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 popu lation. 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.

still required, would rather be ready to wonder and regret that so few are annually undertaken. Now he measures the work done; then he could not withdraw his eye from that which remains.

But besides adequate churches, the parochial system requires the residence of the clergy. In the country districts this can of course be secured only by providing a house as near as may be to each church; but in our great towns it seems possible to adopt a plan at once less costly and more efficient. That every parish should have its appointed pastor is indeed essential, but not that in every instance he should reside within its bounds. In many parts of our great towns, where immortal beings are crowded with unexampled density, the proposed parishes will be

of

very small extent. The existing evil is in their population, not their size; and were 30,000 souls assigned to ten separate cures instead of one, the present house of residence would very often be not inconveniently situated with regard to each of them. In these situations, meanwhile, every inch of land is sought with so eager a competition, that the rental or erection of a house in each parish would be peculiarly onerous. Many advantages, then might be united, if something of a collegiate establishment were provided for the clerical body, open to as many of them as chose to avail themselves of it, and leaving to all others the liberty of a separate residence. That such a plan would be highly economical is ob

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vious; for, besides the erection of one building instead of many, the daily cost of providing for a number of persons in a common hall is known to be far less than would be incurred by them in separate establishments. A considerable saving, again, would result from the great diminution of the number of necessary servants; and each of the clergy would be freed from much expense in the purchase of books, too often a serious charge on a very slender income. But in such an experiment, the moral and religious results would surely far outweigh any merely economical. It is not good for man to be alone; and who is so painfully alone, as he upon whom the care of thousands is ever pressing, who is contending day by day against vice and misery, instructing the ignorant and warning the obstinate; while for himself, as for our first parent in Paradise, no equal friend, companion, and counsellor is found; none of like mind and pursuits, and furnished with a congenial education, with whom he may take sweet counsel, "and walk in the House of GOD as friends." The biographer mourns over the departure of the meek Hooker "from the tranquillity of his college, from that garden of piety, of pleasure, of peace, and of sweet conversation, into the thorny wilderness of a busy world, into those corroding cares that attend a married priest and a country parsonage;" but how much more corroding, how much more sickening to the heart, the cares of a priest in a

poor town population. And how many are there who, worn down by them day by day, are without the solace and refreshment of domestic life. Their number, too, must of course be greatly increased, if we plant in a great town thirty, forty, fifty, or even an hundred new churches, each of which is to have its minister, and often two; while the endowments, for a time at least, cannot be expected to be large. How dear to them would be such a society as has been suggested; the bond between its members drawn closer by daily social prayers and all the blessed intercourse of religious fellowship; and how beneficially would such colleges affect the Church at large; which, besides other functions too numerous to be here detailed, would afford to candidates for the ministry a school at once for theological study and for the practice of the pastoral care; and that (as it might easily be arranged) at so low a cost, as to remove the only serious objection, which has hitherto prevented the English Church from providing for every candidate, something of a professional as well as a liberal education.

Considerable practical improvements, again, might be adopted in the internal administration of our parishes. The pastor, in general, stands too much alone; and, as a king who is without a senate and a body of nobility is more absolute, but less safe, so the priest, doing all himself, is often liable to exercise his unchecked authority