every family of the poor in the city shall be brought under a pastoral care, which will gradually, but surely, do much to make Boston, what I believe it may be made, preeminently a christian city.

I have often been asked, what I suppose to be the number of families in the city which are without a pastor? Within the past eighteen months, I have indeed been connected only with about two hundred and fifty such families. But there is not a lane, nor is there hardly a single yard, which I have explored thoroughly. Boston, however, contains at least sixtyfive thousand inhabitants. Suppose the average number in the families of the city to be five, and there will be thirteen thousand families. There are also, I think, fortyfour places of worship. Giving two hundred families to each of these places of worship,-which will be as many as can be claimed for them,--there will be eight thousand and eight hundred families, which are connected with our religious societies; and four thousand, two hundred which will be left without a ministry. But suppose that there are only three thousand families, or fifteen thousand individuals in our city, who, by various circumstances are shut out from the influences of our public religious institutions. I would ask, should they not be provided with a ministry, by which the blessings of our religion, as far as shall be practicable, may be extended to them? I feel strongly, and I have much to say, upon this subject. But I will confine myself within as narrow limits as I can, in the hope that I may thus obtain attention to it. Let the interests, and the claims of this ministry be understood, and I think that they cannot be disregarded.

I am inclined to believe that there is not a city in

Christendom, in which the public institutions of our religion are more generally regarded, or in which their salutary influence is more widely felt, than in Boston. But it is incidental to the very nature of a city, that it should collect within itself very great numbers of those, who are dependant for their daily bread upon their daily labors. The demand for laborers in a city, considered, as it always will be, in connexion with the facilities which a city affords for association with many of the same class, and with the hope, often a very delusive one, of opportunities of more constant employment, and of better wages, than can be obtained in the country, will secure a supply far beyond what will be required, in all the departments of the service for which laborers are wanted. Some also will be brought into a city, by the hope of living in it in unchecked idleness and beggary; and some, that they may here more securely indulge in vice, and support themselves by crime. From these, and other causes, there always has been, and there will be, a very large number in cities who are very poor; who will feel, as it is not felt, because it is not so manifest, in the country, how wide is the distinction of their condition from that of the rich; and who either cannot, from feebleness, or sickness, or the want of suitable apparel, unite with us in worship in our churches; or from pride, or the influence of passions and habits not more commendable, will not join with us in our public religious exercises. The question, then, arises, and it is a very solemn one, what are our duties in regard to the moral, the spiritual wants, of this very large class of our fellow beings around us? If we have the means, to a very great extent at leas of meeting and supplying these wants, of rescu

many, who are very near to us, on our right hand, and on our left, from the degradation, and misery, and ruin of sin; of sending to very many, who otherwise will not have them, the regenerating instructions and excitements, the supports and consolations of our religion; I would ask, is our worship, or are our offerings to God in our churches what they should be, while we are there blessing him for that dispensation of his grace and truth which he has given to us by his Son, which, however, we are ourselves withholding from multitudes, who can receive them only through our christian sympathy and benevolence? To my mind, it is as plainly the will of God, that there should be a permanent ministry for the poor of cities, a distinct ministry for the special of the poor, as it is that we, who are not poor, `purpose should meet together to worship him. This is the sentiment which I now wish to bring before the opulent, the pious and the charitable of our city. There must be a ministry at large for the poor of cities; and the number to be employed in this ministry must be determined by the numbers in a city, which cannot be brought under the pastoral charge of the ministers of its churches. Bear with me, while I offer, in as few words as I can, the character of the service for which this ministry is required.

Let me however, in the first place say, that not less than four protestant ministers, and one catholic, will be demanded for this service in our city. I will ask you, then, to suppose the city to be divided into quarters ; and that, in one of these quarters, a minister at large has entered upon the duties of his office. He is, of course, to become acquainted with every family in it, which is not regularly visited by some minister of a church; and

he is to feel that each of these families is committed to his pastoral charge. His first object is, their religious instruction, in order to their eternal salvation.

Look, then, at the work of the religious instruction of this class of the poor. What is required for it? What is to be anticipated from it?

Here permit me to remark, that the hope of rescuing a fellow creature from sin and misery is never to be given up, while God shall continue to spare him. The most depraved and debased being in society, who has apparently cast off all fear alike of God and of man, is to be an object of strong compassion and interest. Nor is the repeated failure of endeavors for his recovery to justify discouragement. I have seen cases of apparent total depravity, a more intimate acquaintance with which has brought to my knowledge some spring of feeling, or of desire in the soul, which, with God's blessing on the labor of cleansing it from its defilements, has sent forth the sweet waters of virtue and peace. I have even seen him, who was habitually profane and intemperate, a most wicked and cruel child, husband, and father, and early broken down, and apparently brought near the grave, by his irregular and abandoned life, restored to health by the means by which he was restored to virtue; restored to his mother, his wife and his children, to whom he had been lost, as far as respects all that is interesting and happy in these relations; and, by penitence and prayer, as I believe, recovered to God, and to the hopes of the life to come. Let the minister at large then feel, that, in every family in his department, which is unprovided with a christian pastor and teacher, and which will accept his services, he is to be a pastor and a teache

He will have families in his charge, the parents of which were religiously educated, and began their married life with an intention to maintain domestic order, and a due observance of the Lord's day. But they began life with little or no preparation for any emergence, which would call for any extraordinary expense. The necessity of extraordinary expense was, however, soon occasioned by sickness; and in this time of difficulty, one small debt was contracted, and then another; and then the harassed mind sought a refuge from its troubles in intemperance, and in vicious company; and then came the necessity of frequent removals from one place to another. He will find some, likewise, who, under the pressure of great embarrassments, have struggled hard to maintain their principles as men and Christians; and others, who are but just beginning to feel strongly the perplexities and exposures, which have brought many to ruin, and who, by affectionate advice, and a little timely and judicious assistance, may be saved from falling. He will find that, in some of the families in which there is an intemperate husband, there is a well principled and virtuous wife and mother, who is silently enduring, and patiently striving, in the care, and for the education, of her children. And he will find widows, with young children whom they cannot leave on Sunday; and aged and feeble families, to which, if the gospel is to be preached, it must be in the apartments in which they live, and from house to house. In taking upon himself the charge of these classes of the poor, it should be a primary object of a minister at large, to bring as many as is possible of them into a connexion with the religious societies of the city. And happy will it be, if he can go