MR. MILLER lived some fifteen years after his retirement from public life. Worn down by the intensity of his labours, he was compelled to abandon a sphere, in which he had been remarkably successful, and which was perfectly congenial with his feelings,an old man, though in the midst of his days.

The supernumerary life of a Wesleyan minister is not the most agreeable. In consequence of the incessant demand for physical and active labour in the itinerant system, many men in the fulness of their mental strength, ripe in wisdom and in pious and holy feeling are obliged to desist, and retire into comparative obscurity. This is peculiar to such a system. The pastors of other churches, who have presided over a people for many years are, generally, most esteemed

in venerable age, and, supported by the affection and regard of their flock, are able to keep their post long after the fire of youth and the strength of manhood have departed. And even when personal labour becomes impossible, such pastors are able to exercise a wise and edifying "oversight," supplying the laborious duties of the pulpit, if in the establishment, by a curate, and if in an independent church, by an assistant.— Nothing of this kind can be the case in an itinerancy. Hence, it often happens, that men most suited to the judicious exercise of the pastoral functions, are at that precise period of life compelled to retire. Age, or at any rate those qualities, which most appropriately belong to it, are essential to the office of an elder or bishop in the church. Great experience, practical wisdom, moderation, fidelity to the truth, firmness united with gentleness, together with the love of souls, above the love of popularity, must be necessary qualifications for the right and profitable government of the church. But where are these qualities so likely to be found as in men of ripe age? They evidently pre-suppose the abeyance of the passions, the absence of the spirit of rivalry and ambition, the exercise of great sobriety of judgment, the mellow charity which can look at the foibles of the young and ardent with a paternal feeling, bear the disappointments occasioned by the falls, imperfections, and disgraces of religion; and moreover that sort of concentrated excellency, rendered trustworthy by time, which is calculated to elicit the confidence of all. These qualities can only be found, except in very rare cases, in the aged members of the Christian ministry. It follows, that a

system which compels the retirement of men who have attained this stage of life, and this pre-eminent fitness for the peculiar functions of a pastoral government because of mere physical infirmity, must greatly weaken its own efficiency.

But the obligation to become supernumeraries, forced upon aged men from these causes, is not the whole of the business. Except in the case of men of very rare endowments, it often happens, that long before the absolute necessity for cessation from the itinerant life arises, the evil begins to operate, to the great grief and injury of ministers of the highest character. In the agitations of an annual change, and universal system of petition, the possibility of something turning up, imagined to be better than that which is possessed, is constantly floating in the minds of the people. Hope in this, as in all other cases, fixes itself on the young, and in the prospect of obtaining their untried ministrations, the men who have “borne the heat and burden of the day," are unceremoniously passed over, and not unfrequently, by a species of moral coercion, expelled from their circuits. At the time of life when, in other Christian bodies, the highest affectionate respect amounting to veneration and great esteem of their labours is called forth;-in ours, a cold neglect begins. If, indeed, the character, piety, wisdom, and long-tried labours of a venerable minister are such as to win him personal respect, it is generally accorded. But this is not the point. We are speaking of his official treatment. This, every one knows, is the very opposite of the order of nature. Unlike any other class of men on earth, itinerant ministers can neither live in honour and happiness amidst the triumphs and successes of their youth and manhood,

nor gain for themselves that kind of confidence which induces unknown places to desire their labours. Hence at a time of life when the soothing affection and unwavering reliance of a Christian people are most necessary, the aged man of God, by appointment merely, has to go to strange places, meet strange faces, and be put to the test as to his ministerial qualifications, by a generation, all of whom have been born since he entered the holy ministry.

Much of this arises out of the circumstance, that in a scheme of perpetual change, preaching is every thing, whilst the pastoral function is depreciated. An aged minister will in general be a much better and more valuable pastor than a young one; but as taste now goes, a much less popular preacher. It is exciting, sparkling, dazzling, and captivating oratory, which the generality of people desire. A minister possessed of no great physical energy might furnish. excellent expositions of Scripture, feed the flock with wholesome and edifying doctrine, enter the heart and deal wisely with all its wants and woes, guide the consciences of the inquiring, and judiciously and profitably superintend all the affairs of the church. But because this "Father in Israel" has lost some of his tone, fire, energy, and imagination, and consequently cannot preach with the popular effect of his younger days, the system loaths his services, and often renders the evening of his days cheerless and dark.

A just estimate of pastoral qualifications would do much towards the cure of these evils. If the parties concerned had the sagacity to perceive it, they would discover that two things are essential to the true well-being of every church, viz., the pastoral function,

By the former we do not

and the preaching both. mean merely going amongst the people, which is the only thing generally understood; but a ministry which enters into the details of experience, temptations, duties, privileges, and the whole life of God; and such an oversight of the whole working of the ecclesiastical system as shall be wise and paternal. This is essential to order, union, edification, and the perfecting of the body of Christ; and the want of it is often a hundred-fold greater loss, than the absence of the agents of popular excitement.

With this pastoral superintendence, popular preaching-in the sense of aggressive, awakening, and exciting, is necessary. In the accomplishment of this, the vehemence, fervour, power, and energy of the mind in its highest tone of manly vigour is desirable. And, moreover, if high mental qualities are possessed, the grace and power of true eloquence are admissible.Ignorance, the fruit of laziness,-deadness, the consequence of the absence of a proper sense of the awful nature of the gospel message, an awkward and offensive mannerism, the result of carelessness-all more or less disgusting to public taste, are intolerable in men whose whole life is devoted to the work of the ministry. The affectation and mimicry of a lofty course by puerile and feeble men, are equally disagreeable ; but the genuine exercise of the higher gifts of pulpit eloquence is greatly to be admired, and necessary to rouse public attention, to awaken a slumbering world, to attract those who are without, and, in fine, to win souls to Christ. But the fold of Christ must not only be filled by the evangelical labours of this class of ministers; the bread of life must be richly adminis

S