MY CHRISTIAN BRETHREN,

AFTER the satisfactory examination which you have respectively passed before the Archdeacon, your subscription to the Articles of the Church, and your declaration of true and undivided allegiance to the King, it might seem improper in me to detain you for a moment fromthose solemn reflections, which must be now pressing with so much weight upon your minds, and from that secret communion, which you would hold, with your own hearts,

B

and with God in prayer, prepara

Exod. xl. 12, 13. tory to the Service of the ensuing day.

Luke vi. 12, 13.

Acts xiii. 2, 3.

In that Service the duties, the difficulties, and the awfulness of the ministerial office are exhibited in the words of Holy Scripture: and I would take this opportunity of recommending in the strongest manner to each of you a stated recurrence to this service, at least on every anniversary of your ordination, as to a documentary evidence of promises made by you before God and Consult "Arch- your brethren, a

bishop Secker's In

structions to Candi- test of past faithful

dates for Orders

after their subscrib-ness, and a guide for

ing the Articles."

your future conduct.

Comprehensive, however, and affecting as this service is, it nei

ther enters into all the particulars of a Clergyman's duty, nor touches on several matters which are highly important in their effects, though too familiar to be made the subject even of a public address: it states, generally, what a Christian minister ought to be in spirit and in practice, but leaves the regulation of his conduct under peculiar circumstances of time and place to his own prudence, aided by the suggestions of his ecclesiastical Superiors. At all times, and in all places, it is required of the spiritual steward, that he "be found faithful;" yet must he, in the discreet and conciliatory spirit of the Apostle, strive with the help of and without any com

God's grace,

promise of

1 Cor. iv. 1-5.

ix. 19-23. x. 33.

Ezek. iii. 17-21.

principle to " be all things to all men, that

he may by all means

save some*." He that

:

* "As men are to be dealt with after that manner, as may best serve to reclaim them, I shall use all the proper ways I can think of to bring about that end. In my reproofs I will humble myself to the lofty and great; be sharp to the presumptuous; meek, gentle and full of entreaty (as there is occasion) to all and I hope, that when men see I am purely disinterested from any worldly consideration whatever, and rebuke them principally to win them to piety and eternal glory, they will not take it ill, but close in with my entreaties, and be reformed." -Parochial Pasturaye, by a Presbyter of the Church of England, in a letter to his friend, 1722.

Let not the reverence of any man cause you to sin against God: but in the matter of souls, being well advised, be bold and confident; but abate nothing of the honour of God, or the just measures of your duty to satisfy the importunity of any man whatever,—and God will bear you out.-Bp. Taylor's "Advice to his Clergy."