them. If God has promised His especial blessing on His own ordinance, the priesthood and ministry of His Word, our plans will prosper, as they are blended into, and subordinate to this. Our steps must be retraced; and as the evil has arisen from the neglect of our ancient parochial system, the remedy must be its restoration. We must supply to the dwellers in every street and lane and cottage of our land, efficient pastoral superintendence, and the public ordinances of the Church; and having done this, we shall still find abundant scope for the labours of every layman. "He that gathereth most shall have nothing over."

And the work by God's blessing is already begun. New churches have arisen in every part of our land, and are everywhere rising; so that a consecration is sure to meet our eyes in every periodical report of our ecclesiastical proceedings. The augmentation again of the number of the labourers in God's vineyard is at this moment the object of the most strenuous exertions. What we have already done is invaluable as a pledge of greater things, although in any other view it would no more deserve mention than a drop taken from the ocean. For instead of absorbing the multitudes which had outgrown the capabilities of our old churches, we have not yet succeeded in providing fully for the annual increase of our population. After all our exertions, our church room, and our parochial ministry are less adequate than they

were twenty years ago'. Should we now abandon the work, every church already built would witness against us, for we need them now more than ever. May it go on and prosper!

The first practical step towards the greater exertions which are still necessary, will be to measure the work before us. That it is great, very great, we well know; but how great it is we still need to be informed. Men are not roused to a true sense of their responsibility by vague and general statements. We must be told what we have to do, and in particular, how many additional churches and pastors are required. This can be shown only by exact local information detailing the wants of our several towns and districts. Whatever pains have already been taken in collecting and publishing these details

1 This statement has frequently been repeated; it may however be illustrated by one example taken from each of the great divisions of our population. And first the town parish of St. Pancras. In the year 1815 its population was stated by Mr. Yates (Church in Danger, page 68,) at 46,333, with church room only for 400, leaving a deficiency of at least 22,766. In 1835, the church accommodation (according to the report of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners,) had been increased from 400 to 5000; but the population meanwhile had reached 103,548, leaving (on the same calculation as before,) at least 51,774 unprovided for. Again, it is stated by the Lord Bishop of Winchester, that to absorb the annual increase of population in the rural parts of that diocese would require the erection of ten churches for 500 each. Meanwhile in six years from 1830, church room has been provided for above 29,000; a little less than the required proportion.

have been abundantly rewarded. The recent plan of the Lord Bishop of London, which forms an æra in the history of the English Church, owes much of its value to the statement of facts on which it is founded. But the greater part even of this preparatory labour remains to be performed. Our Church statistics should be more uniform and systematic. Let it be established as a principle that the population of no parish should exceed some definite amount', perhaps three thousand; and let us then ascertain how many churches must be erected in each diocese, before the towns shall be thus far provided. And again, whatever standard be applied to our villages; if we determine, for instance, that no hamlet of three hundred souls ought to be two miles from its parish church; let us be informed how far we are from realizing the principle so laid down. The more accurate our knowledge, the better will our work proceed.

1 The proposed maximum may perhaps be thought too great; especially when it is remembered that the old parishes contained on an average less than 650. (See Yates's Church in Danger, page 44.) It is certainly more liable to this than to the opposite charge; but it should be remarked that every such parish ought to have at least two resident ministers, and that in proportion to the diminution of pluralities, such a nursery for curates will be urgently needed. Although therefore 3,000 souls are unquestionably too many for one pastor, they may not, when concentrated in a town, be thought too many for one parish served by two or more. By the efforts of our new societies and other means, we may hope that the requisite aid may generally be obtained.

Meanwhile, let us resolve that as God shall prosper us, no success shall satisfy us, or cause us to remit our exertions, until we have attained the standard proposed, and have provided a church and a pastor for every one of our population. Our crusade against the powers of darkness must be unwearied, unsparing, and inveterate, like the sword of Joshua against the nations of Canaan. Let us look before, not behind us. Great undertakings have ever been accomplished not by pausing to rejoice in that which is effected, but by a resolution intently fixed on that which remains to be done. So must it be here. Let an annual report be published in every diocese, stating the number of churches' built in the year past, and of those which are still required; and, under the latter head, specifying by name every

1 Our new churches must of course be parochial; i. e. they should be churches for the especial benefit of their own districts. In saying this, the author trusts that he may, without impropriety, express his earnest hope that this object may never be sought by the introduction of a new and vicious principle. It has been earnestly recommended, that the places in our churches instead of being free, should be let at so low a rate as to put them within the reach of the poorest, and that preference should be shown to parishioners in letting all of them. The advantages of this plan are, that men are disposed to value highly that for which they pay something; that the poor will be more independent, and entertain a greater degree of self-respect, when they feel that they have their own seat in church to which no one has any right but themselves; and, lastly, that by this arrangement we ensure that the parishioners shall never be excluded from their parish church by strangers

existing parish which exceeds the due measure of population, and every hamlet in which a church is requisite. We should then stand pledged to supply the wants of our whole people. If men neglected them, they would do it with their eyes open, and every Christian (instead of feeling something of surprise at the number of churches erected, and the frequent calls for aid), being continually reminded of those which were

who may sometimes occupy the free seats, especially if the church becomes peculiarly attractive by the popularity of a preacher or other causes. The last of these benefits is equally secured by the ancient rule, which provides that the churchwardens shall allot to all parishioners, without payment, their own proper places; nor is there any good reason why the free space of our new churches should not be thus allotted ;-the allotment, of course, being conditional, and liable to be reversed for sufficient causes. The other supposed advantages are plainly alien to the principles of the Church and of the Gospel; for what is the Gospel, but great gifts without money and without price,—and what the first rule of the Church but this: "freely ye have received, freely give?" And of all spirits, a haughty independence is surely that which least becomes a sinner in drawing near to the Majesty of Heaven and Earth. Lastly, if it be said that the poor are not willing to occupy free seats, we may ask whether their objection is not rather to certain obnoxious distinctions connected with them than to their being free. Meanwhile shall we, without proved necessity, introduce a new principle subversive of those on which the Church has acted from the beginning-a principle which would rest the claim of men to be present at the prayers and mysteries of the Church, not upon their high privilege as Christians, but upon their rights as pew-renters; and would make the peculiar blessings of the faithful, the men in Christ [see them set forth in Bingham's Antiquities, book i. chap. v.] a matter of bargain and sale.