tion, and should be proposed, if not as a model, at least as an instructive example, to those Christians who have, perhaps, too easily and too quickly received grace before they had well felt all the weight of the law. These Stoics are in a great error, in which they keep themselves by regarding too constantly the abuse which is made of Christian liberty. But if the first service we should render to them is to show them, by our example, that Christian morality is not lax, this service is not the only one. We must explain to them, as we have opportunity, the infinite character of Christian morality, the awful disproportion between the law regarded in the Christian point of view, which is eternal principle, and the capacity of man. We must, finally, give them to taste, in the midst of their hard labor, the solace which is to be found in love, which alone can impart the joy of fulfilling the law, and which is only diffused through the heart by the spirit of Jesus Christ, and by the assurance of having been the object of his love. It is manifest that I do not confound these Stoics, these zealots of duty, with those vulgar moralists who submit themselves not to the, but to their morality, and who only accept the law when they have brought it to the measure of their carnal and worldly interests.

Two Duties of a Pastor toward the Members of his Flock considered as Sinners, and subject to the Precepts of the Moral Law: Reprehension and Direction.

Reprehension is a duty of the pastor. It is involved in every spontaneous performance of duty in the care of souls: It is, moreover, imposed upon pastors in the Gospel. Reprehension is difficult at all times and with all persons; it is yet more difficult in the actual state of our flocks. To be sensible of this, we need only compare this state with that of the primitive Church, or any other in which its essential charac teristics are reproduced. This duty, in a homogeneous and closely united community, approaches to that of paternal cor

rection, and may have respect either to tendencies or to negative facts. In almost all associations for worship of the present day, it would be a real inquisition if it should go beyond notorious public facts; and it would be so, in every case, if it extended beyond positive facts.

Absolute non-attendance on public worship is a negative fact: May we call those to account who are to be reproached with it? How and under what authority may we approach them? Do we owe them a duty, or do we not?

A man who is not of our parish, in the sense in which all his acts witness that he is out of the pale of the Church, has no claim on our reprehension, and the discipline of this soul does not properly enter into our pastoral obligations, if we only have respect to our official or conventional position. But if the pastor be also a missionary in spirit, or if, apart from the pastor, there is no missionary, who will dispute his right to show compassion, and even to extend aid, beyond the sphere of his pastoral obligations? Sin is a misfortune-a crime is a disaster: Would it be less natural to go to the assistance of a man thus grievously afflicted than of one whose house has been destroyed by an incendiary?

Charity and humility, these two inseparable virtues-inseparable because essential to one another, give to reprehension, appropriateness, proportion, true force.*

St. Paul (1 Tim., v., 1–5) has said, or, at least, intimated every thing essential to reprehension as adapted to different ages and sexes: By analogy we may discern how it should be modified by other distinctions.

Constituted as our churches are, it is very evident that public reprehension can have no place in them; and it is doubtful whether, even under any form of ecclesiastical gov. ernment,† it would be expedient or proper.

"Il ne faut pas casser les vitres,

Mais il faut bien les nettoyer."

-See BENGEL, Pensées, 27.

+ See part iv., chap. i, Discipline.

Direction. If we are called to give a soul judicious advice, or to direct it in its way, without departing from or contradicting the principles of Protestant Christianity:

Let us beware of parceling out morality-always referring particular rules to general principles: Let us preserve the mean between that ultra-methodic spirit which would regulate every thing beforehand, and tends gradually to legal bondage and self-righteous pride, and that vague spirituality which feeds on feeling, and will hear nothing either of caution or means. Let us not repel the idea of an art or method of living well, but let us not make it too minute or prescribe the same method to all. Bossuet has said that "love knows no order, and can not adjust itself to method; that confusion is its order; that distraction can not come from that source." But I see nothing inconsistent with love in the care with which one seeks the best means of showing his love to the Lord (Eph., v., 10), and the best means of cherishing that love. Our weakness obliges us to observe order, and does not allow in us an absolute contempt of method. In our directions, we ought not to restrict ourselves either to the internal life or the external life.

We must have regard to the principle of liberty and responsibility, and avoid taking the place of conscience in any one; for there will not be wanting those who would resign theirs into our hands.

If, to refer to a different matter, men must not be borne on shoulders so as to deprive them of the use of their limbs and their locomotive inclination, no more should we exact too much from them in a short time. To condense these two rules into two words, let us not direct too much, nor urge too much. We must teach men to wait, but, at the same time, to be active; not to make those who are confided to our care impatient or despondent, but rather to be constantly as sisting them.

We must not encourage-on the contrary, we must repress

the curiosity, the vain words, the religious talkativeness of those souls who are "ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth."-2 Tim., iii., 7. Discourse in their case becomes as a vent through which the steam that should move the engine makes its escape.

General Counsels.· -We have enumerated the different states, both as to doctrine and conduct, in which the members of our flock may be found; now we will lay aside this distinction, and, taking all the classes we have spoken of together, give summary directions in relation to the care of souls in general.

Maintain always, and with all persons, a frank and direct bearing.

Rely readily, and as far as possible, on the good faith of

others.

Regard ideas more than words, and sentiments more than ideas. Sentiment, or affection, is the true moral reality. How many heresies of thought correct themselves in the heart. And, in return, how much orthodoxy is in the heart heresy. Men refuse us the word-they concede to us the thing; or, again, they refuse us the thing in granting us the word.

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When you recognize in an adversary a caviling spirit, and perceive that you have to do with a fabricator of difficulties, decline a contest in which there is no seriousness, and " swer not a fool according to his folly."-Prov., xxvi., 4. Beware of considering yourself as personally offended by opposition, and by what is said, however unjustly, against the truths which you preach.

Appear not to regard as so much blasphemy all rash or inconsiderate assertions, whether relating to doctrine or morals. Persevere without harassing.

Expect not that arguments will have an identical and absolute influence on all minds. We do not always know why an argument which has no power on one should prove efficacious on another; or why an individual who at one time

received no impression from the word, should at another time be deeply impressed by it.* This is God's secret, and, after all our attentions, all our measures, the final result is left in his hands. All our hope is from him; to him let all be ascribed. Attend more to the dispositions with which you acquit yourselves of your work, than the skill with which you use your talents.

The first of lights, of powers, of preservatives, of defenses, is charity. The spirit of the government of souls and of the whole pastoral office lies in the sentiment which these words of the Master so profoundly express: "Ye will not come to me that ye might have life."

Add to your instructions the weight of your example, well knowing that the true mode of communicating moral truth is contagion; that it is only from life that life can proceed; and that, in fact, the decisive arguments for or against Christianity are Christians.

Unite, mix prayer with all your efforts, all your proceedings, either to ask counsel of God, or to commend souls to him, or to keep yourself at the true point of view, and in the true understanding of your work.

In short, such is the solicitude, such the constantly-reappearing cares which the ministry draws in its train, that we must, as did the Jews who rebuilt the Temple, hold a sword in one hand while we build with the other. "Besides those things that are without," said St. Paul, "that which cometh

* "It must be acknowledged," says Leibnitz, in a letter to Madame de Brinon, "that the human heart has many windings, and that persuasions are according to tastes. We ourselves are not always in the same state of mind, and that which strikes us at one time does not touch us at another. These are what I call inexplicable reasons. There is something in them which is beyond our understanding. It often happens that the best proofs in the world do not move us, and that what does move us is properly no proof."-Euvres complètes de BOSSUET, Paris et Besançon, 1828, tome xxxv., p. 132, Lettre I., Sur le Projet de Réunion.