WE are called to build a spiritual house. One workman is not to busy himself in telling another his duty. We are placed in different circumstances, with various talents: and each is called to do what he can. Two men, equally accepted of God, may be exceedingly distinct in the account which they will give of their employ.

A REGULAR clergyman can do no more in the discharge of his duty, than our church requires of him. He may fall far short of her requirements; but he cannot exceed, by the most devoted life, the duties which she has prescribed. What man on earth is so pernicious a drone, as an idle clergymana man, engaged in the most serious profession in the world: who rises to eat, and drink, and lounge, and trifle; and goes to bed; and then rises again, to do the same! Our office is the most laborious in the world. The mind must be always on the stretch, to acquire wisdom and grace, and to communicate them to all who come near. It is well, indeed, when a clergyman of genius and learning devotes himself to the publication of classics and works of literature, if he cannot be prevailed on to turn his genius and learning to a more important end. Enter into this kind of society, what do you hear? "Have you seen the new edition of Sophocles?"-"No! is a new edition of Sophocles undertaken?"- -and this makes up the conversation, and these are the ends, of men who, by profession, should win souls! I received a most useful hint from Dr. Bacon, then Father of the University, when I was at College. I used frequently to visit him at his Living, near Oxford: he would say to me, "What are you doing? What are your studies?"-"I am reading so and so."-"You are quite wrong. When I was young I could turn any piece of Hebrew into Greek verse with ease.

But, when I came into this parish, and had to teach ignorant people, I was wholly at a loss; I had no furniture. They thought me a great man, but that was their ignorance; for I knew as little as they did, of what it was most important to them to know. Study chiefly what you can turn to good account in your future life." And yet this wise man had not just views of serious religion: he was one of those who are for reforming the parish-making the maids industrious, and the men sober and honest-but when I ventured to ask, "Sir, must not all this be effected by the infusion of a divine principle into the mind?a union of the soul with the great head of influence?"-"No more of that; no more of that I pray!"

A WISE minister stands between practical Atheism and Religious Enthusiasm.

A SERMON,that has more head infused into it than heart, will not come home with efficacy to the hearers. "You must do so and so: such and such consequences will follow if you do not: such and such advantages will result from doing it:"-this is cold, dead, and spiritless, when it stands alone; or even when it is most prominent. Let the preacher's head be stored with wisdom; but, above all, let his heart so feel his subject, that he may infuse life and interest into it, by speaking like one who actually possesses and feels what he says.

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FAITH is the master-spring of a minister. "Hell is before me, and thousands of souls shut up there in everlasting agonies--Jesus Christ stands forth to save men from rushing into this bottomless abyssHe sends me to proclaim his ability and his love:

I want no fourth idea!-every fourth idea is contemptible!-every fourth idea is a grand impertinence!"

THE meanness of the earthen vessel, which conveys to others the Gospel treasure, takes nothing from the value of the treasure. A dying hand may sign a deed of gift of incalculable value. A shepherd's boy may point out the way to a philosopher. A beggar may be the bearer of an invaluable present.

A WRITER of Sermons has often no idea how many words he uses, to which the common people affix either no meaning, or a false one. He speaks, perhaps, of "relation to God;" but the people, who hear him, affix no other idea to the word, than that of father, or brother, or relative. The preacher must converse with the people, that he may acquire their words and phrases.

IT sometimes pleases God to disqualify ministers for their work, before he takes them to their reward. Where he gives them wisdom to perceive this, and grace to acquiesce in the dispensationsuch a close of an honorable life, where the desire to be publicly useful survives the power, is a loud AMEN to all former labors.

On Infidelity and Popery.

INFIDEL Writings are ultimately productive of little or no danger to the church of God. Nay we are less at a loss in judging of the wisdom of Providence in permitting them, than we are in judging of many other of its designs. They may shake

the simple, humble, spiritual mind; but they are, in the end, the means of enlightening and settling it. There are but two sorts of people in the world. Some walk by the light of the Lord, and all others lie in the wicked one in darkness and in the shadow of death. Where there is not an enlightened, simple, humble, spiritual mind, notions and opinions are of little consequence. The impudent and refuted misrepresentations of infidels may turn a dark mind to some other notions and way of thinking; but it is in the dark still. Till a man sees by the light of the Lord, every change of opinions is only putting a new dress on a dead carcase, and calling it alive.

The grace of God must give simplicity. Whereever that is, it is a security against dangerous error: wherever it is not, erroneous opinions may perhaps less predispose the mind against the truth of God in its lively power on the soul, than true notions destitute of all life and influence do.

Yet the writings of infidels must be read with caution and fear. There are cold, intellectual, speculative, malignant foes to Christianity. I dare not tamper with such, when I am in my right mind. I have received serious injury, for a time, even when my duty has called me to read what they have to say. The daring impiety of Belsham's answer to Wilberforce ruffled the calm of my spirit. I read it over while at Bath, in the Autumn of 1798. I waked in pain, about two o'clock in the morning. I tried to cheer myself by an exercise of faith on Jesus Christ. I lifted up my heart to Him, as sympathizing with me, and engaged to support me. Many times have I thus obtained quiet and repose: but now I could lay no hold on him: I had given the enemy an advantage over me: my habit had imbibed poison: my nerves trembled: my strength was gone! "Jesus Christ sympathize with you, and relieve you! It is all enthusiasm! It is idolatry!

Jesus Christ has preached his sermons, and done his duty, and is gone to heaven! And there he is, as other good men are! Address your prayers to the Supreme Being!"—I obtain relief in such cases, by dismissing from my thoughts all that enemies or friends can say. I will have nothing to do with Belsham or with Wilberforce. I come to Christ Himself. I hear what He says. I turn over the Gospels. I read his conversations. I dwell especially on his farewell discourse with his disciples, in St. John's Gospel. If there be meaning in words, and if Christ were not a deceiver or deceived, the reality of the Christian's life, in Him and from Him by faith, is written there as with a sun-beam.

This temptation besets me to this day, and I know not that I have any other which is so particular in its attacks upon me. I am sometimes restless in bed; and, when I find myself so, I generally think that the parenthesis cannot be so well employed as in prayer. While my mind is thus ascending to Christ and communing with him, it often comes across me "What a fool art thou, to imagine these mental effusions can be known to any other Being! what a senseless enthusiast, to imagine that the man who was nailed to a cross can have any knowledge of these secrets of thy soul!" On one of these occasions it struck me with great and commanding evidence. "Why might not St. John, in the Isle of Patmos-imprisoned perhaps in a cave-why might not he have said so? Why might not he have doubted whether Christ the crucified could have knowledge of his feelings, when he was in the Spirit on the Lord's day? He had no doubt communion with Christ in the Spirit, before he had those palpable evidences of his presence which immediately followed."

IN the permission of certain bold infidel characters and writings, we may discern plain evidences of