Ministry Compared with Other Professions

A THIRD source of supply for the Christian ministry, must be found in those ijomig men of piety and talent, loho are already educated, or in a course of education for the other learned professions. When God commanded Moses to deliver his message to Pharaoh, Moses replied, “O my Lord, send I pray thee by the hand of him whom thou wilt send;” but by this answer the anger of God was kindled against his timid and reluctant servant. We have no desire to see every pious and well-educated man employed in the ministry of the Gospel, nor is every such man qualilied for the service. Such men are needed elsewhere, as well as in the sacred ministry. Yet ought the question to be deliberately presented to the mind of every well-qualified young man, Whether he can the better serve God and his generation by engaging in some one of the other learned pro* fessions, or in the ministry of his Son? This is the only question which a conscientious man will look at. Private interests must be laid aside, and this single question considered, in the light of God’s truth, God’s providence, and the realities of eternity.

There is no miraculous call at this age of the world, to the work of the ministry. Whether one is called to it, is neither more nor less, than whether, upon a full view of the subject, it is his dutij to enter it. Like every other question of duty, this is to be decided by those leadings of Divine Providence, which indicate to an ingenuous and obedient mind, what his Heavenly Father would have him to do. What are these indications? Are they not a heart sincerely devoted to the service of God, — an honest purpose of living to his glory, — a willingness to be devoted to him, in that way in which we may probably perform the most essential service, — together with those natural talents and opportunities and means, that fit us for this employment. To be conscious of these things, or to have a prevailing consciousness of them, must go very far toward producing the conviction in every honest mind, that the best service he can perform, is to honor his Maker by preaching the Gospel of his Son. It will be very dilhcult to keep such a man out of the ministry; his conscience calls him to it;

his heart calls him to it; God calls him to it; and unless obstacles which cannot be surmounted obstruct his path, he must obey the call. Yet is this conviction not the creature of mere impulse; a mere impression, produced by supposed supernatural influences. It is just the deliberate conviction of a devout mind, adopted in full view of all the light it can obtain, after having sought counsel of God and man, and after no small schooling and self-discipline. Many a young man has entered the ministry under the influence of mere impulse, whom a little experience has taught that he is not fitted for this laborious employment. It may be with reluctance and some mortification that he abandons it; but if he perseveres in a service to which God has not called him, it must be with a discouraged heart. What the Saviour said to those who followed him without anticipating the sacrifice of so doing, may with stronger propriety and greater emphasis, be said to every young man who is directing his thoughts toward the Gospel ministry. —” Which one of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first and counteth the cost V

These remarks may not be turned to good account by all who read them. The object of them is not to discourage young men from entering the sacred office; but rather to encourage. The unhappiness is, that they may present discouragement to the very minds wliicli they ought to encourage and stimulate. Like the discriminations between genuine and spurious piety, the dart which was aimed at the false professor is felt most deeply by the more diffident and humble. Self-diffidence is no proof that a man is not called to the sacred office; on the other hand, it is one of the more welcome and delightful indications that God designs him for a service in which “he that planteth is nothing and he that watereth is nothing.”

Among the considerations which ought to operate on every man who is balancing this great question, we place in the foremost rank the power of the pulpit, and the intrinsic importance of the Gospel ministry. We do not depreciate other departments of human labor, nor other professional vocations; we would that they were all occupied by godly men. We honor them all and have reason to honor them. There is a vast amount of splendid talent, and acquirement, and not unfrequently acquirements, and talent, that are sanctified and devoted to good ends, brought to all the learned professions.

It is greatly desirable that our universities and colleges should be under the teaching of men deeply imbued with the spirit of Christianity. Where this service has attractions for the Christian mind, we would be slow to entertain the doubt, if such a mind is in its proper place, in the instruction of the young. It is a most delightful fact that so many men of high qualifications for their office, are found in our seminaries of learning, who are not less the honored professors of Christianity, than of literature and science. Nobly in our youthful land are such professors doing their exalted work, and winning their unwithered laurels. Long may they do so, and cast their honors at his feet who was crowned with thorns!

The medical profession in all its branches, has deserved attractions. From the dexterous manaijement of magical incantation of ancient times, to the more sober investigation of times less ancient, and the still more solid deductions of the inductive philosophy which have been extended to the study of the animal economy in our own days, this department furnishes a beautiful and brilliant comment upon that spirit of accurate observation and unwearied research, of which there are so many living and illustrious examples. A Christian physician is an ornament to his race, and treads in the steps of that great and Almighty Healer, whose miracles of healing were the precursors and attendants of his miracles of salvation. Many there are of this character in the land; it is deeply to be regretted they are so few; and that in so learned a profession, they are so many who exert a neutralizing inlluence upon Christianity.

Of Law, says the great Hooker, “there can be no less acknowledged, than that her seat is the bosom of God, her voice the harmony of the world: all things in heaven and earth do her homage, the very least as seeking her care, and the greatest as not exempt from her power. Both angels and men, and creatures of what condition soever, though each in a different sort and name, yet all with one uniform consent, admiring her as the mother of their peace and joy.” I have wondered how there could be an unchristian lawyer. If the poet could say, “an undevout astronomer is mad;” what shall be said of the man whose professional vocation leads him to define and vindicate the rights of his fellow-men, who is heedless of the rights of his Maker? What shall be said of him who best understands those great rules of action, commanding what is right, and forbidding what is wrong, who, in his vast range of thought, overlooks the law of God?

I well remember the time when the profession of the law was not so exalted and honored a profession as it now is. It is, and ever since the Revolution, has been a lars:e body of men, embracing a great variety of moral and religious character; so that no general affirmation relating to it would be free from exposure to plausible criticism. If the men of eminence in this profession may he regarded as the most probable representatives of the mass, the lawyers of the two generations which have passed since the declaration of our independence, may fairly be distributed as those who were in the height of their influence for the twenty years immediately after the Revolution, and those who now, and for the last twenty years have been prominent. Of the earlier class it may be said, that they were highly educated; were polished gentlemen; were very learned and of remarkable ability. But they were not men of the highest and purest morality, and were very greedy of the gains of the profession. This is not universally true, but it is true in the main; and every one who will inspect the character of the class will satisfy himself of the truth of the remark. As to the prominent members of the bar of the last twenty years, and the present day, we may say with truth that in integrity, in purity of life, in general moral character, and in consistent, re ligious profession and conduct, they are far superior to their predecessors. They are not inferior in ability; they are scarcely their equals in learning, finished manners, or in that brilliancy which attracts the general admiration. The improvement in the character of the bar, in this country, has probably been

greatly promoted by the Law Schools formed ill various parts of the country after the model of the Institution in Litchfield, All these schools have exerted an elevating moral influence, and some of them an influence that is truly Christian. Reeves, Kent, and Greenleaf deserve well of the American churches. Young men thus destined to the bar have been placed at once at the pure fountains of those legal principles, and those considerations of truth, justice, public policy, and refined equity, of which the science of the Law is composed. Their intimacy with these principles has most favorably influenced their character. In no aspect has scientific education produced better results than in the influence it has exerted on the bar of the United States; wdiich, for its high position in moral and religious character, has no superior. In no land does this profession deserve the name of a Christian profession, so truly as in our own. To an extent altogether unknown in the English and Scottish courts, the most distinguished jurists, in very many of these States, both on the bench, and at the bar, are professedly Christian men, and exert an influence in favor of Christianity. As a useful and benevolent employment, a Christian may well confess that this profession has strong allurements; while, as an employment for cultivated intellect, it possesses, in the extent of its researches, and in the accuracy and precision of its discriminations, elements of a most enviable kind. Few subjects present a more noble expression of the comprehensive, and at the same time, the analytical powers of the human mind, than the study of the law in all its branches, and in its gradual advancement.

If from the law, we look to the profession of a States7nan, we may not deny that it has attractive inducements. An enlightened Christian statesman, I am very sorry to say, is a rare character among the men of our own times. There is too much in the profession that is corrupting to the human heart; — too much to fire ambition, and generate intrigue; — too much to cherish the love of money and the love of power; — too much of rivalry and party strife, to render it a safe position for a follower of Jesus Christ to aspire after. A Christian man may be a statesman; but if he aims at this perilous position, he transplants himself from a soil refreshed by the waters of the sanctuary, to a mountain of snow, or to the bleak rock that is washed by the spray of the ocean. He will scarcely flourish like the palm-tree, or grow like the cedar in Lebanon. The arena of political agitation must be a different tiling from what it is, to allow us to say of it, that for the gratification of enlightened intellect, enlarged views, and more than all, that public

31G THE powr.n OF Tin: pulpit.

spirit which is the prominent feature of Christianity, the science of government furnishes a desirable sphere of thought and labor.

We are not unwilling that the claims of other professions should be canvassed; while we have ventured to speak as we have spoken for God and his sanctuary. Do we need to crave indulgence from our learned and professional readers, when we say, that, with all the attractions of other professions, it is the privilege, even of the humblest, and the meanest occupant of the pulpit, to claim for it a superiority over them all.

This superiority belongs to it, if for nothing more than the wide range of thought which it presents to the human intellect, and the interest it imparts to mere intellectual investigation. If the intellect is ever interested in what is great, it is interested here. If it is philosophical and metaphysical disquisition that interests it; or the natural sciences; or relined and elegant literature; here it may revel as in the richest banqueting house of thought. If it be the thorny field of controversy with the foe, that it seeks to travel over; or the garden of flowers, or the matured and yellow harvest, as it waves in the sunlight; here is all that can gratify it. It will be very difficult to find the men in the literary world whose enthusiasm has been more ardent, and whose intellectual enjoyment has been more pure and more intense, than theirs whose life and soul have been wrapt up in the pursuit of theological science.. ■.

If from this intellectual interest which the great subjects of natural and revealed religion excite, we turn to the moral interest, and look at the benevolent motives which address themselves to the heart of every honest preacher of the Gospel, we shall see our office still more magnified. What these are we have already specified. And is there no interest in a course of investigation, and of public instruction, argument, and appeal, where these great objects form the impulsive power? I need but submit the inquiry to a Christian mind. Is there interest in those wondrous achievements which the mind, the eye, and the hand of man have compassed for the social and temporal benefit of our race; and is there none in the mightier achievements of the Gospel of the grace of God? Is there any thing to attract the heart in those philanthrophic efforts, which have thrown over the ruder nations, and the more rude states of human society, the charms of civilized and polished men; and is there none in turning them from dumb idols, to serve the living God? Is the pride of man gratified in erecting pyramids, building towers, and founding empires; and shall not his humility be gmtificd, l3y his favored and undeserved instrumentality in l)uildin<i- up the walls of God’s temple, and extending the empire of his gracious Redeemer over the souls of lost men? Is he gratified when he scans the heavens, penetrates the bowels of the earth, navigates unexplored seas, converts deserts into cities, makes islands in the ocean, and turns in the sea upon the solid land; and has he no heart to rejoice when he makes the moral desert blossom as the rose, and the wilderness like the garden of God; when through his humble efforts, the abundance of the seas is converted unto the Most High, and w hen, from an abyss deeper than all the deep places of the earth, he is the selected instrument by which the deathless soul is raised to celestial mansions? Does he dwell w ith gratified and grateful complacency on his successful efforts in healing the sick, in defending the innocent, and redressing w’rong, in pleading his country’s cause before the elders of the land; and shall he have no gratified and grateful emotions when he pleads the cause of the King of kings, when he asserts the rights of the Eternal Lawgiver, and when he conducts the poor, and wretched, and blind, the corrupted, degraded, palsied, and dead in sin, to the great Author of holiness and life? An anonymous writer in Blackwood’s Marazine, remarks, “I know of no profession more capable of fuUilling all the objects of a vigorous mind. I am not now talking of mitres; they can fall to but few. I speak of the prospects which it opens to all; the power of exerting the largest influence for the highest purposes; the possession of fame without its emptiness, and the indulgence of knowledge without its vanity; energy turned to the most practical and lofty uses of man; and the full feast of ambition superior to the tinsel of the world, and alike pure in its motives, and unmeasurable in its rewards.”

In which of these noble spheres, then, will a well qualified young man accomplish the most for the God that made him, and the generation he lives to serve? In which w ill he do the most good, and accomplish the great end for which his being, and his piety, and his qualifications w ere bestowed? Where will his soul find the richest aliment, and his conscience be most at ease, and his heart most tranquil? iJ’7ie7’e is he most needed? Not in the crowded profession of the law; nor in the overstocked and suifocated department of the healing art; nor in the professor’s chair, for w hich there are twenty aspirants to one vacancy.

So much has been said and done of late years on the subject of educating poor and pilous young men for the Gospel ministry, that the obligation of furnishing the pulpit from any other classes of society seems to be in a great measure lost sight of. Now we enter our solemn ])rotest against some modern views of this doctrine. It were a calamity greatly to be deplored, should we act upon the principle that povertij and low birth, are essential qualifications for the Christian ministry; and that a well-bred man is disqualified from becoming a minister of the Gospel because he is well-bred, and the son of a rich man disqualified because he is rich. Yet such is the strong tendency of the public mind: the Church of God and ministers themselves scarcely think of looking for men to serve the Lord Jesus in his sanctuarv, save to the poor.

It is true that the Saviour selected some from the poor to be his Apostles. Feter, Andrew, James, and JoJin where fishermen; yet ecclesiastical historians inform us, that James and John were of noble family. Matthew, though an Hebrew of the Hebrews, was a Roman officer, a broker or money-changer; an office which was indeed of bad report among the Jews, but among the Romans accounted a place of power and credit; so much so that it was ordinarily conferred on none but Roman knights. Cave, in his Lives of the Apostles, states on the authority of Suetonius, that Titus Flaminius Sabonus, father to the Emperor Vespasian, was the publican of the Asiatic provinces of Rome, and liiglily respected in his character and office. James the less was related to the priesthood, and was kinsman to Zacharias, the father of John the Baptist; so was Judas his brother, and both of them belonged to the royal family of David. Simon Zelotes belonged to one of the most honorable sects of the Jews; and though it became subsequently degenerate, was in the days of the Saviour of high repute and authority. Of Philip, Bartholomew, Thomas, and Mathias, we learn nothing from the New Testament, except their vocation to the apostleship. Paul, the distinguished Apostle, called so miraculously, was eminent from his youth in the learning and philosophy of the Gentile word; educated in the metropolis of Cilicia, renowned as it was for its schools, and even rivalling Alexandria and Athens. Having laid the foundation of his attainments in the sciences at Tarsus, he was sent by his parents to Jerusalem to perfect himself in the study of the law, under the celebrated Rabbi Gamaliel. He himself takes particular notice of his honorable descent, nor is it any impeachment of his high standing and consideration in .society that he was by trade a tentmaker, because the sons of the highest families were brought up to a trade: it is a well known fact that the most learned among the Jews were, in early life, trained to some brmicli (tf manual and useful labor. It was a maxim amonp that people, that “he who teaches not his son a trade, teaches him to be a thief.”

Thus much of Apostles. If we inrpiire after others, and durini the Apostolic age, we find Mark, a descendant (f the priesthood; and Luke, the physician educated in the metropolis of Syria, the “very lap of the muses,” and familiar with the learning of Egypt and Greece. We find Barnabas, also a descendant of the priesthood, the son of rich antl pious parents. We find TimotJuj, his father a Greek, his mother a Jewess, fitted by his early education, as soon as he was converted to the Christian faith, to be employed by Paul. We find Titus of Crete, the common account of whom is that he was of the blood royal of the Island. We find Dionyshis one of the judges of the Grecian Areopagus; Clement, the son of Faustus, who was near of kin to the Roman Emperor; and Justin Martyr, a highly educated young man, and greatly accomplished by foreign travel. We find Irenaius the Greek, the successful pupil of Papias, and prepared by his liberal and extensive training for the important post he afterwards occupied in the Church of God. We find Theopliihis oi Klaoq, a young man, versed in the writings of all the great masters of learning in the heathen world; TertulliaUy descended from the Gens Scptimia, a regal tribe among the Romans, and maintaining consular and patrician honors. We find Origen, Cyprian, Gregory, and others not a few, all descended from wealthy parentage. Dr. M’- Crie, in his history of the Reformation in Italy, and the best which I have seen, states that the Italian Reforyners, who performed and suffered so much in resisting the corruptions of the Church of Rome antecedently to the days of Luther, and who fled to different countries of Europe, were men of high and noble descent. So far as I have been able to ascertain, the great mass of Christ’s ministers, in Europe, Asia, and Africa, have been descended from parentage that was above want; and who, if they were not affluent, have, by the force of their own character, found their way to the pulpit without the aid of charity.

Until within a few years past this is equally true of the American clergy. Nothing is hazarded by the general remark, that the brightest constellations in all lands, and the men whose light has shone to distant ages, have been from families respected and honored for their station in human society. But there is one example that outshines them all, and that may well cover the face of the young man with blushes, who is tempted to regard the office of the Christian ministry as beneath his rank. I allude to the only Son of the acknowledged and reigning Monarch of all worlds. Wealth he had, for the riches of the universe were his; honors he had, for angels bowed at his footstool; power he had, for all power was his; high and exalted parentage he had, for he was the Son of God, the Father’s equal. O blush, and be ashamed, that He whose honors make all earthly honors wither, should lay aside his sceptre, and put ofl’ his crown, and come down to this low earth, for the sake of becoming a Minister of that Gospel, whose service is not sufficiently lofty and elevated for thee, his creature, his pensioner, his child! It were enough honor to resemble him, who “though he was rich, for our sakes became poor, that we through his poverty might become rich!” Yet he condescends to solicit that very youth to come into his vineyard. His Church needs him. The poor and the destitute need him. Important churches, which have long looked in vain for men of combined piety, talent, and some consideration in society, need him. His Divine Lord has need of him: — he has need of him. It is that young man of Christian nurture, of early piety, of cultivated talent and habits, and of accomplished character that he needs. It is that youth of promise, who is looking toward the council-chamber, and the forum, and that has qualities that will shine amid the bright lights of the land. His Church, in the pressure of her wants, will seek out others: she will find them in the highways and hedges, but she will not seek for him. Him the Master calls more directly. Jesus, who died for him, calls him to forsake all, and become his ambassador to dying men. There are those whom he must guide, and none else. O there is a lamentable destitution in the ministry, of such men! Thousands there are who are praying, and looking fof the time when such men shall not be ashamed to be enrolled among the ambassadors of their despised Lord. It is a sorry day this, in which men of distinction shun the sacred ministry. Where it will end, we do not know; but we implore them to look at this great question in the light of eternity.

There is an aflecting anecdote which many have seen, related of that memorable Italian reformer, Filippo Neri, and the youthful student.” Filippo was living at one of the Italian Universities; when a young man, whom he had known as a boy, ran up to him with a face full of delight, and told him that what he had long been wishing above all things in the world, was at length fulfilled, his parents having just given him leave to study the law; and that thereupon he had come to the law-school, and meant to spare no pains or labor in getting through his studies as quickly and as well as possil)lo. 1)1 this way he ran on a long time; and when at last he came to stop, the holy man, who had been listening to him with great patience and kindness, said, ‘Well! and when you have got through your course of studies, what do you mean to do then V

“‘Then I shall take my doctor’s degree,’ answered the young man.

“‘And then?’ asked Filippo Neri again.

“‘And then,’ continued the youth, ‘I shall have a number of difficult and knotty cases to manage, shall catch people’s notice by my eloquence, my zeal, my acuteness, and gain a great reputation.’

“‘And then V repeated the holy man.

“‘And then,’ replied the youth, ’ why then, there can’t be a question, I shall be promoted to some high office or other, besides, I shall make money and grow rich.’

“‘And then V repeated Filippo.

“‘And then,’ pursued the young lawyer, — ’ then I shall live comfortably and honorably, in health and dignity, and shall be able to look forward quietly to a happy old age.’

“* And then?’ added the holy man.

“‘And then,’ said the youth — ’ and then — and then — then I shall die.’

“Here Filippo lifted up his voice, and again asked, And then?’ Whereupon the young man made no answer, but cast down his head, and went away. This last And then? had pierced like a flash of lightning into his soul, and he could not get quit of it. Soon after he forsook the study of the law, and gave himself up to the ministry of Christ, and spent the remainder of his days in godly words and works.” It is true there are trials in the Christian ministry; and some of them are peculiar and severe. But are they too many, or more than these servants of God need? Nor is the ministry the only profession in which there are trials; yet is it the only one which has such promises, and such a reward. What a day will that be, when a faithful and laborious minister stands before God! When the mighty God, even the Lord, shall say, “Gather my saints together unto me, those who have made a covenant with me by sacrifice:” and when before the General Assembly and Church of the First Born, and in presence of assembled worlds, he shall present the fmits of God’s grace and his fidelity, to his Father and their Father, to his God and their God, and say, “Behold I and the children which thou hast given me;” trials will be forgotten. Disclaimed honors will then be restored, and look bright again. Yea, toil, weariness, watchings, fastings, penury, reproach, and frowns, will all be forgotten in the fulness of the joy.

There is a remaining: source of supply to the Christian ministry, when all these are found to be inadequate. The American Republic has introduced a new era, not only in the State, but in the Church. The pride of family is rapidly vanishing away, and personal worth is daily becoming more and more the only standard of character. It is impossible to maintain any thing like an aristocracy, in any land, without something like the law of entailment. With some few exceptions, the rich in this land, were the sons of the poor; while those who are now the sons of the rich, will, with some honorable exceptions, themselves be poor in a few years after their farthers sleep in the dust. The wealthy, and well educated, and honored among us, have for the most part no high parentage to boast of They will be much more likely in tracing up their parentage, to stumble over a carpenter’s bench, or a blacksmith’s anvil, or a butcher’s stall, or a stage coach, than upon a peerage, or a bishop’s see. Right or wrong, this is the actual state of things in this democratic land: and with all wisdom and energy the church of God must meet it. Men are no longer great by inheritance, but are self-made men. The church is just as democratic as the world; she has few rich that were not once poor, and few poor that will not become rich. In this land, therefore, it is no dishonor in a young man to be poor. Poverty is no barrier to his advancement either in Church or State.

There are not a few young men of fine minds and straitened circumstances, to be found in our churches, who must, if this extensive country be furnished with ministers of the Gospel, direct their attention to the pulpit. This therefore must be regarded as one of the sources from which those large supplies can be obtained that are demanded by the millions that are perishing for lack of knowledge. The exigencies of the land justify and demand the effort of selecting and educating this class of young men by the charities of the Church.

There are intrinsic and adventitious disadvantages, and even objections to this great enterprise; and they deserve a candid hearing. But if those that are adventitious may be diminished and removed, it ought not to be fatal to so important an enterprise that those which are intrinsic and inseparable from it remain. “Where there is a will, there is a way.” A strong young man, be he ever so poor, may find access to the ministry, by the force of his own strong will, and the solicited blessing of God upon his own exertions. Yet is there many a one naturally well qualified for extensive usefulness in this field of such varied labor, who is not thus strong. There can be little doubt that those young men who are physically, intellectually, and spiritually qualified for the ministry, would greatly increase those qualifications, by that course of mental and physical toil, so patiently and with such exemplary self-denial endured by some who found their w ay to the pulpit long before modern Education Societies came into existence. They would “show themsehes men and be more respected, and vigorous and useful. The loss of time by such a course of self-training, and discipline, would be made up by the accession of influence. Some of the most laborious men who have held their places in the Church during the last forty or fifty years, were men of this stamp; and no class of ministers have proved themselves more trustworthy, or have enjoyed a larger share of public confidence. But such has been the pressing demand of the world for ministers, that this tardy progress has been found to be too slow; and necessity, which knows no law, has driven the churches to the bold experiment of seeking out young men, and aiding them in their preparatory course of study. Multitudes have thus been brought into the ministry, wdio, from sensitive diffidence, or more sensitive poverty, would never have thought of devoting themselves to this great work. They are men fitted for the exigencies of the age, and have done good service; while there are those among- them who have shone as stars of the first magnitude, and eclipsed the light that rose amid fewer clouds. Nor is it any marvel, nor ought it to be any serious disappointment that in an enterprise so untried, and conducted upon so large a scale, there should have been some unhappy failures. They have been not a few; we confess they have been unhappy. There is something wanting in this class of men: even not a few of them who have gone as missionaries to the heathen, have given more trouble, and more expense, than those who have found their way to the pulpit unaided. They expect too much; they have, to too great an extent, the habit of dependence upon others. If we look over the land too, we shall find the leaders of new measures, and that fearful radicalism which has distracted the churches, among those who were low-bred men; who have been brought up from their youth to be jealous of clerical influence, and who have not grown up with those sentiments of respect for the Gospel ministry which it deserves. Let me not be misunderstood. A poor young man is not necessarily a low-bred man; it is not because he is poo7’ that he may not be entitled to high confidence. If we doubt the expediency of introducing low-hred men into the pulpit, it is because the “Ethiopian cannot change his skill, nor the leopard his spots.” It is a sure way to bring the ofiice into contempt, when the Church miikes to herself “Priests of the lowest order of the people.”

Experience gives wisdom. No class of men have profited more by their experience, than those to whom the churches have intrusted the selection and education of poor and pious youth for the ministry. The enterprise is now probably as well conducted as it can be; and if not, there is but one thing wanted to make the system as perfect as it is capable of being made. That one thing is the extension of the syston of parochial schools throughout all our churches. These, under a wise supervision, would become not only the nurseries of the church, but the nurseries of the ministry. They furnish the very scenes, and associations, and employments which put the intellectual and moral character of this class of youth to the test; and which, by that gradual development which is most to be relied on, would indicate the most worthy candidates for the Church’s charity. The report of the Board of Education, on the subject of parochial schools, presented to the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church, at their last annual meeting, does not give undue weight to these thoughts, when it says that the ‘’ parochial system will, with the blessing of God, fiive the Church a wider range from which to expect ministerial supplies. She will not only have better ministers, by God’s grace, but more of them. In proportion as Christian education exerts an influence on the minds and hearts of the youth of the Church, are the probabilities increased of their turning their attention to the ministry. There is no irreverence in such an anticipation. God employs means in the advancement of his kingdom. As the multiplication of churches secures in the ordinary course of Providence, an increase of communicants, so a larger class of youth religiously educated in church-schools, will be likely to furnish an increased supply for the sanctuary. The qualifications of candidates trained up from early youth, under the watchful care of the Church, would be well known in all our congregations and presbyteries. From the nature of the case, there would be fewer risks encountered. Character would be formed on a superior model; piety would have a more intelligent basis; the nature of a call to the ministry would be better understood; and the general qualiiications of candidates would be better known, as well as of a better order. Almost all the failures connected with the Board of Education, have been from the class whose early education was neglected. The most hopeful candidates of the Church are those who have drank in the “sincere milk of the word,” with their nursery rhymes and their mother’s prayers, and who have been regularly trained in Sabbath, and other schools. It must not be supposed, however, that under the best possible system of church education, we shall be free from failures among our candidates. But we may labor by prayer, and by effort of every kind, to diminish the number; and it is believed that no improvement upon our existing system would be found so radical and effectual, as the education of our future ministers under the care of the Church, from the school to the theological seminary.”

It is by methods like these, that a competent ministry is to be procured for the Church and the vporld; and if in our former observations, we have not claimed more for the pulpit than belongs to it, it is but justice that it be more abundantly supplied. Whatever means of a different kind may be adopted, the harvest will not be gathered in without the appointed laborers. A voice reaches us on this subject, not from our own land only, but from every part of the world. More than twenty years ago, the American Missionaries in the far distant East, in one of their communications to the churches at home, have embodied the following important thought: —” Sending teachers without tliC Bible, was the error of the Church of Rome; let it not be the error of

Protestants to send the Bible without preachers.” If we look to our own land alone, notwithstanding the increase of ministers within the last thirty years, the ratio of this supply by no means stands abreast with the ratio of an increased population. This vast land is to be supplied with the Christian ministry. It is no easy matter to contemplate the number of inhabitants that are to be affected by a preached Gospel in such a land as this. “The present confederacy of the United States of North America, contains a larger area of cultivated land, and hospitable climate, than any country that has previously existed. Ancient and modern empires sink into insignificance when compared with it. The United States of America contain 2,300,000 square miles, over half a million more than Europe, if we except Russia. Their greatest length is 3,000 miles; their greatest breadth 1,700 miles. They have a frontier line of 10,000 miles; a sea-coast of 36,000, and an inland lake coast of 1,200 miles. The rivers of the United States are the largest in the world. The Missouri is 3,600 miles in length; or more than twice as long as the Danube. The Ohio is 600 miles longer than the Rhine. The Hudson, entirely within a single State, is navigable 120 miles above its mouth farther than the Thames. One of the States has an area of 70,000 square miles, and is about one-third larger than England. From the eastern extremity of Maine to New Orleans, the distance is 2,000 miles, or 400 more than from London to Constantinople. From London to Constantinople, you cross the entire continent of Europe, and through most of its principal kingdoms. The great proportion of the whole extent of the territory of the United States is uncultivated. The population of the country, as rapidly as it increases, would not occupy all the public domain in a cycle of 500 years. So vast, indeed, is the territory of the United States already, that it takes no ordinary mind to contemplate its extent, and few indeed can calculate its resources; and the most comprehensive intellect cannot, even when warmed by a high-wrought imagination, give but a faint glimmering of the future wealth and power to be accorded to the -American people. Our population is spreading from the Eas.tern to the Western Ocean, and in a few generations will constitute the largest nation in the world.”

And if we take into account the unevansfelized parts of the earth, how fearful is the destitution of Christian ministers! What an army of young men must be found, and educated, and sent forth ere the Redeemer have the heathen for his inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for his possession.” Pray ye the

Lord of the harvest, that lie woukl send forth laborers into his harvest!” Prayer, prayer, prayer. “Pray ye the Lord of the harvest that he would send forth laborers into his harvest!”