiency as ministers does not lie in any one quality or even in several qualities, however great and excellent, but in such an harmonious combination of all those ministerial traits which God's word requires, as shall constitute an admirable consistency of character. If I mistake not, it is one of the things most to be regretted in the ministry of the present day, that there are so many who cultivate some one quality at the expense of the rest; and who, in the pursuit of a single object, entirely overlook many others which have even a greater claim upon their regard. I know of no better antidote to this evil than to contemplate habitually the character of Paul; to see how, while he was ever swayed by a desire to glorify his Redeemer in the extension of his cause, he always accommodated himself to the condition in which he was placed; always exhibited the very spirit which his circumstances seemed to require. Let us study his history; let us ponder his example; let us walk in his steps. And his death, let it be remembered, was in keeping with his life. There was a halo of glory around the fatal block that first caught his blood: he was strengthened by an angel--the angel of the covenant, to stand as firm as a rock, and contemplate the gathering horrors of the scene, and even hail with joy the lifting up of the instrument that was to sever his head from his body, and to separate the incorruptible from the corruptible. We, brethren, are none of us likely to die a martyr's death; but all that is essential in dying awaits us as truly as it did Paul; and if we will live like him, we may, in the most important sense, die like him. God grant that our last moments may, like his, be cheered with grateful recollections; that we may be able in his triumphant language to exclaim, "I have fought a good fight; I have finished my course; I have kept the faith: henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give me at that day."