Honoured with the sacred ministry, though in its lowest ranks, I will never do or say anything which may make me unworthy to fulfil these sublime duties.  I will always preach virtue and exhort men to well-doing; and so far as I can I will set them a good example.  It will be my business to make religion attractive; it will be my business to strengthen their faith in those doctrines which are really useful, those which every man must believe; but, please God, I shall never teach them to hate their neighbour, to say to other men, You will be damned; to say, No salvation outside the Church. [Footnote:  The duty of following and loving the religion of our country does not go so far as to require us to accept doctrines contrary to good morals, such as intolerance.  This horrible doctrine sets men in arms against their fellow-men, and makes them all enemies of mankind.  The distinction between civil toleration and theological toleration is vain and childish.  These two kinds of toleration are inseparable, and we cannot accept one without the other.  Even the angels could not live at peace with men whom they regarded as the enemies of God.] If I were in a more conspicuous position, this reticence might get me into trouble; but I am too obscure to have much to fear, and I could hardly sink lower than I am.  Come what may, I will never blaspheme the justice of God, nor lie against the Holy Ghost.

“I have long desired to have a parish of my own; it is still my ambition, but I no longer hope to attain it.  My dear friend, I think there is nothing so delightful as to be a parish priest.  A good clergyman is a minister of mercy, as a good magistrate is a minister of justice.  A clergyman is never called upon to do evil; if he cannot always do good himself, it is never out of place for him to beg for others, and he often gets what he asks if he knows how to gain respect.  Oh! if I should ever have some poor mountain parish where I might minister to kindly folk, I should be happy indeed; for it seems to me that I should make my parishioners happy.  I should not bring them riches, but I should share their poverty; I should remove from them the scorn and opprobrium which are harder to bear than poverty.  I should make them love peace and equality, which often remove poverty, and always make it tolerable.  When they saw that I was in no way better off than themselves, and that yet I was content with my lot, they would learn to put up with their fate and to be content like me.  In my sermons I would lay more stress on the spirit of the gospel than on the spirit of the church; its teaching is simple, its morality sublime; there is little in it about the practices of religion, but much about works of charity.  Before I teach them what they ought to do, I would try to practise it myself, that they might see that at least I think what I say.  If there were Protestants in the neighbourhood or in my parish, I would make no difference between them and my own congregation so far as concerns Christian charity;