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forth among them for this object, without any of the spirit of sectarism. Strongly as I am attached to what I think to be the great doctrines of Christianity,-and they are the life spring of my soul-I do not hesitate, when I find a decided preference for a church of other sentiments than those which I receive, to recommend a connexion with that church, to all who express this preference, as a very important means of their improvement and happiness. I find my own views of our religion, indeed, to be very acceptable among the intelligent and serious of the poor. But I feel that a great good has been obtained, by every instance in which a family is linked with almost any of our religious societies. Nor, when they are thus brought into any of our churches, is it to be feared whether the poor will gladly and gratefully continue to receive him as their pastor, from whose familiar, and frequently repeated instructions, and kind attentions, they have experienced very important benefits.

But the work will be a slow one, of thus enlarging the number of worshippers in our churches. Nor is it to be doubted, after all that can be done for this purpose, whether there will be still a very large number, whom it will be found impracticable to bring into this connexion. That these families may be brought in any degree under the influences of our religion, and be made in any measure the subjects of its renewing and sanctifying power, it must be sent to them by men who are peculiarly devoted to their instruction; who will become intimately acquainted with the character of their minds, and with their moral wants; by men, I will even add, who decidedly prefer this to any other service, and who will feel it to be their privilege to live, and spend, and b

spent, for their christian improvement. Nor will it do to commit this office to a succession of young men, each of whom is to act in it only for a few months, and in preparation for a very different ministry. I believe that, whatever benefit the young teacher, who is so employedand to him it may indeed be great-may derive from this service, they who are taught will be comparatively but little improved by it. The minister at large of a section of the city should consecrate to the poor of that section his strength, and his life. Nor do I doubt whether he will find in it enough of ignorance, and vice, and suffering, to task all his faculties, and to require all his time. Let him, from day to day, and if he have strength for it, from morning till night of every day, be passing from house to house. Let him make his presence welcome, by the affectionate interest which he feels, and manifests, for the welfare and happiness of those whom he visits. And let them find in him a religious teacher and pastor, who is willing to listen to their doubts, and difficulties, and sufferings; who can kindly encourage, or rebuke, or advise them; who prays with them, and helps them to pray for themselves; and who has aided them in being happier, by aiding them in being better than they were; and he will be cordially welcomed as often as he may visit them. He may indeed, in many cases, feel strong doubts of the usefulness of his labors. But he will also see precious fruits of them. Nor, painful as are some of the scenes through which he must pass, and trying as are some of the circumstances that must occur in this ministry, do I believe that there is a department of the sacred office that is either more useful than this; or, one that will yield greater satisfac

tions, than will be found by him who heartily engages

in it.

The second object of this service is, the assistance of parents in the education and the care of their children.

In one of my former reports, I suggested the expediency of appointing a superintendant of the children who are living in idleness and vice in our streets. But, upon a better acquaintance than I then had with the extent of the difficulties and the wants of poor parents, and of the far happier operation of moral, than of civil influence, in all their domestic concerns, I should now wish that this service might devolve exclusively upon the ministers of the poor. A resort can be had to the civil authority, when all moral means shall have proved ineffectual. In this department of their duties, I believe that ministers at large, if they shall be judicious and practical men, may do much for the prevention of pauperism, crime, and misery; much in the work of accomplishing a great temporal, as well as a great spiritual salvation.

It should be an aim of the minister at large to know all the children in every family of the district in which he makes his pastoral visits. The children will also know him, as the friend, and religious teacher of their parents; and his influence, in this character, will be felt. He will also have the power, and it will be known that he has it, and that, if it be necessary he will use it, to bring the child, who will neither yield to command, nor to persuasion, under an authority to which he must submit. Suppose him, then, as he passes from house to house, to be as regular in his inquiries respecting the children, as he is respecting the spiritual interests of their parents. He will find some parents, who feel but

little interest in the character or conduct of their children. But he will find also broken hearted mothers, whose tears, and sobs, will awaken his strongest sympathy; and by whom the offer of his aid, in rescuing their children from sin and destruction, will be received with a gratitude, which is to be fully conceived only by him who has witnessed it. He will find children who are kept from school by the want of books, with which their parents cannot supply them; and others, by the want of clothes. He will find some who are kept at home in the winter, to gather chips, or to beg; and others, between the ages of nine and fourteen, who are much of their time employed as errand boys in shops and offices, and on whose wages the parent, or the parents, depend perhaps, for the payment of the rent of their rooms; but who are yet often at home in idleness, and exposed to the most vicious influences. And he will find truant boys, whom their parents cannot keep at school; profane and quarrelsome boys, the great annoyance of the neighborhood in which they live; boys who have made some advances in the arts of petty pilfering; and even lads who have begun the guilty indulgence, in which, if they are not soon arrested, they will sink into the debasement of early confirmed intemperance. It will not, therefore, I think be doubted, whether the minister be suitably employed, and well employed, in the work of putting as many as may be possible of these children into a school; and of maintaining an oversight of those whom he has placed there, that he may be sure of their faithful attendance. Or, where there are those who scoff at parental control, and whose vicious example exposes others to corruption and ruin, let the parent be assisted to find masters for them whom they

dare not disobey; or, to place them in the school of reformation at South Boston. The difficulties are neither few, nor small, which will sometimes arise in the discharge of this part of a minister's duty. But its com pensations will also be great, if he shall assuage, and even heal the anguish of many a parent's heart; and shall save, as I believe that he may, many children, not only from ignorance, but from moral death.

In the third, and last department of the duties of a minister at large, I would include all those acts and offices, by which he may relieve the poor in their immediate, and most pressing necessities; or aid them in the improvement of their temporal condition.

Here, I am aware, that an objection may arise in the minds of some, who may otherwise view with favor the cause which I am pleading. The charity of a minister, it may be said, and has been said, will lead to pretensions of piety, and to base hypocrisy, as a means of supplying the wants of those, who, if they were but truly virtuous, might support themselves, and their families, by their own industry. And full well indeed do I know how manifold are the evils of an indiscriminate charity. But is a minister less able than are others to detect the pretensions of hypocrisy ? I appeal to common sense, whether an experienced giver, if in other respects his judgment may be trusted, will not probably be the best giver; and whether any one can have better advantages for a knowledge of the actual characters, capabilities and necessities of the poor, than one, who, allowing him to be an ordinarily sensible and practical man, is constantly visiting in their families, hearing their reports of one another, and is never willingly absent from any longer

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