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religious world, I greatly fear that an example of this dangerous kind may be produced from the present eagerness for Charity Bazaars, repositories, (or whatever other name is given them), for the sale of articles of taste and elegance; a fashion which, extending from the metropolis to all our large towns, bids fair, like every other fashion, of finding its way to every place where sufficient numbers are within reach of the invitation to see and be seen. I am not, I hope, so stern or illjudging a censor, as to object to young ladies employing their leisure hours, and making use of the accomplishments so lavishly bestowed upon them in the present day, for the aid of any charity or society which can benefit the human race. On the contrary, I consider the dedication of their time and talents to such objects as highly laudable, where the motive is pure, that is, such that they may look for the blessing of Him, without whose favour all our attempts to do good are of no avail. But it is the mode sometimes adopted for the sale of these articles, that I regard as highly exceptionable. I fear lest it should prove a device of Satan to injure the very cause for which it has been adopted; and lest these elegant modes of sale should be so much tending to the spirit of the world, as to encourage "the lust of the eye, and the pride of life,”-in short, the commission of actual evil that good may be produced. In one of your recent numbers, there is this excellent remark, in an admirable paper from the pen of the Duchess de Broglie, that can never be too much attended to in all the benevolent bustle of the present times :"Shame be to those who wish to promote any object by bad actions, or bad instruments! It is not, surely, at the time when we are serving Him who can send legions of angels to defend him, or even of stones raise up children unto Abraham, that we should descend to such measures as these. If God permit men

to consider themselves as agents employed by Him, it is only on condition that they should labour in the way of truth and uprightness."Let us labour, and labour strenuously, that vice may be reclaimed, ignorance instructed, misery relieved, and that the Jew and Heathen may have the glad tidings of salvation sent to them; but let us not, even for these blessed ends, adopt means injurious to the minds of our daughters, or lay ourselves open to the just censures of the thinking part of the world.

But, as my charge is so heavy against these fashionable bazaars, I ought at least to endeavour to substantiate it. Perhaps I may be thought over-scrupulous, if I doubt the propriety of any article being overcharged; that is, of a higher price being affixed to it than it would have commanded in a shop. I may be answered, these elegant trifles are only an appeal to compassion and generosity: but, in truth, I fear that the success of the sale depends, in a great measure, upon the attractive influence of the disposers. May I be permitted to suppose the shade of Bunyan surveying one of these highly decorated rooms? If he knew not the object of this display of taste; if he examined, as he passed, the well-fancied but often useless objects offered to sale; if he cast his eye on the engaging venders, and the gay saunterers in the room; might he not be tempted to consider the whole as an admirable mimic representation of his own Vanity Fair? But when, on further inquiry, he learnt the serious object of this fashionable display, and the chief agents and promoters of a scene apparently so uncongenial with Christian retirement and simplicity, perhaps his spirit would be deeply grieved to see the world's fair transplanted into the church of Christ.

Why do we object to a ball-room for our young relatives? We reply, because it is the hot-bed of vanity, and of a thousand injurious excitements. But are we sure that

the morning sale-room may not be exposed to much of the same danger? Is there no danger to the mind of the youthful vender, surrounded by a constant succession of flattering purchasers, by whom her articles, even of inferior value, are most sedulously sought for? Again:how can we ensure our daughters from meeting with improprieties, when thus exposed in public? And are we sure that they will withdraw from the scene with no feelings similar to those which follow the return from the ball? Is there no undue animation in some, arising from a consciousness of the attention they have attracted; or of sadness and disappointment in others, from neglect and jealousy? Let us judge of things by the effect they have on the heart; and not by their names. Let us not, on the one hand, declaim against vanity and amusements; and, on the other, introduce our inexperienced youth, under the sacred appearance of religious charity, within the same contaminating influence.

To these censures, if at all wellfounded, but one plea can be alleged, -a great deal of money is obtain ed for the most exalted purposes. Many, who will not join religious associations, or hear sermons, will go to the Ladies' Bazaar as a good morning lounge. It is a little tax we lay, for good ends, upon the world itself. But is the acquisition of money all that is necessary for these high uses? Would we accept part of a stolen or defrauded property, knowing it to be so, even in such a cause? To enlighten our benighted fellow-creatures, or to lessen any of the calamities of our common humanity, it never can be repeated too often, is the very best appropriation of our time and talents. Still, we must not take care of the vineyard of others at the expense of our own. Nor ought we, for the sake of any sum (estimated as high as it can be) in aid of spiritual or temporal charities, to injure the minds of our children; to act con

trary to the injunction of being not conformed to this world; to lay the followers of Christ open to many temptations; and to lose all that silent but most extensive benefit which arises from the influence of a sincere, consistent, and high, though unpretending, religious conduct. While we judge others, let us judge ourselves. Is it quite candid to reprobate balls and concerts for charitable purposes, and yet venture as near as we dare, in the way of display and amusement, under the same sanction?

RUSTICIA.

Tothe Editorofthe Christian Observer,

SUBJOINED is a copy of an original letter, to which I am anxious to give circulation through the medium of your pages, in the hope, that, should it chance to meet the eye of some of our Clerical sportsmen (a class, unhappily, but too numerous amongst us), it may be a means of leading them to inquire whether their conduct be what it ought, what they can justify; or whether there be not "utterly a fault among them" in this particular. It will be appropriate to the season of the year, and will form a sequel to the remarks of your correspondent MoNITOR, in your Number for June *.

AN ADMIRer of conSISTENCY.

We have received a letter, signed alluded to in the extract given by Monitor D. D., stating that "the Rev. Doctor" from the Sporting Magazine, is "a laborious, energetic minister of the Gospel, whose daily employment, not only in his own parish of R- but in the populous town of B-; his exertions in the abodes of misery and vice; his bold and dauntless conduct on every public occasion when religion is concerned, are proverbial." D. D. adds, that he some few years since tried to give up the practice of hunting, "but a sedentary life operated so powerfully upon a gouty habit of body, that his physician told him he must either resume his hunting, or die."We have given D. D.'s apology as it stands, though we cannot wholly reconcile the laborious

My dear young friend-When in a late conversation I took occasion to hint my sentiments on the subject of a clergyman's engaging infield sports, and to express my conviction that to do so was utterly inconsistent with the gravity of the priestly character, the indifference he ought to display to all merely worldly occupations or amusements, and the spirit, if not the letter, of his ordination vows, I certainly hoped you would be led to make the application to your own situation, tastes, and habits; and it is with real satisfaction I learn you have done so. Most willingly do I accede to your wish of having from me a more detailed statement of my thoughts upon a subject which I consider of great importance. May you receive it in the same spirit of candour and goodwill with which it is offered, and weigh it with the impartiality it deserves; and may He, who only can, enable you to come to an honest and conscientious conclusion on a matter which may greatly affect the extent of your future usefulness in your public situation as a minister of the Gospel, and, consequently, in no inconsiderable degree involve the spiritual welfare of many who now do, or hereafter may, constitute your pastoral charge, as well as your own eternal state.

It would be foreign to my present purpose to agitate the question, how far what are called "field sports" can, under any circumstances, be favourable to the culti vation of the mild, tender, and humane feelings which the religion of the blessed Jesus is so eminently calculated to excite; or how far it can be possible for a real Christian to derive pleasure from pursuits

daily employments, above specified, with the complaint respecting a sedentary life. At all events, it might have been as well, if superadded exercise was necessary, that the learned physician should have devised a more clerical course of gymnastics than the boisterous and cruel "sport" of hunting.

which, in their very nature, must necessarily inflict pain on some sentient beings; though it is one which may well claim consideration from a rational and reflecting mind. Admitting it, therefore, for the present as indisputable, that there is nothing in the amusements themselves incompatible with the principles of a Christian, or inconsistent with that claim to humanity of disposition which few men of liberal education would be disposed to relinquish, I proceed to inquire, how far the same concession can be made to him who is engaged in the important duty of explaining to others the word of God,a duty which may well be considered to make large demands on his time and attention, as well as the exertion of his best faculties.

It may be said, that the truths of religion can receive no increase, nor suffer any diminution, from the mode of life of its ministers; and that, so long as they are regular in the discharge of the appointed offices of the church, careful to preach sound doctrine, and free from gross immoralities, no one has a right to impugn their conduct, or inquire how they pass their leisure hours;-that, in entering on the clerical office, it ought not to be expected they should forego all participation in innocent amusements, suited to their time of life and rank in society; and that occasional relaxation from the severer studies incident to their situation, is necessary for the preservation of bodily health and mental vigour. To this I would reply, that certainly nothing we can either do, or abstain from doing, can, in the remotest degree, affect the truths of revealed religion, which, like their Divine Author, are the same to-day, yesterday, and for ever;" but how far these truths are believed by any one, may fairly be inferred from their influence on his conduct. If, after exhorting his congregation to spiritual-mindedness, to fix their affections on things above, to sit

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loose to the enjoyments of this life, to have their treasure in heaven, to consider religion as the one thing needful, as the pearl of great price, which a man ought to be desirous of purchasing at the expense even of all his worldly possessions; a minister, on quitting the pulpit, leave along with the outward habiliments of his office all trace of it in his conduct, he clearly proves, that, "whoe'er has profited, himself has not" by his preaching. But the mischief unhappily will not stop there. Example has ever been found amongst the multitude more efficacious than precept. His hearers, perceiving an evident contradiction between the doctrines delivered in the church on Sunday, and the every-day practice of their minister, will naturally be led to question the truth or to doubt the importance of precepts which are so palpably disregarded by him. Innocent recreation cannot justly be denied to a clergyman, any more than to a layman. Formed of the same materials, and subject to the same physical wants, his faculties, both of body and mind, are equally incapable of unremitted exertion; but he ought to be very sure that the recreations he selects are strictly innocent, not only in their immediate object, but in their probable result. How far it is practicable for a clergyman, during the ardour of a fox-hunt, to cultivate in any degree those holy and heavenly dispositions, which he probably does, and certainly ought to, urge on his flock, as proper to be introduced even into their secular employments, I must leave to the individual himself to determine; but sure I am, that such a situation cannot be favourable for serious and devout meditation. The evil of the hunt ends not with the sport itself (though the business of it usually, in the season, occupies the larger part of the day, and not seldom the larger number of days in the week); for in the evenings, when one would have hoped the powers of the mind

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might be collected, and the thoughts reduced to a somewhat sober train, and better suited to religious contemplation, the fatigued body mostly demands a relaxation from every sort of exertion; and the drowsy sportsman, stretched on a sofa, or reclining on an easy chair, feels utterly incapable of serious application. What time can be spared by such a person for the various important duties of the six days which intervene between the Sabbaths? When can he visit the sick, or seek occasion for administering consolation to the afflicted? What opportunity will he have of ber coming acquainted with the characters, dispositions, and general conduct of his poorer neighbours, with a view to use the influence he ought to possess, in restraining vice, encouraging virtue, and leading the convinced and penitent, sinner into those paths where alone peace can be found? What time can he set apart for self-examination, for private prayer, for serious reading, especially the Bible, for the composition of his sermons? These are all duties which, how much soever they may be neglected or disregarded, as it is to be feared many of them are, will assuredly be deemed, by every conscientious clergyman, imperative on him to perform.

On the score of expense attending the indulgence of a taste for field sports, much may also be said. The precise amount to which any one may indulge in matters of merely personal gratification without a departure from propriety, must depend on a variety of circumstances such as rank, property, situation, and connexions and must be left to his own conscience to determine, as no general rule can be given for it; but, before the sum can be fairly allowed by a clergyman to be considerable, he ought to be well assured that he has not, on a plea of poverty, refused or neglected any reasonable appeal that has been, or can be made, to his beneficence, either by

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individuals of his own parish, or by any of the various institutions whose object is the extension of human happiness by the diffusion of religious knowledge; and certainly there can be no just ground of complaint as to the inadequacy of his stipend, if he expend considerable sums on horses, dogs, guns, and other sporting appointments. "Much more might be urged on these and various other topics connected with the subject under consideration, particularly as regards the company and associations which a sportsman's life is likely to lead him into. The large dinner-parties, the jovial meetings, with the too probable accompaniments of light discourse, indecent allusions, and not unfrequently open profaneness, to which he may be compelled to be a witness, cannot but have a tendency to disqualify a clergyman for the proper discharge of some of his duties.

With regard to hunting, it might be urged, as an argument not destitute of weight, that it often involves considerable bodily risk and danger. In exposure to dangers connected with our profession, or in the way of our duty, we may reasonably hope for a gracious interposition of Divine Providence for our protection; or if we fall, we fall at our allotted station, to desert which would be base and cowardly; but what plea of duty the clergyman can urge in justification of the risk he runs of breaking his neck in the pursuit of a wild animal, I have yet to learn. Is the flock to "perish for lack of knowledge," because their pastor, forsooth, must rival Nimrod? Again: What would the Apostles, what would the Fathers of the Christian church, what would the primitive Christians, have thought of a minister of the Gospel being engaged in such unhallowed occupations? St. Paul would not indulge even in things clearly lawful, if by so doing he should cause a weak brother to offend: and can

CHRIST. OBServ. No. 273.

a minister of the present day have any assured ground for considering himself a legitimate successor of the first preachers of the Gospel, while his conduct unequivocally proves him to be actuated by a very different spirit? To what may we principally attribute the great increase of Sectarians and Dissenters, an increase which the ministers of the Establishment so frequently lament as amongst the worst "signs of the times," more than to the evident lukewarmness of many amongst themselves to the cause in which they are engaged by profession, but in furtherance of which they are unwilling to forego the gratification of any favourite taste, however frivolous; and whose conduct in many particulars proves them to be guided by the love of the world, and worldly things, and that they have no taste for heavenly things? May not our Lord's rebuke of the angel of the church of Laodicea be justly applied to such? And will not the whole body of Dissenters class the clerical hunter amongst the anomalies of the church? Vain will be all attempts to heal the breaches of the church, and promote a unity of sentiment on religious subjects, whilst the practice of the clergy presents such a comment on their preaching. He preaches best who lives best. Of the orthodoxy of a minister's doctrines comparatively few can form an accurate judgment; of the consistency of his practice all may.

Having extended this letter beyond what I at first intended, I will only repeat my sincere prayer, that the bountiful Author of all good may induce you to lay these things seriously to heart, and to decide on them, not according to any preconceived opinions, or the practice of any persons whom you may have been long accustomed to love and respect, but by comparing them with the written word of God, that unerring standard of truth. I remain, &c.

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