stated means; that their abuses can and ought to be corrected; that they constitute the only specific against the Church's relapse into formalism; that those who object to them, make up their objections of their abuses; and that those who do not employ them, substitute nothing better, and seldom succeed in securing the conversion of sinners as well as those who do. Protracted meetings should be the outgrowth, generally, of that well-instructed condition of the Church, brought about by the faithful labors of the pastor. The ordinary means of grace should seem, of themselves, to push themselves out into the extraordinary. Protracted meetings are a natural growth of the Church, and not a graft upon the original tree.

CHAPTER XI.

NECESSITY OF AGGRESSIVE ENTERPRISE.

A RARE BUT INSIDIOUS EVIL EXPOSED-THE FEARFUL PREACHER -HIS FEARS FOUNDED IN A FALSE PHILOSOPHY A STUNTED CHURCH-INSTRUCT THE PEOPLE IN THE AGGRESSIVE MOVEMENTS OF THE CHURCH THEY ONLY GROW STRONG BY BEARING BURDENS - THE "QUARTER OF A DOLLAR TYPE OF METHODISM-SPIRITUAL BABIES AT FORTY-PLANS AND PURPOSES SHOULD BE LARGE REASONS WHY THE WEST HAS BEEN PARTICULARLY FAVORED WITH REVIVALS THE PREACHER WHO WILL BE BLESSED WITH THEMA WORKING LAITY DETERMINES A CHURCH'S PROSPERITY -DANGER OF METHODISM BEING OUTSTRIPPED BY SISTER SECTS.

"BRING ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it." "The liberal soul shall be made fat: and he that watereth shall be watered also himself." "The diligent hand maketh rich." "But this I say, He which soweth sparingly, shall reap also sparingly; and he which soweth bountifully, shall reap also bountifully. Every man according as he hath pur

posed in his heart, so let him give; not grudgingly, or of necessity; for God loveth a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound toward you."

The pertinence of the above passages of Scripture to our present purpose will appear presently. We wish to expose a great error which, though not everywhere prevalent, yet is it too prevalent if found in one case in fifty. It is an insidious error, which may exist in cases sufficiently extreme to excite attention but rarely; and yet, like unseen miasma, this error may work a wider mischief than we suppose. What we mean is this: Naturally enough, and religiously enough, one of the first objects of concern with a Methodist preacher is, how he may best secure the raising of his "claim," which, from its smallness, is every cent needed by himself or family, to whom he first and foremost owes duty. On his arrival, therefore, upon his circuit or station he reconnoiters at once the ability of his people to support him, and enters into considerations as to their probable liberality. The conclusion is, that if his people are not pressed hard for other pecuniary objects, they are fully able to, and most certainly will, "meet his claim." True, a parsonage should be built, or

the old one repaired; the Church should be renovated, or a new one built; the library of the Sabbath school should be enlarged and replenished; a box of books should be sent for, and the people urged to buy; every family should be visited, and urged to take some one or two of our periodicals; and then there is the presiding elder's claim; and besides incidental expenses, applications for collections for some itinerant object of benevolence, there are the stated collections: collections for missions, the Bible cause, Sunday-School Union, Tract cause, Fifth Collection, collection for expenses of delegates, etc. Now our fearful brother runs over this long list, and with a most lugubrious sigh and look resolves honestly, out of self-protection, to give just as many of them the "go-by" as he can. His philosophy is, that the less frequently people are called upon to give, and the less they are required to give, the easier will it be to raise that little. A more erroneous sentiment could scarcely be entertained. It is untrue to the laws of our mental and moral nature; contradicted by every day's experience, and exposed and condemned by the Scriptures. The sentiment, also, is incalculably deleterious in its effects upon the preacher. It generates fearfulness and selfish

ness. The former is weakness, and the latter is apt to manifest itself in croaking and censoriousness. For the preacher who trembles at this large competition, is almost sure to find his own pay coming in tardily, grudgingly, and stintedly. Under such a pastor the Church feels that its liberality has put on a Chinese shoe. It moves slowly and sluggishly, for the want of the inspiration of an example of an aggressive enterprise in its pastor. If periodicals are subscribed for, the brethren make application to their pastor, and not their pastor to them. The Disciplinary collections are taken up, unaccompanied by any very explicit explanation, or urgent solicitation from the pulpit. If the work of church repairing or church building goes on, it originates with the laity, by seeming sufferance of the pastor; or, what is most commonly the case, is only talked of by the brethren during the term of service of such a preacher. Who does not know that in all these matters the pastor must not say, "Go on," but "Come on?" Rarely is it that a revival breaks out under such a clerical administration, and for the reasons intimated in the above scriptures. Like Mount Ebal, such a charge is wont to be mantled with barren

ness.