they hire one on a lease for five

years.

In

the Isle of Man a minister of an Independent chapel was dismissed by the congregation, because he taught them a portion of divine truth with which they were previously unacquainted.

The root of all these evils which are now overrunning the church, is in not perceiving that it is THE ORDINANCE which God blesses, and not the individual. One great delusion of popery consists in transferring that power which belongs to the invisible, to the visible; and Protestants fall into similar errors, who, instead of looking to the ordinance, look to him who performs its functions. Thus the Papists see in the persons of individual priests that power of absolution which resides only in the ministrations of the church; that efficacy in the water of baptism which belongs only to the rite; that flesh in the wafer, which can only be eaten by faith. In like manner, Protestants often look to that efficacy from the talents of a preacher, which is only to be found in his office; and the preachers themselves are too apt to cherish a delusion which

flatters their vanity, by becoming mountebanks, in order to attract the admiration of a crowded auditory; while the people attend them as critics, rather than as persons receiving a message from Christ to their souls.

It is quite common to hear it inquired whether a minister was much blessed; by which question is meant, whether he attracted a crowd of hearers, and whether he gained many persons to assent to his doctrines. If the minister has been honestly stating all that he knew and believed to be truth, without holding back any portion of it from a false suggestion of Satan that he would thereby better serve God, he ought not to doubt but that God has effected, by his ministry, whatever it was his purpose to effect. The church has ever held that the character of the minister or person who administers an ordinance, did not in anywise affect the validity of the rite itself; as is well expressed in the twenty-sixth Article of the Church of England :—

66 Although in the visible church the evil be ever mingled with the good, and sometimes the evil have chief authority in the ministra

tion of the Word and Sacraments, yet forasmuch as they do not the same in their own name, but in Christ's, and do minister by his commission and authority, we may use their ministry, both in hearing the Word of God, and in receiving of the Sacraments. Neither is the effect of Christ's ordinance taken away by their wickedness, nor the grace of God's gifts diminished from such as by faith and rightly do receive the Sacraments ministered unto them; which be effectual, because of Christ's institution and promise, although they be ministered by evil men."

Something analogous to this takes place among men. The value of a gift does not depend upon the quality of the material by which it is conveyed. The private character of an ambassador has no connexion with the purport of the message with which he is charged. If a person arrives in a foreign country, alleging that he is appointed to bear a message from his royal master, the sovereign of that country has simply to be satisfied of the validity of his credentials; that is, of his having been truly sent by him on

whose business he pretends to have come; but the personal character of the messenger is no concern of him to whom the messenger is sent. Hence we perceive the error of those who suppose, that because the ministers of any church act in an irreligious manner, and testify by their conduct that they are unworthy of their high dignity, that that church thereby ceases to have a necessary characteristic, and a right to be considered an integral part of the Church of Christ.

The duties of a Pastor are more large than those of a Minister, and by no means limited to the services of the church. He must be assiduous in visiting his flock, and making part of the domestic circle of the poorest of its members. But if he wishes due respect to be shown to his own office, he must set the example of respecting the office of others. He must remember that in the cottage of the labourer the father is the head, and he only a stranger within the labourer's gate; there must be no dogmatizing here. The pulpit is the place from which he may teach ex cathedra; but out of it he is only

such another man as themselves, and must condescend to men of low estate. Neither can he expect much credit for feeling for the souls of the poor, unless he be constant in his attention to their bodies also. It is a charge brought with some justice against many of the evangelical clergy,—that they have less sympathy for the temporal distress of the poor, than many of their clerical brethren who do not profess to be so much enlightened in spiritual truth. This is a temptation of Satan to mar their success. Sickness is an occasion on which the pastor ought never to omit the opportunity of administering relief: almost all the diseases of the poor arise from debility, and require more nursing and attention than medical skill. Clean linen is an article they always want; and somebody to attend to their children and household matters while they are confined. Much suffering and subsequent misery is brought on women by being obliged, by other domestic calls, to move about too soon, and exert themselves too much after confinement in child-birth: here the supply of a nurse