exception, the comparatively rare exception. We believe this to have been so from the beginning, and we believe it to be so now. But it does not follow, therefore, that we have any very great grounds for trust and glory. The ministry may be in the main a converted ministry, and yet it may be far from a state which would justify complacency and inspire hope. The godliness may be decent, and yet share the fate of most simply decent things. The question we put is-does the religion of the ministry among evangelical Dissenters oblige us to look elsewhere for the principal cause of what is humbling and dispiriting in our religious condition.

It is assumed in this inquiry, that there is something 'humbling and dispiriting in our religious condition. We have no pleasure in saying or thinking so. It is our wont to take the brightest views that reason may permit on subjects associated. with the welfare of the world. We would fain escape the im pression that has forced itself upon our minds. We did not seck it, we cannot resist it. But having it, we dare not conceal it. Long ago we eschewed and denounced the policy of keeping things quiet that ought to be remedied. It does nothing but perpetuate them. The time is come for grappling with the present question, and not to do it may entail heavy and lasting consequences upon all that we wish and most justly prize. It is not necessary to enumerate the evidence that our spiritual case is far from a cheering one. Statistics are not to be had, and, if they were, would be comparatively useless. Any one having a general acquaintance with our churches, will understand and appreciate the questions, which we now propose with fear and trembling, and not in the spirit of an indictment. Are our churches increasing so as to make inroads on the masses of ignorance and sin that surround them? Are they increasing at all, when the increase of population is considered? Are they, as a general rule, in a decidedly flourishing state? Would a stranger going among them be struck with their embodiment of the primitive idea? Are they to the world what the representations of Scripture would justify us in requiring that they should be ? Are they signs, witnesses, blessings? Is the ministry, taken as a whole, religiously powerful? Does it, by the aid only of honest and healthy means, lay hold upon the popular mind? These questions, and many more of the same kind, we are compelled to answer in the negative. What is the reason of all this? We have a Scriptural theology, holding fast the vital elements of spiritual power. We maintain an ecclesiastical organization possessing special adaptation to the growth and diffusion of godliness, and sympathising more directly than most others with the temper of the times. We possess learning enough to pro

tect us from contempt, on account of gross incompetency to fill the position that Providence has assigned to us. And there is no lack of men to take charge of all existing societies, and many more. What then is the reason? Our simple answer is-there are several reasons, but the principal one is the want of a more entire and vehement consecration to the work on the part of ministers. There are other causes operating in different degrees to the same result, but we are persuaded the root of the evil is in this. The ministry of any church is the rule and source of its prosperity. Like people, like priest,' is an everlasting proverb. Given the ministry, and you may safely conclude as to the state of the body, its character, its works, its progress. And that which in the ministry is, above all other things, so sure a sign, and potent an influence, is the presence or the absence of a deep spirituality. Much stress is laid, now-a-days, on the power of the individual will and heart. The error in some quarters is in an exaggeration, a strange exaggeration, of this truth, and thus agency and instrumentality are confounded, and more is made of believing than of truth, as if the eye were all, and the light were nothing. But the fact remains, that infinitely more depends on what men are, than on any of the things with wnich they have to do. To rely on machinery for spiritual purposes is the worst of all delusions. Institutions of the best construction are only bodies, and the body without the spirit is dead. There may be exact definitions of doctrine, fit and proper polities, ripe learning, polished address, words without end, and yet a lack of the only power that can vivify, direct, and glorify the whole. The essential part of the service may be wanted, and a question like that of Isaac's have to be proposed-Behold the fire and the wood; but where is the lamb for a burnt offering? We think that such a question may be put respecting our ministry. Is it manifestly a ministry from God? Is it aggressive in its modes of action, eminently devoted, earnest, self-denying, unwearied, painful? Do those who preach give unquestionable evidence of the single eye, and thoroughly consecrated heart? Do they, by persevering effort in the midst of discouragement, by preferring the laborious and useful, but ill-requiting lot, by sacrificing prospects of personal ease and profit to the good of large and neglected neighbourhoods, and by regulating their exertions, not according to the requirements of official propriety, but the exigences of human souls, make it clear that their only end is 'the profit of many that they may be saved? Are there prevailing indicatious among them of the true temper of the missionary, the reformer, the martyr? Do they exhibit a constant spirit, abiding in spheres till sufficient time has passed to prove the real worth of their plans of operation? Do they possess the belief that no people are to be lightly abandoned to eternal doom, and that success may be obtained if it be rightly sought? Is it their feeling that the ministry was never meant to be a respectable profession but a hard work? Are moral and eternal fruits, in the instruction, quickening and sanctifying of men, more highly prized than the comforts, and enjoyments arising from respectable positions, established interests, and intelligent society? We might multiply these inquiries almost without end, and we fear the response to them would be sorrowful from most persons whose information would warrant their making a response at all. Let us repeat, that our intention is not to prefer charges, though our mode may suggest it. We write with the deepest self-abasement, and devoted love and honour for our brethren, whose shoes' latchet we are not worthy to unloose. Nor, however painful may be our own views in some respects, would justice be done us if we were regarded as lamenting the entire condition of our body, and class. So far from it, we would not for one moment hint that a very large number of ministers may not be found amongst us, whose course and success, if looked at alone, would justly excite astonishment at the nature of our interrogatories. We have amongst us a glorious company of men who combine in rich and harmonious variety all the qualifications and attributes of 'servants of the most high God;' the simplicity of whose piety appears in beautiful fellowship with great attainments, who are as devoted workmen as they are eloquent orators, who unite the fervour of the first age to the refinement of the last, and who behold in large and flourishing churches the natural, and yet supernatural, results. And we must add, likewise, that our object is even still less to draw, or to intimate, any distinction beween one class or race of ministers and another. We speak not of the young or of the old. This remark is rendered necessary, by not a little that has been said of late years in disparagement of the rising ministry. For some time we received these complaints and accusations only as at the worst, the oozings out of the distrust and impatience with which it is natural for the aged to contemplate the youthful, especially if the latter show signs of independence and of power, and we are strongly inclined to cherish this estimate still. Who likes to be assailed with the peremptory order, 'move on?" Ever since the world began there have been the elements of schism between the ancient holders of office, and those who have but recently received it. It is unnecessary for us to conceal the faults which generally obtain among young ministers, or those which especially obtain among the existing race; we know too well how thankless and thoughtless would be the work of an indiscriminate vindication; but, without making any invidious comparisons, we may avow our belief that in relation to our present subject, viz. piety, they stand as well as others, while in relation to some other things they stand much better. A good deal of the suspicion which prevails respecting this important class, and which many foster who ought to reprove it, arises, we are persuaded, from what those persons would be sorry to sanction-a secret belief in the sinfulness of human learning. We put it strongly on purpose-but not too strongly. This is the primary element. As an unconscious moral feeling against matter leads to sympathy with much popish doctrine and ritualism, so, we are thoroughly convinced, an unconscious moral feeling against knowledge leads to sympathy with much pagan ignorance and barbarism. Protestants find it difficult to divest themselves of the sentiment that matter is evil, and that therefore 'more flesh' is 'more frailty, and many dissenters find it as difficult to conceive that what is added to the intellect is not taken from the heart, and that godly simplicity is not human stupidity. Hence a jealousy, strong in some quarters, of the efforts to improve and extend our collegiate course of training, among other reasons, because of the incompatability of the end proposed with a fresh and fervid spirituality. Against this doctrine we have all along protested, nor are we prepared to write one word of recantation in reference to the papers which have from time to time appeared in this journal, expounding and enforcing the principles and details of a higher order of ministerial education. We know of no wisdom that is opposed to 'the wisdom of God,' and should as soon think of enmity between a sharp eye and a good digestion as between learning and holiness. But a man may be attending to his eye when he should be attending to his digestion, and so in studying men may neglect that better way of studyingpraying.

Let us return. In order to estimate accurately the importance of great piety in the Christian ministry, it is needful to look carefully at its relations to the individual man and his official work. Its importance is generally conceded; it passes as a stock sentiment. No one denies, and for that reason few analyze it. So catholic an agreement prevents careful consideration, and the truth is as often concealed as revealed by its expression. Why should a minister of God be 'a man of God?' It requires a little reflection to detect the reasons, and much to obtain a full and solemnizing perception of them.

The ultimate end of the ministry can be realised so as to operate in its proper manner and degree only as the soul sees things which are invisible. That end is the salvation of men. All other ends are secondary and subservient. A man supremely devoted to this may engage in works that are not immediately, or in the view of short-sighted persons, conducive to its attainment. He may do this to excite attention, remove prejudice, and gain power. He may do it on the ground on which eminent counsel is sometimes retained when not wanted, it being better to buy silence than encounter opposition; and he may do it on the higher ground of enlisting a powerful advocacy in favour of a good cause. A minister may thus cultivate acquaintance with general literature, and aid the progress of many social questions, not forgetting his higher aim, but remembering and pursuing it, and so much the more, and with larger ultimate recompense, because with more patience and comprehensiveness of toil. But he will still 'watch' supremely 'for souls.' No amount of mental culture, of social reformation, of even moral improvement, will satisfy his zeal. Regarding men as possessing spiritual powers, filling spiritual relations, and advancing to a spiritual destiny, and believing these views to be infinitely more important than all other views of them, and comprehensive of all, he will not estimate his work by any criterion that excludes, or that gives not prominence to, spiritual salvation. He seeks them, not theirs, and to 'win' them, to 'form Christ in them,' to 'beget them again by the gospel, to 'present them perfect in Christ Jesus' at last, will constitute a purpose of absorbing solicitude, The existence and operation of such a purpose will affect the ministry in an essential manner, often investing with attractiveness modes and scenes of labour otherwise repulsive. It will concentrate the energies upon the work, and augment their force. The power of a man is not to be judged by contemplating what he is, but by calling to mind the impulse under which his faculties are used; and the impression that is denied to unconnected and chance exertions, however strenuous and splendid they may be alone, is often given to much inferior exertions continuously, systematically, and perseveringly employed. There is literally more power expended in the unceasing application of a small mind than in the fitful and occasional performances of a gigantic intellect. And if an inferior minister, absorbed with the conviction that men are precious and that they are perishing, works with a single view to their redemption, 'gives himself wholly to this thing,' making all his acquirements, and circumstances, and plans, tell upon it, he will do more, and more effectually, than can be done by the decent regularity, or temporary excitements of one vastly superior to him in gifts and furniture. The vivid realization of men's spiritual destiny which we suppose, will find reasons for love and toil when all besides will see a justification or excuse for neglect and abandonment. The most ignorant are the choicest subjects to him whose passion it is to teach; the most depraved are just the objects to be preferred by