Without residing upon his cure of souls, the best man living cannot do his duty. The question once asked by the brethren of David, may be fairly put to the conscience of every non-resident clergyman,"With whom hast thou left those few sheep in the wilderness?" It will not be denied, that the most solemn oaths have been taken, and the most sacred promises made; and yet the minister of God, the very character who should be ready to explain the nature of an oath, and shew the tendency of a promise to others, is breaking these engagements himself. The lamp which should illumine the sanctuary, is rarely seen within its walls. may To compare great things with small, as a country squire, I keep a flock of sheep; no matter whether the Merino or the South Down. I am curious in my wool, and pride myself upon my superior mutton. My shepherd once said to me, "Please your honour, I can have a cottage with a nice bit of garden, in the next village; I will be sure to come early, and go home late; I live there?" Certainly not, my good man, said I, if you wish to continue in my service. I give you a small cottage in my own field; but you want a garden: if the place suits you, live in it; but if not, leave the employment, and choose for yourself. Now, sir, if my shepherd must be on the spot, to attend to his sheep, to watch over them, to administer medicine, to enlarge the fold, and to change the pasture-how much more in a spiritual sense? Our Lord is said to have had compassion on the multitude, because they were as sheep having no shepherd. I fear that there are many such multitudes in the present day. The benefits to be derived from clerical residence are incalculable. I will venture to name a few of the most apparent. 1st, The minister is neither hurried nor fatigued when he enters upon the duties of the Sabbath. It is the Lord's day; and therefore the Lord's servant should "make the Sabbath a delight." 2dly, The minister's example has great weight on this holy day. The behaviour, likewise, of his children and his servants tends to lead others into the paths of holi ness. 3dly, The minister is at hand to advise his parishioners in any little emergency. No intruder will attempt to make inroads when the watchinan is at his post. 4thly, The sick persons in his parish are constantly attended. The good impressions made in sickness are not suffered to wear off, without some remonstrance. An evening call when the poor man has left his work; a religious tract; a word in season; a friendly prayer: these may be blessed to the salvation of the soul. 5thly, The resident minister is a father to the poor. Suppose him to have no children of his own, he can do the more for the children of others. Dr. Johnson, speaking of the responsibility of ministers, once said, "that a clergyman was the father of a larger family than be could maintain." Be it so: but if he cannot maintain all the children, he will do something towards their maintenance. 6thly, Sunday-schools, where a clergyman is resident, may do incalculable good. To these a stranger caunot attend; and if they are neglected, persons of some other religious persuasion step in, take up the young shoots, and transplant them into a different soil. 7thly, We might insist upon the exquisite pleasure to be derived from residence. As the good old Rector, mentioned in the early part of this paper, used to say, "I feel, after a week's labour in the vineyard, that which I cannot describe;" a joy with which a stranger intermeddleth not. To know a people, we must live in the midst of them! 8thly, How rich the recompence of reward. To say before the tribunal of God, Lo! I, and the children which God hath given me! Would to God that these hints might stimulate any one non-resident clergyman to consider the vast weight of responsibility imposed upon him. If he be a close reasoner, let him take-1st, the negative side of this question, and calculate what are the losses, temporal and spiritual, which his people sustain by bis absence from his benefice; and what are the wants which he has undertaken to supply. Then-2dly, let him turn to the positive good which the same people might receive if he were in his pulpit on the seventh day, and in his appointed orbit of usefulness on the other six days in the week. Let this warning of our Blessed Master be written in letters of gold," Cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer darkness; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth." Let the same characters record this encouragement, "Call the labourers, and give them their hire"-" Thou hast been faithful in a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy Lord." I am, &c. R. P. B. To the Editor of the Christian Observer. As so much has already been written on the Expenses of a College Education, I really should feel ashamed of offering any farther remarks on the subject, were I not confident that erroneous opinions must necessarily be formed, from the statements given by your various correspondents. I do not mean, even to insinuate that each has not given a true account of those instances which have fallen under his notice; but on reading them, I am reminded of the story of three travellers, who disputed about the colour of the camelion; one contending that it was blue, another green, and the other black; With respect to the expenses of some young men, mentioned by RUSTICUS, no one will pretend to deny, that such may not, nay that such do, actually occur; yet every one, who is in the least degree acquainted with the University, knows, that these are not necessary expenses, nor are they any other than would probably have been contracted in almost any other situation. To consider these, therefore, as college expenses is certainly to consider them in a very erroneous point of view. Again, the instances adduced by the OLD FELLOW are, I have no doubt, perfectly true; but I would ask, "Is it possible to form a correct idea of college expenses, from single instances of remarkably parsimonious characters, or of persons under particular circumstances?" Surely not. Yet such are the cases presented by your correspondents. Such was Henry Kirke White's. But suppose it to be otherwise, it must be recollected that he speaks only of St. John's College; and since his time, such has been the influx of sizars (owing probably to his letters) that St. John's now, is not what it was then. If, however, your correspondent, the Old Fellow, means only to shew what may be done, I could bring him an instance of one, whose expenses, during the whole of his undergraduateship, were considerably less than 591. and this too, without having any scholarship, without having commons free, or, in fact, without having any emolument whatever. But, sir, I need not say, that, most probably, this is the only instance of the kind that ever did or ever will occur. The Old Fellow informs us, that he is speaking of "the actual college expenses of a sizar;" but nee he to be informed that, even these vary very considerably? Does he not know, that two sizars, whose habits and proceedings exactly coincide, may, nevertheless, find their accounts very different? In some colleges a sizar may have commons and rooms free, while at others he must pay for both. Again, the expenses of one may be considerably reduced by emolunents arising from scholarships, chapel-clerkship, &c. &c. while another may have no such deduc tion. Now sir, as I was a sizar not a century ago, perhaps you will give me leave to state what were my annual expenses. Be it remembered, that it was of great importance to me to be economical; and on a review of my accounts, I really cannot discover that I have been otherwise. It must be understood also, that I take into account, not only" actual college expenses," (which, by the bye, is so indefinite a phrase that nobody knows what is meant by it), but every expense whatever, except that of travelling. Well then, sir, on an average, after every deduction is made, I find it has cost me 1057. per annum. Perhaps at first, the Old Fellow may startle, on comparing this with his 477. and think me a very extravagant youth: let him, however, suspend his judgment a moment, and I trust he will change his opinion of me. I was placed at a college where I had no deduction whatever, except about 167. per annum, arising from a scholarship. My account, therefore, not only includes commons, rooms, servants, &c. but also furniture, expenses of degree, academical dress, &c.; tailors' bills, booksellers', (for such books as were absolutely necessary); in fact, every other expense during my undergraduateship. I must just observe, however, that for near five months in the summer, and one in the winter, I was with my friends, and therefore, during that time, had no expenses. Under these circumstances, I conceive that no person can, with any degree of respectability, pass through college for a less sum. As I have said before, the expenses of a sizar are very various: but, by knowing the amount of the emoluments, it will be an easy matter to compute with a tolerable accuracy the necessary expenses of one in that situation. I cannot take my leave of the Old Fellow, without informing him, that I have not expended a single farthing in dinner parties, wine parties, &c. &c. or in fact on any superfluites. I am, &c. A. B. REVIEW OF NEW PUBLICATIONS. A brief Account of the Jesuits: with historical Proofs in support of it, tending to establish the Danger of the Revival of that Order to the World at large, and to the United Kingdom in particular. London: Rivingtons. 1815. pp. 56. To those who desire the extension of religion, no contemplation can be more painful than the errors or misconduct either of the churches or of the individuals who profess it. It is difficult to condemn one member of the Christian body, without feeling a momentary suspicion of the rest-to detect a single spot of leprosy upon the vestments of the church, without fancying that it has diffused itself over the whole. This circumstance, then, in itself, has been sufficient to render that part of our office which requires the exposure of the faults of any Christian church or body, peculiarly irksome to us; and if we ever enter upon the task, it is not to indulge our taste, but to fulfil our duty. Nor does this reluctance to investigate and condemn confine itself to the various bodies of Christians existing in our own country. It extends to the Church of Rome. Enough, as it seems to us, and more than enough of the fiery arrows of disputation have been discharged by the Romish and Protestant Churches. Long enough have we viewed each other through the dark medium of passion and prejudice. Long enough have all parties conceived that the best vindication of their own principles is the unjust inculpation of others. It is now time, not that we should forsake or compromise the truth; not that we should call good evil, and evil good; not that we should deny the right and necessity for Christiaus to quit the altar of Popery, if that altar ceased to be erected on "the foundation of apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner-stone," but that we should maintain our cause with mildness, temperance, and truth; that we should cease to misrepresent or to magnify that we should rather mourn than triumph over the faults of our sister; that we should endeavour, under the Divine blessing, to win her to a purer creed and a holier temper, by the exhibition of the practical influence of that better creed upon ourselves. Acting upon this principle, it is impossible for us willingly to multiply the faults of Papists; to impute to them either principles or consequences of principles which they disown; to visit upon them, by a sort of posthumous sentence, all those crimes of their ancestors which sprang, perhaps, as much from the spirit of the times as the character of the religion. But, at the same time, there is a point at which forbearance must have an end, and at which silence would be criminal; and such a point is that, we conceive, to which modern Popes or Papists conduct us, when, instead of acknowledging and deploring the crimes of their predecessors, they re-erect the institutions in which those crimes chiefly originated;—when they again polish and sharpen what have been the weapons of assasination-or weave what has proved itself to be the fatal web of political or religious intrigue. It certainly was with deep regret, as well as astonishment, we perceived that, no sooner was the millstone of despotism and usurpation taken from the neck of Popery, no sooner did she arise and shake herself from the dust of oppression and insult, than she proved that affliction had purged away few of her follies. We saw, and we were shocked to see, even in Paris, many of the ancient superstitions revived— ceremonies which had disappeared even before the Revolution, again affront the eye of reason and common sense-a disposition to invest the pope with much of that authority which his predecessors had so long and mischievously possessed. All this, however, might have been passed over in silence; because we are convinced that the spirit of the age, unless peculiarly controuled, will soon extinguish much of the mummery of this artificial and childish system of religious worship; and that the pope is not the more powerful because a few of his followers choose to think him so. But the pamphlet before us, with several other important documents, present a more important and alarming subject of inquiry, viz.: the revival of the Order of the Jesuits, by a mandate of the Pope. The pamphlet itself is well written; though occasionally it errs, we think, by colouring a very little too highly; by charging evils exclusively upon Jesuitism, of which it was only in part the cause; by passing over certain concurrent causes; by allowing too little to warrant. that the concessions made to the Jesuits in Russia and Sicily, should extend to all his ecclesiastical states, and to all other states." All necessary powers are then granted to the present General of the Society, "in order that the said states may freely receive all who desire to be, or shall be, admitted into the Order; and power is granted to the members to apply themselves to the education of youth-to direct colleges and seminaries-to hear confessions, to preach, and administer the sacraments." the spirit of the age, and to the individual villany of some calling themselves Jesuits; yet, in general, the arguments are just and forcible, the historical references accurate, and the conclusion no stronger than the premises appear abundantly to It is our intention to pass over much the same ground with the author; and, in so doing, we shall either resort to our own stores, or take the liberty of drawing upon him, as may best serve our purpose. If we are not mistaken, the whole view of the subject will be such as to justify, if not, what the author demands, a legislative interference to resist the landing of a Jesuit upon our shores, yet such representation from every part of Europe to the Court of Rome, as may at once teach her that she cannot with impunity let loose the ministers of intrigue and of crime upon nations where these crimes are already recorded in letters of blood. And, in the first place, it may be well to examine the instrument by which the Order is restored. Jesuitism had already been revived in 1801, under the auspices of the very wise and amiable Emperor Paul, and in Sardinia, in 1804, by King Ferdinand. But such partial restoration ill satisfied the more ambitious members of that, at all times, ambitious body. Accordingly a bull was obtained from Rome in August, 1814, in which the present pope declares that he should deem himself guilty "towards God, if, amidst the dangers of the Christian republic, he should neglect to employ the aids which the special providence of God had put in his power, and if, placed in the bark of St. Peter, and tossed by continual storms, he should refuse to employ the vigorous and experienced powers who volunteer their services." It then declares, that the pope," in virtue of the plenitude of apostolic power, and with perpetual validity, had decreed, "The bull is then directed to be inviolably observed, in all future times, and that it shall never be submitted to the judgment or revision of any judge, with whatever power he may be clothed, declaring null and void any encroachment on those regulations, either knowingly or from ignorance." The bull of Clement XIV. who abolished the order, is then expressly abrogated- and it is, lastly, stated, that "if any one shall attempt by an audacious temerity to infringe or oppose any part of that ordinance, he will thereby incur the indignation of Almighty God, and of the holy Apostles." It has already been intimated, that had the crimes charged upon the Society of Jesuits been chargeable, rather upon the spirit of the times than upon the institution; had they originated, rather in the vices of a few individuals connected with that Society than in the genius of the Order itself; had they been rather the accidental than necessary fruits of its constitution, we might have deemed it right to say less on the subject. But the fact appears to be, that, taking human nature and the state of society as they are, we cannot conceive that such an Order could exist in the world, and such consequences not arise. But this is a matter of proof rather than of assertion; and we will therefore begin by laying before our readers some account of the Society, drawn partly |