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I. THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY INCLUDES AN OFFICE OF COMMINATION. If the messengers of heaven, when among the outcasts of mankind, who, in ignorance of God, have gone astray from virtue, speak more of virtue than of wrath; when they stand among those who, being well informed in matters of religion, use the grace of the Gospel to palliate their vices, the messages of wrath must be most on their lips.

II. THE TENDENCY OF THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY IS TO MOVE DOWN FROM ITS REMEDIAL FUNCTIONS TO BECOME AN OFFICE OF DELECTATION.

1. Furnishing intellectual entertainment; uttering, as matters of gorgeous eloquence, the appalling verities of eternal justice. Nature forbids such an incongruity, and the renovating Spirit refuses to yield the energy of His power to the sway of a mere minister of public recreation.

2. Affording spiritual entertainment; by exhibiting the conceits and ingenuities of mystic exposition; by painting in high colours the honours and privileges of the believer, and allowing professors of all sorts to appropriate the fulsome description; or by pealing out thunders of wrath against distant adversaries, rather than at the impure, unjust, rapacious and malicious around.

III. IT BEHOVES PREACHERS TO BEWARE OF THE INDURATING EFFECT OF ACCUSTOMED PHRASES AND FORMS OF WORDS. Such conventional phrases conceal from the mind the ideas they should convey; hence preachers should continually endeavour to break up the mental incrustations which are always spreading themselves over the sensitive surface of the sails. This is especially necessary in reference to matters wherein the drowsy formalities of language tend directly to augment the stupefying influence that belongs to all vicious indulgences.

IV. IT IS A PRESSING DUTY OF THE MINISTER OF RELIGION TO MAINTAIN IN VIGOUR THE SPIRIT HE NEEDS AS THE REPROVER OF SIN AND GUARDIAN OF VIRTUE. It is easy to teach the articles of belief, to illustrate the branches of Christian ethics, to proclaim the Divine mercy, to meet and assuage the fears of the feeble and sorrows of the afflicted. But to keep in full activity the power of rebuke, demands rare qualities. To speak efficaciously of the holiness and justice of God, and of its future consequences; to speak in modesty, tenderness, and power of the approaching doom of the impenitent, must be left to those whose spirits have had much communion with the dread Majesty on high.

V. THREE INDISPENSABLE QUALIFICATIONS FOR THE VIGOROUS EXERCISE OF THE CHRISTIAN MINISTER FOR THIS POWER OF REBUKE.

1. Such a conviction of the truth of Christianity as shall render him proof against assaults from within and without. Fatal to his influence as a refuter of sin must be a lurking scepticism in the preacher's breast. The infection of his own doubts will pass into the heart of the hearer, and will serve to harden each transgressor in his impenitence.

2. A resolute loyalty to the Divine administration. Such loyalty will break through the mazes of much sophistry, will support the servant of God when assailed by more fallacies than he can at the moment refute, and enable him to cleave under all obloquies and embarrassments to what he inwardly knows must in the end prove the better cause.

3. An unaffected and sensitive compassion towards his fellow men. The end of all reproof is mercy. If there were no redemption at hand, it were idle or cruel to talk of judgment.

(Isaac Taylor, LL. D.)

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KJV: Therefore thus saith the LORD, If thou return, then will I bring thee again, and thou shalt stand before me: and if thou take forth the precious from the vile, thou shalt be as my mouth: let them return unto thee; but return not thou unto them.

WEB: Therefore thus says Yahweh, If you return, then will I bring you again, that you may stand before me; and if you take forth the precious from the vile, you shall be as my mouth: they shall return to you, but you shall not return to them.