stronger reason, doubtless, of those who are in the Church. Thus the approbation of the world, as to all that of which the world can judge, is a thing which the minister must seek, and which he may obtain. It is at once useful and encouraging to a minister to bear this in mind, while prescribing it to himself as an end and as a supreme rule, "to render himself approved of God" (2 Tim., ii., 15), and while he is preparing himself to say to the world, when it condemns him for what it does not understand, "With me it is a very small thing to be judged of you, or of man's judgment of man" (1 Cor., iv., 3); "If I seek to please men, I shall not be the servant of Christ.”—Gal., i., 10. If severe consistency is honored even in evil, much more will it be in good. The condemnation of the world for our acts of fidelity never hurts us, never exposes us to contempt. There is a glory in this reproach, while all worldly complaisance or concession weakens, in every sense, our ministry, and draws reproach upon us. Let us now see what are the principal traits under which the minister ought to exhibit himself in the general relations of society. § 1. Gravity. "A bishop This quality makes a part of the relative life. must be grave.”—1 Tim., iii., 2. This, as St. Paul says, is one of the first things; it is the first, as the world says. Our translators employ the words grave and gravity to render, Kóσμlos (1 Tim., iii., 2), translated by Luther, sittig; by De Wette, anstændig; and by the English, of good behavior. Σɛμvós (1 Tim., iii., 11, in speaking of the pastor's wife), translated by Luther and De Wette, ehrbar; and by the English, grave. Zεuvórns (Tit., xi., 7), translated by Luther, ehrbarkeit; by De Wette, würde; and by the English, gravity. Gravity, from the word gravis, is the weight, more or less considerable, which an interest, an evil, &c., possesses. In external life and in manners it is whatever announces that a man bears the weight of a great thought or a great responsibility. The minister is the depositary of so great a thought, so great a responsibility, that gravity is but decency in his profession. It may be defined, the impress of the respect we bear for the object of our mission. It is evident that external gravity is true and commendable only in so far as it answers to an internal gravity, which is the feeling of the weight of the responsibility with which we are charged. Gravity is not "a bodily mysteriousness, whose end is to hide the weakness of the mind."* Nothing is more contrary to gravity than the affectation of gravity. "A too studied gravity," says La Bruyère, "becomes ludicrous: extremities meet; the mean between them is dignity. That is not being grave, but acting gravity: He who tries to be grave never will be. Either there is no gravity, or it is natural; and it is less difficult to descend from it than to arise to it." But much less must we affect the contrary. There have been ecclesiastics who, wishing too much to avoid alarming, have ended by compromising. This is seen particularly among the Catholics, because the quality of the priest-his habits, his dress-distinguish him from the world ; and the frivolity by which he would remove the distinction makes it more apparent. "Could we not make persons of a certain character, and of a serious profession-to describe them no further-understand that they need not have it said of them that they play, they sing, they joke, like other men ; and that, to see them so pleasant and so agreeable, one would not think they were also so regular and so strict? Would one even dare to insinuate to them, that, by such manners, they remove themselves from that politeness on which they * LA ROCHEFOUCAULD, Réflexions Morales, cclvii. + LA BRUYÈRE, Les Caractères; in the chapter Des Jugemens pique themselves; that, on the contrary, politeness suits and conforms externals to conditions; that it avoids contrast, and the exhibition of the same man under different figures, which make him a fantastic and grotesque compound ?"* Gravity shows itself in manners in general, and discourse in particular. Under the general idea of manners, I class society, recreations, occupations, and costume. As to society-we should not, certainly, restrict ourselves to seeing only one kind of persons, for fear of accrediting the false idea that the minister is not a man; but we should still more carefully avoid being seen every where. The pastor is a social man—not a man of society, still less a man of the world. He should make himself scarce, unless prohibited by charity, which alone is allowed to make him common. A man who is seen every where can not inspire respect. The judgment we form of a pastor who goes much into society is not very favorable. We suspect him of not being sensible of his duties, and of the need of solitude. Society multiplies the occasions for doing good, but much more the temptations to do evil. Then there are men whom the pastor should see neither at home nor elsewhere. St. Paul charges Timothy to avoid certain persons: Men whose lives are bad, and, above all, those who have the form of godliness, but deny its power. -2 Tim., iii., 5. More than another, the minister should be select as to his associates. Others will be critical for him, and consequently severe, if he is not so for himself. This is important in order not only to preserve an exterior, to regard conventionalities, but to shun a real danger. To ministers, as well as others, this maxim applies: Be not deceived: evil communications corrupt good manners.". 1 Cor., xv., 33. "Strangers have devoured his strength, and he knoweth it not; yea, gray hairs are here and there upon him, yet he knoweth not." * LA BRUYÈRE, Les Caractères; in the chapter Des Jugemens. Hosea, vii., 9. And this, too : "He who loves danger will perish in danger." How can he seek bad society, when good is so necessary to him, and when he can not be too much surrounded, too much sustained by those who fear God? Massillon would have a priest see priests only. "Permit me here," he says, "to repeat what St. Paul formerly upbraided his disciples with, who, instead of addressing themselves to their brethren, to settle their disputes, had recourse to gentile judges: Sic non est inter vos sapiens quisquam ? What! can you not find among your brethren wise and amiable ministers to relax yourselves with from the seriousness of your occupations? Sic non est inter vos sapiens quisquam? Is it possible that, amid so many ecclesiastics of agreeable manners, edifying, and creditable to you, you need to call the world to your aid, and seek recreations where you should only be attending to your functions and your labors ?"* It would, however, be an exaggeration to hold one's self rigorously to such a rule. We must give no countenance to the melancholy idea that the minister is not a man, nor deprive him of what society may give, may teach him. Moreover, the pastor has a family, a domestic interior, which may, if need be, take the place of a more various society. Old relationships, contracted under unhappy auspices, are often very embarrassing. We must not disregard the past, and break these relationships: All is providential: God may serve himself of one to bless another. If it be impossible to preserve them, let them be dissolved, but without violence. As to our domestic relationships, we must neither break nor dissolve, but sanctify them. The family is the pastor's first parish. Recreations or Relaxations.-It is difficult, on this subject, to give very precise rules. When I say that the minister has need of recreations as well as another man; when I say * MASSILLON: Discours sur la Manière dont les Ecclésiastiques doivent converser avec les Personnes du Monde.-Première Reflexion. that, on the other hand, there are recreations which, in a simple believer, give no scandal, but which, on the part of a minister, may scandalize the weak; that all which is lawful is not edifying, and that the minister of Jesus Christ should always edify; in short, that, to a certain extent, conventionalities vary with places, I say the whole: good sense must supply the rest. Only let me remind young candidates of the apostle's remark: Let no man despise thy youth."—1 Tim., iv., 12. Notwithstanding the form, this is truly a command. And, again, the apostle was careful to say to Timothy, "Flee youthful lusts."-2 Tim., ii., 22. This was the only means of securing his youth against contempt; and we may suppose that these restrictions were more seasonable in youth than afterward. We must take care of indulgence on the side to which we are already propense. There are amusements which we must renounce: The chase, gaming, the theatre; under a certain form, music, and, in general, a passionate taste for any art. None of these things are seemly in a minister; the effect upon him will not be good, and it will expose him to censure. He must avoid, also, being seen, without necessity, in places even the most respectable, where the public come to divert themselves. One can not answer for the company which he may find there, nor for what may take place there. The minister, truly, may adopt this maxim: "It is better to go to the house of mourning than to the house of feasting; for that is the end of all men, and the living will lay it to his heart."-Eccl., vii., 2. We do not mean that all these abstinences render him who imposes them on himself holy. He who does not impose them on himself, even though he does wrong therein, is perhaps holier than one who spares himself none of them. We may "strain at a gnat and swallow a camel."-Matt., xxiii., 24. As to occupations, we do not yet say that the minister, ac |