nay, many of them I know to be very excellent and learned men; but they did not appear to me to possess those talents which are likely to give eclat to the chapel, and to attract a congregation."I now felt that I should come at the grand secret of those requisites" which had been insisted upon in the advertisement-and, therefore, asked him in what these candidates were defective?—“ In three main essentials" was the answer “in figure, in voice, and in effect-all which must be united in any assistaut. It so happened that not one of them was thus gifted, and although I have no doubt of their composition being in many instances far above the general style of sermons, yet I was well aware they would not please my congregation."- Might they not have edified their hearers," I asked"and would not edification have pleased them?"-" O, no." replied he, “not unless it was done in a pleasing manner; for you know a congregation can read edifying sermons at home, and as the preacher is the principal attraction, good sense and sound doctrine would never fill my pews, if the eye and the ear were not gratified."-Truly, thought 1, this is a species of performance which I never could have supposed to be consonant with the duty of an earnest and sincere teacher of evangelical truth-and, if this pleasing of a congregation be the sine qua non that is to determine the merits of the spiritual instructor at T-Chapel, it is all over with me; for I have always concluded that fervour and faithfulness were the chief characteristics of a good preacher in the strict sense of the word.-1 ventured to express this as my opinion, and went so far as to add that the apostle Paul seemed to entertain the same sentiment when he said if I yet pleased men 1 should not be the servant of Christ.— My dear Sir," he replied, Paul never preached to a London congregation."- But he did to an Athenian one."-" O, that's very true; yet I will take upon me to say, that if the apostle were to hold forth at any one church or chapel in this metropolis in the present æra of Christianity, and to the race of Christians, as they call them selves, who resort to them, he would not have so large a congregation as he addressed in the seat of Grecian literature and science. Go to any of the chapels of our popular charitable instialious and you will soon be convinced

that it is not the substance of a discourse, however spiritual it may be, that can fix the attention of a general congregation, unless the delivery is acceptable, and the manner of the preacher elegant as well as his language refined and polished."-The fact is, Mr. that people go to a place of worship in which they pay for their sittings, or for admission, not so much, I fear, to say their prayers, as to be entertained by the eloquence and oratory of the preacher."-"Why then in that case,"

observed, "it would seem, that so far there is a great similarity between the inbabitants of Athens and London. The former worshipped an unknown God, and were always occupied in telling or hearing some new thing. The latter I should think, are very likely to continue in the same error, and the same gossiping occupation, if their hearts are thus to be subjected to the impres sions of the outward sense, and novelty is to constitute the medium of their Christian improvement." "I cannot tell how this may be, said Mr. A. Z. but you must know, my good Sir, that I have a lease of the chapel in question; I give two hundred pounds a year for it; I give an organist twenty, and four singers ten shillings each per Lord's day; this is another hundred; besides a clerk and beadle, and two sextonesses, who take of my hands at least thirty pounds more-thus I stand at an expense of 3501. per annum; and I am perfectly assured, that were I to depend upon the piety alone of my pew-renters, I should not make my money again. You will see, therefore, that much of my interest must rest with my own exertions as a preacher, and those of the gentleman who officiates with me; for although I could do all the duty myself, it is not consistent with the taste of my people, to hear the same person in the desk and the pulpit every Sunday; besides, it is not conformable to the dignity of my situation as the sole proprietor of the chapel. But, Mr., you came hither to request the engagement; now I will tell you candidly, that I must hear you both preach and read before I can give it you; and as I make only from a thousand to twelve hundred of the annual income of the chapel, I confine myself to 50l. for the stipend of my assistant, that my yearly outgoings may not exceed 4007. This is a large sum, Mr., -, and I really cannot af ferd more than what I mention.

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would therefore have you consider, in case of your suiting the situation, whe. ther you will think it worth your while to take it at such a rate. Your services will be required every morning in the desk, and every afternoon both in the desk and in the pulpit. Next Sunday we shall have a charity sermon for the parish school of St. M, and I generally preach it myself; yet if you have a sermon by you of the kind, I shall be happy to mention your name to the committee, and have it printed in the bills. A new preacher will be beneficial to the charity; and if you will leave your titles, I will transmit them to the treasurer." Titles, Sir," said I, "what are those? God knows, I have none to boast of It is true, I proceeded regularly M.A. of Cambridge, but I have nothing else to attach to my name.”—“I think, Mr. ——," observed he, "you mentioned in your note to me, that you were late fellow of C. This addition, therefore, will read well; and I shall put it into the scale of novelty. I myself took my degree at a by-term, having resided only at in tervals as a four-and-twenty-man, as it is called; but I do not find that a regular degree is such a passe par tout as some would have us think it to be; for although people in general know but little of fellows of colleges, yet they have a confused notion that they must be very learned and very able men 1 know several M.A.'s and two or three D.D.'s, who have not found their collegiate dignities assist them very materially in pushing them forward to preferment; while with my L.L.B. and by a lucky hit in taking T- chapel, have made shift, in about eight years, to get as many hundred pounds a year, and have as close an approach to the ear of a bishop, as any regular graduate among them all. I was brought up to my father's business, but trade had too many tricks for me to embrace it, and after his decease I entered myself at J-college; and, as you know is the common practice after we have been three years upon the boards, I got a title to a curacy in G-, and was ordained upon it by the Bishop of H- —. This I suppose you will say was not quite regular; and I know that most of your high churchmen dispute the propriety of such ordinations; be that as it may, I cannot see any reason why a man ordained upon such grounds should not make as good a pastor as any who hus, perhaps, little more to

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recommend him, than that he spent a large portion of his father's money during a regular residence of three years, to no other purpose than that of reading, and perhaps (but it is a non sequitur in nine cases out of ten) of acquiring mathematics, which he seldom, if ever, has occasion afterwards to apply, and then of offering himself for holy orders without the slightest previous knowledge of even that gospel which he is admitted into the church to preach, as the important obligation of his sacred calling." As I felt the dignity of the national clergy trespassed upon by this remark, 1 could not help answering, that I considered the preparatory system of education pursued at our Universities, as perfectly adapted for the promotion of the great cause of religion, as any that could be adopted in its stead; that if a national church was to be served by a national clergy, a certain prescriptive standard of education was indispensable, and that it was incumbent upon the spiritual superiors of that church, to provide that this system should not in any degree be infringed upon; nor should the provision made for the regular clergy be in any degree diminished by admitting those into the pale of the establishment, who have not submitted themselves to the established restrictions." The Reverend Gentleman here took off a pair of gold spectacles from his forehead, and returning them into a silvermounted shagreen case, rose from his chair, and with something less of courtesy than what he appeared at first disposed to put into his address, told me, that he differed from me very widely upon this question-that he did not feel his orthodoxy al afi inferior, either in principle or practice, to any of the regularly educated clergy, as they denominated themselves. It might, indeed, be the case, that he could not look for any of the good things of the church in the shape of dignities or livings; and as he was aware of this, be had made out a benefice of his own by his proprietorship of T chapel, which, thank God," said he, ** I enjoy, without any of the heart-burnings of tithe disputes, or orthodox litigations-but, Mr. ———, we will not parsue this subject further-you will have the goodness to prepare yourself for the duty of Sunday next, and allow me to mention one thing; that as you have to preach a charity sermon, it will be as well for you to recollect, that you will

not have to address. a University congregation, but a set of plain tradesmen, who are not in the habit of being puzzled with points of divinity, or controversial arguments; you will therefore find the purpose of the morning better accomplished by a discourse addressed to the heart rather than the head; and by making your appeal to the passions, instead of the judgment. I must now bid you good morning, as I am going to dine a few miles out of town, at the country-house of one of my flock; and as I have lately recovered from a fit of the gout I must take the coach, for which I am afraid any longer delay will cause me to be late." Thus saying, the Reverend Gentleman made me a bow, and attending me down stairs, again wished me a good morning, and left me to pursue my way homewards.

My thoughts were naturally occupied with the conversation that had taken place between this proprietor of "a popular chapel," and myself-a "regularly educated member of the established church." I began first to calculate upon the profitableness of his situation and my own. Here's a man who quitted the counter for the pulpit-who by a cheap method of keeping a certain number of terms at college, has possessed himself of a facility which cost me more money to secure, than I have ever made the interest of by the fruits of my regular labours; who by the hire of a chapel, and the rent of what he calls sittings, and by the attraction of stagesingers and popular preaching, has leaped over the wall of orthodoxy, and put into his pocket a neat eight hundred a year who boasts of an easy access to the episcopal bench, and who takes upon him to counsel one of the regular graduates of the national church to address the passions of his auditory rather than their judgment-and all this for the purpose of preserving the "popular character of the chapel."

I confess I felt something like an: indignant sensation rising in my mind, but then I recollected that 1, "a regular graduate," had applied to this fortunate individual for employ, and as I could not hope for an immediate engagement at any of the churches in the metropolis, not having a personal acquaintance with their incumbents, I endeavoured to satisfy my mind with the firm resolve of not sacrificing the interests of the establishment as far as my very humble powers could sustain them, by any compromise of its princi

ples, or any accomodation of its doctrines to the "popular character" of this proprietary place of worship. With this resolve 1 sate down, on my return to the hotel, to prepare a sermon for the day of my probation; not, indeed, with any high opinion of my judge, or of the ordeal by which I was to be proved.

I had seen my name advertised and placarded in the neighbourhood of the field of aetion, as the preacher of the morning. At first an emotion of something like self-satisfaction arose in my breast, but this soon gave way to a contrary feeling, when I remembered the different sentiments which were wont to prevail there, as often as the return of my Sabbath duties called me to my country church, where I met those with whom affection and friendship had united me in my personal and profes sional character. Now, no pastoral anxiety actuated me, for those whom I was about to address were all unknown and strange to me; and as far as I could decide upon the disposition of the flock by the estimate which I had ventured to form of the motives of their spiritual guide, I could not allow myself to draw any very sanguine expectations of a satisfactory result. The day arrived when I was to encounter the difficulties of exhibition, and with no favourable augury of success, I entered the arena. There I found the Reverend Proprietor, surrounded by the Trustees of the Charity, ready to receive me.