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deaconship is intended as a probationary period and a preparatory step for the higher office of the priest, or presbyter. It is on the presumption that a man has used the office of a deacon well; and by manifesting boldness and soundness in the faith, combined with aptness to teach, and corresponding purity of life and conversation, that he is judged to have purchased for himself another and a higher step in the ministry; but how this theory is found to answer in our practice, needs not a word of comment. The young deacon of twentyfour, passes, if he can only get through the somewhat stiffer episcopal examination for priest's orders, fit or unfit, at once and for life, into the ranks of the second and most responsible branch of the Church of England ministry.

A remedy, not only efficient in itself for the cure of this unpreparedness for a higher and more important office, but at the same time affording no slight and ineffective check to the intrusion of unfit men into the ministry at all, would, as we think, be at once found in the adoption of two things;-First. The extension of the term during which all candidates for the priesthood must remain deacons: Secondly. The ordination of men as deacons who are not of necessity to be advanced to the office of the priesthood, but whose claim for such preferment should be, that long tried service, and successful ministry amongst his own class, which should point him out as worthy of a more perfect ministry.

As to the first particular, we feel that it needs little or no argument to shew that the short interval of twelve months is anything but a sufficient term, either for probation or prepara

tion, for the more responsible office almost always conferred at the expiration of that period. Under the present entire system of preparation for the ministry, we have seen that very little time, and very little distinct and thoroughly methodical attention, is, or can be, given before ordination, to the acquirement of sound theological learning, and of that knowledge which is really valuable to the christian minister and pastor, while after ordination, especially in our large metropolitan parishes, our deacon-curates are so engaged and called off by the performance of the purely mechanical offices of marriages, baptisms, and burials, that we have often heard them lament they cannot find time to study, or to visit the sick.

We should certainly recommend the extension of the term at least to two, if not three years, for the purpose of giving our young deacons a longer time to prepare and fit themselves for the higher office; and when we come to our second particular, we shall presume to offer a plan which would set them free from much of that distraction of which they at present too justly complain.

The extension of the present term would, as we think, not only ensure a more perfectly prepared ministry, but would deter many from choosing the sacred calling, who now enter upon its solemn duties merely as a profession wherein they may pass respectably through life, gain a livelihood, or take either the certainty or the chance of obtaining large and valuable preferments. We feel certain that the prolongation of the deaconship, while it might not altogether prevent, yet would in a great measure check, the evils under which the Church has always laboured, in the wholesale or

THE CHURCH AND ITS MINISTRY.

dination of those who, without any breach of christian charity, we are compelled to regard as far better fitted and prepared for the service of the world than for that of the Church.

It is not on account of the comparative youth of those who so quickly exchange the deaconship for the priesthood, that we thus write; we remember the Apostle's precept respecting Timothy, and neither despise or disparage the faithful, though of course inexperienced, efforts of young clergymen; but the system itself requires alteration, and it is due to the young clergyman himself that he should have longer time for actual theological preparation and experience, before he undertakes what, in all but the name and the performance of two or three portions of the service, includes the most responsible duties of the presbyter.

But the Church cries out for a class of ministers for our poorer brethren; men who, as we hinted in a previous number, shall act as ordained missionaries to a population in a state of almost heathen darkness; men who, while ministering as regularly recognized preaching Deacons amongst the poor in the courts and alleys of our metropolitan and provincial towns, shall act as pioneers for the parochial clergy; men who shall go in and out amongst the people, and gain that access to their homes, their hearts, and their consciences, which it is too often impossible, from a variety of causes, for the present order of our clergy to effect. The thought is saddening and overwhelming, how few of the hundreds of thousands of our labouring poor know a minister, ever hear his voice, or enter the church where he ministers, except

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for baptism, for marriage, or for burial.

City Missionaries do great things. Scripture Readers are too much tied by our false and fettering notions of church order, and hundreds of thousands of immortal souls are passing into eternity while we are debating and demurring as to how far we can sanction a man gathering his fellowmen into rooms, and how far that man may go in ministering to them that bread and water of life, without the possession of which they must perish for ever.

Let us search out a body of real christian men, with hearts filled with the love of God and of the souls of their fellow-creatures; let us see that they are thoroughly trained by deep study of the word of God, and with just so much of that human learning as shall enable them to meet the Socinian, the Romanist, the Infidel, and the Socialist; and let us give to them that ecclesiastical character, and that proper position in the Church, which shall entitle them to go forth as accredited ministers of our beloved Church, amongst the masses of our people, to the bulk of whom the Church of England, as well as any other section of the Christian Church, is powerless in effecting any important or commensurate good.

Funds would not be wanting for an agency of this kind. Our churches have only to be told by our ministers that they want help-ministerial help; that they want Deacons who shall go forth clothed with power and responsibility, to act where they themselves cannot do so, for want of time, or with the like efficiency. As we said before, these Deacons might greatly relieve the present clergy, by officiating at baptisms and burials, the frequent ad

ministration of which services call off the present Curates from parochial visiting and private study.

Another advantage would be gained by this class of ministry. Such men, if a week's notice were required for the administration of the sacrament of baptism, might exercise a most important influence, by personally visiting the parties who propose to offer their infants at the baptismal font, and might bring before the parents and sponsors the solemn and responsible nature of the engagement then to be entered into. Who can tell what benefit this might entail upon the Church? It might produce some alteration in the present wretched state of things, where infants are presented in dozens by unknown parents, and answered for by unknown sponsors.

At all events, we must try what can be done to effect a more thoroughly efficient pastoral agency amongst our poor, or, in these times of Romish activity, they will fall a prey to the seducing doctrines of a priesthood which train and use their converts with greedy alacrity in a warfare not only against the Protestant Church, but against that Protestant good order and government which it is one of the objects of the former to uphold and support.

We think that what we have advanced, though its purport has been but hastily sketched and rudely put together, may nevertheless have the effect of attracting wiser heads and abler pens to the consideration and more ample development of its important subject.

C. A.

Divinity.

LIFE IN CHRIST, THE WHEN We look into the world, we see different men esteeming different things as of the first importance. One man values wealth; another, fame, and reputation; another, pleasure; and another, vice. And if we look further into their history, we shall find that towards the close of their career, these are, most of them, disappointed men. They fail in obtaining their object; or if they gain it, it fails of imparting the wished-for gratification. They lie down in disappointment and in

sorrow.

It is then of the first importance that we should be rightly directed as to what is really worthy of pursuit, and as to the true mode of obtaining it; and thankful indeed ought we to

ONE THING NEEDFUL.

be, that if we are willing to take advice, that advice is not wanting. The wisdom of the Son of God, who visited this world for our salvation, determines the question for us, and sets definitely before us the object which is most worthy of our regard.

It appears that Jesus went into the house of Martha and Mary, where He was hospitably entertained; but, while Mary sat at the feet of Jesus and heard His word, Martha was cumbered about much serving, busied and anxious about the treatment of her distinguished Guest. Wearied at length with her exertions, and perhaps a little fretted at Mary's evident indifference to those minor objects, she said to Jesus, "Lord, dost thou not care

THE ONE THING Needful.

that my sister hath left me to serve alone? bid her therefore that she help me. And Jesus answered," by a reproof given in faithfulness and in simplicity to her whose heart was warm in His service, and whose whole labour had respect to His comfort, "Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things; but one thing is needful.” Here is a plain piece of advice, in which the Saviour endeavours to lead away the mind of Martha from the many subordinate and needless cares about which she was so much perplexed, and to induce her to seek one thing which was supremely and exclusively needful.

The words of our Saviour are the words of wisdom. They are given to be permanently and perpetually the instruction of poor misguided human nature; and the course which Jesus suggested to Martha is the wise course for all the children of men. This short sentence still says to all the busy occupants of this changing scene, You are careful and troubled about many things; your heart is distracted with needless cares about the things of this present world; they rise with apparent importance before you, as if they were necessary to happiness; “but one thing is needful," one thing is indispensable, and if you seek this, and secure this, all others are matters of comparative indifference. Let us then inquire into this matter further, and endeavour to ascertain,

1. What this one thing needful is. 2. Why it is needful.

3. When it is needful.

First. What is this one thing needful? This is evident from the context. Jesus says, "One thing is needful: and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her." Here, evidently, the good part

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which Mary chose is the one thing which was needful to Martha and to all others. And what is the good part which Mary had chosen? She had chosen to sit at the feet of Jesus, and to hear His word. Now it is written in John v. 24, “He that heareth my word, and believeth on Him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation: but is passed from death unto life;"i.e. a vital change takes place in consequence of sincerely hearing and believing the words of Jesus Christ. The believing hearer passes from death unto life. This, then, is the good part which Mary had chosen. This was the one thing needful. It was spiritual life arising from faith in Jesus Christ. He that believeth, "is passed from death unto life." And this it is which is offered to all who hear the Gospel, and which is pointed out there as absolutely necessary to all the children of transgression.

The great object of the incarnation of the Second Person of the Trinity as Jesus Christ the Son of Mary, was to impart this spiritual life to the sons of men. Experience proves that they are without this spiritual life; that naturally they are destitute of a holy, godly influence. The state of man in general, the state of the human affections and passions in every individual yet unaltered by faith in the Redeemer, is this of spiritual death; whatever be his moral rectitude towards his fellow creature, he is the subject of an entire alienation from God, and a destitution of godly influence. The incarnation and the doings of our Divine Immanuel were a gracious interference, purely for the purpose of remedying this evil. The Son of God became man, and died upon the cross for sin, that the law might not be broken, and

that Divine justice might be satisfied, and that, consistently with the veracity and purity of God, sinners might be pardoned. And now, in consequence of what Jesus Christ has done, the Divine life which is in Him with out measure, as an inexhaustible fountain, is communicable from Him to all who will receive it. He says, "This is the will of Him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on Him, may have everlasting life." This truth is represented to us in Scripture by many strong figures. Christ is thus spoken of in John vi., as “living bread," as a sustenance actually endued with life, so that he who partakes of it receives life from it, as he would receive strength from partaking of natural bread. So it is said, "I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world." In John xv. Christ is spoken of as a "vine," or living stock of a tree; and the communication of life to His members is taught by the illustration of the process of grafting. There is to be such a connexion between the stock and every scion inserted into it, as that the vital principle should flow from the root to that branch, and where this fails, it is shewn that the branch remains dead, and withers. Then, in 1 Peter ii. Christ is described as 66 living stone," a foundation stone, laid for the erection of a temple upon it; but having in itself, not merely the principles of firmness and durability, so that other stones might be safely laid upon it till the building is complete, but having in it also the principle of life, so that every stone laid upon it might receive that life from it

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by contact, and the whole building might become one living temple,—a beautiful, symmetrical, and everlasting building, composed of living stones, who have spiritual life in themselves to serve God, because there is that communicable spiritual life in the foundation stone, Jesus Christ. So it is written, "To whom coming, as unto a living stone, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God and precious, ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ." If we come to Christ, believing that He is able to give us this spiritual life, we shall assuredly receive it.

And what is the essential difference between those who have received this blessing and those who have not? It is a moral difference of the most important kind, shewing itself in the whole character and conduct. Whoever he is, who has so received a blessing by a faithful hearing of Christ's word, is quickened from a death in sin, from a state of deadness to God and godliness, in which he was not aware of his guilt and danger, but was utterly indifferent to the safety of his soul, and the honour and glory of God; but now, as receiving life from Christ, he partakes of the holy nature of the Mediator by whom he is redeemed, and his desire is thenceforth to live to God, to offer continually spiritual sacrifices,-the sacrifices of praise, and love, and obedience. Before he loved sin; now he hates it, shrinks from it, strives against it. Before he was indifferent to God; now he yearns after Him, longs to know and love Him better, and to see more deeply into the mysteries of His will, and to realize a more powerful

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