which other orders of men are exempt. First, an expensive education is requisite, to qualify with sufficient learning and habits of reflection those who are to expound the Scriptures in sincerity and in truth. In the next place, the Clergyman is strictly forbidden to add to his worldly means by the exercise of any other calling or profession, since our Church rightly judges that an attachment to temporal occupations must degrade the spiritual character, and draw the mind from the devotion which it owes to the service of the Gospel; for we know how vain it is to attempt to serve God and Mammon. Again, a Clergyman, however humble may be his worldly provision, feels himself under an obligation to maintain such a respectability of appearance and of living, as marks a station in society above that of mechanical occupation, and as may entitle him to mix on a footing of equality with the higher class of his parishioners. He is, besides, bound by a still stronger motive to discharge the Christian duties of hospitality, and of charity to the distressed. Whether it be in educating the children of the poor, or in supplying copies of the Scriptures and religious books which may direct his flock in the path of salvation, or in alleviating the miseries of disease and poverty, the teacher of the Gospel should ever be the foremost: by the influence of his own example he must illustrate the doctrine of benevolence which he preaches; and while inculcating on his hearers the duty of aiding their poorer brethren,

he must himself be liberal to his power; yea, and beyond

In stating the difficulties to which a large portion of our clerical brethren are necessarily exposed, we must not omit the serious deficiency existing in too many parishes from the want of suitable dwellings for their ministers. Numerous are the cases where there is to be found on a living no residence house whatever; or such an one as can barely afford shelter for the family of a day labourer. To remedy this evil, by building mansions for incumbents, at the expense of their preferment, a wise and excellent law has been enacted; the provisions of which have proved extensively beneficial in procuring habitations for the residence of the pastor in the bosom of his flock. But to that poorer class of benefices, to which the foregoing remarks principally refer, this enactment of the legislature is scarcely ever applicable. Unless, therefore, some extraneous aid shall interpose, those parishes must still be left without a residence appropriated to their ministers; and all the benefit which results from the abode of an enlightened individual in the midst of the people to whose welfare he is devoted, as a parent to that of his children, must be lost. The want of a habitation in the place where his spiritual duties are allotted, is to the minister an evil of considerable magnitude but to the community, and to the interests of religion, the injury is far more severe. To secure to

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every parish in the kingdom a resident minister, no enactments will, I apprehend, be found effectual, until a provision be made for the erection and upholding of Glebe Houses wherever they are wanting. And for such a measure, so essential to the public welfare, as well as to the maintenance of our Apostolical religion, we must look to the public liberality and spirit of this mighty nation. I am well aware how great is the presumption of an humble individual, who ventures to suggest and recommend a plan which can only be realized by the authority and the munificence of the Legislature. But in consideration of the duty this day committed to me, I may perhaps be pardoned if while treating of the causes which lead to the depression of our order and the prejudice of Christ's Church, I have adverted to measures whereby an evil of great and crying importance might be remedied. At least I must be allowed to offer a humble prayer that the Almighty may dispose the hearts of our rulers to take the case into their full consideration. Then might we entertain a hope that the present season of tranquillity and prosperity, with which it has pleased Heaven to bless our country, will not be suffered to pass away without an extension of the public aid to accomplish so desirable a measure. To devote a small portion of the increased resources of the empire in serving the cause of piety and charity will mark our gratitude for the blessings now vouchsafed to our people, and will moreover give us a better title to hope for their continuance.

In thus enumerating the hardships which are the lot of so many of our brethren, it is not my intention to represent them as grievances, or as matters of complaint. Every one who undertakes the ministry of Christ's word ought to be aware that he abandons prospects of gain or of pleasure, to preach the Gospel of a crucified Redeemer, by whom it is unequivocally declared that his kingdom is not of this world. If, while all the energies of his mind are devoted to the execution of his dutyif, while he labours to instruct the ignorant, reclaim the vicious, and assist the penitent, he himself suffers from worldly privations, his case is only such as he was distinctly taught to expect when he embraced the profession of the Gospel. In the mean time he must be thankful that his lot of service has been cast in a period when the Church is protected from more terrible visitations-from persecutions, and the fiery trials to which the faith of Christ's servants has so often been exposed: he must learn to bear with cheerfulness the absence of the comforts and conveniences of this life; and should even distress in its severest form overtake him, he must recollect in whose service it is that he fighteth, and what are the rewards offered to his perseverance; that his light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for him a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory*.

* 2 Cor. iv. 17.

The mention, however, of the temporal difficulties which beset a considerable portion of the parochial clergy, will serve as an apology for those whose offspring now depend upon your bounty, as the only means of establishing themselves in creditable situations. In some instances the zealous and unwearied exertions of the pastor in the various duties of a populous parish, exceeding his physical powers, have prematurely cut short the thread of mortal existence; and thus he may be said, with almost literal propriety, to have laid down his life for the brethren. His family, for whose support and settlement in the world it has not been practicable for him to provide, he leaves as a bequest to the sympathy and liberality of the Church, with no other portion but the principles of piety and religion in which they have been nurtured. Leave your fatherless children, saith the Lord, I will preserve them alive: and let your widows trust in me*. His reliance upon God's Providence, which supported him throughout life, and inspired him with a devotion to the cause of his ministry, far surpassing all other motives, does not desert him when he considers the lot of his fatherless but not abandoned progeny. He remembers the prophetic words of the Psalmist-The children of thy servants shall continue; and their seed shall be established before thee†—

* Jeremiah xlix. 11.

+ Psalm cii. 28.