trying honestly to find, in
some magnifying mirror, "the beam in his own eye." [Matt. vii. 3.] And
even where such scrutiny still leaves it plain, after consultation not
only with sensible friends (if necessary) but of course with the Lord
Himself, that it is best to seek a change, let it be remembered that, up
to the very last day of connexion, the Curate is still the Curate, bound
to all possible loyalty and good faith.

"SUFFER THE WORD."

It is with some misgivings of feeling that I have dwelt thus at length
on difficulties and anxieties incident to the relationship of Curate and
Incumbent. But I do not think after all that I shall be misunderstood.
In the nature of the case, the bright sides of the matter have hardly
needed comment. The Curate who finds himself the favoured and advantaged
helper of some true-hearted leader needs little counsel from me, unless
it be in face of the fact, on which we have touched, that the noblest
leaders in the Lord in the whole English Church are not above parochial
criticism, or even parochial slander. But I do know that there are
Curates whose circumstances are less favourable; and I long to impress
it upon them that few Christians have a larger and more fruitful field
than they for the cultivation of some of the crowning graces of the
Gospel. It is for them to make no common proof of the power of the
Indwelling Lord to subdue the iniquities of His people, to hallow their
inmost spirits, to set before their lips the watch and ward of His
blessed Presence, to drive utterly away from their pastoral souls the
wretched spirit of sarcasm, to enable them for an unselfish faithfulness
when no eye but the unseen Master's oversees.

INDEPENDENCE AND LOYALTY.

It is no part of the system of the Church of England, as it is of that
of the Church of Rome, to put a man (or a woman) under the "spiritual
direction" of a fellow-sinner, who is to be, for the "directed," the
organ and representative of the will of God. For such a method is no
part of the apostolic Gospel, which never for a moment bids us
surrender conscience into the keeping of another. "Who art thou that
judgest _Another's_ servant? To his _own Master_ he standeth or
falleth" [Rom. xiv. 4.]; words which deeply and decisively contradict
the root-ideas of spiritual despotism, for they teach us to think of
our fellow-Christians, as if--for purposes of the conscience--He who
is their Master and ours was, for them, _another_ Master