lowing it is, without much compunction, made to accommodate some minister of heresy. If these, and such like, are to be the allowed uses of the edifice, they had better be mentioned in the act of dedication, and the house be dedicated to God, the town, and other objects. There seems to be inconsistency, if not irreverence, to dedicate it to God, and call it his, and then make it as common to other uses as to his worship.

I would by no means encourage a superstitious reverence for wood and stone; nor would I object to as liberal a use of our churches as may be consistent with the professed design of their erection. I would not confine them to religious exercises simply, but would freely open them to other objects which are obviously related and subservient to religion. But beyond this their use is questionable. God has said "Ye shall reverence my sanctuary." Christ was offended at the secular concerns which he found within the precincts of the temple, and drove them out.

Civil communities, as such, have no right to claim the use of our churches. They are able, and should be willing, to provide buildings for their own purposes.

PARSONAGES,

As a society will always want a minister, and the minister will want a house, it were well if every soci

ety would own a parsonage-house. It is often difficult for a minister to rent a house, and embarrassing to him to build. If he depends on renting one, he can occupy it only so long as may suit the convenience of the proprietor. He moves about a tenant at will. That he should be obliged to build, in these unsettled times, even if able, is hardly reasonable. For it is not improbable, dismissions being now so lamentably common, that by the time he has completed the building, having exhausted his narrow resources upon it, and more, perhaps, he is obliged to leave it to stand empty, or else to part with it at a sacrifice by means of a forced sale.

If a minister do build, especially if necessitated to do so, the property ought, in case of his dismission, to be taken off his hands by the society at its fair value; and any reasonable embarrassment he may have experienced in consequence of building ought to be considered in the purchase.

It is obvious that a society can more easily furnish a house for its minister than he can for himself. Indeed the society can do it with little difficulty and considerable advantage. The use of the place will in part support the pastor; so that less will have to be raised in money. And by being the known family residence of the minister, it becomes, like the meetinghouse itself, a common object of attachment, and a bond of union to the people.

THE YOUNG MEN.

Young men, as one of their first acts, on coming of age, should become members in form, of the ecclesiastical society. I will not urge this on the ground of their worldly advancement; though I might do this, for there is no more favorable introduction of a young man to the notice and esteem of the community; but I urge the nobler plea of citizenship and duty. Not coming forward to act as citizens, they might as well be minors still, they are minors-as it regards society.

They often keep back from modesty, or not knowing the mode of becoming members. Pains should be taken to inform them.*

SCHOOLS.

Common schools and higher seminaries are an essential part of the polity and practice of Congregationalists. The Practical Church Member then will be interested in these. As an enlightened citizen, and still more as a christian, he will give his effectual support to

* In Connecticut a person becomes a member of an Ecclesiastical Society by lodging a certificate of his intention to belong to it, with the clerk, or if there be no clerk, with any other officer of the society. He thus becomes entitled to vote and act in all respects as a member, unless a majority of the society shall dissent thereto," at its next regular meeting.

In like manner any person ceases to be a member by lodging a certificate to that effect.

the cause of popular education and general intelligence. A New Englander and a Congregationalist, of all men, should be the last to be negligent of schools; for it is to the intelligence of her people that New England and her Congregational churches have owed their prosperity. Popular ignorance would be the greatest enemy which Congregationalism would have to fear. It is too republican in its polity to thrive with ignorance. Besides this, it is the least informed among us that are most exposed to the arts of proselytism.

CHAPTER XI.

INTERCOURSE OF CHURCHES.

No churches have loved and respected each other more than the Congregational. Their common and venerated parentage; their intelligent piety; their unbroken vicinity; living as they do within sight of each other's spires, and within sound of each other's bells, throughout their beloved New England; their pious and respected authors; their many revivals; their common and noble enterprizes for the good of posterity and the world, these have been the bonds of their endearment.

But the relations which subsist in the affections only, however delightful and profitable to dwell on, are topics which are not within the plan of this volume. I confine myself to matters of ordinary practical intercourse between the churches.

DISMISSION OF MEMBERS FROM ONE CHURCH TO ANOTHER.

Members proposing to transfer their relationship from one church to another, receive letters of dismission and recommendation to that effect.

When a member goes to reside in another place for a season only, expecting to return, and not choosing to