they not only secure attachment to themselves, but also confirm the minds of their people in strong adherence to the principles of their sect. The natural consequences of frequent interview with all parishioners were not unobserved by that pious author*, who, in delineating the character and conduct of a parochial minister, describes him as taking occasion, in the afternoons of week-days, to visit sometimes one, and sometimes another quarter of his parish; and represents him as adapting his conversation to the particular state in which he found the members of a family. Perhaps, in no case will the exercise of judgment be more necessary, than in discerning and following the precise line of behaviour, which shall at once maintain the respect due to your selves, and yet conciliate regard from the poor. Experience, however, shows that if a discreet minister can be affable and condescending, without either language or manner which may encourage bold familiarity in the person addressed, he must in his intercourse gain great ascendancy over his parishioners, and induce them to love both himself and the church. In every nation, but especially in this, where the democratic part of the legislature is scarcely counterbalanced by the aristocratic and monarchic, the people should be taught it is their wisdom and it is their duty to obey the laws. It is their wisdom, because by obedience to laws they preserve that internal tranquillity, and strengthen that mutual confidence, which are absolutely requisite for the prosecution and advantages of arts and manufactures, trade and commerce. Infraction of law is the source of civil commotion. Civil com See "Herbert's Country Parson," Chapter XIV. republished in a volume called "The Clergyman's Instructor." motion interrupts the pursuits of ingenuity and labour. And the final issue of riot and confusion is generally an increase of pressure, and an aggravation of the very evil which it was proposed, or at least pretended, should be forcibly remedied. To such a degree do violence and outrage defeat their own ends, and such folly is there in popular tumult. But neither is folly, nor even the dread of legal penalty inflicted by man on disregard of order and law, the sole or main ground on which to rest arguments against disobedience. Religious considerations should be applied. We should remind our congregations, that St. Paul's command is, "Let every "soul be subject unto the higher powers,"-" not only "for wrath, but also conscience sake."+ We should remind them, that by the injunction of the same apostle, Christians are required to "obey magistrates, to be no "brawlers, but gentle, showing all meekness unto all "men." We should remind them of the duties incul"cated by St. Peter, when he earnestly delivers these precepts: "Submit yourselves to every ordinance of "man, for the Lord's sake: whether it be to the king as 66 supreme; or unto governors, as unto them that are "sent by him."§ Unhappily for us, there are not wanting abettors of resistance to constituted authorities, heralds of disunion between the several ranks of society, harbingers of subversion through the whole system of the Establishment, civil and religious. The vice and impiety which they would introduce, the ruin and misery * Multo verò maxima pars eorum, qui in tabernis sunt, immo verò (id enim potius est dicendum) genus hoc universum amantissimum est otii. Etenim omne eorum instrumentum, omnis opera, ac quæstus, frequentià civium sustinetur, alitur otio: quorum si quæstus, occlusis tabernis, minui solet, quid tandem incensis futurum est? Cic. 4ta, Or. in Catal. p. 138. Ed. Delph. † Rom. xiii. 1—5. ‡ Titus, iii. 1, 2. § 1 St. Pet. ii. 13, 14. which they would occasion, it must be our labour to prevent, so far as it may please the Almighty Director of human efforts to bless our words spoken, and works undertaken in the discharge of our office. Such labour is incumbent on us. For, that we should endeavour to make our people good subjects of the civil government, we owe to the state, by the constitution of which we are the appointed ministers of the national religion : that we should endeavour to make our people good Christians, we are bound by the very nature of our sacred ministry, which lays on us a strict and indispensable obligation of communicating for knowledge, and of enforcing for observance, all that was taught and commanded for faith and practice, by the Divine Person to whose service, honour, and glory, we are more immediately dedicated, even our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ! May the Holy Spirit assist, direct, and sanctify us! Under the influence of His grace, may we fulfil the great ends of our sacerdotal calling, by contributing to the maintenance of social order; by conducing to the advancement of morality and religion; by promoting the spiritual and eternal happiness of our Christian brethren. So shall we work out our own salvation: so will men see the exercise of pious labour, for effects most beneficial and salutary to them: so shall we be faithful to the Lord, whose messengers we are, for the merciful and high purposes of the Gospel! and so shall we be the humble instruments of exciting all around us to glorify their Father which is in heaven! |