"Evil like us they shun, and covet good;
Abhor the poison, and receive the food.
Like us they love or hate; like us they know
To joy the friend, or grapple with the foe.
With seeming thought their action they intend,
And use the means proportioned to the end;
Then vainly the philosopher avers

That reason guides our deeds, and instinct theirs.
How can we justly different causes frame,
When the effects entirely are the same?

Instinct and reason how can we divide?

"Tis the fool's ignorance and the pedant's pride."

If the subordinate animals are happy in their allotted measure of intelligence or instinct, it is almost more than can be affirmed of "imperial man," for, with his increased mental acquisitions, does he not too often add to his infelicities? If this be not true, why did one of our poets suggest :

"If ignorance is bliss, 'tis folly to be wise?"

And if we suppose the poet to be the most liberally endowed with the imaginative faculty, why is he usually so poorly clad, and so poorly domiciled?

THE "odor of sanctity" which attaches to the office of the Christian ministry has ever claimed and received the deference of mankind. The ancient seers, prophets, and patriarchs who were commissioned to make known the will of the Supreme, under the impulse of a direct inspiration, were regarded as supernaturally endowed, and their utterances deemed oracular. Of this illustrious order of priesthood were Noah, Abraham, Moses, and Isaiah of the ancient world; and in riper times, the Divine Redeemer with his Apostles. A commission divinely authorized and invested with such moral grandeur, demands a corresponding elevation of character-intellectual, moral, and religious-in those who assume its functions; and the world naturally looks for these accessories.

"A parson," writes George Herbert, "is the deputy of

He

Christ for the reducing of man to the obedience of God." farther quaintly adds, "His apparel is plain, but reverend, and clean without spots or dust; the purity of his mind breaking out and dilating itself, even to his body, clothes, and habitation." This remark of Herbert probably originated the saying that "cleanliness is next to godliness."

Some regard the clerical profession with a blind, superstitious reverence-these are the victims of priestcraft. There are others, with equal absurdity, who deem it the asylum of infatuation and indolence-these are the skeptical and profane. A third class are those who appreciate its worth, and who venerate the sacred office, regarding it as Heaven's expedient for securing the moral elevation and happiness of the race—an institution of the highest importance to man's present and eternal well-being. The history of the Pulpit is fertile of interest. It has spoken in tones of melting tenderness to the penitent, thundered its denunciations against the prevalence of vice; to the one it has brought down "airs from heaven," to the other" blasts from hell." All nations and climes it has sought to reclaim, anneal, and bless and many of the mighty minds of all times have yielded willing obedience to its teachings and its claims. It has triumphed through the long ordeal of persecution-all the mightier for the mastery it has achieved. over the malice of its foes.

It is not necessary for us to analyse the various types of the clerical character-the ascetic and monkish, the devout and devoted, or the ludicrous and the hireling. Each has left its impress, and, with the exception of the latter, has achieved much for the good of mankind. We do not however include in our category the Jesuitical monk, any more than the hireling; both are the negation of all that is good. There are further subdivisions however among the pure types, such as the cheerful and the morbid. A recent writer on the subject observes: "The spiritual heroism of Luther, the religious gloom of Cowper, and the cheerful devotion of Watts, are but

varied expressions of one feeling, which, according to the frail conditions of humanity, has its healthy and its morbid phase, its authentic and its spurious exposition, and it is no more to be confounded in its original essence with its imperfect development and representatives, than the pure light of heaven with the accidental media which color and distort its rays. The prestige of the clerical office is greatly diminished, because many of its prerogatives are no longer exclusive. The clergy, at a former period, were the chief scholars; learning was not its distinctive quality more than sanctity."

This monopoly no longer obtains: the press has annihilated it. "Independent of the priestly rights, a clergyman, in past times, represented social transitions, and ministered to intellectual wants, for which we of this age have adequate provision otherwise; so that the most zealous advocate of reform, doctrine, or ethical philosophy, is no longer obliged to have recourse to the sacerdotal office in order to reach the public mind. This apparent diminution of the privileges of the order, however, does not invalidate, but rather simplifies its claims."

It is reduced to its normal state now. Notwithstanding this, it is to be admitted, that the intellectual and moral power of the modern pulpit suffers by comparison with the past. A recent writer in the London Times remarks: "Pulpit eloquence has fallen to a very low ebb. With the finest theme in the world before them—with all the hopes and anxieties which agitate the human breast during the brief interval which separates the cradle from the grave-as their subject, our preachers miss their opportunity. Are there extant, in print, collections of sermons by twelve living divines from the perusal of which any one would rise a more thoughtful or a better man? We think of the Taylors, Barrows, Souths, who have produced works of this kind which are still operative for good, although a couple of centuries may have passed away since their composition, and wonder what it can be in the constitution of modern society which has so completely dulled the capacities of our spiritual

teachers. * ** * We ask for no polished periods, for no finished compositions, but simply for burning thoughts, couched in simple and homely phrase, such as those which in other days drew men from earth to heaven."

That the embassy with which the Christian minister is charged is one of difficulty is undeniable, for it has to contend against the moral forces constantly in operation in the human heart, which are antagonistic to its claims. Yet the sublimity and celestial grandeur of its character may well fire the zeal of its advocate, and render him superior to all opposition. Panoplied with the armory of Heaven, with the oracles of Divine truth for his exhaustless treasury, and the accompanying power of Him,

"Who touched Isaiah's hallowed lips with fire,"

for his guidance, what may he not be expected to achieve for the moral subjugation of the world?

There is certainly a vast difference between the ancient preachers and the modern; the entire abnegation of self and of the world, their simplicity and earnestness of style, with their wonderful power of reaching the sublime, must, to say the least of it, have been very extraordinary; and, perhaps, in following the type of the old Apostolic preachers, Bishop Latimer seemed to be a worthy descendant; and in him we appear to have the last of the ancients, and the first of the moderns; although it must be admitted that at times old Bishop Latimer, with others, indulged in terms too gross for modern and polite ears, often preached to the common people under a tree, his Testament hanging from his leathern girdle; while the courtly Ridley, in satin and fur, discoursed the same themes in stately cathedrals ;* both, however, were fired with a like zeal. Burnett says of Leighton, that he was a most exemplary character; having the greatest elevation of soul, the largest compass of knowledge, the most mortified and heavenly dispo

.*

*Bingham's Autobiography.