with them the elements of social institutions and Christian churches. They not only receive with gratitude the Christian missionary who visits their new abode, but they send back from the wilderness repeated and earnest entreaties, to give them Bibles and ministers able to teach them to understand what they read. The American Bible Society has said that they shall have Bibles-and the Christian community is responding-means shall be furnished to redeem the pledge. Missionary societies, are saying, we know where a thousand missionaries more than we can command, may be fully and usefully employed; and we know, also, where the means necessary for their support can be obtained. But men of suitable qualifications cannot be procured. Never did a field more extensive and promising present itself to the enterprise of the Christian community. The question is, shall it be left uncultivated until it be overspread with briars, and thorns, and thistles? Shall those who know the value of Christian privileges, and are willing, according to their means, to aid in obtaining them, be permitted to pass off the stage of action, and their children to grow up in ignorance and irreligion, before the heralds of the cross be sent to their assistance? Every one knows that the difficulty of instructing and reforming a people universally sunk in ignorance and vice, is an hundred-fold greater, than when a few are standing ready, at once, to take the minister of the gospel by the hand-to cheer him in his labors, and to aid him by their counsel, their influence, and their prayers. If our vast territory is ever to be filled with a Christian population, it is more economical to take possession, while we have in the bosom of the country, auxiliaries, than to gain possession after it falls, as is the certain consequence of delay, entirely into the hands of the enemy. Now only a part, hereafter the whole of the expense must be borne by the established churches. In the one case, the strength and resources of the Church would be increasing with the growth

of the country. The churches formed, would aid in forming others. In case of present inaction, not only the relative, but the positive strength of the Church would diminish.For in the moral, as well as the physical world, action is necessary, in order to retain the vigor already possessed. All this is admitted. The harvest truly is plenteous, but the laborers are few. Where shall we find men of a right spirit duly qualified for this work? What is to be done in the evident destitution of laborers necessary to collect and secure the abundant harvest now ready for the sickle? Our Master has given the answer-Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth laborers into his harvest. This prayer has for ages been on the tongues of professed Christians, and is still repeated, whenever the wants of the Church and of the world come into remembrance. But is it accompanied with corresponding exertions? It is self-evident that to pray God to grant a particular blessing, when at the same time we neglect the use of means in our power, necessary to its attainment, is nothing less than solemn mockery. Earnestly to desire an object and not to raise a hand to receive it, when presented, is inconsistent with the invariable principles of human action. Could it be believed that a man, having the perfect use of his limbs, was really thirsty and desirous of a drink of cool water, when instead of going ten steps to a copious fountain, he would sit and beg that it might be conveyed to him by the immediate hand of the Almighty? We pray, and very justly, that the hungry may be fed, and the naked clothed, and yet if we do not minister to their wants according to our means, what advantage are our prayers to ourselves or to the needy? It is true, man cannot make ministers such as would be a blessing to the Church and the world. He cannot give them a new heart, and furnish them with the natural talents necessary to preach the gospel in a profitable manner. Therefore we must pray the Lord

But

of the harvest, to send forth laborers into his harvest. is there no human instrumentality to be employed in the conversion of those who are to be preachers of the gospel? Is there no human means to be used in training and preparing them when converted for that great work? It is admitted that God could, if it seemed good, take the ignorant and illiterate, and endow them with the gift of tongues, as he did a great part of the apostles, and make them the instruments of confounding the wisdom of the learned; or he could call those already educated with a view to secular professions, and inspire them with a knowledge of the misteries of his kingdom, as he did the apostle Paul, and send them forth fully furnished to this great work. But this is not his ordinary mode of proceeding, as well in the kingdom of grace as of nature. God has provided in abundance, timber and stones, and every material suitable for the construction of houses,but he has nowhere, or at any time, provided houses already built and furnished,without the intervention of human agency. We owe to God primarily our food and clothing, yet bread no where springs from the earth, nor garments grow on the trees precisely in the form suited to our use. A similar connection between means and ends pervades the kingdom of grace. Whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved. How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach except they be sent. Now, if salvation be not attainable without this long series of means, how can men be sent to preach without any previous preparation?

At the introduction of Christianity, when miracles were necessary to prove the divine authority of the new religion, our Lord did not send forth illiterate Fishermen to preach the gospel, without previous instruction and preparation.

They were with Him, who taught as never man taught, during the whole period of his personal ministry, they saw his miracles, heard his instructions, were witnesses of his death and resurrection, conversed with him forty days before his ascension, and finally, were endowed with the power of speaking more different languages than any minister of the present day can learn in a lifetime. Paul previously furnished with all the learning and literature of his age and country, was called to the apostleship; and consecrating his high intellectual attainments to the service of his Lord and Master, he became one of the most able, as well as most zealous and successful ministers of the New Testament. To prove the necessity of a learned and able ministry in this country, where the advantages of education are general, and at this period, when every branch of literature and science is cultivated in a high degree, seems wholly superfluous. The experience of ages justifies the opinion now generally entertained by intelligent Christians of all denominations, that in a useful minister of the gospel, mental culture must be connected with ardent and devoted piety. How can a man not furnished with the necessary information, instruct others? Or if he have the requisite knowledge, he must be apt to teach, capable of communicating in plain and intelligible language, his thoughts and feelings. Language is usually acquired by imitation and practice, And it is a general rule in the administration of the divine. government, not to bestow gratuitously that which may be acquired by human industry. A contrary mode of procedure would hold out an irresistible temptation to indolence and folly. The question then returns, how are ministers of the gospel, equal in number and in gifts, to the exigencies of the Church, to be procured ?-We repeat our Lord's answer-Pray the Lord of the harvest to send forth laborers into his harvest. Pray God to pour out his Holy Spirit on schools and colleges, and to convert and dispose young

men, now in a course of education, to consecrate their talents and acquirements to the Lord-and let this prayer be accompanied with means suited to produce the effect. In the next place, let the Church take young men of promising talent, and hopeful piety, who are destitute of the means of obtaining a liberal education, and train them up for the service of the Lord. There are many such young men-the fruits of the resfeshing influence which God has shed down in various places on the American Churches. This fact is a manifest proof, that the Lord of the harvest has heard prayer, has selected his laborers, and is waiting for the Church to do her duty, in educating the sons He has given her. In our country there are hundreds of young men distinguished for piety and talent, earnestly desirous to serve the Lord in any way he may direct, who are utterly excluded from the hope of obtaining a liberal education by their own resources, or those of their parents. What duty more obvious and pressing, than to educate these young men for future usefulness? They are the children of the Church, she needs their services, and she is bound to take them by the hand, to instruct them, and to direct their steps to a field where their labors are likely to be most conducive to her interest. To this case the general principle of political economy is not applicable; that where labor of any kind is in demand, men will, of their own accord, without artificial stimuli, prepare themselves for the occupation in which service is required. Because in the first place, the ordinary motives of interest do not, or ought not, to operate in the case before us. In this country the Church has no patronage from the civil government-no rich prebends to tempt the cupidity of parents in directing the education of their sons-no splendid livings independent on the will of the people, where the indolent incumbent is secure of his maintenance, in whatever manner he may perform the duties of his sacred office. Such also is happily the state of public