Excerpt from A Discourse Delivered June 4, 1823, at the Ordination of Rev. Christopher Marsh, as Pastor of the Congregational Church and Society in Sanford, Maine If he thus meets with difficulties in the common circumstances of his people, there are other seasons when success seems even more remote, and obstacles exceedingly multiplied and magnified. When the youth, the hope of a minister and a church, are mad upon their pleasures, and become early hardened and stupid; when iniquity abounds, and the minds of multitudes become besotted; when his hearers are wrangling among themselves, or are alienated from him as well as from his Master when false principles of religion are prevalent, and many have thus fortified themselves against the force of divine truth when, in any way, the bands of their wickedness are made peculiarly strong; who then can break their cords asunder? Who can melt such hearers at the Savior's feet, and endue them with a right mind? 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.