So, when corruption shall be deck'd by fate,
In incorruption's everlasting state,

And this, now mortal, shall at once display
Immortal splendour and immortal sway,

The Prophet's words shall then accomplish'd be That "Death is swallowed up in victory!".

Freed from disease, the perfect then shall sing, "Where is thy vict'ry, grave; where, death, thy sting ?"

The sting of death is sin, the only pain

The darts of death can bring upon the slain;
For by the poison of this fatal sting,
The law brought curses on its mortal wing. -
For ever blest be that Almighty God,
Who conquer'd these by his correcting rod;
For sin and death, the grave and legal curse,
Our blessed Lord shall vanquish and disperse.
Therefore, my brethren, since ye now are led
To know that Christ will surely raise the dead;
And that the righteous, in the realms above,
Shall be rewarded with immortal love;
Be firm, be steadfast, in that sound belief;
For future joy shall crown all present grief.
Here, then, on earth, the works of God maintain;
For know, such labour shall not be in vain.—

126

THE CLERICAL CONFERENCE.

DR. FREEMAN, from the extent of his parish and the multiplicity of its duties, had always required the assistance of a Curate; and of all his clerical arrangements, that of procuring an assistant, whose views and sentiments accorded with his own, was the most difficult to one, who, in his situation, felt called upon to make such a choice, as, while it should satisfy himself, should be no less pleasing to the parish at large. None can know, but those similarly circumstanced, how great is the difficulty to effect this sort of professional junction; because, in large towns, where the population is extensive, and the parochial duties unceasing, and where the income is generally very limited, men, in any sort of independent circumstances, will not engage where so much is required of them; and where, after all, they can obtain no greater remuneration than they meet with in places unencumbered by weekly duties, and where the services

of the Sabbath require but a very moderate degree of exertion. This statement may be thought to convey an imputation of a want of zeal and energy upon the inferior clergy; but it is a natural consequence; for men, for the most part, in every profession, prefer the easier to the more laborious pursuits of life, particularly when there is no stimulus in the shape of advantage to be derived from the exchange. There is, however, another and a better reason to be assigned for this apparently unzealous preference; and it lies in this, that the clergy, who act as Curates in the country, live at less expense than those in towns; that they are more at leisure to indulge, either in the pursuits of literature, or in those of a healthier, though perhaps less useful nature; while they are removed from the confinement, the unwholesomeness, the noise and distractions of a thickly-inhabited town. These are the circumstances which operate to prevent men of any tolerable resources, and who have been enabled to pass through an academical career, from entering upon charges burdened with duties of high responsibility; and thus they leave the field for the occupation of others whose habits of life and education have

been different, and whose worldly views have been bounded by more confined limits. Dr. Freeman, therefore, like many other Town Rectors, was obliged to have recourse to some person whose abilities had carried him with credit through some good provincial school, and who had followed up his acquisitions there by persevering industry and the application of his own unassisted talents. But this was not all; for in the event of lighting even upon such a person as this, it was essential for him not merely to ascertain that a reciprocity of religious sentiments and opinions existed, but that he had a clear and sonorous voice calculated to fill the ample space which the walls of his church circumscribed; that he was pleasing in his outward appearance, for this he knew by experience to be an essential qualification; that his style of composition and delivery was correct; that he had a strong feeling for the sacred functions of his office; that he was patient; that he was conciliatory; that he was humble, and that he was vitally religious.

Such a character he had the good fortune to meet with in the person of Mr. Deacon, a young man of plain and unassuming manners, of strong

sense, extensive reading, and comprehensive intellect. Although ordained upon the title which the Doctor had given him, he entered into the service with great address, aided by the consciousness that he was both able and desirous to discharge, to the best of his power, the service on which he had entered; and though his first discourse was delivered before a crowded congregation, he betrayed no symptoms of fear, at the same time that he exhibited no tincture of arrogance or self-sufficiency. Well might the Doctor be gratified by such an acquisition; he who ever held it as most derogatory and unbecoming, in any person who had undertaken the ministry of the church, to entertain ill-grounded apprehensions of presenting himself before any congregation. He considered it as one of the worst features of the clergy, that many of them engage in a profession, the duties of which they hesitate to discharge in an open assembly of the church, from a vain, nervous, and unbecoming fear of addressing a large or enlightened body of worshippers." If," he would say, " men can conscientiously think themselves called upon to enter as labourers in the Christian vineyard, they ought to qualify