been wholly unjustifiable in concealing from them, viz. :-the determination of God to cast off their nation, and to engraft the Gentiles upon the stock. But as he feared it might be imagined that he was actuated only by a spirit of revenge, he felt himself called on to declare to his countrymen, in the most solemn manner, and to appeal even to God for the truth of it, that so far from wishing their hurt, he was affected with the tenderest solicitude and the deepest sorrow on their account. The words included in the parenthesis, were introduced to show what a fearful condition he deemed his countrymen to be in, from a comparison of his own former with their present state; and to exhibit therefore, the depth of his anxiety on their account. The very same sentiment occurs, Gal. iv. 12, in which the common translation is likewise inaccurate ; -Γίνεςθε ὡς ἐγώ, ὅτι χαγὼ ὡς ὑμεις : "Be ye as I am, for I was (not am, which perplexes the sense,) as ye are." In Acts xxvi. 9-11, too, we find the apostle, in his speech before Agrippa, speaking to the same effect;"I verily thought, (or, used to think,) that I ought to do many things contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth: which things I also did (or, used to do,) in Jerusalem," &c.

According to this interpretation, the apostle's words are a plain and obvious reason for his excessive, or incessant grief, (åðiáλeɩñTos oduvn ;) for having been once himself in the situation of those for whom he grieves; and knowing from bitter personal experience, the evil of it, he never could think of them without the keenest sensation of sorrow and compassion.

If the strength of the expression, "I wished myself accursed from Christ," appears to militate against this interpretation, it may be observed, that the apostle seems in this, as in other places, to put the effect for the cause; that is, the ultimate effect of his aversion to Christ in the aversion itself. A similar mode of expression repeatedly occurs in the Scriptures, both of the Old and New Testament. As, for instance, in Isaiah xxviii. 15, and xxx. 10. Also, Acts xiii. 46, and Rev. ii. 24; in which latter passage "the depths of Satan" import what those depths were in reality, and not what the people themselves called them.

F. O.

HINTS ON CLERICAL DUTY.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE CHRISTIAN EXAMINER.

SIR. Having lately been applied to by a friend, an undergraduate in our University, for advice relative to his attendance at Mercer's Hospital, for the purpose of reading, and instructing the patients confined there, and after having given the subject my best consideration, the following observations occurred to my mind, which, if you think them useful to the public, as they certainly

were to him, you will be pleased to insert in the next number of your Examiner.

It appears to me inexpedient for young men in a preparatory course of study, to anticipate their duties by a premature and inefficient exercise of talents which require further and severer discipline, and so to sacrifice future greater utility for a present object imperfectly and injudiciously attempted. I would further observe, that it is not agreeable to Church of England discipline, nor to scripture, (see Titus ii. 3-6.) that "young," or "aged women" should for the same purpose, desert the domestic circle which the good providence of God has assigned them, and thus give cause (as I know to be the fact) to the "adversary to blaspheme," (1 Tim. v. 14.) and to the members of their own families to confound religious zeal with "religious dissipation."

But yet, should the undergraduates and the religious Ladies in Dublin forsake this course at present, I regret to add, that the space would be left to the Nuns, and inferior Roman Catholic orders for proselytism, in which, I am informed, they are now actively engaged.

Now, Sir, I should deeply regret being instrumental to the advancement of Popery or irreligion, or to find fault without sug gesting a remedy, and would therefore respectfully propose, through your publication, to our metropolitan, the following plan for remedying those disorders:

There are many young men in Dublin, who after having graduated, and attended Divinity Lectures in College, still want some time to elapse before their age, or other causes will permit them to apply for orders. I would propose to assign to these young men those duties which, I believe, unsuited to Protestant females and undergraduates, and thus secure sound religious instruction for many poor people at the seasonable period of sickness-fairly and fully counteract the insidious proselyting practices of the "Nuns" and their coadjutors-leave ladies and undergraduates leisure for their personal devotion, and domestic College duties, and provide suitable preparatory training for young ministers of the Church of England and Ireland, and thus refute a common objection of dissenters to our church discipline.

Now, Sir, I am firmly convinced that our metropolitan and other Bishops considering this attendance as a recommendation to orders or advancement, and placing these young men under the guidance and controul of the Dublin parochial clergy, would be a sufficient inducement to the candidates for orders of the present day, to enter upon a field of usefulness to themselves and others, and would effectually provide for "all things being done decently and in order."

I remain, Sir, your obedient servant,

A MUNSTER Curate.

337

MISCELLANEOUS COMMUNICATIONS.

ON DRAMATIC REPRESENTATIONS AT SCHOOLS.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE CHRISTIAN EXAMINER.

SIR,-Early in this month the St. James's Chronicle announced the rehearsal of Terence's Adelphi, by the Westminster Scholars; and in due time, the well-rehearsed and matured performance also was announced.

The usual theatrical critique, accompanied by unqualified eulogium was furnished, and the young gentleman who played the drunken slave, was particularly applauded for the accuracy of the representation,

The circumstance brought me to times long since past. About 34 years since, I obtained a ticket of admission to one of these performances. I had wished to witness the representation from the desire of amusement natural to a young man; but more especially, because from the nature of my studies my curiosity on classical subjects was very strong, and supposing myself on classical ground, I had indulged what you will allow was a natural expectation, that a play which had been presented on the Roman stage, would be presented at Westminster with as much attention to classical propriety in costume and accompaniments, as could be given now. Deficiencies were to be expected from the impenetrable darkness thrown over many things relative to antiquity: but we might fairly hope, that whatever could be learned, would be represented. To mingle the utile with the dulce was to be presumed the object of the rulers of that establishment: and the head master, with his assistants, might have been presumed to have access to such sources of information on those matters, as must have made their duty easy. They could easily have furnished the performers with the sock, the mask, the tibia dextræ or sinistræ, pare or impares, as the case might have required. The tunic, the altars on the stage, all such things were surely within the reach of learned Englishmen, and might have been expected for presentation at the performance of a classical play.

Such were my expectations in the tedious interval: at length, the wished-for night arrived, and with it an utter rout of all my anticipated pleasures. When the curtain drew up, (which you know should have been let down) I saw--not the Micio, as I could have imagined him, of olden times, nor even so habited as to indicate the slightest effort at classical costume: not the old Athenian gentleman, but an honest English gentleman, with coat, vest, and breeches. The only attempt at departure from the every-day dress of our own times, was by a young gentleman, whose coat, waistcoat, and breeches, were made of some light-coloured stuff, and he wore a hat, a three-cocked hat, of a light colour to suit the dress, and most magnificently trimmed on all the edges with fea

thers, like what has been occasionally worn by some of our military band-men! and this in England, the country which boasts of its classical tastes; in London, the centre of information; in Westminster, media testudine templi. At that time my mind, alive to worldly objects alone, was occupied only by the duncelike absurdity of the thing.

Since that time other, and I humbly trust, better thoughts have taken the place of these mere worldly feelings. I have learned to read where it is written, "Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth: but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers." (Eph. iv. 29.) And again, "Let not uncleanness, nor covetousness be once named among you; neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor jesting, which are not convenient." (Eph. iv. 3, 4.) I have learned to think, that it is the duty of parents and precepters, to "train up a child in the way he should go," that "when he is old, he may not depart from it." Now, even the parent who lives only for this world, will desire to train his child to truth, and sobriety, and integrity, because such virtues generally ensure prosperity. He will diligently keep his child from the haunts of vice, or the paths of mental corruption, for the danger of such courses is obvious. If the many, who set little value on the religion of the Scriptures, the religion of the heart, yet show anxiety to keep their children from the risk of contagion, what should be expected from those who are selected from the mass of society to be its teachers in spiritual things, who are distinguished by marks of eminence from our Universities, who depart thence to be instructors of youth, and are set up as the heads of our venerable, and highly-endowed seats of education? The head master of Westminster school, for example, will think himself most solemnly bound to imbue the minds of his youthful pupils with principles befitting the offspring of parents professing a religion of purity and holiness; a religion that takes cognizance of our very thoughts. Well: but has he asked himself how this solemn and holy duty is fulfilled, by imprinting on the minds of those to whom he is in the place of a parent, the language and sentiments of the liar, the drunkard, the man of violence, the profligate, the "disobedient to parents?" Is the great and important end of education advanced by enabling a lad to gain the reputation of having represented the drunken slave to the life? Such panegyric has stained the pages of our newspapers, and we may suppose, has been received as praise by the persons concerned. Oh! there is something profoundly awful in the contrast; such disregard of duty, such disrespect to God's pure commands presents to the heavenly precepts poured upon us in rich profusion from the holy word, something terrible and soul-shaking in the thought, that the Lords of this misrule are not of the illiterate laics, in their ignorance making mock of holy things; but they are the learned, men of high rank as teachers of divinity, who promote what they should discountenance, if not for their own sakes, at least for the sakes of those entrusted to them. I look back on what I saw at the exhi

bition, in 1794, with deep regret: young persons uttering the language of profaneness and gross immorality, taught to them by persons conversant with a Book, from which they should have learned the unfitness (to say the least) of such a course; old persons enjoying that, over which they should have grieved: all seeming as if God had never spoken, his servants had never preached nor written, or his Bible never reached us!! How comes it, that in the holy word such stress is laid on purity of life and manners, if we may dispense with such things, and live as if profligacy were just as admissible? How is it that St. Paul is so anxious, so ardent in pressing on us the avoidance of the works of the flesh, (Gal. v. 19, 20, 21.) which, he declares, will exclude men from the kingdom of heaven, if after all, they are such things as may minister to our merriment, and a parent or a teacher may teach assiduously to the pupil-child?

I would affectionately and earnestly ask the promoters of these unholy amusements, whether they have well weighed the consequences of encouraging such things, which are pronounced by the Apostle as being "not convenient;" (Eph. v. 4.) that is, as many of those persons know, things not suitable to the Christian life. I had a thought of giving a sketch of the characters in the Adelphi, with an outline of the incidents, and then of asking fathers, whether they could wish their sons to be such wretches as those so represented; and preceptors, whether they could satisfy their consciences, when they could think they had performed their duty to their pupils, their employers, their king, their country, their God, when they had blighted any good feeling of modesty and sobriety, which home might have cherished in their young breast, and sent them into the world initiated in the language of debauchery, and already half debauched? But I could not resolve on polluting your pages, Sir, and I shall content myself with urging the question on them for silent meditation. How strange, that the professed teachers of our holy religion should exhibit such derangement of moral feeling in this respect; and that a Pagan poet, in whose writings not a trace of Christian knowledge can be found; one, whose moral feeling does not appear to have been very delicate, should appear here so far their superior.

Nil dictu foedum visuque haec limina tangat,

Intra quae puer est: procul hinc, procul inde puellæ
Lenonum, et cantus pernoctantis parasiti.

The poet with the loftiness of true morality enjoins the utmost regard for the mind and feelings of the child, he would banish from sight and hearing whatever might disturb the moral sense; and the anxiety with which he would expel the agents of criminal excesses, so strikingly expressed in the repetition "procul hinc, procul inde," appears to no small advantage in the contrast with Christian Clergymen teaching youth to be familiar with the basest images, to commit such vileness to memory, and so to study them, as to be able successfully to convey the impressions to others.