depend on love,"[1] and as, according to the Apostle, charity is the end of the commandments, and the fulfilment of the law,[2] it is unquestionably a paramount duty of the pastor, to use the utmost assiduity to excite the faithful to a love of the infinite goodness of God towards us; that burning with a sort of divine ardour, they may be powerfully attracted to the supreme and all perfect good, to adhere to which is true and solid happiness, as is fully experienced by him who can say with the Prophet ; " What have I in heaven but thee ? and besides thee what do I desire upon earth ?[3] This, assuredly, is that more excellent way[4] pointed out by the Apostle, when he refers all his doctrines and instructions to charity which never faileth;"[5] for whatever is proposed by the pastor, whether it be the exercise of faith, of hope, or of some moral virtue; the love of God should be so strongly insisted upon by him, as to show clearly that all the works of perfect Christian virtue can have no other origin, no other end than divine love.[6]
Fourth.But as in imparting instruction of any sort, the manner of communicating it is of considerable importance, so in conveying instruction to the people, it should be deemed of the greatest moment. Age, capacity, manners and condition demand attention, that he, who instructs, may become all things to all men, and be able to gain all to Christ,[7] and prove himself a faithful minister and steward,[8] and, like a good and faithful servant, be found worthy to be placed by his Lord over many things.[9] Nor let him imagine that those committed to his care are all of equal capacity or like dispositions, so as to enable him to apply the same course of instruction, to lead all to knowledge and piety; for some are, as it were new-born infants," others grown up in Christ, and others in some sort, of full maturity. Hence the necessity of considering who they are that have occasion for milk, who for more solid food, [10] and of affording to each such nutriment of doctrine as may give spiritual increase, " until we all meet in the unity of faith, and of the knowledge of the Son God into a perfect man, into the measure of the age of the fulness of Christ."[11] This the example of the Apostle points out to the observance of all, for, he is a debtor to the Greek and the Barbarian, to the wise and to the unwise :"[12] thus giving all who are called to this ministry, to understand that in announ-
