which no general rules can be given: but in the case of men of careless, or decidedly irregular lives, the difficulty is greater. It has been too common a practice to pay frequent visits to persons of this description, for the purpose of reproving them, and urging them to some duty. As we have shown, this must do harm; it weakens the power of conscience by saving it trouble, and by preventing its being called into practice; it makes religion an oft-told tale to an unheeding ear, and blunts the edge of truth, so as to prevent its being felt when the mind would be open to its force; it produces irreverence of feeling towards it, and leads men to imagine that holy things are at their disposal. We are so made that the mere fact of being obliged to seek a benefit and finding it hard of access, tends to increase our respect, and gives us a higher estimation for it; and so it will be especially with the things of God and the soul. Having them placed within our reach when we are in an unfit state for them, makes us slight them. Besides this, be the effect what it may, it is wrong in itself. The holy things of God are deep mysteries, hidden save to the earnest seeker. It is a sin to treat them easily. We might say more on all these, but we forbear at present. We have no reason to expect God will work miracles for us, and if we will not use the means placed in our way, and conform ourselves to His moral system over men, whatever latent power there may be in the letter of Scripture, or in the grace of Ordination, we have no right to expect they will work on us so as to arouse our slothful energies and dead consciences, if we, by sinful neglect, have let them fall asleep. With such persons, the manifest course is invariably to pass them by in going our parish rounds,-to make a point systematically of visiting the well-regulated, and always passing by the doors of the bad. The doing this regularly, and on system, so that they cannot mistake the fact of our intentional omission, will do more than anything else to arouse their consciences and to make them feel rebuked. The systematic neglect will do more than the most persevering open reproof or advice: the latter they think they may repel and despise if they will; the other they know to be a marked censure indirectly given, at which every man, even the most depraved, will be stung. The fact is, they are left to judge themselves and to condemn themselves; they are not saved the trouble by its being done for them, and the energy which would be spent in throwing off a direct reproof, is now spent in feeling the indirect one. There is always a desire in every man for superiority, and one of the first feelings in many on meeting another is to get the better of him. When a man is passed by, and no opportunity given for the struggle, the mere silent neglect implies the inward consciousness of superiority in the other party-other feelings and powers are called into play. Of course, such a system as this requires much on the part of the Priest: he must himself be regular in his plan, even to the smallest minutiæ of conduct; he must keep up with the utmost exactness the merest shell of his parochial plans; he must have a particular definite scheme of operation for the very smallest point of his parochial management; he must be as strict in not visiting too much as in not doing it too little; he must visit those who less need it (and that with a carefulness of judgment which is wearisome) in order to have effect on those he does not visit; in fact, he must visit as much for the sake of those he is willing to see, as for those he will not see. The least deviation or error in judgment may be most fatal in its effects: he will be obliged to make much of what seems the most trivial conversation of three minutes with any of his people he must suit each word and sentence to individual character, disposition, and circumstance. His life and conversation will be one of constant effort of judgment and discrimination; but he is called to it, and sufficient grace is given. Nothing is trifling which a Clergyman does-nothing is indifferent; every word and each action must be weighed, as they are all closely watched, and he is called to bring them all into subjection to his holy calling. He may seem to be doing little, while, in fact, he is doing much, since the very things he does not do are of hidden yet more real effect, and are taking their part in his general scheme of operation. His omissions must be intentional, and his very silence ought to have a depth of meaning, of which only himself is conscious, and others are left to guess at. Judgment-plansystem-due observation-discrimination of character,-these are the points he should aim at rather than activity or zeal, which lie on the surface. Of course, first and foremost, personal holiness and instant prayer. No opinion must be expressed at hazard, even on minutest points. Everything said and done must form part of his Parochial system. This is not easy. What are called activity and zeal are easier, and have more tangible, ostensible compensation. The one leaves men very much to work out their own inward sense of right and wrongthe other saves them trouble; the former may seem to give less to the Priest to do-but we have shown how false this is; it makes every action of consequence, and his continual presence among his people needful, to act on their minds and consciences. Of course, this is a long subject to enter on, and we could find much to say. We want some authoritative guidance in the matter, and we have next to none. What light the Professor of Pastoral Divinity may throw on it, we have yet to see. The in stitution of the Professorship was evidently the desire to fill up a want which all must see exists; but whether that institution will in any considerable degree meet it, remains to be proved: we have our doubts. It wants a more thorough authoritative guidance than a Professor is able to give, half of whose life has been spent in the university, and only the remainder in the new and strange scenery of Parochial life. How is he to understand the working of human nature among our agricultural and manufacturing poor; and to dive into the depths of a science, the most intricate and difficult; from the subject-matter of which he has been cut off during the greater part of his life? There is no science so high, no subject-matter so important, as that of human nature and human character, and yet men are sent out to work on them utterly uninstructed; and to spend their whole lives in a sphere of labour without ever having discovered that they were called to that work at all. It is fearful to think that a common saying, however trite, is yet true, that the weakest in mind and general capacity are sent forth to the high and holy task we have referred to. Of course, fearful consequences are the result. The priestly office is but too often debased to the grade of the merest secularity; and the position of an agreeable companion or entertaining guest becomes the highest post occupied in a parish by the Priest of Christ's Holy Catholic Church, who is commissioned with the souls of Christ's redeemed, for which awful trust he must give account at a day which is near at hand. Where are the energies of the Church? Where are the powers she once exercised? Where the voice of the rulers to whom she has delegated authority? Why are her teachers unheeded? Why are not sinners still excommunicated? Why are the Priests of the Church stolen from her by the world, and looked upon as the instruments of parochial secularities, instead of the channels of Holy Ordination Grace?-her Catholicity merged in her establishment? her sprituality forgotten in her temporal estate? Why are not yearning hearts satisfied, by being admitted to confession of some kind or other, and impenitent sinners made to feel that they must seek with earnest prayer and tears to hold communion with Christ's people and Christ's commissioned ministers? Why do not the ministers of the Church move through the earth, in a sphere far beyond the breath of worldliness, with an independence which must at last compel all other powers to yield; a firmness and zeal in the cause of Christ which will meet death without shrinking, and endure life without impatience? Why does not the Church approve herself the only immovable thing existing in the changeable structure of society, unchanged amid the shocks of political revolutions and national convulsions, a bar of iron running through a hill of sand,-a type and resemblance of the sameness of eternity? ། 475 ART. V.-1. A Letter addressed to the Clergy and Laity of his Province. By WILLIAM, LORD ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY. London: F. and J. Rivington. 1845. 2. Report of the Proceedings under the Commission issued by the Lord Bishop of Exeter, &c. London: Sweet. 1844. 3. Pastoral Letter of the Bishop of Exeter. London: Murray. 1845. 4. Hora Liturgicæ, &c. By the Right Rev. RICHARD MANT, D. D. Lord Bishop of Down and Connor, and Dromore. London: J. W. Parker. 1845. 5. A few plain Words suggested by some recent Proceedings in the Diocese of Exeter. By the Rev. W. B. HAWKINS, M. A. London: F. and J. Rivington. 1845. 6. A Letter to a Lay Friend. London: Hatchard. 1845. By WILLIAM GOODE, M. A. 7. Prayers on behalf of the Church and her Children in Times of Trouble. London: Burns. 1845. 8. Wheatly on the Bidding of Prayers. New Edition. London: Leslie. 1845. 9. The Unity of the Church. A Sermon, &c. By JULIUS CHARLES HARE, Archdeacon of Lewes. London: J. W. Parker. 1845. 10. Variety in Unity. A Sermon preached before the University of Oxford. By A. C. TAIT, D. C. L. London: Blackwood. 1845. 11. Rubrics and Canons of the Church of England considered. By CHRISTOPHER BENSON, M. A., Master of the Temple. London: J. W. Parker. 1845. 12. A Sermon preached at Bideford. By N. H. FORTESCUE, M. A. Bideford: Blight. 1845. 13. Lectures addressed chiefly to the Working Classes. By W. J. Fox. Part II. London: Fox. 1845. 14. The Weekly Offering, &c., presented to the Consideration of Congregational Churches. By an Independent Minister. London: Snow. 1845. 15. How shall we conform to the Liturgy of the Church of England? By J. C. ROBERTSON, M. A. &c. Second Edition. London: Pickering. 1844. 16. The Duty of continued Obedience to the Church's Law of Custom, in Times of Dissension; a Sermon preached on Palm Sunday, 1845. By WILLIAM SCOTT, M. A. at Christ Church, Hoxton. London: Burns. 1845. 17. The People's Duty to the Clergy, in their aim at Ritual Conformity. A Sermon, &c. By the Rev. CECIL WRAY, M. A. London: Rivingtons. 1845. 18. An Appeal to History; or, the Surplice versus the Gown. Liverpool. 1845. 19. A Letter to some Friends in the Parish of Tottenham. ROBERT MUSHET. London: Chapman and Hall. 1845. By 20. Revise the Liturgy. By a Peer. London: Hatchard. 1815. 21. Thoughts on Church Matters. By a Churchman. London: J. W. Parker. 1845. 22. Drops for the Cup of Uniformity, Unity, and Peace, &c. By the Rev. G. C. HODGKINSON, M.A. London: Rivingtons. 1845. 23. Order and Uniformity in the public Services of the Church. The Substance of a Charge by EDWARD, Bishop of Newfoundland, &c. St. John's: M'Coubrey. 1844. 24. Reasons why we should not Revise the Liturgy; in answer to IT is a trite thought, but whatever the subject be, we seem : i |