1795 JOSEPH DANA. Christian Minister's Called of God, Not Men. Ordination of Daniel Dana of Newburyport

We're a big fan of the ordination sermon. They provide a uniquely concentrated and intentional statement of the core values and perspectives of the Church in a given time and place. This is even further concentrated in the "charge" at the end, where the most important functions of the Gospel Ministry are laid on the Pastor as primary sacred duties. Both personally and historically interesting reading. Excellent ordination sermon preached at the installation of one of the more influential divines of the late 18th and early 19th centuries, Daniel Dana. W. B. Sprague published an entire volume on him [and the Dana family, 1866] aside from his magnum opus, The Annals of the American Pulpit.   Text: Acts 20.24. But none of these things move me; neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God.   Dana, Joseph. A Sermon Delivered at Newburyport, December 19,