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TO THE SAME, ON ANXIOUS SEATS."

"There is one disadvantage, in my opinion, inevitably resulting from all attempts to produce undue excitement by extraordinary measures, and that is this: people are led to suppose that there is no real religion without it, and therefore disrelish all services which are sober and rational, and brand those who do not think as they do, with indifference to religion. This I call a morbid appetite; an appetite which is not reasonable, and which leads men to place more reliance on their own measures, than those measures deserve, and less on that Spirit which quickeneth and giveth life to the sinner. As far as I am acquainted with religion, one of its first operations on the mind is that of great humility; we feel that we are sinners-that impression makes us very humble. Now, an humble Christian is, in general, so doubtful of himself, that instead of rushing into the first seat, he naturally prefers a less conspicuous place. Why the prayers of the minister could not be heard unless the anxious occupied a particular seat I cannot understand; the Publican, I recollect, stood afar off, and yet his modest and sincere petition was heard; while the Pharisee went empty away. I have always been charged with a leaning towards too much religious feeling. I love feeling in religion; nay, I will say that there can be no true religion without it; but then I like to see THAT feeling produced by a faithful disclosure of evangelical truth; by preaching Christ as the power and wisdom of God; by leading men to the Saviour for life, free from every thing that looks like management or human contrivance. In your last letter you lament that our Clerical Associations are not more attended to. Of this I

am as sorry as any man can be, knowing, from experience, that the people will attend more generally on such occasions than on the stated services of an individual. I wish that the brethren would take that measure into consideration; and I am sure, if they would, that the services of the Church, and the preaching of our own estimable clergymen thus assembled, would be productive of the greatest and best effects.”

TO BISHOP BOWEN.-REVIVALS-ANXIOUS SEATS.

June 13th, 1832.

"I am sorry that causes should exist in your department of the Church calculated to produce disquietude of mind, or to excite the least uneasiness in your bosom. Individuals placed in the situations we occupy cannot (amidst the variety of opinions which prevail on the subject of what are called revivals,) expect to escape, without meeting with some things opposed to our immediate views, and which, under all circumstances, we cannot perfectly approve. In such instances, my attention has been invariably directed to what my judgment convinced me would be the ultimate results; and in all cases my dependence has been placed on the influence of persuasive expedients, keeping the supreme management in my own hands, and uniting with the clergy and people in the use of such lawful means as I thought calculated to secure the unity and welfare of the Church, and to satisfy them that I have at heart the interests of vital religion, and am as much disposed to promote the advancement of true piety as themselves.

"To further the above important objects, I have recommended Clerical Associations, on which occasions the clergy most contiguous to each other meet together, and hold re

gular services in the parish in which they convene. They in general commence on Thursday, and finish their united duties on the succeeding Sunday, when, after the celebration of the Lord's Supper, they separate. The services are confined exclusively to the clergy of the Church, and the duties are performed by themselves. If the association is held within a reasonable distance I sometimes attend, and always bear as great a portion of the labour as my age and strength will admit of. Such an association will commence to-morrow in the residence of the Rev.

who is fully of opinion that such meetings are useful, and expedient, and calculated to produce the best possible effects to religion and the Church, indeed such is the opinion of all the clergy of the diocese. I never hesitate to express my aversion to every thing like human management on such occasions. I think it profane to suppose that the aid of the Holy Spirit can be secured in any other way than in the use of the appointed means of grace, and believe that the faithful preaching of the Gospel, preceded by our own services, constitute those means. I am opposed, totally opposed, to' anxious or enquiring benches' as they are called, and think that humble penitents would prefer a private intercourse with their Maker and their own pastor, to an exposure of themselves to public view.

"With respect to revivals, as they are termed, I would, as an old man, observe that every Christian clergyman must be sensible, that there are seasons in which his religious affections are more animated than at other times, and that if this superior animation should influence the minds of his parishioners as well as his own, it is his duty to improve the opportunity by an increased faithfulness and zeal in the service of God. It is by such a course that he becomes (in my opinion) a co-worker with his Maker and Re

deemer, and discovers his wish to further and promote that good work, which he has reason to believe has been begun by that gracious being in whose service he is engaged. Individuals, feeling impressed with the necessity of loving God with all their heart, soul, mind, and strength, do not like, and will not consent to have their desires, (desires which they conceive owe their origin to divine influence,) restrained, controlled, and spoken into silence by their fellow mortals. They would tell us that the three thousand at the feast of Pentecost were in earnest when they inquired, 'Men and brethren what shall we do? That the Philippian jailor felt the weight of his responsibility, when, in distress of mind, he solicited for spiritual direction; that Mary was engaged, with all the energies of her mind, in seeking the salvation of her soul, when she sat, bathed in tears of penitence at the feet of her Redeemer; they would tell us, that divine grace is, in its operations at this moment, (what it has ever been,) convincing us of sin, producing a repentance to salvation not to be repented of, influencing those to ask for mercy in sincere prayer, who never truly valued the privilege of prayer before, and rendering those who were cold and heartless in the cause of religion, alive to its concerns, and giving rise to a newness of life and conversation. Individuals who have been virtuously brought up from their infancy, and who have been preserved from those departures from moral and religious duty which characterize the greater part of mankind; who have been accustomed daily from their childhood to ask the protection of heaven; who have loved the Saviour from the first dawnings of intellect, can form no proper idea of the convictions of those who have wandered far from God, who have profaned his name, his Sabbath, and his laws, without being alive to their awful condition; they can form no idea of

that distress which sometimes takes place in the mind of the offender, when first awakened to a sense of his alarming situation; they call the necessity of his earnestness in question, because they have never been so deficient in duty as he knows himself to have been; and consider that enthusiasm which is really the product of divine grace. On the other hand, an individual thus awakened, very often thinks that others who do not feel as he does, have never experienced the influences of the Holy Spirit; and because they are not equally alarmed with himself, he takes it for granted that their prayers are cold and heartless, and their devotion more a thing of habit than of a spiritual nature. To show to those labouring under such prejudices, the impropriety of their views, I have told them that Christian experience, however much it may vary in degree, will always, if genuine, produce the same results; that it will be attended with a supreme love to God, that an obedience to his laws will mark their lives, and that the fruits of the spirit will be manifest in their general deportment; that if the tree is really of the planting of the Lord, it will produce good fruit. Such being, as far as my knowledge extends, the general operations of the mind in the two descriptions of persons I have mentioned; it follows of course that the minister of a parish should attend closely to his duties, harmonizing, as far as in his power lies, the two discordant opinions; uniting those in love and charity, who are in fact children of the same family, pursuing the same object, and whose affections are fixed on things above. RICHARD CHANNING MOORE."

In the years 1810-11 a controversy of a most unpleasant and exciting character took place between the Rev. Cave Jones and Dr. Hobart, both assistant ministers of