Page:Tracts for the Times Vol 1.djvu/180



If a Clergyman is quite convinced that the Apostolical Succession is lost, then of course he is at liberty to turn his mind from the subject. But if he is not quite sure of this, it surely is his duty seriously to examine the question, and to make up his mind carefully and deliberately. For if there be a chance of its being preserved to us, there is a chance of his having had a momentous talent committed to him, which he is burying in the earth.

It cannot be supposed that any serious man would treat the subject scoffingly. If any one is tempted to do so, let him remember the fearful words of the Apostle. "Esau, a profane person, who for one morsel of meat, sold his birthright."

If any are afraid, that to insist on their commission will bring upon them ridicule, and diminish their usefulness, let them ask themselves, whether it be not cowardice to refuse to leave the event to God. It was the reproach of the men of Ephraim that, though they were "harnessed and carried bows," they "turned themselves back in the day of battle."

And if any there be, who take upon them to contrast one doctrine of the Gospel with another, and preach those only which they consider the more essential, let them consider our words, "These things ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone."