hat, in this part of the State, the ministers are so frequently
changing the scene of their pastoral labours. The fault may sometimes
be in themselves: but from conversations I have heard on the subject, I
am inclined to believe that the _people_ are fond of a change."--_Rev
Mr Reid_] And it is impossible they should, in the present state of
things. They could not stand it. So numerous are their engagements; so
full of anxiety is their condition in a fevered state of the public mind
acting upon them from all directions; so consuming are their labours in
the study and in public, pressed and urged upon them by the demands of
the time; and, withal, so fickle has the popular mind become under a
system that is forever demanding some new and still more exciting
measure--some new society--some new monthly or weekly meeting, which
perhaps soon grows into a religious holiday--some special effort running
through many days, sometimes lasting for weeks, calling for public
labours of ministers, of the most exciting kind throughout each day,
from the earliest hour of the morning to a late hour of night; for
reasons and facts of this kind, so abundant, and now so obvious to the
public, that they need only to be referred to, to be seen and
appreciated, it is impossible that ministers should remain long in the
same place. Their mental and physical energies become exhausted, and
they are compelled to change; first, because it is not in the power of
man to satisfy the appetite for novelties which is continually and from
all quarters making its insatiate demands upon them; and next; that, if
possible, they may purchase a breathing time and a transient relief from
the overwhelming pressure of their cares and labours.

"But, alas! there is no relief: they are not only broken up, but they
find themselves fast breaking down. Wherever they go, there is the same
demand for the same scene to be acted over. There is--there can be--no
stability in the pastoral relation, in such a state of the public mind:
and, what is still more melancholy and affecting, the pastors themselves
cannot endure it--they cannot live. They are not only constantly
fluctuating--literally afloat on the wide surface of the community--but
their health is undermined--their spirits are sinking--and they are fast
treading upon each others' heels to the grave, their only land of rest.

"Never since the days of the apostles, was a country blessed with so
enlightened, pious,