Excerpt from The Great Encouragement to Ministerial Effort: A Sermon Delivered at the Installation of the Rev. Thomas Mather Smith, as Pastor of the Presbyterian Church, Catskill, N. Y., June 15, 1831 But my principal object on the present occasion is to show, that the doctrine of divine influence, as held forth in the text, presents the only adequate encouragement to the servants of Christ, to labor for the conversion of sinners, and the prosperity of the Church. A careful attention to the subject will make it evident, that there is no other encouragement which will meet the exigen cies of the case but that this is every way sufficient. To convert sinners from the error of their ways; to give suc cess to the gospel and prosperity to the church, is a work of immense magnitude and difficulty, and far transcends the power of man. The heart of every human being is wholly inclined to sin deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked, -yea, eu mit'y against God. This is the case universally. It is so even with those who are farthest removed from the contagion of vicious example, and least practised in the ways of sin. But in addition to this difficulty, arising from the strength of our natural corruption, there are various other hindrances in the way. The unrenewed not only have hearts which are naturally selfish, and alienated from God; but they are fortified against the motives to repentance, by the evil customs of the world, and by the influence of invisible and malignant spirits who are bent on their destruction. These difficulties oppose the conversion of those who enjoy the best Christian instruction. But when you look upon men in heathen countries, you find the case still more difficult. For their hearts are shielded against divine truth and hardened in sin, by all the forms of superstition and idolatry; by despotic, cruel, persecuting governments; by the power of ignorance, and the power of caste. Satan appears to have avail ed himself of all the principles of our nature, and even of con science, misguided and perverted by his influence, in order to rivet the chains with which he has bound the souls of men, and to hinder them fthm casting off the miserable bondage of sin. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.