tion, mingled with fidelity and plainness. In many cases, probably, he will be able to satisfy you that you had less cause of offence, than you had supposed; and in some, that you had judged him altogether erroneously, through ignorance or mistake. If he shall have been really to blame, you will have taken the most proper method to reform him; and if of a right temper, he will certainly not only correct his error, but thank and love you for your faithfulness and friendship. But beware of scattering indiscriminate reflections on your minister, to the diminution or destruction of his influence with his people. Remember that the credit of religion itself, and the success of the gospel, are connected with respect for the ministerial character. Will your children, or others whomay respect your opinions, be likely, do you think, to derive benefit from the instructions of a man, whom theyshall hear you frequently condemning and reproaching? Or is it probable that you will yourselves,* "receive with meekness, the ingrafted word which is able to save your souls" from one, over whom you are in the habit of erecting yourselves into haughty censors; or towards whom you are continually indulging in fault-finding, and in severe remarks on his performances, actions and character? Avoid, then, as injurious to yourselves, your family and friends-as cruel and unjust to your minister, and as highly offensive to the Saviour himself, all groundless and unnecessary censures of him who is placed over you in the Lord. Make a reasonable allowance even for real blemishes, imperfections, deficiencies and mistakes. Consider that your pastor's office is extremely arduous and difficult, as well as that it unavoidably exposes him to such a general and rigorous scrutiny, that all the real friends of religion should rather be his advocates than his accusers. Recollect too, that we are allfar more disposed to lay blame on another than on ourselves, and that it is by no means improbable, that the fault which you will sometimes * James i. 21. VOL. VI. NO. 3. be ready to find with your pastor, you ought rather to have found with yourselves with your own temper, wrong feelings, or improper expectations. There are two or three sources from which misunderstandings and dissatisfactions, relative to the clergy, are so apt to arise in a congregation in this city, that it may be proper to notice them distinctly. 1. The frequency of publicpreaching. That ministers of the gospel may be slothful and negligent in this particular, and that they who are laborious on the whole, may sometimes be blameably deficient in industry and exertion, I am not disposed to deny; nor would I be the apologist either of the one class or the other. But the truth is, the mass of the people do not know, and it is not easy to make them understand, how much time is necessary to a suitable preparation for the pulpit; nor how many calls of duty and interruptions of study in a populous city, reduce the time which their minister can devote to such preparation, within a small compass indeed. They usually, therefore, expect more preaching from a clergyman than it is practicable for him to perform. The case is particularly hard and embarrassing to a young minister. The late venerable Dr. Witherspoon, whose opinions on ministerial duty certainly deserved the highest regard, said to me when I was coming into your service-" In ordinary circumstances, never neglect, while you are young, to write one sermon in a week-and never attempt to write more than one, for if you do, you will spoil them all. If you must preach twice, let once be without writing, and with little study; otherwise, instead of doing all well, you will do nothing well." To a young clergyman, then, you ought to show much indulgence in the article of preaching; for if he neglect diligent study and laborious preparation for the pulpit in youth, both he and you will probably regret it sorely to the end of his life. For two or three years after entering on his ministry, do not expect from him statedly, unless he voluntarily offer it, more than two public performan- ces in a week. As he advances in | strictly pastoral; that is, to catechise limited by the bounds which I have ble of using what was intended for indicated. In the mean time you ❘ his benefit, to screen him from de age and experience, your expectations may reasonably increase and after a number of years he may, if his health permit, preach as frequently as you may desire to hear him. But the health of your pastor cught always to be an object of your regard, as well as of his own. If it be feeble, make candid allowances for it; if it be vigorous, or comfortable, you have a right to expect that his services will be more numerous and with fewer interruptions. 2. Pastoral visitation is another portion of ministerial duty, in regard to which the complaint in congregations is so general, that I never knew but a single minister-an aged man, who in the last years of his life, devoted nearly his whole time to visiting-who did as much of it as his people desired. There certainly has been no part of my duty as a pastor, in which I have so little satisfied myself as in this; and in which, also, I believe that I have so little satisfied you. Yet I can truly say, that I have always appreciated it highly, and that the anxieties I have felt, the resolutions I have formed, the plans I have devised, and the exertions I have made, to perform it more effectually, have neither been slight nor few.* There are several obstacles to the full discharge of this duty, in this place, not to be easily surmounted or removed. Many earnestly desire to have their clergymen call on them often, as a friend or companion, who would never wish to see him enter their doors on a visit *A consideration which had much influence in determining me to enter on that course of public catechetical lectures which I have continued through two seasons, was, that this would be a substitute for family visitation and catechising-that in this way I could do what was equivalent to catechising all the youth of my charge, with many of their parents, once a week, for half the year.There is nothing I more regret in leaving you, than that I leave this course of lectures incomplete-Possibly it may yet be finished, and the whole be published. the family, to inquire into their religious knowledge and the state of their souls, and to address them seriously on their eternal concerns.Yet such, or similar visits, a clergyman is chiefly bound to pay. His time is too precious to devote much of it to ceremony and sociality. A few hours, occasionally, he may properly employ in calls or visits of mere civility and friendship; for these may have their use, not only in relaxing his own mind, but also in gaining the affections of his parishioners. But those who have no disposition to see their pastor on the errands that are the most proper to his office, have the least reason of all to complain of him for the want of attentions of another kind; and yet these commonly are the very persons who are most disposed to clamor against him for not visiting his people. But the occupations mostly pursued by those who live in this city, and the manner in which the several members of a family are obliged to spend their time, are, in fact, almost incompatible with regular pastoral visitation. Many families can neither intermit their business, nor be seen together, except in the evening-when visits are generally inconvenient to a minister The most which seems to be practicable, is, that your pastor should see you in seasons of affliction, sickness and confinement; at times when some of the family are known to be under serious impressions of religion; and when providential occurrences, of whatever kind, may give you a special claim on his attention. If on such occasions you shall perform your own duty, by letting him know what is the state of your household, he will ordinarily be able and desirous to visit you. And if my successor, or late colleague, shall be able to organize a system of regular family visitation and catechetical instruction, I shall, should I live to know it, rejoice in it with all my heart. But you must not forget that this cannot be effected without your consent and co-operation, and that till it be done, your expectations of visits from your pastors ought to be will recollect, that the constant opportunities which you have for the general catechising of your children, the favorable circumstancesin which you are placed for deriving religious knowledge from books and conversation, the privileges you enjoy in religious societies and conferences, and from the numerous public services on which you may conveniently attend, both on sacred and secular days, are, to say the least, a full equivalent for the want of that family catechising, which congregations otherwise circumstanced more need, and sometimes receive. 3. The last cause of complaint, which I propose to notice, is, the occasional absences of your minister for the recruiting of his health and spirits. That under color of such absences, abuses may be practised, is not to be questioned. At the same time, you ought to be sensible, for it is certainly a truth, that there is not one man in a hundred who has a served censure, or to assist him in the practice of imposition. A man disposed to do this, would be likely to be soon banished from the ministry altogether. Every worthy minister of the gospel will incline to the extreme of over exertion, rather than to that of indulgence. He will often be disposed to regret that he cannot do much more than he finds to be practicable, in a cause so good as that in which he is engaged, and for a master who has such high and tender claims as the one whom he serves. In order to your improvement under the ministrations of your pastor, I recommend a careful attention to the following things 1. Expect and desire him to declare to you "all the counsel of God." Do not indulge a wish that he should keep back, conceal, or disguise, any part of the revealed system. Be willing that he should bring it all forward, and in all its strength....provi constitution to bear the life of a stu-ded that he does it with suitable ex planations and in just proportion, dwelling most on those topics which are most important and most practical. Never quarrel with your minister for dealing plainly with you from the pulpit, and endeavoring to come as closely as he can to your consciences and hearts. Remember that he is bound to do this, both that he may deliver his own soul and be instrumental to your salvation. If he shall avoid coarseness and vulgarity, (which he ought to do as a matter of duty as well as taste,) he cannot be too plain, practical and pungent, in his addresses. Let it be deeply imprinted on your minds, that it is not to be amused or enter dent and pastor in your city, without intervals of relaxation, and occasional excursions in travelling, to restore his wasted strength. The duties of a faithful minister here, bear harder on the animal functions, than the occupations of the day laborer, the mechanic or the merchant. The absences contemplated will, moreover, be useful to your minister, and eventually to yourselves, by the opportunitieswhich they will afford him of enlarging his acquaintance with men of piety and science, of seeing the habits and customs of different places, and of extending generally his knowledge of mankind-a knowledge as important to a minister of the gospel as that of almost any oth-tained, it is not merely to be instructer description. A moderate allowed, that you hear the gospel-it is ance for such absences, therefore, you ought to make, without complaint or relactance. that your souls may be saved. Alas! what would it avial you, though your pastor were as wise and as eloquent as Paul, if he were not honored to win your souls to Christ. Oh, that my successor may be far happier in this respect than I have ever been! Oh, that he may see many seals of his ministry, beyond what I have witnessed! And that this may be On reviewing the three last particulars, I am very sensible that, while they are important to direct you in the treatment of your pastor, they are capable of perversion by him-But there is nothing which may not be perverted; and I hope you will never have a pastor capa- I realized, be not wanting to yourselves 1 -honestly, heartily and wholly, seek | andfaithfully performed, it may, be to be made wiser and better, whenever you hear him preach. 2. Do not treat both your pastor and yourselves so unjustly, as not to attend constantly and regularly on his preaching. It is not in human nature to speak with earnestness to deserted seats. You, therefore, not only sustain a loss yourselves, but you sink the heart of your minister, and disserve those who are present, when you are unnecessarily absent from church. Against that most unchristian custom, which has begun to shew itself among you, of neglecting public worship in the afternoon of the Lord's day, I desire here to enter my pointed testimony. It has its foundation unquestionably in the love of sensual indulgence and conformity to the world; and so long as any individual allows himself in it, I seriously affirm that I have very little expectation that he will profit by the morning service, on which he attends. A conscientious, careful, praverful, and constant attendance on public worship, I do most earnestly stly recommend to you all, as you value your eternal well-being. And though I must not dwell upon it, it, yet I cannot be content without urging, in a word, upon those who have not yet approached to the table of the Lord, not to withdraw from the church during the administration of the holy sacrament of the supper, but to remain till the conclusion of the solemnity, and reverently to meditate on what they witness. Thousands have dated their first deep and effectual impressions of religion, from what they saw and heard at the Lord's table, before they had of the greatest use. It may under the divine blessing, save a soul which might otherwise be lost. View it, therefore, notas an insult, but as it is in reality, an instance and proof of the truest and highest friendship; and be persuaded that you will act, not meanly and pusillanimously, but nobly and wisely, as well as dutifully, in meekly receiving and profiting by "the wounds of a friend." - Open rebuke is better than secret love."* With 4. Fail not to send your children statedly to receive the catechetical instructions of your pastor. Prepare them for these instructions at home, by carefully governing, teaching and praying with them, according to your solemn baptismal vows; and as recollecting what I have often inculcated, that family government, family instruction, and family religion, are the only sure and solid foundations of all that is excellent either in church or state. much regret I have observed that there has been, for a year or two past, a lamentable and increasing remissness in the duty of sending your children to be taught their catechism, and those little forms of devotion which have been prepared for their use. The cause of this, as I am satisfied that I do not mistake it, I must not forbear to expose. It is the criminal neglect of parents to teach their children in their own families. Giving them little instruction there, they are at first ashamed to expose their own unfaithfulness and their childrens' ignorance, by sending them into pubilc; and afterwards they lose, by degrees, all sense of obligation and regard to the without compunction or concern. Believe me, the guilt and the dan ever been admitted to it as commu- | duty till at last they omit it wholly, nicants. 3. Receive the private admonitions, and even rebukes of your pas-ger of this is truly alarming, with deavors to your own, in striving to direct and guide them to the fold of eternal safety and rest. tor, suitably administered in the discharge of his official duty, with temper, candor, submission and thankfulness. To admonish, reprove and rebuke individuals, is an undertaking to which a gospel minister is commonly disposed to be sufficiently reluctant, without any special discouragement. Yet it is one which he is not permitted wholly to refuse; and when seasonably, discreetly, tenderly respect both to yourselves and your offspring. Perform to them, therefore, your own personal duty, and you will be willing and desirous to give your pastor the opportunity of performing his. Send to him, carefully and punctually these lambs of the flock, that he may add his en * Prov. xxvii.. 5. Some account of the impressions on the mind of George Parsons, as appeared from his conversation, a short time before, and in his last illness. 5. Remember your pastor in all your prayers. How often does the great apostle of the gentiles repeat the injunction--" Brethren, pray for us." He felt constantly the necessity of being aided by the devout supplications of all the faithful: And if such was the fact in regard to him, with all his extraordinary furniture and endowments, what must be the feelings of every inferior and ordinary minister of the gospel, who has any right views of his work and his necessities? He will assuredly most earnestly desire, as he will most urgently need, your unceasing prayers; and you will incur the guilt of no common neglect, if you do not prefer your petitions to God constantly and ardently in his behalf. Neglect in this particular, may, also, be most injurious to yourselves; for your pastor's labors however faith-clared to his wife, that he would ful, and abundant, will do you no good, unless God confer his blessing on them; and it is only in answer to prayer that you have a right to expect the blessing. Therefore, pray for your pastor and for the success of his ministrations-1 had almost said-whenever you pray for yourselves. Mr. George Parsons was born at Enfield, Aug. 14th, 1787, of respectable parents; and died December 14th, 1812, at the age of 25 years and 4 months. He was dedicated to God in baptism, while an infant. The importance of religion was taught him from his youth to riper years; but with no other visible effects, than those which respect morality. He was moral and regular in his life and conversation, remarkably constant at public worship, and attentive when in the house of God. But the seed that was early sown, sprung up in due time. On the morning after he had spent the preceding evening in mirth and dancing, in his usual health, he solemnly de never again set his foot on the floor to dance. "It is time," said he, "for you and I to attend to our bibles." These observations may shew every one, that dancing and religious impressions on the mind are so perfectly inconsistent with each other, that one or the other will be dismissed. And here you will permit me to put in a request, that I may still be specially remembered in your addresses to God, though my pastoral | relation to you be dissolved. Give me this proof of your attachment and affection, and I will esteem it as | language to all who were present. the most precious which I could receive. Pray that I may be directed, assisted and blessed, in the arduous trust which I am about to assume, and for the right execution of which I feel that I need both wisdom and strength which can come from God alone.-Pray that I may be made the humble instrument of promoting our Redeemer's cause to the end of my days; and that then, through his infinite merits and prevalent intercession, I may be permitted to enter on "the rest which remaineth for the people of God." (To be concluded in our next.) : The night following, he was taken ill, and as he was full of bodily pain, he said very little: as he drew nearer to the close of life, strength seemed to be given him; his tongue was loosed, and he spoke in solemn Among the first questions which were asked him, was this, whether any thing troubled his mind; he replied, "a sick bed is a poor place for repentance." The Saturday before his death, which took place early on the morning of the succeeding Monday, he repeated the words, "a sick bed is a poor place for repentance." He appeared then to be much alarmed concerning himself, and viewed his exit near at hand.During the Sabbath he appeared to be often in prayer, and to be fervent in his petitions that he might be spared, yet a little while: then in earnest, and with apparent fervency, he would pray for his soul. On Sab |