with something like abhorrence.  It was a duty I shrank from; and I may truly say it nearly drove me from the work of the ministry among you altogether.  But it pleased God, who teaches his servants in another way than man teaches, to bless some of the cases of discipline to the manifest and undeniable conversion of the souls of those under our care; and from that hour a new light broke in upon my mind, and I saw that if preaching be an ordinance of Christ, so is church discipline.  I now feel very deeply persuaded that both are of God,—­that two keys are committed to us by Christ:  the one the key of doctrine, by means of which we unlock the treasures of the Bible; the other the key of discipline, by which we open or shut the way to the sealing ordinances of the faith.  Both are Christ’s gift, and neither is to be resigned without sin.”

There was still another means of enforcing what he preached, in the use of which he has excelled all his brethren, namely, the holy consistency of his daily walk.  Aware that one idle word, one needless contention, one covetous act, may destroy in our people the effect of many a solemn expostulation and earnest warning, he was peculiarly circumspect in his every-day walk.  He wished to be always in the presence of God.  If he travelled, he labored to enjoy God by the way, as well as to do good to others by dropping a word in season.  In riding or walking, he seized opportunities of giving a useful tract; and, on principle, he preferred giving it to the person directly, rather than casting it on the road.  The former way, he said, was more open—­there was no stealth in it; and we ought to be as clear as crystal in speaking or acting for Jesus.  In writing a note, however short, he sought to season it with salt.  If he passed a night in a strange place, he tried to bear the place specially on his soul at the mercy-seat; and if compelled to take some rest from his too exhausting toils, his recreations were little else than a change of occupation, from one mode of glorifying God to another.[12] His beautiful hymn, I am a debtor, was written in May 1837, at a leisure hour.

[12] Baxter’s words are not less than the truth:  “Recreation to a minister must be as whetting is with the mower, that is, only to be used so far as is necessary for his work.  May a physician in the plague-time take any more relaxation or recreation than is necessary for his life, when so many are expecting his help in a case of life and death?” “Will you stand by and see sinners grasping under the pangs of death, and say, God doth not require me to make myself a drudge to save them?  Is this the voice of ministerial or Christian compassion, or rather of sensual laziness and diabolical cruelty?”—­Ref.  Past. 6:6

Whatever be said in the pulpit, men will not much regard, though they may feel it at the time, if the minister does not say the same in private with equal earnestness, in speaking with his people face to face;