and Classic authors, can form no judgment of the critical remarks which have been made on the language of the New Testament, nor determine whether the word be literal or figurative, the sense in which it is usually taken, or only such as extensive reading can ratify by the authority of but two or three examples. He can have no idea of interpretative probability, and is unavoidably exposed to the danger of giving the same credit to a false interpretation as to the true one. short, he can see only with foreign eyes, and believe only on the authority of others, but can have no conviction himself; a conviction without which no man should presume to preach the Gospel even to a country congregation.'-(Bishop Marsh's Translation, vol. i. p. 180.)

In

There is a fine spirit in this passage, although we may be disposed to make some deductions from its generalizations. Some persons will at once exclaim against the whole tendency of it, and try to prove it erroneous by talking large on the trite topics of the sufficiency of Scripture in the hands of the most illiterate, and the non-necessity of what they call human learning for its success in the great objects it contemplates. But the fact is, all men are not called upon to understand the Bible in the sense we are now treating of, and to them it will be sufficient, doubtless, if they use it according to the measure of their ability. The mistakes committed by ordinary readers of the Holy Scriptures are innumerable and constant on all matters which demand education and knowledge for their solution, and yet by a faithful use of what they can understand (which, by an admirable arrangement of Divine benevolence, is the saving and essential part of them) they become wise unto salvation, through faith in Christ Jesus. But one who is called, or who stands in the place and office of one called, to be a teacher of others, and an interpreter of the Bible, is in a widely different position. He has not only to save his own soul, but the souls of his hearers. He is to defend the outworks of God's temple, as well as to officiate in its secret recesses; and to him is intrusted the honourable task, as a scribe well instructed in the kingdom of God, of bringing out of his treasury things new and old. He is to be the solver of doubts, the remover of stumbling-blocks, the builder-up of the people of God on their holy faith. There are treasures in the Bible which no vulgar eye can discover and no ordinary labourer can bring to the light of day. The minister of the sanctuary is to detect the golden vein, to bring it to the surface, and to use it to enrich men's minds, and make the holy place more splendid and illustrious. The sufficiency of Scripture for a man whom his position in life makes ignorant, is a tender provision of his heavenly Father for his unavoidable deficiencies, but is far from being an excuse for the idleness and apathy of those whom circumstances oblige to be wiser and better

than their poorer neighbours. It is high time that our Lord's own maxim should be understood and applied by those who take upon themselves to instruct others, and are enriched by Providence with golden opportunities of intellectual advancement, Unto whom much is given, of him shall be much required.

Such a measure of knowledge as enables a man to escape the humiliation of taking everything Biblical at second hand and on the faith of others, has been acquired by clergymen of moderate intellectual capacities, and what has been often done may be done again. It is excessively mortifying to think how small a portion of mental treasure may be possessed by a man, who shall yet, through the reflected light of his honourable calling, pass for a decent scholar and a useful minister. This cannot happen in other and kindred professions, which demand, for any measure of success in their disciples, a special, and at this day, a sound and thorough training. The candidates for the professions of law and physic must have a general education equally good with that demanded for the clerical office. But there is this remarkable difference in the two cases, that when the training of the future physician or advocate is but beginning, that of the clergyman is considered to be ended, or nearly so. The two former pass from the public school or the university to the actual labour of the office or the surgery, and, through long years of progressive labour, acquire a fitness for their responsible destinations; but the latter, the aspirant for a profession far higher than either of the other two, goes at once to the desk, the altar, and the pulpit, to acquire in his sacred office, as he best may, or to neglect to acquire altogether if he chooses, that fitness which we venture to affirm is indispensably necessary. This is a sad state of things, and there is nothing to remedy or counteract it as there would be in case of the like want of knowledge in the lawyer and the physician. The patient and the client can detect, generally, the deficiencies of the latter; but how incompetent are the masses of Christian congregations to see through the shallowness of their instructor! him have a little tact in applying to his own use the stores of more industrious brethren, and keep at hand some respectable commentator to preserve him from gross errors, and he will pass through the world with as good a character as the man who strives to realise in himself the independence pleaded for by Michaelis. He may even be popular by acting on the principle—

'Sic vos non vobis vellera fertis oves,

Sic vos non vobis mellificatis apes

Let

and thus, laden with the spoils of other minds, bear away the palm from his more industrious, but less plausible and showy neighbour.

But what does conscience now say to this vicarious procedurewhat will God finally say? a

There is no delusion more common, and at the same time more unfounded, than the alleged reason for resting contented with an imperfect intellectual training, viz., that the Clergy have no time to acquire it. We admit the excuse in one case that in which men are daily labouring like confessors and missionaries in the early ages of the Church, in self-denying acts of kindness to their parishioners, and endeavouring, alas! in many cases hopelessly, to repair the ruins produced by the cupidity and recklessness of those, who while becoming rich by the sinews of their poor fellow creatures, have neglected their souls. Such men, if it were lawful, we could almost deify and worship, coming close as they do to the unapproachable Saviour of men, in their labours of love. We know some such, who would gladly find time, if they could, for the amenities of literature, and the solid acquisition of Biblical learning, but who are constrained by the love of Christ to deny themselves, and take up the Cross and follow him in his weary prilgrimage to the homes of poverty which none else care for. Like Howard, as described by an inimitable Essayist, they have a soul to appreciate what is refined and beautiful, but dare not stay to admire while more pressing interests demand their attention. But we cannot admit the excuse on the part of those

dIt is to be feared that the use of other men's sermons in pulpits is becoming more, instead of less common, if we may judge from the very bold way in which Ms. sermons for all occasions are offered for sale. Just at this moment a bookseller's catalogue has reached us, in which are the following items:

gations. By an Eminent Divine, written in the Spring of 1852, 4 the set. 1031

20 in lithograph, on the Principal Festivals of the Church, 8s.

Although our present purpose is to promote Biblical learning rather than original preaching, yet the two objects are somewhat connected. We blame no man for the occasional use of sermons written by others; the practice may be commendable in many cases, but then there should be no deception in the matter. The Church of England provides in her own open and honest way printed homilies for occasional use, and why should not printed sermons, of which her divines have furnished a matchless collection, be used with the name of the author honestly given? We do not hesitate to say that the lithographing pulpit compositions for general use is a deception practised on a congregation which nothing can justify. We confess the above advertisements look to us as allied to those of "Moses and Son," &c., in London and elsewhere.

• But not less decision has been displayed by men of virtue. In this distinction no man ever exceeded, for instance, or ever will exceed, the late illustrious Howard.

"The energy of his determination was so great, that if, instead of being habitual, it had been shown only for a short time on particular occasions, it would have

who can find leisure for anything which fancy or inclination may prompt, and waste some hours every day on frivolous pursuits. Let us consider a little closer the two contrasted impediments which thus lie in the way of the acquisition of sound Biblical knowledge.

Now, with all the sincere respect we feel for the laborious pastor who gives the whole of his time to reclaiming and comforting his flock, we must doubt that it is proper for any minister of the Gospel to neglect one duty for another, however intrinsically important it may be. None could feel more deeply than the apostles, how active a life it behoved them to lead, since they had to convert the world; and yet the reason they gave for the appointment of the seven Deacons implied that they felt the necessity of retirement and study-But we will give ourselves continually to prayer, and to the ministry of the word.' The fact is, that the study of the Scriptures is the first object the clergyman is called to attend to throughout his professional career, as the foundation of his usefulness. This is clearly stated in the Ordination service of the Church of England, by the Bishop in his exhortation to the candidates for the office of presbyters. After reminding them of the great responsibilities and difficulties of the charge about to be received, the Bishop adds:- And seeing you cannot by any other means compass the doing of so weighty a work, pertaining to the salvation of men, but with doctrine and exhortation taken out of the Holy Scriptures, and with a life agreeable to the same; consider how studious you ought to be in reading and learning the Scriptures, and in framing the manners both of yourselves, and of them that specially pertain unto you according to the rule of the same Scriptures; and for this self

appeared a vehement impetuosity; but, by being unintermitted, it had an equability of manner which scarcely appeared to exceed the tone of a calm constancy, it was so totally the reverse of anything like turbulence or agitation. It was the calmness of an intensity kept uniform by the nature of the human mind forbidding it to be more and by the character of the individual forbidding it to be less.. The law which carries water down a declivity was not more unconquerable and unvariable than the determination of his feelings towards the main object. The importance of this object held his faculties in a state of excitement which was too rigid to be affected by lighter interests, and on which, therefore, the beauties of nature and of art had no power. He had no leisure feeling which he could spare to be diverted among the innumerable varieties of the extensive scene which he traversed; all his subordinate feelings lost their separate existence and operation by falling into the grand one. There have not been wanting trivial minds to mark this as a fault in his character. But the mere men of taste ought to be silent respecting such a man as Howard: he is above their sphere of judgment. The invisible spirits who fulfil their commission of philanthropy among mortals, do not care about pictures, statues, and sumptuous buildings; and no more did he, when the time in which he must have inspected and admired them would have been taken from the work to which he had consecrated his life.'-Foster's Essays -On Decision of Character.

same cause, how you ought to forsake and set aside, as much as you may, all worldly cares and studies.' What the views of the compilers of the Liturgy were as to what constituted the study of the Bible on the part of the clergy, is plain from what we know of their history and personal habits, and from the extant monuments of their sanctified genius. They did not mean the reading of an occasional chapter, or the consultation of some commentary on the Bible, but the mastering of the difficulties inherent in the original texts by the aid of as extensive a critical apparatus as could be secured. Such men as Cranmer, Goodrich, Ridley, and their coadjutors, knew how to find time to attain to depth and solidity of learning, although placed in the midst of arduous public duties and cares. We may safely affirm that they never contemplated such a thing as a clergy so oppressed with home missionary work in their parishes, as to have no time left for those peculiar studies by which the clerical office is both strengthened and adorned.

In former times a clergyman was placed over a flock of such proportions, that he could discharge his duty to them without neglecting his own mental cultivation and advancement; and if his parish outgrew such a moderate size, further aid was obtained. But now we have the sad spectacle, in England, of great districts growing up almost on a sudden, filled with manufacturing populations, which by past neglect are as rude and ignorant as heathens. In such places, churches are built, and ministers located, who find that if they are to make any head at all against irreligion, it must be by giving their whole time to out-door work, as men do in a heathen country. It is granted that if ministers are placed in such positions, they must work in that way; but, at the same time, we think the Church should strive to lessen the evil as much as possible, by sub-dividing such districts, and by appointing inferior officers to take from the clergyman the mere drudgery of his parish. Nothing that can exist of the kind we have mentioned can assail the impregnable position we have taken, and which is defended by Scripture and reason, and the teaching of the Church, viz. that the Clergy should be men thoroughly learned in the Scriptures. Let but this idea gain hold of the public mind, and all other things will bend to it. A minister not capable of handling the original text will be considered unfit for his office; and it will be seen that whatever amount of pastoral labour has to be done, it must be so distributed that every clergyman shall have time for reading and meditation, and mental advancement.

But the exhaustive labour of heavy pastoral duty can only be alleged by some, as forming an interruption to Biblical studies; by far the larger proportion of men, who allege want of time, will