corruption; and professed philanthropists will brand him as a trimmer and coward, recreant, fawning, and dumb,—­the term spaniel having been flung at one of the best men and most conscientious ministers that ever lived, simply because he could not vituperate as harshly as some of his neighbors.  Some would have him remember only those in bonds; others say they cannot endure from him even the word slavery.  Blessed, if, from all these troubles, he can, for solace, and with a sense of its significance, bethink himself of Christ’s saying to his disciples, “Woe unto you, when all men shall speak well of you!” Thrice blessed, if he have an assurance and in that inward certificate possess the peace which passeth understanding!

I intend not, by my simple story, which has in it no fiction, to add to the lamentations of the old prophet, nor will allow Jeremiah to represent all my mood.  It is perfectly fit the laity should criticize the clergy.  The minister,—­who is he but one of the people, set apart to particular functions, open to a judgment on the manner of their discharge, from which no sacred mission or supposed apostolic succession can exempt, the Apostles having been subject to it themselves?  Under their robes and ordinances, in high-raised desks, priest and bishop are but men, after all.  Ministers should be grateful for all the folk’s frankness.  Only let the criticism be considerate and fair; and in order to its becoming so, let us ascertain the perfect model of their calling.  Did not their Master give it, when he said, “The field is the world”?  If so, then to everything in the world must the pulpit apply the moral law.  What department of it shall be excused? Politics,—­because it embraces rival schools in the same worshipping body, and no disinterested justice in alluding to its principles can be expected from a preacher, or because whoever disagrees with his opinions must be silent, there being on Sunday and in the sanctuary no decency allowed of debate or reply, and therefore whatever concerns the civil welfare and salvation of the community is out of the watchman’s beat now, though God so expressly bade him warn the city of old? Commerce,—­because a minister understands nothing of the elements and necessities of business, and must blunder in pointing to banks and shops or any transactions of the street, though an old preacher, called Solomon, in his Proverbs refers so sharply to the buyer and the seller? Pleasure,—­because the servant of the Lord cannot be supposed to sympathize with, but only to denounce, amusement which poor tired humanity employs for its recreation, though Miriam’s smiting of her timbrel, which still rings from the borders of the raging Red Sea, and David’s dancing in a linen ephod with all his might before the Lord, when the ark on a new cart came into the city, were a sort of refreshment of triumphant sport? The social circle,—­because of course he cannot go to parties or comprehend the play of feeling in