corrupting conversation, and thus in too many cases the good teaching of the school is eradicated from the mind. Teachers too in our schools fail to address themselves sufficiently to the hearts of their scholars, and aim too exclusively at the cultivation of their minds. It is often painful to observe the levity of manner and fickleness of disposition of the young people, who form so interesting a part of the pastor's flock. Lastly, the growing evil of Sunday desecration may be mentioned as a great hindrance to ministerial usefulness, especially where this is not only suggested to the people of the land by tempting opportunities, but made matter of actual compulsion by owners of works. 2. The most important aspect, however, of the question under discussion, is that which relates to the pastor himself. Has he left anything undone to ensure success? Where has he felt the greatest difficulty and deficiency in himself? Even when he is most praised, he often feels the greatest shame and humiliation in his own eyes. Though all are called to a common. ministry, and share in the same promise of grace, there are shades of character in God's servants ordained to the ministry, which create a difference in their personal experience, and hence arises the importance of mutual conference and acknowledgment of difficulties. The deficiencies which are most commonly felt may be arranged under the following heads. They are connected either with private prayer and communion with God; or preparation for and manner of preaching the Word of God; or holiness and consistency of life; or the general tone of the ministry; or lastly, with pastoral visitation and close personal dealing with the souls of the people. With regard to private prayer and communion with God, many ministers have been heard to acknowledge a deficiency. They think that they have not used prayer sufficiently for themselves, for their people individually, and for heavenly guidance and light in preparing each sermon, and each division of the sermon. The ferment and pressure of work interferes too much with this exercise; and even in quieter and less populous parishes, reading too often takes the place of prayer. Yet they feel that this constant pleading with God ought ever to have the foremost place in the arrangement of their time, and that nothing whatever should be allowed to interfere with it. It is better to give up all, than to abridge prayer. If they would be honoured by God in their ministry, they must honour. Him in their closets. Baxter and other remarkable men have no doubt gained their spiritual triumphs upon their knees. M'Cheyne's work at Dundee was begun, continued, and ended in prayer. It is needless to remark how valuable the habit of early rising is, in enabling us to find uninterrupted time for prayer. In the pastor's public ministry, also, his work begins in the desk; and there should he both pray fervently himself, and say the service devotionally for the good of the people. If God's blessing is sought there first, the ministrations of the pulpit will be honoured and blessed by Him. In preaching, there are many pastors who lament their own failure. Their old sermons appear to them now to be defective in faithfulness to Christ. They do not find Him there set before the people fully and above all-other things are made more prominent. Or the good news is not sufficiently preached: too much legality appears; the need of a change before salvation takes an undue place, instead of the simple declaration of Christ receiving sinners. Or they seem to themselves to fail in simplicity-or in sincerity-or in the power of applying the Word to the consciences of men, and to the besetting sins of the day; and this in some instances because their own life has not corresponded with the truths which they preached; or in faith, because they did not confidently expect, as they ought to have done, the blessing of God upon each sermon, and did not realize their own position and calling as His ministers, doing His work, and expecting His aid, and so causing others also, who use their ministry, to have faith in them, as appointed and ordained by Christ, in the word they preach, in the sacraments they minister as Christ's ambassadors, and not to be confounded with any ordinary teacher. Sympathy of manner and address are sometimes wanting; and in the absence of these excellent qualities, few persons will be won over by our teaching. Expository preaching is important: it draws out the fulness of Scripture, and prevents the evil of systematizing. Written sermons are frequently found to produce far less effect than those which are extemporaneous; and some clergymen, who have used both, have found a marked change in the attention of their people, when they passed in the same sermon from written to spoken words. In populous neighbourhoods, largely inhabited by the working classes, extemporaneous preaching, vigorous and earnest in tone and method of address, is found most effective, without altogether abandoning a partial use of written as well as of old sermons, retouched for further use, containing, as they do, many precious thoughts of former days, not now bestowed upon the writers. In all cases, hasty or insufficient preparation is strongly to be deprecated, especially under the strong temptation to this fault, which arises from the severe pressure of other work. It is useful to remember Simeon's three rules,-"1. Get your subject into yourself. 2. Get yourself into your subject. 3. Get both yourself and your subject into your people." A catechetical style of address will often be found to do much good; it is valuable in cottage lectures and in children's services: but parents also are deeply interested by this method of address, and pointed questions well put, even in regular sermons, will sometimes elicit spontaneous replies. Many of our people are illiterate, do not understand, and are not prepared for, our Church services. School-room services, where all formality and official manner are discarded, are often very valuable, in attracting poor people, bringing them under instruction, and causing them to frequent the house of God and the Lord's table. Sometimes a division of the Church services has been tried with good effect; and the afternoon has been devoted to catechizing, in conjunction with the Litany or Communion Service, abstracted from their customary place in the order for morning prayer. In all these must be love-no scolding, no affectation, but the full and free offer of the grace of God in Christ. This it is which wins the people, and was the reason why "the common people heard our Saviour gladly." Mr. Breay of Birmingham never desired to be a popular preacher, but he accomplished great results from his simplicity, earnestness, and prayers. From his success, and many similar examples, we see the importance of the advice-"Let the pulpit never be neglected; it is the great lever wherewith to move the masses." In holiness and consistency of life, and in the general tone of the ministry, the pastor needs great watchfulness, both as regards himself and his family. His ministry, as it appears to others, should be marked in all its branches by spirituality and devotedness. Secular matters should not be unduly mixed with the pastoral work; in conversation he should avoid degenerating into worldly topics, and by the sick bed above all he must be spiritual. A clergyman has been known to have resolved never to conclude a pastoral visit without engaging in prayer with the family whom he visited; but either from fear, or from the unsuitable character of the previous conversation, has been unable to carry out this resolution. A pastor's life should be marked by special holiness and steady walking with God. He must not seek his own glory, or indulge a domineering spirit. He must depend simply upon the work of the Holy Spirit, and look for His real fruits, not resting contented with a flourishing outward condition of his people. He must follow St. Paul's advice to Archippus (Col. iv. 17), and "take heed to the ministry, which he has received, that he fulfil it." This devotedness and piety must be kept up by prayer and reading of the Word, and careful attention to the one thing committed to our charge. There are few men who will not deplore their own shortcomings in these important things, and ascribe to such shortcomings a considerable part of the failure of their ministry. The last defect in ministerial labour which calls for notice here is the want of more private conversation, and separate dealing with the people in the visits of the pastor. Sympathetic personal dealing with the flock is indispensable to ministerial usefulness. The pastor at his ordination is charged to use both "public and private monitions, as well to the sick as to the whole within his cure." St. Paul's instructions to Timothy and Titus express this duty, and his own practice was in harmony with his rule. (See Acts xx. 20. 31; Col. i. 28.) The great success of Baxter at Kidderminster, where out of 3000 people he had 600 communicants, family prayer in every house, and the Sabbath well observed, was ascribed by himself to his visitations from house to house, and inquiries into each man's personal state. Bishop Shirley, when in charge of a parish, was in the habit of using two days in the week to make visits to his people, exclusively for prayer and reading, and allowed nothing to interfere with this employment of his time. All preaching ought to be thus followed up by conversation and prayer, without which those who have been awakened by our sermons will often leave us to embrace some form of dissent. Opportunities for this personal intercourse must not be allowed to slip away; they are such as may never return. But a housegoing clergy will not always make a church-going people: even visiting is sometimes unprofitable. Much discernment of character, boldness, and ability to "speak the truth in love," are necessary; and for lack of these qualifications many fail to do good. It is especially difficult to administer rebuke, and bring home the faults of people to their own consciences, saying, "Thou art the man," without either provoking enmity or meeting with disheartening silence. Many clergymen feel their deficiencies in these respects, and some look back upon the fervency of their early ministry with regretful comparisons as regards their present work. They see the need of asking more questions, e. g., "Are your sins forgiven? How are you walking? To what is your present life tending?" Such inquiries have a searching effect, lead to the correction of mistakes, and to much profitable converse. Even if the visit be necessarily short, it is well to leave a single text with the family, and offer a few words of prayer. Attendance at church may also be made a topic of inquiry, and the explanation of the services in the Prayer-book to the poor at their own homes will often remove ignorance and prejudice, and obviate one great reason for their absence from church, arising from their inability to understand or follow those services when in the house of God. Ministerial deficiencies in this, as in other points indicated, will frequently be felt far more painfully by him in whom the deficiency exists, than is known to any other being in the world. In the foregoing remarks, it is no wish of ours to put the comparative failure of the ministry, or its causes as they arise from the minister himself, in an aspect of disagreeable prominence before the world; but to bring ourselves, to whom this high task of feeding the flock of Christ is committed, to careful self-examination, and to the discovery and use of such remedies as lie within our reach. It is better surely to confront our difficulties honestly, and remedy those evils which are within our own control, than to cast all the blame upon the force of circumstances which are beyond our power. Prayer for the help of the Holy Spirit, watchfulness for opportunities, self-culture, and a resolution to leave no means untried, or spare our best exertions, will assuredly enable the least efficient man to do much for his Lord, as they will add still greater power and usefulness to the best and most laborious of His ministering servants. A MINISTER OF THE WORD. ARE WE BECOMING A PLEASURE-LOVING PEOPLE? A PEOPLE bent on amusement is either emerging from a savage, or declining into an exhausted, state. When that which should be the refreshment of worn out nature is made the great aim of existence, the mind is feeble and unhealthy, and all high moral purposes are lost. These are not exclusively the lessons of Holy Writ; unaided reason is perfectly competent to discover, if not to enforce them. Juvenal perceived that when the populace demanded nothing but feasts and spectacles, Rome was hastening to decay; and moralists less austere than Juvenal have in various forms repeated the same remark. We know not whether we shall carry with us the convictions of our readers, but we think we see many painful symptoms of this degeneracy in the present state of England. If we are right, a distressing subject of the utmost importance opens before us. If, on the other hand, we ourselves are the victims of needless fears, no harm can result, probably much good, from a calm consideration of the subject. It appears to us that the character of the English people, both of the middle class and of the lower orders, is deteriorating. Of course, we speak of them as a whole; and it will be no answer to what we now advance, to point out the vast improvement that has taken place during the last generation wherever the influence of true religion has prevailed. We seem, then, to have become of late years less domestic in our habits, and at the same time to have been seized with a sudden fondness for public shows and out-door amusements. Something foreign has taken possession of us. But since we want the pliancy of foreigners, to adopt their habits and to engraft them upon our |