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it. The rules of its formation must change with the spirit. of the age. If the subject is too antiquated or remote, it has no hold upon the passions, and can excite them neither one way nor the other, because it finds no congenial elements to work upon. Who but a Grecian could enter fully into the sorrows of an Electra, wailing for the misery and indignity her supposed dead brother endures by not having the usual funeral rites performed for him by his relatives? If Mr. Stuart, instead of comparing the modern versions of the plot of Edipus with the ancient Greek, had endeavoured to infuse the spirit of the Greeks into the students of their drama, by being more exegetical in the manners, customs, and sentiments of the Athenians as bearing upon the plot, he would have been more in keeping with the design of his performance. Yet we shall not do justice to the author without quoting the following admirable remarks, p. 214.

"Tragedy must be founded either on circumstances which are universal, or on those which belong to particular countries. In the first case it moves on the spring of feelings, associations and conceptions which are common, necessary, and natural to all, and is therefore interesting to all. In the second case it is national-it is Greek, or Roman, or French, or English, according as its spirit and materials are the peculiar property of a people. But the Edipus of Corneille is founded on circumstances which are neither entirely universal nor particular. It is an incongruous mixture of materials and manners drawn from two remote and widely differing nations. Its fable is one of Grecian mythology, but Corneille has stripped it of its Grecian costume, torn its characters away from all the spirit and customs of their age, and given them French manners, and the calculating policy of a French court. He has united the simple, stern subject of Sophocles with a low intrigue, and, as might be expected from this unnatural union, the former is divested of all its terror and pity, and the latter, so far from exciting in our minds any sympathy, creates nothing but disgust." All this is admirable-sound criticism, and well expressed. Here then the Professor fixes a good limit to the claims which the Greek tragedians have upon our admiration. What is universal, the sublimity, pathos, and soul-delineations of the tragedians, these we admire. What is national, their manners, superstition, and mythological material of the Greek plot, with these we have no affinity. The former give them a

readable interest; but the latter eternally restrict them to the closet, and rob them of their character as acting dramas. All comparison then between the ancients and moderns is useless. It is an affair of national taste; and none but a Frenchman could think of perverting that.

Upon the whole, we can safely recommend to the scholar Mr. Stuart's handsome edition of the Edipus Tyrannus as being the earnest of a series of commentaries on the Greek Tragedians, in which every thing that is useful to the student will be furnished to guide him through the difficulties of the Greek language, according to the most approved criticisms of the Europeans, and at the same time imbue him with some tincture of the spirit of the ancient drama. Some view, however, of the metres and the structure of the choral odes, of the scenical apparatus, dramatic contests, etc., might form the subject of useful critiques appended to the next Plays. The verbal criticisms might partake more of the form of grammatical rule, after the manner of Porson, Bloomfield, etc. We subscribe cordially to Mr. Stuart's wish"May this my first attempt in the sphere of Greek literature, undertaken principally with the view of being useful to my pupils, be favourably received."

ART. VI. THE PASTORAL OFFICE AND CHARITIES.

By Rev. H. READ, late missionary at Ahmednuggur.

We

THE Conversion of the world is professedly, and we hope, really the leading object in the wishes and efforts of the Church of Christ. It should doubtless be a grand desideratum with every Christian to know how this object can be the most readily accomplished. Nothing can be more proper than free discussion of the ways and means. are not among those that apprehend any thing but good from such a discussion. It may develope principles which shall lead to the abrogation of long existing systems. And these systems may have been regarded as essential to the prosperity of the missionary work, while indeed they may now be but hindrances.

It behooves us at least to examine our present mode of

operations, and seriously to inquire if there be not a better. And it behooves us to give a weighty consideration to other systems that have been proposed.

The design of the present article is to contemplate the work of Benevolence in a single aspect-its relation to the pastoral office.

The pastoral office is one of sacred dignity and vast responsibility. It is a divinely-appointed institution for the complete supervision of the Christian Church. It has a twofold object: the edification of the Church, and her extension. Whatever be the actual efficiency of the gospel ministry, its design doubtless is to accomplish both these purposes. All reforms belong either to the body politic, or the body ecclesiastic. The regularly appointed leaders in these respective bodies stand charged with the responsibility of suppressing vice. The state possesses the proper authority and power, and may, and ought to employ the proper means of suppressing all those vices that fall within the reach of the secular arm. And the Church possesses all the necessary authority, and all the needed means for the curbing or exterminating all those vices which more properly fall within the precincts of her dominion. The suppression of vice is, in fact, in the divine economy, a consequence of the faithful discharge of the twofold duty of edi fying and extending the Church. Both objects are accomplished by the presentation of the truth-the exhibition of light, before which darkness will flee away.

When an extraneous power must be employed to secure the ends of government, we justly reproach the government as corrupt and imbecile. In like manner we concede the weakness of the Church, and the inefficiency of the divine organization of gospel institutions when we recognize the necessity of human institutions to supply that which is wanting in the divine organization. Such a concession is derogatory to the Church, and dishonourable to the great Head of the Church. We believe that the Church needs no such extraneous aid. We believe that Christ, in organizing the gospel ministry and appointing overseers over the different portions of the catholic church, adopted a system adequate to all the exigencies of this body, and one which, if carried out by its ministers, will prove to be all that Christ designed it should be. He gave in charge to his ministers not only the protection, the instruction, and the building up of his Church

in countries where it is already established, but he particularly charged them that they see to it that the gospel be made known to all that dwell on the face of the earth. Every minister of Christ, therefore, wherever he may be situated-every man who bears a commission from the great Head of the Church, is bound in virtue of his commission as ambassador of Christ, to act his own part, and to bear his own responsibility in the whole work of the gospel ministry. He is set in the Church as a leader in all that appertains to the business of the Church, whether it be for her edification, or for her extension.

Paul was neither a fund-gatherer, nor a revivalist, nor a temperance leader, nor a missionary, nor an abolitionist, nor a peace agent. He was more. He was a minister of Christ-preaching the gospel of peace, and temperance, and liberty to the captives, and good tidings of great joy to all people. His office was circumscribed by none of these modern boundaries. The reviving of the Church; the alarm and conversion of sinners; the promotion of temperance; the collecting of funds for the poor; the fitting out, sending abroad, and the support of preachers among the heathen, were but the every day functions of his high and holy calling. Strip the sacred office of these cardinal duties, and it is shorn of more than half its glory. Paul would as soon have adopted the plan of setting apart a particular order of ministers for the administration of the Lord's Supper; and another order for the administering of baptism; and another for the office of marriage, or for visiting the sick, or officiating at funerals, as to have adopted our new plan of designating large classes of ministers to the performance of single duties in the work of the ministry.

Portions of the American Church now present to the world a singular anomaly: To a choice few of her sons is conceded the power-or something very much like the power of "producing" and "conducting revivals," The Spirit" follows," accompanies, or "goes before them," and they alone understand the matter of revivals. Pastors of churches, and all ordinary ministers must stand back, and see their zeal for the Lord. This one erroneous opinion, with its consequent practice, is no doubt on the wane. The more judicious, sober portion of the Christian community are beginning to see the evil of detaching so important a part of the minister's work from the pastoral office. They are

now by painful experience convinced that so important a part of the sacred office as the work of revivals, must be allowed to remain an integral and indispensable duty of every minister of Jesus Christ.

Yet the principle has not been abandoned. It is still acted upon in reference to some of the most important functions of the holy office. The agents of our different benevolent and moral societies, are still a living-travelling reproach on a regular ministry. They are professedly, and really, necessary only to fill up the pastor's deficiencies. Let the pastor do what is his plain, his acknowledged duty, and there would be no occasion for agents of any kind. Our present system of agencies is founded on the assumption that the regular ministers of the Church are either unqualified or unwilling to do their duty. If unqualified, they ought to suspend the exercise of their office, and prepare themselves in the shortest possible time for the discharge of, at least, these more prominent duties of their calling. And they can never hope for a better time for such preparation than during the present regency of agencies. But if it be a disability in the will, more than in the head, their whole duty should first be thrown upon them, and let the event tell whether they will shrink from the discharge of those important pastoral duties which are now done by hired men, and "strangers." Where the experiment has been tried, it has succeeded well. Pastors have not shrunk from their duty. And why should we suppose there will be any disastrous dereliction?

The two following considerations, if sustained, are sufficient to substantiate the foregoing positions.

FIRST, Agencies are now unnecessary. The necessity never did exist except in the delinquency of pastors. In the incipient stages of foreign missions, for an example, such extraneous aid, doubtless, was necessary to help on our predecessors in the ministry, in the discharge of their duty to the heathen. They were then a necessary evil which, in a darker dispensation, might be tolerated. Twenty years ago and little was known, and little could be known of missionary operations. And it seemed necessary to employ the few who were then in advance of their brethren in knowledge or feeling on this subject, to visit both ministers and people, and enlighten and electrify them on their momentous duty to a perishing world. Many then doubted as to the VOL. IV.

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