net,1 who knew from experience how politics affect religious and pastoral life, expresses himself, in the following terms, on the injury which is done to religion by interference with politics, (a thing which, I confess, is too inevitable when the church is connected with the state :)" Politics and party eat out among us not only study and learning, but that which is the only thing more valuable, a true sense of religion, with a sincere zeal in advancing that for which the Son of God both lived and died, and to which those who are received into holy orders have vowed to dedicate their lives and labours." 2 In short, let us not too hastily condemn all extension of ministerial activity, nor presume to define its limits. We believe that it is susceptible, according to the times, of an indefinite extension; but these times have their signs, which we must be able to wait for and discern.3 1 BURNET, Bishop of Salisbury, played an important part in the Revolution of 1688.-ED. 2 BURNET'S Discourse of the Pastoral Care. Preface to the third edition. 3 Is the ministry, as understood and practised now, confined to the same limits as the ministry in primitive times? CHAPTER II. DOMESTIC LIFE OF THE MINISTER. § I.-GENERAL REFLECTIONS.—MARRIAGE AND CELIBACY.THE PASTOR'S WIFE. "A THE New Testament is not silent on this subject. bishop must be blameless, the husband of one wife, vigilant, sober, of good behaviour, given to hospitality, apt to teach; one that ruleth well his own house, having his children in subjection with all gravity: for if a man know not how to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the Church of God? . . . Even so must their wives be grave, not slanderers, sober, faithful in all things," 1 Tim. iii. 2, 4, 5, 11.—“For this cause left I thee in Crete, that thou shouldst set in order the things that are wanting, and ordain elders in every city, as I had appointed thee,—if any be blameless, the husband of one wife, having faithful children, not accused of riot, or unruly. For a bishop must be blameless, as the steward of God; not self-willed, not soon angry, not given to wine, no striker, not given to filthy lucre; but a lover of hospitality, a lover of good men, sober, just, holy, temperate," Titus i. 5-8. These passages suppose the minister to be a married man and the father of a family, which does not necessarily imply that marriage is prescribed to the minister. If it is said that this is necessary in order that he may be in all things “an example of the believers," 1 Tim. iv. 12; Titus ii. 7; we reply that there is no necessity for him to be in this particular position in order to be a fit example to those who are in it. [This assumption would be absurd and contrary to the spirit of the gospel, which would not confine us within literal rules: as an illustration of which we may cite the fact that the four evangelists often relate the same event in different forms. Everywhere in the gospel we find the same free and generous spirit.] Not less is our Lord an example to us in all things, although he only lived in the most general relations of humanity. Lastly, St. Paul himself, the writer of the passages which we have just quoted, was not married. St. Paul, who has vindicated the right of all to marry, (1 Tim. iv. 3), has not less honoured celibacy, recommending it as not only convenient in those times of peril in which the Church then existed, (1 Cor. vii. 26, 27), but also as a means of devoting the whole life more entirely to God. 1 Cor. vii. 32, 35. In this passage he only reproduces the thought of Jesus Christ himself. Matt. xix. 10-12. He does not contradict himself when he gives these counsels of perfection, the universal realisation of which would be incompatible with the existence of society, because, then, the society of earth would, simply, be transformed into the society of heaven. Celibacy, in the spirit in which Jesus Christ practised it, would not injure the world, and this is the only kind of celibacy which the apostle was speaking of; the words of Jesus Christ sufficiently indicate that such celibacy would never be otherwise then a rare exception. St. Paul, and his master before him, were not referring in the passages which we have quoted, to a particular class in the church; but how should a counsel of perfection regard pastors especially? Where a minister feels disposed to celibacy by an internal impulse of the spirit, he ought not to fear that he will be, on this account, less useful to the church; for the advantages which he might gain by his marriage are not greater, perhaps less, than the advantages of a pure and devoted celibacy.—And, perhaps, it is to be regretted, if not that there are not more unmarried ministers, yet certainly that there are not more ministers who feel in themselves a disposition to this state.-There are times and circumstances when an unmarried minister can render services to the church which a married man cannot so |