ALBERT BARNES,

THE EXPOSITOR AND PREACHER.

"Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. For to one is given, by the Spirit, the word of wisdom; . . . to another the interpretation of tongues: but all these worketh that one and the self-same Spirit."

ALBERT BARNES has been pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of Philadelphia during more than one quarter of a century. In these days of individuality of tastes, and license in their expression, an individuality and a license of which the settled pastor of a people is not an exempted subject; when the bond of union between the shepherd and the flock is so slender that any discontented spirit may slip in a wedge which will sunder it entirely; when ordinations are so common that they fail to excite solemnity; when transits of ministers are so frequent that the pastor has become the evangelist, and home is a word which he understands only by reference to the dictionary, or to some fond remembrance of early days, scarcely seen in the twilight dimness of the distance-in times such as these, it is refreshing to rest the mind on a pastorate which has withstood all the shocks of time, and now stands serene in the reverence of age. The long life of such a connection implies ability and faithfulness exercised by the one party, together with appreciation and devotion returned by the other. These it implies, although these it does not necessarily involve. A pastor may be retained because the "smooth things" of his preaching have oiled away all friction between himself and his people; because of the shiftlessness of a church, which