if the members of the body of Christ are to fulfil the gracious functions of their divinely appointed relationship.

Care one for another among all the members of the body, according to proximity, ability and opportunity, must be admitted, recognised, enforced, and practised as a great and fundamental law of the Christian economy, before we can expect to see this question reduced to its primitive-its New Testament elements.

For the most part, however, it has been regarded in a far different aspect. We behold in modern doctrine and polity, either one bishop over many churches, or one bishop for each church, or at most two or three bishops for one church, but where shall we look for the distinct, conscientious, and practical recognition of the great principle, that each brother is his brother's keeper?

No marvel that it is so rare a sight to see the characters who could form such a presbytery as Paul's descriptions of qualifications would identify. Our most aged and experienced Christians have not had their senses exercised by reason of use. Those who ought to have commenced their apprenticeship in the "good work" when they entered the church, thirty or forty years ago, have been standing idle all the day; because, forsooth, no man hath hired them. They have waited for a human call or election, or pay to fulfil a divine and priceless service, to which God had called them by his grace! Thus, as in many other matters, has the doctrine of God been made of none effect through men's traditions.

But our hope is in God, that he will stir up the hearts of his people as the soul of one man, through the light of his truth which is breaking apace, to the duteous fulfilment of this most weighty work. Let the faithful in Christ Jesus see that their dear and gracious Lord has need of them for his body's sake, the church which he loved and gave himself for, and doubtless will they feel, and feeling, fulfil a responsibility too long lost to view.

That such is the need of the church, appears not only from the consideration of the various expressive terms denotive of its constitution, but also from the charges and admonitions tendered to the disciples in the apostolic letters. We have in them such injunctions to the brotherhood as are understandable only on the hypothesis, that we are "members one of another," and are expected by virtue of that relationship to exercise a sympathetic vigilance one towards another.

That similar language is employed to the whole of the faithful as is held towards those of their number, whose experience and gifts epecially qualify them for oversight work, does not indeed take the work out of the hands of the latter, but shews that this particular department of Christian service, like every other branch of it, is a communion or fellowship, and as such is to be shared in by the entire household of faith.

Thus, for example, we have the verb episcopeo, both in Heb. xii. 15, and 1 Pet. v. 2. In the former passage it is addressed not to the elders or those who lead, as in the latter passage, but to all to whom the epistle was written. In the one passage, our translators have rendered it by the words " looking diligently," and in the other by the phrase, "taking the oversight." But in the original, the word is one and the same, and the work it prescribes cannot be said to differ. And even though the phraseology our translators have given us is very wide apart in sound, it is very near in sense; for to look diligently is neither more nor less than to take over-sight. The word is certainly susceptible of an interesting variety of thought and expression, though it never loses the idea of looking after. As we may look after others to save them from danger, or to guide them in duty, or to instruct them in truth, or to subdue them to obedience, or to bring them to justice; so this word and its relatives prove that in one sense or other -in one way or other, the diligent looking after which it prescribes is binding on the whole body of the faithful. An episcopos is an overseer, an inspector, a superintendent, a visitant, a supervisor. By the related word episkeptomai, the Saviour speaks of being in prison and "visited." God is said to have 66 visited" and redeemed his people; the church at Jerusalem was told to "look out" seven men of reputed honesty; the apostles determined to "visit" the brethren, and the faithful are told that pure and undefiled religion before God, even the Father, is shewn in "visiting" the widow and fatherless in their affliction. And the work denoted by episkopee is rendered visitation,' whether in the sense of mercy or judgment, while once we have it "bishoprick," and once "the office of a bishop." Altogether, then, it is evident that any work of inspection is covered by these related terms, and that with respect to the overseeing of the church of Christ, the responsibility rests more or less on each individual member. To every one such must we apply the words of the injunction "follow peace with all and holiness, without

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which no man shall see the Lord; looking diligently lest any man fall from the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you; lest there be any fornicator or profane person as Esau, who, for one morsel of meat, sold his birthright." This general overseeing one of another, is the prescribed safe-guard against those dangers and troubles to which the church is liable. It is, therefore, beyond the option of the church to seek another preventive. To do so, were but to hasten the evil she seeks to escape; and however much it may seem the part of wisdom to throw the responsibility on the shoulders of one or a few, doubtless those who have grace wherewith to serve God acceptably will, with reverent and pious fear, accept for themselves, individually, that share in the care of the membership of the church, which her Head has thus so unequivocally laid upon them.-ED.

MINISTER AND PEOPLE.

UNDER this popular arrangement of "Minister and People" there are found what are denominated "vacant churches." When we say that a man is vacant, we mean that he is short of brains, or that his brains are ill assorted. Not so, however, of vacant churches. There are societies of professing Christians, minus for the time being, a minister. When we ask, how is it sought to fill up this vacuum, we put a question into which there enter sundry calculations: for instance, the size of the chapel-is it in a village or in a town-are the hearers rich or poor-what kind of talent will the salary command? An able man must be ably paid: the eloquent orator will get the wealthy place: money will control the market. What " poor church," however strong its claims or promising its prospects, would think of obtaining the services of an Apollos? What rich church and respectable would put up with the preachings of a saint who sometimes blunders with his grammar? Thus it happens oft: a Reverend friend is very useful in a country place; a hundred and twenty pounds a year he has to meet necessities; enough, but none to spare. In the country town is a vacant church; and here they give two hundred pounds. It is voted that our friend be invited there. The bait is taken; USEFULNESS, with one hundred and twenty pounds per annum, is forfeited: SPIRITUAL STARVATION starched up with aristocracy, for the larger salary, is accepted. And yet eloquent discourses will be delivered concerning "filthy lucre"! Very seldom is God heard calling from a higher salary to a lower one.

It might be supposed that the evils attendant upon the workings this system would be so palpable and notorious, that the people would exclaim against them. But as it is in the church of Rome, so it is in the various Protestant denominations, the people wish to have their priests, who may do duty on their behalf, and be a sort of for proxy them. In his Errors of Romanism, Whately well observes, "The truth is, mankind have an innate propensity to other errors, so to

that of endeavouring to serve God by proxy; to commit to some distinct order of men the care of their religious concerns, in the same manner as they confide the care of their bodily health to the physician, and of their legal transactions to the lawyer; deeming it sufficient to follow implicitly their directions, without attempting themselves to become acquainted with the mysteries of medicine or of law. These corruptions crept in one by one; originating for the most part with an ignorant and depraved people, but connived at, cherished, consecrated, and successively established by a debased and worldly minded ministry." Up, make us gods," said the people to the priest, and Aaron made the calf at their request. And still the people will that divine arrangements be set aside-a pliable or a worldly ministry consents-and thus are corruptions in worship connived at, cherished, consecrated, and established.

The measure of piety "for a minister" is reckoned to be of a different standard from that which passes for "the people." He is to search the scriptures: HE is to abstain from following any business, as though there were something of necessity degrading in the pursuits of trade: he is to walk, to talk, to clothe himself, to look sad or smiling-ALL PROFESSIONALLY: he is not to forget that he is beyond and above all common mortals; that he is "a minister." Now the evil of this might not be so apparent and deplorable, were there not another side but the inevitable consequence is this, that the people rest contented with a lower scale of piety. They live as though ignorance became them. Boasting of no qualifications for teaching or for doing good, they pay so much quarterly that their minister may do all that. They act as though the Judge of all would make allowance for their laziness and evil doings, on the ground that they have so much to do with this world's affairs. "It would be different," they plead, "if we had more time at our command." They forget that he who with small possessions gives nothing and benefits nobody, would be just as greedy and as Godless if his possessions were multiplied exceedingly. They forget that he who squanders away the one hour a day he has at his command, would be just as careless if that one were multiplied by ten.

The existence of a professional staff of clericals has created and sustained a mania of sermon-hearing. How disappointed would our Chapel-goers be, were they sent away some day without a Sermon ! They take but little interest in the singing; the reading of a chapter to them is dull and prosy while the minister, with closed eyes, is praying, they take the opportunity of looking round, of seeing who are in the galleries and who below: they have come to hear the sermon; that's their mission; and this is the way they worship God! This sermon must hang upon a text: this text must be ingeniously divided into parts: about half a dozen quotations from Scripture may be used in the whole discourse; not more than that, for more would make it dry: there should be a garnishing with pretty words and phrases; 66 felicity" will sound better than "happiness," and "the vital principle" than "life; "-glitter and show are the accepted substitutes for solidity and substance. John Foster tells us of his "hearing a late Reverend Doctor, who used to wear several beautiful rings on his fingers. We could perceive," he writes, "that the sermon was good, and that the man looked respectable enough: but our perverse attention reverted every instant to the rings, and those nice

gesticulations of the hand by which they were made to sparkle so agreeably in the sunshine."

Without a little sparkle in the sunshine the people cannot profit.
Birmingham.

S. J. C.

(To be Continued.)

EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS.-No. II.-CH. m. v. 1.

BRETHREN,-holy brethren, partakers of the high, the holy, the heavenly calling; consider, (look, or think upon) Jesus! On earth as the apostle of the Father: in heaven as the High Priest. The High Priest of our profession, or, whom we have confessed.* Consider Jesus the Christ. Paul came to the conclusion to make known no- | thing among men, save Jesus the Christ, and him crucified; i.e., in all that he said and wrote, this was never lost sight of-never omitted. How intently must Paul have looked upon Jesus before coming to such a conclusion !

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"Christ and his cross were all his theme," (rather, always his theme). He looked into the prophecies concerning the Messiah; tentively and honestly considering whether they were really fulfilled in Jesus, the Nazarene, whom he once persecuted. And he saw that the Gentiles had assembled tumultuously; that the people (of Israel) had meditated a vain thing: that kings and rulers had taken counsel and set themselves against Jesus (the anointed i.e. the Christ Ps. ii.) He (Jesus) was despised and rejected of men—a man of sorrows, &c. And Paul looked back beyond his cross to his apostleship; his life of humiliation, labour and suffering; and in all this, Paul was a follower of Jesus. Jesus taught publicly and from house to house, and so did Paul. Jesus passed from place to place, as the good Shepherd, having a care for all. And Paul could truly say that he cared for all the congregations. Paul considered Jesus, most attentively so; and he exhorts us to do likewise. He had constant fellowship with him; and longed to be more entirely conformed to him in all things-in his sufferings not excepted. (And some say that Paul was crucified, as Jesus was). After attentively considering Jesus, he was content to suffer the loss of all things to gain him;— that he might be found in him-that he might know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings; being made conformable to his death; if by any means he might attain to the resurrection from (among) the dead: (lit. out of, or "from the dead") Phil. iii. 7-11. Jesus was the apostle of the Father; and Paul an apostle of Jesus. What greater honour could he have? And how important was it that he should consider the great apostle who, in this and in all things, has the pre-eminence! Paul had honours before he was a christian. (Phil. iii. 5, 6.) These he once prized, and others prized them, and honoured those who received them; but to be an apostle of Jesus he now deemed more honourable than those; incomparably so. "We preach a crucified Messiah; to Jews, a stumbling-block; to Greeks, foolishness; but unto the called, whether Jews or Greeks, the Christ is the wisdom of God, and the

"The Apostle and High-Priest whom we confessed as ours when we embraced the Christian religion.-BARNES.