were so full. To this education of pious young men to higher and more spiritual conceptions of the work of the ministry, and to purer and more disinterested aims, Christian parents and the Christian pulpit must contribute. College officers must make conscience of lending all their influence to help it on. Above all, our theological seminaries must give a very marked prominence to spiritual culture in its course of training, and must be preeminently pervaded by a warm, vitalizing, and inspiring Christian atmosphere. Even the most ample learning and the most complete dogmatic knowledge will fail utterly to give us the ministry we need, if not steeped in devout affection, and consecrated by the baptism and rich indwelling of the Holy Spirit of God. It is for the churches to look to this, and to insist that the cultivation of a fervent personal piety shall not only be distinctly recognized as a prominent part of the work to be accomplished in the theological seminary, but shall be made subordinate to nothing else. We believe it wrong to say, as has been sometimes said, that there is less of a devotional spirit among theological students than among the average of Christians elsewhere. We think it specially wrong to blame the few and over-tasked professors, whose attention must necessarily be very largely occupied with their several departments, for not doing all that is needed to produce, with steadiness, an elevated tone of Christian feeling. Particular provision ought to be made in every theological institution for the spiritual training of all connected with it: to this should be added habitual and earnest prayer for the young men themselves and their instructors. Then we may expect that the end desired will be attained. So long as but little is done, or thought necessary to be done, to produce among those who are designing to enter the ministry an apostolic spirit, a holy self-consecration like that which made Brainerd, and the great Edwards even, willing to preach the gospel to poor Indians in the wilderness, so long we shall lack the men whom the present wants of the Christian cause and of our own denomination urgently demand. We cannot reasonably expect to bring forward a ministry of eminent spiritual earnestness, of self-sacrificing and heroic zeal and energy, unless we seriously propose this, and adapt our methods of training to effect it. 6. While those who look forward to the ministry are taught to do it in the spirit of self-sacrifice, the churches must be made to feel, far more deeply than they have generally done hitherto, the necessity of a just and liberal support of those who are in the work. As the subject of ministerial support is referred to another committee which will doubtless present it fully, we do not propose to speak of it here at length. Yet standing, as it does, in very important relation to the difficulties connected with the work of bringing young men into the ministry, we cannot properly omit to notice it. When we insist that our young men must be ready to do and to suffer anything for Christ, we do not mean to imply that ministers are under a different law of selfconsecration from that which binds the members of the churches generally. If it is their duty cheerfully to meet all the trials, and even hardships, which are necessary, it is the sacred duty of the churches to see to it that they suffer none that are unnecessary none that an honest readiness to render unto them a due reward of their labors would prevent. It cannot be doubted that the want of justice in the adequate support of those who serve at Christ's altars in word and doctrine — a want of justice often so palpable that it is seen and known of all-is one of the most powerful among the causes which operate to turn the most gifted young men from the ministry to other pursuits. Is it strange if a young man sees, that after having spent ten years in hard study, and expended three or four thousand dollars for his education and the beginning of a library, the churches will not, on the average, pay him any more salary than is given to a respectable clerk in a mercantile establishment, he is not able to see it to be his duty to consent to such injustice? Is it strange that he concludes that he has the same liberty as other men to employ his talents and his acquisitions in such a way that he may reap the fruits of his industry and toil? Say that it would be wise in him to commit himself to Christ, and leave the matter of recompense to him. But this does not relieve the wrong, on the part of the churches, of wishing ministers to serve them without reasonable compensation; and, further, when young men are called to decide the question of their future course, they are commonly young in Christian experience as well as years. They cannot be expected to take such views of the subject as might be taken by one who had attained to the highest life of Christian faith. It is clear that the members of the churches must be willing to share the burdens and selfsacrifices of the ministry, and must honestly and fairly do what they can to diminish these, if they will have the service of the young men whom God has endowed with the choicest gifts in the pastoral work. They cannot expect, and ought not to expect, if they are not willing to do this, that the gifted sons of Christian parents will be eager to give themselves to the sacred office. 7. Let us add, still further, more systematic and faithful effort should be made to enkindle in the churches, and especially in the children of the churches, a heartier love for the simple worship and the admirable polity from which we have derived such precious spiritual benefits. That there has been great neglect among us in respect to transmitting the views and spirit of the fathers to the children, there is no need, we suppose, to prove. For the last fifty years or more, pastors and churches, colleges and theological seminaries, appear to have bestowed very little direct attention on the matter. No provision has been made in the theological curriculum for thorough instruction as to the history, the principles, and the practical advantages, of our Church order. While our simple forms admit of being made- all the more from their simplicity— pleasing to a healthful taste, attractive to the heart, and solemnly impressive, they have been too often made to appear barren and uninviting by a careless, slovenly, and perfunctory manner in the administrations of God's house. It has seemed to be too much forgotten in the leading of the praise and worship of the public assembly, and in the administration of Christian ordinances, that with these things should always be associated a sacred comeliness and grace, so that it should be felt by all, that, as in the days of old, strength and beauty conjoined were in the sanctuary. The result of these things has obviously been some degree, at least, of decay of interest in our distinguishing peculiarities, of which others have been, and are now, ready to take advantage; and some of Puritan descent have been led to place themselves again under the same systems of ecclesiastical authority from which it cost their liberty-loving ancestors long struggles, and, in many instances, sufferings unto death, to break away. Plainly, then, it is high time that a new interest in this subject were awakened. Are our ecclesiastical principles, as a denomination, true, scriptural, and of great practical importance? Were they worth contending for, when for them so many of our venerated forefathers wore out their best years in filthy prisons, or went to barbarous deaths to vindicate them for the sake of their posterity? Then are we recreant and degenerate, indeed, if we fail to teach them to our children from their early years, and to hold them dear to our own hearts. While writing these pages, it has been stated to us that it has become a common practice in a section of New England to send to the theological institutions of another denomination for students to supply, during their vacations, destitute churches. We trust there may be some mistake in this singular statement; and yet such an occurrence might not seem an altogether improbable illustration of the indifference which has silently stolen over us. Surely there is need to revive the spirit of John Robinson, of Shepard, Hooker, and Davenport. We must reassert their principles. They should be inculcated at the fireside. They should be taught in the pulpit. They should be embodied in popular tracts, and sown all over the land. Especially should every theological institution have a professorship, or at least a lectureship, which should thoroughly discuss them; and every theological student should be required, as one of the conditions of licensure, to show himself able and willing to defend them. When there shall be such a revival of the spirit, and such a return to the principles, of the men to whom, under God, we owe our best religious blessings, we may expect to have a ministry adapted to our wants as lovers of the largest healthful religious freedom. 8. Finally the committee will only suggest further, that, in view of the existing and the prospective necessities of the churches, as regards the ministry, it becomes an urgent duty to labor and pray more earnestly for the conversion of young men. "Pray ye the Lord of the harvest that he will send forth laborers," said our blessed Lord. Pastors and teachers were among the gifts which, at his ascension, he received power to bestow on men; and these, like other gifts, are dispensed under the law of prayer. The hindrances to piety in the case of young men are, at this time and in a country such as ours, so very great, that unless direct and special effort is made for their early conversion, and that with strength of faith and persistency of prayer on their behalf, we cannot expect to see them devoting their lives from the outset unto God. It is needful to call attention very frequently to this matter. Especially in connection with the observance of the annual day of prayer for colleges should the whole subject of the early conversion of young men, in all its interesting relations, be set faithfully before the churches. Such a solicitude in respect to this should be kept alive in the hearts of all who are engaged in the instruction of young men, as shall lead them to propose it distinctly to themselves, as an essential part of the best education of the precious sons of the Church, to win their hearts to Christ. Everything, in a word, that can be done, should be done, diligently and on system, to bring those especially who are pursuing courses of liberal study under the full influence of Christian truth. No college officer should feel that he is doing his whole duty if he is not striving to accomplish this. Revivals of religion in our churches and our colleges, so deep and powerful in their effects that far greater numbers than have hitherto been reached may be gathered unto God, should be desired and sought with an earnestness that will not be denied. If the measure of God's bestowment, both in the light of reason and the Scriptures, is seen to be, according to your faith be it unto you, there should be a new kindling-up of holy confidence in Christ, the head of the Church and the dispenser of all grace; a new spirit of intercession for the sending-forth of the Holy Ghost to renew unto repentance and Christian life the choicest of our sons. When fathers and mothers plead, and the united churches plead, and a faithful ministry plead; when the hearts of all Christ's servants are set on the consecration of the brightest jewels of their households unto God; we need not doubt that divine power will indeed work wonders, and that the ranks of the ministry will find a multitude prepared to enter them. It is not enough that we know this and say it; in good There is no need earnest we must ACT AS IF OUR INMOST HEARTS BELIEVED IT. to enlarge on this. CONCLUDING REMARKS. The committee have thus endeavored, so far as they were able, to bring the more important aspects of the great subject referred to them to the notice of the Council. They have not deemed it becoming in them to indicate the particular action to be taken by this body. They have supposed that this should be left to be determined by the Council itself, after full discussion had. They cannot doubt that it will seem to the fathers and brethren here assembled, that such measures should be adopted by those representing the churches here, in regard to a matter so vitally connected with our entire religious system, as will secure the inauguration of a new era in our history, and lead speedily to the attainment of the desired practical results. The urgency of our need and of the time forbids delay, and demands that something effectual be done. Whatever difficulties attend the subject, it calls us to face them without flinching, and promptly, as ministers and churches, to address ourselves to the work which God is imposing on us. By some it has been suggested that a plan be devised to induce each self-sustaining Church to pledge itself to secure the education of a number of young men at least equal to the number of ministers required for its own supply; since any Church failing to do so much as this, in fact, enjoys its ministry at the expense, in part or altogether, of other churches. Some have suggested, also, the creation of a Bureau of Clerical Education, at the head of which should be placed one of the wisest, ablest, and most practical men to be found among our pastors, who should devote his best and undivided energies to the work of stimulating, enlightening, and guiding the efforts of the churches, and setting forward in all practicable ways, and throughout the whole country, the momentous work that is needful to be done. The Society for the Promotion of Collegiate Education at the West has contributed largely by its wise and efficient action to the supply of an educated ministry in that vast opening region where the present and prospective need is greatest. To that society, vigorously sustained, we must look for yet greater results in the era that now opens. It may be possible for the Council to give some new impulse to the action of this noble society. The committee may perhaps offer a brief supplementary report, with special reference to this. Other methods will doubtless be suggested by the wisdom of this body. Let, then, the Council determine that the things, which, it has been seen, we are as churches called to do, shall resolutely be done. Let them indicate the course to be pursued, and take the initiative at once. Not a day is to be lost. We are like men standing on the shore when the flood-tide is sweeping in; we must move forward, or be overwhelmed. The well-being of our churches is waiting on us. The cause of true religion in our land is waiting on us. The salvation of our country, which the blessed gospel alone can save, is waiting on us. The providence of God itself is waiting on us. Here, for a century to come, and much longer it may be, must be waged, between the kingdom of Christ and that of the prince of darkness, a mighty moral conflict which will be as the great battle of Armageddon, and will involve results which our thought endeavors in vain to grasp. If in past years our hearts have been stirred at the consideration of the work which we saw before us and our children, much more should we now be aroused to comprehend the greatness, the sublimity, of the coming struggle, and to address ourselves to it with manly earnestness and in the strength of God. Let our faith be firm, that He who hath carried us successfully through the perils, blood, and tears of the stupendous war just closed, who has placed four millions of freedmen within the reach of Christian influence, who has caused our glorious flag-more glorious now than ever-to float peacefully over the whole land, so that every part is open to the gospel, will crown with his abundant blessing the efforts of his servants to make Christianity here triumphant, to the exaltation and happiness of this great people. If now we show ourselves equal to the crisis, our country, powerful, regenerate, and free, shall also stand for coming ages, illustrious among the nations, as THE HOME OF INTELLIGENCE, VIRTUE, AND RELIGION. RAY PALMER, FRANKLIN W. FISK, Committee. Council adjourned to meet in the meeting house of the First Church in Charlestown at 3 P. M. SATURDAY, 3, P. M. Council reassembled in the meeting house of the First Church of Charlestown, the second Assistant Moderator, Rev. J. P. Thompson, D. D., of New York, in the chair. Rev. Dr. Thompson read select portions of Scripture. The hymn (1115 Sab. H. B.), was sung. "O God, beneath thy guiding hand," etc. Rev. E. Beecher, D. D., of Illinois, led the assembly in prayer. Rev. M. Badger, D. D., delegate from California, offered prayer. Rev. W. I. Budington, D. D., Rev. I. W. Andrews, D. D., and Rev. R. Gaylord, made further addresses. The 1111 hymn (S. H. B.), "God bless our native land," etc., was sung, and prayer was offered by Rev. L. Bacon, D. D., of Connecticut. Hon. G. Washington Warren, President of the Bunker Hill Monument Association, addressed the Council, and accompanied them to the monument, where, after an interesting explanation by him of the battle scene of ninety years ago, the Council, after singing one verse of the hymn, "My country, 'tis of thee," etc., and the doxology, under the shadows of Bunker Hill Monument, adjourned to meet in the Mount Vernon Church on Monday morning, at 9 o'clock. FIFTH DAY; Monday, June 19, 9 A. M. Council was opened with prayer by the second Assistant Moderator, Rev. J. P. Thompson, D. D.; the first Assistant Moderator, Hon. C. G. Hammond of Illinois, being in the chair. The minutes of Saturday's sessions were read, corrected, and approved. Rev. Dr. J. P. Thompson resigned his place on the Committee to consider the Report on Evangelization at the South and West, and his resignation was accepted. |