dualize their aims, can we wonder that the pastoral relationship often hangs loose, and that sometimes, even where it is desired, the opening is not made, the opportunity is not given, and the individual action of mind upon mind never takes place? If this is made a subject of regret, and the absence of a close pastoral connexion deplored, it ought to be perceived at the same time, how naturally and almost necessarily this arises; and it ought to be remembered that we must not entertain inconsistent expectations-that we cannot have the freedom, and beauty, and progressive energy of a religion so spiritual, as to address itself to character alone, and the closeness, and directness, and definiteness of a religion so dogmatical and exclusive, as to fasten its regards upon one expedient, and to insist upon pressing that, as the universal remedy, upon every

heart.

In the progress of refinement, as men advance in self-respect and dignity of character, they become aware that their moral interests are their own concern; that the mind knoweth itself, and that a stranger may not intermeddle with its states. They deem any interference with the affairs of conscience and character as a vulgarizing, and an invasion of what is most sacred and personal. They feel an unauthorized intrusion into private consciousness as a more intolerable indignity than an unauthorized intrusion into private dwellings, and would rather have their homes laid open than their hearts. They may have friends from whom their souls have no secrets; but they will not consent to have censors, official advisers, claiming, in virtue of a profession, to enter upon the most intimate relationship that spirit can hold to spirit. There is an activity and freedom of the pastoral influence that marks not a high, but a low state of religious character among a people. It is in simpler and ruder times, when refinements of feeling do not exist, when the moral sensibilities are not so guardedly self-respectful; when self-dependence has not yet become the lofty desire and habit of the soul, that the official influences of the Pastor are permitted to interfere freely with the agencies of character, or can be suffered to exercise an important control over the affections and springs of life. There is nothing that so painfully destroys the sense of personal dignity, as the feeling of being interfered with in matters strictly private. That any one can hold us in so little respect as so to treat us, lowers us in our own regards. The most sacred reserves are broken into, the fences are taken away, and we feel that we have no sanctuary. We lie open and exposed. Now those who know how much the respect of others creates selfreverence, will hold it of capital importance in the formation of

that high and reverential character which assumes the burden of its own responsibilities, and feels that no other can be trusted with them, that this moral delicacy should not be rudely invaded; that its rights of individuality, of freedom from external observation, should be most sacredly protected. The sense of Rights is inseparable from the sense of self-respect; and there are no Rights so absolute as the Rights of Character; the Right that a man possesses to be free from interference in those concerns that interfere not with the Rights of others; to move uncontrolled and unwatched in those walks of life that cross not the liberties of his fellows; and to reserve to himself the shaping of his own soul. So influential is this reverence, and so inseparably is it connected with the feeling of a responsibility that must be self-borne and cannot be delegated, that to let errors take their course to be selfobserved and self-corrected, is often wiser and holier than by the introduction of external observation and influence to weaken the force of self-dependence and culture, and leave the humiliating impression of a sanctuary invaded, of a Sacred Right infringed. And if this is so, even with those whose position clothes them most fully with the privilege of advice, with friend to closest friend, or even with parent to child, much more must it be so in a relation so general as that of a Pastor with his people, unless the official character of Pastor disappears, and he has been elected as the friend of the Mind; elected not on account of his office, but out of the regards and confidence of individual feeling. His office gives him the opportunities of this closer ministry, if hearts elect him to it, and these opportunities he should fully, faithfully, and assiduously use, placing himself constantly in the way of rendering nearer and purer service if the kindred affinities and aptitudes exist; but this is the whole of the privilege in a condition of society where character is respected, that his office confers on him, and this is the whole of the pastoral duty that his office requires from him, until other hearts have voluntarily drawn him into more intimate relationship, thrown open to him their sacred shrines, and elected him to a participation in their most individual and momentous interests, their struggles and defeats, their victories and virtues.

Nor does the case differ much in respect to the offices of consolation. The Rights of Sorrow are no more to be invaded than the Rights of Character. Grief is as sacred as the liberty of thought and action, and Sympathy is no more to be volunteered than Advice. It is not every one who is privileged to enter the retirement where grief sits veiled; it is not every one

who is privileged to speak of sorrows as if they could be shared or in common, the intensity of which the heart well knows, itself alone can understand. We should rather invade the sanctuary of Character than the sanctuary of Affliction; we should rather violate the Rights of the Mind when it is strong and equal to its own defence, than when it is depressed and weak. We know of no official privilege that entitles any man to break in upon the retirements of Mourning, and to lay his touch upon the fountain of our tears. There is a sacredness in Sorrow that seeks concealment; like Prayer and Piety it "enters into its closet and shuts the door," and desires to be alone and with God. There are certainly simpler forms of character and homelier states of feeling, which are more susceptible of consolation, and to which sympathy is welcome from whatever voice it comes; towards these the same reserve is not required, they have opened the way themselves, and the offerings of sympathy disturb not the solemn privileges of sorrow.

Now exactly in proportion as character is refined and self-respectful, and religion is spiritual, will this tendency increase, on the one side not to desire, and on the other not to offer, the ministrations of personal sympathy, unless the mutual delicacies of the case can be adjusted, by the Pastor disappearing in the Friend, and taking to himself naturally the offices of his privilege and place. In such a Condition of Society, it is of the first importance that the relative position of the parties should be mutually understood; that the Pastors should understand the expectations of the People, and that the People should do justice to the delicacies of their Pastors. In the present state of things, there is a mutual undefinedness as to expectations on the one hand, and duties on the other, and much evil, much misunderstanding, and not a little anxiety, is the consequence. If these are not times when the Pastor is to assume certain functions as belonging to his office and following in course, all the more imperatively are they times when the functions that are accorded to him should be distinctly stated, and he should know the place that he is desired to fill: if these are not times when in virtue of his office alone, he is entitled to enter the sanctuaries of Character or Sorrow, all the more are they times when the hearts that expect him to hold towards them these relations, should leave him in no doubt of their wishes or demands. is his duty to assume nothing, it is their's not to suffer his respect for their freedom to tell against himself, or to leave him in ignorance of the noble privileges which they are willing to confide to him, but which without that induction by themselves, he dare not and ought not to assume. At present, all is unVOL. I. No. 3.-New Series.

T

If it

settled, floating, and undetermined—and there are no guides to what is right, but the very uncertain ones of tact and feeling. Each party is in ignorance of the wishes of the other, and out of such circumstances it is impossible that there should not arise frequent occasions, when feelings are wounded, expectations disappointed, and the noblest and happiest privileges of intercourse unknowingly lost. It never can be but with the loss of power, that the Preacher ceases to be a Pastor, and yet it behoves not him to do more than to make apparent his willingness to superadd to the one the offices of the other; its functions belong not to him of right, and he must wait till he is endowed with them, to be worthy of their sacredness, or to enter for good the sanctuaries of hearts and homes. Now any man of proper self-respect and respect for others, will in these circumstances, find no difficulty in avoiding the errors of excess or of officiousness, but he may very readily fall into mistakes and misapprehensions of an opposite character; he may be too sensitively careful not to place himself in a false position, or to invade private feelings, and with this fear upon him, he may stand apart when his proffered services have been expected, and he may alienate from him affection and respect by disappointing expectations, the existence of which has never been made known to him, and which, not his indifference but his delicacy has forbidden him to assume. In this state of Society, when Character is jealous and justly jealous of its rights, and not loftily but sacredly takes the guidance of itself, and Religion is neither a charm to be administered, nor a Faith upon which Salvation hangs, the position of a Pastor becomes one of indefiniteness and of difficulty, from which he can only be relieved by great simplicity and directness of communication on the part of those who would enrich him with their confidence, and make his life beneficently happy in the daily feeling that he is girt round with living duties, that he does real service in the world, and that he fills not his whole office by the generalities of the weekly Lecture, holding close connexions with minds. And certainly, if he is bound to wait until it is made clear to him what privileges of this description are accorded to him, he is also bound to put himself in the way of such communications, and to make it clear how far he may be trusted to understand the value of such privileges, and is ready to purchase their happiness by the needful self-devotion. His office gives him the opportunity to manifest this disposition, to make this tender of himself, and so far he may use it largely without offence, but beyond this, it depends not upon him what are to be his privileges and his place, and he stands absolved: it is his duty to establish this Confidence, to

display this willingness, and this perhaps he must do in the first place by a preparatory intercourse, for not at once ought the moral feeling to come into existence, and certain habits of association must be formed, before the mind in its moments of moral interest, will find it natural to use the sympathies of another; but after this preparatory induction, and when the idea of pastoral association grows familiar, then we say not to what extent such influences ought to be employed, nor that they ought to be employed at all, and certain it is that without much of wisdom and much of self-respect, they cannot be employed for good; but we say that the doubt and the delicacy should be removed; that the trust ought to be open, avowed, and generous, and that he ought not to be left to the uncertainties of tact and feeling and imperfect knowledge, to reveal to him the wants and expectations of other hearts. Who can discover in this way the critical periods of another's life, the anxious moments of another's lot? Who can date his mission to another's dwelling so as to fall upon the times when duty is difficult or speculation troubled, or self-dependence trembling beneath its burden and looking out for aid? Who can read locked hearts, and detect the unexpressed thought that is longing for utterance? In all these cases the actual assistance that is given may be nothing, but the feeling may be everything, and it is of the first importance that the misunderstandings of disappointments should not be suffered to arise, that influences and privileges should not be unknowingly lost, and that hearts should not be chilled and stripped of all the personal and affectionate forces of Religion, by the alienating experience that they have been neglected at their utmost need, that they have looked for support and none was offered. These are some of the difficulties of the Pastoral office as it is modified amongst us by the Rights of Character, and by our conceptions of Religion, difficulties which only mutual confidence can remove.

There are some who would drop the connexion between "Pas tors and Teachers;" or rather who would have the functions of the Pastor totally to disappear. This, so far as the People are concerned, we should leave entirely to their discretion; but we should augur ill of the Minister of Religion whose heart consented to this annihilation of half his usefulness by the annihilation of half his functions. No man should find the fullness of his life in the exercises of study, feeling, and intellect. No man lives in the full power and enjoyment of his being, who does not hold close and active connexions with the individual elements of society. He is but half a man who stands apart as a Teacher of Truths, and troubles not his sympathies with the embodiments