o many possible interferences with the inner working on the part
of the outer. Such interferences come from very different quarters. The
new Curacy, the new duties and opportunities, if the man has his heart
in his ministry, will prove intensely interesting, and at first, very
possibly, encouragement and acceptance may predominate over experiences
of difficulty and trial. Services, sermons, visits to homes and to
schools, with all the miscellanies that attend an active and
well-ordered parochial organization--these things are sure to have a
special and exciting interest for most young men who have taken Orders
in earnest. And it will be almost inevitable that the Curate, under even
the most wise, considerate, and unselfish of Incumbents, should find
"work" threatening rapidly to absorb so much, not of time only but
thought and heart, that the temptation is to abridge and relax very
seriously indeed secret devotion, secret study of Scripture, and
generally secret discipline of habits, that all-important thing.

*HINDRANCES: SOLITUDE.

Then, on the other hand, there is a risk and trial from a region quite
opposite. The Curate comes to his new work, and takes up his abode in
lodgings--alone. Only a few months ago, perhaps only a few weeks ago, he
was in rooms at College, amidst all the social as well as mental
interests of University life, and (so it is, thank God, for many
University men now) feeling on every side the help of Christian
friendship and fellowship of the warmest and truest sort. And now,
socially and as to fellowship in Christ, he is, to speak comparatively,
alone. I say, _comparatively_. Very likely he has found in his Incumbent
a friend and elder brother, perhaps a friend and loving father, in the
Lord. And most probably he will find among his people, and that very
soon if he is on the watch, friends in Christ, gentle or simple. He may
be associated with a brother Curate or Curates; and if so, the inmost
aim of both or all ought to be, and in most cases will be, not only to
work in the same parish but to work heart to heart as "in Him."
Nevertheless, the Vicar or Rector, though a friend, is a very busy
friend; and so is the brother Curate; and the Christian friend in the
parish is after all only one of the many souls to whom the man has to
minister, and he must not forget those who perhaps need him most just
because they are least congenial to him.

*ITS DANGERS.

So the sense of change, of solitude, i