the office, would do well to leave the work to wiser heads and better hands than their own.

I am not at all disposed to undervalue the science of political economy, nor to assert that many of the popular views of political economists are not right views, many of their plans, right plans; but I would have political economy kept to its proper place, and in its proper department; and I must lift up my voice, however feeble it may be, against the cant of a party, that would propose to remedy every evil, by ways which are founded neither on sound philosophy nor common sense.

I would direct the attention of my reader to the remedy provided by God himself, for evils which neither the laws of our country, nor the laws of society can reach; and here I would, therefore, repeat, that the Gospel of Jesus Christ in its pure and holy simplicity, is the remedy for the thousand evils, which are effects to the real cause of all misery and suffering,—that cause is sin.

If we propose to reform society, we begin at the wrong end, if we begin merely with the great body. We must begin with the individual; for any body of men is made up of a certain number of individuals. Again, not only is it necessary in order to reform a body of individuals, to begin with the separate individual, but in order to reform the individual, it is absolutely necessary to begin with his heart. This is the peculiar province of the Christian Pastor, as being the commission of Him whose demand of every man is, "My son, give me thy heart," and who has graciously added, "a new heart will I give you."

Hodnet, 1834.

THE

PASTOR OF DRONFELLS.

"Where is the flock that was given thee, that beautiful flock?" JEREMIAH, xiii. 20.

"The moment we permit ourselves to think lightly of the Christian ministry, our right arm is withered; nothing but imbecility and relaxation remains. For no man ever excelled in a profession to which he did not feel an attachment bordering on enthusiasm ; though what in other professions is enthusiasm, is, in ours, the dictate of sobriety and truth."

ROBERT HALL.

THE PASTOR OF DRONFELLS.

CHAPTER I.

"Come as a watchman; take thy stand
Upon thy tower amidst the sky,
And when the sword comes on the land,

Call us to fight, or warn to fly."

MONTGOMERY.

"I SHALL often look back to the happy hours I have passed in this study. You have taught me to be happy, sir, in what seems to me the right way." The young man who spoke thus, was, perhaps, nineteen, or scarcely so old. There was something strikingly noble in his appearance, and there was a natural grace and sweetness about his manners, which made him a general favourite among those who knew him. His tutor smiled, and, after regarding him in silence for some moments, he said, "As usual, Nigel, you like to find an excuse for closing your book. O yes," he continued, "I be

B

lieve you, without any protestations on your part. You look happy, and I trust you are beginning to be happy, as you say, in the right way but I still maintain my position about closing the book. When will you ever lose that restless desire of turning from one subject to another, and settling to none? When will you learn to give yourself, with a spirit of quiet, manly application, to one pursuit? I could scarcely help smiling when you spoke so earnestly just now of looking back to the days spent in this old study, for I fear that many of them have been weary days to you. I sometimes doubt, Nigel, whether you will have sufficient stedfastness to devote yourself to the sacred profession which at present you seem to prefer.". "Seem to prefer!" repeated Forester reproachfully. "I cannot answer you, sir, with as much indignation as I did Leslie, the other day, when he brought the same accusation against me; but I do hope that a time may come, when you will both know me better than to hold such an unjust opinion." "My reason," said his tutor, "is, perhaps, the same as Leslie's. I think that at present your imagination is more interested than your heart; in fact, I do not think you know yourself well enough to answer for your state of mind four years hence.

"You have yet the ordeal of a college life to go through, and you have much to learn of your own weakness, and of that strength by which alone a