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The position is, that men of thorough intellectual training are peculiarly needed at the present time, and the position is sustained by adducing the work to be done, and the obstacles to be encountered and vanquished in its accomplishment. The enterprise is the bringing of all human minds in subjection to the reign of Jesus Christ. The obstacles are, a universal and fixed aversion to God, prescriptive superstitions, long cherished idolatries, multiplied and multiform errors and delusions, a bold and malignant skepticism, an engrossing worldliness, and the energies of passion, lust and crime. All these are barriers, standing in embodied resistance to the progress of God's cause; and they are barriers to be beaten down by truth and reason and the Spirit of God. It is to be an encounter of mind with mind, argument with argument. And there is an immense weight and power of intellect on the side of evil, employed in the advocating of error and death. There is a diffused and still spreading intelligence, and a spirit of independent thinking in the community. How plain, that the men who, at such a time, are set apart to plead the cause, and wield the truth of God, should be at a great remove from novices. They should be men who, in the power of thought and utterance, are able to cope with the proudest and mightiest in the ranks of the opposition; otherwise, religion and right will stand abashed and mortified in the presence of arrogance and sin. No matter where the men are to go or to stand, in the city, town, or wilderness, the necessity remains unabated of a fruitful, disciplined, and vigorous mind. For every where will be found those who cannot be fed upon wind, nor enlightened by darkness, nor convinced and persuaded by rant and sound. We can reach them only by our intellect and through their intellect.

But there are those, perhaps, who will not admit the whole compass of the assertion which has been made. A part of it is undeniably true; particularly, that those, who are going to be stationed in polished and populous places, should be men of robust intellect, large acquisition, and accomplished taste. But those who are intended for the more desolate portions of the field, for the new settlements, for the great Western and Eastern valley, will get along and be successful with much less learning and culture. We remonstrate against this doctrine as untrue and pernicious. In new places, there are mind and talent to be met, materials of vigorous, massive, but medley character, to be reduced to order and unity, a foundation to be laid, and a direc

tion to be given, for all coming generations. Hence, we affirm, that men of profound knowledge and commanding talent are wanted for such positions, as really and imperatively, as for our centres of refinement and intelligence. Experience has proved, that it is as necessary to success, to the accomplishment of good, that our missionaries, at home and abroad, be men of thoroughly disciplined and well stored minds, as that our pastors in the very emporiums of science and politeness be such men. Indeed, it is not certain, that we ought not to send out the best men, those of most muscle and might, to work where the rubbish is to be removed, the foundation laid, the building to be reared in symmetry, majesty, and beauty, and keep the feebler behind, to labor where the building has been reared, and needs only to be repaired, defended, and swept.

At any rate, the sensible and considerate ought to unite in reprobating, brand as heretical, and banish from all good society, the preposterous idea, that weak men will do for the outposts; that almost any thing in the name and shape of a minister will answer for the back settlements. From this doctrine has come the mischievous inference, that, if a man can get no spot to stand, and no bread to eat any where else, as a dernier resort and a final calamity, he must betake himself to missionary ground: truly a calamity for the ground he does betake himself to. We here speak of exceptions, and more of what has been, than of what now is. As a general thing, the men in the missionary field are as able and estimable as any that can be found; and those, who are designing to go, are among the strongest, richest, and best spirits we have in our seminaries.

The prevailing sentiment has grown very nearly correct on this point. It is now pretty well understood, that men are not fools, because they live out of town; that the spirit, which God has breathed into our race, depends not upon gardens and houses for its enlargement and furnishing; but it will grow broad and stout amid mountains, and rise up sturdy and tall, by side of the rivers and trees. It is understood in connection that ministers for such men must have intellect, knowledge, and shrewdness. If they have not, they will do but little good. The penetrating yeoman will detect and despise their shallowness; the seeming boor will beat them in argumentative combat.

The writer once heard, and from a respectable source, a very singular objection to an universally elevated standard of requisition in theological study. It was this: if our candidates

are thoroughly educated, accomplished in reason and eloquence, they will be unwilling to go into the uncultivated parts of the earth and encounter the uncongenial materials which will there meet them to afflict their taste and try their patience. An objection of this sort is better adapted to excite a smile, than any serious apprehension, that the great field will be deserted by the men who shall be qualified to occupy it. The result will be directly the opposite; for it is unquestionably true, that the more the sanctified mind is raised by education, and enlarged by discipline, the more implicitly does it bow to the dictates of duty; the higher christian young men are elevated by study, the broader will be the scope of their vision, and the sweep of their benevolent affections. And as they will see further, and feel more deeply and nobly, they will go forth more widely to the perilous work. Thus learning, instead of creating a reluctance on the question of self-denying service, will create a pleasing promptitude, which will conduce to bring the weightiest intellects, into the most rugged fields.

Working men are called for in the book before us, men of a docile, humble, self-denying, self-sacrificing spirit: WORKING MEN, those who will not only work hard, but any where the Lord Jesus would have them to be. It is a great question to settle, involving immense interests and responsibilities, where shall we labor? There has been a time when the field was comparatively very limited. The candidate had little more to do, than to look over the list of vacant parishes in his native State, and obtain, if he could, the nearest, the most peaceable, and the most comfortable of them. Now he has something more to do; he has to decide with the map of the world before him; a map that almost speaks from every continent and island, as he glances across its dark surface, and says, “Come over and help us." A decision on this broad scale, unbiassed by interest or ease, is the duty of every candidate for the sacred office. Let him proceed with prayer in every stage of the inquiry, and with a heart warmed and enlarged with holy love. Let the decision be made in an atmosphere of light, and with christian manliness and sobriety. If it be to go to the heathen, let it be maturely intelligent, profoundly digested, such as the individual will never wish to retract, whatever roughnesses he may meet, whatever discouragements may assail him, through whatever midnight scenes of depression and adversity he may be called to wade. If the decision be to stay at home, let it

be made on such principles, and in view of such considerations, that the mind will be at peace on the point in all coming years; so that every retrospect will be attended with the assurance, that it was made in the fear of God and the love of men. Some ministers, after a comfortable settlement, have been troubled with the conviction that they are not where they ought to be. The claims of a dying world have so pressed upon their heart and conscience, as to give them no rest; and they have been constrained to renew their investigations of duty, and in some instances, to tear themselves from the dearest and most sacred associations.

We want men who will meet this question, and decide it unbiassed by considerations of reputation, interest, or ease; men who will bring to it, and maintain through the whole inquiry, great strength and robustness of purpose. For in almost every renewed heart, there are some sentiments and feelings lurking, which are ready to turn traitors to Jesus Christ on every unpleasant pressure of obligation. These must be put under an interdict of silence, until the question of service to the world is finally settled. The whole inner man should be consolidated into one inflexible determination to go where duty dictates, be it to the most distant wilds, or to the most ferocious heathenism. Unless there be determination of this sort; a deep, considerate, and holy resoluteness, it will happen, that comfort, country, or friends will decoy the heart to some selfish conclusion.

Humbleness is an attribute, at present, much needed in the ministerial character. We do not mean, merely, that humbleness which will make sweeping confessions, and seem very lowly before God. We mean something beyond this, something immensely more difficult. It is the spirit which makes a man willing to put himself out of sight, if he only can do more good by never being seen. It is the spirit which makes a person willing not only to go any where, but to be any thing, if souls will become holy the faster for it. There is a manifest deficiency of this sort of spirit. We have swerved from the pattern of our Lord. Too many things are ostentatiously done. Too much is thought of conspicuousness of station; of the fame of the field; not what we may make it by God's blessing; but what it is in the estimation of our fellow men. Let there be a correction on this point. The exigencies of a dying world demand it. Let all aspiring sentiments be banished as barriers to the progress of redemption. Let there be cherished instead, a low

ly, self-sinking, self-sacrificing spirit. Let there come forward a race of ministers who will realize this arduous standard, humble, fervent, heroic, toilsome men, who wait for their reward in heaven, and a mighty impulse will be imparted to the cause of God. The Lord Jesus will be receiving his empire on earth, much faster than he has ever yet done, since the primitive times. A great deal will be accomplished by men of this stamp, because they will be immediately and always at work. There will be no idlers amongst them; none lingering long in rusty inaction, to learn, as is pretended, the leadings of Providence. There have been such, complete hangers-on. We have seen them hovering around some comfortable centre, waiting, it would seem, long and patiently, for a place in which to do good. How strange! A minister of Jesus Christ, waiting for a place to do good, in such a world as this. In all such cases, we can hardly help thinking, that it is not for a place to do good, that he is waiting, but for a good place. And while he lingers, he is injuring himself. The mere fact, that he is so long to be had, is proof that he is poorly worth having. Assuredly such men are not wanted in these times of toil and enterprise; but men of heart, and faith, and irrepressible energy; who feel at ease, only when they are at work; and who will be out somewhere, the moment they are prepared, laboring with their might for God, and for souls.

Another attribute in the ministry, which the book before us affirms and enforces as needful in the present day, is PRACTICAL TALENT. "We want men," says Dr. Cox, "that can execute and achieve; men that understand a little, the work they have to do all the days of their life; men skilled in the science of human nature as it is; knowing what it ought to be; conversant with things; commanding in manner; versatile in methods of address, and largely influential in their ministrations; men whose weight is felt, whose character is brought to bear on others, and who inspire a kindred sympathy in listening hundreds, . . . men who desire usefulness more than the name of it, because they love God, and because they love men who are after the similitude of God."

To be efficiently practical, it is necessary that ministers be endowed liberally with that sterling property, common sense. Then they will succeed in adjusting themselves to circumstances and to men. They will know how to variate their demeanor and address, so as to reach readily and effectually those they

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