Welsh Journals

No. 2. FEBRUARY, 1864. Peice 2d. BY THE REV. D. CHARLES, B A., ABERCARN. [Delivered at Runcorn, on the Ordination of Messrs. J. Meredith and W. Evans, M.A., July 22,1863.—Rev. Henry Rees, Moderator.] {Continued from page 13.) O ECONDLY.—The Aim of the Apostles.—They were directed to f3> go first to "the lost sheep of the house of Israel:" it was afterwards to the world at large. Firstly and primarily, it was to the sheep of the house of Israel. They were the most prepared to receive the gospel. We are then to direct our efforts firstly to the church, and through reviving the church to act upon the world. The church is in an especial manner committed to our care, and forms the chief part of that stewardship, for which we shall have to give account in " the great and terrible day of the Lord." It is our place to instruct by public preaching as well as by private admonition—to watch over them—to reprove, rebuke, and exhort, as well as to direct them in the way of truth and holiness. We are to preserve them, so far as it is possible, from error in sentiment and pollution in practice. Thus, while ministers are charged to take heed to themselves, they are to take heed also to all the flock over which the Holy Ghost had made them bishops or overseers; and their aim in all their efforts will be to present them holy and unblamable and unreprovable in the sight of God. Then secondly—to the lost—the lost sheep. There are sheep belonging to Christ's flock which are gone far astray, and are now lost. We are, then, to seek for the lost sheep—to seek for the sheep among the lost; yea, the ministry of the gospel is specially directed to the lost. In the spirit of their Master who came to seek and save