doubt the practicability of a scheme whose success depends upon the readiness of three, or five, or seven men, in each Church, to assume a laborious, a self-denying, and a highly responsible duty. It is not that we have not men of sufficient skill and influence effectively to discharge the obligations which it is proposed to lay upon them; in those congregations on which the heaviest share of benevolent contribution naturally falls, men of financial skill and of general prudence are numerous, though it may be questioned whether there exists in the Church that measure of earnest, self-sacrificing piety which is necessary to impel its otherwise qualified members to undertake the work. We wonder not that, in the primitive Church, the diaconal qualifications were not integrity and wisdom merely, but also the plenitude of the Holy Ghost dwelling in the heart. Men of feeble piety and of low religious attainments,-men who are lukewarm in love to their Saviour, and generally indifferent as to the prosperity of the Church, will not consent to fill an office involving so large an amount of care and self-denial. Wisely did the Apostles enjoin upon the members of the early Church to select for this work men full of faith and piety. They knew what would be its inroads upon their gains; they knew what would be its demands upon their patience, and ease, and time, and they also knew that no power save that of a deeply influential personal religion could suffice to encourage and sustain them in its fulfilment. Happy were the Apostles and the Church to have found no difficulty in selecting seven qualified men; happier still, that when once elected to the office, every one of the seven was willing to serve. This primitive diaconate furnished the Church with the first recruit for its "noble army of martyrs." These seven men conferred not with flesh and blood; they possessed too much piety for this; the will of the Church had for them all the force of an omnipotent law. It is this spirit of entire consecration to Christ that the Church needs, before its members will be willing to undertake those responsibilities which, on apostolic authority, it is desired to impose upon them. Were the male members, of influence in the Church, fully baptized with the Spirit of Christ, they would VOL. VI.-27

be more ready to serve in this capacity than they now are to become bank directors, or managers of insurance associations, or trustees of savings funds. A Christian, who is efficiently serving in any one of these or similar capacities, is qualified to preside over or direct the affairs of the Church's treasury, and in this way to discharge an important service for the Redeemer; and we cannot but think that he who promised full allegiance to Christ in the day of his early Christian vows, that he who gave himself away to the Saviour, body and soul, when first he took into his hand and put to his lips the cup of the covenant, ought to be more willing to care for the treasury of his Church than to aid in the direction of the largest banking institution in the country. The time and the thought which the one office demands would suffice for the discharge of the claims of the other, and though the worldly influence which would result from filling the latter position might far exceed that which would attend the Christian directorship, who can doubt to which side the lasting honor, that which cometh from God, would tend? We sometimes ask ourselves, when we observe the indisposition of Christian men to undertake labors for the Church, Is there any truth in Christianity? Is God superior to the world? Is there, beyond the grave, a state of being more enduring than time? Is there at hand a day of reward for the faithful and laborious righteous? Is heaven, with its endless joys, superior to earth, and its fleeting acquisitions? We are all in the habit of answering these questions affirmatively; but how few of us have a practical faith in the truths which our replies contain! We have not in the Church faith enough; we are not sufficiently imbued with the spirit of Christianity, or we should all, clergy as well as laity, prefer to work for Christ and in his service than for any other master or in any other service, however honorable, or lucrative, or influential. The descent of the Holy Ghost upon the men among us, who have integrity and wisdom enough to undertake the work, will alone remove the difficulty which we have now had under consideration. "Look ye out among you seven men of honest report, full of the Holy Ghost and of wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business."

II. All that God demands and that the Church should expect from ministers is, that they give themselves continually to prayer and to the ministry of the Word.

Should it be objected that the apostolic office differed from that of the ordinary ministry, and that we are stepping beyond the record in claiming for our order what inspired men claimed for theirs, we reply, that in respect of attention to the revenues of the Church and their distribution-taking the New Testament for our guide-the ordinary ministry is as fully relieved from financial cares as were the Apostles. They are enjoined to feed the flock of God; to speak the things that become sound doctrine; to exhort and to rebuke with all authority; to take heed to themselves; to give attention to reading, to exhortation, to teaching; to meditate upon these things, and upon their presbyterial vows, that their profiting might appear unto all. The charge of Peter on this subject is strongly suggestive: "The presbyters which are among you I exhort, who also am a presbyter: [yea more] a witness of the sufferings of Christ [and therefore an Apostle]: feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight [exercising the episcopal office], not by constraint, but willingly; not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind; neither as being lords over God's heritage, but being ensamples to the flock." These are the duties to whose fulfilment ministers are expected, in the language of Paul, wholly to give themselves. We are not, therefore, in error when we claim for even the ordinary ministry a complete separation from the financial cares of the Church.

Reason might instruct us as to the necessity of such an exemption. The more sacred duties of the pastoral office are of a character so grave, so exciting, so varied, so physically and intellectually wearing, as to demand the outlay of all the time and care and health and thought which the most energetic man can expend. Produce the most powerfully intellectual man within the range of your acquaintance; he shall have received the most accomplished education which the country can afford, he shall be a man of real genius, and withal shall be blessed with a robust constitution. We will find enough for

the full employ of his every power in the distinctive duties and responsibilities of the pastoral ministry.

In the first place, he must give himself to the ministry of the word. This implies, in the present day at least, the preparation of two set discourses for the Sabbath, and of a lecture possibly for some week-day evening; besides such a knowledge of the oracles of truth, of its relations to God and man, to nature and to science, as to enable the minister, at all times, suitably and faithfully to hold forth the word of life at the bed of the dying, in the chamber of sickness, in the house of mourning, in the circle of literature, in social life. The ministry of the word implies the defence of Christianity whenever attacked by infidels, the solution of difficulties whenever propounded by inquirers, the adjustment of Bible claims whenever interfered with by the pretensions of science. These private ministrations of the truth, as we may call them, make by far the larger demand on the knowledge, and thought, and anxiety, of a minister. Well do we know that it is no easy task to preach efficiently the unsearchable riches of Christ, Sabbath after Sabbath, month after month, year after year, to the same people. It demands an amount of preparation, of hard thought, of persistent intelligence and extensive research, of appreciative study of human character-each intensified by those strains of responsibility which the burden of souls produces-of which those out of the profession, and many in it, cannot form an adequate conception. The most successful of all modern preachers* writes one sermon a week, devoting the entire working hours of each day to its production. Separated from all ordinary ministerial cares, from even pastoral duties, relieved from all financial anxiety, both personal and ecclesiastical, he sets himself to this single work, devoting his great and cultivated intellect to its accomplishment. But we are yet of opinion, great as is the preparation needed for these more public deliverances, that the private demands upon a clergyman's knowledge, at the sick or dying bed we will suppose, in a Bible class, at a meeting for inquirers, call no less for earnest thought. Will any * Henry Melville.

reasonable man tell us how these demands are to be met by those whose time is so frequently occupied with ecclesiastically financial cares? We will reply to this question by boldly affirming that they cannot be met; that there is no minister, however apparently effective he may now be, whose flock and whose soul do not suffer from this perpetual diversion of his mind from the more sacred duties of a presbyter to the more secular though most important duties of a deacon.

Not only has a pastor to preach the word. Other spiritual duties urgently call for his attention. We refer to those which are now distinguished by the term pastoral. In these are included the visitation of the sick and dying, the ministering of consolation to the troubled, the oversight of the young, and the religious visitation of the congregation generally. It is of great importance to the success of a pastor that these duties be rigidly fulfilled. His preaching will be telling and successful in proportion as these duties are faithfully discharged. A man may be so brilliant in his public addresses as to draw around him a crowd of admirers whenever he shall appear in the pulpit, but really substantial results, the conversion of souls and the building up of the Church, chiefly follow the labors of that minister who is faithful out of the pulpit as well as in it, who is a diligent pastor as well as an able preacher. The time which it is necessary to expend, in order to an efficient system of pastoral visitation, is enormous, and cannot be secured by the great proportion of our pastors because of those ab extra calls which reach them from persons, churches, and societies needing pecuniary aid, or because of those scarcely less numerous engagements into which they are pressed on committees and boards, ecclesiastical and benevolent. We do not forget that there are certain administrative duties connected with societies, such as those which seek the advancement of religious literature, the promotion of ministerial education, the translation of the Scriptures, the extension of the Gospel by means of evangelical missions, which naturally belong to the ministerial profession; but a large amount of the work which is now thrown upon ministers in these societies, might be quite as efficiently