a certain time and certain place. It is true that there are things which, with equal force, interest and engage man, though placed in the most different conditions; and that there are things which are important above all others. But it is not less true that, if we take no account of what individualizes a flock, we are not only likely to be less useful, less agreeable, or less welcome, but also to counteract, in many particulars, the object we propose to ourselves. As all external circumstances modify the state of the soul, they thereby modify also the agency we should exert upon it. We must, so to speak, ask the individual man to introduce us to mankind, at least we must not let this individual man obstruct our road. St. Paul speaks to all as men; nevertheless, he was to the Jews a Jew, to the Greeks a Greek; all things to all men. We must not strike keys to which no chord corresponds, and leave those untouched to which are connected chords of the fullest and richest sound.

The care of souls, then, will not be the same in city and country, in a farming and a manufacturing district, in the bosom of a population of simple manners and with refined and effeminate people. The pastor should take account of all this, as also of geographic, climatic, economic, dietetic, and historic circumstances. He should acquaint himself with customs, interests, wants, prejudices, opinions. He should not limit himself to certain fruitful data developed by certain inductions; he should prefer studying things in the things themselves. For between two parishes in the same circumstances, both mountainous, both agricultural, both rich, or both poor, he should still distinguish. The pastor should, above all, understand the religious state of the parish which is transferred to him. This, and all the particulars to which we have referred, should be the objects of prolonged and persevering study, dating from the moment of entrance on his duties; but before his entrance he must have informed himself of every thing of importance, and certain

FOR THE CARE OF SOULS.

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Without the

details which appear small are important. knowledge of these, he may wound, may shock, may be misjudged, and may create prejudices, which are very apt to be formed, and are very slowly dissipated. He must know the good and the bad, the strong as well as the weak, in order to know what needs to be developed and what to be repressed. We may hence see how advantageous it may be for the same

pastor to remain a long time in the same parish.

5. Care to maintain Relations of Confidence and Affection with the Parish.—These he will 'secure in part by the care of souls; but, with a view to the care of souls, he, should also in every way create and maintain them. The means are positive and negative. We shall not speak here of the first, intending to present them hereafter in the aspect, and under the name of duties. We shall now speak only of negative means, which may be summed up in this: the avoiding of all useless collision with interest and self-love, the voluntary relinquishment of his right, according to the word of the apostle, "Why do ye not rather suffer yourselves to be defrauded?"-1 Cor., vi., 7. The pastor, unquestionably, should not encourage evil by weakness on his part, but he should not show himself too fond of his own opinion, and ever ready to make difficulty. Let him also be careful not to enter into obligations too readily, and to keep himself in this respect as independent as possible. It is well here to call to mind an advantage we have from our institutions, according to which the pastor receives nothing from the community, and the chance of dependence can scarcely have existence.

§4. Three-fold Object of pastoral Oversight.

We will now resolve the pastoral office into its different elements or different acts, regarding it as including not only the religious care of families and individuals, but every thing except public instruction and the celebration of worship.

Pastoral oversight has a three-fold purpose-to promote the material, the moral, and the spiritual interests of the parish.

1. Solicitude for material Interests.—If I speak of this first, it is not as being the first, but rather as the least of the interests which the pastor is concerned with, and that I may rise by degrees to the true object of his ministry and to the highest exercise of his activity. There are positions in which he will have few occasions to interfere, in which, indeed, he can not interfere with propriety; there are others from which he can not withhold himself. In every case, we would have him regardful of material interests, and attend to them according to the exigency of circumstances.* We have no reference here to care for the poor, which is always required of the pastor. Let him, in every case, avoid the character of intermeddler and intruder, and the air of a man of busi

ness.

etc.

2. Solicitude for Moral Interests.—I speak not yet of spiritual interests. There are unjust or immoral prejudices, errors of education, violations of law and of morality, which have passed into customs, usages indecent and pernicious, All evil may and should be displaced by Christianity; it will not, however, be enough to preach the cross, although this should be done indefatigably, and with reference to the removal of evils, as included in the supreme end which is to be aimed at in preaching: We shall still have to make battle with all these evils-descend upon the stage of natural morality, of good sense, and even of worldly interest. It is very often the only means, the indispensable condition of success with many persons. Nor do we hereby compromise the main object; we prepare the way for religion: it brings us into contact with more persons, and gives us influence over a greater number of wills.

Christianity certainly applies itself to every thing; it sub

* Wild lands tilled by monks-priests civilizers.

divides and ramifies itself, so as to reach all abuses, all errors. Its great principles may be successfully called into action against the subtilest forms of error and of sin; and we must not say that it is an abuse thus to employ it, and that it is applying Niagara to turn a mill-wheel. No, it is a matter of regret that Christian preaching does not, from time to time, conduct Christians as by the hand, from its loftiest principles even to their last results. But that individuals may thus apply Christianity to their personal conduct, may introduce it entirely into the external and material details of their life, they must first have received it, and society suffers and languishes while it waits for this to be done. Time presses; let us, then, attack evil with all the weapons we have at our disposal; let us apply to society, with Christian charity and in a Christian spirit, means which are within every one's reach, motives which all accept, and which, after all, being legitimate and true, are really a part of the truth. Let us never forget that good is self-evidencing; that evil carries its condemnation in itself; that Christianity has not com> to create morality, but to lend it the most irresistible motives, without opposing, without accusing of absolute inefficacy, those which may be drawn from conscience and the nature of things. It is very true that motives of this sort do not produce internal renovation, the moral resurrection of mau; they accomplish less, but this less is not valueless; it is worth more, assuredly, than that nothing to which we reduce our influence in the esteem of many persons by not urging these motives.

It may not be suitable, it may scarcely be practicable, to attack directly every evil which may present itself. Besides that it is necessary to give time in order to know evils well, we alarm and repel men by this impatience and this indiscretion. It would be of more avail to begin by training up in the parish supporters and aids, who, when they shall have the same conscience with ourselves as to the nature of evil,

will take the initiative with us, or perhaps in our place.* The pastor will pursue an excellent and a Christian policy, not to do every thing himself, but to inspire others with the desire, and to teach them the art of co-operation. Not only has he need of aids in his parish, but he will accomplish the more good by not having to do every thing himself.

3. Solicitude for Spiritual Interests.—We so name this only to complete the circle of pastoral solicitudes; for otherwise it controls and covers the others. It ought to be the soul of all our proceedings and of all our activity. Before all, we ought to have in view the spiritual, that is to say, eternal good of the members of our parish; and if it is true that a minister, preoccupied with this order of interests, may, to a certain extent, lose sight of other interests, it is still more evident that a pastor, who is not one in this highest sense of the word, is generally little suited to advance the purely moral, or even the material well-being of the community..

5. The School.

We have as yet only considered the parish in general; we are approaching families and individuals; but between the parish in general and families and individuals, there is an institution of which we must speak, namely, the school.

We shall in vain attempt to secularize it: It will remain attached to the Church or to religion. I speak of the popular school, of that in which more or less may be taught, but always in so far as the school deserves its name, whatever is necessary to the man and the Christian. The school has need of religion, and religion has need of the school. The Church can not dispense with the school, nor the school with the Church. The pastor, for this cause, should interest himself in whatever pertains essentially to popular instruction;

* HÜFFELL: Ueber das Wesen und den Beruf des Evangelisch-christlichen Geistlichen, third edition. Giessen, 1835, tome ii., p. 270.