sermon, attempts carefully to conceal it from his hearers. If it is wrong for him to have his notes before him, how dare he bring them into the sacred desk? If it is not wrong, as evidently it cannot be, why should he soil his conscience by an effort to conceal them? or risk his reputation by being detected in that which he wishes to conceal, and of which, by natural consequence, his hearers will infer that he is ashamed?

Of those, too, who are opposed to the labor and study that are by others deemed essential to the formation of the pulpit orator, not a few give evidence that their opposition is rather theoretical than real. They have no objections to the efforts of the young minister, so far as they are directed to the attainment of a knowledge of English grammar: they would have him speak correctly; they would be shocked if his gestures were awkward, and his manner so uncouth as to be repulsive to the man of refinement, or a just subject of ridicule to the young and the gay. And for a very good reason. In the ordinary course of Providence, the labors of such a man could not be beneficial to many, who, under other circumstances, might be induced attentively to listen, resolutely to decide, and, eventually, to throw into the right scale, the weight of sanctified intelligence.

But they ask, What has human learning to do with the conversion of the sinner? The question is often put, and in a tone as if the only answer that can be given must set at rest for ever, not only the question relative to theological seminaries, but also, that relative to systematic training and study of every kind for the service of the sanctuary.

It is easy to ask questions. Might we be pardoned for the presumption, we could ask another, which, indeed, is not another, but the same in a different garb: to wit, What has preaching itself to do with the conversion of the sinner? It is, confessedly, only a means to an end-a means, we readily admit, devised by God himself to effect this object. But still, if the Almighty were so disposed, it might be dispensed with, and the work of conversion be effected in some other way.

Precisely so with human learning; with diligent culture and patient mental discipline. They are means to an end; and, other things being equal, the success of the preacher will be proportionate to the attention given to these matters. Other things, we say,

being equal; for it is not pretended that all the science in the world, although its possessor spake with the tongue of an angel, can be a substitute for genuine piety. Our meaning may be illustrated by supposing the case of two ministers of Christ, equal in piety, in zeal for the advancement of God's glory, and in natural gifts. In the one, these endowments have been cultivated with assiduity; in the other, to a great extent, neglected. Is it not selfevident that the former will be a more successful, and, therefore, a more useful man than the latter?

We may carry the illustration still further: and suppose these men to be equals in their knowledge of divine things, and of the revealed plan of salvation, as well as in zeal and personal piety. The only difference shall be, that the one has acquired, in addition, the graces of a pleasing and winning eloquence; and just in proportion to his superiority in bringing forth things new and old, from a treasury no better furnished than that of the other, will be his higher relative standing in the church, and his greater influence over his fellow men.

It is exceedingly important that it be borne in mind here, that in both the cases supposed, we take men who are not only of unquestioned piety, but who have been actually called by the great Head of the church to the work of the ministry. Both these, piety and a call from Heaven, the latter no less than the former, are indispensable; and while it is unquestionable, that none but those who have passed from death unto life are ever called of God, as was Aaron; it is, with us, equally certain, that every religious man is not thus called; and that even depth of piety is not to be taken as sufficient evidence of such call.

It is on this point that our church has taken a decisive stand. She is jealous of the ark of God; and much as she desires to see her standard-bearers thoroughly furnished for their great work; educated, and fully armed for the contest to which they are to lead the sacramental host, she has, hitherto, firmly refused her sanction to the establishment of theological seminaries for the instruction of men who may be called to this office. In whatever light this subject appears to our brethren of sister churches, to us it has too much the appearance of usurping the prerogative of God: of manufacturing rather than educating ministers. It seems to us an exceedingly easy thing to persuade men who have been educated

theologically; who have listened to the lectures of the professor; who have passed through the prescribed course; and who can write sermons secundum artem; an exceedingly easy thing, we say, to persuade such that God has called them, and, perhaps, nothing but the light of eternity will disclose their error, and reveal in its full extent the mischievous consequences of that error.*

But this is a very different thing from educating men after the church has received satisfactory evidence that they are called to the ministry; and the time is not far distant, we feel warranted, from the signs of the times, to predict, when suitable provision will be made for this object: whether, by the extension of our literary institutions already in existence, or by the establishment of theological schools for this special purpose, time and the wisdom of the constituted authorities of the church will determine.

In the mean while, let not our younger brethren, already in the field, imagine, that because the warning voice of their fathers, venerable alike for age and wisdom, has been lifted up against the unhallowed attempts of men to make ministers, and against the presumption of thrusting unsanctified learning into the sacred desk, that, therefore, the church does not need, and expect the development of their gifts, as well as graces, to the greatest possible extent. Let them not listen to the sneers of the ignorant against books and against study, as if the time thus spent were wasted. They will, doubtless, meet with such among the people; perhaps even among the ministry. A jibe of this kind, from his colleague and senior in office, paralyzed for a while the efforts of Adam Clarke, as he tells us in his biography.f It came near quenching for ever that taper

* "Qui cupit juxta Paulum esse didaktikos det operam ut prius sit Geodidaktikos, i. e., Divinitus edoctus.”—Erasmus.

"None but He who made the world can make a minister of the gospel. If a young man has capacity, culture and application may make him a scholar, a philosopher, or an orator; but a true minister must have certain principles, motives, feelings, and aims, which no industry, or endeavors of men can either acquire or communicate. They must be given from above, or they cannot be received."-Newton.

We quote this little incident from the Life of this eminent, self-taught scholar, (12mo. ed., vol, i, p. 103:) "In the preachers' room at Matcomb, near Shaftsbury, observing a Latin sentence on the wall, in pencil, relative to the vicissitudes of life, he wrote under it the following lines from Virgil, corroborative of the sentiment :

light which afterward blazed like a sun in the moral firmament, and shed its radiance over both hemispheres.

The man was an ignoramus: one of that class, unfortunately, not yet extinct, who are always self-sufficient and perfectly selfsatisfied. From such, the young preacher will receive, as in the case before us, warnings against spiritual pride, and against devoting his time to literary attainments. He will hear the truism from the Discipline of the church quoted :-Gaining knowledge is a good thing, but saving souls a better: he will be reminded, possibly, of the remark of Paul to the Corinthians :-Knowledge puffeth up, but charity edifieth. These may be urged in such a way as to give countenance to the idea, that the Discipline, and the most learned of the apostles, intended that ministers of Christ, the teachers of the church, should keep themselves ignorant, in order that they may edify others, and be successful in their office.

Perhaps it needs not, however, that we do more than merely hint at these things. Certainly we shall not undertake to defend Paul, or the excellent Discipline of our church, from a charge of pleading in behalf of ignorance. On his colleague, and that colleague equally with himself under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, the great apostle enjoined the necessity of his giving attendance to reading; and the Discipline, in language that appears to us something more than advisory, directs those who have no taste for reading, and cannot, or will not, contract a taste for it, to return to their former employment. The church here seems to have taken the high ground, and we have no doubt of its being correct and Scriptural, that men, who will not study to improve themselves, give evidence thereby that God has not called them to the ministry. 'Quo fata trahunt retrahuntque, sequamur.—

Per varios casus, per tot discrimina rerum,

Tendimus in Colum.'-Eneid, lib. v, 709; Ib., lib. i, 204, 205.

The next preacher that followed him in this place, seeing the above lines, which he could not understand, nor see the relation they bore to those previously written, wrote under them the following words:

'Did you write the above

to show us you could write Latin?

For shame! Do send pride

to hell, from whence it came.
O, young man, improve your
time, eternity's at hand.'"

Else why does she say, The church can do without you; go home to your shops or your farms ?*

We have already hinted at the importance, when estimating advice, of considering the source whence it comes. No one would think of listening to the counsel of a wicked man on the subject of personal piety. No one ought to heed the opinions of a willingly ignorant person on the subject of education.

That learning fosters pride, is a mischievous and a wicked dogma. It is directly opposite to truth. It owes its origin, and its prevalence, where it does yet prevail, to the pedantic airs and consequential bearing of smatterers and pretenders. Impostors and empirics are found in every profession, and the quack theological, with its various varieties, is a genus, of which specimens may yet be found. Such may deceive for a while, by the appearance of profound erudition, and some, who look only at the surface, are led to attribute their overweening arrogance and conceit, their puppyism, we had almost said, to that learning which they do not possess, and to that education which they never had. But the veil is very thin. Men of sense see through it. Even the unlettered multitude are beginning to attribute ignorance where conceit appears, and to consider modesty, as it really is, the infallible test of the enlightened and well-informed.

"I am not competent," said a certain honest-hearted class-leader, "to form an opinion of the Hebrew quotations with which Mr.

It

interlards his sermons; but I should like him better if he talked less about himself, and spoke a little better grammar." was a bitter sarcasm; its bitterness arose from its justness. . Indeed, we are not sure that it would be going too far to say, not only that the truly learned man is always modest, but that his modesty will be in direct proportion to his attainments. The further he advances, the larger appears the still undiscovered field before him, just as the extent of surrounding darkness is increased by the magnitude and brilliancy of the light that is held up in the midst of it. While the pretender is using every art to push himself into notice, and signally failing in every such attempt, the truly learned man seeks not to display, either himself or his attainments. Circumstances may for a season keep him in the shade; but he pursues his onward course, assured that his industry will be appre* See Discipline, chap. 1, sec. xvii.