but when the tempest rages, when fogs obscure its brightness, when some vessels, having struck on sunken rocks, are foundering; when others have grounded on sand-banks, and others are stranded amid— “The impervious horrors of a lee-ward shore;” then other, and most prompt assistance, is required; signal guns are to be fired, the life-boat launched, and the various life-preserving apparatus prepared. God has seen fit to cast our lot on troublesome times; the storms of passion howl around our Church, and her light cannot penetrate the mists of prejudice: the barks of thousands, therefore, committed to the stormy ocean of life,— “Youth at the helm, and Pleasure at the prow,” are in danger of striking on the sunken rocks of secret doubts, or of being wrecked on the exposed and rugged shore of dark despairing infidelity: gladly, therefore, will “God’s watchman,” who looks with alarm and distress from his watch-tower, on this scene of imminent danger, avail himself of the friendly hand which offers to aid him in affording rescue from the impending destruction. Oh! to the ministers of the Gospel,—who feel how much the value and responsibility of their sacred office is increased in times like the present; who are almost overwhelmed by a sense of what is required of them as “overseers over God’s heritage,” as “watchmen in Israel,” as “ministers of Christ, and stewards of the mysteries of God,”—assistance from pious, zealous, and discreet laymen, acting under their direction, must be peculiarly valuable and acceptable. Oh! only those who “have always in remembrance into how high a dignity and to how weighty an office and charge they have been called, to teach and to premonish, to feed and to provide for the Lord’s family; to seek for Christ’s sheep that are dispersed abroad, and for his children who are in the midst of this naughty world that they may be saved through Christ for ever,” {192} can fully estimate the value of any aid, however feeble, which comes to them at a time, when maligned and vilified, they find the difficulty of a due discharge of their sacred duties immensely increased by the impediments thrown in their way by the enemies of the Gospel.