of our bishops and clergy to shew that they can go well together.

It was the admonition of an aged prelate to a young clergyman who applied to him for advice as to whether he was justified in assembling some fifty of the villagers in the outskirts of his parish, in a cottage on a week-day evening, for religious instruction and the exposition of the Scriptures; the hamlet being at too great a distance to allow their attending a regular service at the church, even if so disposed, after the toils of the day, and the population of the parish being too large for their pastor to instruct them fully in detail from house to house : "If you apply to me officially, as bishop of "" I say, Be regular: if as (his lordship repeating his own Christian and surname), an old man on the verge of eternity, I say, Do all the good you can to the bodies and souls of your parishioners." There was much of right feeling and good point in the admonition: but we are not quite pleased with the distinction. The bishop and the aged man were one person: what was right for the one to advise, was right for the other; and the contrary: for real duties cannot clash. A clergyman is bound to be regular, and a bishop is bound to see that he is so; for disorder is not to be con. nived at regularity is a means to an end; and ultimately, and on a large scale, the infringement of the apostolical precept to do all things "decently and in order," would produce far more evil than would be compensated for by some occasional good, by "snatching some grace beyond the reach of art," but which would prove in the end detrimental to sobriety and good discipline. It is not for us to give an opinion upon the particular exigency just alluded to: we might, perhaps, incline to think that, under all the circumstances of the case, the pastor's conduct, if prudent as well as zealous, was not irregular: we might even venture to think that

a elergyman can never justly be said to hold a conventicle in his own parish, unless where he encourages schism; necessity is not irregularity, nor can duty be uncanonical. But we seem to feel that the venerable prelate who gave the above Delphic advice needed not to have shrunk from the responsibility of a less Pythian answer. It is as dangerous to give up official controul in matters which properly require them, as to interfere without necessity. His lordship, if he thought the practice not to be sanctioned, might with great propriety have said so, subject to such explication as he judged proper: if right, he ought not, perhaps, to have declined risking his own responsibility, under such regulations as he thought satisfactory; and if doubtful, balancing direct good with contingent evil, he might have mentioned his difficulty, and have expressed his intention of not interfering either with a direct sanction or refusal, till he should come to a more conclusive opinion. We only object to the suicidal inference which might be drawn, that the bishop and the Christian had contending duties, or that the church refused what the Gospel sanctioned. It has been remarked, we believe, both of Alexander the Great and of Napoleon Bonaparte, that they never remained neuter respecting any measure that was officially urged upon them for decision, but took upon themselves the responsibility either of rejecting or guiding it; and thus by a timely direction secured the intended benefit, while they guarded against any concur. rent inconveniences. The late Dr. Mansel, Bishop of Bristol, probably acted upon this principle when he legitimated the Bible Society in his diocese by an episcopal recommendation addressed to each individual of his clergy *; and the result

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The following is a copy of his lordship's circular: Reverend sir,-Having been requested by the committee of the British and Foreign Bible Society, to recommend the formation of an Auxiliary Society in the city of Bristol, similar to

was that the society lost the aspect, and the danger to the church arising from that aspect, of its being a schismatical institution. The church and clergy took the lead; the word of God was widely circulated; and the people were not led to the evil surmise that the Bible and the Prayer-book were in opposition. If any well-intentioned friend of the church had fears that dissent might be strengthened by the operations of the society, his fears were thus silenced; and if any had hopes in the same quarter, those hopes were disappointed. It is ever the policy of establishments, even if there were no better motive, to espouse popular measures where popular measures are good. If we can only be goaded into the distribution of the Scriptures, the circulation of religious tracts, the education of youth, and Christian missions to the heathen, -the people spurring on the clergy, and the clergy the bishops, instead of the impulse coming from the higher quarter and flowing down with genial influence upon all the descending gradations; if, instead of the streams of religious zeal and beneficence thus diffusing themselves, as from a fountain, in a natural and adequate current, and receiving on every side tributary rivulets as they pass along their course till they swell to a mighty river, we begin at the expanded wave and attempt to make it flow upwards against gravity to a higher level; we shall find that the Established Church will be a generation, perhaps a century, behind the more active and zealous part of the public, and thus lose the best suffrages of an approving nation. We once witnessed in a village, rendered

those which have been established in several great towns throughout the kingdom; I beg leave to state, that such a measure has my hearty approbation, and that it will afford me the greatest pleasure to see it carried into execution.

I am, Reverend Sir,

Trin. Col. Cambridge,

Your's faithfully,

W. BRISTOL.

Jan. 9, 1810." CHRIST. OBSERV. No. 335.

classical ground by the long residence of Mrs. Hannah More, in the chair of the Bible Society of that district, a prelate connected with the neighbourhood by a high official dignity, and surrounded by more, we believe, than forty clergymen ; while we are not aware that above two or three, if so many, dissenting ministers were present. Would any person, who wished well to the Established Church, and its just influence and popularity, desire that the numbers had been reversed?

But we must return to the Charge before us, in which his lordship proceeds to state the result of the returns sent in by the clergy, in reply to his circular of queries. Will it be believed that no code of episcopal inquiries had been issued for more than forty years; and this in a diocese comprising (exclusive of the channel islands), a population of more than six hundred thousand souls, and four hundred and sixty churches and chapels? The present bishop, much to his honour, has determined to break through this prescriptive right of indolence; and if any of his clergy are averse to exertion, they will not at least be able to plead his lordship's example. Lord North probably considered this unfortunate see merely as a bishoprick of ease; a post of dignity and emolument, and requiring no higher talents, or more earnest piety, or more diligent exertion, than his Right Reverend relative was qualified and prepared to bestow. We see not that, after the lapse of seven years, we invade decorum in expressing how small was that modicum. If seven years' oblivion cancels a debt, and seven years throw open to public stricture the proceedings of parliament, we know not why, for the benefit of posterity, the same period should not, in such a case as the present, convert facts into history, and allow of our expressing that deep regret which every good man must feel, that such a diocese should have been so long and grievously neglected. We trust 4 Y

that such examples will operate as a warning to our public men not to pension incompetent or inefficient relatives upon the sacred funds of the church. If they are competent and efficient, they have the same claim as other good men, added to the private claims which there is no reason they should forego. But a sifting time is perhaps not far distant; and the Established Church has an ordeal to submit to more severe than any she has yet encountered. Not only is the schoolmaster abroad, but the Dissenter upon principle and the Dissenter de facto are abroad; tithe-payers and political economists are abroad; our ill-meaning O'Connels and our wellmeaning Mountcashels are abroad; and if the church is to weather the storm we need a better Palinurus in every diocese, than a chance pilot whose only qualification for his post is not his knowledge of our ecclesiastical winds and tides, our anchorage and shallows, our rocks and roadstead; but simply that he happens to be the captain's relative, and covets the fee without the labour. Happily our church can shew at the present moment not a few most honourable instances of welldirected patronage, which it would be unnecessary and invidious more particularly to refer to.

Returning to the document before us, we find that the church sittings in the diocese of Winchester are sufficient for only a fourth part of the population. In the smaller parishes the accommodation is usually adequate; but in the larger towns and in the neighbour. hood of London it is lamentably scanty. Many new churches and chapels have been built, much to the honour of the parties concerned, but far more remains to be accomplished. The bishop strongly urges that, wherever new churches are erected, a district of pastoral labour should be connected with them. This recommendation is eminently important; for the proprietary-cha pel system is utterly at variance with

clerical efficiency and parochial instruction. In some cases, the clergy indiscriminately of a neighhourhood visit the sick and poor; in others, the ministers of chapels refuse to visit any but their own congregations; and in others, the parochial minister will not allow them to do so-nor ought they to intrude unauthorised on another. man's vineyard. In short, there is no end to the inconveniences of the system; and it is as anomalous as it is inconvenient for one of the oldest of canonical rules is, not to set up altar against altar. Preaching without cure of souls is miserably scanty pasturage at best; besides, what is to become of the wanderers of the flock? and what account is to be given at the last day of the tens of thousands who are left to perish in vice and ignorance, in lanes and alleys, in cellars and in garrets?

The Charge states, that in the county of Hants there are very many, and that in Surrey there are not a few, churches, and chapels in which there is but one service on the Sunday. The bishop strongly urges a second service and a second sermon or expository lecture. In some other dioceses the matter, we fear, is worse; and even near the me tropolis itself, there are not wanting instances of a distressing paucity of the public services of religion. The enormous overgrown parish of Paddington, between which and the city of London a thousand stagecoach journeys are performed every week, enjoys but one sermon on the Sunday at the parish church, except during a portion of the year, when we believe there is an endowed lecture. Here, then, is a suburban over-crowded parish, in the very focus of metropolitan intelligenceof which the bishop of the diocese is the official patron, and the incumbent of which, recently departed, was well known and highly respected for his zeal for education and the circulation of religious tracts, and who is stated to have

been the projector of the Family Bible of the Society for promoting Christian Knowledge,-with more scanty means of spiritual instruction than many a small rustic hamlet. We are not imputing negligence to any particular party: it would be most unjust in us to do so; as we know not the efforts which may have been made, or the difficulties with which the patron or incumbent may have had to contend: nor should we have adduced the instance at all, if we had not understood that by the zeal and liberality of the new incumbent, one of the secretaries of the venerable society just named, and, to the heartfelt joy of the Right Reverend patron and diocesan, the defect is likely to be supplied. But if such instances have occurred in the green tree, what may we expect in the dry? if our church is so slow in overtaking the religious wants of the people in a parish thus favourably circumstanced, what a grievous destitution may we not fear prevails in many remote provincial vicinities? How much, then, do we not owe to those prelates who of late years have so diligently exerted themselves to procure the erection of new churches and the increase of the public ordinances of religion in them. They have the best reward in the success which even already has, by the blessing of God, attended their pious efforts.

In addition to either a second sermon, or a catechetical lecture on the Sunday, the Bishop of Winchester advises a weekly service; pressing it upon his clergy with much affectionate solicitude. His lordship does not expressly mention whether he recommends an address from the pulpit on these occasions; but we presume that this is implied, where practicable.

Till of late, a strong prejudice existed against a third, or evening, service on the Sunday, which the changed habits of the times and the increase of the population had long rendered necessary in many places: but this prejudice seems effectually

surmounted; and we trust that no less so will be that which exists in some quarters against weekly lectures, especially in the evening, which in many instances is the only suitable opportunity. In some opulent places, where many persons, especially ladies, have their time at their own disposal, a well-conducted forenoon, or perhaps early afternoon, service, with a sermon, would attract a select, if not numerous, congregation.

A much respected clergyman at Hampstead gave a course of such lectures at the early hour of nine in the morning, to accommodate gentlemen who had daily business in the metropolis; and, we believe, with a much better attendance than could have been expected. Nor are such extra services to be viewed as innovations; for in some of our cathedrals we have prayers at six o'clock in the morning, to suit the labouring part of the population, some of whom are found to attend. A daily service is, however, much too frequent to secure a congregation; nor in general are the prayers well attended, unless there is a sermon. This is not to the honour of the age; but if it be only its humour, the ministers of Christ should know how to take advantage of it for the spiritual benefit of their flocks.

We most reluctantly pass lightly over his lordship's important remarks respecting pews, curates, schools, ordination, clerical residence, the desecration of the Sabbath, and several other topics. His lordship strongly adverts to the grievous evils of non-residence; though in fairness he shews that the extent of the anomaly, great as it is, is much exaggerated in public opinion.— Speaking of schools, he remarks, that no parish, however small, ought to be without at least a Sundayschool; and he advises many, small local schools rather than one large one at an inconvenient distance. We can recognize the feelings of a late indefatigable village curate and vil

lage incumbent, in the following remarks of the Bishop of Winchester. "No one can have been long entrusted with the care of a parish, without observing that it is through the agency of his school, directly or indirectly, that he will best win his way to the hearts of his people, as their spiritual minister and friend for their soul's good. His own personal experience will have carried conviction to his mind, that it is by a manifestation of interest in the children of his cure, affection for their minister, and through that feeling, under God's blessing, a love for Christ has been awakened in many a stony, heart, cold and dead in trespasses and sin." p. 19.

Alluding to the wide diffusion of knowledge, his lordship presses upon his clergy the duty of giving it a truly Christian direction. To this end he dwells much upon the importance of catechetical instruction; and also upon the preparation of young persons for confirmation. In his remarks upon the holy communion, his lordship recommends in populous parishes sacramental meetings, at which the minister may explain the rite, and apply himself to the conscience of each candidate more specifically and familiarly than from the pulpit. On the subject of the lamentable profanation of the Sabbath, the bishop speaks with deep feeling; advising his clergy, however, rather to endeavour to effect an amendment by persuasion, and every moral and spiritual weapon, than by the mere force of legal penalties.

The concluding pages of the Charge are reserved for a strain of remark more immediately affecting the religious character, the spiritual sympathies, the heartfelt piety, the love for God, and the anxiety for the souls of men which become the

Christian pastor. We should gladly quote several paragraphs, but we must be content with a few sentences; with which we conclude our notice of his lordship's charge; reserving a few remarks upon the two visitation sermons to another Number.

"The parochial clergyman must be ever at his post, and in his work. He must gird himself up to the difficulties attendant upon an increased and increasing population. He must be in the midst of his people, listening for 'the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?' and ready to answer, 'Here am I, send me.'" p. 34.

"He must have wherewithal to answer the close and touching inquiry of the great Shepherd and Bishop of souls, Where is the flock that was given thee, thy beautiful flock?' He must not speak his own words, agent, to his instructions; that is, to debut adhere simply and literally, as an liver the message of God to men, as one sent in the name of Christ, and by his authority to treat respecting reconciliation and peace. He is to proclaim-not himself that would be a breach of allegiance to his Kingly Master; but Christ Jesus, and him crucified. His language is to be, 'Now then we are ambassadors for Christ; as though God did beseech you by us, we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled unto God.' He must say nothing coldly or carelessly, but with the warmth and earnestness of a man who feels that, while he speaks, souls are at stake; not like an heathen philosopher or mere essayist, without any serious views of eternity, but as a preacher of the New Testament, conscious of being the depositary of vital truths, and that life or death is in the message of his lips. He must be careful in the selection of his texts, choosing such prominence to those topics of fundamental as relate to necessary things, and giving a and and essential importance, which are the great instruments of awakening and edifying the soul-the sinfulness of man's nature the way of reconciliation with God-the need of the Spirit-the work of grace on the heart-the holiness of the new man in Christ Jesus. He must carry himself towards all the members of his

congregation, not only in the accents, but bear with their weaknesses, and gently in the genuine spirit of love. He must lead them on, and foster the earliest workings of spiritual life within them.....His love for his people is only second to his love for Christ, and he derives from both feelings an inexpressible and inexhaustible source of present joy. And in the satisfaction with which he rejoices over one soul saved from Satan and gained to Christ, a soul dearer to him than a kingdom and an earthly crown, he experiences a foretaste of that other joy which is set before him,' when he shall enter into the joy of his Lord." pp. 35-38.

(To be continued.)