—Homer.
1363
DUTY OF MINISTERS.
My friends, the chief duty of the ministers of God, is, that they should help their brethren to the best of their fallible knowledge and feeble power. When there is a spirit of repentance; when men truly seek the means of grace; when they have ceased to be insolent and defiant in sin; when they do intend—were it but ever so faintly—to lead a new life—then
Our commission is to heal, not harm;
We come not to condemn, but reconcile;
We come not to compel, but call again;
We come not to destroy, but edify;
Nor yet to question things already done;
These are forgiven; matters of the past;
And range with jetsam, and with offal, thrown
Into the blind sea of forgetfulness.
—F. W. Farrar, D. D.
1364
One ounce of mirth is worth more than ten thousand weight of gloominess.