the host of heaven cannot be numbered, neither the sand of the sea measured, so will he multiply the seed of David his servant, and the Levites that minister before him" (Jer. 33 9, 22). Our blessed Saviour was moved with compassion for the multitudes that were scattered abroad, as sheep having no shepherd. "Then saith he unto his disciples, The harvest truly is plenteous, but the labourers are few; pray ye, therefore, the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth labourers into his harvest" (Matt. 9: 36, 38).

Whatever measures, then, affect the character and numbers of the ministry, exert a direct proportionate influence upon the character, both of Church and State; and in our day, especially among Presbyterians, since the body of our ministers obtain preparatory training in some theological school, the number and condition of such schools must be a very fair exponent of the condition of the Church herself.

The Christian, therefore, we repeat, who has any "largeness of heart," who extends a serious thought beyond his own salvation, who concerns himself with the general and future welfare of the Redeemer's kingdom among men; especially the Christian parent, who has given pledges to posterity for his interest in unborn generations, cannot look with indifference upon such a subject. Whatever "perverse disputings" it may have occasioned, whatever clashing of interests, what difficulties and perplexities soever, to him it must ever be a question of the most serious import, are we, as a Church, employing the best measures to secure an adequate ministry? Most of all must the existing brotherhood of Christian pastors, upon each of whom the Holy Ghost has laid the solemn obligation which Paul addressed to Timothy, "The things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also" (2 Tim. 2 : 2); most of all must they cherish an abiding interest in the provision, numbers, qualifications, and therefore in the professional training, of a future ministry. Our fathers, where are they? Our sons in the common faith, what manner of men shall they be? When we sleep in Jesus, and the day is not distant,-who shall contend earnestly for the faith once delivered to us? Have we sought out "faithful men, able to teach," to whom we may commit the precious deposit of truth? The Head of the Church, we are sure, will never forget Zion; yet he works by means, and visits the unfaithfulness of fathers upon their children. Come, then, brethren, and let us reason together upon our duty to posterity and to God, touching a future ministry for the portions of our country which Providence has allotted for our inheritance,-this great and free Northwest.

I. Consider the magnitude, present and prospective population, and relative importance of this field, for the culture of which we are peculiarly responsible.

The territorial limits of the seven Synods we address, including

Iowa, Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, and about two-fifths of Ohio, comprehend almost two hundred and seventy thousand square miles; an area surpassing that of Austria by ten thousand square miles, and that of France by some sixty thousand. It has double the extent of Great Britain, nearly three times that of Italy, and just nine times that of Scotland with its islands. In fertility of soil, mineral wealth, variety of agricultural productions, facilities for navigation and commerce, salubrity of climate, and all that relates to the support of a dense population, it is unsurpassed by any other equal portion of the globe.

The census of 1790, sixty-six years ago, reported no white population in this immense region. In 1800, the population, in round numbers, was 23,000; in 1810, 134,000; in 1820, 444,000; in 1830, 900,000; in 1840, 2,000,000; in 1850, 3,500,000. From 1800 to 1810, it increased six-fold; from 1810 to 1820, it tripled; and it has almost doubled in every decennial period since 1820. In 1860, then, at least six millions of souls will inhabit the territory covered by our Synods.

II. The Presbyterian element in the Northwest.

In 1850, the entire population included within our synodical boundaries was three and a half millions, the Presbyterian element of which (we mean, always, the Old School division of the family) was as follows: viz., four Synods, twenty-four Presbyteries, two hundred and eighty-five Ministers, four hundred and sixty-four Churches, and twenty-three thousand six hundred and five Communicants, or one Presbyterian out of every one hundred and fifty inhabitants. In 1855, there were six Synods, thirty Presbyteries, three hundred and seventy-three Ministers, six hundred and three Churches, and about thirty thousand Communicants. Estimating the increase of the population, and of its Presbyterian element, according to the ratio of the past, there will be, in 1860, forty thousand Presbyterians among six millions of souls, or a proportion again of one to one hundred and fifty.

Such is the field, an area of two hundred and seventy thousand square miles, and such the mass of living souls whose culture is the special work, in part, of western Presbyterians. Can a nobler field be found elsewhere? And yet how insignificant, numerically considered, is the Presbyterian element! In a hamlet of one hundred and fifty people, it would be represented by a solitary Christian! In a town of fifteen hundred inhabitants, by a little group of ten. communicants! In a young city of fifteen thousand souls, by one barely self-sustaining church of a hundred members! Truly, a grain of mustard-seed; a little leaven hid in three measures of meal. Still, it bears a vastly larger relative proportion to the surrounding masses, than did the one hundred and twenty disciples in an upper room in Jerusalem to the world lying in wickedness. Oh, if the thirty thousand Presbyterians of the Northwest had, with our immensely increased facilities for usefulness, but a tithe of the

faith, love, zeal, self-devotion, and prayerful spirit of the primitive Christians, how soon would these millions be subdued to the obedience of Christ!

III. The demand for Ministers.

Next to a universal and continual effusion of the Holy Spirit upon our churches, and the necessary result of such an effusion, what is needed, first of all, to the achievement of this glorious result, is an adequate supply of competent and faithful pastors and teachers, the ascension gift of Christ. It is needed now, to maintain the ground already occupied. Our thirty thousand Presbyterians are organized into six hundred and three churches. To meet their spiritual wants we have only three hundred and seventythree ministers in the field, some sixty of whom are without charge,— aged, agents, school teachers, &c.; leaving just half as many pastors as there are churches. Sometimes two or more churches are united under one pastor; and still one hundred and eighty churches, or nearly one-third of our whole number, are reported in the Assembly's statistical tables as vacant. Nor are these vacant churches, generally small and insignificant, devoid of promise, incapable of increase and an early self-support. The aggregate membership of the one hundred and fifty-two reported, is five thousand one hundred and eighty-four; showing an average membership of thirtyfour. Seven of these vacancies have an average of one hundred and fifty-three members, and include some of the most important churches in the West. To supply these destitutions, therefore, we need to-day at least one hundred additional ministers. Had we even all these, we should still be, relatively to the millions of the Northwest, but as a drop in a bucket.

IV. The men we need must be sought among our own sons; maintained and educated on our own soil.

"By whom shall Jacob arise? for he is small?" From what quarter shall this indispensable increase of ministerial force be furnished? Do you look to our seminaries? From those of Virginia, South Carolina, and Kentucky, you never have received, and never can receive, important numerical accessions; their students find ample room for labor among the destitutions of the South and Southwest, more deplorable, if possible, than our own. Do you turn to Alleghany and to Princeton, "the mother of" not a few of us? A woe was long since pronounced upon the house of Jacob, "because they be replenished from the East;" and, in a different sense, we grant, from that of the prophet,-it might still be uttered against us, were we to look abroad for that which we should provide at home. What would a business man say of a proposition to work the machinery of Cannelton, or Galena, with an engine fixed at Lowell? or to run the cars on our Western railways with a locomotive stationed on the Alleghany Mountains? Who would entertain a suggestion to abandon our struggling, half-developed Western colleges, and leave the education of our sons to Harvard, and Yale,

and Union, and Princeton, and Jefferson? Common sense, experience, and Scripture, unite to condemn those who depend on others, when they are able to help themselves. We thankfully admit that many most excellent brethren have come from Princeton and Alleghany to labor in the West; just as many faithful preachers came, in former years, from the old world to spread the Gospel in the new world; and time was when a Davies and a Mason even visited Great Britain to obtain ministers for America. But that day of colonial dependence on the mother country has long since passed; and even then a Davies and a Mason had in hand the nobler service of endowing institutions among ourselves, which should supply our future necessities. Has not the time fully come when Western Presbyterianism should cease its colonial dependence upon the mother churches of the East? Or, rather, are we not fully able, and therefore under obligation, to maintain all the needful instrumentalities of the Church among ourselves? Let us consider this matter carefully.

1. In 1810, our General Assembly, having in view the establishment of our first theological seminary, adopted the following resolution, which might well be re-adopted by our own Synods: "Resolved, That the state of our churches, the loud and affecting calls of destitute frontier settlements, and the laudable exertions of various Christian denominations around us, all demand that the collected wisdom, piety, and zeal of the Presbyterian Church be, without delay, called into action for furnishing the Church with a large supply of able and faithful ministers." Let it be remembered, now, that the entire Presbyterian organization of that day, under the Assembly, consisted of seven Synods, thirty-six Presbyteries, four hundred and thirty-four ministers, seven hundred and seventy-two churches, and twenty-eight thousand nine hundred and one members, while our own organization, in these six Northwestern States, west of the Scioto, comprises seven Synods, thirty Presbyteries, three hundred and seventy-three ministers, six hundred and three churches, and twenty-nine thousand nine hundred and five members. In other words, Presbyterianism in the Northwest, in 1855,* was almost as strong, numerically, as the whole Presbyterian Church in these United States when the foundations of Princeton Seminary was laid in 1810. As to the relative wealth of the two bodies, there are no sufficient data for a comparison; but he must know nothing of Western Presbyterians who can doubt their abundant ability, pecuniarily, to perform all that the interests of religion demand of us in this matter.

2. To send our young men to the foot of the Alleghanies, or beyond the Alleghanies, in search of theological education, is to diminish seriously the number of our home supplies, and this in various ways. In the first place, we feel assured that the existence of a well-endowed and flourishing theological school among

The Minutes of 1856 have not yet come to hand.

us, will tend, under the Divine blessing, to increase the number of candidates for the holy ministry. As the multiplication of common schools enlarges the number of readers, and the multiplication of colleges augments the number of those who seek and obtain a higher education; so does the increase of theological seminaries (within reasonable bounds) attract increasing numbers to theological studies and ministerial labours. It places the means of ministerial education within the reach of many who would otherwise be debarred. So evident is this, that when, in 1809, our Assembly requested the judgment of the several Presbyteries in regard to theological schools, nearly one-third of the number expressed themselves in favor of a seminary in each Synod. The seminary, which the pastor and parents are directly interested in as a home concern, which they aid by their contributions, which they commend to God in the prayers of the family and the sanctuary, leads the mind of Christian youth to the duty of serving God in the Gospel.

We

Again: it is not unworthy of observation, that a considerable number, and some of the best of our Western ministers, educated in the East, labor among us only until their rising reputation attracts attention, and secures an effectual call from Eastern churches. We intend no insinuation of unworthy motives to any parties. speak of the fact, which it would be easy to confirm by examples, that our churches are thus called to part with excellent and efficient pastors, whose dawning promise had awakened the hope of extensive future usefulness among us.

3. We might add, that an Eastern education is not in all respects best adapted to promote usefulness in the West; but as it may be deemed indelicate, if not invidious, in some of us, we forbear to press this consideration.

4. The fact that we already have, and have long had, a seminary of our own in the Northwest, is a sufficient reason why we should not expect others to do our work.

Princeton Seminary, as has been said, was founded by the General Assembly for the whole Church, and was opened in 1812. In 1826, the Assembly adopted incipient measures to establish a Seminary for the West, which was subsequently located in Alleghany City. In the same year, the Presbytery of Hanover, Virginia, which had already founded a Seminary at Prince Edward, Va., overtured the Assembly to take charge of it; but in the following year the Synods of Virginia and North Carolina having adopted it as theirs, the Assembly recognized it as such in 1827. In 1828, the Synod of South Carolina and Georgia founded the Seminary at Columbia, S. C. In the same year, the Synod of Kentucky established a seminary under the charter of Centre College, at Danville, and requested the Assembly to accept the superintendence. Subsequently, however, this experiment was abandoned.

These historical facts are recited to show the fixed opinion of our