barrack-life. We thought it could scarcely need much Christian sense to understand that unless a man, who was elected to be the religious guide and instructor of a people, received their courtesy and profound respect, he would never do them any good.

We were both prepared to find the Rev. J. G. Miall, of Bradford, treating "On the importance of cultivating, in candidates for the ministry, an enlightened and firm attachment to our distinctive denominational principles," nor surprised to read some pointed and clever remarks upon so important a subject. We both admired the piquancy and frequent splendour of Mr. Miall's style. Dr. Morton Brown wrote very sensibly and fervidly of "The duty of pastors and Churches to encourage suitable young men to enter our ministry;" and Gilbert said, seriously, he hoped we should be found suitable. But he said he had been very deeply impressed by an able paper by Mr. Dale, of Birmingham, on "The importance of some of our students entering the ministry as assistants or co-pastors;" and now that he had accepted Bristow, wished he had thought more seriously of an offer he had had of becoming an assistant to Mr. M-- at St. Stephen's Chapel, London. He commended to my notice, some exceedingly valuable and interesting suggestions, upon the spiritual side of student life

in Mr. J. B. Paton's paper. I read it, and felt it deeply. Again and again did we talk of these "Minutes," and often incurred a sharp rebuke from our sisters for being so much away from them. They thought we had nothing to disturb ourselves about at all; and fancied that being at College, or accepting a pastorate, were about equally happy modes of life. I had to leave them all for College about the middle of September. I have begun to work harder than ever, and when I leave these blessed walls, I hope I may find a generous and holy old man, or a hard-working London pastor, willing to make me his assistant, and show me how to govern and guide a Church. A sight of those "Minutes has almost made me feel as Porson must have felt when he was urged to take holy orders, and said that he should want fifty years to study Theology first. But I know that I have within my heart a knowledge, learned at my mother's knee, which has made me "wise unto salvation, through faith which is in Christ Jesus." This I yearn to make known as widely as possible, when Providence shall appoint my sphere, and call me to my life-work: and,

"Whether crowned, or crownlessWhen I fall, it matters not, So that God's work be done."

DELTA.

children, when he brings them under its instruction and influence. Does he not, he will sometimes say to himself, render them the highest service in his power; does he not provide for them the truest moral and religious training, when he is so careful to take them to the holiest place-the very house of God,-where they witness the most sacred observances, and receive the fullest and most powerful instruction, and are most in the presence of the Divine Spirit? Is not his duty largely done, when he has brought them under the educating influences of his Church?

He needs be warned against this narrow view of his obligation, and of the false estimate on which it rests of the moral power of the Church as compared with his own. There is a sense, indeed, in which the education of the children in connection with it, is the work of the Church, but it is so for the most part only as it acts upon them through their parents. These represent the Church to the children. These are most of all the Church to them. Through these it chiefly speaks to them, and prays for them, and labours for them. It is little without the co-operation of their parents and apart from them as the medium of its communication, that it can hope to accomplish for them. How much can it avail to their spiritual life and health, that they breath a pure air in the public assemblies of the church, if they breathe daily and hourly quite a different atmosphere at home? What can be expected from the impressions they receive through the instruction of their teacher or minister, if they see and hear nothing to confirm them in their home-life, which is nearly their

whole life? Is it not very much left to their parents to determine whether or not those impressions shall become permanent as principles? Is it not easily in their power, by their talk and life in the house, quickly to efface them? They should know that it is the smallest portion of their responsi bility they have discharged, when they have brought those who are born to them under the influence of the Church as it acts outside their own doors, seeing that it still mostly rests with them whether that influence shall be effective or impotent for good; and know, too, how much farther their responsibility reaches than to the performance of all that bears directly on the efficaciousness of the outward influence of the Church, for that they have a power independent of its organisation and collective action, and greater than belongs to it. They need know and be deeply and abidingly sensible, that there are no walls which are hallowed by a diviner consecration than those within which they dwell,— no functions more sacred than those assigned to them, whom God by His Providence has ordained to be prophets, and priests, and kings within their own house, no words spoken by human lips so fitted to be "the of God unto salvation" as those which should fall from their lips on the ears of their children,--no priestly hands so likely, by any rites and observances, to convey the Holy Ghost, as their hands by the daily work they may do on the behalf and in the presence of their children,—no ministers who can do for the souls in their congregations, what they may do for those souls in their families,-no Church that has the power for religiously educating like the Church in the house.

power

2. An error against which they need not less to guard, is that which would make their spiritual service to their children mainly depend on their conscious and direct efforts for their good; only in a subordinate degree on the unconscious and undesigned influence of the spirit of their life.

It is a more common error in these days of philanthropic activities than in the times of our forefathers. Active benevolence is now valued far above contemplative piety. He is the very useful man in the popular judgment who is always planning, or executing by gift or labour some merciful purpose. And his usefulness is determined by what he does; only in a slight degree by what he is. The work counts for more than the man. It is forgotten how much the work that is done for spiritual ends depends on the spirit of the worker, and forgotten, too, how much that spirit of the worker, as expressed in his habitual life, can accomplish, irrespective of all work he does with a benevolent aim. This is forgotten in our domestic relations, where it most needs to be remembered. Does not the the parent often think much more of the influence which he puts forth by what he does occasionally or frequently, with a conscious purpose in the spiritual interests of his children, than of that which is unconsciously exercised by his entire life in the house?

He speaks to them of their souls; he instructs, and counsels, and warns, and reproves; he performs acts of worship in their presence, and offers prayer on their behalf; he gives directions and rules to which they must conform. And he will look on this varied action, designed for their spiritual welfare, as including the

greater part of what is obligatory on him in relation to it, and as carrying with it the highest influence for its accomplishment. He makes thus their spiritual improvement the care of a separate department of his life, into which he enters when he thinks of their claims and necessities, not the work which is to be done, by the action of his life in all its departments, and when he has no thought of them, not less than when it is his purpose

to serve them. It is in vain, however, that he expects much from the efforts which he intends for their good, if they have no moral force in them, derived from the influence of his habitual life. The influence of that life is required, too, apart from those efforts, and, duly put forth, will be found to be far greater than theirs.

Those among us who feel that they are under obligations to a Christian parentage, greater than they can express, and that will last for ever, will bear witness that the power which chiefly wrought upon them was that of the principle and spirit of the whole life, with which they were so familiar during their early and impressible years; and that now, when memory repeats the blessing then first received, it is not so much by recalling particular acts of spiritual care and service, as by recalling the image of the life itself of the sainted father or mother, which never returns but like an angel presence and guardian.

In this, as in other ways, does the witness of our experience enforce the Apostolic words first addressed to a minister in a church, but not less applicable to God's minister at the head of the family, and never more seasonably addressed to man than now,

when active and designed beneficence is made the great test of usefulness"Take heed to thyself, and to thy doctrine." He should lay it to heart (as should every man who would do the highest service to those whom he loves, but he, most of all, because of the unceasing and all-prevailing influence of his character in the house) that his first and supreme care should be himself that far more will follow from what he is than from what he does that holiness is before beneficence that it is a much greater thing to be good than to do good that he is most sure of doing good, and the most good, by being good.

3. The temptation, which in our day has become more than ordinarily strong, to seek the temporal advantage, to the neglect, and even more directly at the expense, of the spiritual wellbeing of his children, is one which demands his utmost vigilance and care.

It is his natural desire, and, in most cases, his duty, as God's Providence may give him the power, to enlarge their means of present enjoyment and improve their social condition. It has always been one of his temptations to make this his chief care for them. Of late years the facilities for accomplishing this have greatly increased. Formerly the social condition of men would remain substantially the same for generations; whereas now, he who yesterday laboured with his hands for his bread, is to-day the large employer of the labour of others. Those whom we remember as having a bare competency, or none of this world's goods, are enjoying the luxuries and shining with the splendours of wealth. The distinctions of social life are won by

the children of the obscure. With this unprecedented facility to rise, the desire for it has become intensified. In the homes especially of those who form the middle class of society, it has become too often the ruling passion. How many a father's and a mother's heart in our congregations is possessed by it! How many among us have, in consequence of this, fallen by the power of the temptation to seek the worldly and temporal before the spiritual and eternal welfare of their children! Who has not known the father to be busy in the world, in the pursuit of gain with which to enrich his children, when he might and would have been at home, ministering of God's truth and grace to them, had he cared as much for their souls as he cared for their circumstances! Who has not known him, not of necessity, but from choice, so multiply his business cares and pursuits for the aggrandizement of his house, that these made such a demand on his time, and thought, and practical energies, as to leave him, if any, only the scantiest leisure and power to advance the godliness of his sons and daughters? Have we not seen the parents' choice of their children's school, of their place of residence, of their place of worship, of their business or profession, to be determined by a paramount regard to their social position and general prospects in this life? When circumstances have prepared the way for the friendly and intimate intercourse of their children with some neighbouring family distinguished by its Christian virtues, but socially a degree or half a degree lower than themselves in the conventional scale, have we not known the father and the mother too, stern in their dis